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Good morning church. Today's scripture reading is taken from Galatians chapter 5:es 1-6. Galatians 5:es 1-6. Let's focus on the word of God. Verse one. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Mark my words. I Paul tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again, I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised, that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified
by the law have been alienated from Christ, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit we eagerly await by faith the righteousness for which we hope. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. This is the word of God. Thank you so much for the reading of God's word. Well, good morning FBC. Um, we've got a whole bunch of uh sermons coming up trilogy all about freedom. Okay. So, brother
Brandon Wong will talk about the freedom of love. Uh, and after that, the freedom of the spirit is by him again. No double. All right. Good. He's working really hard. I thought it was William. Um, and a life in the spirit crucifying the flesh is uh John Lee. All right. So today we're going to look at the freedom of grace and introducing this topic of freedom. Let's let's pray. Father Lord, we're going to come before you today and ask that you open up our eyes to understand what freedom really is and to
realize that in Christ we are truly free and how to use that freedom to glorify your name. We ask for Jesus' sake. Amen. Right. So, we're trundling through the book of Galatians. And I'm happy to say we've got down to the last bit, which is Galatians 5-6. Uh the liberating, the true gospel, the inclusive gospel, and now the liberating gospel. How the gospel brings freedom. And today's passage, it's only six verses. We're going to look at three points. Freedom, true freedom is only found in Christ.
True freedom is expressed not by bondage to the law but by living by it. True freedom is anchored in grace and expressed with love. So uh let's start off for freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. The topic is freedom. I don't think there is more uh I mean the Bible has got more verses about freedom than virtually any other topic. It's all about freedom and freedoms as you resonates with the heart of every single person. If you look in the recent
experience of the American Revolutionary War, Patrick Henry says, "Give me liberty or give me death." People will fight. people do whatever it is for this concept of freedom. Right? So, you know, years ago when they fought the revolutionary war, the whole idea was to rid themselves of this king, King George III. They wanted to be free. They don't want taxation. They want to do things that they want to do in their own land. And sadly, hundreds of years later on, same problem. They're all on the streets. to
say we don't want a king and this time the new king is this one. So they they want freedom. The whole idea is freedom. Whenever you try to impose uh rule on somebody else they will rebel. It is in the human spirit to want freedom. In fact, Dennis Dedero, a French uh philosopher, wrote, "Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrils of the last priest, which means two institutions cause slavery." Religion as well as the monarchy. And right now they're fighting in Ukraine. Why? Because they want to be
free. If you look at all the wars that being fought, all of them are actually about freedom. Now if you look in the western world the idea of freedom Isaac Berlin actually stated it it's basically the philosophy of freedom is twofold. One negatively freedom from external influences and positively the capacity to act on one's own will. That is how a western person a normal person uh in the secular world will define freedom. And in fact, if you take God out of the picture, as Jean Paul Sart actually did,
he believes there's no God. So therefore, if there's no God, man is condemned to be free because once thrown into the world, he's responsible for everything he does. That is freedom is a default nature of man. So therefore to be really free there's no God and you give yourself meaning as long as you're responsible. So which means Hitler right when he started World War II he was free to do so as long as he does it with hypocrisy and good faith and accept full responsibility which is exactly what
Putin is doing now isn't it right freedom in eastern terms is a little bit different all right it's about c ethical cultivation and social harmony not individual autonomy it's a collective all right But the problem with the eastern idea collectively actually deteriorates to one man's rule and you got all sorts of trouble coming out of that. Uh FDR actually stated some of the uh tenants of true freedom. Freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, freedom from fear. And of late the American author Tom Wolf actually said
the fifth freedom is freedom from religion and ethical standards. Don't you want to be free to do whatever you want to do? So, we've got the sexual revolution. All right. Sexually free. See the 1960s to do whatever you want your relationships. And that's why right now you could have LGBTQ as well because that's part of the last restraints upon man being torn apart so men can be totally free. Right? So, you've got everyone is free to live any way you choose. Right? For the ladies, my body belongs to me. So therefore, abortion on
demand. But what about the freedom of the fetus? What about their freedom? That's a problem there. We can't agree. If you're free, as long as you're responsible, but you don't do any harm, right? We can't understand no harm. You're free to to go to giant supermarket and pack your food with plastic. But you don't realize that in the last one the first decade in this century we produce more plastic than all the hundreds of years that came before and by 2050 there will be more garbage in the oceans than fish.
