Amen. Thank you, ladies, for that beautiful special this morning. No, I couldn't get... Pastor kind of tasked me, not tasked, but said, you're preaching Veterans Day. And one word that cannot get off my brain for about Veterans Day is the word freedom. Now, there's a song by David Hasselhoff, Looking for Freedom. I'm not talking about that type of freedom, but rather freedom that we all have today here as Americans. Freedom that we all have been given at birth, but also another freedom that I hope that I can make this explain to you how that freedom is never free. Freedom is never free. If you have a Bible, turn to Mark chapter 15. Mark chapter 15, Verses starting in verse 16. Mark chapter number 15 and verse number 16. And if you're there, please stand with me, reading in verse number 16. Mark chapter 15, verse number 16, and it says, And the soldiers led him away into the hall, called Perturnium. And they called together the whole band, and they clothed him with purple, and plaited a crown of thorns, and put it about his head, and began to salute him, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him on the head with a reed, and did spit upon him, and bowing their knees, worshiped him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple from him, and put his own clothes on him, and led him out to crucify him. And they compel one Simon of Cyrene, who passed by coming out of the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to bear his cross. And they bring him into the place Golgotha, which is being interpreted the place of a skull. And they gave him to drink wine mingled with myrrh, but he received it not. And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments, casting lots upon them, whatever men should take. And it was the third hour, and they crucified him, and the superscription of the accusation was written over the king of the Jews. And with him they crucified two thieves, the one on his right hand and the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors. And they passed by, railed on him, waging their heads, and saying, Ah, that thou destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days. Save thyself, and come down from the cross. Likewise, also the chief priests mocked and said among themselves with the scribes, he saved others, himself he cannot save. Well, Christ, the King of Israel, descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe, and they that were crucified with him reviled him. And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloha, Eloha, lama sabachthani, saying, sorry, which is being interpreted, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And some of them that stood by, when they heard it, said, Behold, he calleth Elias. And one ran, and filled a sponge full of vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave him to drink, saying, Let alone let us see whether Elias will come to take him down. And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the temple was rent, and twain from the top to the bottom. And when the centurion which stood over him saw that he cried out, and gave up the ghost, he said, truly, this man was the son of God. Today's message is freedom is never free. Freedom is never free. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this wonderful day where I count it as a privilege and honor to preach your word, and especially on days where we get to honor your son, Lord, but also The veterans who have served our country, Lord, because they have willing to serve for a greater cause than for themselves, Lord. And thank you so much for our veterans here in our church and also around our nation, Lord. In Jesus name, amen. You may be seated. Now freedom stated in 1828 Webster's Dictionary is a state of exemption from the power of control of another. Liberty, exemption from slavery, servitude, or confinement. Freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious. Now freedom is synonymous with the United States of America. When you ask somebody like, I really don't ask too many foreigners because I don't get to meet them too often, but I mean if I were to ask them like, what do you think about America? They're like, I would assume they would say freedom, a choice to have an American dream, and freedom is something that is known with the United States of America. And many people have looked for freedom in other countries, and they saw that the United States is the emblem of freedom. And freedom is what we have here today in America. And freedom, though, is never free. Freedom from tyranny and oppression, freedom from fascists and communists, freedom we enjoy today has been given to us by brave men and women who have served this nation. But freedom is something we often take for granted and often forgetting, forgotten. We take for granted the freedom we have here. If we were to go down to Venezuela right now, we all would transport down to Venezuela, we would see oppression, tyranny by the government, and we would say, where is the freedom of the people? And when we come back here, we will be all very grateful, and we will not forget that trip to Venezuela. We'll be very grateful for the freedom. Many of you have come here to America seeking freedom or other causes, and you have much