I was born in rebellion to God
and His Son. My sin and my pride kept us apart. But one day I heard that the
Lamb of Calvary died to redeem and humbled my heart. All I can offer to God is thanks. All that I can give is praise
to His great name. Nothing from these hands could
atone for my sin. I offer nothing to God but thanks. I am thankful to God for the
gift of his Son, for the mercy and the love shown to me. I no longer depend on the
works of my hands, but on the work that Christ finished for
me. All that I can offer to God is
thanks. All that I can give is praise
to his great name. Nothing from these hands could
atone for my sin. I offer nothing to God but faith. I am thankful to God for eyes
that now see him, for ears he's made to hear his loving voice. I am thankful to God for feet
that run to Christ, for a new heart that now in Him does rejoice. All that I can offer to God is
thanks. All that I can give is praise
to His great name. from these hands could atone
for my sin I offer nothing to God but thanks I offer nothing
to God but thanks Amen. Well, I'm thankful he gave you
that song and let me hear it. Turn with me please to Acts chapter
22. Acts 22 verse 22. And they gave him audience Unto this word. The apostle Paul
had been telling the Jews at Jerusalem how that God had saved
him by his grace and power through the Lord Jesus Christ. And they
heard him with relative patience and silence until the apostle
told them how that God in his glorious sovereignty had rejected
the Jews as a nation and had sent the gospel to his elect
among the Gentiles. He said in verse 21, the Lord
said to me, depart for I will send thee far hence unto the
Gentiles. And they gave him audience unto
this word. When they heard that God had
mercy on whom he will, without regard to human merit, without
regard to religious rearing, without regard to family descent,
they were enraged. Fallen men always are. Rebels
always are enraged by the declaration of God's total, absolute sovereignty. Our Lord Jesus had a similar
experience when he came back to Galilee within the synagogue
And he took the scriptures and told them how that God sent his
messenger to that one leper who was a Gentile, to no lepers who
were Jews. How that God sent his messenger
to that one widow who was a Gentile, to no widows among the Jews. Those men in anger took up stones
and would have killed the Son of God, but he escaped out of
their midst. When these self-righteous Jews
heard that God had rejected them and chosen to save worthless
Gentiles, they were filled with wrath, hatred, and rage. They began to act like wild beasts.
Look at what the text says here. They lifted up their voices and
said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for it's not
fit that he should live. And as they cried out, they cast
off their clothes. I suspect what that saying is,
not that they stripped themselves naked, but they took off their
robes, their coats, their outer garments because they were getting
ready to go about the business of stoning this man to death.
As they cast off their clothes, they threw up dirt in the air.
They would have killed Paul. These men acted like madmen because
they despised this messenger of God. Their hatred of God's
sovereign character drove them insane. They couldn't get their
hands around God's throat, so they tried to kill Paul. Then
the chief captain commanded his soldiers to take Paul aside,
bring him in the castle, and scourge him. Now what that means
is this. The chief captain presumed that
Paul must have been a vile man to have raised such a ruckus
among the Jews. So he was going to beat a confession
out of him. He tied him, had him tied to a pillar and then
they would scourge him until he confessed the terrible evil
that he had done. But while this soldier was tying
Paul's hands to the pillar, he said to the soldier, is it lawful
for you to scourge or to beat a man that is a Roman and unconvinced? That terrified that soldier.
Of course it's not lawful. That soldier went to his commanding
officer and he said, do you realize that you've told us to beat a
man who is a citizen of Rome? And that scared the commanding
officer to death. So finally, this commanding officer,
this centurion came down to Paul, this chief captain rather. And
he said in verse 27, tell me, art thou a Roman? He said, I
am. Yes, I'm a Roman." And the chief
captain answered, with a great song, obtained I this freedom. He was not a Roman by birth,
by nature, by descent, but he had purchased his Roman citizenship,
his freedom as a Roman, by paying some great price for it. And
then the apostle Paul said to him, but I was reborn. He was born in Tarsus, and Tarsus
was a free city. It had been made free long before
Paul was born by the declaration of Mark Antony. I call your attention
to these words. I was free born. I realize that Paul is talking
about his political freedom as a Roman citizen. But I want to
take these words as coming not from the mouth of Saul of Tarsus,
a citizen of Rome, but as coming from the mouth of Paul, the believer,
a citizen of the heavenly Jerusalem. And what Paul here says of himself,
every true believer may rejoice to declare to all men, I was
free born. We are citizens of the heavenly
Jerusalem. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince
of Heaven, declared that city to be free by the power of his
blood long before we were born. And being born free citizens
of heaven, we will never be brought into bondage, not by any man. Now, I want to try, as God will
enable me, to deal very plainly and candidly with a very controversial
subject. All who are born into the kingdom
of God are born free. I have four points to my message
that I want to bring to your attention this evening. First,
I want you to see that all men by nature are in bondage. Secondly,
that Christ alone makes men free. Thirdly, that all who are born
of God are born free. And then finally, that there
is a glorious liberty yet to be revealed. The first statement
is this, all men by nature are in bondage. Now that's a fact
that men don't like to own up to. Our Lord came to the Jews
and declared to them that if the sun would make them free,
they would be free indeed. They said, we'll have you to
understand we've never been in bondage. And when we speak of
men being in bondage, they would have us to understand that they're
not in bondage. They've never been in bondage.
