DELIVERANCE IN CHRST
We are going to back to the Epistle to the Hebrews, which is the series we are in now, and is entitled, “Truths From the Letter to the Hebrews.” As we go through this epistle, we are pulling out some of the primary truths God has for us to discover. For today, I want to turn to Hebrews, chapter two, and the title for today is going to be, “Deliverance in Christ.” Now, I do want to read verses fourteen and fifteen of Hebrews, chapter two. Before I do that, I want to get some basic definitions so that there will be no misunderstanding. In the Christian church today, we have basically re-defined and mis-defined so many things that if you just begin to talk about a subject without first establishing the proper definition, people’s understanding will be on the wrong basis. They will begin to interpret what you are saying according to an improper definition. This can happen from time to time and so I want to get some definitions straight to begin with.
The first thing I want to talk about is deliverance. Well, what is, in the Christian context, deliverance? I think most of us, when thinking about deliverance, think about people who are in bondage to sin, maybe to drugs or some other vice. We imagine someone coming up to them, perhaps in a prayer meeting and laying hands on them praying over them and delivering them from whatever their particular bondage happens to be. We think of deliverance in terms of what we are being delivered from and simply as the outcome of praying for deliverance. But I think, at the very least, all of that is quite limited and some of it is actually misleading. Deliverance in Christ is not merely deliverance from a bondage. Moreover, it is primarily deliverance to Jesus. We need to see this or we miss the whole point of deliverance. We need to see this or I would submit that what we are really talking about is no deliverance at all. It is one thing to talk about trying to get someone delivered from drugs or from heresy, from unbelief or darkness. We can talk about all of that but what good is the discussion if the end result is not a deliverance out from that to the truth, to Jesus Christ?
You could go into a prison the United States and if you opened all the prison doors and let everyone out, what would that do to change them? They would be free to go out and commit crimes and be just as much in bondage as they were before. My point is this, God is not simply content to deliver people out of a bunch of stuff, but wants to deliver them, not only to Jesus, but by Jesus and in Him. So, the only true deliverance that the Bible knows about is a deliverance to Jesus. Now, if we would think about a couple of verses here, we would see that this is the case. For example, what, according to Jesus Christ, sets people free? A deliverance session? Just a prayer? No, and I am not putting down prayer which is a vital part of this. But, what is it that Jesus Christ said will set people free? The truth. “You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.” Of course He identified Himself as, The Truth.
So, according to Jesus Christ, the way in which you and I get set free from anything is by knowing, seeing, coming to realize the Person of Jesus Christ. I would have to again submit that if my freedom is not the result of seeing and knowing Jesus Christ, it is not true freedom. It is not true deliverance. Now the secular world has various programs and organizations which are there to provide deliverance for people with certain problems, such as alcoholism or pornography. They have rehab facilities to get people off of drugs. Many churches and Christian ministries have adopted exactly the same things but have pasted the name of Jesus on it and legitimized it by the use of Bible verses and prayer and so forth. But all that the secular world and all of these Christian ministers, who have adopted the world’s ways can provide is not deliverance from bondage through the Person of Jesus Christ by a revelation of Him in His Person, who is the Truth and will therefore set them free. Instead of that, what they have done is develop programs whereby they can take the soul or natural man of a human being and provide that man with natural adjustments and patterns of conduct. There are various things the natural man can do to think differently and to lose dependence on whatever the addiction may be, drugs etc., and become dependent on something else instead. So, all these programs can do is to reprogram natural man so that he is no longer addicted to that which he was previously addicted to in the same way. But they have really done nothing, first of all, to change that person profoundly and certainly nothing to change them eternally and to reveal to them, the Person of Jesus Christ. There is no real deliverance there.
Now, if I am an alcoholic and I need deliverance from alcohol, I can go to Alcoholics Anonymous and if I am successful in that program, I may stop drinking and that’s good. I am not putting that down. But, do I know Christ? Am I born from above? No, in fact alcoholics will tell you that they are never really free. It is just a matter of taking it a day at a time and managing it. I think most people who go to rehab and so forth will make that same statement, that it is a lifelong issue because they are not truly free. They have just been somewhat reprogrammed unto different conduct and so forth. In the Christian church today, we have adopted much of the same kind of programs. Where it isn’t Alcoholics Anonymous or a rehab program, what has been done is to develop what are called accountability systems. For example, if someone is addicted to pornography or alcohol, they are told that if they just plug themselves into an accountability system and all pray together, they will get free. Part of what is usually incorporated into these accountability systems is the calling of one another each week to check up on each other to see if they have fallen into sin during that particular week. All of this is supposed to keep people free and to deliver them. Again, what I said before, if what we are talking about is a reprogramming of the natural mind away from a destructive pattern into one which keeps them from that destruction naturally, some of this stuff can seem to work for a while but, it is not true deliverance. It is only, according to Jesus, the truth which sets us free and if the Son of Man sets us free, we are free indeed. All of these other things do not make us free indeed.
So, the question is, are we going to settle for these other things instead of going on with Jesus Christ? Unfortunately in the church today, despite all of the claims to the contrary, despite all of the fake deliverances, there is very little real deliverance. I think it was about ten or fifteen years ago that somebody came up with this notion of ‘generational curses’ and that was identified as what really ails us. So ministers were developed that would go around and pray for people that God would set them free by the blood of Jesus from the generational curse which is on their family. Presto chango, the people were supposed to emerge from that thing which had bound them and kept them in bondage. At some point, we have to ask ourselves the question as to whether this stuff is biblical. I am being a little bit sarcastic when I say this, but you do not find anything like that in the Bible especially in the New Testament. How many understand that if you are born from above in Jesus Christ, you are a new creation and not of that old generation? Now, I say this even if there were such a thing as generational curses. I would challenge anyone who says that most problems arise from that. I do not believe that most problems do, I think that there is such a thing as learned behavior. I do believe that, but the idea that you are under some kind of a Satanic curse and as a Christian person, is the reason why you cannot overcome sin and why you are in bondage to different vices. That is a lie. and the Bible never teaches it.
