Eternal Life, the Law of Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness

Well, thank you, Mr. Janisic, and once again, good afternoon, everyone. On July 4, 1776, the Continental Congress of the United Colonies adopted the Declaration of Independence. It was on that date that the members of the Continental Congress finished their revision, so they went through and they changed what needed to be changed from the original draft, and essentially it was adopted as it stood.

Now, it wouldn't be signed, actually, for another month before it was officially signed, but that document essentially declared their intent for independence from the British Crown as of the date of its adoption, July 4, 1776. Now, not only that, though, that document established the principles that would govern American democracy going forward. As you take a look at the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, we see some things that are pretty remarkable when it comes to a government.

They stated very clearly and openly that all men were created equal. They recognized that God endowed man, his own personal creation, with certain unalienable rights—rights which the Declaration made absolutely clear that the British Crown had no right to interfere with. Among these unalienable rights that we see listed and enumerated were the right to life, the right to liberty, and the right to the pursuit of happiness.

And, as often happens with language—we've talked about this before—the meaning and the understanding of the way that words were used changes with time. At the time the Declaration was written, the concept of pursuit is very different than the way that we use the word today. It's very different than the way that we use the word today. In fact, we think of the word pursuit and we think of chasing something. We think of like running after it in that sense, or something that is in hot pursuit.

That's the way we think of that word today. But in their usage at the time, the word pursuit really meant more and spoke more to the idea of actually catching it, actually practicing it, actually experiencing it. In fact, the Virginia Declaration, which was penned on June 12 of 1776 and kind of had a very strong influence on the document itself, on the final version of the Declaration of Independence, it illustrates this concept. It illustrates this thinking. It wrote, all men are created equally free and independent.

They have certain inherent natural rights of which they cannot, by any compact, deprive or divest their posterity, among which are the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety. So it wasn't all about chasing after it. It actually meant you caught it. You got to experience. You got to practice it. But what this document essentially asserted was that individuals had the right to live their lives uninterrupted by governmental influence.

They had the right to enjoy their freedom to live in such a way that they might prosper and that they might achieve happiness. And in that sense, then, the Declaration gave them the right not just to seek it, but to practice it and to obtain it. What the Declaration of Independence provides is a little window into the mindset behind those who would frame the Bill of Rights, who would then frame the Constitution of the United States.

And as such, some of the ideas that are contained within it still remain to this day among the most influential in modern history. Other countries around the world have framed their constitutions and charters based upon the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Constitution. They have looked at what has been done in America and attempted to replicate it where they are. But these ideas, these concepts, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are important.

They're important concepts that are contained within. Now, fast forward, 248 years. 248 years, that's crazy to think about. 248 years since 1776. Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. These ideas have shifted pretty significantly from the Founders' intent. They've changed. They really have. As you consider the way and how things have been upheld as time has gone on. And these concepts, these ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, they have been used to justify a number of things that are against the way of God.

Life is upheld. Absolutely. It is upheld in these United States. Unless it is the life of the unborn and it's getting in the way of you living your best life. Liberty is used to justify vices. It's used to justify anything in the name of freedom that somebody wants to do that can negatively harm marriages and negatively harm families, negatively harm society.

And the pursuit of happiness has been used to justify the removal of anything that gets in the way of you achieving your goal of being happy. Whatever that might be that's in the way, just throw it away. Get rid of it. It's not critical. Your happiness is most important. So while still influential, while these ideas are still influential, the redefining of these concepts from how they were originally intended has had a reverse effect on the United States.

It's had a reverse effect. And instead of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, what we see is death, slavery to sin, and depression. What happened? What happened? What happened to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? And, for that matter, in the manner in which they are included in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, are these things that God is even concerned with in this life? Are these things that God is concerned with in this life? Or, has God called us to something more? Has He called us to something far greater as a component of the citizenship that we are being offered as a part of His Kingdom?

I believe He has called us to something more. And with the time that we have left today, I'd like to explore this concept as we think about the calling we've been given, as we consider the citizenship that has been provided to us as a part of the Kingdom of God. The title of the message today is Eternal Life, the Law of Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness.