But the fact remains, all men by nature are bondmen, as much
in bondage as the most abject slave in history. The bondage
I speak of is not a physical bondage. It is not an incarceration
of the body, but it is a spiritual bondage, a bondage of the heart,
of the will, of the nature, of the soul, and of the mind of
man. Some of you are yet in this bondage. Your bondage to sin, to Satan,
and to this world is so subtle, so deceiving, that you don't
even realize it. Your own evil heart holds you
in captivity. You grind at the meal of covetousness. You're rotting in the dungeon
of sensuality, and you're being dragged through life by the chains
of anger, wrath, and malice. You're oppressed by the heavy
yoke of fashion, style, and social approval. Your slavery is a hopeless
one because it's a slavery into which you have willingly sold
yourselves with deliberate forethought. And unless God intervenes, it
will bring you to eternal misery. The man who serves his own passion
is the slave of the worst possible tyrant in the world. Now, there
are principally four forms of bondage which all men experience,
which all men are in by nature. All men by nature are in bondage
to sin. Now, sin is what we are. Sin
is what our hearts are in the very essence. Everything about
man is evil and corrupt because his heart's corrupt. Man's will
is evil because his heart is evil. Man's deeds are evil because
all his deeds are motivated by an evil heart. Every man who
is honest, He must confess, he must acknowledge that everything
he thinks, says, and does is dictated and motivated by a self-centered,
proud, arrogant heart. Now that's true even of the best
of men. Somebody said, talked about self-denial
and self-sacrifice. and loathing of self, thank God
there is within me something that denies self and loathes
self and hates self. But there still is here that
old proud heart of flesh so that everything I do is marred by
sin, is marred by pride, is marred by sin, everything. Everything
has some motivation that's going to get something for done. Everything
has some motivation of evil, of corruption, everything. Man
by nature is in bondage to sin, and man by nature is in bondage
to the law of God. Cursed is every one that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
We have broken God's law, and having broken God's holy law,
we're under the sentence of death, justly condemned by God for our
transgression. The wages of our sin is death,
eternal death. To one degree or another, in
one way or another, all of us are naturally the slaves of other
men as well. We pride ourselves on independence,
and we pride ourselves on being free-thinking, but we are all
by nature in bondage to fashion, craving the approval, the acceptance,
and the applause of men. We all seek the approval of our
neighbors. We all seek the approval of our
peers. We seek their applause, and we
labor hard to get it. Whether it's by the car we drive,
the house we live in, the clothes we wear, whatever it is, we're
seeking after man's approval. We're in bondage to man. We're
just in bondage to man. And we are all naturally slaves
to religious tradition, custom, and superstition. Now listen
to me. I'm not a humanist. And I'm not
even getting involved in the humanist fundamentalist controversy
and debate. But the maxim of humanism is
true. The maxim of humanism is true. Man believes what he is raised
to believe. Those men in the various Muslim
countries in this world, believe what they do and they are dedicated
to their religion because they're raised from their infancy in
the dedication of that religion. Man believes what he's raised
to believe. The Jews believe what they do
because they're raised in it. And most of what is called Christians
believe what they do because they are raised to believe it.
Man's faith is the result of his environment. Religion is
a cultural thing. It is passed on from father to
son, generation after generation. And this natural, cultural, environmental
religion brings men and women into terrible bondage. Terrible
bondage. Now the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world to set the captives free. He came to open the doors
of the prison which held his people. Christ came to break
the iron chains of our bondage and to bring us into liberty.
