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All right, John chapter 8. Hopefully you're not getting sick of this chapter we've been memorizing. I think it's an awesome chapter. So hopefully you're growing to love it even more if you've been memorizing and meditating. And even if you're not completing the whole challenge, hopefully you're spending more time in this and doing some memorization through it. I've been preaching on it a little bit more recently. And I preach a sermon kind of similar to what I'm going to preach today, but I think it's fitting. Today, of course, the 4th of July, Independence Day. It's an American, United States holiday, celebrating our independence from Great Britain. In 1776, it was an important day in American history, very important day in American history. And the ideals and the morals that was started and founded this country, unfortunately, has gone way by the wayside lately. But whatever you think about the country or starting another thing, great. I'm not saying it's not important at all, but what I think happens too often, especially among Baptist churches today, is the focus is wrong. And especially on a day like today, I don't know how many sermons you're probably going to hear today that's going to be very patriotic, love this country, United States, rah, rah, rah, Pledge of Allegiance, American flag, all that stuff. That's not, church is not the place for that. Church is not the place for that. Go to a public school, go to some public institution, go to some government idol that's set up, go to some statue, go to some other place if you want to celebrate the government, celebrate the country, go ahead and do that. One of the things I love about Independence Day is the concept of freedom and liberty. And yeah, that was great what happened in this country when people fought for freedom. But what we need to understand and what people need to recognize, and what I think needs to be preached in churches more, is where is the source of that freedom? Look, nothing happens in this world, especially on a grand scale with nations rising and falling and wars and battles being won, without the Lord. People may have fought and sacrificed. Yes, they did. But if God wasn't there, if God wasn't fighting, then none of it would happen. And you know who just seems to not get any credit on Independence Day on the 4th of July in this country is the Lord. How about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who brings liberty, who brings freedom? That's where the focus needs to be. And what excites me about the 4th of July, about Independence Day, is thinking about the freedom that Christ brings to every individual. And I'm going to posit this to you today, that while we are living in darker and darker times, and there seems to be a lot more bondage headed our way because of the sins of this country, because of the sins of the people, because of the sins of the world, the more increasingly sinful people get, the more bondage there's going to be, the more persecution there's going to be, that's coming. But you know what? We as believers can live free. We can live free. And I want you to be able to live a life of freedom, of confidence, no doubt a life of faith, and one that's not of fear. There's a lot of things we could be free of today. And sometimes you need to come to church to help you get your mind back right, because there's so much negativity out there. There's so many other forces. There's so many other ideas and philosophies and politics. We need to be biblically minded. We need to be Christ-minded, because Christ is the one that makes you free. And if we're going to celebrate freedom today, let's truly celebrate freedom, the freedom that Christ brings. And the freedom that we've experienced in this country has to do with people who chose the Lord as their God and gave reverence and respect to the word of God and how they're going to start a country. And I'm not going to go into all the history of it, but it's evident just by looking at the laws of the land. Go ahead and look at the laws of the land that used to exist. And look, they weren't perfect. They weren't perfect. But compare the laws of the land back in the 1700s compared to today against the Bible. And you're going to see the reason, the source, why this country achieved freedom and liberty and achieved the blessings of God. You'll see why. It'll be evident. And it doesn't mean that all the rulers were all these great godly Christians. I'm not saying that. But the people, in general, had enough sense that the politicians followed what the people said about having laws in place that are going to be mirrored after God's word. And that's about the extent that I'm going to give today to praising country, because it's not about country. We're all part of a heavenly Israel or a spiritual Israel. It's not about a country. I'm not focused on this country. I'm focused on the new one to come, on a new Jerusalem. And we'll get into that a little bit later. John chapter 8, though, look at verse number 30, a very famous passage. The Bible says, as he spake these words, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to those Jews which he had not believed. Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him. If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. What makes a person free? Truth. The truth makes you free. Jesus is the truth. God's word is the truth. This is what's going to make you free. You say, I don't understand that, pastor. What do you mean by the truth is going to make me free? Because when you know the truth, then you know how to avoid bondage. You know how to avoid servitude. And this is a concept that it blows people away. Because in the world's mind, they look at people like us, the people who believe God's word, and try to follow the commandments of God as being, what do you mean you're free? You have so many rules. How is that freedom? Here's the freedom. Because when you disobey God's law, when you start breaking the rules of God, you're going to find yourself in bondage to those things that God told you and warned you about not to do. But see, God puts his warning in the form of commandments. Because it's not acceptable to do those things. But here's the thing. All of those things that you do that are sinful will bring you into bondage. People say, oh, what do you mean you're free? Well, look, God tells you not to get drunk. For example, not to be drunken, not to drink wine. Well, oh, but what about these rules? What do you mean you can't drink? Yeah, go out and drink and then become an alcoholic, right? And be addicted and ruin and destroy your life. So which one is free? Oh, I'm free to do it. OK, you're free to be a slave to the bottle. Or you could be free and truly free by heeding God's command and heeding God's warning and saying, you know what, I'm not going to get involved in that bondage. I'm actually going to do what I want to do. And you can go down the list. You start stealing from people. Guess what? You are going to be brought in bondage because you're going to be going to jail. You're going to prison, and you think that that's not bondage. I mean, I don't know what else to say. Or you're going to be beholden then to paying back somebody or paying some reparations. And then when you're in debt, guess what? You're not free anymore. All of these things, all of God's laws are designed for our benefit. And by following them, it's not a matter of being in bondage or constrained. It actually makes you free. And some people have a hard time grasping that. But if you actually just can step out in faith a little bit and just try practicing that, you'll start to realize, wow, I truly am free and free to do good and free to do right and free from baggage that comes along with sin. Verse 33 says, they answered him, we be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou, you shall be made free? Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not now as forever, but the son abideth ever. If the son, therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. When you commit sin, you're the servant of sin. But you know what, the son, when the son makes you free, you're free indeed. And you have an assurance of being made free. Turn, if you would, to Isaiah chapter 61. There's multiple aspects of having freedom. One, and first and foremost, and most important, the freedom that comes in Christ is the freedom from the punishment of the law, which is hell. There's a freedom from that baggage, a freedom that you're given. You have a liberty in Christ. Because Christ died on the cross and paid for all of your sins, you're free from that eternal punishment of sin. And that is a huge burden that's lifted off our shoulders. And that is the most important freedom that we all should honor and love and respect and thank God for every day, that he has made us free by giving us the free gift of freedom and paying the way for our freedom and giving us that ultimate freedom, which is, you know what, that freedom is? It truly is freedom. It really is freedom, because this is what people don't like or people will criticize or argue about when we go out and try to preach the truth of the gospel, that it's a free gift. So what you're saying, then, is you can still sin, and then you're still going to heaven? Yes. Yes, that's what I'm saying. You can still sin and still go to heaven. Yes. Yes. Because it's not a bondage that we're being brought into. And again, following the law, I'm not saying is bondage. But the freeness of the gift and the free payment and the complete and total payment of your sins means that where sin abounds, grace does much more abound, like Romans 5 says. Of course, we shouldn't continue in sin. We don't believe that. But here's the thing, is that you do have a freedom. And you have complete freedom, then, to do what you will with that gift that God has given you, with eternal life. How are you going to live the rest of your life? It's not going to change. The eternal part of being in heaven doesn't change, whether you do good or do right or wrong. That's there. You have the freedom now to choose, what am I going to do? See, some people just think, oh, I have to do good so I don't go to hell. Well, good luck with that. You're never going to make it. Impossible. If you're going to try to do good to avoid hell, you've already failed. You better put your trust in a savior that can save you, instead of you thinking that you can save yourself by doing right and doing good. And once you do that, hey, you receive freedom. You're going to heaven no matter what. That's awesome. That's great news. But you can still become a servant to sin in this lifetime. You can still get into bondage. You can still get a lot of baggage along the way if you're not living free in Christ and living with that responsibility that comes with that freedom. And we're going to get into that a little bit later. I don't want to get too far ahead of myself. You have freedom being an heir, because that's another way of understanding salvation. You have an inheritance by virtue of just being in the family. When you're born again, you become a child of God. And because you're a child of God, because you're a joint heir with Jesus Christ, when you pass on, you're going to receive this inheritance in heaven. You're going to receive a home in heaven that is an inheritance. It's not done by your good works. It's done by virtue of being born into that family. There's a freedom to that. And you can think about that even in physical terms. If you've got a family, you're born into a family, and your parents have wealth or whatever, and they're going to leave you some inheritance, you're going to say, well, I'm going to get this because I'm a child. Because all the children are, the inheritance is divided up, and you're going to receive an inheritance. And it's not based on what you do. It would be based on you being a member of that family. So the freedom is that you can still do whatever, and you're part of that inheritance. Now, obviously, on the earth, things don't always work exactly the way that they're going to work with God. Because God is perfect, and man is not. So we can bring up examples of families, and fathers, and mothers, and inheritances, and things like that. And people are going to do things that are not right on earth. But it doesn't change the example. It doesn't change how God is going to respond. And overall, you can understand how things work. And then, of course, we have the freedom from the bondage of sin. Now, the whole point of this sermon is to encourage you to live free, free from fear, free from bondage of sin, and just free to do good in the eyes of the Lord, and free to receive his blessings. Now, Isaiah 61, looking at verse number 1, the Bible reads, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He had sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. This is a great message. The message of salvation, the message of the gospel, is a message of freedom. It's a message of liberty. It's something that should make you excited. It should make you happy. It should bring joy to be free. Because when you're in captivity, when you're in prison, when you're in chains and fetters and you're bound and someone brings you freedom, hey, that's exciting. That's great news. And the spirit of the Lord, this says here in verse 1, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings. Hey, I got a good message. Now, Jesus Christ says this is fulfilled when he came to this earth. But you know what? Anybody preaching the same message, you're anointed to preach that message. Obviously, this is directed specifically at Jesus Christ. But hey, we all have an anointing of the Holy Ghost to go out and preach good tidings. Good tidings is good news. That's the word gospel. That's the word gospel means. It's good tidings. It's good news. This is what we are sent to do to bring these good news unto the meek, because the meek are going to receive it. To proclaim liberty to the captives. Hey, you could be free. That's an exciting