ROM-73-150125 - length: 70:42 - taught on Jan, 25 2015
Class Outline:
Welcome To
BARAH MINISTRIES
a Christian Church
Rory Clark
Pastor-Teacher
Good Morning!
Welcome to Barah Ministries…a worldwide Christian Church based in Mesa, AZ…my name is Pastor Rory Clark.
Our subject for the last few lessons, and for the next few lessons is freedom…your use of your volition…your use of your free will…do you use your freedom for your own benefit or against yourself? Psalm 199, Verse 45 says…
I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts.
When God gave us freedom he gave us a pattern for life. When we study the Word of God we are seeking the possibilities of this freedom. Isaiah, Chapter 61, Verse 1…
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring (the) good news (of the gospel message) to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners…
This is what God wants from all of us, not just from Isaiah, that we would live the freedom he has given us and by doing so that we would infect those around us with spiritual freedom. Galatians, Chapter 5, Verse 13…
For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but instead, through unconditional love from God, serve one another.
When we study the word of God and let its truth permeate our souls, it is a
source of calm, a source of comfort, and a source of hope. Welcome to a place where you can learn the truth, and have it set you free from a counterfeit lifestyle that Satan and the kingdom of death have sold to you, and that you have purchased willingly.
MUSIC AND REFLECTION
Be Occupied with the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ
Enjoy the Singing of His Praises
Shout to the Lord
Let’s begin our worship of the Lord with a song…SHOUT TO THE LORD.
OPENING PRAYER
Let us pray...
We’re grateful to you, Heavenly Father, for the privilege of studying Your absolute truth...the Word of God…
Teach us the value of abandoning the “I” life, and the power of embracing a life of freedom…a life of liberty…
We ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit...in Christ’s name...
Amen.
TODAY’S STUDY
Do you value your liberty?
Turn in your bibles to Romans, Chapter 6 where we continue our study of Paul’s letter to the Romans, a foundational biblical work that teaches us the Christian Way of Living. The letter opens by asking you to reflect on this question…
QUESTION FOR REFLECTION
What is the proper use of your freedom?
You are always being encouraged to use your freedom. You are being encouraged by God to use your freedom to “take advantage” of Him in this way…
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF (Meaning 1)
To use someone or something that is favorable to your success for positive gain
You are being encouraged by Satan, the enemy of God, to use your freedom to “take advantage” of God in this way…
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF (Meaning 2)
To exploit…to use someone or something for selfish ends
Who are you listening to? It’s a question you may not want to answer…it’s a reality you may not want to face…but your soul either is tuned to, and you are listening to KCOS, the cosmic system of thought; or your soul is tuned to, and you are listening to WGOD, the divine system of thought. The world, KCOS, has no answer for your problems, but God does at WGOD. There is a divine solution for every human problem. It’s easy to forget that, especially when you have people in your life who are going astray…you want everything for them…and maybe they don’t want any of it… unfortunately you can’t do what you want to do for them because they have the free will to accept or reject what you want for them…during those times we forget to resort to prayer, because God can do anything! But a question for all of us is…do you value your liberty?
What IS the proper use of your freedom? In Romans Chapter 6, Verses 1 and 2, Paul is asking you to consider the proper use of your freedom…and he has a recommendation…
What shall we believers in Christ say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
Because we know, from Romans, Chapter 5, Verses 20 and 21 that God’s
grace flows abundantly where there is sin, Paul asks is we think we should
sin more to get more grace? Paul says, in Romans, Chapter 6, Verse 2…
May it never be! How shall we believers in Christ (such ones as we…royalty…the children of a King), who died to sin (as an established fact at the moment of our salvation), still live in sin (as if sin is still our master)?
The use of freedom is a fantastic subject, and that’s why God the Holy Spirit, who is providing this lesson for you through me, is having us focus on it. When you focus on freedom, you focus on your choices. You don’t get to blame others for your choices. Have you ever heard yourself saying these things?
