Freedom Comes with a Cost
Notes
Transcript
36 Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed.
Each year, Americans take time to reflect on the freedoms they enjoy. Freedom is not free. It comes at a cost.
I want to read to you something I found from Liberty magazine
Ask those 19 year old teenagers, the average age of the First U.S. Marine Division, who landed August 7, 1942, on the north shore of Guadalcanal, a small tropical island not far from Australia.
Guadalcanal was the first time that American forces stopped the Japanese sweep in the South Pacific, turning the tide of war.
But at what cost? Under fire during the landing, the naval forces pulled away, leaving the young marines without air support, without most of their heavy weapons, tanks, and all the rest of their supplies. But those teenagers hung on in that rain soaked malaria ridden land, fighting off the snakes, leeches, jungle rot, and a well entrenched enemy.
For the next six months Guadalcanal became hell for both the young marines and the defenders. When, in early 1943, the Japanese pulled out, only 10,000 soldiers were left of their original 40,000.
The First Marines required a full year of rehabilitation before they could be called a fighting unit again, having lost many thousands, dead and wounded. The cost of freedom is incalculable.
Think of the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Individually, each of them had more to lose than to gain in a revolution. Most of them were already men of standing in their communities, highly educated and owners of substantial property. John Hancock, the richest man in America, became a wanted man, with a price of ,500 on his head. They did not choose to revolt; they merely wanted to be treated the same as other Englishmen were in England. And they all knew that the penalty for treason was death by hanging.
Each signer became a marked man, pursued relentlessly by the British retribution. None who had property or family were spared. Most lived to see their families killed or separated forever and their property sacked. Nine signers died of wounds or hardships during the war. Many died in poverty-the fathers of our country! Their pledge-"our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor"-was no idle boast. The cost of freedom is incalculable. Because freedom always comes with at cost. That cost is sacrifice.
The Cost Of Freedom
The Cost Of Freedom
Dr. Walter D. Huyck sayings in regards to the cost of freedom and I quote...
The truth of life is that anything worth having costs something. There is a price to be paid for the food you eat, the home you live in, the luxuries you enjoy. Everything has a price and nothing is ever really free. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that you ever get anything for nothing, Our freedom is no different. A great price was paid for our freedom.
The Cost of American Liberty
Civil War - Total Cost In Lives 620,000
World War II - Total cost in lives 405,399
WW1 - 116,516
Veitnam - 58,209
Revolutionany War - 25,000
Total lives lost in all American wars - 1,303,854
Dr. Walter D. Huyck goes on to say,
The American Dream of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness happened because of individuals who laid down their life for the cost of freedom. Freedom was gained through the sacrifices of those who were willing to die for the preservation of our country and its freedoms of liberty and justice for all.
I could not have said it better.
TRANSITION INTO THE BIBLICAL MESSAGE ON FREEDOM
While our American freedom is wonderful there is a liberty, a freedom that is far greater than any freedom that can be known in this mortal life. And it too came with a great cost. Paul wrote,
Galatians 5:1 (NKJV)
1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
The liberty this passage is speaking of is eternal in nature and provides everlasting life to all who are made free by Christ.
Like our American liberty it is anything but free. The freedom we can experience through faith in Christ came at a great cost.
This eternal liberty was bought at great price a ransom was paid, not in our good deeds, or money etc…it was paid with blood.
Of course not just any blood but only through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Sacrifice made for our Salvation (Heb 9.22; Col 1.12-14; Rom 6.23; 10.9-10)
The Sacrifice made for our Salvation (Heb 9.22; Col 1.12-14; Rom 6.23; 10.9-10)
22 And according to the law almost all things are purified with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no remission.
Paul wrote,
12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.
13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
Eternal life - Salvation required a sacrifice and that the penalty for our sins must be paid. The penalty for sin, or the cost of our sin is death (Rom 6.23).
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Our Lord Jesus Christ took our place on an old rugged cross and paid the price owed for your sins in full, so that you and I might be redeemed.
(Share about what Christ endured on the cross)
What must I do then to be a partaker in Christ’s redemptive gift which is the liberty from our enslavement to sin.
Believe that you are sinner. Believe that you are truly a slave to your sin. Romans 3:23
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Believe that you can not liberate yourself. Eph. 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
7 Truly no man can ransom another, or give to God the price of his life,
Believe in the deity of Jesus. Acts 16:31
31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me. Selah
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.