Bondage and the Law

The Church of God Rather than the Church of God is often accused of being in bondage, you and I are in spiritual bondage. Why would anyone think that we are in bondage? Because we believe that Christians should keep the commandments. Anyone who believes you should obey God is spiritually in bondage. Also, because we believe in keeping the Sabbath and the Holy Days. Anything that smacks of the Old Testament would mean that you are in bondage. Often you hear the term Christian liberty, Christian freedom, and we don't want to go back to that bondage that the Israelites were in. They actually believe that we are held captive to a system, and that that system is to our detriment. Let me quote to you from a site I found on the Internet. It's called Bible Life Organization. They have an article titled, brainwashing, mind control, indoctrination, oppression, coercion, intimidation, legalism, false teaching, shame, guilt, and bondage. That covers just about everything you can think of. Quoting from a section of this article, we are not under bondage, but enjoy liberty in Jesus Christ. Let me quote from this. You'll find as we go through this that we would actually agree with a lot of what they say, but it's how you interpret what they say. That's the question. It says Jesus shed His precious blood for us that we might be freed from the curse of the law. Now, I wouldn't disagree with that. We have been freed from the curse of the law. But the question is, what is the curse of the law? For them, it's the Sabbath, it's the commandments, it's doing anything where you obey God if you don't just have love. They would say that's the curse of the law. Well, the curse of the law, if I could give it to you in two or three words, is death. Let's go over here to Galatians 3. You might remember we covered this quite extensively when we went through the book of Galatians, but it's always good to review it. Galatians 3, beginning in verse 10, I said the curse of the law is death. Remember Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, what's called the blessing, cursing chapters? What happens when you obey God? You're blessed. What happens when you disobey God? You're cursed. Here we find Paul writing, he says, For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. They would say, aha, right there. If you try to have works, you're under a curse. But I want you to notice the word of here in the Greek means to rely upon. For what it's talking about is many who rely upon the works of the law. For what is the question? Well, for justification, for forgiveness of sins. If you rely on the works of the law to try to forgive your past sins, you are under a curse. Why? Well, your sins aren't forgiven. You cannot earn forgiveness. Notice, backing up here to verse 8, the thread of this chapter says, The Scripture is foreseen that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, reach the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, In you all nations shall be blessed. So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing, Abraham. So it's talking about those who are to be justified. Now, what does justified mean? Well, it means to be made right with God, to have your past sins forgiven. When you're justified, you repent, you're baptized, your sins are forgiven. You are brought into a right relationship with God. That's called made righteous with God. The barriers that stood between you and God, the sin, all of that is removed. And so, those who rely upon works, thinking that my good works in the future will forgive what I did wrong in the past, are still under the curse. Because no amount of good works, I don't care if you keep the law perfectly, will atone for, cover your sins in the past, or your sins in the future. That's Christ's sacrifice. Verse 11, notice he goes right on.

Now, he bore all of our sins. When he was crucified on the cross, he then bore the death penalty for us. It says, for it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree. And, of course, that being applied to Christ. So, Bradlyn, the curse of the law has to do with disobeying the law and bringing the death penalty on yourself.

Now, going on with this quote, it says, Churches destroy that liberty by placing members back under the bondage of unscriptural codes and rules. They deny the liberty that has been bought and paid for on the cross of Calvary. We are saved by faith and not by laws or the Ten Commandments.

Well, do we disagree with that? Of course not. We're not saved by laws or by the Ten Commandments. If so, why did Christ have to die? Let's notice Ephesians. Turn over here to another book, Ephesians 2, verses 8 through 10. For by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God. Not of works, lest anyone should boast. So we are saved by grace, by God's mercy, by His forgiveness.

Through faith, and that faith is not of ourselves, God gives us faith. The faith to save us comes from God. Not of works. Otherwise, we could boast. We could say, Well, I've earned my salvation. I've been so good, God's got to give me salvation. You can't boast. And I think that ties in with what Mr. Claudus was bringing out in the sermonette. It says, where we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works.

