Matthew-004

 

 

“Christians” under bondage of spiritual darkness cannot understand God’s Word

We  have come to this Easter day with an important message. What does Easter mean? It means liberation, and this is the key of my message today.

Let me ask you, are you a free person? Do you think you really are? If you are a free person, then today’s Word of God has nothing to say to you. When the Lord Jesus talked to the Pharisees about freedom in John 8:32-33, they said, “We are free. We have never been slaves.” It is strange that they should say that because they were in fact slaves under the domination of the Roman Empire at the time. Even worse, as the Lord Jesus told them, they were slaves of sin. The Word of God is talking to you. I am not speaking to the person sitting beside you or behind you, or in front of you. The Lord wants me to talk to you. Are you free? What kind of sin are you in bondage to?

I want to talk about the bondage of darkness. I have been teaching the Word of God for many years, and one thing that never ceases to disturb me is the spiritual darkness that prevents you from seeing your true condition, and you think you are free. The Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees when they asked him, “Are we blind too? We are teachers of the Bible.” And the Lord Jesus said to them, “Because you think you see, that is why you are still in your blindness.” The greatest bondage many brothers and sisters are in today is darkness. I am not even talking about unbelievers because they are totally blind. I’m talking about believers who are in the dark, who cannot see.

I will tell you what I was praying this morning, because it was weighing on my heart. I pleaded with God, “Lord, have mercy upon us. We are walking in the dark spiritually. We cannot even see the simplest things in your Word.” I am not talking about deep and difficult things to understand. I am talking about the simplest things. Through all these years of teaching the Word of God, I see that people cannot see. And I prayed and pleaded with God about this. By the time I looked at my watch again, I had been praying about this for half an hour.

This weighs upon my heart. Let me illustrate to you what I mean. I was sitting with one of the Bible study groups yesterday, listening to the discussion that was going around in circles. At the end of the study, I did not know what we were really talking about! I say this not to shame anyone, but to show us our spiritual condition. We don’t know what we are talking about! May God set us free from this darkness, this spiritual confusion in which the whole church all over the world seems to be bound! May God set us free from this darkness, this spiritual confusion that seems to have bound the entire church worldwide!

What is this camp theme about? You have been here for the last two or three days and you are still scratching your head, thinking, “‘Prepare ye the way’? What are we talking about?” But if you think you know what we are talking about, perhaps your trouble is even worse than the person who doesn’t know what we are talking about.

Let me give you a few propositions straight away.

 

1. We don’t have a road to build

First, let me tell you plainly from the Word of God, whether it disappoints you, or makes you happy: there is no road for us to build. The Bible tells us that there is a road, but we are not going to build it. Then you will say, “Then what have we been talking about for the last three days?”

I apologize that I was a bit naughty in yesterday’s Bible study. I confess to you that when I get a bit frustrated, I get a bit naughty. So you will know my character. After all the talk about preparing a way in the wilderness, I asked this question: “Why does God need a highway?” So everyone was a little puzzled. So I asked another question: “Is God coming to us in a convoy of limousines, just like when a president of a country comes, and the flags are flying? And will we be clapping our hands, shouting, “Hallelujah! God is coming! We built the road for him to come to us!”? Is that the picture you have? I got the impression that this is the picture when I was listening to the discussion. We are going to build this beautiful highway, and God is going to come to us. We are going to rip down all the mountains. We are going to make the road flat and smooth. God needs the highway to come with his limousines.” I am quite naughty to say this kind of thing, but I was getting a bit frustrated. Do you want to build a road? I beg of you to tell me: Why does God need a road?

Let’s not waste much more time in talking nonsense. God doesn’t need any road. If there is anyone in need of a road, it is we who require it to reach a destination. We don’t have to build a road for God. Let me repeat that the Bible teaches that there is no road for us to build.

