Our Freedom in Christ - Live with Lon!

Well, hello everybody.

Welcome to Live with Lon. I hope you had a wonderful Easter and today we're going to be continuing on in our study of the Gospels but let's pray first, okay? Let's bow our heads and let's take a moment to ask the Lord to make our heart ready to hear from him today. Lord Jesus, thank you that you are risen not just on Easter weekend but you are risen every day.

So in a sense every day of our Christian life is Easter. So help us celebrate you and your rising from the dead to confirm your plan of salvation for our souls. Now as we get ready to study the Word of God, Lord open our hearts and make them malleable in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Illuminate our minds and our spirits that we might really understand your truth today and its implications for our lives and we pray this in Jesus name and everybody said Amen.

Okay, now listen, last week I forgot, I got so excited about what I was saying that I forgot to include the most important illustration of them all. So if you listen last week to me talking about us being in Christ and our life is hidden in Christ and because of this we become the righteousness of God as righteous as Christ because God doesn't see us. He sees the Lord Jesus in whom we are hidden away. I wanted to share with you a great example of this that really helps me is the idea of yeast and dough. You know how people take yeast and they embed it in the dough and the dough engulfs it and the dough completely envelops it and you don't even, the yeast is no longer visible. It's hidden away in the dough and that's the greatest example that helps me in my mind to get on top of this idea that we are hidden in Christ and if you look at a lump of dough you don't see the yeast, you see only the dough because the yeast is hidden and if you look at Christ you don't see us and our sinful unrighteousness in the flesh but you see Christ and we are hidden away like that yeast is in the dough and God agrees to see only Christ in whom we are hidden. I hope that helps and brings great hope and joy to your life to contemplate that this is how God has hidden us and our sinfulness and our flesh in the Lord Jesus so that we become the righteousness of God in him. Okay now we want to go back to our study of the Gospels today and we're in Luke's Gospel chapter 13 and I want to pick up here in Luke 13 and remember here at Live with Lon and Lon Solomon Ministries, what do we study?

We got to say it. Come on, ready? The Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, right? So are you ready to do that?

Well let's get underway. We're in Luke chapter 13 and we've just covered the part at the beginning about how the fig tree bore no fruit and the master, God wanted to cut it down, but the divine dresser said no give me another chance at it to fertilize it to dig around it and then if it doesn't bear fruit you can cut it down and we talked about how this is the nation of Israel at the time of Jesus who had not repented and not come to Christ and judgment was what they were going to receive and the Lord Jesus said no let me have one more chance at them and of course they didn't repent even through the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and as we talked about they were judged and in 135 AD after their second revolt against the Roman Empire Jewish people were scattered out of Judea across the Roman world never to be gathered together in their own nation again for almost 1900 years. So now we move on and we find Jesus in a synagogue on the Sabbath as he's making his way towards Jerusalem for the cross. We don't know exactly what village this was but it wasn't uncommon for a Jewish rabbi or teacher to be honored with a guest lecture, a guest sermon, a guest reading and commentary on the scripture in a synagogue in a local synagogue and so obviously this is what he's doing. So we pick up verse 10 of Luke chapter 13. Here we go let's put it on the screen New King James version of the Bible. Here we go and he Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath that's key and behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity 18 years and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up but when Jesus saw her he called her to him and said to her woman you are loosed from your infirmity and he laid his hands on her and immediately remember Jesus heals when he heals he heals immediately she was made straight and glorified God. Now you would think after an unbelievable healing like this everybody in that town knew this woman everybody knew that for 18 years she was bowed over with some kind of infirmity this was a front page news healing in that town and Jesus did it out in the open for everybody to see you would think everybody would be thrilled and be rejoicing and praising God well not so. The ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath and he said to the people there are six days in which men ought to work therefore come and be healed in them and not on the Sabbath day. Now remember the Jewish leaders over the years had come up with all these incredibly legalistic rules for what you could do and what you couldn't do on the Sabbath all growing out of the 10 commandments remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy to keep it sanctified to keep it set apart and God had put the Sabbath into his regulations for the nation of Israel as a favor to the Jewish people. Everybody else in the world worked seven days a week back in the time of Jesus they didn't have a weekend they didn't get a day off and God gave the Jewish people a day off to rest to recuperate to enjoy being with their family to relax this was meant to be a blessing for the Jewish people but the rabbis had made it into bondage they had come up with all these rules limiting what you could do on the Sabbath you couldn't walk but so far they couldn't cook on the Sabbath they couldn't do any work on the Sabbath they on and on and on and on and on and this ruler says you can't heal on the Sabbath that's work you can't do work there's six other days to be healed this woman should have come looking for healing on one of them now my grandparents on my dad's side my dad's mother and father were orthodox Jews who had come over from Germany at the end of the 1800s and I remember when I was a small child you couldn't turn on the light switches you couldn't cook the meal had to be cooked the day before you couldn't sew you couldn't wash laundry you couldn't make the bed no you couldn't cut the grass or you couldn't sweep the front porch or you couldn't do anything lest you break one of these rabbinic rules about what couldn't be done on the Sabbath so the point is that the rabbis had taken something that was meant to be a blessing for the Jewish people and they had turned it into slavery into bondage into oppression for the Jewish people so much so that a healing wasn't allowed this poor woman after 18 years of being infirmed wasn't allowed on the Sabbath okay and the Lord answered him verse 15 the ruler of the synagogue and said you hypocrite does not each one of you on the Sabbath lose his ox and his donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it they had made an exception for this the rabbis had so that they could keep their animals healthy this was a good exception they made that benefited them as the rabbis and ought not this woman verse 16 being a daughter of Abraham whom satan has bound these 18 years be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath and when he had said these things all his adversaries were put to shame they were saved of themselves and all the multitude rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him Jesus now I want you to skip over to chapter 14 and verse 1 and this is another incident and it happened verse 1 as he went into the house of one of the rulers of the Pharisees to eat bread on the Sabbath that they watched him closely Jesus and behold there was a certain man before him who had dropsy this was a disease and Jesus answering spoke to the lawyers and the Pharisees saying is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath and they kept silent and he took the man and healed him and let him go and he answered them saying which of you having a donkey or an ox that has fallen into a pit will not immediately pull him out on the Sabbath day and they could not answer him regarding these things in Matthew's gospel Matthew even adds is not a man or a woman a human being worth more than an ox or a donkey so these rabbis if there was an emergency with one of their beasts of burden they would run and even though the the Sabbath said you weren't allowed to pull animals out of a pit no but they would have done it anyway to save their animal is not a person worth more than that Jesus says well now these two passages tell us a couple of things one they tell us that Jesus often delivered the same sermon if you will the same truth in his three years of public ministry every single thing that he talked about was not brand new these were two different instances where Jesus spoke the same exact truth about them being hypocrites and about the Sabbath okay so we need to understand that sometimes people say well the feeding of the 4,000 and the feeding of the 5,000 of the Bible got it wrong by a thousand people no these were two separate events Jesus over those three years didn't just do the feeding of the crowd just once he obviously did it at least twice so remember that if somebody tries to tell you that two similar passages are contradictory and they prove the Bible is wrong no they don't Jesus delivered the sermon on the mount several times at least the basics of it several times which is why you find it in several of the gospels in slightly different form abbreviated in one uh uh in a different chronological place in another why because Jesus taught those truths several times maybe 10 times who knows how many times during his public ministry okay now the last thing I want to comment on here before we move on is that in John chapter 14 these miracles were amazing I want you to look at John chapter 14 with me verse 10 Jesus said do you not believe that I am in the father and the father in me the words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority but the father who dwells in me does the works now watch verse 11 believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me because I say so or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves this is what Jesus challenges them if you don't believe that the father and I are one because I say so well then believe it because all the miracles I do who else could do them unless they were God himself and he repeats this John chapter 10 verse 36 Jesus says you accuse me of blaspheming because I said I am the son of God if I do not do the works of my father do not believe me but if I do though you do not believe me because I say I'm the son of God believe the works the miracles that you may know and believe that the father is in me and I in him these miracles that were being done daily throughout the land of Israel by the Lord Jesus Jesus challenges them if you don't believe that I'm the son of God because I tell you believe me because of the miracles who else could do these things so interesting that the blindness of man was so powerful and so precious of man was so great that they would not even believe Jesus because of these incredible miracles that he was doing to corroborate and authenticate him being the second person in the Godhead this is why in second Corinthians 4 the Bible says that Satan has blinded the minds of the unbelieving that the light of the glory of the gospel might not shine through to them they're blind they're not being hard-headed they're not being silly they're not being ignorant they're blind that's why they don't see and understand and so rather than castigating them for some sort of perceived stupidity or stubbornness we should pray for them that the Holy Spirit will meditate them and lift that blindness those they so they can see who Jesus is and come to him prayer is the key to people coming to Christ prayer for the Holy Spirit to remove that blindness Satan has put on all of us and I don't believe anybody comes to Christ but that somebody is praying for them to that end that's true of you I bet you had a mother a father or a grandfather or a friend the sister or brother somebody prayed for you that God would lift your blindness Corley Goodman prayed for me and that's what we need to do for others okay now that's the end of our passage but I want us to ask our most important question so are you ready come on now here we go one two three so what yes yes yes and to be here today and be able to be sharing this great word of God with you you know what I say how sweet come on how sweet it is yes ma'am yes sir now the so what for today I want to do what Elvis Presley said you remember he sang fools rush in where angels fear to tread and I'm gonna rush in to a theological truth that I think the angels are probably scared to deal with maybe it's called our freedom in Christ and I'm only going to be able to do kind of like an executive summary but I have two resources I want to give you for you to follow up on this and spend more time thinking about this and studying the word of God about this I'll give them to you now and I'll repeat them at the end the first is a book let's show you a picture of it by Chuck Swindoll you can get it on Amazon called Grace Awakening the Grace the Grace Awakening and the second is a series of four messages I did called our freedom in Christ and you can get them on the sermon archives of Lon Solomon ministries go to Lon Solomon ministries go to the sermon archives and about three pages in you'll see that series of four messages our freedom in Christ but here's what I saw I want us to talk about today I want us to talk about the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ let's look at Romans chapter 8 verse 1 and it says there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus there is now no condemnation for them who are in Christ Jesus and at the end of Romans chapter 8 the apostle Paul says for what shall ever separate us from the love of God shall this or that or the other or the other or anything in the created world no Paul says I am convinced that in Jesus Christ nothing shall separate us from the love of God the father so what does that mean well this is an expression of the freedom that we have in Jesus Christ we cannot lose our salvation and we have the freedom in Christ to do anything that we want to do now wait a minute before you blast off from Mars I didn't say that means we should do anything we want to do I said we have the freedom to do it without losing our salvation and this is the grace approach to the Christian life and this is what this is what Paul says in Galatians chapter 5 look at this stand fast therefore Paul says in the liberty with which Christ has made us free and in second Corinthians chapter 3 look at verse 17 now the Lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the Lord is there is what's the word liberty so what I'm talking about today is I'm talking about a way of living the Christian life there are two ways to live it we can live it legalistically or we can live it by grace living it legalistically legal this is live living it legalist legalism that's one way of living the Christian life meaning we have all these rules and regulations that uh uh the the church and that other Christians lay on themselves and lay on us and the only way that we're considered to be acceptable and as godly and as pious people of Christians is when we keep all these legalistic rules that have been laid upon us limiting actions that we can take we don't go to movies we don't drink alcohol we we don't smoke we we don't play cards and on and on and on all these things we don't do we don't cut our grass on Sunday and you know these are very real many of us grew up in traditions like this where we couldn't do any of these things and we're still to this day plagued by the slavery that these things put us in we might go to a movie but there's a small part of us that feels guilty because we were trained that Christians aren't supposed to do this now uh the Bible does not teach a legalism for believers in Jesus the Bible teaches liberty not legalism liberty freedom and this is what we just read where the spirit of the Lord is there's liberty to do anything we want to do without losing our salvation now chuck swindoll in his book the grace awakening comments on this i want to read to you a short quote here's what chuck says bound and shackled by legalists list of do's and don'ts intimidated and immobilized by others demands and expectations far too many in God's family merely exist in the tight radius of bondage dictated by those who have appointed themselves our judge and jury and he's so right now swindoll took a tremendous amount of criticism for this book but this is a wonderful book and you say well what about if people run off and and do all kinds of things and misuse their liberty yeah well that's a danger that is that that's clearly a danger but that that is not what the Bible teaches it doesn't teach license it teaches liberty to serve the Lord and to walk in freedom with the Lord and chuck covers that in chapter six of his book you need to read his book he balances this out in fact he in fact lest you think that i'm preaching license to sin let me say right here there are three times where we are told to limit our liberty and that is a biblical concept limiting our liberty yes we have it but there's three times we're told that we should limit it number one when doing something that we have the liberty to do takes us into sin and offensive behavior to God look at Galatians chapter 5 verse 13 it says for you brethren have been called to liberty yes only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh and so yes do i have the right to walk into a pornographic movie without losing my salvation yes do i have the right to walk in an adult bookstore and buy something without losing my salvation yes do i have the right uh to uh do a number of other things without losing my salvation yes but i should limit my liberty here because these things are sin and offensive to God and this is why uh paul goes on to say in chapter 5 verse 16 of galatians walk in the spirit i say then and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh if we walk out every day with the holy spirit filling us we won't want to do those things and our conscience and the spirit will testify against doing those things and tell us to limit our liberty there number two we're to limit our liberty when exercising our liberty will hurt our testimony and our reputation and our credibility with other people this is first thessalonians 5 22 the king james version translates it as avoid all appearance of evil you may have the liberty to do something you're not even doing anything wrong but if it looks to people like you are it'll ruin your testimony and your opportunity to witness with them i remember when i first came to washington my old girlfriend lived here and we were still kind of half seeing each other and half not seeing each other but she had an apartment out in merryfield and sometimes on a saturday night or a friday night i got late and i wouldn't want to go home so i slept there on the couch not with her uh there was no nothing no hanky panky going on but oh when i came walking out at eight or nine o'clock in the morning what were people in the neighborhood to think they weren't going to think i slept on the couch they were going to think there were there was hanky panky going on and a good friend of mine who was one of my mentors said to me lon uh you might have the liberty and the freedom to stay there on the couch but you're ruining your testimony with everybody that sees you walking out of there the next morning avoid all appearance of evil limit your liberty get on your motorbike and come back uh home you understand what i'm saying and third we should limit our liberty when exercising it will cause another christian to stumble into sin the apostle paul says that in romans chapter 14 he says it is good to neither eat meat nor drink wine nor anything do anything by which your brother stumbles or is offended you say well what's an example of this hey what if you have is it okay for a christian to drink alcoholic beverages yes will you lose your salvation no i'm not i'm not talking about drunkenness here i'm talking about having a drink or two but well let's say you're with a fellow christian who has had a huge alcohol problem and he's going to aa or she's going to aa and and they're struggling to beat alcohol in their life is it okay for you to exercise your liberty and take them into a bar uh and get a drink with you with them no you're going to cause them to stumble they might go right off the wagon because they see you having a drink and they go hey you know i want one of them too or to go to a party and bring alcohol when you know they're coming to the party uh no uh this is this is not loving your brother in christ or your sister in christ so these are the three times to limit our liberty when exercising it will lead us into sin or offensive behavior before god number two when exercising our liberty will damage our testimony and our credibility as a witness for christ in front of unbelieving people and number three when exercising our liberty will cause a brother or a sister to stumble into sin remember for a person who's trying to quit alcohol and is going to aa drinking for them might be sin because god's told them to stop and their great affinity for drink may not be sin for you but it would be for them and it would be wrong to lead them into sin by exercising your liberty and my liberty now that is the fastest treatment of this subject you're ever going to get but i refer you to chuck swindoll i refer you his grace awakening i refer you to my four messages called our freedom in christ on our website and friends this is why jesus said look at this let's put it on the screen mark 227 the sabbath was made for man and not man for the sabbath the rabbis had turned the sabbath around as though the man was made to serve the sabbath though the sabbath was made uh to serve man and in our freedom in christ the sabbath is meant to be a day of rest but you know if you you know if you want to cut your grass cut your grass now a one last comment this is what christians do when they go into legalism the very same thing that jesus just talked about turning the sabbath into a slave master uh for people look at this chapter two of colossians and with this we're done it says therefore if you died with christ from the basic principles of the world why as though living in the world do you subject yourself to worldly regulations do not touch do not taste do not handle which all concern things that perish with the using they're all just earthly things according to the commandments and doctrines of men legalism is a commandment and doctrine of men these things watch this do not touch do not taste do not handle these things have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion false humility and neglect of the body but they are not of any value against indulgence the indulgence of the flesh and i love how the esv we'll put it on the screen translates this it says these regulations parentheses have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion legalism is self-made man's rules to please god and asceticism and severity to the body but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh and phillips in his translation says that these self-imposed legalistic regulations do not honor god they honor man's pride of men and women walk around christians walk around i don't smoke or drink or cuss or chew or hang around with them which do and i don't go to movies and i don't play cards and i don't have alcohol and i don't dance and i don't listen to rock music and and look at me pious me um uh yeah okay uh but uh what about their flesh do they gossip do they think terrible thoughts about other people uh do they refuse to forgive others are they mean and cruel and conniving uh sometimes uh uh do they lust over men or women in their minds when they walk around or do they covet what other people have oh i don't care if you walk around with and you don't smoke or drink or cuss or chew but what the bible is saying is all that is is man-made religion all that is is you're being hard on your flesh with a bunch of rules but it doesn't stop the indulgence of the flesh it doesn't control the desires of the flesh these legalistic rules it just makes you look good that is it doesn't serve god in your life it serves your own pride you understand what i'm saying to you how do we control the indulgence of the flesh well kolashin goes on listen chapter 3 verse 1 if then you were raised with christ seek those things which are above where christ is sitting at the right hand of god set your mind on things above not on things of the earth what paul said uh if we live in the spirit we will not fulfill the lust of the flesh the real christian life is about controlling the indulgences and the desires of the flesh which only is done by walking with the spirit it's not done with rules and regulations from without legalism from without that doesn't control the flesh some of the people who are the most legalistic and seemingly pious people that you ever would want to meet i've seen those same people do some of the nastiest cruelest meanest most ungodly and unrighteous things that you could ever imagine but they don't smoke or cuss or drink or chew or dance or go to movies but it doesn't stop the flesh from being the flesh you with me so the way to subdue the flesh is by walking in the spirit every day being filled with the spirit every day and then limiting our liberty yes when it's appropriate but enjoying our freedom in christ we need to enjoy our freedom in christ jesus said i'll close with this john chapter 8 look at this jesus said and if you continue in me you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free skip down to verse 36 therefore if the sun makes you free you shall be free indeed now free from the penalty of sin yes uh free from the condemnation of hell yes but it doesn't stop there as paul said in galatians 5 we have freedom in christ that applies to our everyday living as well as eternity so check out those other resources i gave you and i hope god will use this to set you free uh if you're not let's pray heavenly father thank you for the chance to cover this very important subject today uh help people not misunderstand what i'm saying and help people not think that freedom means license it means freedom and liberty to enjoy life as a follower of jesus knowing that there is no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus and uh that they have the liberty to enjoy their life without worrying about losing their salvation uh and i pray these things in jesus name and everybody said amen amen uh angels uh fear to tread where i just rushed in uh but this is the word of god and this is truth and i hope you'll follow up with the resources i gave you may god bless you we'll see you next week on live with live