Declaring Doctrine | Part 21 | Individual Soul Liberty
We’re there in Genesis 2. We’re continuing our series “Declaring Doctrine”. This is a series where we’re doing a systematic study of the major doctrines in the Bible. We are covering this series in sections. We’ve done the doctrine of the Word of God and looked at everything that had to do with the Word of God. We’ve done the doctrine of the Godhead and looked at everything that had to do with God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit and Deity. We’ve been in a series on the doctrine of salvation. A few weeks ago, I did a sermon on the doctrine of salvation and we talked about the theological terms for salvation like justification, atonement, etc…Then last Sunday night I did a sermon on the doctrine of eternal security. Next week I’m going to be preaching a sermon on the doctrine of the new man and the Sunday after that I’m preaching a sermon on the reprobate doctrine.
Tonight, I’m preaching on the doctrine of individual soul liberty. This is a doctrine that fits within this category of the doctrines of salvation. It’s not complicated but there are some things that I want you to be aware of. Part of the reason that I’m doing this series is because I want our Church to be the most biblically educated Church in this city. I want us to be the most biblically educated Church period. But I want you to know what we believe, why we believe it. Another reason I’m doing these doctrinal sermons is because our Church in the past has trained many men for the ministry and I plan on continuing to train and send men out for the ministry. And I want them to have reference of what we believe and why we believe it and what it means to be a Baptist. And today we’re dealing with this doctrine of individual soul liberty.
Let me begin by just giving you a definition for individual soul liberty. Some of you may have never heard that term before. Or maybe you’ve heard it but you’re not familiar with it. Let me just read this for you. Individual soul liberty, also referred to as soul competency, is a Christian theological belief of the accountability of each person before God. According to this teaching, someone’s family relationship, Church membership or ecclesiastical or religious authorities cannot affect the salvation of that individual soul from condemnation. Instead, each person is responsible to God for one’s own personal faith in Jesus Christ. The doctrine of individual soul liberty is the doctrine that teaches that God has given free will, that God has given liberty to every person to choose if they will believe. God has given you the freedom of choice, the free will to make a decision. And I want to kind of explain this to you and make sure we thoroughly understand it tonight.
Individual soul liberty means that individuals are responsible to make the choice to respond to God or they’re responsible to make the choice to respond to God. First this applies to the category of sin. We all can make a choice regarding sin. Genesis 2:15 “15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:”. That word freely or free there means liberty. It means freedom of choice. It means freedom of will. God told Adam “thou mayest freely eat”. That’s individual soul liberty. In fact, individual soul liberty began at the Garden of Eden.
Notice verse 17 “17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”. Now sometimes people ask the question “Well why did God even put this tree there if he knew that they would eat from eat and damn all mankind to sin and death and hell.”. The reason that God did not do that is because God has given us free will. God has given us individual soul liberty. See, God did not create Adam and Eve as robots where he just made them do what he wanted them to do. God created man the Bible says for his pleasure and he gave him a choice. He told Adam that he could eat of any tree except 1. But just because God will not stop you from eating from that tree doesn’t mean that you won’t bear consequences. “for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”.
See, we all can make a choice regarding sin. In fact, we all will make a choice regarding sin. Look, we like to sit there and say “The Devil made me do it. It’s not my fault. The devil made me do it.”. But the truth of the matter is this, God gave you individual soul liberty which means that you get to make the choice if you will obey or disobey. You get to make the choice where you will do what God wants or not do what God wants. Genesis 3:6 “Genesis 3:6 “6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”. See, the individual soul liberty means that as individuals we all are responsible to make the choice and we will all make the choice to respond to God. This is done in the category of sin. We all can make a choice and we all will make a choice regarding sin.
But let me give you another area where this affects us. Number one, we all can make a choice regarding sin and we all will make a choice regarding sin. Secondly, we all can and we all must make a choice regarding salvation. The Bible teaches very clearly that salvation is a choice. Revelation 22:17 “17 And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”. Here the Bible is referring to salvation and he said “whosoever will”. Think of Jesus speaking to the woman at the well and saying “Anybody who drinks of this water will thirst again but if you drink of the water that I shall give then you will never be thirsty.”. This is all a reference and an analogy to salvation. He says “let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”. Notice our word there again “freely”. “whosoever will” means whosoever wants or whosoever is willing or whosoever desires. See, salvation is a choice that we make. We choose. The Bible says that anybody who wants to can take of the water of life freely.
