(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Now we're going to come back to Genesis 3, but flip over if you would to Revelation chapter 12. Very last book of the Bible, Revelation chapter number 12. And we saw that familiar story in Genesis chapter 3 of Satan deceiving Eve. He beguiled Eve into eating of the one tree that she was not supposed to eat from, and then of course she gave unto Adam and they both ate, they sinned, they were cast out of the garden and they brought that curse upon the whole earth and the curse upon mankind. What I want to preach about this morning is one of the devil's deceptions that he uses all throughout the Bible, and we see it in that story in Genesis chapter 3, and really it's a theme with Satan throughout the Bible. This is one of the tools that he uses to deceive. You see, the devil's main objective is to deceive mankind. Over and over again the Bible talks about him as being a deceiver. Look at Revelation chapter number 12 verse 9. It says, and the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world. He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him. Flip over to chapter 20. Notice it says that the devil deceives the whole world. It doesn't say he's trying to deceive the whole world. It says he deceives the whole world. The world today, by and large, is deceived by the devil. He is succeeding at deceiving most of mankind. The Bible says that he, the god of this world, has blinded the minds of them that believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel should shine in. Look at Revelation 20 verse 1. It says, and I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand, and he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years and cast him into the bottomless pit and shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled, and after that he must be loosed a little season. So here we see that when the devil is bound up for a thousand years during the millennium, that he will deceive the nations no more, meaning that right now that's exactly what he's doing. He's deceiving the nations of the world. What does he do when he gets out of prison? Look at verse 8, and shall go out to deceive the nations, which are in the four quarters of the earth. Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. Look at verse 10. And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. And so over and over again we see that the devil is called the deceiver. He deceives, he's deceiving the whole world, he's blinding people, he's beguiling people. And in reference to that story back in Genesis 3 in the Garden of Eden, it says in 2 Corinthians 11, 3, don't turn there, but it says, but I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. So the Bible warns us that just as Satan deceived or beguiled Eve, he's out to deceive us. He definitely deceives the unsaved, he definitely deceives the nations and the world. But even we as believers can be in danger of some of the devil's deception. And so we need to take heed that we do not get sucked into it. Flip to 2 Peter 2 in your Bible, 2 Peter 2, just a few books before Revelation. And in 2 Peter chapter 2 we find some teaching on false prophets. And of course the Bible says that false prophets are evil workers and that they're actually ministers of Satan or Satan's helpers. And so when we look at this passage we can see some of Satan's devices. It says in 2 Peter chapter 2 verse 13, and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they that count it pleasure to riot in the daytime. Spots they are in blemishes, talking about these false prophets, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you. ...and that cannot cease from sin, beguiling unstable souls. On heart they have exercised with covetous practices, cursed children. So notice in verse 13 the word deceiving. Notice in verse 14 the word beguiling, okay? Now jump down to verse 19 and we're going to see one of the main modes of deception that both Satan uses and that Satan's ministers will use. It says while they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption, for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage. So what is the method or modus operandi of Satan and his workers? One of the tools that they will use to deceive or to beguile is that they will offer or present a false liberty. They'll present a liberty that's not truly liberty. It's not truly freedom, but it's actually fake. Now go if you would to Genesis 3. Let's see that in the story. Genesis chapter number 3. In Genesis chapter number 3 where we started, let's look back at that story where Satan beguiled Eve in the Garden of Eden. And it says in verse 1, now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, yea hath God said, ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? Now right away the devil is trying to make God sound like he doesn't offer freedom. See God actually in chapter 2 said, of all the trees of the garden thou mayest freely eat. Now that sounds good, doesn't it? I mean if somebody puts you in a perfect place, a paradise, and they tell you look at all these trees, look at this beautiful garden, you can eat all these trees, you can choose whatever you want of these trees except one. That's the real true story of what God told Adam and Eve. He gave them a lot of freedom. Now did he give them a completely unlimited freedom? No. There was one small limitation when he said there's one tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that you may not eat, but he focused on the fact that look at all the ones you can eat, of all the trees of the garden thou mayest freely eat. But when the devil comes along, he tries to spin it differently and make it sound like God is just so restrictive because God said that you can't eat of every tree of the garden. You know, God said, is that really true that God said you can't eat every tree? Why not? When in reality it's such an easy rule to follow when 99% of the trees are available to you, and there's one that's not. So it just depends on how you look at it. Look at verse 2, the woman said unto the servant, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, ye shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now, notice, what does he say is the motive of God for not wanting them to eat of that tree? He says, God knows that when you eat that fruit, you're going to be like him. You're going to have all this knowledge that you didn't have before. And God's just trying to hold you back from that. He's just trying to stop you from having all the good things that you could have, all the great knowledge and everything that you could gain from it. And this is the way God, I'm sorry, this is the way the devil will try to deceive us today. By trying to make it seem like God's rules are too restrictive, God's rules are taking away our freedom, God is stopping us from living our life to the fullest. And if you listen to these atheists and these godless teachers, that's what they'll say. You know, well Christianity just keeps you from living your life to the fullest. You know, you live this really restrictive, repressed life. And then, you know, because you think you're going to get all this afterlife and, you know, since it isn't there, we need to just eat, drink, and be merry because tomorrow we die. And that's what the atheists will teach as why Christianity is so bad, you know, because, you know, I heard Richard Dawkins say it, you know, you don't live life to the full. What is it that you're trying to do, Richard Dawkins, that's going to give you such fullness in your life that God has prohibited? Because everything that God has prohibited is harmful. And in reality, God's rules are not just to