Christian Liberty #05

Recap of Christian Liberty and Introduction to the Fear of Death

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, March 7th, 2004, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:10 Now, if you have a copy of the scriptures with you, please turn with me to the letter to the Hebrews, the book of Hebrews, chapter 2, and I shall read in your hearing verses 14 and 15. Hebrews chapter 2 at verse 14. Speaking of our Lord Jesus, the writer to the Hebrews informs us,

1:01 All their lifetimes subject to bondage or to slavery.

1:10 Our Lord Jesus Christ said in John chapter 8 and verse 36, Whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Our Lord Jesus is set before us in the scriptures as the great liberator. He himself said, quoting from Isaiah chapter 61, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me to preach liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to those that are bound. And so if we are sensitive at all to the message of the scriptures, to the very purpose for which Jesus Christ appeared among men, we must be sensitive to this whole matter of what is the precise, what is the precise nature of that liberty which Christ promises to those who trust him? What is the nature of that prison house from which he releases all who trust in him? Well, it is that concern that has been the focus of our study for the last four Lord's Day mornings as I am in the midst of bringing a series of studies on the subject of Christian liberty, liberty.

2:34 The nature of the liberty purchased by and applied through the Lord Jesus Christ. And in the message this morning I indicated that I wanted to open up three more lines of that liberty that is ours in Christ, time permitting. Well, time did not permit to cover those three. I covered only two.

2:57 We considered this morning that in Christ we are free from any obligation, to the Mosaic law, covenant, that is, we do not have to become kosher Jews, circumcised Jews in order to become full-blown Christians enjoying all the liberties procured for us by the Lord Jesus. And then we saw secondly that in Christ we are free from the tyranny of man-made doctrines, rules, and regulations. Christ is free. Christ is free.

3:34 Christ is free. Christ has brought us to be His loving bond slaves, and He tells us in His Word we are not to be the slaves of men. And for those of you visiting with us who were not with us this morning, I say again tonight what I said this morning. You are under no obligation to believe any doctrine or to practice any rule or regulation that you do not see with your own eyes in the Word of God.

4:03 Christ alone is free. Christ alone is the Lord of the consciences of His people. Well, as I thought about our communion meditation tonight, and since my mind had been much involved in that third strand of this liberty procured by Christ, I felt it would be appropriate to finish up this morning's sermon tonight. And so, having considered the fact that in Christ we are free from any obligation to the Mosaic law, covenant, and in Christ we are free from the tyranny of man-made doctrines, rules, and regulations, I want you to consider with me in our communion meditation tonight that in Christ we are free from the enslaving power of the fear of death. In Christ we are made free from the enslaving power of the fear of death. That's exactly what we are told in the passage that I read in your hearing. Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood.

The Unmistakable Humanity of Christ and His Purpose in Death

5:14 He that is Christ also in like manner partook of the same that through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetimes subject to violence. And by saying such things, the world would express the State of God's führence is shapeshifting this family, the nation besser, and the nation and that all all my children each being pulled out. Now let me say a word about the setting in which these words come to us. Whenever anyone is poling the Bible in seeking to prove something to you from the Bible it's always safe to read a little bit before, a little bit after that.

5:52 Make sure they're not s賽kering you after. And when we use the word context that's all we're talking about, is that God statements come to us with mental and verbalanzas. When we use a statement we'll should be ready to put that statement in perfect normal. quantities that are not matched to never have not contained in acriptation.

6:04 umbilical cords and we need to be very careful that we don't cut those umbilical cords here in this particular part of the letter to the hebrews the writer to the hebrews is seeking to demonstrate that though christ is greater than the angels and therefore worthy of our trust and of our worship yet for a little while he became lower than the angels look at verse 9 we behold him who has been made a little lower than the angels even jesus because of the suffering of death in order that he might take the place of the dying savior he puts himself for a little while in a posture a little lower than the angels and in this setting of this particular section of the letter this writer is demonstrating to these hebrew christians that though christ is greater than the angels in his person he is the son of god yet he takes lower than the angels for order to be a redeemer of the open up in your hearing verses 14 and 15 there are three

7:27 major ideas and i want us to look at them one at a time first of all we have an unmistakable humanity look at the language of verse 14 since then the children and in the context the children are those whom christ say context that he does not say original that help he did not all humanity

9:25 from the time were constituted human beings we were and continue to be fled but when it says that he although partook marvelous act of virgin mary and the angel said which is conceived thou shall

