Psalms 116, begin there at verse
1. I love the Lord because He hath
heard my voice and my supplication. He hath inclined His ear unto
me. Therefore will I call upon Him
as long as I live. The sorrows of death can pass
me. The pains of hell got hold upon
me. I found trouble and sorrow. Then I called upon the name of
the Lord. O Lord, I beg you, I beseech
thee, deliver my soul. Gracious is the Lord and righteous,
yea, our God is merciful. The Lord preserveth the simple.
I was brought low and he helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my
soul. For the Lord hath dealt bountifully
with thee. For He hath delivered thy soul
from death, mine eyes from tears, and my
feet from falling. I will walk before the Lord in
the land of the living." In Luke chapter 1, Luke's Gospel chapter
1, This is the words of Zacharias. He was the father of John the
Baptist. And this is what he said upon
the birth of his son, John the Baptist. In chapter 1, in verse
68, he was filled there with the Holy Spirit and he lifted
up his voice. In Luke 1, 68, he said, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel. For he has visited and redeemed
his people, and hath raised up an adornment of salvation for
us in the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth
of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that
we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that
hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers. and
to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham,
our father, that he would grant unto us that we, being delivered
out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our
life. And thou, child, shalt be called
the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face
of the Lord to prepare His ways, to give knowledge of salvation
unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender
mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high has visited
us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow
of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace. And then my
text this morning is over in Galatians chapter 5 and verse
1. Galatians 5 and verse 1, Stand
fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us
free, and be not entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Stand fast in this liberty. Christ has liberated you. He's
delivered you. Therefore stand fast in this
liberty. Now I have a few comments on
this this morning, and I pray the Lord will help me. This may
seem somewhat scattering. I pray the Lord will gather it
up and put it within your heart. Stand fast in the liberty. Everybody that I know of desires
liberty. We desire freedom. If a man has
ever tasted what it is to be a free man, then he loves liberty. Everybody desires to be free.
civil liberties, free from the harassment of our government. One nation under God with liberty
and justice for all. A liberty established in law
and in justice. The song that we sometimes sing,
America, America, God mend thy every flaw. Confirm thy soul
in self-control and thy liberty in law. God give me liberty or
give me death. That was Patrick Henry's great
saying. I cannot live under the tyranny
of an unjust dictatorship. After we've tasted what it is,
to be free. Liberty from sickness. Freedom
from sickness. What a great liberty it is to
be free. As far as I know, sickness came
in with sin and it's a bondage. Sickness is never any good for
us unless God is pleased to use it to teach us, to humble us
and chasten us. Every other means of sickness
that I know of is nothing but a bondage. If you're sick this
morning, mentally or physically or emotionally, don't you desire
to be free from that? We do. But this liberty here
that the Apostle Paul is speaking to us about is a liberty that's
much greater and much glorious Much more so than a civil freedom. Our freedom from the harassment
of weakness or sickness or disease. This is a freedom of our conscience. It's a freedom that Christ has
purchased for us. It's a freedom that you and I
have been called into and here commanded to stand fast in. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. And never be entangled again
in bondage with a yoke of bondage. And before we look at this liberty
and what it is, I want to look at what it is not, because I
think this is so important. It's not a liberty for the flesh. It's not a liberty for the flesh
to serve its sin. To serve sin and love sin is
no liberty, but that's a bondage. Know you not that to whom you
yield yourself servant, to obey his servant you are? To serve sin and to love sin
is to be a slave of sin. Brethren, you've been called
unto liberty, only use not your liberty for a cloak of covetousness,
but by love serve one another. Let not sin reign in your mortal
body that you should obey it in the lust thereof. If we live
after the flesh, we shall die. This liberty that we're commanded
to stand fast in, is not a liberty, as Brother Glenn told us this
morning. It's not a liberty from any possibility
that we'll never sin again. But it's not a liberty to live
and serve our sin. My little children, these things
I write unto you, that you sin not. That you sin not. To serve sin is to be a slave
of sin. What does this liberty do? It
delivers us from being a slave to sin and puts us in a position
that we may serve God and serve righteousness and serve the Kingdom
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, this liberty is not
a liberty to believe what we will. are to thank what we will,
are to hold and express our personal opinion concerning God and spiritual
things. Now let me repeat that. This
is the liberty that many think they have in our day, is to believe
what they will, to hold and propagate and teach opinions concerning
God that is contrary to holy scriptures. Some think they have
that liberty. That's not the liberty that Christ
calls men into. That's the liberty that the devil
calls men into. Listen to this passage of scripture.