Christ came to save us from the bondage of sin, to free us from
the bondage of the law, to deliver us from the bondage of social
approval, and to emancipate us once and for all from the bondage
of human religion. Our second point is this. Christ
alone makes us free. No one ever comes to enjoy true
liberty before God except by the blood, the power, and the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. True liberty is obtained only
by the power and authority of God's eternal Son. Turn over
to the book of John, if you will, John chapter 8. During the days
of our Lord's earthly ministry, there was a custom among the
Greeks and the Romans If a man died leaving sons or leaving
slaves in his estate, they became the property of his oldest son.
If the son should say, some of these slaves are my brethren
and my kinsmen, or some of these slaves are men who have found
favor in my eyes, therefore I proclaim them to be at liberty. then those slaves were made free
by the declaration of the Son whose property they were. Now,
in much the same way, our Lord Jesus Christ draws a parallel
to himself. He says in John chapter 8 and
verse 36, I believe it is, yes, verse 36, if the Son, the Son
of God, The Son to whom all things belong, the Son into whose hands
the Father has committed all things, if the Son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. If the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, the great heir of the promise, shall make
you free If he shall proclaim these men are at liberty, you
shall indeed be free before God and before men. Indeed, free
in your own consciences. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ purchased
freedom for us by his great sin-atoning sacrifice, his death at Calvary. Turn over to Galatians 3. Galatians
chapter 3. We're going to be looking at
a good bit of Scripture this evening. If you can follow along,
please do. If you have difficulty, jot it
down. I want you to get this message. Galatians chapter 3
verse 13. The Apostle Paul tells us that
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. The problem
at Galatia was that there were men who had crept in unawares
and they tried to persuade the believers at Galatia that they
must still keep and obey the law of Moses. Otherwise, they
were under threat of some sort of punishment from God, whether
it meant they were in danger of eternal punishment or whether
it meant they were in danger of temporal punishment. These
Judaizers were saying either keep the law or suffer the consequences. And Paul comes to the Galatians
and says, listen to me, Christ have, once and for all, with
finality, redeemed us out from under the curse of the law. For
it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree." The
Lord Jesus Christ, being made a curse for us, has put an end
to the law's curse. Our Great Substitute met and
satisfied the demands of God's holy law for His people. Now,
since Christ has done that, Oscar Bailey, the law has no right
to lay claim to you. None whatever. None whatever.
If Christ has redeemed you out from under the curse of the law,
being made a curse for you, the law has no hold upon you, has
no legitimate complaint against you. The Son of God proclaims
liberty to His own by the preaching of the gospel. He proclaims to
the captive freedom. He says, the Spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach glad tidings. He
has anointed me to proclaim liberty to the captives. He says that
in Isaiah 61 verse 1. Our Lord proclaims through the
preaching of the gospel that freedom has been obtained. He
did it. He proclaims that freedom is
free. That is, it is not something
that you buy or something that you earn, but it's free. And
he proclaims that freedom is available. So that now the sons
of Adam, while they are prisoners, they're prisoners of hope. While
they're bondmen, they're bondmen in hope. While they're slaves,
they're slaves with hope. For Christ has come and proclaims
liberty to the captive. He proclaims freedom to the prisoners. He's come to set the captive
free. And our Lord Jesus Christ sets His people free by the sovereign
power of His Spirit. We sing frequently, that hymn
with one line in it that goes like this, he breaks the power
of cancelled sin. You know what that means? When
Christ died at Calvary, he cancelled our sin. And when he comes in
the power of the Spirit, he breaks the power of that sin in us,
which he cancelled at Calvary, blotting it out. He breaks the
power of cancelled sin, he sets the prisoner free. His blood
can make the phallus clean, his blood avails for me." And the
instrument by which Christ Jesus brings liberty to his people
is this word, the word of God. He said in John 8, 32, you shall
know the truth and the truth shall make you free. The preaching
of the gospel was demonstrated typically in the Old Testament
in the year of Jubilee. In the year of Jubilee, they
would blow the trumpet sounding the beginning of Jubilee. That
is, when that trumpet sounded, all the land that was in captivity,
and all the children that were in captivity, and every man that
was in captivity, and all the cattle that were in captivity,
it was proclaimed that they were free! And that's what preaching
the gospel is. It's blowing the trumpet and
it says, you're free! You're free! You're free! free
from all bondage, free from the law in Christ Jesus our Lord. The more clearly the truths of
the gospel are preached and understood, the more fully liberty is enjoyed. Bondage comes from error. Freedom
is the result of truth. Now thirdly, I want so much for
every one of us to understand and enjoy this blessed fact.
