BEING SET FREE
John 18:1-8; Mark 11:1-8; Luke 8:43-48;
I would like to speak about being set free. It is a wonderful thing to be set free. When I speak about being set free, it is in relation to the Lord Jesus and His things. David would be an example of that; it speaks in 2 Samuel 6 about him bringing the ark up from the house of Obed-Edom into the city of David and it says of David that he “danced before Jehovah with all his might” (v.14). There are many instances of David leading the praise to God. Liberty in response to God is what would be primarily in our minds in relation to being set free. In the same section about the ark being brought into the city of David, it says of Michal that she looked out of the window and saw David “leaping and dancing before Jehovah” (v.16). Has your heart ever leapt in answer to Christ? It is a wonderful thing to be set free in response to Him.
Being set free is not dependent on our outward circumstances. An example of that would be in Acts 16; it says of Paul and Silas that they were cast into the inner prison and that their feet were secured to the stocks. But “at midnight Paul and Silas, in praying, were praising God with singing” (v.25). We are to be set free in our spirits, in our affections and in our minds in relation to the Lord Himself. Paul and Silas, despite being in the inner prison, were praising and singing, and “the prisoners listened to them” (v.26). How wonderful that, in such a place and despite the circumstances, two men were free in their spirits and they were singing. The prisoners listened; what it must have been for the prisoners to hear them singing. Later on in the Acts, Paul affirmed Jesus to be living (chap.25:19). What was rolling through that prison and into the world was the glad tidings, a message founded on Christ in resurrection. It says in Acts 16 that there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of
the prison shook (v.26). It reminds us of the power of the resurrection of Christ. It has shaken the whole foundation of the world; Christ as risen has robbed the world of its power and it says, “the doors were immediately opened, and the bonds of all loosed”. Our desire would be that the bonds of all should be loosed as a result of hearing the gospel. And the prisoners did not run away! They did not need to run away, and there is no need to run away if you are saved, but we all need to be set free.
There are different things that we may need to be set free from. If there is anyone here who does not know the Lord as their Saviour, you certainly need to be set free. The power for that is available in the glad tidings. By accepting the gospel, you will know freedom from the burden of your sins. The tax-gatherer in Luke 18 “smote upon his breast, saying, O God, have compassion on me, the sinner” (v.13). The Lord said, “This man went down to his house justified”. What freedom! We have been taught that justification means that you stand before God in accomplished, subsisting righteousness2. How wonderful that the Lord Jesus can set us free in such a way. Paul wrote, “Christ has set us free in freedom”, Gal.5:1. No one can provide the freedom that Christ can give. Whatever your circumstances, you can be free in your heart, free in your spirit. Favourable circumstances do not always lead to us being more spiritually free, but when exercise and pressure comes in, we often experience greater spiritual liberty because discipline helps subdue the flesh in us so that fuller expression can be given to what belongs to God and what answers to God.
You may say, I do not need to be set free; I am already saved. In Hebrews, it speaks of “laying aside every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us, run with endurance the race that lies before us, looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith” (chap.12:1,2). The footnote says that it means ‘looking away from other things and fixing the eye exclusively on one’. You will never be set free unless you look on Jesus; “looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”, which means that you will be looking away from yourself. Some may feel that they have done that too and perhaps you have; perhaps you are not feeling burdened by “every weight, and sin which so easily entangles us”, although I would suggest that, for most of us, that is a continual exercise. But then there is the very body that you are in: Christ will soon set you free from that too. It says in Philippians, “from which also we await the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour, who shall transform our body of humiliation into conformity to his body of glory, according to the working of the power which he has even to subdue all things to himself” (chap.3:20,21). How wonderful to be set free from this condition in which we are, described in that scripture as a body of humiliation. What a contrast that will be; there is a body of humiliation and there will be a body of glory. Paul says to the Corinthians, “we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet”, 1 Cor.15:52. We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed. We will be set free from this condition, a body of humiliation, a body which has been subject to sin and subject to decay. We are all getting older, yet our bodies of humiliation are going to be changed, and we are going to be given a body of glory like the Lord’s own body of glory. What a change – in an instant! When the Lord comes for all those who are His, it will be an instant reception to glory, to be like the Lord Jesus Christ when we see Him then face to face. We will be set free, not only from the things that trouble us now, but even from the very condition in which we are. The scripture says, “this corruptible must needs put on incorruptibility, and this mortal put on immortality”, 1 Cor.15:53. The last thing that will take place is the redemption of our bodies and we will be with Christ for ever, “and thus we shall be always with the Lord”, 1 Thess.4:17.
