Believers in Bondage

Welcome to Worship in the Word with Pastor Robert Morris. We are in his Free Indeed series where Pastor Robert has been talking about the enemy schemes to take us into bondage and how Jesus wants to free us. In today's message, Pastor Robert is going to discuss three things that can lead to open doors of demonic influence and how to close them.

Well, let's join Pastor Robert now. Today we're going to talk about believers in bondage. We're going to keep nailing this subject down. And here's the reason that I'm going to continue to nail this down, because I want you to be free. And many believers never get free indeed because they don't believe that indeed they can be in bondage. They believe, well, we're Christians and Christians can't be in bondage. But I'm going to show you very clearly in Scripture that believers can be in bondage, all right?

So we're going to talk about three more open doors today, all right? Number one is continued iniquity. Continued iniquity opens the door to the demonic in our lives. So John chapter 8, look at verse 31. It said, Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him. Now we're talking about believers. They believed, believe believers who believed Him. If you abide in my word, we talked about filling our house with the word of God, you are my disciples indeed and you.

Okay, use a pronoun referring back to disciples or believers. You disciples shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him were Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can you say you will be made free?

Now, this is one of the best illustrations in the Bible of people being in bondage and being blind to their bondage. I want you to think about what was said here. And again, I want you to remember that Jesus said this to believers, to Jews who believed Him. He said, You're going to have to stay in my word if you want to really be free. You're going to have to abide in the word to be free. And then they make a statement that to me is probably one of the funniest statements in the Bible.

And I want to read it again and I want you to just think about what they said for a moment and how funny this is, all right? Here's what they said, verse 33. They answered Him, We are Abraham's descendants and have never been in bondage to anyone.

Have you ever read the Old Testament? They had been in bondage to everyone. Believers can be in bondage. So, so they said, Well, we've never been in bondage.

Never. So Jesus decides to make it clear who's in bondage, right? So look at the very next verse, verse 34. Jesus answered, Most assuredly I say to you, whoever commits sin is in bondage, is a slave of sin.

Okay, He got every one of us on that one, right? Whoever commits, and we're going to talk about this word commits because it's important. And a slave does not abide in the house forever. He's talking about trying to abide in Him. But a son abides forever. Therefore, if the son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. Now, He's not talking about salvation here. He's talking about that as believers, we can choose to walk in the sonship He's given us, or we can choose to go back into slave ship and be in bondage, even as believers. And He's saying, Don't do that.

Don't do that. I came to make you free. And so He makes this statement. Whoever commits sin is a slave, is in bondage to sin. This word commits, very, very unique again. You can just think about it, commit, just think of the word committed, commit, committed. Here's what it actually means, whoever is committed, whoever is committed to continuing in sin.

The actual word from the Greek means to formulate a plan. Now, when you think about this, whoever formulates a plan to sin is in bondage to sin. Now, we've all been there. Don't act pious this morning, okay?

We've all been there. We've all had a sin in our lives that we formulated a plan to stay in that sin, to accommodate that sin and to keep it hidden. That's bondage.

That's not a weakness, that's bondage. Let me read you another verse about this, written to believers. Again, Romans 6, verse 16.

Do you not know? Well, some verses say, do you not understand that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you are that one's slaves whom you obey? Obviously, slaves would represent bondage, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. Now, He's talking to believers. He says, don't you understand that you're going to serve? Now, you can decide you're either going to serve sin, and it's going to lead to death, and He's talking to believers, or you're going to serve obedience, which leads to righteousness.

Which one are you going to serve? Let me show you an Old Testament scripture that's absolutely phenomenal in this. Jeremiah 7, verses 8 through 11, says, behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.

Then He asks these questions. Will you steal murder? Now, before we think simply of literal murder, remember when Jesus came in the Sermon on the Mount, He said, if you hate your brother, you murdered him.

Okay? Commit adultery. Remember what Jesus said about that.

