We're going to finish Acts chapter
22 and we'll be in verse 24 to the end of the chapter. I must admit that I have never
seen this verse before. And I was looking things over
and actually was just going to read to the end of the chapter
and get into Paul's message in Acts 23. But
there's a phrase that he uses in verse 28 that just captivated
me. Just absolutely captivated me. And I'm sure between that and
my great need as a sinner to desire to glorify and honor
Him, I suppose those two things just overwhelmed me and I had
to look at this and look at this in as much detail as I think
was revealed to me. So that's what we're going to
do. I'm going to read verses 24 to the end of the chapter. We're going to
look at verse 28, a statement that Paul makes that is very
curious, very curious indeed. The chief captain commanded Paul
to be brought into the castle and bade him, or excuse me, bade
that he should be examined by scourging. Because remember,
Paul preached on the steps into the castle to the mob and they
gave him audience. Of course he's speaking in the
Hebrew tongue so the chief captain doesn't know what he's saying,
he's just hearing words. Paul gets to the point where
the Lord pretty well rejected the Jews and turned the gospel
Towards the Gentiles and then the mob just went crazy again
So the captain pulls him in and he's gonna figure out what's
going on He's gonna he's gonna get some kind of answers out
of Paul by whipping him that he might know wherefore they
cried that is the mob so against him and As they bound Paul with
thongs Paul said unto the centurion that stood by is it lawful for
you to scourge a man? That is a Roman uncondemned When the centurion heard that
He went and told the chief captain saying take heed what you do
for this man is a Roman Then the chief captain came and said
unto Paul. Tell me art thou a Roman and he said yea, he's born in
the As he mentioned before to the chief captain, obviously,
he's a Jew And he came from a town that was occupied during the Roman occupation. So, I suppose that if we became
occupied by the Russians and this country became Russian domain,
we would be Russians, we would be Americans, there would be
no more. So, I suppose this is where Paul's getting at, but
he's getting to a point here And because according to law,
they couldn't just hold somebody without proper trial and especially
scourge them. And the fact that this man, obviously
the chief captain is not a Roman also. We know that because of
verse 28. And the chief captain answered with a great sum basically
some of money obtained either's freedom because this was I think
during the reign of Claudius one of the one of the Claudius
Caesars one of the Caesars and you could buy Roman citizenship,
but you had to pay a good price that was a practice kind of like
You know some governors want to do with the Senate seat so
for sale highest bidder is a practice there's not nothing new and So
the chief captain said, I obtained this freedom with a great sum.
And Paul said, but I was free born. That's what we're going
to look at. I was free born. Then straightway
they departed from Paul. which should have examined him. And the chief captain also was
afraid after he knew that he was a Roman and because he had
bound him. And on the morrow, because he
would have known the certainty wherefore he was accused of the
Jews, he loosed him from his bands and commanded the chief
priests and all their council to appear and brought Paul down
and set him before them. So we're going to look at here,
what does it mean to be free born? We're gonna look at this
statement directly that Paul makes to the chief captain at
Jerusalem. Well, before we get into that,
I wanted to know what it didn't mean, what it doesn't mean, what it cannot mean. To be free
born, and I got several points here, it cannot mean, Paul, when
he says this, that I'm born free, I'm free born, I don't have to
pay for this freedom. It cannot mean that he is saying
to this chief captain that he is born without Adam's transgression. That's not what it can be, because
all men, we know from the scriptures, that all men everywhere are born
under the condemnation of Adam's fall. This is called total depravity. And we, everyone here this morning,
through our first representative, Adam, fell in the garden when
he fell. Turn to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 and verse 12. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered the world and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men for that all have sinned. We're born sinners. We're born
against God. Now, I'm not saying that maybe
we thought or we hated Him and that type of thing, but when
God begins to reveal the gospel to you and to His people, we
don't argue the point. We realize that we did not worship
Him properly. We did not come to Him. He had
to do all the work. That's why we call it all of
grace. The point is that we in Adam died. Got to have new nature,
got to have a new birth, got to be regenerated, got to be
redeemed from what? From sin. And I know a lot of
people don't like to talk about this and they, you know, they
get emotional about it. But the truth remains that everyone
in this room from not quite a year all the way to however old is
born in sin and is have great need of redemption. So he can't,
when Paul says he's born free, free born, he cannot be saying
that he is without sin or he is not without Adam's transgression.
