Living in Freedom | Galatians 5:16-26

all right let's pray shall we father we just come to your word tonight and we need a miracle we need you to open our eyes we need you to open our hearts so that we can see Jesus we cannot do it apart from his work in us and so father I would pray that you would do that miracle tonight so that your son would be treasured and glorified among your people and so that our hearts would be moved to worship Him and serve him with our lives we pray this in Jesus name Amen well I don't know about you but I have been loving our study of the book of Galatians if you haven't been with us we've been going chapter by chapter through this book and and last week pastor Karl he took us through the first part of the book of Galatians and I'm going to focus on the second half of Galatians chapter 5 tonight but Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1 is really the climax of the book it's like the mountain peak of the book of Galatians everything in the book of Galatians has been leading up to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 1 so I just want us to read it again so just look down your bibles Galatians 5 verse 1 it says this for freedom Christ has set us free stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery you know when the New Testament speaks about the Christian life it speaks about it in terms of freedom we are free from the fear of death we are free from the Dominion of the enemy we are free from sins slavery but the type of freedom that Paul is actually speaking about here in Galatians 5 verse 1 is not freedom from the fear of death it's not freedom from sin it's not freedom from Satan but rather it's freedom from the law now you might say freedom from the law I don't hear that preached on much and it may not be something that you really think you need but really freedom from the law is actually foundational to Christian living now when I talk about the law and when Paul talks about the law what is what's what does Paul mean well God as the creator of this universe he set up the world with moral order and he rules this universe through his moral law and Jesus basically summarized the moral law of God and saying in two ways saying it's you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength and you shall love your neighbor as yourself but because all of us are born with a sinful nature we are all born with hearts that are drawn towards selfishness and sin we don't love God with all our heart soul mind and strength we we replace God we worship other things other than God and rather than loving our neighbors as we love ourselves we mistreat our neighbors and we and we use our neighbors for our own selfish person purpose even even the most beautiful people that you will meet after you spend a little bit of time with them you'll find that even they that the cracks start appearing and even they have tinges of selfishness surrounding them I mean there's probably not a person here tonight who would put up their hand and say I'm absolutely perfect I've never lied I've never harbored a bit bitterness in my heart towards anyone all of us have sinned all of us have broken God's law and the bad news of the Bible is that when we break God's law the just punishment for breaking God's law is death and the Bible speaks about death in three ways firstly it speaks about spiritual death being separated from God and a relationship with God and we're all born spiritually dead we're all born not in relationship with God every single one of us hunger after God but we're not in relationship with God there's also physical death the Bible speaks about physical death a separation of the body and the soul and we're all going to experience that one day and the horrific thing that the Bible says is that if we die physically in a state of spiritual death then we will suffer the third type of death that the Bible speaks about which is eternal death separation from God and his good presence forever in hell and that is the just punishment for sin against a holy and perfect God but the good news that Paul's been teaching in the book of Galatians and the good message of the Christian faith is that God loves humanity so much that he sent His Son Jesus and two thousand years ago Jesus the historical Jesus came he was God's Son he died on a cross dying in our place for our sin so that if we turn to Him and trust in him the slate can be wiped clean we can be forgiven of all of our sin now that's good news right and that good news that's great news that's great words news we're singing and celebrating about but what Paul has been teaching in the letter of Galatians he's been teaching us the doctrine of justification by faith now I know we live in this world where we try to dumb down everything like I know we live in the Internet age where we try to dumb down everything but there are some theological terms that you need to know and one of them is the doctrine of justification by faith because it is such a beautiful rich doctrine such a beautiful rich truth and most Christians don't understand it and they don't understand the fullness of the doctrine of justification by faith just this last week I teach at a Bible College I teach at ACM and I asked my students I said who here can define for me the doctrine of justification by faith and one student bravely put up their hand and said the doctrine of justification by faith means that we are declared not guilty in the sight of God so basically what we've been speaking about that Jesus died in our place and so that we can that the slate is wiped clean so we're forgiven of all sin and he was he was he was right but there's