Now, the part of the chapter that I wanted to focus on is just that one verse in verse 25 where the Bible reads,
"But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer,
but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed."
Now, I want to talk to you this morning about the subject of liberty, freedom.
Of course, it's only fitting since this Friday is the anniversary of our nation's independence,
the glorious day that was July 4th, 1776, over 200 years ago,
when our nation became the free country that it is and was and hopefully shall be.
Now, what is liberty? What is freedom?
I'm going to show you a little bit from the Bible's point about what freedom and liberty means
and what it should mean to us in our lives, but turn to Leviticus 25.
We're going to look at the first mention in the Bible of liberty, Leviticus 25.10.
While you're turning there, let me tell you this verse.
2 Corinthians 3,17 reads, "Now the Lord is that Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
Did you hear that?
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
So the converse is also true.
When the Spirit of the Lord departs, liberty departs.
Because where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
And only there is liberty.
Now the Bible reads in Leviticus 25,
"And ye shall howl the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.
It shall be a jubilee unto you."
Watch him define what that liberty is.
He says, "And ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family."
Now turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 7.
In Leviticus 25, God is saying that liberty and freedom is to have your own possessions that you own,
and to have your own family that's your family.
Do you understand that? That's what part of liberty is, according to the Bible.
That's the first time liberty is mentioned.
Look at 1 Corinthians 7.39 and see another aspect of liberty.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 7.39, "The wife is bound by the law, as long as her husband liveth;
but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to be married to whom she will, only in the Lord."
So liberty is having the right to make your own choice.
Here he's saying this woman has liberty to choose who she wants to marry, right?
You don't have to turn them, but I'll read you another scripture that says the same thing.
Numbers 36.6, "This is the thing which the Lord the command concerning the daughters of Zelop has hanged.
Let them marry to whom they think best, only the family and the tribe of their fathers may shall marry."
Even though God says there's a restriction, you know, you ought to marry, if you're a Christian, if you're a believer,
you ought to not be unequally yoked together with an unbeliever. You should marry somebody who's a believer.
But outside of that, he says, "Marry whom you think best. Marry whom you will."
I don't believe that it's right for the government to tell you to marry.
I don't believe it's right for your parents to tell you to marry.
Hey, the Bible says that liberty is making choices for yourself.
That's what the Bible says.
What is liberty? Having your own possessions, owning your own things.
What's liberty? Having your own family that you're in charge of.
What's liberty? Making your own choices.
Look at Matthew 17, verse 24. We'll see what else liberty is.
We're just getting some Bible definitions.
Very broad, sweeping term, liberty.
So we're getting some Bible definitions about what God's idea of liberty is.
Look at Matthew 17, 24.
The Bible says that when they would come to Capernaum,
they that received tribute money came to Peter and said,
"Does not your master pay tribute?"
That's like my taxes, like the government's trying to extract money from me.
He said, "He saved, yes."
And when he was coming to the house, this is Matthew 17, 25,
Jesus prevented him saying, "What thinkest thou, Simon?
Of whom do the kings of the earth take customer tribute?
Of their own children or strangers? Peter saith unto them of strangers.
Jesus saith unto them, then are the children free."
Okay, so freedom is spending your own money the way that you want to spend your money,
and not having somebody store money from you, okay?
That's another definition of freedom.
Here, he's describing, of course, the Roman Empire.
Guess what?
The Roman Empire took over the whole world.
Guess who didn't pay any taxes in the Roman Empire?
The Romans, okay?
The countries that they took over and enslaved, they paid the tribute, they paid the custom,
the children were free.
Now, turn to Judges chapter 3, and we're turning to a lot of scriptures early in the sermon,
but I want you to see some of these things.
Look at Judges chapter 3.
See, freedom is the most precious thing that a person can have as breathing in this country.
Freedom is the greatest thing in the world.
See, I'd rather live in America and be free.
I'd rather live in a free America and only have enough money to eat one or two meals a day.
I'd rather live in a cardboard box and be free than to live in a palace and be in bondage
and have somebody telling me what to do and who to marry and where to live
and what I'm going to do with my life and where I can and can't go.
Hey, there's something in man that wants to be free,
and that freedom, that desire for freedom, comes from God's Spirit.
