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All right, amen, Isaiah chapter number 61. Well, I'm gonna call this one Liberty versus License. Liberty versus License. I can remember hearing this in sermons a lot where pastors would preach against people that said, you know, your gospel message is basically saying that God gives you a license to sin. And I can remember hearing this, you know, from my early 20s, mid 20s, but it wasn't until actually I started going soul winning that somebody actually said this to me, that it really hit me and it really got me angry to be quite honest with you. I'm sure we've all heard this, right? Where you give somebody the gospel and they're like, wait a second, wait a second. You're saying that God gives you a license to sin. That's what you're saying. Well, we're gonna talk about that tonight. We're gonna talk about the doctrine of liberty because we've been kind of mentioning it on Sunday nights as we've been going through the book of Corinthians. So I figured it'd be good to kind of go back and just cover that doctrine as a whole and compare it to this false doctrine that is often thrown at us that we teach, which we don't teach, which is basically people saying that we say, God gives you a license to sin. We're gonna break that down. Now, I will say this. The first time that somebody had said this to me out soul winning, I was kind of halfway prepared. I've heard messages about it before. And what I did, I took some old wisdom and kind of pieced this together real quick. And I just said, wait a second. What did you just say? I made him say it again. And I said, okay, okay. It was the way that the guy said it to me. I could clearly tell this conversation wasn't gonna go anywhere. He was being kind of snarky, kind of arrogant and puffed up like these people typically are. And I just said, okay, well, what do you mean by that? Made him clarify that. So what do you mean by that? What do you mean by license to sin? He said, well, you're saying that by your gospel that God's okay with you sinning after conversion. And I said, oh, so you don't sin anymore? He said, I didn't say that. I said, well, then how does a person get saved? He said, well, it's a continual work. And I said, so what are you saying? You know, I just kept asking that. What are you saying? What are you saying? He said, oh, it's a continued work. You have to keep on working. You have to keep on asking for forgiveness every single day. Okay, and if you don't do that, and if you're not sorrowful for your sin, I said, what about the sin you forget? The Bible says a foolish thought of sin. He said, the Bible doesn't say that. I said, well, let me pull the verse up for you right now. I don't wanna hear it, basically is what he said. I don't wanna hear that, okay. And so I just said, so basically what you're saying is that you could still sin on your way to your path to heaven. And he's like, well, wait, wait, what? And I just walked away. I'm like, this conversation's over. Because literally he's saying what he's actually accusing us of. Because at the end of the day, everybody knows, everybody sins, okay. There's some people that are honest and admit it, and other people that are just dishonest and wanna pretend like they don't sin, and so on and so forth. So if you're thinking like this sermon is gonna be about Christian liberty as in what we can get away with as we're saved, it's not. I'll just kinda give you an example here. There was a couple years ago, a guy had walked in here. And he said, I'm so glad to meet you. And I said, wow, have we met before? Have you heard about us? He's like, just looked you up, just yesterday. Just looked you up. And I said, oh, good, all right, cool, welcome. And he said, you know what brought me here? I said, no, but please tell me. He says, well, I went to the Baptist church down there right off the freeway talking about Sam Gipps Church, which was a nightmare for other reasons. But he said, you know what? I said, what? He said, the pastor goes to Starbucks. So, ooh. Oh, man, really? I'm like, that's your beef with them? That's your beef with that church, that the pastor goes to Starbucks? I was like, this is not gonna be good. And he says, yeah, I went to another church around here called Silver Sage or something right up the street. Guess what? I said, what, he goes to Human Bean? He's like, no, the pastor goes to Starbucks. I said, oh, wow. So, obviously this guy turned out not to be saved, okay? But we've all met people that kind of have that attitude that are saved. They're new in the faith or maybe they're just, they've been saved for a while, they're just not learned. They just haven't been practicing, they just haven't been understanding the Bible. But yet they get on YouTube and they watch a video about the Starbucks logo and how wicked it is and the owners and this and that. And then that's what they grab ahold of and they're like, this is my hill that I'm going to stand on and die on and fight. And that becomes what it is. Some people, it's board games. I met somebody who was saved, this is no joke, who watched some video about board games. I was like, oh, if you played board games, you're tapping into the realm of the devil because entertainment is of the devil. And it's just like, I mean, these things are really face-palming, okay? Now, when it comes to people that are saved in our Christian liberty, there's really two questions that you want to ask yourself, okay? If you're studied up in the Bible or you're willing to search the scriptures to see and to prove whether something is acceptable of God and you've done that and you're fully persuaded, hey, the next question that you got to ask yourself, should I or should I not do something, is it wise? And we talked about this several times in the past. Is it wise? The next question is, well, is this decision that I'm about to make going to offend, cause a brother to stumble or make the person weak, okay? If you can remember those two questions, you're going to be well on your way to Christian maturity and staying there and beyond. Now, of course, also number three, I'm just going to throw this out there. Romans 14, right off the bat, we're told to receive the weaker brother, but we don't have to receive them unto their doubtful disputations, okay? So that's where I'm going to leave that part of the doctrine of liberty. And we're going to go back to the beginning. What does