Sit...205. Purchased from Slavery

Just LOOK and see how free I am; no way I’m a slave!

If Jesus had to purchase us, then we must have been slaves to someone or something. But are we totally free yet?

Very little of the Old Testament is taken up with creation, the flood, the captivity of Israel in Egypt, their escape in Exodus and their wandering in the desert on the way to their Promise Land. Most of it is a record of after they reached their promise land, and how they stayed slaves to invisible forces.

We can be the same way as Christians. We can be saved from the world, be in our promise land and still be held captive and slaves without even knowing it.

Jesus wants us to be really free. Be smart, do not stay a slave in your promise land!

“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field” (Matthew 13:44).

Titus 2:14, says, “who [Jesus] gave himself for us to redeem us from all wickedness and to purify for himself a people that are his very own, eager to do what is good.” That is His treasure, a people that are His very own. A people who have been purchased out of the world, redeemed from wickedness, purified and made zealous to do what is good. And the price was Himself, all He had, all He was. He laid down His life. He gave Himself to buy that field for the sake of the treasure, His redeemed people.

“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46).

“For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

We became heirs, joint heirs and children! Romans 8:15-17 says, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs--heirs of God and joint (co)-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.”

Romans 6:16-18 says, “Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey-- whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”

You might say, I am no one’s slave! That is just what the Jews who believed in Jesus said to Him in John 8.

John 8:31 says, “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, ‘If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’ They answered him, ‘We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.’”

Jesus knew they were still slaves even though they “believed on Him” by the way that they lived their lives. “ ‘Abraham is our father,’ they answered. ‘If you were Abraham's children,’ said Jesus, ‘then you would do the things Abraham did’” (John 8:39).

Slavery is one of the main topics of the Bible. Slavery is the quickest way to profit and make a lot of money. Just imagine a large shoe company with 10,000 employees. How much more profit would they make if they did not pay their employees? A LOT! Satan is shown to be a merchandiser, a greedy merchant.

Satan is the author of sin and slavery. The very nature of Satan, according to his description in Ezekiel 28 is that of a merchandiser, a businessperson, a commercial thief and cheat. In Revelation 18, spiritual Babylon is noted as a business trader and commercial system that also trades in the souls of men, or slaves.

Slaves have to get their identity from someone else. That is why you see people running around trying to get fancy cars, having certain types of friends, dressing a certain way, being part of a movie star’s fan club, etc. They are trying to define who they are by how they look, what they drive and who they hang around with.

How are we supposed to receive our identity? I believe that God has made us to receive our identity through having a relationship with another being. We are designed to become like the person that we become intimate with. God wants us to become intimate with Him, so we receive our identity from Him.

Spiritual Slavery is often invisible; but it is the ultimate in slavery.

We need to look at some of the slavery attributes and see
if they fit us in any way, and be honest before God about them.

Roman slaves were dragged away from their homes either to be in armies or to do vocational type tasks for the Romans. Families were forever separated, never again to see their parents, children, brothers, sisters or spouses. Most likely the women were raped and the men were beaten. Perhaps homosexuals raped even the men. They completely lost their identity.

They were not necessarily treated harshly after the capture; they became merchants, housekeepers, gardeners, etc. They were fed and given a place to sleep. The Roman masters kept lists of their possessions. One was found and it listed all of his valuables, then it listed his household furnishings, then his tools and at the end of the list it listed his slaves. They were nothing more than tools, human objects that were to be used. They had no emotions, needs or feelings as far as the master was concerned; they were just like having another garden rake.

From the slave's point of view, his life was now different. He had no identity of his own; he was a non-person. The only thing that he had left was what he could do in his work. The only scale or measure of who he was now was the way he performed his task. If his master looked at him with some sort of pleasure because his task was done well, he could feel some self-esteem. Even if another slave admired his work, or perhaps someone else up the ladder of authority, if they just gave him one compliment, one measure of "well done" he could feel good about himself.

His life was now a formula:
(HOW I PERFORM) + (HOW YOU FEEL ABOUT MY PERFORMANCE) = (MY SELF WORTH).

The human being was created by God to obtain his worth from God's unconditional love. Now exactly the opposite happened, they felt like all love was totally conditioned upon how they performed, and worse, how their masters would feel about their performance.

Ephesians 6:5 says, “Servants (slaves), be obedient to those who are your physical masters, having respect for them and eager concern to please them, in singleness of motive and with all your heart, as servants to Christ Himself- Not in the way of eye-service, as if they were watching you [men-pleasers] and only to please men, but as servants, slaves, of Christ, doing the will of God heartily and with your whole soul: Rendering service readily with goodwill, as to the Lord and not to men, knowing that for whatever good anyone does, he will receive his reward from the Lord, whether he is slave or free.”

Slaves are "men-pleasers". They are constantly trying to get the applause and approval of other people. Their work has no other meaning. If their boss, their parents or teachers are pleased with their work, they feel good about their self worth, if not, they feel like "nothings". They are always attempting to get friends who will give them their identity and self-worth.

Slaves work for "eye-service." While they are being watched, they work hard, but as soon as their authority turns their back, they goof off. They complain about their work, always looking forward to Friday because they have the weekend off [Actually Roman slaves did not have that luxury]. They hold in their resentment against their authority. They criticize them; bring them down all the time.

Slaves Complain. They always blame their problems on other people. In their mind, their horrible state of being is always somebody else's fault. They say, “if just this was that way, or if this was changed, or if we moved to another city, or if we changed jobs, or if we changed schools, or if my parents were like their parents, or etc., etc., my life would be better.” “I have to do this, or I have to do that, grumble, grumble, complain, complain. I have to go to school, I have to go to work, I have to clean the house, I do not have a choice.” So many people complain about our public schools, our government, and the fact that our laws don't line up exactly with the Bible. Maybe they don't. God did not say that life would be easy, but that with Him free people can live above circumstances. Slaves are the ones that complain and the more they complain the deeper into slavery they get.

Some slaves become very good at manipulation. They learn how to please and even “love” others, so that they will be “loved back.” They do all these good things for other people and make sure that they realize “how much they did for them” and make sure they know “how much they owe them back.”

Slaves do not like obeying authority. They have learned that authority is bad; they hate their authorities.

Slaves have no authority, so they are always manipulating others in order to serve their own needs. Some slaves use their sheer brute force, like shouting and screaming in order to get others to conform. So many men today use their force to get women to submit to them. They are slaves.

Slaves have no self-esteem so they use other people, religion, amusement, and immorality, some of the same things the Israelites used in the Wilderness to achieve some sense of self worth.

Satan tempts us with The Lie and many lies so that he can keep us as spiritual slaves.

In Luke 4 Jesus announced freedom to the people in spiritual slavery and they tried to kill Him.

John 8:35 says, “Now a slave does not remain in a household permanently forever: the son of the house does remain forever. A slave can be freed, but a son is always a son. So if Jesus makes you free from slavery, not only are you free from sin, but also now you are a son of God, an heir of freedom, and no one can take that away from you.

The Jews in John 8 denied that they had EVER been slaves to anybody. They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?”(John 8:33).

I suppose that no one likes to admit that they are a slave. The Jews began to call Jesus “insane,” a “Samaritan,” “demon possessed.” So many people today do the same thing in hidden ways. We don't want to admit that we are manipulators, men-pleasers, working for eye-service, obtaining our self worth by what our friends think of us, by what our parents think about our schoolwork, etc.

2. We must become His disciple, stay in His Word and let Jesus change our character into His character.

“To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:31-32).

Then Jesus really got them mad. He told them that if they stayed in His Word, not only would they no longer be slaves, but that they would never die! They said “now we know you are demon possessed, Abraham and all the prophets died, yet You say that if someone keeps Your Word he will never die” (John 8:52). Jesus told them that He had given this message to Abraham and that Abraham was delighted. They said, “you are not even 50 years old and you have seen Abraham, who died thousands of years ago?” Jesus replied, “I assure you, before Abraham was I AM!” (John 8:57,58). They tried to kill Jesus, but he escaped. Remember, these are the Jews “that believed in Him”.

We are supposed to become voluntary slaves to God.

Romans 6:20-22 says, “When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”

Exodus 21:5-6 says, “But if the servant declares, ‘I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free,’ then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the door-post and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life.”

Whose earring are you wearing?

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