To the law and to the testimony, not to dreams, not to visions,
Not to the wisdom of men or carnal knowledge, but to the law and
to the testimony, to the Word of Truth, to Holy Scripture. If they speak not according to
this Word, if they don't think according to this Word, if they
don't hold their opinions according to this Word, then it's because
there's no light in them. You and I have lived to see the
day. when just about everybody, even those who know nothing about
the Word of God. But yet, if you ask them anything
of God or spiritual things, ask them what they think of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and of grace, and of sin, and death, and the judgment
to come. Ask them concerning these great
subjects, and though they know nothing of the Word of God, They
think they have the privilege and the liberty to speak of these
things. But no man is given that liberty. If you and I are to speak, we
have only the liberty to speak as thus saith the Lord to the
law and to the testimony. What is this liberty? Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. This word free,
it means to liberate. It means to deliver. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. Christ has
delivered us. And I read that passage to you
there in Luke chapter 1. And he mentions this twice about
us being saved from the hand of our enemy. Christ delivered
us from the hand of our enemy. And he says it like this, that
we should be saved from the hand of our enemy and from all those
who hate us, that he would grant unto us that we being delivered
out of the hands of our enemy may serve him without fear."
What is this liberty? It's a liberation from our enemies,
our spiritual enemies, not physical enemies, not the tyranny of a
dictatorship. It wasn't speaking of their being
liberated from the Roman government. A man can be in bondage to the
Roman government and yet live in the freedom of conscience.
A man can be in a cell and locked in there in prison and yet enjoy
this freedom because it's not a civil freedom. A man may be
sick and weak and yet enjoy this freedom because it is not a freedom
from sickness of the body. But this is a liberation from
our spiritual enemies, and it's a liberty that Christ has brought
the conscience into. Liberty for the conscience. This
freedom is a liberation from our spiritual enemies that have
bound us and tormented our conscience. Ye have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of
adoption. There's a spirit of bondage, and our enemies holds
us in bondage until we're liberated. What has Christ delivered us
from? What has the Lord Jesus freed us from? If I asked you
this morning, and you took time to think upon this question,
I bet you would reach the same conclusion that I reached when
I asked myself this question. If you had to think of the greatest
enemy that you've ever had in this world, what is the greatest
enemy that any man could know? What would that be? Now think
before you answer that. Think this in your heart. What
is the most powerful enemy, what is the most dreadful enemy that
you could think of if it is indeed your enemy? You know what I thought
of and what I think the Scripture teaches? The wrath of God. Can
you think of a more powerful enemy? Who knows the power of
His anger, the Almighty God? Who can stand before Him when
He is angry? Who can stand before Him in our
sin and have Him to look upon it and mark our sins against
us? The prophet said, who knows the
power of his anger? We're told of the day when the
unbelievers will cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall
upon them. Now why in the world would a man pray to be crushed
underneath mountains and rocks? Better to suffer that than the
consequences. And why would they cry and fall
on us, hide us? Well, they said, from the face
of Him that sits upon the throne. For the great day of His wrath
is come, and who can stand? Who can stand before God when
He stirs Himself up and is angry against a man? He cast the devils
out of heaven into hell because He was angry with them. It's
