Free!

Jesus death freed us from sin, the law and death. Give over the areas you still have trouble surrendering.


Scripture: 1 Peter 2:16-24, 1 Peter 2:16, 1 Peter 2:11, Romans 6:3

Transcript

Alright, thank you very much. And hello again radio friends. How in the world are you? You doin’ all right today? Yes you can answer. I wait a minute because that’s the way I was brought up. My father used to say to me, “Boy, when you ask a question, give people a chance to answer it!” That, along to the dictum, “Speak when you’re spoken to, boy!” (Laughs) Did you ever get that when you were growing up? A firm handshake, look a person in the eye, and speak when you’re spoken to. That, those, those were the rules of meeting people.

Of course, as a child I was in an atmosphere where children are to be seen and not heard. You know the, the kinder weren’t supposed to speak up. That didn’t hurt me any. (Laughs) I get plenty of chance to speak now, at age 77, and that’s all right. It seems to me, th-, this is, I’ll throw this in free. This has nothing to do whatsoever with the exposition of Scripture. But it seems to me that we’re raising a generation of people who really don’t know the, the basic niceties of ordinary courtesy — have you noticed that?

People will interrupt; they will, they will insist upon their own ideas to the detriment of others; you, you don’t hear ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, or ‘I beg your pardon’, or ‘excuse me’, or ‘what is your opinion’. You don’t seem to hear that too much anymore. Is that just because I’m getting old, do you think? (Laughs) It could well be, you know. (Laughs) Every generation, as it grays, as it gets older, thinks that the younger generation is simply going to the dogs. You can find that in the writings of the ancient Greeks, and then later on throughout the centuries that have gone by.

The generations that, that, that got older; as they got older, they, they thought that the young people were absolutely going to pieces, and nothing was any good. So I suppose it’s a natural reaction, isn’t it. (Laughs) Yes, you’re allowed to laugh at me, I’m laughing at myself. After all, my main job is to make sure I do the right thing. How about that? And so we’re going to work on that along with you, as we walk together with our Lord. Walking with the King.

We’re in 1 Peter 2, and I was just taking up with you some of the comparative phrases that help to put a window in that phrase, ‘live unto righteousness’. 1 Peter 2:24 said that, “Our Lord Jesus, His own self bore our sins in His own body, on the cross, that we being dead to sins should live unto righteousness.” Tha-, and that phrase ‘live unto righteousness’ it seemed to me, was sort of ventilated
by these phrases that we looked at: ‘as newborn babes feed on the Word of God’, ‘as living stones, built into the eternal purpose of God’.

Talking about ‘living unto righteousness’ now. “As strangers and pilgrims…” The stranger’s a foreigner, person who doesn’t fit. And once you’re born from above, born again, you don’t fit in the old world system any longer .And you’re thinking in terms of the will of God instead of your own will. “Not my will, but Thine be done,” becomes the watchword of your praying. ‘Pilgrims’ describes a person who’s on a journey. He’s not stopping. He may rest temporarily, he may have a temporary domicile some place. But he’s a pilgrim, he’s on his way somewhere.

And we’re on our way to that heavenly city. They looked for a city whose builder and maker is God. Jesus said, “I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am there may ye be also.” We’re on our way to that heavenly city, and the presence — hallelujah — of our blessed Lord.

Then another descriptive phrase that helps to, to illustrate and to define this concept of ‘living unto righteousness’ is in verse 11: “As free, free, free from the law, O blessed condition. Jesus hath died and there is remission. Free from the condemnation of sin; as many as are under the law are under the curse. As it is written, ‘Curseth is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law, to do them.’ Free from the curse. Free from death.”

To deliver, Christ came to deliver them who all their lifetime were under bondage through fear of death. “He tasted death for every man,” the Bible says. Free. And free from the power of sin. “Sin shall not have dominion over you,” says Paul in Romans 6:3. ‘Living unto righteousness’ means that for the first time in your life since you said ‘yes’ to Jesus, since you made Him your Lord and Savior by faith, you’re now free from those things which bound and enslaved you; free to serve God.

So that gives us then, progress into verse 16. He says, “As the servants of God, as the servants of God.” Now the word ‘servants’ as I’ve often told you, is our word ‘slave’. Greek word doulos, our word ‘slave’. And so he says you’re free from all these things that bound you. But now you’re free to become the slave of the eternal purpose of God. Now why would he use such a term? We don’t believe in slavery, do we? Well, there is a sense in which the highest relationship that you and I could ever attain is a relationship where all of our will, and all of our efforts, and all of our life, is consumed in the process of doing the will of Almighty God.

You would agree wouldn’t you, that the best possible condition is to do the will of God? Wouldn’t you agree with that? If you agree with that — and I think you do — then you can understand Paul’s use of this word ‘servant’, or literally, ‘bond slave’. Why? Because the highest, and holiest, and happiest condition for a human being is to be completely committed to the will of God. “My joy,” said the Savior, “is to do the will of Him that sent me, and finish His work; who for the joy which was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is now set down at the right hand of the Majesty on High.”

Real joy, that goes beyond happiness, doesn’t it? Happiness depends on circumstances. And we’re unhappy if circumstances are bad or contrary to us. But real joy depends on a right relationship with a person. And so the joy that is unalloyed, and unflawed, the, the joy that is perfect, and that lasts, comes from being absolutely committed to the will of God. And when you’re absolutely committed to the will of another entity, another person, then you are that person’s slave. See, that’s the logic of it. All right?

As the servants of God, you’re free from the things that bound you, and that enslaved you, in an evil sense. Free from worry; free from guilt; free from the bondage of trying to do something to, to curry favor with the Holy God; free from malice, and free from hatred, and free from envy;and free from the towering pride that made you unwilling to come to God for forgiveness. Free from the bondage of trying to please other people, to get along through life; free to do what God wants you to do. All of that blessed freedom to do what? To do His will. Why? Because that is perfection. The will of God is perfect.

And so when you give yourself to God, you help to prove to the devil and all of his imps, and to the world around you, that God’s will is, is perfect. How do I know that? Romans 12. He says, “Be not confirmed to this world,” — don’t be jammed into the world’s matrix. But he said, “be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is good and what is acceptable in this, on this perfect, namely the will of God. When you give your body to God, and your will with it… Romans 12:1 — “Present your body, a living sacrifice…”

When you give your body to God, and your will with it, you are helping to prove to the devil and all of his hosts, and the angels, and anybody looking on from above, and to the people around you who observe you, you are helping to prove that God’s will is perfect. Now that’s all wrapped up in this, in this phrase ‘the servants of God’. It’s quite a con’, concept, isn’t it?

Now how do you go about this matter? I find in my life, pockets of resistance just like the, the pockets of resistance that were found in the, in the war areas of the Pacific, in the islands and other places, where small groups of enemy soldiers would be holed up perhaps in a cave, or in some fortified area. And they would resist, even though the war was over. Pockets of resistance. I find that in my life — do you?

What do we do about that. The psalmist was under the same kind of difficulty evidentially because he prayed, “Oh Lord, unite my heart to fear Thy name.” A divided heart. I want the will of God, but I want my own way too. One of the sad verses in the Old Testament is, “They feared the Lord, but served their own gods.” And, and God’s complaint against the people of the old centuries, as well as against you and me is, “These people honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me.”

We do have pockets of resistance in our lives. What do we do about it? The only way we can handle that is by, is by using the same procedure with which you came to the Lord Jesus Christ in the first place. How did you deal with God in the first place? Let us, let us assume that you have prayed, and asked God to forgive your sins, and you’ve trusted Jesus as your Savior. Now if you haven’t done that, there is where you have to start. Down on your knees, “Oh God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me now for Jesus’ sake.” Pray the prayer that will open the gates of heaven to you and allow God to make you a new creature in Christ.

If however, there has been a time when you committed yourself to the Lord in that fashion, and you trusted the Lord Jesus to save you from your sins, yet now because you still have an old nature, you find those pockets of resistance. What do you do about it? You bring them one by one to the same Savior that you came to when you wanted to be saved. “As you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in Him,” Colossians 2:6 tells us.

And so you use the same faith, the same approach, the same dependence, the same abandoning of yourself to what God can do, in dealing with the pockets of resistance in your life, where your will is in conflict with God’s will. You use the same faith that depends absolutely upon what God can do, and you yield to Him. You see, surrender is built into your bones. You’re going to give up to something or somebody. Oftentimes we end up giving in to ourselves, and to the pressures from without as well.

And so Paul says, “As you have yielded,” — you have collapsed and given up. “As you have yielded the members of your body, slaves to unrighteousness,” and the result was inequity. Even so, same method, give up, but give up to Jesus — “Yield your members, servants unto righteousness.” Christ is our righteousness, so you can put His name in there. Give up to Jesus. Take that specific area and turn it over to Christ by faith today. Don’t let a minute go by before you yield to Him.

Dear Father, today help us to yield our wills to Thee, entirely. In Jesus name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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