If a man lusts in his heart, he's already committed adultery. Will you do these things, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, in other words, then come to church, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says the Lord. Now, again, there are so many symbols to Jesus casting demons out of believers in scripture that we so miss them, but one of the biggest ones is that, remember, Jesus went into the temple with a whip, and drove thieves and robbers out of the temple. And we understand that we come together, and this is a temple where believers come together, but we also understand that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit.

And Jesus wants to get thieves out of the temple. None of us, none of us would have the doorbell ring, and go and look through the little peephole, and see some guys there all in black shirt, black pants, you know, the typical robber we see, you know, got the black ski mask on, got some guns, or, you know, a crowbar or something, standing there, and we know they're coming to steal, kill, and destroy. None of us would unlock the door, and crack it, and then walk away.

Would we? If you've ever looked at pornography, that's what you did. And you thought, well, I'm never gonna go that far. I'm not gonna do that. It's okay to watch movies with nudity.

It's okay to look at some things on the internet that aren't hardcore porn. You just unlocked it, and cracked it, and walked away. And I'm telling you, he'll come in. He'll come in. So number one is continued iniquity. Here's number two, continued illness.

Continued illness can be, it's not always, but it can be a sign that a door's been opened, and the enemy has come in, and he's brought an illness with it, okay? Look at Luke chapter 13, verse 11. It says, and behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity. Okay, here, the Bible tells us there is a spirit of infirmity.

There it is right there. Eighteen years, and was bent over, and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, he called her to him. Now that's unusual, because most people called to Jesus.

I just want you to notice that, and I'm gonna tell you why in a moment. It's because he knows she is one of his. He calls her to him, and said to her, woman, you are loosed, freed from your infirmity. And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. But the ruler of the synagogue, the pastor of the little church there, answered with indignation, because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath.

And he said to the crowd, there are six days on which men ought to work. Okay, that's actually the fourth commandment. That's scripture. But watch his interpretation of that scripture. Therefore, come and be healed on them, and not on the Sabbath day.

Okay, let's look. Here's a woman who's been suffering 18 years, and he says to her, you should have come another day to get healed. Well, what other day did they have church?

It's just ridiculous. The Lord then answered, running his campaign speech and trying to be nice to everybody, hypocrite. Does not each one of you on the Sabbath loose his ox or donkey from the stall, and lead it away to water it? So, now this is very important. Ought not this woman, watch what he says, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, think of it, for 18 years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath.

Okay, it's very important. Jesus said, this was the daughter of Abraham. Now, there are literal sons and daughters of Abraham, natural, and there are spiritual sons and daughters of Abraham.

But I don't think he's referring to naturally, because if we'd have read on in John eight, they said to him, why? We're sons of Abraham. He said, no, Abraham's not your father. If he were your father, you would believe me. The people who are true children of Abraham believe me. And then he goes on to say this, you're of your father, the devil.

It's pretty strong. Well, let me show you just a couple other verses on true children of Abraham, and doesn't mean that we don't take the gospel to Jew first, or we don't love Israel and love the Jewish people. It doesn't mean that. But it means, though, that when you accept Christ, you're a son of Abraham or a daughter of Abraham. Galatians three, verse seven says, therefore, know that only those, only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.

Galatians 3 29 says, if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Okay, so you got to remember the word of God is eternal. You say, well, that wasn't written yet. It was written before the foundation of the world. The word of God's eternal. So the Bible tells us that the true children of Abraham are those who are of faith, who believe. So Jesus sets this woman free and says, this woman ought to get set free.

You want to know why? She's a daughter of Abraham. She's a believer who was in bondage for 18 years, had a spirit of infirmity. Now, I'm not saying, please hear me. I'm not saying that every time you get sick, it's a demon. I am saying though, that sometimes in the Bible, demons bring sickness.

And it makes sense if they're thieves and they want to steal, that one of the areas they would like to steal is your health. It's causing something natural in you, but if it has a spiritual root, Jesus takes care of spiritual roots that affect the natural. It's all through the gospels. If you need healing in the area, read the gospels.

Just read them over and over and over again. Acts 10, 38. God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 19, verses 11 and 12. Now, God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them. These are people who were sick and not only did they get healed, but the evil spirits left them and that's how they got healed. So again, sometimes we open a door and we don't even know we've opened the door and the Lord has to show us.