What harm is there? There is harm. So freedom is basically not without harm if you're having unfettered freedom. This is Justice Anony's Kennedy Supreme Court Justice. He said at the heart of the liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence of meaning in the universe and the mystery of life. You define your own meaning. You define your own uh uh uh freedom. Now the problem of that was that years ago King Solomon found that out. He said for the wise as of the fool there's no enduring
remembrance seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How the wise dies just like the fool. I hated life because what is done under the sun was grievious to me for all was vanity and is striving after the wind. Here's a man who's totally rich. He defined his own meaning. If it's about money, about about women, about everything else he or wisdom, in the end, you still die. So the there's a folly of self-determined meaning. And then there's conflicting desires. Paul says, "For you were called to freedom,
brothers, but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for a flesh, but through love serve one another." There is conflicting desires. You you you not completely free to have one desire which doesn't conflict with another. One of my heroes is this girl called Suyang. You know, she's got FBC got like a thousand followers. She's got 12.1 million. And the reason why she got 12.1 million is because she can eat 3 kilograms of meat at one goal. You know, 3 kilograms, you know, and she looks as thin as Michelle Mui.
That's a part where I get very upset because I have conflicting desire. I desire to be like Zuyang, but I don't desire to be fat. So there's conflict and I don't desire to have a heart attack. So So there's a conflicting desire even you're free to have whatever desire but you're not actually free here. She's having all these oysters uh you know and and I think it's free for her I think. Uh and one day she got stomach so she's not exactly free. You can eat much as much as you like but there are consequences
to pay. Years from now she will not look like Michelle Muy. She looked like an average auntie but very fat. So she wound up in hospital. At the end of the hospital stay, she says, "Uh, instead of eating, I'll stop visiting hospitals." Which means she's not really free, isn't it? She's actually addicted to eating despite the fact she wound up in hospital. And instead of giving up one desire for the other, she actually decides, I'll continue to eat even though I will fall sick. I just won't go and see a doctor. It'll go away. Right?
You see, Albert Kamu says, "An achievement is bondage. It obliges one to a higher achievement." So you go one step, one step, and you basically never stop. So are you really free? You're not really free. If you're an executive, you're a CEO or you're in a listed company, it's one thing after another. You can never be free. You can have all the money in the world. Uh look at Mike Tyson. He says real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a scent. That's exactly right. He I mean he he was a world
champion. He got everything and this whole world collapsed and he said it's better off to have no money. Now Jesus first sermon was about freedom. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. So blindness is actually slavery. That is the problem. Spiritual blindness. It's like
that movie Matrix. You take the red tablet or the blue tablet. If you take the red tablet, finally you wake up like Keanu Ru woke up and he found out that all the human beings are attached to these pods. uh and and and their life was being sucked out of them. Blindness is slavery. And the blindness of negative secular wisdom is that they believe you can have somewhere in between where you'll be free. In real life, you cannot be free because there's no such thing as independence to do whatever you want. your idol against the
Lord worshiping controlled by idols whatever idol your life is if it's zuyang her idol is a stomach or your idol is god as it were to worship right so so Jesus said truly I say to you everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin the slave does not remain in the house forever the son remains forever if the son sets you free you will be free so when Jesus comes the only True freedom in life is freedom in Christ. Right? Now what about the law? True freedom experienced not by bondage to the law but by living by it. Here you
have do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. So in the context of this verse is in the context of the Galatian church who have been led astray by Jews who have become Christians as it were and became false teachers and said okay you're a Christian but now you have to obey the law as well and that becomes basically the yoke. All right the yoke is referred to this. So the if you are a Christian you are set free and said why are you going back? So the Jews put all sorts of laws and this is the yoke that
actually restrains people back again. It says if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify to every man who accepts circumcision that he's obligated to keep the whole law. And circumcision is basically the outward ceremony that actually symbolizes the whole of the law. And the law is actually bad news for all who rely on the works of the law under a curse. For it's written, "Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of law and to do them. For it's evident that no
one is justified before God by the law, for the righteous shall live by faith." The law is bad news. You're cursed if you can't actually fulfill it. All right? Circumcision is that outward like a iceberg. It's outward. You you do that. Okay? But it means you're also obligated to do every part of the law. So circumcision is wrong because it displeases God. Non-ircumcision is also wrong if you think that's a merit. It's both of them can be a work which you actually earn merit from God. All right?