The Bible teaches that the key to freedom is faith in the finished work and Person of Jesus Christ. Now do we understand that it doesn’t matter how we got into sin? It doesn’t matter what your sin is or why you are in bondage. It does not matter if you want to call it a generational curse, learned behavior or just your own plain fault, the solution in every case is the same. Faith in Jesus Christ. So do we really need to do an autopsy? This is why the Bible doesn’t mention these programs and these ideas because the solution is faith in Jesus Christ. So, for a while there and I think this is still going on in many places, you would have these deliverance sessions in prayer meetings and churches, where people would gather around and pray that God would lift and deliver someone from a generational curse. Those prayers are misguided at best because they are not based in truth. Now, am I saying that we should not pray for each other? No, here is what we ought to pray for, and it is not that God would lift a generational curse which is already satisfied in the death of Jesus Christ, but instead we ought to be praying for a person to be delivered from unbelief to faith in the One who is the solution for all curses, sin and bondages.
But you see, for some reason that has become something that so many are blind to - blind to the living Christ. We are blind to the truth and we don’t have faith in Christ, so we look for gimmicks and secret reasons and formulas as to why we are in bondage and for prayers that will take us out of these things. We do this Instead of asking God for a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of His Son - instead of asking God to do whatever it takes to set us free from unbelief - instead of losing our lives to Jesus Christ. I come back to that all the time as the basic foundational truth for so much. Jesus Christ said, “He who would come after Me, let him pick up his cross daily.” For whosoever would lose his life will find true life in Me, is the thought in that Matthew sixteen passage. How many understand that He is talking about losing your whole self, your entire being unto him unconditionally. Hr is talking about beginning by saying, “Lord, do whatever it takes to get your full will in my life. Do whatever it takes to bring me out of where I am to where you want me to be.” It is an unconditional relinquishment of self ownership.
Now, understand something here. All sin and all bondage, all which hinders us in the Christian life is found in that old natural life in Adam. It is! How many understand, that therefore the key to freedom from any sin is to bring that old man in Adam to the cross for an irreversible, unconditional relinquishment in the death of Christ? You will never get free of any sin and I don’t care how many prayers are said for your deliverance, if you continue to hold onto yourself. Because if you do hold on to yourself, you are living in THE sin of unbelief which is the glue that holds every other sin together. It is only if we lose our lives to Jesus, under the cross of Jesus Christ, that al the sins which are rooted in that life will begin to break loose. So, again, instead of praying that you will be delivered from sin A,B, or C, while walking all the while in the sin of unbelief, of owning yourself, pray that God would do whatever it takes to bering you to the end of self ownership, to bring you to the end of this unbelief. Again, let’s pray that we will all be delivered from unbelief - the unbelief of owning ourselves. Let’s pray that we would be delivered from that unto faith in Jesus Christ. How many understand that the only deliverance from unbelief is into belief? That is why it is so key. if you get delivered from unbelief into true faith in Jesus Christ, you will be free and you will relinquish all of yourself to Jesus. You will relinquish the life in which all of these other sins are rooted and you will begin to see and discover Jesus Christ as your life and you will see the truth in Him. That will be THE truth that sets you free from all of this other. How may understand that freedom is found in the Person of Jesus Christ? This is not a big surprise, is it?
This is what deliverance is all about. It is deliverance, yes, from the old man in Adam, from that darkness and unbelief. But, it is deliverance unto the Person of Jesus Christ and to living in Him by faith.. So the key here is deliverance from unbelief - deliverance from THE sin of owning myself. That will accomplish something no rehab stint will, no prayer to be delivered from a generational curse will do. We are avoiding the issue in the Christian church and we need to come back to the fact that God has completed and totally shut out, under the death of the cross, the old man in Adam and all that constitutes our old life with its self ownership. God is not going to honor anything we do in that old life. He is saying, “Lose it, here is new life in Jesus. Here is My Son. Here is freedom in Him.” Now, this being the case, what are we gaining by trying to fix up the old man? What are we gaining by taking hold of the earthly nature and trying to reprogram it. God says, “That is not where I am working. Lose that. Focus on My Son and through Him, all of these things will be adjusted and freedom will come.” This is the key to deliverance.
Now, I want, with that in mind, to read Hebrews 2:14 and 15 and we will see some basics out of the scripture. In verse fourteen speaking about Jesus Christ, it says there, “Forasmuch then as the children [believers] are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus also Himself, likewise took part of the same flesh and blood, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil.” First of all, verse fourteen makes a direct statement to the effect that Jesus Christ had to become a flesh and blood human being in order to save us. That is what it is saying here when he says, “Inasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, Jesus likewise Himself took part of the same, in order that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is the devil.” In other words, in order to save humanity, Jesus had to become a flesh and blood human being, the God Man, God in the flesh, in order to be able to bear us on the cross and for us to be able to be planted into his death and His resurrection. In order for human beings to become one with Christ in that way, He had to become a human being. We must get this, that the incarnation, the Word becoming flesh was absolutely essential for the salvation of humanity.
