The Meaning of True Freedom

Okay, very good. Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. It is again a blessing for us to have you worshiping the Lord Jesus Christ with us. I'm going to invite you, brethren, to please open up your Bibles to Romans chapter 6.

Romans 6, we are going to continue with our study through the Book of Romans. Last week, by God's grace, we addressed verses 1-14. Today, in Romans 6, we're going to be addressing verses 15-23. And I want us to consider today the meaning of freedom. The meaning of freedom.

If we were going to put that as a question, that would be, what is true freedom? I want us to consider that from verses 15 through verse 23 of the sixth chapter of the Book of Romans. And we are going to be reading together all of those verses from 15 to 23. But before we do that, let us come before the Lord and let us ask Him that He will help us and guide us and be with us as we consider the word of the Lord. So this is, let us pray together.

Father, we're coming before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we give you, once again, thanks for the life that you have extended and given us on this day. Lord, we praise you and we exalt you, and we are so thankful for everything that you've done for us. Even, Lord, when we are distracted in our minds and in our hearts, Lord, we are thankful for who you are. what you have done for us in Christ.

And Lord, we confess before you, Lord, that we are feeble, that we are weak, that we are needy. We know, Lord, that we can be strengthened in our inner person through the word of the Lord. So as we come on this Sunday, this Lord's Day, once again, Lord, we don't want to come as a sort of repetitious activity, Lord, but we pray that you will help us as we have this passage of the scriptures before us. You have left the scriptures for us, for your people, Lord. And we know that we are strengthened and that we grow in understanding of who you are and what is your will for our lives through the word of God.

So we pray, O Lord, that the focus of what we do will not be ourselves, it will not be our emotions, it will not be our feelings, not how we feel and what I think, but rather, Lord, that it will be you, the completed work of Jesus Christ, the sovereign work of God in saving us. the promise that we have that even though this world is broken and is unrighteous and all things will come to an end, that we have the hope that we are in Christ, that we are in Him, and purely by your grace we have the hope of eternal life. I pray, Lord, that you will bless us as we consider this, that the gospel of Jesus Christ will be clearly presented for the salvation of those who are not in Christ and for the edification of those who are in Christ. We trust that it is your word, and we trust that it is your commandment, the one that leads us. So we ask, O Lord, that you will bless us in the reading of the scriptures, in the preaching of the scriptures, in the receiving of the scriptures, in the application of the scriptures.

We pray, Lord, that you will bless our families, our marriages. Our children, with more of you and less of us, help us, O Lord, that you will be the focus of all things we ask. In Jesus' name, Amen. Very good. As I said, Romans chapter 6.

We're going to be addressing verses 15 through 23. And I want us to consider this afternoon the meaning of true freedom. If we were going to put it in the way of a question, that is, what is true freedom? And by asking that question, of course, implicitly, I'm assuming that there is a false definition of freedom. And that is what I want us to consider, to compare the human definition of freedom with a biblical definition of freedom, with a spiritual definition of freedom, with a God-given definition of freedom.

Not a freedom that is pursuing the flesh according to the things of this world, but a freedom that is given to us by grace from above through the completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we are going to be reading, brethren, Romans chapter 6, verse 15 through 23. And you will realize as we read that the word freedom or the word free is not there many times, actually just once or twice. But the main word that is going to be here in this A portion of the scriptures is going to be slavery, or slave, or bondage, which is contrary to freedom. So I want us to consider the true meaning of freedom from this passage, Romans chapter 6.

Let us read together from verse 12 that is going to give us a little bit of the context until the end of chapter 6. This is the word of the Lord, Romans chapter 6, verse 12. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under the law, but under grace.

What then? The question that the Apostle asks in verse 15. What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means.

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? but thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed to were delivered. 18. And having been set free from sin have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms.

because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, or its goal, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen. This is the reading of God's Word.

Now, brothers and sisters, as we go through the Scriptures, especially the New Testament, we clearly realize that the Scripture tells us about two types of professing Christians. We have the type of professing Christian that say with their mouth that they believe in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, but their hearts, they do not have the spiritual reality of genuine and true conversion. Actually, the testimony of the scriptures is abundant in seeing that there are many people that say with their mouths that they are followers of Christ, and even they may have some external manifestations of Christianity while in their hearts, they do not have the reality of a genuine and true conversion. Of course, that contrasted with the genuine work of the Holy Spirit that works in genuine believers who do not only profess with their mouth to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, but also have received in their hearts the spiritual reality of Jesus Christ. One would ask the question, what is the difference between these two types of professing Christians?