A brother in our prayer meeting on Monday night spoke of the Lord as the One who would not go free so that we could go free. We have been speaking of how we can go free, but the scripture in John 18 brings before us the One who would not go free. How blessed that is, how precious. He said, “if therefore ye seek me, let these go away”. Think of the Lord’s commitment; it says earlier, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that were coming upon him …”. In a previous chapter He said, “Behold, the hour is coming, and has come, that ye shall be scattered, each to his own, and shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me”, John 16:32. What a Person for our contemplation. It says of Him prophetically in Psalm 78, “And gave his strength into captivity” (v.61), but in doing so He led captivity captive. Think of what the Lord bore that we may be set free. It goes on to say that He gave “his glory into the hand of the oppressor”. We were affected by that recently as we read through Luke’s gospel; it says of the Lord that He was mocked and insulted and spat upon (Luke 18:32). The footnote h to that verse in the psalm says that it can be read as His giving His ‘beauty’ into the hand of the oppressor. Think of the Lord Jesus being mocked, being insulted, being spat upon. He gave His strength into captivity, and He gave His beauty into the hands of the oppressor. He could say of His life, “No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself”, John 10:18. The glory of the Lord in these movements was prefigured by the ark going into the Jordan. It gives us a glimpse of His personal greatness: “When therefore he said to them, I am he, they went away backward and fell to the ground”.
But then as Man He said, “if therefore ye seek me”: think of the Lord Jesus going this way. Last Lord’s day, we spoke of Jonah where he said prophetically, “The waters encompassed me, to the soul: The deep was round about me, The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; The bars of the earth closed upon me for ever”, Jonah 2:5,6. Jesus would not go free. How much the Lord suffered at the hands of man and before God; how much the Lord bore. It says that in the garden of Gethsemane, His sweat became “as great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). The hymn says:
‘On that same night, Lord Jesus,
When all around combined
To cast its darkest shadow
Across Thy holy mind’ (Hymn 435)
“I went down to the bottoms of the mountains” must refer to the Lord not only suffering as a Man, but never ceasing to be a divine Person. He went to “the bottoms of the mountains”, a distance that only He could measure – God’s measure of everything, we might say reverently.
“The bars of the earth closed upon me for ever”; think of what was removed for ever in the burial of Jesus. Morally, every trace of the man who was offensive to God was removed in the burial of Christ. There was that which the Lord took away vicariously and which could never come out of death again. The Lord took all that on Himself so that all who trust in Him might go free. We can also think of His service of love. We could have read about the bondman in Exodus 21; “But if the bondman shall say distinctly, I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free” (v.5), speaking of the Lord’s love for His God and Father, His love for the assembly, and His love for us individually. So He says here in John 18, “if therefore ye seek me, let these go away”. How precious that is. The One who could have gone free did not go free; He would not go free so that all who trust Him might go free. These are the thoughts I had in relation to the movements of the Lord.
In Mark 11, it comes down to an individual, it comes down to you and me. We read of the colt that had been tied; “Go into the village which is over against you, and immediately on entering into it ye will find a colt tied, upon which no child of man has ever sat: loose it and lead it here”. That may be you, dear young friend – a colt would refer to a young person. It had been tied. You could think of it in relation to being baptised. I expect that every young person here has been baptised to the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and has been brought up in a Christian household where the Bible is being read, from where prayer goes up. The Lord Jesus goes away upstream in His operations. We sometimes speak of the activities of the Holy Spirit in relation to new birth, which leads to our being converted and saved. But the Lord Jesus goes further upstream; He knows your path from its beginning. When we are young, we might wonder why we were born into a particular household when we might have been born into another one in very different circumstances. But God has ordained the family that you have been born into and the circumstances and experiences that you have come through. All these things are ordained by God, and all enter into His ways with us. The colt is tied at the crossway – not exactly the highway, but nonetheless there is a decision to be made and it may be, dear young friend, that you have a decision to make in relation to being serviceable to the Lord. Mark’s gospel brings before us the importance of service. It says in verse 3, “And if any one say to you, Why do ye this? say, The Lord has need of it; and straightway he sends it hither”. The Lord has need of you, the Lord has need of each one. He would call you.