Because he says that to Romans and thus we also have, you don't
have to turn there, but in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 5, God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every
imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually. It was a great day. It was a
scary day. It was a worrisome day. It was
a painful day in my own life when I realized that my sins
put Christ on the cross. Because I was always saying,
well, if I was there, I would have helped him. I wouldn't have
done that. Well, again, if God begins to call you, you will
see that you, your sins nailed him fast to the tree. to the tree. Every imagination,
evil continually. Therefore, we and our Paul cannot
mean that he was born free without the spot and bile stench of our
own sins against us. Secondly, to be free born, when
Paul makes this comment, he cannot mean that Paul was without responsibility
to the Roman authority or to submit to those who ruled over
him. Turn to Romans 13. Basically what Paul was saying
is that we don't just do whatever we want to do Go out kill somebody
if we want to kill somebody we don't know we're gonna have to
pay something if we do that There's consequences. So Paul was saying
I'm freeborn he's not saying that he was without original
sin, and he's certainly not saying that he is all men are not free
to do as they want, yet we are to submit to and honor God, the
God-given authority figures above us. Romans 13 verse 1, let every
soul be subject under the higher powers, for there is no power
but of God, the powers that be are ordained of God. We teach
our children to respect authority. We teach our children respect
authority in the classroom. We teach our children to respect
authority, the police, the fire, the fire. You see what I'm saying?
So he's not saying that I'm free to do whatever I want to. You
can't be saying that. Thirdly, he cannot mean that
Paul was free at birth to live contrary to God's holy and honorable
law. Because the law holds all guilty
and with blame and therefore we are without excuse. Because
we are all condemned by the law until the time of our calling
and redeeming by God's grace through Christ. So he can't be
saying I'm free born when he makes this statement here. He
can't be saying that he was free from the law. The law had no
claims on him. So what does it mean then to
be freeborn? What is he saying? Well, he's
saying several things. First, turn to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. And look with me at verse 31. Verse 30, and Christ spake these
words, as Christ spake these words, many believed on him.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, if you
continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and
you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The truth shall make you free.
So when Paul is speaking to the chief captain, and he says, but
I was free born, What he's saying is that when Christ takes our
place of death and satisfies the whole law and commandments
against us, we are given life, liberty, and eternal peace. And if we're free, we're free
indeed. We don't have all that do's and
don'ts. We don't have all this superstitious
things that we gotta worry about. We don't have to have all these
religious ties that people think that they have to do in order
for God to save them. No, Paul says, I'm free born. When God saved me, it was by
free grace. He set me free. We see this throughout
the Old Testament Scriptures, time and time again, an illustration
that you have people who are in prison. And Christ, through
His work, through His person, through His blood, He says He
sets the captives free. He sets the captives free. Death has no sting now. Why? Because He conquered it. Free. We were in a state of death
and bondage and corruption, and that is what we are by nature,
birth and practice. And when Christ came in His glorious
work and hung on the cross for His people, He gave us life,
freedom and healing. Turn to Romans chapter 8. And I remember when these things
began to really sink in, in my heart, because there are certain
things, you know, you look and your head's saying, that's what
that's saying, but your heart's saying, is that true? Am I really free? No, we're not
free to go out and sin and do what everyone do. We're free
to honor and glorify Him, and that's a freedom. People say,
well, people who don't understand the truth, who don't understand
the gospel, they might understand religion and all the bondage
and legalism that free will brings. When they understand those things,
they say, well, that's not really being free. But you don't have
to tell the believer who knows the weight, awful weight of our
sin to be set free by the propitiatory work of Christ. You don't have
to tell us what freedom is. We know. I was reading a book
on World War II and I believe it was when they liberated Holland,
they said that the World War II veterans, they just loved
the people of Holland because they appreciated the Americans
so much. And in this book, one of the
guys, as they were liberating a certain town, this old man
came out and he says, do you understand what freedom is? And
the GI just kind of looked at him and he said, no you don't
because you haven't been captive. Because they were under, I think
for three or four years, German occupation. But he didn't understand
and that man, who was an older gentleman, didn't understand
what liberation and freedom was until they experienced. bondage
and Horrible rule and when again this sees that's that's what
that's what aggravates me about this easy believism of the day It
doesn't deal with it does your center to my checklist. Yeah,
God's great check check check no no and the reason why people
in these churches love so little is because I They don't love
the Savior. But when somebody who has been
set free and has really understood their bondage and their captivity
and their sin, they're going to, by choice,
I use it on purpose, serve the Redeemer and be where He's preached
and be with those who love this gospel. Romans chapter 8 verse
1. There is therefore now no condemnation. The people at your work might
condemn you. Watch you. Spy on you. Well,
if you were a Christian, you wouldn't have done that. Your
neighbors, they see you do one thing, they might condemn you. Your friends might condemn you. The religious world may condemn
you, but if you're in Christ, He says, there is therefore,
right now, no condemnation. Now, is that free? Is that freedom?