If you probe more deeply into that, you will find that this is why it is essential to understand and believe the virgin birth. If there is no virgin birth, then Jesus was the product of two human parents which means He was not the God Man. He was not God become man, He was just man. No, God had to become man, die and be raised in order that men might be brought back to God in Him. God, the Son, had to become man in order that He might be the mediator between God and man. All of this is dependent upon Jesus Christ becoming a flesh and blood human being. It is only because He did, that through His death He was able to destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Now, don’t get tripped up by this word, destroy. In the New Testament, where you see this English word, it is usually translated from a Greek word that means, to bring to nothing, to put out of action. So, we are talking about Jesus, who through death brought to nothing him who had the power off death, that is the devil. Also, in this, which will bring us into verse fifteen shortly, we see why we who want to be delivered from that which speaks of the old creation, have to lose all of ourselves in the death of Jesus. It is saying right here that through the death of Jesus Christ, He brought to nothing him that had the power of death, that is the devil.
Now why is that the case? It is the case because through the death of Jesus, we, who are planted in Him, also die. The entirety of the Adam race, of the old creation over which Adam had dominion was wholly planted into the death of Jesus Christ. In Him all of that died. This is important, because once Adam sinned the entirety of the Adam race and old creation, over which Adam had dominion, was, in fact, the domain of Satan. So, when all of that was planted into Christ, the domain of Satan was planted into Him and it all died. Thus, the entire territory and domain of Satan was swept out from under him. Can we see that? When Adam sinned, he gave himself over to the realm of darkness. This is why it says in Colossians 1: 13, that God, “has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His Beloved Son. The kingdom of darkness, therefore, is where we start. It is the place from which we are translated or transferred in Christ over to the kingdom of God. When Adam sinned he gave himself over into the realm of darkness. He did this simply by default, by rejecting God. You reject God and you die and the realm of darkness is what you get. It its not a matter of God saying, “Adam you sinned against me and I am mad at you so I am going to give you over to this. No. Adam choose darkness rather than light. He choose death rather than life. So, death is what he got and darkness is what he got and he fell into the grip of Satan and into the realm of darkness. Now if Adam fell into the realm of darkness, that is government, isn’t it? Realm is government and is Satan’s territory. All that was under Adam’s dominion also became governed by Satan. So Adam is thoroughly in bondage to the realm of darkness according to scripture following his sin.
So what does God do? He does not fix Adam. He doesn’t pry Adam loose from the realm of darkness. What He dies do is plant Adam, the old creation which is in that realm of darkness, into the death of Christ. Then, through the resurrection, He makes a new creation in Christ Jesus. How many see that that brought to nothing the power of death, the power of Satan. Because now, the kingdom over which Satan reigned, the human race, is, for those who believe, dead in Christ and has been raised a new creation over which Satan has no power. There are many different ways I could describe this. One of them is like this: imagine a human king reigning and ruling over a kingdom populated by human beings. What would happen to that king if a plague swept through that kingdom and killed every human being over which this king reigned? Well, he would not have any realm anymore to reign over really, would he? He might have the land or the realm but there would be no-one in it. This is how, though it may be an insufficient example in some ways, that not only did God deliver us though Christ’s death and resurrection, but is how He brought to nothing him that had the power of death. He brought him to nothing by delivering, out of that realm of darkness into light, those over whom Satan had exercised power in the realm of darkness.
So, Jesus became a man. He became a partaker of flesh and blood and in doing so, became the one in whom humanity was planted. We are joined to Him and buried with Him by baptism into death. We are placed into the likeness of His death. All of this is found in Romans, chapter six. When this takes place in us, we are then crucified with Christ in a final, once and forever, death. it still has to be worked out by picking up our cross, but we are crucified with Christ, once and for all. When that happens, Satan does not have anybody to reign and rule over who believe and are planted into that death. It does not stop there. We are not just delivered out of all the kingdom of darkness but we are delivered into the Kingdom of God. We are raised a new creation in Christ Jesus. How many see that a line has been drawn by death and resurrection? Satan has no access to the new man in Jesus Christ.
Before I move on here, I want to establish something else that I often refer to so that we do not misunderstand. and that is the separation of soul versus spirit. It very directly pertains to being planted in Christ and being delivered. When you came to Jesus Christ and put your faith in Him, he joined you to Himself in spirit. and you became one with him in spirit. This is the new creation in Christ Jesus. This is resurrection life in Christ. If we were to take an imaginary pencil and draw a circle around our union with Christ as we have been planted into His death and likewise into His resurrection, as we noted from Romans six. “If any man is in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) he is a new creation.” The ‘in Christ’ part is speaking of the fact that we are joined to the Lord and made one spirit with Him” ( 1 Corinthians 6:17) That is how Christ dwells in us. We are joined to the Lord and made one spirit with Him. That is resurrection union and what it means to be in Christ, to be united with Him in death and resurrection. That is the new creation and what is inside of this imaginary circle.
But, we are not joined to the Lord and made one body physically with Him, nor are we joined to the Lord and made one soul man with Him. The soul, which is the natural man, and the body remain outside of that union, outside of that circle. As such, they remain access points for Satan during this age. Now, you have to be deceived; you have to be void of the knowledge of the Lord, in order to give him access to yourself through those points of entry, which many of us do. In fact, I would say that we all do until we come to know Jesus Christ. When we know the truth, we can be set free by the truth from those points, by means of which Satan has had his access to us. But, we are joined to the Lord and made one spirit with Him and Satan has no access there. We are new creations in Christ Jesus. But, what is outside that circle are potential access points for Satan. We have to grow to know the Lord. We have to be delivered from the things of death and bondage in those areas through a knowledge of the truth in Jesus Christ. We are already delivered spiritually, we have to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ and we have to ask God to deliver us from the unbelief of not knowing Jesus. Then those areas will be brought to the ground if we seek Christ and know the truth. We will be set free by the truth.
