What is True Liberty

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We won't spend much time on the actual Day of Atonement itself because we'll be looking more at the theology of what the Day of Atonement means. But something that was to occur on the Day of Atonement every 49th year and 50th year, something that introduced what's known as the year of the Jubilee. Let's turn to Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 1. And as we prepare and start thinking about the Day of Atonement just one week away, I would like to start you thinking about what is true liberty. Because there is a lot of disagreement on what true liberty is. Some people, if you just take the raw basic definition of a dictionary, it's just basic that says liberty is choosing to do what you want to do. Well, that's kind of pretty open-ended. That kind of gives you a lot of license. If you just go by the raw definition of the word liberty from a typical dictionary, I think we need to understand what true liberty really is. Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 1 says, So six years you were to plant your crops, the seventh year you were just a seed, and the seventh year you were just let it alone. And during that seventh year you were just to go out there and you were to glean, much like Adam would have in the Garden of Eden. You want something to eat? You just pick it off a tree. You just cut it fresh and you enjoy it. And you just eat it as it is. And you weren't even, it says here, You shall not reap nor gather the grapes. If you are untended vine, you were not to try to make a harvest to store anything during that seventh year. That would be forbidden. And let's continue here. Verse 6, Verse 7, So for you, your household, a stranger, the animals that are in your herd, it shall all be for food. And you shall count seven Sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, and the time of the seven Sabbaths of years shall be to you forty-nine years. So when you do this seven times, you have seven seven-year Sabbaths, you come up to forty-nine years. Then you shall cause the trumpet of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, the day of atonement. And you shall make the trumpet to sound throughout all your land, and you shall consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all of its inhabitants.

You see, what's actually occurring here requires great faith, because first of all, a Sabbath rest was the forty-ninth year. Then the fiftieth year was the Jubilee year. That was another Sabbath rest. So that means you had to live off of two years of doing nothing. So you had to have harvests that were so good leading up to this period of time that you could take a two-year break, in which you would not literally plant anything or harvest anything from the ground.

Continuing, it shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family. That fiftieth year shall be a Jubilee to you, and you shall neither sow nor reap what grows of its own accord, nor gather the grapes of your untended vine.

So again, you are not to sow or reap anything with the intention of getting a harvest from these years. Verse 12 for it is a Jubilee. It shall be holy to you, and you shall eat its produce from the field. In this year of Jubilee, each of you shall return to his possession. And if you sell anything to your neighbor or buy from your neighbor's hand, you shall not oppress one another. It's interesting that depending on when the Jubilee year was to be established, land could either increase in value, because if you were buying land from someone, it had to be returned in the Jubilee year.

So, for example, if it were to be 49 years to the next Jubilee, the price of that land may be very high. If you buy it, you can use it for the next 48 years. But on the other hand, if the Jubilee year were to be two years away and you bought some land, you wouldn't pay that much for the land, because you're only going to be able to have it for two years.

The sad thing is, is there's no record of a single Jubilee ever being observed in ancient Israel. And there's, of course, as in most scripture, there's more here than meets the eye. Beyond the national instruction to the nation, this was actually a prophecy that looked forward to humankind returning to its creator, coming home, going back to family, which is God, their father. So it looked forward to humankind returning to its creator and enjoying a millennium of peace and abundance in the kingdom of God. The instruction to return to your family, to live without oppression, to go home in peace. All have millennial overtones. Here's what the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says about this in its article under Jubilee.

And I'll quote, I think that kind of nails it. Here's continuing, it says here, In the year of the Jubilee, a great future of Yahweh's favor is foreshadowed that period, which according to Isaiah, Chapter 61, verses 1-3, shall be ushered into all those that labor and are heavy laden by Him who was anointed by the Spirit of the Lord Yahweh. End of quote. And again, that's from the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia. So this was just far more than a physical law instituted for a nation which, by the way, never observed it.

It was millennial. The reason they should have observed it is it would have reminded them of the kingdom of God, a time when everyone, every family is restored, when humankind is restored to its Father, its Creator God, when all oppression ends, when all slavery ends throughout this world, a very beautiful time. Unfortunately, many people's idea of liberty is a world without rules or without laws. And this is not only true of secular world, but I've always found it amazing, but it's also true in a lot of religious circles, that liberty is freedom from law.