All who are born of God, are born free, all of them. Turn to Galatians 4, Galatians
chapter 4. The Apostle Paul has been telling
us in this third chapter that the law was a schoolmaster to
bring us to Christ. But once we've come to Christ
by faith, once we've come to maturity, that is to faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ, then the law has no more power over us.
The law has no more dominion over us. We are now the sons
of God and we have dominion over the law, not the law over us. Now look here in Galatians 4.
Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, that is an
immature child, differeth nothing from a slave, though he be lord
of all. but is under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of the father. The illustration particularly
is that the church in the Old Testament was as a child under
tutors. And now that Christ has come,
the church has come to her age of maturity. The illustration
pointedly to you and I is that we all by nature are under the
law. But when we come to faith in
Christ through the adoption of sons at the time appointed of
God by the coming of His Spirit in our hearts, then we have come
to be the sons of God declared to be such by the resurrection
of Christ from the dead, by the Spirit of God within our hearts.
He says in verse 3, even so we, when we were children, were in
bondage under the elements of the world, under the law of Moses,
under the carnal ordinances and commandments. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent His Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, made in subjection to the law, made to be obedient
to the law, made under the dominion of the law. He who gave the law
became obedient to the law to redeem them that were under the
law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts crying Abba Father. Wherefore, now listen, you're
no longer a slave. You're no longer a servant under
the law. You're no longer under the whip
and the tutorship of the law, but rather you're an heir, an
heir of God through Christ Jesus the Lord. You're a son. You're
a son. The moment a person is born again
by the Spirit of God, and becomes a child of God by faith in Christ,
he's free. The moment I believe in Christ,
I begin to enjoy real, true, and lasting freedom. As the believer
grows and matures in the knowledge of Christ, he enjoys his freedom
more fully. But the liberty is his the moment
he believes. It's both our privilege and our
responsibility to enjoy and to protect this freedom. which was
purchased for us by the blood of Christ. Now I want to plainly
and simply describe this freedom which we have by the grace of
God in Christ Jesus. I'll give you five aspects of
this freedom. First of all, in Christ we are
free from sin, Satan, and the law. Now that's where freedom
begins. When a man comes to Christ by
faith, he's set free from that bondage which all other men are
in by nature. Turn to Romans chapter 6. The
Lord Jesus Christ has freed us from the bondage of sin. Romans
6 and verse 11. Paul tells us that we're dead,
and being dead, we're freed from sin. And then he says in verse
7, now since God reckons you to be dead, He says, likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. I pray
that God will give us grace to do just that. Lindsay Campbell,
God reckons you dead on account of sin. Dead. He's punished you
for your sin. All of it. Even your sin today. He punished you for it. Now don't
let it plague your mind. That's what he's saying. Reckon
yourself to be dead. Dead to sin. It no longer has
any claim on you. It no longer has any dominion
over you. It no longer has any power to condemn you. Reckon
yourselves, like God does, to be dead indeed to sin, but alive
to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now reckoning things to
be as they are, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that
you should obey it in the lust thereof. Don't yield yourselves,
your members, as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,
but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto sin. For sin shall not have dominion over you. You're not
under the law, but under grace. What then? Shall we sin because
we're not under the law, but under grace? Don't be stupid. Don't be foolish, God forbid.
Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey,
ye servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or
of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked that ye were
the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form
of doctrine which was delivered unto you. Being then made free
from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness. Now what does
all that mean? Believers are not free from the
being of sin, the body of sin, or the acts of sin. As long as
God's elect live in this world, we will have to contend with
sin. But in Christ, we're no longer
the servants of sin. We're no longer under the dominion
and the power of sin. The guilt of sin has been removed
from us. Now, I'm telling you, I'm telling
you, the Lord Jesus Christ, who sits upon the throne of glory,
that God-man, by one act of suffering and death, put away our sins. Now, if you believe, his blood
purges your conscience from the guilt of sin, from the guilt
of sin. David Coleman, I'm not guilty.
