Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Living in Liberty Pt.2

As I told you, we were going to do Chip Miller's funeral. There were over a thousand people who were there and they were there for a different reason. They were there to remember this man whom they referred to as "Mr. Corvette." It was the only funeral I've ever been to that had "Corvette Only" parking. A good fellow, and they were here to hear about how good a guy Chip was, to hear about Corvettes and all of his great collection.

It's a very interesting thing: he had all of these millions of dollars worth of cars, and the Scripture says we come into the world with nothing and we go out with nothing, amen? It was all left behind. People have a different perspective. I remember, at one of the shows, this guy came up, and I can't tell you everything he said because some of it was X-rated expletives about how he really thought this was the coolest car he'd ever seen, making reference to our LT1, and I told him, "All of this stuff is nothing. One of these days it's all going to burn up." He said, "Not this one!" And I said, "Yeah, these will go up first, they're made of plastic." The Corvettes are all fiberglass, they're going to burn first.

Aren't you glad your treasures aren't on the earth? So, we were able to just take a little bit of time, basically. Richard was asking me how it went, and I just shared that we were able to take a little bit of time and just share with all of those people that life is short. The one thing that they can be guaranteed of: "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). Amen? "Are you ready to stand before the Lord?" And so we asked them that question and shared with them that the only way they could be assured of that is to have the knowledge that "...He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Corinthians 5:21). That it didn't have to do with how good we are because our righteousness is as filthy rags; and there is none who does good, no not one; and that in Adam we all sinned; it's not what we do, it's whom we relate to. In Adam we all sin, but in Christ we are all made righteous. So whom do you know; which team are you on; which kingdom are you in? That's how you will know whether you're right.

Judy, Chip's wife, was there on the front row, and I said, "The last time I remember seeing Chip his face shone like Moses." The guy had encountered Jesus in our chapel service up there. This millionaire, this guy who was--you could hear it, the eulogies; most people would love to have a eulogy like this guy. Everybody liked him. He was a nice guy, a people person. Everybody loved him. He was the kind of guy who could make you feel like you were the most important person in the world the first time he meets you. He was just one of those personalities. Everybody loved him; but he knew he wasn't right, and that's what challenged him that morning in the chapel as I shared on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, how everything that is good is not of God. It pierced his heart, and he saw his own filthiness, as good as he was. He said, "I've trusted my own morality; I've always been a good guy and I've always done what was right." He said, "I see how far short I am of the glory and the righteousness of God." And he was born again.

I was sharing that incident with this crowd, and I said, "His face was shining; he was like a kid. He was changed; he became a new creation. He ran and got his wife and brought her down and said, 'You've got to hear this guy!'" And Judy was sitting there, and I said, "Judy sat there and listened to me the second session and said, 'What? What?'" Then I said, "The difference was: she went to church, and he encountered Jesus." And I said, "We've got a whole church that's full of you right now; and how many of you are in church, and how many of you are going to encounter Jesus today?"

That is, basically, the premise. We made it out alive. They heard the gospel, the Lord was glorified, and we appreciate your praying and holding up our hands in this. It's not always easy to go into an environment like that. It's similar to the Coliseum, and the Lord was good. We believe that ministry went forth. I was able to sit with the co-owner and CEO of the corporation for a good period of time prior to the funeral, and shared the gospel with him, and many different incidents. It was just kind of mind-boggling to them, some of the things we had to share. They're just not used to hearing the gospel. It's so watered down with humanism because of the hour we live in, very frankly, and most pulpits are heralding the same message: man is the central figure in the universe. And it's not about man's glory; it's about God's glory.

Are you jealous for that message this morning? If you are, it's going to make you unique. You're going to be separate from the masses. To make a stand for God against man is to be in the minority. But Jesus said to just count it all joy when they say all manner of evil against you for His name's sake. Amen? We're on the right side, praise God.

