Liberty and Freedom

Well, good afternoon, everyone! I'm a beautiful afternoon. Certainly, I would like to say that the music has been so very, very inspiring. The words, the music, the power of the brass instruments, the vocals, it's just been very, very wonderful. But I sound like a broken record, saying that, or, let's say, as an antiquated expression now. A skipping disc, or a corrupted mp3, whatever. Anyway, I've said that over and over again. It's just wonderful to hear the music, and it adds so much to our service. The topic of freedom, liberty, and the opposite, bondage and captivity, have been common themes that run through Scripture. And Passover, in the Exodus, is a time that speaks of a great liberation, a great moment in history of freedom for an entire nation that came out of Egyptian slavery. In fact, what I have to say will complement, hopefully, what was said so very well this morning in the sermon by Mr. McNeely about not looking back. But now we go forward in a free world. We used to have a booklet that was called, The World Held Captive, which spoke of the spiritual condition of the world.

The theme of the Spring Holy Days, or one of the themes, is liberation and freedom. And it's interesting, too, that when Jesus Christ began his ministry, his very first quote out of the Old Testament was from Isaiah 61. And this is recorded in Luke 4 and verse 16, where he speaks about the purpose of him coming to the world. He came to Nazareth, Luke 4 and verse 16, where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up to read. And he was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah, and when he had opened the book, actually it was a scroll, and this is in chapter 61, so maybe they had a lot of unrolling to do there unless they had broken up into segments, He found the place where it is written. This is Isaiah 61 verses 1 and 2.

What was he talking about? Because he was obviously referring to himself and the mission that he was embarking on, this is very close to the beginning of the book of Luke, and very close to the inauguration or the beginning of his ministry. Well, one thing for sure that he was not talking about was the overthrow of the Roman government. His ministry had never been an issue with the Roman authorities. In fact, up to the very end, when the Jews had tried to find some way in which Jesus may have been an insurrector or treasonous towards the Romans, Pilate couldn't see it that way.

He looked upon Jesus as a spiritual person, somebody who did another kind of work. He wasn't one who was inciting crowds and stirring the people up against the Roman government. That never was an issue, even though the Jews towards the end spun it and got Pilate to condemn Jesus for that. What was Jesus talking about when he said that he came to proclaim liberty to the captives and to set at liberty those who are oppressed?

Well, Christ's ministry was dealing with the spirit, matters of the spirit and matters of the mind. And that's what we are getting to when we're talking about liberty and freedom. Not political freedom, but freedom from other matters, from another way of thinking, from another dimension. It's interesting that when we take a look at the subject of freedom and liberty from the standpoint of people being free, and we consider ourselves to be a free nation, for a long time we had what was called the Second World, which was the communist world that was under bondage and oppressed. And they were a nation that was really held captive in many, many ways.

But we were the free world. In fact, we're still referred to in Europe and the United States as the free world. I'd like to tell you about the immigrants that I was part of when we came to the United States, when I was still very, very young.

I was two years old when I came over on a troop ship from Germany to live in the United States, and many people that had been refugees came, settled in the U.S. People who had lived through World War II, people who had lived under communism, now came to a new and to a free world. I remember after a few years, because I was in about first or second grade, the immigrants would get together, and they would talk about the new world.

We would get together quite often because people cling together, because that's who they knew. They didn't really know that there were too many people on the outside, as immigrants do today. I remember this elderly lady in this family that we would go to quite a bit saying, Americans have too much freedom. They can say anything they want to. They can be disrespectful. They can wear anything they want. They can listen to anything they want.

Is that good? Oh, she would go on and on about that. People would take a look to the behavior of people who were free to express themselves in any way they would want to express themselves. Believe anything they want to, and virtually say anything they want to in any public arena short of advocating the overthrow of the United States. I can stand here and say anything short of that. Now, at that time, my dad, when they saw television and things that were appearing on television, I mean, things that are so tame right now, they thought, certainly the end of the world was coming.

My dad, when he saw the Mickey Mouse Club and kids wearing Mickey Mouse ears, he said, this is the end of the nation. And I remember I was banned from watching Mickey Mouse Club, which came out at 5 p.m.

just before supper time. I had a crush on that funichelo. That was one of the most traumatic moments of my early life. But at that time, there was so much discussion about people having freedom to act any way they possibly can. And mostly, the serious part of it was that they could do unsocial things and show disrespect.