I’m not going to do it tonight but we could open up the Book of John and go through verse after verse after verse. “Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed”. “Whosoever believeth in him will not be condemned”. The most famous verse in the Bible is John 3:16 “16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”. All throughout the Bible we see this word “whosoever” especially applied in regards to salvation. Why? Because salvation is open to anyone. Anyone who wants it can have it. But it’s their choice. They must choose.
Romans 10:9 says “9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”. See, the Bible says “if”. This means that we have a choice to make. Look at verse 11 in the same chapter. “11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.”. Look at verse 13. “13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”. See, the Bible says that we all can and in fact we all must make a choice regarding salvation because salvation is a choice. It’s whosoever will. It’s a decision you make. It’s a decision that somebody makes.
In fact, let me help some of you soul winners out. Over the 10 plus years that we have been in ministry, we’ve had the privilege of training many soul winners through our soul winning seminars and through just individually helping people. One thing I’ve noticed with a lot of soulwinners, it’s difficult to close the deal sometimes. Oftentimes you go through the steps and you’re explaining but then it’s hard to get them to pray. And I would just like to help you out with how to close the deal.
I like to use the gift illustration throughout my presentation. I use the gift illustration that a gift is free. “If I were to give you a gift but then ask you to pay me for it, would that be a gift?”. And the answer is no. “What if I would ask you to do something like wash my car. Is that a gift?”. And of course, the answer is no. And we use that illustration to explain that salvation is not of works. I also use the gift illustration to explain that just because the gift is free for you, that doesn’t mean that somebody didn’t pay for it. If I go out and I buy a gift for you and I give it to you, it doesn’t cost you anything but it cost me something. Well, the gift of God is the same way. God gives it to us freely but it costs him something. It costs the fact that he sent the Son to die on the cross. And I like to use that illustration when I get to the end of my presentation.
I like to bring up the gift illustration again and I’ll look at somebody and say “Hey listen. Let’s say I went out and I bought you a gift, wrapped it up, put a bow on it, wrote your name on it and I said here you go. I’m giving you this free gift. You don’t have to give me anything for it. It’s a free gift. I’m giving this to you.”. Let’s say you said to me “Thanks but no thanks.”. And you rejected my gift. Did that gift ever become yours? And people will often say “Well no.”. And I say “Why?”. They’ll say “I didn’t accept it.”. And I use that example and explain that the gift of God is the exact same way. Jesus already paid for it on the cross. He offers it to all of us freely but you get a choice whether you’d like to accept it or reject it. And I’ll ask somebody at the door “If you could accept the gift of God would you, do it?”. And usually, they’ll say of course. Then I’ll show them how to do it. Romans 10:9 “9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth”. See, salvation is a choice. We all make a choice of committing sin and we all must make a choice regarding salvation. And this is individual soul liberty.
Let me give you another area where individual soul liberty applies. Go to Romans 14. Not only do we make a choice regarding sin, a choice regarding salvation but we also must make a choice regarding doctrine. Romans 14:5 “5 One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. 6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.”.
And in this passage, we just see this example that when it comes to what you believe, you make a choice. The Bible here gives us an example that one-man esteemeth one day above another but others esteem each day the same. Which one is right and which one is wrong? Well notice, he says “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”. When it comes to doctrine, you are not a robot. God has given you a choice to be able to read the Bible and if you have the Holy Spirit of God inside of you then you can open it up and study it and make decisions for yourself. Your job is to know what the Bible says and make decisions. And often times people will come to me and ask me questions and ask for advice and I’ll tell people “Here’s what I would do and here’s why I would do it. Here’s what the Bible says and here’s the application.”. But honestly, you’ve got to make a decision for yourself. And oftentimes I teach people you must not sin against your own conscience. You must be fully persuaded in your own mind.