withhold us from something good or just to keep us from having a good time. You know, that's what kids sometimes think about their parents. They think, oh yeah, my parents have, they just don't want to have, let me have any fun. That's why I can't play ball in the street. You know, that's why I can't have ice cream for breakfast. That's why I can't, you know, do knife tricks and, you know, play with fire. But in reality, obviously those rules are there for the benefit of the child. Mom and Dad aren't saying eat your vegetables just because we want to see you suffer, yeah. Really we're giving you your vegetables because we know it's going to make you healthy. We want you to grow up and be strong and live a better life and a longer life and a fuller life. But mom and dad know better than a little tiny child knows. They think candy is going to be good for them. They think that there's no danger and, you know, setting up a ladder by the pool and then jumping off the top of that ladder. You know, we as adults know that that's a bad idea, that you're going to get hurt. There are other more efficient ways to jump into a pool than off the top of a ladder, okay? Because the ladder, when you jump off the ladder, it falls over as you're jumping off and you land on your face. But see, we as human beings, we as God's children, sometimes we might think, well God's rules don't make sense. But in reality the Bible teaches that his rules are there for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. It's for our good. God has commanded us these commandments for our good and for our edification and for our safety and to help us. But the devil wants us to believe that God's rules are just to restrict us, to stop us from getting too high and mighty. He wants to just keep us down and keep us oppressed and keep us repressed. And it's just simply not true. The devil wants us to believe that God is trying to restrict us and that we need to just free our minds from these restrictions. We can be like gods and we can know all things. And then of course in verse 6 there it says, when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat. And of course, you know, that's the tragedy of the story that they ruined that perfect paradise that they lived in by eating of that tree of which they were not supposed to eat. So let me give you a couple of examples this morning of this kind of false liberty. You know, the devil wants to come along and make it sound like God's really restrictive but that he offers freedom. He offers liberty. And again, this is not a political type sermon. I'm preaching about spiritual things this morning. I've preached other sermons where I went into the political aspects of liberty. And of course, you know, the Bible teaches a system of government that provides a lot of liberty politically speaking. You know, if our government were patterned after the government laid out in the Bible, we would have a lot more freedom than we do right now. You know, we wouldn't be paying these huge amounts of our income and taxes. You know, we wouldn't have the right to bear arms being infringed upon. We wouldn't have all these dictates and just the government running our lives and the nanny state and the police state. You know, but that's a whole other sermon. That's not what I'm preaching about. I'm preaching about in your personal life today. I'm preaching about how in your personal life, the devil wants to deceive you into thinking that there's more liberty living outside of the bounds of Christianity and his word and his commandments than there is to follow and keep God's commandments. I'm talking about in your personal life, the devil's lie to get you into sin by promising you liberty. By promising you a liberty that's a fraud, that's not true liberty. First of all, go if you would to Galatians chapter 5, Galatians chapter 5. And the first example of a false liberty that the devil is offering today in 2014 is the teaching that living with no rules equals liberty. No rules, that's liberty. Now according to that, Adam and Eve had no liberty in the Garden of Eden because there was a rule. There was one rule. But the devil wants you to believe that the definition of freedom is to have no rules. Now that simply does not exist. There is no place in this universe where there are no rules, okay? If that's your definition of liberty, then there's no such thing as absolute liberty. We have to have laws, we have to have rules. Now we shouldn't have too many laws, but what about this law? You know, thou shalt do no murder. I mean that sounds like a pretty good law, that sounds like a pretty good rule. But see if your definition of freedom is just no rules, then that means murder is acceptable. Well now, someone else's freedom is being infringed because they're being killed. And so obviously we have to have rules. From a spiritual standpoint, because again I don't want to get political this morning, but from a spiritual standpoint, there's a movement today amongst Christianity that teaches against following God's commandments and says Christianity's not a bunch of do's and don'ts, it's a relationship, it's not laws, it's not commands, and they teach that we're free in Christ. And what they mean by free in Christ is that basically we can just kind of live our life however we see fit. And here's one of the verses that they'll use to teach that, Galatians 5.18. It says this, but if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. And so here's what people will try to teach in your typical neo-evangelical churches. You'll try to show them sometimes, you know, hey the Bible says we shouldn't be doing this, and what do they call you? A legalist. You just show them, hey the Bible says right here, X, Y, and Z, maybe you show them the part where the Bible commands men to cut their hair and not have long hair. And then they'll say, you're a legalist. You're trying to bring us into bondage. And I remember I was out soul winning one time, and I was explaining to a guy why we should stay away from some of these modern versions that are coming out, the NIV, the New American Standard, etc., and I'm explaining this to a guy, and the guy was real interested. His roommate walks out and looks at me and says, you need to get free, bro. And he's wearing a shirt with like a long-haired hippie Jesus, and he's just like, you need to get free, bro. We're free in Christ. All these rules, man, you're bringing us into bondage, bro. You need to get free. And this is a big movement today. I mean this is a huge teaching. I mean the majority of churches, they follow this teaching that says, hey, just let the Spirit guide you, and as long as you just let the Holy Spirit guide you, then just don't worry about all the dos and don'ts. Just walk in the Spirit, bro, and the dos and the don'ts will take care of themselves. Just be a good guy. Just do the right thing, bro. You know what that, just let the Spirit tell you what that is. No, let the Bible tell you what that is. It's been etched in stone, and this is what we should be doing. But you know, this whole free in Christ movement is a fraud, and it's a devilish fraud just to get you to get into a lot of sin and do a lot of wrong things just because that's how the Spirit's kind of leading me today, you know? But let's see what the Bible really teaches about the Spirit's leading and its relationship with the law. Because the Bible says in verse 18, if you be led of the Spirit, you're not under the law. Part of understanding that is in 1 Timothy 1, this isn't in my notes, this just popped into my head. But in 1 Timothy 1, it says the law was not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient. You know, for unholy and profane, for ungodly and for sinners, for murderers of fathers, for murderers of mothers, for whoremongers, for liars, for them that defile themselves with mankind, you know, perjured persons. He lists all the, he says that's who the law is for, you know, a righteous person doesn't need the law. Meaning that if you're doing right anyway, but right in whose eyes? God's eyes according to his rules. Let's get the context. Jump up to verse 13. Are you in Galatians 5 there? Galatians 5 13, for brethren you've been called unto liberty, amen. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So should we use liberty to be just an opportunity to gratify our flesh with that which is sinful? Jump down to verse 16. It says this, this I say then, walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. So remember, the verse that said if you're led to the spirit, you're not under the law. Okay, so if you don't want to be under the law, you need to walk in the spirit and part of that includes not fulfilling the lust of the flesh. And let's look at what the lusts of the flesh are. Because it says in verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would. But if you be led to the spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, Pharisees, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like, meaning anything like those things. Of the which I tell you before as I have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Of course the Bible also says all liars shall not inherit the kingdom of God. All liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Of course all sin is punishable by hell but thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved even if we've done all the things on the list you know because of the fact that the blood of Jesus Christ his son cleanses us from all sin. But what I want to point out here in that list is that if we're doing anything on that list we're not walking in the spirit. That's what the Bible says. These are all works of the flesh. These aren't works of the spirit and so to sit there and say well I'm free in Christ. You're a legalist. Stop trying to bring me under bondage because somebody tells you not to do one of the things on that list or such like. So you see how the devil is so crafty. It sounds good on the surface. You know what. If you just wake up every morning and this is what's being taught today just wake up every morning have a relationship with Jesus and just go through the day let it don't worry so much about rules and do's and don't don't let people tell you how to live your life. Just go what you feel. Just follow your heart because you know you're in the spirit bro. And you can you can just make choices and God's going to. But hold on. How do we know if we're in the spirit. When these things do not characterize our life. So am I a legalist when I say thou shalt not commit adultery. Am I a legalist when I command that God said not to commit fornication or when I preach against drinking and I preach against. I mean look what's on the list. I mean what's not on the list. I mean there's a lot on this list. And we see adultery on the list. And yet people get angry about my sermon last week. You know because I you know when I preach about divorce and remarriage and adultery and everything like that. People get upset. But wait a minute. You're not walking in the spirit when you're fulfilling the lust of the flesh and the works of the flesh are listed here specifically. Adultery is one of them. And by the way if you look on a woman to lust after her you've committed adultery with her already in your heart. So you're committing adultery in your mind in that case. Fornication. Fornication is any type of going to bed with someone that you're not married to. I mean when you're single you need to stay pure and stay virgin until you get married. Legalism. We're free in Christ bro. No fornication is a work of the flesh. If you're walking in the flesh you need these laws to tell you how to get out of the flesh and how to start walking in the spirit. And the Bible says no to adultery. No to fornication. No to uncleanness. No to lasciviousness. No to idolatry. You know so you've got a little statue. The Bible says thou shalt not make any graven image. And you've got a statue of Jesus, you've got a statue of Mary, statues of the saints, and you say I'm being led by the spirit. No. The Bible says no to idolatry. And by the way the Bible also says that covetousness is idolatry. So when you desire cars and houses and wealth that you do not have you're guilty of covetousness. That is a fleshly sinful mindset. That is not the mind of the spirit. When you are desirous of gaining more wealth the Bible says they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition for the love of money is the root of all evil. And if the love of money is in your heart today that is the work of the flesh and you are not walking in the spirit. Oh legalism, legalism. That's what they'll say and they promise you liberty. The devil will promise you liberty and say you need to get out of that fundamental Baptist church. Pastor Anderson screaming and yelling about how he doesn't want you to get rich and he doesn't want you to get drunk and he doesn't want you to commit adultery and he doesn't want you to fornicate and he's preaching against all this stuff. You need to get free bro. You need to get in one of these churches that's a more loving place that's going to give you liberty to just live your life just as the spirit leads and just dress how you want and act how you want and you're going to have total freedom over there and the Bible says this in Second Peter 2 19 if you remember while they promised them liberty they themselves are the servants of corruption for of whom a man has overcome of the same as he brought in bondage. The Bible says the people who teach that the false teachers who teach that permissiveness that permissive doctrine like Balaam taught where Balaam said it's okay to commit fornication where Balaam taught it's okay to eat things sacrificed unto idols that permissive kind of teaching is taught by people who are in bondage themselves and they are the slaves of corruption. They are the servants of Satan and they're usually suffering from all kinds of addictions and sins and bondage in their own life. They don't live a life of true freedom. It looks like freedom to those who are fooled by the devil but it's not real freedom. Keep reading. But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace longsuffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance against such there is no law and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the spirit let us also walk in the spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory provoking one another envying one another. What's the Bible teaching? If we're walking in the spirit we've crucified the flesh. We're not fulfilling the lusts thereof. It says in verse 24 we've crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. So when you're constantly turning on the TV and going to the movies to see the latest skin flick and looking at all that flesh and lasciviousness and fornication on the screen when you're looking at all that and you have that lust of the eyes that lead you to that and that lust of the flesh that makes you desirous of that, that is not biblical liberty. That's not Christian liberty. That's you just falling into Satan's trap and becoming a servant of corruption. But the devil wants you to think that all that stuff's okay and that any preacher who warns you about that stuff is just trying to put you in bondage. You know like as if I were trying to put my children in bondage when I say okay see the sidewalk, that's the boundary of playtime. You know play in the yard, don't play in the street. But why do we say that? Because there are cars, there are speed bumps on another street right next to ours. So sometimes people that are in a really big hurry, they go around the speed bumps by going on our street and just fly down our street to avoid those speed bumps. And so if a little kid's playing out there, they might run into the street and get hit or all the time there are perverts who will drive sometimes and they might just abduct a kid off the sidewalk. So we teach our kids you know don't play, little kids don't play right on the street or near the street or especially don't play in the street. And it's not that we're just trying to be restrictive. You need to give your kids total freedom. I mean do you think any parent really gives their kid total freedom? Any parent who did give their kid total just unfettered freedom would probably have their kid taken away from them or something. You know if the kid didn't just die before that from just you know neglect or getting lost or getting stolen or running in front of a car or whatever. So flip over if you would to John chapter 8 and we'll see this teaching reinforced by scripture. John chapter 8. Now I'm going to get into at the end of the message you know a little bit about what true freedom is. Right now I'm just presenting the devil's false freedom. Later I'm going to show you some true biblical freedom. But so far what have we learned about the devil's mode of attack? It was the same in the Garden of Eden as it is now. It's the promise of false liberty. It's to make God's way sound restrictive. It's to make God's rules sound like they're holding us back from a good time. Holding us back from everything we could gain and accomplish and realize our full potential. I mean what does Richard Dawkins mean when he says if you're a Christian you can't live life to the full. Do you have to commit adultery to live life to the full? I mean is that fullness of life? Is fornication the best thing that life has to offer? I mean how many 90 year olds today would probably say you know what out of all my life all my accomplishments I look back the thing I'm the most proud of is all the fornication I did in my 20s. You know that's what I'm really glad about. That's what I really think was the high point in my life when I was just having a lot of fornication in my 20s. It was great. It was awesome and I'm just still living on that that excitement today at age 90. I mean is that really and if somebody did say that you would say what a worthless human being. Wouldn't you think just are you an animal? So basically what I'm saying is that you know life has more to offer than adultery, fornication, stealing, is all you know watching movies. I mean is that really all life is to you? Just oh well it's just all about wealth. It's all about making money. Look at the people that have the most money. And I was talking to I was talking to a PhD in philosophy this week you know that I sat down and had lunch with. I'm just kidding but he really is a friend of mine that teaches at the community college and he brings me in to speak to the young people every semester at the community college believe it or not. And I was speaking to this philosophy PhD and he told me since you know maybe you don't believe the Bible but maybe you'll listen to this respected authority. He told me he said that when people are in abject poverty like as in they don't even have enough food to eat right. I mean people just it's just a struggle to just get enough food to eat each day that their life is pretty miserable. Pretty easy to agree with that probably you know when you're when you don't have enough food to eat and you're in abject poverty that's not a very happy situation. But he said you know as long as once you get food to eat on the happiness index once you have like enough food and you got clothing you know your happiness experience is a pretty big jump. He said after that you know no matter how much money you get your happiness doesn't just keep going up on that same trajectory. It's not like well if I'm in abject poverty I'm miserable and I get a little more money I'm happier happier and then I mean once you're making a million dollars you're just so happy every day it's great because in reality the Bible just teaches having food and raiment let us be there with content. So the Bible teaches you know if we do get that point where we have food we have clothes that should be enough for us. And honestly what are you going to do with all that money if you really had millions because there comes a point where I mean you can only put so much food down your throat. I mean if you think about that's why these rich people they drink stuff and spit it out right they go to these wine tasting because you can only put so much food in your stomach before you know it's just ready to explode. So therefore because I mean what are the things that give us pleasure in life. You know one of them is eating and drinking right. Who gets a lot of pleasure out of eating and drinking good food. Yeah that's a lot of enjoyment in life and different people have different things that provide enjoyment in their life. You know obviously you know the relationship physically that I have with my wife is something that's enjoyable. You know the food and drink that I eat is enjoyable. Going to sleep at night can be enjoyable right. When you go when you're tired and you're exhausted and you lay on bed it's just this is the best place in the world right now is just to be laying in bed. That's the greatest feeling I've ever experienced to be laying in bed right now going to sleep finally. That can provide great pleasure. You know a lot of people find pleasure in accomplishments. You know they find pleasure in you know relationship with their friends or or maybe they find pleasure in exercise or sports right. These are things but look there's only so much of those things that you can do and no matter how much money you get you can probably only cram three big meals down your throat each day and you can probably probably going to have so much energy to go out and do the things that you want to do and you're only going to be able to maintain so many friendships and you know there's only so I mean look Solomon had a thousand wives but I mean I don't even see how you even get to them all you know or well I mean it doesn't even make any sense to have a thousand wives just it just makes no sense. And so what I'm trying to say is that a lot of this illusion of how great it is to be rich and how great it is to be a superstar is just part of the devil's deception. You know to get you to walk in the flesh because a lot of those people are the ones that are committing suicide. They're the ones that are miserable. They're the ones who can't sleep at night. I mean you know you look I enjoy sleeping at night but here's the thing Michael Jackson he had to be put under like like you know how you go under for surgery. He was put under like that every night to go to bed at night. He was literally anesthetized to sleep at night. Okay that's how happy he was. That's how comfortable he was that's how good of a life he was living. Okay so what I'm trying to say is that living life to the full does not mean getting rich because if you look at a lot of rich people they're miserable they're cantankerous they're angry they're greedy they're covetous they want more that whatever they're shoplifting you know and they are literally millionaires. You know what was Winona Ryder right or whatever all these famous people that do that. So you know it's not getting rich that brings fullness to your life folks. It's not adultery it's not fornication none of the drinking is the end is the meaning of life. You know none of these things on the list that we saw in Galatians 5. So I don't understand what is it that Richard Dawkins wants to do so bad that Christianity is holding him back from. You know it's probably being a pedophile to be honest. I mean seriously it's probably just he probably wants to be a homosexual. You know he probably wants to just do everything that God said is an abomination. And why in the world would anyone fall for the devil's eyes because they're blinded by the God of this world. But look at John chapter 8 verse 31 it says, then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him if you continue in my word then are you my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Now let me just point out to you quickly that there's a difference between just being saved and being a disciple. What do you have to do to be saved. Just believe these people had done that they believed they're saved. But to be a disciple he said you know you've got to you've got to deny yourself and you've got to take up your cross daily and you've got to follow him. It's a lot of work being a disciple. I mean there were thousands of people who got saved under Jesus' ministry. But how many disciples you know 12, 70, 120. There weren't really that many compared to how many people got saved. So he says if you want to be a disciple indeed you need to continue in God's word and if you continue in God's word you'll know the truth and the truth shall make you free. Notice it's the lie and the deception that enslaves. And it's the truth that makes free. The devil deceives, he promises you liberty, but it's a fraud he's actually putting you into service. Look at verse 33. They answered him we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou ye shall be made free. And by the way no one is so hopelessly enslaved as those who think that they are free. And these people thought they're free. They say we've never been in bondage. But Jesus explains what bondage they're in in verse 34. Jesus answered them verily I say unto you whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Do you see that? And the servant abideth not in the house forever but the son abideth forever. If the son therefore shall make you free ye shall be free indeed. So according to the Bible to be free indeed you believe on Christ, you continue in his word, you know the truth and you purge the sin out of your life because sin brings bondage. Sin puts you in servitude. Go to Romans 6, Romans chapter number 6. And Romans chapter 6 is another one that sometimes people use that try to teach a permissive Christianity meaning a Christianity where anything goes, absolutely no rules. You can eat of all the trees of the garden and you can even eat of the one that God said not to as long as the Spirit's leading you. You know you can even eat of that one. I mean that's basically what they're saying. Don't even worry about what God said in the Bible. Just let the Spirit lead and you'll be fine. But there are all kinds of people in this world who think they're doing right and they're not. There are all kinds of people in this world who think they're led of the Spirit as they break God's word, as they do things that are on the list of the works of the flesh, so therefore it's a fraud. But look at Romans 6 and in Romans 6 there's another verse that that teaching, that movement will use. They'll use verse 14 and they'll say, for sin shall not have dominion over you for you're not under the law but under grace. And they'll say that if you preach God's commandments that we're trying to bring you back under the law. That's what they'll try to say. Look what the Bible says in verse 15, what then? Shall we sin because we're not under the law but under grace? God forbid. And what does the Bible define sin as? Sin is the transgression of the law. So when the Bible says we're not under the law but under grace, it's talking about our salvation. We're not saved by keeping the law. We're not under the curse of the law that we have to do all those things to work our way into heaven. But because we're not under the curse of the law, because we're not under God's law, does that mean that we should sin? Just break God's rules, break God's command? No. Look what he says. Know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. But God be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness. So in verse 16 he said it one way, in verse 17 he said it another way, in verse 18 he said it another way. What did he say in all three verses? You're either serving one or the other. You're either serving God or you're serving sin. You're either serving the Lord or you're serving corruption. You're either serving God or you are serving the flesh and he says you're in bondage. Why? You're serving God, it's because you chose to serve God. You're free, you've freely chosen, I'm going to serve God. But when you serve sin, that's not even a choice that you make. You're like I'm not going to serve anybody and then you end up getting enslaved against your will. That's the difference between serving God and serving sin. One is a choice, the other is forced on you. Look what the Bible says in verse 19, I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh, for as you have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness. A fourth time he talks about you're serving one or the other. For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from righteousness. Look at verse 22, but now being made free from sin and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto holiness and the end of last night. Look six or seven times, I mean he just goes back and forth saying look, you're going to be serving one or the other. You think oh man, if I can just get out from under God's rules, I'll just be free. If I can just get out of church and just quit hearing about all these do's and don'ts, I'll be free. I'm just going to leave the Bible on that shelf and just be free and just do what I want, but here's what's going to end up happening. When you start doing the things that God told you not to do, you'll start going into bondage. You'll start going into bondage. Let's give some examples. Let's say you decide I'm not going to obey God's law on fornication. That's too restrictive, right? Too restrictive, too strict. I mean be a virgin when I get married, forget about it, and you go out and commit fornication. Can you see how that could lead you into bondage? Like how about this, child support. I mean when money's being taken out of your check every week, you're in bondage. You're working for somebody else because you went out and something happened and you get some girl pregnant. Okay what about this, you get a disease. That brings so much freedom to your life, right, when you're filled with disease. No now that you're filled with disease, your options in life get more and more limited. Now you're going to have to spend a lot of money on that disease. It limits your activity and so forth. And you know if you think it's far-fetched that you're going to get a disease when you go out and commit fornication, you think again because disease abounds. STD abounds out there and people are getting so promiscuous today that they're going from person to person, it becomes exponential. You're with somebody who's been with 10 people, who've been with 10 people, who've been with 100 people. You're exposing yourself to all kinds of disease. It's epidemic today because of just open fornication. It doesn't bring freedom. Plus, here's the thing. I'm married to my wife, right? I feel a great freedom