Sermon: Liberty and Justice for All

#1552
Martin G. Collins
Given 04-Jul-20; 65 minutes

Today, the United States is celebrating the anniversary of its independence from tyranny and yet tyranny against Christian churches has reared its ugly head. Until recently, the United States of America has been fundamentally distinct from all other countries in its founding, its national life, and in the values, rights, and privileges that it confers upon its citizens. In other words, America has been exceptional because it has been blessed by God in unique ways and it has had a unique sense of purpose that started with the nation's formation. It has been distinct from other countries in the world in its government, in its social and economic structures, in its religious and cultural character.

America has been blessed in immeasurable ways. It is important to pause and consider and remember the various ways in which God has truly blessed this nation and to be thankful for His providence and generosity.

The United States is quite large, one of the largest nations in the world and is protected by two oceans. And there is a grandeur in its scenery from mountain majesty to pounding waves. The abundant natural resources that lie within our borders are without parallel anywhere in the world. Vast underground resources of natural gas, coal, and oil, which have fueled our industry and economy. More extraordinary energy resources like uranium, geothermal, solar, and wind power are available. We have an unlimited assortment of minerals from gypsum to iron undergirding a diverse industrial complex. Even the stone is good, testified by enduring monuments and building facades which our enemies are trying to destroy.

The climate is most is most agreeable. Although varying from place to place, all sections are livable and productive. Rainfall is sufficient and rivers of all sizes distribute water, people, and products throughout. Extensive woodlands provide lumber with which to build and rich topsoil in which crops flourish, capable of supporting a large population. We feed much of the world's population ourselves.

We have had the opportunity to enjoy these blessings and share them in a way that greatly benefits people around the world. And we are uniquely, providentially blessed with a high standard of living, in part because we believe in private ownership of land and property which encourages creativity, hard work, and stability. God has certainly blessed the United States and He has extended His hand to provision across the great nation.

Yet. How often do we thank Him for these blessings? The blessings are not just material. However, how often do we thank God for our freedom and for our liberty? The forefathers of this nation who forged this nation's documents and laws were obviously God-inspired with wisdom and basic understanding of decency in life and morals and government, which set the course for maintaining the freedoms which we now take for granted.

Consider the charter of our nation, the Declaration of Independence, where it states that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. They had enough biblical understanding to acknowledge the wisdom and truthfulness of the Bible and the authority of the Creator of over His creation. They were enabled to apply these concepts to the legislative process, the judicial system, and standards for life.

They devised a system of government designed to be beneficial to God-fearing, Bible reading people, but completely inadequate for atheists, pagans, and all other false religions. The Founding Fathers of this nation confirmed that human rights are not mere human constructions but are inalienable rights conferred by God.

The basic right of freedom of religion allowed the Judeo-Christian ethic to flourish with no one in America being denied access to the truths of the gospel. And thanks to this open door from God, the the Word of God, with its good news of the coming Kingdom of God, has gone around the world.

In the past, God blessed this obedience and allowed our freedoms to continue. Sadly, today, the people's mindset has degraded from stumbling to rebellion. And even though this nation is losing God's blessings very rapidly because of idolatry, immorality, and especially in gratitude, we still retain incredible liberties.

Over the last two and a half centuries, there has been no other country in the world within which such a high percentage of the population has had the guaranteed freedoms that we possess. Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom of assembly. God's blessings invoke a reciprocal of obligation and responsibility to seek to share the blessings of liberty and justice for our neighbors and with others around the world.

Yet, how often do we thank God for what He has done with this nation? How often do we focus on just the negative? Sadly, liberty and justice for all is rapidly disappearing in this nation. Antichrists under the banner of anarchists, Marxists, socialists, are successfully increasing the momentum in taking power to do that. They must take our freedom and they must destroy our religious liberties which has been guaranteed for more than two centuries in the first amendment of the U.S. Constitution, in the Free Exercise Clause:

The First Amendment prevents the government from making laws which regulate an establishment of religion, prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press, the right in right to peaceable assembly, or the right to petition the government for redress of grievances.

