Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Living in Liberty Pt.1

I've been looking and praying and just kind of wandering around these last couple of sessions to get the focus on what the Lord wanted to speak to us, and I believe now I'm a little clearer on what the Lord wants to say. So we're going to spend a little bit of time on the subject of living in liberty. I don't know how long we'll be in it, where it will go, but there's no question that this is something that the Lord wants us to focus on, and I think it's something that's vitally important in this hour that we're living in. We're going to have, I think, a good time in this.

Let's start off this evening with a couple of passages that we're going to use as foundational principles for this study, and I think that when we begin to address this we're going to start in the spirit realm and in the wisdom of God. How to effect true liberty that comes by walking in the spirit so that we are a people who are not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. Now, many times when we start talking about liberty our mind starts going off on what we can do in the secular, natural realm. We'll be talking about that, but that's not what we want to emphasize and it's not where we're going to begin, because we want to talk about real liberty. When you talk about liberty in the Scriptures and you look at all of the passages that the Scriptures have to say about liberty, very few are speaking about the secular, very few are talking about temporal behavior. The liberty that you and I have been graced with--the liberty that's available to every one of us here, in fact the only liberty that a human being can experience--is experienced when we solely, fully trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, Savior and Lord, and recognize that the only way to be free is to become a voluntary slave. "For to whom you submit your members to obey his servants you are to whom you obey."

Now, the devil tries to sell us a bill of goods. Here we find ourselves warring on a daily basis, and the two voices that are speaking to us, "This is the way walk in it;" and the other voice that comes and says, "You're special, and you have rights, and you should be able to guide your own life, and nobody should tell you what to do. Do you hear what I'm saying? Nobody should tell you what to do. I'm telling you that nobody has the right to tell you what to do." And as Satan tells you what your rights are and how to be free, you can believe the father of lies and be free to serve him, or you can believe the Father of lights, the wisdom that comes from above, and be free to serve Him. But man will never know absolute freedom; he's a slave to Satan or a slave to God. Simple. No great revelation, but that should help us when we come to understand what kingdom we're operating in by the decisions we're making.

Every decision that you make does not originate in you. It originates in Satan or God. Every thought originates in the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. Every course you take is determined by the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. You are not in control of your life, period. Now we don't like to hear that, and especially we Americans. We are individualists and we think that there are certain rights that we possess. We know, basically, that these are fundamental truths, but practically we don't live like this. We seem to think that we're coming up with original thoughts. Beloved, there are no new things under the sun (Amen?), whether they're good or bad. No man has ever thought an original thought. They're all fed from the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light. When we begin to put man back in his proper perspective--when we begin to take man off of the throne that humanists have placed him upon and that Satan has declared belongs to him--and bring him back into that position of total dependence upon God, we finally made him free.

So, let's talk about a couple of basic spiritual principles to start with. Second Corinthians, turn there with me if you would, and I want you to get this in your consciousness. Second Corinthians, chapter three, verse 17. We'll go and look at the context of it in just a moment, but look at this passage. Second Corinthians, chapter three. Those of you that think that liberty is license, those of you that think that liberty is freedom, those of you that think that liberty is being able to make your own determinations, let me show you what the Bible says liberty is; and you may have to, then, rethink some of the course that you might be on. Look what it says. "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, [say it with me] there is liberty." Okay. Let's say it again. "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." So, true liberty comes from the presence of God, where the Spirit of the Lord is. The moment you walk outside of the spirit you're in bondage. You're a slave again to sin, to lust. You're a slave again to all of your passions. Now, you see, many of us think that liberty is being free from the law and it's not--and we're going to study what Paul says. Liberty is not being an antinomian, opposed to law. Christianity, Jesus did not do away with the law but He (what?) fulfilled it. The law is good and perfect and just and we need to understand that.

