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00:02 good works. Well, this morning we're going to look at the topic of freedom.
00:08 Uh if you turn with me with your Bibles to uh Galatians chapter 5:es 1-6, we're
00:15 going to just walk through this 16 verses uh and handle most of that and
00:22 look at freedom. Now freedom is a very very precious word to everybody who is a
00:30 human being. Actually um Rick Warren describes it as life without
00:36 restraint or probably the power to determine action without restraint.
00:43 Able to make a free choice, able to do that without anybody stopping you. The
00:50 uh Greeks from which the culture we which we we get this idea democracy were
00:55 very big on freedom they said freedom is a Uripides is their philosopher he says
01:01 freedom is a priceless name the man who enjoys it though poor otherwise has a
01:06 great possession and the Greeks valued freedom and they didn't want to have people oppress them and they actually
01:12 formed the senate actually is the birthplace of democracy they will not be coward they will not be ruled by people
01:20 um European says I rather die on my feet then live on my knees. This actually
01:26 echoes many of our sentiments because freedom is so important to us. Um they have fought wars for independence based
01:34 on this idea of freedom that we should be able every man should have a right to
01:39 life and liberty. Uh dreams uh that you have can set you free. So dream freedom
01:46 is very important. uh in this country uh we recently had a minister says we will
01:52 whack the fellow down south in Joho uh and then Mate says that's free speech
01:57 you can say whatever you want however the government police then drags him in and he's to be invested investigated for
02:04 sedition is that true do we actually have freedom are our freedoms in this country being besieged um what about
02:12 religion if government is against freedom what about religion you've got the eightfold path you got Ten commandments and when you bring religion
02:19 in the last thing you see in religion is actually what freedom you don't have freedom you want to dress as you like
02:24 fly through the sky cannot you know because people will say you must wear like this something else you know all
02:32 right uh then in some parts of the world you got a moral police you know looking if you wear lipstick if you you don't
02:38 wear your sari proper properly you're not properly covered up then you have to do uh you put a uh and in In fact, this
02:46 has happened in Iran for many years and in the end they actually banned the morality police from enforcing the dress
02:52 code because it was a useless exercise. Ditto, a French philosopher actually
02:57 said there will be no freedom until the last king is strangled on the endrails of the last priest
03:03 which means both government and religion are horrible for uh for for for freedom.
03:09 You want freedom, you get rid of government, you get rid of the king, you get rid of the um the last priest. uh
03:15 today uh but most people will today define freedom as freedom is when I can
03:22 do whatever I want as long as it doesn't hurt somebody else. I think this is a negative secular freedom which most
03:29 people will accept is the kind of definition I'm free to do anything I like as long as I don't hurt you. Okay,
03:35 which is uh freedom. Now biblically we're going to look at these 16 verses and look at the nature of freedom. There
03:43 are four points I'm going to make this morning, the next 30 minutes, 40 minutes. First of all, uh is the issue
03:49 is it is already established. We actually have true freedom in Christ. We
03:55 just need to stand in it. We are already free. Number two, it is received by grace. We can't add to it. Number three,
04:03 it produces a hope of righteousness. And number four, is experienced by faith
04:08 working through love. These are the four points which u I would like to elaborate on. There are more points than this in
04:14 the passage because passage has a lot of stuff in it but we'll just look at these four. First of all uh let's look at it
04:20 is established in Christ and we need to stand in it. Uh for freedom Christ has
04:25 set us free. Stand therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. The
04:32 word freedom here is a goal as a noun as well as a verb. It is freedom found in
04:39 Christ. Instead of religion restricting your freedom, it is actually faith in
04:44 Jesus Christ that brings you true freedom. Jesus in the earliest encounter in Nazareth, Luke 4 goes out to the
04:52 synagogue and he reads from Isaiah and he says, "This is fulfilled in me." And
04:57 he says, "The spirit of the Lord God is on me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has
05:04 set me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and to
05:09 the opening of prisons to those who are bound. The whole issue of Jesus Christ coming into the world today with the
05:16 gospel. The gospel is the gospel of emancipation. It is a gospel of freedom
05:21 which is the first thing which he announces. Uh and um and he in John 8 he
05:27 talks to Jews. And Jesus said to the Jews that believed him, "If you abide my word and you are truly my disciples, you
