Baptist Distinctives: Soul Liberty

Amen. Enjoy. Enjoy the talent God's given our musicians. And that sounded like that needed to be played in a lobby somewhere, just soothing.

I meant that in a good way, not a bad way. Love that song. Turn, if you would, in your Bibles to Romans, chapter 14. Romans 14. As we continue our series of messages on the Baptist distinctives.

The Baptist distinctives. These are, again, a collection of biblical truths unique to Baptists.

By that, I mean that as a collection, all these truths together is what makes Baptists unique. It is not that we don't have other denominations and. And other good churches out there teaching and preaching portions of these.

It's that Baptist historically. All right, so historically, these 12, and we're going using 12.

Sometimes it's 8 to 12 of them using these 12 that have been historically, again, a way to describe Baptists. And so I just want to make it clear that, in fact, I will use an example of a Bible church.

A lot of Bible churches are very, very close in belief to what we as Baptists believe.

But there's still a couple of these as we go through them, these 12 that you wouldn't necessarily say that a Bible church absolutely believes this way, but you would say, again, I know I'm repeating myself on purpose because I've had some questions as of recently about reading recently about this, but I'm saying, again, the collection of the 12 together is what makes, again, Baptist. We are unique.

All right, so our series, our theme verse for the series again, that we as a church, our churches, have been instructed by the Lord to be caretakers of the faith or caretakers of the truth. And so we are responsible, we are accountable to pass on biblical truth to the next generation. Second Timothy, chapter two and verse two.

The things that thou has heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men who shall be able to teach others also.

And so we take these biblical truths, the things that we have heard and the things that we have witnessed, then we commit those same things to the next generation. Now, look with me in Romans chapter 14, and we'll cover the Fourth Baptist distinctive as we go through this. So again, Romans chapter 14, verse 11.

As it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. Look at verse 12 now. So then every one of us shall give an account of what does it say himself.

It could say herself of himself to God, that everyone will give an account of themselves, himself, herself to God. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again, we just pray that you'd be with us today.

As we look at this again, most important subject, I pray God that you'd help me to be very. Have clarity of thought and make the message and the truth very clear to the congregation. We thank you and love you. In Jesus name, Amen.

As we think about the Baptist distinctives we've covered, number one, we covered the Bible. That the Bible is the final authority for faith and practice. Amen. The Bible is the final authority for faith and practice.

Not just what we believe, but how we go about applying those beliefs. It's our roadmap. It's our guide. It's inspired, inerrant, the infallible word of God.

And then number two, the other, the second Baptist distinctive we've covered is salvation by grace through faith in the person, life and work of Jesus Christ. Salvation is found by grace through faith solely. That means only in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said himself, I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me. Again, we know most of you can quote several verses.

Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his works. All right. We know that for by grace you saved through faith and that not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of works, as we mentioned, both.

So again, on and on and on. Salvation is by grace through faith in the personal life and work of Jesus Christ. Then last week we covered eternal security.

And that is the security of the believer that once you're saved, once you've accepted Christ as your Savior, you're always saved.

And we covered it from a little different perspective this last week when we really went through Romans chapter four and five in Romans chapter eight, if you'll remember. Maybe, maybe, no maybe. And we covered how that again, there's a battle between the old and new nature.

But we were given a new nature when we got saved. And I said, when the Holy Spirit came into your life, when the Holy Spirit came to abide in you. When something that big shows up, you'll know it.

And there ought to be in your own life. And there ought to be an assurance that you know that. You know that you know if you were to die today that heaven would be your home.

John said it himself. He said that you might know that you have eternal life. And you've heard it, most of you, as I've heard it for all my life.

We do not believe in a hope so salvation. We have a no so salvation. I can lay my head down at night.

I know that if I were to die in my sleep, I know without a doubt, without a shadow of a doubt that heaven would be my home. Every Christian ought to know that. Every person ought to know that for sure. And you can. And that is eternal security.

I did nothing to gain my salvation. I did nothing to work for my salvation. Therefore I cannot work to lose it. I can't do anything to lose it. I didn't earn it. It was a gift.

It's a gift on two occasions. The Bible. The Bible refers to salvation as a gift. If it can be taken back, it's not a gift. It's just to me, it's simple.

But I know this is one of those areas that a lot, a lot, a lot of individuals and denominations and churches preach that you can lose your salvation tonight. And this is one that's not spoken on or preached on much, is soul liberty. Soul liberty. That we are accountable to God individually.

That's what the verse said. Right? Shall give an account of himself to God. I'm not accountable for what you have done or what you will do.

You're not accountable for what I have done and what I will do. I am accountable. I'm personally accountable to God. By the way, this is one of the problems with America today, personal accountability.

Personal accountability. It's one of the reasons America is suffering is because people will not take personal accountability, won't take personal their own actions.

And I could go a lot more than that and spend time on it. But you are personally responsible for your actions and you are going to be accountable to God one day for your actions.

By the way, if you're saved not for your sins, but for your works, the Bible says whether they be good or bad, in other words, whether they be for your glory or for God's glory, did you do them out of selfish motivation or did you do them out of a motivation because you love the Lord and you love others, Right? And so understand that. But personal accountability is one of those areas, America. And really across the world there's a severe problem. And we know.

And my wife and I were having this discussion today. It's a sign of the end times. Me and Caleb were having the discussion.

It's a sign of the end times that we get to that point where people do not feel personally responsible for their own actions. It's crazy, isn't it? It's crazy, isn't it? I want to do some more, talk about that some more. And I don't want to do that.

Every one of us shall give an account for himself to God. So the Fourth Baptist distinctive is soul liberty and competency. Competency.

How can we, I'm sorry, how can one be accountable if he does not have soul liberty? In other words, if we're going to give an account to God, how can we do that if we don't have soul liberty?

In other words, if we're not making the choices. If we're not making the choices.

The Bible makes it clear that when we, we were created, we were created in the image of God and we were created with a free will, mind, will and emotions. Amen. Mind, will and emotions. We talked about this when we talk about Calvinism and Calvinism kind of it pushes that out.

It makes people, you know, robots who don't have the, they don't have the option whether to believe in, you know, salvation by, you know, salvation or not. If you were chosen, you're chosen. And so God didn't create us as robots, but we have a free will.

And because we have a free will, we are again personally accountable. So let's look at the words defined here. The word soul. The word soul. So his or her soul. Again this is talking about individual and personal.

The soul is the innermost self awareness or self consciousness of a man that makes him an individual able to reflect upon God, his revelation to man. All right, so it's that self awareness that enables me to reflect upon God.

I can reflect upon his revelation, in other words, how he has revealed Himself to me. I have the ability to look at creation and make a decision.

I can make a decision that that just happened or I can make a decision that that is God revealing himself to me. And by the way, it is God revealing himself to me. Creation, all of creation is nothing but a finger pointing up to God. I created this.

I am the creator, I am the curator, I am the caretaker. And one day he will be the consummator. This is going to happen. And so all of creation tells us that there is an absolute, tells us there is a God.

So God, we have the ability, because we've been given again free will and be given sole liberty to make these decisions and to reflect upon, be able to reflect upon God and his revelation of himself by the way he reveals himself through his Bible, through the Word, the written word of God. And again he reveals himself to us and make us aware of himself and Himself in light of such. And then we, we have the ability to act on it.

So I have free will, I have soul liberty, the ability to make choices.

And I've been given the wherewithal to reflect upon God and the way in which he has revealed Himself to me through creation or through the Bible, through history. And then I act upon that. In other words, my actions is what's going to be accounted for, for, accountable to. Right, accountable for. Stay with me.

By the way the human beings are made are a trichotomy. Body, soul and spirit. Body, soul and spirit. In the Bible we refer to as a trichotomy. Body, soul and spirit. The body of course is this tabernacle.

That's the world consciousness. Somebody has said the soul, self, conscience and the spirit is that part of us which is God, conscience, the body, soul and spirit.

There are some who believe in dichotomy that believe that spirit and the soul are one and the same. I don't believe the Bible teaches that.

I believe the Bible makes it very clear that it's a separate part of us that we are as the Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. So we are a trichotomy as well. Body, soul, spirit. And so the soul again is that part of which of us that is self conscious. Alright then, liberty.