It's something that God has placed in man, the desire to be free
and not to be enslaved and in bondage.
You see, enslavement and slavery is wicked, according to the Bible.
And I'm not going to turn there, but Jeremiah 34, if you want to look it up,
is a whole chapter about how God distains a man putting another man into bondage and slavery.
But if you would, look at Judges chapter 3.
Where is it? How is it that people end up losing their freedom?
Look at Judges 3.7.
The Bible says that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and forgot the Lord their God, and served Balaam and the gross.
Therefore the anger of the Lord was caught against Israel,
and he, what says, "sold them into the hand of Cushan, Rosh Hashanah, and the king of Mesopotamia."
And the children of Israel served Cushan, Rosh Hashanah, eight years.
Look at Judges 4.1, just right over the page.
And the children of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord,
when Ehad was dead, and the Lord sold them into the hand of Jaden,
king of Canaan, that reigned in Hazor.
The captain of the Tzu who sold was Sisera, which brought her ocean from the Gentiles.
Look at Judges 6.1.
And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and the Lord delivered them into the hand of Midian, seven years.
Chapter 13, verse 1 of Judges, the Bible reads in Judges 13.1.
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the Lord,
and the Lord delivered them into the hand of the Philistines, forty years.
You see, the blessing for obedience to God's laws is freedom.
The blessing for righteousness and holiness in your life is that you will gain freedom,
and the curse of God upon disobedience to God's law and doing evil in the sight of the Lord
is that you must need bondage, and that's the way it's been.
All throughout the Bible, again and again, I just showed you some scripts from the book of Judges,
but all throughout the Bible it's like that.
Sin and wickedness and abomination to the sight of God brings bondage from God.
That's what the Bible says.
John chapter 8. John chapter number 8.
Chapter number 8, verse number 30.
What else brings a lack of freedom or slavery and bondage in your life?
That was more on the macro level, thinking about a nation.
A nation goes into bondage because of wickedness and ungodliness.
If you remember, there was a king named Asa in the Old Testament.
I'll tell you about this boy, turning to John 8. King Asa in the Old Testament.
He had a preacher come to him and rebuke him.
And he preached right to his face what he was doing wrong.
And King Asa became angry.
And he had that man put in jail for preaching the truth to him.
And it says at the same time, Asa began to oppress some of the people also.
You see, sin and wickedness and a lack of respect for God
and the preaching of God's word in the Bible leads to one man oppressing another
and taking away his freedom. It's that way all throughout the Bible.
But look at John chapter 8. There's another oppressor.
There's another slave master. It says in John 8.30, "As he spake these words, many believed on him."
And by the way, people believe that Jesus Christ is always a result of hearing God's word.
"Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God, of his own will, begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of person as of his creatures.
But receive with me this, the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul."
"The sower soweth the word, being born again not of corruptible seed, but of it corruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever."
And so this is the pattern. They heard these words. Jesus faith these words.
Many believed on him. Verse 31. "Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word..."
So he's saying you're already faith, but if you continue in his word, continue reading his word,
and not just be a hearer of the word, but a doer also, he says,
"Then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
They answered him, "We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man.
How sayest thou ye shall be made free?" Jesus answered them, "Verily, verily I say unto you,
Whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin."
You see, there's another slave master in our lives besides just an oppressive government,
whether foreign or domestic, that wants to take all our money away and tell us what we can and can't do
and enslave us and take away our property. There's another slave master out there and that slave master is sin.
Sin will always put you in the bondage and put you in the slavery. Have you ever heard of a man being a slave to the bottle?
A slave to the bottle. I mean that liquid, that liquor is controlling his life. It's ruining his life.
It's taking away his money. It's taking away his good judgment. And the Bible says, "Thine eyes shall behold strange women,
and that mouth shall utter perverse things." And he says, "When shall I rise? I'll sing it yet again."
And the Bible teaches that alcohol will enslave you.
People don't just choose all the time, "Well, I think I'm not going to drink today."
People who are drunks and alcoholics don't have that choice. They must drink today.
They must have a Bloody Mary when they wake up in the morning.
They must drink throughout the day until alcohol inflamed them, as the Bible says.
You see, people who smoke, they don't decide each time they buy that drink.
