The Cellar (Seller) of Bondage
Or
If there’s a tax, it ain’t free!
Jhn 8:31-36 To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. 32 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?”
34Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.
35Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. 36So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Jhn 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I. We eavesdrop this morning on the colonial house of Henry in eastern Virginia.
A. He has friends over in his candlelit parlor when a faint scratching sound is heard beneath the floor.
B. As it grows louder, we know that everyone hears it, although Henry pretends not too.
C. There are brief comments about ghosts but Henry stretches and yawns and asks to be excused so that he might go to bed.
D. Not the most subtle way of getting rid of your guests but at least it is effective for they soon leave.
E. Not long after their departure the noise is heard again along with a dragging sound just beneath the floor on which Henry stands.
F. He reaches for a lantern and approaches a hidden trap door in the hallway floor.
G. Pulling the ring that’s attached, Henry opens it and pears down into the darkness of his cold cellar.
H. As he steps down, his lantern illuminates a lonely corner where a figure barely visible cringes in terror of the penetrating glow.
I. Henry walks closer and the light bears down on twisted horrible face that snarls at him at one moment and weeps the next.
J. It a face that is submerged in torment, the face of Henry’s wife.
K. Henry has lost count of the numerous times he has gone through this ritual of feeding and caring for his loved one who had gone mad and now lives submerged below the floor.
L. It is almost too much for Henry to bear: the site of his wife in her restraining jacket, her personal chains of bondage, the love of his life imprisoned through no fault of her own.
M. Oh on occasion he thought he would see a faint glow in her face, reminiscent of happier normal times, but it would last just for a moment after which the unimaginable horror would return.
N. These are the visions that plagued Henry’s mind every night and day of his life.
O. We can’t be sure but perhaps these images were on his mind and that haunted him several months later, and after his wife had died, as he addressed the crowd at St. John’s Church, March 23, 1775.
P. No he was not the preacher that day but listen to a portion of his words on that day
“Shall we try argument?... What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. We have petitioned….. we have supplicated; ….we have been spurned, with contempt,.. There is no longer any room for hope….Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations,….. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard ….Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!
Q. The famous words of Henry, Patrick Henry.
R. A Man who saw first hand what the chains of bondage will produce.
S. So much did it haunt his mind that he truly meant it when he said give me liberty or give me death.
T. Death a much more palatable option then to live in bondage. Give us freedom.
II. Freedom the magical word that stirs deeps emotions in all of us.
A. But its definition is often clouded by the philosophy of the speaker.
B. The scenario has been played out many times.
C. The youth are gathered in great numbers to show their love for peace, to protest a policy, or to show their desire for freedom, free love for all.
1. But then there is someone in the crowd who dares express a differing view, words are exchanged, then insults and then a stone is air borne and suddenly those who love peace and freedom, have now turned into a violent destructive mob.
2. And now chains are used to inflict harm from those who cried the loudest about freedom, love and peace.
3. Their definition of freedom is limited to their own point of view with no tolerance for anyone who would dare disagree with a differing political, social or religious point of view.
D. Their type of freedom comes with a tax. A chain of bondage to conformity within their ideals.
E. Some of the greatest tyrants in history talked about freedom and liberty for the masses, only to have them bound in chains of a political totalitarian slavery.
F. In a charade to the masses Stalin pretended that his revolution, that killed perhaps as many as 20 million of his own people, was for the freedom of the common man: a demented definition of a word that symbolizes something so highly praised and desired.
G. Hitler and his worker’s party. The party that was to bring fortune and freedom to the masses of Germany: the National Socialist German Workers' Party, was responsible for the taking of millions of lives.
H. All of this done under the pretense of liberating the common man.
I. But that so called freedom was a charade that came with a heavy price. A tax that destroyed innumerable lives.
III. We have celebrated this past week and continue to celebrate the founding of this great nation.
A. Established by a group of men who knew the pains and the chains of bondage.
B. Men like Patrick Henry who knew that the colonies did not have the freedom inheritably granted them by God, whose name He invoked in that famous speech.
C. A man who saw first hand the pain of slavery, bondage and chains in the life of his own love.
D. As he visited often that dark cellar of bondage where his wife was forced to live, he knew that there was a hope for the people of his country to be free from a dictatorial rule that taxed them with a heavy price but did not offer them the freedom to make their own laws.
E. That hope must be explored even if it meant his own death.
F. And so as we gathered around the grills cooking our hamburgers this week, hopefully we were reminded of the great men, the founders of this nation who were willing to sacrifice everything so that we today can worship in freedom, and speak our convictions without fear.
G. That freedom, our freedom came with a heavy tax a heavy price as many gave their lives and others struggled to forge a new nation conceived in this concept of liberty.
H. And yet even this great land of ours that proclaims freedom is not the true freedom that is the desire of us all.
I. For every human made liberty or freedom comes with a price, a tax.
J. And if there is a tax it ain’t free.
K. Yes freedom that comes even from our country isn’t free.
L. There is a price to pay. Now we all know about the price we pay in taxes. We have to pay our taxes
1. Fuel taxes are in the news now because of the high cost of gasoline. Fuel taxes in the United States vary by state. For the first quarter of 2008, the average state gasoline tax was 28.6 cents per gallon, plus 18.4 cents per gallon federal tax making the total 47 cents per gallon
2. For diesel,it averaged to 53.6 cents a gallon.
3. And of course we have Income Tax, State Tax, Social Security Tax, Sales Tax and the list goes on.
M. But more than a monetary tax, there is of course the price of human sacrifice.
1. For the Price of Freedom is eternal vigilance.
2. So many of our men and women have given their lives the heaviest tax of all for us to maintain our freedom.
N. It seems that we are approaching a point in our country when the basic freedoms that our founding fathers fought so hard for and our soldiers throughout the years have fought and died for are now slowly evaporating from our culture.
