“Where
the Spirit of the Lord Is, There Is Liberty”
I
Corinthians 3: 17
Recently I was watching the Mike
Huckabee Show on TV. One of his guests
was the actor Richard Dreyfus. I have
admired Mr. Dreyfus as an actor for many years.
He has become a voice and political activist for the Democrat
Party. In addition, he has also
expressed a great interest in the importance of teaching people, especially the
student of today, about civics. As a
teacher of Social Studies myself,
I found that there was much ground that we could agree upon in spite of our
political differences. I was so
impressed with his point of view I decided to take notes and use them as a
platform to present some further ideas of my own that, for me, expose a great
flaw in the basis for his format about what ideas of civics should be taught to
our people, and students in particular. The following are the notes that I
took. I tried to be very precise about
presenting his ideas with accuracy.
Huckabee’s
Question: For our people, especially students, what needs to be done to prepare
them to be good citizens?
America
is the greatest system of governance ever created. It’s the only one that requires some
involvement of the civic body. It’s the
best answer to the question of “How can people live together in some sense of
decency and freedom, and opportunity and mobility?” There has never been a better answer than the
United States. We Americans don’t know that any more. We don’t teach it to our children. We wouldn’t know the whys and wherefores as
to how we got to this point in America
as a nation. The rest of the world does
know this, and that is why they want to come here.
There is a curse that mankind has
lived with for twelve thousand years. It
is known so well that nobody has to talk about it. The curse is (the idea) that “ you and yours
will always be a serf with my heal on your neck, and you will never rise.” Then America came along and said, “If
you can get here, if you can take whatever stuff life throws at you, if you work
hard and are lucky, you might rise.”
This is the most important political message in twelve thousand years,
and we don’t teach it. We are a country
not bound by any religion, ancestry, location, sect, place, or people. We are only bound by a set of ideas. If we don’t teach those ideas, then we are no
longer bound.
Huckabee’s Question: “How do we get the people, especially
students, to appreciate the gift of citizenship in this country?”
You have to get people to fall in
love with America, and the America of idea, because America is the
suspense novel of victory of light over dark (when the stats are 98% dark and
2% light). In the history of mankind,
light has won very few times. America is
the actualization of what is called The Enlightenment where reason, logic,
scientific deduction, and intelligence was considered better than religion,
faith, hope, and zealotry. It was a
window that was opened and is closing.
Its enemy is darkness. The
darkness means that sooner or later thinking makes your heard hurt. And that is true of all of us. We do not train our “sovereigns-to-be”, our
future, how to be a sovereign that can reason, have logic, how not to listen to
the voice of the guy who may be whispering things in your ear that may serve
only his interests, and how to do basic things that they need to do. We now have technology that has removed the
element of time, time for thinking.
Science has removed time from the process of thinking and decision-
making.
Now we are in a state of fear and
terror. We see the towers fall and in an
instant we see our worst enemy and are not told all the facts. If corralled by the wrong people, we may make
the wrong decisions. Now, because of
technology we, we do not have the “time” to reason things through
before decisions
are made.
The flaw in Mr. Dreyfus’s
premise is summed up fairly precisely in the following comment:
America
is the actualization of what is called The Enlightenment where reason, logic,
scientific deduction, and intelligence was considered better than religion, faith, hope, and
zealotry.
The Age of
Enlightenment, also referred to as The Age of Reason, was a period in history
from 1648 – 1789.
Enlightenment thinkers reduced religion to those
essentials which could only be "rationally" defended, i.e., certain
basic moral principles and a few universally held beliefs about God. Aside from
these universal principles and beliefs, religions in their particularity were
largely banished from the public square. Taken to its logical extreme, the
Enlightenment resulted in atheism. The age of
Enlightenment is considered to have ended with the French Revolution, which had
a violent aspect that discredited it in the eyes of many.
It is this manner of thinking that has led
to revisionist history. Secularists
today would have us believe that America was not founded as a
Christian nation. At the most, they
would have our children believing that the founding fathers were all deists.
They endeavor to wipe out all references to the original papers of the Magna
Carta, the Mayflower Compact, or even George Washington’s and Abraham Lincoln’s
personal letters that contain many references to the belief that the only way
our constituion and democracy could ever continue to remain strong is through
faith in God.
In 1620 while still on the ship, when the
Pilgrims landed in America,
they wrote the Mayflower Compact. It
begins with the words: “In the Name of God, Amen…Having undertaken for the
glory of God, and advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of
our King and Country, a Voyage to plant the first Colony in the Northern parts
of Virginia.”
America’s first complete constitution, the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut,
written in 1639, states: “Forasmuch as
it hath pleased the Almighty God by the wise disposition of his divine
providence so to order and dispose of things that we ,,, enter into combination
and confederation together to maintain and preserve the liberty and purity
of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Yes, it is important for students to be taught
the processes of crtitical thinking. I
do not attempt to diminish the necessity for a good soveriegn to know,
understand and use the proper tools for decision making. However, when God is taken out of that process,
man is left with only the rudiments of faulty thinking which can only lead to
his eventual downfall. The word of God
is truth. God will not be mocked. Jesus is the basis of the principles of
tolerance and freedom. If our students
are not allowed to be taught the part that God has played in the creation and
development of our country, then our future will be truly lost.
Our Declaration of Independence states,
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that
among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” If this statement is not true, then those
rights are not inalienable. Without God,
we are only left with the state. The
state can give and take rights as it sees fit to do so. Without God, we are left with the state as
the sole source of those rights and liberties which gives it total authority
over man.
If any one takes the opportunity to look
within the many buildings of importance within our nations’ capital, one will
find the Ten Commandments, Moses, and numerous references to God. Yet within the classroom today a teacher is
not allowed to even exhibit those commandments, much less teach them, though
they are the very basis of our Bill of Rights.
The Judeo-Christian tradition built this nation in a very unique
way. Mr. Dreyfus is right that our
country is built upon and bound together by a set of ideas. But he wants to leave out the most important
ideas of all. Removing our past roots
can, and is, removing the intended purpose for our nation in the future. If we stand by, while others are endeavoring
to remove our Christian roots, we will not only forget our past but we will
have no future. America, as we
once new it to be, is slowly but surely being changed into something so
different that soon, it may not even be recognizeable. As individuals or as a nation, God does not
force us to believe in Him. He leaves
that choice up to us.
“Historically, our nation honoured God,
His Word, and His Son. In 1892 the Supreme Court issued the famed Trinity
decision. The justices spent ten
years studying every document having anything to do with the foundation of America. In a unanimous ruling they declared, “We find
everywhere a clear definition of the same truth …. This is a Christian
nation.”
Mr. Dreyfus is of Jewish decent, but from
his remarks about religion, I doubt that he is a believer in Judaism. It seems possible that he may fit somewhere
in the realm of deism (the belief that God created the world but then took a
hands off policy), or atheism.
Enlightenment presupposes that man’s intellectualism and ability to
rationalize are far superior to any idea of faith. Humanism, secularism, progressivism,
communism, and anarchism will all find support within this kind of
framework. Though few within these
confines would admit it, each of these is a religion in itself. This line of thinking supports the basis for
man to think of himself as his own god; thus, “freeing” himself of the
“unnecesary shackles” of any need for God.
Whether it is called humanism, secularism, Marxism, socialism, or “power
to the people,” it is a self-destructive flaw in the human system that causes
such deceiving ideas to allow governments to gather power unto itself and use
it to control people despotically.
Yes, there is a contrast of light and
darkness in the world. According to
those who follow the same thought as Mr. Dreyfus, the light of the world is the
intellectualism and rationalizism of man;
whereas, darkness is a result of religion, faith,
hope, and zealotry. If it had not been
for faith in the Almighty God of our founding fathers, our country would not
have been based upon Judeo-Christian ethics, and the atmosphere of liberty and
tolerance that is afforded to citizens of this country would not be in
existence today. We have not been a
perfect country, yet we have been a country of greater liberty and freedom than
had thus far existed. I argue that
freedom within our country is reduced in proportion to the reduction of our
faith in God. Thus, our social systems,
which includes our educational system, is reaping the destructive consequences
of our diminishing trust in God. The
Word of God states, (Psalm 119: 105) “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a
light unto my path.” (Proverbs 1: 7) The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and
instruction.” (John 1: 4, 5) “In Him
(Jesus) was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the
darkness comprehended it not.” God gave
us His statutes and judgements not to have despotic rule over us, but to
protect us from the darkness of the powers and principalities of this
world. (Deuteronomy 5: 32, 33) “Ye shall observe to do therefore as the Lord
your God hath commanded you; ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or to
the left. Ye shall walk in all the ways
which the Lord your God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may
be well with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye shall
possess.” Our country is in the throws
of a battle for survival between darkness and light, good and evil. God will not be mocked.
Is there any wonder that our people of
today are not prepared to be good sovereigns and appreciate the rights and
liberties of citizenship in America? If one is not allowed to know the true roots
of his past, how can he possibly understand the destiny of his future? Without God there is no true freedom or
liberty. We are left then with only a
symblance of freedom and liberty that is never absolute and permanent, but is
transient and forever changing with every whim of man’s ideas of what is right
at any given period of time. Man’s ideas
are relevant and forever changing. God’s
ideas are the same, yesterday, today, and forever. True liberty is found in God who does not
demand His own way, but gives man free will, the opportunity to choose. (II Corinthians 3: 17) “Where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there is liberty.”
“Upon this Rock (Jesus), I take my stand, All other ground is sinking sand.”
