Grant S. Sisson, MSCP
INTRO
Independence Day weekend 2012
There are so many things that we could speak of regarding this weekend.
1. How much a part of the American psyche our love for freedom is
2. Our willingness over the years to sacrifice all that we have, even our very lives, for the sake of passing this freedom along to others. And our willingness to hear the derogatory comments made by our philosophical enemies and continue to work to maintain our freedom anyway
3. “Freedom is not free!” And not all the sacrifices are physical.
4. Christians fight a war that is not physical in nature. We love those who are on the opposite side of the debate, knowing that God made them too, and that Christ died for us all. So we train not with M-16’s and grenades and tanks, but with words, words whose motivation is to speak the Truth so that all people can consider it for themselves, words rightly chosen to soften hearts but also to tear down strongholds that the enemy of us all – Satan, our Adversary – builds through his lies. Eph.5.6 “Let nobody deceive you with empty words, for because of these things God’s wrath comes on the sons of disobedience. 7 Therefore do not be partakers with them, 8 for you were at one time darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of the light – 9 for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness, and truth – 10 trying to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. 11 Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.” It is our duty according to the Scriptures not only to refuse to allow Satan’s lies to infiltrate our own hearts, but to refute the lies so that others will not be lost. Balance between Truth and Love. Either one cannot exist in the absence of the other.
5. And Paul says that we can be bound up and deceived by words - Col.2:4 “I say this so that no one will deceive you through arguments that sound reasonable.”
6. And those who dare to stand for the Truth stand on solid ground – I Pet 2:6 - “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, a chosen and priceless cornerstone, and whoever believes in him will never be put to shame.” Again emphasizing the spiritual nature of the war we fight.
7. And so freedom’s foundation is philosophical – it is based upon thought and word, not tanks and cannons. Words indeed are stronger than steel. If we all maintain a doctrine of love and respect for all, then tanks and cannons are irrelevant.
TR – So let’s talk about freedom this morning.
Freedom in Christ
The first time we see this emphasis on freedom is when Christ set us free from the “Law of Sin and Death.”
1. Freedom from Law
a. Gal.5.1 “For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery.”
b. God’s Law given to Moses at Mt Sinai is a good law. We have been instructed to continue to respect it. Jesus said that the one, who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do so, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven. So we continue to respect the Law, as it reveals to us the nature of God.
c. But we are not bound to it as though salvation can be attained through law. The law served its purpose, which was to stabilize society until the people grew enough to have a chance to understand how to live by love. Gal 3:21b “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law.” But it is evident that we are saved not by law, but by faith. Gal. 3:11 “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith.’ Yet the law is not of faith, but ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’”
d. So we are not under law, if we are living our lives in faith in Jesus Christ. Gal 5:18, “But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
e. Now having said all that, I want to make one qualification. Too often we take the attitude that the Law (the whole Old Testament!) is not to have influence on our lives, because Jesus did away with it. Wrong! Jesus said, “For I came not to destroy the Law, but to fulfill it.” We can look to the Law of Moses to understand the concepts by which He wants His people to live. What is the fulfillment of the Law? Gal 5:14 “For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even this; “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” If God gave us the law, then the law reflects God. We violate that law at our own peril, because how can it be said that we love if we steal, or murder, or violate the precepts contained in it? And we know that God is love, and that we have been commanded to live in love.
f. Someone may say, “Then why do you now worship on the Sabbath, instead of Sunday?” Remember, the Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. The point of that is to say we need a day of rest, a day when we refresh our souls with worship and relaxation. If we do not take time to do this, we will still suffer the consequences of an overly stressed life, which was the point of having a Sabbath day of rest. So while we do not “check off the box” and say that we have obeyed the Law by worshipping on Saturday, we still obey the Spirit of that law, which is the Spirit of God, Who says we need a day to rest each week.
g. And so we are free from strict obedience to law, but only if we love Jesus and are filled with the Spirit of God, that tells us to live in love.