The idea is that somehow, some way, one just knows what is right or what is wrong. There are some theologies that say that it's the Spirit that simply leads you to do what is right. You no longer need law. The Ten Commandments are done away. God's law is abolished. And somehow, it's just that Spirit that leads and guides you to do what is right. But what does the Bible tell us? Is liberty true freedom possible without law? Again, I'm going to give you the definition of liberty from the American Heritage Dictionary.

This is very similar from most dictionaries. It's very simple. Quote, the state or condition of people who are able to speak and act freely, the power to do or choose whatever you want to. Period. That's all the definition means. It's pretty open-ended. So does this make any sense to you? Is it freedom to do or to choose whatever you want to do?

Do you think that's a biblical concept? What if you think your liberty is the right to drive a car 70 miles an hour while intoxicated? Well, I think my liberty is my right to drive on the same road without an idiot behind the wheel of a car. You see, there are conflicting views of what liberty is there.

If there are no rules, if there are no standards, then there's a very conflicting definition of what liberty is. If it's simply being able to have the power to choose what you want to do. Yeah. That's what some people believe liberty is. In America, we cherish the concept of liberty.

We even have something called the Liberty Bell, which I had an opportunity to see once. And on the inscription of the Liberty Bell is a quote from the book of Leviticus that we just read. And it says, "...proclaimed liberty throughout all the land to all inhabitants thereof, by order of the assemblies of the province of Pennsylvania for the State House in Philadelphia." So, is liberty a world without any laws? Some think science is true liberty.

A few days ago, the smartest man in the world, who's had two failed marriages, Stephen Hawking, gave an interview to Spain's El Mundo, which is a Spanish daily newspaper. He gave an interview to El Mundo, and here's what he said, quote, "...before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe, but now science offers a more convincing explanation." This is from the smartest man in the world.

But El Mundo, they didn't want to look at the rest of the story. He said, wait a minute. They said, in your book, A Brief History of Time, you said that a unifying theory of science would help mankind to, quote, "...know the mind of God." They said, that's literally what you wrote in your own book. And Hawking, here's how he explained that. Quote, "...what I meant by that is that God created the universe, and that's what God created." He explained that. Quote, "...what I meant by we would know the mind of God is we would know everything that God would know if there were a God, which there isn't, I'm an atheist." End of quote.

So, is liberty science? Will science give us eternal life? Will science make unhappy people happy? Maybe just some magic pill? I mean, people have been smoking stuff and eating mushrooms for thousands of years. They're still not very happy. This still isn't a very happy world. They've been ingesting, digesting, inserting all kinds of strange things into their bodies. You know, desire, to find true happiness. Has it ever brought liberty to anyone?

So, maybe humankind's ultimate definition of liberty is freedom from all rules and laws and from the dead God who gave them. Maybe that's the kind of the world of that we live in today. But I think what we need to do is we need to understand what true liberty is. That liberty that was intended to be proclaimed on that 50th year, on the Jubilee year. And see how that will come about. Let's go to Hebrews 8 and verse 1, if you will kindly turn there with me.

Hebrews 8 and verse 1, the author of the book of Hebrews, which may have been Paul, may have been someone else. But whoever the author was at this point, he's contrasting the Old Covenant with the New Covenant. The Old Levitical Priesthood, which the superior High Priest of Jesus Christ. Here is just now, this is the main point of the things we are saying. We have a High Priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord erected and not man.

For every High Priest, he's talking about those on the earth, for every High Priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore, it is necessary that this one also had something to offer. For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and the shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle.

For he said, See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. So he's contrasting the Levitical priesthood and how they needed to continue to offer sacrifices and gifts to God. And now here's the contrast, verse 6. But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. Those better promises are eternal life, not just a good physical life and a land of peace and lots of growing crops and blessings, if you did right.

That was the covenant that ancient Israel had. But the better covenant is about eternal life. It goes far beyond physical blessings. Verse 7, for if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. But because finding fault with them, that is with the people, not with the covenant, finding fault with them, he says, Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant.

