Would you turn to 2 Corinthians
chapter 3? And we're going to have lunch
together after the service, and tonight we will not have a service. I've entitled this message Christian
Liberty. Christian Liberty. Look in verse 17 of 2 Corinthians
chapter 3. Now, the Lord is that spirit, and where the spirit of the Lord
is, there is liberty. There is freedom. Look back in verse six of the
same chapter. Paul says that God has made us
able ministers of the New Testament. Not of the letter, but of the
spirit. For the letter killeth. But the spirit giveth life and
the Lord is that spirit who gives life. You see, The gospel is
a person. And let me repeat that. The gospel
is a person. And where he is, there is liberty.
There is freedom. Where liberty is not, he is not
there. The Lord is that spirit, and
where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Christian liberty. Now, I want you to think of the
preciousness of liberty, of freedom. Isn't it a privilege to be able
to meet together this morning in freedom to hear the gospel
preached? The liberty to worship. The liberty
to be where you want to be. The liberty to do what you want
to do. Isn't that a blessing? The liberty
to follow your dreams. Now, I'm thankful that we're
living in a country where you can do what you want to do. Now, I realize that some people
are in a situation in this country where it would be very difficult
for them to rise above their surroundings. People who were
born in situations where they just can't get out and they seem
trapped. I realize that many people face
situations like that. I wouldn't be hard hearted toward
that, but still isn't a blessing to be in a place where you can
rise above that. Where you can follow your dreams,
to be in a society where there is not a caste system, where
there is opportunity. for you to pursue what you want.
I thank God we live in a country that stands for liberty. Aren't
you thankful for that? I thank God that we live in a
country that stands for our unalienable right for life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness. Our country has its problems
because we're in it. That creates some problems. But
there's no place I'd rather be than right here. Thank God for
this country. But that's not what I'm talking
about. What is liberty? I'm talking about Christian liberty.
A lot of times when folks think of Christian liberty, they think,
well, it's your liberty to do something that somebody else
might consider taboo. Maybe you have liberty to drink
alcohol. And it's not a sin, whereas people
think that, oh, that's a sin, but you have liberty to do so. That's what most people think
of when they think of Christian liberty. That has very little
to do with what Christian liberty actually is. What is liberty?
The dictionary gives this meaning unrestrained. You get to go at your pleasure. Freedom to go where everyone
likes. Freedom to do what you want to
do. Freedom to go where you want
to go. Exempt from obligation or liability. What that means is debt free.
Debt free. You do not owe anything. You're
not a slave. Now this concept of liberty. The Lord is that spirit. And
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. This concept
of liberty cannot really be understood or appreciated unless there's
some understanding of the opposite. Unless there's some understanding
of bondage. Kind of like grace can't be understood
without some understanding of sin, can it? Grace is meaningless
if you don't know what sin is. And liberty is meaningless if
you don't have some understanding as to what bondage is. Now, think of being in jail. Think of being imprisoned. If you can walk out of jail whenever
you want to, that's really not bondage, is it? You're in bondage
where you're locked up and you cannot get out. It's only when
you're a captive in jail with no ability to get out that you'll
understand what it means when someone sets you free. Then you understand something
about liberty. When you're in debt and there's
no way that you can pay your bills, I mean, there's just no
way you can come up with the goods, And somebody pays them
for you and all of a sudden you're free of all debt. You understand
something about being debt free. When you have restraints placed
upon you and you can't go where you want to go. I was talking to somebody recently
who one of the relatives had been put under house arrest.
And they had to have one of those global What do you call it? Global whatever. You know what
I'm talking about. The government. They had to have
one of those, but they didn't have any freedom to go anywhere.
They were stuck in their house. Now, if someone like that is
set free. All of a sudden, they get to
go wherever they want to go when those restraints are removed.
Think of this. Which marriage would be better?
Two people who loved each other and wanted to be with each other. to be with each other and have
no love for each other. Which marriage would be better? Freedom of access. This is what
this thing of liberty is. Freedom of access. Where I don't
have a no trespassing sign, but I'm welcome to come in. Freedom. Liberty. Now, to understand what the Bible
means by liberty, I have to have some understanding of the bondage
of sin. And if I don't have any understanding
of the bondage of sin, Christian liberty is a concept that I cannot
possibly grasp. Now, if you're in bondage to
sin, and this is what liberty is, liberation from sin. If you're
in bondage to sin, that means you are enslaved to sin. You can't get away from it. If
you're in bondage to sin, that means you cannot not sin. If you're in bondage to sin.