Now you are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. So law and grace are mutually exclusive. You're either with grace or you're either with law. You cannot have both. All right? The logic of the other I I don't nullify the grace of God. But if by the righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose. Right? So grace is Christ dying for your sin and giving you the salvation and the righteousness. Law is you achieving on your own and it is mutually exclusive.
But is the law a bad thing? So all the Christians stand up today, they they get out from this hall, they throw their Bibles away. It says, "Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord. Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong but walk in his ways. The law is a good thing. Uh, I deal bountifully with your servant that I may live and and keep your word. Psalm 119, open my eyes that I may behold the wondrous things out of
your law. Law is wondrous. And yet Paul is like condemning it. And Jesus said, I do not think I've come to abolish the law and the prophets. I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. So the problem here is that the law is like this fork. It is perfect. It is beautiful. It is wonderful. Romans say, "The law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh could not do." It's nothing wrong with the law. It's the the thing
that's wrong is our flesh. We cannot keep the law. And if we depended on the law to gain righteousness, it will tear us apart like this meat being teared apart by torn apart by the fork. The fork is the law. It is perfect. It is right. It is rigid. It is unyielding. But the flesh gives way. Augustine actually put forward this idea that we are created to love God and love others. Sin has turned us inwards. It's called homo invaticus in Latin. We have removed our gaze from God and placed it firmly upon ourselves. The whole problem
is the human nature. Everything is about ourselves. So we have the law something good. We will see the law as an end on itself. The law we obey the letter rather than the spirit. And we add to the law because I can keep my this particular law better than you can keep. So we use it as a way to gain points with God as it were. Look at Jesus. He went to someone's house and the Pharisee was going to dine with him and a Pharisee was so astonished. Jesus Christ comes to your condo and he doesn't wash
his hands. So remember when you go to anybody's house, learn to wash your hands. Now you you must understand washing your hands and washing yourself is a ceremony which you undertake before you go and worship in the temple. That's what is required because dirtiness is a symbol of sin. That's all. It's ceremonial. All right. When you come to the house, you don't have to wash. If you want to eat dirty food, have semi your business. But the law doesn't say about washing hands in the house. But what they have done is that
oh, washing before the temple is good. So therefore, washing the house also good. Actually, it's a good thing. But they made it a thing that will actually allow them to judge other people. They were judging Jesus. All right? And Jesus said, "Now you Pharisees, cleanse the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you're full of greed and wickedness, you fools, did he who made the outside also make the inside? Give as arms to things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. Woe
to you Pharisees, for you tied the mint and the rue, and every herb, and neglect justice and love of God. They you ought to have done without neglecting others." What he's saying is that you clean the outside inside your heart all dirty. Nothing wrong with doing outside. Nothing wrong with washing your hands. But as long as you wash yourself inside and live according to the justice and love of God, which is the problem with the law, if you use the law to gain righteousness from God, so Jesus says,
"Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. There is no complete freedom in the world where you get to do everything. Jesus didn't say there's no yoke you know he say exchange the yoke. This is my yoke. So Jesus comes and basically carries it for you. Imagine you have a situation where you got a child at home and he you play with him
all the bricks and Lego at the end of it you can do two things you tell your son you better clean up 10 minutes dinner otherwise gaining that's one way right the law the other way is you better clean up 10 minutes after that supper but what happens I will come down and I will help you clean it up together. And that's what Jesus did. His yoke where he actually took the yoke of our sin and fulfilled our lives for us. He lived the life that we should have lived and died the death that we should have died. So therefore,
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse. For it's written, cursed is everyone who is hanging on the tree. so that in Christ the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles so that we might receive the promise spirit through faith. So we have to trust in what he has done for us. So let's look at the law. People are always confused about the law of Moses and we have the Hebrew rights uh uh movement roots movement that actually ask uh you know that that ask that basically uh instructs Christians to
obey Old Testament law as well. Now you look at the law of Moses, there are a couple of things. You've got the Sabbath. You got commands like purge evil from your midst in Deuteronomy. That's the word of God, right? Purge evil from mid means take them out and kill them. You know that was Old Testament law. And when you come to the law of Christ, these laws actually have been transformed. All right? Sabbath becomes sustained rest and looking forward to the final rest with the Lord. Purging evil from midst is now gone into