 

Only God can build; we “prepare” the road of salvation

Do you know who will build the road? God will build the road. We don’t build any road. Then you will ask, “What about the camp theme?” Please look carefully at the words again. Do you read: “Build the way of the Lord”? No, we are not going to build any road, we “prepare.”

If you read the Bible, you would understand that the road is the road of salvation. Only God can build the road of salvation. If we could build the road of salvation, we could save ourselves, we don’t need God to save us. But we don’t save ourselves. It is God who saves us by his grace, so only he can build the road. Neither you nor I have the ability to construct this road, no matter how heroic it may be for us to attempt. Unfortunately, we are not qualified.

 

2. Which way are we going to build the road?

I humbly request that you answer my second question: Which way are we going to build the road? I presume that if you build a road, you have to know what direction you are building it. If you are building a stadium say, for two million people, and you are going to welcome God to the stadium, you can find any site around here. However, if you build a road, you must know whether you are going north, south, east or west. Which way are we going to build the road?

You will say, “Build a road in the wilderness.” By the time we spiritualize this, we still don’t understand what we are talking about. Let’s talk in spirituality: In which direction do you build the road? You should also have read in the Bible that when God comes to us, he never comes along the desert, he descends from above. We cannot build a highway upward, can we? We will have to build a skyscraper with a road coming down from there! God always comes from above. By now, I hope you will understand what I am talking about.

We have been talking nonsense in our notion that we are building a road for God to come to us, as if he needs us to build a road for him to come! When you come to the Bible, please ask God to open your blind eyes. Isaiah says nothing about us building a road for God to come to us. In the context (cf. Isa. 39:5 - 40:11), it is a road of salvation that God opens for his people to come out of slavery. We cannot build the road. It is God who opens the road through the Red Sea, right across the wilderness. It is God who leads. The Israelites did not open any road.

 

The remnant must prepare their hearts to receive God’s salvation

Also in Isaiah 40:3, when God speaks through Isaiah, “Prepare the way of the LORD,” he is not saying that the Jews build a road from Babylon, across the desert to Israel. No, he is just saying, prepare that God will open the way. God cannot save those who don’t want to be saved. He is not going to grab you by the neck, and drag you fighting and kicking across the wilderness. That is why Isaiah says that a remnant will return, not everyone. Only those who listen to his call and come out of exile will come out on this highway of salvation. Isaiah makes it clear if you read carefully. He talks about the remnant repeatedly. Those who have ears to hear that call will “prepare” their hearts to come out on the road of salvation. They “prepare” to experience the salvation of God, not “build” a road.

Do you now see why I was getting quite frustrated with the discussion while I was sitting at the Bible study? The reason is that the very basic principles are not seen. There is a darkness, a bondage that prevents people from understanding the Word of God. I am really not concerned whether or not you understand the camp theme, although I do hope that you do after this explanation. What I would consider a wonderful thing that God will have done in our midst today, is that you can cry out to the Lord and say, “God, I see my condition now. I’ve been sitting here for three days talking about this camp theme, “Prepare the Way of the LORD,” and I don’t even know what I’m talking about! O God, please have mercy upon me! O LORD, set me free from the darkness that binds me, because I cannot understand eternal things.”

 

No temple in Isaiah 40, only in Malachi 3

We cannot even understand the picture language in the Bible, let alone the plain statements of the truth. When you study the Bible, you must avoid confusing things which are separate. The English word “confuse” is a very appropriate word. The word “fuse” means to join two things together in an inseparable way. To “confuse” is to talk about two different things as though they are one and the same thing. We have actually been studying two different things, and we have been talking about them as though they are one and the same. Isaiah 40:3 says, “Prepare the way of the LORD”; Malachi 3:1 also says, “Prepare the way of the LORD,” but there is a difference.

When the people came out of Egypt, the temple wasn’t built yet, and by the time of the exile, the temple had been destroyed. So Isaiah 40 has nothing to say about the temple because there was no more temple. However, what does Malachi 3 say? The LORD will return to his temple, which means the temple is in existence. There has to be a temple before he can return to it. The situations in Isaiah 40:3 and Malachi 3:1 are entirely different. They must not be confused.

Everyone in the Bible study group I attended was confusing these two verses about two distinct situations as one and the same. In teaching the Bible, I find that although many people are highly educated, having their Masters and Ph.D. degrees, so that they should be good in their professions, they can’t even understand picture language in the Bible. This has nothing to do with your level of intelligence but with spiritual blindness. Therefore, if you can accomplish anything in this camp, I beg of you to ask God to open your spiritual eyes.

I said earlier that there is no highway for us to build, and your heart may have sunk. I appreciate your willingness that several hundreds of you came to build a highway, only to be told that you are unemployed because there’s no highway to build. All you can do is prepare your hearts so that God can build a highway of salvation for you, not for him.

 

We prepare in repentance that leads to our salvation for God’s glory to be revealed

However, I’m sure you are very clever and will say, “Wait a minute! I’ve also been reading my Bible, not only you. I see here, “prepare the way for the LORD”! Now you say he doesn’t need a road, so why does it say, “prepare the way for the LORD?” Oh, you’re so clever! Unfortunately, that isn’t what Isaiah means. “Prepare the way for the LORD” does not mean the LORD is to build that highway so that he can travel on it. It is “for the LORD” in the sense that our preparation in repentance that leads to our salvation is for the glory of God to be revealed to all mankind. That is what Isaiah 40:5 says, “And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

Let us read Isaiah 51:10.

I am showing you from one verse that this pathway or highway is built by God for his redeemed people and not by us.

When the people of Israel were saved out of Egypt, it was God who opened the way, wasn’t it? But we also know that they had to prepare to leave. The people had to make necessary preparations to ensure they were ready to depart at the appropriate moment. Similarly, we must prepare ourselves through repentance for God to save us, and God’s glory is revealed in his amazing, saving work. Therefore, our preparation in repentance leads to our salvation for the glory of God. “For the LORD” means for God’s glory, not for him to travel on a road when he sets his people free from slavery.

Let us look at this beautiful verse, Isaiah 52:2. This is what they have to do to prepare for that way of salvation:

Who redeems them? God redeems them; he sets them free. But before he redeems them, what preparation does he call them to do? “Shake yourself from the dust and rise up; loose the chains from your neck.” This means plead for the liberty, the salvation that comes from God, because only God can save you. Are you ready for his salvation?

Let us read one last verse, Isaiah 52:10.

God saves us; God is not being saved. We need the highway, not God. He opens the highway for us right through the desert, but preparing to go out that way means that we must respond to his call.

What is the call? It is right there in verse 11,

So there are a lot of things we have to respond to. We have to respond to the call to leave, to purify ourselves, to get the chains off our necks. I hope the picture is becoming clearer to you. First, you must come out along the highway of salvation that God has made.

 

God’s redeemed people build the temple

Indeed, we have to build something, but it is not the highway. So if you came to the camp to build the highway, don’t be disappointed because there is something else for you to build. You won’t be out of a job. That is where Malachi 3:1 comes in.

If God is going to return to the temple, there must first be a temple ready for him to come to. The redeemed people, the people who are brought out of bondage are given the job to build the temple. The Bible constantly speaks about God’s people building the temple, never building the highway.

In all the pictures of deliverance in the Bible—whether from Egypt, Babylon, or sin—it is always through God’s saving power, God’s highway of salvation. What does God say afterwards? “After you come out, I will dwell in your midst. I will be your God and you will be my people.” There is the beautiful picture! He brings us out to meet with himself. It is always the same pattern in the New Testament. He saves us out of sin. He gives us the task to build his temple, which is his church, so that he can dwell in us and with us. Malachi 3:1 is a second stage of preparation, which is preparing the temple for the Lord’s return. Do you see the picture?

Now you understand: “Prepare” means prepare your hearts. And at the second stage, when you have been saved, you can prepare other people to be saved too. You can help them see their own need for salvation.

 

Do you want to be free?

Let me talk about freedom now. Do you want to be free? Strangely enough, there are people who don’t want to be free. I once had a canary. A canary is a yellow bird about the size of a sparrow, and it can sing very beautifully. I trained this canary not to sing, because I can’t do that, but to stand on my hand. I would put my hand in the cage and it gradually learned to stand on my hand. After a while, I took it out of the cage standing on my hand. Then I encouraged it to fly, and it flew onto my shoulder. When I said to it, “Go on, fly some more,” it flew in a little circle, and do you know what? It always flew back to the cage. I said, “Not so fast. Come out! Come out!” I made it fly again, but it always wanted to go back to the cage. Isn’t that interesting! I gave it freedom letting it fly out of the cage, but it always wanted to return to it. That’s why I asked you, “Do you want to be free?” Why did the bird always want to go back to the cage? I thought that if I opened the cage it would fly off into the sky. It is because the cage, the bondage is its security. It was brought up in slavery. It didn’t know any other kind of life.

We have all been brought up in bondage like the canary. If God builds a highway of salvation, do you think everyone will go on it? Wrong! That is why Isaiah said only a remnant will want to go. When you read the Bible, did you see what all the people wanted to do even when they came out of Egypt? Like the canary, they always said, “Why did we come out of Egypt? Let’s go back.” Why did they want to return to Egypt? They were slaves, so why did they say, “Ah! It’s good!”? There were leeks, onions, garlic and other foods. It’s like life without chili is almost not worth living for many Malaysians. If you are from Hong Kong, you may not understand it. The Israelites said, “Let’s go back to Egypt for the garlic! We can’t get any garlic in the desert. We can’t eat without garlic, not to mention that we had water to take a shower in Egypt. Where can you take a shower in the wilderness? It’s very uncomfortable not to have a shower. We can’t sleep at night.” It’s too hot in the desert. How long is it going to take us to get to this Promised Land? Let’s go back to Egypt and call it a day! Let’s just say that we had two or three days of picnic in the wilderness and we didn’t like it too much. We want to come home again.” Now you know that I’m not exaggerating. That is exactly the picture that you read in the Bible. I see the same problem with the canary wanting to go back to the cage.

If you talk to people in the world, do they say, “Oh, salvation is wonderful! I’m coming!”? No! They ask, “What’s going to happen to my life, my career, my business if I’m saved? Worst of all, I’ll have to go to church every week and listen to boring Sunday messages and Bible studies. Do you call that salvation? It’s more exciting if I sit at home and watch TV on Sunday than listen to the boring preacher talking his head off!” I don’t blame you. I do admit that sometimes the preaching is very boring.

 

Unless you are free, how can you prepare other people for freedom?

My subject today was supposed to be “Qualifications for a Builder.” And you might imagine that by now, I have forgotten what I was supposed to be preaching about. The problem is I couldn’t get to my subject until I clarified the camp theme first. I just want to talk about one fundamental qualification: Unless you are free, how can you prepare other people for freedom?

Look at the Bible again. Remember that the Jews had lived in Egypt for over 400 years, and much of that time they were in slavery. Like my canary, they had already developed the slave mentality. Therefore, when God wanted a person to save the nation of Israel from slavery, what kind of a person did he have to prepare? Have you ever noticed? He prepared someone called Moses, who had never been a slave. He never had the slave mentality. God had to choose a man who had never been a slave for fear that the slave mentality would make it impossible for him to save others.

Moses was brought up in the Egyptian palace since he was a baby. And even when he fled from Egypt, he was so much like an Egyptian, a free man, that other people thought he was an Egyptian and not a Jew. You read that in Exodus 2:19. When he went to the land of Midian, far away from Egypt, and helped the daughters of Reuel, the Midian priest out of trouble, they reported to their father, “An Egyptian delivered us out of the hand of the shepherds.” That person whom they thought was an Egyptian was Moses. He was not an Egyptian but a Jew. God had to prepare a man who was free even in the way he thinks. Moses did not have a slave mentality because he had never been a slave.

Moses said there would come a prophet like himself, and one of the ways the Lord Jesus was like Moses was precisely in this respect: he was never a slave of sin, so that he could be our Savior.

Our problem is more serious. When we want to help others to prepare to be saved by God, what is our qualification? First, we must be free. But being freed from the bondage of sin is a very difficult thing.

 

To be saved is to be free!

The Bible is the Book about freedom, and there is one book in the New Testament whose key theme is freedom. It is also a book about salvation which tells us that you don’t know what salvation is until you experience freedom. That means when I asked you right at the beginning of this message, “Are you free?” I was asking the question: “Are you saved?” Did you realize that? Most Christians don’t even know what salvation means. You must understand that the Bible teaching is: Salvation means freedom. In other words, if you are not free, you are not saved. Let’s not mince words.

It doesn’t interest me at all whether or not you have been baptized, or which church you belong to, or how many years you have attended church. I am not in the least interested whether you have been to Bible school, seminary or any other full-time training. I want to know whether you are free. If you are not, the Bible tells us you are not saved, because in the Bible, the two are equated. I can take you through the whole Bible from beginning to end to demonstrate this, but clearly, I don’t have time for that in this message.

What is the book in the New Testament that talks about salvation as freedom? It is the book of Galatians. But the subject of freedom is also found in Chapter 6 of Romans. This is the first basic freedom. Paul says, “Don’t you know that if you are baptized, you are freed from sin? You have died to sin, so sin cannot control you” (cf. Rom. 6:3-4). That is the greatest freedom of all.

You can have all kinds of external freedom, but if you don’t have the freedom from sin within, you are not free in any meaningful sense of that word. There are people who are externally free but they are in bondage to fornication, adultery, and other sexual sins; they are slaves to drugs, bad temper and all kinds of sins. How can they be free?

Get it in your minds, brothers and sisters: to be saved is to be free. If you are under bondage to sin, you are not free, then you are not saved. I did not say that; the Bible says so. Read Romans Chapter 6 for yourself, or the whole of Galatians, or the whole Bible if you like.

 

Eight kinds of freedom in the Bible

Basically, the Bible talks about eight kinds of freedom, but I will not expound them because I don’t have time to do that.

First, freedom from the power of sin. What a wonderful freedom it is to be freed from sin’s power, so that you don’t have to commit the sins that bind you.

Secondly, freedom from a guilty conscience from the point of view of the law. You have been forgiven, acquitted, so you no longer feel guilty.

The third freedom is freedom from condemnation because of breaking the law of God. This point applies particularly to the Jews because Gentiles are not directly under the Law.

Fourthly, freedom from the fear of man. Oh, this is a terrible bondage! So many people are under bondage because they try to please men. They want people to praise them. Are you hurt when people criticize you? Or are you so free that it doesn’t matter if they do? Are you upset because people like or don’t like you? We live under bondage: the fear of man! I’m only going to give you one Scripture verse, Matthew 10:28, where the Lord Jesus says we should not be afraid of what man can do to you. More than 80 times in the Old and New Testaments you have the term, “Fear not.” Man is under constant bondage to fear of man.

The fifth freedom is the freedom from the fear of death in Hebrews 2:14-15.

The sixth is freedom from anxiety. Look at most people today, their nerves are so raw that they have to take sedatives, or drink alcohols and wine to keep calm. Have you seen some people’s hands shake if they don’t smoke? They are addicted. This is bondage to anxiety. Today, one of the major causes of mental or even physical illness is stress, pressure. It causes high-blood pressure and other kinds of complications.