There have been comments lately, people saying, "Well, you know, I just hate it when people try to put me under the law." Do you know what? You belong under the law if you're living lawlessly, but if you are fulfilling the law you are not under it. To fulfill the law is not to be under the law, for the law is for the lawless. You are under the law positively when it's the schoolmaster, when it's chastening you, when it's reproving you, when it's instructing you, positively. And then you are under the bondage of the law when you're trusting in your own ability to fulfill it, and drawing on you're on righteousness from your own works in trying to fulfill the law, and receiving (whether it's right or wrong) an understanding of some type of meritorious reward because of obedience. "I did this; I must be right with God. I fulfilled that; God is obligated to bless me. I fulfilled that law; I must now have received credit in heaven." Of course, we all know the contrast that all of our obedience is meaningless because James says if you are guilty of one (what?) guilty of all. The best you can do in serving the law is filthy rags. We want to draw that contrast of fulfilling the law and being under the law. Many of us have trouble with that, and we seem to think that anytime somebody wants to put boundaries on our life that they're bringing us into bondage. Boundaries are not bondage. Boundaries are God's method of providing guidance and protection. Boundaries are established for the finite mind by the infinite God who sees beyond the boundaries and what the effect is going to be in your life if you move outside of these boundaries.

Let me share a couple other principles, because I want to set a foundation for us that I believe is going to be very helpful. Turn over to Galatians for a just a moment, and in Galatians chapter five--we're going to come back to the Corinthians passage and look at the context in just a moment, but I want to set these two things before us tonight. We've got a long way to go. The passage that all of us are so familiar with, Galatians chapter five, verse one. We just saw in 2 Corinthians "...where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is [say it] liberty." Paul says in Galatians, chapter five, verse one, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free..." Now, where is liberty? Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is (what?) liberty. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty [the walk in the spirit, the life in the spirit.]" See, you've got to understand that we're never going to move outside of the law. It's just that there's two different laws that we're going to contend with. There's the law of spiritual living in Christ Jesus and there's the law of sin and death. But you're under the law. There's always going to be rules, boundaries, commands, directives. Once we understand that--that no man lives to himself, no man dies to himself--it's going to help us. "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again [what?] with the yoke of bondage." Now, when you begin to read Galatians chapter five, and we'll spend a little bit of time in that, but basically here's what Galatian, chapter five is saying: Paul is writing to the Galatia church and he says, "You can't trust in circumcision, you can't trust in the ceremonial sacrifices, you can't trust in your own works. Don't let any man add."

Now stop and think about what Paul is addressing here. Paul is not addressing people who are out living lives of lasciviousness; lives that are out and being squandered on all of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, everything that's in the world. Paul's speaking to a group of people who are doing everything they can to be holy, not carnal. And he's trying to tell them, "You're never going to obtain holiness that way; Jesus has paid the price. Don't let any man bring you under a bondage of self-righteousness, of works that bring about appeasement to God, for Jesus has been made the propitiation (the appeasement) for your sins; it's a finished work. Your acceptance is in the Beloved; Jesus has paid the price." What makes me free now? The awareness that nothing that I do can merit right standing with God and that I am now totally obligated to the obedience of Jesus to be accepted of God, and I have to surrender to His lordship. Once I understand that--that to move outside of trusting the Lord, outside of the voice of the Holy Spirit for any reason, trusting in my own strength in any area, trusting in my own wisdom, trusting in my own judgment of what's right and what's wrong--puts me back under the yoke of bondage. Because, unless I am walking in the spirit in total subjection--and I'm going to show you in just a minute what Gods requiring of us in this area--unless I am walking, living in the spirit, and confident of that, then I am fulfilling the lust of the flesh. I'm moving in the spirit of darkness, the spirit of death.

So, what's Paul trying to get across to you and me as we look at these different aspects? Go over to Corinthians again and let's look at these two passages in their context for just a moment. The 2 Corinthians passage, chapter three. This is kind of a neat passage as you look at the context of it. The Lords speaking to us here and in the context what you and I are seeing, the apostle is relating back to the authority that he had set in the church of overseers, apostolic authority, and then he comes into the third chapter here in Corinthians and he talks about these people that are wanting to be out from under that. Telling them, "Don't you understand that your lives are not your own? "Ye are our epistle written in our hearts [verse two], known and read of all men...[Men are watching you; you are the gospel being lived before the world. Paul goes on and he says,] Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves [verse five]; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament..."

Now, remember who these guys were. The Corinthians were a group of haughty, spiritual individuals that prided themselves in their knowledge, prided themselves in all of their tongue-talking, prided themselves in all the gifts that moved in their services and yet allowed people to live in their midst in sin and wouldn't address it. They were a people that did not understand that it is not a Me-and-God church but it's a body. Much is said in the Corinthians letters about the body; about us being members joined one to another, talking about the headship of Jesus. But the primary message is one of, "If you grow up, it's not going to be about what your liberties are, it's going to what your liberty is, that you have been liberated from self, you've been liberated from the flesh and you've been liberated to serve one another instead of self." That's the real liberty that the Bible talks about. The three areas that you and I have been liberated from is the bondage of the law, the power of sin, and the power of fear. The Scripture speaks to every one of those areas, and we're going to address them specifically.