O. We hear about the cultural war and how the nation is almost evenly divided in the struggle for the principals of this nation.
P. And yet we often are sidetracked into thinking that the culprit lies or the solution lies with political figures or government corruption or government answers.
Q. But you see just as Patrick Henry had a cellar C E L L A R of bondage, a physical place that confined and bound his very ill wife, we today have a seller S E L L ER of bondage.
1. For you see living in this free country does not give us the true ultimate freedom for that comes from God and His son alone.
2. But there is a peddler that is out destroying our God given freedom. He is selling us bondage and we are buying it is mass quantities.
3. Our enemy is hard at work. The devil himself is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour 1 Peter 5:8.
4. He is out in full force to take away our freedom, take away our joy.
from the truth.
R. This is in fact exactly what Jesus was talking about in the passage of Scriptures that we read earlier.
S. Jesus said if you continue in my teachings then you are my disciples.
1. A disciple of Christ is known NOT by what he says he is but rather by the way he lives.
2. John 8:32 is what of the most famous and yet misunderstood verses in all of Scripture. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.
T. We see this verse on buildings on colleges, U.N. but they miss the meaning of this truth. They don’t understand truth.
U. What is truth is one of the greatest questions that needs to be answered.
1. Even pilot in John 18:38 asked that question What is truth?
2. Truths is when the word and the deed become one.
3. The ultimate truth is when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
4. For Jesus said I am the way, the TRUTH and the life. You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.
5. Real freedom then stems from truth. And when you know the real truth you are free indeed.
6. And Jesus is the truth and the life.
V. These Scriptures talk about liberation from moral bondage.
1. If you read this entire passage you will see that Jesus is pointing out the bondage that they were in. Not freedom, but bondage.
2. We in this great land pride ourselves in freedom, but so many are living in bondage and not even aware of it. They are missing the true freedom that comes through Christ.
W. For what kind of freedom do you have
1. When on a cold night you are sitting in your comfortable chair by the fireplace but are forced to get up by your unseen master, from that comfortable warm position grab a coat and go outside in the snow and cold to have that cigarette.
2. You are a slave to master tobacco.
3. What kind of freedom do you have when your unseen master will have you lie, steal, rob and perhaps even kill to get drugs
4. You are a salve to your master drugs.
5. What kind of freedom do you have when your unseen master forces you to spent almost every penny of your hard earn money on alcohol
6. You are a slave to your master alcohol: an alcoholic
7. You might say, Oh but none of that applies to me.
8. What kind of freedom do you have when despite all the material possessions that you have, your unseen master still makes you unsatisfied because you want more and even more does not satisfy.
9. You are a slave to you master, materialism
10. In a country that is the leader in freedom, we have so many that are slaves to the bondage that Satan has trapped them in.
X. There is a comparison between a slave and a son, in these Scriptures.
1. A slave has no permanent place in the home and can be dismissed at any time.
2. But a son can come and go as he pleases.
3. We become a slave when we buy the lies of the devil who is selling us bondage
4. lies about what real pleasure is in life where he tries to sell us the idea that money, prestige, power, are the true means to happiness and freedom.
5. lies about God and others so that he can use us to seek out our own desires not concerned about those around us.
6. Are we a slave Or are we a son of God that lives with true freedom because we know the truth of Christ.
Y. Nothing apart from the love of God and the truth of Christ will give us freedom.
1. For all the pleasures that Satan offers comes with a heavy price: a tax. And if there’s a tax, it ain’t free.
2. It drags us down into the cellar of bondage.
IV. All freedom comes with a price.
A. This nation’s founding fathers knew that and many gave their lives.
B. But the continuation of our freedom in this country is eternal vigilance and many since then have given their lives to preserve this freedom that we in this country enjoy today.
C. We celebrate today the founding of this great nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
D. And yet the devil has captured that freedom and made slaves of various types of bondage to so many.
E. Yes all freedom including this glorious freedom from Christ comes with a price.
F. But the difference with this freedom is that the price has already been paid.
G. The true fourth of July took place on Mt. Calvary when Christ alone took upon himself the sins of us all.
H. The price of freedom was paid that day and now it only for us to accept it free of charge.
I. And so the world is hungry for freedom, but it can only come from the son.
J. But if the son of God sets you free you are free indeed.
K. Free from the celler C E L L E R of bondage because we did not buy from the seller S E L L E R of bondage
L. Because his so called freedom comes with a tax.
K. And If there’s a tax then it ain’t free.
L. But thank be to God our freedom is TAX FREE!
M. No hidden charges. No late penalties, We are free indeed
*The story of Patrick Henry was taken from "Paul Harvey's the rest of the story" by Paul Aurandt Bantam Books New York N.Y. 1977 Chapter 9 Chains pp. 20-22.