Now, once we recognize that it is through knowing Jesus Christ, knowing the truth that we are delivered from whatever bondage we are talking about to Jesus, which is the only kind of deliverance there is that is real. Once we recognize this, should we not then see the folly of trying to fix what ails us through some psychological counseling or through some system that simply grabs hold of our earthly nature and tries to reprogram it? We might expect that the world would use such methods because that is all they know. But can we see that it is not only folly for the church to try to use those methods but that is sin, it is unbelief? We are trying to grab hold of the very earthly nature, the natural man, the Adam nature that God says needs to come under the cross, that God says we need to lose and relinquish. We are trying to take hold of that and fix it in order to make it behave and cause it to act in a way that seems like it is not in bondage any more. But it really is. Can we see that this is nothing but a big lie if we are doing that? It is actually contrary to what God wants to do in His people. We cannot grab hold of natural earthly man and fix him. We can’t! The idea that we could try to do so, try to fix and bring into health the very life that God tells us to lose, our old man in Adam life, and think that God is going to help us or bless that, when it is the very life He tells us to lose. Do we think that God is going to bless the life that we are trying to fix, make look good and make behave? Do we think God is going to bless those efforts if He already tells us that it is all under the cross and we need to lose and relinquish it? I recognize that most of Christianity may not understand what I am getting at here because this is something that has been smeared over with religiosity and signs and wonders by the modern church. But, to try to fix the earthly, old Adamic nature with a church program, as well intended as they might be is a walk in error and it is unbelief. It is a blindness to the truth. The only thing that will set any of us free is to lose our life to Jesus Christ because it is that life in which all the bondages of the earthly nature are rooted. We have to lose our lives, we have to see Him and know Him and realize Him. That is the only path out of bondage into life in Christ.
So through death, Jesus destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil. As new creations in Christ Jesus, we are raised up above all of the principalities and powers and we are delivered from the realm of darkness. But in our natural man and in our bodies we are not yet free of the presence and possibility of the realm of darkness, but we are free from the power of it. We just need to see and believe it and abide in Christ. Now, that is why there are still bondages in the believer. Our soul man and our bodies are not yet delivered but God wants to deliver us through a knowledge of Jesus Christ. He actually says this, if we would read the Bible and believe what it says. It says this directly in Second Peter, chapter one, verse two, “May grace and peace be multiplied unto you…” How? “…through the knowledge of God and Jesus Christ our Lord.” Then he says, “As His divine power has given us all things…” (Notice that, ‘all things’) “,,,that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us.” Right here we have verses to the effect that, yes, in Christ it is finished in every way that it could be finished, BUT we need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ so that we can allow our soul man and our minds to be delivered out of those patterns into Jesus. It begins by giving our entire lives to Him. Again, if you are still holding on to self ownership, you are not going to be able to get free because the core and root of all sin and bondage is rooted in that sin of unbelief and self ownership. So the prayer is not for deliverance from those sins, but is for deliverance from the unbelief and self ownership. As we grow to know the Lord, we will pray that God will do whatever it takes to set us free. If we will do that, God will do whatever it takes and we would then, in fact, realize freedom. So, this is all wrapped up in Hebrews two, in verse fourteen. That is deliverance.
Now I want to go on to Hebrews 2:15, which contains a very curious statement. It says there that the death of Jesus Christ not only destroyed him who had the power of death, that is the devil, but it also says that it brought deliverance to them who through fear of death, were all their lifetime subject to bondage. This is interesting because I don’t think that most of us have ever thought of bondage or deliverance in those terms. It says Jesus has brought deliverance to them, who through fear of death, were all their lifetimes subject to bondage, clearly saying that it is through the fear of death that we are subject to various bondages. Now how can the writer of Hebrews make a statement like that? How can he say that the cause of bondage is a fear of death? I think it goes back to the garden story and back to the fact that in Adam we are born spiritually dead without any knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Let’s turn back to Genesis just for a moment to see what took place there and to get a basis for seeing what the writer of Hebrews is getting at. We know the story of how God created Adam, breathed into him the breath of lives - the natural and the eternal life. In other words God put into Adam His very own life and joined Himself to him and we know that Adam was alive and joined with the life of God. We know that God planted the trees and in Genesis, chapter two, verse five, we are given a description of the original thought and design that God had in creating humanity. It says there about the man and the woman, “And they were both naked, the man and his wife and they were not ashamed.” Now, forget about the physical aspect of that for a moment and realized that we are also being told something here in type and shadow. What does it mean to be naked? It means to have nothing of yourself. What does it mean to be not ashamed? It means that despite the fact that you have nothing of yourself, you are not conscious of it. You are not conscious of lack. God said this about Adam and Eve and yet how? How could they have nothing of themselves and yet not be ashamed? It was because they were completed and fully satisfied by God.
We are being given here a description of God’s thought for humanity. God did not create us to have any resource in ourselves for life. There is no life in us! There is no truth in us aside from
Christ. No, without Christ we are dead and in darkness. So, God made humanity to be completely without resource, not finding it in ourselves. But, He made humanity to be completely dependent upon Himself for life and for all, so that people are naked and find nothing in themselves but are not ashamed because they are fully satisfied and given all in God. I am not talking simply about material goods when I say they are given all from God. I am talking about life from God. So, this is a description of God’s original thought and design for humanity…naked and unashamed.