And the answer that the scriptures gives us is just simply this word, transformation. The one who professes with their mouth. that they believe the Lord Jesus Christ, and even though they may have some external manifestations, but if they do not have the work of the Spirit in their hearts, giving them life, then they have not experienced the transformation that the gospel of the Lord brings to genuine believers. That's why we find in the New Testament that on that day, when people are going to come to the Lord, many will say, Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in your name? Didn't we cast out demons in your name?

Didn't we do mighty works in your name? And then the Lord will say to these people, I never knew you depart from me, ye workers of inequity. The difference between those people is that they have not undergone through the process and the glorious miracle of transformation. The scriptures is very clear from the Old Testament to the New Testament that a genuine believer, a genuine Christian is the one who has gone through a spiritual transformation. In the Old Testament, we have the famous passage that speaks about this reality of a spiritual life being changing a heart of stone into a heart of This heart that was dead in sins and trespasses could not hear the voice of God.

But now when the Spirit of God comes to a person, they receive a heart of flesh that is sensitive to the voice of the Spirit. There has been transformation. When you come into the New Testament, you also realize that a spiritual truth or a spiritual reality in the life of a person is equal to transformation. We have the scripture that tells us that to be a Christian is to be born again. That person that actually has a spiritual reality, it is a person who was dead and now has been made alive by the Holy Spirit.

It is the new birth. That person was dead and now they have life. The scripture makes it very clear and very plain. It says that we were all creatures and that in Christ Jesus we become a new creation. The old self is put away and the new man, the new creation, is the one that undergoes through transformation.

To be a genuine Christian, it is to go through a process of a spiritual transformation. And I'm not referring to an external experience, like going to the ground or just simply falling. I'm not speaking about an external experience, even though those things may happen, like it happened to the Apostle Paul in Acts chapter 9. What I'm speaking about is a spiritual transformation that happens in the heart of that person. A heart of stone that is made a heart of flesh, a person who was dead and now is made alive, a person who was old and now has been made a new creation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in all of these ways that the New Testament and the Old Testament speak about this spiritual transformation, the Apostle and the Lord Jesus Christ also present us genuine Christianity with this simple word, freedom. The one who is a genuine believer is the one who has been set free. We cannot have a genuine Christian who has not been set free. The Lord Jesus Christ says in John 8, verse 31-32, that if you receive My word, if you abide My word, if you by faith receive the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you abide in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, then He says, you will be My disciples. If you receive my words by faith, the impact, the transformation that those words produce in you is that you will become one of my disciples.

And one of the signs that you are my disciple is that you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. Transformation is equal to freedom, and the Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, there in John chapter 8, of course, speaks about freedom from sin. That the person who practices a sin is a slave to sin, or the person that is in sin is a slave to sin. But then he says that the one who keeps the word of the Savior. and abides in the Word of the Savior.

He's a disciple of the Savior, and they will know the truth, and the truth will set them free." Freedom from the dominating power of sin. A person that is dead in their sins and their trespasses is a person that is a slave to sin. They cannot do any other than the sin that is working in them and moving them. Freedom is equal to being a genuine believer, the freedom that comes from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Of course, that is the point that the Apostle Paul is trying to make here in Romans 6, that after a person has been justified by faith, By the grace of the Lord, when a person receives genuinely faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, that is not only a mental ascent of a confirmation in my mind that I accept this Jesus Christ of whom people speak, and I see the evidence in history, and I accept with my mind. It is deeper than that. Genuine saving faith is the one that makes me right before the Lord, and because I've been right before the Lord, now I receive reconciliation. I'm no longer an enemy of God, but I've been reconciled with God, and because I have reconciliation, I have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. And through that peace, I also have access into the grace of God in which I stand.

And by that grace, I also rejoice in hope of the glory of God that is going to come. And I also rejoice in my sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance, and in perseverance, character and character of hope. A hope that does not put us to shame because the love of God has been poured into our hearts. Reconciliation that speaks of a fact, that the person has been translated from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of Christ. That the person has been translated from the dominating power of death, sin, has been removed from that into the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is the kingdom of His grace.

Not a grace that is just an abstract idea, but a grace that operates inside of the person. A grace that transforms and changes that person. A grace that makes that person one with Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 6 verse 1 through 14. We have been united with Christ, united with his death, united in his life.

There's union with Christ by this grace. So now I am no longer a slave of the kingdom of unrighteousness and death. Before the Lord Jesus Christ, the person is under the dominating power of death and sin. And even though the law of the Lord is good, sin and unrighteousness uses the law of the Lord to make us guiltier, to make us more accused, and to show us of the unrighteousness that we have. So we are under death, we are under sin, and we are under the law.