So we want to talk about that, a little bit, in the study we're in. We're talking about living in liberty, the life of liberty; and that liberty has to do with being free from the world's opinion. As we ended on Wednesday night we were in Luke, and we said to seek to be highly esteemed of men is to be an abomination in the sight of God. We talked about the fact that in this study of liberty we're not going to talk a lot about the specifics of the relationship to the world, yet we have to talk about how we as believers relate to the world. We are in the world but we're not of it. We're going to talk about different social, secular liberties that each of us might have based upon our own conscience, or the disputable matters that we've mentioned in the past. But one of my concerns has been that some among us (and the fact that it is some doesn't make it less important) are in danger. All of us are in danger because of the vexation of the society we're living in. They're wondering why we can't come and party and play with them, and still call ourselves Christians. And some will call you and me legalists, self-righteous, but we need to understand that this standard of perfection we hold before ourselves is the Word of God. Heaven and earth will pass away, but His word does not pass away, amen? The standard does not pass away.

So as we get ready to look at this session this morning, I want to remind you that the law of God is perceived in three basic areas. Because when people talk about liberty, "I have liberty;" what are we saying when we say that? What liberty is it that you're looking for? We talked Wednesday about the liberty we have, "...for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" (2 Corinthians 3:17). We are liberated from the power of sin. That's where our liberty is. I have liberty; I have liberty not to sin; I have liberty not to be carnally minded; I have liberty not to be associated with the world; I have liberty not to be a friend of the world and become the enemy of God. That's my liberty. What kind of a liberty, then, are you looking for?

So the question we have to ask when people talk about liberty: "What liberties do I have as a believer?" You have the liberty to be free from the devil and become a slave to God. Amen? That's your liberty. Your liberty is to be free from sin, free from Satan, and a slave to God. But you are never going to experience liberty to be an entity unto yourself, because there are two kingdoms, there are two gods, and you are going to serve one of them. You, as man, can never be free. The original sin came from the devil convincing man that he could be free. That's where sin originated. "Eat it, you won't die; you'll become as a god. You'll become an authority unto yourself. You will become [now listen beloved, those of you that are wanting liberty; is this what you're saying?] independent." Are you looking for independence? Is that what you mean by liberty? Independence: "I can make my own decisions; I can live my own life; I can set my own course; I can choose my own morality." Independence does not exist for man. You are under the lordship of Satan or you're under the lordship of Jesus, period.

So, to be deceived, and think that there is some type of a liberty that gives us independence is to believe the original lie in the garden. You want liberty from what? Authority? When you say liberty ("I have liberty") are you talking about liberty from authority? It doesn't exist. You're always under authority because you're functioning in one of two kingdoms, and each of these kingdoms has different laws that govern them and established authorities, which practically guide them. There is no independence for man. So we have to come to understand that, and it will cause us to be able to embrace these biblical truths without getting all muddied up in all of the specific, individual cases that everyone says, "Well, what about this; well, what about this; well, what about this? My eyes are blue; doesn't that change things?" And we can approach the Word of God as truth.

You want liberty? Listen: "And ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you..." (John 8:32). You are never in liberty until you're walking in truth. And so, to ask yourself, "Am I free?" ask yourself, "Am I walking in the truth?" John 17:12: "Thy word is [what?] truth." Is my life being conducted by the Word of God? Then I'm free, because those whom the Son sets free [say it] are "free..." (John 8:36). You see, to become master of your life again you're in bondage; you're not free, you're not at liberty; you're a slave to sin. You're a slave to the lusts that are in your own members; you're a slave to your own finite reasoning; you are put back into bondage to inferior morality, inferior wisdom, and we call it liberty. And Peter says the problem is, preachers stand up, counselors will stand up, your friends who call themselves Christians will stand up, and they will promise you liberty and give you the same bondage they're in. And we'll study that in detail in Peter's epistles as we go on. And so, that is what we're going to be talking about for a couple of sessions.