more freedom than you did before. And we should never forget the freedom that we have because there have been many men and women who have served so that we could have freedom. Not only do we have freedom as citizens of the United States of America, but we have a higher and more powerful freedom that comes from Jesus Christ. And here in our text today, I just cannot get away, Tom, thinking about freedom, thinking about Veterans Day, serving, and this, how Jesus Christ is the emblem of freedom, the ultimate emblem of freedom, freedom that we have through him and freedom to go into heaven. So what is the freedom that we can or that we do have? As an American, I have been blessed with many freedoms. The Declaration of Independence, states that all men are endowed by their creator with certain unable rights. This was an acknowledgment of a higher power without specific reference to any religion. This new nation would go on to a guaranteed freedom of faith, freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the rights of petitions and assemblies. Now as a Christian we have freedom, freedom from sin, freedom from hell if we have accepted Jesus Christ into our heart. Now I had a teacher in high school who would say there's not, there's sorry, there's no such thing as a free lunch. Has anybody ever heard that saying before? There's no such thing as a free lunch, right? Somebody has to go pick it up. Somebody has to go waste their gas. I mean, I wouldn't say waste gas. They're bringing me food. But, I mean, somebody had to buy it. Somebody had to go pick it up. Somebody had to make time, had to take time out of their day. I mean, there's no such thing as a free lunch, right? And there's no such thing as free freedom because there has been a price paid. There is a price for freedom. Now, if you remember back on when I preached on 9-11, we were in the text previous to this talking about Barabbas and how that Jesus Christ became the sacrificial lamb that would take the place, not for just Barabbas, not just for those thieves on the cross, not just for the told apostles, not for those people back in those days, but for every person who has ever breathed on this earth, for the past, present, or future, Jesus became the sacrificial lamb of God And he took the place of Rabbis. Now someone had to pay for our freedom from sin. And Jesus has already been... I'm going to take you through a journey of what is going on in this passage. Jesus has been questioned all night long. Unfair trials, multiple of them. And he's been awake for almost 24 hours. And he's just been whaled out with questions and questions. And they know the answers, but they... They don't want to acknowledge that He is the Messiah. And they don't like the freedom that is being taken away from them with the Roman government. So they keep on asking questions and questions. And then they go to Pilate and say, this man is guilty as to be condemned to death. And he goes before Pilate and the people. And at this time, Pilate was going to release, during the time of Passover, release one of the prisoners. And we have here Barabbas, a man, an insurrectionist, a rebel, a murderer. And then on the other hand, we have the holy, sinless, perfect Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. And so they have two options here. Pilate gives them, right, you want this killer or do you want this man who has, I've seen, no guilt in? Who do you want? A killer or a perfect man? And the people, as we know, in the Scripture say, Brabus, Brabus, and they say to Jesus, Crucify Him, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. And the high priest and the priest Levites are instigating the people and saying, Crucify Him, Crucify Him. And Pilate releases Brabus. And he goes on his way to a place where he is now free. But Pilate, when he asked the people, they keep on saying, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. And Pilate not wanting to break out, not wanting the Jewish people to break out in rebellion, he asked them, why do you want him to be crucified? And they just kept on saying, crucify him, crucify him. Jesus took the place of Barabbas. And the next thing that happened is they take him into this private chamber of some sort, away from the people, and they scourge him. And this scourging is not with words, but rather is with these whips. These whips were held by these, I mean, if we can think NFL linebackers, these guys are probably massive. They knew what they were doing. They're professionals at scourging someone. And these whips were handles like this big, and they had leather tips, and they had bones and glass tied to the end of them. And I was watching this one guy on YouTube just wailing into a cardboard box and just after a couple blows just ripped the box apart. And I just can't imagine every time they would go up against his back and he wouldn't have any clothes on. They would strip him naked and they would chain him to a post or a stone or something so that he would not be able to move. And so scourging, so they hit the lash on his back and back and back. I'm going to be a little more gruesome today because Jesus had done all this and there's more that he went through that I'm able to even explain. Because I want to remind