Well, we all know what liberty means. Freedom, soul, soul liberty. I always think about KIA soul. Why? I don't know. That's an ugly car. Soul liberty.

I think about those little is it gerbils in the commercial. Y'all remember that? That's the stuff that goes through my mind when I'm preaching. I'm sorry, just that's the way I'm wired.

It's just the liberty, Freedom, freedom, freedom. Every person has autonomy from God to study His Word and we can come directly to him through Christ. So the point we're making here is soul liberty.

Every person has the wherewithal to come to Christ, to come to the Word of God, to come to read the Word of God, to understand the Word of God, that we can come directly to the Lord through Jesus Christ. We don't need someone sitting in a booth, you know, confessing our sins to in order to get direct access to God.

No, the Bible says we are priests, that we are a royal priesthood and we have direct access individually to God. You do not have to come to the preacher and come to my office and confess your sins and then ask me God for forgiveness.

No, you go to God on your own, you are personally accountable. You have soul liberty and you can go directly to God on your own and ask for forgiveness. We can come directly to God.

Not just for forgiveness, of course, but when it comes to the word of God, understanding the Word of God. The Holy Spirit is given to every person who accepts Christ as their Savior.

The moment you're saved, the moment you transfer your trust from anything else and anyone else or yourself unto Christ and Christ alone and you put your faith in him, you immediately you receive the Holy Spirit of God. And that Holy Spirit of God gives you plenty of blessings. One of those is illumination. Illumination.

In other words, it is the Holy Spirit that leads us into all truth. He is the one who enables you to understand the Bible, to lead you to understand the Bible. You have the same Holy Spirit that I have.

I have the same Holy Spirit that you have. Preachers don't have any special illumination versus the person sitting in the pew, the chair. One of my favorite Bible teachers is Brother Stewart.

I think he is the smartest man I've ever met. When it comes to the Bible. He doesn't have a corner the Bible.

In other words, he doesn't have some special revelation from God, some special light that's been given to him in order for him to understand the Scriptures better than you or me. We all have the same Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is there again to not only to illuminate us, but to fill us, of course, and seal us.

And you can grieve the Holy Spirit and on and on and on the works of the Holy Spirit in our lives. So liberty, freedom. And then third is competency again, the wherewithal to act as a free moral agent.

Again, that we are not robots, that we have a free will and that. And that because we are created in the image of God, again that body, soul, spirit, again the mind, will and emotions.

I always like to point out when we talk about moral awareness. So as human beings we have competency. We have moral awareness, moral awareness. So we are born with some light. That's what the Bible says.

He lit every man that cometh into the world. Romans says that the law of God is stamped on the heart of every person born into this world.

We know because of sin, because of Adam's sin, and that sin's passed to every man, all mankind, that that moral awareness, that conscience that we are given has been warped. That's why when we say, well, just let your conscience be your guide, that's not a good thing. Yes, you have a conscience.

Yes, we have moral awareness. But because of sin, that moral awareness is not like Adam and Eve had before they got saved, before they. I mean, before the fall.

One day we'll have that again. By the way, one day we'll not sin. One day the Conscience will no longer be warped.

Warped is maybe not the right word, but you get what I'm trying to get across. So a proof that humans are not animals again, that moral awareness that we have humans again, human beings are not animals.

We're of a separate created order and we are above the animals. Animals were made for us. Some of them were made for us to eat. They're very tasty. Very, very, very tasty. I'm definitely for people eating.

I won't go through with it. Tasty animals. Sorry, I just had to do it. People eating tasty animals is really good. PETA? Nobody. Some of y'all.

Okay, good animals do not have moral awareness. Why? Because they were not created in the image of God. This competency, all right, it kind of goes back to.

We did a study talking about the Gnostics in the Book of Colossians. Remember that some of you and the Gnostics believe that you could get to the point of a point of.

That you have a special light that somebody else does not have, that you have a corner on understanding a certain portion of Scripture. It's kind of like the person who says, well, you just haven't gotten there yet. You haven't received enough light yet.

And it's somebody who comes across and says, well, I have more light than you have. And I'm just telling you we all have the same Holy Spirit, we all have the same ability.