Is that freedom? No condemnation to those who
are in Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
was made sin for us. That's His elect, His chosen,
that we, His elect, might be made the righteousness of God
in Him. 2 Corinthians 5.21. God sees no sin in his people
because his people are hid in Christ and Christ is all our
hope and grace and justification. Do we sin? Obviously, we still
sin. We sure do. But our problem is sometimes. Which is natural, we look with
things on these eyes and not as how God sees it. God sees
us. There is therefore now no condemnation. That's why the believer doesn't
get punished. The believer gets chastised. Those whom the Lord
chastises are those He says He loves. But punishment? And then
people say, Oh, we're going to be judged. The believer has already
been judged in Christ. I talk about this great beam
of seat judgment and all that thing. We stand before God, and
we're not going to be standing on our own. We'll be standing
in our representative, who already judged our sins when he hung
on the cross, and then we won't be judged. He says, enter in.
Enter in. Secondly, It has been said, and
I read several people on this, and this, you know, you can take
it for what it's worth. A Jewish historian wrote that,
about this particular verse, that it was said historically
that Paul was born in a free city because Mark Anthony so
decreed it. Decreed this particular city
under occupation, maybe because of military service by the adults
or whatever, but it was a free city. That's history, that's
not inspiration. But here's the beautiful thing
is, is that historically this was done before Paul was ever
born. So Paul received this status
before he was really ever, or before he was born. Spiritually,
turn to Ephesians chapter one. Turn to Ephesians chapter one. And I've heard a lot of people
say, you preach this and you'll get people just being wicked
and doing whatever they can. If people, if I preach this,
if I preach anything out of the Scriptures that's true, and you
live licentiously and not for the honor and glory of God, there's
only two things, either I didn't preach it correctly or you misunderstood
it. But you can't lay the blame on God. Grace, verse 2, be unto you and
peace from God our Father from our Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Paul could say, I'm free-born.
If you know Christ this morning, somebody tries to get you to
do something that's against the scripture or is not right, and they say,
you got to do it because I'm saying it, well, no, I don't have to. The scripture is my warrant,
and I'm freeborn. I'm not telling you to be rebellious.
I'm not telling you to not give authority proper respect, but
I'm telling you this, that in this sense, In the fullness of
time, God would draw his bride, the church, unto himself, that
we might know him. Yet in the mind and eye of the
eternal Godhead, we were already his. Is that freedom? That's beautiful. According as
he had chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. You don't have to turn there,
but Jeremiah 31 verse 3 he says I
have loved you with an everlasting love you see our love begins
in time we meet somebody we love somebody we marry him and our
love begins in time and then it is in time but not his love
his is eternal just like him it's an everlasting love that's
what's the beautiful thing is that that you you want you want
to You want to understand Holy Spirit conviction, and you want
to understand what keeps the believer on the way to glory,
and that's this right here. That even when you disrespect
the grace of God, even when you, like maybe I might tomorrow,
speak, say things that are dishonoring to our Lord, He will not let me go. Now, if I can go my own way and
fall eternally, I never was His. I never was a vessel of mercy.
But this does not cause the believer to live licentiously. It doesn't cause the believer
to live flippantly. What it does is it knocks us
down on our knees and say, thank you, thank you, God, for not
causing me and not allowing me to choose the path that I would
because it would be a broad way, not the narrow way. In the decree and mind of Jehovah
God, then the believer can said to be freeborn. Thirdly, We, God's saints, are said to
be free-born in the sense that we bow to no one but God and
know that our Heavenly Father is over all things and controlling
all things for our good and His glory. Tim James made a comment
one time, and it's taken me a long time to fully figure it out and
understand. He said, God's preachers and
God's people are truly the most independent people on the top
of God's green earth. Because you and I answer truly. We answer to our boss, we answer
to our principals, we answer to the board, but even above
all that, we're free of them. We answer only to God and our
God controls everything. Dust particles, the rain, the
snow, the ice, everything. He controls it for His glory
and for His people's ultimate good. Is that my opinion? Let's turn to Job. Turn to Job
chapter 1. Now, I've heard this many well-meaning
people bad-mouthed Satan about, well, he, you know, he hammered
Job and he did this and he did that. Well, now, who started
the whole thing? Scotty, who started this whole
thing? Job was just living his life. He's going to work, he's
raising a family, he's worshipping, he's offering evening sacrifice
for his children. He's living his life. Job chapter
1, look at verse 6. Now there was a day when the
sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came
also among them. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Whence comest thou? And Satan answered the Lord,
and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking
up and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job? Satan didn't initiate this
whole thing. that there is none like him in
the earth, a perfect and upright man, one that fears God and escheweth
evil. Chapter two. And again, there
was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before
the Lord, and Satan came also among them to present himself
before the Lord. And the Lord said unto Satan, From whence
comest thou? And Satan answered, The Lord
said, From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up
and down in it. And the Lord said unto Satan,
Hast thou considered my servant Job? Turn to 2 Samuel chapter 16. This is what I need. And this
this section right here, this this this particular point that
God states are said to be free born in the sense that we bow
to no one but God and know that our heavenly father is over all
things and controlling all things for our good and his glory. This
is probably what brought this whole message together. And this
particular verse, second Samuel, chapter 16, verse 5 and when King David now
King he's on the run Absalom his son is trying to kill him
so David is on the run he's got some warriors with him but they're
going they're nomadic they're moving from place to place trying
to trying to keep out of harm's way and when King David came
to Bessaron behold there came out a man of the family the house
of Saul whose name was Shimei the son of Gera and he came forth
and cursed Still as he came and he cast stones at David and all
the servants of the king David and all the people and all the
mighty men Were on his right and on his left. That's on David's
right hand left hand. You got this little punk You
had this little man throwing stones at David and all the guys
that are walking with him and cursing him And thus said Shimei
when he cursed, come out, come out thou bloody man, thou man
of Belial. And the Lord hath returned upon
thee all the blood of the house of Saul, in whose stead thou
hast reigned. And the Lord hath delivered the
kingdom into the hand of Absalom thy son. And behold, thou art
taken in thy mischief because thou art a bloody man. Cursing
him, getting in his face. Then said Abishaiah, the son
of Zariah, unto king, why should this dead dog curse my lord the
king? Let me go over, I pray thee,
and take off his head. And king David said, what have
I to do with you, you sons of Zariah? So let him curse, because
the Lord has said unto him, curse David. What shall then what who shall
then say wherefore hast thou done so? That's a lesson of a lifetime
right there I Can stand up here and tell
you and then I'm gonna have to practice this Tuesday over lunch Let him curse God is on his throne
and They can't do anything to you
more than what He allows. They may be able to kill the
body, said Christ, but they can't touch the soul. You remember in John chapter
19, we won't turn there. We start in verse 5. Pilate said,
he's getting aggravated at Christ because he says, I don't find,
he goes out to the Jews, he says, I don't find any fault with them.
And they said, kill them. Walks in there, he talks to Christ.
Walks back out. He says I don't find any fault
with him. I wore his blood's not on my hand. They said we'll
be the blood be on us Which is the gospel right there. They
didn't realize it his blood be upon us. That's interesting Then
pilot comes back in there and he looks at Christ and you could
just see it's just like just like this chief captain the paw.
