Beloved of God, I've got a wonderful topic today, an absolutely wonderful topic for us to consider, for we who are the born-again blood-washed saints to consider, and that is our freedom and our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus our Lord, who is our Savior, our Redeemer, and the true and living God, the God-man. And sinner friend, if you do not know Christ, this is my wonderful Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who saved me from all my sins.

And he saved anyone who come to him. Oh my, he not turned one sinner away who comes to him. So my prayer is that the Holy Spirit would draw you to Christ and that you'd flee to Christ. Oh my, because I'm just one sinner telling other sinners where to find bread. So how do we have, as born-again, blood-washed believers, how do we have this freedom and this liberty that we're going to look at today?

Well, it's all in Christ, and it's all by His perfect sin-atoning work on Calvary's cross. He saved us from our sins. He justified us before God when He was risen again. were clothed in his perfect spotless righteousness now. So that perfect life he lived was accounted towards us. And our sin was imputed to him. His perfect righteousness was imputed to us.

It's absolutely amazing. And how did he weave this perfect righteousness? How did it come about that the believers clothed in, well, by Christ's perfect life and full obedience to the law of God? Full obedience. And therefore, we're saved by the blood and the righteousness of Christ, beloved. And it's absolutely wonderful. And all the freedom and liberty we have as believers comes to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Turn in your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Corinthians 3. 2 Corinthians 3. We're going to read two verses in 2 Corinthians 3. Those are verses 17 and 18. Wonderful words we have here. Verse 17 will be the main verse for our text. Now look at this. Now this is the Lord telling us this. The Holy Spirit, through the pen of Paul, has him pen these words. Look at this. Verse 17, 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Now the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

In the Greek, that's emancipation, freedom. Now, we were slaves to sin, weren't we? In our natural state, we've been emancipated from that condition. Isn't that amazing? Through the blood and righteousness of Christ, His perfect sin atoning work. The God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, has saved us from all our sins through the shedding of his blood. And look at this, verse 18. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord. We're being conformed to the image of the Son. And one day, we will no longer see through a glass darkly, but we're going to see Christ face-to-face, all because of His perfect sin-atoning work, and not because of anything else. We didn't merit this grace. No, not at all. We can't earn this grace. We can earn salvation. We don't merit salvation. It's given to us as a free gift of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that is absolutely glorious. My oh my, it's absolutely wonderful. Let's read verse 17 again. Now, the Lord is that spirit. Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Now, Paul encourages all believers here to stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. Actually over in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1, he writes this wonderful, wonderful text. And again, it's by inspiration of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all the liberty and freedom we enjoy as believers is in Christ. In Christ. All because of Him. Now listen to this in Galatians chapter 5 verse 1.

Stand fast therefore in the liberty, that's emancipation, wherewith Christ hath made us free. What has he freed us from? The power of sin, the penalty of sin, saved us from our sins. It's absolutely amazing, all by the shedding of his blood. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not again entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Don't let someone put you back under the law. We are free, free, free, beloved. Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. He is it. He perfectly fulfilled the law in our room and place. Now, does the law have a claim on any believer? No. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. What about the justice of God, Wayne? You know, the justice of God has a rightful claim on us, doesn't it, when we're born? Yeah, when we're born dead in trespasses and sins. but the justice of God has no more claim on us. Isn't that beautiful?

What freedom and liberty we have. Now here are a couple of brief things for us to think about as believers and the freedom we have in Christ. Number one, where Christ in the gospel Where Christ is in the gospel, where he is in the gospel, it will be illuminated by the Holy Spirit of God.

God, the Holy Spirit, will teach us the things of Christ all through this book. You know, I was listening to somebody today, and they said, this Bible's not about obedience. Although we obey God, don't we? And religion says, oh, all you gotta do, you gotta, gotta, gotta. This book is about Christ. This book is about Christ's beloved.

And it tells us what he's done. He set us free. He set us free, beloved. Oh my. Listen to this. There's freedom from darkness in Christ. Do you know that? Listen to this. Christ said, I am the light of the world. He that followed me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. We were walking in darkness before we were born again. Before God saved us, we were walking in darkness.

My, and then look at this. Listen to this, Colossians 113. Paul writes this about Christ, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son. God the Father took us from the kingdom of darkness that we were in, slaves to Satan, slaves to sin, and put us by his grace and mercy. Oh my, in the kingdom of his dear Son. That's Colossians 113.

Isn't that wonderful? My, here's another point about the freedom and liberty we have in Christ. Where Christ is in the gospel is the spirit of regeneration in our heart. You know, and there's freedom, when we're born again, there's freedom from the bondage of sin. Listen to this.

John 8, and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Ain't that wonderful? Free. If the Son, therefore, make you free, ye shall be free indeed. That's why Paul says, don't let these lawmongers put you under the law. You're free, beloved. The Judaizers were nothing but lawmongers, telling the Galatians they had to be circumcised to be saved. Oh, my. We still got lawmongers among us, don't we? Telling us what we got to do. Well, I'm just going to look to Christ. That's all I can do. My oh my.

Here's another point about the freedom and liberty we have in Christ. Where Christ is, is the spirit of redemption in our heart. When we're born again, we have this Holy Spirit of God in us. There's a spirit of redemption. And you know what we're free from, beloved? You know what we're free from? We're free from the curse of the law. and we're free from the penalty of sin. That's amazing.

Listen to this wonderful verse, Galatians 3.13. Christ hath redeemed us, past tense, 2,000 years ago, right? Oh yeah. From the curse of the law, being made a curse for us.

For it's written, curse is everyone that hangeth on a tree, Galatians 3.13. Isn't that wonderful? Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. The law of God has no claim on the believer anymore. And what's the curse of the law, right? The soul that sins it shall die. And that's talking physical death. And for those who do not know Christ, that's also talking about the second death, when to be cast into hell.

Believers are free from that. We're all gonna die, but we're not gonna taste the second death, no. Isn't that wonderful? Here's another point. Where Christ is in the gospel, the spirit of comfort is in our heart. Oh my, isn't that wonderful? The spirit of comfort is in our heart. Well, now what do we have freedom from?

Fear and wrath. Fear and wrath. Scripture says God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Now, we all struggle with fear. I'm not foolish enough to say we don't. We all struggle with fear. But that's not what God's given us. That's our flesh, beloved. That's our flesh.

Listen to this. But now, thus saith the Lord, that created thee, O Jacob, and that formed thee, O Israel, fear not. Now that's talking to the elect of God. Fear not. And that's in Christ. That's in Christ. Listen to this. For I have redeemed thee. Oh! This is in the Old Testament. He says, I've redeemed thee. Oh, I've called thee by thy name. Thou art mine. That's Isaiah 43,

1. We are Christ's beloved. That's glorious. That's glorious. He says to us, fear not. Why? Well, because the law of God doesn't have a claim on us. The penalty of sin's being paid for by Christ. The condemnation for our sins. Christ died in our ruined place, right? The wrath of God is being extinguished that was against us. All by the Lord Jesus Christ. My. Another reason we have freedom and liberty is because we have the spirit of adoption in our heart now. You know, there's freedom for a child to come unto his loving father. Listen to this, Hebrews 4,

16. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Listen to that, that we may obtain mercy and grace to help in time of need. Don't ever think something's too small to take to the Lord. I don't know. And then listen to this, where Christ is in the gospel is the spirit of love shed abroad in our hearts. Listen to this, Romans 5.5, and hope make it not ashamed. Why are we not ashamed of Christ in the gospel?

Because we have a hope. He's God. God saved us. God himself. Hope, make it not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Who sent the Holy Spirit? The Lord Jesus Christ. My. So the Lord, to whom we turn when the veil is taken away, right? is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the man Christ Jesus. He's not any mere man. He is that spirit, and he is God. Listen to this. God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth. The word of God became a man.

God, who is spirit, became a man, came into time and space to redeem us from all our sins by the shedding of his blood. So marvel now. Now, why do we obey the Lord? Why do we want to walk in holiness? Why do we seek to please the Lord? Well, because now the love of Christ constrains us from sin. Right? That's why. The love of Christ constrains us. My.

So rejoice, beloved of God. There's freedom to serve Christ Jesus. We have freedom. Freedom. People act like serving the Lord is a duty. It's not a duty. It's a privilege. It's a privilege, beloved. And it's wonderful. And we do it from a grateful heart, don't we? Oh, my. We don't serve the Lord out of fear and punishment, no. We don't serve the Lord out of the threat of the law, no. But we serve the Lord with a generous, generous spirit of thanksgiving, of love to our God, of love to the Lord Jesus Christ, of love to his gospel, of love to his word, of love to his people. My, it's wonderful. In the freedom and liberty we have, we will never know the depths of it, beloved.

But oh, I'm going to rejoice in it, are you? Oh, my. I'm going to close with this from Psalms. Psalm 103, verses 1 to 3. Bless the Lord, O my soul. That's what we say. And all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. Praise the name of Jesus. Amen and amen.