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What's up guys, welcome back to the channel. So this sermon is liberty, lawlessness, and legalism. We're gonna talk about all three of those. We're gonna do kind of a surface level study on all three of those. You're gonna learn who gives us liberty, what lawlessness looks like, and of course, legalism. So legalism, I wanna kinda hone in on that for just a second. Legalism is a set of rules and regulations that are drummed up by man for salvation or for sanctification. Now what legalism does is it places all the value, okay, a lot of the value on what is seen by man and little value on what is seen by God. And of course, you know that is a problem, not okay. I hope this sermon is a blessing to you guys. If it is, let us know in the comments and as always, enjoy, God bless. All right, amen, Galatians chapter number five. So what we're gonna do this evening is we're gonna talk about liberty, lawlessness, and legalism. So we're gonna kinda do a surface level differentiation between these three words this evening. And I got, of course, I gotta use this. What do you think, good? All right, I gotta use this thing. This is fun. It makes me pretend like I can draw, okay? So we got lawlessness, I didn't draw this, even though it's stick figured. I drew this at the first and Jessica's like, no, you can't even draw stick figures. So I don't have the liberty to do this, but that's okay, I'm still free because I still got it. Somebody else will do it. So we got lawlessness, we got liberty, we got legalism. Now, I might refer back to this a few times this evening, but notice the guy up here, okay? He is on the mountain and this is kinda what life is like, okay? The Bible, and you're gonna see this tonight, when you get saved, you are made free, okay? Just kinda like how you made your bed or you made dinner, okay, you did that, well, we were made free. So who made us free? Obviously, we know the answer, it's Christ, okay? But, okay, the new man is here permanently, cannot be moved, there's no chance of that, we all know that, okay? But there are forces on either side of this mountain battling for your mind, battling for your attention, trying to pull you in one direction or the other. And then of course, you've got professing Christianity, okay? Professing Christianity, I'm telling you right now, we didn't draw this, but their guy is either here or here but thinks he's here, okay? He's not even on the mountain. He's either here or he is here and thinks that he's here, and we'll get into why that's the case here in just a little bit. So what we wanna do first is I wanna just kinda start off with liberty, what is liberty? How are we gonna define that? Just move this back here. If you really need to refer to this, you can take a picture, yeah, I'm just kidding. All right, so let's get into this. Let's understand liberty because you got most of Christianity saying, well, we're free in Christ and so that means we can drink the alcohol, do these things, do that. And that's really like their focus. You know, if you really talk to a lot of new evangelical Christians, you know these loose liberal types, right? They, here's what they do, okay? They put us right here. They look at you, they look at me, they see this, you got one of these, okay? You got a collar, okay? They say, oh, you're right here, you're legalistic. I'm gonna show you why that's not the case tonight, okay? But they view us as over here and they view themselves as over here and like they view lawlessness as liberty. Basically, well, there's no law that we don't have to follow anything, we don't have to try, God's pleased with us no matter what we do, okay? That's basically what they say. However, as you all know, when you start talking to these people, what do they say? We ask them, well, how is it that you get true liberty? How is it that you get saved or born again? Well, it's not by following the law, okay? It's more than how is it? Well, it's by Christ coming in you and making you make yourself better. So again, they think they're here, but they're really over here, bouncing back and forth. They're just walking from there to there and they're confused, just back and forth, just back and forth, just like a pendulum, just hypnotized, okay? That is what they're doing. But like I said, this word here, legalism, I'm gonna give you a great definition here in a little bit. I just purged the church email, but there was a point, and I forgot, like if you were to just go into our search engine, just type legalistic, legalism, or anything like that, you would just come up with 25, 30 emails, 50 emails about how your church is legalistic. People that we've never even talked to that have never left a comment, never done anything with our church, just always looking around on Google and decided to click on your website and I went to your YouTube channel and I see that you wear a suit and tie, every single service, that's legalistic. And it's just like, where's your mindset at? Like, are you saved? Do you have a, you know, are you assuming that I preach like this because I'm trying to earn my salvation? Like what's your motivation for saying that? And so I'm hoping to take care of all of that tonight. And what we wanna do is we wanna start off with liberty. What exactly does that mean? Galatians chapter five, look down at verse number one. So Paul tells the Galatians and you guys, if you're not familiar with the story, obviously I will tell you, Judaeazers had come in and basically said, hey, you know, I know Paul preached this whole free gospel, no work, salvation. However, there's this whole other side he didn't tell you about and started to turn people into bondage, not saying they lost their salvation, but basically they started taking people free and they started taking their mind and shifting it over here, okay? Over to the legalistic side. That's something that we have to be cognizant of. So Paul, because of that in verse one, he says, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Okay, so he's saying stand fast, meaning this is something that you and I have to constantly be on the lookout for to make sure that no one or no thing is trying to take us off of this hill here and move us in either direction, okay? And I think the better understanding that we have of these definitions and the tricks of the people on both sides of the mountain, the better and the easier it will be for both of us, all of us to basically achieve that. Now go to Isaiah chapter number 61 real quick, because basically this is kind of what Paul's quoting here, is kind of reminding them of an Old Testament prophecy here in Isaiah chapter number 61. And I just want to go over that here real quickly. One verse, Isaiah chapter number 61. Remember you got 66 books there, so it's right towards the end. Isaiah chapter number 61. So you ask your typical professing Christian, what is liberty? It's just God's not mad at you. Dog, you can do whatever you want to, right? Look at my wine cabinet and look at all this booze I have here, okay? I'm free to do these things, but yet out of the other side of their mouth, they want you and I to somehow follow the law in order to be saved. It's just absolute hypocrisy. So what is this? Verse one, Isaiah chapter 61. So look at what the prophet here says. He says, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Yath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim, and there's that word again, liberty to the captives. Okay, so before we became free or liberated, we were in captivity. He reiterates that, look what he says. Liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound. And hopefully everybody has this verse marked down because when people come at you with this, well, didn't Jesus go to paradise or didn't he go to hell and preach the gospel to those that were in the Old Testament and then they got saved and he brought them up to heaven, okay? No, okay, Isaiah is very clear here, okay? The gospel being preached to people that are not saved is basically, if they receive the gospel, what are we doing? We're freeing them from that prison. So when you go and knock on someone's door, they say, yeah, you know, I'd like to hear that, okay? And they believe what you say. They believe the Bible and they decide to ask God to save them. I mean, guess what? They are now no longer a captive. They are automatically made right here at the top of the mountain, permanent, no moving. No one can take them physically, spiritually from this position. However, okay, the mindset, that's what the devil goes after. Well, if I can't take the new man, if I can't recapture you, since you wanna take my prisoners, God, what he does is he sets up evil forces on both sides of the aisle to try to shift your mindset to either side, okay? And so what do we see here? Well, we see that liberty is being freed from the religion of the world, which is the religion of human achievement. Now go to 2 Corinthians chapter number three, 2 Corinthians chapter number three. So we are free from the bondage of men, okay? We are free from the bondage of men. We are free from the bondage of Satan. And so Paul's kinda giving them a double whammy here and saying, hey, you guys ought not to forget that you are literally king of the hill because you are in Christ who is king of the hill, who overcame death, and why would you let somebody pull you down, okay? 2 Corinthians chapter number three, look at verse number 16. So this passage here, Paul is talking about how the Jews have a veil over the heart. And even when the Old Testament is read in the synagogues, he's saying that they cannot understand it, okay? And so at the first, we saw that liberty makes us free from the religion of the world, but here's another thing that it makes us free from. So look at verse 16. So he says, nevertheless, when it, that's the heart of a Jew or anybody who believes the gospel, he says, nevertheless, when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away. Now look at this here, verse 17. Now the Lord is that spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. So we see there's not just liberty from being saved from prison, from being saved just from the religion of the world that the devil obviously is in control of, but we see that there's a liberation of the mind and because we have the spirit inside of us, we are now able to understand the word of God on our own. We don't need somebody to necessarily explain it to us. I get iron sharpens iron and we ought to meet together and discuss things. That's all good to go. But as I've always said, anything that I come up with in my studies, you could come up with or even better, you know, and it's all gift based basically. Now go to first John chapter number two, first John chapter number two. So that, I mean, that's really, when you think about it and God makes you free, puts you at the top of the mountain. I mean, he has given you a toolkit like none other, okay? And so now that we have this veil that's been taken away, the spirit of the Lord is in us, we are free. We are free from the bondage of the world. We are free from the bondage of the devil. And so now it's our job having that veil taken away to make sure that we guard our mindset so that we can stay up here. And when we are on top of the hill, hey, what do we have? We have people trying to come up, come up and compete for our attention and compete for that space. The only problem is they can't go up there, but they can get our focus right in either direction. Now, what I want to do is I want to just kind of quickly go over a problem with this, okay? First John chapter two, look down at verse number one. So John says this, my little children, these things write I unto you that ye sin not. And that's where most people will quote you and stop. No sin, John said sin not. I've had that happen to me several times. It's like, well, how about you read the rest of the verse? And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, verse two. And he is the propitiation or satisfaction, okay? He's the propitiation for our sins, not for our sins only or for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now you could leave your place there. Keep something there. We're gonna come back to this chapter later on in the sermon, but go to Romans five, go to Romans chapter five. So I just want to kind of show you a quick problem. Okay, a quick problem here. So the Bible says very clear that when we sin, okay, when we sin, we have an advocate, okay? We have an advocate. Why do we have an advocate? Well, we also have an accuser. It's like, hey, look what this guy did. Look what they did. Look at what this church did. Look what they're doing, God. Look at what they're, you're gonna do something about it? You can take away their salvation. And God's like, no, okay, I died for them. They're in me. That's the end of it, okay? Then of course, John brings up the fact that the sin debt is paid for the whole world. Now, people like to read the first part of verse one and the last part of verse two, okay? And so what does that do? Well, that places you over here or over here. And so they'll say, well, because Jesus died for the sins of the whole world. He's not mad at you. And just kind of however you want to float through life, it's all good. It doesn't matter as long as you're trying, right? As long as you ask for forgiveness every night and things like that. I mean, it's not work, right? It's not work, right? You'll be good to go, man. You're good to go. You're free. I'm free in Christ, okay? Why are you getting after me about the booze? What's going on here, man? I don't understand. Well, you're gonna understand here or something, pal. Romans chapter five, look down at verse number 20. So the Bible says, moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Grace is one of those words that is heavily abused in professing Christianity. And so what I want to say here, when you combine these two passages is something I think you're definitely gonna want to understand and remember. So the sin debt of the whole world has been paid, but the problems from sin still abound. Okay, does that make sense? The sin debt has been paid, okay? God died for the sins of the entire world. Now that does not mean that the entire world just automatically gets to go to heaven. We know this, okay? In fact, we know, according to John chapter 12 and several other places in the Bible, that even though he died for the sins of the whole world, not everybody even is able to believe the gospel, right? There's reprobates, there are people that have gone too far and not to get off on that. But the problems from sin still abound. He raised the debt. That is why we are free to take the word of God and to go tell somebody, all you have to do to be saved is to believe the gospel and we demonstrate, we show them the gospel, okay? Because he's taken away the sin debt, there's nothing for a person to do in regards to sin. The tab's already been paid, but the problems are still here and that's gonna be taken care of when Christ comes back in the second time. Now, go to Romans chapter number three. Romans chapter number three. So obviously we are free. We're free from the bondage that Satan had us in through his religion that is in the world, which is the religion of dew. What are you doing? What are you doing to earn this and that, okay? Romans chapter three, verse number 27. And we'll get into a little bit more about the law here in a little bit, but Romans three, verse 27, the Bible says, where is boasting then? It is excluded by what law of works, nay, but by the law of faith, okay? So you say, well, why are you bringing that up? Well, because it highlights the fact that a lot of people wanna talk about the law, but they neglect the law of faith and the law of faith, what is faith? Well, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen, okay? We haven't seen Jesus Christ physically, right? But when we hear the gospel, we hear the word of God, which he is, and we believe that, we believe that by faith, what happens? We get placed on top of this mountain where we cannot spiritually nor physically be removed. That is the law of faith. That is what we are advocating for. That is what we are defending. That is what we push for, okay? But because we still have the old man, just like the Galatians, okay? The enemy wants to get us on one side of that aisle so that he can control us and stop us from bringing other people to the top of that mountain. So go to Psalm 119. So probably about right the middle point of your Bible. Psalm 119, and we're gonna look at verse 45 real quickly. Psalm 119. And then we're gonna go back to Romans, which hopefully should be pretty easy for you to find. So Romans, I'm sorry, Psalm 119, look down here, short verse, verse number 45. So speaking of tools, okay, speaking of tools and what do we do with this liberty here, look at what the Psalmist writes here in verse 45. He says, and I will walk at liberty. What was the exhortation that Paul gave the Galatians? To stand fast in the liberty where with Christ hath made you free, okay? What is he saying here? And I will walk at liberty. Well, how do you do that? Look at the last part of the verse there. He says, for I seek thy precepts. You see that? For I seek thy precepts. So what are we supposed to do with this liberty that we have been made free in? Well, what enhances that liberty and what really puts it to work for you and for me are precepts. Remember last week we talked about the difference between precepts and principles. I like to think of the precept as the speed limit sign, okay, 35 miles per hour, okay? Precepts in the Bible are clear statements. They are clear things in the Bible that we should not do. They are clear things in the Bible that are directed at us to help us change our behavior so that we can act in accordance with wisdom. That's what a precept is. It's very clear, just like the speed limit sign, okay? Now, what was the principle? The principle is the foundation of the precept. It's what's underneath, okay? It's unpacking the speed limit sign, so to speak. Well, why 35 miles per hour, okay? Not just because somebody said so, although I feel like that's the case out here in some spots, but you know, this is an illustration. No illustration is perfect, okay? The reason for speed limit signs is so that people don't get out of control and we don't have a loss of life. That's really what it is, okay? So for example, you know, you start to unpack the speed limit sign for them. Why do we have that in this area? Well, because it's a two lane road, a lot of traffic, a lot of stop lights. There's not a whole lot of distance to stop in. And so, you know, when you start unpacking those things, you start to learn the principles of those precepts. And that's what we're supposed to do as God's people. Now you can leave your place there and go to Romans chapter six. But what I'm saying is the more that you start to learn these precepts, like the doctrine we talked about last week with what Jesus taught, sermon on the Mount, all those types of things, the Proverbs, I mean, just all of these things that are geared towards wisdom, we start learning those, okay, I got that, I got that, I got that, okay? It's like, okay, now what do we do? Now we start studying why those things are so, and that's what really clarifies the wisdom for you. And that's really, when you think about it, oh, okay, now that I know why that sign is there, it's to save lives, it's to save gas, well, whatever it is, okay? All of those principles that drove somebody to make that sign, okay? Once we learn that, then that becomes like sort of a motivational factor for us. And it makes us want to actually do these things, which produces liberty, which produces freedom, okay? So you got the speed limit sign, 35 miles per hour. And I said that a principle is more like, hey, drive with care, you know, that kind of hopefully puts a picture right there in your mind. So Romans chapter six, look at verse number 15. And here's another problem here, it says, what then shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace, God forbid. And you see that word all the time throughout the book of Romans, Paul's constantly bringing this up. But what's the whole point of the book of Romans? Okay, it's to affirm and assure that you do not have to work for your salvation, okay? That's the whole point. So liberty is what? Okay, liberty is automatic. Nobody can take that liberty from you. Once you're saved, you're always saved. You're at the top of the mountain. However, the enemy can compete for your mindset and for your focus and get you off track. Here's an example. Before I moved here, there was a preacher that was real big, you know, no TV, man. You can't have a TV in your house. If you do, you're weak, you're this, you're that, okay? Well, he even went as far as to say, you know, when I go eat pizza or I go to this restaurant or whatever, I make the people shut that TV off. I don't care what's on, I don't care if it's a documentary about beavers building a dam, I don't care what it is. They're turning that thing off because that's wicked. Okay, cool. So before I move here, and before this was even a thought, we go out to dinner or maybe it was lunch after a soloing event with some people. And this kid, who unfortunately is no longer part of this movement, was like, you know what, who works here? You know, I'm gonna flex. He goes and finds the manager and all, you know, I want all these TVs shut off. Okay, and I forgot what was on TV. It wasn't nothing bad. It was like a football game or something that nobody was watching anyways, especially part of our group. Okay, it was like, wow, yeah, you know, and I'm thinking about this and I'm watching this kid and I'm like, where did you learn to do that? And he told me, oh, I saw a sermon, you know, and if you have a TV or you're near a TV or you're wicked. So what's on your phone? What's on your phone? So you're telling me that the box is wicked because our church has TV monitors all throughout the building? Okay, why am I breaking this up? Well, because a year later, this preacher saying that got caught with prostitutes, you know, all kinds of other bad things. Okay, that's what I'm saying. So liberty, okay, liberty is automatic. But when we start losing our mindset of what liberty means and we start focusing over here or God forbid over here, which is where a lot of people would get saved, unfortunately wind up. They're just like, oh, I'm saved. It's a free gift. I don't know how to go to church. And you know, they don't become useful for the kingdom. We'll get there later. And what I think does more damage though, for people in church, like you are here right now, is people from this camp always trying to get that mindset over here to this legalistic side, okay? Now, obviously I don't watch no cable, junk, crap, TV. I ain't going down to the movie theater. I don't even know what's in the movie theater, okay? But here's the thing. I'm sure as heck not going to look down on somebody who's got a TV set in their living room or in, you know, a church or whatever because you don't know what they're using that for. What if they do just use that to watch sermons or YouTube, okay? What if they've got all of the stuff that they're looking at in check, okay? You see what I'm saying? So you gotta be careful about saying that things are legalistic or things are affecting your liberty if you cannot absolutely 100% prove it from the Bible. And so that is where we're gonna go next. Go to Matthew chapter number 15. Matthew chapter number 15. Liberty is what? Liberty is permanent freedom from the religion of human achievement, which says you please God by what you have done and what you are currently doing now. And of course they add in, that's how you add salvation. So if legalistic guy can't get you because you're up here, he's gonna try to distract you with all sorts of things. Well, now fishing legally, you know, fishing's wrong because Peter and then Jesus called him back in the boat. So, you know, brother shouldn't go fishing. I've heard that. You say you're crazy. No, I say you're crazy. If I've heard it once, I've heard it a thousand times. It seems like, hey? So let's take a look. What is legalism and why should we understand what it is? Matthew chapter 15, look at verse number two. Obviously here we've got the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the super righteous people. Verse two, they're confronting Jesus. They say, why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? They wash not their hands when they eat bread. Now I don't know about you, but I work on a lot of dirty things and I wash my hands. I'm sure everybody in here does. But I don't think anybody in here would say, well, if you're not washing your hands, you're spiritually unclean or you're, you know, you're somehow maybe not saved, reprobate, something to that effect. That was the mindset though of these religious people here. Now, just for sake of time, I want you to skip to verse 20 so we can look at the Lord's response. So he lists off things that come from the heart. And then in verse 20, he says these, so these things that he just listed off here, okay? These are the things which defile a man. And we're going to get into those in a little while. And there are obviously things that come from the heart. Okay? Thoughts of murder, adultery, idolatry, these different types of things. He says, these are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man. And of course he's speaking spiritually here, okay? It's not saying you shouldn't wash your hands, but what some people that are ignorant will say, is, oh, I don't have to wash my hands. Just eat dinner. I knew a guy when I worked for the government, he just would not wash his hands. Hey, working on metal, HY80, okay? Just intense things. And he would not ever wash his hands. Greasy, it was crazy. Have you ever seen anybody eat a sandwich and there's black fingerprints on it as he's eating? That's this guy, okay? So this guy's getting blood work done because all of a sudden he don't feel good. And he don't feel good, he's starting to feel sick. So he goes up and gets tested and he's got so much metal in his body, he could set off a metal detector. Not really, but pretty close, okay? And pretty close, it was pretty bad. And so they're like, you know what? You need to start washing your hands. Otherwise, guess what? You're gonna die. You're gonna physically die. He's like, wow, okay. And so he actually made that change. Three months later, goes back and gets tested. Perfectly fine, perfectly good health. Is that why you're bringing that up? I don't know. I just thought of something you should know, okay? Go to Matthew chapter 23. I don't know, okay? But here's the thing, when he was going through that, I wasn't like looking at him like, you're unsaved, though he probably was. You know, you're a devil, you know? Obviously what I'm saying here is in Matthew chapter 15, okay, they're looking down on the disciples because they're not following their legalistic commands. They're not following the things that they've dreamed up, the things that they have made. And I'll show you that here, okay? Now look at this response here a few chapters later in Matthew 23. You already know, Matthew 23 is just fire against legalists, okay? Matthew 23, look at verse 27. So Jesus says, woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. Verse 28, even so, ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity. And so I'm gonna say this about legalism, okay? Legalism, if you look up the definition in the dictionary, it's basically like strict adherence to the law, okay? And then of course, the professing Christian says that's why you're a legalist because you always wear a tie, you have a strict adherence to a man-made tradition. Where's it written down at? The reason why I do this is to be a rebel because the last time I checked, which was pretty recently, most churches around here, guess what? They're not wearing a tie. They're wearing jeans or khakis with holes in them and they're way too tight, okay? Or they got a tank top on or some other kind of garbage. I just kind of want to stand out a little bit. So what about that? That don't count. Okay, but legalism is man-made rules and regulations for salvation or sanctification, okay? And this is where you have to be aware of this, okay? Legalism is a set of man-made rules or regulations, okay? For salvation or sanctification. And where it starts to creep in with us is we know we're saved, okay? But people have a tendency to say, hmm, okay? If you don't wear, that's it, if you don't wear a suit coat while you preach and you got your sleeves rolled up, guess what? Guess what? You're not pleasing God. You're not pleasing God. You're a liberal. Why am I bringing that up? You already know because I've heard it, okay? You already know because I've heard it. So, but what is that? Okay, that's still legalism from a saved person's perspective. And it's something that you and I, we need to be aware of because what does that do? If we buy into it, it starts to shift our mindset away from being steadfast over here, away from walking in that liberty by seeking precepts. Now, is there a verse in the Bible that says anything about that? No, okay? Now, can you prove from the Bible that it's wise to wear the suit coat in a tie? Sure, that's great. I'm not against it, man, okay? The problem is I sweated mine out and I have to buy all new. The dry cleaners were like, you're done. I took them in there and they charged me with what they charge and they just had this sticker with like an ink splatter on it, like death, like shot through the heart. Like basically, there's nothing we can do, you're done. So I'm rebuilding it, but I learned my lesson, okay? I learned my lesson, that is in summertime around here, it's just not meant for me. I have got to do something different. It's cheaper to buy these than it is to buy those darn coats. You say, well, go to the thrift store. Well, I tried, okay? That's like pulling a needle out of a haystack, okay? But the point is, okay, legalism is manmade rules and regulations for salvation or sanctification. So if you remember anything I said tonight is be on the lookout for things that are called precepts that are not precepts. Because when you identify that, it is somebody trying to take you into this direction, okay? So what about over here? Well, we'll get there in a second, okay? We'll get there in just a second. So legalism, as we just saw, Matthew 15 and the response of Jesus in Matthew 23, legalism places a value on what is seen by man and has little to no value on what is seen by God, okay? What was Jesus telling the Pharisees who were griping about the elders? He's saying like, hey, you know, all these things that you're doing, like tithing off the mint and all this stuff, you know, keep doing that, but get the inside of the platter clean. Well, how would you do that? By getting saved. That's basically, he's really putting the smack down on them and they don't even see it, just right over their head, okay? They have no clue. They don't get it at all, but legalism, okay? Man-made rules, regulations for salvation or sanctification. We're all about sanctification. We're gonna get there again. We'll talk about that, all about that, all about living right for the Lord, but we gotta do it the right way, okay? Gotta do it the right way. Now let's move on here and talk about lawlessness. Go to 1 Timothy chapter number one, 1 Timothy chapter number one. This one almost needs no definition. What is lawlessness? It's a disregard for the law, that's what it is. It's a disregard for the law. In my charge, what I'm gonna say about the new evangelical is that he is absolutely lawless. Like I said, he's over here, he's over here. Well, at my church, we're allowed to have drums. At my church, we're allowed to have the guitar. Look, I never said you couldn't have a guitar. Is anybody here to play the guitar? Bring it in here, you can play it. Oh, it's electric. You're against the electric guitar. Look, I'm against, I don't wanna like sound like the world and I sure don't wanna sound like those people. I think that's wise though. You say, why do you do that? Why don't you have drums? Show me a verse about, I can't. I can't, but I can show you a verse in the Bible about how we ought not to be like the world. I could show you several verses about that. And these churches out here are just like the world. We don't want any part of that. We wanna set apart. We want to be sanctified and we're gonna do it the right way. So I can prove a lot of things in the way we do them that they're according to wisdom. But here's what I don't do, okay? Here's what I don't do. People that just genuinely don't understand that, I'm not like, you're stupid. You're an idiot. You're dumb. I do say things like that to people, but when it's warranted, like mid-ax quacks, like we talked about on Sunday, okay? Those people deserve that kind of behavior and there's others that you guys know deserve that kind of behavior, okay? And so what we wanna do is we wanna help people. We wanna help people like Paul wanted to help the Galatians to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith he had made them free on this mountain. That's not just obviously positionally, that's granted, that's gravy. That's the low-hanging fruit. But mentally, we wanna keep our minds right here. We wanna guard against people trying to take our attention on either side of that mountain, okay? Nobody likes to lose at anything. And you need to look at the Christian life like king of the mountain. Anybody play king of the mountain as a kid? You know, you get on top of some of them, other kids try to pull you down. It's fun. It's a good time. We'll play that over at the trampoline park sometime. Now I'll ref because I'm too old to play that, but I'll watch you guys. Hey, but life is like that, okay? There are people trying to knock you off the mountain. Now, let's start here in verse seven. First Timothy chapter one, look at verse number seven. So Bible says, "'Desiring to be teachers of the law, "'understanding neither what they say "'nor whereof they affirm.'" And we've all met these guys. We've all met people who claim to have all this knowledge of law, gotta follow the law to be saved, blah, blah, blah. That's ridiculous, okay? That's ridiculous. We know that that is not true. But there are people that take the extreme opposite of here that are saved and say, look, man, you know, I didn't like that sermon that you preached last year about booze. You telling me that it's not, you know, oh, they'll say this, well, in the Old Testament, they drank strong drink and they drank wine and they did this and you wanna tell me that I'm a sinner just because I have one cup of wine, one small cup, it's good for your heart, man. It's good for your heart, I got the studies. You know who paid for them studies? People that own the vineyards. And not to mention the fact that that wine is not the same wine that was in the Bible, but this isn't a sermon about that. It's just the easiest to grab for illustrative purposes. And it helps me get the emails and the comments off my chest, okay? So those types of people, you know, like there were some people that left here and they were just like, you know, there's nothing wrong with doing this, there's nothing wrong with doing that. Cool, but is it wise? Well, I'll play your game. Okay, let's say it's cool. Let's say Jesus Christ came right into this building, you know, you'd be cool, you know, drinking Guinness or whatever beers are, you'd be cool. You wouldn't feel any kind of guilt. You wouldn't feel any kind of, you know, unsanctification type feeling. You just say, you'd be cool then. Hey, I'm proud of you. Hey, brother, how you doing? There's my brother, there's Nathaniel in whom there is no God. You know, you're gonna get that kind of response. That's your mentality, that's what you think. Okay, I'll play your game, but is it wise? Is it wise? What happens when somebody who struggled with alcoholism their whole life sees you do that? Did you think about it? But you know what I mean? This is what we have to consider in regards to law. Now let's back up for a second, okay? Because we understand there's people that desire to be teachers of law and say, well, if you're gonna please God, you gotta follow this law, this law, this law, this law or they're just like, you know, there is no law. Okay, you just get saved and that's it. You don't need to go to church. You know, there are a lot of saved people in the world that say that. A lot of say, you don't need to go to church, you don't need to go soloing. If they're gonna get saved, God's gonna bring them in. Just like the story in Acts with Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch, the spirit told Philip to go down there and get that guy. If God ain't calling you to go get nobody, then there ain't nobody to go get. There's people out there that are saved like that. They're on this side of the island and they're trying to get your mind in this gutter. Why? Okay, well the same reason why the Judaizers were trying to get the Galatians minds that way and what did it lead to? It led to confusion. It led to people being discouraged. It led to less souls being saved. It led to all sorts of problems. So let's back up for a second here and go to verse number three. First Timothy chapter one, verse number three. So Paul says, As I besought thee to abide still at Ephesus, when I went into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge some, that they teach no other doctrine. So you already got people in the church saved, just claiming, I got this word, I got that word. Here's the doctrine, there's the doctrine. Okay, and they didn't get it from the word of God or from a proper understanding of the word of God. So verse four, does neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions rather than godly edifying, which is in faith, so do. Very clear, very, very simple to understand. Okay, verse five. Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and faith unfeigned. So what sounds like the most important thing here, okay? It's faith, it's understanding the law of faith, okay? It's understanding proper precepts and proper doctrine. So verse six, it says from which some having swerved have turned aside unto vain jangling, desiring to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say nor where of, they affirm, but we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, and that's the problem. There are people out there trying to use the law, but they're using it unlawfully. They're saying, well, it has no value. It doesn't mean anything anymore. Church is what Andy Stanley's stance is, okay? The Old Testament, I mean, you can use it for a little bit of teaching here and there, but really the bulk of your teaching should just be from the New Testament because those things don't apply, okay? And somebody had sent me a clip and I must've deleted it, but he was starting to hover around Leviticus chapter 20 and talking about how there's no application for that, okay? But what do we know? We know there's tons of application if our government would adopt Leviticus 2013, for example, right? We understand that would provide a lot of health, safety, and moral virtue back into this country, and it would make soul winning so much easier in the world today, okay? So again, what's Paul's point here? Hey, we know that the law is good. What do we use the law for? Just the law and commandments sins. Well, we use that to let people know that all of us are sinners, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Therefore, we need a savior. We're saved from the law, which no man can keep. Look at verse number nine. It says, knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man. So understand that, okay? You on top of this mountain here, you understand that the law is not made for a righteous man. What's gonna happen to all these people that are claiming, oh, I know I'm going to heaven because I got the spirit inside of me, and he makes me change my life. And that's how I know I'm saved because I changed this and I repented of this and I did this. It's not works, it's him. It's all him, all glory to him, but he came inside and I started doing X, Y, and Z. What's gonna happen to those people? Go read Revelation. There's gonna be some books open, okay? There's gonna be some books open. There's gonna be a little audit. And so, oh, well, you want to follow the law even though the sin debt's paid for? Okay, well, on this day, you thought this, on this day, you said this, and oh, that was after you thought you sanctified yourself. And what's gonna be the result? A swan dive into the lake of fire. Okay, that's the consequence of that type of behavior, that position. So he says, knowing this, the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for man slayers, for man slayers. This is what the law is for. It's to stand up on that righteous day, that great white throne judgment day, and say, guess what? All these, to my right, they have an advocate, but you do not. You do not have that advocate. You are not part of this. And here's the law, by the way. You did this, this, and this. You don't have divine righteousness. You're done. You are going to hell. Go to James chapter one, James chapter number one. And so it's gonna bring us kind of full circle here, okay? And that is, people are always saying, you know, religion is the problem. I want you guys, if you ever get a chance to go on YouTube and just look at legalism, okay? You're gonna find preachers. You know what they're gonna be saying? They're gonna say religion and legalism are the same thing. Religion and legalism are the same thing. So if you use the word religion, you preach religion, you do anything with a religion, okay, you don't have that liberty anymore. You don't, you're not free. You ain't got that liberty anymore. You're in bondage. Well, let's see something here. Look at verse 27. James chapter one, verse 27. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Okay? Everybody on this planet, every human being is religious. Every single one of them. Everybody. That person that says I'm not religious, I don't like religion, I don't have time for religion. Do you go to work religiously? Do you have season tickets? Do you watch a game religiously? What TV show do you watch religiously? What are your hobbies? Everybody is religious. Everybody pays worth to something. Everybody worships something. They just don't use that terminology. They don't see themselves that way because they're often lifted up with pride and so therefore they cannot identify it. And so you have this skinny jeans type preacher, male or female, or trying to identify as both, whatever you want to say here, trying to say, well, if you got religion, if you're preaching religion, you're over here. And they get you mind thinking, oh, am I? Yeah, because we're free in Christ. You can do whatever you want. You don't let that preacher tell you you got to wear a tie. When have I ever told anybody you got to wear a tie? Obviously, you know, we prefer you do, you have to if you're going to preach, but that's just kind of like a wisdom standard that I don't have time to unpack for right now. It doesn't mean you're not unrighteous. Oh, he makes his people come to his church in time. No, I don't care. I just want people to serve God. But what is James saying here in regards to lawlessness? Look at it closely. Verse 27, pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. You know what that means? Because we already looked at this on Sunday. Okay, James has the same gospel that Peter had, the same gospel that Paul had, the same gospel that Jesus has. They were all there in Acts 15 agreeing it's free, no works, no circumcision, no nothing. So you know what this means? That pure religion, okay, real religion is for the saved and it can only be for the saved. So pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world. Now you start saying that and people want to say, all those new IFB people, they're all legalists. They're all over here because they say this, this, this and this. That is ridiculous. A pure religion is not legalism, but unpure religion is legalism. That's what I'm trying to say. So this phrase here, unspotted from the world, that's what they don't like. Or they'll just grab that and say, well, if you do anything wrong, you don't have salvation, blah, blah, blah. Those people are obviously idiots. But I just want to kind of help you to understand what does it mean to keep yourself unspotted from the world? If you don't understand this, then people can insert all kinds of things over here and just try to pull you in. Oh, you did this. Oh, you were at the store and they were playing worldly music. Well, now you got a spirit on you. Good luck with that. Okay, that's ridiculous, okay? That is ridiculous. The word world in the Bible is used at least in three different contexts, okay? You've got the physical world. We did a study last year on Nahum in chapter one. I think it's either verse five or verse eight. I can't remember. But it's a perfect verse. It's basically the pivotal verse of the book of Nahum. And that equates the world to the earth, okay? It's used in the same terminology. So when you see the word world in the Bible, it could just mean the earth, okay? Nahum chapter one is a good example of that. And then you have the human world, okay? Which is basically made up of people. So John 3, 16, for God. So love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. So you've got the human world just made up of people in general. And then you have the world in the moral sense, which I want to show you here. Go to 2 Peter chapter one. Two verses on this, 2 Peter chapter one. Well, maybe a little bit more than two, but... Because remember, we want to understand that keeping ourselves unspotted from the world is not legalism and obviously it's not lawless. Well, you're neglecting the law of faith by trying to have sanctification from the world. It's like, who told you that? 2 Peter chapter one, look at verse number four. So the Bible says, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in, now look at this, the world through lust, okay? Corruption that is in the world through lust. Remember, the sin debt has been paid for, but the sin problem still, it still abounds. It still exists. We have to deal with consequences of sinful actions and sinful behavior. We still have to deal with the consequences of somebody drinking and driving down the road and things of that nature, okay? So Peter here says that we've escaped. Look at this, partakers of the divine nature having escaped past tense, like one and done, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, okay? So again, you're on this mountain. So you don't want this lawless behavior, these lawless people trying to bring you back to that corruption, okay? So when James tells you to keep yourself unspotted from the world, he's telling you to make sure that nothing is able to compete for your attention, that you're steadfast in your liberty. What is your liberty? Your liberty is freedom from human achievement. So why would you wanna go back? Why would you wanna go back to following those rules and hopes to please God? You know, why would you wanna ignore the teachings of the Bible? Because the other part of liberty is what? The veil is gone. We have understanding. We have capability now, okay? We can grow in knowledge and truth. We can seek these precepts and then we can dig up the principles underneath those and be better Christians. Verse five, he says, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue and to virtue knowledge. This is what so many people are failing to do. They get the gospel, they take the grace, they take the free gift, and then you never see them again. Or God forbid, they go to one of these other churches out here that has just a muddied up gospel. Say, oh yeah, it's all free, just like that guy told you at the door, you know? But then they slip in little things here and there. Peter's saying, hey, beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, okay? What is virtue? Virtue is like moral righteousness, okay? It's learning in your life, hey, you know what? That's not a wise thing to be a part of. I'm gonna stop doing that, okay? It's learning these precepts, it's adding freedom, okay? It's making freedom clearer to you. He says, add to virtue knowledge, okay? We all get that, verse six, into knowledge temperance. What is temperance? That is self-control. Okay, but when you decide, you know what? I'm gonna add some self-control. I've got this thing trying to urge me over here. You got a friend, oh, you know, you got three services a week, you know, church every week, you can take a couple weeks off and go do this, it's fun, okay? When you decide to add exercise temperance, you're blocking that attack from the side and going back to the top of the mountain, so to speak, mentally, okay? Because remember, nobody can take you from there, but they can distract you, they can pull your focus over. So he says, add to knowledge temperance. Okay, start looking at things. Hey, what is hard for me right now? Is it hard for me to put my phone down for five minutes? Is it hard for me not to scroll on the phone? You know, it's just something real easy to think about, you know, if that's something maybe you struggle with, it seems so simple, but just practice, put that thing down for 10 minutes, and then the next day, try 11 or 12, you know? Discipline, it goes a long way in the Christian life. Add to knowledge temperance and to temperance patience. When you do that, when you exercise self-control, self-restraint, you're not just like, okay, I'm gonna give in, okay? Guess what happens? Hey, you develop patience and to patience godliness. And this sounds hard, but it's not. Verse seven, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, okay? And to brotherly kindness, charity. Again, what is charity? Charity is an action, okay? Something, hey, I'm gonna be kind, I'm going to take this thing and give it to a brother, I'm gonna give you a compliment, I'm gonna help you out. I'm actually gonna take this knowledge I have or this thing that I have, and I'm gonna give, I'm gonna be a giver, okay? So adding charity. Now look at verse eight. For if these things be in you and abound, they make you, look at this, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. If you can, honestly, you're like, I have a bad memory, that's cool, so do I. But guess what? If you could just remember brotherly kindness and brotherly charity, everything else is gonna work itself out, okay? It's gonna work itself out. And what are you doing here? You're abounding in fruitfulness in Christ. So you don't have to worry anymore. Like, hey, am I pleasing God? You know, am I pleasing God? You know, I did this and somebody told me this was bad. You know, hey, these things here are what's going to educate you properly on how to serve God. Go to 1 John chapter two, 1 John chapter two. So this is what James is talking about here. Unspotted from the world. He's not saying, hey, come up with a list of things to do, okay? You can't wear a stripe tie. You know that's out there? You wear a tie with stripes in it. That's a pattern. And that's a pattern of the world. What? Where do you guys get these things from? This is absolutely crazy, but that's not what this is about. I got to quit reading these emails, okay? 1 John chapter two, look at verse number 15. So John says it like this. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You know, he's not saying that he's not saved. He's just saying you're not pleasing God. Somebody got you and it's from the Lala side. It's usually from this side that somebody is like, oh, hey, you know, why don't you just take a chill pill and read that Bible for a while and take a chill pill on that church. You're starting to ruin your family. You know, mom and dad, haven't seen your cousins and stuff. You gotta be hanging out more with them and they're not saved, okay? And it gets you into a guilt trip. They're pulling your mindset over here. They're getting you off track and you're starting to get a spot from the world. Of course, just in the here and now, nobody can spot your new man. Look at verse 16. He says for all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the father, but is of the world, okay? In verse 17, and the world passeth away and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever, okay? Doeth the will of God, John chapter six, and hopefully you've gotten a good read through on John six before you ever, ever made it to first John. You know, anytime you guys are talking to somebody that doesn't go to a church like ours, or even if they do and they start bringing this up, you have got to make sure they've read all of John, the whole book, and probably at least 10 times before you start even playing around in these epistles, because these epistles are written for Christian conduct. They are precepts. What are precepts? They are designed to guide behavior, to change behavior for good, okay? To make us abound in fruit in Christ. Go back to James and we'll finish up here. So again, James chapter one, verse 27, the last part of that, to keep himself unspotted from the world, okay? That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to learn what that means, okay? Trying to understand what that is and what that is not. And really, to really give you a clear picture of that, it would take me weeks. I don't have time for that. That's why this is a surface level differentiation. I don't like to stand up here, okay, this is bad, this is bad. You know, there's just so many things in the world. If you ever have questions about anything like that, you're more than welcome to always come see me and I will give you either an opinion or hopefully a fact if I can find it or something of that nature. Now, real quickly, back up to verse 19. So James said, before he even got to verse 27, he says this, he says, wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath. This is also what he's giving us in his teaching on keeping ourselves unspotted from the world. Verse 20, for the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God, okay? What does that mean? How do we work the righteousness of God? Well, we take the gospel, we go out, and we give it to people. That's working righteousness, okay? And what comes along with that? Well, salvation, you know? But when we're just flipping out and we just don't do that, you know, and you just like, you just pride yourself on this attitude, like, I'm angry, I mean, that's just how I am. I'm just always mad and, you know, and that's just who you identify as through and through, then you're not working the righteousness of God. I had a guy in this church a while back and he's like, you know, I would go soloing, but I'm afraid I'm just gonna knock somebody out, man. I knock somebody out quick. I'm like, you won't, you just won't. And it's just not gonna happen. I mean, you get out there and you just realize, whatever, I'm leaving or get back inside your house. You know, it's just what it is. You're not gonna do that. But it sounds cool to him to say something like that. You know, it sounds cool. Yeah, this is a good, let people know not to mess with me. I have to be on medication so I don't kill people, man. That's how tough I am. No, no, you drink Tang and you watch cartoons when no one's looking in your basement. You're not that tough. Verse 21, wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls. Now obviously we know that the word of God grafts into us when we hear it for the first time. We hear the gospel, we believe it. Okay, we become a new man, we become a new person, forever saved. You get that, but you know, when you hear other precepts and teachings and doctrines, which the Bible's just filled with them, talked about that last week, you know, that could save you from a lot of other troubles in this life as well. And two more verses right here, verse 22, and then we're gonna go back to Matthew 15 and we're done. It says, but be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving your own self, okay? And so if we can kind of just remember that, you know, brotherly kindness, brotherly charity, being doers of the word, okay? Actively seeking out what the Bible says, just like the Psalmist told us. Psalm 119, verse 45. I will walk at liberty by seeking precepts. That's what he said, okay? Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. When we do this, okay, people are going to accuse us. Oh, you're lawless or you're legal. They're gonna go on one side of the aisle. But we know in our heads, no, we're trying to uphold pure religion because that's what pleases God. And that's what gives us opportunity, right? Opportunity to advance the kingdom of God. God is going to look for people that are prepared. And if you're prepared, you got your feet prepared to give a ready answer, to give the gospel, God will provide you with those opportunities. That's how he works. That's how he operates. Now go to Matthew 15 and we'll be done right here. If you're looking for like a good test, like how do I know, you know, if I'm kind of being persuaded over to this legalistic side or this lawless side, how do I know? If you're starting to look down on other people, and obviously don't raise your hand, you know, nothing like that. But if you notice, man, I'm starting to look down on people that drive for it. And I know Chevy's the best, okay? I'm starting to look down on people that hate chocolate milk because I know chocolate milk is the best. Talk about myself here. Okay, then you know what? Maybe I need to pull back and do, you know, do some education here and understand what that precept really is. Precepts are clear. They are very clear in the Bible, okay? Crystal clear. Just read them in James, just read them in John. Here's one more for you, okay? Here's one more precept for us to understand. Look at this, verse 19, Matthew chapter 15. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adultries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. That is everyone. That is why we have to be saved. And once we're saved, we are placed up here, okay? But understanding the principle behind all of these things, obviously that'd take me hours to do. You know what that does? That gives us a greater freedom and understanding on how to navigate through life, okay? And so obviously we kind of covered a lot of different things, some very, very, very basic things. But I think one of the things I definitely want everybody in here to understand is the fact that legalism is a set of manmade rules, okay? Regulations either designed for salvation or for sanctification. This is why we're called. We're called to try the spirits. We are called to test and to prove things. Hey, is this really what makes God happier? Is this some kind of pharisaical thing you got going on because you want a glory in my flesh, okay? I want to be aware of that. We need to be a people of knowledge, a people that are not going to get destroyed mentally for a lack of knowledge and understanding those. And now taking what I said and diving deeper into those things is going to greatly, greatly assist you. And of course, we're going to help you along the way. Let's bow our heads and have your word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, again, for clear teaching in your word. I just pray, Lord, you help us to understand that we are truly free in so many ways and that freedom doesn't mean that we're against the precepts, the teachings in the Bible, Lord, and that they are here to help us, not to hinder us. And we thank you, Lord. We just pray that you bless the fellowship after the service in Jesus' name, I pray, amen. All right, so one more song real quick and then we'll be dismissed.