The Cost of Freedom

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=50 BGCOLOR="#333366" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>The Cost of Freedom</B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=165 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="132" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="VOID" RULES="NONE" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 35 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id470.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="God Our EverPresent Help in Trouble"><U><B><IMG SRC="007151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <A HREF="id450.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Baptism: Going Public With Your Faith"><U><B><IMG SRC="008151d0.gif" border=0 width="21" height="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP WIDTH="20"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="35" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="20" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="13"></div> </NOBR></tD> <tD VALIGN=TOP><NOBR><div> <IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="29" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" WIDTH="27"></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <div> Previous/Next Sermon</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="www.stanbaker.org"><U><B>Home</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id2.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Biblical and Theological Studies"><U><B>Biblical and Theological Studies</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id3.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Church Ministry"><U><B>Church Ministry</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id15.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Sermon Notes"><U>Sermon Notes</U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id4.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Links"><U><B>Links</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id5.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Personal"><U><B>Personal</B></U></A></div> <bR> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> <div> <A HREF="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:stan@stanbaker.org"><U>stan@stanbaker.org</U></A></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=430 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <B>The Cost of Freedom</B></div> <div> <B>Berean Bible Church, July 4, 2004 (Communion Sunday)</B></div> <bR> <div>      Freedom is costly. "Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence? Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned. Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured. Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War. They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.  Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured. Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his Ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and Properties to pay his debts, and died in rags. Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward. Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton. At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.  Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months. John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished" (from http://www.the7thfire.com/FREEDOM.htm). Freedom is costly.</div> <div>      Many people live in spiritual bondage, and they are looking for a way out, unaware that spiritual and eternal freedom has been purchased, at great cost. We do not have to be in bondage to the things that enslave us as human beings. God knows our bondage, and he did something about it. We have spiritual freedom in Christ, because Jesus paid for our freedom with his death. I want to talk to you about what we have been freed from, and what we are now free to do, because Jesus died for us.</div> <bR> <div> <B>I. We have been freed from trying to earn God's favor; we are now free</B><I><B> </B></I><B>to approach God with confidence.</B></div> <div>      Galatians 5:1 says, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery [to the law]." Christ has set us free from bondage to the law, to our efforts to earn his favor. He set us free so we would live free. If we have to earn his favor, how do you know when you have <I>fully</I> <I>earned</I> it? It is always a guessing game. How do you know when you have enough "points"? In fact, with one sin, you have lost the game, because the penalty for sin itself is death (<A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Rom+6:23" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>Rom 6:23</U></A>). But with grace as a gift, you can sleep peacefully at night, secure in the knowledge that we have God's grace - we don't have to earn it. The debt we owed has been paid in full by Christ.</div> <div>      Ephesians 3:12 says, "In [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence." We are now free to have a relationship with God, to know him and be with him, to go to him for help and for mercy. We are no longer under condemnation (Rom 8:1) - we can live free!</div> <bR> <div> <B>II. We have been freed</B><I><B> </B></I><B>from the power of death; we are now free</B><I><B> </B></I><B>to experience eternal life.</B> <B>(</B><A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Rom+6:8-9" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U><B>Romans 6:8-9</B></U></A><B>, </B><A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Rom+6:23" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U><B>23</B></U></A><B>).</B></div> <div>      The death and resurrection of Jesus provides us with the guarantee of resurrection, if we place our trust in him. Death, the penalty of sin, does not have ultimate power over us; we have the guarantee of eternal life though faith in Jesus. Therefore, we need not fear death as though it were all-powerful. It is not. Death is painful and filled with grief, but for the believer, it is the entrance into eternity with God. Romans 8:1-2 says, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death."</div> <bR> <div> <B>III. We have been freed</B><I><B> </B></I><B>from the power of sin; we are now free</B><I><B> </B></I><B>to serve God and others (</B><A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Rom+6:6-14" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U><B>Romans 6:6-14</B></U></A><B>).</B> </div> <div>      We may think we are living freely when we disobey God, as though doing the will of is restrictive. But to commit sin, to do our own thing apart from God, is to experience slavery, not freedom. Pastor Ted Haggard said, "Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay." Laura Baugh, former LPGA golf professional and current commentator on the Golf Channel, was interviewed in <I>Golf Digest</I> (Jan 2004). She had a drinking problem in her life. She said, "Twenty glasses of wine was nothing to me. Last year I went to a restaurant. A friend asked if I wouldn't like to have just one drink. I looked at the bar for a long time, all the shelves of liquor that were there. I said, 'No, thanks. There isn't enough liquor there to satisfy me anyway, so I'll just pass.'" That is the way sinful habits work - they don't satisfy you, instead, they enslave you. But we are no longer slaves to sin. We have been set free by Christ.</div> <div>      Therefore, we are free to <B>serve God </B>and do his will. 1 Peter 2:16 says, "Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God." We often feel as though we are in bondage to our bad habits, but by the power of God, we have the choice to offer ourselves instead to God as his servant, to do his will (<A HREF="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passage=Rom+6:12-14" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.biblegateway.com/bible?passag"><U>Rom 6:12-14</U></A>). We are not to let sin reign or be the master in our lives. We are not yet freed from temptation to sin, but we have been freed from the mastery of sin over us. We may think the commands of God restrict our freedom, but his commands allow us to live safely and confidently and joyfully in his will. Think about those who parachute. They are not really free to jump without a parachute. They are enslaved to the law of gravity. But the parachute is a constraint that allows them to jump from an airplane with full confidence and exhilaration and safety (most of the time). It is a constraint that gives freedom from the dangerous effects of gravity. In the same way, the commands of God give us freedom from the dangers and destruction of slavery to sin. Through Christ, we are freed from sin, and we are free to serve God.</div> <div>      In addition, we are free to <B>serve other believers</B>. Galatians 5:13 says, "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love."</div> <div>      Finally, we are free to <B>give ourselves to the cause of Christ</B>, to help others come to know Jesus and experience his grace. In 1 Corinthians 9:19 Paul says, "Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible" [to Christ].</div> <bR> <div>      Jesus paid for our freedom by his death on the cross and his resurrection. Our freedom cost him everything. And he set us free to serve him. To serve him is the only appropriate response, and it is motivated by gratitude. Confess your sins today and accept his full forgiveness. By faith in Jesus, you are under no condemnation, therefore there is no need to cover it up any longer. Give yourself fully and completely to Jesus as your Savior and Master.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Questions for Thought and Discussion</B></div> <div> 1. Have you ever paid off a big debt and gotten that piece of paper that says, "Paid in full"? How did that feel? Did you keep going back and trying to pay more on the old debt? Why or why not? How is that like trying earn God's favor?</div> <bR> <div> 2. Describe a sinful habit that you have been struggling with. Have you experienced the thrill of saying "no" to that powerful temptation? Do you believe you can say "no" to that temptation more consistently? If you don't believe it, how do you explain Romans 6:12-14? Consider the thought - "what we think determines what we do" - how does it apply in this case?</div> <bR> <div> 3. If you don't already have the habit of gratitude to God for the salvation and blessings he provides, how can you develop that habit, beginning today? Have you accepted by faith this salvation through the death of Jesus in your place?</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> copyright, 2004, Stanley Baker</div> <div> www.stanbaker.org</div> </td> </tr></table></body>