Liberty
About 3 years ago, I had the opportunity to go to China on a business trip. The Gideon’s had entrusted me with 10 Chinese/English new testaments and I must say that I was a good Gideon, every hotel that I stayed in while there was left with a Bible or two.
I was even able to give a couple to individuals who received them gratefully.
I was a little concerned going through customs but my luggage passed through the scanners without so much as a raised eyebrow. I give God the glory for that as well as those prayers that were being lifted up for me.
On this particular trip, I had the opportunity to get away from the areas normally visited by westerners and get a glimpse of what life is like for the average Chinese citizen.
I had the opportunity to spend three days with a man and his family while he and I painted a turkey decoy.
To get to his apartment we had to go a couple hundred yards down an alley barely wide enough for two sub compact cars to pass by each other.
We were stepping over and around garbage and one day a dead rat covered in flies.
It is sad to say that the man’s apartment was not much cleaner than the ally. The apartment consisted of a front room and a back room connected by a hallway with a couple of small roods to one side and a bathroom on the other.
The toilet had no tank, just a buck to fill with water and pour down the bowl to flush.
In the front room he had a vent system for airbrushing artwork and the back room had a chair and table where his niece hand painted figurines.
As you entered the apartment, the first wall you see had a large mural of Chairman Mao painted on it.
Looking at their conditions and the condition of his neighbors, I couldn’t help get the feeling they were slaves to the government.
My host told me that in their way of thinking, no one exists or matters except their immediate family.
He told of babies being kidnapped and their arms and legs broken backwards so that the baby appeared deformed. Then they sit the baby on a blanket on the street as a sympathy prop for begging.
What I saw was a nation with no soul, a country and a people that the government had crushed spiritually to the point where they had the compassion of animals.
A total absence of liberty.
As our government continues its quest to rid our society of all public vestiges of religion, I have seen the final destination of that journey.
We must fight to insure we never arrive at the place where China is today.
Look with me at Gal. 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
I always thought “stand fast” was a nautical term. It is a term I used quite often in the Navy. It means “don’t move.”
So Paul is saying “don’t move from the liberty or freedom we have in Christ.”
I am always amused by the idea unbelievers have about Christianity. To hear them talk you would think we were all prisoners to some strict code of conduct, but Paul says that Christ has made us free.
1. I am free from the long term consequences of sin! I no longer fear physical death because Christ has paid my sin debt and spiritual death is no longer a threat to me.
2. I am free from the power of sin. The power of sin is death, but through Jesus, death is swallowed up in victory.
I am free from the power of sin in my life because Christ has forgiven me and thus made a way for me to escape the temptation of sin.
3. I am free from guilt because Jesus has washed me clean and by grace through faith declared me “not guilty.”
So many Christians walk through life racked with guilt unnecessarily. Why? Because they don’t fully understand what God has done.
Because Jesus has set them free and declared them not guilty, there is reason for great joy.
The right mindset is to realize our sin, then realize what God did for you, and then be in a constant state of praise and thanksgiving to God, not a constant state of guilt.
We should focus on what God has done, not what we have done.
4. And because we are no longer guilty, we are free to live our lives for God!
When we were dead in our sins we could not live for God, but because of the redeeming work of the blood of Christ we are now alive and free to live for Him.
I can preach, not because of my holiness, but because of His! Each of us can witness and testify, not of our own righteousness, but His.
Because He made me alive, I can now live for Him.
5. And because He has made me a new creature in Christ, I am free from my past. There are far too many Christians that are prisoners of their past.
God’s word is clear on this, the old things of your life are passed away, behold, all things are new.
The prostitute, the pimp, and the pusher are all made new again. There is no sin that can’t be washed away and forgiven by the blood of Jesus!
Use your past to give glory to God for his grace and mercy, but don’t you dare let it hold you back or hold you prisoner.
6. We are free from bondage. God’s word says that we were slaves to sin, in bondage to sin, but we have been made free.
What were we in bondage to?
• Appetites of the flesh, sex, drugs, booze, unhealthy relationships.
• The need for power, prestige, and status.
• Materialism, the constant pursuit of money, wealth, and stuff.
• Popularity, more concerned with what others think than what God thinks.
• But we can also be in bondage to religion, ritual and works. Going to church, doing good works, or being pious will not save you and there are many people today in bondage to religion.
Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists are all in bondage to religion, but so are many so called Christians. Only a personal relationship with Jesus will set you free.
7. Paul warns us not to become entangled again with these things that put us into bondage. Most of the time you become entangled when you aren’t looking
There are gateway attitudes or sins that can blind us and cause us to become entangled again.
Hate, jealousy, envy, lust, and pride all work to blind us just long enough to become entangled with any of the things I have just mentioned.
I would ask you tonight, how’s your liberty, are you enjoying your freedom?
God’s word says that if you are free in Christ you are free indeed. Have you let bad attitudes blind you and maybe you just realized you have become entangled again?
Are you enjoying the freedom that God intends for your life?
• Are you free from the power of sin?
• Are you praising instead of drowning in guilt?
• Are you freely living for Christ?
• Are you free from your past?
• Or, are you still in bondage?
Whatever you are tangled up in, tonight, here and now, Christ can make you free.