The liberty that's been given to you and me is a liberty to no longer be under the bondage of the law-- condemnation, having to please God through our works, thinking that somehow that God is going to relate to us by every jot, and every tittle--in fact, God relates to us through the finished work of Jesus Christ. He sees you already perfect. He sees you having finished the course, the crown has already been prepared to be placed upon your head, praise God! He will never leave you nor forsake you. He that's begun the work in you will finish it, praise God! He will keep that you've committed to Him against that day. Can you say, "Praise God!" for that? That's liberty; you're free from self. We seem to think that liberty is free to indulge the old man. But liberty is becoming the new creation where, "old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Corinthians 5:17). "The things that I used to love I now hate." Why are you wanting to run back like a dog to his vomit? Because you've lost your first love, because you're living outside of the spirit, because where the Spirit of the Lord is there is (what?) liberty. Liberty to do what? Take a drink of beer? Smoke a cigar? Watch an X-rated movie? Liberty to lay out of church just to be lazy? Just to flesh out? Liberty to do my own thing?

The spiritual liberty does not liberate you unto yourself but liberates you from yourself, and that's what God is wanting to do in each one of our lives. Now, it makes it very easy, then, to realize, "Which direction am I going?" and "What am I doing here?" by which appetite you're feeding. Now very soon, of course, we're going to have to end up in Galatians, chapter five (aren't we?), and begin to look at the two different manifestations that each one of us sees in our lives on a daily basis: The fruit of the spirit and the works of the flesh. If one of them is dominating your life then you are at liberty from the other. You've either freed yourself from the righteousness of God, the fruit of the spirit, or you've freed yourself from the works of the flesh, the lust of the flesh; but you will never live independently from either one of those kingdoms, and you cannot live concurrently in them. So, which kingdom are you in? What's controlling your mind, your thoughts, your actions? What is it that determines your decisions? Spirit or flesh?

As Paul's speaking here to the Corinthians, carnal group of folks boasting in their spirituality that they are so spiritual that they can live any way they want, you can see the gnosticism that has spilled over from the culture (can't you?) into the church? I wonder if we're facing a spirit of gnosticism today in the twenty-first century American church? I wonder if we're beginning to be a people, in America, that believe that you can be right with God in your hearts no matter how you're living? It's being packaged in many different ways, but it always comes down to the original sin of man vaunting himself and exalting himself against God. It comes down to this one decision: "Am I going to be totally dependent or am I going to choose to be independent? Am I going to be the new man created in Christ Jesus to good works or the old man living under the law of sin and death? "For, to be spiritually minded is life and peace, to be carnally minded is death."

So, there are two laws (Paul says in Romans seven). There are two laws and they're warring in my body. There are two laws, and this one law says, "You've got rights, and you're a god to yourself, and God's not fair, and you should be able to do what you want, and people shouldn't be judging you, and you're special." You've got all of that sin in your members and it's screaming out, "Eat drink, and be merry for tomorrow you die." But you've encountered God and you've tasted Him--But, you see, the problem with many of us is we forgot how good God tastes because we've been eating too much of the world. "Taste and see that the Lord is good." There are living waters that the Master said will flow forth from your innermost being, and you will never thirst again! What is it out there that you think you have to drink? What is it out there that you think will satisfy? If there's something else out there that you're looking for, then one thing is sure, the living waters are not springing up within you.

Are you discontent, not satisfied, feel dry? Then break up the fallow ground and He'll rain righteousness upon you! Stir up the gift that's in you, praise God! Let Him reestablish in you that heart of flesh that replaced that heart of stone that each one of us had. How much in you is crying out, "You've got rights! Nobody has the right to tell you what to do"? Well, Peter makes it very clear that as Christians we actually are under more law than the pagan, because we not only have to fulfill the laws of God's Word, but he tells us that we have to also obey the laws of our land; and we have to obey the laws of our household (those of us that are young people), and we have to obey the mandates of our husbands. We've got a marriage coming up real soon. Think about it before you say "Yes," young lady. Because when you say, "Yes," that's what you're going to be saying the rest of your life, or don't do it. That's how God's called us. As we go on into this study, we're going to look at all the specifics as we go on, but I'm wanting to set before us tonight just some of the basics, that we all do know, but that sometimes we just think about as it applies to our momentary decisions, our daily living. You don't have any personal right to make any decision exclusive from Jesus Christ. Every decision you make saying you're a Christian represents Him, and you are either honoring Him or bringing a reproach on Him.

