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the reality that before justification, 
we are guilty before God. And that guilt, as we've noted 
before when we've come across these topics, the guilt here 
that we're freed from isn't first and foremost the psychological 
weight of having transgressed the law of God, though Christ 
frees us from that. The guilt in view is primarily 
moral culpability or liability before the law of God, That's in a civil court, where 
we have broken the law of the land and are brought before the 
judge, guilty for having violated a particular lawful law. We're guilty before the civil 
court. In the macrocosmic land of God 
and Father, we have the reality. Secondarily, we might say that 
the removal or the freedom from the guilt of sin is the removal 
of that sorrow, the removal of the weight of that psychological 
torment of having broken God's law. But primarily, it is seen 
in a legal action that Christ has taken away condemnation by 
the giving of himself, that there is therefore now no condemnation. There is no legal charge. There 
is no juridical charge. free from the guilt of sin the 
perfection of his work so there is a glorious and necessary link 
to justification when we talk about freedom from sins bondage 
and then specifically here freedom from the guilt of sin also in 
Romans 8 before we move on Romans 8 at verse 31 what then shall we say to these 
things It is God who justifies. This 
is a blessed thing. When you get to the point where 
you are having that weight, that sorrow, perhaps where the clouds 
come because of an undue reflection upon your own sin without having 
flown quickly to in Christ, freedom from the guilt 
of sin. Secondly, we have freedom from 
the power of sin. The language of the confession 
here uses, it says, and in there being delivered from this present 
evil world, bondage to Satan and dominion of sin. So we have 
in Christ, in Christian liberty, we have freedom from the power 
of sin. And in just a couple of places 
in Galatians chapter 1 so we have 
freedom first from the guilt of sin and now freedom from the 
power of sin in Galatians chapter 1 at verse 3 we read grace to 
you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who 
gave himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this 
present evil age according to the will of our God and Father 
to whom be glory forever and ever amen that typological, that anticipatory 
event in the deliverance of the Jews from out of Egyptian bondage, 
we know that that isn't just a happy circumstance that, oh, 
OK, there was this event. that is seen in the pulling of 
the Jews from out of Egyptian bondage. And so the language 
of deliverance is taken up very often in the New Testament and 
applied to the excellent and the perfect work of the Lord 
Jesus Christ in delivering us from the power of sin. He has 
that he might deliver us from this present evil age. Also in Ephesians 2, 1 to 3, 
this is language that you're very was preaching from this, that 
before picture, before the but God comes, we see the power that 
sin had over us, that we were under the sway, under the dominion, 
under bondage to Satan, notice in Ephesians 2.1, and he made 
alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which he once walked 
according the desires of the flesh and 
of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the 
others." You know, that same thing that we considered earlier 
in perusing the diary of our memories, or in looking at this 
language of what we were prior to victorious grace, that sort 
of thrust and that sort of weight comes from the knowledge of the 
Word of God, where we see that same thing said. And we know how the letter continues, 
but God who is rich in mercy because of his great love. And 
so we are free from that power of sin. We could also consider 
Colossians 1.13. Notice here that there is, as 
we noted with freedom from the guilt of sin, link to regeneration. And there's 
a link that we see there in chapter 10, paragraphs 1 and 2. You don't need to turn there, 
but on the doctrine of regeneration, or of the effectual call. And 
so all of these glorious freedoms, these Christian liberties we 
have, are directly tied to, necessarily tied to, and gloriously tied 
to, Lastly, then, under freedom from 
sin's bondage, we have freedom from the punishment of sin. Now, this is a little bit different 
from condemnation, but tied to it, intimately and necessarily. 