Because the law is the power of sin, and sin is the sting of death, 1 Corinthians chapter 15. But when the grace of the Lord comes, then this person is taken from the realm of death, and he's translated into the realm of grace. And we are no longer under death. We are no longer under sin. We are no longer under the power of the law that accuses us of our sins, but now we have been translated under grace.

And the apostle is implicitly now assuming that there might be some people that might say, well, if I have been removed from the kingdom of death, if I'm no longer under sin, if I don't have the power of the law over me, then that means that I can continue to live in sin. And the answer to that is given to us in verse 15 very clearly. Even though you have been translated from the kingdom of death and sin, and you are no longer under the system in which the law was pointing to your guilt, and you have been translated into the grace, even though you have been translated into the grace of Christ, you do not have that as a permission or allowance for you to continue to live in sin. Why? The apostle is going to tell us in these verses from 16 to 23, because the genuine believer is free.

The reason why we don't have this allowance to continue to live a life of sin, it is because we are free. Because we have freedom. But as I'm going to show you here, my dear brother and sister, biblical freedom is not only the fact that I'm removed from the power of sin, Biblical freedom speaks now about another relationship that I have, namely this relationship with the Lord. So I want us to explore the biblical meaning of what it is to have freedom. Not a freedom according to the terms of the world, but biblical spiritual freedom, as is the freedom that the apostle is going to present to us from verses 16 through 23.

Not the freedom that sometimes we might just be tempted in our minds to say, well, I'm going to give myself to sin because God gives me grace and he's going to forgive me. He is going to accept me anyway. Salvation is not by works or deeds. I'm just simply give myself to that sin because I know that he will forgive me. Not that type of freedom that comes from the flesh and from the desires of a person that might be walking in darkness, even though, or even not be a Christian at all.

but rather the freedom that comes from the Spirit of God that leads us to the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now it is very important that we understand this idea of freedom, dear brother and sister and dear friend, because our flesh is going to tempt us to believe or to live a life of easy or free grace. God is going to forgive me. So anyways, I can do this or that. Salvation is not my works or deeds.

I'm going to give myself to that. I'm not going to follow the things of the Lord. I'm not going to follow the voice of the Lord. I'm not going to follow the commandments of the Lord. Salvation is purely by grace, someone might say.

If that is the desire or that is the thought of the heart of a person, then that means perhaps that that person has not seen the power of the grace of God. That not only liberates us from sin, but more importantly points us to Jesus Christ. I want us to see four or five, depending on how the time goes. I was not expecting to speak that long, but let us just see four or five observations that I want to give you from this text from verse 16 through verse 23. The apostle has made it very clear that the fact that we are under grace does not mean that we have allowance to sin because we are now in Jesus Christ.

I want to give you four or five observations once again, as I said, about the true meaning of freedom. Let us start with verse 16. Now, true biblical freedom, my dear brother and dear sister, it is not about not having a master, but true biblical freedom is about having the right master. Let me just say that once again. True biblical freedom is not about not having a master that tells me what I need to do or that imposes upon me what they want me to do, but true biblical freedom is going to be having the right master.

And this is going to be the main difference that we find between biblical freedom and human freedom. Human freedom is going to tell us that to be free is just simply to be able to do whatever I want and do whatever I desire. My preferences, my beliefs, my emotions are going to be completely regulated by myself. I am the one who is master to my life and hence I am free. I decide what I do with my body.

I decide what I do with my life. I decide what I do with my future. That is the definition of human freedom. When we come to the scriptures, we realize that freedom is not so much about not having a master, but having the right master. By nature, we are all under the dominating power of the master that is called sin.

And the only solution that we have to be rescued from the dominating power of that master that is sin is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes us servants of God. Salvation is not only that I'm liberated from sin. Salvation, more importantly, is that there is a change of master. Biblical freedom is not only about not having a master, but biblical freedom is about having the right master. These two masters are presented to us there in verse 16.

If you read it with me, verse 16, the apostle, as he is explaining the reason why we're not to continue in sin, he says there, verse 16, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one to whom you obey? either of sin, which leads to death, or obedience, implicitly they're God, which leads to righteousness. In the mind of the apostle, there's only two masters. It is either sin or it's God. Sin is the one that leads to death.

God is the one that leads to obedience, righteousness, and eternal life. Biblical freedom is not about not having a master. Biblical freedom is about having the right master. And by grace, the Christian is translated from the kingdom of death in which we were enslaved, the kingdom of sin, and we are translated into the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is very important because this shows us a very important element of the gospel.

Jesus Christ is not only meant to be our Savior. Jesus Christ is also meant to be our Lord. our master. It is true that Jesus Christ comes and saves us from the kingdom of death and rescues us from that. But when he saves us, he inserts us into his kingdom.