Now, the law of God: what is the law of God? Are you wanting to be free from the law? "I want to be free from the law." Well, when you say that, let's understand what we're talking about. Because, you see, many of us say, "Praise God, nobody is going to put me back under the bondage of the law." Which law are you talking about? "Well, the law." Yes. Are you talking about (Number 1) the moral law? How many of you know you can never be at liberty from the Ten Commandments, the moral law of God? How many of you know that you can never be free from the all inclusive summation of the moral law, the Ten Commandments, which is: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with..., and your... " (Matthew 22:37 and 39). Now how many of you know you can never be at liberty from those things? "So, everything I do; everything I choose to do; everything that I choose to call right; everything that I say my conscience permits me to do, I am at liberty to do, this is disputable...." You cannot set new moral standards. Everything that you say you are free to do must be of the truth, it must fit into the moral law of God, it must be that you are loving God with all of your heart; and it must be that you are loving your neighbor as yourself. And if not, it's not acceptable; you can't say it's the fruit of your liberty of being free in Christ. You cannot say, when somebody comes up and tells you, "You need to love God will all of your heart; you need to prefer your neighbor over yourself," that they are bringing you into bondage. Nobody is raining on your parade; nobody is stealing your liberty; and nobody, as Paul says in Galatians, has sneaked in and crept in among us to try to steal our liberty.

What was Paul talking about when he said that to the Galatians? Turn over to the book of Galatians for just a moment, because this is what many of us think we're talking about when we're talking about our liberty and our rights, and, "I don't want to be under the law." We have to remember, Paul was speaking of another law that Jesus actually made reference to, and said, "It is not a law, but it's actually the traditions of men, and it has made the [what?] Word, the true law, of no affect." Now there are going to be those who try to put us under their traditions, and we have to make the distinction of what is tradition, what is the pharisaical application of the law, as opposed to the true law of liberty that's in Christ Jesus. For "where the spirit of the Lord is, [we saw in Second Corinthians,] there is [what?] liberty." Is this of the Spirit? Is this the life in the Spirit? Well, how do we know? Well, "the law of Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of [what?] sin and death." Is what I'm doing the fruit of being free from sin, free from the world system, free from carnal mindedness, or am I arguing for the right to embrace the world, to embrace carnal mindedness, to apply secular wisdom instead of the wisdom that is from above? That's how we know what spirit we're walking in.

When Paul is speaking here in Galatians (look at Chapter 2, verse 4) he says, "And that because of false brethren unawares brought in [among us], who came in privily [sneaking in] to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage;" What liberty do you think Paul was talking about? Paul said, "I've brought you a liberty." What was the liberty that Paul brought them? As you read through the rest of the epistle it becomes very clear. It was a liberty to realize (look over at Chapter 5, verse 4) that we could no longer embrace justification through law.

There is a without-the-law righteousness, Paul teaches us. It's not in the keeping of the law, because it is impossible for natural man to keep the law. For what the law could not do [Romans says] in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own son in the likeness of sinful flesh for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. We couldn't do it but Jesus did, He paid the price. Our righteousness is now our relationship with Him. Adam was our federal head to sin, in Adam we all sinned, and in Christ we have all been made alive. I now identify with Christ; He is my head. It is no longer I who live but Christ who liveth in me. Therefore, I have no independence. I can do nothing right that Jesus is not the head of. Nothing is acceptable to God that isn't for the glory of God and under the lordship. I have no right to defend any of my actions that are not instigated in His lordship.

So we are going to take a look at these things. Now what were they free from; what was this that they were privately sneaking in and trying to steal from them? It was a misunderstanding of Paul's doctrine. Paul was not saying, "We are no longer obligated to keep the moral law." Paul was saying it is impossible, through the Levitical law, through the ceremonial law, through the works of righteousness, to be accepted of God. We are free from works. We have been freed by--look: "Christ is become of no affect unto you, [verse 4] whosoever of you are justified by the law: ye are fallen from grace" (Galatians 5:4). What a powerful statement! Christ is of no effect to you if you think, somehow, you can be righteous by your own performance, by keeping the law. Because the fact of the matter is, James says, when you become guilty of any one offense in the law, you are guilty of what? All of it. Which law do you think he is speaking of: moral law, ceremonial law or civil law? There are your categories: moral law, ceremonial or Levitical (so that you can identify it), and civil or social law.