Churches, which in the past have received considerable protections under the Bill of Rights, have experienced mixed results in dozens of recent cases in courts. Other faith-based organizations (which we will call FBOs) are filing cases; overall they are losing more than they are winning. Most church related cases have occurred in federal courts and most have turned on the U.S. Supreme Court's modern precedents, including those of the United Nations resolutions and agendas for interpreting the free exercise clause of the first amendment. They are using global standards to interpret it.

Losses in court have consequences. Adverse court rulings establish precedent that last decades and can hinder religious exercise rights both now and for years to come. An underlying question the courts are considering in these cases is whether houses of worship will act responsibly when they meet. What does that mean? And who sets that standard? Well, the government is.

As a result, states have varied in their public gathering restrictions affecting churches. As of a case decided on May 16th, 2020, 15 states have have exempted religious gatherings from any attendance limitations during this pandemic. The other 35 states have imposed limitations ranging from banning all religious gatherings to delaying church re-openings. All such limitations are changing constantly in response to fluid conditions on the ground.

I find it interesting that 15 states have allowed it as of this May 16th, 2020, and 35 states did not. And I bet you it runs down Republican and Democrat lines or at least it is a close percentage.

Most courts have found worship services to be unlike, and thus riskier than, secular activities like shopping, traveling, or business meetings. But other courts have disagreed, as has the U.S. government.

On April 14th, 2020, the US Department of Justice began filing court statements in support of houses of worship. On May 19th, 2020, the DOJ sent a letter warning California's governor to treat religious activities equally with comparable non-religious activities. On May 22nd, 2020, President Donald Trump warned all governors to treat all FBOs as essential and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC) released reopening guidelines for the FBOs. (That is, faith-based organizations, just as a reminder.)

Now on the same day, May 22nd, 2020, two more circuit courts ruled. A panel of the Ninth Circuit, which covers the westernmost states, rebuffed a California church. That same day, a panel of the Fifth Circuit, which covers Texas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, provided a Mississippi church with relief from restrictions until the district judge rules. One of the circuit judges wrote this

The church [and it gave the name of the church] was burned to the ground earlier this week. Graffiti spray painted in the church parking lot sneered, "Bet you stay home now YOU HYPOKRITS." One might expect a city to express sympathy or outrage or both. When a neighborhood house of worship is set ablaze, one would be mistaken.

The city did nothing, did not care. And this is not unique. The churches in these cases petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on May 29th, 2020. The court rebuffed both churches. Although the court's brief orders in both cases offer little guidance, the unfavorable concurring opinion of Chief Justice Roberts in another case is being cited by many lower courts to support rulings against churches. If the concurring opinion of the U.S. Supreme Court, Chief Justice John Roberts is given too much weight, it sharply undercuts all churches in these cases. As of the end of June, 2020 churches have not won a single victory since that opinion was issued.

Religious freedom in the United States and in the world is being attacked constantly as churches lose one battle after another in this war on Christianity. You do not have to turn there, you know it well.

John 15:18-19 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you."

This should come as no surprise, but we have enjoyed so much freedom and liberty in this country that it is shocking to us.

Everyone around the world has a desire for freedom and liberty, and acquiring and protecting that freedom and liberty requires a continuous struggle and perseverance. Today, everyone in one form or another is faced with the obliteration of our freedom and liberty because of religious, political, racial, ethical, and sexual confusion, and division instigated by demonic forces, and the nation willingly going into as much sin and perverted sin as possible.

Now, let us focus on freedom. In some situations the words freedom of liberty are roughly equivalent. However, freedom has a broad range of application from total absence of restraint, to merely a sense of not being unduly hampered or frustrated. Webster's Dictionary definition of freedom is "the quality or state of being free, such as the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action. B: Liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another: [synonym] independence."

The concept of freedom, both physical and spiritual, is expressed in several different ways in the Bible. Freedom is the absence of slavery, the ability to do and go as one desires. Slavery is a burden based upon a relationship of dominance of submission whereby one person owns another and can exact from that person labor or other services. Slavery has been called by many names among which are bondage, servitude, serfdom, and today's popular term, trafficking.