You're not free. To not sin. You're captive to
sin and you cannot escape. You're in the jail of sin and
you have no power to open the door. You cannot get out. That's what it is to be in bondage
to sin. Hold your finger there in second
Corinthians and turn to first John, chapter one. John says in verse eight. If
we say that we have no sin. We deceive ourselves. And the
truth is not in us. Look in verse 10. If we say we've
not sinned, and I'm talking about anything we've done, I'm talking
about the prayers we pray. I'm talking about our Bible reading.
I'm talking about anything we do. If we say we've not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Now, if we know
anything about the nature of sin, being a captive to sin,
being in the jailhouse of sin, where I cannot not sin. If God has taught us anything
about the nature of sin, we understand that the concept of free will
is an utter myth. There's nothing true to it. Now, what do I mean by free will? Right now, you're here because
you want to be here. Adults, anyway. You're here because
you want to be here. No one forced you to come. You
came because you wanted to. And let me say this also. Everything
you do, you do because you want to do it. And if you don't do
it, it's because you did not want to do it. We do what we
want to do. Isn't that so? Not coerced. We do what we want to do. In that sense, everybody's free. When you sin, you sin because
you wanted to sin. That's why you can't say, well,
the devil made me do it. No, you made yourself do it. We do what we do freely. Everybody does what they want
to do. So what do I mean when I say
the concept of free will is a myth? I simply mean this. Your will
is controlled by your nature. You can't, with this evil nature
that you have, this sinful nature that you and I have, we can't
just up and decide, well, I'm not going to sin today. I'm going
to freely choose to not sin. You're deceived if you think
something like that. That's what the scripture says. You're deceived.
You're blind. You haven't. God's not taught
you anything. If you believe in this concept
of free will, you're completely ignorant of your nature, a sinful
and an evil nature. Turn with me to Jeremiah, chapter
13. Jeremiah, chapter 13. Jeremiah asked this question. Verse 23. Can the Ethiopian, does the Ethiopian
have the ability to change his skin? Can he say, well, the color
of my skin is going to change? Or the leopard, his spots, can
he say, well, I'm not going to be spotted anymore. I'm going
to choose to not be like that. The answer to those questions
is no. Then may you also do good that are accustomed to do evil. No, you cannot look in Jeremiah,
chapter 17, verse nine. The heart. Now, the heart is the mind, the
intellect. It's the affections, what you
love, what you hate. It's the will. Yes, there is
such a thing as will. He says the heart, the mind,
the affections, the will is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? You don't have,
and I don't have a clue as to how bad we really are. That's
how deceitful we are. You know, the testimony of Scripture
regarding man, Genesis chapter 6, verse 5, says, And God saw
that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now that's God's testimony of
me, that's God's testimony of you. Free will? Why, that's ridiculous. My will is controlled by my nature. And if someone thinks that the
gospel is found in this message, God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, God wants to save everybody, He's knocking at your
door, but it's up to you, it's up to your will to activate Faith,
and you can choose to believe or you can choose not to believe,
and salvation is dependent upon your choice, the choice of your
will. If you believe that, you don't
believe the gospel. That is not, I repeat, that is not the gospel.
That's a message of salvation by works. That's all it is. There's
no truth to it. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 says, for by
grace are you saved through faith. And that faith, it's not of yourself. It wasn't activated by an act
of your will. It didn't come from you. That
faith is not of yourself. It's the gift of God, not of
works. You see, if you believe that
faith comes as a result of your free will, what you say is, I
believe salvation by works. That's it. But it's not of works,
lest any man should boast. Now, you only believe when it's
your nature to believe. You only believe when it's your
nature to believe. God gives you a new heart. But
unless God liberates me from sin, I'm a slave. I'm in bondage. Paul spake in Romans 8.21 of
the bondage of corruption. Now, turn to John chapter 8 for
a moment. Gospel of John chapter 8. Now regarding what I'm saying
right now. What I'm saying about free will.