message. When you're going to preach the gospel, I hope no one treats it as a drudgery. And I understand sometimes your flesh takes over and makes you not want to go out solely and not want to talk to people. But remind yourself of what you're doing. You are bringing freedom to people, people who are bound under their sins in a hell punishment. When you bring the truth, when you bring the Lord Jesus Christ, hey, Jesus can make them free, make them free eternally. That's a good message. That's some good news. I mean, what better news can you get? What better news can you bring to a prisoner that's bound in jail than, hey, I'm here to set you free, brother. Let's go. Let's walk right out of this prison cell right now. You are free. And you're never going to return. Amen. That's good news. This is the imagery that the Bible is giving us. I'm here to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound. And we don't want that excitement and that zeal and this understanding to get lost just at your moment of salvation either. Because I don't know about you, I was excited when I got saved. It was an exciting day. I remember getting saved and waking up the next morning. And man, it was awesome because I couldn't explain it. I couldn't put it all into words. I wasn't going to a good church or anything. But after I got saved, I was like, oh, this is great. I'm saved. Jesus is my Savior. And I told my friends about it. And I was telling my family about it. I was telling people, hey, I got saved. That's awesome. It's good news. But then what happened, that excitement fades. And you don't get plugged in. And you don't follow through and follow up and get yourself in God's word. It's easy to go back into the bondage. But see, that freedom comes. And that freedom is real. And nothing changes the eternal gift. But we want to use that and reignite that spark so that we don't start drifting back into that bondage that we just got freed from. We don't want to go into that and continue our life that way. Because physically on this earth, you will be in that bondage. And unfortunately for me, my life story was I did go back into bondage after understanding and knowing the truth and receiving the truth. Now, thank God that His freedom is eternal. So in that sense, I'm free eternally. But in the human sense, in the temporal, physical sense, got back into bondage. I had an opportunity to be free from all of that. I was free from all of that. But then the flesh is still here. And if you follow that, then it brings more sorrow and bondage and misery. And that's what comes along with sin. Turn, if you would, to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians is an awesome book of the Bible that highly illustrates the freedom in Christ. And we're going to see in Galatians 4 and Galatians chapter 5 the allegory of the bondwoman and the free woman and see the difference and see the freedom that God gives us. I'm going to read for you from Psalm 119. Psalm 119 is an awesome chapter of the Bible. It's the longest chapter of the Bible. It's like 175, 176 verses. And it's all about the law of the Lord and His commandments and His precepts. And in Psalm 119, verse 44, the Bible reads, so shall I keep thy law continually forever and ever. And I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts. When you seek the law of the Lord, when you seek God's commandments, you seek His precepts, you're going to walk in liberty. That's what you need for freedom, for true freedom. Just like Jesus said, if you continue in my word, which is going to be following the precepts, looking to the law, to the word of God, then are you my disciples indeed. Disciples isn't exactly the same as a believer. A disciple is someone following. A believer is someone who's received a free gift, who's put their trust in Christ. And then he says, when you're my disciples indeed, which is going back to John 8, and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. So there's the freedom that you instantly receive from being saved. It's the freedom from hell. But then there's the freedom of continuing in His word and being a disciple that's going to keep you free from the bondage that sin can bring you into in this life. Again, I'm hoping this is clear. I think this is probably clear for everybody here. But just in case there's anyone here that's not clear for. You get freedom from hell right away. But even with that freedom from hell, you can continue to be in bondage to sin if you don't shape up and get your act together. Because you could live an entire life of misery and bondage to sin. You could be addicted to sins in this lifetime. You still end up going to heaven when you die. Because you've received that freedom through Christ. But what Jesus is teaching is, no, you need to continue in my word here so you could truly be free from the bondage of sin in this lifetime. So that when you're here living on this earth, you can overcome the sins that your flesh wants to get you involved with. And you could know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. The Bible says, I will walk at liberty, for I seek thy precepts. I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings, and will not be ashamed. So with that freedom, with walking at liberty, you should have no fear. Freedom of fear. Freedom of fear from what man can do unto you. Freedom to be able to say, hey, I'm going to proclaim before kings. I'm going to preach this gospel message to everybody. It doesn't matter if they're in power, or if they hate it, if they like it. I could preach the gospel to anybody, and I have the freedom to do that. God has given you the freedom to go and preach his word, no matter what any man says, no matter what any government says, no matter what the laws of the land are. God has given you the freedom to go and preach his word before kings, because it comes from God. The authority comes from God. Whatever land you live in, whatever land or country you celebrate, God has given us freedom. There is no authority above God. Don't forget that. You can go out with confidence when you know you're walking in the law of the Lord, when you're walking according to God's word. You have freedom from everyone else and everything else. Because if you're doing right by God, you're free. And remember that. And this is why I say, you know, I'm going to get into this a little bit later, but I might as well just touch on it now. You know, people ask you, oh, you can't be here. We go out preaching the gospel, and I don't know how many times everybody goes, you're not supposed to be here. You can't be here. Didn't you see the signs? Don't you know that you're not supposed to be here, and you can't sell, you can't do this, you can't solicit. I can. I have permission to be here. And it's not a lie, and it's not even a joke. I'm serious. Look, God has given you permission to go and preach the gospel to every creature. You have that permission. You have that authority. You have that liberty, and you have that freedom to go and preach the gospel to anyone