Now, Adam sinned by walking away from God who was His life. So Adam, at that point, died and fell into the realm of darkness, as I noted earlier. He left the source of all for himself and therefore had no life any more so he died, He did not have truth any more so he fell into the realm of darkness. This became Adam’s consequence for walking away from God. You will notice, after the sin, there is a change in Adam. Before the sin, he was naked and unashamed, but after the sin he was still naked. He said. “I saw that I was naked and I was afraid.” So, before the sin he is naked and unashamed. After the sin he is still naked and in fact he is very ashamed and is now afraid. Notice what has happened here: God made human beings to be naked, to have nothing of themselves for life resources. In other words, God made human beings to be dependent creatures. You and I are dependent. We are dependent whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not and whether we realize it or not. Dependency is the kind of creature human beings are. Period! You come out of the womb that way. The problem is that when you are born in Adam, you are dependent and naked. You are dependent and you do not have God. You are made to be dependent upon God, to find all in God, but you are alienated from Him by birth. You are born spiritually dead. That leaves you with this incredible dependency that defines you but without anyone to depend upon because you do not know God. and He is not living in you.
Now, what happened to Adam, upon that realization of his nakedness, was a tremendous dependency because he had nothing in himself. He had nothing because he had walked away from the One on whom he was supposed to be dependent. Upon the realization of his condition, Adam was immediately what? He was immediately afraid. How many see here in Genesis three that Adam is under a tremendous fear and torment in this death in which he finds himself?He does not know why. He does not not say, “Well I now fear death and here is why.” No, it is a spiritual condition. This fear of death which is being talked about there in Hebrews is not something that its rational. How many know that ultimately fear is not rational, not emotional, not intellectual so much but ultimately fear is a spirit? That is why Paul said to Timothy, “God has not given to us a spirit of fear.” No, fear is of the enemy and is contrary to the reason why God created him. Because Adam is now in this condition, he is tormented, he’s afraid, he’s lost and he is drifting. He was made for God. He left God and now he is alone. He says, “I am afraid because I saw that I was naked. I had no life. I had nothing in myself and fear came in.” Now, this is a fear of death.
Now what does Adam do in this fear? We do not find him here turning back to God, so what he does is revert to plan B, if I can put it that way. Instead of turning to God for redemption, instead of putting faith in God and confessing his sin and asking God to restore him, he tries to fix his nakedness by his own means. It says here that he sewed fig leaves together to cover up his nakedness. In other words, he devised a man-made physical, earthly device to fix the damage which sin had done. in order to compensate and really, to substitute for God. So Adam used fig leaves but you know something, this is a description of what it is speaking of there in Hebrews 2:15. Isn’t it a fact that, because we do not turn to Jesus Christ, we are left in this fear of death similar to what Adam had? If you don’t turn to Jesus, you have nothing upon which to rely. You may think you do, it is all part of deception but if you do not turn to Jesus Christ, you are naked and ashamed. You are naked and left on your own;. you are a dependent creation which must depend on something or someone. If you don’t turn to Jesus Christ you are going to turn to something else to depend upon. In Adam’s case it is described as fig leaves. In our case, instead of Jesus, it might be drugs, might be pride, might be religion or self righteousness. Whatever it is it will be something of this earthly realm that continues to be a part of the realm of darkness. Whatever we turn to instead of Jesus Christ, we will become dependent upon and in bondage to, so, in a very real sense of the word, when Hebrews says, through fear of death we become subject to bondage, it is absolutely telling the truth. Through fear of death, we are driven to try to grab hold and make a life for ourselves outside of Christ. Of course, the entire problem there is not just the fear of death as I noted before. The problem there is unbelief.
The reason we fear death and run to other things to depend upon and are held in bondage, is unbelief. We don’t turn to Jesus, and some of us do not even know to do that, and it is because of that we run to other things through this fear and torment and tryto construct fig leaves and become dependent on whatever we think will fill up that gap in our lives that is meant for God. You have heard the statement that there is a big hole in each human being that is meant for God but we try to fill that hole with every imaginable substitute. The thing that we use to fill that hole becomes our prison cell. We are in bondage to it. So right in the garden, from the beginning, we see the roots of all of this. When a person is in darkness, and this certainly could be an unbeliever who is blind to the truth or resistant to it, but it could also be a believer who is in bondage to certain things in their earthly nature. It is possible for a believer to be in bondage to any number of horrible things in their earthly nature. It is because we do not turn to Jesus and give ourselves to Him., that we continue to be susceptible to this fear of death all of our lifetimes and subject to bondage.
How many Christian people, and also worldly people do this, because they don’t trust God, try to do things and to have things for themselves and they end up creating a monster? Now, we can see a lot of things in an outward way but in an inward way, this is evermore so - emotional bandaids, psychological gimmicks that natural man uses to shield himself from his own nakedness and so forth. These things are entwined within the very fabric of our being, this Adam creature that we are, void of Christ. God is saying, “I am not asking you to do an autopsy on the old man in Adam, to figure out all of your problems and know where they came from and locate the roots of them. I am not asking you to do that, you can’t do that.” What I am asking you to do, He is saying to every one of us, is just give your whole self to Me and the very territory that Satan has access to will be swept out from under him. How many understand that if you and I give our entire lives, our entire selves to Jesus Christ, lose our lives as it says in Matthew sixteen, that we are putting our old lives, Satan’s access point, under the work of the cross? If we do that, there is no access point. We will come to see and know that and we will get free by the power of the cross of Jesus Christ from all that had kept us in bondage.