liberty mean? Because this is what we preach. This is what the Bible teaches. And so I want to make sure that we all have a very good understanding of this before we move forward. So you're there in Isaiah chapter number 61. And start this off here. Look down at verse number one. So the Bible says this, the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives in the opening of the prison to them that are bound. And we're going to kind of break this down here in a second here. But go to second Timothy chapter number two real quick. Second Timothy chapter number two. So obviously this is a prophecy regarding the Messiah, regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. And the first thing that I want to bring up there is that the Bible says the spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings. We always remind people what the word gospel means. It means good news, good tidings. This is something that you can rejoice over. I've never had anybody rejoice or anybody seem actually honestly happy that they are in the doctrine of probation or that they're working their way to heaven. In fact, most of the time when you talk to these people, you can sense the fear coming off them. It radiates off them. Why is that? Because they don't know for sure if they've done enough. They don't know if they've done enough to please God. And so that is absolutely terrifying, okay? There's no peace in that. There's no comfort in that. There's no good tidings that, hey, good news, you can work your way to heaven. Hey, you can stop sinning. That's not good news. That's horrible news. That's terrifying news. That's the opposite of good tidings. And so our Bible, when it starts talking about liberty, true liberty, it mentions good news, good tidings. And then the verse said next that these things would be preached unto the meek, okay? And then it says, he hath sent me to bind up. So who's doing the binding? Who's doing the gathering? Is it us? Is it humanity? Is it mankind? Or is it the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, obviously it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He hath sent me to bind up the broken hearted. And then it says to proclaim liberty to the captives. And this is where we are at. We go out to the captives. And what we do is we proclaim not a license, but liberty, true freedom to people that are captive. And then it describes it as the opening of the prison to them that are bound. Second Timothy chapter two, look down at verse number 26. And you'll see freedom from what? So the Bible says that the Lord is gonna preach good tidings, that this is liberty to the captives. Freedom from what? What are we talking about here? Second Timothy two verse 26 says this, and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive by him at his will. Okay? Again, I mentioned this on Sunday. In the world system, there are really two kinds of people. There are people that are just reprobate, rejected concerning the faith or even beyond that, okay? I wanna get into that in a minute. And then there's people that just aren't saved. They're wandering, they're hanging in the balances. They don't know what's going on. Those people are still taken captive by the devil. And the gospel is what gives them true liberty. It's what frees them, okay? That's what we're talking about when we talk about liberty, true liberty. Because the Bible describes in Isaiah 61 that the Lord would preach good tidings and it describes it as the opening of the prison to them that are bound. So something good for us to remember as we go out into the community is that we are speaking to people that are literally held captive. They are literally in prison. And our job is to break forth into that prison and get them out using the word of God. That is liberty. That is true liberty. Now, I'm not gonna have you turn there, but maybe next to your, Isaiah 61, if you don't mind writing in your Bible, you could write down 1 Peter 3.19, just in case this ever comes up because 1 Peter 3.19 says, by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, okay? I like to make sure that everybody's always got those two connected because sometimes that'll come up in conversation. Then people will say, well, you know, if you don't make it in this life, you didn't turn from enough sins, there's another chance. In fact, Jesus went to hell and preached to people in the prison, and then guess what? They got saved, some of them, okay? We know that to be false doctrine. What 1 Peter 3.19 is truly talking about is a reference to Isaiah 61, verse one, meaning preaching to people that are not saved, okay? So number one, the first thing that we're talking about this evening is that liberty, true liberty, is being made free from sin. True liberty is being made free from sin. This might sound a little bit complicated, but we're gonna try to iron this out here in a minute. Romans 6, look at verse number seven. The Bible says, for he that is dead is freed from sin, okay? Now skip down to verse number 18. We're gonna come back and unpack some of this here in a second, just want you to see this. Romans 6, look at verse 18. Being then made free, look at that, those two words there, made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. And so of course the question is this. Okay, so we're made free from sin, but we still sin. How does that work, okay? How does that work? Well, let me complicate the matter for you even worse before we answer it. Go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number five. Keep your place in Romans 6, but go to 2 Corinthians, chapter number five. So Romans 6 very clearly says that we have been made free from sin. And of course the ignorant will extract these verses and say, see, you were made free from sin, you made yourself free from sin. It's not what the passage says at all, okay? It's talking about Christ making us free from sin. But the question is, what does that mean? What does that even look like, okay? And again, people will say, and it's a good question, you know, well, if we've been made free from sin, then why do we still sin? What does this mean here? 2 Corinthians 5, look at verse number 19. So the Bible says, to wit, that God was in Christ. Who was in Christ? God. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Now look at these next two words. Not imputing their trespasses. Not imputing, okay? Not imputing. What does that mean? That means he's not charging sin to the world. Not imputing their. Now who is that there in reference to? Look a few words back. The world, okay? Everybody see that? The world. So unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. So is God charging sin to the world today? Is he keeping tabs on all of it, okay? Not as far as the debt's concerned, okay? Look at what it says next. And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Say, well, how does that make sense? Well, go to 1 John chapter number two. Complicate this a little more for you here before we answer these questions. 1 John chapter number two. So 1 John chapter number two, look at verse number two. The Bible says this. And he, talking about Christ, and he is the propitiation for our sins, okay? Now what does that word mean? It's a big word. It means satisfaction. It means that Christ is the satisfier of sins, okay? Says for our sins, now look at the rest of the verse. Not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Now go to Romans chapter number eight, and we'll look at this answer here. Okay, so 1 John two, very clear, that Jesus died for the sins of the entire world. Okay, so you might say, well, what does this have to do with anything? Well, don't forget, but God commended his love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So what could all of this mean? What does this all boil down to? How do we make sense of this? Romans chapter eight, verse number two, is where we're gonna answer this question, okay? And look at verse number two, Romans chapter number eight. So Paul tells the Romans this, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death, okay? Now what you're gonna see as we continue to read verses here and to unpack these things, is that we can't possibly be teaching that God has given us a license to sin, because the sin debt has already been paid for, okay? It's already been paid for, it has already been covered, it is not an issue as far as the new man is concerned. Okay, that is the answer. But look at these two laws here. So this is the second point that I wanna make this evening, okay? You gotta understand these two systems of laws here. So we have the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and at the end of the verse there, you see that we also are made free from the law of sin and of death. The only thing that the law can do is judge, that's all it can do, the law can only condemn, okay? And what does the Bible say? For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The only thing that the law can do is condemn, we've all sinned, it's too late, we're all sinners, okay? So that alone should be enough to hopefully, you know, break through to people and to tell them like, hey, it's too late. Once you're a murderer, you're always a murderer. Once you're a liar, you're always a liar. Once you're a sinner, you're always a sinner, okay? It's too late, you can't start over. You know, you can't be like Nicodemus and ask the Lord, you know, can I go back in my mom's stomach and try this again, you know? No, no, that doesn't work, okay? But understanding these, because both people, so the people that are in the first camp under the law of the spirit of Christ, people that are saved, born again, their sins are paid for, okay? But the people under the law of sin and death, their sin debt has also been paid for. What's the difference? Well, obviously the guys at the camp over here of the law of sin and death don't have the gift. They have not received the free ticket that Christ paid for to take them into heaven. Now go to Romans chapter number six and let's look at some verses here so we can kind of understand this. So I said point number one is that liberty is being made free from sin, okay? Key word there, made, okay? Being made free, meaning he did the work, it's not us that did it. And I know I say this all the time, but it's very, very important that we get this. So let's back up here and look at a few verses here in Romans chapter number six. So apparently Paul has dealt with the same thing because look how he starts the chapter off here. He says what? What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Because in the prior chapter he explains that where sin abounds, grace does the much more abound. So grace is always preeminent. Now he answers this question though. He's like, hey, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now look at the answer here, verse two. He says, God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? Now what happens is your guy that's over here in this camp, he's under the law of sin and death and he's been fooled into thinking that he can turn from the sins or he can dump the bag of sin off at the foot of Christ and go on and not sin anymore. That person doesn't have the spirit inside of him. Therefore he cannot righteously judge or discern truth. So they read these verses completely out of context. And they read, oh God forbid, how shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? They say, see, if you're truly saved, if you've given your life to Christ, you're dead and your sins, you're really not gonna sin anymore. You're gonna get right. There's an entire denomination that teaches that and it's called the Nazarene denomination. They teach this doctrine called holy sanctification. They teach, and there's plenty of them around here, they teach and you will run into them, they teach that you can get to a place in your life where you no longer sin, where you no longer sin. And by the way, they are not the only ones. Calvinists have a backdoor approach to this as well. Look at verse three. Know ye not that so many of us as we're baptized into Jesus Christ, we're baptized into his death. So again, we talked about this on Sunday. What is he saying? Well, he's essentially saying once you're baptized into Christ, placed into the body of Christ, saved, then guess what? You're dead to sin. Sin has no more dominion over you. You say, well, how does sin have dominion over people under the law if their sin debt's paid for? We'll get to that here in a second. Look at verse four. Therefore we, okay, we who are saved, we who have received the free gift of everlasting life, therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death, not water baptism, okay? This is what I call a tri-baptism. This is called being placed into Christ. So he says, therefore, verse four, we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. You're