Christian Liberty #09

Introduction: The Greater Liberty and the Series' Purpose

0:00 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, May 2nd, 2004, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:13 And now let us turn together in our Bibles to 1 Peter. We come this morning to 1 Peter chapter 2, and follow please as I read verses 11 through 17. 1 Peter 2 at verse 11. Beloved, I beseech you as sojourners and pilgrims to abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your behavior seemly or honorable among the Gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works which they behold glorify God in the day of judgment. Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, whether to the king as supreme, or unto governors as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers, and for praise to them that do well. For so is the will of God that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. As free and not using your fleshly lusts, you should be free from the evil of the devil, as free and not using your fleshly lusts, you should be free from the evil of the devil, as free and not using your fleshly lusts, you should be free from the evil of the devil,

1:35 for a covering of wickedness, but as slaves of God. Honor all men, love the brotherhood, fear God, honor the king.

1:53 Brethren, will you join me in prayer? If ever I have felt that my soul has been made pregnant with a burning word that could well be, and I don't mean to engage. If ever I have felt that my soul has been made pregnant with a burning word that could well be, and together we pray that you would uphold his own mind and spirit,

2:53 that he may be able clearly and convincingly in the power of the Spirit to open up the truth that is so desperately needed. Help your people. Give them ears to hear what the Spirit would say to this church through the word in this hour. O God, we believe that this would glorify and honor you, and to this end we plead for such mercies through our Lord Jesus.

3:25 Amen. Whatever liberties we may presently enjoy, because of that ultimate sacrifice made by fellow citizens of our country in days past, there is a greater liberty procured for the people of God at an even greater price. It is the spiritual liberty, obtained for the people of God by nothing less than the bloodletting of incarnate deity. And because Christ died to have a freed people, the doctrine of Christian liberty always comes into its own wherever the gospel is proclaimed and maintained in its apostolic purity. And because of that truth, and because, and because of several very present pastoral burdens, in conjunction with the thought and concern of my fellow elders, I have embarked upon a series of messages entitled A Fresh Look at the Doctrine of Christian Liberty. And I asserted at the outset that we are in no position to wrestle with that subset of the doctrine of Christian liberty

4:52 that wrestles with such a doctrine as the doctrine of Christian liberty. It wrestles with thus questions as what shall I wear or not wear? What entertainment shall I or shall I not engage in? Et cetera, et cetera.

5:04 That subset, and that's all it is, is a subset of the broader doctrine of Christian liberty. And we are in no position to think and act as we ought with reference to the issues of the subset until we are clear in our understanding and in our experience with God. It is as you are made to rejected. with respect to larger, greater issues of the Word of God that touch upon the subject of Christian liberty.

The Foundation of Christian Liberty: Bondage in Adam and Freedom in Christ

5:33 And under the imagery of foundation, I have said that there are two massive foundation blocks of biblical truth that we must grapple with if we are to understand the biblical doctrine of Christian liberty. And those massive blocks of biblical truth are the reality and nature of our bondage and slavery in Adam and the reality and nature of our liberty and freedom in Christ. And we opened up those biblical truths. And then we ask the question, now that our chains are broken and we see the prison door open for us, why?

6:18 Why has Christ set us free? If it is true that whom the Son sets free is free indeed, surely the freed prisoner must ask the question, why has God broken my chains? Why has He thrown open the prison house? And we have suggested, I have suggested, that I know of no text that more succinctly yet comprehensively answers that question than does Luke 1, verses 74 and 75.

6:48 Where Zacharias in his prophecy says that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might render worshipful service to Him. That's the essence and the distillation of the goal. We are set free to render a life from morning till night of worshipful service. And the characteristics of that service are, without fear, in holiness and righteousness, before His face, all the days of our lives.

Guarding Christian Liberty: Against Legalism and Libertinism

7:25 But alas, there is no truth, no matter how precious, revealed in the Word of God, appropriated by the people of God, but that our remaining sin and the influence of a devious devil can twist and take the most delicious, wholesome food and make it into poison. And understand, we are set free. Under the imagery of two naughty, devious advocates or lawyers, I said last week, they are continually setting up an office in our hearts, seeking to depreciate the true biblical doctrine of Christian liberty. One of those lawyers is named Mr. Legalism, and he would cause us to depreciate the grace of God with respect to how we are to deal with our sin, whether in forgiveness or in power, to overcome it. And he would try to persuade us that we need something beyond the grace of God in Jesus Christ. But then there's another advocate, another lawyer, who has set up shop in our hearts.

8:35 That's Mr. Libertinism, or Mr. License. And he would seek to degrade the grace of God into a license and an excuse for sin.

8:47 He would preach up grace until... Until his throat is raw, but in such a way that grace, rather than binding us to a more meticulous life, lived as worshipful service, without fear, in holiness and righteousness, before his face all our days.

9:09 He would try to persuade us that we never magnify the grace of God more than when we are most careless about a meticulous life of holiness. And I have suggested that in seeking to shut the mouth and all the sophistry and the clever arguments of Mr. Libertinism, there are two texts that we ought to memorize, we ought to understand them, we ought to pray them in, to change the imagery. Two texts that act like sentinels to the left and the right flanks of the doctrine of Christian liberty.

9:45 And as long as they stand as sentinels, protecting that... That doctrine, we will not fall prey to the sophistical arguments of Mr. Legalism or Mr. Libertinism.

10:01 Well, we looked at the first of those texts last week, Galatians 5 and verse 13, in which the apostle says, For you, brethren, were called for freedom. Only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, but through love. Be slaves for one another. There is the glorious affirmation, For you, brethren, were called for freedom.

10:30 You were made Christians to be Christ's free men. But then the necessary exhortation, negative and positive only, do not use that freedom as a staging area, as a platform to indulge your flesh, your remaining sinful tendencies and desires. But use that very freedom so free from self-will and self-interest and self-preoccupation that when your master, your true sovereign Lord says, relinquish your rights, relinquish your liberties for the good of fellow believers and for the good of sinners, you can make yourself a slave for their... You are so free by the grace of God in Jesus Christ.

11:24 Your toys don't enslave you. Your appetites don't enslave you. Your likes and your dislikes don't enslave you. You are Christ's free man, so free, that you can make yourself servant to others for their sake.

Context of 1 Peter 2:16: Suffering, Indicatives, and Imperatives

11:45 Now, we come to sentinel number two this morning, 1 Peter 2. And verse 16. 1 Peter 2 and verse 16.

11:58 As free and not using your freedom for a covering or cover-up of wickedness, but as slaves of God. Now, let me take just a few moments to sketch in the context. We have a number of new believers.

12:16 Now, for you who are new to Bible preaching, you will often hear us preachers say, now, let's consider the context. Now, what do we mean? What do we mean by that and why do we do that? Well, by the context, all we mean is, what's the setting in which God gives us those particular words?

12:33 With but few exceptions, the Bible does not come to us as a jumbled up bunch of spiritual snippets. Now, when you read the book of Proverbs, often you have little sententious statements that can be understood without much reference to the immediate context. But for much of the Bible, you must look at those individual statements when someone says, when someone's quoting them to you, or a preacher is quoting, and say, wait a minute, what is the universe of discourse? Just as you cannot understand our world if you think it's at the center, as people did for centuries, but you must back off and see its relationship to the sun and to our solar system and to the little part that we occupy on the edge of one galaxy, then you begin to understand the proper relationship so likely that you can understand it. Likewise, when we would zoom in on the little earth of the statement and ignore the solar system within which God has placed it, we'll end up thinking wrong thoughts. So let me take just a few moments to sketch in both the larger and the more immediate context of 1 Peter 2 and verse 16. And for you who are knowledgeable in the Scriptures, you're just going to have to be patient.

13:47 God has been answering our prayers and bringing people who have been totally ignorant of biblical truth, no knowledge, and I'm going to be doing more and more of this for their sake. And if you get irritated, you're a slave to yourself. You need to get free to rejoice that for their sake, and it just might be you might learn a thing or two. Okay, good, all right.

14:08 What's the larger context? Well, Peter was writing to first century Christians in Asia Minor, the present land of Turkey. They had come to faith, most of them out of a totally pagan background. And now they were facing real opposition, one of the recurring themes in 1 Peter is suffering, suffering, suffering, suffering.

14:28 And Peter writes as a pastor, fulfilling the mandate the Lord Jesus gave him in John 21, shepherd my lambs, feed my sheep. And Peter by his pen is doing just that. And he writes to these saints to comfort them in their suffering, to instruct them as to how they are to respond to their suffering for the good of their own souls, and to validate the gospel before their pagan people around them who are persecuting them. That's the overall thrust of Peter's purpose.

15:01 And how he goes about this is simply this. In the beginning of his letter, there are cycles of telling believers what they have in Christ, and then what they are to do in the light of what they have. He gives them the indicatives of Christian privilege. Now you know what an indicative is.

15:19 It's simply a statement of fact. I am standing here behind this pulpit. That's an indicative. If you were to say to me, get out of that pulpit, that's an imperative.

15:29 So what Peter does is he gives these cycles of indicatives. He says these believers need to stuff their souls with the wonderful realities of what they are and have in Christ. And so in chapter 1, verse 3 to verse 12, he just tells them all the goodies, all the good stuff they are and they have in Christ. Then in verse 3, in verse 13 of chapter 1, he begins a string of imperatives.

15:55 And he says, now in the light of what you have and what you are in Christ, this is what you are to do and to be because of what you are and what you have. You see, the Christian life is a constant call, be what you are.

16:12 Do what you do because you are who you are. Because you have what you have. Now that's not hard to grasp, is it? I hope not.

16:21 So he gives the cycle then of imperatives. Then in chapter 2, in verse 5, he says, now it's time to go back to the goodies. So from chapter 2, verse 5, through chapter 2 and verse 10, he gives some more indicatives. Some of the wonderful things they are and they have.

16:39 They're a spiritual temple, they're God's elect race, chosen people, all this good stuff. Then in verse 11, he says, now, here come the imperatives. I beseech you as sojourners in pilgrims, that's what you are, here's what you've got to do now, to abstain from fleshly lust which war against the soul, having your behavior honorable among the Gentiles, that wherein they speak against you as evildoers, you may by your good works which they behold, they may glorify God in the day of visitation. Here's the generic imperative of this section.

17:17 He says, you are pilgrims and sojourners. This world's not your home, you're just passing through. Your home is not somewhere your home is not somewhere laid up beyond the blue. It's the new heavens and the new earth and the presence of God and of the Lamb and all the perfected saints.

17:31 Now he says, in the light of that, what in the world are you doing, playing around at the flesh pots? Abstain from every fleshly lust which wars against the well-being and the health of your soul. That's the internal prong of the imperative and he said, furthermore, these pagans are looking at you, that your life will shut their blaspheming, opposing mouths. And in the day of visitation, either when God visits them in mercy or visits them in judgment, they will be forced to say, I don't know about the rest of the world, there's a lot of religious phonies, but those people I watch, they are real.

18:12 See? That's the imperative. Don't muck about in the old flesh pots of Egypt. That's no good for your soul.

18:22 It's no good for your witness. That's the general directive. Now he says, as though the people say, but Peter, give us some specifics. We're practically minded people.

18:32 In what areas are we to abstain from fleshly lusts? And how are we, in what areas, to so live honorably that we commend the gospel? He says, all right, I'll tell you. Let's start with the whole issue of submission to constituted authority. Verse 13.

18:49 Be subject to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And so he gives directives about being submissive to civil authorities. Then verse 18, to domestic authorities. Servants, be in subjection to your masters. Chapter 3, verse 1, in like manner you wives be in subjection to your own husbands. So you see the broader context of 1 Peter, the more immediate context of this second cycle of indicatives, imperatives, and under that heading of abstaining from fleshly lusts, living in such a way as to commend the gospel, he is telling them that they are to live lives of voluntary subjection of themselves to constituted authority. Now, what comes to your mind the moment you think of hupotasso? That's the Greek verb for ranging yourself in

19:50 submission under a constituted source of authority. You say to do that is

19:59 Peter says no. In all of this, now we come to verse 16. You do this, how? As free,

20:09 but not using your freedom for a cover up of wickedness, but as slaves of God. Alright? So we spend a few minutes to look at the larger and more immediate context. Now we come to the text.

The Spiritual Condition of Every Real Christian: Free and Slaves of God

20:22 And I want to open it up under its two obvious headings. We're going to see in the text, first of all, the spiritual condition, of every real Christian. And then secondly, the spiritual danger facing every real Christian. First of all then, the spiritual condition of every real Christian. Would anyone who knows this Bible at all object if I were to say these are some of the things that mark the spiritual condition of every real Christian. He or she is a justified, man or woman. All their sins have been forgiven and they are reckoned as righteous in the sight of God on the basis of the perfect righteousness of Christ. They are as faultless and as virtuous in terms of legal responsibility as Christ himself.

21:22 I hope you'd say, Amen! That's me!

21:25 I'm justified.

21:28 You're adopted. God has legally taken you into his family. He not only dealt with you in the courtroom, he's dealt with you in the living room. You have access to his knee and to his ear and to the intimacy of the love of his heart. You're adopted.

21:46 You're justified. We could go on and you are redeemed. All of these things they describe every real Christian. But now look at the text.

21:56 As Peter describes the spiritual condition of every real Christian, he does so in two ways. Look at the text. As free ye and then put a bracket in your mind around the next clause and not using your freedom as a cloak of wickedness and let's connect the two descriptions as free but as though you were free. No, he says as free while at the same time being slaves of God. Now do you see that with your own eyes in your Bible? He's not telling them to do anything. He's not telling them to become anything. He says this is what you is. Pastor, that's bad

22:44 grammar. Yes, I hope it gets your attention. This is what you are. Free is at one and the same that, he says, you are free. They experience that nine-fold freedom which we examined some weeks ago. All the way from freedom from the condemning power of the law to freedom from the crippling power of the fear of death and everything in between he says to these Christians as you set your heart to abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul, seeking to have an honorable life that commends the gospel. And as I now direct you that a part of that kind of a lifestyle involves submissive to every category of God instituted authority, never for a moment forget you are Christ's free man.

23:54 Never let a human being bring you into bondage. Never let any human court of authority cripple your sense of your blessed liberty in Christ. It's blood-bought. Don't yield it. Do everything I'm telling you to do in the consciousness of your identity as free men and women. Your chains are broken. The door is open. And anything I'm telling you to do in being obedient to kings and governors and servants to masters and wives to husbands in no way creeps the door of the prison half shut. It doesn't put one manacle back on your hand. It is all done in your identity of free men and women. But that's only half the description. Peter assumes that every true believer there in Asia Minor has as his essential identity not only free but a slave of God.

25:02 A slave of God. To describe a real Christian as free and only free is to give only one half of the description of his true identity. According to this passage and many others as we shall see, a real child of God is a slave of God and of Christ in the fullest sense of what it is to be a slave stripped of all the negative connotations of brutality and cruelty so often associated with slavery. And that means scripturally at least two things. We are God's slaves in this sense. First, we are God's purchased property and we are the objects of God's radically transforming grace and power. First of

26:04 all, we are God's purchased property. When people are talking about slaves and slavery, what's the term they often use? Do they say he was a slaveholder or he was a slave owner?

26:17 What's the term most frequently used? It's the second. Because the very nature of slavery was that the master had property in the person of his slave. His slave was regarded as his property as much as his horse, as much as his house, as much as his land. Now, was he to treat his slave differently from his land and from his horse? Yes. But his slave was his property. And when Peter writes and identifies these believers in Asia Minor as slaves of God, he has clearly in mind this understanding.

27:00 They are God's redemptively purchased property. Look back to chapter 1, where he makes this very clear. Verse 17. If you call on him as father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear, Luke chapter 1, rendering worshipful service to him without servile fear, but not without the due fear of God, knowing that you were redeemed you were bought, you were purchased, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold from your vain manner of life, handed down from your fathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ. He said, you are Christ's blood-bought property. And you are to know this. When you get up in the morning and look in the mirror and say, who's looking at me? You're to be able to

28:10 say, purchased property is looking at me. Marked with blood, even the blood of the sinless Son of God. That's why Paul, in writing to the Corinthians, can use similar language. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, he says these words in verse 19. Do you not know your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have from God? Now notice, and you are not your own. You're not your own property. My body is my own.

28:49 Oh, is it? Not if you're a Christian. It's nobody's. God has it all by right of creation, but this is speaking of a right that goes beyond mere creative rights.

29:02 You are not your own. Why? For you were bought with a price. You were bought with a price.

29:13 God purchased unto himself by the blood of his own dear Son. But in becoming his slaves, we are not only God's purchased property, thereby made his slaves, but furthermore, and without this, it would not be true that we are slaves of God. We are the objects of God's radically transforming grace and power. When Peter says, to these Christians, as free, yet slaves of God, what has he already said about their personal, inward, individual, spiritual experience?

29:56 Well, look at just a sampling of it. Turn back to chapter 1. He's writing to people in chapter 2 and verse 16 of whom he believes the following things are already true. Verse 3 of chapter 1, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begot us again to a living hope.

30:19 He regards them as a people who have been born again. They have been begotten again in the virtue of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. He regards them, verse 8, as those who do truly love an unseen Christ, whom not having seen, you love, on whom though you see him not yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Verse 22, he regards them as those who have purified their souls in an obedient response to the gospel, seeing you have purified your souls in your obedience to the truth. Verse 23, having been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, he regards them as a people who have been begotten again, chapter 2 and verse 2, as newborn babes. We come back again. They have had a deep, real, internal, spiritual experience called a divine begetting, a begottenness again. Verse

31:31 9, an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. Verse 25 of chapter 2, you were going astray, astray like sheep, but are now returned to the shepherd and bishop of your souls. You see, these are not experiences parceled out to some, but these are true of all the real people of God. Any real Christians in Asia Minor, Peter could say all these things of them, therefore he could say of them as free, yet slaves of God.

32:10 Because the work of grace that gives us all of these marvelous blessings is also a work of grace that in releasing us from slavery to sin, the devil, the world, and the worship of self is grace that enslaves us to God. And no grace releases us from condemnation and hell, while not at the same time enslaving us to God and to Christ. Never, never, never! And if you cannot say with joy, as Paul could say, Paul, Romans 1, 1, look in the mirror and say your name, John,

33:16 slave of God and of Christ. You are not just that simple. Everyone who's made is made a slave.

33:34 People who are made a slave in these directions and as bond slaves of God.

God's Slaves: Purchased Property and Radically Transformed

33:50 And I couldn't root around in this concept without my mind going back to Deuteronomy 15. I want you to turn there with me. As we look at the very method by which God makes us his slaves in grace.

34:05 Does he get us outside the open prison door and get us in a hammerlock and say I'm going to keep squeezing up and not a hammerlock. What do you call it when you get the arm behind the back? I forgot what you call that in whatever it is.

34:19 What do we call it? Whatever it is. You know what it is. You get the arm behind it and start lifting.

34:25 I'll keep pushing until you say uncle. Uncle, uncle, uncle, uncle. Let go. Does God get us outside the prison house and say look, now I've broken your chains, I've opened the door and I'm going to get you to say uncle.

34:38 He gets us in the hammerlock. And against our desire and against our will, he just keeps the pressure until we say okay God, I came in. No, no. You look at Deuteronomy chapter 15.

34:50 Look at Deuteronomy chapter 15. Verse 12. If your brother, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman, be sold unto you,

34:59 sometimes if you're in debt, the way you try to liquidate your debt was to sell a relative to be a slave. He became the property of the one to whom you sold him. There's that biblical concept. If he be sold unto you and serve you six years, then in the seventh year you shall let him go free.

35:17 You will say to him, look, you're no longer my property man. You're free. You want to go? Split.

35:24 And when you let him go free from you, you shall not let him go empty. You send him out with a big packed lunch. All right? You shall furnish him liberally out of your flock, out of your threshing floor, out of your wine press.

35:38 As the Lord your God has blessed you, you shall give unto him. Now look what happens. And you shall remember you were a bondman in the land of Egypt and the Lord your God redeemed you. Therefore, you shall do this thing.

35:50 Now notice. Here you said to the man, look, I'm going to give you half a dozen of my sheep. I'm going to give you so many bushels of my fruit of my ground and all the rest. You're free to go man.

36:01 Here's all your stuff. But he turns around and he says to you, and it shall be if he say to you, I will not go out from you because he loves you and your house because he is well with you. See what happens? He says, wait a minute.

36:20 I've got a I've been in this house and this master, instead of kicking me around, beating on me, spitting on me, kicking me, he treats me like his brother. He treats me like his son. He treats me like his daughter. I never had it so good.

36:34 I don't need to worry about who's going to buy the food. The master does. Puts it on the table. And the work requirements are reasonable.

36:41 He treats, and you know what's happened? I've come to love the dude. I love him. He treats me well.

36:49 He sets me free. I don't know. I mean, I might not make it in my own enterprise. I mean, I might go bust.

36:57 We might have a famine next year, and all the burden of famine can fall on my shoulders, not the master's. I've had it too good with him. I've seen his heart. I've seen the generosity of his hand.

37:10 If he shall say, I will not go out from you because he loves you and your house because it's well with you, then you shall take an awl and thrust it through his ear unto the door, and he shall be your slave for ever.

37:27 So you've turned him loose, and he comes back, and he says, Master, Master John, I don't want it out there. I've come to love you. I love the way you treat me. I see your heart and the provision of your hand and the climate of the way you respect me.

37:45 Master John, I want to be your slave for ever. He says, you're sure? He says, yes, sir. He says, come over here.

37:52 And he takes him to the door of his house. He says, come on, present your ear. He takes his earlobe. He stretches it down, and he takes his awl, pierces his ear.

38:07 He says, you're mine forever. Why'd he do it? Because the Master's heart and the Master's hand won the voluntary subjection of his will. You got it?

38:22 You got it? He's the love and mercy in Christ, and in Christ God comes with all the blood of my son and the grace of my son. I'll break your chains and set you free. And in the embrace of repentance and faith, we see the heart of God.

39:03 All the rotten thoughts we had before that he's a hard master, and his laws aren't good, they're restrictive and kind of an ungrateful, blaspheming heart. And now we see the heart of God, and we see the hand of God in giving of his only son. And we say, oh, such a heart, and such, here's my ear.

39:32 Or post this best, whose I am. Purchase thine alone to be by thy blood, oh, spotless lamb, shed so willingly for me. Do you see it? Do you see it?

39:54 In this Old Testament ritual, God's showing you what the gospel does,

40:07 made by the constraining power of his grace and of his mercy. That's why Paul could say in Romans 6, and being made free from sin and become slaves to God, God be thanked that you have obeyed from the heart that form of teaching unto which you were delivered and having been made free from sin and become slaves to God. He assumed that whenever grace is operative, as sure as the other, always together in the marvelous complex of God's saving grace. Isn't that what Jesus meant when he said, come to me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. I'll take all of the galling chains of an accusing conscience, all of the horrible, binding, galling, biting chains of the dread of death and of judgment and all the other chains, I'll break them, come unto me, all that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. I'll take

41:31 my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. I'll take the burden, I'll give the yoke. My friends, listen to me, listen to me, listen, listen, if you can find them. All this controversy a few years ago, some of you are aware, called the lordship controversy.

42:00 A dear and esteemed champion for truth in our generation, Dr. John MacArthur, produced a book, The Gospel According to Jesus, and you would have thought that the man had become a heretic. People wrote books to refute it, attempt to refute it. Then he wrote The Gospel According to the Apostles, demonstrating this simple truth I'm preaching this morning.

42:20 Grace never frees without enslaving.

42:26 Never,

42:28 never, never.

42:32 I can marshal text upon text, but I want to come to application.

Self-Examination: Are You Both Free and a Slave of God?

42:39 We've looked at the text, and what does it say? It says, this is the spiritual condition of every real Christian. Now,

42:48 if this is the spiritual condition of every real Christian, he's both free and a slave.

42:56 Let me ask a very simple question. Is this you?

43:01 Is you both free? Are you free and are you a slave?

43:16 That's the question you've got to ask each of us. John Brown, preaching on this text, realized that question needed to be addressed to his hearers. He wrote, it concerns us all seriously to inquire if the condition which has been described by Peter is ours. Are we experimentally, that is, in our own experience, acquainted with this liberty of the children of God?

43:40 Are we slaves of God? The question should not be a difficult one to answer. On this subject, I believe, there may be presumptuous confidence, and I fear there is more than a little of it in this place this morning. Where there is not only no evidence for, but very much evidence against a favorable answer.

44:00 There are men who speak great swelling words of vanity about their Christian liberty, while their whole character and conduct proclaim them to be the servants of corruption. The only permanent satisfactory evidence that we are God's free men and women is habitual gratitude for our emancipation showing itself and then guess what text he quotes, Luke 1, 74 and 5, serving him without fear in holiness and righteousness, walking before him in love. The only permanent satisfactory evidence we are God's slaves is that we're doing God's work. His slave you are, Paul said, whom you obey. Not the one you point to on Sunday morning and say, he's the master. The one you obey on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday. You see why I say, you're in no position to talk about what movies shall I go to?

45:08 What movies shall I rent from Blockbuster? What music shall I listen to? Shall I not listen to? What meat shall I eat?

45:15 What drink shall I imbibe? Mixed bathing, makeup, pierced ear, earring, hairstyle. You're in no position to talk about those issues until you can look in the mirror and say, I'm free. I'm slave of God.

45:31 That can be answered with judgment day honesty in the light of the Bible. Now we can sit down as we shall see in subsequent lessons. And we can take the stuff of Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8 to 10 and responsibly handle it when we talk about what meats and what music and what movies and what this and what that. But until you,

45:56 with judgment day honesty and this identity, don't talk about Christian liberty. For you're still a slave of your lust, sin, of the world and of the devil and of your own self-seeking.

The Spiritual Danger: Using Freedom as a Cover-Up for Wickedness

46:17 That's the identity of every true Christian, according to Peter. Now, less time, but nonetheless important before we come to final application. Heading number two. So much for the spiritual condition of every real Christian, according to Peter.

46:34 Now then, secondly, in our text, the spiritual danger facing every real Christian. In spite of Peter's confidence that all true believers are free and slaves of God, he does give this very poignant warning. Look at it. As free and not using your freedom for a covering or cover-up of wickedness.

47:03 Two key words for to understand the this danger facing every real Christian. He had already given the general call in verse eleven of stain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. And among those fleshly lusts, he now describes in more broad terms, wickedness. The Greek word kakia.

47:26 It has what the professional theologians and expositors call a broad semantic range. Doesn't that sound fancy? You know what that means? It's used in lots of ways.

47:41 A word with a broad semantic range is a word used lots of ways. Now why these guys just can't say it's used lots of ways? I don't know. They got to call it a broad semantic range.

47:54 Sounds scholarly, doesn't it? You didn't know I was a scholar, did you? That didn't sound scholarly. No, all kidding aside.

48:00 It is a word that has many usages and context must determine usage. And in some context, it's a general word that means anything that's morally base, the opposite of good, that which is corrupt and corrupting. Peter had used it earlier in this very chapter, verse 1 of chapter 2, putting away therefore all kakia, all wickedness. And then he gets more specific, all guile, hypocrisies, etc.

48:29 In other words, anything that is contrary to that to which God's people are called in chapter 1, verses 13 to 12, to 15,

48:39 comes under the heading of wickedness. Peter wrote, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, set your hope perfectly on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Christ, as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lust in the time of your ignorance, but like as he who called you is holy, so be yourselves holy in all manner of living, because it is written, you shall be holy for I am holy. Holiness in every facet of my life. I'm set free to render worshipful service without crippling carnal fear in holiness and righteousness before his face all the days of my life. And anything that doesn't fit that orbit is kakia. It is wickedness. Now, notice what Peter says.

49:35 Not using your freedom as a cover or cover-up for wickedness. The only time in the New Testament where this word that I'm translating cover or cover-up is found is right here. But the root of it is the word, standard word for veil or covering. When the Old Testament was translated into Greek and they were translating where it says that such and such a kind of ram's skin be used for a covering of the tabernacle, this is the precise word that was used in Exodus 26-14.

50:12 Then in 2 Samuel 17-19 it speaks of a covering over a well. Some women were trying to hide a well from their enemies and it says they put the cover over the well so that when you walk by you wouldn't see a well but you would just see this cover. Now, get Peter's image. He's saying now, you believers, here's your identity.

50:36 You are free. But I want to give you a warning. You need to be a believer. This warning because you have got a very persuasive advocate within your breast.

50:45 Just as Paul recognized. Peter and Paul are on the same page. He said there will be a tendency for you to take the reality of your freedom and use it as a cover up for wickedness. Now, let's put the idea together.

51:04 While contemplating what it means to render worshipful service to God all of my days in a context of holiness and righteousness, seeking to be holy as He is holy, having no area of my life cordoned off and saying, well, we can feed a little bit of fleshly lust here and a little bit of fleshly lust there and a little bit of the world's dictates about what's right and what's wrong over here. No, no, no, every area of holiness unto the Lord, that's the passion of our hearts. And if you're a true Christian, that is the passion of your heart. How poorly you may attain it, how sporadically you may feel its strength and its power, that's who you are if you're a real Christian.

52:00 Why? You're a bond slave of God. And you know that God's rule is a rule unto holiness. So what happens?

The 'Christian Liberty' Blanket: Covering Questionable Conduct

52:09 Here you're wrestling with an issue. And, and activity not blatantly and universally recognized or condemned as sin. Now let's get specific. Here's a particular TV program.

52:22 Everybody's talking about it. And it's not one that as far as you know and what people say, there's actual pornographic scenes of people topping into bed together. There's not a lot of cursing. There's a lot of funny things.

52:36 And it's not an issue that is so patently and blatantly evil that you say, no, no, no, as a Christian, that's off the charts.

52:47 Questionable. And you're wrestling with the thing. Or maybe it's a purchase you're going to make. And God has blessed you.

52:54 You have the money to buy this given thing. It would not be blatantly sinful, self-indulgent to do it. You're wondering, should the money go there? Should it go for some of these benevolence projects for the suffering church?

53:06 You're thinking about the issue. And as you think about the issue, you have a sneaking suspicion that if you go to that place, if you watch that program, if you rent that movie, if you make that expenditure, you've got a sneaking sort of haunting suspicion way back rumbling somewhere back in there. You know, you have that way back there. But it's there.

53:35 This may dull my conscience. I'm not sure if I want to be plunking out that money if at that point Jesus were to return and look at me and say, in as much as you did it not unto the least of these my little ones, you did it not unto me. You're not quite sure you'd want to be plunking down your card at Blockbuster getting that particular movie if Jesus were the cashier.

54:09 Huh? You got a little bit, huh? Can you follow me? Or you're sitting with a group of your friends in their home watching a given movie.

54:19 And you're increasingly uneasy.

54:23 And in that uneasiness you know if you're not sure what's crunch time. What are you going to do with that thing that back here?

54:44 It's at that point you will be tempted to manufacture a thick downy blanket.

54:54 Oh, it's very thick. It covers up the lumps and the contours of whatever you want to throw it on. You know those nice big thick downy comforters? You know, am I talking to myself?

55:05 You know what I'm talking about? And you know what you do in your soul? You hang it up on the wall. It's amazing.

55:12 You can make it so quickly. And suddenly at your side is a big five gallon bucket of bright red paint. And not a little two or three inch paint brush, but it's a big old wallpaper brush, you know, about 12 inches across. And you stick it in there and you know what you start to paint on your big thick downy comforter?

55:32 Watch me.

55:35 You start painting. You dip it in. You start painting. You go a big C,

55:41 a big H,

55:46 a big R. Now to make it backwards.

55:50 You dip it in again.

55:52 A T. And then an I. And then an A. And then an N.

55:59 And then you go back here and underneath it, you put an L. You put an I. You put a B. You see where I'm going?

56:10 And you paint on your blanket the words Christian Liberty. You yank it off the wall and you throw it over that movie.

56:20 You throw it over that piece of clothing. You throw it over that expenditure. And you've turned your liberty into a cunt for wickedness. And that is because I hear it at times ad nauseum.

57:17 That you can say though my flesh might like that movie, it is laced with wickedness. I'll live if I don't see it. I may destroy my soul if I dull my conscience make myself estranged from the place of prayer. Make my spiritual appetite shrivel.

57:39 Anything that dulls the conscience makes Christ distant kills our appetite for prayer and for the secret place is wickedness. I don't care how many Christians in this place do it.

57:59 That's what Peter's saying. I will not in the language of Paul I will not offer my members instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. I'm so free in Christ that I don't care if I'm the odd guy out and the odd girl out and everybody's talking about the latest group and the latest CD and the latest video and the latest DVD or anything else. I am so free in Christ I don't care a hoot if I have to look them in the face and I don't have a clue what you're talking about and I could care less.

Application 1: The Danger of Not Believing You Are in Danger

58:36 Let me tell you what I got in my Bible this month. See what that does to your pseudo Christian friends loving their Christian liberty when they know nothing of heart love for my Jesus that causes them to want to be like him with all their heart. Well that's what the text says now I've got two points of application that I want to get through before I'm done. Number one the Christian who does not believe he is in danger of using his liberty as a cover up for wickedness is in the greatest danger of doing so.

59:16 The Christian who does not believe he is in danger of using his liberty as a cover up for wickedness is in the greatest danger of doing that very thing. What did Jesus say in Matthew 26 41 watch watch as well as pray that you enter not into temptation the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak the word watch is a military term keep alert I've got this dangerous persuasive sophistical lawyer in my breast who is also on the side an excellent downy comforter maker and he's always got his big pale or red paint in his 12 inch brush ready to go to work would God I could say I don't know much about him I've lived with him for 52 years and one of the longings for heaven is I'll kiss him goodbye when I breathe my last I'll kiss him goodbye 1 Corinthians 10 12 let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall we are never more unsafe than when we feel most safe hear me we are never more unsafe than when we feel most safe let me illustrate there's going to be lots of parades memorial day

60:46 crowds of people milling and in them there could be wretched pedophiles and kidnappers and so daddy's going to take his son out for the first time to that kind of setting he said now son at no point at no point does daddy hand and your hand fail to keep contact if I lose my grip on you you grip on me we're locked together there's all kinds of dangers out there now if that boy believes his daddy he's going to make sure no matter what sights dazzling mouth here if he doesn't feel daddy's hand squeezing his he's going to go to squeezing daddy's and when he gets so confident that he relinquishes because he's been safe nobody's come and bothered and tried to grab him away when he is most sure that he is safe he is most got the message he that hath ears to hear let him hear if you do not incorporate into your prayers a serious regard for peter's words oh god and free i am your slave but i know i'm in danger of using my freedom as a cover up for wickedness god help me keep me close to you keep me sensitive to the first whisperings of that voice way way back there and make me deaf

Application 2: Will This Activity Validate or Compromise My Identity?

62:15 to the voice of my peers in society that's my first application now my second one and god knows i realize this is going to cut very close to the bone with some of you but i've got to be faithful to your soul here it is the most effective way to avoid falling into this sin is to weigh my contemplated issues of christian liberty in this light here i'm resting shall i eat or not eat shall i drink or not drink shall i watch or not watch shall i go or not go the most effective way to avoid falling into this sin of using the liberty that puts you in the place where you do have to make the choice because god hasn't given you a big long checklist and you can look up alphabetically no that's a forbidden this is a forbidden that's an okay that's no here's the most effective way to avoid falling into the sin of using your liberty as a cover up for wickedness and it is this will this activity validate or compromise my true identity simple question will this particular activity validate or compromise my identity what identity i'm free and yet i'm christ and god's slave

63:44 let me get specific summertime's coming with summertime sand and surf and bare flesh on the beach and if you're a christian woman or christian man you believe the bible has something to say about modesty it doesn't give us a manual with inches and square inches and square centimeters of flesh that need to be covered to be called modest but it does talk about modest and when it talks about a woman with the attire of a harlot that means she was showing off her wares to get some action right to hang your shingle out to get some business women dress in modest apparel paul says all right so now you're wrestling with the whole issue shall i first of all shall i put myself in a place of indiscriminate mixed bathing not talking about families on vacation or in their backyard pool husband and wife and children and siblings in a family continent talking about that i said indiscriminate mixed bathing listen to the old man he uses his words carefully all right don't go out and say you can't even go in the pool come on don't do that to me

65:01 that's that's dirty pool kids don't don't don't do that to me i'm not that stupid all right come on let's get honest let's get real if i can use your terminology let's get real in your wrestling shall i go in a setting of indiscriminate mixed bathing that is bearing my body according to current bathing suit standards before men other than my dad or my husband or my brothers i'm free free to do what free to say to a society as jeff pollard has unquestionably proven has had a calculated movement over the past fifty years to make public nakedness acceptable that tells you that you can leave as much bare flesh as a woman has with her basic two pieces of underwear and even less and it's acceptable because it's at the beach it's at the pool now i ask come on let's get on this in the light of two perspectives luke 17 in verse three it is necessary jesus said that offenses come he said in a sinful world there is inevitably to be sin that's the way it's going to be but then

66:31 he says but woe unto him through whom the offense comes it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck and he be thrown into the sea than he caused one of these little ones that believe in me to stumble if by your wanton irresponsible refusal to say i will not bear my flesh in such a way that is an unnecessary provocation to sin then what are you saying you're saying i'm either a slave to sun sand and surf or i'm a slave to being just what you're saying but it's my use not your liberty as a cover up for wickedness you men you find it indiscriminate or a provocation to mental lust which jesus said is a violation of the seventh command man then you gotta be willing to be the odd man out you young men

67:57 the single's gonna have a bathing party gonna have a pool party you gotta have the guts to say cut me out what do you mean i'm too much of a sinner i'm just being through to who i am i'm free and i'm god's slave and you go smiling all the way home to read a book while everybody else is splashing you say pastor that's radical you show me that that's not a legitimate application of biblical principles and i'm ready to retract everything i've said i am sick and tired of people to this world's standards of summer modesty don't prayer meeting and give the man a lesson in posterior analysis to me by the clothing you pour yourself into because it's in public i think prayer meeting is part of public worship isn't it last time i asked it was

69:25 i was about a ten reputation for being a bunch of menonites so what nothing's worse than that what do you know about it i'll tell you what i know about it i was reared five minutes from long island sound in stanford connecticut where my pappy would come home at night to give my mother a little rest from all the kids surrounding her he'd walk us down the beach we'd swim summertime when i wasn't working i lay on the beach hour after hour to wonder i'm not riddled with skin cancer i was a sand surf beach boy and god saved me nobody preached to me like i'm preaching to you but i saw this in my pipe i've been willing to and i myself splashing in salt water which i love and in many settings where i'd thoroughly enjoy and it would be quote my liberty to do what i do in the water but what i gotta see when i get out to water i ain't got no liberty to do that i'm told to pluck out right eyes not go where my eyes are gonna need to be plucked what about got a lot of weddings coming

70:54 folks you girls getting weddings god help you if men have to sit here with their heads bowed because of all the flesh and cleavage they gotta watch at a christian wedding at times i wanted to weep and put my head down and say folks folks i want you to know i've got nothing to do with all the flesh you see does this validate free yet slaves of god free from current wedding dress and bridesmaids as a slave modesty as the standard of my life is that unreasonable what about your music does my listening to this music validate i'm free yet a slave of god who says whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are lovely if there be any virtue if there be any praise think on these things how could i be the impression is made upon the Sensitive Tablets of the Brain

72:23 and that's why when you watch the close-ups at the rock concerts you find the thousands lip-syncing awls of their favorite rock style like a demonic madman on the stage ah but i just listened to ccm yeah with words so often that are so trite and denigrating to the glory and dignity of my god and of my savior and his salvation that they are nothing short of blasphemy what do you know i make myself listen to some of the garbage so when i talk about it and you challenge me i can look you in the eyeballs and say let's take your cd and sit down and let's look at the lyrics together you're not free you're a slave to current sounds admit it i'm a slave admit it don't say

73:32 addiction to your videos to your music to your style to immodesty and a host of other things i said lord if i don't drop down into specific people to go out and say what this sermon pastor and not have a clue what i was talking about now that's only a sampling hoping the holy ghost will provoke thought and prayer and reflection and a host of other things when you say pastor if that's what being a christian is that's too restricted for me that's too radical i'm not sure i want that my friend listen to me there's one place to go and evaluate whatever you're holding to you go to a place where god incarnate is writhing in agony upon a cross that's what your addiction cost him that's what your slavery cost him gazing upon him and seeing the heart of god in a crucified risen savior then you'll be ready to say god what a fool i've been to think that anything you would require of me would constrict me and restrict me and be something less than the fullness of what you made me to be oh god what a stupid fool i've been forgive me make me your slave cover me in the blood of your son i want to be your purchased possession i want to be your conquered vassal lord jesus here's my ear

75:01 nail it to the door post is there any sitting here this morning who says oh god i want to be free the only way to get free is become a slave in that slavery you are free that's it you say that double talk yeah i know but it's bible talk and in christ in christ there's such blessed freedom blessed freedom blessed freedom let's pray holy father thank you for your help as we've tried to wrestle with this vital text of your holy word whatever's had the clay of mere human thought and words bring it to nothing whatever has been true to your mind oh god riveted to every heart and may the lord jesus the great emancipator do his mighty work so that in this place today there would be some who know as they've never known before the truth of his word that whom the sun sets free is free indeed oh lord hear us and answer us for his sake we pray amen