In a broad sense, we are all slaves to something in varying degrees. We are slaves to governments, to laws, to corporations, to pop culture, to Satan, sin, and even our own human nature. Speaking in very general terms, basically we are slaves to whoever or whatever we submit.

II Peter 2:19 While they promised them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.

Now, let me read that from the NIV (that was from the New King James version). The NIV has just a slightly different take on it.

II Peter 2:19 (NIV) They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for "people are slaves to whatever has mastered them."

But hopefully, if we are truly converted, we are no longer slaves to sin or anything connected with it.

Only God has absolute freedom, in a sense, and He is not controlled from the outside. Human beings, while not totally free, can experience a measure of freedom in different areas of physical life, social, economic, and political, and with the help of God, in spiritual life.

Slavery has been common in most of human history, including biblical times. Many people of different racial and ethnic groups have served others in bondage. White, black, brown, yellow, various religious, cultural, and political groups have all been subjected to enslavement. Even today, thousands of child sex slaves are horribly abused every day in this country and around the world. According to Wikipedia,

The National Labor Organization estimates that of the 20.9 million people who are trafficked in the world [that is, in slavery] for all types of work, 5.5 million are children. In 2016 it was estimated that approximately 1 million children worldwide were victims of sex trafficking.

What about the innocent lives of babies that are serially murdered by abortion? Are they not captives waiting in their mother's womb for their death sentence? Do their lives matter? According to the Guttmacher institute, an estimated 862,320 abortions took place in the United States in 2017. More than 60 million legal abortions have occurred in the United States since 1973. Where are the millions of people crying out innocent children's lives matter? What kind of a distorted nation do we have here that allows what goes on to go on and do not protect the lives of our innocent children?

(I am yelling at the world and not anyone in this audience because I am so. . . What the despicable hypocrites we see marching in our streets, destroying people's lives and businesses while millions of children are being butchered and abused. Moving right along now because I have had my say. I am still shaking from head to foot.)

Those who yield to sin are its slaves, as it holds them in its clutches. Sin is a master of the rebellious violent person. They experience abject enslavement under this merciless taskmaster.

Please turn with me to Exodus 2, verse 23. The exodus of the people of Israel from Egypt is an example of God bringing His people into freedom. Physical bondage may also represent a serious spiritual condition. Freedom is the release or deliverance from bondage. Now, the leading example of physical bondage in the Bible is the 400 years of slavery the nation of Israel endured in Egypt, which we are reminded of by the expression house of bondage.

Exodus 2:23-24 Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Let us flip over to Deuteronomy 7, verse 8. Now, if the slavery of the nation of Egypt is the primary representation of physical bondage, the exodus from Egypt is correspondingly the primary representation of physical freedom. The whole Exodus story is told as a liberation from physical bondage, described by redemption here in Deuteronomy 7.

Deuteronomy 7:8 "But because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt."

So the description of this deliverance as redemption introduces the idea of new ownership. Israel has been bought by its deliverer and now belongs to Him. This freedom does not mean autonomy. Israel no longer belongs to Pharaoh and to Pharaoh's gods, but to God—the God. And thus the story of the Exodus introduces a spiritual dimension into both the bondage and the deliverance. Leaving bondage to the anti-God powers of Egypt, Israel is brought into a new relationship with the Lord.

The tragedy of Israel's history in the Old Testament is that freedom secured by God at the Exodus was only temporary. Moses in Deuteronomy already envisions a sad future when the process of deliverance will be reversed because Israel will fail to maintain the covenant relationship with its Deliverer.

Please turn with me over few chapters to Deuteronomy 31, verse 29. When Moses lists the curses that will befall the nation if it fails to obey God's commands in Deuteronomy 28, he paints an ever-expanding picture of bondage, including physical bondage, which is in the latter part of Deuteronomy 28:64-68. And Moses himself predicts that the nation will rebel against God.

Deuteronomy 31:29 "For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you. And evil will befall you in the latter days, because you will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger through the work of your hands."