Now, where my parents came from, they would talk about school. That when teachers would walk down the hallways, the students were required to stand at attention, and as the teacher walked by, they would work to bow. And they said, American schools, they don't care. They're even beginning to call their teachers by their first name. That this is freedom. What kind of freedom is that? To just say anything you want and do anything that you want to do.

Another moment in history was 1991, a very significant year in the last century. That is the year the Soviet Union, the USSR, fell apart, literally, in one day. Of course, it had been building up for a long time. I remember very well, in August, the 17th or 21st, in 1991, I was in Pasadena, and I was just about to go and visit the Sabbath-keeping Ukrainians for the first time.

Me and another individual from headquarters there had our trip all planned out, and we were going to Ukraine. And then we hear that, of all nations, Russia pulls out of the USSR. How could that be? Gorbachev was arrested. Overnight, the Baltic Republics seceded from the USSR. Ukraine proclaimed its independence and its freedom, and all 15 republics, all at once, became independent, free nations.

Well, I'm good, because it was really an evil empire, godless, corrupt, and terrible. But what happened in the next few years was also a horror story, because people didn't understand what democracy was or what freedom was. People said democracy means, I can do anything I want. People who had never had experience with democracy in the way we do in our country, people who had no discipline of democracy, many of the countries became extremely corrupt, and power was taken over by demagogues who acted just like the communists before.

The democratic republics became weak, and so who took over? The mafia took over, and they became the new government. They laid down the new laws. And where Bev and I would visit cities like Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, and we could be up till two o'clock in the morning and go on a subway feeling totally safe.

Now we were told, you can't go out at night. After it gets dark, no matter how much light there is, you're in danger. Things had shifted that much, and this was with freedom. This was with release from captivity. This was the new order.

Or take a look at what's happened in Somalia. Who takes over in ruling the country in a chaotic condition that pirates do? Or name any country where there has been a collapse of powers, the militias, the warlords that take over. People don't understand that with democracy, I'm not here speaking about democracy per se, but comes of another D word, discipline. There comes a set of regulations and rules, and yes, laws that make it work. I remember on several occasions traveling back to those countries and talking to people as though they were children who really didn't understand what freedom and what liberation, what liberty meant. Because to them it was doing whatever you wanted to. What people don't realize is that for liberty to be liberty, it's got to be liberty for everybody. Because you could be liberated, and you could be free, and you can do anything you want. But if you infringe upon somebody else's liberty, it's not liberty anymore. It may be for you, but it's not for others. And it will tend to be something for the few and not for the majority. So freedom has to be for all concerned.

One factor about our nation, about the United States, about Great Britain, and some of the other countries, is that we have had a democracy, whether we love it or not, or whether we like the politics or not. There has been a discipline and a law-abiding spirit in our nation's overall, believe me, I'm not here giving a political patriotic speech. However, I do love my country very much. I'm certainly glad I'm living here, then in some village in Ukraine, which I could have very well been if my parents hadn't resettled to the United States. I love this nation. It's a great country. And one reason it is, isn't comparatively speaking, this nation is law-abiding, compared to other nations. You can say how much of a nation is law-abiding by the how many horns go off in traffic. You go to certain countries in the world, all you hear are horns, people leaning on their horns. People have no sense of respect or discipline or patience with others. The United States is an amazing nation. We have people who come over from countries like Russia, and even France, and other nations in Africa that say, so quiet on your streets. There's a long line of cars, and nobody's honking. What's the matter? Are horns illegal in this state? They know people just don't use them. People just wait. People have been trained. They know that in order for the whole thing to work, everybody's got to do their part. And everybody has to put forth an effort. We have been called, as I mentioned, from bondage to liberty, from bondage to freedom. Romans 8, verse 21. Because the creation itself will be delivered from the bondage of corruption. Several different ways to look at corruption or bondage. We'll just take a look at a few of them. But I'm more focused in this sermon about what is the antidote and what is the way that liberty works. Because liberty has a certain way of working, and I've already kind of revealed my answer, but I want to underlie it and underscore it in my message today. The creation will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. One thing that we have been called to, as already read from what Jesus said, is that He came to release the captors. And we have been released. We have been let out of prison. All of us in the whole world has been sitting in jail, awaiting death, either through execution or just naturally. And that would be it. You're all done. And one way to look at what Christianity and what Jesus Christ has done for us, He's let us out of jail. We're no longer trapped. But how were we trapped? Well, some of that I brought out in my sermon on the first day of 11 bread. We were sinners. We were condemned to death. We were simply waiting out to fulfill what Christ, what God told Adam, in the day you sin, you shall surely die. And we would have ultimately surely died. But we have been redeemed, and we have been brought out from that captivity, that jail, to have life.