you want to preach the gospel to. You have that liberty to do so. And if God be for us, who could be against us? And that's a great comfort, because people will try to scare you, and put you in fear, and intimidate you, and try to cause conflict, and make you stop what you're doing. But when you know what you're doing is right, and you know that God has authorized this, and you know that God has commanded this, you can walk in liberty and freedom. People are going to always be trying to bring you into bondage. Always. And we're going to see that here in Galatians chapter 4, that the children of the world are always going to be trying to bring the children of the promise into bondage. That's the way it works. So expect it. But be aware that you're going to be trying to be brought into bondage, so that you don't be brought into bondage. You can walk in freedom. Verse 21, Galatians chapter 4. The Bible says, tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? Now again, we've got to just keep this in mind always, because it can be, there's potential to be confused on what the Bible's talking about. Because like I said, there's an eternal sense, and there's a temporal sense. There's a temporary here on this earth, and there's the eternal sense. Sometimes we're reading passages that are talking about eternity, about being just saved forever. And then other times, we're reading about what we need to do right now as a believer. Just like Jesus said, if you'll be my disciples. He didn't say, if you'll be my believers, if you'll be my disciples. Because a disciple follows, a disciple does work, a disciple does more than just believe. So there's a distinction there. And that's why you've got to read the Bible carefully, and understand, look at it, and read the words. What's the context here? He's talking about people who desire to be under the law. In the context of Galatians, it was people who were trying to bring works and add works to salvation. So they're trying to say, we've got to be circumcised to be saved. That was the big deal. That was a big thing going on, is that the apostle Paul went to Galatia, and he's preaching freedom through Christ. He's preaching salvation by grace through faith. And these churches get started, and there's a church started in Galatia. And now he's writing a letter to them, because he's heard. There's people that have crept in, and they're trying to say, oh, no, yeah, we've got to believe, but you know what? You've also got to get circumcised. Because in Galatia, it was a church in the Gentiles. It's not in Israel. It's not in Jerusalem, where culturally, the Jews were going to be circumcised anyways, because they're trying to obey the commandments of Moses. But in the Gentile world, they didn't follow or practice circumcision at all, not even culturally. It was just not part of their thing, because it wasn't part of their religion. It wasn't part of anything. So why would you do it? If you think about it, it makes sense. Why would you just cut off some foreskin on a child unless it was commanded something from religion, like something that God did? Now, I'm not one of these people, and this drives me nuts, and this is a total side note. People go, oh, it's barbaric. Look, it's not barbaric. If it was barbaric, God wouldn't have commanded it from the beginning. So there's nothing wrong inherently with doing it. Now, I don't think it's anything that should be done today. There's no point in it anymore. But if people do it, it's not a barbaric thing either. But what's being taught in context here is people are trying to say, no, no. In order to be saved, you also must be circumcised. So they are making that part of salvation. And this is what the Apostle Paul is speaking to when he says, ye that desire to be under the law do you not hear the law. So he's trying to say, well, I mean, you're trying to be saved through the law. Well, then you're going to have to follow the whole law. It's not just circumcision, buddy. And this is the point he's getting across. But just so you understand the context, there's a difference between the eternal life, salvation freedom, versus the freedom from the temporary bondage of sin that you're going to face in this lifetime. This is now speaking to eternal. For it is written that Abraham had two sons, verse 22, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh. But he of the free woman was by promise, which things are an allegory. So he's saying, this is an example. And what he's going back to is when Abraham, he gave birth. First, Abraham and Sarah were married. God promised a son to Abraham. God made him a promise saying, you know what? Of your seed, he made all these promises. And you're going to have this great people after you, and a great nation, and people. And you're going to have as many as a sand by the seashore for a multitude of the people are going to come after you. And God made this promise to him. But Abraham is getting older, and older, and older. And he's thinking, is this lapse of faith? Or he's thinking, physically, well, how is this even going to happen? So he had a servant. He had a handmaid. His wife had a handmaid. And in his mind, he's thinking, well, we need to do something to have a child. Because Sarah was barren. Sarah was not giving birth. Sarah was not conceiving to have a child. So they're thinking, well, what can we do? God made this promise to us. Maybe we're not doing things right or whatever. And in their own fleshly minds, they come up with this idea that he's going to lay with the handmaid in order to have a child. And that's what happens is that through the servant, he has a son named Ishmael. Now, that was not God's plan. That was not God's design. That goes against what God teaches. That goes against what the Bible teaches. He was supposed to only be with his wife. He's not supposed to have any multiple wives. He's not supposed to lay with anyone outside of marriage. That was a sin. That was wrong. Because then, ultimately, at 100 years old, and Sarah is like 90 years old, God delivers on his promise. Because there's a promise of God, it can't fail. And see, God was showing that you think this is impossible, but all things are possible with me. When I make a promise, even if it looks like I'm not going to come through on my promise, guess what? I will come through on my promise. It's miraculous. It's glorious. It's symbolic of the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, because Isaac was also a symbolism of Jesus Christ to come, of the Savior to come. He's the child of promise. He's that heir. He's the one that is representative, in many ways, of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. It's an impossible birth. It had to be a miracle. Well, Isaac being born was a miracle also. Because with Sarah, the time was well passed for her to be producing eggs and to be able to conceive seed and everything else. Her body was not fit for it physically, but God made it possible. So that is the child of promise in Isaac. Abraham still then is carrying