I had lots of accidents growing up. I remember saying to the Lord, Lord, is there an open door in my life? And the Lord said, yes, just like that. I said, well, what's the open door?

I couldn't think of any sin that was an open door and here's what he said to me. You've believed a lie. You've believed the lie that accidents are normal for you. There are many people who believe that sickness is normal for them. And they will tell you just as vehemently as anyone else, oh, I know God heals. Yes, I believe in healing, but they don't believe it for them.

You're believing a lie. Continued illness could be a sign of a demonic influence in your life. And here's the third one is continued influence.

Mark chapter seven, here's the last one, continued influence, and I'll tell you what I mean by that. Verse 24, from there he arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon and he entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but he could not be hidden. For a woman whose young daughter, notice a young daughter by the way, because we're going to talk about how this could affect a child, how a child could have a demon, had an unclean spirit, and the Bible's going to tell us very clear that's a demon, heard about him. A woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him, and she came and fell at his feet.

The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, very important why the Bible would tell us this, and we'll explain that. And she kept asking him to cast the demon out of her daughter. But Jesus said to her, let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. And she answered and said to him, yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children's crumbs. And then he said to her, for this saying, this humility in your life, go your way, the demon has gone out of your daughter. And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out and her daughter lying on the bed.

Okay. A couple of things you need to understand is that she's a Greek, she's not a Jew, but she's also a Syrophoenician. She is a mixture. And I don't think that God is talking about racial, interracial marriage because he never talked about that in the Bible the way we would consider it. The way he talked about it was believers and unbelievers. When he said don't do this, he was talking about Israel making agreements with other nations to give their sons and daughters in marriage as a business agreement. And he said when you do that, you're gonna bring in the gods of those nations and it's going to affect you. He was talking about believers and unbelievers.

But when it talks about this, it's a reason a wife says this. She's a Syrophoenician, so she's half Phoenician. You need to know that Tyre used to be Phoenicia.

The nation of Tyre was formerly known as the nation of Phoenicia. You need to know something about Phoenicia. Phoenicia is considered by most theologians as the seat of paganism that entered into Israel. Let me remind you of someone who was born in Phoenicia, Jezebel. And Jezebel married Ahab and brought the occult and witchcraft and false gods and paganism into Israel more than any other person. It came from Phoenicia. Phoenicia was an occult city. It was the seat of witchcraft and paganism. This woman was Syrophoenician, Syro meaning Syrian, and Syria through the Bible is pride.

You will see all through when he talks about Syria, he talks about pride. Pride and witchcraft are the occult. Now let me tell you, when I was studying this how it just jumped off the page at me and this is what I thought. You know, I think there are many believers that have this mixture in their life. Now listen to me carefully. They're prideful because they believe that they can dabble in the occult and it not affect them.

That's Syrophoenician. There's pride that we can do small things that we know are occultish and it not affect us. And let me explain what I mean by some of that because many of you think, oh, I would never dabble in the occult.

Listen to me very carefully. There are demonic movies that believers watch, demonic cartoons that we allow our children to watch. This woman had a young daughter. She had a background in the occult.

It was already affecting her daughter. Demonic video games celebrating a holiday that worships ghosts and witches. And by the way, if you don't know, it comes from the word worship. God, it's hallow Halloween. Hallow means to worship.

God said, you shall hallow me and me only. Don't in any way open up to the occult. Don't read your horoscope. You want to know what your future is?

Here it is right here. This is your future. This is what your future is. Let me read you a scripture. Deuteronomy 18 verses 9 through 12. When you come into the land which the Lord your God has given you, you shall not learn to follow the abominations of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire. In other words, allows his children to get involved in witchcraft or one who practices witchcraft or a soothsayer or one who interprets omens or a sorcerer or one who conjures spells or a medium or a spiritist or one who calls up the dead, a seance, for all who do these things are an abomination to the Lord.