a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God. If I whip my glittering sword
and my hand take hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my
enemies and I'll repay them to their face that hate me. And
who can stand before this God Almighty when His anger is stirred
up? I tell you what an enemy it is
to mankind. And I think in my own thoughts,
in my own conscience, and when I felt something of it when I
was lost, I think to myself, the most dreadful enemy, the
most terrifying enemy that could be against a man is indeed this
wrath of God. And Zechariah said here, Blessed
be the Lord God of Israel. For he has visited and redeemed
his people, and he hath saved them from their enemies, and
the hand of all that hate them. And what is the wrath of God
but hatred, vengeance, the power of God against
evil? It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of an angry God. Well, Zechariah said the Lord
Jesus has come and delivered us from the hand of those that
hate us. He saw us. He looked down from
heaven upon us. And he saw us facing this awful
enemy. And he saw this awful enemy,
the wrath of God, facing us. And he knew that we couldn't
stand before the wrath of God. So what does he do? He comes
down from heaven. And he takes this wrath to himself. And he endures it in his own
body. And then he turns to us. And
he says, Fear not. Fear not. Only believe. And he delivers us. He delivers
our conscience from this awful fear and torment of God's wrath. This is the good news of the
Gospel, that Jesus, the dear and blessed Son of God, has come
to deliver us from the wrath of God and the wrath to come. And I tell you, when our hearts
lays hold upon this, by God's grace, It brings a liberty to
our conscience that we've never experienced before. Stand fast
in the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free. Luther had
this to say about this subject. He said this, who's able to express
what a thing it is when a man is assured in his heart that
God is neither now nor will ever be angry with Him again. But
we'll forever be a merciful and loving Father unto Him for Christ's
sake. This is indeed a marvelous and
incomprehensible liberty to have the Most High and Sovereign Majesty
so favorable unto us that He will not only defend us and maintain
us and secure us in this life, But concerning our bodies, he
will yet deliver us, that these bodies which are sown in corruption
and dishonor and weakness shall be raised again at the last day
incorruptible and with power and in glory." What a liberty. What a liberty of conscience. Here's another enemy. He hath
delivered us from the hand of our enemy. What an enemy sin
is. And don't these things go together? The wrath of God and sin? And what is the judgment of God
that we so fear? Is it not when these two things
come together? Is it not when the awful wrath
of God comes down from heaven and meet this awful sin that
comes up from the earth? And what is that? Wrath. Judgment upon sin. What does
the Scripture say about Christ liberating us from sin? He has freed us from it. Listen
to this. What is sin? Is it not doing
what God tells us to do? It's simple when we think about
it, isn't it? God tells us to do something, we don't do it.
God tells us not to do something, and we do it. That's sin. It's
disobedience to God. Sin against the Son of God. What
is it? Not trusting Him. Not knowing
Him. Not believing Him. Not following
Him. Sins against the Holy Spirit.
Not listening to Him. Not reverencing Him. Not believing
Him. Not walking in the light that
He gives us. Sins against one another. our
hatefulness, false accusations, the thoughts of our motives,
our thoughts, our words, our actions, sin. There have been men that have
been so burdened over this business of sin, and their guilt has been
so dreadful and heavy and terrified them, they've literally driven
themselves from this world out into eternal darkness. Judas, when he had betrayed our
Lord, he saw that he was condemned. His guilt weighed heavy upon
his conscience, and he was tormented with it. And what did he do?
He went out and hanged himself and went to his own place. When
Cain was confronted with his murder, that he had killed his
brother, he said, I cannot endure this guilt. It's too frightening
for me. And what did he do? He fled from
the presence of the Lord. Why do we read of a judgment
to come? Why do we read about death? Why
do we read about hell and a bottomless pit and a lake of fire? It's
because of sin. You take away sin, you take away
death. You take away sin, there's no
need for hell and eternal misery. Sin is the cause of all of these
things. What price could be put then
upon such a liberty for the conscience to be freed from sin and its
guilt? To stand before God and to serve
Him without any sin upon the conscience. Isn't that a great
liberty? And that's what the Holy Scriptures
proclaims to us. Stand fast in this liberty. You're free from guilt. You're
free from the condemnation. His name shall be called Jesus. For he shall save his people
from their sins. Christ gave himself for our sins
in order to redeem us from all iniquity. Behold the Lamb of
God which taketh away the sin of the world. You and I feel
this remnant of sin in our bodies. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. But our conscience is free from its sins. Why? Because Jesus Christ paid the
full price and penalty for those sins. And now He comes to us
with His own blood and He purges away the guilt. He does for us
what water baptism won't do for us. He does for us what the blood
of bulls and goats could not do for us. He takes His precious
blood, and He washes the sin, and He washes the stain, and
it's all gone. And now He says, you're free. You're free from the guilt. You're
free from the sin. Stand fast in this liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. Can you not this morning, dear
child of God, do what Zechariah said that we could do? We could
serve God. We could stand before Him without
this tormenting fear of sin, and we can enjoy Him, and we
can serve Him in righteousness and holiness all the days of
our life. How can we do that? You can't
do it if you're tormenting with this awful fear of guilt upon
your conscience. You can't. You can't. That's
an enemy. It's an enemy of the conscience.
But the Lord Jesus has come and freed us from that enemy, the
enemy of sin. The wrath of God cannot terrify
us, for Christ has delivered us from it. Sin cannot condemn
us, for Christ has paid the full penalty of it. Who is He that
condemneth? It's Christ that died. Christ
that died. Thirdly, here's another enemy.
The wrath of God is our enemy. Sin is our enemy. But Christ
has delivered us from the hand of our enemies. And here's another
one. Death is our enemy. Spiritual
death is our enemy. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. David said, He hath delivered
my soul from death. Oh, that's a mighty enemy. But
brothers and sisters, not just spiritual death, but physical
death is our enemy. What is death? We talk about
death and what is it? Well, it's a separation. That's why death is our enemy.
It's a separation. When the body dies, it's separated
from the land of the living. It doesn't participate in what's
going on in this life anymore. The breath has left it, and there
it lays, lifeless. It can't hear anything. It can't
speak any words. It has no grasp for what's going
on, nor ability to participate in anything. It's dead, it decays,
and it goes back to the earth. It was the body, it was the house
that carried around the soul for all of these years. But now,
soul and body is separated. And the body goes back to the
dust from which it came. The body is separated from family
and friends that loved it. We often hear sometimes when
we go up to view a loved one, our loved one's not there. Our
loved one's not there. But that's a Bible part laying
there. That's a part that we looked upon. That's a part that
we hugged and often supported us. in our needs. And what death does, it comes
and separates this body from friend and family. It's a separation
from God. When the body dies, it means
God hasn't upheld it any longer. He removes His hand. And what
happens when God removes His hand? Breath leaves the body. The spirit returns to God, and
He lets the body sink into the ground to decay. He knows where
it's at, but He doesn't uphold it anymore. He lets it decay
and rot. Death is the dividing of ourselves. That's a mystery, ain't it? Death
is our enemy because it separates us from a vital part of ourselves. Without the body, we're not whole. We're made up of body and soul.