So we've been created to have good works, which God prepared for beforehand, that we should walk in there. So we're to walk, or live, in good works, and by obeying God. Now, in Romans 7, verse 12, we find again concerning the law. Is the law bad? Is there something wrong with it? Now, it says, therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. So there's nothing wrong with the law. Verse 14, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, or fleshly, sold, under sin.

Verse 16, if then I do what I would not to do, I agree that the law, that it is good. You see, the purpose of the law is to show us what sin is. The purpose of the law is not to forgive sin. It shows what sin is. It tells us right from wrong, good from evil. The law gives us the way of life that we ought to be living, but it doesn't forgive our sins.

That's not its purpose. And then going on in verse 22, it says, I delight in the law of God according to the inward man. But I see another law in my members, warring against the law in my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And then he said, oh wretched man that I am! Who's going to deliver me? And so he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord is through Christ. We can be delivered. Our sins can be forgiven. We can have the strength to obey. Now, let me go on with this article. And this is where we would separate 100% from what they have to say.

Quoting the article again, We are not to live by the law at all. Period. Christ has set us free from the law. We do not use the Ten Commandments as a law of life. So that's their opinion about what freedom is. So freedom to them means freedom from having to obey the law or to keep the commandments in any form. Now, brethren, I think we all realize that's not correct. However, you and I sit here today as a unique group.

We are a group of first-roots. We're called first-roots. And we are the first to be called to experience freedom. True freedom, true liberty, and Christianity, so-called, believes that they're under freedom. That they have liberty. And yet, they are under bondage, and we are free. And yet, they don't understand that. Many interpret liberty, again, as freedom from the law, freedom from the Sabbath, freedom from the Holy Days, anything that's in the Old Testament, that we are free from that. So we want to take a look today at our calling as first-roots and understand why we have been called to liberty, why we've been called to freedom and not to bondage.

And what is liberty and freedom from the Christian, the true Christian perspective? In the Old Testament, Exodus 23, verse 14, we read this Scripture the last time I spoke here when I covered how to count Pentecost with you. But let's notice here what it says about this particular day that we will be observing, beginning at sunset tonight.

Verse 14, Three times you shall keep a feast to me in the year. Exodus 23. Verse 15, you shall keep the feast of unleavened bread, in the year to eat unleavened bread, seven days. Verse 16, and the feast of harvest. So the feast of Pentecost is also called the feast of harvest. Notice, the first-fruits of your labors. So it's the first-fruits, it's the first-crop that is produced of our labors.

So brethren, we are the first-fruits, and we are involved in the harvest of the first-fruits. So we have a dual responsibility. One to preach so that more first-fruits come along, and then we are the first-fruits. And then it talks about the feast of ingathering, which is the feast of tabernacles. Verse 19, And the first of the first-fruits of your land, you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. What is the first of the first-fruits? You know what? That symbolizes. Let's go over here to Leviticus 23 and verse 15. Leviticus 23 and verse 15.

Where we read, You shall account for yourselves from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought to sheave with the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be completed. Remember, the word here, from, means you shall begin to count from or on the next day after the Sabbath. And so they began to count. They counted seven Sabbaths. Then the next day, a Sunday, was Pentecost.

Count fifty days to the day after the seventh Sabbath, then you shall offer a new grain offering to the Lord. You shall bring from your dwelling two wave loaves of two tenths, an Ephra, or Ephod. They shall be a fine flower. They shall be baked with leaven. They are firstfruits to the Lord. Now, what we find, this is the only offering offered to God that had leavening in it.

They were not to include honey. They were not to include leavening. But this one has leavening. What did these two loaves picture that they waved before God? Well, it says, they are firstfruits. Now, in the Old Testament, Israel, as a nation, is called God's firstfruits. So, one of them would seem to symbolize ancient Israel. Leavening being a type of sin, showing that the physical nation of Israel had sin in it. The other one pictures spiritual Israel. That's us, the church, today.