And so that brings us to how that philosophical thought – that doctrine of Christ – applies in our national life. The freedom that we are so proud of is, after all…
2. Freedom from tyranny
a. If freedom from law is so hard for us to grasp, then how can we expect anyone else to understand it? And when non-Christians attain powerful positions of authority, their thinking is not unlike ours in this way: if people cannot be trusted to refrain from doing wrong things, then someone in power must use that power to insist that we all mind our manners. The logic really works as far as it goes, because remember, we are only free from law if we submit to the Spirit of love. And the world knows nothing of the Spirit.
b. And a world that knows nothing of the Spirit will not mind THEIR manners. “Absolute power corrupts absolutely” is a truism that is at work in all people, unless they are dominated by the Spirit of God. And so if we submit to giving a government more and more power, we truly do so at our own peril. Our Founding Fathers refused to so submit to the English throne.
c. Our Founding Fathers were Christians, and they knew this. So concerned were they that some future generation might forget that they left their thinking to posterity:
i. Here are a series of quotes from the Founding Fathers warning us not to forsake the Bible and its teachings (1). Peter Marshall, who collected these quotes on Restoring America said: “The very men who WROTE the Constitution admit that this nation and its Judicial System was founded upon the Bible and the Ten Commandments. It was done intentionally to preserve this nation from collapse.”
1. James Madison - (4th President of the United States and known as the ’Father of the Constitution’) "We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God."
2. John Jay was the first Chief Justice of our Supreme Court and one of the 3 top men in the formation of our Constitution. He said Americans should “select and prefer Christians as their rulers" When is the last time you heard a Supreme Court Judge say that?
3. To show that this nation was built on the Bible and Christian Principles, listen to what Patrick Henry, that patriot and Founding Father of our country said: "It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded not by religionists but by Christians....not on religions but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
4. Listen to what our first President, George Washington, said, "It is impossible to rightly govern....without God and the Bible."
5. "Can the Liberties of a Nation be secure when we have removed the conviction that these liberties are the gift of God?" - Thomas Jefferson
6. "The God who gave us life gave us liberty at the same time." - Thomas Jefferson
7. "Suppose a Nation is some distant region should take the Bible for their only law book, and every member should regulate his conduct by the precepts there exhibited....What a Utopia! What a Paradise would this Nation be!" - John Adams
ii. These are the concepts that have guided this great nation over the years, this nation which is now the longest surviving democracy in history. And we know that the men who wrote these concepts down into our founding legal documents believed that our rights are given to us by God. They put their lives on the line when they signed off on, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights; that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Many consider these words to be the most influential in the English language, and Abraham Lincoln believed in them firmly. “Nearly eighty years ago we began by declaring that all men are created equal; but now from that beginning we have run down to the other declaration, that for some men to enslave others is a "sacred right of self-government." ... Our republican robe is soiled and trailed in the dust. Let us re-purify it. ... Let us re-adopt the Declaration of Independence, and with it, the practices, and policy, which harmonize with it. ... If we do this, we shall not only have saved the Union: but we shall have saved it, as to make, and keep it, forever worthy of the saving.” Abraham Lincoln (1)
3. For over two hundred years we have lived in land that has striven to become that utopian place John Adams dreamt of. Our continued success will only come with reliance upon God, from whence those values come.
a. As stressed as we all may sometimes be, as unlike Heaven we may feel this place where we live to be, we have for two hundred years been working toward purifying these values in American life, and we have enjoyed the rewards of living in a land which has truly been blessed by God himself. We must remain forever vigilant. May America always remain the Land of Liberty. May she always and forever remain the Land of Opportunity. May we forever remain the Land of the Free, and the Home of the Brave.
b. God Bless America!
INVITATION
Looking for a church home?
Need prayer?
And the most important question of all – are you a Christian? Do you know the freedom that comes with knowing Christ, and sharing your life with Him in faith? Do you have the peace that passes all understanding, the contentment of having the spirit of Love dwell in your heart?
Will you come?
(1) Downloaded from SermonCentral.com June 30, 2012