10:26 call his name jesus who existed of the godhead he to the father in the father come father and nation of his truth and on mistake come one of us to show what great people at the

11:56 purpose look at the text likewise partook of the dawn that he took vanity they do not die if such

12:49 exists took on true humanity order that he might undergo death or took the shadow golgotha he comes to the manger in order that he might end up on the cross

13:33 begin to what you might expect a couple affirmation of his true humanity he takes this unmistakable

14:24 explanation of the purpose for taking that humanity that through death but we have an unmistakable declaration he might bring that he took a true humanity not only an expert humanity

Christ's Victory Over the Devil and the Power of Death

15:19 but a declaration of humanity god tells us it was that he might die we are not free to define the purpose and the accomplishment of his death god defines it for us and here we are told that there are two accomplishments very difficult to translate the word in the original in order that he might bring to nothing he might put devil understand fully

16:39 what this phrase means where the devil is described as the one who had the power of couldn't find any two commentaries that agreed as precisely the way in which the devil has the power of death and the devil has is limited and delegated power in the book of the revelation john has a vision of the exalted christ and he sees christ holding a key ring and christ says i have keys of hell and john in the book of the revelation of men seeking death and not being able to find it the bible tells us it is appointed unto men once to and that appointment is not made by the devil it's made by god whatever this means that soul has the power of death it does not mean that he is some power eat to an opposite god and we have some kind of dualism god and the devil wrestling it out and we don't know how it's all going to turn out but in some particular way and i think it could be this i'm not being dogmatic who was it that came to our first parents in the garden of eden and tempted them god had said to adam of all the trees of the garden you may free eat but

18:04 the tree in the midst of the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat of it for in the day that you thereof will surely die literally dying you will die death adam disobeys and it's the tempter in the garden and he something to be had in the way of disobedience to god that is not to be had in a life of strict obedience to god he was the instigator the tempter is a peculiar sense in which he has the power of going to say more than that but what to accomplish

19:15 this you to turn with me to the gospel of john in chapter 12 and verse 31 shortly before he was to die our lord jesus said these words to his disciples verse 31 now is the judgment of this world now shall the three in verse nine we read these words for this purpose a son of god was manifested that he might destroy of the devil you remember whom it says then mind of actual

20:19 possession be accomplishing his great design to rid of the world the liverer of humanity to himself

Christ's Deliverance from the Enslaving Fear of Death

21:09 in order that he might die a real death as as it far more clear because i understand it more clearly or fully myself look at the second purpose to deliver his people from the enslaving power of the fear not only he died that he might render inoperative that had the power of death

21:54 that is the devil but now notice the second thing to deliver those he died from the enslaving multitudes there are many like the person described in psalm 73 who rock along through life do one one to take seriously who he or she is god's creature made in the image of god made accountable to god

23:06 on his way it is appointed unto men wants to die and after this judgment death we begin to begin to take our fears and turns is by which realities and we begin to take seriously there is nothing to get in from that so that by his death why the script such language is not to be taken seriously

26:02 we read one of the verses this morning in revelation for dead and who died in the church blessed to the dead who died in this or in that but died and the lord they had come to view night into the lord jesus They have come to be united to the Lord Jesus Christ , who conquered death by his death and resurrection up and i'm doing my best to avoid him and yet i know eventually a new and he OP mean and you get straight any other morning

27:15 God says i'll never know to do you got something that god says i'll never know till you can come to them cause God came against this blockado you come come and take me come on all you can do is land me safely in the presence of my lord jesus blessed are the dead who die in the lord from henceforth set the lord that they may what rest from pastor martin when you're going to retire i said here's my text on retirement i'm serious i said my whole theology of retirement's right here blessed are the dead who die in the lord and they rest from their labors as long as i can labor i'm going to labor until god says death go get him and then i'm done and my works will follow me that's not natural to me as a boy as a young teenager i know this slavery of the fear of death lying on my bed night after night afraid to go to sleep for fear i'd wake up in hell praying oh god oh god don't let me die in my sleep oh god have an almost waking up the next morning and wiping my brow and say thank you i didn't you , hell in my sleep one of the most glorious things when god was pleased to bring me to trust in his

