Do We Have Freedom, or Is It License?

Many years ago, when I was beginning my ministry, God led me to become concerned about the area of spiritual warfare and deliverance—about how I, as a pastor, could help my people break free from the chains and attacks of the enemy. That is one dimension of the Christian life, and I understood that it was also a dimension of my pastoral ministry. Just as there is preaching and administration and all the other things, I understood that this dimension of seeking the deliverance of my people and understanding the demonic aspect and the way evil operates in the world and in the church was important to my training as a pastor. And God led me to two people: Dr. Ed Murphy, who wrote a very well-known volume called “The Handbook for Spiritual Warfare,” and the writings of Dr. Neil Anderson, who has been in ministry for a long time and has written literally dozens of books that have circulated throughout the world, teaching and instructing the church in the areas of spiritual warfare, counseling, spiritual deliverance, and all these things that are so important.

And his ministry is very broad, very varied, very multifaceted, and this week we had him here with us, and he has been a great blessing. I never thought we would have him at our church because he is a man who is in great demand in the United States and in other countries around the world as well. But glory to God, we have had a wonderful weekend, and now we have the privilege of having him with us. Give Dr. Neil Anderson a big round of applause and a warm welcome.

Good afternoon. It is a joy to be with you again. I was here in Boston when I was in the Navy in 1963, and unfortunately it was the worst year of my entire life. But this has been a good visit. I can sense the good spirit in this church, and I believe it has something to do with this man and his wife.

Many years ago, Dr. George Barna conducted some surveys about legalism in the churches, and his findings surprised us. Legalism is alive and well in this country. It is not necessarily what is taught, but it is still the way many people relate to God. Tell me what is right and what is wrong, and I will try to do what is right; and when I do not, then correct me. But you know what? We do not want to live by the law, because the law kills, but the Spirit gives life. And in many ways, I believe there are many people who would like to live by the law, but you know what? You are robbing yourself of the freedom you have in Christ Jesus. And I see many of the things the church is doing in response to everything that is wrong in this society and culture. People are taking drugs, so what do we do? We preach against that. Alcohol—and so we preach against that too. And we preach against divorce and quote from the Old Testament: God hates divorce. And it is true, but many times he also hates the person who gets divorced. And we must never forget that. But how is that working? This law of legalism has never worked, and it never will.

Now, when a person walks by the Spirit, he does not carry out the desires of the flesh. And this afternoon I want to talk about how to walk in the Spirit. If you have your Bible, let us turn to Galatians, chapter 5, verses 16 through 18.

The Word says here: “...I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the desires of the flesh, because the desire of the flesh is against the Spirit, and that of the Spirit is against the flesh; and these are opposed to each other, so that you do not do what you would like to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law....”

And now the question is, how does a person walk and live in the Spirit? And here is a problem. Many times we answer this question by giving three steps and a formula, and if I did that, I would be putting you back under the law. The Spirit is not a thing, but a person; he is a “he.” And this is not a new problem.

Nicodemus came to Jesus one night and asked Jesus how he could receive eternal life. And Jesus answered him, well, you must be born again. Born again? How can a man enter his mother’s womb again? And the Lord answered him, and you, being a scribe, a teacher of the law, do not understand things like these? I am talking, Jesus says, about the Spirit. The Spirit is like the wind; it blows wherever it wishes.

What the Lord is saying, I think, is that we must take the oars out of our boat and raise the sail. And I like that picture of what it means to be moved by the wind of God and to go wherever the wind takes us. And in fact, this passage tells us more about what walking in the Spirit is not, but that helps us somewhat because it gives us two parameters within which we can live.

So first, two things that walking in the Spirit is not. Walking in the Spirit does not mean licentiousness. Licentiousness is simply completely disregarding the rules, the moral laws. When I was a little boy, going to church was like going to a hot-dog barbecue. You either got turned over or burned. And you expected to go to church and receive your regular dose of guilt and accusation. And you asked the preacher to throw the whole law at you, and if he did not, then you did not put money in the offering plate.