God formed our body, and He breathed into it the breath of life, and
we became a living soul. When you separate body and soul,
we'll never be satisfied until this body and soul is reunited. Death comes to us and it divides
us right down the middle. And it says, body, you go back
to the dust from which you came. So you take your heavenly flight. But it's our enemy. And David
said, I'll never be satisfied until I awake in His likeness,
until my body raises again. Death is our enemy. And we must
be delivered from it because Christ has saved us from the
hand of our enemy. Listen to this. Death is an enemy
of the unbeliever because it's the present and immediate door
to hell and torment. At this present time, there's
no other way for a soul to enter hell except through the gates
of death. As long as a man is living, he
cannot get to the torments of hell. But when he dies, when
he dies, that's the only gate there is to hell and to torment. Physical death is only an enemy
to the believer in that it for a time separates his soul and
body. But it is his friend in that
it frees his soul to be with Christ. whom he loves. To be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But physical
death to the unbeliever is an enemy both to his body and to
his soul, for it sends his body back to decay in the dust, and
it sends his soul into eternal ruin and torment. Death is our
enemy. And thirdly, the fear of death,
the thoughts of dying, that in itself is an enemy to the conscience. How could we possibly, how could
a child of God possibly enjoy God and walk before Him and serve
Him if we lived our lives with agonizing and tormenting fear
of death? Well, we couldn't. We couldn't. If the fear of death was constantly
upon our conscience, we could not enjoy God. Tonight I lay
my head down to sleep, and I may leave this world, and I'm tormented
with that thought. Then you can't enjoy God with
such tormented conscience. Zechariah said the Lord has come
to free us from this fear, this tormented fear. Listen to this. For as much as the children are
partakers of flesh and blood, Christ Himself took part of the
same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power
of death, and deliver them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage." The fear of dying is a bondage. And the conscience cannot live
under this bondage and enjoy God. So what does the Lord Jesus
do? He comes and frees us from the
hand of this enemy. The believer does not have to
fear the hand of death. Christ tasted it in his stead. He tasted it in his stead. Now what is death? It's said
to be a sleep and a rest for the body. My neighbor died a
few weeks ago, my old neighbor, 89 years old. I knew him 25 years.
They called me over and said, his daughter called me over and
said, my dad just died. So I went over and sat there.
He was still warm. And as I left this house and
went back across to my house, they were weeping. They were sad. And I thought
of a verse of Scripture that came to my mind as I walked back
across my yard. And it was the Lord Jesus, what
He said in Hosea chapter 13. And here's the verse of Scripture
that came to my mind. Here's what He said. I will ransom
them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death."
And then he turns to death. And he starts speaking to death.
And here's what he says to death. Oh, death, I will be your plagues. Death comes to us, and what happens
to us? We tremble. It changes our countenance. Our knees smite together. We
can't face death. He's our enemy. But the Lord
Jesus can talk to it. And He says, O death, I will
be your plagues. O grave, I will be your destruction. And repentance shall be hid from
my eyes. The Lord Jesus tasted death and
now He turns to us and says, I have the keys to it. And nobody
can taste death, nobody can be harmed by death, nobody can go
to the place of the dead until I take these keys and unlock
the place and let them in there and shut them up in there. And
I'm not going to do that to my people, He said. Why? Because He's freed us from the
hand of death that hates us and that tormenting fear of it. Fourthly, Christ has delivered
us from the power of darkness. The power of the devil and his
demons and the kingdom of darkness. Brother Glenn read it to us this
morning. He has delivered us from the power of darkness. That's our enemy. Satan is our
enemy. He's our greatest enemy in this
world that we have to cope with on a daily basis. The Lord Jesus
was speaking of him one day, and here's what the Lord Jesus
said about him, and here's what the Lord called him. He called
him a strong man. When the strong man, armed, keeps
his palace, his goods are intact. They're in peace. The Lord Jesus
says the devil, Satan, is a strong man and he's armed. And by these
arms, he keeps us in bondage. What are the arms of the devil? What are his weapons that he
keeps us in bondage with? Well, one is this. He's armed
with these doubts upon the truthfulness of God's Word. Can we know the truth? Oh, it's
doubtful, he says. It's doubtful. Truth is relative,
he says. Truth is whatever you want it
to be. We can't have infallible truth. That's what he tells this
world. He's armed with unbelief as to
the wilderness The willingness and the ability of Jesus Christ
to save a fallen sinner. I don't think Christ can save
me. Well, who put that unbelief there? Who is it that stirs that
unbelief as to the ability of Christ to save you? That's the
devil. Who is it that speaks to the
conscience of a sinner and says, He won't have mercy upon you?