05:33 will know the truth and the truth will set you free." And they answered him, "We're offspring of Abraham. Have never
05:38 been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say we have become free?" These are Jews. They now live under the slavery of
05:47 the Romans and they're telling Jesus, "We're not enslaved." Sometimes even though you're enslaved, you don't even
05:53 know you're enslaved. And Jesus said to them, "Truly I said to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The
05:58 slave does not remain in the house forever. The s son remains forever. So if the sun sets you free, you will be
06:05 free." Jesus describes freedom as some as someone who basically is emancipated
06:11 and freed from sin. Let me give you an example. All of us want freedom. We want freedom to live where we like. We want
06:19 financial freedom. Don't you want? How many of you want financial freedom? Put your hands up. You dare not put up, right? We all want financial. Imagine
06:26 you are a man with a lot of debts. Okay? And every day it's time and ticking and
06:33 what you really want is financial freedom. If I could find some way to get financial freedom, you close your eyes
06:39 and you sleep. And then these three jokers come out. Then you you dream about them. And then when you go to wake
06:45 up in the morning, you dream about somebody else. It it's very bad. You know, every day the newspaper is singing this song and
06:51 you're praying, "God, just get me a savior." And one day this fellow comes up and he gives you some money. All
06:57 right? He gives you some money, settles part of the loan, not all the loan. The but the problem is you get some degree
07:05 of financial freedom, but the problem is the underlying sin and the desires
07:11 because pretty soon, if you're not careful, you go back to debt again. You find that you work with a lot of people
07:17 who are in debt. If you don't solve their basic problem in their heart, you can give them financial freedom. You pay
07:24 off the debt like another Christian pays off the debt. But you will still go back because the heart is still enslaved. Uh
07:30 true freedom is internal. For this is one 2 Peter 2:18. For speaking loud boasts of folly, they entied by sexual
07:37 passions of the flesh. those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom but
07:43 they themselves are slaves of corruption for whatever and overcomes the person to that he's enslaved. There is an inner
07:51 desire that basically locks up our heart. We outside you may look free but
07:56 inside we're enslaved to our desires. Uripides uh the Athenian philosopher is says
08:03 these words no one is truly free. They're slave to wealth or fortune the law. other people restraining them from
08:09 acting according to the uh according to their will. No one is really free. We have desires that enslave us. Christ
08:16 says Paul says for freedom Christ has set us
08:21 free. It's in the past tense. We are already free. So we need to stand firm in it. Therefore don't submit again to
08:28 the yoke of slavery. This word stand firm is a military term used to describe you taking a whole castle or the hill
08:35 and then you're supposed to hold on to it. keeping alert, being strong, resisting attacks, sticking together.
08:41 Stand firm in it. There's a danger of going back to slavery. Look, I Paul say
08:46 to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I circumc I testify again to everyone who
08:53 accepts circumcision that he's obligated to keep the law. Here are Christians who have decided that they want to follow
08:59 Jesus. So Jesus fulfills the law on their behalf. They don't have to f
09:05 fulfill the law anymore because Christ died on the cross for that very reason. And now we have false teachers coming
09:11 and telling her, okay, Christ died on the cross for you, but that's not enough. You need to circumcise as well
09:20 just to be double sure. And Paul is saying if you want to go back to circumcision, it means either Christ or
09:28 the law. You can't have both. So if you want to follow the law, you must follow all of it. Christ sacrifice on the
09:35 cross, Christ death, life on earth will not fulfill the law on your behalf because you decided to do it on
09:40 yourself. You see, it will be of no use to you. For you were running well who hindered you from obeying the truth.
09:47 There are false teachers blocking them. This persuasion is not from him who calls you, not from Jesus. A little
09:52 leaven leven the whole lump. This is a saying, put yeast in the in the flour,
09:57 it affects the whole uh uh piece of flour, it becomes bread. I have confidence in the Lord that you will not
10:03 take no other view that the one who's troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. So, he's very upset at the false teachers. And he says to them,
10:11 you are running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Very funny. Who
10:16 hindered you from obeying the truth? Actually, what they're doing is obeying the law. How can you obey the law and
10:22 not obey the truth? Very funny. You see this in a a court case some time ago. I was reading this that obeying the rules
10:29 not necessarily obeying the truth. This is Jose Negradi was part of the Latin kings in the US. He killed someone.