And then the Jesus People movement came along in the 1960s—the Christian hippies. It was as though they had suddenly discovered the love of God, and then it became merely a matter of flowing in the Spirit. Everything was very mystical: doing whatever you felt like doing, smoking a marijuana joint. But in fact, it was exactly the opposite. The Bible says that when you live in the Spirit, you do not carry out the desires of the flesh; you do not do whatever you feel like doing.

I remember when I had just begun in ministry. We lived near a Catholic family, and I was always looking for an opportunity to share the love of Jesus with them. That man had a number of children, and the oldest of them always babysat our two small children. And one Sunday night, my opportunity finally came. At ten o’clock at night, she came and knocked on my door, and she said to me, I forgot to ask you: can you come to my religion class at St. Anthony’s, my church, and talk to us about Protestantism? And I told her, well, I am going to pray about it.

I immediately told her, I think I can go. And on Tuesday morning I went to this Catholic school, and there I met the Monsignor. I told him—I made it clear—I am not coming here to misrepresent Catholicism, so please feel free to correct me if I make any mistake. So I began with the history of the church, the Reformation, and justification by faith, which are matters related to Protestantism. I told them how we believe that every person can have a personal relationship with the living God. In fact, I gave each of them a tract, and then I opened the class for discussion. And there was a very clever fellow sitting in the back, in the last row. He was wearing a jacket with the school logo, and he asked me, do you have many prohibitions in your religion? I said, well, I do not think I have anything that says God does not do it—at least, I do not think so.

But that is not really what you are asking me. What you are really asking is, do you have freedom? And then he said, well, all right, do you have freedom? And I told him, of course I do; I can do whatever I feel like doing. I asked, well, why not? I asked him, could I not pick up a stone right now and break a window with it if I felt like it? But if I did that, would I not always have to be looking over my shoulder to see whether someone was going to catch me and take me to jail? I suppose I am free to tell a lie if I want to, but then I would have to remember whom I told the lie to and what the lie was. Do you remember those days? Are you still caught up in that?

You see, freedom does not simply mean the ability to exercise a choice or a right; rather, it is connected to the consequences of the decisions we make. I say that God has given me the freedom to make all kinds of decisions and that I can live in the freedom he purchased for me on the cross of Calvary. And then I asked him, by the way, are you free? And at that moment the bell rang, and everyone scattered. Then the Monsignor came over to me and said, wow, what you said was tremendous. And I wanted to ask him, well, which part of what I said?

In other words, I want to tell you that whatever walking in the Spirit may be, it does not mean walking in licentiousness. But neither is it legalism. When you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now, let me tell you, there is no one in this place right now more committed than I am to helping people live a righteous, godly life that is right before God. But if you believe that the answer to that challenge is to live under the law, there are three things you need to know according to the Scriptures.

Let us go back to Galatians, chapter 3, and look at verse 10, where it says:

“...because all who depend on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not continue in all the things written in the book of the law, to do them....”

So if you try to live only according to the law, you are going to feel cursed all the time, because Paul says that if you are guilty of a single point of the law, you become guilty of the entire law. When you try to live a righteous life according to the law, you are going to become an obsessed person, a compulsive perfectionist, and you will never be able to achieve it. You are going to be a plague to yourself and to everyone around you.

And notice what follows in Galatians 3, verses 11 through 14. It says here:

“...and that no one is justified before God by the law is evident, because the righteous shall live by faith, and the law is not of faith, but the one who does these things shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, because it is written, cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles, in order that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit....”

You know, what it says here is very interesting, because it says that the fact that no one is justified by the law is evident. And I believe that. But then why is there that kind of curse under the law? How much of what we continually do is based on a law or a principle that would compel us to respond in obedience, as opposed to the things we do based on a concept of life that would compel me instead to respond by faith, according to what God said is true in Scripture, and thus enable me to live by the power of God rather than carrying out the desires of the flesh?

The first refers to living under the law, and the second to living under grace. We are not only saved by faith, but we are also sanctified by faith. A person lives by faith; a person walks by faith. Because God saw him as faithful, because God found him faithful, he placed Paul in Christian service. The way we live as Christians is by faith in the power of God. That is the new covenant.

