On Independence Day a lot of people think seriously about the many liberties and privileges we have in America, compared to what other countries have. You have to travel a little in order to appreciate our way of life. Much of the discontent in people’s thinking would end if they realized the blessings and opportunities they do have. I want to call your attention to something very special—the danger of the human nature’s reaction to liberty. We’ll deal, not with the liberty we have as Americans, but what God is bringing to us in this walk—a real liberty and freedom.
It isn’t easy to come into a real deliverance, for you’re immediately aware that you have something to live up to, a responsibility to it. It’s true that we are not saved by works. You never work to the cross—you just come and throw yourself on the mercy of God; but you work after that. For by grace are ye saved through faith.… Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:8–10. It is not that God has saved you and you have to be deserving of it, but rather that you have become something different and when you accept a new position, a new relationship or a great blessing, it always entails a certain responsibility.
When a young man finds the girl he wants to marry he feels really blessed. But with that marriage comes the responsibility of paying the bills which her father previously paid. Proverbs 18:22: Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favor of the Lord is a wonderful promise, but after you get her you have the responsibilities of taking care of her. Blessings bring responsibilities. You look up at the grace of God and receive the gift of the Spirit that you can prophesy. How wonderful! But you then also have a responsibility to be all prayed up and walking in the Spirit on Sunday morning, ready to minister to the body. And oh, how you wanted to go to the beach on Sunday—but you can’t think about that now, for you have a responsibility to the body. Everything God gives you seems to involve something on your part. If somebody gives you a car, all at once you have the responsibility to buy insurance, to buy a license, gasoline and oil. When God gives you something, there’s also a responsibility for it.
With freedom you receive the privilege of rising up, standing on your own two feet and working at it. Recognize that you have an opportunity and don’t cry and feel sorry for yourself. Anytime Jesus touches a man He gives him a break, He gives him an opportunity. Let him stand up and try—he can make it by the grace of God.
In the Bible when God blessed a man, He expected something from him. After the blind men begging by the wayside were healed, they joined in and followed Jesus. When they were blind, they were not expected to do much, but after they were healed they had to stop begging. With sight came the responsibilities for sight. The same principle applies to you. You’ve come into something from God and you’re taking the responsibilities that go along with it. You’re giving—most of you are tithing your money. Many of you are donating hours of work in the various activities of real ministry in the church. And now you have a battle—before you didn’t. You’ve come up against satanic powers and you battle and do the best you can. You may say, “What’s all this about? I can’t understand why it’s so hard.” You’re free! You’re free!
It was a great day when our country finally declared its independence; but after the people in the United States were free, the American colonies entered into a period of wild, rough, and lawless living. Why? They weren’t prepared for freedom, to settle down and govern themselves. In the South after the Civil War, when they said to the negro, “You’re free,” he went walking down the road, confused. He had no place to sleep, nothing to eat, no way of buying clothes, no protection of a master over him. He was free!
When we get “ free of that old Babylonian system.” Now we have another problem. “What does God want these people to hear? We’re free—free to be led of the Lord. Only, which way shall we go?”
I’m free—but what do I do with my freedom? Someone says, “I used to be so oppressed, uptight in every situation. I didn’t know which way to turn; I was so discouraged. So the Lord delivered you. Now, you are responsible for the way you act? You have your freedom—stand on your feet and walk in it. You’re children of God— now you have to act like it.
When we come into a walk with God, the Spirit speaks out of the Word, “You have not passed this way heretofore.” (Joshua 3:4).
“But Lord, we expected there’d be a freeway, not an old cowpath winding out some place. Do You mean we have to make our own roads?” “That’s right. This is a new move of God’s Spirit.”
We have to write new books, because when we see a missionary church spring up over night, someone has to teach those people who are coming out of Buddhism and other sects and cults, what it means to walk with God.
The word has to be translated into different languages so that everywhere hungry people have a little more light to show them how to walk in this freedom they have.
There’s always the danger of somebody saying, “Oh, this is too hard. Let’s go back. Let’s run away from this freedom.”
As soon as the children of Israel were out in the wilderness they had a riot. They said, “Let’s choose a leader and go back to Egypt, back to the fleshpots with all that spiced meat. Here we have to eat manna. We’d rather go back and die as slaves. At least there we knew what we were going to eat and where we were going to sleep—probably on our stomachs because our backs were raw and sore. Out here we don’t know what’s going to happen to us.”
You have a promise from God. Do you want to run away from the freedom? You’re free. You’ve never known what it was to be free. You have some liberty in the Lord. What are you going to do with it? You can do anything you want to do with it. But if you put your hand to it, the creative instinct will be loosed in you and you can create. You can live and breathe in the divine realm. You don’t need to be held down in the demonic realm. You don’t need to be limited. You can stand up and fight for your freedom. The exiles who came back from Babylon worked with a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, ready to fight anyone who wanted to take away their freedom. They kept building and working. That’s what God wants you to do. You’re free! What are you going to do with your freedom?
