Declaration Of Independence

Introduction

If you have a Bible in an actual book form, would you mark with a string? Colossians 1 13. We’ll be coming there shortly. If not, I want all of you then to turn to Isaiah 28. Isaiah 28. We’ll be beginning there this morning. Young people, I must apologize. We’ve got to begin this morning with history. A history lesson. You only thought you were free of that for a couple of days. I want to begin this morning by talking to you about one of the greatest documents in the history of the United States of America. It is the Declaration of Independence with John Hancock’s signature very much larger than everybody else’s on this document. This document was written declaring our independence from British oppression. And perhaps the most memorable part of that, taxation without representation.

And a list of other grievances that they had in regard to British rule and British oppression. But interestingly enough, that did not signal the end of the fighting or the end of the American Revolutionary War. That actually went on for another several years until the Treaty of Paris in 1783. But as I bring your attention to this great document, I want you to realize that our conversion to the Lord is not dissimilar. Our souls are purified in obedience to the truth, according to 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 22. And in that act, we declare our allegiance to the risen King and place ourselves humbly under his beneficent and kind rule. The change of allegiance affords us heavenly citizenship. And what happens is that we declare our independence from the tyranny of Satan.

I said I was going to go to Isaiah first. Actually, I’m going to Colossians first. Colossians 1 and verse 13. Colossians 1 and verse 13 talks about this change of allegiance when it says, for he, Christ delivered us, and he’s talking to Christians who have been qualified to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, verse 12. He says, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and has transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. But that’s the positive side.

1. The Cry of the Faithless and Foolish

Not from the awful tyranny of Satan, but to declare our independence from God. Really unbelievable when you think about it. When you think about every good and perfect gift that is bestowed coming from the Father above, according to James chapter 1, in whom there is no variation or shifting shadow. The fact that one would sensibly declare, it’s actually not sensible. To declare independence from God. From his oppressive rule. Oh no. God’s rule is not oppressive. He is the source of health and blessing and honor. What a great contrast. To declare independence from an oppressive government versus declaring independence. From one who is often perceived as oppressive, but who really wants to do amazing things for us to set us on an honorable, high, rewarding, and noble path for living.

Like I said, it’s the more popular, the far more popular cry of independence is I want to be independent from God. And even his own people in past history had such a mind to declare their independence from God. Now the Isaiah text in Isaiah chapter 28. Notice some phrases that we see, and of course, this is 700 years before Christ. In Isaiah 28 and verse 12, he who said to them, here is rest. Give rest to the weary. Here is repose. But they would not listen. This is God saying, here is rest. Here is repose. Rest for the weary. I want to give it to you. And they would not listen. There’s so many statements in Jeremiah that time would fail me to reference them all.

I want to mention Jeremiah 2 in verse 13, where he says, My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. When someone says, I want to be independent, I want to be independent from God’s rule and God’s commands. They hew out for themselves broken cisterns that cannot hold water, that do not sustain real life when they make such a choice. As God would plead through the prophets like Jeremiah, ask for the old path, wherein is the good way. Stand and walk in them. But what did they say to that? We will not walk therein. They declared their independence from God, and he gave them exactly what they wanted.

As the Babylonians came and destroyed them for their declaration of independence. The way of man is not in himself. He is not in man that walks to direct his own steps. Beware lest you say, I’m going to declare my independence from God. Where is that going? The way of man is not in himself. And yet they persist. In Jeremiah 18 and verse 22. Or actually verse 12. But they will say, It’s hopeless, for we are going to follow our own plans. And each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart. Jeremiah 22. I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, I will not listen. This has been your practice from your youth that you have not obeyed my voice. And so God pleads with them over and over again through prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, warning them about their declaration of independence from his beneficent rule.

And then he thought, Surely they will respect my son. And the ultimate of prophets, the perfect prophet, the son of God, Emmanuel, comes to his people. Do you realize the parable of the landowner is told in Matthew, Mark, Luke, the three of the first four gospel accounts. In Matthew 21, Mark chapter 12, and in Luke 20. And in all three of those, he sent his slaves, who were the prophets, to plead with his people, to bring the produce to the vineyard, and they would beat one and kill another, as they did the prophets, and Jesus accused them of that during his ministry. But behold, ultimately he sends his son. Surely they will respect him, and they cast him out. And the stone which the builders rejected became the chief cornerstone, is the end of that parable.

And despite all of this, despite Jesus’ scathing denunciation of the Pharisees in Matthew 23, that we read so much about and talk so much about, how did he regard them? Oh, I would love to have gathered you under my wings as a mother hen would her chicks. And yet you were unwilling. The declaration of independence. Yet you were unwilling. And behold, your house is left to you desolate. And so I asked this morning. How many, even now defiantly shake the fist of rebellion against God. And to go their own way. Reject his exalted ways. And how many who have done that? And chosen such a course in life, if they could now speak to us about the end results of such a course. And really, that’s what the story of the rich man in Lazarus is all about.

The one who lifted up his eyes in torment. And what was he concerned about? His situation could not be remedied. His eternal fate was sealed. But if somebody would go back from the dead and tell my five brothers not to come to this place.

Sumptuously every day. But at the end of that course. When it is too late, he realizes the foolishness of his declaration of independence. And so what I want to say about this very negative side of this thought is that this is the cry of the faithless and foolish. To say, God, I just don’t need what you have to offer. I don’t want it. I’m going to map out my own course in life. I’m going to do things my way. This is the cry of the faithless and foolish. I want you to look this week at Psalm 2. We’re going to read it together. It’s a short psalm at the beginning of the Psalms. But this reflects the mentality of one who would declare independence from God, really from the standpoint of kings and rulers, but it goes beyond those who wield some kind of authority.

And he even says in verse 1, why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? If it’s vain, it will come to no account or profitability. They devise a vain thing and they take their stand. The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his anointed. This is what they say. Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us. How many times have I read this verse? That’s the mentality.

I’m going to cast off the fetters, the chains, and the shackles of dependence upon him. But he who sits in the heavens lasts. The Lord scoffs at them. He will speak to them in his anger, as he did his people that we just read about in Isaiah and Jeremiah. And terrify them in his fury. But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain, and that king reigns to this day. I will surely tell of the decree of the Lord. He said to me, Thou art my son, today I have begotten thee. Ask of me, and I will surely give the nations as thine inheritance, and the very ends of the earth as thy possession, thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, thou shalt shatter them like earthenware.

The cry of the faith, faithless and foolish. This is exemplified in the very familiar story of the prodigal son. Really, what that story is about is this young man declaring his independence from his father’s house and working in his father’s house to go do his own thing. Share my part of the inheritance with me. And he does. And he goes off and he wastes his life in extravagant ways until everything runs out. Let me tell you something about what the devil does. In a text regarding false teachers and the message that they bring that leads people astray, it says that they promise freedom. But instead, what they deliver is corruption and slavery. And by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. That’s what we see in the story of the prodigal son.

What seems so promising, a life that seemed so wonderful. Ultimately enslaved him. And as we talked about this a little over a year ago, we noticed that the more he got what he wanted, the less he wanted what he got. And while you’re looking at this and saying, I want to be free, at the end of every all you can eat buffet is a bill. And a caste register receipt. We noted it. And his enslavement is painful and undesirable. We see the high cost of low living. There’s no such thing as absolute freedom. Everyone is a servant of something. And you must pay the master. Remember that? Some of you remember that sermon maybe a year ago. Freedom as we might like it to be an illusion.

All some can see is the pleasure of the moment, not the brevity of its joy, or the shackles of its imprisonment, or the emptiness of its promises. C.S. Lewis compared it to making mud pies in a slum when the offer is made of a holiday at sea. Of course, I’m reminded of the cruise ship that just had 300 people take ill, but that’s not what C.S. Lewis had in mind. Making mud ties with a slum when God offers a holiday at sea, and he says, people are far too easily pleased. It’s not that they want too much, it’s that they are settling for too little. And that’s the story of the prodigal son. It’s really not independence, is it? Freedom, as we might like it to be, is an illusion.