This prophecy is applicable to the Israelite nations today.

Now turn over to Judges 2, verse 14. This regression back into bondage is a continuing problem in the history that follows. And we see the cycle in Judges where in response to Israel's sin, the Lord repeatedly sold them into the power of their enemies all around them.

Judges 2:14-15 And the anger of the Lord was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their enemies. Wherever they went out, the hand of the Lord was against them for calamity, as the Lord had said, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were greatly distressed.

There is another application for this nation today.

The process reaches a climax in II Kings 17 when Israel is finally deported to physical bondage in Assyria.

Please turn over to Jeremiah 17, verse 4. Now the prophet's comment on the spiritual causes underlying this renewed enslavement, which was a physical reality for many of them. Accordingly, Jeremiah warned Judah of the reasons for this.

Jeremiah 17:4 "And you, even yourself, shall let go of your heritage which I [the Lord] gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know; for you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever."

Forever, here, does not mean eternity. It means basically, until everything you have done is total, or done, or accomplished, or have, is totally gone.

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord."

So anyone who leaves the church departs from the faith, departs from the instructions of God, is cursed. That is a serious, serious thing. And it should be terrifying to anyone. The problem is, people who leave it do not understand. And hopefully they will be given an opportunity at another time.

In the Old Testament, physical bondage is tied to the spiritual state of the nation. Disobedience to covenant obligations is clearly announced as the cause. Now if the exile is the later counterpart to bondage in Egypt, then the liberation counterpart to the earlier Exodus is the restoration of Israel after exile. Some of the prophetic pictures of freedom refer to the literal return of a remnant to the Promised Land. But in the visions of the Millennium, the vision seems to broaden in scope beyond that. In both cases, the return to the land is a return to God and freedom is the result.

At this point, let us change our emphasis a bit and focus on the concept of liberty. Liberty is slightly different than freedom. Basically, liberty is the state of being exempt from the domination of others or from restricting circumstances. The Merriam Webster Dictionary definition of liberty is,

The quality or state of being free. A: The power to do as one pleases. B: Freedom from physical restraint. C: Freedom from arbitrary or despotic control. D: The positive enjoyment of various social, political, and economic rights and privileges.

With all its all its claims to "freedom" and "liberty," America surpasses the world in immorality, divorce, murder, including abortion, and many other sins. And according to the apostle Paul in Romans 3:23, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Everyone is a slave of sin. Sadly, America excels in its slavery to sin and what is just as bad, it promotes it to the rest of the world through media, movies, books, and people traveling around the world on vacation, and in various ways through the economies. Unlimited secular liberty, that is, thinking one is above the law, results in confusion, anarchy, and chaos.

Deuteronomy 12:8 "You shall not at all do as we are doing here today—every man doing what is right in his own eyes."

Judges 17:6 In those days, there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

And in our case, lawlessness abounds because so many foolish people—verbally and violently—are trying to depose our political leader.

Unless every man's liberty is limited by law, no liberty is possible for anyone apart from God, especially. When God calls someone according to His purpose, that person has the freedom to choose whether to submit to God and His way of life or to continue not to submit.

Turn with me to James 1, verse 25. Spiritual liberty comes only from obeying God. In other words, conforming to His will. So spiritual liberty and justice for all will be a reality when God's Kingdom is established on earth. The words freedom and license are common synonyms for liberty. And while all three words mean the power or condition of acting without compulsion, liberty suggests release from former restraint or compulsion.

James 1:25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

The Word of God is perfect and leads to liberty. When the Bible speaks of liberty, a prior bondage or incarceration is almost always implied. Now, while the literal versions of bondage and freedom in the Old Testament often transform into spiritual meanings, with Jesus the primary frame of reference is spiritual. And Jesus did not try to start a movement to liberate literal human slaves.

Go with me to Luke 4, verse 18. Christ's public ministry was one of spiritual liberation. He opened it by announcing himself as the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1. He was anointed and sent to the spiritually captive.

Luke 4:18 "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, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed."

This verse is quoted from Isaiah 61:1, where the Messiah states that He is divinely inspired to speak and prophesy by divine appointment. He was given the responsibility, and here in Luke, our Savior directly applies it to Himself. He proclaims "liberty to the captives," applying it to all the miserable in their imprisonment, whatever the situation may be. He says He has been anointed to grant deliverance to those who are in prison and restore them to their families, to give liberty to the slave and restore him to freedom.

Now, this proclamation was to reveal the highest benefit and impart the richest favor that could exist for a person who is enslaved. In this manner, the gospel of the coming Kingdom of God imparts favor. It does not literally open the doors of prisons at this time, but it does release the mind that is held captive under sin. So this declaration gives comfort to the prisoner and it will finally, figuratively, open all prison doors and break off all the chains of slavery. And by preventing crime, prevent also the sufferings that are the consequence of crime.

Christ is authorized to set at liberty those who are oppressed. The word oppressed or bruised, here, depending on your Bible's translation, evidently has the same general significance as brokenhearted or the contrite.

Turn over to Galatians 5. It means those who are pressed down by great calamity and whose hearts are pressed or bruised by the consciousness of sin. To set them at liberty is the same as to free them from this pressure or to give them consolation.

Galatians 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free [we know exactly who has done this, not we ourselves, Jesus Christ and God the Father], and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Generally, the yoke of bondage in the New Testament means the yoke of bondage to sin. Do not get entangled with sin. When the temptation comes up, resist it and do not let it get any farther than that.

Paul admonishes us to stand fast in our spiritual liberty. If we step back into only abiding by the letter of the law, we risk entanglement and bondage and sin. There is no such thing as partial spiritual freedom. Keeping the spirit of the law with the Holy Spirit is necessary. So Paul explains in Romans 8 that our power is in the Spirit; and we receive this power by faith; and this faith produces love and works in our lives.

Romans 8:5-10 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh [speaking to the church] but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

We yield to the Spirit and it guides us by God's Word day by day. We are not under bondage to sin and afraid to act. But we have liberty of the Spirit and are free to follow Christ.

Please turn over to I Peter 2, verse 15. We must not allow ourselves to succumb to spiritual defeat. Submitting to God is the same as yielding to God's Spirit which strengthens our faith, enabling us to overcome our discouragement and fears. Peter reminds us that liberty is not authorization to sin, which you know well, but the mainstream Christians do not.

I Peter 2:15-16 For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

So we are free because the service of God is freedom. It is freedom from the bondage of sin, Satan, and our selfish desires. And we must not use our freedom in Christ and take self-interested advantage of our liberty as a covering for wickedness or wrongdoing. Jesus Himself said, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave of sin."

The world asks, how can a person be happy by being a slave to anything? Especially in the United States, is this not something we resist more than anything? Yet being in sin, this nation is more enslaved than they really understand.

Our response is that the service of God, who is the source of joy, is certainly perfect freedom because Christ frees us from the bondage of sin.

Peter next sums up our social obligations in four succinct commands. Continuing on in I Peter 2.

I Peter 2:17 Honor all people. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king.

First, honor all people; show proper respect to everyone. The honor is the recognition of the value of every person in his place as created in the image of God.

Second, love the brotherhood. Special love is due others within the Family of God because we are brothers and sisters, even closer than our physical relatives.

Third, fear God. So how do we do that? I am just going to read from Proverbs 2, verses 1 through 5 to show us how to do that.

Proverbs 2:1-5 My son, if you receive my words [of wisdom], and treasure my commands within you, so that you incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding, if you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

We have our work cut out for us. We have to keep it up, keep pushing, keep making sure we are doing our Bible study and studying and praying, coming to services and worshipping God on the holy days and the Sabbath.

Fourth, honor the king. God is to be feared, but the political leader is only to be honored. Christ taught in,

Luke 12:4-5 "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him [that is, God] who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell [that s, Gehenna, the all-consuming fire]; yes, I say to you, fear Him!"

Usually duties to God and the political leader do not conflict and we can obey both. But in special cases, our higher authority is clear. We must obey God rather than men. And that is going to be tested like it has never been tested before in these upcoming years, and only a close relationship with God will get us through that, meaning God's protection as we stay linked to Him.

Now, please turn to Romans 13, verse 8. Let us pick up on the principle of "love the brotherhood," and add to that the generality, "neighbor."

Romans 13:8-10 Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet." and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law.

Liberty does not free us from virtuous restraints and from the laws of God.

Now please turn back to Galatians 5, this time verse 13. It is liberty from the servitude of sin, not freedom from the necessary restraints of virtue.

Galatians 5:13 For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.

So Paul equates liberty with serving once again, serving God and serving one another. It is necessary for Paul to give this caution because there was a strong tendency in many of the Gentile converts to relapse again into their former habits. Self-indulgence thrived, and where they had been addicted to it before their conversion, and where they were surrounded by it, they were in constant danger of falling into it once again.

Our so society bombards us through the media, through the activities in society with the temptations to sin. And many of those who have not been in the church very long are very susceptible, especially susceptible to those pulls. And we are told to guard against them with all that we have with God's Holy Spirit and the power that it provides.

They have been called to liberty, to freedom from sin and its penalty. This might have been misunderstood and some might have supposed that they were free from all restraints, as many in mainstream Christianity do today. And there has been a strong tendency, as the history of the church has shown, to abuse God's grace. Some have used this as an excuse to indulge freely in sin. But those are individuals who always eventually leave the church.

God inspired Paul to address this problem, to show exactly what Christians are freed from and what laws are still binding on them. So Paul goes through great pains to show that the doctrines which he had maintained did not lead to decadence and did not allow the indulgence of sinful and corrupt passions.

Galatians 5:14-15 For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But if you bite and devour one another [I suppose that means criticize, gossip, backbite], beware lest you be consumed by one another.

Is that not the way it works? When we show anger to someone else, anger returns. So a soft word turns away wrath.

It was for freedom that we are called, only we must not use this freedom as a position through which the worst side of human nature can occupy us. But in love, we must serve one another because the whole law stands complete in one word, in the sentence, "You must love your neighbor as yourself." We have heard this many times and sometimes, or often, flows right on through us, but it is foundationally important that we contemplate it, meditate on it.

Paul had a characteristically practical mind and even when he has been scaling the highest height, so to speak, of thought, he always ends a letter on a practical note. To him a doctrine was not of the slightest use unless it could be lived out and understood. In Romans, he wrote one of the world's great theological dissertations. And then quite suddenly in Romans 12, the doctrine came down to earth and issued in the most practical advice.

Paul always triumphantly satisfies that test. Just as here in Galatians 5, the whole matter is brought to the acid test of daily living. We have an obligation to others. We are free but our freedom loves its neighbor as itself.

Now he goes on in Galatians 5, verse 19, I believe it is, to list the works of the flesh and then he compares it (verse 22) with the fruit of the Spirit, showing the contrast between the two lives; between the slavery to sin and the slavery to Christ and God the Father, which is a pleasantry.

Our freedom in Christ is not license for the simple but the essential reason that we have not become free to sin, but we who by the grace of God have become free not to sin. Selfishness, in the end, does not exalt the person, it destroys him.

Galatians 5:16-18 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law [or we can say the penalty of the law].

Now, freedom from sin is found in Jesus Christ. He provides a way out of the slavery of sin by becoming free of the slavery. We become bondservants or slaves of another sort. Liberty results from the possession of the Spirit.

II Corinthians 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

In Galatians 5:1, once again, Paul's first admission was, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. In verse 16, he says, "Walk in the Spirit." Our standing in Christ determines our walk in Christ. And in Christ, distinctions between citizens and noncitizen, slave and free disappear. As Paul emphasizes in Galatians 3:28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus."

In Christ, all have the glorious freedom of the sons of God.

Please turn to John 8, verse 3I. In the spiritual realm, Jesus explained in John 8 that the truth will set people free and He Himself is the truth. Jesus also declared that if He, the Son of God, set persons free, they would be truly free. Sin enslaves, Christ sets free.

John 8:31-36 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, 'You will be made free'? Jesus answered them, "Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin. And a slave does not abide in the house forever, but a son abides forever. Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed."

So the instrument through which this liberty is imparted is the truth. And we are earnestly warned not to presume upon or abuse our liberty in Christ. Human ideals of freedom and liberty are not the same as spiritual liberty in Christ. Those who live according only to the letter of the law depend on the energy of the flesh and those who live by grace depend on the power of the Spirit to help us live righteous lives according to the Spirit of God's law.

Now to walk in the Spirit means to have our daily lives under His control. And this means under the direction of the Word of God. To be led of the spirit means to be delivered from a life of bondage. The flesh refers to the human nature still within the believer. The body itself is not sinful. Appetites are not necessarily sinful, but tendencies of the old human nature are downward. In Romans 6, Paul tells us that the old man has been crucified and that we can overcome the flesh by yielding ourselves to God. So Paul makes much of the thought that Christ liberates us here and now from destructive influences to which we are were previously in bondage from sin.

Immediately after conversion, new Christians enjoy a period of time of wonderful victory, and then temptation and defeat come and they become discouraged. Somebody should have told them that the old nature would rise up again. We probably do but we say it in different ways. But that is what happens.

Paul amplifies this theme in Romans 7 where he shows that our determined attempts to please God in our own strength are destined to fail. What a contrast between works and fruit! Fruit is the result of a living union. A machine may produce works but it can never produce fruit. Even the law produces works, but God calls them dead works. The law could never produce the gracious fruit described here.

Turn with me to Ephesians 5, verse 7. Christian character comes from within by the power of the Spirit. And the Spirit seeks to transform us into Christ likeness. We can meditate for hours on the nine-fold fruit of the Spirit. Note, especially, that love heads the list. Paul clearly states that no law alone could ever produce this kind of character. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Word of God because the results are identical.

Ephesians 5:17-21 Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

God's will is a regulative principle of a Christian's way of life. And Paul warns against the foolishness of overindulgence in alcoholic beverages. Drunkenness was very common in the pagan world and cautions in the New Testament show that it presented a serious temptation to Christians. The danger of drunkenness lies not only in itself but in what it may induce. Dissipation in verse 18 refers to the type of wild life lived by the Prodigal Son.

Well, there is an interesting principle implied here in this regard by Paul. Instead of continuing in drunkenness, they are to go on being filled with the Spirit. And that is not quite the alternative we might expect. We might have expected Paul to plead for abstinence as a preference to tolerance of alcoholism or drinking. But he uses a more surprising and positive approach. Yes, he tells them and the Bible tells us not to get drunk, but he is taking a different approach here. He urges us to make use of the reinvigorating, enabling power of God's Spirit.

The imperative "be filled" makes it clear that this is a command for all Christians. The present tense rules out any once-for-all reception of the Spirit, but points to a continuous replenishment. And in the Greek, it is literally "go on being filled." So Paul encourages us to go on as we first began with the help of the Holy Spirit to continue in that way. And that is how we overcome our sins or our shortfalls, is by reaching back to God's Holy Spirit, reaching deeply within ourselves for that power, and asking God to empower us to overcome that problem that we are having.

Giving thanks here is offering gratitude to God to cover every circumstance, even if it is disease or poverty. And it is to be addressed to the Father, to God the Father, the Father of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, in the name of the Son, as the One who fully reveals Him.

Colossians 3:16-17 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. [Paul repeats that same thing here to the Colossians and to all of us] And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

So walking in the Spirit is not some emotional experience detached from everyday life. It is our daily experience as we feed on the Word of God, praying, and obeying by living according to God's will.

Spiritual liberty means the peaceful, thankful state of having been released from the servitude of sin, Satan, and our own human nature for a righteous life of enjoyable and satisfying service in God's Kingdom. Prior to our calling, that was not possible. But now we have hope and assurance of that reality.

Morally, the power which enslaves is sin, and liberty consists, not simply in external freedom or in possession of the formal power of choice, but in deliverance from the darkening of the mind, the tyranny of sinful lust, and the enthrallment of the will induced by a morally corrupt state.

No nation on earth can guarantee a person true freedom and liberty. It is always going to be partial and it is always going to be conditional as to whether they are going to allow it or not. In a positive respect, it consists in the possession of holiness with the will and ability to do what is right and good. Such liberty is possible only in a renewed condition of the heart and mind and cannot exist apart from godliness. Even under the Old Testament godly men could boast of a measure of such liberty, but it is the gospel of Christ which bestows it in its fullness, by giving a full and clear knowledge of God, discovering the way for forgiveness, supplying the highest motives to holiness, giving the Holy Spirit to destroy the power of sin, and to encourage growth in righteousness.

Psalm 119:45 And I will walk at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.

To be given liberty by God is to be giving a new way of life.

Turn over to Romans 8, verse 20. By implanting a new life in us, God lifts us out of the sphere of sin and gives us a sense of freedom in our new family relation to God. Therefore, Paul encourages us about the glorious liberty of God's children.

Romans 8:20-23 For the creation was subject to utility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.

So using the phrase the Lord's freedman, Paul emphasized the spiritual freedom which belongs to us.

I Corinthians 7:22-23 For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman. Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave. You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.

So the spiritual freedom of other persons becomes the concern of those who have been set free by Christ. In a sense, we are still slaves, but we have changed masters. We are no longer slaves to sin, having become slaves to God thanks to Jesus Christ. If we repent of our sins, are baptized, and have the indwelling of God's Spirit, we are no longer slaves to sin, but to righteousness.

Liberty results from the indwelling of the Spirit. II Corinthians 3:17 says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." We have God's Spirit indwelling us, we have liberty dwelling in us.

Turn with me now to Romans 6, back two chapters. Now the apostle Paul pointed out that the law, when not properly understood, also enslaves. Set free from sin by Christ, we can choose service for God.

Romans 6:16-22 Do you not know that to whom you present yourself slaves to obey, you are that one's slave whom you obey, whether in sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness? But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.

So we have to strive to maintain the right perspective and not allow ourselves to drift back into sin from which we were once delivered.

The characteristics of God's spiritual Family are manifested in living a holy Christian life. It is not just a great task that we have to take up and apply to ourselves. To do only that is to fall short of our duty. Potential holiness is not a chore. It is not something we plan and organize in our lives and merely introduce certain disciplines in order to enable us to carry it out. That is what members of mainstream Christianity do. They depend on their own efforts to make themselves holy. And of course, that does not work. It is something God does with us, not we that we do to ourselves.

Israel is called to be a holy people, meaning on the one hand that they are to be different and distinct from other peoples on the basis of their relationship with God. But there is an added ethical dimension. There is to be a moral and just difference in Israel as a holy people. Israel is to reflect the moral holiness of God. Similarly, but even more so, members of God's church are called "the saints." And we are to be holy in character and our behaviors to reflect God's inspiration in us through His Holy Spirit. This holiness is to reveal itself in perfect moral integrity and purity, and in the manifestation of the gifts of the Spirit.

Isaiah 26:12 Lord, You will establish peace for us, for You have also done all our works in us.

All that God can do and all that He has promised to do will be done according to what He has done by the power of the Holy Spirit, which works strongly in the children of God.

Does that mean we do nothing? We have a great responsibility in this. We have our responsibility to do the best that we can. But it is God who works in us.

Ephesians 3:20 Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power of the Holy Spirit that works in us.

Philippians 2:12-13 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.

In the New Testament, liberty is an important concept for describing salvation.

As Christians, we must willingly serve Him, completely yielding ourselves to the way He has set before us, because our lives are no longer our own. We do not own them.

And now for a final scripture and one we will end with, please turn to Matthew 11, verse 28. The yoke of slavery to sin is very heavy, encumbering those who hopelessly function in a spiritually desolate wilderness. But slavery to Jesus Christ is a beneficent form of bondage. Jesus' bondage is easy and His burden is light and provides rest for the tired.

Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

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