And you know something? It is very difficult to get out from under the yoke of the law, and if you continually live under the law, it will function like a curse; you will continually feel guilty. And the law was simply like a preparatory tutor, a strict teacher whose purpose was to prepare us to receive the teaching of life in Christ Jesus.

Galatians chapter 3, verse 21, makes this point when it says:

“...then is the law contrary to the promises of God? By no means, for if the law that was given could impart life, righteousness would truly have come through the law....”

You know, brothers and sisters, the law has no power to give life. Listen, Christians: we are servants of a new covenant, because the law kills, but the Spirit gives life. Let me put this in practical terms. Simply telling people that what they are doing is wrong will never give them the power to stop doing the sinful thing they are doing. And that concept is very beautifully illustrated in an article, in a story that appeared in a newspaper, the Los Angeles Times.

In this story, the state commissioned a woman to visit different schools so that she could teach classes about safe sex—that is, sex that would not result in pregnancy. This was not a Christian program, but she was an expert on this subject on behalf of the state. And the idea was, well, if these young people are taught about so-called safe sex, then they will all practice safe sex. But she herself had a very serious obesity problem, and this woman had read a number of books about nutrition, diets, and exercise. She could also have given lectures on these topics of diet and so forth perfectly well; she was an expert. But even though she knew all those things about diet and exercise, that did not keep her from eating a second helping of cake that day.

And I thought, that admission is not only honest but also enlightening. Here you have someone who is supposed to be a mature adult. She knew what was right and what was wrong, and yet she herself could not put it into practice. And how can anyone expect the young people themselves to do it either? Good point, isn’t it?

Do you remember the D.A.R.E. program in this country ten years ago—Just Say No? Did it work? No, they simply abandoned the program, and things simply got worse. So the second problem with living under the law is simply that the law has no power to give life.

And, even more revealingly, we have a third point. Let us look there in Romans, chapter 7, verse 5. It says:

“...for while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions that were aroused by the law were at work in our members, bearing fruit unto death...”

We see here that what the law did was awaken sinful passions. Let us look here at verse 8. It says:

“...but sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all manner of covetousness, for apart from the law sin is dead...”

Do you understand what this is saying? The law actually has the ability to stimulate precisely what it is supposed to prohibit and prevent. Doesn’t that seem true to you? Tell your child, “Look, you cannot go there, but you can go over here.” The moment you say that, where do you think the child wants to go? Precisely where you told him not to go. He probably did not even want to go there before. It is like paint that is still wet.

I remember a school where they always posted a list of the movies the young people could not see, which they were not supposed to watch. And those were the good movies. The young people would immediately copy the list so they could go see those very ones. Why is forbidden fruit always the most attractive? I am not sure, but it is definitely not a new concept. The Lord said, “You may eat from any tree in the garden, but that one—you may not eat from it.” Why not?

You know, much of what Paul is writing and explaining is about what is sinful. No, he is not saying that the law is sinful; quite the opposite. The law is what makes the universe God created function; the law is necessary. In other words, remember this: God’s commandments are not restrictive; they are not meant to prohibit, but to protect. Yet what constituted a law in the old covenant now becomes a promise in the new covenant in Christ Jesus if one walks by the Spirit.

It says, then, that when one walks by the Spirit, one will not murder, will not steal, will not murder—whatever it may be. Now remember, we are under a new covenant. If it is neither licentiousness nor legalism, then what are we talking about? It is freedom; where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.

Now let us go back to Galatians, chapter 5. Those three verses summarize the entire chapter. Let us look at Galatians 5, verses 1 and 2. It says there:

“...Stand fast, therefore, in the freedom with which Christ made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. And again I testify to every man who becomes circumcised that he is obligated to keep the whole law...”

Do not go back to the law. Let us look there at verse 13 of Galatians 5. It says:

“...for you, brothers, were called to freedom; only do not use freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love...”