actually more to it than that my sister she was teaching a theology class a few years ago and she said to her class she said put up your hand if you think you're as righteous as me and a whole heap of people put up their hand and she said okay keep your hand up if you think you're as righteous as Mother Teresa most of the hands went down then she said okay keep your hand up if you think you're as righteous as Jesus every hand went down now I wonder would your hand be up or would it be down you see most Christians are willing to accept yes I'm forgiving the slate is wiped clean but they don't realize the other side of it is not only are they forgiven and the slate wait cream clean but imputed to them is the perfect obedience of Jesus is the righteousness of Jesus justification by faith means that there is a great exchange on the cross all of my sin was placed on Jesus so that he died in my place but the other thing that happened is all of his righteousness his perfect obedience was accredited to me so that I am free from the law I'm free from the condemnation of the law it's punishment and penalty has been paid but I'm also free from the laws demand I'm standing in the perfect obedience of Jesus this is great news justification by faith means not only just as if I never sinned that's what I dad used to say is to say to his church I used to remember when I was 12 years old is to preach it you say justification by faith means just as if I never sinned but now I realize it's even better than that it's just as if I always obeyed I am a perfectly loved accepted child of God God rejoices over me with singing now as Richard Lovelace writes most Christians don't understand this Steve most Christians don't get up every day rejoicing over the fact that they are a fully accepted loved child of God most Christians get up every day anxious worried if they've done enough works to be accepted by God Lovelace writes most Christians most Christians they base their standing with God on their walk with God if they've been walking with God then they feel like they're in right standing with God they don't wake up every day rejoicing over the fact that the father rejoices over you you are a fully accepted loved child of God the perfect righteousness of Christ has been imputed to you you are wrapped in the righteous robes of Christ isn't that great in that great news and you see Paul Paul Paul knows that this is so scandalous I mean this is offensive he says in here this is the offense of the cross that you are justified by faith alone in Christ alone by grace alone what a scandal and so everywhere that Paul went there would be these Jewish legalists who would follow him around and they'd be basically teaching three things firstly yes you do need to trust in Jesus but secondly you need to keep the law and thirdly that makes you fully accepted by God but Paul would teach a different order he would say first you need to believe in Jesus secondly you are then fully accepted by God and justified and flowing out of that love and joy that you have in your position and identity and God comes a life of obedience to God and Paul knows Paul knows that legalism we tend our hearts tend to go after legalism and so that's why he says stand firm and passed a car last week he did a great job of showing us in Chapter five how how Paul says that we need to reject legalism and we need to resist legalists but then we come down to verse 13 and verse 13 s where I want to start tonight because on Tuesday I was just praying to the Lord Jesus and just asking him what message he would have me share with you and he started me at verse 13 let's look in verse 13 in your Bibles Paul says this for you were called to freedom brothers only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh now what tends to happen in churches is there's like a pendulum and you know churches can be very legalistic and then the pendulum swings out of legalism and it doesn't swing into the beautiful liberty of being a child of God but it swings over into license and one of the things that I fear one of the things that I fear is that maybe there are people in our community and maybe we've swung out of legalism and we've swung into license and we're using our freedom as an opportunity to live a self-indulgent flesh centered Christian life you know part of the passion of my of my soul has been to teach you the gospel I've been here for six years and I hope one of the things you've picked up is that I am passionate about the gospel but I'm passionate about teaching you your identity in Christ because I just believe that's where everything flows from knowing who you are in Christ knowing and rejoicing in the gospel of Jesus and I've really tried my best to really teach you that and solidify it in your hearts and part of the reason was is because the first 12 years of my life before my dad planted a church is the first 12 years I spent in a very legalistic Church where was all about rules where they were following that formula that I talked about of the of the Judaizers and there was just no life in it there was just no hope in it and all the young people all walked away from from Christ because it was just a veneer of the real thing it wasn't the real thing and I've been trying to teach you the real thing the real thing is so good Jesus is so good freedom is so good being in Christ is so good it is so good hopefully to motivate you but it isn't to motivate you to fleshly self-indulgent living and I worry I worry as I pray lord I hope my teaching as an enable people to sin because then I'm a false teacher but I hope my teaching has promoted in you love for Christ and love for