1689 London Baptist Confession (part 47)

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Thank you for this morning. Thank you for the blessings that are ours in Jesus Christ, as we think about forgiveness full and free, all of our sins, past, present, and future, nailed to the cross,
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His righteousness then imputed to us. And Lord, then we get to look out at all the general blessings in addition to the specific blessings that you've given us, the beauty of creation, just the changing of seasons, the sunshine, the rain, and the places to live and to worship, family and friends, and all the good things that you add to our lives in addition to salvation.
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What a good and gracious God you are. Lord, as we look to your word, as we study this confession of faith,
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I pray that you would grant us insight into scripture, comfort in the things that we ought to be comforted in.
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I pray that you would even afflict us in the areas of life where we need to be afflicted.
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Lord, bless each one here, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Well, we started talking about,
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I know what we're talking about. It's just when I look through this, the necessity of salvation by faith,
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I know we're talking about freedom and we're talking about liberty in Christ. There we go, of Christian liberty and liberty of conscience.
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And we talked about some of the blessings that we have last week.
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I think we ended just talking about how we should serve in gratitude. Some of the things that we've been liberated from, we no longer have to think of ourselves as slaves because we are sons and daughters of God.
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So that's where we left off last week. And I wanna just pick up right there. The New Testament church has freedoms which
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Old Testament believers could hardly have imagined. The New Testament church has freedoms which
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Old Testament believers could hardly have imagined. Why would that be? Why would we have freedoms that Old Testament saints could only have imagined?
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Because they were still under the law and were under grace. Van Dixhorn says, there was a chapter in the
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New Testament that put the childish and slavish aspect to the law. So radical was the end of this old order and so unfamiliar this freedom that some first century, and then he says in some 21st century,
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Jewish converts to Christianity could not and cannot imagine life without those old ceremonies.
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I mean, do you know any Messianic Jews who it seems like, I mean,
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I've known a few in it and it's interesting to me because they celebrate a lot of the Old Testament holidays and participate in some of the
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Old Testament rituals. And so you say, well, what is, I mean, I don't even wanna say some of the things that they do, not that they're bad, but I just like,
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I don't wanna mispronounce them or, you know, but they do them and you just go, why would you do that?
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And it's because they, for some of them, they just like it, but for others, they feel like Judaism is kind of fulfilled in Christianity, but they don't wanna give
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Judaism up. Many conflicts in the New Testament were caused by those who like freed prisoners had known only a rigidly controlled life and could not imagine freedom.
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What does he mean by that? Have you ever known anybody who got out of prison? Have any of you recently been out?
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No, that's right. Have you ever known anybody who got out of prison or jail?
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I did, well, yeah, I guess you could say that, but I used to get out every day. It was a little different. It's difficult when people get out of jail or they get out of prison because as long as they've been in there and the longer you're in prison, the harder it is to adapt because your whole life is controlled, right?
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You get up in the morning when, I mean, we used to literally play a recording of Reveille every morning at six o 'clock.
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That's when they got up. First thing that would happen every day was count. You know, everybody had to sit up, get dressed.
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I mean, I could almost do the whole thing. At count time, all inmates will be, you know, it was the same thing every single day, immediately after count, then it was breakfast, yada, yada, yada.
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The whole day was scheduled out. So what happens when they get out of jail?
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There's no Reveille at six o 'clock in the morning. There's nobody there to serve them breakfast.
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There's no, they lose that structure and a lot of times they don't know what to do. And his point here is the
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Jews were under such a rigid set. I mean, when you read through Leviticus and you read through Numbers and you read through Deuteronomy and you read through all these things and you realize how much of their lives was controlled by how to do this, when to do this, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
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And so getting out from underneath that, some people don't know what to do with all that freedom. And yet freedom was indeed proclaimed by the apostles.
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Let's look at Galatians 4, Galatians 4 verses one to seven. And if somebody would read that please,
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Galatians 4 verses one to seven. Okay, so we can see that how
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Paul refers to the law, to the system under the
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Old Testament. And he's like, you were like a child. You had things managed for you.
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You had somebody to tell you, in essence, how to spend your money, how to do everything for you.
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He says, but you're no longer under that. Why? Because Christ came, born, and it's interesting, he says, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem, to buy back those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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Listen, we've been set free from the law. And he goes on to say, we're no longer slaves, but essentially children, heirs of the
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Son of God. We're heirs of God. A big difference in how we view the law now.
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So when people want to, we're gonna talk quite a bit about this in the next week or two, about putting ourselves back under the law or creating new laws.
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And I think one of the things that's interesting, just to give you a little preview, what happens when somebody sets a standard that is not in the
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Bible? Somebody creates a rule that is not in the Bible, what are they essentially doing?
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Putting themselves in God's place, right? God doesn't say, don't do this, but I say, why, why?
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Because I say it's godly to do this or to not do this.
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So essentially I usurp the position of God and I decide what pleases
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God. I think there's a certain arrogance that attends that. Even in Galatians 5, turn over just a page or two here,
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Galatians 5, verse 1, we're warned not to give up our freedom.
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Would somebody read Galatians 5, 1, please? Go ahead, Mark. Don't submit again to the yoke of slavery.
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Don't put yourself under things that Christ has set you free from. Ben Dixon goes on to say, we ought not to take these liberties lightly.
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In doing so, we test God and place a burden on fellow believers that our forebearers, and he's talking about the forerunners, the apostles, could not themselves bear.
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And I'm gonna ask you to turn to Acts 15, Acts 15. And I'm gonna read this because it's a little bit long, long -ish.
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Acts 15, and I'm gonna start in verse 1. But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.
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Okay, now we know that's not right. But again, consider the time that we're in and how
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Christianity is new. And there's this sense in which people are unsure how much freedom they really have, right?
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Verse 2, and after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, meaning with these guys who were teaching that you had to be circumcised to be saved,
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Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.
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So being sent on their way by the church, they passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, describing in detail the conversion of the
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Gentiles. And brought great joy to all the brothers. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them.
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But some believers who belong to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, it is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.
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In other words, this Christian thing is great, but let's not throw away Judaism. Let's not throw away the law.
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Let's not throw away all the Old Testament regulations. Verse six, the apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter.
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And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, brothers, you know that in the early days,
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God made a choice among you. And that by my mouth, the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe.
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And God who knows the heart bore witness to them by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us.
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And he made no distinction between us and them, between Gentiles and Jews, having cleansed their hearts, the
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Gentile hearts by faith. Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?
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In other words, nobody's been able to obey the law and you want to put the Gentile believers back under the law.
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But we believe we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.
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The law is of no benefit to you. All the benefits are in Christ.
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That's his points. The ceremonies and the sacrifices are gone for a reason.
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We no longer need, you know, what? What were the ceremonies and the sacrifices?
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What were those things? Did they actually save anybody? Did they actually take away sins?
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So what were they? Shadows of things that were coming, right?
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They were just to kind of let us know what to expect and the fulfillment was coming in the person of Christ.
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In fact, Van Digshorn says there's a new way, Jesus. There's a living way, Jesus. We have a great high priest,
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Jesus. We don't need the old ways. Hebrews 10,
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Hebrews 10 verses 19 and 22. Hebrews 10 verses 19 and 22.
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And would somebody read that please? Hebrews 10, 19 to 22.
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Again, this idea that it is through Jesus Christ that we have access, that we have assurance of faith and that we can know that we're cleansed from our sins.
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We don't need the former shadows and everything like that. If you think about it, if we were to fuse
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Judaism and Christianity to keep, you know, the old sacrifices, the old ceremonies and everything else and combine them with Christianity, where do you suppose the number one place we would read that in all the
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Bible is? If we were to combine
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Judaism and Christianity together like some do today, right? If that's what we were to do, where do you think that God would instruct us about how to do that in the
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Bible? I think it would be in Hebrews, right? He's talking to Jewish converts, you know, to Jewish believers.
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And instead of saying, you know, Jesus is better and Jesus is all you need, what he should say is Jesus is better and Jesus is most of what you need, but you still need to obey and observe the law, to obey and observe these particular sacrifices, these ceremonies, you still need to, you know, run the water or run the temple or whatever, you know, these different ceremonies that they would do.
