Post by WatchmanRay on Dec 31, 2006 2:20:41 GMT -5
::)Galatians 5:19-21, is what Paul called “the works of the flesh.” This is what he writes: “Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” It is interesting to note that every one of the behaviors that Paul listed under the works of the flesh ARE LEGAL IN AMERICA TODAY! Go back and read the list again. These are all legal in America today — every single one. In fact, they are the most prominent characteristics of our society here at the end of the century! They fill our streets, our homes, our schools, our businesses, the television, movies, magazines, books, and even the Churches. You see, when America was founded, it was based upon something that is quite a contradiction to the principles of the Kingdom of God. It was based on freedom. Now, don’t get me wrong, freedom is a very good thing. But it is, in and of itself, a contrast to righteousness. The laws of our land were established so that we could have the freedom to be able to do whatever we desire to do, go as far as we desire to go, be what we want to be, as long as it is not encroaching on another person’s safety or well-being. Under freedom you have the liberty to do right, to do good, to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. But under freedom you also have liberty to do wrong, to sin — lust, fornicate, hate, practice witchcraft, be an atheist, get drunk, curse, watch pornography, lie, cheat, misrepresent, worship devils, etc. The people in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, have come to understand this. It is an undeniable fact that crime of all kinds rises along with freedom. There is freedom for the fruit of the Spirit, but there is equally freedom for the works of the flesh. That is how “freedom” is!
Nobody, really, can tell us Americans, what freedom is. Is not this the land of the free? Nowhere in the world is there more freedom than we enjoy in this country, born out of a desire to be free. For freedom we live and for freedom we die; not only for ourselves, but for others as well. From countries where freedom simply does not exist, people, desiring to be free, have come to America, and even today it is clear that there is no end to the five hundred year escape to freedom. Some come for freedom to manifest the fruit of the Spirit; most come to fulfill the lusts of the flesh. And something has happened along this road of freedom; not overnight, but slowly. Our desire for all the freedom and all the liberty in the world, has now — whether we admit it or not — brought us to the point where it is killing us! We have gradually turned from freedom to do good, prosper, and worship God, to freedom to do evil, with the result that we have become slaves of our own desires. We have allowed ourselves unlimited freedom in the pursuit of pleasure, the complete satisfaction of all our fleshly senses: the lust of our eyes, our feelings, our hearing, our tasting and our smelling. In the pursuit of pleasure we spend all our free time. We cannot get enough of our movies, television, magazines, parties, smoking, drinking, carousing, drugs, rock, and sex. Nobody can be allowed to spoil our pleasure! All of America’s notorious ills have their root in the desire for freedom. The freedom we have in the United States is a wonderful system as long as we realize that this system is not a divine or godly system — nor is it even in the proximity of the Kingdom of God!
The kind of freedom we have in America is a spurious, deceptive, lying freedom. Men are slaves to those things they are free to do. Therefore, their freedom is bondage. The only true freedom in the universe is the freedom of the Kingdom of God. Jesus said, “If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed!” In Christ we are made “free from the law,” because we are also “free from sin.” “For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty” (II Cor. 3:17). The hope of all creation is the liberty that is to be brought to all men at the manifestation of the sons of God. It is not the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor that heralds freedom for earth’s teeming, oppressed masses. No, my brother, my sister! Rather, it is the body of Christ coming to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. It is my hope in this writing to awaken the pure minds of God’s people to true understanding of freedom and liberty in the Kingdom of God. “For the earnest expectation of the creation waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creation was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious LIBERTY of the sons of God” (Rom. 8:19-21). There is freedom indeed! Freedom from corruption, freedom from sin, freedom from fear, freedom from lack, freedom from pain and sorrow, freedom from limitation, freedom from sickness and disease, freedom from ignorance and error, freedom from death, hell and the grave. All that and much more is entailed in the “liberty of the sons of God” in the Utopia of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.