Message 27 - By Jerry D. Green
“Freedom”
Freedom! Freedom!
How the very word inspires us. We have only to speak to those who either live
under, or have lived under, cruel, tyrannical, totalitarian governments, where every
living moment of a persons life is under the scrutiny and dictates of those
governments, to see and understand how wonderful our freedom is. How those
people rejoice who are able to escape to another country, another government,
under which they can experience true freedom.
For the past 140
years (since the civil war), America has been such a country, such a nation. It
has been the nation, most anyone from any other nation, would choose to come
to. The blessed freedoms which we have enjoyed and which are guaranteed to us by
our constitution and defended with the bodies and blood of our citizens, have
been the envy of most every other nation and people on earth. Sadly though, the
enemy of mans soul, “…that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan…,” is ever finding new ways to corrupt,
misuse, and abuse this wonderful freedom which we have enjoyed. His very intent
and purpose is “…to steal, …to kill, and (to) …destroy…,” not just in America, but every soul that
occupies this entire planet (John 10:10).
“Now the serpent was (and
still is) more subtle…” than most. His ability to deceive has been evident since he first
deceived Eve in the garden of Eden. He knows that he has but a short time, and
is working desperately to deceive and destroy as many as he possibly can. But
something that most people do not understand is that true governmental freedom
is of God and is the byproduct of a nation which in large part is made up of
true Christian believers. This has been the strength of our nation for all of
its existence, but today, Satan is seeking to destroy America by destroying its
Godly Christian morals and standards. And though it grieves me to say so, he is
doing an excellent job. How is he doing this? He seems to be counseling the
church leaders of our nation with the same counsel that Balaam counseled King Balak. No man can
curse a nation which God has blessed, but if you can cause the nation to sin,
then God Himself will curse them, because: “Righteousness
exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people” (Proverbs 14:34).
I’d like to take
a moment to discuss the definition of freedom. Due to the fact that the
definition of words are always changing, what one may perceive as freedom can
be totally different from that of someone else. The devil is very clever at
doing just that. I began this message
dealing with governmental freedom. That freedom in which a person in not
subject to the oppressive whelms of a dictator, or any other form of
government. Our American government was
formed with that particular kind of government in mind. We have great
constitutional rights and freedoms spelled out in our constitution, as well as
a special “Bill of Rights” which among other things, guarantees us “freedom of
speech.” All of these were written into our constitution with the best of
intentions. But the “powers of darkness” soon found a way to circumvent the
good intentions of the writers of our “constitution” and “bill of rights,” to
undermine the morality of our nation with the most vulgar forms of filth and
perversion, all under the guise of free speech or some other guaranteed right.
Through
ignorance, many of our churches today, have plunged headlong into helping Satan
succeed with his strategies through their erroneous doctrines and
programs. For instance, “We are all
sinners and always will be.” “We all sin every day.” “God loves us
so much He could never send anyone to hell.” “God wants us to be rich in the
things of this world.” And, “We sin with our body but our spirit is
pure.” I could go on and on, but the truth is, NO sin will ever enter
heaven. For God says, “…the fearful, and
unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and
sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake
which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). Jesus didn’t endure that cross and all of
the other horrible things He suffered to take sinners to heaven. To echo
the words of an old hymn which is scripturally founded, “No sin will
ever enter there.” But until the church begins once more to preach and teach
the true gospel which makes free from sin, even the Holy Spirit of God
Himself cannot convict a sinner. For where there is no consciousness of sin,
there is nothing to restrain the people from doing any and everything their
evil hearts desire. Thus, the chaos which we see in the church, the nation and
the world today. And if the ministry of the church does not change soon, the
nation and the world can only continue to get worse and worse.
The Apostle Paul
writes to the Romans, “So, as much as in me
is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also. For I am not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for IT (the gospel of Christ) is the POWER of God unto salvation to every
one that… (believes IT; puts their faith in IT) … ; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek (the Romans were Gentiles; as were all
other peoples, except the Jews]). For therein (in the true gospel of Jesus Christ) is the righteousness (the justice) of God revealed from faith (from just believing in God) to (believing THE) faith (THE true gospel of Jesus Christ); Romans 1:1-6; for): as it is written,
The just (all those who are justified) shall live by faith” (“…by His faith”; Habakkuk 2:4] THE faith, which is the gospel of
Jesus Christ; Romans 1:15-17). True justification and true FREEDOM is to
be made FREE from sin and FREE from the law of Moses and all other men’s
religious laws (Colossians 2:14).
Jesus was
speaking one day to a multitude of people (John 8:30-36), and
30. “As he spake these
words, many believed on him.
31.
Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word(s), then are ye my disciples indeed;
32.
And ye
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you FREE.
33. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed,
and were never in bondage (were
never slaves) to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made
FREE (John, Ch. 8)?”
These people were
carnal. They understood natural bondage
(slavery), but could not understand their spiritual bondage. Therefore, Jesus used a natural analogy to
bring something much more important; a spiritual understanding of what He was
saying.
34.
“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever
committeth sin is the servant (the
slave) of sin.
35.
And the
servant (of sin) abideth not in the house (of God) for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
36. If the Son therefore shall make you FREE (from the bondage; the slavery; the servitude of sin), ye shall be FREE INDEED.” Praise be to God! The greatest freedom one can know is to experience freedom
from sin.
In the 1970s and 80s
our nation celebrated the bicentennial years of both our independence and our
constitution. How the nation rejoiced over the freedom and freedoms which we
had enjoyed for those two hundred years, but something about the celebrating
bothered me. The celebrating focused on freedom, rather than on Almighty God
who gave us our freedom. And truly this freedom we enjoy is wonderful, but
regrettably, ungodly men are misusing and abusing this wonderful freedom to the
destruction of themselves and our nation.
Since those times
in the 1970s and 1980s, every antichrist spirit from hell has been loosed upon
this nation in the name of freedom and individual rights. Every ungodly thing
has been forced upon us by ungodly men in our government, both elected and appointed,
to judge and govern us. Perverted judges rule from the bench through
misinterpretation of the law and their stubborn resistance against handing out
meaningful sentences to lawbreakers. Most of our duly elected officials will
not take a stand for right, or against wrong, lest they should offend their
constituents. Thieves, murderers, drug addicts, and sex perverts of every sort
continue to be loosed upon us as a nation, and because these spirits have a “right”
to feed on the most violent, vile entertainment (law breakers, and unthinkable
pornography), they multiply faster than law enforcement can possibly deal with
them. Even if, as some suggest,
offenders are given extremely long sentences on their first offense, very soon
there will not be enough funds and/or honest people left to guard the
offenders. Freedom to say and do
anything that feels good to the individual (the “…pleasures of sin…”), is the prevailing thought of an
astounding percentage of the population today. And unless there is a tremendous
change, and soon, in the churches of America, there is little chance we will
ever see nationwide revival again before Jesus returns.
So what can we
possibly do? Is there any hope for America and the world? The circumstances are
bleak indeed, but there is hope for those who desire with all their hearts to
see true righteousness return to our nation and the world. And that hope is
that the church of Jesus Christ will once again receive the words of God by the
Apostles. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and
if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that… (believe) not the gospel of God” (I Peter 4:17)? And, “…if we would judge
ourselves, we…
(would) not be judged (of God). But when we are judged, we are chastened of
the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world” (I Corinthians 11:31-32).
JDG
Message 27 - “Freedom”
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