I'm not guilty. I'm just not guilty. God declares
it. God declares it. Dare I question
it? Christ Jesus was made to be sin
for me and he put away my sins. He's removed us from the guilt
of sin. He's removed from us all condemnation of sin. There
is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
And he's come now by his Spirit and broken the reigning power
of sin so that that evil The carnal, corrupt, hellish nature
of ours no longer dictates and controls how we live in this
world. If we belong to God, we're the
servants of Christ, not the servants of sin. We're dictated, governed,
and ruled by Christ, not by our old carnal nature. The old carnal
nature is still there. No debate about that. But he's
not boss anymore. He's not king, Wes. He's not
on the throne anymore. Christ is on the throne. That's
the difference between the believer and the unbeliever. The Lord
Jesus Christ has also delivered us from the power of Satan by
his saving grace. By nature, Satan holds us by
usurped dominion, blinding us, deceiving us, and leading us
into captivity at his will. But in salvation, Christ dethrones
Satan by the power of his Holy Spirit. He enters into the hearts
of his elect, binds the strong man, and takes possession of
his house. Christ turns men from the power
of Satan to God. He translates us from the kingdom
of darkness to the kingdom of God. We're no longer slaves of
Satan to do his will, but the children of God to serve his
will. We are freed from Satan's Power, Satan's dominion, Satan's
rule. We're not freed from his temptations,
but we're freed from his power. We're not freed from his roaring,
but we're freed from his devouring. And Christ Jesus, our Lord, has
freed us from the law of Moses. While we're in the book of Romans,
let me just read some Scripture references to you. Romans 5 and
verse 20. I keep insisting on this and
keep insisting on this and keep insisting on this. Because men
keep trying their best to bring us back under bondage to the
law, and worse yet, under bondage to themselves. Wes was telling
me Sunday evening about someone sending him a book by a very
popular Calvinistic preacher in this country on how to live
a Christian life. I'd never seen the book, but
I know the preacher. I told him, I said, I'll bet anything there's
not one word of gospel in the book. Not one word. Law! Threats! Fear! Punishment! Not one word of gospel. And my
friends, God's book declares that God's children are free.
F-R-E-E from the law. Look here in Romans 5, verse
20. The law entered for one reason, that the offense might abound.
That's the only reason the law was given, to show you your sin. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto
death by the law, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Look in Romans 6 and
verse 15. What then? Shall we sin because
we are not under the law? Now language couldn't be any
plainer than that, could it? The apostle says we are not under
the law, period. Look in Romans chapter 7 verse
4. Wherefore, my brethren, ye also
are become dead to the law. Now if I'm dead to something,
it doesn't have any power over me. If I'm dead to something,
it has no legitimate claim upon me. If I'm dead to something,
it cannot in any way affect me. We are dead to the law by the
body of Christ. that ye should be married unto
another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should
bring forth fruit unto God. Look in Romans 8, verse 2. For
the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me
free from the law of sin and death. How much plainer could
Scripture be? Look in chapter 10 of Romans,
verse 4. is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believes. Merle Hart, do you believe? Then
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to you, for
any kind of righteousness. You cannot attain righteousness
by the law. We have it in Christ. Christ
is the end of the law. Now, you can carry that just
as far as it can possibly be carried and never run into danger,
Christ is the end of the law. We are free from the statutes
of the judicial law by which Israel was governed. We are free
from the ceremonies, the cites, and the rituals of the typical
law which was given to show forth the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And we are free from the bondage of the moral law,
what we generally call the Ten Commandments. As believers in
Christ, we have no covenant with the law, no condemnation by the
law, no constraint from the law, and no obligation to the law.