around his baggage of the child of the flesh, of the child of the bondwoman, Ishmael, who was his firstborn physically from his loins. But that was not God's plan, and that was not God's promise. And the inheritance didn't fall into him, because that was done through the flesh. It goes to the child of promise. And what the Bible is teaching is that all these things and that story and everything that happened is in there as an allegory to teach us something. There's a greater meaning behind all of that. It doesn't mean it didn't happen. It did happen. But there's this greater truth now that God is going to use that event to teach about, about the truth of salvation and the truth of this freedom versus bondage. It says, which things are an allegory, for these are the two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai, which jendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this, Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all. So it's making this distinction between the Jerusalem on earth, where the Ten Commandments came from, where the law was given down, versus the Jerusalem, which is from above. There's two covenants. There's the old covenant and a new covenant. And this was talked about even before. I mean, the coming of the new covenant was already known with the establishment of the first covenant. But that first covenant could not save anybody, because everyone failed from that first covenant, which is why a second covenant was required and necessary. It's a better covenant, the Bible says, because that's a covenant of grace and mercy and truth through Jesus Christ paying the way for us. So the Bible is saying that this is an allegory now, the bondservant versus the free. The bond is representative of being under the law, being in the flesh, just doing things, trying to achieve your own way. Abraham tried producing that heir, producing that child without God. He took matters into his own hands and symbolized his own works, his own efforts, his best efforts to have a child. This is what it produces, born of a bondservant. That's the best he could get. And guess what? That's representative of anything of our works, of everything that we try to do. It just doesn't add up, doesn't measure up. But see, God made the promise. God gets the glory. God made a miracle. God made things happen the way that he said it was going to happen. And when you just have faith in that, then he allows that to come to pass and come through. Let's keep reading in verse number 27, for it's written, rejoice, thou baron that barest not. Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then, he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. The children of the flesh, the unsaved, the people who are unregenerate, are going to persecute the children of promise, which he says, hey, we are the children of promise, just as Isaac was, not because they're physically Jews. And look, who is he speaking to? He says, we, brethren, as Isaac was. Who's that directed to? Galatians. It's not directed to Jerusalem and the Jews and Israel that then was. It's written to Galatians. And he's saying, hey, we, brethren. Why? Because when you're born of God, you're born in Christ, you're all one in Christ. You're a child of God through Christ. You're an heir through Christ. You're all brethren through Christ. Like us in this room, everyone who's saved here today, we're all brethren. And it doesn't matter where your genealogy points to. It doesn't matter what part of the earth you were born in and who your parents were and their parents and their parents and their parents. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We're all brethren because we're in Christ. Just as the Apostle Paul was teaching to the Galatians, hey, brethren, we're children of the promise. You say, but they didn't descend from Abraham. That's not what matters physically. What matters is that they believed. They have faith. Abraham is the father of faith. That's why they're children of Abraham. And that's why you're a child of Abraham, and that's why I'm a child of Abraham. We are children of the promise. And then everyone who's not children of the promise, they're children of the bondservant. And he that is born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what's at the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. For the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. And what we need to remember is, look, let's not live as children of the bondservant. Let's not walk in the ways of this world. Cast out the bond. Look, God's saying cast out. And you know what? The children of the bondservant are going to be cast out, eternally speaking, in the lake of fire. If they're not born again, if they don't become children of promise through faith in Jesus Christ, they're going to be cast out. So let's not walk as they do. Let's walk as children of promise. Let's walk as children of light. Let's walk as children of truth. And experience true freedom. Chapter 5, verse 1, because this continues on. I wanted to get the full context of this. Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. So now this is starting to speak of, yes, you've already been made free in the eternal sense by being a child of promise. Now don't go and get entangled again with that yoke of bondage one, by muddying up salvation, which is first and foremost, which is concerning. Saying, hey, don't try to bring that bondage back in. Don't try to bring aspects of the law and living righteously and doing good life for your salvation. Don't mess things up that way. Keep it pure. Keep it simple. Salvation by grace through faith alone. And stand fast in that liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free. Jump down to verse number 13 in Galatians 5. The Bible says, for brethren, ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. So while you are free, don't use it to then just get off into sin and get off into the things of your flesh. Because look, and this is what drives me. This is what people who love the big brother attitude and you need someone looking out for. We need government telling us all these things what to do. And we need government programs to support this and support that and give people money and bail people out and everything else. Look, then you're not going to have freedom. That's not freedom. Here's the thing about freedom. The freedom puts all the responsibility on you. The more free you are, the more responsibility you have. But the less freedom you have, the less responsibility you have, which is the way the government likes the people in power like that. They want you being dependent on them so they can keep you in bondage. Wicked people are all the same like that. They're looking to keep you in bondage. And it's funny, because they're going to give rhetoric that makes it sound like, oh, yeah, the fundamental Baptist church, they want to keep you in bondage. And they want to keep you under control. I want you to have freedom. I want everyone here to have freedom. I want us to have the most freedom