Paul was an elect vessel. Think of how the Lord called Saul, and He would call you too. Paul said, “But when God, who set me apart even from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace …”(Gal.1:15). Dear
young friend, you are called by the Lord’s grace: “The Lord has need of it”. He is calling you by His grace that you might have the privilege, as it were, of carrying Him. That really has in mind the testimony of the Lord here. Soon we will see the public glory of Christ, but now the testimony is one of lowliness. Matthew describes a scene where the Lord came “meek, and mounted … upon a colt the foal of an ass” (Matt.21:5). That character is to mark the testimony now and that is what you are being called to. What a privilege it is that you can be one of those who serve the Lord: “And they led the colt to Jesus, and cast their clothes upon it, and he sat on it”.
This scene anticipates what will yet take place at the Lord’s appearing. Although we did not read about it, Jesus entered into Jerusalem and the people cried out “Hosanna! Blessed be he that comes in the Lord’s name” (v.9). We are waiting for that time when the Lord will come and He will be acknowledged publicly, but meantime you can be like this colt and help to bear testimony to the Lord Jesus, a testimony to the meekness and lowliness of the One that you love. He will have full dominion in a day to come but now we have this opportunity to be serviceable to the Master.
We also read of the woman in Luke’s gospel with a flux of blood. She is not so much like a young believer, but she represents a mature believer. The teaching of this passage is that her illness is like the exercises described in the epistle to the Romans. The Lord said, “the truth shall set you free”, John 8:32. God has not left anything undone, or anything haphazard: “the truth shall set you free” involves detail. The flux of blood would be like what is spoken of in Romans 7:15: “For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practise”. Have you ever had this experience? Think of the life slowly seeping out of you and what can you do. There seems nothing that we can do. The harder you try, the worse it is, until you come to this point, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?” (v.24). That is really what this woman came to. It speaks about her touching the hem of the Lord’s garment, but the Lord does not refer to that; He asks, “Who has touched me?”. In Psalm 133, it speaks of the oil from Aaron’s head running down to the hem of his garment (v.2); that speaks of what is available from the Lord in an occasion like this through one another. But you must have this experience of “Who has touched me?” Perhaps in the past two years, we have been unable to experience what the garment represents in its normal setting, but the question is, have we still been able to ‘touch Me’? It is coming into touch with the Lord Himself as the great Liberator, the One who would set us free. Jesus says, “Some one has touched me, for I have known that power has gone out from me”.
So the truth sets us free, but then the Lord says, “If therefore the Son shall set you free, ye shall be really free”, John 8:36. The Son setting us free would suggest what we are introduced into, brought into another sphere where Christ, the Son of God, is the Centre. You must be really free if you come in spirit into a world where:
‘nought of sin can enter’ (Hymn 259).
What a place that is, where Christ is supreme, and how wonderful to touch that in our spirits. God in His grace gives us that experience. We go through certain experiences in our souls and we may say at the time that we enjoy what belongs to privilege, what we refer to as belonging to divine purpose. But to have such a spiritual experience, we need to be as Lazarus and have the graveclothes removed. It is interesting that there is no record of Lazarus saying anything. All I can suggest is that Lazarus must have been a person of influence. A person of influence does not necessarily need to say much. What an experience he had! He had been four days in the grave and then that wonderful word was given
by the Lord, “And having said this, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. And the dead came forth, bound feet and hands with graveclothes, and his face was bound round with a handkerchief. Jesus says to them, Loose him and let him go”, John 11:43,44. What a person of influence Lazarus would have been.