Christ has satisfied all for us. The lives of God's people
are not governed by the rules and regulations of the Mosaic
law, but rather by love and faith in Christ Jesus for the glory
of God. But our freedom in Christ extends
beyond these points of doctrinal controversy. It extends to the
affairs of common, everyday, ordinary life right now where
you and I live. Faith in Christ, secondly, gives
us a total freedom from all the customs, traditions, and superstitions
of human religion. One of these days I'm going to
put them all together in one big trash heap And we're going
to have a burning ceremony. I want to preach to you about
the customs that must go to the dump. Pharisees, both ancient
and modern, would impose heavy burdens on the consciences of
men by which the word of God and the commandments of God are
made of none effect. We must not become the servants
of self-righteous religious customs. We have no obligation to adhere
to the religious traditions of men. Turn over to Matthew chapter
15. Matthew 15. Men, by their customs and traditions,
make the word of God to be of none effect. Then came to Jesus
scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, and this is
what they said. Why do your disciples transgress the traditions of
the elders? I don't know how many times I've
had folks say to me, well, we just don't do that. We never
did believe that. We always thought this. Why do
you transgress the tradition of the elders? Because it's there. And if it's there, we'll transgress
it. For they wash not their hands when they eat bread. Oh, what
a terrible, terrible crime. These fellows must not have been
farmers, were they Oscar. They didn't have to eat out in
the fields. They washed not their hands before they ate. Our Lord
answered and said unto them, Why do you also transgress the
commandment of God by your tradition? God commanded, saying, Honor
thy father and thy mother. He that curses father or mother,
let him die the death. But you say, Whosoever shall
say to his father or his mother, It's a gift. You have been blessed
of God to get me, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by
me, and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus you have made the commandment
of God of none effect by your tradition, you hypocrites. Well did Isaiah prophesy of you,
saying, This people draweth nigh to me with their lips or with
their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart
is far from me. But in vain they do worship me,
in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. Turn over to Colossians 2, passage
we read earlier, Colossians chapter 2, verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you. Because Christ has redeemed you,
because Christ has put away your sin, because Christ has fulfilled
every requirement of God, don't fret about man's condemnation
with regard to what you eat or meet, or what you drink, or in
respect of an holy day, or of the new moon, or of Sabbath days. Preacher, don't you think we
ought to keep the Sabbath? I not only don't think we ought
to keep it, I think we ought not to keep it. And not only
do I think we ought not to keep it, I publicly declare that any
man who pretends to keep it is a liar. He doesn't keep the Sabbath
day. He doesn't keep the Sabbath day.
No man ever did. No man ever kept the Sabbath
day. A few in the Old Testament used to try to do so, but no
man ever kept it. Not as God required it to be
kept. And here the Apostle Paul tells us plainly that we are
not to keep Sabbath days. We are not to keep holy days. We are not to observe a new moon. We are not to pay any attention
to man's customs regarding what we eat or what we drink. Language
is plain enough. These things are a shadow of
things to come. But the body is of Christ. They
come along and they say, touch not, taste not, handle not. Hear no evil, see no evil, do
no evil. Don't you touch that wicked thing.
Don't you taste that wicked thing. Don't you handle that wicked
thing. Oh, what God would learn. God's creation is not evil. God's
creation is not evil. What men do with God's creation
very often is evil. But God's creation is not evil.
They say, Pastor, you're using awfully strong language. Now
we've got family here tonight, so I'm going to talk to you like
I talk to my family at home. Turn over to Galatians chapter
4. Galatians chapter 4. Let me see
if I can find a text here. The Apostle Paul is talking here
about these fellows who are preaching circumcision. And he's giving
plain, earnest declarations with regard to them. And he says, yes, chapter 5, verse 12. Look at verse 11. He says, I,
brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then is the offense of the cross ceased. I would they were even
cut off which trouble you." What Paul is saying is this.
I wish that these false prophets who are preaching circumcision
would castrate themselves and cease to speak. Now that's exactly
what he's saying. And I have much the same feeling.
Men who are promoting law, law obedience, law works, law righteousness,
law service to God are promoting that which is damning to the
souls of men. Neither the church of God nor
the preachers of the gospel have any right to add anything to
the word of God. I have no more right to develop
rules of conduct for God's people to live by than I do to develop
doctrines for God's people to believe. None whatever. Here's
the third area of our freedom. In Christ, we are free to use
every creature of God for food, for happiness, for comfort, and
for satisfaction in this world. God made this world by biestes
for you. He made this world for his elect.