Remember the ceremonial law, the Levitical law, were those laws that commanded us to come with certain sacrifices when we trespassed, the sin offerings and those things that continually kept us in pursuit of God and caused us to always continuously remember, "I'm a sinner; I am an alien; I am in opposition to God; I have broken the law of God. My heart is not right." And that is what that law is. Every time you brought that sacrifice you were saying, "I'm not right with God; sin has power over me." And God says, "Bring the sacrifice and I will let that be a covering." But Hebrews tells us it wasn't sufficient to deal with our conscience because, even though we knew that God wouldn't judge us guilty at this moment, sin still had power over me, and my conscience condemns me, and I know my heart is not right. And God said, "I'll tell you what I'm going to do." He said, "The day is coming when I am going to take that heart of stone out of you and replace it with a heart of flesh, and my commandments are going to be written upon your hearts and not on tables of stone like the Decalogue, and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free" (Ezekiel 36:25). That day is coming, and it came in Jesus. "Now we have been indwelt with the Spirit of God, and why would we then go back," is what the apostle asks. "Why would we choose to go backwards? Christ is of no effect to you if you want to go back and live under that same condemnation and think that you have to be circumcised and not just receive the redemptive work of Jesus."

See, that's what they were saying: "You need to be circumcised; you need to keep the Sabbath; you've got to keep holy days." And Paul is saying, "Not so, man. We are at liberty. We are no longer under that bondage; we are free, praise God." And the tragedy is that too many people take that liberty and they forget (look down a few verses to verse 13): "[Yes,] ye have been called unto liberty: only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but [fulfill the law; you are not free from the moral law. Don't use it as an occasion to the flesh; don't use it as selfishness; don't use it to go back to the world; don't use it to justify your carnality; don't justify it to support your failure; but look what he goes on and admonishes them, but] by [what? Verse 13] love serve one another." What are you at liberty to do now? Love others. "I'm free from selfishness; I'm free from self-serving; I am free to live my life for the glory of God. I'm free to not have to go party down here if it offends my brother. I'm free not to go party over here because I feel like partying in the flesh, because sin no longer has dominion over me. And I recognize that is not the Spirit of God wanting to party."

How many of you know the Holy Spirit is not the author of party time? The Holy Spirit is the author of koinonia. And that is why I've said we've got to be very careful. Many of us get together for pizza and a movie and call it "fellowship." That is not fellowship, that's party time. Is party time sin? Not in and of itself, and we'll deal with those issues. The question I am asking you is this (it becomes sin if you're not free not to do it): does it have power over you; do you have to do it? "Well if we're not doing that, what are we going to do?" Pray, fellowship, encourage a brother, share Jesus with somebody, and love others better than ourselves? It's something that we do very well around here, actually, as a fellowship. Minister to others; help somebody move; use our gifts interacting; go paint somebody's house. Praise God. Why? So he can go sell it for more and go party in Cancun? No. Why? We painted his house and now he is not having to paint the house. He is an electrician. He can go do the wiring in this brother's house who is a plumber, who now doesn't have to try to pay somebody to fix the wiring in his house, to go do some plumbing over in this guy's house, who is a computer dude, who can help us all out because those things don't work. Well, they do when you don't need them, like cell phones: "Hi, how're you doing?" "Oh man, cool man; I just saw a blue dog walk by, over here. And you know what? I'm driving by here and three leave just fell off the tree, how do you..." "Oh yeah. Hey, there's an ant going across the cross-walk." Then an accident happens, Crash! And people's blood is pouring out, and: static! You can talk about all the nonsense in the world but when you need them they don't work. Okay, enough of my pet gripe for this morning. By love we're free to serve one another. "For all of the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" (Galatians 5:14).

