Liberty to Serve

if I keep clearing my throat for todayplease forgive me I just want to make itthrough this morning's sermon and um umyou know my father was used to preach heused to talk about the male menopauseand the fact he always had hot and coldsweats running down his back and I neverthought that was possible but now Ibelieve him so it's a privilege to standbefore you here this morning um it's ait's it's a beautiful time of yearAutumn or fall is upon us it's thechanging of the seasons tomorrow I'll goout and make sure my snowblower isworking um anybody else can be doingthat anytime soon I'm thinking of maybeum closing off my outside dra uh uh umstock and draining the water fromthe pipes because I know the seasons arechanging and I don't like winter in allhonestly not all seasons are createdequal uh I know that at 5:00 a.m. I'llget that kick in my carves that says goand shovelsnow and um it's not a joyful experiencebut I know that Beyond Winter there isspring and we are also livingspiritually in the changing of theseasons we are living in the time whenthe sunlight of Liberty is graduallygiving way to the darkness of Oppressionaround theworld and although we know we're goingto go through this time we know thatBeyond it there is the arrival of springthe coming of the son of man and so justas we steal and Brace ourselves forwinter and we prepare for it so we alsoprepare for the changing of the Seasonspiritually as I Was preparing thissermon I went into the bowels of theJames White library to dig up somematerials and discovered there that myown father when he did his uh studies atAndrews in 1980 um he also wrote a paperon religious liberty he wrote a paper onatJones and I thought oh I'd like to readthis and so I read it and it wasactually really quite good uh so um youknow there's kind of a spiritualHeritage there um but I want to sharewith you today one of the Privileges ofserving as a pastor is that every weekwhen you prepare for a sermon um youactually grow in Christ because you aremining depths in Scripture that perhapsYou' never seen before and thereforewhat we share in the pulpit in themorning is as fresh bread it brings usjoy it brings us nourishment it bringsus life and it brings with us the theaffirmation that God still speaks to ustoday and we're gathered here today yesto worship God but also because webelieve that God still speaks to us inberan Springs and we would hear hisvoice today as we prepare for thechanging of the season so um I inviteyou as as we We Gather here today let'sbow our heads once more and ask for thepresence of God's spirit fatherGod I I thank you for the privilege ofstanding before these your people andfather we together come as Sinners butwe come as the Sheep of your powerpasture asking you as the Good Shepherdto gently lead ustoday Father we know that there aredangerous paths ahead we know there arevalleys that that include the the shadowof death but father we look forward byfaith to the day when you'll lead us allby Still Waters and Green Pastures sotoday Father speak through me take awayanything of me that is not worthy and Ipray that my words will be your wordsthat your angels will guard this placethat your spirit will Delight to bepresent here today this I ask in jesus'name amen amen so um let's start withfirst principles shall we when it comesto religiousliberty I want you to assume for aminute there was only Adam and Eve inAdam in the world not Eve yet justAdam and when God created Adam the firstand only relationship that existed inthis world was between God and Adamhimself the first relationship wasbetween Creator and creatureand that is why God Jesus said that thefirst and the greatest commandment isyou shall love the Lord thy God with allthy heart with all thy soul and with allthy mind because if we were if I was theonly person on planet Earth I wouldstill have relationship with my CreatorI would still have a duty before myCreator and I am still morallyaccountable before my Creator does thatmakesense so if there was nobody else in theworld except me or anyone in this roomhere today that commandment to love theLord your God with all your heart heartsoul and mind would stillapply now this is not the firstcommandment to be written or expressedin Salvation history but it is the firstCommandments that could possibly bebecause it is the expression of thefirst principle of the existence of anyintelligent creature that is anexpression of his relationship with hiscreator and when when Eve was created sothe second commandment comes along andthou shalt love thy neighbor asthyself and because God is love he hashe has created mankind with the inherentfreedom to recognize that relationshipwith his creator or to reject thatrelationship with his creator Mosessaids the Israelites on the verge ofCanaan Deuteronomy 13:19 he said I'veset before you life and death blessingsand curses now choose life so that youand your children may live so religiousliberty is thus the gift of Godinherence within the gift of rationalexistence itself and God has given noman woman or institution the right orthe authority to determine another man'sresponse to God as such any servicerendered to God that is not freely givenis not in fact given to God for God islove and love and coercion can never gotogether but something went wrong withthat gift of religious liberty we'regoing to pick up the story the time ofthe Roman Empire maybe the start of uhmodern history you might say the RomanEmpire based on the premise thatreligion affects Society beli believedthat religion was therefore thelegitimate concern of the government andthe Roman emperors legislated repeatedlyon matters of religious liberty in orderto uphold the unity of the state and forthe first two centuries after Christwhile Christians were a minority theyargued for religious liberty under PaganRome in fact the first recorded use ofthe phrase religious liberty was talianwho lived in 160 to 220 ad he was thefirst writer to use the words libertasreligionis religious liberty was firstrais by Christians living in Pagan RomeConstantine in 313 ad confirmed theEdict of Milan affirming individualfreedom for all and religious libertyonly then a few years later in 321 ad topass the first ever Sundaylegislation by the fifth century we cometo Augustine one of the greatestChristian theologians of all time we maynot agree with everything he said butwhat he said wasmagisterial and he arguedthat the church had the right topersecute Heretics to compel them toenter the truechurch now he argued this from theparable of the banquet Luke 14116-24 where after the invited guestsdeclined