What the Bible says. Now if I tell you, if you say,
well I don't believe that. And I say, well, that's OK. We're
going to end up in the same place. We're still going to heaven,
both of us when we die. I've removed the offense from the
cross. But what this is, this message says that if you and
I don't believe this, we will not be in heaven. That's what that means. It's
not just an intellectual thing where I look at one way and you look
at the other. No, this is the gospel. The issue
here is life and death. And look in John chapter 8 verse
31. And 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. The truth concerning who you
are. The truth concerning who God
is, the truth concerning how He saves by His grace, by Christ,
by what Christ... You'll know the truth! And the
truth, not your knowledge of the truth, but the truth Himself.
Remember, the truth is a person. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. It's not your knowledge of the
truth that will make you free, because when it comes right down
to it, you don't know that much, do you? I don't know that much.
I can't say that my knowledge is what sets me free, but the
truth himself, the Lord Jesus Christ, is who sets us free.
Now let's go on reading. You shall know the truth and
the truth shall make you free. They answered him. We, the Abraham
seed, have never been in bondage to any man. They were under the complete
dominion of the Roman government when they said that. Where were
they coming up with something like that? We were never in bondage
to any man. That's a big lie. That's all
it is. How sayest thou you shall be
made free? Verse 34, Jesus answered them,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the
slave, is the word, is the slave of sin. You can't get free of it. And the servant, the slave, abideth
not in the house forever. If the slave doesn't do his master's
bidding, the master will kick him out. But the Son abided forever. Verse 36, if the Son therefore
shall make you free, liberate you, set you free. If the Son, therefore, shall
make you free, you shall be free indeed. Now, when he's talking
about the Son making us free, he says, remember, in the context,
he says, whosoever committeth sin, he's talking about freedom
from sin. Whosoever committeth sin is the
slave of sin, under the complete dominion of sin. But if the Son
makes you free. You're free indeed. Now, how is it that the sun makes
one free? Now, remember the issue of sin.
Here's how the sun makes me free from sin. Number one, I'm free
from the condemnation of sin. I will never be held accountable
for my sin because Christ was held accountable for it and was
punished for it and it is now gone, separated from me as far
as the East is from the West. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. In Christ, I have nothing to
be guilty of. You know, I was thinking this
morning. This is one of the great mysteries of the gospel. I was
thinking of a sin that I committed this week. And the thought occurred
to me, I didn't do it. I'm not guilty of it. How could
that be when you did it? Christ bore it, and I stand before
God's law without guilt regarding that particular sin and every
other sin. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? That's hard to get hold of, but it's so. If I'm a believer,
I have no condemnation. I'm justified. I've been delivered,
saved from the condemnation of sin. I'm not guilty. I don't
have anything to feel guilty about because I stand before
God's law without guilt. Now, that's free, isn't it? That's
free. I've been freed. I've been set
free from the dominion and the power of sin. There was a time,
and I can remember this, I can remember thinking, oh, what does
it mean to believe? I wouldn't believe if I knew
what it meant. I want to believe, but I can't. I can't figure it
out. What's it mean to repent? I remember asking myself those
questions, thinking, how can I do this? How can I go about
it? And then one day I found myself believing the gospel,
because God gave me a new heart, and I was delivered from the
dominion of sin. There was a time when I couldn't
believe. I can now, because I've been delivered from the dominion
of sin. I've been given a new heart. If the Son shall make
you free, give you that new nature, enable you to believe the gospel,
you're free indeed. Why, in Christ, I've been delivered
from the very presence of sin, because if I'm in him, he's in
heaven, and I'm right there with him, delivered from the presence
of sin right now. Now, this stuff cannot so much
be explained as believed and received and rejoiced in. If the Son shall make you free,
you're free indeed. I'm free from the law. That doesn't
mean freedom to break the law. That's not what that means at
all. But you've not broken it. You've kept it in Christ. There's
nothing you can do to make yourself more saved or more accepted.
You owe nothing. You are totally free. We also
read in Romans 8.21 of the glorious liberty of the children of God. Now, would you turn with me to
the book of Leviticus? The Bible gives us a beautiful
illustration of what liberty is in the book of Leviticus. Third book in the Bible, Genesis,
Exodus, Leviticus. Beginning in verse 8 of Leviticus,
chapter 25. Leviticus 25, verse 8. And thou shalt number seven sabbaths
of years, that means forty-nine years, unto thee, seven times
seven years, and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall
be unto thee forty and nine years. Now on thy fiftieth year, then
shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the
tenth day of the seventh month in the day of the atonement.
Shall you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land, and
you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout
all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof, it shall be a jubilee
unto you. And you shall return every man
unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his
family." Now, every 50 years in the land of Israel, They had
what was called the year of Jubilee. And liberty, freedom, was absolutely
proclaimed. Now, four things took place.
First, if you'd lost something, let's
say your house foreclosed. A lot of folks have experienced
that in the last few years. I heard there's been a million,
over a million of those. But in this year of Jubilee,
whatever you lost through inability to pay was restored to you. It was given back. Second thing that happened, whatever
your debts were, as a Hebrew slave, they were cancelled. And you no longer owed that money. And the third thing that took
place, was if you were a slave, a Hebrew slave, you were a slave
no longer. You were set free. The true emancipation
proclamation. You were set free. And in being
set free, you didn't have to go out and get a job. The land
was given a year's rest. You didn't have to work. Only
rest. Now I want you to try to picture
this in your mind, this taking place. Let's say you were a slave. How miserable. And you had a
debt you couldn't possibly pay. And you'd lost everything. And
you were toiling and working in misery. And all of a sudden,
when that trumpet is sounded, all your debts were cancelled. You were absolutely debt free. I mean, think even right now,
you didn't owe money. Wouldn't it be something if all
of a sudden your debts were canceled and you didn't owe a dime? Set
free. If you were a slave, you weren't
a slave anymore. You were set free. Everything
you lost, let's say you'd lost your house, you'd foreclosed,
it was given back to you. And you were given a year's vacation.
Can you imagine how that trumpet must have sounded to some people?
Oh, the joy of hearing that silver trumpet sound. And you know,
I've heard that sound in the gospel. You hear the silver trumpet
of jubilee when you hear the gospel preached. I mean, this
is debts canceled by what Christ did. Sin put away. Standing perfect
before God. All I lost was restored. of completing
Christ. Oh, what a glorious sound this
is. Now, there was a type of person
who didn't like the year of Jubilee. And I understand that. What if
somebody owed you some money? And all of a sudden, when that
trumpet sounded, they didn't owe it to you anymore. What if somebody was your slave
and it was their fault? They've got themselves into this
mess. They didn't pay you back and they were your slave. And
all of a sudden, when that trumpet sounded, they weren't your slave
anymore. What if they were obligated to
you and they owed something to you? And they didn't know it
anymore. Can't you understand where you
wouldn't like the sound of the silver trumpet of Jubilee? I
know I wouldn't. If I felt I lost my Now, if I felt like I gained
by it, oh, how wonderful the sound is! But if I felt like something
was owed to me, I wouldn't like that sound. Now, hear the gospel. If you're
a slave to sin and can't get out of jail, and there's not
one thing you can do to save yourself, When you hear the gospel
of free grace preached, oh, it's glorious. Oh, how wonderful. But if you think something's
owed to you, if you think God is obligated to save you because
of something you've done, if you believe in salvation by works
in any way, no, the gospel doesn't come as good news. It comes as
bad news. You feel like you're being wronged
by it. You feel like you're losing by it. But, oh, if you have nothing. I wonder if there's anybody here
who knows something about being a slave to sin. Oh, it's a miserable
thing. To you, the gospel is good news. Complete liberty. That's canceled. And if you think God owes you
something or is obligated to you because of something you've
done. You're not going to like the gospel. I don't expect you
to, because you feel like you're the loser by it. I'm sorry you
feel that way. You don't realize that this is
the only hope that you have. But oh, if you're a slave, this
comes as good news. Now, something very interesting
regarding the year of Jubilee. You can read all about it in
Leviticus chapter 25. You know how many times we have
recorded where it was celebrated? not once. Now, in Jeremiah 34, they were
condemned for not celebrating, but we don't have one example
of the year of Jubilee ever being celebrated. And I guarantee you,
the people in power would do whatever they could to keep it
from taking place. And I understand that. I mean, if somebody owed
me a bunch of money, I wouldn't want that debt to be canceled.