Virginia
Rahn
April 3, 2009 I was researching for more
in depth understanding of the fullness of the scripture
“Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
Liberty. I found the following sermon by C.H.
Spurgeon. May it impart wisdom,
discernment and understanding to the reader and increase the numbers of those
who will choose to receive Jesus as Lord and Savior and thereby enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
Spiritual Liberty
February 18th, 1855
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty."- 2 Corinthians 3:17.
Liberty is the birthright of every man. He may be born a
pauper; he may be a foundling; his parentage may be altogether unknown; but
liberty is his inalienable birthright. Black may be his skin; he may live
uneducated and untaught; he may be poor as poverty itself; he may never have a
foot of land to call his own; he may scarce have a particle of clothing, save a
few rags to cover him; but, poor as he is, nature has fashioned him for
freedom—he has a right to be free, and if he has not liberty, it is his
birthright, and he ought not to be content until he wins it.
Liberty is the
heirloom of all the sons and daughters of Adam. But where do you find liberty
unaccompanied by religion? True it is that all men have a right to liberty, but
it is equally true that you do not meet it in any country save where you find the
Spirit of the Lord. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty." Thank God, this is a free country. This is a land where I can
breathe the air and say it is untainted by the groan of a single slave; my
lungs receive it, and I know there has never been mingled with its vapours the
tear of a single slave woman shed over her child which has been sold from her.
This land is the home of liberty. But why is it so? I take it, it is not so
much because of our institutions as because the Spirit of the Lord is here —the
spirit of true and hearty religion. There was a time, remember, when England
was no more free than any other country, when men could not speak their
sentiments freely, when kings were despots, when Parliaments were but a name.
Who won our liberties for us? Who have loosed our chains? Under the hand of
God, I say, the men of religion—men like the great and glorious Cromwell, who
would have liberty of conscience, or die—men who, if they could not reach
kings' hearts, because they were unsearchable in cunning, would strike kings
low, rather than they would be slaves. We owe our liberty to men of religion,
to men of the stern Puritanical school—men who scorned to play the craven and
yield their principles at the command of man. And if we ever are to maintain
our liberty (as God grant we may) it shall be kept in England by religious
liberty—by religion. This Bible is the Magna Charta of old Britain. its truths,
its doctrines have snapped our fetters, and they never can be riveted on again,
whilst men, with God's Spirit in their hearts, go forth to speak its truths. In
no other land, save where the Bible is unclasped—in no other realm, save where
the gospel is preached, can you find liberty. Roam through other countries, and
you speak with bated breath; you are afraid; you feel you are under an iron
hand; the sword is above you; you are not free. Why? Because you are under the
tyranny engendered by a false religion: you have not free Protestantism there;
and it is not till Protestantism comes that there can be freedom. It is where
the Spirit of the Lord is that there is liberty, and nowhere else. Men talk
about being free: they describe model governments, Platonic republics, or
Owenite paradises; but they are dreamy theorists; for there can be no freedom
in the world, save, "where the spirit of the Lord is."
I have commenced with this idea, because I think worldly men ought to be told
that if religion does not save them, yet it has done much for them—that the
influence of religion has won them their liberties.
But the liberty of the text is no such freedom as this: it is an infinitely
greater and better one. Great as civil or religious liberty may be, the liberty
of my text transcendently exceeds. There is a liberty, dear friends, which
Christian men alone enjoy; for even in Great Britain there are men who taste
not the sweet air of liberty. There are some who are afraid to speak as men,
who have to cringe and fawn, and bow, and stoop, to any one; who have no will
of their own, no principles, no voice, no courage, and who cannot stand erect
in conscious independence. But he is the free man, whom the truth makes free.
He who has grace in his heart is free; he cares for no one; he has the right
upon his side; he has God within him—the indwelling Spirit of the Holy Ghost;
he is a prince of the blood royal of heaven; he is a noble, having the true
patent of nobility; he is one of God's elect, distinguished, chosen children,
and he is not the man to bend, or meanly cringe. No!—sooner would he walk the
burning furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—sooner would he be cast
into the lion's den with Daniel, than yield a point of principle. He is a free
man. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty" in its
fullest, highest, and widest sense. God give you friends, to have that
"Spirit of the Lord;" for without it, in a free country, ye may still
be bondsmen; and where there are no serfs in body, ye may be slaves in soul.
The text speaks of Spiritual liberty; and now I address the children of God.
Spiritual liberty, brethren, you and I enjoy if we have "the Spirit of the
Lord" within us. What does this imply? It implies that there was a time
when we had not that Spiritual liberty—when we were slaves. But a little while
ago all of us who now are free in Christ Jesus, were slaves of the devil: we
were led captives at his will. We talked of free-will, but free will is a
slave. We boasted that we could do what we pleased; but oh! what a slavish and
dreamy liberty we had. It was a fancied freedom. We were slaves to our lusts
and passions—slaves to sin; but now we are freed from sin; we are delivered
from our tyrant; a stronger than he has cast out the strong man armed, and we
are free.