Well, this woman in Luke 8 was set free. It says here, “And the woman, seeing that she was not hid, came trembling, and falling down before him declared before all the people …”, so all things are transparent before Jesus. In Revelation we have pure glass in the city – think of that wonderful transparency. Is that not something that sets us free? We can go through Romans and go through the other epistles and see that God knows everything about us and knows everything that we are going to face, but you know when you are delivered and set free and there is no need to hide. You do not need to hide the fact that you sometimes fail, you do not need to hide that you sometimes sin, because God in Christ has covered it all and that transparency gives you a wonderful liberty. As has been said before, this chapter in principle is really bringing out the personnel of the assembly because in it, you first have a man who becomes subject to Jesus, then you have a woman who is transparent, and finally you have the daughter who would speak of freshness and vitality. These persons represent in principle the personnel of the assembly. You can look around your own gathering and see this in persons. Being set free is not an abstract thought; how wonderful it is to be really set free in relation to the Lord. Here in Luke 8 it is “Some one has touched me, for I have known that power has gone out from me”; it is a matter of impartation and of revelation. You come to Christ Himself and there are all these wonderful things that are so superlative compared to anything that the world can offer. As you come near to the Lord Jesus, you are set free.
Paul says in Romans 8, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God” (v.16). That is another example of how being free is entirely unrelated to our circumstances, because the Spirit would bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God. And then it goes on to say, “And if children, heirs also: heirs of God, and Christ’s joint heirs; if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him”. It does not say here ‘suffer for Him’, but “suffer with him”. I think that has some reference to the present time when we can suffer with Christ. Think of all that is taking place on the earth at the present time. Do you not think that heaven feels what takes place on earth? The whole history of the world since sin came in has included natural disasters and atrocities. That is part of the disorder that has come in through sin, and it is upon the whole creation. We should seek to feel these things as God does. I am speaking of God’s creation which belongs to Him, and if we suffer with Him we will know something of His feelings about these things. It says in verse 19, “For the anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God: for the creature has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by reason of him who has subjected the same, in hope that the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God”. This really anticipates the public appearing of Christ. He will appear with His saints and what wonderful liberation it will be for all of creation. That is really the scope of redemption. Everything here has been affected by sin, and Christ will come and He will set it all free.
It does not lessen the urgency of accepting Christ as your Saviour now, for that opportunity is available now during this day of grace. But it says, “the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God”. The “glory of the children of God” belongs to those who are
redeemed, but then there is going to be that benign influence which will come in through Christ in what we speak of as the millennium, and through the place that His assembly will have, and Israel too. All creation will be liberated. There will be no concern then over global warming, there will be no need for fertilisers to cause the harvest to grow, there will be no carnivorous animals. Think of the wonderful conditions that will be brought in. It says in verse 22, “For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now. And not only that, but even we ourselves who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we also ourselves groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption, that is the redemption of our body. For we have been saved in hope; but hope seen is not hope; for what any one sees, why does he also hope? But if what we see not we hope, we expect in patience”. The Lord will come soon in His glory. What greatness belongs to Christ!
I suppose the order of Melchisedec will be in view then, about which there is a certain mystery. The priesthood of Aaron involved the thought of intercession, but the priesthood of Melchisedec brings with it the thought of blessing. That can be known by believers now. We can experience these conditions that we are speaking of. The Lord Jesus will come into this world as the King of righteousness and the King of peace. What an influence He will have! The creation is His. Is it any surprise that He will bring in this liberty that we have read of? In Romans, creation is spoken of as His; He has never given it up. That is the distinction between the world system that rejected Christ and is dead morally, and the creation and all that belongs to Him: it is all His. Paul writes of the Lord “who is image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth”, Col.1:15. The footnote says, ‘He was the one whose intrinsic power characterised the creation. It exists as his creature’.3 And another footnote on the next page speaks about how Christ ‘is the characteristic power, the active instrument, and the end in creation’ 4. He will bring in wonderful liberty.
What a glorious time it will be when Christ appears, and all His saints will appear with Him. Righteousness and peace will reign. What a secret to carry in our hearts now while we bear in our spirits the sufferings of our fellow men. I think it would be quite normal in a Christian’s experience to cry real tears, not only in relation to assembly sorrows but also in relation to what befalls men and what comes upon creation. It is only believers who have the Spirit of Christ – “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God” – who can properly carry these things in their feelings and affections. We wait in hope and patience; “if what we see not we hope, we expect in patience”.
May God bless the word.
Brechin
7 May 2022
Jimmy Drummond