one Corinthians chapter uh uh five talking about excommunication. You don't take them out and execute them. You transform them. Certain bits of the law are kept. Adultery, theft, do not muzzle the ox. They're maintained but they change in a certain way. Do not muzzle the ox is not about ox. It's about paying full-time workers as it were. And then you've got things like unclean foods. These are actually abolished because there's no more ceremonial law because Jesus Christ is the new temple. So how does the law work for us? The law
does three things. It restrains. It's a guardian so that we do not go out of bounds and have a society that's undisiplined and full of chaos. It reveals our sin and therefore points us towards Christ. And the third thing is that it shows us what brings a smile to God's face. You don't know what brings a smile to God's face until you look at the law. All right? So that is the three functions of the law. Now true freedom is found in Christ. True freedom experienced not by bondage to the law but by living by it. But the last point
is true freedom is anchored in grace and expressed with love. You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace through the spirit by faith. So now the new paradigm is not you fulfilling the law on your own, but it is the work of the spirit by faith by sending his own son. This is Romans chapter 8. In the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin he condemns sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according
to flesh but according to spirit. So what happens here is that all the requirements that the law requires, they're not compromised. They're just fulfilled by Christ. And we have to receive it by faith. Faith is knowledge. Ascent is agreement. And third is trust. That means you build your life on the facts that Jesus fulfilled all the requirements of the law on your behalf. That's important. We've got King Charles some years ago before he became king. He wanted to change, you remember, he's the head of the Church of England and it's
he's called defender of the faith. He wanted to change it to defender of faith. Oh, very nice, isn't it? You just remove one the and everybody's happy with you. But the problem is it's as if faith is something that gives you merit. You know what is faith? Faith is basically a bowl which is actually empty. And actually faith is worth nothing. Absolutely nothing. The bowl is empty. The faith is worth nothing. The for the the faith is only worth something if there is Christ inside the bowl. So when
he says defender of faith that means you have the empty bowl. You got all sorts of faith. You can be have faith in Buddha. You can say the Hindu god. You can have faith in anything. All right. Or you can have faith in Christ. That is the important. We are saved by Christ through faith. And then we've uh we eagerly await for the hope of So once you're saved by faith, right? What is the characteristic of this freedom? Well, this freedom has a new hope. Do you actually live for a new hope? The the word hope in Greek is alpis. I hope
is is such a terrible English translation because I I hope to be as slim as Zuyang. You know that's not going to happen, right? I'm too old for that. I'll never look like Michelle Mu. All right. Uh I look like somebody else. It's uncertain when you say when you the the Greek word alpis is used. It is a certainty. I definitely will. He says certainly say one day I will die. How many of you will think that's a lie? Not everybody will die. That's a certainty isn't it? All right. So basically when you use that word that means it is
something that's definitely going to happen. So the reality of faith is that it changes our hopes. We are released from our idols and we have only one shining desire in front of us. All right. Uh we struggle now. All of us struggle with the law. Is Paul writes, "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself serve the law of God with mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin." And and right now we struggle with the law, don't we? We
want to love God, conduct our business honestly. We don't give bribes. We don't lie. We don't have immoral relationships with women other than our wives, but our flesh desires us. And often we fail. Often we sin. We look at that pornographic website the 15,000 time and we confess. And if we still feel and the devil will tell us, "Ah, you did it again. Are you a real Christian?" And we struggle, don't we? But again, you look at Romans, it says, "There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ. For the law,
the spirit of life has set you free." So, so in Christ, given completely free by grace, we are full righteousness. We don't have mercy from God. We actually have what we deserve because Christ has done it for us. We don't have to pay. And the trick is every time we sin the devil stands right next to us and starts condemning all the 15,000 time you saw that website right how can bluffing isn't it we struggle and that's when we going to turn back and say look my there is absolutely no condemnation that means I stand
before God today it is not based on the sin I did yesterday you see when God saved us you remember God Nature is unchanging, immutable. God stands at where he stands. He's seen the past, the present, and the future. Everything in one dot. And don't you know what he you are going? Do don't you think God knows what you're going to do tomorrow or 10 years from now or 20 years from now? God looks and sees Carlson and see, wow, 100 years from now, what he going to look like? Ooh, frightening part, isn't it?
But God saved him. God brought him and gave him the faith to be his son, present, past, and future. There is no condemnation. All right? So, we part of the problem is that we're so curved in on ourselves that we're always thinking we're not good enough. We want to be free like him. life in the spirit. What is a spiritual power? Miraculous gifts, fervor or godly living and desire to be our him. The problem is is miraculous gifts and fervor has overtaken the church. Many many churches are just defined by this movement where there are
miracles as it were. And the problem you look at acts chapter 8 uh Philip had gone up to Samaria and there was a magician go there called Simon Elias and he was very famous because he did magical acts even though non-Christians he bring magical acts and they say this man has the power of god when philillip come wow more miracles tapow him nicely so he he cannot challenge and then he went up to philip say look uh here's a bit of money here if I if you take the money then you you give me the power of the spirit so that
I can lay hand on people and become very great too that's exactly not that's not exactly what he said in his heart but that's what he meant that's what he meant and for you laugh that's a terrible thing to do he's very crass he's direct but many of us are like that only very subtle we come to God we want the miracles we want the fervor we want the spectacular we want the gifts all right and we give something tithing maybe BT76 or maybe come to prayer meeting uh and show Phyis that you're okay you know that's what we
do but the actual transformation of when you actually have freedom your freedom is to love and and and who do you want to be like and you want to be like what God once you have a taste of righteousness That is true freedom. And you wake up every morning and you want to live for him. And the law is now used as a torch light to show in what ways can you please him. That is how you live. All right? It's it's obedience. All right? It produce a life in which your heart loves to think of God and desires to
walk in obedience and in his will. It doesn't produce perfection, but it results in a per a desire for holiness. Right? This is Joanie Ericson, a saint who has been quadriplegic for many, many years. So, I guess she'll wake up every morning. If I were her, I'll wake up every morning and say, "Oh, baby, today I get to walk." Right? Let's say you got a terminal illness. And I know many some of us in our midst have a terminal illness cancer and you wake up every day ah I wouldn't be cured you know maybe the side effect of this
chemotherapy will go away you think that would happen but this is what Jon says you'd assume a lot of people you seen a lot of people in me being a quadriplegic for 45 years they'll assume that I'm most looking forward to a new body in heaven surely I am it's going to be a great thing to be relieved of pain and to be able to walk again. Run, jump, dance, kick. But I think what I'm most looking forward to is getting a new heart, a heart free of sin, worry, fear, doubt, anxiety. You see, she's looking forward to the
righteousness of God, the hope of God. If you come to a church where they point you the other way, where you're looking for miracles and fervor and all sorts of other things, then you're in the wrong church. This church tells you when you wake up in the morning, the thing that powers your life is a hope of righteousness. One day you'll be free of all that sin and all that struggle, all that shame. One day you'll be completely free to be like Jesus Christ. And this day I will take one more step towards being like
him. True freedom has new values in Christ. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything. So basically all the outward things. All right? Whether you have church membership, whether you tithe or whether you get baptized next week or whatever. I'm not saying baptism is not important. It's a command given to God by God for us to obey. But that doesn't save you. The communion doesn't save you. Right? is outward ceremonial forms because all of that is performancebased. You could do something out of your own
selfishness and insecurity. You you cannot change your your your character. It cannot produce love. Imagine Air India crashed last week I think. Uh 12th June 12th June. Thank you Mary. Uh uh and there were two Christians on board. Clive Kunda, very dedicate Christian man who is a who is the um co-pilot and a beautiful young lady called Lamont Singon. They're both Christians. Imagine if you feel the plane going down, what would your last thoughts be? Anyone? Oh, I left my keys at home. Yes. All right. So, you'll find that
your whole life will flash in. How many of you have in a neardeath experience that you and put your hands up? None or never fly a plane? Only one or two. I had once when somebody crashed into my house when I was a young man at 17 years of age. I can remember precisely a huge 6'5 man uh because he was running from somebody from upstairs. Doesn't matter. But at that time I was shaking and my whole life flashed in front of my eyes. what I did as a young child, what all the sins I committed yesterday,
