07/02/11 LIBERTY OR LIBERTINE

07/02/11 LIBERTY OR LIBERTINE

"Liberty" that does not save us from sin is Libertinism. Libertinism and Legalism are two of the devils substitutes for salvation. A lawless person or nation is a slave of sin. Christ came to set us free from sin and the bondage of works salvation, He did not come to set us free from morality. Believers do not keep the moral law of God in order to be saved, we keep it because we are saved.

POINTS AND PASSAGES TO CONSIDER...

CHRIST CAME TO GIVE US LIBERTY
Luke 4:17-21
(17) And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,
(18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
(19) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
(20) And he closed the book, and he gave it again to the minister, and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him.
(21) And he began to say unto them, This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears.

WE ARE FREE FROM LEGALISM, NOT FREE TO OFFEND
1 Corinthians 8:9
(9) But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumblingblock to them that are weak.

Galatians 5:13-14
(13) For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
(14) For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

1 Peter 2:16
(16) As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.

THE SPIRIT OF GOD FREES OUR MINDS FROM THE BONDAGE OF IGNORANCE
2 Corinthians 3:15-17
(15) But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart.
(16) Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.
(17) Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

IT IS POSSIBLE TO BE ENSNARED IN BONDAGE AFTER BEING SET FREE BY CHRIST
Galatians 5:1
(1) Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

2 Peter 2:18-22
(18) For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them who live in error.
(19) While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.
(20) For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
(21) For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
(22) But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

WE MUST CONTINUE IN OBEDIENT FAITH IF WE WANT TO CONTINUE IN LIBERTY
James 1:21-27
(21) Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
(22) But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
(23) For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
(24) For he beholds himself, and goes his way, and straightway forgets what manner of man he was.
(25) But whoso looks into the perfect law of liberty, and continues therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
(26) If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridles not his tongue, but deceives his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
(27) Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

James 2:10-14
(10) For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
(11) For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
(12) So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
(13) For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoices against judgment.
(14) What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

OUR LIBERTY IS LIMITED AT PRESENT, BUT WILL FINALLY BE MADE COMPLETE
Romans 8:18-23
(18) For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
(19) For the earnest expectation of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.
(20) For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
(21) Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
(22) For we know that the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now.
(23) And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.