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That's not what he says. He never says that in the book of Hebrews. We also have a great liberty in that we live, we have the benefit of the freest communication with the spirit of God that is possible this side of heaven.
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A freedom made much fuller than was possible on the other side of the cross. Let's look at John 7,
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John 7 verses 38 and 39. We have a special, a more open relationship with the
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Holy Spirit than the Old Testament saints did. I still would say, and we can argue about this after class, that the
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Old Testament saints were indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I know there are some who don't believe that, but to them,
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I always ask this one question. If you just think about this, it should probably settle it in your mind.
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How were the Old Testament saints sanctified? How were they made more godly? Was it by their own efforts?
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Did they simply choose to do what was right? Or was the Holy Spirit at work in them?
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And if you think about that long enough, you'll come to the right answer. Okay, John 30, or I'm sorry,
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John 30. John 7 verses 38 and 39. Would somebody read that, please?
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Okay, there is a special sense in which when Jesus was raised from the dead and ascended into heaven, he said he promised he would send the
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Holy Spirit. And we saw the Holy Spirit unleashed on the day of Pentecost in a very new way.
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Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. It was talking about how the Spirit would come. The veil has been removed.
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We can see God's glory to a greater extent than they could in the Old Testament. Let's turn to 2
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Corinthians 3, 2 Corinthians 3. And we're going to read verses 12 to 18.
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2 Corinthians 3 verses 12 to 18. Okay, I'm gonna read a comment from Simon Kistemacher and then we'll discuss it a little bit.
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He says, the contrast of Moses' covered face before the Israelites and the
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Christians' uncovered face before the Lord is evident. In God's presence,
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Moses removed the veil and then before the Israelites reflected
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God's glory. Looking at Christ, Christians do so without a veil and then reflect the glory of the
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Lord as it were in a mirror. Between Moses in God's presence and the Christians in Christ's presence, we see a degree of parallelism.
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But between the Israelites and the Christians, we see contrast. The Israelites would not look at God's glory that Moses' face reflected for they chose to live in spiritual blindness.
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A veil covered their hearts as long as they refused to turn to the Lord. Christians, however, live in the presence of, or in the presence of the
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Lord. Moses was in God's presence for a limited time, but Christians have the promise of the Lord that he is always with them.
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The veil of Moses represents Israel's hardness of heart. The unveiled faces of Christians portray their confidence for they have fellowship with the
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Father and the Son. So here's the point. The point is that the veil, as it were, when
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Jews look back or when they look back, when anyone looks back at the law of Moses, there is a veil.
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And that veil is basically an obstruction to seeing the glory of the
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Lord. But Christ removed that veil. He brought us into a greater relationship with the
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Holy Spirit so that we are able to better appreciate, better understand, better even sense the glory of the
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Lord, the presence of the Lord. It is interesting that how the glory of the
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Lord just stayed on Moses, how it was so even blinding, just reflecting out the
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Shekinah glory of God. Comments or questions concerning that? Well, there's a veil in this sense.
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We don't really fully understand the glory of what lies before us. We have God's word as to what it will be.
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But I think in some ways our understanding of, for example, heaven is somewhat limited, right?
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I mean, we can read the description of heaven and everything else, but I don't think we can fully grasp how glorious it will be.
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And we won't fully grasp how glorious that will be until we get there. There's also the fact that we don't fully understand
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God. We'll never fully understand God, but we will understand God more and more throughout time.
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So I think there's some truth in that. Well, let me put it this way.
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There's nothing wrong. There's nothing wrong with celebrating Passover, right? I don't find that to be sinful.
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The question is, you know, are we commanded to celebrate it?
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And I think the answer is no. Are we commanded to celebrate the Festival of Booths? I think the answer is no.
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Yeah, but I, well, yes, I would say this though, that I, I mean, what I like about, you know, what is there to like about Passover celebrations?
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Okay, and I like that. I mean, I like thinking about the fact that God, you know, used,
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I mean, when we think about Passover, it's really kind of the last straw sort of thing that brings the freedom of the
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Israelites, of the Jewish people from Egypt. So, I mean, in that sense, I just like thinking about the power and the goodness of God to keep his word and to do what he said he would do.
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So in that sense, I don't have any problem with it. I think the issue would be, if we sort of emphasize that in the place of, you know,
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Christ saying, you know, essentially, I am the Passover.
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I'm the, he is our Passover. He is the Passover lamb, right? Right. Yeah, I would agree with that.
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I mean, I, in other words, I would find it odd, you know, to sort of semi -summarize what you said.
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It would be odd for a couple to, you know, to go back and sort of do things at a distance to remind themselves of that.
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And it would be odd for us to go back to Old Testament rituals as a way of remembering the goodness of God when we have the fulfillment of that in Christ Jesus.
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So, all right, moving back to the 1689 Confession, it says this, we're still in the section on freedom of the conscience.
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It says, God alone, or freedom and liberty, God alone is
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Lord of the conscience and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men, which are in anything contrary to his word or not contained in it.
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So that to believe such doctrines or obey such commands out of conscience is to betray true liberty of conscience.
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Okay, what does that mean? We're gonna unpack it a little bit. How about this? Ben Dixon says this, only
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God could be Lord of our conscience. He alone is our creator.
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He alone made us in his image. He alone is lawgiver and judge. We see that in James 4 .12.
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He is the only one who implanted in every human being a sense of what is right and good and true.
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Let's look at Romans 2, verses 14 to 16. Romans 2, verses 14 to 16.
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We're talking about God being Lord of our conscience, and we're gonna develop this quite a bit, actually, what it means that God is sovereign over our conscience.
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I think I may have mentioned this once or twice during the course of my lifetime, but one of the last things I did on the
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Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department was I went to this, they had a, what they called a leadership seminar.
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And I mean, we did important things like watch 12 o 'clock high. But eventually we started this, we had this discussion.
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And what they wanted us to talk about was things that are, we broke into small groups, and we're supposed to come up with lists of things that are universally true of mankind.
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Everywhere you go in the world, these things are universally true. Now, if I ask you for some universal truths, things that are always, let's say, always forbidden, what would you say?
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Always forbidden, murder. Can anyone think of an exception to that?
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Okay, abortion, sure, that's one. Other exceptions? Human, there are actually places in the world today where it is sanctioned.
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I don't even know if I could say legal, but it's sanctioned to murder. It's true.
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Other, so, you know, somebody comes up with murder. No, that's not true. You know, then we started talking about, what were some of the other things that came up?
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Oh, like it's always wrong to have relations with children.
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There are some cultures where that's not considered wrong. So this idea of a universal, well, how does that happen?
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Right, because God puts these things into our conscience. We know that it is wrong to murder.
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We know that it is wrong to steal. We know that it is wrong to covet. We know that a lot of things are wrong.
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You know, if you, I don't know if you have any memories about bad things that you've done in your life. I mean, when you were really young, you know,
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I remember one time I, I think I was probably six or something like that.
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And I purposed in my heart ahead of time to steal something. And then I actually did it.
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And the whole time I was doing it, my heart was going a mile a minute. Well, why? Because I knew it was wrong.
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Who told me it was wrong? I don't know. I don't know if my mom had told me that. Probably, I probably have the scars somewhere to prove it.
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But I knew it was wrong and I did it anyway.
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What happens, and we're going to talk about this. What happens when you do that? When you know something is wrong, but you do it anyway.
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Eventually you harden your hearts. Yeah, well, yeah, it depends on if you get away with it.
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And it gets easier and easier to do. And then Dick Soren goes on, he says, with God as our
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Lord, our lives are freed from the doctrines and commandments of men. At least, at the very least, freed from those commandments and teachings that go against God's word.
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No Christian should even ask us in the name of God to do anything that is in addition to the word of God.
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Now, what do you think that means? Does that mean, for example, nowhere in the
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Bible does it say that you can't speed in your vehicle? Is that what he's talking about? No, what he's talking about are additions.
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You know, here's the easy one, because this is something, you know, that you hear from time to time and it just makes me laugh almost every time
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I hear it. You know, what do fundamentalists say? Don't smoke.
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Yeah, but you skipped over the really good part. Don't go with girls who do. It's not with those who do, it's with girls.
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And I'm like, smoke and chew. In no part of our life should we ever feel obliged to listen and to obey men instead of God, right?
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Let's look at Acts 4, verses 15 and 20. And this is true. You know, civil disobedience can be a thing and we can talk about that a little bit, but let's read
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Acts 4, 15 and 20. Okay, now, what have they just done? They just healed somebody, healed this man.
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And so, and done so in the name of Jesus. And so their concern, the power structure was, listen, we don't want this name of Jesus.
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We don't want Jesus preached about. So you guys stop talking about him. And Peter and John said, sorry, we can't do that.
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We have to obey God and not you. So here's the point.
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The point is, if God says to do something in his word and the government says, you may not do something, you know, let's say the government says you may not meet together and preach the word.
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Well, what should we do? God says we should not forsake the assembling of the saints. Do we obey
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God or do we obey men? And what we see throughout the world when these things are commanded, you know, even in China, they have their house churches or whatever.
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The government comes in and arrest people. That used to happen in the Soviet Union. You know, the
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Baptist preacher would get arrested and taken to jail and it was next man up, next man up, next man up.
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Freedom is a message that we often forget, even though we're told that and we're told that we're set free from laws that violate or rules that violate the word of God.
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R .C. Sproul says this, he says, of all the creatures, it is us who reject
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God's rule over him, over man. The stars obey, animals obey, man made in God's image rebels against his creator.
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Now, unbelievers reject God's authority over them, but they also reject the order he has established.
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Unbelievers don't like the fact that, or they often reject the fact that there are civil authorities over them, or they don't like the fact that wives are to be subject to their husbands, children are to be subject to their parents.
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In fact, if you listen to some people these days, children are almost autonomous, right?
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They shouldn't be interfered with by their parents. Parents have fewer and fewer rights, let's say, fewer and fewer controls over their kids.
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You know, your 12 -year -old daughter can get an abortion without your permission. Why? Because that would be an infringement upon her.
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Well, what about the parents? Employees are to submit to their employers.
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Students are to submit to their teachers. But we human beings are naturally rebels. And when we rebel against God's appointed authority, we sin against God.
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In other words, if we rebel against the state, we are rebelling against God. However, there is only one who can rule our conscience, and that is
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God himself. Let's talk about what the conscience is. Aquinas defined the conscience as the inner voice that the creator planted within us, and that either accuses or excuses that either disapproves or approves our behavior.
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Now, the reason I like that is because it's biblical, right? This is a biblical idea. And when
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I read that, I just thought, okay, this is like, like I said before, when I was six, there was like a veritable fire alarm going off in my head.
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Don't do this, it's the wrong thing to do. But what happens on the flip side?
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What happens when you, in your mind, know that in spite of the fact that you don't want to do something, you do it anyway, and you know that it's an obedience to the
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Lord? What's the sense of, what's the feeling that you get then? I guess there are two possible feelings.
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What, what's that? When you obey? If you do something, even though you initially didn't want to and you obey anyway, you know,
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I think there are two possible feelings. One would be pride, right? I did it, whoo!
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Victory dance. I'm not gonna do that. What would be the other? Peace, okay?
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Relief, thankfulness, maybe? Because you know what? That there's nothing good in you, that anything good that you do is a work of the
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Lord. So just to be thankful, to watch the Lord work in you so that you could do that. Now, what about the phrase, let your conscience be your guide?
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Is that good advice or bad advice? Is it always bad advice? If I have
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Pastor Bob's conscience, it's probably good advice. He's like,
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I wouldn't count on that. Mark, okay, that's a good question.
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If somebody isn't saved, they don't have the Holy Spirit, is there a better guide than their conscience? Okay, let me ask you this question.
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If somebody is unsaved and they're facing a moral dilemma and you don't want to appeal to their conscience, what are you gonna appeal to?
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You're gonna give them law, okay? And then how are they gonna respond? Rebellion.
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Let me just heap more judgment on you. I'm gonna give you some law. They're gonna respond to you with either legalism or antinomianism, right?
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They're gonna be either, they'll respond rigidly or they'll reject it.
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But I think, ultimately here, I mean, we're talking about the freedom of believers. So whether what an unbeliever will do is kind of immaterial to the topic at hand, but let our conscience be our guide.
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It can be a good thing. It can be good advice. If it's an unbeliever, well, basically what we're saying is
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I give up, do what you wanna do. If we're talking to a believer, it can be good. But the
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Bible teaches that our conscience can become hardened against the truth. In Jeremiah, this was really good.
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Again, this is from R .C. He says in Jeremiah 3 .3, and I don't even wanna read it because of how it reads.
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We could read it, but it's not necessary. The prophet says Israel has, I cleaned it up a little bit, the forehead of a harlot.
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The forehead of a harlot. Well, what does he mean by that? Israel, you have the forehead of a harlot, no conscience.
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R .C. says it this way. He says, through their repeated sinning, rejection of God, disobedience, idolatry, they had lost their capacity to blush.
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The forehead of a harlot. They had no sense of shame, no capacity to feel the weight of their sins.
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Shameless. I mean, it is amazing when you watch people who, they would say they are satisfied with themselves, they are happy with themselves and who they are.
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And they're involved in sins like homosexuality, lesbianism, transgenderism, all these different isms.
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And they're happy with who they are. They even might say that they're Christians. Well, how do they do that?
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Was reading this last night and I think this is right. Here's what people do. If they know what the
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Bible says, but they want to do something else. They say they believe what the
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Bible says, but they want to do something else. What do they do? How do they justify it? How do they Christianize it?
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Okay, they rationalize it. But you can almost, when I say this, you're gonna go, yep, I've heard that before.
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Okay, it was cultural. I've heard that too. Christian liberty.
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But I mean, if the Bible says you may not do something, how do you have the liberty to do it anyway? God wants me to be happy, right?
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I prayed about it. God wants me to be happy or God gave me a real peace about it.
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When peace like a river attendeth my way while I burn the Bible in my backyard.
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People want to have it both ways. I believe the Bible. I love the Lord, et cetera, et cetera. But this decision came up and I had to go opposite of God, but he gave me a piece of that.
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That's interesting because what are they saying? If I can take the clear reading of scripture, for example, you homosexuals will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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And I can say, on the other hand, yes, but God gave me a real peace about that.
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Then I'm saying that the God who wrote this and the God who gave me a peace about this, even though they say exactly the opposite things are the same
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God that I've made God the author of confusion.
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He says two different things. Is that possible? No, I have the
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Lord do not change. Now, if we are knowingly committing a sin for the first time, what do you think our conscience is doing?
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If we know something is wrong and we're doing it anyway, and it's the very first time we're gonna do it, what is our conscience doing?
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It's like screaming at us. Don't do that, Steve. Stop it.
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Do not go there. However, if we repeat the sin, or we think of it as accepted by society or something that other people are going to applaud me for, then our conscience can be shut off.
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It's like the alarm bell in the morning. The alarm clock goes off. You just reach over and shut it off.
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You know, the snooze alarm. You hit it again and again and again. You know, you were gonna get up at six o 'clock sharp.
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All of a sudden it's 1030. We begin to approve of the very thing that God condemns.
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When we read Romans one, that's what it's talking about. Time after time, instead of, instead of obeying
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God, there was rebellion against God, and so a new level of depravity. Because we've seared our conscience to this one level, and so we stoop to the next level.
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And then we sear our conscience on that level, and we go to the next level, and our lives get worse and worse, more sinful and more sinful.
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And that's what's happened to our society. Our conscience can lie to us.
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It can excuse what it ought to accuse. And that's why the work of the Holy Spirit is so important.
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It's why the work of the Holy Spirit is so important, and we are going to have to leave it there. So we'll pick that up next week.
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Father, we just thank you for your word. We thank you for the men who labored so diligently to come up with this confession of faith and to consolidate biblical truth into an understandable format.
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Lord, I pray that you would bless us, that we would be strengthened, that we would work on informing our conscience that we might not sin against you, that we would listen to it, that we would heed it, that we would understand that these alarm systems you have given us are for our good.
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Father, keep us both from legalism and from antinomianism.
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Father, let us learn to honor the Lord Jesus Christ with our lives by honoring the freedom that he bought us.