Testimonies of Saints Free from the Fear of Death

28:38 dear son bring me into union with christ was to be able to think of death without the slavery and the terror of the he's in a roman prison and he says in this situation i i'm torn i i've got two tremendous longings within my heart notice how he says in verse 22 but if to live in the flesh if this shall bring fruit from my heart i'm torn i'm torn i'm torn i'm torn i'm torn work then who's i don't know i'm in a straitening the desire to depart and to be with pride in the flesh is more needful for your sake want to stay and help these philippians and others who need my ministry on the other hand i have a longing this is how he describes death to teeth at all

29:58 and him in the immediate presence of christ that's how he viewed death departing with second peter chapter one time no christ for fear that he'd have died for he would be dead in the too might be dragged off and crucified with him but after he repents and he spilled pentecost peter now can speak of his death in such beautiful terms second peter chapter 1 look at verses 13 and 14 he says i think it right as long as i'm in this tabernacle that's a word that can mean tent he

31:09 says as long as i'm here in my body alive i'm living in a tent he says now as long as i'm in this tabernacle this body my human living existence i think necessary to stir you up by putting you in remembrance tabernacle come signified unto me and there he's referring back to john chapter 21 where the lord said to peter when you were young you ran about wherever you wanted to go like a little careless kid but when you're old some people gonna take you where you don't want to go and then it says this time by what death he was going to die so peter knows that before you're old you're going to die long, somebody's going to knock on the cell door and come in and say, off you go. And tradition tells us he was crucified upside down. For Paul, he knew he would kneel by the chopping block, boom, his head would plop in a basket. I'm going to put off this tent. It's got some rips in it.

32:14 It's got some by the tent flaps. So I'm going to put off this tabernacle soon, just like Jesus told me. Does that sound like a man enslaved and in terror by the fear of death? Why? Because he understood the Christ discipline into his blessed presence. So much so, Paul makes what to me is one of the most amazing statements in all of scripture in 1 Corinthians chapter 3. 1 Corinthians chapter

33:16 3. Trying to use Corinthians to get over their power lining up behind one preacher and some behind another. He said, don't do that. They're all your gifts in Christ. Verse 21, wherefore let no one glory in men. All things are yours, whether Paul or Apollos. Or Cephas. You are Christ's. See, for me to believe in Christ, life is mine. Death is mine.

34:02 Be at presence of my Savior. See that with your Bible? Very nice. There it is. Death is yours.

34:25 Death is mine. And no wonder, no wonder, both Luther, sensitivity, words like this. He who fears death, not willing to die, said Luther, is not sufficiently Christian. As yet, son of resurrection, and love this life more than the life to come.

34:47 Calvin wrote similarly, although we must still meet death, nevertheless be calm and serene in living and dying when we have Christ going before us. If anyone cannot set his mind at rest by disregarding death, that man should know that he has not yet gone far enough. For nothing in this whole universe, not even death, has the power to separate the Christian believer from the love of God, the living God, which is in Christ Jesus. Our Lord. Why did Christ die? Our text tells us. He died to render inoperative. He died to put into the table tonight.

Apprehension vs. Enslaving Fear and the Father's Ownership

35:59 And we remember our Lord Jesus in his dying life. If we cannot reason, the anticipation, understanding, was accomplished in his death. He accomplished. Does that mean we can look forward to the experience without any apprehension?

36:40 Of course not. We've never died before. When I go on the operating table and I'm in the holding pen before they wheel you in, I don't have much apprehension anymore. I've been there eight times. I know what's going to happen. Needles going in, going to feel a little fuzzy. Next thing I know, I'll wake up in the recovery room. A little bit of apprehension, but no great apprehension. But the first time, never been there before. Never been put in la-la land on the operating table. We've not died before.

37:15 What will the experience be? The experience of dying be like? What will lead to it? Will I experience a long period of pain and debilitating illness? Those apprehensions are normal and human and not sinful in themselves. But death itself, that radical separation of the soul and the body, death in terms of what it can do to land us in the prison house where we await the final day of judgment and soul.

37:47 The soul and body joined together shall be cast into hell. No, no. Death has been stripped in the death. If we understand, why did Jesus take true humanity in order to die? And why did he die? To deliver us from this enslaving power of the fear of death.

38:15 One of the most touching stories. It's a true story. I've told it perhaps once or twice.

38:22 Over the past years, it's hard not to repeat a few things after 42 years. But some of you haven't heard it, and you need to hear it. The late Dr. A.W. Tozer told of an incident of a young preacher who went to visit an old, dear saint, a woman who was on her deathbed.

38:42 And he'd never been in that setting before, where someone was about to die. It was a new experience for him. So he was desperately trying to know just exactly what to say and how to say it. He wanted to do it just like that.

38:54 He wanted to do it just like that. And this dear old saint, a godly woman, she sensed he was struggling. So she said, young man, stop all your worrying about what you're saying to me. She said, in a few minutes, I'm going to cross over the river, and my father owns the land on both sides.

39:15 Isn't that beautiful? She said, son, don't trouble yourself. It's not that big a deal. In a few minutes, I'm going to cross over the river, and my father owns the land.

39:26 I'm going to cross over the river, and my father owns the land on both sides.

39:30 All things are yours. Life, this side of the river. Death, side of the river. Your father owns the land on both sides.

39:42 And because you are in Christ, you have a title.

Personal Application: Breaking the Chains of Death's Fear

39:52 Now I want to talk very personally. Some of you children, you don't like to think about death, do you?

40:00 It scares you.

40:03 It gives you nightmares.

40:06 You're like I was. You don't like to think about death. Right? Think about it.

40:10 It's not anything but death. Children, you don't need to dread death. With the present level of your understanding of your need of Jesus, and the fact that Jesus died in order to deliver all who trust in him from the slavery and the binding power of the fear of death, you pillow your head at night saying, Lord Jesus, I trust only in what you did upon the cross to take away, my sins. I trust only in you to make me fit to stand before a holy God.

40:50 No child ever perished trusting in the Lord Jesus.

40:58 And for some of you who aren't children, you're older, and you have a better understanding of why it is that you ought to fear death, because you have a better understanding of the many ways in which you've offended a holy God and broken his law. And deserve his wrath.

41:17 You can do all you want to fill your mind with your Walkman constantly in your ears, every spare moment watching the boob tube, doing anything to drive away the thoughts. But in those quiet hours, in those moments before you drift off into sleep, you feel the chains of the slavery to the fear of death, don't you? Come on, be honest. Don't you?

41:44 Don't you? Don't you? Don't you? Jesus died to break those chains.

41:50 He died to break them. You don't need to live and stumble on from the present state into young adulthood with those chains clanking around you. They can be broken in Christ, so that though you think and plan and pray in terms of a full life and seek responsibly to prepare for adult life over the long haul, the Scripture says, boast not thyself of tomorrow, for you know not what a day may bring forth. The Scriptures tell us about a man who planned and plotted over the long haul.

42:26 And God said, you fool, this night your soul shall be required of you. Dear young person, don't trifle with death. Death is a horrible, vicious enemy to you if you are not in Christ.

42:43 But in Christ, death is yours. Death is yours. It is but God's rough door, that swings to land you in the presence of Jesus. And you who are older, for whom the reality of your allotted time gets more and more real, what happens to you when you think of death?

43:05 Can you look death straight in the eye? I don't mean shifty eye. You take your glasses off and look death straight in the eyeball and say, death, I know what you can and what you can't do to me. You don't.

43:20 You fear death with that cringing, crippling, enslaving fear. It is a dishonor to Christ for a Christian to have a crippling fear of death. Christ died to deliver you from it. That's what our text says.

43:39 If you're a child of God and you're not delivered from it, something's bad, wrong, unbelief, or ignorance of what Christ has procured, whatever it is, give yourself no rest until you are a living, that Jesus has what he died for. He died, this text says, to deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. Give yourself no rest until you're a living monument that Jesus has got what he died for in you. Surely as we come to the table, we have reason to celebrate with joy and remember with thanksgiving the one who died for us. The one who died for us in order to deliver us from the enslaving power of the fear of death. That's what he died for. Among other things, this in a sense is the crowning liberty that we've considered in the nine facets of our liberty in Christ.

44:48 Blessed liberty from that which is the inevitable experience of all of us. You won't all have surgery. You won't all have cancer. You won't all have this or that.

45:01 But it is appointed unto men once to die. And barring the return of Christ and being alive at his return, we're going to die. May God grant that we die in the triumphs of Christ's death, which means we face our death and we go through our death without the chains of slavery to the fear of death. Let's pray.

45:34 Our Father, how we thank you for your holy word. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your holy triumph over death in your death and in your glorious resurrection. And we pray that you will take these things upon which we've meditated together and apply them with power to our hearts, to our good, and to your praise. Amen.