It's very important for us to understand, as Paul's speaking here, he emphasizes this in verse eight. "How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? [than that which was engraved on stones, the Decalogue, the Ten Commandments?]" He's referring back to verse seven. He's talking to the Corinthians now about a new birth experience--The heart of stone becoming the heart of flesh; the engraving of the Word of God on your hearts. He says, "I want you Corinthians to understand we have an access now to the living God. Under all of the old covenant men had to have a priest that told them what God said. Men had others go before them to bring the law, the Decalogue, from the mountain. You had to go to a priest and bring your sacrifice, yearly, for the atonement as necessary for your trespasses but you never got to see God, you only got to hear about him; others were telling you." See, this is the experience that Job had. He said, "I knew God by the hearing of the ear, but I was crushed to powder, and now I've seen him, praise God! I knew about Him. I purposed to believe in Him, but He has so undone me that I can't live without Him. I know Him in a different way." "God is not my co-pilot. God is not my counselor. God is not the good fairy and Santa Claus. For me to live is Christ."

Have you come there? Have you tasted that gift of God and seen His love? I was talking to you about some of the comments of some of these teachers today that are bringing the message that has to do with--imagine the self-worth gospel, where man is deified. I shared the one quote with you that one of the top gurus had made, the comment that God, Jesus, came and died for man because He couldn't live without him. Sounds sweet doesn't it? Doesn't that sound sweet? God, Jesus, died because He couldn't live without you. I wonder how He lived before you were created? We have the misconception of who we are. Who are we to demand this liberty and this right to set standards for ourselves, to proclaim standards of righteousness and call it conscience? We're going to talk about conscience as we go on in the study some and what it really is. Paul talks about conscience; he talks about the strong conscience, he talks about weak conscience; it's a very real thing. Conscience is directly affected by knowledge, (gnosis, not eido). I think the thing that most of us are battling here now in this age that we're living in, being vexed by this age, daily being told that we're nothing unless we live like this, dress like this, smell like this. It's natural, every generation's done it.

"We want to, kinda, be part of the group, man, we've got to blend in." Every generation's had what it is to be cool and some of us are old enough to have been cool a whole bunch of times. But whatever the deal is, whatever it is--I can remember as a young man I thought, "Man, come on Dad! Everybody's got those low top Chuck Taylor's, man." Hey, in California if you didn't have low cut black Chuck Taylor's you were nobody. Those tennis shoes that we had, that's what I wore to school every day. My black low cut Chuck Taylor's and tight pegged leg Levis. Those came after. How many of you are old enough to remember the sewing of the creases into the Levis? Nobody out here did that? Was it on the East Coast too? You guys were cool enough back here to do that? Yeah, I thought it started in California, but there was a day when you not only had a crease in your Levis, they were actually sewn in. You sewed it so it would never go out. Then the fad was you don't wash them. There was a fad when you did not wash your Levis. They had to stay as blue as they were the day they inked them, so you couldn't wash them because they would fade. I know what you're thinking and it's true, and you just take those babies off, stand them up in the corner and jump in them in the morning. That was cool. Listen to that term, "Cool." Where did that come from? They were "Cherry." Oh, that's going back a little ways isn't it? "Bad." "Rad." Now, here we are today.

Now we've got a problem and we're going to address this, like I said, and it's not going to be the emphasis, but part of what we're going to address is whether it's fashion. We, as Christians, are not to do the opposite of what the trend is. The trend is long hair; we're all bald-headed. All Christians are bald-headed. "There go those bald-headed Christians." Get us confused with those Hare Krishna guys down at the airport. So, then the world shaves their hair and we all grow real long hair. The world goes to long skirts we wear short ones. How many of you know this isn't going to work? So, we can't go the opposite of where they're going, so how do we relate? We're in the world, were not of the world. You go down shopping; they got certain things on the rack, don't they? What possesses us to go to the extreme? There's trend and then there's fashion. Fashion is like bizarre-trend.