It is not so much about either licentiousness or legalism, but about freedom. Now, I admit that the path is narrow and that we are climbing that mountain of God. Imagine that the path is narrow and that ahead of you on that path there is a church, while here there is a very high cliff—too high to climb and too deep to jump across—and here on the other side there is a terrible forest fire, and behind you there is a lion. Which way would you walk? I would immediately go straight toward the church.

You know, my sanctuary, my protection, is in Christ Jesus. When you fix your eyes on Jesus—the Bible says, the finisher of our faith—and walk by faith according to what he declares to be true, then in Christ Jesus we will find all the sanctuary and protection we need. But here we always have an option on the right: just launch yourself over the edge and plunge down the cliff. Can you imagine the great joy, the tremendous excitement one feels while jumping? Just soaring through the air. It is like the illustration of the man who fell from the Empire State Building, and as he was falling he was heard saying, “So far, so good.” But there are serious consequences when that option is chosen, such as that sudden stop at the end of the journey.

You see, that is the nature of a life of temptation and licentiousness. If it were not attractive, you would not feel tempted. How many of you were tempted to eat spinach this morning? Let us see. Remember how, in the 1960s, everyone was saying, “Hey, free sex”? Was it really free? You know, the cost in terms of human life is absolutely overwhelming. If the trend continues, by the year 2020, 80 million people will die of AIDS, probably the most incurable disease that currently exists and, by far, the most preventable of all. We could stop it completely tomorrow. Just abstain. That is all there is to do; stop using drugs. We cannot do it. What is more, when the World AIDS Congress convenes, even the option of abstinence will not be presented; secular people will not use it.

And here we have another option, on the left. Just burn, baby, burn. And here is legalism: no—fire and brimstone. And what is interesting is that the devil always begins as a tempter. “Go ahead; you know you want to do it. Come on. Everyone is doing it, and you are going to get away with it just as they do. So do it.” Then the devil immediately changes his role, going from tempter to accuser. And then you discover too late that you have been trapped, that you have been deceived.

Now, what do we mean—what does the Bible mean—by freedom? Well, one walks by the Spirit. Now, that means—it implies—two things, two things that freedom is not. It does not mean “sit” or “run.” What is the great evangelical error? Run. Look at all the things we have done. We went there, we went here, we did this, we did that. But in reality, how much fruit remains from all that activism? Spirituality is not measured simply by how much is done, but by the fruit it leaves behind. If the devil cannot make you immoral, he will simply keep you busy; he will get you involved in many things you have to do.

Do you remember Isaiah, chapter 40? Vigorous, strong young men stumble badly, yet those who wait upon the Lord will soar aloft like eagles; they will run and not grow weary. And the other option is simply to sit there with a long face, become depressed, and put on an expression of false holiness. And it is a good, interesting question: How much is actually accomplished in this age of the church when we try to do things by ourselves? Do you know what? Nothing. Apart from Christ we can do absolutely nothing. On the other hand, how much is actually accomplished when we simply sit down and wait for God to do everything? Nothing.

You know, we may have the privilege of watering the plant, but the one who gives the growth, the Word says, is God. Now, on the other hand, if one waters the plant, nothing grows either. God promised to make his wisdom known through the church.

Here is a story. There was a pastor who had a habit of gardening, and one of his elders, one of his old deacons, came to visit him one day. He said to him, “Wow, the Lord has given you a beautiful garden.” And the pastor said to him, “Well, I wish you had seen it when God had it all to himself; it was a disaster.” And that is true, isn’t it?

Look there in Matthew, chapter 11, and here we have a picture that the Lord Jesus Christ left us. From verse 28 to the end it says:

“...Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light...”

That is the most beautiful invitation in the entire Bible. He did not say, “Come to this great church,” or “Come to one of my conferences.” Instead, he said, “Come to me, into my presence. Take my yoke upon yourself.” “Oh,” someone says, “I do not need another yoke.” You know, you cannot put this yoke of Jesus upon yourself unless you take off all the other yokes. And here, in the context of this passage, what you are going to cast down—the yoke you are going to throw away—is the yoke of legalism; you are going to learn from Jesus, and you are going to find rest for your soul.