I am not saying that the day after we do this that we will be free of every bondage. What we will see is an outworking of this. It is why Jesus said, “If any man would come after Me, let him pick up his cross daily…” Jesus will bring us to the place where we are able to get free of bondages including the various things we could name, such as alcohol, pornography and things like that. He will bring us to the point where we are able to be free of those things because we will surrender our entire selves to Him. Step by step, He will bring us through and it is not just the fact that we have once and for all given ourselves to Jesus, which is of course, the vital and essential basis, but it is also through prayer and a continual daily picking up of our cross. God Almighty wants us to open ourselves through prayer and intercession and picking up our cross on a daily basis. That is what it means to pick up your cross daily. Daily tell God to do whatever it takes to set us free, do whatever it takes to set us free from what ails us to Jesus Christ, that we may know Him and walk in the freedom which the knowledge of Him brings.
God Almighty not only wants to set us free and to bring reality, freedom and the power of the life of Jesus Christ and make that manifest in each of us. He wants to use us as vehicles to pray and be instruments of power in the lives of other people. One of the primary reasons God raises up Christians and raises up His body, is that we might intercede for each other other., that we might preach deliverance to the captives or to each other. I would submit that if you are a born again believer and God is doing whatever it takes to set you free from your bondages and bringing you into an inward realization of Jesus Christ, ultimately it will bring you to the place where you spend more and more time praying for other people. and being used of God to deliver other people. What I am saying is that God is not necessarily going to use everyone to preach sermons, go lay hands on somebody or pray for them in person. If that happens, great. But we do this in spirit. We do not need to know the details of every problem. In some cases not even need to know the name of a certain person, God knows. Intercession, in the final analysis is a joining with Jesus Christ in interceding for people because they cannot pray for themselves.
How many understand that there are a lot of people in this world, a lot of believers, who do not pray for themselves? They don’t even know to pray for themselves. They are so deceived that they do not know they are deceived. When a person is blind, there is no use saying they are not blind. God will appoint and draw in someone to intercede for that blind person. If Jesus Christ ever lives to make intercession for the saints and is what Jesus is constantly doing, by His very presence in each of us, how many understand that we are going to be drawn into that? We are going to be drawn into intercession for the saints. It may be in some very unspoken ways or hidden ways, or it may not be. But, it is going to be there and is inevitable. It is a part of what it means to be one with Christ, a member of the body of Christ and part of one another.
In Second Corinthians, chapter four, there is a tremendous description that the Apostle Paul gives there. I just want to read a little snippet of it. He begins that chapter by saying, “We have this ministry…” and then he alludes to the work that God has done in Him through the cross. He says, “We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully.” This is not the product of education but is a product of the work of the cross and of seeing the truth in Christ Jesus. That is a product of Paul, himself, being delivered from pride and self righteousness. Then.” he says, “By a manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” He begins to talk about ministry and he says, “In whom the God of this world has blinded the eyes of them who believe not.” So, he is talking, at least in part here, about people who are blind. How many understand that God can do whatever He desires without you and me? Sometimes He does do things without anyone’s cooperation. But primarily in this age, God wants to use His Body. He wants to use people in the body of Christ as vessels whereby Christ can be made known and people can be set free to Christ.
He begins to talk n verse six, which I really love because it is a description of a work within a Christian so that that Christian can be used in fellowship and cooperation with Christ to help others to see. He says, in verse five, “For we preach not ourselves,” or for ourselves. Again, a work of the cross is necessary. How many understand that God cannot use people who are not crucified? If you want to know why not much happens in the Body of Christ today along the line of real deliverance and real miracles, if that is what we would like to see, it is because we are not talking about crucified people. There are many claims of miracles but most of them are not real. God needs crucified people, through whom He can minster the life of Christ. He says, “For we preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ our Lord.” How many understand that this is a crucified person whose personal interests are crucified, to the place where he is now living and moving in the interests of God, for the deliverance of others. “For we preach not ourselves but Jesus Christ our Lord and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” This is not for our own sake or about building up a ministry so you can make money and have power and admiration. This is about being called of God and letting Him do whatever it takes. in you for His glory and interests.
Now, in verse six, as I noted, it says, in reference to the fact that they preach not themselves but Jesus, “For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus.” In other words, you and I, as is the case with every other human being, were at one time filled with darkness. Some of it was religious darkness, religious self righteousness which is one of the greatest darknesses of all. All of us had nothing but darkness in us at one point. But God commanded through the work of His cross and the power of His resurrection, the light to shine out of the darkness which was in us, to shine in our hearts to give the knowledge of the glory of God…” He is talking about God using members of the Body to minister to other members of the Body. Why should that be a surprise? That is ministry. He begins to talk about the fact that we have this great treasure, Jesus Christ, in an earthen vessel, but the excellency of the power is of God and not of us. It its not of us, we have nothing in ourselves. We are naked, void and reprobate without Christ, as it says in Second Corinthians thirteen. No, this is out from God who is in us - out from our union with Christ inside of that circle of the new creation.
He speaks of the work of the cross in verses eight and nine and all of the trials that they had experienced. He says, that this is the result of, “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” Then in verse twelve, which is a description of ministry,”… so then death works in us but life in you.” He is saying that God wants to take crucified people who have been broken as to their own agenda, who have relinquished, lost all of themselves to Jesus, people in whom the death of Jesus Christ is working, and use them to minister the life of Christ to others. That is true ministry and is certainly manifested through preaching and teaching, but is also manifested through fellowship with one another. It is manifested through prayer, intercessory prayer, through the life of the believer who is in union with Jesus.