you that freedom is never free. Freedom from hell was not free. It was bought with a price. And they kept on scourging him. And the Jews, they would only do it 39 times. And if they were to go over 40 times, they might have killed him, they thought. But the Romans had no problem with going over 40 times. They just kept on wailing into him, wailing into him, wailing into him. And Jesus is probably in agony. I mean, He's not probably. He is in agony. He may be screaming. He's in torture because of this stuff. This is just the beginning of His torture for freedom from our sin. And these, just a couple blows rip like a two-inch deep skin, no, sorry, like two inches long. And a doctor said that the scourging, just one lash will take 20 stitches to heal. 20 stitches and I've never gotten stitches before, but I imagine his back is absolutely bleeding right now. And this is just the first part of him. They're scourging him. I don't know how many times they did it, but they kept on scourging him, scourging him, whipping him, lashing him. And he's just on his knees at this point. And all he's thinking is that there's a 13-year-old boy named Aaron Bowles that he's willing to be lashed at, to die for, so that he can go to heaven. Jesus, on his knees right now, is thinking about somebody in this auditorium who is not saved. Like, I'm willing to go through this pain, this agony, this suffering, so that they could be free from sin. So they can be free from hell. After them whipping him, they would put like a purple garment on him and his back is all bleeding and bruised and he's broken, bruised and wounded. And this new garment would stick to his skin. After they placed this coat on his back, they would place a crown of thorns onto his head. These thorns aren't just like those rose bushes outside, very tiny. If anybody's been to Israel, they know that there's these thorn trees that have about an inch and a half to two inches of thorns. And I remember seeing there's this tree in the lower field at my parents' house that has some large, and these birds would put worms or stuff on them to kill them. And it was the same. They're massive thorns, and they wind them up into a, crown of thorns. And we think of crown, like, growing up, I always thought, like, oh, it may have hurt a little bit. They were just mocking him by that. But I mean, yes, it hurt. Yes, it mocked. But it was an extrusionating pain. Multiple points into his head, his forehead, were punctured by these things. They didn't just restlessly put it on his. They punctured. They pushed it down onto his head. And when he's doing it, he's thinking of all the people around the world that he was willing to die for. They began to mock Him. Hail, King of the Jews. I mean, these Romans were experts of what they were doing. And they knew how to get to people physically, but also mentally. And I mean, I wouldn't even make it past the scourging part. I would have given up the ghost in there. But Jesus had one thing in His mind. Me. He had you in His mind. And He was going through that. He was saying that, I'm going to make a way so that you don't have to go to hell. And they keep on mocking him, mocking him. And they smote him in the head with the reed. And his eyes may have become swollen. His nose just gushing out with blood. And later in the scripture, other gospels says that Mary didn't even recognize her own son. There's been many movies that have been trying to portray like the passion of Christ or things like that and they try to portray what Jesus went through and they really can't. I mean, there's so much that he went through for the freedom that we get to have as believers. His eyes swollen, his nose is bleeding and they continue mocking him and spitting on, railing on him and say, hail king of the Jews, who are you that They should worship you. Who are you? Are you even a king? You're just some dude from Nazareth. And then at this point, I'm sure they knew exactly what they're doing. That purple garment they had placed on his back, on his body, had now stuck to his skin. And how I'm sure that the blood had dried on him. And they ripped it off his back and sort of reopened all those wounds. And he's going through that pain on his back, on his face, on his head. all for you and me." And then comes the time to crucify him. He carries his cross to Golgotha. Now the Romans would strip their victims to be crucified they would strip him of his clothes. And walking through Jerusalem naked, mocking and carrying this tree would humiliate anybody. But Christ, I'm sure in his flesh, I mean, if I was there, I'd be humiliated, but he kept on going, pursuing for the freedom of our souls. No, I meant to mention that scourging never really happened just to anybody. It was only to slaves or to traders. But they deemed it worthy that this Jesus Christ would be scourged. They deemed it worthy to beat Him, to bruise Him, constantly to mock Him. And now, He's carrying this cross. And now it wasn't just two two-by-fours put together. It was, this cross was much larger. A massive beam that weighed well over 75 pounds to 100 pounds. And some crosses weighed up to 300 pounds. I mean, I've never been able to bench much, and I can't imagine carrying a cross on my back. I'm already