Eternal Life, the Law of Liberty, and the Pursuit of Holiness. You know, in the framers of the Declaration of Independence enumerated these unalienable rights, they described one of man's most fundamental states of existence. At its most fundamental, the concept of life is a pretty binary thing. You are either alive or you are deceased.

There's not a lot of room in between in the sense of life as we consider it. You're either alive or you're not. And so it describes this most fundamental state of being in this way, that it was self-evident, they said. This was self-evident. In fact, Jefferson's draft actually stated, rather than self-evident—I actually like this wording, I almost wish they would have held on to this wording—but they did change it in the final draft. Jefferson's draft actually said that they held these rights to be sacred and undeniable. I really like that terminology. Sacred and undeniable. But they realized that we were endowed by our Creator with these things, these rights, and that government existed in order to secure these rights for its people. That that was the purpose of government, to uphold, to protect these rights. And that no man, no power of government, no state, no anything had the right to impact that. So as a result, what we see in this is protections for life throughout the various amendments that we see contained within the Bill of Rights. For example, U.S. citizens are provided the right to bear arms and to self-defense. They are provided with the right to protect their life as a part of the Bill of Rights.

U.S. citizens are protected against the government unfairly taking their life. You can be relatively safe, I say relatively, you can be relatively safe on U.S. soil that you will not be on the opposite end of a drone strike on U.S. soil because you are a U.S. citizen. There are protections in place for these things. For now. We'll say for now. Things change as time goes on. But these were all protections that were enumerated in the Bill of Rights to be able to support this unalienable right of man to life. But, brethren, the reality is that all of us exist in a physical creation today that is governed by corruption. Now, not in the political sense, okay, not in the political sense of corruption, but in the biological sense. We exist in a world and in a creation that tends toward decay. It tends toward decay. Living things eventually die, they decay. If you leave an apple peel out on the sidewalk or an apple core, rather, or a banana peel out on the sidewalk in the hot sun, eventually it will wilt. It'll begin to turn brown as it oxidizes. It'll slowly turn black. White mold will grow on it. And eventually it will be goo. Right? It's a very scientific term, by the way. Goo. Goo is a scientific term. But that is the case for nearly every food item out there. Except, notably one thing, the only food item that is apparently not true for is McDonald's hamburgers. In 2022, I came across this because I don't know how I come across these things half the time, but in 2022 there was a woman named Allie Sherb who shared online a video of a McDonald's hamburger and french fries pack that she bought in 1996. She was curious what would happen if she stuck the bag in a shoebox and then the very back of a storage unit. So she did. She stuck the hamburger and the fries, didn't do anything with it, just in a bag, in a shoebox, stuck it in the very back of a storage unit. 24 years later, she opened that shoebox and streamed the unveiling of the hamburger and french fries on TikTok.

There were no signs of decay on the french fries in any way, shape, or form. They look like maybe they just like fallen under your car seat for like two days. They were a little weird, a little crispy looking maybe, a little wonky. The hamburger, the bun looked fine, the meat looked fine.

How? I don't know. Well, of course I know. Preservatives. Tons and tons and tons of preservatives, right? But apparently, outside of this super excessive volume of preservatives that are contained in McDonald's, hamburgers, physical things become corrupted with time. That is a law of nature. Okay, a law of nature. Turn with me please to Romans 8 and verse 20. Romans 8 and verse 20. And ultimately, the Apostle Paul kind of references these concepts as he speaks to this idea of what's taking place as a part of God's plan for mankind. Romans 8, and we'll go ahead and pick his words up beginning in verse 18. So Romans 8 and verse 18. The Apostle Paul writes, he says, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not to be compared, are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation, we might say hope, earnest expectation, it's kind of that definition of hope, earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. Notice verse 20. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. You know there are deep truths contained about our current reality in that particular passage. The decay, the corruption that we see on earth at this time is one, temporary. Two, it's purposeful. It's purposeful. And three, it has been made so by God. It has been made so by God. And he's done that in hope. He's done that in hope. And what we see here too is the whole of creation. The entirety of creation eagerly waits this coming time when the decay and the corruption that it is subjected to right now is transformed to glory, is transformed to something different, something that is not corruptible, something that is incorruptible. We see just as the first fruits of God will be transformed from corruptibility, from death and decay to glory as spirit beings to the very children of God. Charles Hodge, 19th-20th century minister, wrote regarding this passage. He said, The Apostle fired with the thought of the future glory of the saints pours forth this splendid passage in which he represents the whole creation. So think about the creation. Represents the whole creation groaning under its present degradation and looking and longing for the revelation of this glory as the end and the consummation of its existence.