He is saying that He wants to use the people He has delivered to Jesus as vehicles for other people unto deliverance to Jesus. How many understand that this is really and truly the way that God likes to work? But, if we will not give ourselves to Christ and become crucified people, if we think that all of this is about having a party, if we think that Christianity is nothing but an emotional or intellectual experience, if we think it is nothing but a bunch of miracle services and we bypass the cross, what we are going to have is a hollow shell which is nothing but fake. This is what we have today. No, He is saying to us that we must give our entire selves to Christ because as we do and take our place in the death of Christ, then we will be crucified with Christ. The crucifixion of that old life is going to be the crucifixion of that life in which all other sins are rooted. The crucifixion of that old man in Adam is going to be the key to our deliverance from what ails us, but more importantly, our deliverance to new life in Jesus Christ. Then you can be used by God as an instrument of deliverance for other people. Like I have said before, if you give yourself to God and lose your life to Him and Jesus Christ becomes your life, as the Bible says He will if we give ourselves to Him. “Christ, our life.” (Colossians 3:4) If we do this and Christ becomes our life, then what is He doing? He is interceding for the saints. If Christ becomes your life, then that resurrection life and the truth that is found in Him will not only set you free, but you will be drawn into intercession, love and fellowship with the saints. You will, because that is what is happening with the life of Christ. That is what He is doing.
I don’t think it is possible to truly know Jesus and experience Him unless slowly but surely and inevitably, you want every one else to have what you have discovered. You just do. You want them to be free and to experience Jesus because you have experienced Him and you know what it is. You will not only want them to experience it but you will want them to experience it at cost to you, if necessary. You will be willing to be used of God for whatever it takes for the freedom of others. You will be willing to allow God to draw you into intercession for various people, even though it can be a traumatic experience in the sense of a burden. You will be willing to enter into that warfare and it is a warfare. How many understand that if God draws you into intercession, you are going to be in a warfare? But you are going to be on the winning side. It is a matter of standing and refusing to move from the victory of Jesus Christ.
Now I want to read a couple of verses here beginning in Second Corinthians, chapter ten. It is speaking about deliverance and warfare here. People are in darkness, much of the Body of Christ is in darkness and God wants those who are crucified and have some light to be in fellowship with Him so that we can stand in Him on their behalf by faith. It is not about our being strong, but about our standing with Christ in His strength. Paul says there, in Second Corinthians ten, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. And bringing into captivity every perception or device to the obedience of Christ.” How many see that in prayer, by this warfare, we are to cast down everything that exalts itself against what? Against the knowledge of God, against the truth. Again, we are set free by the truth and we are to pray and stand in telling God to do whatever it takes to bring us into the knowledge of your Son, Jesus Christ - into the knowledge of what He has done in His death and resurrection so that I can be delivered from the bondages I am have through the fear of death, over to the truth that knowing Jesus brings. Then, use me, use me to stand with Christ in intercessory prayer on behalf of others who do not know, who have yet to come to see many of these things that we are able to see if we are set free. Now obviously, God is not going to force anyone to be free but He will bring light and truth and grace enough to turn but ultimately, the person has to make that choice.
The Bible talks about spiritual warfare as business as usual. But, it never talks about it as anything but a stand in the finished victory of Jesus Christ. You and I are never to try to win a victory. You and I are never to battle to win a victory. We are to absolutely know that the victory is already won and then stand in that victory against the challenges and attacks of the enemy. We are to do this in the truth, as I said here, against all that exalts itself against the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are to stand in that victory not only on our own behalf but on the behalf of all those who are drawn into our prayers by God. If God brings you into intercession regarding someone, you are to stand in the victory of Jesus Christ regarding that one no matter what. You are going ti discover that it is to just a ‘’sleepy time’ prayer that you will be wrapped up in. You are going to find yourself in a stand against the forces of darkness. But the victory is won. It says there, in Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God…,” not our armor, His armor, “…that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” Why would Paul write this if this stuff never happens? If you never find yourself in a warfare, I would worry. because according to the Bible, the flesh wars against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. That at least happens and if there is not a warfare going on that way, you have a problem because certainly the flesh is there and if the spirit is there, you are going to have a warfare. “Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood…” Are we wrestling to obtain territory? No, we are wrestling to hold the territory by faith. So this is talking about intercessory prayer, about a walk of faith whereby the enemy, through spiritual attacks, mental attacks, emotional attacks, maybe even physical issues where the enemy tries t get you to move from faith that is solely in Jesus Christ. Maybe he will call attention to your failures and you will begin to be preoccupied with yourself. If you do that, you will be in confusion in about two seconds. You have to stand against that. Stand by faith solely in the Person of Jesus Christ and all that He has done If you do that the victory is going to take place and will be made manifest. This is what the enemy wants to move you away from and he will use emotional conditions, circumstances in life, even physical ailments to move you from your faith which is solely in Christ. He will get you occupied with your circumstances, with yourself, with your failures, with your successes and then you will need to get back to this.faith which is solely in Christ.
I really like it where, in verse twelve, he states who the enemy is: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood…” It is not even against our own flesh and blood but is “…against principalities and powers and rulers of darkness in this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We have the victory, but God has called us to stand in intercession, by faith, against all of that for His purpose and interest. It is part of our discipline and training as sons and daughters of God. Again, if you want to go on with Christ, this is going to happen. It is not just a matter of maybe, it will because it is what Jesus is busy with. The Christian life is not just a matter of getting all of God’s blessings. We have that. It is a matter of standing and taking territory for Jesus. That is not only in type and shadow in the Old Testament, where Israel invaded the Promised Land and took territory for God but is is also throughout the entire New Testament where you see this warfare. A lot of people think this means that you grab ahold of the devil and beat the daylights out of him and declare victory. That is not what this is. This is about your first being crucified, your having the work of the cross working within and then being used of God to stand and as you do that the enemy is proven defeated. You may have to take action. You will have to pray. But, God will draw you into a deeper and deeper fellowship with Himself so that you can experience the fellowship of His sufferings. and be used as an intercessor. “Take on the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day.” The evil day is the day where it is all upon you. “…and having done all to stand.” Then he talks about the armor of God.