How many of you would like to have rest? I am sure everyone would. Now, I am a former farmer, a farm boy. My father began farming back when horses were used, and I learned a great deal about horses. The picture Jesus uses here comes from the time when farming was done with oxen. Now imagine the picture the Lord is giving here in this call. A yoke is that very heavy piece of wood that one places on an ox. And how well does that yoke work if there is only one ox? It does not work at all. It would be much better simply not to have it. A yoke works only when there are two oxen together and both are pulling in the same direction. Now, what they did in those days was take an old ox, a veteran ox that had learned obedience from all the blows it had received—in fact, that is what is said of Jesus Christ, that he suffered—and the Lord knew how to walk. Then that old, experienced ox was placed beside a younger, high-spirited ox in the hope that the undisciplined young ox would learn from the older ox. And what do you think the young, high-spirited ox would be tempted to do? He says, “Hey, Dad, you are going too slowly. Speed up. I am going to take off running right now.” And what would happen to that young ox is that he would get a severe pain in his neck. The Bible says that even the young grow weak and fall. One day the young ox would say, “Hey, I am not going to work today.” Hey, life goes on. Many times we are tempted to go left or right. If that young ox is truly intelligent, what he will do is realize that the old ox knows how to walk. Do you know what he would say? “Hmm, I want to learn from the old ox.” Then he would learn to take one day at a time. He would learn about relationships and the priorities within relationships; he would learn to walk with God.

When my wife and I got married, she was pregnant with our first child, and we bought our first little dog, a precious pet for our children. So they had this little dog, a very cute poodle, for 12 years, and then suddenly it died. That was a terrible trauma for the boys, and I was trying—striving—to be a good father at that moment, so I immediately went out. What did I do? I bought another little dog. I am talking about a marriage that is now rebounding for the second time. And that second little dog was the most neurotic thing you could imagine. I think they opened the door hoping to let it loose so it would disappear from their lives, but that little dog never went away.

For some reason, my son loved that blessed little dog. And our city, by the way, had a canine obedience class for dogs: ten obedience lessons for 25 dollars for disobedient dogs. It said, “Bring one of those chains for pulling on its neck.” So I sent my son and the little dog to obedience school. Within two weeks, the little dog had trained my son perfectly, and my little boy simply gave up. One day I said, “You know what? I am going to take this little dog for a walk. I am not going to let it pull me. I am not going to run; I am going to walk. I am the master, and I know exactly where I want to go.” I tied up that little dog, put the chain on it, and as soon as we went out the front door for that supposed walk, the little dog was choking itself. At other times it wanted to sniff something very dirty and nasty over there, or a flower, or whatever it was. I simply kept walking, and that was a problem; many times it would also get tangled around a post. But I was determined: I am the master, I am the owner, and I simply kept walking. And now you will ask me, “Did that stupid little dog finally learn its lesson about how to walk?” It never learned.

And there are many Christians who have not learned either. Some simply keep going and end up burning themselves out, while others go off to the left or the right and simply disappear from the map. And even if that is the case in your life, if you are listening to me, there is still something you can do: you can listen and pay attention. The Lord says, “Come to me. I created you. I know how you should walk; I know the way.” So one walks by the Spirit, but one is also led, directed by the Spirit. Now, being directed means that you are not being pushed. “Neil, you have to decide right now.” Well, okay—no. Why not? Because God’s guidance and direction do not come into our lives in that compulsive, commanding way. God’s direction may come suddenly, but only to those who are spiritually prepared. Who knows—if someone is possibly pushing you to make a quick, sudden decision without having time to reflect and pray, do you know what? Step away. Do not do it. That is not God speaking.

Pentecost came suddenly, but how many days of preparation in prayer and waiting preceded that sudden moment of Pentecost. And you know what? We are led by the Spirit, not dragged outside the realm of the Spirit. Someone says, “Come here for a moment; we have a secret meeting.” And you know what? You are in trouble with God, because in God there are no secrets; God is all light, and there is no darkness. One must always walk in the light. One does not do things in the dark.