The seventh is freedom from spiritual powers. Do you go to fortunetellers? I know there are Christians who do. Do you read your horoscope in the newspapers to see what you can or cannot do today or tomorrow? You will be amazed how many Christians do that. Do you hang charms around your neck? Do you wear a cross as a charm to protect yourself from evil? That is superstition! No golden cross hanging on your neck can protect you from evil. The cross has to be in your heart, not around your neck! Christians need freedom from the power of darkness.

The eighth and last freedom is particularly important for Christians. It is the freedom from futility. There are too many verses on this, but we can read one, Ephesians 4:17.

 

Be freed from the bondage of futility, of physical things that pass away

“Futile” means empty. This bondage particularly worries me. So I come back full circle to the beginning of this message: it is this bondage to futility that prevents people from having any spiritual perception. This is what I mean by the “slave mentality.” You may be like the Israelites who were physically out of Egypt, but their minds were still in Egypt, in the world. Your thinking has not been renewed to think of the things above. Are you living under stress and anxiety? Then you are also living under futility. This bondage to futility is the most difficult bondage to break. Check your thinking every day even as you are walking on the streets of Kowloon, Hong Kong, or wherever you live. Watch what you are thinking, and you will see the futility of your mind. What do you think about most of the day? Mark it down and you will see it is mostly futility, emptiness, rubbish!

Let me give you another illustration. I knew a very intelligent man who had more than one doctorate. He had outstanding ability in the academic field, but I noticed the futility of his mind. Do you know what bothered him most of the time? It was the fact that he was so short – five foot or five foot one. Oh! This preoccupied his mind the whole day long: “Why am I so short? Why am I so short?” You may say, “So what?” But it mattered so much to him that he had to make a pair of shoes with 3-inch heels, and being a man, he did not know how to walk on high heels. I could see that his height consumed a large portion of his thoughts. It never ceased to bother him that he was short. One motive behind his pursuit of two doctoral degrees was to establish the notion that although others might be physically taller, he surpasses them academically. Therefore, he spent his life trying to impress other people.

His great hero was Napoleon. Do you know why? Because Napoleon was also only five foot tall. And he loved to tell a story about Napoleon and his officer who was very tall. Once, the officer made a slip of the tongue when talking to Napoleon and said, “Sir, I can get this object from the shelf because I am higher than you.” Napoleon said, “You are not higher than me, you are only taller. But I can immediately shorten you by one head with one stroke of the sword!” You can see why he loved to tell this story.

Catch yourself when you are walking on the street. There is the tendency particularly among men to notice: “Oh, I’m taller than he is. This guy is taller than me, but he is much uglier.” The whole time we are walking around, our mind is thinking futile and silly thoughts. I don’t see any significance in the fact that I am many inches taller than the man I just mentioned. The person who is taller simply has longer legs. Does the fact that a person who has a longer bone in the leg make him more superior? So why does this person make such a big deal of his shortness? Do you see the way our mind works? We know it doesn’t mean anything and yet it keeps occupying us. This is an example of the futility of our thinking.

Let us talk about the sisters for a moment, if you don’t mind. It seems to me that our sisters are in a beauty contest every day of their lives. It isn’t necessary for you to participate in the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, but don’t you find yourself constantly pondering if you are more attractive than others or vice versa, on the subway or bus every day? Which colors are appealing? What hairstyles suit you best?

Am I not speaking the truth when I say that our minds are caught in futility? Please be honest with yourself. Do you think that God cares about such matters? God doesn’t care but we do! In fact, most others don’t care either. Only you care! Real beauty is beauty of the heart. Occasionally, while watching the news, I come across individuals who used to be movie stars, but upon seeing them now, I find myself asking, “Who is that?” They were incredibly beautiful twenty years ago, but two decades later, their identity is unrecognizable. Their beauty has faded away.

Where does this text, “Prepare the way of the LORD” come from? Isaiah 40:3. Have you ever wondered what verses 6 and 7 have to do with it?

What is the connection of this quote with “prepare the way”? We can only properly prepare the way when we understand that physical things are like grass, they all pass away. We must be freed from these!

There are people who have had relatively little education, and how do they feel? “Here is the learned man with many degrees, so I feel inferior. He is so eloquent but I can hardly express myself.” You are constantly comparing yourself with others, There’s the bondage again! “All flesh is as grass.” It all passes away like my beautiful hair. Once I had such beautiful hair, but now you can only see the remnant! “All flesh is grass. The grass withers.” Once, I had a nice physique too. I don’t know what happened to it in the meantime. It also faded away like grass.

 

Ecclesiastes helps to set us free from futility

There is one book in the Bible that talks about futility, and most Christians don’t even want to read it. Well, I urge you to read it when you go home. The whole book tells us that life is like grass. It is futility. That book tells us everything is futile unless you have God in your life.

During my return journey to Canada, I make it a point to pass through Hawaii to visit my father’s grave It is merely a small stone on the ground, bearing his name, and under that only two words are inscribed: “Distinguished scholar.” I would stand beside it and gaze. He was another person with more than one doctorate to his name. His hopes for China and for his great plans came to nothing.

Ecclesiastes, this book about futility, is written by a person who had reached the highest point in life, king of Israel. Some think it was Solomon, but it may be another king. He was not someone who is chewing sour grapes because he has made a mess of his life. He said, “Believe me, it’s all emptiness. All flesh is but grass. Yes, as a king, I gather great treasures from all over the world and store them up. I have great power, but I realize one thing: I came into the world with nothing and I will leave this world with nothing. Death levels everyone. Only he who lives for God finally understands what life is about.” The book of Ecclesiastes is written to help us to be set free from this futility.

 

Are you free to prepare the way for God’s salvation?

Let me close with one last point. Many of you have read in the newspapers the debate about the appointment of Tower as Defense Secretary of the United States. I followed their debate with great interest. What is the qualification that they required of him? Do you have that qualification? Do you know why they turned him down as Secretary of Defense? It boiled down to one thing: they were afraid he was too much under bondage; he was not a free man. It is amazing that the world looks for a man who is free to lead them! The first reason they rejected him was his bondage to alcohol. One of the senators said, “I would not even put him in charge of one nuclear missile, let alone the whole American armed forces. If he presses the button when he’s drunk, we’ll have a world war on our hands!” The second reason was his bondage to sexual desires. He was loose in relation to women. The third reason was his bondage to the love of money. Within the last two years, he had been paid US$1.29 million for his services to the military industry. These are according to the FBI reports about him.

When I read these reasons, I almost thought I was reading some­thing from the Bible! Brothers and sisters, I feel ashamed that the church is perhaps in greater bondage than the world! Today, I know of no church that would request an FBI report on the candidates who apply to become its pastor. They would be wise to get an FBI report first, to find out whether or not their pastor-to-be is enslaved to alcohol, womanizing, or love of money. These are the three things that should have been applied in the church, and yet are applied in the United States government!

Are you free? Do you have the eight kinds of freedom found in the Bible? Who can help to prepare the way for God’s salvation? Who is qualified to prepare for the Lord’s return to his temple, to his church? It is the man who has been set free by the Spirit of God. As we read in 2 Corinthians 3:17, “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” Have you experienced that freedom? Let us pray.

 

Closing prayer

Precious Father, you who love us, search our hearts at this time, whether we know you or do not yet know you. Since we are here at the camp, you have already given us the opportunity to know you. Teach us God, not to let go of this opportunity. Open our eyes to see our present, true condition. We come from different backgrounds, have different problems, and different kinds of bondage, so we must call upon you to set us free from our bondage. Work mightily in our hearts so that we can experience true spiritual freedom, and be able to live in your presence. Have mercy on us, O God, continue to teach us. We thank you again for this time of worship. Hear our prayer and accept our thanks. Amen.