THE LIES WE TELL OURSELVES
“I never had a chance”
“He makes me feel…”
“I wasn’t allowed”
Blame…it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden…Genesis, Chapter 3, Verses 11 to 13…
And the Lord said to Adam, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
Then blame…
The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
Blame…and then blame again…
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Blame. As Dale Carnegie details in his book, How to Win Friends and Influence People…
HOW TO WIN FRIENDS AND INFLUENCE PEOPLE
Dale Carnegie
No one blames himself for anything. Even Al Capone thought of himself as a public benefactor.
To look at freedom, we’ve taken a trip over to Paul’s letter to the Galatians, a letter on freedom. Freedom is a difference maker. How you use your freedom…how you use your free will…how you make choices is what makes you different from everyone else in this life. <BILLIONAIRE>
We read Galatians, Chapter 1 last week…a few highlights…turn there please…remember the pattern we will see in this letter…
A PERSON FROM GOD
The Apostle Paul
BEARS A GIFT FROM GOD
The Gospel Message
DELIVERS A MESSAGE FROM GOD
Faith Alone in
the Lord Jesus Christ alone
is the ticket to eternal life
THE MESSAGE IS A REQUEST TO YOUR FREEDOM
Believe in Christ
or
Reject Christ
Your Choice?
THE KINGDOM OF DEATH SEEKS TO RUIN YOUR POSSIBILITIES
“Spies Out” Your Liberty
Disintegrates Your Unity
In Galatians, Chapter 1, Verse 6, Paul says…
I am amazed (flabbergasted) that you Galatians are so quickly deserting Him who called you (to the privilege of salvation) by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, for a different gospel…
Now let’s look at Galatians, Chapter 2…Paul continues giving his credentials as an apostle. God directed Paul to go to Jerusalem at the time when the Lord was ready for Paul to go there…
Then after an interval of fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along also.
He had been preaching the gospel for quite some time at this point.
It was because of a revelation from God that I went up (to hold a conference); and I submitted to them (for their inspection) the gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but I did so in private to those who were of reputation, for fear that I might be running (right now), or had run (in the past), in vain.
Paul went to Jerusalem to see if the other apostles were teaching the same gospel he was teaching…faith alone in Christ alone for salvation… whether to Jew or to Gentile…with no circumcision or any other “additions” required for salvation…it was Paul’s thought that if the gospel messages were not the same he might be the one who was wasting his time…“running in vain.”
But even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek (a Gentile and not a Jew), was not compelled (did not feel the need) to be circumcised (for salvation).
In other words, Titus knew the true gospel. Who brought in the false gospel, then…the thought that circumcision was required for salvation? The false teachers! Acts, Chapter 15, Verse 1…
Some men (false teachers) came down from Judea and began teaching the brethren (believers in Christ), “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.”
The false teachers (called Judaizers…believers in Christ, by the way) failed to realize that the Cross changed everything…better said, they ignored the change the Cross made! Take a five-minute break.
BREAK
The Power of Your Love
Welcome back! Galatians, Chapter 2, Verse 4…
But it was because of the false brethren (legalistic believers in Christ) secretly brought in (sneaking into the conference…infiltration without invitation), who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in (union with) Christ Jesus, in order to bring us (back) into bondage.
The legalistic believers wanted to watch Christians operating in freedom (like voyeurs) and then they wanted to “guilt trip” them back to the slavery of ceremonial ritual…the law. <FAMILY> Paul was having none of it…
But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
Paul brought Titus, a Gentile, to see if the Jewish believers in the Galatian region would try to get him to be circumcised for salvation. Paul was not willing to compromise the truth of faith alone in the Lord alone for salvation because it WAS a matter of SALVATION…it was a matter of being saved versus being condemned. Paul would not deviate from the true gospel.
But from those who were of high reputation (what they were makes no difference to me because God shows no partiality…not social…not racial… not gender)—well, those who were of reputation contributed nothing (new) to me (concerning the gospel message).
Paul learned, from the conference, that his gospel message was right on.
But on the contrary, seeing that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been (entrusted with the gospel) to the circumcised…
Funny how God picks the worst person of all time to send the gospel message to the Gentiles, and picks the apostle who denied him three times to send the gospel message to the Jews. Does God have a defective picker? <RIGHT MAN-RIGHT WOMAN>
…(for He who effectually worked for Peter in his apostleship to the circumcised effectually worked for me also to the Gentiles)…
The people of high reputation in Jerusalem recognized that God made Paul’s appointment.
…and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas (Simon Peter) and John, who were reputed to be pillars of the first century church, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship (the laying on of hands…the seal of approval), so that we might go to the Gentiles and they (would go) to the circumcised (the Jews).
The apostles of Jerusalem did not modify Paul’s message at all. They affirmed him and they affirmed that what he was teaching was accurate. Its obvious from the sarcasm in these first nine verses that Paul is still upset… he is saying he saw nothing, nor did he see anyone to be “wowed” by in Jerusalem, including the pillars of the church. So the one and only gospel message was being preached to two different groups of people…Jews and Gentiles…by God’s chosen instruments…the apostles.
They only asked us to remember the poor—the very thing I also was eager to do.
But when Cephas (Simon Peter) came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he stood condemned.
For prior to the coming of certain men from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles; but when they (certain men from James) came (the Judaizers), Peter began to withdraw and hold himself aloof, fearing the party of the circumcision (the Jews).
The rest of the Jews joined him in (the) hypocrisy, with the result that even Barnabas was carried away by their hypocrisy.
The false teachers with their false teachings were not just affecting new believers…even the leaders were creeping back into the slavery of the Mosaic Law and to the false gospel that circumcision is required for salvation. So Paul “got in Peter’s face.”
But when I saw that they (Peter and the men from James) were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel (faith alone in Christ alone for salvation), I said to Cephas (Simon Peter) in the presence of all, “If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?”
In other words, if you are living in freedom, why are you still telling Gentiles they must be circumcised just because the false teachers are here? Paul now clears the matter up…
We are Jews by nature (birth) and not sinners from among the Gentiles…
…nevertheless, we know that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but a man is justified through faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone… even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ alone and we are not saved by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified.
But if, while seeking to be justified in (union with) Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be!
For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor.
Paul is saying that if we choose to return to the slavery of the law after we have been freed from it…if we choose to do the deeds of the flesh when we have died to sin as believers in Christ, we have simply gone back to the thing, the Law, which will prove even louder that we sin…the law was brought in so that sin might increase…so that those who sin might know they are sinners.
For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God.
Those who sin must die. Even though Christ paid our punishment for sin at the Cross, our Old Man still died at the Cross with Christ. Now the powerhouse verse of the chapter…Galatians, Chapter 2, Verse 20…
I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives indwelling me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me unconditionally and who gave Himself up for me.
<ANOTHER TRANSLATION>
I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly.
Do you value your liberty? How do you know? Remember this…
Liberty is something to be enjoyed,
but it is never enjoyed by slaves
The freedom we have as those who live in free countries…the freedom we have in our spiritual life to choose our level of success for ourselves…do we value it? You show that you value it by what you become, not by what you say. Actions speak a lot louder than words. What do your actions say about how much you value liberty?
The Promises of the Lord Jesus Christ
When God makes a promise…
it’s a guarantee!
But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own private interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men carried along by God the Holy Spirit spoke directly from the exact thinking of THE God, the Lord Jesus Christ.
All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth.
CLOSING SONG
God is Walking Me Through
CLOSING PRAYER
Let us pray...
THANKS- INTERCESSION- PETITION
And we pray that You continue to shape the messages from this pulpit that are an accurate reflection of Your unconditional love, Your glorious Person, Your lucid thinking, Your impeccable work, and Your magnificent essence...we ask this through the power of God the Holy Spirit, in Christ’s name, Amen.
Thanks for coming…for watching…for listening!
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1220 S. Alma School Rd. Suite 201 Mesa, AZ 85210 |
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(480) 237-9903 |
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info@barahministries.com |