See, individual soul liberty means that you don’t have a situation like in the Dark Ages where sermons were in a language that people don’t even understand and people tell you what to do and you can’t ask questions. No, you get to individually come to God and study the Bible and make decisions for yourself. Now let me just give this caveat. And this is a biblical caveat that obviously within the umbrella of a Church there’s an authority structure. Look, you get to decide what you believe. But there’s some things that you can choose to not believe that’ll get you kicked out of this Church. You can come to Verity Baptist Church and decide you’re going to spread false doctrine about the deity of Christ or false doctrine about the King James Bible. And that’s your choice. But the thing is that when you decide to join together with a church family, you are identifying with what that Church believes. And look, we don’t tell people that they have to agree with everything. But you need to not be going against us.
I’ve said this recently as sometimes people ask me this question. I have no problem with unsaved people coming to this Church or people that maybe don’t believe exactly like we believe. There’s lots of people in our Church that when they started coming didn’t believe in eternal security and it was weeks before they believed eternal security. And that’s okay. We’ll let people come that might say “I don’t know about that.”. That’s fine. You don’t have to agree with us. You have individual soul liberty. Now we’re not going to allow somebody to walk in here and try to fight us or come in here and spread false doctrine. The point is that you have individual soul liberty.
At Verity Baptist Church, I try to get you to turn to lots of verses and turn to passages. It would be a lot easier for me to say “Trust me. I’m preaching out of the King James Bible. Just close your Bible. I’ll read all of the verses to you and just listen to me.”. That would make things go a lot faster. Why do I take the time to have you turn? I want you to look at it for yourself so you can know what you believe. Because when you walk out of here, people might ask you “Why does your wife stay home with the children? Why does your wife dress a certain way or why don’t you go to these certain places or do these certain things?”. If the answer is “That’s what Pastor said.”. That’s the wrong answer. We should you directly from the Bible. Why? Because individual soul liberty means that you get to make a choice regarding salvation. It means that you get to make a choice regarding sin but it means that you get to make a choice regarding doctrine. And look, every man should be fully persuaded in his own mind.
You say Pastor, why are you going to take 30 weeks on Sunday nights over the next however many years teaching these things? Why are we systematically teaching you through these major doctrines of the Bible? Here’s why. Because I want every man, woman and child in this Church to be fully persuaded in his own mind. I want you to know what we believe and why we believe it. And I don’t want the answer to be “Because Pastor said so.”. “6 He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.”. We can all make a choice regarding sin.
Individual soul liberty means that individuals are responsible to make a choice to respond to God. Individual soul liberty also means that individuals will be accountable for their choices when they stand before God. See, the reason that individual soul liberty is important is not only because you are responsible to respond to God, it’s important because you are accountable for how you respond to God. Romans 14:11 “11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. 12 So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”.
The Bible says that every single person will give account of himself to God. Every single individual will stand before God at some point. Everybody will be judged by God. People who don’t believe God will still be judged by God. People who rejected God or denied his existence will still be judged by Him. The Bible says “27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:”. Everyone will stand before God. Everyone will be judged by God. Now not everyone will be judged at the same judgment. I’ve taught you this and I’ll just give you some passages on it again tonight.
Go to 2nd Corinthians. Believers and unbelievers will stand before two different judgments. 2nd Corinthians 5:10 “10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ;”. This is individual soul liberty. You will not stand at the judgment seat of Christ standing behind your mom or standing behind your dad or husband or wife or Pastor. The Bible says “10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.”. You know that we will all stand before God and be held accountable for what we did. Now look, believers will stand before what the Bible calls “the Judgment Seat of Christ.”.
This is not to determine if you are saved. That decision was made the day that you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. And by the way, there’ll be no judgment in regards to your sin. Oftentimes people bring up and preachers bring up the judgment seat of Christ and they make it sound like God’s going to bring down a big screen and he’s going to show you all the bad things you ever did and make you say “What were you thinking when you did that?”. God’s not going to do that. He already knows what you were thinking. God’s not going to judge you for your sins. Your sins have already been paid for as far as the east is from the west. We’ve learned this and we’ve talked about it but God will judge you for what you did with what he gave you. God will judge you for the things done in your body whether good or bad. God will judge you and God will reward you for your works or you will lose rewards based off your lack of works. But all of us will stand before God. This is individual soul liberty. Individual soul accountability.
And by the way let me just say this. I believe that every Christian should live their lives in anticipation for this judgment day. My life and your life should be lived in a way where every day we are preparing for the judgment seat of Christ, that Christ will judge our lives. He will reward us based on what we did for him or we will suffer shame because we did not live for him. Believers will stand at the judgment seat of Christ. Let me ask you a question, are you living for the judgment seat of Christ? Are you living for yourself?
Let me give you a passage in regarding the unbelievers. Unbelievers will stand at a different judgment. It’s called the great white throne judgment. Revelation 20:11 “11 And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”. And of course, these will be escorted into hell. They will be judged. They will be found guilty. They will be found wanting and they will be thrown in to hell. But the point is this, every individual will stand before God at some point. If they’re saved it’ll be at the judgment seat of Christ. If they’re unsaved it’ll be at the great white throne. Individual soul liberty means that we’re accountable to God. And look, we won’t stand before the judgment seat of Christ as a Church.
Sometimes people say that they will only go to a church if they have a strong soulwinning program but they don’t even go soulwinning. You’re still going to be judged at the judgment seat of Christ as a non-soul winner even if you went to a soul-winning Church. In fact, you might get judged harsher because you had every opportunity. You might lose more rewards. We will all stand before God as individuals. Individual soul liberty. Individual soul accountability. I said number one, individual soul liberty means we are responsible to make a choice to respond to God. We do that through sin, through salvation, through doctrine, through choices we make. We will all stand before God. Some of us at the judgment seat of Christ and others at the great white throne.
Let’s just talk about how individual soul liberty applies specifically to two doctrines. The first one is infant baptism. And it’s not just infant baptism. It’s this idea that you’re born into Christianity or you’re born into a religious type of program that is going to bring salvation. However, individual soul liberty means that you must make a choice for salvation. So, salvation is something we do out of our conscience. We choose to do it because you cannot be saved without making a conscious choice. We reject infant baptism.
Acts 8:36 “36 And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?”. Hinder means to stop or obstruct. Of course, if you remember the story, the Ethiopian eunuch is riding down the road in a chariot. He’s reading the book of Isaiah. Philip runs up to him and asks him if he understands what he is reading. He said “How can I except some man should guide me?”. And he jumps in and begins to preach the gospel to him as they go down the way. They see water and the eunuch said “See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? 37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”.
So why do we reject infant baptism? Well, we reject infant baptism because baptism must come after somebody can clearly communicate the fact that they believe and put their trust and confidence and faith on Jesus Christ. And it doesn’t matter how many baby Einstein CDs you have your baby listen to.
Your six-week-old cannot stand up and profess that they believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Your six-week-old is not able to consciously make that choice or decision. They don’t believe that. And by the way, your six-week-old is not even condemned. The Bible teaches that if babies die, they go straight to heaven. They go to God. They’re not under the law. They haven’t reached that age of accountability.
See, the Roman Catholic Church has this belief of infants getting baptized in the church and someone else is making that decision for those children. Your parents can decide to baptize you without your free will and baptize you into the Church and now you’re saved because your part of this Church. That is not what the Bible teaches. The Bible teaches individual soul liberty. People must make a conscious decision to be saved. Sometimes we go out soul winning on doors and we ask people the questions “Do you know for sure if you die today that you are on your way to heaven?”. Sometimes people give odd answers. For example, “I was born a Christian” or “I’ve been a Christian my whole life”. But look, no one is born a Christian. Or people say “My grandmothers was a Pastor” or “My dad was a Baptist Pastor” or “I was raised in Church”.
But none of those things mean that you’re a Christian. See, the Bible teaches it’s a choice. It’s individual soul liberty. You don’t get born into Christianity. You must choose to be saved. Salvation must be done through a conscious choice. We reject infant baptism and we reject any sort of philosophy that says you are born into it. Now you can be born a Mormon, Catholic, Baptist. I mean I was “Baptist Born, Baptist Bred and when I die, I’ll be a Baptist dead”. I’m a Baptist and that’s all I’ve ever been but I was not born saved. I was born into a Baptist family but I had to choose to get saved. Those are two different things.
Individual soul liberty applies specifically to infant baptism or any sort of religious organization that teaches that you’re born into Christianity or you’re born into salvation. Individual soul liberty teaches that you must make a conscious choice to be saved. So therefore, you could not have been born into it. The choice could not have been made for you. Your parents cannot decide that you’re saved and can’t baptize you before you even knew what was going on.
But another big one we reject because of the idea of individual soul liberty is the teaching of Calvinism. Calvinism is this belief that God chooses who will be saved and who will be damned. It is the belief that God predestinates who will be saved. Predestinate is a Biblical word but not how they use it. Probably the worst doctrine of Calvinism is the doctrine of limited atonement which says that Jesus did not die for the sins of all, that God did not send his Son to pay for the sins of everyone but he only died for the sins of a select few.
Look, Calvinism cannot be true because God wants everyone to be saved. 2 Peter 3:9 “9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”. The word “willing” means that it is not his will or desire. God wants all to be saved. Calvinism says “God saves who he wants and those that God does not want saved won’t be saved.”. This is not true because of individual soul liberty. But the problem with that philosophy is that God wants everybody to be saved. He’s not willing that any should perish. God’s will be that everyone be saved. God’s will be that everybody be born again. God’s will be that everybody goes to heaven but God’s will doesn’t always get done because he gives us choice. He gives us liberty, freedom.
Calvinism cannot be true because God wants everyone to be saved therefore, he doesn’t choose anyone to be condemned.
When people die and go to hell, it’s for one of 2 reasons. They chose to reject salvation somebody presented them with an opportunity to be saved and they chose not to. Somebody knocked on their door and said “Can I show you how you can know for sure you’re on your way to heaven?”. The other reason why people will die and go to hell is because a soul winner chose individual soul liberty to not go preach the gospel to someone that could have and maybe would have gotten saved.
See, we like the idea of individual soul liberty when it’s about “You have to choose to be saved.”. We don’t like the idea of individual soul liberty when God says “I’ve given you the responsibility to take the gospel to the world but I’m not going to force you to do it. You get to decide.”. On Saturday morning whether you’ll go or not, some people will die and go to hell because you didn’t preach the gospel to them. And you could have and you should have and they would have somebody bringing the gospel to them. That’s individual soul liberty. You get to choose salvation.
Matthew 23:37-38 “37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have” See, this is God’s will. He wants to gather them. “gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”. Jesus is explaining that so many times he wanted to gather them but they didn’t want it. He says that they weren’t willing. What is that? That’s individual soul liberty. They have to choose. They have to decide. We reject Calvinism because Calvinism takes the choice away. Calvinists will say “Well I did choose”. But they only believe someone chooses because they are forced. Let me tell you something, God chose everyone. God wants everybody to be saved. The Bible says many are called but few are chosen. Why? Because he offers it to all but only those who choose to accept it will be saved.
So, we reject infant baptism. We reject any philosophy that says you get born into salvation. And we reject Calvinism. And by the way, let me just say this. We have a bunch of kids growing up in Christian homes and it’s good for them to hear every once in a while, that we aren’t born into Christianity. You might have been born into a Christian family but you don’t get born into Christianity. You must make a choice. You must choose.
Let me give you a third thought quickly tonight. We talked about what individual soul liberty means. It means that we are responsible to make a choice to respond to God. We see that in regards to sin, salvation, doctrine, our churches, we all stand before a judgment. Believers the judgment seat of Christ and unbelievers the Great White Throne Judgment. We see how individual soul liberty applies specifically. It applies to infant baptism. We reject it because infants must make a choice. You don’t get born into Christianity. We reject Calvinism because Calvinism is God choosing but we have individual soul liberty which is talked about in the whole Bible.
Now these political types of Christians will mix the ideas of religious liberty with individual soul liberty. They’ll say “Our country gives you religious liberty.”. And they’ll put it in the same category as individual soul liberty. And I want to just speak to you for a few moments on this subject because individual’s whole liberty is different from the freedom of religion. Christians today all want to talk about the 1st amendment. Please understand this, I’m not standing up here today saying that we need to get away from religious liberty in America. We live in a godless nation and sort of protection that we can have to worship God or serve God is great for us. The only point I’m making is don’t try to take something that our government established and try to make it sound like it’s something that God established. Individual soul liberty and the freedom of religion are two different things. Now when it comes to our political world and the supreme law of the land, of course the constitution is the supreme law of the land and the constitution has these ten amendments. I didn’t say commandments. I said amendments.