Now as we talk about liberty we're going to talk about, and make clear, that we are not free from the law of love. We are not free from the moral law. We are not free to be independent. We are free to be slaves to Jesus, and we are free to serve one another. We are free to live for the good of one another. We are free to study the Word so we can take the beam out of our eye first, and see clearly to assist others who may be in need. We are free to stand firm against trials and tribulations, and the disasters in life, so that we can comfort others with the same comfort wherewith we've been comforted. That's what we're free to do. We are not free to live independently; we are not free to go party and say, "I have liberty." Especially (and we'll deal with this probably more tonight) when it begins to bring an offense to the weaker brethren. And we'll make some clear distinctions in those areas as we go on.

What I'm wanting us to see this morning is the false assumption that somehow the law, or authority, is offensive to us as believers. It's to be embraced by you, as a believer. The law is good; the law is perfect; the law is just; the law converts our soul; the law is the word that washes us; the law is the lamp to our feet that keeps us from stumbling. The law is that word that comes and brings reproof, and rebuke, and instruction into righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect and thoroughly furnished unto every good work. That's what the law is. Jesus said, "I did not come to destroy the law, I came and fulfilled it." Amen? So liberty has nothing to do with getting you out from under the law. Liberty is being free from the works of the flesh working the law, instead of living the law. And there is a distinction.

Now, when we talk about the liberty, let's go back again to that phrase, "We have been called [verse 13] unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh." Well, how do we interpret that; how do we apply that? It's very simple. All you have to do, really, is just keep reading in this chapter, because he's going to give you a whole list of flesh, isn't he? Any time you say (watch: verse 21, same chapter. I'll just grab out one that is probably not a problem here in our midst) drunkenness (and you see some guy sliding down in his seat); but we'll just pull one out that's probably not very common in our midst: drunkenness. Look at verse 19: "Now the works of the [Say it] flesh..." Okay. "Only use not your liberty as an occasion to the [say it]...;" "...now the works of the...;" "...an occasion to the...;" "...the works of the...;" drunkenness. "I have liberty." Do you have liberty to get drunk? Well, you do. "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled [drunk] with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18). Amen? "Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is..." (2 Corinthians 3:17). Hallelujah! You are free to get as drunk as you want in the Holy Ghost. Amen? I wonder why we're not fighting for that? "I have a right, bless God, to be full of the Holy Ghost, pray in tongues, be taken up and raptured in the spirit, stagger around in the Holy Ghost." Have you ever been drunk in the Holy Ghost? I have. It's good, man. I've been fall down drunk the other way, too. The Holy Ghost is better. I'm talking about being so intoxicated with the presence of God.

Had a friend on mine, one time; we were young people praying, just seeking God. You know, that's not a bad thing for young adults to do. Now don't get me wrong, we had pizza--they even had pizza back them. We had pizza; we'd go and have pizza. But we were some young people; we were after God, man. And I can remember old Bill Beasley. What a great time. He sang at our wedding. He was so in love with Janet. I killed him, man! Old Tom; he was after Janet; he was hot after her, man. He took her to the formal we went to that time. You know some of you are wondering: relationships. He took her to the formal. She wouldn't answer the phone for three days; she was wanting me to call and she wouldn't answer her phone because she was afraid one of the other guys would call and ask her, and if they did she couldn't say no to them because we were all friends and fellowshipping, and all that. So, she would rather just not answer. So finally she answered, and Tom called and asked her to go to the formal, and she said yes. I had already determined I wasn't going to because I was waiting on God, and wanted to see what was going to happen, and wanted to be sure what the Lord spoke was what it was, because I've told you the testimony. I went into the church, got saved, sat there. I had only been in the church for probably 48 hours and God said, "That 's going to be your wife." And I said, "Hmm." I hadn't even met her yet. That's scary stuff, especially when you've only been saved for a little bit, and you're trying to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit from your hormones.

Anyway, this was later on, so we went to the thing and I was just taking my liberty to fellowship. It was the Body of Christ. We'd all come together, there are no rights, and nobody possesses anybody. So Tom and Janet were sitting at this one table and across from them there was a chair open, so I went and sat down. I knew that Tom was interested in her and I knew Bill was interested in her. And I knew they didn't stand a chance. I'd say if you want it, go get it, man. Without strife; without confusion. Bill sang at our wedding; Tom was an usher. If you love God and you're walking in the spirit do you think you can't do stuff without strife, and confusion, and possessiveness, and just say, "God's will is going to be done?"