their invitations the mastersend out his servants to compel peopleto attend now that word compel anazo canbe either interpreted compel orpersuade but Augustine interpreted thatverse as God giving the church the rightright to compel people to enter thechurch why because when they enter thechurch there they find Salvation Andeven if we have to torture you to getyou into the church it's for your owngood and that interpretation of Luke14:1 16-24 that the church has the rightto compel people Through Torture ifnecessary to enter the body of Christbecause in the body of Christ they findeternal life that has opened the way forthe Inquisition of the Roman Catholicchurch and England where I come fromfrom the burning of Heretics at thestake in England in Saxon England 700 ADthe English king Ina in 900 ad Alfredthe Great who kicked the Danes out ofEngland um athlan King King athlan in924 they all passed Sunday laws as partof their National legislation and it wasbased on the writings of Augustine thatthe church is required by the masterJesus to compel people to enter thechurch because there they find Salvationand those Sunday laws became part of theEnglish common law system and in 1676King Charles II passed a Sunday law inEngland prohibiting ordinary work on theSunday now this relates to us todaybecause that Sunday law of 1676 wasapplied to the 13 Americancolonies and so Sunday laws became partof the laws of the 13 American coloniesfrom almost from the get-go it was onlyRhode Island established by RogerWilliamsthat guaranteed religious freedomthrough the the Constitutionalseparation of church andstate but after the American Revolutionwhich as we all know was a victory ofEnglish colonists against Germanmercenaries of GeorgeII um that's a joke by the way uh afterthe after the English sorry the AmericanRevolution I should say not the EnglishRevolution uh at a federal level thefirst constitu the First Amendment tothe US Constitution in 1791 was awell-known phrase says con Congressshall make no law respecting anestablishment of religion or restrictingthe ex the free exercise thereof andthat is not an absoluteright for instance in America you cannotoffer your child as asacrifice you cannot participate in theHindu practice of Sati the burning ofwidows or burning of young wives uh youcannot um under US federal law partitake some narcotic substances and arguethat it's the free exercise of religionso even though there's First Amendmentexists it is not an absolute right it isa negotiated right that is alwaysbalanced Against The Wider needs ofsociety it is not an absoluteright but at both the state and thefederal law level in America there havebeen continual attempts to impose Sundaylaws during the so-called blue lawpersecutions of the late 1800s 1878 to1895 Adventists faced real persecutionmany were imprisoned many faced largefines and they were put put into umForce labor gangs we call these thingsblue laws they are Colonial relics theystill exist on the laws of many statesof the United States within the UnitedStates they have not been repealed andthey can be enforced at the discretionof Judges we still have Blue laws in theUnited States today they are Relic fromcolonialism but Sunday laws do exist inmany parts of thestates now America kind of was uncertainof itself as most teenagers are as theygrow to maturity um so as America grewto maturity as a nation America wasdebating are we a Christian Nation orare we not a Christian Nation and in1796 Congress um agreed um a treaty withthe the nation of Tripoli in modern dayin the Mediterranean a republ MuslimState and in that treaty Congressaffirms that the United States has notbuilt on the Christianfaith but then in 1892 the Supreme Courtpassed down a decision stating that theUS is I quote a Christian Nation endquote and following that decision of theUS Supreme Court in 1892 there was theChicago World here just down the roadhere from 1892 to 1893 and the House ofRepresentatives up DC voted by 131 to 36that Sunday was the Christian Sabbathand by 149 to 11 that the sth day wasnot the Sabbath this has already beenvoted by the US House of Representativesduring the 50 years after 1888 includingthe Blair bill bill of 1888 and theBreen Ridge bill of 1890 more than 145Sunday bills were presented in the USCongress but by God's grace not onebecamelaw but if you want to know what the USHouse of Representatives thinks it isstill on the statutes on the record ofthe votes the US House ofRepresentatives voted that the seventhday is not theSabbath and as we look back at Adventisthistory I am truly grateful for the lifeof Ministry of people like at Jones ifif you don't know the life and historyof at Jones please educate yourself byum the book by George Knight it's in theABC it's a life of at Jones at Jones wasa whirlwind for religiousliberty and many within the AdventistChurch didn't understand him but thisgentleman Blair who wanted to introducea Sunday law in Congress he did anational speaking tour and at Jones gota copy of that itinery and everywherewhere Blair went Jones was there theweek before blanketing the town withanti- Sunday law pamphletseventually Blair got angry who is thisat Jones guy and and if you read throughthe records of Congress at Jones is anAdventist representative arguedconvincingly on many occasions beforeselect committees of the house ofCongress that the government has nobusiness passing Sunday laws the guy wasa whirlwind and we today still live inin in the light of the Liberty that hefought foramen as we uh look at the world aroundus todaywethink uh these things can never happenagain as Elder Steed was sharing with usthis morning things are happening in ourworld today um if we're not carefulwe're just going to miss it but um asElder lead said this St said thismorning the chains are already therethey're just not tight let me give youan example the pope just recently issuedan in an encyclical and climate changehe issued it on junee 18 this year andSE section 237 where the pope is talkingabout our common home this is what itsays and I quote Sunday like The JewishSabbath is meant to be a day which healsour relationship with God with otherswith ourselves and with the world end ofquotes that's what the pope said in Junethis year and on the same day PresidentObama declared in a White House Pressrelease and I quote I welcome hisHoliness Pope Francis encyclical anddeeply admire the Pope's decision tomake the case clearly powerfully andwith the full moral authority of hisposition for action on global climatechange I believe the United States mustbe a leader in this effort and thePope's call for