Freedom !

At the end of the War of 1812, about 1814, the British were outside of Washington, DC, and had basically invaded Washington, DC, burned it. All the U.S. soldiers had run away.

It was called the Bradenburg Races, as our soldiers ran, or the races. One of the sprinters was a man named Francis Scott Key. Francis would work his way onto a British ship, a British warship there in the harbor outside of Baltimore, trying to get the release of a relative. When the British decided one night to just open fire on Fort McHenry for no other reason, just to show their great power, and they just pummeled the fort there, bombed it all night for no apparent reason, and Francis Scott Key was aboard that ship. And in the morning, when it began to get light, the walls were still up at the fort, and the flag was still flying. And he pinned what became our national anthem. Our national anthem didn't become our national anthem, incidentally, until 1931, when it was officially signed into being the national anthem by President Herbert Hoover. But in that Star Spangled Banner, the much-forgotten fourth stanza of it, which we don't sing today, includes this, In God is our trust, and the Star Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave, O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave. And so there was a sense of freedom then, finally, and the British said, nuts to these renegades, and they just left. So America didn't actually win the War of 1812, but it didn't lose it either. So they felt victorious, and they felt free. And Americans at that time were free if they were white. Freedom is a concept that humans would love to have down through time, and a lot of people have been under a type of enslavement or actual enslavement since Adam and Eve. You know, for the rest of the country in 1814, that we're not free, it would be another half century and a civil war until slavery was declared over, and they were considered to be free. It would take another century, an entire 100 years, until Martin Luther King would stand at the Lincoln Memorial and declare that he had a dream.

And in his dream, he says, I have a dream to be free at last.

I was 11 years old then, listening to his speech. Two years later, when I was 13, the ashes of the Watts race riot in Los Angeles were coming down on me in my yard, and it was profound to see that in Southern California. 30 years after that, ashes were coming down on my wife and I after the Rodney King riots there in Los Angeles, where we found ourselves trapped right in the middle of all that looting and shooting. And you know, here we are today. Fast forward to some of our youth today. You've seen it on the news of mistreatment of people, and people edging to be free and wanting to be free.

We see warfare over in Ukraine. We see people in the Palestinians, innocent people in Iran that are under these oppressive governments that really don't represent the people, including in China and various places, in Russia. And yet, they're constrained by authoritarianism to be underneath a rule that oppresses them and suppresses them and limits them. Humans want their own form of freedom, whatever that is. It's interesting, all during the history of the United States, there was a desire for women to have a certain freedom and an involvement.

And we see that expressed today and being fulfilled in some ways, in that so many, we have a Black Caucus now in the Congress that are from the African American race. And we have a Vice President who is a woman. And there's talk about, well, you can see more and more people being included in government, in advertising on television. So there's representation. But how does the world feel today about freedom?

Is everybody now content? Is everybody free? No, we find that even almost anybody of any color doesn't feel free. They want freedom from laws, from taxation, from government oversight. We see them speeding down the highways, you know, recklessly over a hundred miles an hour, some far above that, just saying, I want to be free, free of rules, free of laws, stealing things out of stores, taking things, defiantly using their minds and bodies to do what they want in pursuit of some sort of lack of restriction, of freedom from themselves. You know, the first people we read of who want freedom are Adam and Eve.

We go back to Genesis chapter 3. Adam and Eve were given everything, totally free, even free of the bondage of clothing, if you want to say, free of want of any kind, but they wanted more freedom. They wanted their kind of freedom, didn't they? They were told that you have a certain restriction here. The fruit of this tree you can't eat.

And they said, we want freedom of choice, and that looks good to us, and so they chose. And in verse 22, then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us to no good and evil. The word no there comes from the Hebrew word that means to advise what is, for oneself to ascertain or to advise yourself what is good and evil. Man now has become like us.