in that relationship. You know why? Because I feel this. No matter what I do, my wife's not going to leave me. So I'm free to be myself. I'm free to act how I want to act and be the person I want to be because I know she's not just going to leave as soon as I do something she doesn't like. And you know what? She has the same freedom to know that she can be herself, she can act herself and not have to worry, is my husband going to stay with me? I better make sure I look just right. I better make sure I act just right because you're not married. And people are living together in fornication. I mean, one of them could just walk out the door tomorrow, true or false? If it's just your girlfriend of six years, your boyfriend of five years and you're living together, you know what? You don't have freedom to be you. You don't have freedom to live your life because you just constantly think to yourself, well, you know, I hope she's still going to be around. I hope he's still going to be around. And you know, what happens when you really get sick? What happens when you really get injured? What happens when you're not so much fun to be around? See ya, because that commitment's not there. And for some people, even marriage is like that. They'll just get out of that marriage. But you know, for God's people and my wife and I, we both know that that commitment is a lifelong commitment and we know that I'm never going to leave her and she's never going to leave me. And you know what that is? Freedom. It's a liberty in our marriage. We have a liberty together where we can really open up to each other and we can really be ourselves and we don't have to just worry, you know, is this really lifelong? Is this really going to last? You see, doing it God's way gives it liberty. Doing it man's way is not the liberty way. It looks like liberty. Oh, just free as a bird, just fornicating all the way into next week until you get disease, until you're getting somebody pregnant, until you're getting in trouble with the law, you know, and all kinds of different things that can be, that can come from that. You know, gambling. Yeah, don't let that preacher tell you not to gamble, you know, freedom. And then you get gambling addiction, which is really common. Then you're in debt. And you know what the Bible says? The borrower is servant to the lender. So what happens when you borrow a bunch of money for your gambling habit? That's freedom, right? What happens when you borrow a bunch of money because you drunk up all the money? And what happens when you're addicted to alcohol and you're addicted to drugs? Is that really freedom? Is it really freedom to just, you know, let me off this airplane. I haven't had a cigarette in three hours, you know, and you're shoving everybody out. I've seen, I used to fly all the time. I've seen people go berserk and just start shoving people out of the way. I got to get a cigarette and just freaking out because there was a delay and they can only handle going a few hours and it had been like three and a half hours and they're screaming. You know, but that person is as free as a bird. Don't let this restrictive non-smoking, I mean that, you know, but honestly, sin brings bondage. Smoking brings a bondage. You're chained to that habit. You're a chain smoker, you know what I mean? You're chained up, all right? Okay. Drinking, you know, you're an alcoholic and it ruins your life and there's so many ways that you can become enslaved. Look, that's just a few examples. Name the sin. We've covered adultery, fornication, drinking, drugs, gambling. Okay, name another, stealing. Yeah, you're going to lose freedom when you get caught, right? And you're going to be put in jail and then you're not free. See any sin, you name the sin, it takes away your freedom. It causes you to become the servant of sin, the servant of Satan, the servant of corruption. You are going to serve someone or something in this life. There is no such thing as absolute freedom in the universe if you think absolute freedom means no rules. You're going to be bound by somebody's rules someday. Here's the true freedom, Psalm 119 44, flip over to Psalm 119. This is the longest chapter in the whole Bible. If you let your Bible fall open right in the middle, it should fall open to Psalms. Psalms is the longest book in the Bible and Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible and it's the one that has all the Hebrew letters in it, you know, separating out the little sections. It has the whole Hebrew alphabet there in Psalm 119. Look at verse 44. And while you're turning there, I'll read for you 2 Corinthians 3 17, now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Look at Psalm 119 44. So shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever. Man, that sounds restrictive. I mean, you're keeping God's law forever? That doesn't sound like freedom, but look at the next verse and I will walk at liberty for I seek thy precepts. You say, how in the world is walking at liberty compatible with following God's law? Did you know that God's law in the book of James is called the law of liberty in James 1? So look at the end of the perfect law of liberty and continue it therein. But let's turn to one last place, Titus chapter 2, and I want to talk about another false liberty. I spent a lot of time on my first point, so I'm not going to have much time on the subsequent points. But we talked about the false liberty of the whole free in Christ movement, you know, the whole just, hey, walk in the spirit, don't worry about God's rules, just let the spirit lead you. And he showed how that's a fraud. And how, you know, if we keep God's commandments, we're going to be happier. And he, by the way, Jesus didn't say if you love me, keep my suggestions, he said if you love me, keep my commandments. But not only that, there's another false freedom that the devil's offering today and it's called women's liberation. Now it even has liberty in the name, liberation. Women's liberation and it tells you, the feminist movement tells you that women who are Christians are in bondage. I mean, isn't that what, I mean, look, doesn't the word liberation mean that somebody's in bondage so we need to liberate them, we need to free them? So according to the women's lib philosophy, women who follow the biblical pattern of life or are Christians who believe in the Bible's roles of men and women, that those women are somehow oppressed and in bondage and that we need to free them. I mean, isn't that what they're saying? And yet, are women today who've been liberated or feminists, are they really more free than women who've not been liberated? Let's examine the evidence. First of all, let's look at what the Bible teaches. Let's look at the oppressive, restrictive teachings of the Bible. In verse 3, Titus chapter 2 verse 3, the age of women likewise that they be in behavior has become holiness, not false accusers. That's so restrictive. Why can't they gossip and lie about people? How are they going to live life to the full if they're not gossiping and lying about people? And what are they going to do on Facebook if they can't do that? But anyway, it says, not given to much wine. Oh, you've got to be kidding me. You mean I can't just become a complete drunk? And then what does it say next? Teachers of good things, that they may teach the young women to be sober, there's a good start, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, uh-oh, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed. Now this is the Bible's model of what a righteous woman looks like. What does a righteous woman look like according to the Bible? She's sober. She's not drinking. She's not on drugs. She's a