So, where are we as Christians? We are at the place where we have liberty to walk in the (what?) spirit. What is that liberty of the spirit do? What does that liberty do to me when I go and I look at all that the world says, "If you don't do this you're nobody." What does liberty give me the ability to do? It allows me to walk free from the compulsion to buy the old ripped up shredded 75 dollar pair of peek-a-boo pants. I don't have to have that; I'm free from that. As I'm thinking, here's what I'm wanting you to see: If I'm wanting to build myself in the spirit then the issue is not the pants, the issue is the bondage, the compulsion, the need to. This is where we all lie to ourselves. "I'm not wearing this because I need to; I just like the way it looks." Then you have zero convictions, because whatever they tell you to wear next week you're going to be wearing that, and that's going to be what you like. "I thought you liked that." "Well, that was last week." Well, what changed? What is it that you like? Do you have convictions? Do you have taste? Or do you have a compulsion to be like everybody else to be accepted?

Now, we can talk about fashion, we can talk about jobs, we can talk about movies. What we do is we throw that smoke screen up whenever somebody wants to talk about these things and say, "Well, what about that? That's no different than that." We're not talking about that, we're talking about how much you're in love with God. We're talking about how hard you are pursuing after God. We're talking about, has the law of spiritual living in Christ Jesus made you free from the law of sin? We're talking about, what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, the bondage--We're not trying to put on you to fulfill God and to walk under the law. The law cannot be fulfilled in the flesh. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh [we're in Romans eight], God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh [became sin and died that you and I might be free!]" Free from what? Listen to me, beloved! The enemy out there is the world. They're seducing us. They're telling us we're nobody if we don't look like them, dress like them; and if you're compelled, then you believe that doctrine instead of the fact that there's liberty in the spirit, that there's peace and contentment to be absolutely different from everybody else.

I want to ask you the question, are Christians different than the world? Are we different than the world? Absolutely! Are we only different in church? Are we only different in our hearts? Or do they set our philosophy, our doctrine, our fashion, our treasures? It's not about, "Well, how about that? Is that acceptable?" That's not the issue. What we want to ask in this study, to start off with, is this: Have you been liberated from self? Have you been liberated from the world? Are you free to be different? When I say "different," I mean righteous, I mean holy, I mean Christlike, I mean spiritual instead of carnal. Are you free to be more zealous for the kingdom of God than anybody else in your generation? Now you see, that wasn't offered up to those in Moses' day. But listen to what Paul goes on to say. "[Nobody had that right in Moses' day, but] How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory [the law is what he's talking about. There was a glory; there was an evidencing of God. "We heard of him with our ear. We were told of the goodness of God, but we were still under the power of sin." Sin dominated those people. They only had the promise that someday they would be free from its power. Those people were not free from the power of sin. They were going to sin. They had no hope but to sin and they would have to bring their sacrifice. Paul goes on to say, "But you're not like that,] much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory."

What an obligation put upon you and me, as the church of Jesus Christ that far exceeds the most spiritual prophets of Moses' day. "For even that [verse ten] which was made glorious had no glory in this respect [he's talking about how cool it was that the spirit of God would come upon men like Samson that had ripped gates off, and take jaw bones of asses, and destroy all the Philistines, and about an Elijah who would call fire down out of heaven. He says that was pretty glorious, that's some cool stuff, but he said, compared to what you have it's nothing. That's the paraphrase here's the Scripture.], by reason of the glory that excelleth. [He just said what I said before.] For if that which is done away was glorious [the law, the spirit coming upon men to affect great works], much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech [We'll finish with this I didn't realize it was that time.] "And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished: But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart" In other words the law is read they still don't get it. Why? Paul goes on and tells us in Corinthians. These things can only be spiritually discerned. The law, the Word, is foolishness to the natural mind.

Now, when someone stands before you and brings you the Word of God and you go, "I don't get it," you ought to be concerned. It's obvious to those of us that are in the spirit. "This is truth. Yeah that's the Word of God, I understand that. That makes all kinds of sense to me that to live I've got to die. I understand that because I've been liberated from the old man. I know what it means to be '...crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God...' (Galatians 2:20). I know what that's all about. I know that old man; he's ugly. I know when he rises up and I don't try to defend him, I don't try to defend the old man from you. I'm asking you to help me gang up on him and kill him again." Amen? "Well, who do you think you are? I have rights, bless God. That's your opinion."