gonna find this a lot in the Bible too. There's a lot of shoulds, right? Go look up the word should and have fun. There are a lot of shoulds that we should be doing, okay? There's tons of them. There's all kinds of them. In fact, it's one of the reasons that church exists so that we can learn what we should and should not do. Nothing wrong with that at all. But we all know in this room that there's only one thing that you must do, that you are obligated to do, that's obligatory, that is mandatory to be saved, and that is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone for your salvation. Verse five, for if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection. Notice everything so far up to verse five is a guarantee. You're in Christ, you're dead to sin, okay? You're dead to sin. Look at verse six, knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin, okay? So again, the guys over in this camp here, the guys in the camp under the sin of law, I'm sorry, under the law of sin and death, okay, they don't get to partake in this. Even though their sins have already been paid for, and you'll see why here momentarily. So very clear here, okay, our old man, the old flesh is going to go into the ground, it is going to die, it is going to be removed from us, and all that will be left is the new man, that's it. And that new man is what this is talking about, that new man doesn't sin, and I'm gonna show you this several times in the Bible, that is true liberty, okay? The old man is guaranteed to go to the ground, the old man is guaranteed to go away, but the new man is guaranteed everlasting life. So look at verse number seven. For he that is dead, now look at this, is freed from sin. Okay, look at that, is freed from sin. Implying and telling you directly that Jesus is the one that freed us, look at verse eight. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. So again, one way to say, one way to express what a believer is, is somebody who's dead with Christ, because we're in Christ, we're partakers of his resurrection, we get to experience new life, okay? So he says, now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Verse nine, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion over him. So again, this is why the Bible also says that believers sleep, okay? Yeah, we say, okay, well, so and so died, or they passed away, but if they're saved, they're still very much alive. They're just with Christ, they are in heaven. We all know that, look at verse 10. It says, for in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Now, look at verse 11. Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord, okay? So what he's gonna say next here, look at this, verse 12. He says, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lust thereof. So now he's kind of switching gears a little bit in this chapter. So he's basically saying, okay, when you guys study the subject out in the Bible, okay? Again, I always say this, but context is so important. Is the passage regarding sin talking about the new man or is it talking about the flesh, okay? It's very important to make that distinction, okay? So he says here now in verse 12, let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lust thereof, okay? Then he says in verse 13, neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. He's basically saying we should. This is going back to the doctrine of should. There's a lot of things we should do in the Bible, okay? Just because we have been made free from sin, sin hath no dominion over us, sin cannot cause us to go to hell because the sin debt has been paid for, doesn't mean that we should just do whatever we want and live like the world, okay? We know this, there's a doctrine called sanctification. God has called us to be separate and to be a testimony unto the world. He doesn't want us to be exactly like the world. We talk about that all the time. Look at verse 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you for ye are not under the law, but under grace, okay? And then he just goes on to basically say what he's been saying the whole time. He brings this up. He's like, hey, you're not under sin, it's been paid for, it's not an issue, it's done. However, don't be living in the flesh, okay? We have the old man, we also have the new man. Jesus said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Okay, it's a daily battle that all of us have to constantly go through, okay? But getting back to what we're saying here, jump down to verse number 18 again. So Paul says this, being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. So no matter how you slice it, if you're saved, you are the servant of righteousness, okay? Meaning you have the spirit inside of you, you have the ability to learn and discern truth and to pass that on. You have that ability, you have that gift in you, okay? So you gotta kinda understand this and this can get complicated, but really it shouldn't be, okay? Romans chapter eight, verse two, very simple. There's two camps, just like there's two religions in the world, okay? You've got the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which what we preach, liberty, okay? Freedom, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved, you've received that gift of everlasting life, guess what? That's it, you can't lose it. Even if you did continue to sin or whatever, okay? Everybody continues to sin, that's something we also need to remember, everybody does on some level. But we should be constantly working and striving to seek after God's presets so that we can get better and so that we can have better fellowship with Christ, so on and so forth, we get that, we understand that, okay? But the other camp, they're under the law of sin and death, okay? Their sin debt has been paid for, however, that doesn't guarantee that they're gonna go to heaven, they still have to be saved, they have to go through that door of faith, they have to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved, they have to hear the gospel, believe it, be saved, just like everybody in here already knows. Now go to Galatians chapter number five real quick. So I guess the question also comes down to which one are you trusting, okay? Most people are trusting in the works of the law to save them. I like to give this analogy, okay? It's kinda like this. Let's say somebody goes down to Fred Meyer, I like Fred Meyer, so I like to use that as an