How in the world did I get over there? Somebody help me; where was I? Drunk in the spirit, Bill Beasley. We left him staggering; forgot all about him. That's how we got there. We were praying and Bill (some of you have probably never seen this) began to laugh in the spirit. Have you ever been around anybody where the laugh is contagious? I mean, they laugh and you can't help but laugh. This went on for forty minutes. Because we were praying, and he was just praying and worshipping the Lord in the joy of the Lord, and he started laughing; the next thing you know he's in this big belly laugh. He'd laugh, and we would all laugh. He was laughing in the spirit, and we were laughing because he was laughing. And we just sat there and laughed. And he laughed, and laughed, and laughed. And we would laugh, and we were hurting, man. It was like, "Oh, Lord!" It was better than any movie. And so many times the presence of the Holy Spirit--"where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty;" there is freedom from the flesh; there's all of the fruit of the spirit evidenced. You can go home and you're not guilty, and you're not bound by lust, and there's no shame, and there's no doubt, and there's no wondering if this was right, and there's no judgment of anybody else, and there's no conscience that has been offended; and there are no weaker brothers who have stumbled. You've just been enjoying the fruit of God's presence. What's wrong with that, the fruit of the spirit?

But, you can never say, "I have liberty to be drunk. I have liberty to move in witchcraft. I have liberty to be seditious (that means to separate yourself). I'm mad; I'm not going down there, and you guys just leave me alone. I don't want to hear anymore about it; you just leave me alone. I'm taking three or four weeks off from the body." I guarantee you, if one of your members jumped off your body and said it was going to take a two or three weeks vacation, you would not allow that. Now, some of us would like other than appendages maybe to drop off, but you have no right to separate yourself from the body. "What do you mean, I have no right? If I want to withdraw and pout for three weeks, that's my business." No, you cannot use liberty, independence, "my rights," to do anything in the flesh and call Jesus Lord.

So you just sit there and you very simply look down the list and you go, "Huh, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, blah, blah, blah, blah." The list is so long, and we just keep adding and adding and adding, and somebody says, "Throw this on the list, and throw this on the list, and throw this on the list." And somebody says, "What about this; is this on the list?" "I don't know; do you think it should go on the list?" "I don't know; what do you think?" "...and such like." It doesn't all have to be on the list; it's the spirit of it. If it's not on the list, then ask yourself this: "Is the spirit behind this thing independence, self-serving, temporal gratification, catering to the flesh, catering to the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life, all that is in the world?" Because to be a friend of the world, to be a seeker of the world, it's forms of entertainment, its forms of gratification, its forms of reward, its forms of success, is to be at enmity with God.

For, we saw in Luke as we closed last session, to be highly esteemed in men's eyes is an abomination in the sight of God. That's why we asked for each one of us to look and survey our own hearts as we closed the last session. "Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why do I dress the way I dress, live where I live, drive what I drive, parrot what I parrot, believe what I believe, defend what I defend from a philosophical perspective?" Why? Because it's truth? In whose eyes? By what standards? Or, "Because it makes a way for me to be more highly esteemed in the eyes of men, to progress up the social, secular, human ladder of success. To be thought of in the eyes of men as a shaker, a mover, a success, and a life that is worth something." "Whose attention am I trying to get when I dress this way, talk this way? 'Yo, tru dat.'" What? What? "Tru dat?" Are you ignorant? What's wrong with you? Why are you speaking like that? "Yo." Here, I'll pray for you, that tic will go away. What? Now, you can try to defend it all you want, but you have to ask yourself the question: "Am I seeking the approval of men, the world, a subcultural part of our society; and how ready am I to sell out to that, to lie to myself in selling out to that, that I can no longer hear the truth? Am I willing to take that risk? To so sell out that I can't any longer hear the truth because I justify this pursuit and can't just look at my heart and say, 'You know what? You want to know the truth? I want that group to think well of me. I want to be accepted by them, I think that's cool and, because of my personal inferiority, I believe that identifying with that will make me acceptable into that group and give me self worth.'" Now what are we talking about, Psychology 101? No, we are talking about Garden of Eden 101.