The big fad today is Scientology. I was kind of looking at what they believe. You've got to be an idiot! A lot of the high shakers and movers in Hollywood and business people, and they're all into that thing. I was reading some of that and I thought, "Before I was saved you couldn't sell me that stuff!" And you couldn't sell me on the Catholic Church either. What am I saying to you? I'm saying exactly what we read last service about Romans chapters one and two: the knowledge of God is in every one of us, so we're without excuse. We know the truth, we're just not choosing to retain God in our consciousness, and we are not thankful and therefore He's given us over to a reprobate mind. When you sit there and say, "I don't get it. What about this? This is no different than that," you're exactly in that position. But when your approach is, "I know what tendencies are in the natural." Whenever anybody comes to me and says, "You're out of line," the first thing that a man walking in the spirit says, "Point out the straight and narrow, and let's get after it." Why would somebody come and tell me that? Because they want to lord it over me? That's what a man who lives unto himself thinks. But a man who knows that he's part of a body realizes that the obligation of the rest of the members is to nurture and to bring about mutual edification. Are you walking in the spirit in liberty? Are you free to hear counsel? Are you free to be reproved? Are you free to deny yourself? Are you free from having to understand before you can obey? If you're not, you'll never be able to walk in the spirit, because God's not going to make you understand everything that He requires you to obey.

Let's finish with this for this evening. It's kind of interesting. He goes on and he says, "But their minds were blinded: for until this day...which vail is done away in [verse 14] Christ. [The only way you can see clearly is to be regenerated] But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is , there is liberty. But we all, with open face [now this is a very interesting thing: No veil, we that are the regenerate, we that are the sons of God, look what we do,] beholding as in a glass [The Word of God] the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to [liberty, to carnality, to self-control, to independence]." We mistake independence as being mature. Independence is rebellion, it's childish, it's adolescent. The more self-sufficient you are in the kingdom, the more adolescent you are; the more childish you are, the more dependent you are, the more spiritual and mature you are. For without Him I can do nothing, but "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13).

Now, look what he says. This passage is phenomenal. You have the privilege of accessing the Holy of Holies! You get to encounter God. How many of us are availing ourselves of the bold entrance into the presence of God on a daily basis so we could be changed from glory to glory, from spiritual to more spiritual, from free to more free? Praise God. How? "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty." How? "Even by the Spirit of the Lord." Okay. this necessitates that we go Sunday morning to Romans six, seven and eight; and so that's your homework. Read Romans six, seven and eight by Sunday, meditate upon it, and read it in light of the study that we're looking at: What is liberty? What rights does man have? Paul makes it very clear you have the right to continue under Satan and die, or you have the right to die to self and be made alive in Christ. Very simple.

Father, we thank You for Your Word tonight and we ask that as we're preparing our hearts for this study that we would have ears to hear. As we look into the different areas, that we would refer to as disputable matters the aspects of conscience. We understand that there's a place in the body of Christ for diversity, but there is no place for carnality. We understand that there are callings and gifts, but God is no respecter of persons. Liberty is not, "How far can I live from God?" But the grace that empowers us to access Him, and be changed from glory to glory. The liberty is not to self but from self. You have been liberated from the sin that's in your members. You have been liberated from the power of sin. It no longer has dominion over you. You have been liberated from the spirit of the world. For to be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God.

Beloved, listen to that! We're going to spend some time on that passage. When we get talking about fashion, we get talking about fame; we get talking about prosperity and abundance, and materialism. To be a friend of the world, to embrace the world, to pursue what they call "treasure" is to put yourself in opposition to God. Powerful! In Luke 16, a passage we were discussing in our staff meeting yesterday. It's very interesting. Those of you that want it for your notes, it's 14 through 16, and I'll just read it to you, you don't have to turn there. "And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided [Jesus]. And he said unto them, [Now, remember who these people were. They were the spiritual leaders, they were the elite spiritual people of their day.] Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: [Now listen if you're driving this, wearing this, living here], for that which is highly esteemed among men [he goes on to say] is abomination in the sight of God. To be highly esteemed of men is to be an abomination in the sight of God. That's a powerful statement that Jesus makes. Why do we do what we do? To be esteemed of men or to glorify God though our obedience and our walk in the spirit? Father, make it real, we ask in Jesus' name, amen. Let's stand before the Lord. Glory to God. Turn to somebody and say, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Amen. Go in peace. God's love go with you.

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