And God hasn't given, again, some special anointing on someone else that God hasn't given to you when it comes to Scripture and understanding the Scripture. Amen. Amen. Alright, so that leads us into the next point.

So when it comes to soul liberty, one of the ways in which we can kind of track this or talk about it is through history. How has this been or how has this been affected and whereabouts did it come from? As far as the understanding of it, One of the areas is the Pilgrims.

Everybody know who those are? Those used to be taught in school, the Pilgrims. When I was in elementary, you used to dress up as a pilgrim and some dressed up as Indians.

It was fine. It was fine. And so the Pilgrims have taken a bad rap because of the revisionist history writers. But the Pilgrims came to America. Why?

Why did the Pilgrims come to America? Religious freedom. Absolutely. There's no if, ands or buts about that. There's no debate. That's why the Pilgrims came.

They came to get away from an oppressive king, an oppressive state. They came to get away from the Church of England. They went to Holland.

And even there they were persecuted somewhat, and they were what we would call a denomination called Congregationalists. Congregationalists. And so they wanted to go to a country, go to a place where they could worship according to the dictates of their own conscience.

Does that sound like anything familiar to you? That's individual soul liberty that God has given us, again, the rights, if you Would you believe how you want to. I believe how I want to.

That's called religious freedom. Religious freedom. The Pilgrims were influenced by Baptists, by the way, in Holland, and they migrated.

Pilgrims migrated to the United States in waves. So they came. Some of them came. Then some more came. Then some more came. Pilgrims are sometimes lumped in with Puritans.

And that's not necessarily the case, though, as the Pilgrims were here first in America, and they kind of melded into. And with the Puritans, The Puritans came. They really were a sect, religious sect, that wanted to purify the Church of England.

They wanted to get it purified, to correct it, to get it right. And it wasn't doable, of course. And so eventually the Pilgrims were absorbed in America into and in with the Puritans. That's a fact.

So you have the Pilgrims, you have the Puritans. These individuals expressed and these groups expressed what we're trying to say. Individual soul liberty. Stay with me now. We're going somewhere.

Soul liberty, this right of understanding that each person is accountable to God for what they do and what they believe. And then take into account not only the Pilgrims and the Puritans, but take into account the Protestants. The Protestants.

So then you had Tyndale and you had all these Reformists and the group of Reformers who said, okay, the Catholic Church is the only one who has the Bible. The Catholic Church made it illegal to have the Bible in your own language.

And when Tyndale and these others began to translate the Bible into English, they were burned at the stake. They were killed. They were martyred. And so that's.

Again, as the Protestant Reformation began, Martin Luther and others, you began to see this shape or this doctrine, these teachings take shape. And one of those doctrines was individual soul liberty. Individual soul liberty. Again, the Protestants weren't perfect about it.

I did come across, and I haven't really studied this much, but we ought to be grateful, the Protestant movement. By the way, Baptists are not Protestants. We're not Protestants, we didn't protest the Catholic Church. We were around before the Catholic Church. Amen.

We went through the Reformation, we went through the dark ages.

The 50 million or so Christians that were martyred during the Dark Ages now called the Middle Ages because you can't politically correct call it the Dark Ages. Most of those were Baptists, separatists, Montanists, Novatians. I mean there's so many different names there.

But those who held to the Baptist distinctives. And so the Protestants had their teachings, their doctrine versus what the Catholic Church was teaching. And it's called the five solas.

Solis means light of the Protestant movement. So there are five, if you would, pillars of the Protestant movement doctrine, their teachings. Alright, here's the five pillars.

Scripture alone, in other words, it's the Bible dictates what we believe. Just what we're saying tonight, the Bible is our final rule and authority for all faith and practice.

Number two, by faith alone, that salvation is by faith alone plus nothing, minus nothing. By grace alone. You say, well, some of the Protestants didn't practice us very good, I agree. But this was their five pillars, if you would.

By grace alone we believe that for by grace he is saved through faith. We just talked about it. And then Christ alone. Number four, Christ alone. And then number five, glory to God alone.

In other words, all glory goes to God. Not to the Pope, not to someone else. Glory. In other words, it's God whom we have access to that we don't have to go through a priest.

And he's the one that we, that we ought to bring glory to, not to some denomination or some. Anyway, so Baptists benefited from the Protestant movement.

Baptists benefited from the Reformation because of the acceptance of these five truths by most Protestants. Most Protestants. Now again, that's been kind of back and forth throughout the ages.

But most Protestants did not sufficiently practice our lineup doctrinally with these five pillars. They had these five, but they in practice did not line up. Many of them did not line up with it.

All right, so what happened was because they did not line up with it, you had not only Catholics oppressing Baptists or separatists, but you had Protestants.

There were Baptists martyred in America by Protestant churches and denominations, not just the Catholic Church, because mainly because we believe believer's baptism, that only a believer can be baptized. Only someone who's been saved can be baptized. And that baptism has to be done by immersion. Man, go read the Fox's book of Martyrs. Man, read through.

There's so much, so much history behind all this but in reflection, as we look back through history, I know it bored some of you. As we look back through history, we can't discount the impact the Protestant movement, the Reformation movement had on Baptists as well.

It allowed for so much more to come out and to be done as the Catholic Church began to lose its influence and the Protestant movement began to grow. Thank the Lord for it.

And many of the Protestant churches, and there are some still today, still preaching the gospel, still teaching salvation by grace through faith and certainly teaching individual soul liberty. So we do have some today who even in that vein of thought because of individual soul liberty. So think about this.

If somebody has individual soul liberty, then they have individual soul liberty. It's not just that the Protestants have it or the Catholics have it, but sometimes even among Baptists there can be some coercion into.

If you don't believe exactly like I believe, then phooey on you.

Maybe nobody wants to talk about this, but there are a lot, there are some things going on, some weird stuff out there online in some of these so called. They call themselves Baptist churches and they call themselves the New. There's a group called the New Independent Baptist Churches.

And man, that Steve Anderson crowd, they're something. So just be aware out there that there are even among people who call themselves Baptists who are oppressors.

And if you don't believe exactly like they do, then they'll have nothing to do with you. Not just that they won't have nothing to do with you, they will oppress you. You're not a part of their club.

Then you know there is going to be some oppression happen. That's just not. And you think, well preacher, that's just preacher talk. I am telling you it affects individuals.

Individual soul liberty means that I alone am personally accountable to God for myself and that's the way God made me. Alright, Soul liberty. Each person is responsible to God for their faith. Each person is responsible for their salvation.

In other words, accepting the Christ as their Savior. I can't get saved for my kids. You can't get saved for your kids.

They're individually responsible at the time in which they come to that age that they would accept Christ as their savior. Personally accountability in the area of morality and theology. Personally accountable in the area of morality.

I can't control another adult and so I'm not personally accountable for him or her. Sometimes this happens with parents.

Their kids get raised, their kids become an adult and they still think they're accountable for what their kids do at the age of 21 I'm not accountable for what my kids do at the age of 21. They are. Quit beating yourself up over it. If you have a kid who has strayed. And certainly absolutely pray and pray that God would intervene.

Pray for them, help them when you can, but be careful about beating yourself up over they're personally accountable. They're personally accountable and your grandkids too, by the way. And then accountability to the Scripture as to what their meanings are.

In other words, I'm personally accountable for what I believe. The Bible is saying search the Scriptures.

The Bible says whether these things be so, whatever coming out from the pew, we need to be careful that we have searched the Scriptures and these things be so. Be careful, be careful. We're all accountable. All accountability, therefore is capable of responding to God directly.

We are all capable of responding to God directly. And yes, as we read our Bibles, we ask for the Lord to open our eyes that we must understand the marvelous things found in the Bible.

Lord, help me to understand these things. And yes, there's still absolutely.

The Bible makes it clear that there's a place for a pastor's teachings that we ought to again, the pastors to feed the flock, the pastors to be apt to teach. And so certainly we, we can listen to and be taught by men and women the things of God. But again, we are personally responsible for what we believe.

What we believe. So be careful. Search the Scripture again, each person responsible. No group or man has special light from God.

No certain group or man has special light from God. I'm thankful for good Bible teachers like Brother Stewart.