They're going to wonder what group I'm with. I don't want them thinking I'm with the "who dat" group or "do dat," or "tru dat;" that's what it was, I knew it was a "dat." What's with a bunch of pasty white suburbanite white dudes trying to do "tru dats?" Whom are you identifying with? What liberty are you looking for? Do you want liberty? Be free from what anybody thinks or cares, to do what's right. Do you want liberty? Come to grips with who you are, the lust that is in your members, the vile person that you are; admit it. Then make every effort to crucify the flesh on a daily basis. Surround yourself with people who will speak the truth to you, and be conformed into the image of Jesus. That's freedom; that's liberty. But let's not mistake this other stuff as biblical liberty. You have no right to independence; you have no right to fulfill the lust of the flesh and call it liberty. "Use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another." You are not free from the moral law; you are not free from the fulfilled law of loving God with all of your heart and your neighbor as yourself. So, it is vitally important that we understand that.

We are free to embrace a new law. We talked about the moral law, and we'll talk a little bit more about it. We talked about the Levitical law, or ceremonial law. There are social and civil laws each one of us is responsible to keep. Are you wanting to be out from under law? You can't. You don't have the right to go do anything you want; that's anarchy. There's no place for that. As moral creatures in God's image, the fact that we are moral creatures mandates that we live under law. That's why I always stand (and I'm not an intellectual) and I look at these guys who profess to be intellectuals, and you see the philosophies they take that are in direct opposition to one another. When they say (many of them out of the same sentence, almost) that we are man as a chemical accident and a product of evolution and the highest evolved animal, and then want to take this same animal, put him under law, try him, convict him, and execute him for killing someone weaker than himself, then say it's natural to a lion.

It it's survival of the fittest, then you had better take cover. If we are animals, then there are no laws. Why should we be governed by any type of morality at all, if we're animals? We don't hold any other of the animal kingdom to any moral behavior, do we? "That walrus needs a longer skirt." Huh? You'll never be free; you're a moral being; there are laws you must live by. Now, they become clearer, they become far more defined, in the Word of God. Other religions have many different laws, and standards, and rules you're supposed to keep. What about us as Christians? Our rulebook has been kind of condensed, hasn't it, by the Lord? "Love the Lord with all your heart, and your neighbor as yourself." That's the law and the prophets. "Well, praise God, that's pretty simple. How do you do it?" Well, that's not quite as easy.

There are two laws in place: the law of spiritual life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death. Now the term law, here, is used a little differently. These would be laws such as we call them: the law of physics, the law of gravity, Murphy's Law. They don't in any way alter the consequence. Laws are usually established in a vacuum so that you can repeat, and you get the same conclusion. You get the same results every time, it's a law. Gravity says: crash! Wouldn't you be surprised if one of those days you dropped something and: whoosh! Then you'd wonder. You know that guy who invented the cookies? You'd say, "Maybe he wasn't right." You know, Fig Newton, wasn't that the guy who.... So, we realize that it is a law; it's going to happen every time.

Now, when you want to be free, when you want liberty, are you telling me that you want to be free to move contrary to law? Not only moral law, not civil law, but I want to be free to move against the laws of nature, and I want to be free to move against the laws of sin and death. I want to be free, independent from all restraints. I want all things at all times to conform to my wishes and my desires for this moment. Now, I know that's an extreme statement, but do you see the spirit behind what you're asking for? You're asking to be able to take fire into your bosom and not be burned. You're asking to sow and not reap. You're asking to not have to resist the devil and have him flee from you. You're wanting to be free from all these laws; you're wanting to be the exception. "Go ahead and eat it. Your eyes will be opened; no one else will be able to tell you what to do; you'll be as God. I mean, you'll see so clearly you don't need counselors any more. And you'll be able to read the scriptures and see them with new revelation: 'My will be done.'" "Only use not your liberty as an occasion to the flesh."