example. Somebody goes down to Fred Meyer and says, all right, I'm gonna talk to the store manager, hey, I'm gonna pay for everybody's food and groceries for the next seven hours, okay? I'm gonna set a booth up outside, okay? Put signs up, put people out there to let everybody know, okay, all they have to do is just come and get the ticket, they get the ticket, they receive the ticket, they go up to the teller, boom, it's paid for. Whatever you put in your cart, whatever you want, it's free. Okay, it's free. Now, if somebody did that, okay, I guarantee you there would be people that in this analogy would go into Fred Meyer and say, I don't really believe that. I don't really believe that guy paid for it all, okay? Even though they see people that are free, see people using the ticket, see all the proof, see all the evidence, hear the message, see the signs, okay? Now let me ask you this, in that scenario, what would happen if somebody said, you know what? I understand, sir, that you paid for everybody for the next seven hours and I'm in that window, but I'm gonna pay myself. What happens if they go up to the teller and say, hey, I don't want that ticket, I'm paying for myself? They wouldn't be able to accept it. It's impossible. The teller would be like, we can't accept double payment. That just doesn't work. It's not gonna happen, you have to have the ticket. So you know what would happen at the end of that seventh hour, that person would essentially die in their groceries and in goods, they wouldn't get anything, okay? And that's kind of how it is in this scenario here. That's why the Bible says that people will die in their sins unless they get saved. You know, but of course the world comes in and says, no, no, the reason why they die in their sins is because they didn't give them up or because they never accepted Christ and they never got that full power to actually mature and turn from their sins. That's false doctrine. I actually had this happen to me, a very similar scenario. I was at work and I was doing a job for somebody at a certain house, okay? And the ticket said there was a different payer. So I'm at one house, okay, and I get this appliance, I diagnose it, I fix it, I call this number and the person says, I'm gonna take care of it. I'm gonna give you my credit card right now. How much is it? It was like 400 something dollars. Guy's like, no problem, pays for it right there, okay? He says, but don't tell the person in the house. It was like a family member, don't tell that person. I said, okay, I won't tell them. And so I fix it and the person's like, okay, how much was it? And I was like, ah, it doesn't matter, it's already been taken care of. And this person literally said, oh no, I'm paying for this. I said, no, you're not, somebody already paid for it. And this person said, I really, really, really wanna pay for it though. I said, I can't take payment. I mean, if you wanna make a donation, you can call the company and give them a donation, but I cannot take two payments for this job, okay? It's impossible. And she was just like, who did it? Was it this person? I was like, they told me not to tell, I'm outta here, okay? But I know that's kinda silly and there's no perfect analogy, but really what you have today are a bunch of people trying to pay for something that has already been paid for, okay? And this is what we gotta get through to people out here in the community, is that look, why are you talking about this repent of sins and turning from sin and dropping your bag of sin off at the hill of Christ and walking up to the cross? It's already been paid for. It's already been taken care of. It's done. There's nothing you can do about that. In fact, the only thing left to do is for you to hear this message of liberty, receive the free gift and be saved. That's all that you can do. So back to the Bible here, Galatians chapter number five. Of course, we know the saved man has received the ticket. Look at verse number three. Paul says this, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Now, people might be saying, well, I'm circumcised. There's no hope for me. No, that's not what he's talking about there. He's talking about the Judaizers who had come into the churches in Galatia and said, hey, oh, I know you guys are saved and all, but you gotta be made perfect now by the flesh, meaning you gotta do this and do this and do this and follow this law and this tradition and this, okay? And Paul's just simply saying, hey, if that's their attitude, if that's what they wanna believe, if that's what they wanna teach, then guess what? Those type of people, they are under the law of sin and death, and they are a debtor to do the entire law. They have to do the whole thing from the day they were born until the day that they die. No mistakes, none whatsoever. Otherwise, you're a sinner. Verse four, Christ, now look at what it says. Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. Notice he doesn't say you are fallen from faith. Why is that? Because what does the Bible say for by grace are you saved through faith? Once you've gone through faith, once you've asked the Lord to save you and you've believed, you're born again, that's it. You can't fall from that. You can't lose your salvation, but you can fall from the message that is in the world. You can fall from the message of grace. Yeah, I've seen this all the time. I've had people say, I've actually had people use this verse to try to prove that you have to work for your salvation. Absolutely ridiculous, okay? Go to 1 John chapter number three. 