And when we are under Jesus Christ, then he becomes our Lord. And just as we were obedient to the king to which we belong, sin and death, then the genuine transformation, a spiritual transformation of the person that becomes a Christian, is seen in the fact that this person is going to produce now fruits of righteousness under a new master, and this master is going to be the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me submit to you that we're not going to be able to understand our bondage to Christ or our slavery to Christ, because that is actually what the apostle says, that a person who is rescued from the kingdom of sin becomes a slave of righteousness, a servant of Christ. It is a change of master. Let me submit to you that we will not understand what our bondage, what our slavery to Christ is meant to look like if we don't understand the nature and the characteristics of our slavery or bondage to the system of the world.

The same apostle, in a very well-known passage in Ephesians chapter 2, is going to give us at least three or four characteristics of what it is to be a slave or in bondage in the kingdom of death. So I'm going to invite you to take your Bible. This is a passage that we've considered many times in the past, but I want to invite you there once again for us to consider the characteristics of the person that is enslaved to the kingdom of death, or the person that is enslaved to sin, the person who has not undergone the process of spiritual transformation. We're going to be reading there from Ephesians chapter 2, from verse 1 to 3. And what I'm saying to you, my dear brother and sister, is that we will not be able to understand what our bondage to Christ, what slavery to Christ is meant to look like if we do not understand our slavery to the kingdom of unrighteousness.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 1 through 3, let us read together here the passage that we have read many times in the past. It says, verse 1, following the prince of the power of the earth, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body, and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind." Here, in these three verses, we have, brother and sister, a clear picture of the natural condition of humanity. Those who have been born in Adam, they are in the kingdom of death by nature. This is not by choice.

It's not that they are born and then they sign a document and then they just join the kingdom of death. It is by nature now that humanity is under this kingdom. And we can see something very important. The nature of this belonging to this kingdom or the slavery to this kingdom is, first of all, spiritual. Pay attention to the first verse.

And you were dead in the sins, or you were dead in the trespasses and sins. A spiritual death. Those who are in the kingdom of death, their slavery, their bondage to that kingdom of death is seen in that they are spiritually dead. dead in our sins, in our trespasses. This is the natural condition of all humanity.

It does not matter the type of life that we have. It does not matter the country in which we're born. It does not matter how much money we have. By virtue of being in Adam, when we are born, we are born dead in our sins and our trespasses. Now this is spiritual condition of all those who are in bondage to the system of death.

It's not passive, but it's rather active. It's not that because I'm spiritually deaf this is not going to be manifested in my life, but rather I'm going to live practically and actively in those sins to which I belong. So Paul says there in verse 2, in which you once walked. in which you once lived, in which you once were. That is that, practically speaking, that spiritual condition of those who are in slavery to the kingdom of death is going to be manifested in a life of unrighteousness, of lies, and sexual immorality and stealing and covetousness and greed.

It is going to practically be manifested in that. The spiritual condition of the person is going to be externally manifested in the fact that because they're in bondage to the system of death, they are going to live in their sins. And we also learn something very powerful and something that is rather scary here, that there is a principle that operates inside of them. And that principle is a satanic principle. Pay attention there to the second half of verse 2.

It says, "...in which he once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the earth, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience." The prince of the power of the earth is Satan, and the spirit of Satan, we are told here, that is the one that is at work, in operation, that is moving in the sons of disobedience. This means, dear brother and sister and dear friend, that in this kingdom of death in which we are naturally slaved, we are not only spiritually dead, and this is not only manifesting externally in our sins and in the trespasses, but also we have the power of Satan that is operating not outside of me, but that is operating inside the spirit of the Prince of the power of the air. It is by nature operating in the heart of those who are in bondage to this system of the world.

And this is going to be fourthly manifested in my passions and my emotions. Everything is going to be permeated by that kingdom of death. Everything is going to be permeated by this kingdom of sin. We are told there in verse 3, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. By nature, children of wrath, these are the words of the apostle Paul, not mine.

By nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. By nature, we are in bondage in this kingdom of death. We are spiritually death. The manifestation of our spiritual deathness is that we commit trespasses and sins and we have the spiritual power of Satan that is at work inside of us and that permeates every one of our desires, every one of our passions, every one of our movements, every one of our intentions. There's nothing that is not tainted by the death of Satan of our flesh in the kingdom of death and of the kingdom of sin and we are told brethren that we are slaves to that.

If we don't understand where we're taken from, we're not going to be thankful for the grace that we have in the kingdom of Christ. Because biblical freedom is not only that we are set free from those things which are horrible, but biblical freedom is that our spiritual deafness, all of our sins are trespasses. The spirit that was operating within us and all of our passions, all of them are rescued from that kingdom and we are translated into the kingdom of the son. So now the true, genuine Christian believer is no longer spiritually dead, but now has the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the person that is genuinely a Christian is not living their lives in sins and trespasses, but now they have been set free, and even though they are not perfect in this world, they are becoming like the Lord Jesus Christ.