I love that terminology. Looking forward so eagerly and anticipating so eagerly what it is that's coming, what is about to take place, the end and the consummation of its existence. Brethren, you and I, as part of this physical creation, we experience the same thing.

We were created to be temporary. And in that sense, as humans, we're all dead men walking.

We are all dead men walking in that sense as we slowly decay and slowly break down as time goes on until we eventually die. It's a little morbid to think about, isn't it?

But it's our reality in this life, in this physical life that is our reality.

That's the elephant in the room of this physical life.

But what I think is really beautiful about that is that, one, it's temporary. Two, it's purposeful.

And three, it was made so by God in hope. Because we can take a look at this life, and we can recognize that there's something so much better coming. There's something so much better coming. In fact, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians 15.

1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul here in a different location, addresses this same general concept here, kind of words it slightly differently in this resurrection chapter, speaking to the importance of the resurrection, speaking to the connection that that resurrection has with the first fruits of God, and speaking to the coming victory over that corruptibility that we experience now that results as a result of Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 50. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 50. It says, now I say this brethren, that flesh and blood, physical creation, flesh and blood, cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does corruption, that which is subject to decay and death, nor does corruption inherit incorruption.

It goes on to say, behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, this mortal must put on immortality. Corruptibility, decay, death, that corruptible nature of man cannot inherit incorruption. It can't. Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. So even if we happen to be one of those who is alive at Christ's return, a change from the corruptible nature of man to the incorruptible nature of God, from flesh and blood to spirit, is necessary. It's required for us to be able to inherit the kingdom that we are heirs to as children of God. He goes on in verse 54. He says, so when this corruptible has put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your sting, O Hades? Where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Goes on to talk about, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, be immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. Kind of along the lines of what Mr. Emery was talking about in the first message today.

The idea that the things that we do in this life, even though they sometimes seem hopeless, are not. This labor is not in vain. What we're doing here in this corruptible world is not in vain. That's important for us to keep in mind. Earlier in this chapter, in 1 Corinthians 15, the Apostle Paul describes death as the final enemy. Says it is the final enemy.

That victory against that death comes through Jesus Christ through the plan of salvation that God has put into motion for mankind. Christ will defeat this final enemy, and this mortal will put on immortality. Do we then have a right to life in this physical existence?

Or has God planned something more? I think this brings a really beautiful truth to bear that, quite frankly, as the people of God, we should be trumpeting from the rooftops. We should be shouting this truth from the rooftops that this life isn't it. This life isn't it. This corruptible life that we live is not it. All the suffering, all the difficulty, all the challenges, these things are temporary. And as we saw last week in Peter's writings and John's writings as well, the things of this world are passing away. This corruptibility is passing away. It is decaying slowly with time as well. It is corruptible in that sense. But what that means for us as the people of God, it means that we need to be looking to what is to come in order to inform what is now. We have to ensure that we have a vision. We have to ensure that we have the right perspective as we go through this life now. And so, hard question time, do we go through life with that vision in place? Do we go through this life and all of its challenges and its difficulties and its trials with that vision of what is coming, that eager expectation and that hope of what is coming firmly in mind? Or do we find ourselves holding to the right, to this life, and all that it entails? We find ourselves holding on to the right to this life and all that it entails. As part of the kingdom of God, as citizens therein, as a part of that calling that we've been provided, brethren, we have been given the right to eternal life through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. When it comes to liberty, the second right that we see enumerated in the Declaration of Independence is liberty. That describes yet another state of existence. You're either free or you're enslaved. I mean, you're free or you're not. Now, the reality is there's a very large continuum of free in between those two positions. I mean, the United States is not the only country in the world with freedom. We're not. Other countries have freedom.