That's the devil. He's armed with the temporal
advantages and the pleasures and the cares of this world. He occupies people's minds with
those things. He's armed with religious superstitions
and men's traditions and men's commandments. That's what he's
armed with. He's armed with hateful thoughts
towards God and His sovereign rule. Is there unrighteousness
with God? Why, sure there is. God don't
have the right to choose whom He will, to save whom He will. That's my prerogative, the prerogative
of my free will. God has no business reigning.
I want to be God. Who is it that puts that in the
heart? That's the devil. That's his arms. That's the way
he binds the heart and stays in the palace of the soul. He's armed with stubbornness
and rebellion and indifference and ignorance and procrastination
and false accusations against God and the church, especially
the preacher. Luther says he's armed with cruel
hate and on earth that's not his equal. But thanks be unto
God, the Lord Jesus didn't stop there. Here's what he says. But
when a stronger than he shall come upon him. And he takes away
those weapons, that armor wherein he trusted, and he spoils his
goods. I tell you, a decision for Christ
may give you a false hope, but it can't get the devil out of
your heart. The Lord Jesus Christ must do that. Zechariah said
he's done it. He's delivered us from the hand
of those who hate us. He's delivered us from the hands
of our enemy, from Satan himself. He's bruised the serpent head.
He's taken away the power of death from him. He's destroyed
his work. And he's now delivering his people
from him that was too strong for him. These are mighty enemies. The wrath of God, sin and guilt,
death and the power of darkness, and Christ to set us free. And
notice how our text reads here, stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made you free. Christ hath made you free. This is not something that you
did. You had no part in this. You were in utter bondage to
these enemies. They were too strong for Him.
But He saw you bound, living in fear of your enemy. And what
did He do? He freed you. He released you. And He did it Himself. Dear old
Horatius, Bornar said, Your voice alone, O Lord, Your voice alone
can speak to me of grace. Your power alone, O Son of God,
can all my sins erase. No other work but Yours. No other blood will do. No other
strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through. Christ
hath redeemed us. Brothers and sisters, you face
these enemies every day. You and I face them every day,
saved or lost, we face these enemies. And they're mighty.
Set nothing between yourself and these mighty enemies but
Jesus Christ alone. Don't put Moses between Him and
your enemy. Don't put John the Baptist between
Him and your enemy. Don't put your work between Him
and your enemy. But set this redeeming and gracious
Christ and His willing to save you to the uttermost. Bring in
your arms, in your arms of faith, the Lord Jesus. And bring Him
bloody, just like Abel bought this bloody
lamb and placed Him between Himself and the wrath of God, Himself
and the guilt of God. Bring the Lord Jesus and place
Him between your enemies and yourself, and He'll be enough. He'll be enough to deliver you
from the power of your enemies. But if you and I are slothful,
if you and I are neglectful, and we refuse to stand fast in
the Lord, stand fast It's easy said, it's easy read, but it's
difficult to do. If you and I are to enjoy this
liberty and maintain the liberty of conscience which we have,
then there's no other way but to stand fast. To be sober, be
diligent, because our adversary the devil is walking about seeking
whom he may devour. The only way to enjoy this liberty
of our conscience that Christ has called us into, stand fast. Stand fast. Be strong in the
Lord and in the power of His might. And if you and I are slothful,
then know this for sure. The devil stands ready to devour
us. And this world stands ready to
lead us astray. And the wrath of Almighty God
stands ready to consume us. And death and sin and guilt stands
ready to make us afraid all the days of our life. Stand fast. There's a reason that the Apostle
said that. Because this liberty is difficult
to stand fast in. Because it's not a liberty that
we take up carnal weapons to obtain. And it's not a liberty
that we can use medication to stand in. But it's a liberty
of conscience. And the only way to stand fast
in it is to take up our cross daily. and look along to Jesus
Christ, and follow Him wherever He leads, and to obey His voice. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face,
and there you'll walk in this liberty, and there you'll stand
fast in this liberty. God bless this world. Let's pray.