Let us now examine a little more closely, in what our liberty consists.
I. And first, my friends, "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty" from the Bondage of Sin. Ah! I know I shall speak
feelingly to some of you when I talk about the bondage of sin. You know what
that misery means. Of all bondage and slavery in this world, there is none more
horrible than the bondage of sin. Tell me of Israel in Egypt preparing their
tale of bricks unsupplied with straw; tell me of the negro beneath the lash of
his cruel task-master, and I confess it is a bondage fearful to be borne; but
there is one far worse—the bondage of a convinced sinner when he is brought to
feel the burden of his guilt; the bondage of a man when once his sins are
baying him, like hounds about a weary stag; the bondage of a man when the
burden of sin is on his shoulder—a burden too heavy for his soul to bear—a
burden which will sink him for ever in the depths of everlasting torment,
unless he doth escape from it. Methinks I see such a person. He hath ne'er a
smile upon his face; dark clouds hath gathered on his brow; solemn and serious
he stands; his very words are sighs; his songs are groans; his smiles are
tears; and when he seems most happy, hot drops of grief roll in burning
showers, scalding furrows on his cheek. Ask him what he is, and he tells you he
is "a wretch undone." Ask him how he is, and he confesses that he is
"misery incarnate." Ask him what he shall be, and he says, "he
shall be lost in flames for ever, and there is no hope." Behold him alone
in his retirement: when he lays his head on his pillow, up he starts again: at
night he dreams of torment, and by day he almost feels that of which he
dreamed. Such is the poor convinced sinner under bondage. Such have I been in
my days, and such have you been, friends. I speak to those who understand it.
You have passed through that gloomy Slough of Despond; you have gone through
that dark vale of penitence: you have been made to drink the bitter cup of
repentance: and I know you will say, "Amen" when I declare that of
all bondage this is the most painful—the bondage of the law, the bondage of
corruption. "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me" from it?
But the Christian is free; he can smile now, though he wept before; he can
rejoice now, whereas he lamented. "There is," he says, "no sin
upon my conscience now; there is no crime upon my breast; I need not walk
through the earth fearful of every shadow, and afraid of every man I meet, for
sin is washed away; my spirit is no more guilty; it is pure, it is holy; there
no longer resteth the frown of God upon me; but my Father smiles: I see his
eyes—they are glancing love: I hear his voice—it is full of sweetness. I am
forgiven, I am forgiven, I am forgiven! All hail, thou breaker of fetters!
glorious Jesus! Ah! that moment when first the bondage passed away I Methinks I
recollect it now. I saw Jesus on his cross before me; I thought on him, and as
I mused upon his death and sufferings, methought I saw him cast a look on me;
and when he gazed on me, I looked at him, and
said,
"Jesus, lover of my soul,
Let me to thy bosom fly."
He said "come," and I flew to him and clasped him; and when he let me
go again, I wondered where my burden was. It was gone! There, in the sepulchre,
it lay, and I felt light as air; like a winged sylph, I could fly over
mountains of trouble and despair; and oh! what liberty and joy I had! I could
leap with ecstasy for I had much forgiven, and now I was freed from sin."
Beloved, this is the first liberty of the children of God. "Where the
Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" from the bondage of sin.
2. Liberty from the Penalty of Sin.—What is it? Eternal death—torment
for ever—that is the sad penalty of sin. It is no sweet thing to fear that if I
died now I might be in hell. It is no pleasant thought for me to stand here and
believe that if I dropped down I must sink into the arms of Satan and have him
for my tormentor. Why, sirs, it is a thought that would plague me; it is a
thought that would be the bitterest curse of my existence. I would fain be dead
and rotting in the tomb rather than walk the earth with the thought that I
might suffer such a penalty as this. There are some of you here who know right
well that if you die hell is your portion. You don't attempt to deny it; you
believe the Bible, and there you read your doom, "He that believeth not
shall be damned." You cannot put yourselves among believers. You are still
without Christ. Have any of you been brought into such a condition that you
believe yourself so full of sin that God could not be just if he did not punish
you? Have you not felt that you have so rebelled against God by secret crimes,
ay, I say, by secret crimes, and by open transgression, that if he did not
punish you he must cease to be God and lay aside his sceptre? And then you have
trembled, and groaned, and cried out under the fear of the penalty of sin. You
thought when you dreamed, that you saw that burning lake whose waves are fire,
and whose billows are ever blazing brimstone; and each day you walked the earth
it was with fear and dread lest the next step should let you into the pit which
is without a bottom. But Christian, Christian, you are free from the penalty of
sin. Do you know it? Can you recognize the fact? You are free at this moment
from the penalty of sin. Not only are you forgiven, but you never can be
punished on account of your sins however great and enormous they may have been.
"The moment a sinner believes,
And trusts in his crucified God;
His pardon at once he receives,
Salvation in full through his blood,"
and he never can be punished on account of sin. Talk of the punishment of a
believer! there is not such a thing. The afflictions of this mortal life are
not punishments for sin to Christians; they are fatherly chastisements, and not
the punishments of a judge. For me there is no hell; let it smoke and burn, if
I am a believer I shall never have my portion there. For me there are no
eternal racks, no torments, for if I am justified, I cannot be condemned. Jesus
hath suffered the punishment in my stead, and God would be unjust if he were to
punish me again; for Christ has suffered once, and satisfied justice for ever.
When conscience tells me I am a sinner, I tell conscience I stand in Christ's
place, and Christ stands in mine. True, I am a sinner; but Christ died for
sinners. True, I deserve punishment; but if my ransom died, will God ask for
the debt twice? Impossible! He has cancelled it. There never was, and never
shall be one believer in hell. We are free from punishment, and we never need
quake on account of it. However horrible it may be—If it is eternal, as we know
it is—it is nothing to us, for we never can suffer it. Heaven shall open its
pearly portals to admit us; but hell's iron gates are barred for ever against
every believer. Glorious liberty of the children of God!
3. But there is one fact more startling than both of these things, and I dare
say some of you will demur to it; nevertheless it is God's truth, and if you
don't like it, you must leave it! There is liberty from the guilt of sin.
This is the wonder of wonders. The Christian is positively not guilty any
longer the moment he believes. Now, if Her Majesty in her goodness spares a
murderer by giving him a free pardon, that man cannot be punished: but still he
will be a guilty man; she may give him a thousand pardons, and the law cannot
touch him, but still he will guilty; the crime will always be on his head, and
he will be branded as a murderer as long as he lives. But the Christian is not
only delivered from the bondage and from the punishment, but he is positively
absolved from the guilt. Now this is something at which you will stand amazed.
You say, "What? is a Christian no more a sinner in God's sight ?" I
answer, he is a sinner as considered in himself; but in the person of Christ he
is no more a sinner than the angel Gabriel; for snowy as are angelic wings, and
spotless as are cherubic robes, an angel cannot be more pure than the poor
blood-washed sinner when he is made whiter than snow. Do you understand how it
is that the very guilt of the sinner is taken away? Here I stand to-day a
guilty and condemned traitor; Christ comes for my salvation, he bids me heave
my cell, "I will stand where you are; I will be your substitute; I will be
the sinner; all your guilt is to be imputed to me; I will die for it, I will
suffer for it; 1 will have your sins." Then stripping himself of his
robes, he says, "There, put them on; you shall be considered as if you
were Christ; you shall be the righteous one. I will take your place, you
take mine." Then he casts around me a glorious robe of perfect
righteousness; and when I behold it, I exclaim, "Strangely, my soul, art
thou arrayed, with my elder brother's garments on." Jesus Christ's crown
is on my head, his spotless robes are round my loins, and his golden sandals
are the shoes of my feet. And now is there any sin? The sin is on Christ; the
righteousness is on me. Ask for the sinner, Justice! Let the voice of Justice
cry, "Bring forth the sinner!" The sinner is brought. Who doth the
executioner lead forth? It is the incarnate Son of God. True, he did not commit
the sin; he was without fault; but it is imputed to him: be stands in the
sinner's place. Now Justice cries, "Bring forth the righteous, the
perfectly righteous." Whom do I see? Lo, the Church is brought; each
believer is brought. Justice says, "Are these perfectly righteous?"
"Yes they are. What Christ did is theirs; what they did is laid on Christ;
his righteousness is theirs; their sins are his." I appeal to you, ye
ungodly. This seems strange and startling, does it not? You have set it down to
hyper-calvinism, and you laugh at it. Set it down for what you please, sirs.
God has set it up as his truth; he has made us righteous through the imputed
righteousness of Jesus Christ. And now, if I am a true believer, I stand here
freed from every sin. There is not a crime against me in the book of God; it is
blotted out for ever; it is cancelled; and not only can I never be punished,
but I have nothing to be punished for. Christ has atoned for my sins, and I
have received his righteousness. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there
is liberty."
4. Furthermore, the Christian man, whilst delivered from the guilt and
punishment of sin, is likewise delivered from the dominion of it. Every
living man before he is converted, is a slave to lust. Profane men glory in
free living and free thinking. They call this free living—a full glass,
a Bacchanalian revel, shouting, wantonness, chambering.—Free living, sir! Let
the slave hold up his fetters and jingle them in my ears, and say, "This
is music, and I am free." The man is a poor maniac. Let the man chained in
his cell, the madman of Bethlehem, tell me he is a king, and grin a horrible
smile; I say, "Ah, poor wretch, I know wherefore he counteth that he is a
king; he is demented, and is mad." So it is with the worldling who says he
is free. Free sir! you are a slave. You think you are happy; but at night, when
you lay yourself upon your bed, how many times have you tossed from side to
side sleepless and ill at ease; and when you awaked have you not said,
"Ah! that yesterday—that yesterday !" And though you plunged into
another day of sin, that "yesterday," like a hell-dog, barked at you,
and followed at your heels. You know it, sir,—sin is a bondage and a slavery.
And have you ever tried to get rid of that slavery? "Yes," you say,
"I have." But I will tell you what has been the end of it. When you
have tried, you have bound your fetters firmer than ever; you have riveted your
chains. A sinner without grace attempting to reform him self is like Sisyphus
rolling the stone up hill, which always comes down with greater force. A man
without grace attempting to save himself, is engaged in as hopeless a task as
the daughters of Danaus, when they attempted to fill a vast vessel with
bottomless buckets. He has a bow without a string, a sword without a blade, a
gun without powder. He needs strength. I grant you, he may produce a hollow
reformation; he may earth up the volcano, and sow flowers around its crater;
but when it once begins to stir again, it shall move the earth away, and the
hot lava shall roll over all the fair flowers which he had planted, and
devastate both his works and his righteousness. A sinner without grace is a
slave: he cannot deliver himself from his sins. But not so the Christian! Is he
a slave to his sin? Is a true-born heir of God a slave? Oh, no. He does not
sin, because he is born of God; he does not live in uncleanness, because he is
an heir of immortality. Ye beggars of the earth may stoop to deeds of wrong,
but princes of heaven's blood must follow acts of right. Ye poor worldlings,
mean and pitiful wretches in God's sight—-ye may live in dishonesty and
unrighteousness, but the heir of heaven cannot; he loves his Lord; he is free
from the power of sin; his work is righteousness, and his end his everlasting
life. We are free from the dominion of sin.
5. Once more: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" in
all holy acts of love—liberty from a slavish fear of law. Many people
are honest because they are afraid of the policeman. Many are sober because
they are afraid of the eye of the public. Many persons are seemingly religious
because of their neighbours. There is much virtue which is like the juice of
the grape—it has to be squeezed before you get it; it is not like the generous drop
of the honeycomb, distilling willingly and freely. I am bold to say, that if a
man be destitute of the grace of God, his works are only works of slavery; he
feels forced to do them. I know before I came into the liberty of the children
of God, if I went to God's house, I went because I thought I must do it; if I
prayed, it was because I feared some misfortune would happen in the day if I
did not; if I ever thanked God for a mercy, it was because I thought I should
not get another if I were not thankful; if I performed a righteous deed, it was
with the hope that very likely God would reward me at last, and I should be
winning some crown in heaven. A poor slave, a mere Gibeonite, hewing wood and
drawing water. If I could have left off doing it, I should have loved to do so.
If I could have had my will, there would have been no chapel-going for me, no
religion for me—I would have lived in the world and followed the ways of Satan,
if I could have done as I pleased. As for righteousness, it was slavery; sin would
have been my liberty. But now, Christian, what is your liberty? What makes you
come to the house of God to day?
"Love made your willing feet
In swift obedience move."
What makes you bend your knee in prayer? It is because you like to talk with
your Father who seeth in secret. What is it that opens your purses, and makes
you give liberally? It is because you love the poor children of God, and you
feel, so much being given to you, that it is a privilege to give something back
to Christ. What is it that constrains you to live honestly, righteously, and
soberly ? Is it the rear of the jail? No; you might pull the jail down; you
might annihilate the convict settlements; you might hurl all chains into the
sea; and we should be just as holy as we are now. Some people say, "Then,
sir, you mean to say that Christians may live as they like." I wish they
could, sir. If I could live as I liked, I would, always live holily. If a
Christian could live as he liked, he would always live as he ought. It is a
slavery to him to sin; righteousness is his delight. Oh! if I could but live as
I list, I would list to live as I ought. If I could but live as I would I would
live as God commands me. The greatest happiness of a Christian is to be holy.
It is no slavery to him. Put him where you will, he will not sin, Expose him to
any temptation, if it were not for that evil heart still remaining, you would
never find him sinning. Holiness is his pleasure; sin is his slavery. Ah! ye
poor bondsmen who come to church and chapel because ye must; ah! ye poor
slavish moralists that are honest because of the gyves, and sober because of
the prison; ah! ye poor slaves! We are not so; we are not under the law, but
under grace. Call us Antinomians if you will; we will even glory in the scandalous
title; we are freed from the law, but we are freed from it that we may obey it
more than ever we did. The true-born child of God serves his Master more than
ever he did. As old Erskine says:—
"Slight now his loving presence if they can;
No, no; his conquering kindness leads the van.
When everlasting love exerts the sway,
They judge themselves most kindly bound to obey;
Bound by redeeming love in stricter sense,
Than ever Adam was in innocence."
6. But to conclude. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty" from the Fear of Death. O death! how many a sweet cup hast
thou made bitter. O death! how many a revel hast thou broken up. O death! how
many a gluttonous banquet hast thou spoiled. O death! how many a sinful
pleasure hast thou turned into pain. Take ye, my friends, the telescope this
morning, and look through the vista of a few years, and what see you ? Grim
death in the distance grasping his scythe. He is coming, coming, coming; and
what is behind him? Ay, that depends upon your own character. If ye are the
sons of God, there is the palm-branch; if ye are not, ye know what followeth
death—Hell follows him. O death! thy spectre hath haunted many a house where
sin otherwise would have rioted. O death! thy chilly hand hath touched many a
heart that was big with lust, and made it start affrighted from its crime. Oh!
how many men are slaves to the fear of death. Half the people in the world are
afraid to die. There are some madmen who can march up to the cannon's mouth;
there are some fools who rush with bloody hands before their Maker's tribunal;
but most men fear to die. Who is the man that does not fear to die? I will tell
you. The man that is a believer. Fear to die! Thank God, I do not. The cholera
may come again next summer—I pray God it may not; but if it does, it matters
not to me: I will toil and visit the sick by night and by day, until I drop;
and if it takes me, sudden death is sudden glory. And so with the weakest saint
in this hall; the prospect of dissolution does not make you tremble. Sometimes
you fear, but oftener you rejoice. You sit down calmly and think of dying. What
is death ? It is a low porch through which you stoop to enter heaven. What is
life ? It is a narrow screen that separates us from glory, and death kindly
removes it! I recollect a saying of a good old woman, who said, "Afraid to
die, sir! I have dipped my foot in Jordan every morning before break fast for
the last fifty years, and do you think I am afraid to die now ?" Die!
beloved: why we die hundred of times; we "die daily ;" we die every
morning; we die each night when we sleep; by faith we die; and so dying will be
old work when we come to it. We shall say, "Ah, death! you and I have been
old acquaintances; I have had thee in my bedroom every night; I have talked with
thee each day; I have had the skull upon my dressing table; and I have ofttimes
thought of thee. Death! thou art come at last, but thou art a welcome guest;
thou art an angel of light, and the best friend I have had." Why, then,
dread death; since there is no fear of God's leaving you when you come to die!
Here I must tell you that anecdote of the good Welch lady, who, when she lay
a-dying, was visited by her minister. He said to her, "Sister, are you
sinking?" She answered him not a word, but looked at him with an
incredulous eye. He repeated the question, "Sister, are you sinking
?" She looked at him again, as if she could not believe that he would ask
such a question. At last, rising a little in the bed, she said, "Sinking!
Sinking! Did you ever know a sinner sink through a rock? If I had been standing
on the sand, I might sink; but, thank God I am on the Rock of Ages, and there
is no sinking there." How glorious to die! Oh, angels, come! Oh,
cohorts of the Lord of hosts, stretch, stretch your broad wings and lift us up
from earth; O, winged seraphs, bear us far above the reach of these
inferior things; but till ye come, I'll
sing,
"Since Jesus is mine, I'll not fear undressing—
But gladly put off these garments of clay,
To die in the Lord is a covenant blessing;
Since Jesus to glory, though death lead the way."
And now, dear friends, I have shown you as briefly as I can the negative side
of this liberty. I have tried to tell you, as well as I could put it in a few
words, what we are freed from. But there are two sides to such questions
as this. There are some glorious things that we are free to. Not only
are we freed from sin in every sense from the law, and from the fear of death;
but we are free to do something. I shall not occupy many moments, but shall
just run over a few things we are free to; for, my brother Christians,
"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty;" and that liberty
gives us certain rights and privileges.
In the first place, we are free to heaven's charter. There is heaven's
charter—the Magna Charta—the Bible; and, my brother, you are free to it. There
is a choice passage here: "When thou passest through the river I will be
with thee, and the floods shall not overflow thee ;" thou art free to
that. Here is another: "Mountains may depart, and hills may be removed;
but my lovingkindness shall not depart:" you are free to that. Here is
another: "Having loved his own, he loved them unto the end." you are
free to that. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."
Here is a chapter touching election: you are free to that if you are elect.
Here is another, speaking of the non-condemnation of the righteous, and their
justification; you are free to that. You are free to all that is in the Bible.
Here is a never-failing treasure filled with boundless stores of grace. It is
the bank of heaven: you may draw from it as much as you please without let or
hindrance. Bring nothing with you, except faith. Bring as much faith as you can
get, and you are welcome to all that is in the Bible. There is not a promise,
not a word in it, that is not yours. In the depths of tribulation let it
comfort you. Mid waves of distress let it cheer you. When sorrows surround
thee, let it be thy helper. This is thy father's love-token: let it never be shut
up and covered with dust. Thou art free to it—use, then, thy freedom.
Next, recollect that thou art free to the throne of grace. It is the privilege
of Englishmen, that they can always send a petition to Parliament; and it is
the privilege of a believer, that he can always send a petition to the throne
of God. I am free to God's throne. If I want to talk to God to-morrow morning,
I can. If to-night I wish to have conversation with my Master, I can go to him.
I have a right to go to his throne. It matters not how much I may have sinned.
I go and ask for pardon. It signifies nothing how poor I am—I go and plead his
promise that he will provide all things needful. I have a right to go to his
throne at all times—in midnight's darkest hour, or in noontide's heat. Where'er
I am; if fate command me to the utmost verge of the wide earth, I have still
constant admission to his throne. Use that right, beloved—use that right. There
is not one of you that lives up to his privilege. Many a gentleman will live
beyond his income, spending more than he has coming in; but there is not a
Christian that does that—I mean that lives up to his spiritual income. Oh, no!
you have an infinite income—an in come of promises—an income of grace; and no
Christian ever lived up to his income. Some people say, "If I had more
money I should have a larger house, and horses, and carriage, and so on."
Very well and good; but I wish the Christian would do the same. I wish they
would set up a larger house, and do greater things for God; look more happy,
and take those tears away from their eyes.
"Religion never was designed
To make our pleasures less."
With such stores in the bank, and so much in hand, that God gives you, you have
no right to be poor. Up! rejoice! rejoice! The Christian ought to live up to
his income, and not below it.
Then, if you have the "Spirit of the Lord," dear friends, you have a
right to enter into the city. There are many of the freemen of the City of
London here, I dare say, and that is a great privilege, very likely. I am not a
freeman of London, but I am a freeman of a better city.
"Saviour, if of Zion's city,
I, by grace, a member am,
Let the world revile or pity,
I will glory in thy name."
You have a right to the freedom of Zion's city, and you do not exercise it. I
want to have a word with some of you. You are very good Christian people. but
you have never joined the church yet. You know it is quite right, that he that
believeth should be baptized; but I suppose you are afraid of being drowned,
for you never come. Then the Lord's table is spread once every month, and it is
free to all God's children, but you never approach it. Why is that? It is your
banquet. I do not think if I were an alderman I should omit the city banquet;
and being a Christian, I cannot omit the Christian banquet, it is the banquet
of the saints.
"Ne'er did angels taste above
Redeeming grace and dying love."
Some of you never come to the Lord's table; you neglect his ordinances. He
says, "This do in remembrance of me." You have obtained the freedom
of the city, but you won't take it up. You have a right to enter in through the
gates into the city, but you stand outside. Come in brother; I will give you my
hand. Don't remain outside the church any longer, for you have a right to come
in.
Then, to conclude, you have the freedom of Jerusalem, the mother of us all.
That is the best gift. We are free to heaven. When a Christian dies, he
knows the open sesame that can open the gates of heaven, he knows the
pass-word that can make the gates wide open fly; he has the white stone whereby
he shall be known as a ransomed one, and that shall pass him at the barrier; he
has the passport that shall let him into the dominions of Jehovah; he has
liberty to enter into heaven. Methinks I see you, ye unconverted, in the land
of shades, wandering up and down to find your portion. Ye come to the porch of
heaven. It is great and lofty. The gate hath written o'er it, "The
righteous only are admitted here." As ye stand, ye look for the porter. A
tall archangel appeareth from above the gate, and ye say, "Angel, let me
in." "Where is thy robe?" Thou searchest, and thou hast none;
thou hast only some few rags of thine own spinning, but no wedding garment.
"Let me in," sayest thou, "for the fiends are after me to drag
me to yonder pit. Oh, let me in." But with a quiet glance the angel
lifteth up his finger and saith, "Read up there;" and thou readest,
"None but the righteous enter here." Then thou tremblest; thy knees
knock together; thy hands shake. Were thy bones of brass they might melt; and
were thy ribs of iron they might be dissolved Ah! there thou standest,
shivering, quaking, trembling; but not long, for a voice which frights thee
from thy feet and lays thee prostrate, cries, "Depart ye cursed into
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." O dear hearers,
shall that be your portion? My friends, as I love you,—I do this morning, and
hope I ever shall,—shall this be your lot? Will you not have freedom to enter
into the city? Will you not seek that Spirit which giveth liberty? Ah! I know
ye will not have it if left to yourselves; some of you perhaps never will. O
God, grant that that number may be but few, but may the number of the saved be
great indeed!
"Turn, then my soul unto thy rest,
The ransom of thy great High Priest,
Hath set the captive free.
Trust to his efficacious blood,
Nor fear thy banishment from God,
Since Jesus died for thee."
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