And guess what? We still have leavening in us, don't we? Is there anybody here who is perfect, who doesn't sin? Well, we all have sin. And so, these two loaves picture physical Israel, spiritual Israel. And the fact that we would have sin, leavening, still within us. Now, with that as a background, knowing that this is called Feast of Harvest, the firstfruits of God, they actually offered up these loaves, which were firstfruits, symbolically on that day. Let's go to James 1.18. In James 1.18, where we talk here about the New Testament church, and we find this in James 1.18. Of His own will, He brought us forth by the Word of Truth.

So, every one of us is sitting here today, not because you willed it, but because God willed it, to make you a part of His body. God was the one to choose you. We didn't choose Him. He chose us. He called us. He opened our minds. And why did He do this? That we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. You and I are the firstfruits. Firstfruits are the first harvested part of the crop.

We are a kind of the firstfruits. So, what that's implying, brethren, we are the first to be called by God. We are the first to understand. For the last 6,000 years, the majority of mankind has been cut off from God, cut off from the tree of life, sitting under the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God has called only a handful of people. In the Old Testament, you can almost count on your hands and your toes. A few prophets, a few kings, a few of the servants of God, the patriarchs that God dealt with.

And then the New Testament church was raised up. And we, then, are a kind of the firstfruits. We are the first to trust in God, to obey God. Now, in chapter 8 of the book of Romans, Romans 8 and verse 23, Romans chapter 8 and verse 23, it says not only that we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit. So, brethren, we are the first ones to be begotten by God's Spirit, to be given the Spirit of God to live within us, to grow, to overcome. But even though we had the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies, when we are going to be given a spirit body, the resurrection, made immortal in the family of God.

Now, you might remember I mentioned about the first of the firstfruits. Well, quickly, I Corinthians 15 and verse 23 talks about the resurrection, the order of the resurrections. And we find here that in Adam all died, so in Christ all shall be made alive, verse 23.

But each one in his own order, Christ the firstfruits. Jesus Christ is the first of the firstfruits. He is the first one to be born into the family of God through a resurrection process. And so, he was resurrected after being in the grave three days and three nights. You and I will then be the next, so he was the first of the firstfruits. Now, a very interesting scripture in 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 17. 2 Corinthians 3 and verse 17.

We read this. Now, the Lord is the Spirit. And where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So, wherever God's Spirit is, God's Spirit will lead us and help us to have the proper liberty or freedom. Now, what kind of liberty and freedom is that? It goes on to verse 18.

It says, For we all with unveiled face, beholding in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image. We're being changed into the same character, Spirit image of God, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. So, you find that it's using an illustration here that the minds of the Jews during that day were blinded. It's like having a veil over their face they couldn't see.

And then, he drops down in chapter 4 and verse 4, that he shows why and how their minds were blinded. That the God of this age, Satan the Devil, is the one who's blinded people's minds. Now, the word liberty here in the Greek is interesting. The word means liberty to do or to commit things that have no relationship to salvation. Excuse me, liberty to do or to admit things that have nothing to do with salvation. Now, God expects us to do things that are required, that would please Him. Is God going to give eternal life to a rebel?

To somebody who's disobedient, somebody who hates Him and His law. But notice the last part of the definition. True liberty is living as we should, not as we pleased. Now, I think in the Christian world, that's reversed. They believe true liberty is living as you please, not as you should. And it's the exact opposite. You and I, brethren, must live as we should. And who tells us how to live? Who tells us how to regulate our lives? Who shows us the standard to live by? Well, certainly God does. So, not as we please, not as we want, but as God tells us.

Now, we'll explain that a little more, but in James 1.25, James 1, verse 25, notice, concerning liberty and Christianity, James wrote, He who looks into something that's perfect, what is it? It's called the perfect law of liberty. So, God's law is a law of liberty. Now, most in the Christian community would read this, look into the perfect law of bondage. They wouldn't call it perfect. The unperfect law of bondage. They would think that it would put you in the bondage.

And the Bible says it gives liberty. And continues in it, it's not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one should be blessed in what he does. How does the law bring liberty? Have you ever asked yourself that? How does it give us liberty? Liberty from what? Well, the Greek word here is very close to the one I read to you before, but it means freeborn in a civil sense, one who is not a slave, or one who ceases to be a slave.