If your choice of liberty conflicts with the care of others, if you're choosing yourself over others, you're using it as an occasion to the flesh, it is not liberty. When you choose yourself over the moral law, when you choose yourself over the fulfilled law of the law of love Jesus has given us then what you are calling liberty is bondage to the lust of your flesh, and not liberty at all. That's what each one of us has to deal with; that's what each one of us has to arrive at as we're walking in the spirit, because "if you walk in the spirit, you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh." What are you wanting to be free from, those of you who are asking for liberty? "I have rights; I have liberty. I just don't want anybody trying to tell me what to do, and how I need to serve the Lord." You don't want anybody telling you? Hmm, why would that be? "Well, because I can hear from God." Which god? It sounds to me like what you're saying is, "I can separate myself." Seditious. It sounds to me like what you're saying is, "I don't need a multitude of counselors. I don't need a pastor. I don't need a teacher. I don't need a father or mother. I don't need a husband. I don't need a governor."

What are you wanting to be free from? If you're honest, you'll see that spirit we're talking about. "I just don't want other people telling me how to live my life." Welcome to the Kingdom of God, the Body of Christ. There is no liberty from authority, from counselors, from truth, from discipline, from instruction, if you're going to live in the Kingdom of God. You know what it takes to get into this kingdom, to be free? Death to self. If you want to be free, I mean free, then you must be free from yourself.

Father, we thank You for the Word this morning; and we ask that, as we take a little bit of time in this study, You would speak to our hearts, and help us to deal with the real core issues of those who would cry out among us, "I want liberty. I have rights. I don't want people speaking and telling me what to do." Where is that voice coming from? I wonder if it's the same voice that came to Eve: "Surely you don't want God telling you what to do. You mean to tell me you don't have a right to eat from that tree? Who does God think He is?"

"Do you want to know why your parents don't want you to go and do that? Because your eyes will be opened and you will see. They don't know everything; you're just as smart as they are. You want to know why your parents, your counselors, don't want you to do that? Because it's so much fun, and they're afraid that you're going to run away and deny the gospel. You need experience; you need to have your eyes opened. You need to taste these things and embrace life. They're just trying to hold you down and keep you from experiencing the fullness of what's out there, the right to make your own decisions. Go ahead and eat it, your eyes will be opened." You know what? It's true; your eyes will be opened, and you will experience what life has to afford you. You might even be able to embrace some of the pleasures of sin for a season. But experience, listen to me, experience does not equate to knowledge, and knowledge does not make you wise. Obedience makes you wise to salvation.

"How come you don't dress that way? How come you don't pierce that part of your body? How come you don't have that kind of approach to life?" "Well, my parents won't let me; my church says I'm not supposed to." You had better get another relationship with God, because it's not true. It does not glorify God. It is the law of sin and death. Everyone who does that dies; it's a law. Everyone who thinks that dies; it's a law. In the day that you eat you die; it's a law. It may not be any immediate noticeable changes, you might go through your whole life, man, prosperous, never sick a day in your life, wine, jets, having fun; "...and being in hell he lifted up his eyes." It's a law.

You want to know why I don't do that? It's a law: if you do that, you die; if you embrace that, you're an enemy of God. To be a friend of the world--"Why don't you do this; why don't you come run; why don't you play; why don't you dress; why don't you look; why don't you talk?" "Because to be a friend of the world is to be the enemy of God. To be esteemed in the eyes of men is an abomination with God. That's why I don't do that." Make it real, Father, we ask in Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand before the Lord.

As Gary plays for us, just allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you, and ask yourself the question: "Am I free to become a greater slave to Jesus? How free am I, this morning, to become less of self and more of Christ?" Liberty is not how close to the world can you get and still be right with God. Liberty is: "How can I become more like Jesus, and more a hater of the world?" Let's sing it together.

"Lord, You are so precious to me...."

Back to Top | Audio   |   Purchase Audio   |   Bible Teachings   |   Print