Why do people walk out of this kind of church, because they didn’t want the responsibilities that came with the light? They wanted to play church. They didn’t want to be disciples. They didn’t want the total commitment. They might say, “I just want the perfect will of God.” So God speaks to them and tells them what He expects of them. “I wasn’t prepared for anything that total. I’d give You a little bit, but I had no idea it was going to be like that. Good-bye Jesus, I’ll see you in the millennium,” and they run away from it.
Do you want to be led by the Spirit of the Lord? Where does it take you when you follow the Lord? Into the dungeon of Egypt, into the lion’s den, into the fiery furnace. You don’t like that? God has to have a people in the earth. A people that are free.
The book of Galatians deals with the Gauls. They had come down and settled in the eastern part of what is now Turkey, and on the first missionary journey, when Paul landed at Antioch of Pisidia, he came on up into Gaul. It was inevitable that later on he would write an epistle to the Galatians and these were the Gauls. They had a tendency to be somewhat like French people turned out to be later—a little bit blond and quite a bit fickle. They didn’t make very good Christians because as soon as God set them free they had a desire to run away from that freedom. Paul wrote to them, I marvel that ye are so quickly removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ unto a different gospel. Galatians 1:6.
You might think everyone would be happy to be free in the grace of God rather than be under legalism. Which is harder—to walk under the grace of God or to walk under legalism? You don’t have to give much of yourself to be a legalist. You only need a form and outward manifestation of things. You can be very prejudiced and still make it fine. But when you want to walk in the grace of God you have to deal with yourself; you have to deal with the Lord; you have to deal with everybody else in this marvelous, wonderful grace. It’s more difficult to walk in than anybody thinks, because it means you’re constantly turning away from restrictions and regulations of bondage into freedom in the Spirit—and it’s tricky. Someone may say, “Oh, boy, I’m free.” Free to do what? “Well, free to do whatever I want.” Oh, you want to leave legalism and go into licentiousness, not grace. “I want to be free—no rules for me. I can go here; I can go there; I can do anything I want.” Oh yes? And that’s supposed to be the grace of God?
Galatians 5:1–6 says, For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage. Don’t go back to any bondage. “Why not? Why is it going to hurt me to go back to some church where there are rules and regulations?” Behold, I Paul say unto you, that, if you receive circumcision, Christ will profit you nothing. Yea, I testify again to every man that receiveth circumcision, that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Ye are severed from Christ, ye who would be justified by the law; ye are fallen away from grace. The issue in our day is not circumcision, but it goes back to rules and regulations that are trying to accomplish in people the same separation from certain worldly appearances, rather than getting right down to the thing in the heart. Paul says, “You’re severed from Christ if you think you’re going to be justified by the rules and regulations. You’re cut-off, you’re out.” For we through the Spirit by faith wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; (whether you keep a law or don’t keep a law isn’t the thing) but faith working through love. In another place Paul says that the only thing that avails anything is a new creation. (Galatians 6:15).
You’re free—free to follow Christ. For ye, brethren, were called for freedom; only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh, (you’re not set free so you can do anything you want to do). But through love be servants one to another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. Galatians 5:13, 14. By the grace of God you’re set free so you can become His voluntary servant. You’re set free from the slavery of legalism to become love slaves of the Lord, because you’re going to serve something. When Christ sets you free, you’re not free so that you can follow the lusts of the flesh. Don’t use your liberty for an occasion of the flesh—if you do, you’re right back to being a slave, and usually a slave of legalism is a slave of the flesh. You may say, “Now I’m free by the grace of God and I can go out and do anything I please.” You will not, because if you do you’re a slave. Every man is going to be a slave. It’s just that he wants enough freedom to choose his own master. It’s a wonderful thing. You can choose your own master. Do you ever wish you could have picked your parents? Would you have picked somebody else?
You’re set free to use your liberties so you can become servants. By love you can serve one another.
Every sermon I preach has a two-fold aspect: to loose you from every bit of oppression and turn you around where you begin to take the responsibilities of your liberty and become God’s love slaves.
I keep preaching, “Serve Him, serve Him! He’s going to be your Lord. You’re going to be His bond servants and His handmaidens. Let’s get free from everything else so we can be the Lord’s servants.” Paul called himself “a bond servant and an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ unto the churches.” There is nothing more wonderful than to belong to someone and especially to really belong to the Lord. That’s why marriage has to be something good. It’s a bondage—there’s no question about it. When you get married you’re relinquishing certain liberties and freedoms. When you go into it you’d better know what you’re doing: that in the will of God you’re ready to become a love slave. If you don’t want to wait on a man and serve him, you’d better not marry him. If you don’t want to spend the rest of your days being responsible for taking care of a woman and being really concerned about her future and everything that happens to her, don’t marry her. Now the Lord is saying the same thing. Let’s become the Lord’s free slaves, and you’re set free so you can do it. This is what it means to be free. This is what the grace of God means. Paul said, But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not found in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all… I Corinthians 15:10.