Now, have you ever been a slave? You can say, well, I've never been a slave. This is what the Jews said during their days. We've never been in bondage to anybody. Well, brethren, you and I all have been slaves in the past.

We've been slaves to Satan the devil. We've been slaves to the flesh. We've been slaves to sin. We've been slaves to the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, the pride of life. We've been slaves to pride, to ego, to vanity, to just our own nature.

These things have held us in slavery. The law of liberty, God's law, the Ten Commandments, directs us in the right path. It shows us how to walk. It shows us the way to live, how to react, how to think, how to love, how to serve, how to give. And so, therefore, it frees us from the shackles of Satan, the dominion of the flesh, and society around us. It truly is a law of liberty. Turn over here to chapter 2, verse 12, of James.

James 2, 12. It says, So you and I, brethren, must speak, and we must do. That means obey, do, as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. So we're to be doers of whatever that law is. Now, they may argue, well, this is only talking about the law of love. All you've got to do is love. But what is love? Well, love is keeping the commandments. You're to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your might, and love your neighbors yourself.

Verse 4 shows you how to love God. Last 6, how to love your neighbor. The Bible is just an expansion of that. But let's back up to verse 8, if you have a quandary over what law are we talking about. Verse 8, Now, what law has points? Well, I can think of one that has 10. It's called the 10 points, or the 10 commandments. Let's go on to verse 11. Because here in verse 11, he shows which law he's talking about. It says, for he said, do not commit adultery.

Also said, do not murder. Now, if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. So speak, and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty. So he's obviously talking here about the 10 commandments. So you and I, brethren, are to keep God's law. We're going to be judged by it. But does that earn salvation? No. Salvation is a free gift from God. It's by His grace. Does it forgive your sins? No. That's not the purpose of the law.

The purpose of the law shows you the direction to walk. I'll guarantee you, when I go across country or travel anywhere, I'm always appreciative of the signs that say, Interstate 75, exit so-and-so, and it will tell you what town, what highway. It will tell you what's along the road. That's the way God's law is. How do we know which way to go? We could be going this way, but God's law points us in this direction. It says, go this way, and it shows us how to walk, where to go.

And so, God is very clear in that. Let's back up to Romans 6, Romans 6, verse 6. I talked about being slaves. Well, notice, it says, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, and that we should no longer be slaves of what? Of sin. You and I have been, in the past, held captive, ensnared by sin. We were a slave to it. It dominated us. It ruled us, controlled us.

Verse 7, for He who has died has been freed from sin. So we are now free. Verse 17, but God be thanked as though you were slaves of sin, yet now you obey from the heart that form of doctrine to which you have been delivered. And having been set free from sin, so we are no longer slaves to it, we are free from it. And then going on down to verse 22, And now having been set free from sin, and have you become slaves of God, have your fruit to holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death.

So what does disobedience produce? It produces death. So, brethren, what you find is all of us have been slaves in the past to this world, to the flesh, to Satan. God gives us through His Spirit the fact that our sins are forgiven and the Holy Spirit dwells within us. God gives us the power to begin to do battle so that those areas do not dominate us, that we can begin to overcome them. Now, that's what I'll be speaking on tomorrow, so I won't go into that here. Over the centuries, millennia, men have fought and died for freedom.

They've gone to war for freedom. The American Revolution was over freedom, liberty. Most people simply want to grow up, be left alone, have a piece of land, some water, food to eat, clothing, have their wife, family around them, good job, leave me alone. I want to be happy and just live a productive life. But you realize over the centuries how many people have lived and died and never had that opportunity, never had the opportunity to live a normal, what we would call normal life, have not had the freedoms that we have. We live truly in a blessed country here in the United States. We haven't been obsessed with wars on our own soil like many countries are.

