we're on chapter 21, and this is the last part of it. But here in chapter 21, we've been talking about Christian liberty, and point number three that they say is, they who, on pretense of Christian liberty, practice any sin or cherish any sinful lust, pervert the main purpose of the grace of the gospel to their own destruction. Now just think about what's going on there and our political and social and even our christian climate really points out what they're talking about uh... our political climate is lie mistrust destroy hurt main kill whatever you gotta do to get your your party uh... platform lifted up That's not a biblical model. That's not something that God condones and that's not something that Christians can be a part of. You know, that's one of those things that we have to stand against. I'm not saying we abandon the you know, political process. There's a lot of people that are calling for us to abandon the political process. And, I mean, I get people all the time that just go nuts at me because, you know, you're not supposed to be a part of this. You know, actually the last church we looked at, we talked to, they wanted me to promise them that I would never talk about anything political. And I said, but don't you realize that Jesus Christ talked about politics? They said he did not, and I said, who do you think the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Sanhedrin, who they were? They were the religious and government rulers. And he went after them. He actually called Herod, he actually called him a sly fox. And he went after him. The soldiers, he told them how they were supposed to act and be fair and balanced and principled. The tax collectors, what did he say to them? I mean, think about how many times he talked to the tax collector. Be fair. Don't take more than is your share. So he wasn't silent about politics. And I can't stand this concept that we're supposed to be silent. And you know where it came from? Back in the 60s, what happened? Hey, if you guys will start backing off on your political points of view, What we'll do is we'll give you a 501c3. And we'll make you tax exempt. And what we'll do is we'll take over these social issues and whatnot. And you guys can deal with the spiritual issues. And the church said, I like the money idea. I like that extra. Very shortly after that, the church was silent about abortion. Yeah. Now what gets me about it is, is if you'll notice, and you may have noticed, you may not have, When Democrats want to have a platform, where do they go to? Churches. Think about it. All these different political leaders in the Democratic Party, I mean Barack Obama even did it. Bill Clinton did it. Hillary Clinton did it. They go right to the churches. They get in there and they start preaching their stuff and they act like they're Christians and they talk about Christianity and they do all this stuff. And they do it in the name of Jesus. And the abortion thing is right in the name of Jesus, you know. It's a women's reproductive rights and health care. That's right. They call it health care and all this stuff. But think about this. They who on pretense of Christian liberty practice any sin. Judas comes along and says Why wasn't that box sold at alabaster box sold and given to the poor? Because he cared so much for the poor. I mean he was out of all the people there He cared for more for more anybody else, right? Jews didn't care one lick about the poor he wanted that money He wanted that money and he made it look like he wanted to pour he was the first social justice warrior there was He was the most prominent social justice warrior in the Bible. Guys, I want you to think about this. In the churches today, we have people who have compromised the Word of God, and they practice Christian liberty. They claim they have freedom to do all of these different things. that shows that they're a part of the world, and as soon as you say something to them, you're stepping on their Christian liberty. I loved R.C. Sproul. But R.C. Sproul talked about the tyranny of the weaker brother. There's a sermon he did called The Tyranny of the Weaker Brother, because as a Presbyterian, Reformed Presbyterian, they try to push that Christian liberty to say, You can't talk about me drinking and get all tatted up and the way I act, smoking pot, smoking cigars, the way I cuss and all the other stuff that I do. You can't talk about that stuff. And so R.C. Sproul looks at it from the alcohol standpoint and says that you're being tyrannical. as a weaker brother, if you continue in your weakness, you're being tyrannical towards that stronger brother because he's not allowed to exercise his Christian liberty. That's what Paul said. I mean, think about how Paul addressed this. Paul says, I've got liberty to do whatever I want. I can take a wife, I can not take a wife, I can eat anything I want to. He actually has, in one of his discussions on the meat given to idols, He says, I can go grab a slab of meat right now and go eat it, because there's no such thing as an idol. But, this person that was an idol worshipper yesterday, who ate that meat in the name of Zeus, and Apollo, and Diana, and all these other gods, he becomes a Christian, and I take him with me, we go down here and get the best meat, pull it out, and I start cooking it up, and he goes, wait a minute, I've renounced all these gods and this is meat of idolatry. What does Paul say? Oh, you're trying to be just hyper-spiritual and you think I've got liberty and you need to shut up. I can eat this steak because it's... He didn't say that, did he? Absolutely not. You know what he said? I'll never, ever, ever touch another piece of meat again if it would offend a weaker brother. You see, Christian liberty gives us the liberty to worship God freely. It does not bind us to law, but it also gives us the liberty to be free from the encumberment of the world. We don't have to try to do these things. We don't have to try to push these things on our lives. It doesn't matter. I'm going to tell you guys something. The more I look at Luke and what we're talking about with this social justice stuff and the social gospel stuff and how Jesus Christ addressed world versus Christianity. I look at it. There are millions of people that want us to grab hold of our Christian liberty and flaunt it and demand it. You know, if we have Christian liberty, we have rights over, you know, that we can do all these different things. And there are people that will use this and say, well, I'm a Christian. I can believe in abortion and homosexuality and LGBTQ and all this other stuff. Even discussing the LGBTQ issue, you're talking about a group that says, I want to be a lesbian or gay. In other words, exclusively lesbian, exclusively homosexual male. Bisexual means I want to be with men and women, which is totally outside of marriage. All of it is. But if they want to grab hold of the marriage concept, transgender is the effeminate person that wants to have the relationships with other people as a male or female that they're not. You have all these other different gender fluids and gender neutral things and stuff like that, and it's all about I have the liberty to exercise my own passions and lust that go against the word of God. And there's people that say this because I'm a Christian. And the answer is Romans 6, 1. Diane, you want to go ahead? What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Think about this. We just talked about all those big issues. What kind of issues can you think of that you don't do? Well, you don't do the LGBT. You don't do the getting drunk and tatted up and smoking dope and everything else. What do you do that you try to exercise your Christian liberty knowing that it's something the world does? The question is, identify it with the gospel. How does this thing, whatever it is, help your witness? And Luke had a man run up to him and said, Tell my brother to be fair and to share. I should get my equal share. He looks at him and he says, who made me a judge over what you're doing? Now he was, but he says, is that important? Let me tell you what's going to happen. There was a man who had all the money in the world and he found out he could get more money. And so what he did is, and of course then it was farming, what he did is he built bigger barns. Because instead of being content with what God gave him, he decided to be covetous and keep it all for himself. And in his coveting, he wanted to build himself bigger barns and have more wealth and be able to flash more of what he had. And God said, you fool, today your life is required of you. And he looks at this young man and he says, you're coveting. But then he gives him the gospel. He tells him the gospel. He tells him what's more important, that you should gain the whole world or lose your soul. And you think about this. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin? Maybe you're against abortion. Congratulations. What sins do you hold on to that you're not wanting to give up? Because those are the sins that God's going to judge you by. And that may be those sins that, just like the rich young ruler, who said, oh, I don't do all of these things. Or the Pharisee in the temple who said, Lord, I thank you that I'm not like that publican and that tax collector and that sinner. I thank you that I'm not like them. I tithe. I do what's right. I'm so good. And he puffed his chest up and walked out. And he went to hell. Think about it. What sin are you holding onto so tightly you're unwilling to let go? What worldly thing are you unwilling to let go of? It's a pretty big issue. You talk about Christian liberty, you gotta be very careful because the thing that you are willing to hold onto more than the gospel is the thing that condemns you. That's what condemns you. If it's potty mouth, bad attitude, hateful attitudes, disrespect to people, if it's slander, lying, materialism, coveting, lust, inordinate attraction or affection to anything. I mean, just think about it. You have the rich young ruler. By every account, he would have been one of the pillars of our community. And Jesus said he loved his money so much that he went to hell for it. That's terrifying. But he was practicing his liberty, his Christian liberty. I can do all these things. I can exercise all these things. I can act this way. I can do all these things and call myself a Christian. and I'll leave this stuff alone. I got the freedom to do all this stuff. And he held on to his freedom so much that it put him in sin. He was practicing sin because he held on to his freedoms, his liberties so much. That's dangerous. 1 John 1, 8-10. Gracie, you want to do that? If you say that we have no sin and we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful in us to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His own word is not in us. His word's not in us. That's a... It should be a sobering thing for us to think about. You know, what do you think about that passage? What does it make you think about? And first John, what does that make you think about? You know, the passage of scripture that. Just has always been one that has. Terrified me. Every idle word that a man speaks, he'll give account thereof. In the day of judgment. That passage terrifies me. Okay, you say, but I'm a Christian. That doesn't matter. If you're a Christian, it's to scare you more about this stuff. Not that you're going to go to hell, but if you're a Christian, don't you love the Lord? If you love the Lord, do you want to displease him? Do you want to sin against him? You know, one thing Wyatt and I talked about, and Gracie, we talked about, you think about this. When were you saved? According to the Bible, when were you saved? Before the foundation of the world, right? You can also say that you were saved in the garden. You can say that you were saved at a specific time and place, on the cross. The Bible says in Galatians that the certificate of our debt was nailed to the cross. So you can say you were saved there. You were saved at a specific time and place. Repent and believe the gospel and then ultimately you're saved from the judgment of God right so so Salvation it means a whole lot But Jesus Christ paid the sin debt for every sin you're ever going to commit And if you use that as Christian liberty to commit sin, that means that the truth is not in you Romans 6 1 through 2 that means you're not a Christian but knowing that Jesus Christ died on the cross and What type of people should we be? What type of people should we wanna be? Those people that don't wanna sin, right? And I think about this, every idle word the man speaks, he'll give account thereof in the day of judgment. So I'm gonna stand up there before God, before Jesus Christ, and instead of being condemned for sin, being cast in hell, Jesus has paid my sin debt. And I've always looked at the Bema judgment seat. We're going to actually talk about that when we come back from the trip. We're going to look at the Bema seat and stuff a little bit more. There's a judgment that we go under as Christians. But it's not like the judgment that is a Rathfield judgment. There's a it's a it's a proving the wood hay and stubble versus gold and silver You know those things that you did that were of worth and those things that you did that weren't but think about this Every idle word that you speak as a Christian Everything that you've done everything every bit of your life every bit of your attitudes your conducts God's gonna judge it to see if you did it for His glory or for your own, for your own purposes or did it out of hate and anger. And I just think to myself, as I told the kids, Jesus Christ died on the cross for every sin I'm ever going to commit. I should want to not sin if I believe that. They completely destroy the object of Christian liberty, which is that we, being delivered out of the hands of all of our enemies, might serve the Lord without fear and holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our lives. And just, here we have Galatians 5.13 and 2 Peter 2.18, 2 Peter 2.21. Gary, you want to go ahead and do Galatians? For brethren, we have been called into liberty, only you have got liberty for contagion to the flesh. But by love, serve one another. Money. For me, it's by showing them money. I can show them Okay, but the only one that ever died for their soul was Jesus Christ and therefore the greatest way to show somebody you love them is to give them the gospel When we're so busy fighting and arguing about our Christian liberty and the things that we think we have right to do and right over and we want to grab a hold of, it almost always diminishes the gospel. You've heard me say it. I'm going to go buy a pack of cigarettes. It's going to be hard to witness that person when I'm buying a pack of cigarettes. I'm going to go buy some rolling papers for my dope. It's kind of hard to witness to somebody. I'm going to go to the drug house to get those. I want to go down here to the local bar and tie one on. It's kind of hard for me to witness to people. Now, I know that there's people who say, I can go out to the bar, and I can drink all day long, and I've got my liberty. OK, fine. That's fine. Exactly, and who's going to listen to that witness? I mean. You lose your credibility. And that's the whole point. We need to be more concerned about. Loving others enough to. Proclaim the Gospel. Then we do to fight for our quote unquote liberties and our freedoms. for brethren, you've been called unto liberty. In other words, liberty from what? Liberty from the law. We're free from the law. We're no longer under that condemnation and judgment. We're no longer under the requirements of the law. Yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. Let you all look at that 2 Peter 2.18 on your time and 2.21. Those are really good. I want to encourage everybody to read Galatians as we get into talking about chapter 22 on worship and the Sabbath day. When we get into the Sabbath day, we're going to have many things to talk about. I don't necessarily agree with everything going on. I'm not a covenant theology guy. I'm a progressive dispensationalist and I happen to believe very strongly that Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest just because the Bible says so. So I don't want to bring myself back under the old law. So anyway, I just wanted to point that out to you and let's pray real quick. Take a minute. Lord, thank you for our time. Thank you for giving us a witness. Lord, help us to be faithful and true. There is a mountain of compromise, a mountain of compromise that can bring us in every direction and help us to fight that, help us to overcome sin and compromise. In your name I pray, Lord. Amen.