climate change actionincluded a call for Sunday worship andin that statement President Obama statedAmerica must be a leader to implementthe Pope's suggestions in his encyclicalof June this year an encyclical thatencourages the world to keep Sundaythese things are happening before ourvery eyes it's time to switch off NBAand NFL and focus on on the comingcrisis so as we think about religiousliberty we can understand religiousliberty is the individual versus thestate our relationship with the statearound us we can think of religiousliberty in terms as our relationshipwhere there is a union of church andstates and we can also think of ourreligious liberty in terms of um ourrelationship with the S AdventistChurch so I'm going to address first ourreligious liberty versus the state andif you have your Bibles with me turn toRomans chap 13 and verse1 it's a famousverse written by the ApostlePaul to the Church of Rome Paul waswriting in an era where the Romanemperors wereMonsters the Roman emperors engaged inevery form of deviant Behavior you couldpossiblyimagine Paul wasn't talking just aboutGeneral administrators here Paul istalking about men who engaged in everyform of perversion and Corruption andmoral depravity that it is possible toimagine and even you don't even want toimagine and yet he says to the Church ofRome he says in Romans 13:1 he says letevery person be subject to the governingauthorities for there is no Authorityexcept from God and those authoritiesthat exist have been instituted by Godand Paul just a few years later wasbeheaded by one of those authorities inRome we learn from this verse here thatthe state is ordained by God for apurpose to uphold la Law and Order andto avoid Anarchy that the God has giventhe the states of this world Authorityin civil matters that is in the materialside of life and we are to obey the lawwherever we live including paying ourtaxes and we are to pray for our Civicleaders 1 Timothy Chapter 2 veres 1-2says we are to pray for those inpositions of authority we are to prayfor our rulers whether we vote for themor not we are to pray for them butthroughout history rulers from nimrodsto Nebuchadnezzar to Nero to to uhNapoleon or to the Nazis have sought toextend their god-ordained limits oncivil Authority for the state andthey've sought to legislate in religiousmatters in areas where God has given noState the authority tolegislate turn to Jeremiah 25 and verse11 this is the prophecy that God'speople would be um captives in inBabylon for 70years and having um prophesied that theywould be captive for 70 years inJeremiah chap 25 and verse 11 this iswhat God says to his people in inJerusalem and Judah the remaining twotribes that have yet to goone intocaptivity Jeremiah chapter 25 I'll readverse 11 it says there this whole landthat is the land of Judah shall become aruin and a waste and these nations thatis the people of Judah Shall Serve theking of Babylon for 70years so through the Prophet JeremiahGod revealed that his people were toserve King the king of BabylonNebuchadnezzar for an an exile period of70years and yet when Nebuchadnezzar cameto power in 605 BC and he conqueredJerusalem and took the first wave of ofcaptives off to Jerusalem a few yearslater he had the dream of the statuewe're all familiar with the story ofDaniel 2 and then in Daniel 3Nebuchadnezzar decides that his kingdomis going to last forever despite whatGod says and he's going to build astatue of gold from head totoe he sought to rule the world in civiland religious matters Nebuchadnezzarsought to be the religion the ruler inthe religion of the world and of thereligion of the world and Nebuchadnezzarsought to restrict religious liberty soif you turn to Daniel 3 you find whathappens there I'm sure many of us arefamiliar with the story that um the thetrumpets were blown and the the furnaceswere fired up and most of the crowd felldown and worshiped including we presumerepresentatives from the Judean kingdomof JerusalemI know those famousverses in Daniel 3 verses16-8 the three Hebrews Shadrach mesachand Abednego they answer the king whodemands to know why they would not bowdown to that statue they say ohNebuchadnezzar verse 16 we have no needto present a defense to you in thismatter if our God whom we serve is ableto Deliver Us from the furnace ofblazing fire and out of your hand ohKing let him Deliver us but if not be itknown to you oh King that we will notserve your gods and we will not worshipthe golden statue that you have set upcan somebody say amenamen beautifulwords and so the king threw them intothefire and uh he looks in the fire and thethree Hebrews are walking around in thefire they haven't been consumed by theflames and with them there is a fourthbeing it's an angelic being the kingrecognizes this is a almost a Divinebeing in the in the flames and the storygoes on in verse 24 King Nebuchadnezzarsaid was it not three men that we threwbound Into the Fire they answered theking true oh King and he replied but Isee four men Unbound walking in themiddle of the fire and they are not hurtand the fourth has the appearance of aGod and so God had commanded theIsraelites when you go into captivityyou are to serve Nebuchadnezzar for 70yearsand when they got into captivity and theKing commanded them to bow down in infalse worship those three Hebrewsrefused to Bow so the question was didwhen God said obey Nebuchadnezzar for 70years did he also mean in matters ofreligion absolutely not because Jesus uhdelivered those three Hebrews in thefiery F furnace and affirmed theprinciple that no Authority has theright to legislate on religious mattersyes you are to serve the king of Babylonin civilmatters but no you are not to bow downin falseworship and in verse 28 when the kingpulls him out of the fire it says thereNebuchadnezzar said blessed be the godof Shadrach meshek and Abednego who hassent his Angel and delivered his serpentservants who trusted in him theydisobeyed the King's Command and yieldedup their bodies rather than serve andworship any God except their own now theKing James version says there theychanged the king's wordnotice this God confirmed in thisstory that Nebuchadnezzar had demandedobedience where he had no right tocommand before the principle ofreligious liberty the first giftinherent in intelligent existence eventhe King's Command mustchange when we turn to Daniel 6 thisother encounter between faithfuls childof God and the state we find thesituation is reversed in Daniel 3 youfind that false worship is commandedwhereas in Daniel 6 you find that trueworship isforbidden and in Daniel chapter 6 TheStory of Daniel in