Let me quote an article here to you concerning this is from the United Nations. United Nations defines major wars as military conflicts inflicting 1,000 battle deaths per year. In 1965, there were 10 major wars underway. The new millennium began with much of the world consumed in armed conflict or cultivating an uncertain peace. As of mid-2005, there were eight major wars underway, down from 15 in the year 2003, and as many as two dozen lesser conflicts ongoing with varying degrees of intensity.

Most of these are civil, interstate wars, fueled as much by racial, ethnic, or religious animosities as ideological fervor. Most victims are civilians, a feature that distinguishes modern conflicts. During World War I, civilians made up less than 5% of the deaths.

Today, 75% of those killed or wounded are civilians, non-combatants. Africa, to a greater extent than any other continent, is afflicted by war. Africa has been marred by more than 20 major civil wars since 1960. Rwanda, Somalia, Angola, Sudan, Liberia, Burundi are among those countries that have recently suffered serious and armed conflicts. You might remember here a few years ago the Hutus and the Tutsis battling it out, and where there were over, well, some estimate, a million people were killed. Hundreds of thousands mutilated, hacked to pieces with machetes, knives, where they would just go through villages and just destroy.

What a blessing we have had in the United States of America not to have constant warfare on our soil. What if Georgia was fighting Tennessee? Some dispute, water, let's say. And they're fighting over water. And you find that you're driving along the highway, your husband kisses you goodbye in the morning, he takes off for work, and he drives down the highway and somebody has planted a bomb there.

And all at once it blows up, and his car disintegrates. He's gone. What impact would that have on you? What if you're traveling anywhere, there would be snipers around? You'd see armies, you'd see roadblocks. You couldn't go into Georgia because the Georgia military would be set up there, and they would try to keep everybody out. And then there would be this warfare, or there are plants being blown up.

And there's constant warfare going on. What if California and Arizona were at it all the time? New Jersey, New York? As it says here, 20 major conflicts in Africa. What if there were 20 major conflicts in the United States going on all the time internally? And so one state doesn't like another state, and so you've got this warfare going on.

What kind of life would you have? Would you feel safe? Would you feel secure? What if an army came through this section of town looking for churches and it would blow this church up? Or who knows what might take place? It says wars have caused untold economic and social damage to the countries of Africa. Food production is impossible in conflict areas, and famine often results. Widespread conflict has condemned many of Africa's children to live in misery. In certain cases, it has threatened the existence of traditional African cultures. Well, people would like to have freedom from war, would they not?

Wouldn't they like to have peace? Many of them would like to experience what we've experienced here in this country. Or just to have peace. But yet God says that He gives us a freedom and a liberty that goes even beyond that. The children of the world, and many people in this world, would like to have freedom from hunger. And yet you find that they don't experience that. In Asia, Africa, and Latin American countries, well over 500 million people are living in what the World Bank has called absolute poverty.

Every year, 15 million children die of hunger. Now, the World Health Organization says this, and I want you to notice. The World Health Organization estimates that one-third of the world is well fed, one-third is underfed, and one-third is starving. Since you've entered this site, it says, at least 200 people have died of starvation. So since I've been reading this particular article, 200 people have died because of starvation. Over 4 million will die this year. One in 12 people worldwide is malnourished, including 160 million children under the age of 5.

Then it says, nearly 1 in 4 of the Earth's population, 1.3 billion, live on less than $1 a day. Now, we have it rough, I know sometimes. We lose our jobs, we're out of work, or we don't have a very good job, and we wonder how we're going to make ends meet. And yet, 45% of the people in this world live like this. What if you were living on $1 a day?

What would you be able to buy? What would you be able to do? I mean, yes, sometimes it gets rough, and it will get rougher as we go along. But we need to realize that so much of this world would love to have the blessings of doing away with hunger. What about freedom from sickness?