They don't decide each time, "Should I smoke right now or not?"
They don't have that choice. They must smoke.
I mean, why in the world would any sane person, or think about this,
why would any sane person make the choice, wake up in the morning and say,
"You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to spend five bucks or six bucks,
or who knows how much they're charging for it now, but, you know,
it's paying for all this daycare and everything, you know, that's smoking."
Didn't they add a couple bucks to pay for some daycare program or something
a couple years ago, these smoking taxes or whatever?
So, you know, you pay six bucks for a pack of cigarettes.
Why would you say, "I think I'm going to wake up this morning
and pay six dollars for something that's going to shorten my life,
it's going to make me unhealthy, it's going to lower my quality of life,
I don't even enjoy it anymore, you know, it was probably fun the first 200 times."
Getting a little old. Why? Because they're a slave!
And that bondage will sap from their income $150 to $200 a month on smoking.
Why? So that they can harm their body. That's bondage. It's slavery.
Think about gambling, enslaved people. I mean, people get addicted to gambling
and they have to go back and get it in. And you say,
"Well, where in the Bible does it say that gambling is wrong?"
Where does it say gambling is wrong? You know what, go to Las Vegas, Nevada,
the capital of gambling, and tell me when you see the results of gambling,
whether you think it's good or bad.
When you see all the filth and the nudity and the gay prostitutes walking up and down the street,
then you tell me whether gambling is right in the sight of God.
You see, sin has a way of enslaving you. It's the same thing with television,
porno, same thing. You know, people don't choose to sit down and watch the TV.
It's like a knee-jerk reaction. It's honestly...
I mean, I've been in a hotel room with guys staying out of town,
and they'll just turn it on without even thinking about it.
They're not even watching it.
It's just on all the time. All the time.
And I'd like to ask anybody who says,
"Well, I watch TV, but I'm not addicted to it."
Okay, take a couple weeks and don't watch TV then.
See if you can even do it.
I can quit anytime.
That's what they all say, right?
And TV is an addiction.
It is honestly an addiction.
I mean, drugs are addictive.
And we live in a day where drugs are destroying America.
You say, "What are you talking about? Cocaine?
You're talking about heroin? Marijuana?"
You know, that's the small part of the problem.
You know what's really destroying America?
Prescription drugs.
You say, "Oh man, I don't agree with that."
Then go ahead and destroy your life
addicted to prescription drugs.
I'm talking about prescription pain pills.
I'm talking about the opiates and the barbiturates.
I'm talking about the sleeping pills.
I'm talking about the muscle relaxers,
which are nothing more than antidepressants in a different bottle.
It's the same chemicals.
Do a little research, you'll find out about it.
The government and the pharmaceutical company
wants you to be addicted to drugs
so you can be their slave.
Because you're going to sit there and say,
"Oh man, I can't lose my drug benefit
because this stuff costs 800 bucks a bottle."
So I better hope for the people
that are going to keep on giving me my drugs for free.
Because I need all these drugs to live.
I've got to have all these pain pills.
And I've got to have all this and all that.
And you say, "Oh, you're insensitive."
No, I'm telling the truth.
I'm telling you that the pharmaceutical company
is nothing more than a legalized dope dealer.
That's what I'm telling you.
I'm telling you that the guy who's the CEO
of Abbott Laboratories and all these other...
What's that? What are the companies?
Name them off to me.
I put her on the spot. She froze up.
These big pharmaceutical companies...
What's that one that makes all the...
Merck. Yeah, there we go.
Merck and Abbott. You know what the CEO of Merck should drive?
A gold Cadillac Escalade with spinning rims.
That's what he should drive.
I hope he comes to work every day wearing a big gold chain around his neck.
And I hope he wears baggy pants.
And I hope he walks like this because all he is is a stinking dope dealer.
And God's going to judge and curse our nation because of drug use.
Right. It's the truth.
The doctor doesn't want to help you. He wants to get you strung out on dope.
And 99% of the time because the love of money is the root of all evil.
And you cannot believe that, but you know what?
Almost everybody I've ever talked to, anybody who's ever heard me preach that has come to me afterward and said,
"You're right because I know five people who are addicted right now to codeine."
And they're addicted right now to fentanyl.
And they're addicted right now to morphine pills.
And they're getting them on the black market. And they're selling them. And they're buying them.
And hey, it's so common in America. It's way more common than the pot and the heroin and the cocaine.
And it'll mess up your life just as much. Amen and amen. Whether you like it or not, that's the truth.
And so sin is the great slave master that's always trying to put you in bondage and take away your freedom.
And the Bible says, turn to 2 Peter chapter 2. You see, people think that sin will actually bring them freedom.
And kids, you listen to this. Young people, teenagers, adolescents, listen to me right now.
People think that sin will bring you freedom. That's what young people think.
They think freedom equals get away from church, get away from the Bible,
get away from the laws of God, and just go out and if it feels good, do it.
They think that's freedom. That's what they think.
Look what the Bible says, though. In 2 Peter 2.18, the Bible says,
"For when they speak great swelling words of any..."
It's talking about a false prophet. If you go to verse 1, you get a context.
It says, "For when they speak great swelling words of any..."
They're great public speakers, these false preachers.
"...they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness."
Those that were clean escaped from them who lived in error.
He's saying they'll deceive people, or even say they're Christians,
but these great orders will get up, and with great swelling words,
they'll allure them through the lusts of the flesh.
They'll tell them to fulfill their lusts.
It's okay to drink. It's okay to watch television.
Somebody gave me a CD of a preacher, and the preacher said,
"I was watching HBO last night and saw things. You see, there's an illustration."
I pushed eject! I took the CD out, and I threw it out the window!
I'm not going to listen to a false prophet!
And so he says, "They allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness,
those that were clean escape from them who live in error.
While they promise them liberty..." Listen to this, verse 19.
"While they promise them liberty, pay freedom, free love, if it feels good, do it, you'll be free.
They themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome,
of the same as he brought in bondage." Do you see that?
Sin will bring you into bondage. Sin is addictive.
Sin will always take you further than you wanted to go.
It'll always cost you more than you were willing to pay,
and it will always keep you longer than you were willing to stay. That's the truth.
I mean, nobody ever will say, when I grow up, you know, and I guess I borrow an anti-drug slogan from the 1980s,
but nobody says I want to be a junkie when I grow up. Remember that?
Nobody says when I grow up, I want to be a junkie.
When I grow up, I want to lay in the gutter in my own vomit and alcohol.
When I grow up, I want to hang around the adult bookstore all day.
Nobody says that. When I grow up, I want to be a deadbeat.
When I grow up, I want to live off the government.
Nobody says that. But sin will become their slave master and enslave them, put them into bonds with the state.
It doesn't matter what you want to do with your life. This is what you're going to do with your life.
You're going to be a drunk. You're going to be a drug addict. You're going to be relying on drugs.
You're going to rely on alcohol. You're going to suck on a cigarette for the rest of your life, like a baby sucks on a pacifier.
For comfort, you're going to suck on a cigarette for comfort.
That's what sin will do to you. You say, "Man, are you mad at me if I'm..." No. Hey, I love you.
I'm trying to bring freedom. I'm trying to be like Moses. I'm trying to lead you out of Egypt, okay?
I'm trying to lead you into the promised land. Hey, I'm trying to free you from the sin that's enslaving you.
Hey, you don't know what it is to be free when you take your television, throw it out the stupid window,
and say, "I'll not be part of the power of any!"
Nobody's going to tell me what to think. Ted Koppel's not going to tell me what to think.
Jay Leno's not going to tell me what to think. David Letterman's not going to tell me what to think.
TV and Jerry Seinfeld is not going to tell me what to think. I'm going to think what I want to think.
I'm going to believe what the Bible says. I'm not going to be brainwashed by the television.
That's freedom. Freedom will be when you dump out the last liquor bottle and throw it out in the trash.
Freedom will be when you smash up the last pack of cigarettes and say, "You know what? I don't need this stuff."
That's freedom. Freedom will be when you get off the prescription drugs and say, "You know what?
I'm not going to be a slave to the pharmaceutical company and line their pockets with tax dollars."
That's freedom. I'm trying to liberate you. I'm like Rosa Parks up here.
[Laughter]
Now turn to Mark chapter 10.