And I disregarded them, says the Lord. God says, I let them go into captivity. I divorced them. They were unfaithful to me. And I let the nation go into captivity. He says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. He says, I will give them true liberty and there will be no laws. But he doesn't say that, does he? He says, I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

None of them shall teach his neighbor and none of them, his brother, saying, no, the Lord for all shall know me. You won't even have to teach your neighbor, because everyone on earth, ultimately, after the kingdom has been established for a while and the truth of God has encompassed the entire globe, everyone will know God. From the least of them to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. So the author of the book of Hebrews contrasts the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, and he states that God's law will still exist at that time, but it will be internalized.

It will be part of who and what they are. It will be part of their character. It's important that we understand the difference between God's law and the law of Moses, because they are not the same thing. And many of the blogs, many of the people that stumble over so many Hebraic things and try to pull the 21st century Church of God back into Judaism just don't get it that there's a difference between the law of God and the law of Moses or the books of Moses.

They are not the same thing. They never had the same significance. They don't have the same significance. So in understanding the two, let's begin by looking at the Ten Commandments. We'll turn to Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 1. If you'll turn there with me, Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 1. Deuteronomy chapter 5 and verse 1.

So we see here that the giving of the Ten Commandments are recalled by Moses to the people. They are so important that they weren't given like everything else by God directly to Moses, and Moses writing it down and telling the people. Moses himself said that these were given face to face. God is thundering these things while the people are terrified and saying, Oh, you tell us, Moses, we don't want to hear it. But face to face, God is giving His law. That's how important they were. Now many folks, unfortunately in the Protestant world, believe that the Ten Commandments were done away or are no longer valid. I'll give you a brief example. This is a Baptist pamphlet that I found in a particular church that I've been visiting lately. It's a Baptist church in Grafton, Ohio. And they have an area where they have all kinds of pamphlets. And being the inquisitive type, as Mr. Thomas tends to be, I thought I would take a sample of each and read it for the deep theology. And here's what it says. I just wanted to read you this one thing. This is from this pamphlet. Here it's entitled, The Ten Commandments. And it shows a picture of the two tablets of stone. It says, if we really understand what God is saying, the Ten Commandments will not be a pattern for life, but rather what the Bible declares them to be, a ministration of death. Why, you wouldn't want to live by something that says you shouldn't covet something your neighbor has, would you? You wouldn't want to live by something that says you should be satisfied with the wife God gave you and you shouldn't be committing adultery? Why, you wouldn't want to live by a rule that says if you work hard and you earn something and it's yours, then no one else has the right to steal it from you? Why, you wouldn't want to do that because that would be a pattern for life. If everybody lived by that pattern, what kind of world would we live in? If everyone lived by that pattern of life, why, the Bible declares them to be a ministration of death. Now, there are others who examine the New Testament to resurrect and discover nine of the Ten Commandments from the writings of Paul. They dig deep and they say, well, here, Paul says we shouldn't commit adultery. Okay, we shouldn't lie. We shouldn't commit idolatry. Oh, that's good. We shouldn't steal. And hocus pocus. They restore nine of the ten suggestions, only leaving one out. So the Ten Commandments become the nine suggestions. And guess what one is left out? The one in which God said, remember this. Remember this day.

It goes all the way back to creation. Remember this day. That's the one that they leave out. And then they declare they invent something called the Law of Christ, which is a phrase that Paul uses in Galatians 6 and verse 2. They give it a new name. The Ten Commandments morphs into the nine suggestions and they give it a name called the Law of Christ. You should live by the Law of Christ. You should live by the Spirit rather than by these harsh commandments that are a ministration of death. Boy, doesn't that sound so ominous? Other religious individuals say that God's commandments are replaced by the Spirit. You don't need the Law anymore. You now have the Spirit.

But what happens when I by the Spirit consider the fact that you have three wives as adultery? When I by my Spirit think that you who has three wives is committing adultery and you by the Spirit consider it to be a blessed plural marriage relationship.