And the first amendment reads this. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. This religious freedom verbiage is divided into two clauses. One is referred to as the establishment clause. The other one is referred to as the free exercise clause. The establishment clause guarantees that the government will never set up a government Church or a government religion. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion” meaning they guarantee to us that they’re never going to create a state Church. Even today there are Catholic or Episcopalian churches where the taxes of these people go to these churches. Our first amendment in the United States says congress shall make no law respecting or establishing a religion. They’re not going to establish Church for the state.
The second clause, the free exercise clause says “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. So, here’s what the first amendment says. The first amendment says we’re not going to make you worship in any sort of government entity Church. We’re not going to force you to worship in any Church and we’re not going to prohibit you from worshiping in any Church or any type of way that you want. That’s the first amendment. The first amendment says we’re not going to make you worship any God and we’re going to allow you to worship whatever God you want. That’s the first amendment.
Now let me read to you the 1st commandment. Exodus 20:3 “3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”. Now if you’re honest with yourself, you’ll have to come to the conclusion that the first commandment and the first amendment are completely the opposite of each other. One says you can worship any God you want. The other says you can’t worship any God you want. The first amendment says we won’t make you worship and we won’t stop you from worshiping any and every and whatever God you want. That’s the first amendment. The first commandment says thou shalt have no other Gods before me. One says worship whatever God you want. The other one says you’re not allowed to worship whatever God you want. In fact, you’re not allowed to have any other Gods before me. And then the rest of it gets even worse. “4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;”.
In verse 7 it says “7 Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.”. In verse 8 it says “8 Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.”. Look, did God allow for religious freedom when he established a government? Did he allow for religious freedom? And the answer is no. God did not establish the nation of Israel with the attitude that they could worship whatever God they wanted to. The first amendment teaches that and maybe Fox News but not the Bible. The first amendment says you can worship whatever God you want. The first commandment says you’re not allowed to worship whatever God you want. God did not establish religious liberty.
Deuteronomy 13:6 “6 If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers; 7 Namely, of the gods of the people which are round about you, nigh unto thee, or far off from thee, from the one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; 8 Thou shalt not consent unto him,”. Consent means to agree or give permission. “nor hearken unto him; neither shall thine eye pity him,”. Pity means to feel sorry. “neither shalt thou spare,” Don’t make an exception. “neither shalt thou conceal him:”. Don’t hide him. “9 But thou shalt surely kill him; thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people.”. These would be the laws of God under his perfect governmental system. He doesn’t say that you have the freedom to worship whoever you want.
I know that is hard for people to hear because that goes against Patriotism. But Patriotism is not biblical. “10 And thou shalt stone him with stones, that he die; because he hath sought to thrust thee away from the Lord thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage.”. The Bible does not teach religious liberty. The first amendment and the first commandment are not the same thing. Religious liberty and individual soul liberty are not the same thing. Religious liberty says you can worship whatever God you want. Individual soul liberty says God is not going to force you to be saved.
You say “I don’t understand. In the nation of Israel God said you’re not allowed to just worship any God you want but then he gave them individual soul liberty so he let them choose. How does that work?”. Well, it works the same way that I explained that it works in our Church. You can come here and say “I don’t believe those things”. We’re not going to force you. That’s a choice you have to make. But if you start making problems, we’ll throw you out. We’re not going to make you agree with us on every little doctrine because it’s your choice. But you don’t get to come in here and decide “Well I don’t believe in eternal security so I’m going to try to get everybody to stop believing in eternal security.”. No, that’ll get you thrown out. You say “I don’t believe in soulwinning so I’m going to get everybody to stop”. You can come here and not believe in soul winning. You can come here and never show up to soul winning and we’ll love you but that’s a choice you have to make of individual soul liberty. But we’re not going to let you to try to bring that into our Church.
With the nation of Israel, here’s what God would have to say. “You don’t have to believe on the Lord. You don’t have to call upon the Lord. If you don’t want to believe, if you don’t want to be saved then that’s your choice. But you’re not going to go worship some other God in our nation.”. But today Christians say that they believe in individual soul liberty so praise God for the 1st amendment. No, those are 2 different things. The first amendment says worship whatever God you want. The first commandment says don’t worship whatever God you want. An individual’s soul liberty simply says God’s not going to force you to be saved. But if we were following the laws of God then you wouldn’t just allow to worship the god of the Hindus or Muslims. You won’t be forced to be saved but you can’t just worship whatever God you want.
People will say “You’re a Venezuelan communist”. Look, the Bible is good for every nation. We should be able to preach the Bible in any nation. And as Christians we should all agree that our loyalty and our allegiance should be to the heavenly nation. I’m a Christian before I’m an American. The Bible does not teach religious liberty but the Bible does teach individual soul liberty. Deuteronomy 30:19 “19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”. You say what is that? Individual soul liberty. God says I’ll let you choose. I’ll put before you life and death, blessing and cursing. This shows us that we are accountable to God. This is for salvation and also your personal walk with God. It’s not a corporate walk with God. We meet corporately as a Church but your walk with God is very individual.
You say, I go to Verity Baptist Church and they preach hard, have standards, preach against sin. All those things are great but it means nothing unless you individually are applying it. Your walk with God is not based off your Church corporately. Your walk with God is an individual personal walk with him. And by the way, God wants to be close and intimate with you. You can come to Church like this all you want but you go out there and just live like the devil and God’s going to hold you accountable. God’s going to hold you responsible. There is the Great White Throne Judgment for unbelievers but God judges his people in this life.
Some of you think “My wife is really right with God and that’ll help me.”. That’s not going to help you at all. My husbands really godly. That means nothing. It’ll help him when he stands before God but you’re going to stand before God personally in regards to your walk with God. It’s personal, not corporate. It’s individual, not a group. It’s us standing before God. And let me just say this as I finish up. When it comes to our children, we need to be concerned for our children’s salvation and their walk with God. Like I said to the kids tonight, you may have been born into a Christian home but that doesn’t make you a Christian. You must choose to be a Christian.
Let me say something to you parents. Your children may have been born into your Christian home but that does not guarantee they’re going to walk with God. That does not guarantee they’re going to live for God. As parents we must be highly concerned with the salvation of our children and with our children’s walk with God. You have to be paying attention. You have to be watching. You have to be protecting. You have to be loving them. You say well why? We’re a Christian home, homeschooling, going to Verity Baptist Church. Look, that doesn’t guarantee your kids are going to live for God. I’m not trying to scare you. I’m trying to hurt your feelings. I’m just telling you when you became a parent, this is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week job. And unfortunately, and maybe I’m going to disappoint some of you, it’s not going to end.
My wife and I talk about a lot of things but the thing we talk about the most is how our children are doing, gauging them, their attitudes, how they say things, what they said. We are trying to figure out where they are at spiritually. We’re not talking about the little ones who are getting to the place of understanding salvation. We’re talking about the ones that are already saved and just trying to make sure we have a pulse on their spiritual hearts. Obviously, we don’t know what a day will bring forth but if my children don’t live for God, it won’t be for want of desire on the part of their parents and it won’t be for want of work on the side of their parents. We’re trying to do everything we can to make sure they grow up and live for God. We realize that’s not guaranteed to us. Lots of Pastors kids don’t live for God so of course that is a possibility.
Recently I was listening to a Pastor who is older and he has some grown children that are adults and living for God. He talked about the stress, the tension, the worry and the praying and the watching and paying attention and trying to make sure his kids live for God. I was really connecting with him because I was thinking that’s how my wife and I are. I was thinking about how we need them to grow up and make choices for God like marrying the right people. You say, “You just have to get them married off and then they are fine.”. He talks about how he finds himself driving to their houses in the middle of the night and just parking in front of their houses at 1 in the morning or 2 in the morning and him and his wife cry out “We brought them this far. You have to take them the rest of the way.”.
I thought to myself, this is never going to end. Even if we marry them off or marry them to the right person. I want my kids to grow up and serve God. We’re talking about individual soul liberty. By the way, your father, God the Father, he lives with that same tension every day. He looks down at you and me and says “I want them so badly to walk with me, to serve me.”. He would force you if he could but he can’t because individual soul liberty teaches that you make the choice. You get to choose. “19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:”.
Let’s pray.