Eternal Liberty

Intro: We all need freedom and today we focus on our liberties. Even in our Declaration of Independence it says we have the right to life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Men realize the importance of liberty. We all know we need it but do not recognize the value of what it cost to obtain it. We only want to embrace what we have and sometimes we want more then what we have for to us liberty is not provision but exercising our rights. Our word then for today is HELD for we are HELD in His work because of the grace which he provided to give us the liberty we need.

Hell cost Isa 66:24 Jn 3:16 Rev 1:18, 20:11-15, 21:8- there was a great cost to provide for your salvation and even though it may not cost you anything, it does not mean it did not cost a lot. It cost God his Son so it did come at a great cost. It says that the cost for making sure you would not go to a place where your worm, dies not; for God does not want you to live forever in a place where you are always burning but never able to die, and to forever be without God. Thank God that that Jesus too that punishment for us! The most terrible part of the cost that Jesus paid was not what he endured physically but was that he was separated from God and in hell. It was the part of the cost that was not seen. The devil thought that he had him for Jesus was in hell for 3 days and yet Jesus beat him in his own house. He lost at the cross. We won at the Tomb. The disciples could boldly declare that Jesus paid the price and loudly say to the devil as we can, show me the body so we will not admit defeat, for there is no body there for He arose and He lives in my heart today!

Jn 3:16 God did this for love. HE loved you so much that he died for you. I will take your place and bear your punishment. Imagine being a little child and your sibling said don’t spank him or her spank me in their place, give me their punishment. Who would do that? God! God went to hell for you so you can go to Heaven with Him! Jesus thought going to Hell in your place and bearing Gods wrath was worth it. He thinks you are worth the cost. The only thing I can do is fall down and worship you Lord for you are so worthy of all praise, not just because of you creating me but because you valued me so much you died for me! He did not give this to the moral, or the rich- he gave it solely to the ones who say I believe. He gives you the gift and then also gives you the faith. He gives you all you need to receive Him so you are without excuse if you don’t.

Rev 1:18- Jesus has the keys of death and hell. When did Jesus get those keys? He got those keys when he defeated the devil. The devil lost and the keys show that Jesus won. He took the keys from the devil so Jesus can lock the devil into hell or out as He so chooses. Jesus conquered death and defeated all that hell has. He won over everything that death brings to man= every sickness, disease, feat, spirit. Jesus won and so you do not need to be afraid of death for Jesus won!

Rev 20:11-15; 21:8- this says that if you are not in the book of life you are cast into the lake of hell. Death and hell were cast into this lake. I want to point out something here. The ones who were saints were resurrected in CH 20 already and they are not judged here. The ones judged are the ones without Christ here and it says they are judged by their works. The ones who are in Christ are called saints but the ones who are not are called by their works. This confuses people because they read the verse in 21:8 and say see you are judged by works and not faith. Faith is the reason we are judged; works are the result of faith in us. God does the work Isa 26:3,12 He ordained all our works in us. He did it Eph 2:8-10 We are his workmanship created to good works- because we are his work then we produce His works in us. The ones here were not in the book of life: they can easily be shown why they deserve hell so no one has an excuse. We all do not keep the commands and none are righteous no not one. If you thought about it you are as guilty as if you did it. So on this day you will be shown to have deserved hell but the reason you go will be because your name is not in the book of life. The rejection of Jesus is what caused you to not inherit the promises; the works manifested what was in you good or bad, life or death, blessing or cursing, grace or law.

Evil Expelled Rev 12:1-12 19:17-20:3- Evil has lost for Christ beat the devil long ago. The manifestation of that is coming and soon we will have that new body for that body is waiting to the day Jesus comes, when we will have the full manifestation of what Jesus provided for us. We will have our victory manifested and evil will also be shown to be the loser.

Ok lets see if we can weed through the illustration here. The devil is here to get the child but the child eluded him and this child was Jesus who would rule the nations so the woman was either Mary or Israel. However, in v6 it says she fled into the wilderness ( this happens in the tribulation) so the woman must be Israel. The dragon ( devil) and his demons fought Michael and his warring angels and the devil lost. ( note the devil cannot even beat the angels of God never mind God or the saints) Now the devil lost his position and no longer had authority in Heaven and was cast down. When he was cast down he could not win against the saints either. He lost against the angels and the saints. The woman escaped the devil for a time times and half a time. That is a Hebraism meaning 3 ½ years. This is when the Great Tribulation begins and it gets much worse. The devil cannot win for no matter what he does in this chapter he loses. He cannot beat Israel, Church or angels - so he definitely cannot beat God! You are a commandment keeper for you have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

This passage tells you that you win. The devil has no chance for you are a winner and cannot lose. Notice that it says the earth opens its mouth to help the woman. Even nature is against the dragon and God will pull out the stops to cause you to win. You are a winner not because of you or your doings but because of God and His doing. You win because of who you belong to- your Daddy is the most powerful being in the universe and He loves you and will help you so rejoice!

Rev 19:17-20:3 Jesus has come back and now the great supper is so they can eat the flesh of great men. The result of a final battle where Satan lost and the Antichrist and False Prophet will fight against Christ. We call this battle Armageddon. The Antichrist and False Prophet are so evil they do not wait for the judgment but are thrown bodily into hell. Then Satan was taken by an angel and thrown into the bottomless pit. This was just for the devil for no one else was thrown in there. He was shut up so he could not speak and was not able to deceive anyone anymore for 1,000 years, then he is released so men could be tempted and have a choice a chance to reject God. Hell is horrible and I do not want to go there so I tell others about Jesus!

Let Joy in Pr 17:22 Isa 55:12 Rev 4-5 19:1-10 - Pr 17:22 says a merry heart doeth good like a medicine. They have now found out that when you are happy positive endorphins are released and it brings healing in your body. Back when the Bible was written they did not know that. But God did. This is not just the word of a man but the word of God and God says to have a merry heart. Be thankful and be glad for when you do it will be like a medicine but a broken spirit causes you to have problems for it dries your bones. A bad spirit has a negative effect on you. A good joyful spirit makes you feel energized and people will notice. God made you to be a joyous person and when we let that joy out then it will attract people to Jesus and we are here to be signposts to Jesus. We should show them Jesus by our very attitude.

Isa 55:12- go out with joy and be led forth with peace. Too many Christians have no joy in their life so they have no peace. Joy and peace are connected in the Bible. When you have joy you will have peace. The fruit of the Spirit is love joy peace. Peace and joy follow love as the fruit and that is not by accident. When you have joy then peace will come. It is so easy to have things happen to you that your joy leaves and when you do you will find you have no peace. The gospel is called the gospel of grace but it is also called the gospel of peace. The gospel is because of grace and it produces peace. Once you have peace with God it will produce peace with man but men go about trying to produce peace with others thinking then it will show they have peace with God. Peace with God must come first or you cannot have peace with others. True peace comes first with God and then with men.

You can also see that this verse says that all the trees of the field will clap their hands and we sing this verse as a song. I have not ever seen hands on a tree but even nature is affected by this joy for God’s joy will affect everything in your life. Your friends and family will be affected and your whole life the tangibles and intangibles will also be affected by joy for it will bring peace to everything in your life.

Rev 4-5 this is a scene in Heaven and they praise God, the elders and all who are there. They tell us that Jesus is worthy for He is the Creator and everything was created for His pleasure. HE deserves praise because He died for us and loved us before we even knew him. Rev 4 talks about angels praising him and Rev 5 tells us that we will praise God and that he redeemed us out of every nation. It says that all of creation was praising him the creatures in the sea. Praise is something that comes from the heart and all of his creatures will praise him and give him glory.

Rev 19:1-10 tells us that God is worthy because of the judgment that he gives. God is worthy because of being the Creator and Redeemer in Rev 4-5 and also because he is the Judge of the whole Earth. Worship God because of the testimony of Jesus. Jesus testified to God the Father and we testify to Jesus through the prophecy that we gave. The spirit of prophecy testifies to Jesus and Jesus testified to the Father and when Jesus has put all enemies under his feet then He will turn and present it to the Father and God will be glorified all in all and be pleased. This is the final praise before Jesus 2^nd coming to defeat the Antichrist and save Israel so let us praise Him now for when you praise Jesus God blesses you!

Does not damn Jn 3:17-19 Mt 12:33-37- God does not damn but some people think that is his last name. They use that as a cuss word. Jesus tried to explain this to others for right after He tells us in John 3:16 that we do not perish if we will believe in Him it then says that God did not want to condemn the world. God did not send his Son to condemn men but to condemn sin. God sent His Son to judge sin so that men would not be judged. Simply, it is if you believe on Him then you are not condemned but if you do not believe then you are condemned. You were born a sinner and cannot do righteousness. You cannot do righteousness but you can become righteous.

Light condemns darkness. Light is defined in this passage as truth and darkness as evil. Truth judges evil. The light ( truth) which came in the world Jn 1:4,5,9 discuss the difference between light and darkness and that Jesus the life of the world is also the light that causes darkness to flee. The darkness cannot comprehend the light and the light comes to everyone. This light came to men but men loved darkness and did not want to hear the light. They wanted to stay in darkness. They did not want the light to shine on their deeds for light causes darkness to flee. The darkness of night is the cover for when crime is committed, for evil flourishes in darkness. The deeds are the result of being evil, for when you have an evil heart of unbelief then you will do evil deeds but a heart of faith will cause you to want to know God. A christian needs to have their heart renewed so they no longer do as the world does, but change their deeds so their walk in the light of the spirit matches the deeds of the flesh.

The point is that even though that God is the one who has the right to judge he gives it up to man so we in effect judge ourselves. We judge ourselves based on what we do with Jesus Christ. The final judgment is based on if your name is in the Lamb’s Book of Life. It is not based on how good or bad your works are but whether you have an evil or good heart.

Mt 12:33-37 makes several points 1) good things come a good heart and evil things from an evil heart for out of the mouth the heart speaks 2) good deeds come out of a good heart and evil out of an evil heart 3) idle words are judged 4) by your words are you justified or condemned.

1-2) good hearts produce good fruit but evil hearts produce evil fruit. We say someone is good or evil based on deeds. If they are moral then we expect good from them but evil then we expect bad things. For man we judge based on the deeds but God judges based on the heart. Man looks at the outward appearance but God looks at the heart. (1 Sam 16:7) There are Christians that have a heart of unbelief and non Christians that do good deeds, but neither have a heart of faith. Morality does not save you or keep you; only the blood of Jesus mixed with His faith does.

3) the idle words are those that do not produce evil or good. They produce nothing for they are wasted words. Those words will be judged. We all can judge words that produce good or bad, and do not think much of words that have no meaning. I did not mean that lowers the expectation of people for it used to be that a persons word had legal ramifications. IF you gave your word then that was a bond and you had to back it. Today that is not true and even contracts can be broken. A President said depends what Is Is? God wants our words to have value for when it does then we will be a good heart for we will do what we say and people will trust us.

Why does it say you are justified or condemned by your words? You cannot say it is unfair God I did not deserve hell for I did not know when God will show you it is by your own words that you did. Don’t you hate it when someone quotes you and uses your own words against you? I tell people if I say it I will do and then sometimes they quote what I said and I have to do it even if I did not want to but forgot what I said. I cannot deny that I said it for they proved it to me. God will prove to you by your own words that you denied Jesus and will remind you of what you said ( does not say how) or you will be accepted because of what you did with Jesus so accept Him today!

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