You see, where there is no law, there's conflict. There's disagreement. There are problems. Once again, the concept of liberty without a governing law leads to chaos and it leads to discontentment. Well, let's see where these commandments that were given by face to face from God to the nation of Israel, where they were to be placed. Deuteronomy 1, verses 1-5. Let's see where they were placed and if they were treated differently than the Law of Moses, the writings of Moses that we know of as the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy 10, verse 1.

And Moses, you really should be working on that temper problem you have. Right?

So why are the Ten Commandments so important? It's because they revealed a very nature and the very value system of God. They're part of any covenant God has ever made or will make with people because they are part of who and what He is. At their heart is what God demands in order to have a personal relationship with anyone. That is, respect and obedience to God outlined in the first four commandments and respect and appreciation for the rest of His creation. That's how we deal with each other. The sixth through the tenth commandments. The commandments are like the preamble. What a preamble is? That's like an introductory statement. God's commandments, His Law is like the preamble of anything to have a personal covenant relationship with Him. Let me ask you this question. When God rested on the seventh day Sabbath, He established God's Sabbath Law thousands of years before they were written on stone, didn't He?

Thousands of years before Moses ever wrote them on a tablet, the Sabbath was ordained and established. When Cain killed Abel, his brother, he broke one of the commandments. He killed his brother thousands of years before it was written on a stone that said, When Joseph told Potiphar's wife he would not commit adultery and sin against God, that event was hundreds of years before adultery, you shall not commit adultery, was written on a tablet of stone. Why? Because God's Law, God's ten commandments, are what God is all about. They are His value system, and to have a relationship with Him, we need to conform to His values. He doesn't conform to our values. It's an important part of having a relationship with Him. So let's now go to 1 Kings 8 and verse 5. Make sure that we understand what happened to the ten commandments and where they were put. Let's go to 1 Kings 8 and verse 5 and see Solomon here dedicating the temple, what they discover. When they take a look inside of the ark. Now thankfully, unlike what movie is it in which they open the ark of the covenant? Is it Lost Raiders of the Ark? Remember? They open the ark and they're like, Aaaah! And the German guy, you see the flesh liquefying off of his face and he's a skeleton after saying, It's so beautiful, it's so beautiful. Well, God was merciful, and thankfully that didn't happen here.

But let's see what did happen. Also, King Solomon and the congregation of Israel who were assembled with him were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and oxen that could not be counted or numbered for multitude. Obviously, there were no members of PETA standing there at that time. Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the Lord to its place and to the inner sanctuary of the temple to the Most Holy Place under the wings of the caribim. And the caribim spread their two wings over the place of the ark, and the caribim overshadowed the ark in its poles. The poles extended so that the end of the poles could be seen from the Holy Place in front of the inner sanctuary, but they could not be seen from outside. And there there to this day, at the time that this was written in 1 Kings. Verse 9, let's see what it says. Nothing was in the ark except the two tablets of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when the Lord made a covenant with the children of Israel, and they came out of the land of Egypt. And it came to pass, when the priests came out of the Holy Place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord. So God to show his pleasure with this temple, that a cloud filled the entire temple at that time.

So in Solomon's day, the only thing in the ark are the two tablets inside the ark. Again, why do you think God commanded that Moses put the tablets that had the ten commandments written on them inside the ark? The ark represented God's presence on earth. The commandments are his value system. They reside at the core of his being. Symbolically, the ark represented God's heart and mind, his literal presence among the nation. It was a special piece of furniture in the Holy of Holies, and it represented God's very presence there.

So we should always understand why they were inside of the ark of the covenant. They are the essence of who and what God is, love for the Creator, the first part of the commandments, and how to love the Creator, and how to love his creation.

But what about the law of Moses? What about the books of the law? What about all the things that Moses wrote, including, I might add, specifications about Sabbath years and Jubilee years? Where do they fit in? Well, let's find out. Deuteronomy chapter 31 and verse 24. Deuteronomy chapter 31 and verse 24.

And see where they put those. Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 24. So it was when Moses had completed writing the words of this law. This is the law of Moses, books of the law. The words of this law, including Deuteronomy, in a book, they were finished. But Moses commanded the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, by saying, Take the book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the Lord, your God. It may be there as a witness against you. Not inside, but beside the ark of the covenant.

Verse 26, from the translation of the New Century Version, he said, Take the book of the teachings and put it beside the ark of the agreement with the Lord, your God. It was stay there as a witness against you. So the law of Moses, or the books of the law, whatever you want to call them, were placed outside the ark because it was simply part of an agreement between God and the physical nation of Israel. Like any agreement God would make, indeed it included, as part of its preamble, the Ten Commandments, because God will not have any covenant with anyone unless they include his value system.

So that did certainly include the Ten Commandments, but it was not the law of God. It was the law of Moses. It was God's agreement with a carnal, Bronze Age people who were living in a physical land, a people who did not have the technical understanding of the 21st century. It was placed on the outside because it was temporary, a covenant that would be replaced by a better covenant. That's why it was placed on the outside.

It was for that nation, that physical peoples, at that time, in their place in world history, and much what was in the books, much that was in the law of Moses, the book of the law of Moses, is not applicable to us today. Now granted, there are many parts of it that have spiritual applications.

We read earlier about the Jubilee year, and there are spiritual applications about looking forward to the millennium, but we don't keep seven-year Sabbaths. If I had to try to survive my being by growing things for six years and hoping, I mean, I couldn't even get tomatoes to grow this year. I'd be your house-eating supper. That was important to the physical nation that God was dealing with because it was a purely agricultural society. Everyone lived by farming, and so that the land would not be depleted of its soil. It was important for God to institute at that time to a physical Bronze Age people who had very limited understanding of fertilization and how to take care of their soils.

He gave them a method that would help to protect soil so that they could get more out of it. Is it applicable to us today? Absolutely not, because it's part of the law of Moses. Let's continue here now, Matthew 5 and verse 14, and see what Jesus Christ said about the law of God. Let's see what Jesus Christ said about God's law. Are they an administration of death? Done away? Replaced by the Spirit? Replaced by the law of Christ? He says here, Matthew 5 and verse 14, You are the light of the world, a city that is set on a hill, cannot be hidden, nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, that it gives light to all who are in the house.

Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Do not think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. And there are enemies of the law of God who say, Aha!

The word fulfill! That means it's done away. Well, why don't we allow Jesus Christ to explain what he means when he uses the word fulfill? Because we're going to see it in just a few verses. He said, I did not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For shortly I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle shall by no means pass from the law, till all 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. And I might add, that whoever therefore breaks those commandments and teaches men those commandments are not necessary. They'll be called least by people who are in the kingdom of heaven. There's no guarantee it doesn't say that they'll even be there. They'll be called least by those who are there.

And whoever does and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. So what commandments is Jesus talking about? Maybe these are a whole new parallel set of commandments. Well, let's see. In verse 21, He talks about murder. Let's see, what commandment is that? That's called the sixth of the Ten Commandments. In verse 27, He talks about adultery. I wonder what commandment that could be from a new one?

No. That's the seventh of the Ten Commandments. In verse 33, He talks about bearing false witness. Was that a new commandment? No. That's the ninth of the original Ten Commandments that were given. Hmm. So now we know in context what commandments He's talking about. Verse 20, for I say unto you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, at first that may sound very ominous, but the truth is that when you have the righteousness of Christ dwelling in you through the gift of the Holy Spirit, your righteousness far, far exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.

They thought that righteousness came from obeying the law. We know that righteousness comes by Christ Jesus living in us, and our obedience comes from the result of the fact that we were converted. It's a natural fruit of being converted, obedience, and loving God's law. We don't keep God's law because we think it makes us righteous.

Only Jesus Christ in us makes us righteous. And where we fall short, His righteousness fills the gap because through His Spirit and His presence that dwells within us. Let's take a look at verse 21. We're going to see what He meant by the term fulfill. You've heard that it was said of old, you shall not murder, and whoever murders shall be in danger of the judgment. That was the literal letter of the law. That's the law that Moses was given. Verse 22, but I say that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.

Whoever says to his brother, Raka, shall be in danger of the counsel, but whoever says you fool. The best way to translate that, whoever says you totally worthless bag of you fill in the Word, shall be in danger of hellfire. When you hate someone that you think that poorly of them, Jesus said, you've already killed them in your heart. So how is He not destroying but fulfilling? He's restoring the original spiritual intent of the commandments that are part of God's value system.

I want you to notice how Jesus is fulfilling. He's filling to the full, the original intent of the law. It's the spiritual application of the same commandments that takes them to another level, that fills them to the full. Look at verse 27. You've heard that it was said of old, you shall not commit adultery. And that's not fair enough. You look at the original Ten Commandments, given to the carnal people there in ancient Israel. That's what it says. He says, but I say that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

So Jesus shows that He's come to give a deeper spiritual application of the law, what was intended from the very beginning. Rather than being less important, they now thoroughly examine our attitudes and our hearts. It takes you to a whole new level, exactly like God was concerned with Cain's hatred towards his brother before he killed Abel in Genesis 4.

He warned Cain. He said, you hate your brother. Sin is at the door. Because God was concerned about his attitude, the spiritual intent of the law. Long before the physical act of killing his brother, God's moral law, His character, which Jesus came to restore, the fill to the full, was, you're hating your brother. And that's not right. That is sin and something that you should not do. Let's now go to Romans 7 and verse 6 and see what Paul said about this law. Romans 7 and verse 6, the law of God that we've been talking about.

Romans 7 and verse 6.

Paul writes, but now we have been delivered from the law. Aha! The law is bad! No, he's talking about being delivered from the penalty of breaking the law, which is death and is not a real happy experience. He says, having died to what we were held, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. What is the oldness of the letter? You shall not commit adultery. What is the newness of the Spirit? You shouldn't even lust after a woman in your heart. You've already committed adultery. What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? Certainly not, he says. On the contrary, would not have known sin, except through the law, I would not have known covetousness, unless the law said, you shall not covet.

So in context, if you want to know whether he's talking about the law of Moses or the law of God, he just gave us the answer. He's talking about, thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking opportunity by the commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. He says sin did it, not the law. Sin produced these feelings that I don't like, these actions, these thoughts that I have that I don't like.

For apart from the law, sin was dead. He says before I knew the law, I didn't care. I didn't recognize stealing his sin. I just did it. It was what I did.

When I lied to people, I didn't realize that it was sinful. I just did it. It came instinctively. It came naturally, he says. I didn't care. I didn't recognize it as sin.

He says I was alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, when I understood that God has commandments and that he has laws, sin revived and I died, condemned to death.

What's the penalty for breaking the law? Death. And there's only one way to be saved from that, and that is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death. It reminded me how weak I am and how much I need a savior.

For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me. Again, it wasn't the commandment that deceived him, it was sin.

Taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and it killed me. It made me worthy only of death.

Therefore, the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.

I don't know how you could compliment the law much more greatly than what Paul says right here in a simple sentence.

Here's what the Rurie Bible note says about this verse. It says the law is fundamentally good, but the result of the law is to bring into the open the power of sin. It is sin, not the law that exposes it that deceives and kills.

Again, that's from the Rurie Bible notes for verse 12.

Well, that's what Paul had to say about the law. How about John? Let's go to 1 John chapter 4 and verse 20.

1 John chapter 4 and verse 20.

If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

Wow! Which commandment talks about not lying, not bearing false witness?

Isn't it one of God's Ten Commandments? Remember, the first four commandments deal with our relationship with God and the last six, our relationship with others. John states that hatred, that happens to be the sixth commandment, the spiritual intent of the sixth commandment that Jesus brought to the full.

He says that hatred is a sin. John also condemns lying in this verse. That happens to be the ninth commandment of the Ten Commandments.

Let's go to chapter 5 now. If you turn back another chapter, 1 John chapter 5.

In context, we know he's talking about the commandments, the Ten Commandments. He's already mentioned hatred. He's condemned lying.

He says here in chapter 5 verse 1, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God, and everyone who loves him, who begot, also loves him, who is begotten of him.

By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and we keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments.

Now, what commandments is he talking about? He just told us in chapter 4 verse 20. He mentioned some by name, lying.

Waiting. Wanting to kill someone in your heart.

For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

They're only a burden if you have a poor attitude.