the Lion's Den ummany of us are familiar with the storywhen the Babylonian Empire collapsed theMEO Persians took over Daniel was askedto be the Prime Minister he wasblameless in all that he did you mightsay he was the perfectpolitician and the other administratorsdidn't like him because he wasn'tcorrupt and so they sought every waythey could to capture to trap Daniel andfinally they decided decided that theonly way to hurt Daniel was byencouraging the king to forbid the trueworship of the LivingGod and so they said to the king inverse 6 it said oh King dasas liveforever Daniel6:7 all the presidents of the Kingdomthe prefects and the satraps thecounselors and the governors are agreedthat the king should establish anordinance and enforce an interdict thatwhoever prays to anyone Divine or humanfor 30 days except you oh King shall bethrown into a den of lionnow O King establish the interdict andsign the document so that it cannot bechanged according to the law of the mesand Persians which cannot be revokedtherefore King duah signed the documentand the interdict The Genius of thisattack onDaniel was that those who were attackingDaniel could say to the King this is notabout religious liberty at all theprinciple is at stake as whether we area nation of law or not because if Danielcan flout the law publicly as the primeministerand he can open his window three times aday and break the law then anybody canbreak thelaw this is not a question so much ofreligious liberty they might say this isthat we are a nation of Law and if thePrime Minister can openly flout the lawthen anybody can openly flout the lawand the kingdom will degenerate intoAnarchy and Chaos the kingdom will cometo anend and so Daniel was thrown to theLions but when he came out of thatpit in verse 21 notice what Daniel saysto theking he says oh King live forever thisis to the king that's just thrown him tothe Lion's Den okay he is a gracious manis our Daniel oh King liveforever my God sent his angels and shutthe lion's mouth so they would not hurtme because notice what he says beforehim that is before God I was foundblameless and before you oh King I havedone nowrong Daniel had broken the law but heaffirms that before God he wasblameless so when the governmentspresume to legislate on religiousmatters we are blameless before God whenwe break the law in order to upholdGod'slaw and then Daniel says and before youoh King I was I have done you no harm Ihave done nowrong so when we break laws that impingeon religious liberty not only are weblameless before God but those countriesthat impose laws on religious libertythey're actually working againstGod and when we disobey those laws we'reactually being a blessing to thosecountries we do those countries no harmwhen we uphold the law of God before youoh King said Daniel I have done nowrong so any law that touches religionis essentiallyinvalid for it is the law of God and notthe word of any Monarch or the law ofAny Nation that is unchangeablewhen we come to religious liberty andthe uh the union of church andstate well the union of church and stategoes back a longway and perhaps the most Stark exampleof the Union of church and state was thecrucifixion of Our Savior Jesus Christif you turn in your Bibles to Johnchapter 19 you notice there that whatwhen the when the SE when the Jewishreligious leaders wanted Jesus dead theycould find no reason for condemning himthey hired false Witnesses and the falsewitness could not agree with one anotherand they slapped him and they beat himand they broke every judicial law oftheir ownsystem and finally they drag him beforePilate and pilate knows that they'vehanded him over because of Envy pilateknows that Jesus is innocent pilateknows that Jesus has done no wrong andthat they're motivated not by um adesire to uphold the law because Jesushas not broken any law but they'remotivated by Envy and finally whenpilate realizes that he has no optionhumanly speaking but to agree to thecrucifixion ofJesus read in John19:13 or verse 12 the Jews cried out ifyou release this man John 19:12 you areno friend of the emperor everyone whoclaims to be king sets him up againstthe emperor the emperor was Tiberius hewas a sadist and a monster and the chiefof the pretorian guy was a guy calledsanus who was an anti-semite whoencouraged pilot in his deprivationswithin Judea itself and pilate knew thatif p tius would have hear that he is nofriend of the emperor that in those daysyou didn't just get a pinkslip you may be beheaded atbest but when pilate heard those wordsverse 13 he brought Jesus outside andsat on the judge's bench at a placecalled The Stone pavement or in Hebrewgabbatha now it was the day ofpreparation for the Passover and it wasabout noon and he said to the Jews hereis your king and they cried away CriedOut away with him away with him crucifyhim pilate said asked them shall Icrucify your king it's a brilliantquestion shall I crucify your king sayspilate and the response they backed intoa corner the chief priests answered wehave no King but theemperor it was a formal renunciation ofthe Jews hopes for a messiah theyaccepted human authority over the Jewishnation and they abandoned their hope inthe Messiah at thatmoment so the Church of its day theSanhedrin United with the state of itsday the Roman state in order to committhe greatest Comm crime that's everoccurred on planet Earth as thecrucifixion of our Lord and savior andwherever church and state have beenUnited this Union has Pro proved nothingbut a curse for suffering humanity andthat is why we as Adventists work forthe separation of church and state it'swhy we publish magazines like Libertybecause we recognize from salvationhistory that when church and state areunited there is nothing but evil forGod's people and for all people so onyour way out today pick up a copy ofLiberty they're on the back there on thetable on the back and uh learn moreabout principles of religious liberty ifyou turn to acts 5 verse 27 and 29 theapostles uh speak a very clear principlehere it's a principle I learned from myparents as a young man it's a principlethat has served me well in life it's aprinciple that will serve us well as wego through the winter of Earth'sexistence Acts chapter 5 verse 29 wehere the Sanhedrin are commanding theapostles not to proclaim the good newsof Jesus Christ and the apostles respondthey say but Peter and the apostlesanswered verse 29 we must obey Godrather than man it's a simple clearprinciple but if I'm to obey God itpresumes that I actually know what God'swill in the matter is does itnot I cannot say I must obey God ratherthan man I know