This is real. This is ministry. It is really the ministry of the Body that Christian people ought to be praying together. They do not have to be geographically together and many are not, but praying together with one voice and one mind for the glory of God and the interests of Jesus Christ in other people. Of course we can pray for our own lives and we ought to but God’[s purpose involves more than just ourselves. As I said, inevitably, once you become a crucified person and you have given your life to Jesus Christ, you will be drawn into the interests of God regarding other people. You are going to be praying for His interests in the Body of Christ. It just will happen because more and more you will have the mind of Christ. More and more you will be having faith for what Christ has faith for and you will be having the mind of Christ and do what the Spirit of Christ is doing.
Now I want to read one last scripture before we end this message. In Luke, chapter four, we have the series of events where Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He was led there by God’s Spirit. and then He returned in the power of God’s Spirit. (Luke 4:14) He went into the synagogue that day, and both in this passage and the One in Matthew four, it becomes very clear that this account is Jesus’ announcement of Himself. It is His declaration of Himself as Messiah, as THE ONE about whom He is reading. This is not a small event. It is a huge event and of course it is here that He began His ministry, Here is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who had lived among these very people for thirty years and He walked into a synagogue, where I am sure He had been before.as He grew up. He walked to the front and read and declared Himself, the Messiah. I think that right then and there, their reaction of being filled with wrath showed the enemy’s reaction. Let’s read what He said, and again the reason this is important for today is that the purpose for which Jesus came is going to be announced here, which is the fulfillment of prophecy and has to do with the deliverance of us all. It says after He came in from the wilderness, “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up and as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.” Now in the synagogues they had a practice and a tradition which allowed all the men who were over thirty to get up on the Sabbath, read scripture and then make commentary on it. This is what Jesus was doing when He stood up to read here. I think it is significant that Jesus had just turned thirty and I would submit that if this was not the first time that He stood up to read in that way, that it was certainly one of the first times and could have been the very first time He ever stood up to read as a man over thirty in His home town of Nazareth. We don’t know. But it does say there that He came to Nazareth where He had been brought up and as was His custom, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. “Now there was delivered unto Him, the Book of the Prophet Isaiah and when He had opened the Book, He found the place where it was written…”, and here is what He read: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted and to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” If you do not know what that means, ‘the acceptable year of the Lord,’ it is a reference to the year of Jubilee which was an Old Testament festivals. It was not one of the feast days but it was a festival which was celebrated every fifty years wherein all debts were cancelled. So, this is liberty. It is preaching freedom from all of sin and all of the realm of darkness. And Jesus said, “I have come to do all of these things written here.” And He closed the Book and gave it to the minister and sat down. The eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fastened on Him and He began to say, “This day is this scripture fulfilled in you ears.” Now, of course, that provoked a great deal of wrath and anger because they were not about to be told by Jesus that He was the Messiah but that was exactly what He was announcing because He is the Person whom the scriptures were announcing. Only the Messiah could fulfill this and Jesus is declaring Himself as the Messiah. He is saying, “I have come to do all of these things.”
Now, He has come to do it, yes, by preaching, but He has come to do it by His redemptive work. But as an outcome of that work, Jesus today is declaring the acceptable year of the Lord. Jesus today is preaching deliverance to the captives by His very presence in His people. He wants to do a work of the cross in His people whereby they can minister the same deliverance to others as He has ministered to them. This is a great part of the purpose of the Body of Christ in this age. Listen, for example, to what Jesus Christ said to Paul on the road to Damascus as He gave to him the purpose for his ministry. Certainly Paul is a type and example of what God wants to do in and through every other believer. In Acts, chapter 26, where Jesus struck Paul to the ground with a great light, He said, “I am Jesus whom you persecute but rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared unto you for this purpose, to make you a minister and a witness, both to these things which you have seen and those things unto which I will appear unto you, delivering you from the people and from the gentiles, unto whom now I send you to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light. and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those which are sanctified by faith that is in Me.”
So, Jesus said to Paul, “I am delivering you out of this darkness and I am going to do a work in you to open your eyes and do a work of the cross in you. Then I am going to send you back to them and use you to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light. Of course, God does not make anybody have to be delivered. But, the point is that He will bring light and He will use the body of Christ to do that and also in intercessory prayer unto those ends. So this is representative of what God wants to do in each of us. It is the ministry of each individual and then collectively of the Body, deliverance for people.
When we read here in Hebrews two, we can be sure that through the death of Jesus Christ, He has brought to nothing him that had the power of death, that is the devil. We can be sure that Jesus has brought deliverance to everyone who through fear of death throughout their whole lifetime were subject to bondage.. We can be sure that through the presence and light of Jesus Christ, in the believer, though our ongoing revelation and knowledge of Him, that this is how freedom and deliverance is possible for each one of us. God wants to deliver us from all bondage, not only from sin, but from the bondage of pride, of religious self righteousness, the bondage of heresy and of fear and of all of these things which are in humanity. He wants to deliver us from all of those things but He only can do it, and He only will do it, through a deliverance to and by virtue of, Jesus Christ, His only Begotten Son.