The Sabbath is only a burden if you want to do it your way. Stealing is only a burden if you don't want to work hard and earn the things for yourself in life.

Right? The commandments are not a burden. It's less you're just rebellious.

Unless you just don't want to observe the Ten Commandments.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith.

Who is you who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Many people whine and pine about what a burden God's law is.

You people go to those old covenant holy days. Oh, what a burden that is! That's terrible!

Well, John didn't have that perspective. He said that God's commandments are not a burden.

Let's go to James chapter 2 in verse 5. James chapter 2 in verse 5.

Let's see what James had to say about the law.

James chapter 2 in verse 5. Listen, my beloved brethren, has God not chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

But you have dishonored the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you and drag you into the courts?

Do they not blaspheme that noble name by which you were called?

If you really fulfill the royal law according to Scripture, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

So if you want to know what law he's talking about when he calls it the royal law, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, which are all encoded in the latter of the Ten Commandments.

You do well. But if you show partiality, if you treat someone who's poor shamefully, and you treat someone who's rich and give them the nicest seat and bring them coffee and cater to them and give them special treatment, he says you're showing partiality.

You commit sin, and you are convicted by the law as transgressors.

For whoever shall keep the whole law and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.

For he who said, Do not commit adultery also said, Do not murder.

Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.

Verse 12. We've kind of come full circle here from our original Scripture in the book of Leviticus.

I want you to notice what James is going to call the law of God, that someday will be written in the hearts and minds of everyone under the terms of the New Covenant after Jesus Christ returns and establishes his kingdom on this earth.

So speak, and do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.

For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James refers to the Ten Commandments, including those he just mentions as a law that provides liberty.

Because if I respect them and live by the spiritual application, and you do, and your neighbor does, and everyone else does, you have a world in which there is no conflict.

You have a world in which there is no abuse.

You have a world of true freedom and liberty, because it's a world whose liberty is based on the foundation of love, and that foundation of love is codified in the law of God.

For our final Scripture today, let's go to Micah, chapter 4 and verse 1.

Take a look at a prophecy, a very millennial Scripture, that you'll hear about many times during the Feast of Tabernacles coming up. Micah, chapter 4 and verse 1.

And let's see an example of what liberty is.

Chapter 4, verse 1.

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days, so those are the days after Jesus Christ has established His kingdom, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established on the top of the mountains, top of the mountain, meaning superior, supreme, ruling over the earth.

And it shall be exalted above the hills, the hills representing the smaller kingdoms and ethnic groups and peoples that will exist in a world at that time. It shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall flow to it, not run away from it. They'll float it. They will be naturally attracted to it.

We want to learn more. We want to know more about this God and His ways.

We want to be happy and fulfilled like all these other people are.

And people shall flow to it. Many nations shall come and say, Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.

For the law shall go forth, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many nations. How can He judge if there is no law?

How can He judge if there is no value system? How can He judge if everything has been done away and we're just guided by some nebulous concept of, I'm guided by the Spirit and you're guided by the Spirit, and when we're both guided in completely opposite directions, uh-oh.

It says, And He will judge between many peoples, and rebukes wrong nations afar off, they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hopes nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more, but every one shall sit under His vine.

Just like the Jubilee you're pictured, everyone living in peace, everyone just going home, going back to family. Everyone shall sit under His vine and under His fig tree, well fed, not having to work hard for crops because you won't have the weed problem, you won't have the insect problem and all the barriers that you have now, trying to grow something wonderful.

No one shall make them afraid. All war, all oppression from one people towards another will end, for the mouth of the Lord of Host has spoken it. So, brethren, these fall holy days, all look forward to a time of true liberty in the world. It is not a liberty that has rejected law. It is not a liberty in which we all are guided by some nebulous feeling of a spirit inside of us. God will use His Holy Spirit to write His law on the hearts and minds of everyone under that covenant. But it's a time of true liberty because everyone will recognize that that law is God's value system. It defines who and what God is. And we should all desire to be just like who and just like what God is because we will be His sons and His daughters in His family. So let's look forward to a time of true liberty in this world and understand what that really means. And let's all pray together, thy kingdom come.