I mean, this affects all of us, doesn't it? I mean, none of us are totally free of sicknesses. What about the hospitals? How many hospitals are there? How many trillions of dollars are spent on drugs, medicines, and all of these things? Freedom from sickness, freedom from mental diseases, freedom from fear, freedom from worries, freedom from frustrations, and cancers. Everything that you can think of. The world would love to be free from those things. What about our cities? Would we love to see freedom from crime? Have you ever known a city that is absolutely free of crime? Well, I don't. What about drugs? What about gangs? What about violence? What about sexually transmitted disease, rape, robbery, burglary, and all of these types of things? This goes on constantly in this country. As an example, in 2005, there were 16,692 murders and manslaughter in the United States. Now, we got upset because maybe a thousand are killed over in Iraq, and that's terrible. But we don't stop to think that right here in our own country, in some cities, we have 400 and 500 or more killed in one city. And a couple of those cities put together is almost like the losses that we have in Iraq. In 19, or excuse me, 2005, 93,000 women were forcibly raped. Now, I know that that is a low-ball figure because probably half of the women or more don't report rapes when they take place because they're ashamed. And yet, I know that we have people sitting here in this audience who, because of situations from the past, of either rape, molestation, any number of things, are had to fight all of their lives, certain psychological, certain emotions, certain feelings, and have to deal with those things and struggle with them. And you find that this goes on all the time.

Would not the world be better if we were free? We had liberty. If there wasn't those type of crimes and problems extend. What you find is people want freedom to live their lives, to enjoy life, to be happy, to see their children grow up, to have good jobs, be healthy, have food to eat, clothing, and shelter. And yet, so often, that is denied. Why doesn't the world have freedom? Why doesn't it have liberty? Well, Romans 6, 16 gives one answer, Romans 6, verse 16. It says, Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves servants to obey? You are the one servant whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness. Man has rejected the source of true liberty. Man has turned his back on God in his way. In the Garden of Eden, man chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and turned his back on the tree of life. And so, man has been sitting under that tree ever since. Man has rejected God. And you'll find that the vast majority of nations around the world, even though they are called religious, have all kinds of religions, all kinds of gods that they worship. And they don't worship the true God. They don't know the true way. And even in the so-called Christian nations, you find that people are deceived and misled as far as the truth is concerned. In Romans 7, chapter 7, verse 23, again we find that we have a warfare going on. And people want to give in and follow the pleasures of the flesh, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. They want to do those things. They don't want anyone telling them what to do. Romans chapter 1 tells us that very clearly. That when people knew God, they knew his way. They rejected it. They turned their back on it because they wanted their way. The world is held captive to Satan the devil, and he is the unseen influence in the world today. So man is held captive to his flesh, to Satan, to society around him. And all you have to do is look at the influence of television, the mass media, the press, the music, the movies, educational system, religious groups, peer pressure, tradition, culture. Anything you can think of around us. And you see the tremendous and dramatic influence on society today. Man has been deceived over the centuries into thinking that the way to peace is to go to war.

You're going to have peace. You've got to go to war. Kill your enemy. Get rid of him and you'll have peace. That's one way of doing it. No more enemy. You're at peace with him. But does that change human nature? No. And as human nature, that's the problem. The classic example of what we're talking about here. How many of you have ever seen the movie Spartacus in the past? Ever seen the movie Spartacus? I think probably most of us have at one time or another. Spartacus was real. The revolt of the slaves in the Roman Empire took place 73 to 71 B.C. If you remember, Spartacus escaped. It was a gladiator. He got out. They led a revolt. They went through the countryside collecting slaves. In the Roman Empire, about half of the people were slaves. He had quite an army. He defeated the Romans on a number of occasions. They were trying to bring a fleet so that they could go over into Africa. They were trying to flee out of the domination of the Roman Empire. They wanted freedom. Yet, the deal did not work out. They had to finally fight the Romans. General Marcus Crassus defeated Spartacus and his group.