But you have condemnation for the sin, the legal declaration 
that we are condemned before God, and then the penal aspect, 
the punishment that is due to that. And we can turn to 1 Corinthians that you're familiar with, but 
1 Corinthians 15, beginning at verse 54. So when this corruptible has 
put on incorruption and this mortal has put on immortality, 
then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, where is your victory the sting 
of death is sin and the strength of sin is the law but thanks 
be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ 
it is it is through the law that we are condemned that is those 
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ and it is through the law that 
the penal sanctions come that the punishment of an eternal creator. And therefore, 
when we violate that law, we incur an eternal punishment. The victory that we have is over 
death, and that is death as the curse of the law. It's written 
elsewhere that Christ has saved us from the curse of the law 
by giving his life upon Calvary's cross. Cursed is anyone who hangs 
upon a tree. And so we have freedom from the 
punishment from the punishment of sin. Christ has freed us from 
guilt, freed us from the power of sin, and freed us from the 
punishment of sin. As we come in to worship and 
sing the songs of praise to our triumphing God, we should be 
singing from many vantage points, and this is certainly one of 
them, top of the list, that we have freedom from sin's bondage. Notice that the confession goes 
on to of freedom in worship and obedience. So two things with respect to 
the nature of Christian liberty, freedom from sins bondage, and 
secondly, now, freedom in worship and obedience. And we have two 
subsections under this, in freedom in worship and obedience. We 
have, as it pertains to Christianity in general, including under generally speaking we have 
free access to God right at the end of that first section of 
the paragraph as also in their free access to God and their 
yielding obedience unto him the lips in prayer, which were 
closed with the sense of guilt and dread of wrath. We have this 
freedom in worship, and it's not, remember that, and we'll 
get to that passage, Lord, in a number of minutes, but remember 
that when we come to God in worship, we don't come sheepishly, we 
don't come timidly, we don't come in an ungodly fear, we don't 
come in this slavish fear that this language We can come we have free access 
to God and worship and we can come confidently in worship because 
Christ has saved us and made us Worshippers of the king and 
so we have free access to God and this is New Testament believers, or it's 
not only a reality of New Testament believers, but it also pertains 
to Old Testament believers, though with the qualification that the 
Confession will give. So, we have free access to God 
in worship, and secondarily, we have this yielding obedience 
unto Him. So, the language of the Confession, 
again, in their free access to God and their yielding obedience 
unto Him, yielding obedience unto him and 
then it's qualified negatively and positively not out of slavish 
fear but positively a childlike can come joyfully who can come 
cheerfully to the throne of grace in that confidence and in yielding 
obedience unto him this is Christian by the fact that in the law of 
God, there is great liberty. And so we are redeemed from from a childlike love and a willing 
mind. There is one passage in the Psalms, 
in Psalm 119, that does speak to this liberty that we have. 
You know, it's often the grumblings of sinners that coming to Christ 
means some sort of heavy-handed obedience to a set of precepts 
that really just my earthly joy and my passing pleasures of sin 
away. But there is great liberty in 
obedience to the integral. There is great liberty in having 
been saved by God, and there is great liberty in the love 
of his precepts. And so in Psalm 119, the psalmist 
rehearsing this writes at verse There is great freedom in having 
been freed from sin's bondage unto a joyful obedience to our 
Lord and Christ. So we yield obedience unto him. Matthew Henry writes on this 
particular point, the service of sin is perfect slavery. The service of God is perfect 
liberty. Licentiousness is bondage to 
the greatest of tyrants. Conscientiousness is freedom 
to the meanest of prisoners. were common to believers under 
the Old Testament notice the rest of the paragraph as it continues 
here all which were common also to believers under the law for 
the substance of them so Old Testament believers enjoy the 
things previously stated they to Old Testament believers have 
freedom from sins bondage they had access to God in worship 
and they freely and joyfully yielded obedience unto him. But 
notice the confession goes on to say, but under the New Testament, 
the liberty of Christians is further enlarged in their freedom 
from the yoke of the ceremonial law to which the Jewish church 
was subjected, and in greater boldness of access to the throne 
of grace, and in fuller communications of the spirit of God than believers 
under the law did ordinarily partake of. So we see here the 
language that New Testament believers enjoy a greater increase with 
regards to liberty, worship, and liberty. And those three 
things here are listed as freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial 
law. So that's one. Greater boldness 
of access to the throne of grace, two. Fuller communications of 
the free spirit of God, So we have those three things that 
New Testament believers enjoy as compared to Old Testament 
believers. So let's have a look at these 
three things. First off, freedom from the yoke 
of a ceremonial law. There is with the movement, the 
movement You can turn in your Bibles to 
Acts 15 for a moment, because the Apostle Peter, with respect 
to the Jerusalem Council and the context there regarding the 
Jerusalem Council, he speaks with regard God by putting a yoke on the 
neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were 
able to bear. A yoke upon the neck. And so 
this language of the Jews All of those washings, all of 
those ceremonies, all of those sacrifices, they all found their 
terminus, their end point, their glorious fulfillment in Jesus 
Christ the Lord. And so Christians in the New 
Testament are free from the yoke of the ceremonial law. You can 
turn to Galatians 5 for a moment. Galatians chapter 5, we have 
that wonderful language right here. with a yoke of bondage. The language 
being spoken up there is, yes, being spoken up within the context 
of these Judaizers who were pressing the law of Moses, circumcision 
as obligatory to be justified before God, and the argument 
here talks about the fact that we have been, as believers under 
God, free from the in Hebrews chapter 9 until that 
time when Christ comes and gives his life for guilty sinners fulfilling 
the law and bringing an end to the ceremonial law stand fast 
therefore in deliverance by which Christ has made us free and do 
not be entangled again Now, I just want to note, before 
we move on to greater boldness of access, you can also make 
a note on the yoke of the ceremonial law, if you are taking notes. 