I understand that. Not one time was the year of
Jubilee ever observed. until Luke chapter 4. And let's turn back there. That's
the scripture that we began with. Luke chapter 4. Now, the Lord had been doing
miracles and he had been gaining quite a name, so to speak. People were amazed at the things
that he was doing, his healings and so on. And he returns to
Nazareth, his hometown. All of a sudden, this one who
was the carpenter's son had become famous. And now he comes back
home, and everybody's excited. Small-town boy made good is what
they saw. They didn't understand what was
going on. Oh, this is great. He's come back, kind of like
somebody being a star athlete or something like that, and coming
back. I'm from Aston, Kentucky. We have Brandon Webb, one of
the shy young. They've named a road after him.
Small-town boy made good. Our Lord comes back to Nazareth.
Verse 16, and he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
The custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up for it to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he opened the book,
he found the place where it was written. Isaiah chapter 61, the
Spirit of the Lord is upon me. Because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. Those who have nothing. Those
who do not have one thing to recommend them to God. Bankrupt. He hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken
hearted. Somebody that's broken-hearted,
that means your heart doesn't work. It's no good. It's good
for nothing but to be thrown away. He hath anointed me to preach
deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty, to set free them that are bruised, to preach,
to declare the acceptable year, that fiftieth year, of the Lord. And he closed the book and gave
it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all
them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. You could
have heard a pin drop at that time. And he began to say unto
them, this day is this scripture fulfilled. The year of is fulfilled
today in me, in your ears. Verse 22, And all bearing witnesses
wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth,
and they said, Is not this Joseph's son? And he said unto them, You were
surely saying to me this proverb, Physician, heal thyself. Whatsoever
we have heard done in Capernaum, do also thou here in thy country.
And he said, Verily I say unto you, no prophet is accepted in
his own country. Now these people, when he made
this statement, this day, this scripture fulfilled in your ears,
I am the fulfillment of it. I am the year of Jubilee. They
thought he was taking way too much on himself. And they didn't
accept him as a prophet. And so he says in verse 25, that
I tell you the truth. Many widows. were in Israel. In the days of Elijah, when the
heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great famine
was throughout all the land. But unto how many of them was
Elijah sent? None. Not even one. Except, save unto Sarepta, a
city of Sidon, a Gentile. unto a woman that was a widow,
a Gentile. And there were many lepers in
Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. And God didn't do anything for
one of them. None of them was cleansed. Save
Naaman, the Syrian, the Gentile. Now remember, these people he's
talking to, their hope was in the fact that they were Jews.
And he said, God passed them all by and saved Gentiles. Verse
28, And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things,
were filled with wrath. And they rose up, and they thrust
him out of the city, and they let him under the brow of the
hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down,
headlong. We ain't going to have this.
Sovereign mercy. Oh, we're not going to have this.
But he, passing through the midst of them, went his way. Now, liberty. Christian liberty. Freedom. Liberty. It's freedom from some things,
and it's freedom to some things. That's always involved in true
freedom. Now, being liberated by the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
made me free. I'm free from some things. I'm free from condemnation,
and I don't have any debts. I'm not talking about exempt
from debts, exempt from condemnation. I'm not just talking about exemption.
I'm talking about there's nothing to condemn me for. Means I have
perfect standing before God. I'm free from a slavish fear
of the law of God because I've kept it in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Free from some things. I'm free to some things. I'm
free to draw near. I'm free to come into God's presence
right now while I'm speaking to you and him embracing me as
without sin. That's free, isn't it? I am free
to take the promises to myself. I'm free to believe. I'm free
to enter heaven. If the sun shall make you free,
oh, you're free from some things. And you're free to some things. Now, right now, we're going to
have a baptism. And I think that baptism, as
much as anything else, tells us what freedom is. You know,
there's a scripture, Mark 1, 4, which says they, talking about
John the Baptist, they were baptized of him confessing their sins.
That doesn't mean before baptism, they got up and confessed what
they did to everybody. I know that there are some churches
where that's required. You need to come clean and tell
her by what you've done, and then you can be baptized. That's
foolishness and nothing more to evils. As a matter of fact,
it's very evil. What they're saying, what you're saying, I'm
confessing. that I am so sinful that the only way I can be saved
is through the life, the death, and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And what He did has set me free. When He said, It is finished,
I was set free. is glorious to be free, isn't
it? The glorious liberty of the children of God. Let's pray together.