Now here, the whole creation, the whole universe is spoken of here as being in bondage as well. A bondage of corruption.

You know, that no matter how permanent our older universe is, it's decaying. It's falling apart. I saw a very interesting commentary about our solar system and about our sun. What stage it's in and how many more, you know, millions of years it has to go. But there will come a day when the sun will go cold.

Given enough billions of years, there will come a time when the universe will stop expanding, if that's exactly what it's doing, and start imploding and collapsing on itself. The elements themselves have been made to be corrupt, meaning that they will come to an end. They will decay, and they will fall apart. But one thing that we have been delivered from is that corruption, that there will be a permanence brought in, which will be brought in by the kingdom of God, and will be born into this glorious liberation of the children of God. There is a way to it, and a way that is very, very important to understand, and a meaning that is very, very vital to understanding, especially during these days of Unleavened Bread. There is a process. It's interesting how people jump from one extreme to another, where people regulate, control governments, oppress. And perhaps even people, groups, and even churches become oppressive. And then when people are liberated, they become like the Soviet republics. Whoo-hoo! Freedom, no law. I can do whatever I want. I can thumb my nose at the past. You know, I can do anything I want. Then, there are rules that are excessive, extreme, unnecessary, and there's too much regulation. And Paul made reference to a number of these issues in his writing, and he was so afraid he would be misquoted, and he has been misquoted. Because people today in their theologies have gone everything from being antinomian, of saying that the law has been done away with, and now we have, therefore, we have freedom in Christ. That is about as naive, and that is about as childish as the Soviet ex-republics saying, we can do whatever we want, and thumb their nose at process and national law, because that will be taken over by a few, and a new oppression will set in. Fortunately, in many of these countries, including Ukraine, the mafia has diminished its influence. But believe me, when I went there in 96, 98, 99, till about the year 2001, the mafia was very, very strong. I had a very good friend, in fact, she was one that worked with Ambassador Foundation with us. She opened up a store that sold CDs, and she had a very good business. But she said she had to shut it down, because the mafia came, and the racketeers came, and demanded this, and demanded that, and she had to pretty much go out of business. The new form and the new lectures come in into society at that time.