Hebrews 9, 10, and the language of certain things put in place, 
like the ceremonial law, until the time of Reformation. Not 
the Reformation as we understand it. It wasn't a prophecy concerning 
16th century things. But with regards to the coming 
of Christ, that time of Reformation, when the promised Christ comes. 
he brings an end to the yoke of the ceremonial law. There 
is a clause in the Savoy Declaration. So when we see in our confessions 
here, where we read, in their freedom from the yoke of the 
ceremonial law, and then comma, to which the Jewish church was 
subjected, right where the comma is after ceremonial law, the 
Savoy Declaration adds the following language. Somewhere here. Oh, there we 
go. the whole legal administration of the Covenant of Grace. So 
it reads, in their freedom from the yoke of the ceremonial law, 
the whole legal administration of the Covenant of Grace, he's an old Baptist who was most 
likely the editor of this confession of faith, EMI and Cox, the old 
covenant and the new do differ in substance and not in the manner 
of their administration only. In other words, the language, 
the whole legal administration of the covenant of grace is a 
faulty statement given true covenant theology. The old covenant was 
not a covenant of grace, nor was it an administration considered that the old covenant 
was not a covenant of grace, nor even an administration of 
it. Baptists considered that no other 
covenant besides the new covenant was the covenant of grace. They 
still recognized that the covenant of grace had been revealed under 
all the covenants since the fall, but distinguished between the 
actual substance of these covenants and the covenant of grace itself. 
So that clause, the whole legal administration of the covenant 
of grace was removed, administration wasn't the actual 
administration of the covenant of grace so after freedom from the yoke 
of a ceremonial clause we also read greater boldness of access 
to the throne of grace and this is something that new covenant 
that New Testament believers enjoy over and above their old 
covenant and Hebrews chapter 10 you'll 
recall that in Hebrews chapter 10 at verse 19 there is a market 
transition from theology to exhortative substance as Owen calls it so 
we have we have theological substance chapters 1 to 10 18 and we have 
exhortative substance to the end of the book. Now, theology 
is intermingled in the exhortative and exhortative is intermingled 
throughout the theological, but those two things come together 
in the book of Hebrews and in the Bible, generally speaking. 
In the New Testament, for example, we have epistles where true heart and full assurance 
of faith and so New Testament believers have this blessed reality 
now Old Covenant believers again had free access but there is 
a redemptive historical movement to the point where Christ comes 
he lives his life of obedience as that, and then we have this greater 
fullness of access by virtue of Christ having come and brought 
an end to those mosaical institutions. That's Owen's term, that the 
old covenant things that Hebrew speaks about have been put away 
because Christ has now come. All of those washing ceremonies, 
sacrifices, all of those blessed rivers prophecy, typology, and anticipation 
find their confluence, their terminus, and their given in the same way, soteriologically, 
that is, salvifically, that is, savingly, in the Old Testament, 
but it has to do with new covenant worship and the coming of Christ 
and his first advent. This is the language of John 
Owen and all the dispensations of God, not those dispensations 
that he might Nothing of worth or excellency 
wrought in them or by them, but it is expressly assigned unto 
the Holy Spirit as the author and cause of it. In other words, 
anything good in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit was the author 
and cause of it. But yet, of all the promises 
given unto them concerning a better and more glorious state of the 
Church to be afterward introduced, next unto that of the coming 
of the Son of God in the flesh, those are the most eminent in 
which concern beyond what they were or could 
in their imperfect state be made partakers of. So there is an 
eminence, an enlargement, a more full communication of the Spirit 
in the New Testament than was enjoyed by the Old Testament 
saints. They were in a state of being 
tutored, they were pupils under the law, they were in a state 
of immaturity until the time that covenant community. And so we 
have fuller communication of the free spirit of God than believers 
under the law did ordinarily partake of. Moving on then, secondly, 
into the second paragraph, we have the intended benefits of 
Christian liberty or the nature of liberty of conscience. And 
this is simply seen in freedom from man's bondage. So and this 
is properly where Christian where the Christian liberty of conscience 
is there are two things here remember the topic of the We have, by virtue of God creating 
us and creating us in his image, we have liberty of conscience 
as a natural right. Liberty of conscience is a natural 
right. Christian liberty is a gospel 
privilege, though both may be pleaded in unwarrantable impositions 
on conscience. And so that's why, with respect 
to freedom from man's bondage, we have both Christian and freedom from civil totalitarianism. Those two things come together. 
Christ is the Savior of his church, and Christ is the Lord and head 
of the church. Freedom from man's bondage. So 
first off, and very quickly, we have freedom from ecclesiastical 
tyranny. We could go to passages like 
Matthew 15.1. Remember where the Jews come 
and they're indicting Christ and his disciples, the disciples 
specifically, for not washing their hands before eating. And 
Christ indicts them for imposing the traditions of men and being 
disobedient to God. And this was part of the problem 
because in being obedient to man's law there, to man's imposition of law, they 
were disobedient to God. And that was the issue that Christ 
brings to bear. They were so scrupulous, they 
were marked by such a scrupulosity that they were imposing upon 
men the washing of hands prior to eating, that they were disobeying 
God and the freedom given to eat in that particular context 
on the Sabbath. And so we have freedom from ecclesiastical It was the impositions being 
placed upon Christians that were that were more Catholic than 
they were Protestant. They were more Catholic have freedom from ecclesiastical 
theory of the language here is God alone is Lord of the conscience 
and have left it free from the doctrines and commandments of 
men which are in anything contrary to his word or not contained 
in it and in that we also have freedom from civil totalitarianism law of God. We are to obey God 
rather than men. We know that passage in Acts 
5 27 to 29 where the disciples are arrested and Peter confesses 
that good confession that they are to obey God rather than men 
in the preaching of the name of Christ. If the government 
comes and says you cannot preach in the name of Christ, Christians 
meekly yet firmly disobey and say we are to obey God He says on this particular point, 
freedom from civil totalitarianism, he writes, men, civil magistrates, 
and ecclesiastical rulers are to be obeyed in things which 
are not repugnant to the will of God. But in things that are, 
God is to be obeyed and not men. God had commanded by an angel 
that the apostles should go to the temple and there preach the 
doctrines liberty coming together with 
liberty of conscience, in our worship, in our gathering together, 
in our proclamation of Christ in Him crucified. We would also 
want to note here that the paragraph touches upon thirdly, freedom 
from the moral impositions of fellow men and professors. Notice 
the language goes on to say, so that to believe such doctrines 
or obey such commands out of con- why, it's contained, sorry, 
in the and commandments of men which are in anything contrary 
to his word are not contained in it and then notice the confession 
here goes on to continue and this is related of course so 
that to believe such doctrines or obey such commands out of 
conscience is with man according to nature, 
liberty of conscience is of natural right. And so the thrust here, 
though, in the context has to do with the Roman Catholic Church, 
and maybe more largely, the Church of England. Because there was 
the Church of England at the time And so there was a Catholicizing 
going on with regards to the Catholic Church. And there was 
the asking of believers to have blind obedience or an implicit 
faith, that is, trusting without consideration, without discurses, 
without examination, logic, or argument, just trusting without 
any of that in the authority of the church and her magistrates. Matthew Henry writes, to receive 
the word was not such as they You see, we don't just have an 
implicit or a blind trust or faith in our leaders, whether 
ecclesiastical or civil, but rather we use our minds, brought 
awake and out of all the darkness to the light by Jesus Christ 
our Lord, and we engage in argument, we engage in examination. accordingly. So we are not to 
have this implicit faith because it destroys liberty of conscience 
and reason also. The confession closes off early 
and lastly with the perversion of Christian liberty. The perversion 
of Christian liberty. Henry writes, we must take heed 
that we turn not Romans 6 1 and Galatians 5 13 
and other places speak to the fact that because we've been 
made alive in Christ Jesus we are not that because we've been 
freed from sin bondage we don't then have the liberty to go about 
sinning because we can avail of a Savior who perfectly saves 
much rather joyfully and cheerfully we obey the laws of God until that blessed and final 
day, we imperfectly, cheerfully, and joyfully follow the law of 
God, like our Christ, in order to bedeck the gospel. word, boasting in our liberty 
that we have in Christ Jesus. redeemed Christians, saved by 
amazing victorious grace, that we serve the Lord without fear 
and holiness and unrighteousness before him all the days of our 
lives, knowing that we have, by free and sovereign grace, 
been freed by the guilt, the power, and the punishment of 
sin because of a perfect Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, 
we thank you for this time together in your word. We rejoice in your 
word to us. We thank you for truth, and we 
pray that you would impress upon us world of church the world of 
Christianity and the civil world operating operating according 
accordingly and knowing that Christ is has all authority in 
heaven and on earth and that he alone is the head of the church 
we pray in the name of our