WE HAVE LIBERTY NOW
TEXT: Jer 34:8-17 KJV 8 This is the word that came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people which were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty unto them; 9 That every man should let his manservant, and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go free; that none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother. 10 Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant, and every one his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go. 11 But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. 12 Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 13 Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying, 14 At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear. 15 And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: 16 But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids. 17 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the LORD, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.
The word liberty is defined by the dictionary as:
The condition of being free from control or restrictions
The condition of being free from imprisonment, slavery or forced labour.
The condition of being free to act, believe or express oneself as one chooses.
Liberty is synonymous with freedom and independence.
The Lord God Almighty knows the importance of liberty. God wants us to enjoy liberty and freedom. He never wanted people to experience bondage in the area of life.
From the text we read, the people of the land remebered the law of Moses that at the end of every seven years, anyone in debt, slavery or any form of servititude should be free and returned to their own land.
Every man should let his man-servant and his maid-servant go free;” i.e., as we learn from Jer 34:14, on the sabbatical year; for the seventh year was the year of release.
Deu 15:12-14 KJV 12 And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee. 13 And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty: 14 Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him.
The term of servitude could not last beyond six years. They obtained their freedom either after six years from the time of their sale or before the end of the seventh year. At the year of jubilee, such slaves were emancipated even if their six years of service were not completed
In order to address the issue of liberty, God asked them to have a year of Jubilee.
Lev 25:8-10 KJV 8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.
Zedechair performed the covenant agreement and himself and his people allowed the servants to return. God was happy with them and commended them. But afterwards the Bible says they changed, they changed their minds and brought those people back into subjection.
Jer 34:11 KJV But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
God was not pleased with what they did and pronounced judgment over them. This shows how much God values liberty for his people.
Whatever is keeping anyone in captivity is destroyed in Jesus name.
It was the same thing that Pharaoh attempted after he had led Israel go. He pursued them till the Red sea. But his host never came back alive.
Every Egyptian and every task master shall perish by fire in Jesus name.
Much more than physical human liberty is the liberty that Jesus came to give mankind. After the fall of Adam in Gen 3, man became the servant of the devil. He came under the bondage of Satan.
Rom 6:16 KJV Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Joh 8:34 KJV Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
2Pe 2:19 KJV While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
Because of what man did, sin entered into the world and the consequence was death. That is spiritual death which embraces miseries, bondage, addiction, ponography, sickness, diseases, evil, wickedness, abortion, cheating and all manner of vices.
Rom 5:12 KJV Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
Satan was taken advantage of man’s inability to restrain himself because of the nature that he had, so he brought death and was destroying mankind. The age of man gradually reduced. In order to curb the effect of sin so that Stan will not have the instrument to destroy man, God brought the law. The law actually restrains man because he now knows that if he does one thing he will die. It is called the law of sin and death. Rom 8: 2. The wages of sin is death.
However, the law could not make man to be righteous because no one can fulfill the whole law. The blessing and life is attached to the fulfillment of the whole law. Deut 28: 1-2
The law that was supposed to be a helper now becomes a bondage.
Rom 7:9-10 KJV 9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. 10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
The sorry state of man.
He was in bondage to the devil
he was in bondage to sin
He was in bondage to the law and
He was in bondage to himself.
This was the state of man. Paul expressed it this way:
Rom 7:24-25 KJV 24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
He said he thanked the Lord Jesus. What did Jesus do?
Luk 4:18 KJV The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
I like the way Isaih prophesied about it in Isaiah 61
Isa 61:1 KJV The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
Jesus went to the cross of calvary and paid for our sin, thereby setting us free from all we were subjected to; sin, Satan and the devil.
Eph 1:7 KJV In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
The Greek word for redemption there is “apolutrosis” and it means:a release affected by payment of ransom. redemption, deliverance. liberation procured by the payment of a ransom
Mat 20:28 KJV Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.
So our sins were paid for.
1Jn 4:10 KJV Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
1Jn 2:2 KJV And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus also fulfills the law for us. He became the end of the law for righteousness.
Rom 8:3-4 KJV 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 10:4 KJV For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.
What Christ has done for us? What are the benefits?
1. Because of what Jesus did, God has delivered us.
Col 1:12-13 KJV 12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
2. We are freed from sin (hermattia-noun)
Rom 6:18 KJV Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
3. We are freed from the law:
Rom 7:6 KJV But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
AMP:But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].
4. we are freed from the law of sin and death:
Rom 8:2 KJV For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
5. Delivered from the wrath of God:
1Th 1:10 KJV And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
6. Delivered from the fear of death:
Heb 2:14-15 KJV 14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.
7. Delivered from sickness and diseases
Mat 8:17 KJV That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses.
8. We are delivered from poverty, lack and insufficiency
2Co 8:9 KJV For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.
WHAT BRINGS FREEDOM
1. The truth that you know
Joh 8:32 KJV And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
2. The Son makes us free
Joh 8:36 KJV If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
WHAT IS PAUL ADMONITION?
Gal 5:1 KJV Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
The sense is that they were to be firm and unyielding in maintaining the great principles of Christian liberty. They had been freed from the bondage of rites and ceremonies; and they should by no means, and in no form, yield to them again.
We are free
1Pe 2:16 KJV As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
In the same vein that the Galatians were to stand firm in the liberty they now have and not to be subjected to the law so also we must stand firm by enforcing the liberty Jesus has given to us. Refused to be sick, poor, depressed and afflicted. Refused to be subject to family or inherited family curses. Your genealogy is not traced to your parents or grandparents but to only one line, that is the lineage of Jesus. Break every yoke of the devil. Break the yoke of untimely death in the family. break the yoke of lack and insufficiency. Destroy those curses that seem to be working against you because Christ has redeemed us from them.
Isa 52:2 KJV Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.
Isa 10:27 KJV And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
The New Testament equivalent of Is 52 is what James talked about.
Jas 4:7 KJV Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.