I'm thankful for mature saints whom I can listen to them as they teach and as they preach and receive instruction from the word of God. But understand they don't have a corner on the market. I have the same Holy Spirit. I'll end here.

America has contributed to governments around the world the teaching of religious liberty. It is America. It is America. And I would say to you, and you can do your own research, Baptists influence among those founding Fathers.

It was Baptist influence that influenced Madison. It was Baptist who influenced George Washington. It's Baptist who influenced the, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and so forth.

And that we have religious freedom today. There were many of our founding fathers who wanted to institute government churches.

In fact, there was one set of plans put forward that there would be four denominations in America.

And it was again the Baptist influence among our founding fathers who shouted from the rooftops that individual, that we as individuals are responsible to God as to what we believe and what we practice soul liberty recognizes the right of a person to hold views they choose. I do want to say this. Individual soul liberty gives the right to choose what you believe.

But you can't call yourself a Baptist if you divert from the Baptist distinctives historic Baptist belief. And this is where I would caution you that we live in a day and age in which there are some who call themselves Baptists who are not Baptist.

They do not believe in the historic Baptist faith. By the way, the historic Baptist faith is Bible faith.

If I thought any other denomination or any other church was teaching the Bible straightforward as it is what it is, that's what I would be. But I'm Baptist because Baptists historically have lined up with the Scripture teaching and preaching the Bible as it states, as it stands.

And there are many out there today who claim to be Baptists who are not. So again, I would just caution you there are those who don't have Baptists on their name anymore, but that do have Baptist beliefs.

So it can go both ways. So liberty, so what, preacher, so what? So what? How does this affect me? Well, I'm thankful for individual soul liberty, aren't you?

That I can worship God to the dictates of my conscience. I'm thankful for America where we have religious liberty and religious freedom based upon individual soul liberty.

Because there are many countries out there that don't have that. There are many in the Middle east and China, many who are suffering today. Many who still today are giving their lives for the faith.

I'm thankful for individual soul liberty. Individual soul liberty on every level encourages Christians to study and read the Bible on their own.

I need to be careful that I don't use so and so podcast or so and so books or so or whatever as a crutch for not reading the Bible myself and asking the Holy Spirit to help me to know and understand what I'm reading. So individual soul liberty makes me accountable, but the Bible makes me accountable to God personally for what I believe.

Therefore it encourages Bible study not from just the preacher, but for everyone. Every Christian ought to be a Bible thumper. Every Christian ought to read and study their Bible on a daily basis.

Every Christian ought to be just enthralled with this book. This is the meat, this is our food. This is how we grow spiritually. And I just can't rely now again, it's wonderful.

We ought to seek out good teachers and good podcasts and all those things encourages us and, and we can grow and learn a lot. But individually I am to take the time and walk with God myself, walk with Jesus yourself, have a daily walk. That's what God desires of you.

He desires to personally walk with you and talk with you. And I know I'm the preacher up here, but sometimes too, if we're not careful, we can put preachers on another shelf, another level or.

And I'm telling you, preachers will let you down. I let myself down all the time. That was supposed to be funny. It's not, but I do. I've had preachers let me down. Man. Your faith.

You are personally accountable for your faith. You, not your preacher, not your Sunday school teacher, not that person you're listening to on the podcast or that book you're reading. But you.

Would you want it any other way? No. I don't want to live in China. Do you? I don't want to live in the Middle East. Do you? No. I'm thankful for my liberty.

I'm thankful for religious liberty. Amen. Let's all stand. Hymn 156. Individual Soul Liberty, one of the Baptist distinctives Baptists were. I'm telling you, do your own research.

You'll find the influence of Baptist upon the founding Fathers was indeed the reason why we have one of the number one reasons why we have religious liberty the way that it's stated. And I'm so thankful for it. Heavenly Father, we thank you for. We thank you for freedom. We thank you Lord, for liberty.

We thank you that you created us with a free choice.

And I pray God that you would help each of us to read our Bibles and pray and develop and have a walk with you understanding and knowing that we are personally accountable. Well, what a blessing it is to have direct access to the Heavenly Father, I thank you, thank you so much for that wonderful truth.

In Jesus name, amen.