If you remember the story, they crucified the slaves for miles. Both sides of the road. They hung them up and they crucified them. Thousands, tens of thousands of them were crucified. Why? They wanted freedom. They wanted liberty. They didn't want to be a slave. And brethren, the world, even though it doesn't realize it, they can't verbalize it. They don't necessarily articulate it. The world desires freedom. Desires liberty. They desire what you and I have. The freedom, first of all, that comes from knowing God's way of life and how to live and the right way to live. And then they just would like freedom to be able to live. So, you find that human beings want freedom and liberty. Now, you and I have been called as first-fruits. And one of the jobs, one of the reasons why God has called us today is to help liberate the world and the world tomorrow. In Romans chapter 8, verse 18, Romans the 8th chapter, verse 18, we read this. For I consider that the suffering of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. So the world is waiting for us to be revealed, for the sons of God, for the resurrection to take place. For the creation was subject to futility, to vanity, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope. So, brethren, God holds out hope for the world because the creation itself will be delivered, notice, from the bondage of corruption, the bondage of decay, into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Now, before that's going to take place, we need to be liberated. We need to know what liberty is and practice freedom. So there's going to come a time when the bondage that this world has been in subjection to is going to be removed, and there will be the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pains together, until now. Not only that, but we also, who have the first roots of the Spirit, even we ourselves, groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our bodies, the time when God will give us a Spirit body. Brethren, the world is waiting on us. This world, humanity, is waiting for you and for me. In the millennium, we're going to be bringing people out of captivity. When Christ comes back, the resurrection takes place. One of the first things He's going to do is to send us out, and we're going to begin to regather people and settle them according to their nations. And they're going to be liberated from despots. They're going to be liberated from slave traders, liberated from prisons, liberated from starvation, slave labor camps, from sickness. Isaiah 35, in verse 3, describes what will happen at that time. Isaiah 35, beginning in verse 3. Verse 3 here says, He will come and save you.

Verse 8 talks about a highway of holiness. And then, no lions in verse 9 being there. Verse 10.

Well, brethren, we will begin to bring back people out of captivity. We'll begin to unite families together, heal the sick, teach the right way. People will be liberated from sickness, as you read here. Major things like being lame, deaf, dumb, blind, all of those will begin to disappear. Broken homes will be unbroken, starving children. Those things will disappear. Now, we know in Revelation 5.10, the Bible clearly says that you and I are going to be kings and priests. We're going to be a kingdom of priests and kings in the future. And we are going to follow the example of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 2, verse 17, we find why Jesus Christ is our high priest. Why He is so imminently qualified for that job, that responsibility, that duty. Verse 17, Hebrews 2, Therefore in all things He had to be made like His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in all things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. So He was made flesh, He lived in the flesh, He walked in the flesh, He got tired and weary, He was beaten and scourged, as we know He suffered. For in that He Himself has suffered. Notice. And also, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted. Brethren, Jesus Christ, as our high priest, set the pattern for us to follow. We will be able to feel for people, just like Christ does. Our sufferings and trials and difficulties that we go through today are not in vain. They're not useless. Maybe we wonder, well, why is this happening to me, or why am I having this difficulty or that problem? Well, we need to realize that unless we were to go through some of those things, how can we have empathy and pity and concern and mercy on other human beings? If you're never sick, you never have a problem, you won't understand what other people go through. But when you go through it yourself, and then you bring these people back out of captivity, and they're going through the pains and the suffering, you will be able to empathize with them. And we will have empathy and compassion. So nothing that we go through today is useless. It all contributes to our overall goal of being priests with Christ, to be able to help and to serve and to be merciful and compassionate. And this is one reason why Christ was made human, so that He would know what it would be like.

Rather, we are the first fruits, and we have so abundantly been blessed to be among the first to trust in God. We have been called to help liberate this world, society around us. The whole world desires to have liberty like we have, to experience what we have gone through. We're the first to experience true liberty as God intended for humanity to live. You and I sit under the tree of life, and we're going to have the opportunity of extending that tree to others. We're going to have the opportunity to walk in and open prison doors, to see people heal, to teach them God's way, to see the light go on in their mind, to see them respond, to see them learn how to have a happy marriage, how to rear their children, how to be productive as workers. Every facet of life, and that mankind will eventually come to have liberty, not only in Christ, to obey and keep his commandments, but also to be liberated from the problems that humanity has suffered for the last 6,000 years. So, brethren, you and I do sit under the tree of life. Let's make sure that we don't let humanity down.