The Lord set you free to involve you with a total commitment, a relinquishment of all the rights to yourself. Now you’re free. What are you going to do with your freedom? “Well, I’m going to be a law unto myself. I’ll not listen to anyone; no one is going to teach me; I’ll get it all by myself.” Go ahead, you old loner, jump in the ocean and start swimming. I hope the sharks don’t get you. It’s cold and wet out there. I hope you make it, but I doubt that you will. Why not get in the boat, salute the captain and say, “Yes, sir, I’ll do what I’m told.” That’s what you do when you get into a church and come into submission. How do you get in the church? You have to be set free first. You’ve been a member of Babylon—with it’s terrible bondage. What did you have to do in Babylon? “Oh, they told me to do this and that. The hierarchy is always telling you what to do and it’s not led by the Spirit of God, and I don’t like it.” Oh, so you want to be set free from that? O.K., we’ll set you free. Now, what are you going to do? “I want to be part of the New Testament Chruch.” That’s a tighter ship than you’ve ever sailed in before. Here’s where you begin to learn submission. You never respected the board of deacons in the old order churches like you have to be submissive to these elders, whether they’re right or wrong. They watch for your souls. You may think being a deacon was easy in your former church. Do you know the responsibility laid upon an elder or a deacon in a real New Testament Chruch? “Oh, I just can’t stand that old oppression, that bondage, that restriction.”
Come along with me and I’ll show you what it really is to move in formation and fly wing to wing. This is the time the liberty of individual initiative is all over with, because you become a member one of another and the mind of Christ governs. Is it more difficult? Sure it is. Do people have to be delivered from rebellion and stubborness and withdrawal in an old order church? No, but we’re always working on this here. Just about the time we think we’ve made it, we’re delivered, we’re free, the Lord says, “Put in the thumbscrews.” “What are you going to do with me, Lord?” “Oh, I just thought I’d show you what submission is. I’ll put you through a little wilderness to see if you murmur; let you come into a little satanic assault to see if you run; I’ll give you a little discernment to see what a mess people are and see whether you will still love them or start judging them.” And don’t think that isn’t a temptation. Somebody may rejoice because God has given him the gift of discerning of spirits and great wisdom and understanding. He looks around and suddenly his eyes are open. “Oh, I never saw that in those people before. They’re not nearly as perfect as I thought they were. Boy, this New Testament church isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.” And you find yourself judging people. It takes quite a bit of grace to have God reveal in a transparent way another person’s heart. In fact, you know a ministry has made it, when you have a feeling that he looks at you and picks up a great deal more than you wish him to know about you, and still he tells you he loves you. That’s the way it has to be. What has happened to that person? Is he superior? No, he’s the Lord’s servant; he’s learned what it means to be a bond servant of Christ.
You may say, “When I want to go, I want to go, and when I want to come, I want to come; and I don’t want anybody to tell me when to come or go.” But we don’t get to do it that way, do we? No, you start taking responsibilities.
A mother yearns for that great fulfillment of motherhood. The night the baby is delivered she begins to take a dim view of the way the human race is propagated. And when she’s finally recovering from the situation and still hurting, the nurse brings that little red squalling bundle and says, “Feed it.” When that’s over, the mother says, “I’m fulfilled. I think I’ll take the rest of the day off.” Oh, no. That little thing has sprung a leak, and she’s going to take care of it. Pretty soon the blotters are ready for washing. Wonderful fulfillment! A ministry isn’t something you put on and take off at will. Is it fulfillment? Oh, yes, it’s fulfillment. It really is. And mothers would say the same thing. They wouldn’t have it any other way. As they are ready to leave the hospital, they look down at the little bundle that’s not so red anymore, with the little features beginning to come through, and they say, “I wouldn’t take a million dollars for him, but you couldn’t give me a million to have another one.” The experience is too recent, it’s still too fresh in the mind. But after a little time they forget.
How many battles have we fought? How many times did we lie down and bleed awhile and then get up and fight some more? How was the trail of this restoration made? As the day began to dawn and the word began to come and we started to die, self was crucified on a cross of His word. How many more of you will turn away because you meet God in this walk and it is too much for you; because it means the total commitment of your life and you aren’t prepared to be involved with God; because you don’t want to live for anything bigger than yourself; you don’t want God to take you over as His bond servant and use you for something that would fulfill an eternal purpose in the heart of God? That’s what people run away from.
You may say, “I wanted to serve myself, my own desires, my own flesh. Now I have to let go of it all.” All has to be laid on the altar and many of you will suffer and see your ambitions die, but in their place will come the realization that you’re walking in God’s will.
The future of your walk with God depends upon the way you take to this message. In your heart are you saying, “Blessed day of independence and freedom; I’m going to walk in my freedom. I’ll never run away from it or what it means. I’m free!”