especially the sins. You replay them. You say, "Oh, my God, what's going to happen to me?" You see, if that is the case, if if both their minds replay all the sins that they have done and they feel, "My God, I'm going to crash." That's going to be a problem. Or what good I have done. As Mary has said most astutely, when you're going down in the last few seconds, you should be thinking of what Christ has done for you because that's the only thing that matters. And you don't have to tell me whether that's going to be on your mind
or not because when your plane is going down, you will find out whether you are living by faith or you're living by works. You can come to church every week, do the baptism, preach the sermon, but when your plane is going down, if the first thing in your mind is what good you've done or what bad you've done, you are lost. You go down and the first thing you should be thinking is that thank God he died for me and today I'm going to stand in front of his throne and that's what I'm going to depend upon. That's what
Christians have the freedom with the freedom to stand before the Lord that whatever plane crash or COVID or whatever else we are not bound by anxiety. We're not bound by fear. We are released from the power of sin and slavery because we are in Christ and in Christ there's no condemnation at all. And thirdly, true freedom is expressed in love uh working only faith working through love. So Christ Paul says and this is what Brandon will be preaching on next week. So I'll leave him to do the majority of this. I'll just mention
this cursory in the last 10 minutes. We are to love and serve one another for the whole law is summed up under one. It's about loving your neighbor as yourself. So this is the yoke. So true freedom is like it's not no yoke. No true freedom is Christ's yoke where he carries it for you and he gives you this yoke and this yoke is to love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind and to love your neighbor. You know there's a famous French author called Francois Sagan. She got profound words. She says there's a
certain age of when a woman must be beautiful to be loved. And then comes a time when she must be loved to be beautiful. I think the women will take exception to this. But there's some truth right when you're loved you know you you become beautiful. You feel beautiful. All right. And I think that's important. And they asked Franis Sagan um you know about freedom. Do you actually you know she's a very freespirited person. She lived as she liked. Have you ever been free? And she said I've largely been free. The only time
I've not been free was when I was in love. Bad news for the young people. You want to be free, don't fall in love. Because once you fall in love, oh gone, gone. all the culture they be brought up in what your parents said all gone everything is gone it's only her and then and then your willing slave you know it's not that you're you're bound with a chain but you're a willing slave yes boss what shall I do all right so so but that's a fact if you really want to be free you shouldn't be in love because love binds you but the
only difference when love binds you you do it willingly isn't it all the married people men said Yes. Yes. Yes. Because you do it. But then you're bound. You can't go out with the boys drinking at night unless you ask permission from your wife. Right. No permission why you come back. Marty you know we we limit ourselves. Why? Because we love someone. And that's a good thing. All right. Imagine marrying a husband who is completely free. Does what he likes. Then you're not in a marriage at all. Okay. So, so the whole
idea is freedom. Freedom is not like a fish. You ask a fish, you want to be completely free, then you take you out of the water, see whether you can survive or not. Or maybe an eagle looks completely free, but you put him on the ground, he's not free anymore. So, so the the the the millio the the environment in which freedom actually operates in the human heart is love. Absolute love. Remember the prodigal son, okay? He took his inheritance, he fritted it away, was in dire straits. He realized what terrible situation he was
in. And then he realized he had to go back to God. When he was coming back home, his father ran. The old man ran, pulled up his skirt and ran and hugged him. And the first thing that the son said to the to the father was I'll come back and I'll work for you as a servant for free. You know why? Because I took the inheritance rate, right? My share of the estate is gone. So when I come back, I don't deserve to come back. I'll come back as a servant and live in the servant's quarter, not my old bedroom.
You see that is a lot of our thinking. True true freedom is a movement from slave to son. And the father said to him no no no no such thing. You come back as a full son. You cannot repay the debt. You know there was a count Zendorf talking about missions. One of the greatest movements is called the Moravian church movement where they actually spread out and and sacrificially even gave and lived them uh live under slavery rules in order to bring the gospel to other slaves. And K Zundov who started all this actually uh
one day he actually saw a this picture which we see painted by Dominico Fati. It's called Eomo. I say and at the bottom it there was a inscription it says what have I have done this for you what have you done for me and and and Zindov actually said I've loved him for a long time but I've never really actually done anything for him from now I will do whatever he leads me to do and people actually mistake this they think that when Christ died for them right and they they're filled with this gratitude this debt
So therefore, when I go to church, I do communion, I go to mission trip in the Philippines, it's in order to repay the debt. Although I can never repay, but I'm going to repay. If that's your Christianity, I think you're wrong. The reason why is that, you know, real gratitude has a joyful indepth stuff because I have to do this. Why? Because he saved me. Now I got to do one no choice. Right? All right. It also diminishes the work of the cross as if you can contribute something back to your salvation. Rubbish. Nothing you can
the only thing you can contribute is death. Okay. And the last one is that it overlooks the fact that once you are a Christian, God works inside us. You don't repay the debt by working hard for God as if it's your effort. Your effort, your love, your power actually comes from God. He takes over. You see what I mean? So therefore, it's like a fruit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace. So that the love comes naturally. You be you you're not a gr you're not a grateful person and everything you do is because of what
Christ done for you. So I'm very grateful. You're not that. You are a person because God so loved you. You're an enemy. You're a horrible person. He loved you. So therefore once you become his child you are like him and you love horrible people too right? So like I know preached last week or you walk in church some people you don't see you don't you don't talk to them because they don't talk to you that's rubbish you love because Christ love you and then you're free otherwise you come to church there certain people you see
and you you turn here and you come see certain people here I don't like a U-turn here wow what a slave you know there's a nogo zone there a no-go zone here a no-go zone here then you better stay at home, right? Don't come to church because there are plenty people, you know, whom you don't like. We're not, you see, we all not likable people anyway. We're not loveydovey people. All right? We're not like teddy bears. So, so, so that's the problem. We need to love simply because we have been so transformed
that we automatically love. Faith expresses in love. If you don't have love, you don't have faith. Simple. I see you all turning around here. You turn. I know you don't have faith. gospel faith produces a certainty that we're holy and beautiful. The more conscious we are of this certainty, the less we'll be subject to ups and downs, and the more we'll find our hearts melted in love. There is no more condemnation. What you did yesterday and what you do tomorrow will not change the way the Lord looks at you.
He loves you. all in the future. The sins that you've done, he knew that the moment he saved you. Faith alone works. You know why? Faith produces the certainty. There's no more condemnation of our righteousness. Faith produces the father's welcome. Prodical son come back. No, nothing said I want you back. And with that, there's no ups and downs based on performances. You shouldn't wake up today and feel bad or good depending what you did yesterday, right? But it energizes love and you reciprocates with love with with
with with uh love reciprocates right basically there's no ups and downs but if you do sin you go to God you repent that's why repentance is part of your life as a son externally what you can see two people they look like they got faith they come to church they do the things they they help out in missions or in helping the poor. But what's happened is under the surface. This one has an internal motive because I believe he died for me and gave me his righteousness. So I'm transformed. I love automatically. And this one our
faith alone is not enough. I must do works to prove I have true faith. Then you're deficient, isn't it? Every time you some you do something that's not loving, then you start wondering whether you're saved. And that is not the gospel faith. Let me end with a truly remarkable story of faith expressing in love. During uh World War II, the Japanese attacked Americans at the Pearl Harbor December 7th, 1941. A lot of lives were lost and they actually organized a retaliatory strike into Japan aboard an aircraft carrier. They took
off and many of these planes were not expected to come back anyway. It was like a one-way trip and among them was Jacob Daraja. You don't actually there's a movie made for this. Okay. It was about General Doolittle who led the who led the raid. But another of the his lieutenants who actually went was called Jacob the Sharaja. He bombed Nagoya and obviously so far away you can't fly back to the aircraft carrier. He crashed in China and he was taken prisoner and it was a horrible horrible time because the
Japanese killed some of his men. They tortured him for 40 months. Out of the 40 months, he was put in solitary confinement in alone, you know, in a tiny cell, a cage for 34 months. And during that time, he was brought up in a Christian family. His mother had always prayed for him, but he strayed from the Lord. And the moment he crashed, his mother woke up in the United States and started praying for him. She somehow knew something was wrong. He was taken prisoner and his 34 months he grew a tremendous
hatred for everything Japanese. I mean if you actually talk to some of the older people in the congregation who have got relatives who says were who were tortured by the Japanese in this country you'll find that forgiveness is very very hard because these people just were so cruel. He he described the fact that he al he gone mad with hatred everything Japanese. Then one day they decided to give them some literature and then he requested uh because of his upbringing a Bible and he read back cover to cover no
because that's the only thing they gave him towards the end of his captivity. He came to know Christ. He was then released from prison alive totally like a skinny man. The house switch victim. He recovered and his attitude towards ch the Japanese completely changed. He made a promise to the Lord, if I ever got out, I will go back to Japan and serve you. And so he did. He went to Ashbury Theological Seminary after he got out of the army, studied, became a missionary, went back to Japan and there he served the people whom he
hated. He hated them because they tortured him. And yet his life was so transformed. He didn't do it because he's trying to repay God. He did it because his nature was changed. And he tackled the thing that most held him as a prisoner. You know, the the the bars of that prison weren't the ones that held him back. You know what held him back is the hatred. Hatred is like taking a poison and expecting the other guy to die. And many of us here today are bound by hatred. We won't forgive. We won't let go. The person who said
that to you or we betrayed you couldn't let go. But Jacob Disha's faith is expressed in love for the people whom he hated. If you think about it, God would hate us too because we are his enemies. And yet while we were yet enemies, he died for us. And that's exactly what Jacob discharger did. Because true faith is expressed in unconditional love. You know, he he he ministered to Japan not just one two years to to to to settle his debt to God. He served there for 30 years. He planted, you know how difficult it is
to plant churches in Japan? Very difficult. He planted 23 churches. And remember the thing that started this whole adventure was the attack on Pearl Harbor. And you know one of his converts was Mitsuo Fuida. He led the attack on Pearl Harbor that actually triggered this whole saga to forgive the enemy who reign bombs upon your heart is something astonishing. You cannot see this outside spirit of God. So the challenge today is the first verse of my six verses. For freedom, Christ has set us free. You see,
brothers and sisters, you're sitting here. You're imperfect, but Christ has already set you free. You're already free. See, he he asked you not to become free because you are free. He asks you to stand firm. Therefore, in your freedom, do not let your freedom go. Do not let someone who hurt you, someone who said something bad against you, take that freedom away. Do not let that career, that extra cash, take that freedom away. Because there are so many things today that threaten the freedom we have. And you need to
recognize the freedom we have is a freedom to love God and to love each other. So let FBC be a truly free church. Let FBC be a church where non-Christians from all over this country can come and have the freedom with Jesus promise that we can experience today. Let's pray. Father Lord, we we thank you. Our hearts yearn for freedom. You know for how you have created us. And this day we celebrate the amazing grace that ones that we did not deserve that you came and broke those chains. And we pray that we will stand firm in the
freedom that you have given us, which is the freedom to love. Make you increase and abound in this love for one another and for all as we do for you. so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints. Let this be our prayer. Let this be our aspirations as we await with eagerness his return. For some of us who would like the elders and pastors here to pray for you, we are available. Just come forward uh and we will just pray
with you. May you all uh uh dismissed after silent prayer of meditation. [Music]