possible. And I want you just to be responsible for what you do. All of us. With great freedom comes great responsibility. You're responsible for yourself. You're free to choose to do what you want. You're free to go off into sin. But guess what? There's going to be a consequence. There's always consequences. See, the wicked people are going to try to bring you into bondage and say, no, no, no, you can't do that, and try to restrict your freedom. I mean, now is the point. No, no, no, you can't say that. No, you're getting taken. No, you can't do that. And the wicked people are trying to make you dependent, trying to make you stop, and trying to make you shut up and do it at our church. Do it to lots of other churches that are doing great works for God. As I mentioned before, our church bank account is being shut down. Being shut down. Thank God we got a little bit of notice so I can make the transition without them just holding on to all of our money. But you know what? This is just a precursor. We'll find another bank for now. Someone we'll open up account with. But there's going to come a day where no one is going to give us a bank account, where it's going to be made even harder. And you know what? We're still going to continue. And it's going to be made harder and harder and harder because there's a great tribulation that's coming upon this world to where it's not even it's going to be a financial thing. It's going to be people trying to kill us. We still have freedom. Money is a tool. It is. It's a useful tool. It's still a tool. The internet's a tool. YouTube's a tool. We're going to use the tools. But you know what? We didn't create YouTube. We didn't create the internet. I'll let Al Gore have the credit for that. We're going to use what's at our disposal, and whatever is not, so be it. We have a job to do. And we have freedom. And no matter what people are going to try to do and try to force on us, you have freedom. And this is why the word of God, the Bible says, is not bound. They were putting the apostles in prison. And we're going to get to that later. It's at the end of the sermon here. For preaching the word of God. You know what? The word of God wasn't bound. People can be bound. You may be bound. You may be cast into prison. But the word of God, nothing can stop the word of God. Nothing. And that infuriates the heathen. This is why the heathen rages. They get angry because the tactics don't work on free people. You celebrate that freedom through Christ. Hey, Christ has made us free. But with that freedom comes great responsibility. Some people take that freedom and go, hey, I'm going to heaven anyway, so I'm just going to live it up and whatever. It's a wicked sorry attitude and very short sighted and very narrow and very selfish and one that's only going to bring you into misery and bondage on this earth anyways. It's not going to provide you with anything good, no joy, no peace, no comfort, no nothing that's going to be good in your life. Now, you can do that. You've got the freedom to because you've been free from Jesus Christ and paid for all your sins. You can do that. It's a possibility. It's an option. You have free will. God has given you that gift as well, just having the free choice to choose what you're going to do. He didn't make us robots. But just remember, there's always consequences for your actions. And when God has given us great freedom, well, there's a great responsibility with that. But let's take on that responsibility, because you have it. You can't give it back. There's no take backs on the freedom that he's given you. You have it. My point is I want you to understand how much freedom you really have. And I'm not speaking in terms of any government. I'm speaking in terms of what freedom God has given you. You have freedom. And don't ever let any government, any people who hate God, anybody tell you that you don't have freedom in Christ, because you do, absolutely do. But with that freedom, it means we need to get in his word and understand the bounds that God has set forth on the authority that we have and what we can and can't do according to God. Let's walk to the full extent of the freedom he's given us and do everything based on what his word spells out for us. But let's live it to the maximum. I think we read verse 13. Let's reread that again. For brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then. Walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are 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, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. I mean, it just lists off all of these sins. These are the works of the flesh. This is what's going to bring you into bondage. And I'm not going to go through all these individually, read it later, and study it out, and just think and meditate on these things, and go, look, these things are all going to bring me into bondage. These are works of the flesh. We don't want to walk in the flesh. That is bondage. That is servitude. Stay away from these 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. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And I love this part, against such there is no law. Now, that doesn't mean that men aren't going to try to make laws against these things, against walking in the spirit. Because what happens as a result of walking in the spirit, and we're actually going to get into this more tonight. And this morning's sermon and tonight's sermon, as many times, are very closely knit together. So try to make it here again this evening. I'm going to be preaching on being in the spirit and the spirit of God coming upon you this evening. And you're going to see there more fully what it means to walk in the spirit and what you're going to be doing by walking in the spirit. But the Bible says here that you're going to receive the fruit of the spirit when you walk in the spirit. And you know it, against such there is no law. And if man tries to make a law against it, guess what? God says there's no law against it. So you know who I'm going to listen to? God. You have permission from God to do a lot of things. Turn to Acts chapter 5. We're almost done. Acts chapter 5. It's the last place we'll look at this morning, Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5 is just one example of many examples in the book of Acts. I already kind of made reference to things that go on in the book of Acts. We know that people were bound and cast into prison. But God has made us free. Look, there is no law against walking in the spirit according to God. And the apostles understood that. The disciples understood that. The disciples. The disciples. Because they continued in the word, and they knew the truth. And the truth made them free. That's why they were disciples. They weren't just believers. There was a lot of believers. There was a lot of converts that were made when Jesus Christ walked this earth. Not quite as many disciples. But the disciples continued in his word. And that word made them free. And they knew these things, which is why they then went out and did great things for God, why they served the Lord without fear, and didn't fear what man could do unto them because they understood, hey, we've got authority from God to do this stuff. We have liberty. We have freedom. And we're going to go out. You can't do that. It's funny because I just did. It's funny because I'm going to keep doing it. You can tell me I can't do these things, but guess what? I'm going to keep doing them. Now, you don't always want to have a stubborn attitude like that if it comes to being in sin. But if it comes to serving the Lord, you better believe that's a good thing. To be unmovable. To be unshaken. To say, no, we are going to keep doing what we're doing. The sodomites want to silence us. But guess what? We're going to keep preaching the word of God. And I don't care what you do. What can you do? What can you do? You can take our money. You can take our building. You can take my clothing. You could take my house. You can take whatever. But you can't take my soul. You can't take my voice. You could take my life, but you really can't even take that because I have eternal life. And I know that God has given me liberty. And if God has given me liberty, you can't take that away from me either. Right. You want the world to turn upside down and have it be said, hey, these that have turned the world upside down and come hither also, then we need to live like we are free and have that liberty in Christ and take the responsibility for that freedom and not waste it on the cares and the pleasures of this world and just waste all of our time and waste it going after money and waste it going after recreation. But let's use it. Use the liberty where God has made us free and go out and preach his word and not let anybody back us down on it. Not anyone and not our own flesh keep us back from living a totally free life in Christ. Acts chapter 5 verse 25, the Bible reads, then came one and told them saying, behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in a temple and teaching the people. We didn't even get the context here. We're already seeing you already put these people in prison and what are they doing? Why did they put them in prison? For preaching the word of God. And guess what? It's being reported, hey, these guys that you just put in prison, they're out there preaching your word again. Someone's coming tattling on them and they know that they're out there doing it again. Can you believe it? Then went the captain with the officers and brought them without violence, for they feared the people lest they should have been stoned, which means that they would have brought them with violence if they could have gotten away with it. So be aware of that also. People who want to bring you an advantage, they don't care about you and they don't care about the violence, they just care about themselves. So at this time, there was enough support going, yeah, we don't want to bring them with violence because something bad might happen. For they feared the people lest they should have been stoned. And you know what, that's also a much more safe place to live in is when the government fears the people instead of the people fearing the government because what are these people doing? This is the captain of the officers. Here's the cops showing up to go arrest the disciples for preaching. Hey, we put you in prison, what do you think you're doing? We already told you that's against our ordinances. We already told you that's against the code. You can't go out and preach this. So here comes the law. But you know what, the people, they knew the people were going to be like, we're not going to tolerate that because God has made us free. And that's a healthy fear for them to have. And on a whole other topic, that's why people ought to be armed. And that's why we can't lose that freedom either. God has given you a right to be able to defend yourself and protect yourself. And that's why Jesus said, when he left, he said, you know what, when I was here and I was with you, I sent you away. You didn't have a purse. You didn't have a script. You didn't have anything. You didn't need anything. But you know what, now I'm leaving. Now, you know what, take your garment. And if you don't have a sword, take your garment and sell it and get a sword. Verse 27, when they had brought them, they set them before the council and the high priest asked them, saying, did not we straightly command you that you should not teach in this name? I thought we already told you not to do this. And behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine and intend to bring this man's blood upon us. So what are we worried about, themselves? Well, look, if you do wicked things, don't do wicked things if you don't want the truth coming out and people exposing you. But wicked people do wicked things, and we're children of light, and we're supposed to preach the light and the truth. So guess what's going to happen? Wicked people are going to be exposed. And wicked people aren't going to like that. And wicked people are going to try to arrest you and stop you and silence you. Here's what they did to the disciples. But how do they respond? Don't forget this response. And don't be timid. Look, be bold in preaching the word of God, and don't let people push you around. And don't make people drive you off and send you home and send you packing. You don't have to be ashamed of the word of God. Be bold in the word of God. Know that you have authority from God to be there, and no one can make you leave. And you can just keep on preaching the word of God boldly, unashamedly, unabashedly, because God said so. It doesn't matter what any man says unto you. And when someone, some Karen comes out, I'm going to call the police, don't get scared off by them. I mean, look at what the disciples were dealing with here, being brought before by cops, being arrested and brought before people of authority. I mean, the Karen that's saying the complaint about calling the cops isn't the one dragging you to jail and dragging you before these law, you know. It says no soliciting. So what? I don't care. I'm not selling anything. And you know what? I don't care. If it said no preaching the gospel, I'm not going to care. I don't care what your sign says. I'm going to do what God commanded me to do, because God has given me authority to do so. So they say in verse 28, hey, didn't we already command you not to do this? Verse 29, then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God rather than men. He didn't back down for a second. The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged on the trees. You're going to bring his blood on us. Well, yeah, because you killed him. I'm not bringing his blood on you. You brought his blood on you. You're the one who killed him. We didn't tell you to kill him. You did that on your own accord. We're just telling the truth. If you didn't want the consequences, then you shouldn't have done it. Yeah. Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are his witnesses of these things, and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him. When they heard that, they were cut to the heart and took counsel to slay them. Yeah, that message cuts deep. And they knew that. They already knew that. They've already been cast in prison. But it didn't stop them, because they know they've been given liberty and freedom of God to do this. And here's the thing. If you're walking in the spirit and walking according to what God says, just let God protect you. Let God defend you. They wanted to kill. They're trying to figure out how to kill him. But guess what happens? They didn't kill him. They didn't kill him. They're trying to figure out how to do it. God uses some other man there to calm them down a little bit, where they don't end up killing him. But here's what happens. And this is what I want to focus on, verse 40. Jump down to verse 40. It says, and to him they agreed. And when they had called the apostles and beaten them, don't just read over that. They get arrested a second time, and they get beaten. I don't know about you, I've never been beaten for preaching the gospel before, ever. I've never been beaten for preaching the word of God. No one's ever taken me and physically assaulted me and beaten me up. Let that sink in, because that's a big deal, is being beaten. And I think this level of persecution, a lot of people are going to be like, I don't want to get beat. I don't want that to happen to me. I mean, I'll do this as long as I can, but if some people are going to start beating me up, then I'm not going to say anything, because I don't want to get beaten up. Don't have that attitude. Don't fail, don't be ashamed of the cross of Christ. He suffered and bled and died for you. You can take a beating. I don't care who you are, man, woman, old, young. They were beaten. They commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go. So now they're saying, don't you preach in his name. Don't do it. But look at their attitude. They just got beat up and scolded. And that's not pleasant, right? No one's going to enjoy the actual beating. But how did they depart? They departed from the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. They were saying, praise God. If you're scratching your head wondering about that, you need to do more to change your mindset. More reading, more praying, and more soul winning. You need to grow more spiritually to get to the point of that closeness to Jesus, where you can consider it an honor to be counted worthy to suffer shame for his name. Not for your name. Not for you being a jerk. Not for you whatever, but for his name, because you're preaching Jesus. He suffered for you. It's an honor to be able to suffer for him, to show that love for him. To say, you did all of that, and it wasn't in vain. Because I'm willing to go through something at least similar to what you went through, because I also love other people, and I love you. And I want what you did to have the best impact it possibly can on this world. So I'm going to also then try to offer up myself for others. And then verse 42, of course, that famous passage. But I never like preaching on this one verse without giving the context. Where it says, in daily in the temple and every house, they cease not to teach and preach Jesus Christ. Hey, this is a great, exciting verse. Every day, we're out soul winning, we're doing this. But look at the context it came in. It came in the context of them being arrested twice, beaten up, and sent out saying, don't you do it again. That's the context where it says, hey, they cease not. They didn't stop. Even after all of that, they still didn't stop, and they still preach the gospel every single day in the temple and house to house and say, we're not going to stop doing this. The verse on its own is wonderful, but when you understand the context, it's even better. It's even better. God has given you that liberty. I was going to go to Judges 6, but it's basically just the story of Gideon, where he cast down that altar. Remember, he went at night, and God commanded him, hey, break down that altar. That false god, Baal. You know, it's time to serve the Lord. And guess what? He did something that made a lot of people upset. He cast down an altar, and people wanted to kill him for it, but you know what? God gave him authority to do that. Liberty, freedom. We have freedom to cast down imaginations, and cast down the false gods, and cast down the idols, and cast down the works of wickedness. You have authority to do that. God's given you authority to preach against perverts, and to stand against that, and to stand on all the word of God. You don't have to be silent. In fact, you shouldn't be silent. God's given you the liberty to speak. Speak. Use that freedom. Yeah, it goes against our terms of service. It goes against our community guidelines. OK. God's given me liberty. The First Amendment, the Second Amendment, they didn't give me the liberty. God gave me the liberty. And even in this country, if you look at it and understand it, it was already recognized that God gave that liberty. That's why we had the liberty, is because of the recognition of God giving that liberty. These days, people are turning to a document that's not the Bible as being the source of their liberty. Declaration of Independence is not the source of our liberty. The Constitution of the United States is not our source of liberty. That is not why you have the freedom to speak. That is not why we have the freedom to assemble. You know why we have those freedoms? Because God gave it to us. Because even if there was no Constitution of the United States, even if we lived in some other country, we would still assemble, because God commanded us to assemble. Even if we lived in a country where they're saying, you can't preach, well, guess what, we're still going to preach. Because God gave us that liberty. Let's celebrate freedom. I love this day. It's exciting. I'm going to go off and blow some fireworks off at home later on tonight, because it's fun, and it's cool, and it's exciting, and it's a celebration. But more importantly than 1776, I'm celebrating the freedom that Christ has brought. And let's celebrate that freedom this afternoon, going out and preaching the good news, and using the anointing that God has given us to proclaim freedom and liberty to the captives. Let's go out and tell people how they can be made free through Jesus Christ. Let's have a word of prayer. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank You so much for the freedom that You've given us. Lord, help us never to lose sight of that freedom and ignore it, or just be complacent about it, dear Lord, but that we would use it, and that we would be responsible in the freedom that You've given us, and take heed to Your commands, take heed to Your warnings, dear Lord, in that we can live the most free life possible here, and just help bring others along, and train them up to be free as well. Lord, we love You. It's in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen.