If I still hold closely to him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask him to receive me, will
he say the name? not to earth and not to heaven
pass away Finding, following, keeping,
struggling, is He sure to bless? Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
answer yes. Please be seated. Good evening. Let's open our
Bibles together. Romans chapter 8 for. Scripture
reading Romans chapter 8. Begin reading at verse one. There
is therefore now. No condemnation. To them which
are in Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh?
But after the spirit. for the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. So what the law could not do and that it was weak through
the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. That passage used to always bother
me until I understood the rest of this. these verses, what does
it mean to walk after the spirit? I feel like I'm walking after
the flesh a lot of times. And here's the answer to that
question in verse five. For they that are after the flesh
do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after 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, neither indeed can be. So then they that are
in the flesh cannot please God." You only have one nature, you're
walking after the flesh, you're minding the things of the flesh,
you're looking to the works of the flesh for the hope of your
salvation. And if you have the spirit of
God, you walk in faith. And so he says, In verse nine,
but you are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that
you have that the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man
have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his. But if Christ
be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness. Um, just got a text from, uh,
Jennifer. You ran a Brit is in ORMC. He's been there all day. Uh,
nausea, nauseous, nauseous, and headaches. Uh, you know, he has
a shunt and they're doing some tests now and find out if there's
a blockage on that. So I want to pray for a Brit
right now. Also, um, Fred Newman had some
stents put in a couple of weeks ago. And when they did it, they
discovered that he has to have a new valve, a hard valve. So
he's going on the 17th in Chicago to have, um, to meet with the
doctor and then they'll, um, they can do a hard valve without
having to do open heart surgery. So, um, hopefully they'll be
able to do that soon. Uh, Cyril has been, uh, he's
back in town as of today and has been running tests for possible
prostate cancer, and so he's concerned about that, as we are,
and assured him that we would be praying for him. And then
Cindy Toll's daughter, Stephanie, is six weeks from delivering
and had to go to the hospital today with some complications,
so hopefully she'll be able to go home. I'll pray for Stephanie
also. Let's pray together. Our gracious and merciful heavenly
father, what great comfort and hope we have in knowing that
we can lay all our cares before you, knowing that you care for
us. The evidence, the greatest evidence of your care for us
is when you sent your son to die on Calvary's cross, to bear
our sins and our shame and our guilt, and to justify us in thy
presence. For truly, Lord, greater love
hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. Lord, we come before you in the
name of, on the righteousness of, and based on the justification
of, Thy dear son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Father,
we pray for Britt right now and ask Lord that you would give
the physicians that minister to him the knowledge that they
need to treat him well. We pray Lord for you as the great
physician to lay your hand of strength on him and healing and
pray Lord that you would minister grace to his heart and Jennifer's
as they wait on you. Pray the same for our brother,
Cyril. Ask, Lord, that you would give him added grace during this
time of need and comfort his heart and be with the doctors
that minister to him and enable them, Lord, to administer a good
treatment. Lord, we pray the same for Stephanie
and ask, Lord, for Tom and Cindy, that you would comfort them as
they wait on you. Lord, we know that You work all
things together for our good and for your glory. Father, we
pray for Fred. We thank you for him. We ask
Lord that you would just continue to grow him and Mary Jane in
your grace and give them the good testimony that they have
now. And Lord, give them faith and strength to wait on you and
minister healing through the physicians for him. We ask Lord
for you to bless this time together. Open your word, open our hearts,
open the windows of heaven, come down. Lord, if you leave us to
ourselves, this will be worse than in vain. We desire to worship
you in spirit. And we're in need of you to send
your spirit and power. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Let's stand together again and
sing hymn number 44 from the Spiral hymn book, number 44.
Precious Savior, friend of sinners, ? We ask such to thee draw near
? ? Let thy spirit dwell within us ? ? With that love that canst
appear ? ? Matchless Savior, let us know thee ? ? As the Lord
our righteousness ? ? Cause our hearts to believe unto thee ?
Come and with thy presence bless. Open now thy precious treasure,
Let thy word here freely flow. Give to us a gracious measure,
Tis thyself we want to know. Please be seated. I'm going to
be preaching to the church in India this Friday
morning at 10 o'clock. And I'm not sure what the link
is yet. I should know tonight. So if
you'd like to join us, let me know and I can pass that information
on to you tomorrow. And I'll have plenty of time
to figure that out together. Last time I know we used GoToMeeting. I don't know if they're going
to use the same one this Friday. It's scheduled for 10 o'clock
Friday morning. I've titled this message. I don't even know if I want to
give you the title yet. Let me introduce this message
by saying this. Those that are after the flesh
seek for peace in this world. Those who do mind the things
of the spirit seek peace with God. Now that's the difference
between minding the things of the flesh versus minding the
things of the spirit. Those who mind the things of
the flesh seek financial security in this world. Those who mind
the things of the spirit seek Christ as their surety before
God to pay all their debt for all their sin. Those who do mind
the things of the flesh, they want to have rest from their
physical labors. Those who mind the things of
the spirit seek that rest that can only be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Those who mind just the things
of the flesh seek a happy home, contentment in their household. Those who mind the things of
the spirit seek to find themselves as a child of God in the family
of God. And that's the difference between
having the spirit and not having the spirit of God. Those who
mind the things of the flesh are interested only in their
physical health. And those who mind the things
of the spirit are interested in having their sin taken away
and being healed eternally from their sin. Someone asked, Well, can I not
have them both? Well, the Lord put it like this. He said, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and his righteousness and all these other things will
be added unto you. They will be added as God sees
our need for them. But minding the things of the
spirit is to seek those things which are spiritual, those things
which are eternal. Those things which cannot be
seen or felt necessarily in the flesh. It is a work of grace
in the heart. I mentioned this past Sunday
that we have such a tendency to seek help from man and that
God's really the only one that can help us. And the only reason,
the reason why that's true is because every problem ultimately
becomes an issue of the heart. It's really an issue of the heart.
And the Lord's the only one that can change the heart. But men
don't want their hearts changed. They want their circumstances
changed. They want their, those who mine the flesh, now they
just want, they just want, you know, their comforts in this
world to be changed. But the Lord said, you will not
come to me that you might have Now, my hope tonight is that
the Lord will give us the mind of Christ to mind the things
of the spirit and that life, liberty, and happiness. That's the title of this message.
Life, liberty, and happiness will be found in Christ. Because in fact, those things
cannot be known except in the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to
make a couple of introductory comments. The pulpit is no place
for political opinions. I have my opinions, you have
your opinions. If you want to talk about them at another time,
we can discuss those things. But if I can't say, thus saith
the Lord, I don't need to be speaking of it from up here.
What sayeth the scriptures? What does God say? The second
thing I want to say is that there is never been a Christian nation
since Old Testament Israel. This nation is not Christian.
Our founding fathers were all Epicureans and deists. A deist
is one who believes that there is a that there is a creator
of God, but he does not believe that you're in need of special
revelation to know that God. A deist believes that you can
know God based on your own discernment and your own reasoning. You don't
need the scriptures. And the man that wrote our founding
documents were deists. They weren't believers. They
saw the benefits of religion and biblical principles in order
to give order to society. And for that, we're thankful.
But you know, that's pretty much a description of modern day religion,
isn't it? Men see the benefit of religion
and biblical principles in order to give order to their life.
But their life is nothing more than a life of flesh and their
mind in the things of the flesh, and they will use biblical means
in order to achieve some comfort in this world. The reason I'm
making these introductory comments, because I want to make some statements
about life, liberty, and happiness. And I don't want you to believe
or to think in any way that I'm making any political statements
whatsoever. Thirdly, thirdly, I'm grateful
for the physical life, for the political liberty, and for the
temporal happinesses that the Lord has given us in this country. We enjoy these things as the
result of the foresight of our founding fathers. But when Thomas
Jefferson wrote in the Declaration of Independence, that all men
are created equal and have been endowed by their creator with
inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness. He wasn't minding the things
of the spirit. The American dream is just that. It's a dream. It's a fleshly pursuit that will
not satisfy, it will not satisfy the spirit. It will not satisfy
the soul of a believer. A believer's got to have more
than what this world has to offer in terms of life, liberty, and
happiness. And I was thinking, and again,
I'm not making a political statement, whether it was right or wrong.
Our founding fathers were a bunch of rebels who wrote out a declaration
of independence against a king and man in his flesh has declared
his independence from the king of kings when he raises his fist
to heaven and he says, I'll not have that man reign over me. Now a battle, a war had to be
fought in order for this nation to reap the benefits of its independence
and a war had to be fought in order for us not to be independent,
but to be made dependent on the Lord Jesus Christ. When he went
to Calvary's cross, he shed his precious blood. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to them.
Tell them their warfare is accomplished. When was our warfare accomplished? 2,000 years ago, when the son
of God bowed his mighty head and said, it is finished. The
war against sin, The war against death, the war against the grave,
the war of eternal separation from God was all fought and won
by one. And he got the victory. So the
world minds the things of the flesh, and they're always looking
for a better life. I like the comforts of this world
as much as anybody, and I know you do too. But turn with me
to the book of James, James chapter four. My hope tonight is that the Lord
will cause us to mind the things of the spirit. Men who are only
after the things of the flesh are looking for life, liberty,
and they are pursuing happiness and never finding any of them. Never finding any of them. Happiness
is not a pursuit. Happiness is something that pursues
us. We're going to get to that in
a moment. But look at James chapter four. You know, the world, the
world is wanting to just you know, find their comforts and
their meaning and their purpose in this world, in the life of
this world. Look at what the Lord says about
this thing that we call life. Verse 13 in James chapter four,
go to now, you that say today or tomorrow, we will go into
such a city and continue their year and buy and sell and get
gain. Whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow, for what
is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth
for a little while and then vanisheth away. What is your life? It's a vapor. There's no contentment. Not to the spirit, not to the
soul. The man who minds only the things
of the flesh might find some contentment in the pleasures
of this life. But for the child of God, we're
reminded, what is your life? What is your life? It's a vapor.
It's here for a moment, and then tomorrow it vanishes away. For
we ought to say, if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this
and that. But now you rejoice in your boastings,
all such rejoicing is evil. Therefore him that knoweth to
do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin. Lord would remind
us that our life is a paper. We would not be looking to this
physical world, this physical life, this great country that
we live in for our life. I mean, you had friends, you
asked, how are you doing? Oh, I'm living the life. I'm
living the life. And somebody said, well, I'm
living the dream. Yeah, well, that's about what it is. It's
just a dream. One day you're gonna wake up
and that life's not gonna be what you thought it was. The Lord says, from dust thou
art and from dust and to dust thou shalt. Return. Turn with
me to Matthew chapter six. Matthew chapter six. Life, liberty, and happiness. I left out the
word pursuit because we don't pursue it, but all men want life
and want liberty. and they want happiness. What
does the Lord say about these three things? Look at Matthew
chapter six, and we'll begin reading in verse 24. No man can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God
and mammon. Now mammon is, yes, it's money,
but it's all that money buys. It's the material things of this
world. And the Lord is saying, you can't
serve God and serve that. Therefore, I say unto you, take
no thought for your life, what you shall eat or what you shall
drink, nor yet for your body what you shall put on, is not
the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold
the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap,
nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.
Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking
thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye
thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field,
how they grow, they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet
I say unto you that Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. Might I say, might I add at this
point that every single one of us enjoy more comforts than Solomon
ever knew anything about. I mean, you just think about
our life compared to what it was back then. But the Lord's telling us don't,
Wherefore, look at verse 30, wherefore, if God so clothe the
grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into
the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? Oh, you little faith. What clothing do we need? We
need that robe of righteousness. And if the Lord's able to give
us that, he's certainly able to meet our material needs. For after these things, Do those
who mind the flesh seek after? That's the Gentiles. For after
these things, do the Gentiles seek after? For your heavenly
father knows what you have need of, that you have need of these
things, but, but seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and all these other things shall be added. What does God say life
is? The Lord is telling us, don't
make this life your life. Don't make this world your life. The Gentiles do that. Those who
mine the things of the flesh, all they can see is the life
that they have in this world. And the Lord Jesus, when He intercedes
for us in John chapter 17, He says, this is life eternal, that
you might know God. and Jesus Christ, whom he has
sent. So we, our life is hid in Christ. Colossians chapter
three, verse three says, for you are dead, you are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your
life, shall appear, then you shall appear with him in glory.
Christ is our life, in him, was life and the life was the light
of men. There's no life outside of Christ.
Men make the things of this world, their life, but there's no life
outside of Christ. Christ is our life. Matthew chapter 10, verse 39
says, he that findeth his life, In other words, he that pursues
the things of this world for his life shall lose it. And he
that loses his life for my sake shall find it. What is the Lord
saying? I know you want life. Everybody
wants life. But true life is only in Christ.
Lose your life for you are dead in Christ. And your life is hidden
in Him. And when Christ, who is your
life, shall appear, then you shall also appear with him in
glory. If in this life only we have
hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. This life
that we have in Christ is eternal. It's not a temporal life. It's
just satisfaction in this world and in this life. I mentioned
this a week or two ago. The more I listen to the religious
opinions of this world, it seems to me that what they're promoting
is a God who's going to make your life in this world better.
Oh, and by the way, you got to be saved in order to enjoy that,
but salvation is just a means to a greater end. The greater
end is the comforts of this life. And the Lord's telling us just
the opposite. It's just the opposite. I'm going to provide what you
need in this life. Set your affections on things
above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. He's
your life. He's your life. And we don't have eternal life,
we don't have life. May the Lord give us the grace
to mind the things of the Spirit and to seek our life in Christ. For outside of Him, we're dead
in our trespasses and sins. It's only as the Lord Jesus gives
us His life, that we have life only as he satisfies the demands
of God's justice and puts away our sin. Can we have life? We
have two natures and because we have two natures, you're feeling
the same way I'm feeling right now. Well, I sure mind the things
of the flesh a lot. Well, that's why we're here.
That's why we're here, isn't it? To remind us what God has
to say. about where our life is, who
is our life, and what life really is. What life really is. Because
what this world is seeing as life is not life. And what we
get distracted by and what we get caught up in is not life. Not what God says. This is life. This is life. And this is life.
And I'm so thankful when the Lord prayed that prayer, John
17, verse four, He didn't say, this is eternal life. He said,
this is life. eternal, that they might know
thee the only true God of Jesus Christ in thou sin. Lord, I need
to know you. I get so distracted from the
truth and get caught up in the things of this world. As I mentioned, Thomas Jefferson
was a self-professing Epicurean. Now, there's only two philosophies
in the world, Stoicism and Epicureanism. And Stoicism says that you find
peace and hope and life and meaning and purpose inwardly. You know, you You just search
the soul and you discover these things within yourself. Epicureanism,
on the other hand, says that meaning and purpose and life
and happiness and joy and comfort and peace and all these things
that men seek after are to be found in the things of the world.
And the Epicurean and the Stoic philosophers were debating in
Athens when Paul came and said to them, I'm going to preach
to the unknown God because you're debating two things that Neither
one of those things will produce the life that you're looking
for. The life that you're seeking
can only be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when Thomas
Jefferson wrote that we've been endowed with these inalienable
rights, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, he was
just, well, that's the American way, isn't it? It's not God's
way. Not God's way. Enjoy the things
that God gives you, be responsible, work hard, but don't look to
those things for your life. That's not our, our life is in
Christ. What about liberty? How many immigrants have come
to this country fleeing the cruel tyrants of oppressive worlds. And the first thing they see
is the statue of liberty. This is a land of freedom. My
great-grandfather moved here from Sweden during a time when
he was a peasant, a peasant in Sweden, and moved here looking
for a better life for him and his children. Well, one of his
sons, my grandfather, ended up being a coal miner in Pennsylvania,
got black lung, and died in his early 40s. The pursuit for liberty. Is there
really liberty to be found in a country? No, this country can't. The liberty that it offers, we
enjoy our freedoms and we're thankful that, you know, people
are, they're not trying to kill us and that we have the freedom
of speech and all the other liberties that we enjoy in this country,
but that's not liberty. not the liberty that the soul
seeks, not the liberty that those who mind the spirit, the things
of the spirit seek after. I've got to have liberty with
God. The Lord Jesus Christ came to give liberty to the captives. Lord, I'm captive to my sin.
I'm captive to my unbelief. I'm unable to enjoy liberty with
God unless you give it to me. That's the liberty that we seek
after. Isaiah chapter 61, Christ came
to set at liberty the captives. All men are born into this world
captive to their sin. Captive to their inability to
know God. captive to their unbelief. And unless the Lord sets the
captive free, we can enjoy all the liberty that this great country
has to offer and have no liberty whatsoever, eternally. No liberty
spiritually. Let me show you the first mention
of liberty in the scriptures. Turn with me to Leviticus, Leviticus
chapter 25. This is the liberty that we are
that we're seeking after. Leviticus chapter 25, and we'll
read at verse, I think it's verse 10. Verse 10, and you shall hallow
the 50th year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto
all the inhabitants thereof. It shall be a jubilee unto you
and you shall return every man unto his possessions and you
shall return every man to his family. And that was the year
of jubilee. Every 50th year was to be celebrated
by the children of Israel. No evidence historically that
it was celebrated. And when the Lord came and he
quoted from Isaiah chapter 61, and he said, this is the year
of the Lord, he was declaring himself as the Jubilee. And what happened at the Jubilee?
Anybody that had sold themselves into slavery because of debt
were to be set free by their masters. They were to be given
total freedom. All debts were to be erased.
And whatever land had been sold out of the family over the past
50 years was to return to its original family. Now, what's
that a picture of? That's what the Lord Jesus came
to do. We lost our position with God in the fall. When Adam sinned,
we lost our land. We lost that paradise. We're cast out of it. And we
incurred a debt that we couldn't pay. And we're held captive by
our sin and by our unbelief. And the Lord Jesus is the only
one that can give us liberty. He's the only one that can set
us back into paradise and set us back right with God. He's
the only one that can be our surety and satisfy our debt before
God. He's the only one that can set
us free. and enable us to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
liberty. That's liberty. God keep us from declaring our
independence from God. And liberty is found only through
dependence. Our founding fathers declared
their independence from the king. But our liberty is only known
when we are found a bond servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where real liberty is. The world can't see that. I'm
not gonna be a servant to anybody. I'm not gonna let that man reign
over me. I'm not gonna, I'll do it my
way. And that's when men remain in bondage. We find liberty only
when Christ sets us free. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
five. Galatians chapter five. You know what the Lord said,
where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Only the
Spirit of God can make us free. Free from our sin. Free from
our unbelief. Free from our debt. Free to worship. Free to love God. Free to love
one another. Free from the law. The demands of the law. The rigors
of the law. The curses of the law. The Lord
Jesus Christ was cursed as to every man that hanged upon a
tree. He was cursed. for us that we might be set free. There's real liberty. This country
doesn't have any liberty. Men that are looking for liberty
in this world, they're not gonna have it. Not gonna have it. Galatians
chapter five, you know the whole message of the book of Galatians
is Paul warning the church of Galatia that they're going back
to the law. The Judaizers had come in behind
the apostle Paul and said, yes, Jesus of Nazareth, that Paul
preached to you. He's gone now, but he preached
to you, Christ. He is the Christ. He's the Messiah.
He's the one we've been waiting for. And you have to believe
on him. But you also have to be circumcised
and you have to follow the Mosaic law in order to be right with
God. They were adding works to grace. And Paul said, I fear that my
labor with you has been in vain. If you add works to grace, you've
destroyed grace. You can't have grace and works
mixed together. And so then he concludes his argument in chapter
five when he says, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Don't go back to the law. Don't
measure your salvation by your obedience, by the things that
you do. Look to Christ, look to Him,
look. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
verse two, that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
And circumcision is just symbolic of everything that man does with
his hands in order to try to shape his flesh and be right
with God. For I testify again to every
man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole
law, If you're going to look to one part of the law for the
hope of your salvation, you've got to keep the whole law. What
liberty is there in that? I think I shared with you all
the interview I listened to, um, with, uh, Mr. Rogers, the television personality
that, you know, that spoke to children for years and years.
And he was a graduate of a Presbyterian seminary. He was going to be
a preacher and, uh, on his deathbed. He kept asking his wife, honey,
do you think I've done enough? Do you think I've done enough?
I've watched people die that way, holding onto their rosary,
talking about the things that they've done. Honey, do you think
I've done enough? There's no liberty there. If
our salvation is dependent upon anything we do, we've got nothing
but fear and judgment, condemnation. And of course his wife gave him
that false comfort You know, that the religious give, oh yes,
you've done enough. God's pleased with you. You're
okay. There's no liberty there. Not for those who mind the things
of the spirit. Those who mind the things of
the spirit have got to have Christ to stand in their step. They've
got to have him for all their salvation, not just Christ plus
my works, but Christ alone, alone. And so Paul said, if you're gonna
go back to the law, you gotta keep the whole law. And look
at verse four, Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever
you are that are justified by the law, you're fallen from grace.
For we through the Spirit, this is what it means to mind the
things of the Spirit. versus mind and things of the
flesh. For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness
by faith, for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision availeth
anything nor uncircumcision, but faith, which worketh by love. You did run well, and who did
hinder you that you should not obey the truth? You're not trusting
Christ. Who is this that came in behind
me and told you you needed to go back to the law in order to
be right with God? This persuasion coming out of
him that called you, you didn't get that from God. A little leaven
leaveneth the whole lot. If you're gonna look to anything
other than Christ for your salvation, there's no liberty. There's no
freedom. That leaven is going to infect
everything. I have confidence in you through
the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded, but he that
troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whoever he be. And
I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer
persecution? Then is the offense of the cross
ceased." That's the offense of the gospel, isn't it? That Christ
is the one who fulfilled the year of Jubilee. He's the only
one that can set prisoners free. He's the only one that can pay
our debt to God. He's the only one that can return
us back into fellowship with God. He's got to do it all by
himself. There's liberty. There's liberty. Liberty is through faith. It's
not through It's not through the things of this world. It's
not by minding the things of the flesh. That's what they were
doing. They were looking to the things
of the flesh. They were looking to their circumcision,
looking to their works as the hope of their salvation, minding
the things of the flesh. Verse 12, I would that they were
even cut off, which trouble you. For brethren, you have been called
unto Liberty. James said, look into the perfect
law of liberty, freedom, freedom in Christ. Only use not your
liberty for an occasion of the flesh. Don't say, well, yeah,
I'm free. I can indulge my flesh in whatever
I please. No, no, use not your liberty
as an occasion for the flesh, but by love serve one another. There's the law that we're under.
Well, under the law of love, to love God, to love one another.
For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even this thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself. But if we bite and devour one
another, take heed that you be not consumed one with another. There's no liberty in people
that are competing for their righteousness or for their standing
before God. Some of us have been in religious
groups like that. where the self-righteous hypocrite
is putting everybody under the microscope and comparing man
to man, seeing who's more righteous than another. There's no liberty
there, no freedom in that. Where the spirit of God is, there's
liberty. Liberty is only in Christ. Life,
liberty. And Thomas Jefferson said the
pursuit of happiness. Every time somebody comes to
me and says, I'm not happy, I know they're fixing to do something
stupid. I do. I know they are. Pursuing
happiness in the things of this world and their pursuit is going
to lead them to a more unhappy life than they've ever had before. What's the scripture say about
happiness? Well, the word blessed. I brought
this out Sunday. The Beatitudes blessed are the
poor in spirit. They've been made happy to be
poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are
they that mourn. Well, they shall be comforted.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness,
for they shall be filled. That's where happiness is. There's
no happiness outside of Christ. The happiness that this world
has to offer is nothing more than a dream. It's not real. And y'all, you wanna use, you
know, social media, go for it. But I am convinced that is making
this problem worse, especially among our young people. I mean,
they're comparing themselves to liars. You know that you're
lying when you go on Facebook and put all this good stuff out
about yourself, but then you look at other people and you
forget that they're lying. They're just lying to you. And yet you're
tempted to compare yourself to them, aren't you? And you think,
well, they've got a happy life. What's wrong with my life? Here's what God says about happiness.
Romans chapter four, happy are they whose iniquities are forgiven
and whose sins are covered. Happy is the man in whom the
Lord will not impute sin. There's where happiness is. Happiness
and contentment and peace and joy. is knowing that I can stand
in the presence of a holy God and that my sin's been put away,
that I have no reason to fear the wrath and judgment of God,
that I've got nothing but His love and His affection and His
mercy and His grace, His blessings. Malachi chapter three, verse
15 says, We call the proud happy. And that's it. That's basically
what Facebook is. We look at somebody and the way
they present themselves. We say, boy, they're happy. No,
they're proud is what they are. We're calling the proud happy.
And we're thinking, well, I need some of that happiness. No, you
don't. They're not happy. And you're
not going to find it in there either. Happiness is only found
in Christ, only in Christ. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter
33. Deuteronomy 33. Look at verse 29. Happy art thou, O Israel! Who is like unto thee, O people
saved by the Lord? The shield of thy help, and who
is the sword of thy excellency? And thine enemies shall be found
liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. When an unbeliever out there
in the world tries to promote themselves to you as being so
happy, you can just tread on that. Happiness is only found
in Israel. Only found by virtue of our union
with Christ. That's the first place happiness
is mentioned right there. Happy are you, oh Israel, blessed
of God, because he saved you. And he's the sword. He's the
sword that that slew Christ on Calvary's cross, he's the sword
that protects us. The sword of his word, behold,
happy is the man whom the Lord correcteth. There's another,
there's another happiness. It's happy, it's to be corrected
by God is a happy thing. It's contentment. It's proof
that we belong to him if we're not, We're not corrected by God. If we're not chastised, we're
not His children. Turn with me to 1 Kings 8. Chapter
10. 1 Kings 10. We'll begin reading at verse
4. This is when the Queen of Sheba
came to see Solomon, the man of peace. Solomon's a type of
Christ. You know, really, during the
reign of Solomon is the only period of peace that the children
of Israel ever had in the entire Old Testament. They were under
the rule of someone else. I mean, David was a period of
peace, but David was also a time of battle. Solomon's the only
man where his entire reign was peace. They never fought a war. They weren't under anybody's,
they didn't pay taxes to anybody. They had a period of peace under
Solomon. Solomon's a picture of Christ.
He's the Prince of Peace. We have peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Queen of Sheba hears
about Solomon and she comes. to confirm the testimony that
she heard. And look what she says in verse
four. And when the queen of Sheba had
seen all Solomon's wisdom and the house that he had built,
and what's the house that Christ built? It's his church. And when
the unbeliever who hears about a God who gives life, true life,
liberty, true liberty, and true happiness, she comes to check
it out. And the meat of his table? Christ is that meat. My body
is your meat indeed. The word of God is our meat,
is what we feed on. And the meat of his table, and
the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers,
and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his assent by which he went
up into the house of the Lord? there was no more spirit in her.
And she said to the king, it was a true report that I heard
in my own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit, I
believed not the words until I came and my eyes had seen it.
And behold, the half was not told me, thy wisdom and thy prosperity
exceeded the fame, which I heard, happy are thy men, happy are
thy servants, which stand continually before thee. and that here thy
wisdom. There's happiness. Happiness
is to have God speak to you. To have him speak peace to your
heart. To have him say to you, I'll never leave you nor forsake
you. To hear him say, Father, forgive them for they know not
what they do. That's happiness. Psalm 144, verse 15 says, happy
is that people whose God is the Lord. Proverbs 3, verse 13 says,
happy is the man that findeth wisdom and the man that giveth
understanding. People can't make people happy.
Circumstances can't make people happy. Things can't make people
happy. Epicureanism doesn't make men
happy. They will. You know, the Declaration
of Independence says the pursuit of happiness, and that's all
men are doing. They're pursuing it. They're pursuing it and they
never get to it. Never get to it. Someone asked
JC Penney how much is enough. He said a little bit more than
what I got. A little bit more than what I got. That's the world.
Pursuing happiness. Happiness can only be found in
Christ. Proverbs 16 verse 20 says, whoso
trusteth in the Lord, happy is he. Happy is he. There's where happiness is. Only
God can give us happiness. Peter said in first Peter chapter
three, he said, and if you suffer for righteousness sake, happy
are you. Happy are you if you suffer for,
you stand up for Christ and you're ostracized by the world, that's
happiness. And then he goes on the next
verse and says, and be ready always. Sanctify the Lord God
in your heart and be ready always to give an answer to them that
ask you for the faith that's within you and do it with meekness
and do it with fear. Luke chapter 11, verse 28, blessed
or happy are they that hear the word of the Lord and keep it. The world is pursuing that which can only
be found in Christ, but their mind in the things of the flesh. And those who are minding the
things of the flesh, they do pursue the things of the flesh.
God gives you a new nature. You find out those pursuits are
fruitless. They're fruitless. Only Christ
can give me life or He is my life. Only Christ can give me
liberty. He is my freedom. and only Christ
can make me happy. Lord, give us the grace to mind
the things of the spirit. Tom. 27, 27, 27. Let's stand
together. Free from the law's great curse
In Jesus we are free For Christ became a curse for us And died
upon the tree The rituals of the law and all
the law's commands have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blest. No more the dread of wrath, no
more constrained by fear. We worship and we serve our God
with gratitude and cheer. free. In Jesus we are free. Free from all sin and from all
guilt. We live in liberty. We'll join the happy song. With all the blood put from. and sing the praises of the lamb
whose grace makes us his