He made it for our comfort, our happiness, and our pleasure as
we endeavor to serve him in it. Not for carnal gratification,
no. Not for earthly satisfaction,
no. But for the refreshment and the
encouragement of his people as they make their pilgrimage through
this world. Now, I realize that in the Old Testament, certain
things were divided into categories of clean and unclean because
of the ceremonial sacrifices and purifications of the Old
Testament law. The Levitical law made the use
of some things unlawful. But in this gospel age, we are
free to use any creature of God. There's nothing common or unclean
or evil in and of itself. Nothing. I'll give you an illustration. In the Old Testament, men and women were forbidden
to eat pork. Not because it was unhealthy,
because it was ceremonially unclean. That's all. Men and women were
forbidden to eat those good gray squirrels that you fix up. Not
because it was unhealthy, but because they were ceremonially
unclean. That's all. Now in the gospel
age, one of the first lessons that Simon Peter had to learn
was when he was in that trance and God was sending him down
to Cornelius. Of course, they thought about
Gentiles, those Jews did, just like they thought about hogs
and dogs. They didn't want anything to do with either. And Peter
learned that God said, don't you call what I've cleansed common
or unclean. Don't you do it. My creation
is cleansed by me. And it's useful according to
the purpose for which I've ordained it. Turn to Romans chapter 14.
Romans chapter 14, verse 14. I know and am persuaded by the
Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. Nothing defiling of itself. It's not what you eat or drink
that defiles you. Not what you put in your mouth
that defiles you, but the corruption of your heart that spews out
of your mouth. That's what defiles you. Don't you know that what
you eat and drink goes in at the mouth and comes out in the
draft? It doesn't have any effect on you. Nothing is common or
unclean of itself, but to him that is steaming anything to
be unclean, to him it's unclean. Look in verse 17. For the kingdom
of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and
joy in the Holy Ghost. What are you saying, pastor?
I'm saying we are at perfect liberty in Christ to use those
things which are neither commanded nor forbidden of God as we see
fit. These are matters of indifference.
We are not in any way to place any constraint upon any of God's
children in these measures. I hear people, they come up to
me and they say to me, Don, do you, anybody here got frosted
hair? Theresa's got frosted hair. Do
you reckon a woman could be saved who frosts her hair like that?
You think I'm joking. I've had folks ask me things
like that. Matter of fact, I've had folks ask me that. I just
don't see how anybody can be saved to do something like that.
You think a man can be saved to choose tobacco? You think
a man can be saved to go to the ballgame on Sunday afternoon?
Boy, I don't see how a man can be saved to do anything like
that. Men set themselves up. as the standard of perfect righteousness. And they say, you're damned if
you don't live like I do. And that's what we say, even
though we don't speak it with our mouths. I hope you've learned
better. But when we look down our noses at somebody because
they live in a different lifestyle, or they like or dislike things
differently from us, and we say by reason of the things they
say or do. I'm talking about matters of
indifference now. Some of the things that God just simply doesn't
give command about. We say, well, a fellow can't
be a good Christian to do that. No, he can't be. What you're
saying is he can't be a good Christian unless he's what I
am. Unless he's like I am. Likes what I like, goes where
I go, dresses like I dress. There's no limit to it. There's
no limit to it. Now there's a lot that I would
like to say with regard to cautioning you. about the proper use of
your liberty. Let me just say this. If you want to eat chitlins,
you happen to have a palate for them, have your fill. Nothing
wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it. If you
don't, don't get upset because the other fellow does. Eating is not evil. I don't care
what you eat. Eating is not evil. Gluttony
is evil. Drinking is not evil. It's not
evil. I pray to you, you can't say
that to people. I just said it. I intend to go
on saying it until folks hear what I'm saying. It's not evil. Drunkenness is evil. Drunkenness
is evil. By all means, drunkenness is
evil. But I don't care what you drink.
Drinking is not evil. It's not evil in and of itself.
Do you understand what I'm saying? God speaks plainly concerning
what's evil. Malice and envy and covetousness
and adultery and fornication. Those things he speaks about.
He says something about those backbiting, lying, deception. Those things he speaks about.
