Download this sermon (right click and save)

Bound In the Spirit
(Ac20:22-24)

God has free will.
He is self-existent (Ex3:14) and
The will He makes He carries out Himself.
 
Faith is acknowledging Him and
The life of this faith is being bound in the Spirit and pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Yeshua took hold of me (Php3:12).
 
Being “bound” refers to
Being put under obligation as in marriage or slavery, that is, in bond or bondage.
The happiness or the misery that results depends on the relationship.
 
Since Adam the ancestor of all mankind disobeyed the word of God and
Rather listened to the devil’s word (Ge3:4-6),
All mankind became prisoners in invisible iron chains (Ps107:10),
Bound for hell with the devil (Mt25:41).
 
This was visualized by the slavery of Israel in Egypt:
While they were groaning from the hard labor of 430 years (Ex2:23-24),
God fulfilled the promise He made to their ancestors by
Sending Moses to bring them out from under the yoke of Egypt and became their God (Ex6:7) and
Then the people of Jehovah following the pillars of fire and of cloud (Ex13:21-22).
 
The feasts (the Passover, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks) and
The sanctuary (Ex12:14, 17; Dt16:10-12) reminded Israel for generations that:
1)     We were slaves in Egypt (Dt15:15);
2)     Jehovah brought us out of our slavery in Egypt (Lev26:13).
 
Those who should have been glad to be servants of Jehovah (Ps113:1)
Grumbled against God and stirred up to return to Egypt, and so
All fell and died during the 40 years in the wilderness (Nu14:3-38).
 
Yeshua said, “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” because
Through the death and the resurrection of the temple of His body (Jn2:19-21),
He would set all mankind free from the bondage of Satan (Lk13:16)
For He came as the Son of Man and spoke and did, not by Himself
But only to fulfill the will of the Father who sent Him (Jn5:19, 7:17-18)
 
As He died, He said, “It is finished” (Jn19:30), declaring that He:
1)    Laid down His life according to the Father’s command, of His own accord and pleased the Father (Jn10:17-18; Php2:6-8);
2)    Condemned the devil who deceived all mankind and enticed them (Ge3:4-6; 2Pe2:19); and
3)    Tore His flesh and released all mankind from the chains (Lk13:16; He2:14-15).
 
He resurrected and sat on the heavenly throne with a golden sash around His chest (Rev1:13) and
It is a symbol of His eternal bond with the Father.
The Holy Spirit whom He sent
Holds on to the souls born again in the blood of Yeshua
Not by holding the hand of the flesh,
But by binding the spirit (He8:9-10).
 
The man bound in the Spirit is he who
Though knowing that persecution, trouble, poverty, and danger face him (Ac2:23, 21:11-14),
Does not turn back to elementary principles (Gal4:9) and
Does not return to the world (1Ti1:18-20; 2Ti4:10; 2Pe2:20-22; 1Jn2:15-16).
Forgetting what is behind (Php3:13)
He presses on to take hold of that for which the Lord Christ Yeshua took hold of him (Php3:12),
For he fears to shrink back to destruction (He10:38) and be abandoned on earth
When the Lord Yeshua appears in the air.
 
O Lord,
Even if the world chases behind us
No matter what trial lies ahead of us
We cannot go back!
The world behind me, the cross before me…
No turning back, no turning back!  Amen.