scourged. I'm already beaten. I can barely see because I have swollen eyes. I'm going down the streets of Jerusalem being mocked, being spat on. And those people who are spitting at me, who are mocking me, who scourge me, I'm dying for their freedom from hell. Now this cross, I mean, it wasn't sanded down. It didn't have a nice stain to it. Rather, it was jagged. It was just a piece of wood. And if anybody's gotten a splinter before, especially underneath your fingertip, it hurts a lot. But when Jesus was walking and crawling to Golgotha, after being beaten, scourged, and mocked, they finally reached Golgotha, where they would finally crucify Him. They laid him on the cross and began to drive the spikes into his hands. I mean, these are railroad spikes. These are massive. I don't have big enough hands to even show you. I can only do, like, from here to here, maybe even bigger. And these spikes would be driven about, like, right here, where your watch would be. In the Hebrew, the hand is from your fingertip to about where your watch would be. And so these bones would be able to hold up your weight. And there's this, I'm not a doctor or nurse, so I forget the technical term, but there's a vein right here, artery, that if you were to cut it, you would bleed out and die. So they knew that, and so they would go a little bit farther back, and they would pound that nail in, pound that nail in, and every time that nail struck, he was thinking of souls to be saved. He was thinking of you and me, to set us free from hell. They would do it on his hands and then also on his feet. Now, they wouldn't just lay him on the ground. Of course, they would have a hole already dug up and they would drop them into this hole and jar their whole entire body out of a joint. And when he wanted to breathe, he would have to push his body up against the nails. and his body, so he'd get a breath of air. But when he'd do that, he'd rub his back against that tattered, that barely used tree, and it just splinters all over his back. Anytime he wanted to breathe or air, he kept on doing that. And they would continue to mock Christ while on the cross. Destroy the temple and raise it up in three days. Yeah, right. If you are Christ, save yourself and come down from the cross. He saved others, but he cannot save himself. If I was there, I mean, I would be in my flesh like, no, I don't care about you. I don't care of what you're saying. But Christ didn't even make remarks to those Jewish religious leaders. He didn't make remarks to the Romans who were scourging Him. He didn't make fun of them for beating Him. He didn't try to rebuttal or talk them back, but rather he just stood there and he's thinking, I'm dying for these people. I'm dying for these Jews who are mocking me. I'm dying for those people who say, crucify him, crucify him, crucify him. I'm dying for those Romans who scourge me on my back. He would take another breath, more mocking, more agonizing in pain, until he finally cried out, and gave up the ghost. Jesus went through all that so that we could be free from hell. Jesus did all that for me, for you. for the president of the United States to the homeless dude on the street. He died for every single one of us because he saw that freedom is never free. And because that we have a debt to pay, that debt is sin and our debt is to go to hell. And Jesus saw that and wanted to pay the price for our freedom. Now, today is Veterans Day, and we set aside, well, tomorrow is Veterans Day, but today we honor the veterans in our presence and those who are watching by live stream. We thank you so much. And there was a price for freedom as an American citizen that someone had to pay. Many men and women have served our country. They have put aside years of their life or their entire career to serve for a higher purpose, more than themselves, but for our nation. From the men who fought for our freedom in the independence war to today, men and women who serve our nation to protect our freedoms. Millions have served our nation and protect our nation for liberty and freedom. I remind you again, freedom is never free. As an American, I am very thankful for those who are willing to serve our country. to protect our nation who can never forget or take, we can never forget or take for granted what they did for us. Freedom is never free. Honestly, we should have in hearts a gratitude for those men and women who served our country. I mean, honestly, I struggle with words to describe how thankful I am for the men and women who have served in war, who have served during the peacetime, because if it wasn't for the people who were serving peacetime, we would have constant wars. It wasn't for those men and women who were saying, you know what, I want to become a doctor, but first I want to serve four years. in the military so that we can protect freedom. I'm really thankful for those who I've served because it takes courage, it takes calling, and they've answered that call. For the men and women who have served and fought for, sorry, for the men and women who have served, fought and died for our freedom in the United States, I am indebted to you and thank you so much. Our veterans could have done something else with their life during these times that they served, but instead they served this nation to keep freedom ringing throughout the land. To the men and women who have served our country, thank you so much. I'm sure that all the people here have the same, hopefully have the same heart, sympathy toward, that's not the right word, I'm sorry, but are very thankful for what you have done. And I do not take that for granted. I try my best with words, but my heart is over thankful for all those who have served. But the thing is also, I've mentioned multiple times before that freedom is never free. And that freedom also comes from Jesus Christ. For Christ, we ought to say thank you to Him for what He has done on the cross. I mean, I almost gave just a PG version of what He went through. I mean, what He went through is way out of the ratings on this chart. I mean, He went through so much. I mean, just thinking through it, if you just take time and read through His passages, study of how, what they did to Him, everything that He did so that you would not have to go to hell. We ought to thank Christ for dying for our sins. I mean, we thank those who are served, but more importantly, we thank the Lord for dying and taking away our sins. We should have more of a grateful heart to our King, to our Savior, to Jesus Christ. Jesus did not have to come down on earth at all. Jesus did not have to humble himself and come as a baby. Jesus did not have to come and live in a body that He created. Jesus did not have to come down and live with us humans. Prideful, selfish, loser humans. Jesus did not have to be here for 33 and a half years in this flesh. Jesus did not have to come here and be mocked. Jesus did not have to come here and be beaten with a rod, with a reed. Jesus did not have to come here and be scourged. Jesus did not have to come here and be carried across. Jesus did not have to come here and be crucified. Jesus came here because He wanted to, because He loved you, because He loved us. Because He wanted us a way that we can escape the bondage and go into hell. A way to escape oppression of sin. A way to escape punishment. So that we rightly deserve. Turn your Bibles to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 and verse number 8. Romans chapter 5 verse number 8. but God commendeth his love toward us, and that while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. And some people start turning there, but I want everybody to, let's all read it together. Just to get this, this thought in our mind that freedom is never free. That we should never take freedom for granted. We should never forget about the freedom that we have because of Jesus Christ, what He did for us. So, we'll read this verse all together. Ready, begin. But God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. John 3, verse 14, it says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Verse 15, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Freedom is never free. I mean, I really, really encourage you. I mean, this isn't Easter time yet, and we're talking about the cross. I mean, we sing about the blood of Jesus Christ every single Sunday. Like, we think, oftentimes I think, just like a little drop, a little drop of blood. But the thing is, this wasn't just little drops of blood, this was gallons of blood that he shed for you and for me. This is that Jesus died so that you would not have to go to hell, so that you would not have to suffer an eternal, a whole lot worse punishment than being crucified. He did the worst possible thing on this earth so that we wouldn't have to suffer an eternal consequence. Freedom is never free. The freedom we enjoy as Americans is to the veterans who have served this country. The freedom we have as Christians is only through Jesus' suffering and dying on the cross for our sins. Freedom is never free. Freedom from hell came by the cross. Only through believing Christ and confessing our sins are we ever able to have freedom from the sponge of sin and hell. Freedom is never free. We should have a heart of gratitude towards the veterans of this nation. If you know any veterans today in your presence right now, or you have them on your phone, shoot them a text or go up to them and say thank you for what they have done for our country. Because, I mean, we are the greatest country. We know that God has blessed us, but it's also the men and women who have served our country and we owe a lot to them. Honestly, we should have more than just one day or two days set aside to thank them. We should also have a month full of about veterans. I mean, not about pride. I mean, don't get me started on that, but we should really have distinct at Veteran Name Time. It's really sad to see when a Vietnam veteran, when they came back, they were not thanked at all. I mean, they were trying to protect freedom for those Vietnamese like they did in Korea. I mean, and the thing is that, I mean, whenever I see a Vietnam veteran, I don't say, thank you, I say, welcome home, because they were never thanked when they came back home. And I think there's veterans all throughout our country, and we owe them a thanks every time we see them. But take time today, most important, to thank Christ for dying on the cross for you. Because freedom is never free. Let's pray.