If they were slaves to lies, now the Spirit of the Lord is working in them the truth of Christ. If they were slaves to sexual immorality, Now the Spirit of Christ is working in them, deaf to that spiritual immorality. If they were deaf, if they were there in their sins, in covetousness, now the Spirit of the Lord is the one that is working in them to make them see the life through the lenses of the Lord Jesus Christ. And more importantly, The spirit of Satan is no longer at work in their hearts, because the one who has been liberated from that kingdom now has another spirit. Not the spirit of the world, 1 John chapter 4, but the spirit of God.

And the spirit of God is greater than the one that is in the world. So the genuine believer has undergone a power of transformation, brethren. And that is the definition of biblical freedom. Not that we don't have a master, but that we have the right master. Jesus Christ is not only our Savior, but Jesus Christ is also our Lord.

Jesus Christ is not only our rescuer, he is also the one that is our master, our king, and our Lord. So the question when we are asking ourselves about a spiritual condition is not only have you been set free from sin, Because there's some people that manage themselves to organize their lives and not to live their lives externally in the way that others live. And when we grow old and when we are tired in our bodies, we no longer give to the same sins that we used to give ourselves in the past. Because our flesh now is tired, and we don't have the same passions and the same desires. But the unrighteousness abides still in the head.

And the unrighteousness still abides in the heart. So the question is not so much. Have you been set free from external manifestations of sin? The question is, is Jesus Christ your Lord? Have you been translated from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of God?

Is Jesus Christ the commander of your thoughts? Is Jesus Christ the commander of your decisions? Is Jesus Christ the Lord, the commander of your thoughts? Is Jesus Christ the one who guides your intentions and your plans? Has Jesus Christ permeated all of your life?

Not only your religious life, but has Jesus Christ permeated every aspect? So that when you wake up in the morning, the first thought that comes is Christ and the things of the Lord. And when you are about to eat, you know that you will need to come to the Lord and to know Him more. And when you're living your life and making decisions, you're not making decisions in a vacuum. Well, apart from everything, but rather you're making decisions in light of the kingdom of the one who is your master and who is your Lord.

This is what differentiates genuine salvation from a false profession of faith that we know in the scriptures that many will say that they follow the Lord when they don't, brethren. Because genuine salvation is a spiritual transformation. Biblical freedom is not only about not having a master, but biblical freedom is about having the right master. This is an example that we see not only in the New Testament, brethren, but we see in the Old Testament. Remember with the people of Israel?

The people of Israel were not liberated from Egypt only to be liberated. The people of Israel were liberated from Egypt to have a different master. So they were going to come from Pharaoh, and they were going to come to a new master that was going to be God. They were not being liberated only for them to live their lives in the way that they wanted and to do all the things that they were doing in Egypt. They were liberated for the purpose of being the people of God.

And hence, they were given the commandments of the Lord because they were going to be set apart as the people of God. But Israel failed entirely. Because they were not pursuing to be under the king, they were pursuing to be under their own rule and under their own kingdom. So it was not only in the wilderness, but even when they entered into the promised land, they came to Samuel and said, give us a king like the rest of the nations. We want to have a king like the rest of the nations.

Give them the king, the Lord said to Samuel, because they are not rejecting you, but they are rejecting me. God was intending that the people of God would be under a better master. A master that was not going to get them to work and work and work and work, but a master that was going to give them rest. A master that was not going to lead them into unrighteousness, but a master that was going to lead them to righteousness. A master that was going to give them freedom, but not the freedom of the flesh, the freedom of righteousness that is found only in the person of Christ.

And of course we know that the people of Israel failed because their failure was pointed to the one that was going to come, the Jesus Christ, the true Israel, the true Son of God in whom now we receive all the blessings of the people of God. True biblical freedom. It's not about not having a master. It's about having the right master. And I cannot for myself to ask once again this question.

Is Jesus Christ your master? Is Christ your Lord? Is Christ beyond just a name, a religious word that we just simply mention? Is Christ much more than just simply a community of like-minded people in which I join because I feel comfortable and perhaps I feel identified? Is Jesus Christ your Lord?

So that if everyone that is in this room opposes Christ and you, you will stand and you will say, I will follow the Lord. that even if your kids or your husband and your wife opposes Christ, will you be, by the Spirit, willing to follow the Lord and His word? Because it's not about having no master. It is about having the right master. Praise God that this is not a work of men.

That this is a work of God. Because through true biblical freedom, it is also the work of God alone. Pay attention there in our passage in Ephesians chapter 2. We're there in Ephesians chapter 2. How after we are told that we are dead in sins and trespasses, we're not going to be able to cover everything.

How in verse 4 we are told, but God, Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4, but God being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved. Now this sermon has been reduced to two points in this moment because time is passing. But brethren, Let me return to Romans chapter 6, and that construction that we have there in Ephesians chapter 2 that says, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, he made us alive together with Christ, is the same beautiful construction that the Apostle Paul uses in Romans chapter 6, when he gives thanks to the Lord, because this freedom that we have, it is only accomplished by the Lord. Pay attention to verse 17 of Romans chapter 6. Romans chapter 6, verse 17.

It says, But thanks be to God. It's the same thing that Paul is doing in Ephesians chapter 2. But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed or delivered. So first, what did I say? I say that biblical freedom, genuine freedom, not human freedom.

I want to do whatever I want with my body, or I want to do whatever I do with my life. Not that human freedom, but biblical spiritual freedom is, first of all, not about not having a master, but having the right master. And second, true biblical freedom is the work of God alone. Men cannot liberate him or herself from the kingdom of death. It is only God the one who rescues a person that is in the kingdom of death and in the kingdom of sin under the power of the law.

It is only God the one who comes and rescues and takes this person into the kingdom of grace because that is the definition of grace. It is purely by mercy. It is the work of God alone. Thanks be to God, it says in Ephesians 2, that He is the one who has made us alive. Thanks be to God, it says here in Romans 6, verse 17, that is, thanks be to God that we have been transformed from the heart.

By teaching, that is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, this teaching to where you were committed. And the most important thing that I want you to notice here in verse 17, it is that this work of the Lord that is sovereign and that is purely by grace happens through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Pay attention to verse 17 again, it says, But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, or to which you were delivered. You have become obedient from the heart. Ephesians chapter 2, a heart that was dead, a heart that was hardened, a heart that was of the sin and of the world.

This heart now has been changed and transformed and has been committed, has been delivered to this standard of teaching. And of course, this standard of teaching is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me say this, and I will show you another passage. Brethren, Biblical spiritual freedom can only happen by means of the Spirit and the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has appointed that through the message of the Gospel, people will receive salvation.

God has appointed that through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, people will be translated from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life. There is no other message. There is no other truth. There is no other words, apart from the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, that have the power to remove a person from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of life. It is only the gospel, the biblical gospel, the one that can give life to a person.

And for that reason, then the gospel becomes a precious message that should be protected and preached according to what is written. If a person, if a church, if a group of people preach a gospel that is different to what is written in the scriptures, then that person is not only preaching a different message, but it's taking away the only way in which a person can be rescued from the bondage that they have to darkness, sin, and death. That's why Paul says in Galatians chapter 1 that if anyone preaches a different gospel, that person must be, or let that person be, accursed. There will be a curse that comes upon the person who preaches a different gospel. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ, the one that is only able to give light to the mind of the one that is enslaved.

Come with me, please, to 2 Corinthians 4. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, there the apostle is going to tell us about this transformation that happens in the mind through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Pay attention to this passage here, brethren. 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it says, therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.

This is the apostle saying, speaking of the ministry of the word of God, the ministry of the new covenant. Therefore, having this ministry, by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart. We have renounced, but we have renounced this grateful, underhardened waste. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's word. But by the open statement of the truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God."

Brethren, this statement is one of the most powerful statements to me personally that we have in the Scriptures. Let me just simply just read it there once again. It says, we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word. We refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word. Why would the apostles say that?

Because the flesh of those who preach the Word are tempted to be cunning and to tamper with God's Word. Because there's a message that is more appealing to your ears than just to preach the things that are written in the scriptures. Because the flesh of those who proclaim the word are easily tempted to bring a message in which people come, in which people accept and approve in order to feel human empires through the tingling of the ears of the flesh. Because men and women are tempted to have this cunningness in the preaching of the Word. So the apostle says, we refuse, we refuse to practice cunning or to tamper with God's Word.

But by the open statement of truth, we would commend ourselves to everyone's conscience in the sight of God. And even, even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Their minds, their eyes, have been kept from seeing the light of God through the gospel in the person of Jesus Christ. Verse 5, For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake.

For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness in creation, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Just as God created the first creation through His Word and said, let there be light, so is God the one who creates the new creation in the Christian through the message of the Gospel. And He says, let there be the light of my Son in this person that was dead in sins and unrighteousness and that was in the darkness of this world. It is God through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the one who gives eternal life, and He does that, brethren. through the message of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And that's why the church is tempted throughout church history to change the simple message of the gospel. And the message of the gospel is good news when you know the bad news. It is good for the soul when you know the bad news, when we know that we are dead in our sins and our trespasses, when we know that we have the spirit of Satan operating in our hearts naturally, when we're dead in our sins and our trespasses. Once we know the darkness of where we are, it is only that the light of Jesus Christ makes sense. It is only that the gospel is good news.

It is only that the message is going to deliver hope. But if I'm uncomfortable speaking about sin and death, if I'm uncomfortable speaking about the things that the Scripture speaks, if I'm uncomfortable presenting the reality in which we are, then how is the good news going to be good news? Everyone wants to go to heaven. Everyone wants to be with God. Everyone wants to receive a blessing.

Everyone wants to be at peace with God. Everyone wants that. But if they don't know that the condition in which we are is death, sin, and unrighteousness, and that it's not about my desires but that Jesus Christ being Lord of my life, then people do not want to have Jesus as their Lord. People want to have themselves as their Lord and as their King. Biblical freedom.

It's not about not having a master. Biblical freedom is about having the right master and that the Lord Jesus Christ. And this biblical freedom happens from God alone through the message of the gospel alone. And that's why there's going to be attempts throughout church history to Change the message of the gospel. Actually, the Church of the Corinthians were facing something like that.

If you come to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, there you will see the situation of how the apostle is actually going to be so surprised that people are tempted to change the gospel. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. It says, I wish you Chapter 11 verse 1, I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do not bear with me, for I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.

But I'm afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve, By his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray for a sincere and pure devotion to Christ. For if someone comes and proclaims another Jesus than the one we proclaim, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, for if you accept a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it readily enough. Indeed, I consider that I am not in the least inferior to these super apostles. Even if I am unskilled in speaking, I am not so ignorant. Indeed, in every way we have made this plain to you in all things.

There were false teachers. false apostles that were coming into the context of the Corinthian church, and they were changing the gospel, they were changing the spirit, they were changing the truth of the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, something that was appealing to the ears of those who were hearing. That was something that was appealing to the flesh, something that was not so conflictive to the desires of the flesh, and the apostle says, I am so concerned That even when people come and present this different gospel that you're tempted to hear, just as Satan deceived the woman in the garden, that there's going to be deception in the context of the church. The gospel is the means by which spiritual transformation happens. And the gospel is foolishness for those who are perishing, 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

The gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is foolishness for the fleshly ears, but is the power of God for those who are saved. It is the power of God for those who have been translated from the kingdom of death into the kingdom of the Lord. We're not going to have sufficient time to cover all the whole passage, but my dear brother and sister, I started by saying this. That as we go through the scriptures, we realize that there are two groups of people. One group of people that profess with their mouths that they are in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Even they may have some external manifestations of that, but they do not have the spiritual reality of the heart. When we compare those people who profess with their mouth that they're in Christ with the genuine work of the Spirit in the genuine Christians in the scriptures, we realize that the difference that takes place between those two is transformation. A change that is not only seen in the fact that we have new life, but also a change that is seen in the fact that we are set free from the dominating power of sin to which we were enslaved, to the dominating power of unrighteousness in which we once lived, to the dominating power of darkness that was dominating our minds, our thoughts, and our desires. And the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the one that rescues us and takes us into the kingdom of God purely by grace. And I know that once we have messages like this, we might feel tempted or perhaps the burden of what?

Do I need to be perfect in order to qualify, in order to be into this kingdom? Do I need to have a perfect life? Because I do see and I do have those struggles. That has never been the message of Paul. That has never been the message of the gospel.

And that has never been the message from this pulpit. We are not going to be perfect. That is true. But the one who has been born again, has the life of the Spirit that is leading us into eternal life, that is leading us into sanctification, that is producing fruits of righteousness. And even though we are never going to be perfect in this world, we're walking in conformity to Jesus Christ.

Why? Because the genuine believer has undergone through a process of transformation. If I say that I have the Spirit of God dwelling in me, and I live like the devil in my mind or in my thoughts, then the spirit that is in me is not the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God that created all of this world in power, it is also powerful to change the life of the one who was enslaved to sin. Biblical freedom is this, that no longer I have Satan and my passions as my Lord, but now I have the Lord Jesus Christ as my Lord and as my Savior.

And as I abide in Him and in His Word, I realize that the only way for me to give fruits is to abide in Jesus Christ, because when I disconnect from Him, my flesh is going to tempt me to go again into the kingdom of darkness, but Christ Jesus is the one that keeps me and also allows me to continue to advance in this glorious promise that we have of eternal life. So the question is no, have you been set free from sin? The complete question is, is Jesus Christ your Lord? Is Jesus Christ Lord of your thoughts? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your intentions?

Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your plans? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your future? Those of you young people who are in Christ Jesus, is Jesus Christ the Lord of your future? Is Jesus Christ the Lord of your plans and your desires? When you see yourself with your husband and your wife and your family, is Jesus Christ the Lord of that?

Or is just Christ just an appendix to your life, something that you do as religious activity on a Sunday, or a Bible study, or something like this? Jesus Christ is not only our Savior, but He's also our Lord. And to Him be all the glory, because He has given us a promise that just as He took us out of the kingdom of death and darkness and has inserted us into the kingdom of grace and life, He's the one that is going to keep us. He's the one that is going to preserve us. He's the one that is going to complete the work in this kingdom of grace.

And He's the one that is going to take all the glory. And He's the one that is going to lead us to that glorious eternal life. Next week, by God's grace, We're going to finish, I hope, the remaining of this passage, but may our eyes, brothers and sisters, be put in Jesus Christ because He is the only one that can give us freedom from the bondage to our sins in which we were naturally born. Amen? Amen.

Let us pray. Father, we come before you in the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, once again, Lord, on this Lord's Day, we give you thanks for your goodness, your patience, your favor towards us, Lord. I do pray, Lord, that our eyes will be pointed to Christ Jesus, that you will strengthen our faith, that you will lead us to our Lord, our Savior. I pray, O Lord, that if there is anyone among us who is still enslaved to the kingdom of this world and the things of this world and the passions of the flesh, O Lord, I pray With the brokenness of the words that have been proclaimed and the brokenness of the words that have been read, Lord, I pray, O Lord, that you will bring the light of Christ through the preaching of the gospel, that you came to this world to live and to die for our sins, that apart from your life and your victory over the cross, we have no hope. Help us, Lord, to hold tight to the message of the Gospel.

Help us, Lord, please, to hold tight to the truth of the Scriptures. Protect us, Lord, from deviating from the truth that is written. Help us, Lord, please, to see Christ Help us, Lord, to love our Lord. Help us, Lord, to be thankful for the work that you have done in us. Help us, Lord, to be thankful for having rescued us from darkness when we were dead in our sins and trespasses.

Help us, Lord, to be thankful for having rescued us from the principle of this world, the spirit of the power of the earth that was at work in our hearts. Help us, Lord, to be thankful for having been rescued as being children of wrath and now being children of God. Help us, Lord, to be thankful and to see our lives in perspective of this glorious reality that the temporality of our days will pass. The limitation of our days will pass. We're weak and feeble.

and we live 10, 20, 50, 60, 100 years and our lives are gone. Help us, Lord, please, to see the eternality of life. Help us, Lord, please. I pray that your grace will work and operate and point us to Christ. If there is any prideful attitude in our hearts that is preventing us from coming to Christ, Lord, I pray that you will destroy any wall of indifference or pride in our hearts and that by your Holy Spirit you will show us the grace of the Lord.

Help us, O Lord, please. Even we as Christians are so weak and feeble, Lord, and we say all of these things with boldness and perhaps read them, Lord, and it just takes anything for us to be broken and to be down. I pray, O Lord, that you will strengthen us to trust you independently of the circumstances of our lives and independently of the circumstances of this world, that we may know that our lives are rooted in the hands of the Savior. Bless these brethren with more faith. Bless these brethren with more love for you.

Bless these brethren with more love for the Word. I pray, Lord, that you will protect them, that you will keep them from secret sins. You will protect us and keep us, Lord, from secret sins. You will protect us and keep us, Lord, from hypocrisy. I pray, O Lord, that you will grant us by your Holy Spirit guidance.

And that we will know, Lord, that even when we failed and even when we go the direction that we should have not, that you're just and faithful to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That the gospel that saved us is the same gospel that forgives us. The same gospel that made us your children is the same gospel that sanctifies and lead us to Christ. So I pray, Lord, that you will grant us by your faith, by your power, more faith to trust in you and in your work. I pray that you will do this for our children, for our families, that you will keep us and protect us from hypocrisy or pride, that you will teach us, Lord, to walk in humility before you and in love one for the other, that we will help each other to look to Christ and to depend upon him alone.

Lord, we have these elements once again before us, and we're so thankful that you have extended our days one more week, Lord, to be gathered here together. I pray that as we are going to come to this table, and take these elements in our hands that you will bless us. We don't want to do this as a repetitious activity that we always do every Sunday but as we take those elements in our hands that we might remember that we have been united with you in our union with you is the token of our separation from the world. We have been set apart. We have been removed from the kingdom of this world, from the kingdom of death, to be united to you.

And in you, we receive by faith life eternal through your word. So I pray, Lord, that you will bless us as we partake of this table. Bless us, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.