I Obtained this freedom with a price and use Vagabond Said
you were freeborn Pilate said, why don't you talk to me? I have
your life. I can crucify you or let you
go. And what did Christ say? He said, oh no. Oh no. You can do nothing except it
was given to you from above. Now that's freeborn. Can't touch
you. Can't touch me. Does that mean
that we're gonna not have any troubles? Look at the examples
I just gave you. Job, and David and our Lord Christ
and Paul. But Paul, right before he's getting
ready to get beat, he could say, I'm free born. I'm free born. You see, all people,
events and circumstances are under the direct rule and reign
of our holy, omnipotent, majestic God. And he rules for his ultimate
glory and for his children's welfare. We tell our children,
a lot of times when things get, and Linda and I had to deal with
this a couple times, things, you know, the kids come home
or the kids, your kids come home or they come back from your neighbors
and something's got them upset. Maybe they're watching television
and maybe they saw about the economy and, you know, things
that are bigger than their mind and they're upset. And they come
to the authority figure. comforter, the head of the home,
the adults, the parent, and they say, they lay it out before you,
and like I said, we've had this before, and you just pull them
in. It's okay. Don't you worry about
that. I'll worry about that. I'll take
that burden. Don't worry about it. We are
free, born in Christ. Fourthly, we are free-born because
our second birth is freely given to us through the merit and worth
of Emmanuel. It didn't cost us a thing. Free
grace. How free is grace? Linda and
I were talking about this. She was helping me with this. We
were just... Ideas and thoughts and the grace of God was just
overflowing. We were just getting... And... She said, how do I sometimes
I wonder if we really know and believe how free grace is. Some preacher said the hardest
thing for us to do is to quit working. We feel like, you know,
because we're raised that way, I want to do something good for
daddy and I want to impress daddy. I'm going to clean the room and
we take that human nature because of depravity. We take that and
we try to do the same thing with God. You're not going to take
it. It's got to be perfect. But if you're in Christ, He accepts what His Son has done
for you. The chief captain had to purchase
his freedom, and you could almost tell by the way it's written,
he's cynical and skeptical towards Paul's statement indicating,
how does a poor wretch like you have this freedom? Because salvation
is a free gift of God, it's from above and cannot be bought or
be measured by man's monetary attempts. Turn to 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1. here it is, Peter says it right
here, he says, for as much as ye, the brethren, the believer,
the chosen of God, know that you were not redeemed with corruptible
things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received
by a tradition from your fathers, but you were redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot. who verily was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, there's that phrase again, but
was manifest in these last times for him, who by him, who that
is the believer, by him do believe in God. How do you believe? Well, I got to work for it. It
looks like to me it says, Who, by Him, you believe. You believe
on Christ by His enabling. That's what that's saying right
there. Whether it's grammatically, it's correct, but it's just,
it's right there. That's what grace teaches. We
have to believe. Well, how do we believe? By Him. By Him. We have no righteousness,
but Christ's righteousness. We have no real kin here, but
our kinsman redeemer. We bow to none save our master. We serve one and his name is
the Christ who incidentally is our life. He's not the main priority
in life. He is our life. So get your priorities
straight. They're doing it right. They
got a little bit of church, a little bit of work, a little bit of
family. Christ is our life. Isn't that right? He's our life.
He's not the best part of our life. He is our life. He is the way. Not close, He's
the way. He is the door. We've got several
doors in this and we're going to have another one at least.
It's not a multiple choice. He is the door and He is the
bread, which to me means He's our sustenance. We live, we move,
we feast, on Christ singular. Well, Solomon said it this way.
Who is this one? I'm free born. His name is Christ. Who is he? Well, Solomon says
he's the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley. He's that
pearl of great price. The scripture says he's one among
a thousand. So let's close in Psalms 24. Who is this one that caused you
and me to be free born? Psalms 24. Look at verses 7 through the
end. Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lifted up, ye
everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is
this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty the
Lord mighty in battle lift up your heads. Oh you gates even
lift them up He everlasting doors and the king of glory shall come
in who is this king of glory? the Lord of hosts he is the king
of glory And if he is yours and my king
of glory I And if he has set you free, you
are free. You're free. Let them do what
they will. Let the false prophets say what
they will. He's the king of glory, and if
you serve and worship him and if he has set you free. It didn't cost us a thing, in
a sense. We can't merit our way to salvation.
He is our salvation. Matt, would you close us please?