And because of these abominations, the Lord your God drives them out from before you. I remember when I learned this, I said, Lord, I want to ask you to forgive me for participating in seances, doing things as a Ouija board as a child, Halloween, all those things. I want to ask you to forgive me and I renounce Satan and his kingdom. And I know that the Lord Jesus Christ is a true Lord. I ask you to forgive me and I renounce witchcraft in the occult in my life because I don't want an open door to the enemy.

I don't want an open door for my children. Now, let me explain one more thing about this passage. She comes up and she asks for deliverance. She's asking for deliverance for her daughter, the demon to be cast out of her daughter.

That's deliverance. And Jesus makes the statement that if you don't understand biblical language, you won't understand the statement. Mark 7, 27, Jesus said to her, let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the little dogs. Now, he's referencing, she's Greek, he's Jewish, and he was sent to the Jew first. Paul was sent to the Jew first. We as a church take the gospel to the Jew first, not the Jew only, but to the Jew first. He says, let the children be filled first. What's good about that is if you're a Gentile, is you can get it second. The gospel still comes to Gentiles and we're grateful for that. But he's also referencing something much more because remember, we just read scripture that only those who are faith are the children.

They're the true children. He says, let the children be filled first. And he makes this statement that again, if you don't understand biblical language, you won't understand this. He said, it's not right to take what belongs to the children and give it to the dogs. So Jesus is not rude. He's simply using biblical language because dogs represent something in the Bible. And he's saying, this is what, because you don't, you're not, you don't know to believe in the Messiah.

You're, all right, so let me show it to you, all right. Revelation 22, verse 14 said, blessed are those who do his commandments that they may have the right to the tree of life. And the tree of life is in heaven and may enter through the gates into the city. This is representing heaven, but outside, outside, outside the city, outside of heaven are dogs. Notice in your Bible says dogs and sorcerers.

That's people who believe in witchcraft and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and whoever loves and practices life. Okay, either outside of heaven, there are literal dogs or dogs represent something. It's very easy to know what they represent because there's a very plain scripture right there. They represent lost people. Same people go to heaven, lost people don't go to heaven.

So dogs represent lost people. I think it's very clear. I think here's what Jesus said.

She said, Lord, I need deliverance. Here's what he said. It's not for lost people. It's not for the lost people. Now listen to what he says. It's for the children. Now listen to me.

Here's my point. If the children can't be in bondage, why did Jesus say that deliverance is for children? And he calls it the children's bread. See what he's saying to her is you have to believe in the Messiah to have deliverance.

I'm the one that brings deliverance and in order to get freedom, you have to believe in me. That's what he's telling her. It's not for lost people. Deliverance, she's asking for deliverance. He says it's not for lost people. It's for children.

But if children don't need it, why would it be for us? So it's pretty clear. Believers can be in bondage and they need to be set free.

So if you're in bondage, how do you get free? Same thing with this woman. You humble yourself. She said, yeah, but Lord, even dogs get crumbs. What an amazing statement.

And Jesus said, for that saying right there, because of your humility, to humble yourself, your daughter's free. When I was 30 years old, I was preaching in a conference. I started preaching shortly after I got saved at 19. After one of the evening sessions, I went back to hotel. I couldn't sleep, was flipping through the channels and watched something that I shouldn't watch on TV.

I called Debbie actually the next day, told her I was being open with Debbie, open with people around me about it. I wasn't trying to hide it. I just was not free. I was in bondage in that area of my life. On Sunday morning, I wasn't speaking and one of the other speakers was speaking and he preached about believers being in bondage. It was like the Holy Spirit said to me, if you humble yourself, I'll set you free. And I had been in bondage to immorality since I was about 12 years old.

Horrible immorality. And I remember when he gave the invitation, I was seated right on the front row. I was the very first one.

I was the very first one. And God set me free. And I'm going to tell you something men, you can be free in this area.

You can be free. We want you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. We're so glad that you joined us today. Next time, Pastor Robert will be discussing the very first door that Adam and Eve opened to the enemy's influence. Until then, have a blessed day. God bless you and God bless you.