1 John chapter number three. And so, again, the Bible says that Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever you are justified by the law, ye are fallen from grace. This is also just kind of a side note, but again, when you hear people and you see people and you know people and you've grown up with people, they're like, they've been going to church their whole life, church their whole life, right? They play Bible, church, brother, sister, God, Jesus, all this stuff, but they don't believe the gospel. Guess what? Christ is of no effect unto them. You know, I really wish that so many more believers would just get to this understanding because I see saved people all the time. They're like, oh, I know, but my nephew goes to XYZ Church down the road or VXV Church. It's a verse by verse church, you know? And yeah, they might preach a little bit different than you. They just want to help Christ though. They just want to help by turning from sins and get there. That's really the same thing, isn't it? They're just trying to help him out. Look, that's not help. That's hindrance is what that is. Okay, you're not going to help. Who are you to think you can help Christ out? Are you crazy? Are you out of your mind? Most of the time they are. But what I want us to understand is that those people are not Christian. Now, I'm not saying we ought to hate on them or this or that, but we need to just realize and throw up that wall and barrier that look, Christ is of no effect unto you. So really, you know, this advice you're giving me and all of this stuff you're giving me, you know, I'm going to take it with a grain of salt because you're not saved. You don't have the spirit. You're trusting in your works, okay? You're trusting in your license to work. How about that? So 1 John chapter number three, I didn't want to preach the sermon and not go here because this is one of the, we're looking at verse six. Okay, verse six of this chapter is one of the more frequently sent verses to the church email and phone that we get a lot. So let's take a look at it and break it down. So the guys who say we teach that God gives you a license to sin, they'll often say this, verse six, whosoever abideth in him, sinneth not. Whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Okay, we're going to break that down. And what they'll say is they'll read that and say, see, if you abide in him, or if you're really in Christ, you're not going to sin. You give up your old ways. And I've even heard people say this, and there's entire, I mean, churches around here that preaches, they'll say, we're not saved by works at all. It's a free gift. It's everlasting life. Once you're saved, you're always saved. They'll even use the same terminology that we use, but then they'll quote this verse here and they'll say, but if you're really in Christ, if you really abide in him, you're not going to sin. And they'll say in the original languages, what this means is that you'll get to this point to where you don't sin anymore. That's what it really means. You know what I hear? You know what you hear when somebody says that to you? Not saved, not saved, not saved, I'm not saved. That's what they're telling you. I'm not saved, I'm not saved, I'm not saved. I'm going to hell, I'm not saved. That's what they're saying. Here's why, let's back up, okay? So we're gonna start here in verse number three. So the Bible says this. And every man that hath this hope in him, okay? So you just got done the prior two verses, glorifying the fact that we're considered sons of God. And he says, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is saved. Pure, okay? What does that mean? Oh, you gotta purify yourself. Well, you're pure because you called upon the name of the Lord, because you received everlasting life. You were made free from sin, not by anything you did, but by what Jesus Christ did. Verse four, whosoever comitteth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. We often quote that explaining what sin is to people. But look at verse number five. And so of course they go crazy over this one. Well, if you commit sin, well then guess what? You are not saved. Verse five, and ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him is no sin. So if we're in him, we have no sin, why? Because he took it away. Very simple to understand, he took it away. But here's the thing, a lot of times people, they don't want to go back and read or they just can't understand, but they love verse six. They love verse six and they love their original languages. Okay, and that's what they want to push. That's what they want to come at you as. So let's break this down. Verse six, whosoever abideth in him, sineth not. Now let's stop and think about this. We just read Romans six a little bit ago. Who is it out of our dichotomy that abides in Christ? Is it the old man or the new man? What's the new man, right? The old man is gonna die. The old man is gonna go in the ground. The old man is not gonna be a thing. And that is what contains the sin, okay? So obviously it's the new man that abideth in him and that man sineth not. So understand this, your new man does not sin. That's what this is really talking about. That's what this means. Whosoever sineth hath not seen him, neither known him. And he's not talking about whosoever flipped somebody off and said a cuss word or played Call of Duty or went to Starbucks or whatever is going to hell, okay? Whosoever sinneth, meaning whosoever present tense is under the law of sin and death. Just another way of saying somebody who is not saved because all they are is the old man. All they are is the flesh. They don't have the spirit. They don't have the new man. So again, whosoever abideth in him. What does that mean? Whosoever stays in him, whosoever has been baptized into him, Romans 6, placed into Christ. Well, you know once you're placed in him, you abide there forever because no man can pluck you out of the hand of God, John chapter number 10. So look at verse seven. John goes on to say this, little children. Now let me stop right here, okay? There's a lot of you guys weren't here when we went through 1 John and did a series on this. This is not the milk of the word, okay? This might be kind of a milky subject, but it's not the milk of the word. There's some things in here that really require a lot of hard, well thought out study, okay? So when somebody that's not even saved is coming at you with this, okay, you need to look at it like this. So it's the same guy who's coming at me with a verse from the middle of Ezekiel, okay? It's the same thing. It's the same thing, okay? So now that I got that out of the way, let's read verse seven. Little children, let no man deceive you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. Now again, the only way you're gonna understand that, well, first of all, is if you're saved and you've been studying, but you have to understand the doctrine up until this point because he's not saying, oh, if you went and gave malt o' meal to the people downtown or ham sandwiches to the guys in the cold, you're saved because that's a righteous act. And if you do righteous, well, guess what? You're saved. No, that's not what he's saying. If you've done righteousness, meaning you left this camp, meaning I'm under the law of sin and