On the other hand, laws can become very, very extreme. We work with Sabbatarians to this very day in western Ukraine. They're a delightful group of people. But they're not a homogenous group, believe me, they vary day to night, from congregation to congregation. Some being more, quote, liberal, if you can put that term, more balanced, and others being more extreme. And they're most extreme on their views on how they observe the Sabbath. One group that we went to, and believe me, when the Sabbath comes, Friday is just about as big a day as the Sabbath, because that's the preparation day. You get all ready for the Sabbath. You see people cooking, you see people ironing, getting ready for the Sabbath. When the Sabbath comes, nothing is cooked. Everything has to be precooked because you don't make a fire on the Sabbath. And when we'd come, we'd like to go to two different congregations. And of course, at first that became a big issue, a doctrinal issue. How are we going to get you between the two congregations? They're five miles apart. And so they consider that to be an ox and a ditch, because we were visiting from the U.S. And they brought us by car from one congregation to the other. But after we got to the second congregation, we weren't allowed to move from that place until after sunset back home. We'd sit at dinner with them. They have a beautiful arbor of grapes around. We'd eat dinner. And they said, well, it looks like they have some grapes for dessert. But you know something? It's not the Sabbath. The Sabbath is nobody. We can't cut some grapes off the vine until after the Sabbath. We'll just wait. The group that we work with right now, working with street children, is operated by a Sabbatarian who is very, very strict in his observance of the Sabbath. And the last time that we visited, which was this last January, we had some really frank talks. I told him that, look, I'd love to spend the Sabbath with you, but I honestly can't go along with all the stuff that you do. I mean, you make the Sabbath into a miserable experience. I told him very, very openly. At church all day long, they don't allow you to flush the toilet. They don't allow you to take a shower. They don't allow you to do anything on the Sabbath that's considered work or, you know, moving the universe down. I told him, I was joking with him about his battery-powered universe. You know what I mean? It's a joke with him. I get along extremely well with him. I say, look, I just can't do it. And so, Bev and I go back to another church that we really enjoy working with and have been for a long time. That is really more like us. However, when we used to visit them 10-12 years ago, they would drive us around all week long, but on the Sabbath, they don't allow people to drive a car. So we'd walk three miles to church on the Sabbath. And I said, I don't get this. I said, we're driving around all day long, and they don't allow us to use up one calorie of energy off of the week. And then, you know, we'd walk three miles to church. Well, that's just, you know, da-da-da, you know. They had their rules and regulations. They had their norms, etc. So there are extremes of bad law, excessive law, unnecessary law, to the extreme of no law.

There's various interpretations of how people do it. So what's right? What's balanced? And what's good? What's true? What's going to work? And what does God expect us to have?

As I said, one area that we've been freed from has been from our sins, where we were captive.

Another area that we've been freed from, and I'll get to here in just a moment, is ourselves. And you know what we are. That's what we've been brought forth from. And both are defined by the law of God, by the rules, by the regulations that God has, that He said are good, wholesome. And a law that actually speaks to liberty, and a law that speaks to freedom, where when practiced, it gives freedom to all. And in fact, it breeds freedom. When you only have freedom, and you are the only one who has liberation at the expense of others, that is not liberation at all. Turn to James 1, verse 22. Because the Apostle James, Jesus' brother, had some very important comments to make about rules and regulations and the law. There's no question of what law he was referring to. It wasn't some made-up thing. It was the law of God. James 1, verse 22. He says, Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. Verse 23. 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, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. The word of God functions as a mirror that shows us our blemishes, our spots, and even shows us how beautiful we are. But if we don't see that, and actually what the law, the word of God does, points them out and helps us to focus on the things that need to be cleaned up. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, perfect law of liberty, what could this possibly be?

Some type of ethereal love one another? Some type of metaphysical explanation, trying to do everything but bring in the Ten Commandments? Certainly not. And continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work. This one will be blessed in what he does. A law that brings liberty, a law that brings a sense of freedom for all. If you were to take a look and examine each of the Ten Commandments in great detail, in great detail as to their functionality.

Again, I say that there have been some, in fact, Pauli would refer to the Judaizers who added so many dos and don'ts and so many restrictions that made things so unbearable, just like our friend in Ukraine, that I said, you make this so unbearable that I just can't keep the Samus with you.

You make it so unbearable that it really isn't a reflection of God's mind. But when you have a law that has built into it a sense of respect, one for another, that begins with its second section with respect and honor, your mother and father. And you can almost say that that respect and honor continues on through the other commandments. What's wrong with that? And what's so hard about that?

And then, you shall not kill. It's a pretty good law. It's a law that helps me be free. And believe me, I'm glad that that law exists because it protects me. Thou shalt not give an adultery, stealing, lying, and on to the very end. What's wrong with those laws? And what's actually so hard about those laws? What is so horrible about those laws of God? You know when Jesus Christ came to the earth when he spoke about freeing captives, he also said in Matthew 11, verse 28, Come to me. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. Come, come to me, all you who are burdened.

And I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The things that Jesus Christ expressed. And some of the things that Jesus Christ expressed, he said very, very clearly and without any equivocation. Now, if you're honest and not trying to beat the system or trying to spin or to deceive others, in Matthew 5, verse 17, Jesus Christ made very, very clear the types of principles and dogma that he was referring to. I mean, both Paul and Jesus made very, very clear about the law of God. Here's an example, one that is so obvious and so in our face that you can't hide from it. Matthew 5, verse 17, do not think that I have come to destroy the law of the prophets. I mean, how clear can you get? And I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. I came to show you an example on how to do it. And Christ's life was perfect. Christ's life was sinless. He did not violate any commandment at any time in his life. Verse 18, for sure they say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law until it is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. And then this verse, verse 20, for I say to you, unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Scribes and Pharisees, they were the ones that were legislating things like not cutting the grapes off the tree or not doing other things, washing and bathing on the Sabbath, or doing some minimal cooking on the Sabbath. He said, your righteousness has to exceed theirs, not from the standpoint of all the details that are done. But your grasp about the purpose of the law, about what's behind the keeping of the law, and the magnification of the law. And he gives some examples here. So there's no question about what kind of law he's being referred to. Verse 21, you have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder.

Matthew with ten commandments. He's just picking one up randomly. And whoever mergers will be in danger of the judgment. He gives an example about how to exceed righteousness now here. I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. It's not important only to avoid murdering somebody. It's also important not to be angry with or to hate your brother. That's how your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees. They're the ones who legislated lots of do's and don'ts, but their heart wasn't in it. Jesus Christ magnifies the law and puts the spirit of the law into the ten commandments. And so the ten commandments for us as Christians are the baseline that we work from. That's the foundation. That's what we accept as the way we function and believe. That's how our freedoms and that's how this law of liberty functions.

To liberate and to give freedom for a entire society.

But a Christian who goes beyond that understands that it's important also not to hate. Because that's an integral part of the violation of the sixth commandment. He gives another example, verse 27. You have heard that it was said in times of old, you shall not commit adultery. That was good enough for the scribes and Pharisees. That's what the law said. But they could fantasize. They could involve themselves with pornography and whatever else other, as long as they didn't commit sex. Jesus said, I say to you, whoever looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

If your right hand, I causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it's more unprofitable for you that one of your members perish than for your whole body to be cast into hell. Take extreme measures. Don't allow your mind to dwell on those things that will lead to sin. In both cases, motive is very, very much an issue here. This is how our righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees. The spirit of the law is fulfilled. Then you have freedom. Then you have liberty. You know, one thing that... this is back when I was still at Ambassador College. We had very strict laws. No virginity and sexual purity were very much stressed in college.

And one person said, you know, I'm really glad. What if we had all these relations, one with another, on dates, you know, as students and so forth, as they do in colleges now? Then we all go into the ministry, and we're all in the ministry. We still have all these memories about people that we see continually, one with another. I remember you, you know, I remember the incident. All these memories would be there. Isn't it nice to know that your relationship with other people is pure and good, whether it be sexually, whether it be in business, whether it be any other way? That's freedom! That's being liberated!

And not to have your mind so twisted that you have memories that are continually haunting you. Because that's a kind of captivity and oppression. Laws were designed to free people. The commandments of God were intended to be that which gives freedom and liberation. How simple, how easy, and how beautiful. They give liberty for all. The law of God goes beyond to a couple of examples of a Christian life, where the Apostle Paul said, The law of God and the way a Christian thinks helps a person to go into a higher orbit in relationships with people. Understanding the first, the Ten Commandments are just really the baseline where we start with. We go to motive and understanding that certain types of mindsets lead to the breaking of the commandments. But here's something else. In 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 7, the Apostle Paul speaks about consideration for people who may not quite believe things the way you do. And we could very well say that I am a very liberated person who can do a number of things, such as, I can drink as a Christian. Which I think we drink too much as Christians and take that liberty too far in too many cases. Or, I can dance. And there's nothing wrong, biblically, with dancing, unless your motives, whatever else, lust, whatever, you know, which hopefully is not the case. But we enjoy dancing. Believe me, I couldn't practice these things with the Sabbatarians with alcohol. Believe me, we are absolute teetotalers there. And, you know, we tried to explain to them from the Bible that, you know, Jesus drank wine, Passover uses wine, etc., etc. And he said, you know, and we know, but you know, ever since the Russians took over, they have destroyed our society. Because they never knew how to drink. They only drank to get drunk. And believe me, we saw that. We happened to be there one year, setting up an Ambassador Foundation project. We came there, unfortunately, a day or two after Easter. We couldn't talk to anybody. We couldn't talk to school teachers. We couldn't talk to superintendents because everybody was drunk. And it's the only society, the USSR, that had more than just sick days. You know, you could call in sick, or you could have somebody call you in drunk. You had so many drunk days that you were allowed, you know, a year. And it was just considered just part of, you know, your employment package, that you would be drunk so many days. Well, the Savitarians said they have done so much to destroy our society since the Russians moved in in 1945. But even though they have beautiful vineyards, they've got gorgeous vineyards. And Bev said, you know, you could really start wineries here and just do very well. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, you couldn't do that. Because people would associate us with the drunkards. Because moderation is just not a word that exists. You don't just have a social drink. You get, you drink to get drunk. And that's just the way it goes. No place in the world that has the process of toasting that is quite like the USSR. When they go to Chernobyl, you know, we get a little bit of that, you know, the first toast round goes to your friendship. Second one to your children. Third toast goes to the women. Then there's toast 3A, 3B, 3C, you know, different women. Fourth one goes to the men. It goes on to, you know, they say toast number 22 is to get on your horse to go home. Toast number 23 is to put your left foot in the stirrup, you know, getting on the horse. I mean, literally, they really just have a whole art form of getting drunk.

And so, when we're with those people, we have to respect the fact that there's a reason. There's a reason. They say, we want to be totally disassociated. From the norms of our society, which are still there. We want, whenever Sabbatarians are brought up, as a group of people, that they have never been seen to have a drink. Because, believe me, immediately our credibility, believe me, our example, will be greatly degraded. And we don't want that. Anyway, back to 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

This was the case of meats sacrificed to idols. This is a big deal in Greece. Because, the people who came out of those religions, believe that when they brought their animal to be sacrificed, that the spirit and the essence of the God actually came into the animal. And that when they were eating the animal afterwards, they were actually taking in, like, consubstantiation, the essence of that God.

And they just couldn't turn their minds off from that when they became a Christian. Realizing that that God didn't exist, and that his essence wasn't in the meat, and it was okay. Christians say, this is a big deal.

But there's not in everyone the knowledge, for some with consciousness of the idol, until now eat it as a thing offered to an idol. And their conscience, being weak, is defiled. But food does not commend us to God, for neither, if we eat, are we the better, nor if we do not eat, are the worse. But beware less, somehow, this liberty of yours. This brings Christian liberty to yet another level of having the sense of consideration, discernment, how to conduct yourself, in a way that does not offend, but that enriches and brings peace to all. Become a stumbling block to those who are weak. For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idol's temple, will not the conscience of him who is weak be emboldened to eat those things offered to idols? And because of your knowledge shall a weak brother perish, for whom Christ died? But when you thus sin against the brethren, and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ, saying that improper use of knowledge that we have is a sin, because it offends.

And it really doesn't bring liberty to all. It's your liberty, but just because it's your liberty, is not something which promotes liberty and promotes freedom to your group, society, and all. Therefore, if food make my brother stumble, I will never eat meat, lest I make my brother stumble. I'm just going to stay away from that. Any appearance of it, just like the Sabbatarians. They know that they whine academically, can be drunk. There's enough examples in Scripture. But they do that because of its effect on society, so that freedoms and liberties are not hurt, and where you are brought into question for what you have. There are many ways in which we show and dispense and have application for the freedoms that we have as a Christian. And it's actually one of the very strongest evangelistic methodologies, because people judge us by what they see. In fact, didn't Jesus say that you shall be known as Christians if you have love for one another? Well, what if people are just continually at each other's throats, and continually in some type of dispute that perhaps makes it to the press? Or it's known that this group is splitting, this group is falling apart. What type of message is that sending out? Wouldn't the person say, look, I've got to do everything I can to use the liberties that I have as a Christian to perhaps not say certain things that I would want to, not do certain things that I want to, not allow certain things to get out of hand, because it's very important to promote the Spirit of Christ.

And we have this one example here, just this meat being brought to idols, the example of drinking. And when you have somebody over who does not drink, or if you know that they don't drink or prefer not to, you just don't have it, just even though you feel the right to have it.

Because you could be offending and hurting the other person. It's a very, very important Christian principle, that of consideration for others. A very important part of our freedoms and liberties.

Therefore, food makes your brother stumble, I will never get meat, lest I make my brother stumble. We go beyond the law of God. We show respect, kindness, and love. It begins with a baseline, but ultimately it goes and shows the nature of God, which is love. God says, I am love. God is Spirit. God is love. And that's the way you demonstrate that love.

As I said, there's another area where we have been entrapped. And that is given to us in Mark 7.

Mark 7, verse 21.

I'm sure that most ministers who counsel people for baptism, in explaining to them about their sinful nature, not only talk about breaking God's law as being sin, and tell the subject that you must repent of what you've done. But we also tell the person that you've got to repent of what you are. Because here is another prison that we're in. And actually one that you're in right now, that you are continually asking to be bailed out from. Mark 7, verse 21. And this is the story I won't go into all of its detail. But when Christ was accused by the Pharisees for eating with unwashing hands. And Christ always tried to take advantage of a situation to teach a lesson. And He said, it's not that the apostles had dirty fingers and ate food. They didn't go through all their ritual washings. And Christ is saying, you know, it's not the small bit of dirt that comes in that defiles a person. Because it will just go through you.

But beware of the things that are inside that spew out from you. That's what defiles you. In verse 21, from within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, and murders. This is a natural state of man. It starts off with sex and violence on the brain.

It goes on. Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, and evil eye blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. Now, we have been entrapped in the body that has these things bubble out automatically. That's what we're trapped with. That's the body that we have. That's the nature of man. Christ said it. That's what we are. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. And when we ask God to forgive us, don't you know that this past week that you've had some of that? Some of that? Thinking? We ask God to forgive us not only what we've done, but what we are. That's the dungeon. That's the prison we're in. And that's what we're asking to be liberated from.

All these are against the law of God. The things that come from within that defile the man, the woman, the person. And that's what we have to ask God to help us overcome.

It's based upon your understanding, respect of the law of God in practicing it. Now, you know, there are many people out there in religion that try to make life more powerful. out there in religion that try to make life easy. Now, we don't particularly want to make life easy. We want to make life balanced. And the one thing I ask God is to help me understand the truth. What is the real truth about a matter? Whether it's about the law of God, or whether it's about conduct, whatever, help me understand the truth.

2 Peter 2, verse 19.

2 Peter 2, verse 19. Beware of people that promise you freedom and liberty that doesn't lead to liberty but to greater enslavement.

verse 18. Deceptions of false teachers. For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error. They may have brought people along that have come into the truth. While they promise them liberty, those who promise liberty without law. Christ died for you, forget it, the law has been done away with. And showing a great disrespectful disrespect to the royal law of love, the law of liberty. While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by whom a person is overcome by him also he is brought into bondage. Be careful while getting sucked into an argument that you don't have to do anything, that you don't have to respect the law of God and do those things that are right. Brother, if there's anything that you can take home with you from this sermon, remember that Christ did come to free the captors. Christ did come to free us from prison, and this world has been held captive. And one of the dynamics of becoming a Christian is to be freed from our sins, and to be freed from what we are.

But it's not done on the cheap, it's done through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it's done from the observance, obedience to respect of the law as a baseline, leading to understanding of it as the spirit that needs to be obeyed, the spirit of the law that needs to be respected, and then applied in a way that brings about unity and peace for all concerned. That's what a partial meaning of the Days of Unleavened Bread is. It's for us to have the proper balance between the sacrifice of Christ for us and our responsibility in eating this bread, this unleavened bread, that pictures a walking of eating, of respecting the law of God, that brings freedom and liberty. That's how it works.

Freedom and liberty is not doing what you want to do, as has been so foolishly and naively accepted by people who have never seen it happen. For Christians, we know that freedom and liberty cost and require effort and require a maturity, because freedom only is freedom if it's freedom for everyone. If it's just for you, it's very selfish, and it's not freedom for someone else. So let's be thankful to God for the rich meaning that we have of the symbols in our Holy Days, that from year to year, from decade to decade, we understand more and more about God, His mind. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, and help us change our lives to the glory of God.