God decides what is good and evil, doesn't he? He just, he ascertains and decides himself what is good and evil. And he says, man has now become like one of us. He is now determined to ascertain what is good and evil. Of course, we know where that went. Cain killed his brother. By chapter six, you see humanity so depraved that God has to wipe him out with a flood. But they were free, weren't they? They had freedom in their own minds. Ever since mankind began to ascertain and advise himself about what is good and evil without God, we see humanity going down a path that causes unhappiness, limitations, constrictions, and general lack of fulfillment in the human race.

And yet it's often, you know, considered to be free. Free. When we look at the UCG commentary on this verse in Genesis 3, 22, it says, because mankind rejects good and vital things as wrong or unnecessary, and at the same time embraces so many bad and harmful things as being good and acceptable, the overall effect of mankind's ongoing choice is all the pain and heartache that we see in the world. So let's ask the question. Freedom. What is real freedom? Do you have freedom? Do you want freedom? And how can every man, woman, and child achieve freedom? The title of this sermon is freedom.

God and his kingdom, the kingdom of God, with him as the head, Jesus Christ, all the holy angels, all the laws, the rules, the physical universe that extends from that, his great plan, that all actually represents freedom. People don't see this as an element or a textbook of freedom. They say, well, that's restrictive. That tells me what I can't do. There's 10 things I can't do. That's restricting my freedom, my happiness.

The point is that we often don't realize nowhere in the Bible does God require you to choose what he does. God doesn't force any human. He doesn't come down and grab you and force you, you know, and steer you and say, you must do this. You have to do this. No. We are called free moral agents. Free to choose our own morality and be our own agent of whatever morality we choose.

And here we are today. The only reason you and I are even in this room or in this church is because we have chosen, we have made some choices with some influence from God that this is the good way of living. This is the moral code that is good and right for life. And that's a choice that you and I make. The doors aren't locked. Not too many people in the greater region here are with us today. Most have other ideas. So God does not force us as free moral agents to do anything or to think anything. He invites us. Every person in the Bible was free. Just think about it. David was free. He charged this way, charged that way, found out, learned some things, as did every single human. They learned some things, and they came in the end to a belief and a mindset like Solomon writes and begins the book of Proverbs or David writes and begins the book of Psalms that these are the true elements of fulfilled life.

But humans have always pursued personal freedoms, and democracy is a process of getting the word out that you can do what you want under this form of government. And it actually does provide something that has been little known in the human experience. Even as an American, traveling abroad, I've been to some 70 different countries, and it's unique how other people will look at someone who was born and reared in this country with a lack of comprehension of what we're about. And the reason is because in other countries, you grow up in a fairly straightjacketed realm of opportunity. You basically will be schooled here. Your options for a career will be here. Where you will live will be here. Your social status and standard will be about here. And if you follow what this nation's opportunities and systems are, you will end up here.

It's fairly confined. I'm talking Europe. Most of what we might consider the developed world.

In the United States, we grow up, and the world's your oysters. Like, what do you want to be? Where do you want to live? What do you want to do? Where do you want to go to school? What career would you like to choose? And if you don't like that, careers, take another one. Take another job. Move around. Live where you want. Have whatever vehicle you want. You come up with a big idea, go build it. And if it fails, that's okay. Go build something else. You know, this kind of American ingenuity. And we have a sense of freedom in the sense of being and doing what we want. And there's nothing wrong with that, with the exception of if it's self-generated and it's for one's own self and you're using everybody else to get your pile of gold bigger and your pile of things and your experience is bigger at the expense of other people, that's wrong. And that, of course, is what humans have done down through time. The problem we have with being our own judge of good and evil, the one who decides it is we come down to this who says, who says what the group does is actually right or wrong. Who has the power to say that? And if you dismiss God and you simply go to the human logic, you end up with what's called relativism. Your idea of good and evil is relative to your own sphere and my idea of good and evil is relative to my own sphere. So it's relative and so there is no authority. There is no authority of what is good and evil. And that is why the United States took down the Ten Commandments and took religion out of the Supreme Court and took them out of our schools and says that, well, everybody is equal and kids can think equally and everybody can do whatever they want to do and you can't tell anybody no about, I don't know, any and everything. And so just whatever, that's freedom. Of course, it just leads to a world now that is a culture that from an individual's perspective has no real basis, no foundation, there's no sense to it and it's changing all the time.

If we go to Romans chapter 1 and verse 28, we can see how relativism impacts us in the long run, what the result of it is. In Romans chapter 1 and verse 28, it says, and even as they did not like, in their mind, they did not like something. This is the choice I'm going to ascertain here. I ascertain that I do not like to retain God.

This is what societies come up with in their knowledge. This is restrictive, this is prohibitive.

So God instead has left them or gave them over to a debased mind to do the things which you're not fitting, being filled with all unrighteousness. That just means sin, breaking the laws of loving God and loving your neighbor and loving others. So they're doing the opposite, including sexual immorality, which just breaks apart relationships. And then wickedness and covetousness and maliciousness hurting other people with malice, full of envy and murder and strife and deceit and evil-mindedness. They're whispers, backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. And they also, in verse 32 at the end, it says, approve of those who practice them. Yeah, this is celebrated. This is democracy or this is freedom. Everybody should have this. So what do we end up as a world society after all of that? Well, humanity is about to experience the result of this kind of choice, this choice of lawlessness, because every choice has a penalty, either positive or negative. Every action has a reaction. And what comes home from all of this lawlessness is a reaction that nobody likes, nobody wants.

We end up today with populations that are rich in materialism, temporary, trivial materialism. If you think of the world economy, we need the economy to grow, and everybody's watching the markets grow the economy, which means buy more. What has happened to everything that you've ever bought in your life, and your parents, and your grandparents? What's happened to it? It's all in the landfill. If you're an early adopter and you've got the iPhone, remember? That's in the landfill. All the games that you used to play, you know, all those hot games you used to buy, pay all that money, those laptops, and all those TVs, you know, big old screen TV, put in your room, that's all in the landfill. All the cars your parents had, and all the cars from the 70s, anybody driving a 1970 car? You know, the 80s, the 90s, everybody wants the latest car. How are car sales doing? How are the latest this and that doing? It's all going in the trash. There's nothing to it. And yet, we at the same time are morally and ethically adrift to society, emotionally bankrupt. People are living unfulfilled lives. They're digging more into drugs and escape and entertainment. This is bizarre and crazy and big. And of course, it's all made up and invented, but they don't care. They live in these worlds of, you know, technology that is unreal, escaping from what's here. They want to go to Mars, of all places. Did they not see the movie, the Martian? Hello? The response is, if you're not paying attention, here's the response to all of this. Society is demanding stronger and stronger rulers to fix society's problems that everybody has caused. Just think of the elections. Putin has now contracted his power and consolidated to where he's a one-man ruler. President Xi over in China multiple times has contracted his power.

Okay, you see the powers around the world are there in retaliation from some of this.

They are wanting stronger leadership. Europe has just voted in various areas of right-wing, far right-wing government. This is how Adolf Hitler came to power in the 1930s. You know, things were out of control, and so they wanted an extreme fix, a solver to come in.

And so they bring in somebody who is just going to make things so authoritarian and locked down, they're going to fix it that way. We have a presidential candidate who says that on his first day of power, he will be a dictator, and he is lauded for coming in and saving things that are so far out, he will come in and dictate and control.

In the Italian Renaissance, there was an individual called Machiavelli.

Machiavelli wrote a guide for dictators. It was called the Prince, and in it, he says, in exercising political power, a ruler should give priority to what benefits his rulership, rather than what is moral. A ruler should not lag behind in the employment of violence, cruelty, and bad faith. The end justifies the means. Fraud and deceit are necessary for a prince to use. A ruler should be excused for violence when its intent is to benefit himself.

Brute force and deceit should be used to exterminate political rivals, destroy resistant populations, and purge anyone who may attempt to replace the ruler. We see this in Iran, in Russia, in China. We see this growing in other areas, and we know that coming up, this is where humanity will go, because it creates such a bad environment for itself. It's going to need some great military strong power who is a total control freak, as it were.

Let's go over to Revelation chapter 13 and verse 1.

This book, by the way, the prince is read by world leaders. I won't tell you some of the names, because it would scare you. But here in Revelation chapter 13 verse 1, you'll see, just in line with Machavilli's thoughts, what the next ruler or rulers are going to be doing, if you're not even seeing that in part now. Revelation 13.1, then I stood on the sand of the sea, and I saw a beast rising out of the sea, having said seven heads. These are the seven iterations of the Roman Empire, and ten horns. These are ten kings who, at the end time, will give their support to the seventh revival of the Roman Empire. And on his horns, ten crowns, and on his seven heads, a blasphemous name. So we saw, first of all, in first iteration, we had emperor worship in the first round of the Roman Empire until it fell. In subsequent resurrections of the Roman Empire, we see papal worship, and these are blasphemous names. We go to Revelation chapter 17 and verse 12, just hitting a few highlights here for what's happening in the future. Revelation chapter 17 verses 12 through 14. Then the ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have received no kingdom as yet. So don't look around and see these kings and know who they are now. They have not received a kingdom yet, but they will. But they receive authority for one hour as kings with the beast. These are of one mind, and they will give their power and authority to the beast. So you see, you have the one who is a central autocrat, and then you have ten kings who will give their authority and come under that and say, yes, let's consolidate this into a restrictive, controlling dictatorship.

This is where freedom is going. It's going the opposite way of anything anybody would think is freedom. Going on, it says, these will make war with the lamb, and the lamb will overcome them. So we know in the end that that's not going to work out, but in the short term, it seems like the fix. It really seems like the fix. Let's go to Revelation 13 in verse 2 now.

Revelation 13 in verse 2. Who is this beast, the main beast? It says, now the beast, which is the seventh revival of the Roman Empire, which I saw, it was like a leopard. This is referring to the Greek Empire. It had a leopard as its symbol. His feet were like the feet of a bear. That was the Persian Empire. And his mouth was like the mouth of a lion, and that represented the Babylonian Empire. So here you see Rome with all the characteristics of Babylon, Persia, and Greece.

And this is the final seventh iteration before the return of Jesus Christ of the Roman Empire.

The dragon, which we know as Satan, gave him his power, his throne, and notice great authority. When the Greek word says great, it means great authority. So here you have a very constrictive lack of freedom, a situation that gives those in rulership the freedom to do what they want, because they're despotic, authoritarian dictators. And Satan's going to give this dictator a sole power over a one-world constrained dictatorship. In verse 3, continuing on in Revelation 13, and I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded. So the first head of the Roman Empire was mortally wounded in the 400s AD. It fell, remember? But his deadly wound was healed. Verse 3. There would be six revivals of what was called then the Holy Roman Empire. We're waiting for the seventh now.

And all the world marveled and followed the beast. Notice that phrase.

All the world marveled and followed the beast. This is the solution to all the problems we have created ourselves as humans is what the feeling is. And they marveled.

So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, notice, who is like the beast, who is able to make war with him? He is stronger. He's going to protect us. He's going to prevent everything, and he's going to bring us a good economy so we can keep this thing rolling. Well, verse 7, it was granted to him to make war with the saints and overcome them. So you can see there's nothing godly about the choices being made by all the people on earth at that point in time. They give themselves wholly over to the mindset of Satan, by the dictatorship of this one-world government, and they're happy with it. In fact, they begin killing anybody who believes like this.

And notice, authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation.

That is where you go in a world where everybody's choosing their own thing, and everybody's coming up with their own military, and all these ways of defending themselves or getting more, or trying to take from here and take from there, and then food's running out, and the Bible says a third of all people die. You got to solve these problems. How are you going to solve all these problems? Well, here it is. Here's human solution. All authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation, and all, verse 8, who dwell on earth will worship him. Now, in addition to that, there's even more in verse 11. It says, then I saw another beast. This is one that the Bible talks about as being a false prophet. It's a religious phase of this global power.

Also, it will be called, as we'll see in a minute, the lawless one. So, we know that this whole thing has nothing to do with God, and that should be clear to any and everybody before signing up or signing on for any mark of the beast. It'll be quite obvious this is anti the freedom that God offers us through Jesus Christ. And this one, it says, I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb. He appears like Jesus. He probably uses the name Jesus Christ. He probably says he is Jesus Christ, but he spoke like a dragon. He acts like Satan.

He looks religious. He looks like he's the Messiah. Remember, you're going to have this antichrist, this false messiah, this one that's with signs and wonders who will deceive, if possible, the very elect, probably using the name of Jesus Christ, saying that I've arrived, and here's the wonderful millennial reign, right? But it looks so attractive to those who are wanting all their problems solved that they'll come under this power. Verse 12, and he exercises all the authority of the first beast, notice, in his presence. He's always, the two beasts are always together whenever we hear about them. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and he causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whether it's an emperor, whether it's a religious thing, with all lying signs and wonders. It makes you wonder whether it'll be some technological thing, you know, fueled and powered by AI or something that just so dramatic, people are just like, wow, this is great, until somebody later on pulls the plug, and the whole thing falls apart. I don't know, but it will come down. Verse 14, and he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he is granted to do in the sight of the beast. So he's there, and he does these things in the sight of this main power.

I mentioned that the second beast is always, is also called the lawless one. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 9, we see another reference here. Apostle Paul is inspired to tell us about this individual that's going to rise.

2 Thessalonians chapter 2 and verse 9.

The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved. This individual is also called the false prophet. Let's go to Revelation chapter 19 and verse 20. Revelation chapter 19 and verse 20.

Here at the end of this short reign that they have says, Then the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet, who worked signs in his presence. Remember that individual? Always working signs in his presence. By which he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image.

So there was a false prophet. He was doing false signs, and he deceived those who received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped the image. The whole thing is just a big fakery of some kind. Now, let's ask the question. Does that represent freedom at last? Is that freedom? Will that be freedom for everyone? When I was 11 years old, Martin Luther King offered an idyllic recipe for freedom. I'd like to read a little of what he wrote. I have a dream. When we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children—black men, white men, Jews, Gentiles, Protestants, and Catholics—will be able to join hands and sing, free at last, free at last. So we can see that just a civil society without boundaries is not going to take us beyond what we just read in Scripture.

Humanity's choices are the problem. Humanity's choices are the problem.

Here's God's recipe for freedom. Mark chapter 12 and verse 30. Mark chapter 12 and verse 30.

And Martin Luther King knew this. He was a man who knew God's Bible, but was powerless to cause anybody else to live it, just as you and I are. And God does not force anybody to live or choose or do anything. Mark chapter 12 and verse 30 says, And you shall agape, love as God loves, the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all your strength. This is the first commandment. And the second, verse 31, is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. That is God's recipe for freedom. Now, it might seem the opposite of freedom, because, wow, if I've got to stop and love my neighbor as myself, that means I can't have everything for me and all my time for me. But we just saw where everything for me takes humanity to the brink of authoritarian, you know, demonistic constraint and ultimately death. It doesn't work.

If we go back to the Garden of Eden, God said, look, here's freedom. Just live and walk and do and what I've created for you. This is wonderful. Just don't eat of that tree. Follow me, in other words.

The result of everyone loving God and doing what God says and loving their neighbor and helping is everyone contributing to everyone else's lives as they would to their own life. That's what he says there. Love your neighbor as yourself. If we all got up and said, well, what are my needs today? Well, I need something to eat. Well, is everybody else eating? Is everybody else getting dressed? Does everybody else have something to do? Everybody else having their challenges, their projects fulfilled? How can we help one another? How can we help one another? God's way is everyone contributing to wonderful lives, building up as each part does its share, the whole body, the whole humanity, and that is what the millennial reign of Christ is all about. When you read the prophecies of Christ's rule on the earth and everyone has a vine and a fig tree and their crops are blessed and people are coming and they're learning about God's way, that's freedom. That's freedom.

Albert Einstein is an individual that has been curious to me. I picked up one of his books and started reading a little bit of it. He was one of the greatest scientists of all time, a man who was just so incredibly scientific. You can't hardly even understand how his mind thought. Okay, so one of the greatest scientists and he rolls out some of these giant equations and thoughts about even the universe. So what about Einstein?

He published a book called Out of My Later Years, and in chapter four, the title of the chapter is Moral Decay. Here's what he says, quote, the injunctions of the Bible concerning human conduct are accepted as self-evident demands for individuals and society. Yet today we must recognize with horror that these pillars of civilized human existence have lost their firmness. The quest for truth now has no justification and is not to be tolerated. This is Einstein.

In chapter five, entitled On Freedom, he says, the growth of the natural sciences, you know, science is all great and we have evolution every day, the growth of the natural sciences, with their great influence on thought and practical life, leaves little room for religious sense and a serious weakening of moral thought and sentiment. Yet the moral imperative is the most precious possession of all mankind. The moral imperative, and we've just thrown it away, and there's no time for any religious sense or any of the moral law, the code that God created us to live by. In chapter eight, science and religion.

From the 1700s, you remember the revolutions, the French Revolution and pursuit of freedom, once again, throwing out the the kingly class and bringing the others. From the 1700s, it was widely held that religious belief should be replaced increasingly by scientific knowledge and be the sole function of education. Einstein says, yet knowledge of what is does not open the door to what should be. The highest principles for our aspirations and judgments are given to us in the Jewish Christian religious tradition, which gives a sure foundation to our aspirations and valuations. Free and responsible development of the individual so that he may place his powers freely. How? In the service of all mankind. That's what Einstein said. Freedom and responsibility of the individual so that he may place his powers freely in the service of all mankind. The high destiny of the individual is to serve. If one holds these high principles, he says, and compares them with the life and spirit of our times, then it appears glaringly that civilized mankind itself is at present time in grave danger. He wrote those words in 1939.

Think of where everything's gone since then.

Fast forward 85 years to today. God's law is gone. God is gone. When do you ever hear anybody mention God? When do you ever hear anybody, even in religion, look at Sunday morning mass? You ever hear Bible quoted? Ever hear a politician read a scripture? Ever hear God mentioned anywhere?

It's just missing. Instead, we have slavery, personal depravity, and ungodly behavior.

We have sciences generating all of these things of lust and greed for disposable materialism.

Let's ask ourselves a question. What freedom do I want? What freedom do I want? Let's forget everybody else and all the social problems and all the issues in the world. What freedom do I want? It's a good question. It's one you and I have to choose ourselves. Nobody's going to force you to it.

In Galatians chapter 4 and verse 23, I'll read this to you. It's very short. The Jerusalem of above is free, which is the mother of us all.

The holy city, Jerusalem above, where God's throne is, it says it is free. I mentioned earlier that God and the kingdom of God is freedom. It's the source of freedom.

It's free from all of this that humanity binds itself with.

And it should be the mother of us all. It should be that which feeds us, nurtures us, and rears us.

But that freedom that comes from this has a steep price that humans simply are not willing to pay.

That's found in Romans chapter 6. Let's go to Romans chapter 6. We'll break in in verse 6. Well, let's start earlier in verse 2.

Romans chapter 6 and verse 2. How shall we, who died to sin, live any longer in it? If we've made a choice to break away from self-devised decision of what is good and evil, and gone with God's, we have decided not to sin any longer. Do you not know that as many of us, as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death? Therefore, we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so, we also should walk in newness of life. Now, verse 6. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. Now, that is too high a price for most humans to pay. I'm not going to deny myself my lust, my ambitions, me, me, my... and what? I'm going to die to that? I'm going to crucify that old nature, and I'm going to have a serving nature, a giving nature, a loving my neighbor as myself nature. Well, verse 7. For he who has died has been freed from sin. The price of freedom is to stop sinning, to kill off the old man, the old person, to live in a new mind like Christ, who came and lived and died for us and gave himself for us. As 1 John chapter 3 says, By this we know love that he gave his life for us, and therefore we should lay down our lives for the brethren. Who wants to do that? Who wants to sacrifice our time, our money, our thoughts, our actions for others? That's a huge price to pay for carnal human nature.

The ultimate price for freedom is death of selfishness, my selfish will, me, me, my way, and replacing it with that outgoing concern of agape love, the mindset that comes from God, God's way. Verse 20. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness, and that appeals to human nature. That's freedom. I am free from righteousness. You hear it all the time. I am free from the bondage of that Bible, that God. I'm free from righteousness.

They've had people in our past who left, and they're like, free. I even use the terms free at last from righteousness. I don't have to obey God anymore. They immediately got divorced. I mean, they went out and started doing things that ruined their lives in many cases, but they were free from righteousness.

What fruit did you have in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. We just came to where society is going, and it's not heading for anything of value. Verse 22. But now, having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, what? Slaves of God? That doesn't sound very good to me.

Who wants to be forever in the kingdom of God and live happy lives and have a wonderful world tomorrow and be a slave of that? When you can be free and ruin your life now and have horrible health and be frustrated and suicidal and take drugs and just be totally unfulfilled and call out for a dictator to come and save you. Let's elect some guy who's strong or some woman who will just take over and enforce everybody to solve all the problems. That's human logic.

But now, having been set free from sin, verse 22, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is slavery first and then death. If I can insert that because we just said that, you know. The sin is slavery and then death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. Eternal life. Can you imagine being resurrected? Eternal life, you have no more restrictions in your body, your mind. You have no more restrictions as far as anything bad happening. You're in the kingdom of God. You're burning bright. Jesus said, like the sun, you're like Him. You're bright of Christ. Can you imagine a more wonderful time of freedom? And I think then we, those who are in the kingdom of God, can say the words finally, free at last, free at last. Oh, thank God we're free at last. That is God's form of freedom. And any time that we live this way, we begin to free ourselves and we begin to free others from the restrictive compulsive behavior that comes from selfishness to the point that when we can do it perfectly in the kingdom of God, everybody is free and rejoicing and free to do right and free to love and to serve and do the will of God. That's why it says in God's kingdom, righteousness dwells, right, doing right according to the mind of God. Freedom is coming through Jesus Christ. Let's go to Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 1.

This is actually a prophecy about freedom, freedom for humanity during the rule of Christ when he returns. Isaiah chapter 61 and verse 1. This relates to Jesus Christ. He read this. He stood up and read this in the synagogue when he was past a scroll of Isaiah. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings to the poor. That's freedom from poverty and want. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted.

Freedom from mental anguish. There'll be no sorrow and crying in God's kingdom. No tears. To proclaim liberty to the captives. Captives are slaves. Liberty is freedom from slavery.

All forms. And the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Freedom from oppression, from false in prison, unfair, etc. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God. To comfort all who mourn. Mourn. Freedom from grief. Freedom from mourning from the atrocities that they see and that they encounter and the oppression that they've been under.

To console those who mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for ashes. Freedom from illness.

The oil of joy for mourning. Freedom from depression. From sorrow.

The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Freedom from unhappiness.

That they may be called trees of righteousness. Freedom from sin.

The planting of the Lord that he may be glorified. Freedom from a false god.

All false gods that represent a false father, Satan.

So, brethren, here we've looked at freedom through a little different lens, but we've seen what true freedom is and it's up to us to choose. And God wants to know whether you really want his form of freedom. I'd like to conclude by reading Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1.

Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1. We have been called. We understand God has opened his words to us. We know it. We are striving to live as free men under God, free of sin, free of the bondage of sin, and also giving freedom to others, you know, lifting the yoke that we can put on other people, sometimes men over a wife, a domineering situation, or over poor people, or over employees, or whatever it might be. Taking that yoke off, God said. That's what I believe is Isaiah 58 when it talks about the kind of fast he wants, is lifting that yoke. Do we want that? Galatians chapter 5 and verse 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. If you love freedom, repent of sin, of carnality, of selfishness.

If you conquer sin in your life, you will live free, free from sin, and free from death in the kingdom of God forever.