death, I heard the message, I heard the word of truth, and now I went through faith, and now I'm over here under the law of the spirit of Christ Jesus, meaning I'm saved, I'm born again, I'm over here now, okay? That's righteous. That means that your new man can only do righteous things because it can't sin. That's what he's saying. Look at the last part of the verse. Even as he is, present tense, even as he is, present tense, righteous. Verse eight, he that committed sin is of the devil. And they'll say, oh, see, you sinned, you're of the devil. That's it, you lost your salvation. No, read the rest of the verses, okay? That's not what it's talking about. Again, this is a reference to that person under what? The sin, under the law of sin and death. Remember, there's two camps, there's two religions, there's two camps that you're gonna fall into, okay? He that committed sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning for this purpose. Okay, so because of this, for this purpose, the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Remember, the devil is the one that takes people captive at his will. He is the one mingling in over those that are under the law of sin and death. Okay, even though their sin debt's been paid for, all they have to do is receive the free gift, okay? Their debt has been paid for. Verse nine, whosoever, and this is really the verse you need to remember to get your memory back if somebody challenges you with this. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Why? Okay, don't ever let somebody read just that first part of the verse to you. Oh no, you need to be like a dog with a bone with this and say, uh-uh, oh no, we're reading the rest of the verse. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin. Why is that? Well, look at the rest of it. For his seed remaineth in him. What is the seed? The seed is the word of God. You have to have the word of God to be saved, to be born again, okay? For his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. So again, to answer the question, what do you say when people say, oh, you're teaching that God gives you a license to sin? You know what you could say? You know what maybe I will try to say the next time this happens if I remember? Say, you know what, we don't teach that because I can't sin, it's impossible. And just see the look, just wait for the expression. Say, I can't sin, it's impossible for me. What? Just bring them here. But you're gonna have some explaining to do, okay? Because again, context is everything. What is he talking about here? He's talking about the new man, not talking about the old man. So the better you understand the old man and what camp he falls into, and the new man and what camp he falls into, the better you're gonna be able to decipher, discern, and understand the word of God. So what John is simply saying is, hey, you know, ultimately we are the new man because the old one's going into the ground. The old one is not gonna be a factor in 100 years from now for everybody, okay? We're not gonna have to deal with him. We're gonna be the new one that was made free by Christ, that was saved by Christ. So if you're born of God, you're born again, you can't sin, it's impossible. So that's how you back up to verse six and explain whosoever abideth in him sinneth not. The reason why a person who abides in Christ or was born again doesn't sin is because he can't sin. It's impossible. It's impossible for your new man to sin. Go to Romans chapter number seven. So God hasn't given me a license to sin, but a new man that can't sin. That is how you explain it. God has not given me a license to sin. God is not giving you a license to sin. He's given us a new man that cannot sin. It is impossible because he'd been born again. Now they might say, yeah, but you just told me that we're all sinners and you've sinned before. Yeah, I did say that, but I was talking about the old man. Look at what Paul said about that very same thing. Romans 7, 17. He says, now then it is no more I that do it. And we're not gonna take the time to read the verses. Probably he's talking about the same thing we're talking about. He's talking about sinning, your daily choices. He says, now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. Okay, so we don't teach that God gives you a license to go out and do whatever you want. You're not gonna find that anywhere in the Bible. In fact, the Bible teaches the opposite. The Bible teaches that God hasn't given us a license at all to sin. That's not even a factor. He's given us a new man which cannot sin because it's impossible. So when I do sin, it's the old man that's the flesh. He's gonna die anyways. It's not even a factor, okay? It is no problem. Last place I'm gonna have you turn is Psalm chapter 119. Psalm chapter 119. So if you really think about it, a license is a permit from an authority to be able to use or do something, okay? So really when people accuse us of that, it's very serious. It's very serious because they're saying that we're teaching that God is giving us authorization and permission to go out and even commit wicked acts and evil. So they're basically charging God foolishly by even bringing that up. It's a very serious charge when you really think about it. Now, I don't want you to snap and get all super rude at people, you know? Obviously, we wanna have grace. We wanna give people an opportunity to see if this conversation can continue. Can I instruct you? Can I help you get past this? And if not, then obviously we're gonna be done. This conversation is over. But again, what you could say in this situation is, so you don't sin anymore. I mean, that gets them every time. You know, wait till they hit you. Oh, you're saying that God gave us a license to sin. So you don't sin anymore? You're done? And if they say it all, I do, but I ask for forgiveness at the end of the day. You got them. You got them. You have that opportunity right then and there to show them, wait a second. You're saying that you could still sin, but as long as you ask for forgiveness, so you could still sin. It doesn't make any sense. If that's wrong, that is absolutely hypocritical for you to charge me, for you to charge our church with this whole, oh, God's given us a license to sin, you know, nonsense or garbage. All the while, you're allowed to sin just as long as you say a quick prayer at the end of the day. And also, don't forget to bring this up. Well, what happens if you die before you get the chance to ask for forgiveness? What about a sin you forgot? What? What are you gonna say to that? And then just explain, like, look, do you not see the error in that? Hey, do you not see the error in that? Around here, there will be times where you're gonna have to go this deep with people. It's not gonna be a lot, but there will come that time. There are some cases out there that are very tough to crack, but they can be cracked. Okay, and so that's why we take the time to kind of go back and try to dig a little bit deep in these basic doctrines just in case you need it, just in case for that one time where people are just genuinely confused. They don't know, but they know a lot. You know what I mean? Those types of people, well, they don't have the spirit, but they know a lot of verses because they've been going to church and their pastor's been feeding them all this junk and they're gonna push that on you, okay? The better you understand this stuff, the easier it's gonna be for you to hopefully straighten them out and get them back on track. So really, two things I wanna leave with here, okay? Number one is understanding true liberty. You are set at liberty from the law of sin after you're saved. Really, that's what we're talking about, okay? That is true Christian liberty right there. You are made free. You are free. That's true liberty. The Bible says where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. When you're saved, guess what? You get indwelt with the Holy Ghost, so you have liberty. It's always liberty over license. We don't teach that God gives you a license to sin because you can't sin after the new man. It's impossible, okay? Now, number two, the last thing I wanna leave you with here is Psalm 119. We're gonna look at verse 45, is that you can exercise true liberty by seeking precepts. Now, look at this here. One verse, we're gonna be done. Psalm 119, verse 45. So the Bible says this. And I will walk at liberty. And I will walk at liberty. How? Why? Finish the verse. For I seek thy precepts. For I seek thy precepts, okay? If you want to continue to experience and to exercise true liberty and true freedom as a Christian, okay, as a Christian. So we're moving past these clowns, you know, talking about license and stuff. And we're talking about now, what do you do with all of this? How do we put this into daily practice? Well, guess what? You're gonna be able to experience more freedom in your life the more that you seek precepts. Precepts, what is this? Well, precepts are God's teachings and things. But really, precepts, when you study it out in the Bible, they're really rules and wisdom for guiding behavior. Okay, that's really what precepts are. And so the more you seek those things in your own Bible reading and discussion, coming to church through practical application, okay, the more mature you're gonna get, the more mature you get, the more wise you get, the more free you are, the less stress you have on yourself, then you're not gonna come in here like Mr. Starbucks and be all worried because, well, I saw this video and I could no longer go to this place or that place. You're gonna understand what's what and what's truth, okay? And so again, I just wanna leave with those two things. You're set at liberty from the law of sin the moment that you're saved, okay? That is true liberty. And like I said at the beginning of the sermon, you know, don't ever be afraid to ask, you know, hey, what do you think about this? You can always come to me and say, hey, what do you think about this decision where if I do this or people that, you know, do this as a sin, you know, because when we put all our heads together, we're gonna be able to come up with the answer, okay? And going back to those things that are kind of in the gray area where we don't know, the Bible doesn't say, it doesn't allude to, again, you go back to those questions. Is it wise? Is it gonna cause somebody to offend or stumble? And then you make your choice based off of that, okay? But number two, you know, we're free automatically. You're saved, you're free. That's true liberty. However, we wanna daily seek more of that. And you have that opportunity by willingly from your heart seeking God's precepts and saying, hey, you know, what is wise? What's wise behavior? You know, what's wise behavior? What's wise choices? Well, the way you get to that level is, you know, first of all, it takes a while. It takes hearing. It takes seeing the different precepts and teachings in the Bible and actually saying, you know what? I'm gonna go out and I'm gonna apply this in my life. You know, I heard this from the pastor. I'm gonna go and try that. I heard this from a brother. I'm gonna go try that. I read this passage here in the epistles. You know what? I'm gonna start applying this, okay? And when you do that, you're gonna notice more freedom in your thought life, more freedom in your everyday life because at some point you're gonna drop the ball a little bit and you're gonna be like, ooh, that didn't quite work out. What went wrong? And it's from that after action review that you get to reassess, reevaluate and learn, right? It's one of the ways that we learn is from mistakes. It's why the Bible's filled with stories of men that made mistakes to give us a jumpstart on wisdom so that we can experience liberty. Now the unsaved, the guys in the camp of the law of sin and death, they're not free. They can scream and cry with their American flags. True liberty and freedom, guess what? That's short lived. They will never experience true liberty and true freedom. You know, and that even goes to say this, even somebody in an oppressed country, maybe like North Korea, could still be free if they understood to daily seek God's precepts. Say, well, what if they get killed? Doesn't matter. Jesus said it doesn't matter if they can kill the body. We're not supposed to be worried about that, okay? They can't destroy the soul. They can't put us in hell. So it's a win-win situation for the believer. So again, hopefully that helps, makes sense. Let's bow our heads, have a word of prayer. Thank you so much, Lord, for this day you've given us. And I just pray that you'd bless the fellowship after the service, Lord, and bring us back again safely this weekend, and we thank you again, Lord, for all that you've done for us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen.