Word of Salvation – March 2025
Freedom
Sermon by Rev. John Westendorp on W.C.F. ch.20 & Isaiah 42:7
Reading: Isaiah 42:1-9; Romans14:1-8; Westminster Confession – ch.20
Singing: BoW.500 The Kingdom of God is justice and joy
– BoW.186 And can it be that I should gain
– BoW.392 I will sing of my Redeemer
– BoW.515 Sing we the King [1,3]
Theme: What freedom looks like, how it comes about thru Christ and the way we live out of that in daily life.
Introd: Freedom is a concept that resonates across our world.
Here in Australia every Anzac day commemorates the hard-won freedom from tyranny.
Every year again – and especially every ten years we celebrate the end of World War II.
We love to think of freedom returning to Europe… and to Asia and the Pacific.
In my lifetime we have watched the break-up of empires and colonial powers.
Nation after nation has become independent… they all wanted their freedom.
In very recent times we have seen war in Afghanistan to set Afghani people free.
And isn’t that what Iraq was supposed to be all about: Freedom for the Iraqi people?
Freedom is a Universal need… a common human longing.
So it’s quite unnecessary to try to defend freedom.
You don’t have to start an argument to make a case for it… we’re all on side.
It’s seen as one of the most obvious and fundamental of human rights.
That longing for freedom so is very deeply ingrained in us. In young people too.
Freedom is finally getting your own set of wheels.
Freedom is getting the keys to the house when you turn eighteen.
Some of you are already looking forward to freedom from school after year 12.
And for my generation… freedom is when you finally retire and put your feet up. Right?
Freedom is a wonderful thing.
A] WHAT FREEDOM LOOKS LIKE – THE CAPTIVITY (SIN).
- But how do we really define freedom? It’s not easy to define, is it?
Let me take you back to freedom as owning your own set of wheels.
’Sounds good. But suddenly you’re locked into making car payments.
And keeping up with the running costs and petrol costs brings its own new slavery.
It’s a bit of a myth that freedom is owning your own set of wheels.
Very often we define freedom in negative terms: Freedom is always freedom from something.
IOW – there is something negative in our life that we want to move beyond.
Owning a car gives freedom from many things… from walking… from waiting for a bus.
It’s freedom from having to depend on Mum and Dad to be our taxi.
The point is that freedom always has a context… and always a negative context.
Freedom means being liberated from that negative context.
And the more negative the context the stronger the desire for freedom.
That’s why freedom is a big issue for prisoners.
But I’m sure it’s not an issue at all for the angels.
That’s why some of the great freedom songs were the Negro Spirituals from the American plantations.
Hunger for freedom was the greatest there where it was experienced the least.
Listen to the words of this song that bring out that passion for freedom:
Oh freedom, oh freedom, / Oh Freedom over me. / And before I’ll be a slave,
I’ll be buried in my grave, / And go home to my Lord and be free.
- Isaiah has a lot to say about freedom too – directly as well as indirectly.
Let me take you through 3 instances where he uses that powerful imagery of prisoners being set free.
First there is Is.42:7 where God appoints someone to do something:
“…to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness.”
We get a similar idea in Is.49:9 where, again, God appoints someone to do something:
“…to say to the captives, ‘Come out!’ and to those in darkness, ‘Be free!’”
And then once more, very clearly and explicitly, in Is.61:1:
“He has sent me… to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from the prisoners.”
In addition to those three very clear references to freedom Isaiah often speaks of a yoke.
A yoke was a harness for animals for ploughing and for other work.
That yoke across the neck of an ox limited the ox’s freedom.
And so Isaiah refers a number of times to the yoke being removed from Israel’s neck.
Or the yoke being destroyed.
In Isaiah the negative context for freedom is foreign nations oppressing Israel.
It’s as if they lock God’s people into a restrictive harness that takes away their freedom.
And then especially in these chapters there are the images of Israel in exile in Babylon.
So the context is a nation oppressed and the sad reality of the Babylonian Captivity.
But now God promises that there will be a liberation… freedom is going to come.
Just like the Lord once before set his people free from slavery in Egypt.
However, we need to go one step further with Isaiah’s negative context to freedom.
It becomes very clear in Isaiah that the real issue is sin.
Prison is paired with darkness… and freedom is linked with opening blind eyes.
These people are harassed by other nations and they go into exile because of sin…
Because over and over they ignored God and rebelled against Him.
So God let other nations have their way… but one day that will come to an end
God wants His people to be free and He will again make sure that happens.
- That gets us to the heart of the matter: It is sin that robs us of our freedom.
And the slavery of the addict to his addiction is only the most obvious example of that.
Because sin has spoiled this world, freedom has become something of a myth.
And I could find numerous examples to show that freedom is illusive in a sin-affected world.
– All our modern labour saving devices were supposed to give us freedom.
But we’re busier than ever.
We’ve become enslaved to the very gadgets that were to set us free.
– Today in this land we claim to be free… and in some ways we are.
But our dysfunctional culture is tying us up more and more in the knots of red tape.
When Jesus once spoke about freedom the Pharisees protested they were no one’s slaves.
And people today will similarly protest loudly that they are not slaves… they are free.
But they are not. They are locked into the rat race of life. Because of sin we are bound.
I came across a startling example of this blindness to see our lack of freedom.
In America there is an organization that wants total freedom.
They believe that religion is what hinders freedom.
They’ve formed an organization called “Freedom from Religion Inc.” They think they are free.
But…they’re as enslaved to their Atheism as the most fundamentalist Muslim or Christian.
The W. Confession is helpful – it describes our freedom as Christians…. what we are freed from.
But notice what happens as it lists the various things we are liberated from.
The clear implication is that we need liberating from each of those things.
In point after point it shows us ways in which we human beings are enslaved.
Christ has purchased for believers under the gospel freedom:
– from the guilt of sin,
– from the condemning wrath of God, and
– from the curse of the moral law.
He has also freed them:
– from the evil world we live in,
– from enslavement to Satan,
– from the dominion of sin,
– the evil of afflictions,
– the sting of death,
– the victory of the grave, and
– from everlasting damnation.
B] HOW FREEDOM COMES ABOUT – THE SERVANT (SALVATION).
- In the second place let’s also consider how freedom is achieved.
Freedom generally only happens when someone makes it happen.
Liberation usually requires a liberator.
Let me give you some fairly obvious examples.
African Americans eventually received their freedom – the slaves were emancipated.
But humanly speaking it depended on the hard work of dedicated people.
William Wilberforce in England… Abraham Lincoln in the United States.
In May 1945 Europe was liberated from Hitler and the Nazis.
But that cost a lot of blood sweat and tears… it came at the expense of many lives.
Liberation came only through the Allies who entered Europe as the Liberators.
Freedom is generally something that someone else has to bring it about.
Okay… we know of an occasional successful escape from captivity.
But the nature of slavery and captivity is such that you don’t solve the problem yourself.
It was a criminal offence for the slaves on the cotton fields to even sing of freedom.
Those who actually tried a grab for freedom were generally rounded up by bounty hunters.
Liberation requires a liberator.
And that is especially true when it comes to our deepest problems.
The nature of our sin problem is so serious that it is beyond our ability to solve.
The solution has to come from outside of ourselves.
- In Isaiah it becomes obvious that God does the liberating… He gives the freedom.
In those three instances in Isaiah God makes it happen.
But, interestingly, God uses an instrument.
In some instances to announce freedom… in other instances to actually set free.
These chapters of Isaiah are what are called “The Servant Songs”.
Songs which are predictions of the future.
And in that future there appears this figure called “The Servant of the Lord”.
Notice how verse 1 begins: “Here is my Servant whom I uphold.”
In vs.6 it is still The Servant whose hand God holds.
And then God tells him in vs.7 that he is appointed to free captives.
It is part of his task to release people from the dungeon.
The Servant is God’s appointed liberator.
In Scripture this prediction is fulfilled at a number of levels.
In chapter 45 a man named Cyrus is singled out as God’s servant.
And in vs.13 of Is.45 this pagan king Cyrus is given the mandate to set the exiles free.
But we saw earlier that there is more to this picture than just loss of physical freedom.
It talks about blindness and darkness… there is that sombre picture of sin.
And king Cyrus would have no answer to that kind of slavery.
So there is also something far broader here.
There is a ‘salvation’ issue at stake that Cyrus could never deliver.
It needed someone far greater and far more powerful than king Cyrus.
- So as Christians we know that ultimately the Servant Songs are a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the great Liberator whom Cyrus prefigures.
So at the deepest level freedom comes thru Christ and thru Him alone.
This is why people have often referred to Isaiah as the gospel writer of the O.T.
Because He just has so many predictions about the coming of our Saviour.
Here in these verses what we have is really gospel freedom.
The freedom that Jesus earned for us by His work on the cross.
It is pointing us already to Jesus who “purchased” our freedom at an immense price;
the price of His life offered up in our place. He is our Liberator.
Here then is The Servant… and it’s the Servant of the Lord who once said:
“If the Son set you free you will be free indeed.” Ultimately there is no freedom without Him.
That was put well on a bulletin board: Know Christ… you know freedom.
No Christ… no freedom.
This means that all those blessings listed in the W.Confession are now ours. They can be yours.
As we come to Jesus by faith I no longer have to be a slave to guilt. I’m freed from it.
I am forgiven… I am declared sinless in God’s sight.
As I put my trust in Jesus I no longer have to be a slave to fear. I’m freed from it.
God’s anger against me has been removed by what Jesus did on Calvary.
As I know Jesus I don’t have to fear Satan or any kind of evil… not even death.
Jesus frees me and blesses me with the freedom to be God’s child.
How real is that kind of freedom for you? Are you actually enjoying that kind of liberty?
The Westminster Confession actually lists fifteen areas of freedom you can enjoy.
Fifteen ways in which we are free… not only free from many things.
But also free to come to God in prayer… free to enjoy His Spirit living in you.
So from a Christian angle there are only two ways to live.
One is to live in the freedom of Christ.
The other is to still be slave to your sin and guilt… and to all kinds of fears.
C] HOW FREEDOM IS ENJOYED – THE LIFESTYLE (SERVICE).
- That brings us to the third issue we need to touch on today.
How do you live out of that freedom in ordinary everyday life?
The issue today is not just that in Jesus you have been set free.
The issue especially is the difference that this makes in your daily life.
Because you need to make sure that this freedom is enjoyed in everything you do.
It is unfortunately all too easy for someone who has been set free to become enslaved again.
Many do not enjoy their freedom.
Let me give some very ordinary examples.
A prisoner gets out jail… he is set free and his freedom is genuine.
He gets a good job… but then he begins to live for His work.
In the end his work absorbs his life so much that it dominates all his waking moments.
That freed man is no longer living as a free man.
He has merely exchanged one prison for another… one kind of slavery for another.
So we need to guard our freedom. But how do we do that?
Here we need to be careful that we don’t again misunderstand freedom.
Freedom in this life is never absolute. Freedom is relative.
Freedom always moves within boundaries.
For example: freedom does not permit you to ignore the law of gravity and leap off a sixth floor balcony.
You are free only as long as you respect the law of gravity.
The instant you act as if you are free from the law of gravity, it makes a crushing impact on you.
In our country we have freedom of speech.
But freedom of speech does not permit you to yell abuse at people in the street.
Or to yell out ‘Fire!’ in a packed auditorium when there is no fire.
Freedom is not only from something…. it is also always for something.
In that sense freedom is like a kite. The kite is guided by the string that holds it.
To free the kite by letting go the string only makes it fall to the ground.
It is free to soar and fly only while held by the string.
- Here I want to come back once more to Isaiah. Isaiah is very concerned for right living.
His first readers were God’s liberated people.
These were the people God had set free from Egypt under Pharaoh.
But they thought that freedom as God’s children meant they could do what they wanted.
“Hey! After all, we’re the chosen people aren’t we…?”
So Israel became nation where freedom was under threat.
They became enslaved again as they oppressed one another.
Because they abused each other God allowed them to become abused.
So Isaiah not only tells them of the time when the yoke will be lifted from them.
But He also warns Israel to stop putting a yoke on each other.
They were putting intolerable load on their own countrymen,
Freedom is wonderful. But you cannot use your freedom to sin against God and against others.
Don’t misuse your Christian liberty.
All sorts of things are done at times by Christians on the grounds of Christian freedom.
But not all of those things are honouring to God
And many of those things are not helpful to others.
- The early church too struggled with living out their freedom. How do we use our Christian freedom?
Romans 14 raises the whole issue of what is permitted and what isn’t.
And in that context Paul does two things.
OTOH he guards our Christian freedom very carefully.
Eating meat offered to idols is no big deal – go ahead, enjoy your freedom.
IOW: We mustn’t judge each other in areas where the Lord leaves us free.
The W. Confession sums up that teaching: “God alone is the Lord of our conscience.”
OTOH later in the chapter Paul also says that for the sake of others: restrain your freedom.
If you know that your eating or drinking is going to upset others then don’t.
Not for your conscience but for his… why cause your brother to stumble.
Freedom is a wonderful thing but use it to bring glory to God and blessings to others.
Here again we are reminded that freedom is not absolute.
The W. Confession, in the preceding article dealt with the role of the Law of God.
In other words God calls me to live to please Him and to serve my neighbour.
In fact that is the whole purpose of my freedom – to do all to the glory of my Lord.
Here is the mystery of the Christian faith: Jesus sets us free… but in order to become His slaves.
Jesus spoke of following Him as taking up His yoke.
But His yoke is easy and His burden is light.
The hymn writer put it this way: Lord of all power, I give you my will,
in joyful obedience your tasks to fulfil.
Your bondage is freedom, your service is song,
and, held in your keeping, my weakness is strong.
Just as a fish finds its truest freedom in water…
so we find our truest freedom in serving Him who set us free.
Live out your freedom… but do it to His glory.
Amen.