But matters of indifference, the only thing to be careful
with is that you exercise reason, temperance, and moderation in
all things. The Word of God does not prohibit
the use of anything. It teaches temperance and moderation
in all things. Again, in Christ, we are free
to worship and serve the Lord our God. Look here in Ephesians
2. Ephesians chapter 2. No man can or will worship God
truly except by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But all who
are in Christ are free to worship God. Ephesians 2 verse 18. For through Him, we both, Jew
and Gentile, male and female, bond and free, we both have access
by one Spirit unto the Father. That medium of access is Christ
Jesus. In Christ, Don Fortner is free
to call upon God in prayer. In Christ, Don Fortner is free
to observe all the ordinances of the gospel. In Christ, all who believe have freely given
themselves up as bond slaves to him. We are willing slaves,
not to sin, not to Satan, not to self, not to the law, but
to the Son. All of God's people are willing
bond slaves to the Lord Jesus Christ so that we hold ourselves
and all that we are and all that we possess in reserve for our
master, for his cause, for his kingdom, for his family, and
for his glory. All for Jesus, all for Jesus,
all my being's ransom powers, all my thoughts and words and
doings, all my days and all my hours. And in Christ, being born
of God, we are made free from the fear of death. Through our
Lord's incarnation, his suffering and his death, he has delivered
us who through fear of death were all our lifetime subject
to bondage. Death, formidable as it is, is
no longer the king of terrors to God's elect. We no longer
fear the death of this body. Trusting Christ, being in Him,
and having a good hope that we shall see Him, we rather choose
to depart from this world that we may be with our Savior. For
we know that to die is gain. In the prospect of death and
eternity, trusting Christ, God's people can sing, O death, where
is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? We both live and die. in hope not of this world, but
in hope of the world to come, in hope of life everlasting,
in hope of the resurrection. And in Christ Jesus, we have
no fear of the second death. Blessed is and holy is he that
hath part in the first resurrection, for on such the second death
shall have no power. being justified by his grace,
redeemed by his blood, robed in his righteousness, and born
of his spirit, the second death has no power over God's elect. Bold shall I stand in that great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay, while through thy
blood absolved I am from sin's tremendous curse and blame. Still the word of God has something
more to say about our freedom in Christ. Turn to Romans chapter
8. All men by nature are in bondage. Christ alone makes men free. All who are born of God are born
free. And fourthly, there is a glorious
liberty that is yet to be revealed. Look in Romans chapter 8, verse
21. Because the creature, the creation
itself, also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption. When our father Adam fell, this
whole world was corrupted by his fall. And when our father,
the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed this world, he redeemed the whole
creation from the corruption of the fall. And in time shall
deliver this creation into the glorious liberty of the children
of God. I speak now of that liberty which
God's elect shall enjoy in the world to come. As soon as a believer
dies, he's with Christ and with the spirits of just men made
perfect. We will soon be free from all
the corruption and defilement of sin and free from the very
being of sin. and free from all the consequences
of sin. I don't pretend to know all that
heaven has for the people of God, but I know this. In heaven
we shall be totally free from everything associated with our
sin. Totally free. No wonder Paul
calls it the glorious liberty of the sons of God. And that
day I shall be free from all pride,
all unbelief, all doubt, all fear, all distress, all evil
thoughts, all temptation, and all punishment. Totally free. Totally free. And when the Lord
Jesus Christ comes again, these very bodies shall be raised into
the glorious liberty of the sons of God. In the resurrection,
these bodies will no longer be sinful but glorious. This body
will no longer be a tent of wickedness but a palace of holiness. Imagine
that. In the resurrection, we shall
not even bear the pains and scars of sin. Not even the pains and
scars. Last week, down in Jacksonville,
I was talking to our friend, Brother David Adkins. I think
all of you met him when he was here to preach. When he was 14
years old, he was out squirrel hunting, leaned a 20-gauge shotgun
up against a tree, and blew his arm off. Blew it off. Right up to the shoulder. And
he was bitter for a long time. Of course, it was God's way in
providence, one of the things by which he brought him to hear
the gospel of his grace. And David was saying the other
day, he said, I frequently think about the resurrection. I'll ask him questions. Of course,
I guess a lot of it was curiosity. I hope some of it was out of
concern for him. Do you know what he told me?
He just got a little stub here. He told me he could feel his
little finger. He's like, feel my hands move, my hand move.
He's like, I reach out for something and I draw that stub back just
like I draw my arm back, keep it out of danger. It's just as
real, just as real. And one of these days, those
nerves are not going to be all that's there. For Christ is going
to raise every particle of the dust of our bodies from the grave,
and these bodies, which have suffered so much by reason of
sin, shall be totally free from even the scar of sin." Totally
free. Shoot. is a scar of sin, I'll
be a thin fella in that day. And if baldness is a scar of
sin, I'll have a full flock of hair in that day. We shall be
totally free from sin. Can you imagine that? These bodies,
which have so long served and ministered to corruption, shall
be raised and equipped to serve and minister forever with immortality
in righteousness because I was born free. Amen.