So there's a variety of a continuum there that kind of goes along the lines of free to enslaved. And honestly, even amongst the continuum of free, there's a lot of different opinions on what constitutes free. When you look out there, there are some who take the definition of liberty or freedom as concluding that any restriction, any limitation upon them at all is infringement on individual liberty. And they are not free if any restriction is placed upon their behavior whatsoever.

Even in the United States, with its multitude of laws and, quite frankly, number of restrictions on individual liberty, you ever have to go through the permitting process to build anything? You know, we have infringements on our liberty in that sense. I have to ask permission to build a shed in my backyard, which I own. It's crazy how that works. But there are infringements. There are all sorts of things that do take place even now. But we do experience a greater degree of freedom than many of the other countries around the world. And when you travel internationally, you do see that. You know, when you travel to some of the more challenging parts of the world, you certainly do see that. But as you look at the Bill of Rights and the different amendments that are in place to uphold those freedoms in the U.S., what you'll see is amendments that limit governmental right to infringe upon your liberty. Once again, citizens are afforded the right to speak freely. I can stand up here and I can speak out freely, for now, about a variety of things. Now, that's not the case in Canada currently. Canada has severe limitations on the things that they're allowed to say from a pulpit. Very significant limitations on what they're allowed to say from a pulpit. We have the right to practice our faith. We have the right to peaceably assemble. We have the right to write freely without fear of reprisal. Again, for now. For now. And we'll see what the future brings. But there are a number of other protections that are ultimately contained within. So when we consider the calling that we've received, when we consider the calling that we've been provided by God, the citizenship and the kingdom of God that we've been given, brethren, are we free in the American sense of the word?

Are we free in the American sense of the word? As Christians, are we free to do whatever we want?

Well, I mean, you can, but there will be consequences potentially for what is done. Are we free to do what we want? Or have we, as citizens of the kingdom of God, willingly placed ourselves under the bondage of Jesus Christ as bondservants through the covenant of baptism?

Have we willingly enslaved ourselves to Jesus Christ in that sense when we entered into the covenant of baptism? Let's go over to James 1. James 1. Book of James. James writes about the law of God. James writes in very specific terms. He writes and refers to the law of God as the perfect law of liberty. He refers to it as the perfect law of liberty, and he really emphasizes, as James often can, not just understanding these things, not just hearing these things, but really performing them, putting them at work in our lives, going through and doing what it is that we hear. Verse 22, he begins of James 1. Verse 22 of James 1, he begins with this idea in mind. He says, Be doers of the word, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. He goes as far as saying, if we hear it and then we don't follow through, that that's deception, that we actually are deceiving ourselves if we hear these things and we ultimately don't follow through. We need to be doers of the word. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror. For he observes himself, he goes away, and he immediately forgets what kind of man he was. It's this idea when we hear the word of God and we think about and we understand the various things that we hear, it's like we're walking up and looking at our own reflection in a mirror. What is that mirror? It is that law. It's that standard. It's Jesus Christ. It's what we see, and we see the comparison. Well, if we only hear it and we don't do it, it's like we walk up there and we forget what we look like when we walk away. We forget what needs to be changed. We forget what isn't maybe a part of what it is that God is trying to do with us. But he goes on, he says, verse 25, but he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, again, kind of that mirror, that standard that we're looking at, and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the word, it says this one will be blessed in what he does. So James refers to the law of God, or in this case the law of liberty, the way he references it, in two very important aspects. He says, number one, it's perfect. It's perfect. And number two, it is a law that brings liberty. It's a law that brings liberty, which is an oxymoron. Just in its general terms, in the human sense of the word of liberty and freedom, law is the opposite of free. How can you be free if somebody's telling you what to do? Right? But he says this law brings liberty. The Greek word that's used here to describe this idea of perfect is the Greek word teleos, and it's a word that means something which has been completed in the sense of it's been perfected, it's attained its end or its purpose, and it's complete in that sense. Like it's reached the end result of what it was there for in that sense.

The Greek word for liberty is eletheria, and it's defined as freedom or liberty. Now, in the sense that we would consider freedom and liberty, but where this gets really interesting, for me, I guess, in some ways it's interesting, that the Jewish way of thinking of liberty and the Greek way of thinking of liberty were two very different views of liberty. The Greek view of liberty is really what began the American view of liberty. It was Greek philosophy that began to ask questions about the individual, what the individual was capable of doing, who could interfere with that, and it was philosophy on the Greek side of things that passed that to the Romans, who defined their republic as a result. America defined its republic largely off of what we see from the Roman Republic. And so our sense in the western world of liberty really is Greek in origin.

But what's really interesting about James, James is writing to a Jewish audience, largely. He was the overseer of the Jerusalem church. He's thinking in a very Jewish way. He's writing in a very Jewish way. The whole epistle is very Jewish in the way that it's written. How did the Jewish people contextually look at liberty? How did they understand liberty? Turn with me please to Psalm 119.

Psalm 119 and verse 45. Psalm 119 and verse 45. We're going to see an example here of this word in Hebrew, the word liberty in Hebrew, which is not the exact same word as in Greek, but the concepts are pretty much the same here. Oops, I went way too far. Psalm 119 and then verse 45. Psalm 119 and verse 45. Psalm 119 verse 45 reads as follows. It says, For I will walk at liberty, for I seek your precepts. If you drill down a little further in that, your Bible may have a note on the word at. If you look at your center margin reference, you'll see the context of that word at. Basically it says, For I will walk in a wide place, for I will walk in a wide place at liberty, or I will walk in a wide place. Liberty is like walking in a wide place, for I seek your precepts. I seek your teachings. I seek your law. The new Bible dictionary, I was actually very surprised at their candor, says as follows. They said, Liberty as the Old Testament, and therefore the Hebrew mind conceives it, means on the one hand deliverance from created forces that would keep men from serving and enjoying their Creator, and on the other hand, the positive happiness of living in fellowship with God under His covenant in the place where He pleased to manifest Himself and to bless. In its continuance, liberty is a covenantal blessing, something which God has promised to maintain as long as His people are faithful. Liberty does not mean independence from God. It is precisely in God's service that man finds his perfect freedom.

The divine law, as interpreted and exemplified by Christ Himself, remains the standard for expressing Christ's will for His own freed bondservants. James's audience would have understood the Jewish context of the idea of liberty. Not that liberty meant a separation from God's way and His law, but instead what liberty meant was the openness and the freedom that came as a result of walking in it. Everybody in this room has hiked at one point in time in their life. Have you ever hiked on big, wide hiking trails before that are nice and maintained and kept up? It's easy hiking. It's pretty easy hiking. But when you start getting off into what we affectionately refer to sometimes as goat trails, it becomes a lot less easy to hike. There are roots. There are rocks. There are places where the trail has eroded out and it tries to catch your foot, tries to catch your toe. The Jewish concept of liberty is like walking in the wide path, that the law of God provides the wide path with which we can walk, whereas walking in the narrow paths tends to trip up one's foot. The understanding then is that we are truly free when we are in a covenantal relationship with God. And that does seem very counterproductive in that we're not counterproductive, but counterintuitive in that sense. But again, as we mentioned earlier, our concept of freedom is very different in the Western world. Ours comes from the Greek side of thought, the Western thought. What we see is the freedom is the absence of all restriction. So as soon as there's a restriction, that's not freedom anymore. That's not freedom anymore. What we want is the ability to act as one pleases regardless of the wishes of others. And that's true freedom in the Western world. It's a very Western way of looking at it. Let's go over to 1 Peter 2. Why that's interesting is because of the differences of people to whom James interacted with and wrote, and the people whom Peter interacted with and wrote. Peter's epistles were sent out into portions of Asia Minor, many of which were very Greek in their origin. Now, there were Jews there as well, but those congregations were mixed congregations. And so he is speaking very much here to the Western view, so to speak, of freedom and liberty. The Greeks, again, were among some of the first cultures to begin to look at liberty in the way that we do in the Western world.

And Greek philosophy moved that to Rome, who then ultimately moved it on down through time to our view of liberty today. 1 Peter 2. We're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse 13.

1 Peter 2 verse 13 says, Therefore, submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme or to governors as to those who are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those who do good. For this is the will of God that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. Notice verse 16.

As free, as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice, but as bondservants of God.

Says, Honor all people, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king. So that's almost a very different way of looking at it than the Jewish mind would have looked, because in the Jewish mind, freedom came through the obedience to God. That was what freedom was. On the Greek side, on the other hand, it was free from restriction. And so Peter says, Look, don't use your freedom, don't use your liberty as a cloak for vice. Be able to do whatever you want because you're free. Says, that's not what we're talking about here. It's not what we do. He says, It's God's will that we're submissive to the ordinances of man. Notice for God's sake, for the Lord's sake. It's not for the sake of man. It's not for the sake of our own sake. It's for Him. And he goes on to write that in doing so, we put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. We instead put ourselves willingly under another yoke. We put ourselves willingly into bondage as a slave to Jesus Christ. That's what we're doing when we enter into a covenant relationship. And so freedom, then, is a result of the liberty which comes from being a slave to Christ. Under the perfect law of liberty. Under the law that God provides His people. As citizens of the kingdom of God, as part of the calling that we've been provided, we've been given the right to liberty. But we need to know that that liberty comes only through the law of God and a covenantal relationship with Him that liberty can then be exercised.

Lastly, this idea of the pursuit of happiness. As we talked about at the beginning, the terminology of the concept of pursuit meant something different than the way that we use it today. In fact, the way we kind of consider it then, I guess, and we use it this way today a little bit too, is we use the idea of a pursuit as like a trade or a profession or an avocation. Like, well, what is your pursuit? Oh, I'm a carpenter or I'm a plumber or I'm a, you know, teacher. I'm a this, I'm a that. Whatever it might be, okay? We use that in the pursuit that we undergo. And so, it's something that we follow with a great zeal, a certain degree of steady interest.

And so, in that manner, the way that word is used, at least at that point in time as well, it's not guaranteeing citizens the right to chase happiness. It's guaranteeing them the right to practice it as they might practice a profession, as they might go through and do a work, so to speak. Look at the world around us today. You look at the United States today. Happiness is elusive for so many today. Happiness is elusive. And partly because, there are a lot of factors, but partly because people are placing their happiness in things that cannot bring lasting happiness. They're placing their happiness in things which are decaying, which are passing away, which are corruptible. They're not placing them in the things that bring lasting happiness. Turn over to John 10. John 10, if we take a look at Christ's words here, John 10 speaks to them in a parable, as he often did, and in this parable he identifies his flock and he identifies himself as a shepherd. He identifies himself as the good shepherd or the great shepherd. John 10, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. John 10 and verse 1, says, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, that same is a thief and a robber. He says, if he's not willing to come in the front door, so to speak, of the sheepfold, if he's climbing up over the side, then he's a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him, the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers. And you know what it says in verse 6. Jesus used this illustration, but they did not understand the things which he spoke to them. You know, sitting there listening, going, all right, who's the sheep? Are you a sheep? Am I a sheep? What's going on here? Who's, are you the shepherd? Is he the shepherd? We don't know what's going on. And so he explains, he goes on in verse 7 and explains, he says, most assuredly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. He says, all whoever came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. He says, I, verse 9, am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. He says, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly. So he speaks about the thief. He speaks about the way that the thief enters through a different way, not through him.

Climb up over the wall, trying to sneak into the sheepfold, so to speak, in that sense. He says, the shepherd enters through the door, through the one way that God provided for salvation to take place. In this case, becoming the door, becoming the door through which we enter. He identifies himself as the manner through which the sheep can enter the sheepfold. I don't know if you're familiar with how they built those in Judea. Judea's sheepfold basically was just a big ring of stones, like a corral, like you would see a corral today, except it wasn't like, you know, three rail fence. It was a pile of rocks that were in a circle and there was one opening. And in and out of that opening is where the sheep came. And so wolves couldn't get in the sides of the rocks, you know, the shepherd was at the door. They couldn't come in through the front door because the shepherd kind of kept them protected in that sense. But he's bringing about this spiritual analogy of them entering through him as the door, as the way, as the truth, the life, as we see in the book of Acts, as the only name through which salvation can come. And not only that, he contrasts the effect of the thief. The thief comes to kill, comes to steal, comes to destroy. He says the shepherd instead comes that they might have life and then they might have it more abundantly. You know, in this analogy, through the door of the sheepfold is good pasture. If you're the sheep on the inside of that sheepfold, outside through that door is good pasture, good water. You know, it's places that you can be nourished, right? And on the other side of that is, inside that sheepfold is protection, safety, shelter. You know, through Jesus Christ we have life. And not only that, we have a life that is abundant. Not necessarily in material things, as we think of abundance today, but in the blessings of God. You know, this idea of happiness and blessings in the Greek language go hand in hand. We actually sang the concept today. Blessed and happy is he. Blessed and happy. This word had a connection between happiness and blessing. The word that's translated to blessed in Greek is the Greek word makarios. It's the Greek word makarios. And there was an island in the Aegean Sea called Cyprus. It was an island called Cyprus. And it was known to the Greeks as the island of makarios. It was the isle of blessings, the isle of happiness. They called it the isle of makarios. They believed that everything a person would ever want or need to be happy was contained on that one island. You'd never need to leave. You had everything you would ever want. And if you lived there, oh boy, were you blessed or were you happy. You were fortunate in the Greek way of looking at things. And so they were makarios. That's what the term means. But our happiness isn't wrapped up in fine fruits. It's not wrapped up in good wine. It's not wrapped up in sun and sand. Our happiness is derived from God. It is through Him that we find happiness. It's through Him that we find fulfillment. Let's go to Matthew 5. I want to read this section because this word makarios is used over and over and over and over again in this section. But what I'm going to do this time, I'm going to substitute out the word happy. Instead of blessed, we're going to use the word happy, which is the alternative understanding behind makarios, the alternative definition behind the word makarios. It was chosen to be translated as blessed here.

We're going to use the word happy. We're going to use the word happy, which is makarios in Greek.

Matthew 5 verse 1, it says, seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated, His disciples came to Him. Then He opened His mouth, and He taught them, saying, Happy are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are those who are mourned, for they shall be comforted. Sorry, happy are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. These are all things that they're looking forward to the receipt of. These are all things that are coming. You know, mourning is not a happy thing in the moment, but the comfort that comes from God is when that loved one is raised again, incorruptible.

They're looking forward in the happiness. Blessed are those who hunger, sorry, happy are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Happy are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Happy are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Happy are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Happy are those who are persecuted, for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Happy are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. And we take a look at all of these different things as we're focused forward on what it is that God has called us to. Happy are those who practice these things, who exercise these things, or who we might say, using the language of the time, who pursue these things. Who pursue, who practice these things. Brethren, we can never forget, happiness is not our goal.

What? Happiness is not our goal. Happiness is a wonderful side effect of living God's way of life.

It is a wonderful side effect of being connected in relationship with Him, performing the things that we see outlined here. Those all produce happiness. Those all produce blessing. But happiness is not the goal of this life in and of itself. Our goal in this life, and God's will for us in this life, is our sanctification. It is our holiness. That is His goal for us in this life. That is our goal. That is His will for us. Hebrews 12 verse 14, we won't turn there if you guys want to pop it up there, feel free. Hebrews 12 verse 14 says that we should pursue peace with all and holiness. Sanctification. That we should produce or pursue peace with all and holiness. Sanctification. Without which no one will see the Lord. Without which no one will see the Lord. Now that pursue actually does mean to chase. In the Greek, it does mean to chase. That's what that word means in Greek. God sanctified. He made holy His chosen people throughout history. He set them apart for a very special purpose. Today, He is working with His firstfruits. Today, He's working specifically with the people that He is in the process of sanctifying now and has sanctified in some ways. Hebrews 10 verse 14 records that by one offering, Hebrews 10 and verse 14, by one offering He has perfected or completed forever those who are being sanctified and made holy. We were made holy through the sacrifice of Christ setting us apart.

Through His presence in them, ultimately dwelling in His Spirit. We cannot make ourselves holy. I can't declare something holy. I don't have that ability. I can't make something holy.

I can't be holy through my own actions, and I can't declare myself holy through my own actions.

We are made holy through the sacrifice of Christ setting us apart. That is what makes us holy. Through God's presence dwelling in us, dwelling through His Spirit, that makes us holy. Now it is, however, an expectation of God that we will become holy, continuing to do so, as He is holy. And so holiness, then, must be pursued. It must be practiced. As we live a sanctified life, God sanctifies us. We then practice and pursue the way of life that leads to the promises that God has given us. Sometimes in this life, pursuing holiness means physical unhappiness.

Sometimes pursuing holiness means physical unhappiness. For example, if you love playing basketball, if you love playing football, and your team makes the state championship, and that state championship game gets scheduled for a Friday night, and you're going to have to miss it because of the Sabbath, pursuing holiness says that we honor God, even if it means that our team loses the game. That's going to cause some physical unhappiness. It's going to cause some potentially concerns between you and your teammates. Pursuing holiness might mean losing out on a dream job because of the feast. Come home and you don't have a job anymore. Pursuing holiness might mean that we lose friends who are ungodly influences. It's not pleasant. That's not enjoyable. It doesn't make us happy. But pursuing holiness might mean that we're persecuted, ultimately, for the beliefs that we hold. You look at Hebrews 11. There were so many faithful throughout time who lost everything in this life. They lost everything in this life, but they were focused and looking eagerly on what is coming. They were focused on what was coming. They looked to hope for what was coming. And so, whether holiness equals happiness in our life depends an awful lot on our perspective. Whether holiness equals happiness in our life depends an awful lot on our perspective. Whether we view the act of living a sanctified life as bringing happiness and blessing. Or if we view sanctified life and the life that God has called us to as limiting our freedom and the happiness that we are due. Look at all those other things that everybody else gets to do. Look at all those other things that everybody else gets to have. I'm so upset about that. How do we view it? What is our perspective? As a citizen of the kingdom of God, we have the right and the obligation to pursue holiness. The U.S. Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights were written to limit the power of the government and other citizens of the United States from being able to infringe upon the unalienable rights that were endowed upon those citizens by their creator. And so, as a result, what we see is that life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were those unalienable rights that were specifically enumerated in the preamble to the Declaration of Independence to declare to the British Empire our intent to protect those things from their overreach, that they could no longer affect those things. Citizens of the United States, as of July 4, 1776, declared they would no longer be beholden to Britain its laws or the whims of its king. Now, as we've moved down through history, the United States has reached a point in time today in which legal wrangling, reinterpretation, and quite frankly, bad policy have led us to a period of time in which life is protected, unless again it is the life of an unborn child getting in the way of you living your life that you want to live.

Liberty has become a cloak for vice, as Peter's described in 1 Peter 2 16. We've seen legalization and decriminalization of drugs. We've seen a number of sexual freedom and the ripples that go throughout society as sex work and trafficking become just rampant. Pursuit of happiness has been protected and upheld in the sense that the message that's been heard by so many in that process is that do whatever makes you happy. Regardless of the damage that's done, you do you.

You live your best life. Go out and live your truth. Is that what God intended and what God provided to man as their unalienable rights? God has called us to something far more as a part of his creation, and he has given us a set of unalienable, sacred, and undeniable rights that are derived as a part of our citizenship to the kingdom of God, and that is eternal life, the law of liberty, and the pursuit of holiness.