what man's will is butwhat is God's willso am I taking the time to find God'swill for me in mylife is easy to quote this verse I mustobey God rather than man but if I haveno idea what God's will is it's kind ofa pointlessstatement we are as the bereans were tobe more noble than the other Jews oftheir area we are to study thescriptures day by day to see whetherwhat you hear even this morning is trueor not amen we ought to have anintelligent faith that give give ananswer for what we believe and why webelieve and in whom webelieve so we can say we obey God ratherthan man but we need to know what God'swill is and we need to be searching forthat will and searching for that will islike searching for the pearl of greattreasure the kingdom of God is not thePearl but it is the experience ofsearching for it as we search day by dayfor that pearl of great treasure godbrings us insights and wisdom that wewould never otherwise have so brothersand sisters as as we live through thiscoming day this this week this monththis year make it your objective to knowGod's will in your life often times weknow what God's will is we just don'twant to follow it often times people sayPastor I I have adilemma I don't know what to do about itand within a couple of seconds you knowyou know that they know exactly whatGod's will on the matter is but they'researching scriptures for get out clausethey've somehowmissed when we sit down to read thescriptures before we sit down we shouldsay God what ever you reveal to me nowgive me the courage to follow throughwith it because then we are emotionallyand spiritually ready to follow throughwith what God reveals to us and thesemay be little things but the cumulativeimpact of little things is a Sanctifiedlife when we consider religious libertyin thechurch what can we say about the churchthe church is the Ecclesia uh EO itmeans those who have been called out ofthe world in the ancient Greek citystates of Athens and Sparta and Corinthum when they wanted a city um a votethey wouldn't call everybody in the cityout to the plains to vote they wouldcall the free men so all the slaves wereleft in the city all the women were leftin the city all the sick were left inthe city all the children were left inthe city all those who didn't own landwere left in the city but it was thefree men who were the Ecclesia they werecalled out because they were the leadingmen of the city and they would make thedecision and that word easia is whatJesus refers to his church as he refersto us as the ecasia which means we'renot slaves to sin that yes we may not beland owners but we are The Heirs withChrist of Eternal riches amen and heleads us with his Spirit to come out ofthis world in order that we mightworship our heavenly father but then hesends us back into the world to proclaimthe Everlasting gospel and so we existas a community as a church of those whoconfess Jesus Christ as Lord and SaviorWe join together for worship forFellowship for instruction in the wordfor the celebration of the Lord's suppersupper for service to all humanity andthe proclamation of the GospelChristianity is not a solo religion itis a community faith and the spiritualgo gifts that God gives his churchRomans 12 1 Corinthians 12-14 andEphesians 4 the three classic passageson spiritual gifts make it crystal clearthat the church is a mutual Communitywhere we have mutual responsibilitiesone to another where if I use my giftsand you use your gifts and if you useyour gifts the whole body isstrengthened as a result amen that welive in in a mutualbody and when we talk about religiousliberty Vis A thechurch um this raises interestingquestions because we also disfellowshippeople religious liberty normally meansfreedom for a denomination for theirreligion from interference by the statewhen we think of the phrase religiousliberty most people think we wantcongress not to make any law regardingSundaylaw we think about our faith and ourchurch and the state but religiousliberty also affects our relationshipwith our brothers and our sisters andwhat do I mean by this is simply thisthat we disagree with Augustine who saidyou can compel people into the body ofChrist we uphold the principle ofreligious liberty which means you arefree to enter the Adventist Church andyou are also free to leave the AdventistChurch if so convicted that means As WeGather here on this sabbath morning wedo not gather for reasons of socialconvenience or coercion but we GAbecause we are convicted Disciples ofthe Lord and savior of mankind we arehere by conviction and God only wants ushere by conviction God doesn't want usnecessarily here if we're here becausewe're told we have to be here or wewe'll lose our jobs if we're not here weare Disciples of Jesus by conviction notby for convenience or coercive reasonswe are here because we are converted bythe Holy Spirit and convicted of thetruth as it is in Jesus Christ andbecause of that in 1 Peter 3:15 if youturn in your Bibles turn with me in yourBibles to James Peter John um 1 Peterchapter 3 and verse1 15 right near theend of your Bibles you got James PeterJohn Jude and Revelation so just a fewpages back from Revelation in 1 Peterchapter 3 and verse 15 we read there itsays second half of the verse 1 Peter 3and verse1 15 Peter saysalways always be ready to make yourdefense to anyone who demands from youin accounting for the hope that is inyoudoes he sayoccasionally or whenprepared no we are always to have beable to make a defense you say well I'mnot that well prepared well I downloadedan app the other day they shared it atthe GC session if I can find it hereit'sfree and uh here it is it's called umsharing hope you can download it forfree it'll take you 30 seconds when youget home this afternoon when youdownload Sharing Hope it has the entireconflict of the ages series on it andyou and it has a bunch of glow tracks soif you're sitting on a on a plane or inthe coach going to O'Hare or you're inum Walmart and someone asks you aquestion you may not say you may notthink I have the answers right now butyou have a smartphone and you have thisapp you say give me your email addressand you can send them the web link to anincredible um document we can all beprepared and be intentional aboutsharing ourfaith and so in terms of religiousliberty in our relation ship with achurch we'd say this we are to know forourselves what we believe why we believeit and whom we believe and God wants usto be convicted and converted not hereby coercion or by convi orconvenience but when we talk aboutreligiousliberty we also recognize that you inthe world today we live in a fastchangingworld this here is the Sharia law nowyou may not want it for Christbut um it's a it's a great read actuallyit's like Leviticus onsteroids andum you can buy it on Amazon for about$35 it's called the Reliance of thetraveler a classic Manual of Islamicsacred law and it has the um officialimprint ofapproval from the leading um Arabicuniversities of the world from theUniversity of Damascusfrom the Muffy of the Jordanian armedforces from the F Academy of jeder ofNorth America most importantly fromalazai it's the leading Sunni Universityin the world it's inCairo and uh I read it through a coupleof summers agoum I'm not going to do it againbut this is the fastest growing faith inthe world so they say well it would bebecause if anybody if anybody leavesthey get killed so if we had only peoplejoining the Adventist Church we'd alsobe the fastest growing faith in theworldbut as you look through this this isbased on the the teachings of Muhammadthey're called the Hadith this is mostlywhere the Sharia comes from the goal ofIslam is to bring the whole world underSharia law this is the Sharia law theSharia law says a number of things herewhen it's okay to punish a Muslim whenit's not okay to punish a Muslim one ofthe reasons why it is not okay to punisha Muslim I'm going to quote is a Muslimfor killing a non-muslim that meansIslamic holy law if a Muslim kills youthey are blameless in Muslimthought secondly a father or mother forkilling their offspring there's an honorkilling it is a blameless thing inIslamic holy law apostasy from Islam itsays when a person who has reachedpuberty and is sane voluntarilyapostasis from Islam he deserves to bekilled you may dialogue with him but ifhe refuses he is to be immediatelykilled Etc Etc and there are pages andpages and pages of when you can killpeople um all all listed in the thechurch manual for the fastest growingfaith in the worldtoday we are living in aworld where people are being deniedincreasingly basic principles ofreligiousliberty but religious liberty is like aChristmasgift what do I mean by that wellChristmas is coming up and I know formany children this is a time of greatexcitement is it not for me it's a timeof of trepidation I'm wondering about mybank account inJanuary my father used to call my uncleabout 3 weeks before Christmas when weliving in England his twin brother I'm atwin he's a twin and um we knew whatthat phone call meant the phone callmeant we just have a moratorium onpresence this year and as kids we werejust distraught by this moratorium onpresence and so we'd negotiate for likeum you know can we spend like $3 a eachon a present and so we'd give each othera pen or something and something likethat but religious liberty is like aChristmas present that is it's no usewhen it's sittingunpacked if I have a Christmas presentthis year and I believe I will get onehopefully I I trust Iwill I'm not going to leave it unwrappedsitting under my bed I'm going to openit up because a Christmas present is abeautiful thing but it has to beunwrapped and it has to be experienceddoesn't it and religious liberty is abit like that we may say I want myreligious liberty and the government isinterfering with my religious libertyand the pope is working behind thescenes to restrict my religious libertyall of which istrue but we have religious liberty rightnow in the states do we not and to say Iwant religious liberty while refusing touse that religious liberty is likehaving the cars to a Ferrari and neverwanting to drive it it'smeaninglessso why are we may talk about religiousliberty as a concept we need to askourselves what are our responsibilitiesas people today who enjoy religiousliberty let's open that present abit there are three dimensions I want toexplore here one is that as we havereligious liberty we live for thelost as citizens of the United States wesupport religious liberty today becausewe do defend the US Constitution theBill of Rights and the First Amendmentand in doing so we defend the very bestof human civilization okay I'm a BritI'm saying this but this is absolutelytrue you cannot read the gettsburgaddress or the Bill of Rights withoutbeing deeply moved inside these are someof the finest documents in human historyand though I'm not a US citizenyet as I live here I do uphold the Billof Rights and the First Amendment andthe USConstitution and in so doing we defendthe inherent Dignity of every humanbeing as a created child of God butbroader than being US citizens asmembers of the human race we uphold theUN Declaration of Human Rights whichstates in article 18 and I quoteeveryone has the right of to freedom ofthought conscience and religion thisincludes the freedom to change hisreligion or belief end quote that is nota quote that most of the world acceptstoday but it is in the UN Declaration ofHuman Rights to which the United Statesis asignatory and as Adventists we supportreligious right religious liberty todaybecause it is God's inher ENT gift tohis creation and no man has the right tolimit God's gift to another man weuphold the gift of religious libertybecause it is absolutely necessary forus to fulfill our prophetic mission tomake disciples of all Nations if we'reto reap a harvest from every field inthe world we need access to the field tosew the seed in every field of the worldand so therefore we do work forreligious liberty but if you turn toProverbs 30: 8 you'll see that religiousliberty goes beyond this as we live forthe lost in in in as seventhly Adventisttoday in a world where where the the thecloud the storm clouds are gathering andthe Mist is gathering and people nolonger know their histories or no longerread bibles in Proverbs chap 30:8 sorry proverbs 31 and verse 8 myapologies proverbs 31 and: 8 notice whatthe wisest man who ever lived had tosay Proverbs 31:8 says speak out forthose who cannot speak speak for therights of all thedestitute we are not called to be acomfortable middle class Church assumingthat because we're okay then everybodyelse must be okay aswell we worship God according to ourconscience we honor the firstCommandments love the God love Lord thyGod with all thy heart and soul and mindand in response God says now follow thesecond commandment which is to love yourneighbor as yourself and it's preciselybecause we uphold the princip ofreligious liberty that we cannot preachon religious liberty but be silent onsegregated or marginalized communitiesor children who are going to bed hungryor women and girls who are victims oftrafficking or be silent while singleparents are struggling to make it notthrough the month but through theday precisely because religious libertyis our spiritual Birthright we asAdventists are called to speak up notjust about salvation fraternity but tominister to those today who are caughtin family breakdown environmentaldegradation moral chaos systemic socialinjustice and human trafficking the listcould go on I'm not asocialist but we do haveresponsibilities to our brother and oursister amen what does this mean inpractice well a number of years ago inCyprus um there was a lady young girlwho started coming to church innicasa and uh she was always veryquiet and I noticed one Sabbath that shehad bruising across her neck likesomeone put her hands around his herthroatand uh so we started talking with herlike what's going on with your life herewho are you and where have you come fromand it turned out she was a victim oftrafficking she'd answered a job advertin Cypress for a waitress and had beenput to work in another type ofprofession and she was an Adventist theytook her passport they knew she couldn'tleave the country and they gave hersabbaths off to come and worshipGod the fact that she was in church wasa minormiracle so a couple of us gatheredtogether we said wellafter potluck we'll go home to our homesand she goes back to where she's workingwhat are we going to do about this do wehave aresponsibilityabsolutely so we said to her look we'regoing to buy you a ticket a one-wayticket to your home country and when youcome to church next week we want you tobring if you can get your passportthat's all you need your passport wewill get you out of this country and shewas being held there by a local Mafiagroup she was really scared and then webecame really scared we said no we'regoing to dothis and so the following Sabbathafternoon she didn't come to church wedrove by and knocked on the door of thisplace of work and she answer the doorand she say I've got my passport solet's get in the car and this is kind oflike movies we were wearing baseballcaps and sunglasses okay myself andfriend we did not want to be recognizedby the Mafia the Russian mafia is verypowerful in Cyprus it's where girls arebroken in before they get put to work inWesternEurope we put her in the car and wedrove as fast as we could to the airportwe got to the airport there in in inliol we said give us your cell phone wegot the SIM card out and destroyed it sonobody can trace it back to us and weput on a plane and said never come backhere again go back to yourparents now I have a daughter and if youever see my daughter in that positionyou do the same for me wouldyou we are called to minister to thosewho are caught up in the evil of thisworld precisely because we believe inreligious liberty if you look in yourbulletin you have little H pamphlet likethis and on the back back of thispamphlet of religious liberty Sabbaththere are some practical things everyonein this room can do about religiousliberty you may join the North Americanreligious liberty Association you coulddonate to the Lake Union religiousLiberty Fund which defends Adventistscaught up in Sabbath employment issuesyou could write to your representativein Congress you could go topersecution.com this afternoon which isthe voice of the martys website and youcan start writing to a prisoner ofconscience somewhere in the world todayyou can start educating yourselves aboutprinciples of religious liberty and youcan start praying for religiousliberty these are practical thingseveryone in this room can do to upholdreligious liberty around the worldtoday you may want to sponsor amissionary this Christmas say we're notgoing to have presents we're going tosponsor a missionary working in Iran orIraq or Myanmar or morania becausepeople there while the night while whilewe have the light let us walk in thelight and spread that light sponsor amissionary somewhere in the world todaycome to Evangelistic series that arecoming up in this church church aboutthe the fall of Babylon the fall and thecall invite a friend there are manythings we can do to promote religiousliberty we don't have to be haveofficial uh titles or degrees or namesletters after our name we are all calledto live for thelost when we think about religiousliberty though we're also called interms of religious liberty to live withour brothers and sisters and that'soften really difficult isn't it turn toGalatians chapter 5 and: 13 Galatians 5and: 13 Paul is talking about ChristianFreedom it is for Freedom that Christhas set you free and he's talkingprimarily about people who um and JewishChristians who follow Paul wherever hegoes they followed him like a bad odorand they were telling the newlyconverted Gentile Christians now you'veaccepted Christ great but you need to becircumcised and if somebody were to tellme after I've just been baptized now youneed to be circumcised with a flintknife I'd be thinking twice about myChristianfaith Paul says I wish they go the wholeway and castrate themselves I mean youget he's kind of angry in the text herebut look at Galatians 5: 13 Paul says tobrothers and sisters to us today as welive the principle of religious libertywith our brothers and sisters he saysfor you were called to Freedom brothersand sisters only do not use your freedomas an opportunity for self-indulgencebut through love become slaves one toanother so if we are to expressreligious liberty to the world we are tolive for the lost if we to expressreligious liberty within the four wallsof this church here todaythen we are to express that Freedom byserving one another in love and if youtake the time and look up the phrase oneanother or each other in the NewTestament you'll discover dozens anddozens and dozens of commands of how youexpress that love one to another here'sa selection we are to have peace withone another Mark 9:50 we're to serve oneanother Galatians 5:13 we're to showkindly affection to one another in honorgiving preference one to another Romans12:10 we're not to put a stumbling blockin front of somebody else Romans 14:13we are to be of the same mind as oneanother we are not to set our minds onhigh things but to associate with thehumble we are to submit to one anotherin the fear of the Lord Ephesians 5:21we're to receive one another just asChrist received us Romans 15:7 we're toBear one another's burdens Galatians 562we're to be kind to one anothertenderhearted forgiving one anotherEphesians 4:32 we're to speak to oneanother in Psalms and hymns andspiritual songs singing and makingmelody in our hearts to Jesus Ephesians5:19 we to encourage one another dailyHebrews 3:13 we are not to lie to oneanother we are to Bear one another upforgiving one another Colossians 39 weare to build one and up 1 