10:35 Okay. A mother of two children. And they had a court case. Real badass guy, you
10:41 know, and and the um they knew he killed him. They sentenced the judge sentenced
10:46 to 80 years in prison. So he be very old when he cuts out. But they had to let him go on the court of appeals simply
10:53 because one of the juror, juror number eight, knew the victim and pass some
10:58 rumors along to the other jur. Honor technicality. The killer was let loose. So sometimes
11:06 obeying the rules is not necessarily obeying the truth. You can have both of
11:11 you play wonderful harp. One day we must get a harp. It's wonderful. They both play the harp. They look alike. They
11:17 play alike. Uh and yet does it to win God's favor. The other does it because she loves God. One is actually uh
11:24 disobedient, the other one is obedient because you can't use works in order to
11:30 please God. So therefore, here you can actually be obeying the law but not obeying truth. And Paul says to them, I
11:37 wish you would go all the way. You want to cut the piece of skin downstairs, cut all off. Then only God will be happy
11:43 with you. Why did you do that? So this is a rare few times when a writer of scripture is a little bit uh
11:49 pornographic. This is exactly what it means. You want to cut cut all off. All right. John
11:55 Piper says the essential essence of legalism is when faith is not the engine of obedience. All right. And what it
12:02 means is like you know one week ago MH148 this is the plane I always take to go to Melbourne. Uh and you know was was
12:09 just leaving Melbourne and uh caught fire. engines caught fire. Oh, you know,
12:15 big deal. All the alarms rang and they turn around and land back on Tala Marine. I was very worried, you know, my
12:21 my wife and son just left yesterday on the same flight. Uh, and I was wondering, you know, and then Mel comes
12:26 up. Hey, why you worry silly fellow? Don't you know on training missions, all our planes fly on one engine,
12:32 all of training, oh, wow. Wow. Wow. So, this is uh unbelievable, isn't it? But what John
12:39 Piper is actually saying, there's a freedom plane drink one engine. It doesn't have two. Okay. When you come to
12:46 Christ, there's only one engine. You either put faith in Christ's engine or your own engine. All right? So, if
12:53 obedience is not the engine, faith is not the the engine of obedience. You obey because you have faith or you obey
12:59 because you want to trust your own work, then your plane will then crash. So, we
13:04 already have freedom in Christ. We just need to stand in it. Second is to receive by grace. We can't add to it.
13:11 Now you look here, you are severed from Christ. You who will be justified by the law, you have fallen away from Christ
13:16 grace. So you either justified by law, which means you actually have to put in work or you're saved by grace which is a
13:24 present. Now if you go back in time in memorial, mankind has always been doing
13:30 work. You know, they have the gods and then you bring an apple, you bring some sacrifice in order to curry the favor of
13:37 the gods. that if you do well, you sacrifice well, you're very holy, then the gods will reward you. It is works
13:43 for reward. Uh but the gospel is about the prodical son. The prodical son has
13:49 two sons. One, the one who's run away, the one who's messed up, the one who's a
13:55 wretch. And he comes by grace. He's totally accepted. He's no merit at all because he spent all his father's money.
14:01 He wasted it all. And he comes back with a tail between his legs. and his father
14:07 receives him in totality. He's got nothing to offer his father. So therefore, all he can do is reciprocate
14:14 in love. The elder brother is a bit different. He is by works. He has got
14:20 merit. He never left and blew the entire inheritance. He will want acceptance by
14:26 merit. And because he's always trying to gain acceptance by his father by obeying the father and being a good elder
14:32 brother, he will never be free to love his father for the father's sake. He always love the father because he wants
14:38 to prove to the father that he's worthy of that love. So the uh issue is by grace. So you can never be free if you
14:46 are not accepting Christ by grace. If
14:51 you have to work for it, you are actually enslaved. That's why if you look at the prosperity gospel which I
14:57 know talked about some time ago it is a disaster. You know why? Because you're
15:02 trapped by your own selfish mo motives. You pray, you serve God, you give money.
15:08 Why? Because you expect quit proquo something in return. And when you do
15:13 that, you are actually trapped. You know, you actually enslaved by your own selfish motives. Uh and and and you know
15:20 what? If you think you can add to the grace of God, it's a terrible insult. How can you actually have Christ saving
15:26 you plus works? If it's plus works, that means Christ isn't good enough. Christ
15:32 buys you a ticket halfway or three quarter way and then you buy the ticket the rest of the way. So, it cannot work like that. So, true freedom can only be
15:39 found by grace. The third issue here is true freedom produces a hope of
15:46 righteousness. For through the spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the Hope of
15:54 righteousness. When we talk about hope of righteousness, uh there's a difference between the English understanding of hope. The English
16:01 understanding of hope is, "Oh, I see that beautiful girl there and I hope to
16:06 marry her one day." Hope is wishful thinking. It's uh it's reached for the
16:11 stars and skies and the dream. It's it's ephemeral. You can't really grab hold of it. The Greek idea of hope is different.
16:20 It is solid. It is certain. is absolute conviction. When I say I will marry you
16:26 means I hope to marry you means definitely marry. It's a picture of an engaged couple in a in a in a in a in a
16:32 Jewish setting. When they actually are engaged, when they actually engaged, they're like almost married because a
16:38 guy will go back, he'll work on extension in his father's house and he brings the wife. So it's absolutely certain. So when Jesus Christ uh gives
16:45 us hope is a hope of righteousness. It's as certain as a Japanese train. If you go to Japan and you wait for a train
16:53 there, the average train is only late by six seconds in one year, you know. All
16:58 right? So, you're sitting down there waiting for your boyfriend and you know the train is going to come 100%. The
17:04 worst it'll be six seconds late. That's the kind of hope. Uh so, we have this hope of righteousness. For through the
17:12 the spirit by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. Righteousness is a is a
17:19 perfection or a beauty of God, which is this quality that he has that we don't
17:25 have. That's the thing that separates us from God. If you're made in the image of God, we're made to be righteous. We're
17:32 made to be beautiful. We're made to be perfect. But we're not.
17:38 And so therefore, true freedom allows us to be what we're supposed to be. This is
17:45 the plan. We are now as Martin Luther says and he preached before legally
17:50 right but ethically a sinner. Jesus Christ death on the cross makes you
17:55 righteous as far as the court of the law is concerned as far as God's court is concerned but underneath the cloak of
18:02 righteousness inside we are sinners but one day we will be sanctified so far
18:08 that we will be ethically correct. We will be totally righteous in our actions in our persons as well as our status.
18:14 And that If you actually have true freedom, then you have the freedom to aspire to that. If you don't have the
18:21 freedom to aspire to that, then you're still trapped in the desires of sin in the flesh. So, you're not really free. I
18:27 wonder what your what your view of heaven is when you go to heaven. I'm
18:33 sure some of you dream one day you go to heaven, what it will be be like tomorrow land. You can fly around, don't use car,
18:38 you just fly. Or some of you think in other religion the 40 virgins, you know, maybe you have a good time. And some of
18:45 you more baser people, oh, heaven is burgers. You know, we're all recast heaven based
18:53 on our own sensual desires around which we are actually trapped. So if your
19:00 heaven is like that, you're practically going to go to hell because you go up there and you're still enslaved by the
19:06 makan philosophy, enslaved by the sexual uh tensions, everything is still
19:11 enslaved. What is heaven? This is uh a not so flattering picture
19:17 of Joanie Ericson who has suffered since 18 years of age from quadriplegia from a neck accident
19:25 and recently she's got chemotherapy for breast cancer. You think a person like that who has not lifted a finger or a
19:33 leg for the last 45 years, what do you think she'll be thinking of when she
19:38 goes to heaven? Care to guess?
19:43 Huh? Walking, jumping, dancing. Right.
19:48 Yeah. This is what she says. But I think what I'm most looking
19:54 forward to is getting a new heart, a heart of sin, free of sin, worry, fear,
20:02 doubt, anxiety. You see, Jon Harrison has learned through suffering that it's not
20:09 important all those other things. The thing that is most important is to be like God and see the beauty and
20:14 perfection of God. And so therefore, what she sees that breaks her heart is the fact that she has got sin and doubt and fear. And these are thing that
20:20 captivate us that enslave us all the time. Every day we go to work, we we struggle in community. These are things
20:27 that enslave her and she wants to be free in heaven. If you are free from that, then you're truly free. Augustine
20:33 says, "Humans are created in the image of God. True freedom then is not found in moving away from the image but living
20:40 in its living it out. The closer we conform to the true image of God Jesus
20:45 Christ, the freer we become. The further we drift from it, the more our freedom shrinks. So freedom is not exactly doing
20:52 as you like. But freedom is moving in the direction of what we were made to be in the image of God. An image of God is
20:59 perfection and beauty and righteousness. And so therefore we have a hope of righteous assistance for which we
21:05 eagerly wait. Freedom provides you this new motivation to live. This new motivation of hope. If you're waiting
21:12 for the bus, waiting for the train for your boyfriend to come. What do you do? You think about when he comes,
21:19 what it'll be like for him to hug you and kiss you, right? All the young people or give you a present or sweep
21:26 you off your feet. Or you thinking which restaurant he going to take me to?
21:31 whether the restaurant for good food or not, whether he's going to buy me a present or whether he's going to take me
21:38 to Paris. Now, if you're thinking like that, then you're very bad girlfriends
21:44 because you are not looking forward to the boy. You're looking forward to what he can give you. So therefore, you're
21:50 still enslaved. So therefore, as we eagerly wait, what do we do when we eagerly wait? We look and reflect on
21:57 justification, our adoption as sons, glorification. How do
22:02 I live in anticipation the fact that he's going to come? How do I live now that I'm eternally loved? I'm totally
22:09 satisfied. How do I live? That's how we should eagerly wait. How do we pray? We
22:14 pray our prayers are filled with upward mobility ideas that God will make us
22:20 secure. There will be comfort, solution to our problems. If that's the case, then you're the wrong girlfriend. You
22:26 should be praying greater awareness of his grace, transformation of character, opportunity to serve him, strength to
22:32 endure for him. This is eagerly waiting for righteousness. That's what it's
22:38 about. That's why the prosperity gospel is such a terrible distortion of the truth because it enslaves you. You are
22:45 free to soar up in your spirit.
22:52 Now, so true freedom gives you a hope of righteousness. Lastly,
22:59 it is true freedom is experienced by faith working through love. I'm going to work this out and tell you exactly how
23:05 that works. It's a little bit complicated. Faith working itself. You can only experience true freedom by
23:13 faith working through love. Okay. Now, let's look at this. For in Christ Jesus, like a circumcision or uncircumcision
23:20 counts for anything, but faith working through love. Okay. Now, we said that
23:26 most people say freedom from freedom is freedom from freedom is
23:32 whatever I can do as long as it doesn't hurt somebody. But the problem is we're all very odd, isn't it? Our hearts are a
23:39 cauldron of contradictory desires. Paul says in 17, for the desires of the flesh
23:45 are against the spirit, desires of the spirit against the flesh, and these are opposed to each other keep you from doing what things that you want to do.
23:52 Right? So here the issue I would like so much although I don't make very to have
23:59 ideally I want to look like him. Ideally okay and then you look at the abs there
24:06 ideally. So if I was totally free I want to be like him. But if I was totally
24:12 free, I also want to eat as much as you like, when I want, anytime I want, as much as I like. The problem is that can
24:18 you have both? You can't. I just discover you cannot eat as you like. The freedom is you
24:24 can't do anything you want. You cannot do everything you want. We are all contradictory. Which one do you want?
24:31 You can't have both. And which desire does violence to my nature? Which desire enhances my well-being? So there are set
24:38 of desires. Some will enhance your wellbeing. will destroy you. So therefore, freedom cannot be to do as
24:44 you like. Uh this is a goldfish. He's saying he wants you in the in in in the
24:49 water saying, "Oh, it would be nice if I can fly, isn't it?" If you're a goldfish and you're always looking around and Mr.
24:55 Mrs. D walking outside there or breathing fresh air, terrible. I'm only breathing water and he wants to jump. So
25:01 he jumps out and lands on the couch and then he breathes air and then he dies.
25:07 If you're a eagle and you're flying wondering, wow, so goldfish, very nice swimming down there. I wish he I wish I
25:12 could swim like the goldfish. And he goes down there, he swims and then he dies. So the issue is true liberty is when the
25:20 is fully realizing the environment for which it is created. It is created to
25:25 fly. They are created to swim. And so therefore true freedom is going back to
25:32 the creator. Jean Paul Satur is a a philosopher, existentialist,
25:40 not a Christian. And he says that if God does not exist, then human beings can define themselves and make themselves
25:46 whatever they want. Yes, if you want to be truly free, all of you want totally free, do whatever you want. The only way
25:52 you can do that is that you don't have God. He didn't design you. You design yourself. Lord, if you design yourself,
25:58 you can live your life. I tell your children, you want to smoke and do whatever you like. You get out my house, right? You have your own house. You earn
26:04 your own living. you know, then you can be as free as you like, but you're in my house. You live by my rules. And so
26:09 therefore, if God doesn't exist, then human beings can define themselves and make themselves what they want. But the
26:15 trouble is, we're not. The environment of the human heart is love. That is the water we swim in or
26:25 the air that we breathe. And he says these words, "For you were called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your
26:31 freedom as an opportunity for flesh, but through love serve one another, for the whole law is fulfilled by one word. You
26:37 will love your neighbor as yourself. If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you're not consumed by one
26:44 another." You see, which one can you have? Can you have
26:49 independence? If true freedom is independence, is independence compatible with love?
26:56 A lot of people don't want to be married. So what they do there? They enjoy the fruits of marriage by living
27:03 together. You get independence and you actually got love. But even if you're living together, are you totally free? I
27:10 ask invite you out. You come to my house for dinner. First thing is ask what whether Lean will come whether she say
27:16 okay yes no you know what see if you are in love you cannot be totally free. How
27:23 can you be in love and you can do what you like, go where you like and eat what you like without regard to the other
27:28 person. So all the people who are now courting each other here remember
27:34 okay actually true freedom is found in love. See, when you actually find the
27:39 person you you love, I'm sure Yen doesn't mind asking Lean whether it's
27:45 okay to have dinner at Peter's house, even though he's a horrible cook, right? You know, it's a pleasure
27:52 honoring her in that way. But if you see, oh my goodness, got to get permission from wife pack.
27:59 That is a total distortion, isn't it? All right. So, so there's there's no real independence. This idea of freedom
28:06 is independence. this u CS Lewis described this if you don't want your heart to be broken because some people
28:12 don't want to love you know rejected you know kicking the teeth you know familiar feeling right if you don't want to lock
28:18 up your heart uh to want your heart to be broken give it to nobody lock it up in a little casket of selfishness in
28:23 that casket it will not be broken it will become unbreakable impenetrable and irredeemable
28:30 that sound like prison sound like freedom no so therefor For
28:36 true love, true freedom is only found in love. Why is religion not going to work?
28:43 It's not going to work because it's performance based. If it's performance based is selfish and insecure.
28:49 Your base is up and down. Whether you perform well or you don't perform well, whether God likes you today or God doesn't like you tomorrow. There's no
28:56 character change and you cannot produce love because it's self-donation. You're doing your performance so that you will
29:02 get to heaven. so that you will have the mansion. So you will get 40 virgins, right? So how can it be love? So that's
29:10 the wrong environment. You could feed all the orphans in India or Africa you like, but you're not
29:17 feeding them because you love them. You feed them because they will use them to get to heaven. Because God will see how
29:22 a nice guy you are. You left KL and your your your investment banker job. You give it all and you went to India and
29:28 then you started feeding children. You are actually using the children to get a place in heaven. You don't give a damn
29:33 about the children, do you? That's the problem. That's the problem we face.
29:38 Now, the that the reason that is that religion destroys love is because in our hearts, we're still we're still uh uh
29:47 chained up. We're chained up by guilt. You see, when you actually have guilt in
29:53 your heart, you wallow in a self-centered depression and self because
29:58 you you you have sin. You you cannot see. So therefore you you are guilty and so therefore you're looking yourself
30:04 caring for yourself or you maybe perhaps play the hypocrite. You cover your own guilt uh and destroy all sincerity in
30:11 relationship or you talk about other people's fault so that you feel less guilty. So all the time you're focusing on yourself right or if you actually
30:18 have fear. So we we after the Sunday service you don't go up to the stranger invite him
30:27 to garden cafe for makan because you're fearful maybe I'm too fat maybe I'm not handsome enough maybe I I got bad breath
30:35 so that what you do you're fearful you rush off to the car park and you drive home and you miss out an opportunity to
30:42 bless people or or you're fearful when when Markan says you let's go to to Sabah and let let's go and uh uh reach
30:49 out to the people Now, you know, you reject that. Are you kidding? A saba earth every day when you know you go
30:56 there, maybe I hit a pothole, maybe I fall out, break my back. Oh, you how you
31:01 fear grips you. We're swallowed by all sorts of fear. Or last one is greed.
31:06 Greed destroys love because we all feel greedy. We spend all the money on luxuries, travel, and all sorts of
31:11 things. But the money should actually be used to bless other people and spread the gospel to Hey, hello. If you're in
31:17 Christ, the money don't belong to you. But the greed holds you in. Okay. So you
31:22 see with religion if it's guilt, fear and greed is in your heart. And as long
31:29 as in your heart you cannot love. So that's the problem. All right. Now
31:35 faith energizes love. The moment you believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the
31:43 guilt, the selfing, selfabsorption goes away because the
31:49 guilt is replaced by God's forgiveness free through the love of Jesus Christ on
31:56 the cross. The fear is replaced by God's assurance of his love that he will be
32:02 with you forever. You've got nothing to fear. And the greed is overtaken by
32:08 God's power because God is saying you don't need all that money. You don't need all those
32:14 extra structs because I am enough. You have to trust. And when when when when
32:21 you have faith that energizes you so that your heart becomes full of God's
32:27 forgiveness, full of God's love, full of God's power. And that will then not only take away the greed, the guilt uh and
32:34 all that but it will actually give you love because love is then acting out in faith. Seeing God act,
32:43 trusting him act. So this is how faith energizes love. The obedience uh
32:49 Jonathan says the obedience of children to their father is done with love and delight as opposed to legalistic
32:55 slavishness and force. God is now chosen for his own sake. Holiness is now chosen
33:01 for its own sake and for God's sake. The only way we get away from religion is to
33:06 realize that it's not in order to gain us salvation is because we are been
33:11 given salvation. So God is chosen for his own sake. Holiness for his own sake and God for his own sake. The simpler
33:18 language Keller translates this verse as gospel faith produces a certainty that
33:23 we are holy and beautiful. The more conscious we are of this certainty, the
33:29 less we will be subject to ups and downs and the more we will find our hearts melted with love. So therefore, let me
33:37 conclude by taking you back to the ten commandments which is the whole issue which the false teachers were bringing
33:44 up for destruction of the Jews here. These are the ten commandments. But just
33:49 before that in Exodus 20, God says, "I am the Lord your God who brought you out
33:56 of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." You see, it's preceded by God's actions
34:03 because he saved them because he is their God. Therefore, you shall love
34:09 him. All these four verses commands are loving God and the other ones are loving
34:14 the image of God, which is basically man. That is the reason that's how created for love. Question, last
34:21 question for us today. Are you free? Let's do a test whether you're free.
34:29 Imagine this. I I uh many years ago when I was a young student in Sydney, I lived in a flat in Abbottzford and a man and a
34:37 woman were having a bit of a altercation upstairs. all the noise and I was a young 18 year
34:43 old and suddenly boom big sound you know comes in on my balcony and then it's
34:49 ripped open and a huge hulk of an Australian man it's like towering to the roof with blood pouring from his head
34:56 comes at me and at that moment of time I said I'm going to die
35:03 question is when you're going to die or your turbulence in your airplane what do you think
35:10 your whole life flashes before your eyes. Thinking about kindergarten, what I did wrong, high school, which
35:16 girlfriend or me, all the things, you know, flash before your eyes, isn't it?
35:22 Why? Because because we're living by works and near time of death, when your time
35:29 of reckoning comes, only thing that matter to you is all the stuff that you've done, good, bad, ugly.
35:35 And that shows you that you are actually living by works. You're not free.
35:42 If your plane is going to crash, the first thing you think about how wonderful it is, what Christ has done
35:49 for me, and you rest in that assurance, then I know you are safe in Christ.
35:55 You're not living by words. So that's a wonderful way of which we can think. So
36:00 the next time a big bad Australian man drops into your balcony, think about it.
36:07 What is your life? What does it amount to? Amen. So I won't tell you what happens today. I'm still alive.
36:15 So remember uh the nature of true freedom is that it's already established in Christ. We just need to stand in it.
36:21 We is received by grace. We cannot add to it. It produces a real hope for righteousness life and experienced by
36:28 faith working through love. Let's pray.