And it’s not really as wonderful as people imagine that it would be. Now, some don’t come to that realization quickly. Some never come to the realization, like the rich man. They end up in torment before they come to realize how empty such a course was. But some do realize it. And the scriptures are helping us to realize it while there’s time. And I’ve looked at these verses many times in Ephesians chapter 4, verses 17 through 19, because what Paul is doing in this text is he is setting such a course, a course of independence from God against the course of dependence upon God, and what it means to learn Christ versus the way we had used to live. And what does he say? Don’t walk anymore.

He knows it’s a temptation. Don’t walk anymore as the Gentiles also walk. And then I want you to notice four words that follow. Those four words are number one, futility. They walk in the futility of their mind. They are darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. Let me tell you something. When you declare your independence from God, these are the four words that follow every time. And none of that is good, is it? Futility. Darken. Excluded. Ignorance. I think I passed over the 1 Peter 1 text that we had up there earlier. Where Paul says to be sober and to fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

2. The Cause of All Spiritual Failure

And he says, do not be conformed to the former lusts. Which were yours, and I always love this last little phrase, which were yours in your ignorance. Be holy in all your behavior as God is holy. The cry of the faithless and foolish. But I want to bring this closer to home. This is not just the cry of those who are in outright rebellion against God. This is the cause of all spiritual failure, even for those who find themselves in the body of Christ, who have said at some point in the past, I’m coming out from the awful tyranny of Satan, have put behind the realm of darkness and have put on and have been transferred in the kingdom of light and have put on Christ.

There are still moments of folly. Peter is talking about in 1 Peter chapter 1, where we’re tempted again to walk as the Gentiles walk. And it’s the same thing.

Again, from the negative side of it. Where we say, I know what God’s word says. But I’m going this way. All of our struggles spiritually can be attributed to this foolish clamor of independence from God. And we start thinking things like, well, in this particular regard, his ways are not right. People said that down through history, some of the occasions of the nation of Israel. They were saying, God’s ways aren’t right, Isaiah 30. Don’t tell us any more about the holy one of Israel. And we can start thinking like thinking like that. I don’t think we’re actually verbalizing that. Oh, Isaiah, you’re speaking the word of God, but we really don’t think that’s right. His ways are not right. The Holy One of Israel, we don’t want to hear about him.

I don’t know if they were actually saying that. But that’s what they were thinking. And sometimes when we want to do our own thing and go our own way and reject the morality and righteousness of God’s word, even though we had once been transferred from the realm of darkness into the kingdom of light. We start thinking like that. He’s asking a little too much here. This morality is too strict. Not very many people are doing this. I’m going to have to be different. In fact, I’m going to have to be different than most people that I associate with and work with.

Why aren’t you laughing? No, I had friends. But they knew I wouldn’t go there. They never asked. And sometimes it hurts to be excluded. But I didn’t need to be at those places. We’re going to have to be different. And that’s hard for us sometimes.

The limitations are too severe. The righteousness is too demanding. You’re asking a commitment of me. I read this in people’s faces all the time. You’re asking for a commitment from me that I don’t want to give. I don’t want to do it all the way. It’s a declaration of independence. Who wants to do the hard work of knowing the word, meditating on its implications, praying devotedly, assembling regularly, sacrificing continually. And we find ourselves not wanting to do that, and we just say, in those things, God’s way is not right. It’s my best. Declaring our independence. Now, how can we fix that? Remember, once upon a time we decided I’m not going to dwell anymore in the domain of darkness. I’m going to be transferred into the kingdom of light.

Who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. What a marvelous expression that is in Colossians 1 and verse 12. How are we going to fix this? There’s only one way. And that is you’ve got to change the way you look at things. You have to change your perspective. Remember what Jesus said. Come to me, all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That’s what he had said way back when. In the Old Testament, in Isaiah, I will give you rest and repose. And he says that to us through Jesus. Come take my yoke upon you. Yes, it’s a yoke. Come take my yoke upon you and learn of me. For I am meek and lowly of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy or kind. And my burden is light. Oh, yeah, there’s some restrictions in terms of morality. There’s some diligence that’s going to be demanded in your expression of loyalty to Jesus under his reign and rule. But this is what we were meant for. We were tailored suited for this.

This is what you were created to do. And the rewards are amazing both now and out of this world. In eternity. And we’ve just got to change the way we look at it. Young people, we’ve got to change the way we look at it. Got to sit through another 30 minutes, maybe even 35 minutes.

This is the life-giving word that we’re talking about. And I’ll tell you something else that should help us with a perspective. Remember that 2 Peter 2 text that goes on to say, for those who had once been enlightened and have become entangled again? It says what? The latter state is worse than the first. It’s like a dog. Very graphic illustrations. Isn’t the dog returning to its own vomit? That’s the worst one. But even the pig. It’s graphic. We understand the illustration. You give a pig a bath, and what does he do? He’s back out in the mud wallowing in it in ten seconds. That’s what he’s comfortable with. It’s like the sow returning to wallowing in the mire. We’ve got to change our perspective when sin is tantalizing us, when rejection of morality is appealing to us, when a lack of diligence and commitment beckons us.

Oh, this is the better way for me.

3. Dependence, Not Independence From God

We need to look at that for what it is. That’s the tyranny of Satan coming back to entangle us again, and the latter state of that is worse than the first. It’s one thing to shake your fist defiantly to God and say, I will not do that. It is another thing entirely to have been delivered out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of light and then shake the fist. And persist in such a course. And so I want to make a third point in this lesson. And that is dependence, not independence from God. Dependence is the cure for sin’s control. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, and we have fellowship one with another.

What a wonderful verse. If we walk in the light. People say, I just want this religion thing off my back. I can’t wait to leave it in my rear view mirror. May the cry of such independence meet the reality of the rich own ruler. I mean the prodigal son of Luke 15. I love verse 17 when it says, But when he came to himself. That says it all. When he came to himself. Now I want to go back to Psalm 2 in the very beginning where we were and read the last three verses of that Psalm. Those who devise a vain thing and take their stand against God and against His anointed and say, Let us tear their fetters apart.

Conclusion

Take warning, O judges of the earth. Worship the Lord with reverence and rejoice with trembling. Do homage to the Son, lest he become angry and you perish in the way. For his wrath may soon be kindled. We talked about that recently. How blessed are all those who take refuge in him. The decision to be dependent upon God. How blessed is such a decision. And I want to conclude this morning in Psalm 50. Psalm 50 is a Psalm where people are declaring their independence from God. They’re saying his ways are not right. They’re casting God’s words behind them. It says in verse 17, they hate discipline. They approve of evildoers. And they think God approves all the while because he isn’t striking them dead on the spot.

But then he says this in verse 22. Now consider this. The ESB says, mark this. Mark it and mark it well. Now consider this, you who forget God. Declare your independence from him. You who forget God, lest I tear you in pieces and there is none to deliver. He who offers a sacrifice of thanksgiving and honors me to him who orders his way aright, I will show the salvation of God. And then earlier in the context in verse 14, offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and pay your vows to the Most High. And call upon me in the day of trouble. I will rescue. And you will honor me.

You need to be rescued from the tyranny of sin. That’s what you need to be rescued from. You think the rule of Great Britain was bad? That fueled the revolutionary war.

And that’s sin on our account before God. We need to perceive the awfulness of being in the domain of darkness. So that we can embrace freedom. True freedom, as Jesus offers it. And embrace the kingdom of light. If there’s someone in this audience who needs to make such a great decision today, we’re here to help you. Let’s stand and sing together.