Thessalonians5:11 we're to remain in fellowship withone another 1 Thessalonians5:11 I can get lost in this stuff herewe are not to speak evil or Grumbleagainst one another we are not to dineon the preacher's flesh we callourselves vegetarians but We Dine on hisflesh over our Sabbath lunch we are notto speak evil of or Grumble about oneanother James 41159 we are to love oneanother fervently with a Pure Heartfirst PS 2:22 we're to comfort those whoare grieving the loss of loved ones withthe promise of the Resurrection 1Thessalonians 4:18 we have compassionupon one another 1 Peter 3:8 for lovewill cover a what of sins a multitude ofsins 1 Peter 48 against such thingsthere is nolaw so if we were to ask ourselves howdo I live this principle of religiousliberty Vis A my brothers andsisters I'd like to challenge us allthis week think of somebody in thiscongregation that you know is strugglingcan you think ofsomebody can you think of somebody rightnow who's struggling with lack offinances May there a single parent maybethey're struggling with their studiesmaybe their relative is in a hospitalmaybe their marriage isn't as good onthe inside as it appears from theoutside can you think of somebody likethat rightnow well sometime during this week givethat person a call and pray with themsend them a note of encouragement don'tsend a text send them a card write itout personally put it in the mail a cardis always much more beautiful than atext pray for that person offer to helpthem with their shopping offer to mowtheir lawn for them whatever it is servethat person in love this week and if 300people here this morning serve 300 otherpeople sometime during this week bury inSprings the atmosphere willlift and people will know that we aredisciples not because of our doctrinesbut by the love we have one for anotherso will you do that this week will youcontact just one person just one personperson and give them a word ofencouragement give them a phone callgive them a hug preferably someone ofthe same gender I hope okay but whateverit may be encourage somebody this weeklive for somebody else live for withyour brothers and sisters andfinally we have to live for thelost we're to live with our brothers andsisters and finally we are to livebefore God because the bottom line isthis religious liberty is a call foreach one of us to surrender Our Lives toJesus Christ in the final strugglebetween good and evil the proclamationof the Three Angels messages presupposesthat whatever other freedoms have beentaken away freedoms to buy freedoms tosell freedoms of assembly of speech offair trial or impartial juries whateverother freedoms are taken away the bookRevelation tells us that the freedom torespond to the Three Angels messages isthe final Freedom that no government canever take away we can still respondthere may be consequences but theessential Freedom remains until theclose ofprobation and that freedom applies to ustoday today we are either free torespond toGod with verbal confession of oursins with a desire for Jesus to give usvictory over oursins with a call on God to give us thestrength to turn away from this way oflife to a new way of life that's calledrepentance today we can off ask Jesus tobe the Lord Of Our Lives onceagain or today we can choose to enthroneself on ourhearts and turn away the offer of God'smercy that comes to us through thisPulpit the Bible never says tomorrow isthe day of salvation today and now isthe hour of Salvation am the last appealin scripture is this that anyone whowishes take the Water of Life as a giftRevelation22:17 and that offer presupposes that wehave the ability to reject that offer ofMercy or to accept it how will yourespond Revelation 3:20 this ourscripture reading read for us thismorning behold I stand at the door andknock If any man hear my voice and openthe door I will come into him and willSu with him and he with me how do yourespond to that invitation of JesusChristtoday Jesus is coming soon of that I'mconvinced he's coming soon and I'll weready to meethim you say what does it mean to beready to meet Jesus it means this Istand before you God with no sense of myown goodness but I trust solely andexclusively in the merits of My SaviorJesus Christ are you ready to meet Jesustoday have you confessed those sins thatare cherished and hidden in yourlives or will you say that tomorrow ismy day of salvation and tomorrow maynever come foryou will you choose to leave this houseof prayer today to Eternaldestruction or do you choose to putJesus on the throne of your lives howwill yourespond Joshua's closing words to Israelat the end of his life were these hesaid choose you this day whom you willserve but as for me in my household WeShall Serve the Lordam I've walked with Jesus since aboutthe age of13 so these 30 odd years he has done meno wrong so why would I deny himnow I'd like to encourage each and everyone of you here today that if if thereis something in your life that comesbetween you and the Savior today give itup respond to the spirit speaking toyour life today for Jesus is coming soonwinter is Dawning Upon OurWorld night is almost here and we haveto go through that night until Jesusreturns we need to be readytoday so I invite you wherever you areto Bow your heads and close your eyesand we're going to have a word with ourheavenlyfather fatherGod today we hear your voice speaking toour heartsGod we do not want our religious libertyto beunop but God may we use it while wemay God today I pray that we will indeedlive for the Lost we will be a light ona hill that cannot be hid we will be thesalt of the earth wherever you place usin yourVineyard God today we would live withbrothers and sisters we would Expressthe freedom you've given us as a way asa reason for serving one another inlove oh God may we bless someone thisweek May you touch somebody's livesthrough our words through our witnessthrough ourencouragement and fathertoday with our religiousliberty we want to unpack that gift andrecognize that our Salvation is a giftof Grace fromyou father we thank you lest any manshouldboast father we're asking you now to bebe on the throne of OurLives cast out those Temptations westruggle withgive us Victory today Father by yourgrace and by your power over thoseTemptations and sins that besetus and father I pray that when Jesuscomes again we will be in that gloriouscrowd of the ages the communion of Faithstretching back to Adam singing praisesto the lamb who died and who rose againand who has redeemed each one of us fromEternal death to eternallife Jesus be Lord of our lives todaythis is our prayer in jesus' name amenamen