Now, again, I am an old-fashioned farmer. On the farm where I grew up, we raised sheep. Sheep bring back many good memories for me. The Word says that we are the sheep of his pasture and that he is the great shepherd. But this fact also has its disadvantages. If you do not know the following about sheep, you should know this—it is very important: they are the stupidest animals on the entire farm; chickens are a close second.

You can sell food to cows, and you can feed pigs and cows and let them eat all they want, but you cannot do that with sheep and simply let them have their way. If you give them food, they eat while you are feeding them, and eat, and eat until they die and burst. Proverbs has a great deal to say about being too rich and having a lot of money. And that is also very true of grass when it is very green, rich, and thick. Sheep can begin to eat and eat and eat until they burst from the grass; that is why Psalm 23 says, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; I will lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures; he makes me rest,” because he knows that otherwise I would eat myself to death.

Now, in the springtime in Minnesota, when the snow began to melt around the Fourth of July—springtime—the roadsides along all the roads became very green with grass, and Dad would tell me, “Take the sheep and lead them along the roadsides, but keep them moving.” So we moved them and led them along, and to keep them moving, we harried them like one of those Australian sheepdogs that are always keeping the sheep on the move.

Some time ago, I had the privilege of studying in Israel, and we were in Bethany, near Jerusalem. There is a somewhat cone-shaped mountain there called Herodium, and on top of that cone, that mountain, there is a fortress, one of seven fortresses that Herod had built in his day. Masada is one of those fortresses that Herod built. And I was there on that mountain, Herodium, looking at the beautiful countryside below me, and from where I was I could see a shepherd with about 15 sheep. Before long, I saw him say something I did not understand and then set off and begin walking away from them. But what happened? All the sheep began to follow him. I became so excited at seeing this that I began taking pictures everywhere, and all that could actually be seen in the picture, because I was so far away and high up, was just little dots. But I took the picture simply because I loved that scene, because it was a scene completely foreign to the experience I had had. But you know what? Shepherds in Israel do not drive the sheep from behind; they do not push them from behind. Instead, they lead from the front, and the sheep follow the shepherds.

And do you know—do you remember the verse? “My sheep hear my voice and follow me.” All those who are being led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. How does one walk in the Spirit? It is not about licentiousness; it is not about legalism; it is not simply about always being active... going from one activity to another. Nor is it about staying there in some supposedly self-righteous and pious place.

You and I have been invited to walk alongside that gentle and meek Jesus Christ under the new covenant of grace. I cannot understand why the world is looking for a spirit guide—those evil spirits—when they have a good Spirit who can guide them. We ought to get up every day and say, “Lord, I belong to you. I deserved hell, but you gave me eternal life. Fill me with your Holy Spirit; guide me into all truth so that I may walk by faith. I do not want to carry out the desires of the flesh; I want to live a godly, just, upright life.” And I hope and pray that this will be your experience every day.

Let me say something: it has been a great privilege to be here with you, but my plane leaves at four in the afternoon. Goodbye.

Let us bless Pastor Neil Anderson. Let us stand. God bless you. Glory to God.

Brothers and sisters, it is a privilege. As Brother Neil Anderson says, God calls us to walk in the freedom of the Spirit. We have said many times that religion and formalism lead to nothing good. We cannot depend on pastors, churches, or our teachers to live the Christian life for us. God wants each one of us to learn to walk in the Spirit for ourselves. Amen. May we live an authentic life in the Spirit, brothers and sisters; may each one of us have a personal encounter with Christ Jesus, and may we know how to go directly to the source and drink from the water he wants to give us. Amen.

This afternoon, in the name of Jesus, I invite you to make sure that we are living that abundant life Christ has made possible. He said to the Samaritan woman, “I am going to give you water that will keep you from ever being thirsty again.” It is not the water of works; it is not the water of religion; it is not the water of effort; it is not the water of what another person is living. Rather, it is the water that I will give you as you live with me. Amen. And I hope that this is the reality we are living this afternoon.