sober, serious-minded, clear thinking, not under the influence of substances. She lives a chaste life. What does chaste mean? Pure, clean. She's discreet, meaning that she doesn't talk about things that she shouldn't talk about. She's not blowing off her mouth being a false accuser. She does good things. She teaches good things. She loves her husband. She loves her children. She does housekeeping, keeper at home. She keeps the house. That's her job. She's good and she obeys her husband. Now that is the picture of the oppressed, chained, enslaved woman according to the women's liberation philosophy. So in order to liberate her, what they've done is they've said, look, you don't need to obey your husband. And they've said this, by the way, if your husband's a jerk, you can divorce your husband. You need to drop that zero and get you a hero, you know, is what the talk show will tell you. You know, you can do better, honey, than that guy. And if your husband's a jerk, divorce him. And obey him? Are you serious? It's 50-50, which means 90% I'm in charge. And the husband gets 10%. But we'll call it 50-50. You know, obey my husband? No. Love my children? I don't even want to have children. You don't even have to have children. Just go to Planned Parenthood, you know, and get all dialed in and set up and don't even have children. So look, they want to liberate you by telling you, look, you don't want to be beholden to that guy. You don't want to be a slave to your husband. You know, you don't want to just be beholden to him where you have to stay with him and where you rely on him. You don't want to be dependent on him, you want to be independent. I mean, isn't that what freedom is, independence? And so that's why you need to get your own career. Get your own job. Do what you want. Even get in a 50-50 partnership type marriage if you want. Or just live with some guy and if he doesn't treat you right, you're out of there. But here's the flip side of that coin. If you think it's so liberating to be able to divorce your husband that's a jerk, that means your husband can divorce you when you're a jerk. See how that cuts both ways? And you know what? Everybody's a jerk sometimes. Well, but that's okay because if he leaves I'm fine because I got my job, I got my career. But today, if we look at the picture of today's liberated woman, you know what we see a lot today of women who say, hey I can sleep around outside marriage, I don't need chastity, chastity's too restrictive, purity's too restrictive, I can fornicate and sleep around. And then what happens? Child out of wedlock. And today we see many single mothers and not only just single mothers, even married mothers, but they're in one of these weird 50-50 type relationships where the husband and wife, everything's 50-50. So their husband's not taking care of them, he's not paying for everything. See it cuts both ways. If you take away the husband's authority, you know what you also took away? The fact that he's going to pay all the bills. Because let me explain something to you. The one who's paying the bills is the one who makes the rules. And so you say well I don't want him to make all the rules, well now he's not going to pay for everything. Now it's 50-50, everything's 50-50. And what we have today is women who are single mothers or just working wives, working mothers, and you know what it reminds me of? The children of Israel and Egypt where they had to make bricks by day and gather straw by night. And we see women today that are much busier and working so hard, because think about how hard it would be to go to work for eight hours a day. Then you got to take care of the children, then you got to cook and clean and care for everything else, and you're going to work and they're trying to juggle a whole bunch of things, but that's all part of liberation. You see when you're a married housewife or mother, do you punch a time clock? Who here has a husband that makes you punch a time clock? Okay, so when you're working for your husband, you don't punch a time clock, you don't have a rigid schedule. I mean who here, well I better not ask these questions because you know somebody's going to, but you know I don't have a set time that I make my wife get up every morning. So there's no rigid schedule, she makes her own schedule. There's no time clock. If you go out and work in the world, ladies, because you're liberated, you're feminist, you're going to go get a job, you're going to go get a career, yeah, we can do it. And hey, you know what, you still have a boss at work. And guess what, he's probably a man. Except he doesn't love you, he doesn't kiss you and hug you, I hope not, or it's harassment, right? But anyway, you know, you've still got a boss, it's probably a man, or it's a woman who's acting like a man, right? Or else, okay, what about this, does your husband put you on CCTV to watch you and make sure you're doing what he told you? I've never used CCTV to monitor my wife, but yet if you go to work today, ladies, and be liberated, you'll be on camera, and you'll be wearing a name tag. I don't make my wife wear a name tag, you know, I don't wear a name tag that says like, you know, hello, my name is Lord, you know, and she wears a name tag that says, you know, hello, my name is, you know, whatever. I'm not going to make her wear a name tag, okay, does she have to wear a hair net when she cooks my food? No, because I don't mind pulling a long blonde hair out of my food every once in a while, you know. But guess what, when I go to Chipotle and there's a long black hair in my burrito, yeah, that does bother me. And you know, I'm not speaking against Chipotle, because Chipotle is my favorite restaurant. And I eat at Chipotle multiple times per week, so I'm not, you know, and by the way, this message has been brought to you in part by Chipotle, okay, but I'm not against Chipotle, but one time I went to Chipotle in Washington, D.C., and I was eating my burrito, and I found this long black hair in my burrito, and I pulled it out, and I was like, okay, you know, I'm a tough guy, I've got a strong stomach, you know, I felt a little queasy, but I was like, I can handle this, you know, I'm tough, I'm not going to let something like that bother me. I went to the trash, took a few more bites, found a second hair, I'm like, I can't take it anymore. Uncle, you know, I can't take it anymore, I'm tough, but I'm not that tough. You know, the second black hair, I just, I literally, and I never like to waste food. I threw away the last part of my burrito, because I just couldn't handle that second black hair. But you know what, when I hit the two, three blonde hair level, if it's my wife's hair, I'm okay with that, because it's my wife. That's why she doesn't have to wear a hairnet. So do you see the freedom? Her hair can flow freely all day. The wind blows through her hair and it flows freely, you know, whereas in the world, she'd be in a hairnet. She'd be wearing a name tag. She'd have to wear a uniform and a dress code. I have a dress code for my wife, they have a dress code. What's the difference? Well, but she's getting paid. Well, but at home, everything's paid for, you know, and she has her mad money and her spending money. You know, you think I have like rule books and big thick 57 page employee manual for being my wife, and she's got to initial every page and then sign at the end? And I'm constantly pulling out this 57 page rule book. You know, do I have rules for my wife? Not as many as she'd have if she were at a job, there'd be more rules. So what I'm saying is, you're going to obey somebody, you're going to have structure in your life, there are going to be rules, and I promise you that a godly wife has way more freedom than a liberated working woman. I mean, just to basically have freedom with most of her day, does she have work to get done? Yeah. See, here's the thing, people who run their own business, they work hard, right? But this is what they say, but I like the freedom, right, because they're like I work hard, but I like the freedom of being able to set my own schedule, and being able to, you know, do things in the order that I want to do them. And that's how it is being a wife and mother, because I give my wife responsibilities and work to do, but it's not like I micromanage it. Because guess what? It wouldn't even be possible for most husbands to even micromanage their wife, because guess where they're at all day for eight hours. So how controlling can the guy be? He's gone half the day. You're doing what you want, you know, just as long as you get things done, get them done how you want to get them done. So what I'm saying is the devil always had this illusion of freedom. He's got this illusion of you going out with your career, and you're succeeding, and you're making your own rules, and you're going to be with every guy that you want to be with, and you feel so liberated fornicating, and you're so liberated just living with a guy, and you're just so liberated because when you're married, it's 50-50, and I'm paying half the bills, and I'm making half the decisions, but you know what? It's not all that it's cracked up to be. It's a deception, because you do end up doing twice the work, because you've got to work the eight hours, then you've got to come home and cook and clean and do everything else, and then you're making bricks by day and straw by night and call it freedom. And you're busy, and you're frazzled, and you've got all kinds of people telling you what to do. You've got customers mad at you and telling you what to do. You say, well, you know, my husband, he'd never tell me what to do. He'd never tell me off. Customers tell you off. Your boss tells you off. Somebody's going to tell you off. It might as well be your husband. I'm just kidding, but what I'm saying is, and I've got to close the sermon for sake of time, but that's another great example of a false freedom the devil offers, you know, women's lib. But you know what? The rulers of the darkness of this world who socially engineered us to put women in the workforce, they've said, you know, they'll interview people like from the Rothschilds. They've said it was just to increase the tax base. It's just to get more people paying taxes, because when you're married and you're both working, you pay way more taxes, and the government loves that. And then not only that, but it's to get the kids in the government indoctrination camp and get them trained there at Satan Unified School District. So basically, the devil offers you, when you go to the liberal, fun church that doesn't preach the commandments, freedom, do what you want, free in Christ, led of the spirit. All they're doing is leading you right into the lust of the flesh. That's where they're really taking you. That's the destination. The destination is lust. And when anybody tries to point out the lust and says, hey, we probably shouldn't be watching this, we probably shouldn't be talking about this, we probably, you legalist, you Pharisee. And it's the devil's plan just to get us into sin. And then the women's lib is another example of just getting women to disobey the Bible. Bible says obey their husband, devil wants them to disobey that. Bible says, you know, keep her at home, you know, whatever. He doesn't care what you do with your life, as long as you don't do it God's way. But the whole point of the sermon is this, the devil's freedom is an illusion. The true freedom is walking in God's will. What kind of freedoms do we have in God's will? Well, God lets us live our life how we choose within the parameters of God's word. And there are all type of trees in our garden today that we can eat from. For example, God does not tell us what to eat each day. I mean, I did not wake up this morning with a menu plan from God. I don't have an app on my phone telling me, this is what God told you to eat today. I mean, who here pretty much chooses what you eat every day? Yeah, right, and did God tell you, no. No, God lets you, now, are there certain restrictions on that, of stuff that you shouldn't, well, don't eat poison, don't eat GMOs, you know? But anyway, God lets us choose the food we eat. Does God tell us where to live? No, I mean, look, when you grow up, you can live in Arizona, or you can live in Alaska. You can live in the south, you can live in the, you can live, God doesn't tell you where to live, he doesn't tell you what to eat. What about all the good, clean, recreational activities that you can do? Did God tell you which ones to do and which ones not to do? Did he say, well, you can ride your bike, but you can't go swimming. You know, you can run, but you can't go kayaking. You know, so there's all these good, clean, fun activities for you to do. There's an unlimited number of good, clean, fun activities. You can go camping, you can go hunting, you can go hiking, you can play sports, you can play a board game with your family, whatever you like. There's all kinds of, look, just because you can't drink and party and take drugs, there's more fun things you can do. You can marry whoever you want, as long as they're saved. God didn't force you to marry a certain person. You can marry whoever you want, as long as you're both saved, as long as you both haven't been married before. You know, if their person is still alive, just like I preached last week. You can choose what church you want to go to. Did God command the Bible, you have to go to Faithful Word? Hey, if you don't like me, if you think I'm obnoxious, or you think I'm not a nice guy, you know what, you can go to another church. And you can even go to another church that preaches the King James Bible and that does soul winning, where you like the pastor. I mean, God gives us a lot of choices. Where do you want to live? Where do you want to go to church? What do you want to eat? What do you want to do for a job? Do you want to be a plumber? Do you want to be a carpenter? Do you want to be an electrician? Do you want to do landscaping? Do you want to program computers? Do you want to work on cars? Do whatever you want. I mean, does God command you to or not to do any of those things? Look, there are a lot of choices in life. God gives us a lot of freedom in life, how we live our lives. But he also gives us boundaries, and those boundaries are for our good. And we need to keep those commandments and stay in those boundaries if we want to stay free. But when we step outside those boundaries, we're just trading one master for another. We're trading in the Lord for Satan, we're trading in the Lord for corruption. Understand what true liberty is, let's bow our heads in that board of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word and we thank you for the freedom that we have in you, Lord. Just like I know my wife will never leave me, I know that you're never going to leave me, Lord. And it provides freedom to know that you'll never leave me nor forsake me, that I'm sealed unto the day of redemption, that I'm saved eternally. Thank you for that liberty in Christ, that I'm not under that curse of the law, that if I mess up, I'm going to be damned. Thank you for redeeming us from the curse of the law. Lord, help me to walk in liberty by following your word and living a clean, godly, free life. Help us all to avoid the bondage of corruption in our lives. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen.