Getting Out-Sermon by Tim Keller of the Gospel Coalition

If there ever was a Biblical description of the secular term “REDEMPTION” popular in the freedom community, THIS IS IT!  THIS is definitely a type of “REDEMPTION” that we heartily advocate among everyone in society.  This “REDEMPTION” is theological as much as it is practical and even psychological.  It affects every aspect of life and our entire world view, in fact.

Like Moses and his successor Jesus, this ministry seeks to liberate people from slavery to governments and more generally, to sin itself.

“Is this not the fast [act of faith, worship, and OBEDIENCE] that I [God] have chosen [for believers]:
To loose the bonds of wickedness,
To undo the heavy burdens,
To let the oppressed go free,
And that you break every yoke [franchise, contract, tie, dependency, or “benefit” with the government]?”
[Isaiah 58:6, Bible, NKJV]

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me,
Because the Lord has anointed Me
To preach good tidings to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the [government] captives
And the opening of the prison [government FARM, Form #12.020] to those who are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
And the day of vengeance of our God;”
[Isaiah 61:1-2, Bible, NKJV]

The process of liberation is a gradual process that is best explained using the metaphor of the Israelite captivity and liberation from Pharaoh in the Bible.  This excellent sermon by Tim Keller of the Gospel Coalition powerfully illustrates the differences between slavery and liberty, and the tension throughout the Gospel, both SUBJECTIVELY and OBJECTIVELY, between these two.  He uses the story of Moses and the Israelites to describe their OBJECTIVE bondage to government (Pharaoh), and their SUBJECTIVE slave mentality even after they left that physical bondage. He identifies 4 specific layers of bondage:

1. Objective bondage.
2. Subjective bondage.
3. Bondage to our sin nature.  Sin is the suicidal action of the human will against itself.  This is the bondage to sinful habits.
4. Bondage to idols.  This includes power, money, sex, self, etc.

Keller describes the proper biblical attitude throughout our transition from slavery to liberty and the consequences of having the wrong attitude.  Tim Keller is a Presbyterian/Reformed theology pastor and minister, just like all the other pastors and ministers we reference on this site as well as the Sermons Page.  He passed away in 2023.

This ministry calls our audience to pursue freedom through Christian liberty, but many of us remain SUBJECTIVELY in bondage because of the way we THINK about being free.  We need to not only go through the OBJECTIVE steps in the Path to Freedom, Form #09.015, Section 2 process, but must also adjust our thinking to become SUBJECTIVELY free as well.  Keller emphasizes that Christianity is not about works, but about a “CHANGE OF STATUS” in the eyes of God.  That is exactly what our Path to Freedom does:  Change your CIVIL STATUS in the eyes of the secular pagan state (Form #05.016).

Our status changes when we believe. We are taken out of Adam, and placed into Christ (Romans 5, 6). The key to the Christian life is to know that “we are dead to sin and alive to God” (Romans 6:11).

The first command in the Book of Romans is “reckon.” (6:11); that is, to stop thinking like a slave, and start thinking like a kingdom citizen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have never met a Christian, including professors, who knew what the first command was in Romans. Now you know.   Spread the word!

In 10:20 through 11:00, Keller describes the effect of “leaving Babylon” and entering redemption and Christian liberty.  When this happened with the Israelites, Pharaoh responded by saying “we have lost their services”!  In the Internal Revenue Code, those “services” are called “personal services”.  

Sovereignty Forms and Instructions Online, Form #10.004, Cites by Topic:  “personal services”
https://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/CitesByTopic/PersonalServices.htm

The above “personal services” are NOT services rendered to someone who hires you, but services rendered to Pharaoh as his VOLUNTEER agent and fiduciary without pay.  They are connected to the VOLUNTARY “trade or business”, which is legally defined as “the functions of a public office” and YOU are the officer.

Sovereignty Forms and Instructions Online, Form #10.004, Cites by Topic:  “trade or business”
https://famguardian.org/TaxFreedom/CitesByTopic/TradeOrBusiness.htm

The alleged but not REAL “benefits” of rendering these “services” , in fact are the “pay” for your voluntary agency.

For a biblical example of a people who decided to transition from government slavery to liberty without a redeemer or mediator, see the Book of Nehemiah.  Below is an excerpt from our About Us Page describing their migration from slavery to liberty following a long period of captivity in Babylon for over 70 years.  They restored their liberty by PHYSICALLY and LEGALLY separating from the pagan state (Form #05.016) and pagan neighbors and establishing their own theocracy inside of a fortress they restored.  In spiritual terms, that separation is called “Sanctification”:

Our mission is the same as Nehemiah described in the Book of Nehemiah in the Bible, who followed God’s sovereign calling and commission to rebuild the wall that protected the people in the city of Jerusalem from their surrounding heathen neighbors and governments.  That wall was a figurative wall of separation between the “church”, which was God’s followers the Israelites, and the “state”, which was the rest of the foreigners and the king who did not serve God or fear Him.  The religious people had neglected obeying God’s laws and commandments and thereby become slaves of the surrounding kings and political rulers:

“The survivors [Christians] who are left from the captivity in the province are there in great distress and reproach.  The wall [of separation between “church”, which was the Jews, and “state”, which was the heathens around them] of Jerusalem is also broken down, and its gates are burned with fire.”
[Neh. 1:3, Bible, NKJV]

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Then I said to them, “You see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lies waste, and its gates are burned with fire.  Come and let us build the wall of [of separation in] Jerusalem that we may no longer be a reproach.”  And I told them of the hand of my God which had been good upon me, and also of the king’s words that he had spoken to me.  So they said, “Let us rise up and build.”  Then they set their hands to this good work.

But when Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard of it, they laughed at us and despised us, and said, “What is this thing that you are doing? Will you rebel against the king?”

So I answered them, and said to them, “The God of heaven Himself will prosper us; therefore we His servants will arise and build [the wall of separation between church and state]…”
[Neh. 3:17-18, Bible, NKJV]

Nehemiah was heavily ridiculed and persecuted by the government in his campaign to rebuild the wall.

But it so happened, when Sanballat [the U.S. government/IRS] heard that we were rebuilding the wall that he was furious and very indignant, and mocked the Jews [Christian patriots]. And he spoke before his brethren and the army of Samaria, and said, “What are these feeble Jews [Christian patriots] doing?  Will they fortify themselves?…

Now Tobiah the Ammonite [part of the government] was beside him, and he said, “Whatever they build, if even a fox goes up on it, he will break down their stone wall.“

Hear, O our God, for we are despised, turn their reproach on their own heads and give them [the opponents of the wall of separation] as plunder to [their socialist fellow citizens in] a land of captivity!  Do not cover their iniquity, and do not let their sin be blotted out from before You; for they have provoked You to anger before the builders [of the wall].  So we built the wall, and the entire wall was joined together up to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.

…and all of them conspired together to come and attack Jerusalem and create confusion.

And our adversaries said, “They will neither know nor see anything, till we come into their midst and kill them and cause the work to cease.“
[Neh. 4:1-11, Bible, NKJV]

At one point, the heathens and nonbelievers even complained that the Jews were going to leave the tax roles so they were left holding the bag!

And there was a great outcry of the [socialist] people and their wives [at the voting booths and in the jury boxes] against their Jewish brethren [who were building the wall].

For there were those who said, ” We, our sons, and our daughters are many; therefore let us get grain [through government usury by unjust taxation], that we may eat and live.”

There were also some who said, “We have mortgaged our lands and vineyards and houses, that we might buy grain because of the famine.”

There were also those who said, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tax on our lands and vineyards. Yet now our flesh is as the flesh of our brethren, our children as their children; and indeed we are forcing our sons and our daughters to be slaves [to the king and his taxes and the banksters], and some of our daughters have been brought into slavery.  It is not in our power to redeem them, for other men have our lands and vineyards.“
[Neh. 5:1-5, Bible, NKJV]

Nehemiah’s righteous response was to rebuke the nobles and rulers (the government leaders and the tax collectors) for their usury and extortion, as we frequently do on this website:

And I became very angry when I heard their outcry and these words.  After serious thought, I rebuked the nobles and rulers, and said to them, “Each of you is exacting usury from his brother.” So I called a great assembly against them [as we attempt to do here on this website].

And I said to them, “According to our ability we have redeemed our Jewish [Christian] brethren who were sold to the nations.  Now indeed, will you even sell your brethren?  Or should they be sold to us?” Then they [the government leaders] were silenced [because of guilt about their usury and extortion] and found nothing to say.

Then I said, “What you are doing is not good, Should you not walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies?

“I also, with my brethren and my servants, am lending them money and grain.  Please, let us stop this usury [illegal and unjust taxation and government extortion]!  [IRS and the government must] Restore to them, even this day, their [financial control over their labor and their] lands, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, also a hundredth of the money and the grain, the new wine and the oil, that you have charged them.”

So they [the government] said, “We will restore it, and will require nothing from them; we will do as you say.” Then I called the priests, and required an oath from them that they would do according to this promise.

…Moreover, from the time that I was appointed to be their governor in the land of Judah, from the twentieth year until the thirty-second year of King Artaxerxes, twelve years, neither I nor my brothers ate the governor’s provisions.  But the former governors before me laid burdens on the people, and took from them bread and wine, besides forty shekels of silver.  Yes, even their servants bore rule over the people, but I did not do so, because of the fear of God.

Indeed, I also continued the work on this wall, and we did not buy any land.  All my servants were gathered there for the work.
[Neh. 5:6-16, Bible, NKJV]

Nehemiah’s example is the solution of how to accomplish the restoration of the wall of separation between church and state.  It is the model for how God has told this ministry that we must accomplish it and which we carefully follow on this website.

“And I saw the beast, the kings [heathen political rulers and the unbelieving democratic majorities who control them] of the earth [controlled by Satan], and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him [God] who sat on the horse and against His army.”
[Revelation 19:19, Bible, NKJV]

“And I heard another voice from heaven [God] saying, ‘Come out of her [Babylon the Great Harlot, a democratic state full of socialist non-believers], my people [Christians], lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.'”
[Revelation 18:4, Bible, NKJV]

Below are sermons explaining the meaning of the Book of Nehemiah:

1. Being God’s Gap Man (OFFSITE LINK) – Nike Insights. Nehemiah was God’s “Gap Man”
2.  Laboring for a God Who Fights for Us (OFFSITE LINK)-Pastor Tim Keller
3.  Nehemiah: Armed Men Rebuilt Jerusalem (OFFSITE LINK) -Pastor Sheldon Emry
4.  EZRA: Rebuilding Jerusalem, Sermon 7929a (OFFSITE LINK)-Pastor Sheldon Emry
5.  EZRA: Rebuilding Jerusalem, Sermon 7929b (OFFSITE LINK)-Pastor Sheldon Emry
6.  Nehemiah & the Patriots on the Money System 1 (OFFSITE LINK)-Pastor Sheldon Emry
7.  Nehemiah & the Patriots on the Money System 2 (OFFSITE LINK)-Pastor Sheldon Emry

[SEDM About Us Page, Section 2; https://sedm.org/Ministry/AboutUs.htm#2.__Mission_Statement]

Nike Insights, a sister site, did an article about Exodus below:

https://nikeinsights.famguardian.org/forums/topic/the-exodus-as-a-type-of-salvation/

Another blog article on this site also addresses your “STATUS” under the biblical delegation of authority order:

Your Civil Status Under the Bible/Gospel, SEDM Blog
https://sedm.org/your-civil-status-under-the-bible-gospel/

Pastor John Weaver has two sermons along the same line:

• Expressions of a Slave Mentality – Pastor John Weaver.
• The Effects of a Slave Mentality – Pastor John Weaver.

This website has extensive instructions on how to “Get Out” as he calls it.  They are available below:

Path to Freedom, Form #09.015
https://sedm.org/Forms/09-Procs/PathToFreedom.pdf

The above instructions also appear on the opening page of our website in big letters “START HERE” in the pink box near the top of the opening page (http://sedm.org)

Lastly, for a debate with a member over whether changing your civil status under secular statutory civil law does in fact and in deed change your RIGHTS, see:

Membership in a Specific Class, Status, or Group As a Cause for Loss of Rights, SEDM Blog
https://sedm.org/membership-in-a-specific-class-status-or-group-as-a-cause-for-loss-of-rights/