God that drives out sin you see part of the problem I think is when we hear the word freedom we hear that word through a Western cultural mindset and what I mean is Charles Taylor he talks about the West in in the West us in the West we have this negative we have this negative definition of freedom that what freedom is is a freedom to be free means that we're free from all limits and boundaries and just free to follow whatever our hearts desire you remember that song in the 90s some of you just don't won't remember it because you weren't even born but like there was his song they went like this I'm free to do what I want any old time remember that song I'm free to do what I want any other time that's that's the type of freedom that we think of when we see Christian freedom that we're free to do what we want any old time Paul would be absolutely disgusted by that definition of freedom it would be absolutely disgusted this past week I had one of my good friends auntie Marilyn come and visit our church Arnie Marilyn is this really godly older woman she's about 70 years of age she's a single lady she's been single a whole life she's been in ministry for many many years and she's with she's a partner of mine in the ocf ministry overseas Christian Fellowship and this is a lady that just drips Jesus like you just talk to her and just just Jesus comes out and so I got her last Monday to come and share her testimony with us with our staff and it was just a great time and and one of the things she did is she she looked us in in the eyes and she said that she said you want to know the secret of ministry she said the secret of ministry is falling more in love with Jesus every single day that's the secret of ministry and then she said to us this she said she said the other week a couple weeks ago I was um it was late one night and I was watching TV and on the TV came Downton Abbey and she watched Downton Abbey and she enjoyed it but the next day as she went to prayer and as she started to worship Jesus she found herself just thinking about Downton Abbey and thinking through the scenes from Downton Abbey so right there in that moment she determined to never watch Downton Abbey again now is she free to watch Downton Abbey absolutely there's nothing in the Bible that says you can't watch that pathetic show Downton Abbey but she gave up her right in order to pursue a greater freedom of knowing Jesus she then shared with us this other story about how she was called to go to Papua New Guinea and she spoke about how when she was a young woman a young adult she felt a calling to go to Papua New Guinea but she was also engaged to be married to this young man who was an engineer and so this one day they had a DTR deny that stands for a define the relationship talk and she asked him she said do you feel like you were called to go to Papua New Guinea and he said I don't think I am and that and so that day she broke it off with that young man and she never got married even though is she free to marry and have children absolutely she's free to marry and have children but she gave up her freedom she gave up her rights so that she could pursue a greater freedom of being used by Jesus in Papua New Guinea see what makes you think that Jesus by his precious blood purchased your freedom so that you could spend your freedom on a self-indulgent lifestyle no no no no no no no Jesus purchased your freedom so that you would deny yourself cross and follow him I mean the bloke that is writing this is a guy who gave up his freedom who went around the then-known world preaching the gospel here's a guy the Apostle Paul who could take off his shirt and could say you want to see I bear in my body the marks of Christ where he was beaten for the sake of Christ see are you using your freedom the freedom that you have as a child of God as an opportunity to indulge your flesh now when Paul talks about when he uses the word flesh here in Galatians it's the Greek word Sark's and the Greek word sucks can be interpreted in the Bible a number of ways it can mean the body the flesh sometimes in the Bible that's degree websites is used that way other times it's used to describe humanity but here in Galatians Paul uses it in an ethical sense to describe our sinful nature you see what happened when you became a believer is not only were you justified and we've talked about that mean that you all the sin was wiped away and the perfect righteousness of Christ was imputed to you and not only were you adopted into gods family but you were invaded by the holy spirit you had a new nature God the Holy Spirit came and invaded your life and now there is this struggle going on but in you between your old man the sinful nature and the holy spirit within you and Paul speaks about this this struggle in verse 16 look in your Bibles in verse 16 Paul says this but I say walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh for the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do but if you are led by the spirit you are not under the law so there is this battle going on in each one of us between the Holy Spirit and between our sinful nature and I wonder are you living according to the flesh are you a fleshly Christian do you live according to your sinful nature or are you a Christian who walks by the spirit who gets up every day surrenders to Jesus ask the Holy Spirit to empower you so you can live a life demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit or are you using your freedom to indulge your sinful nature more and more and more well how do you know well Paul's a great pastor what he does in verse 19 is he spells out the works of the flesh he shows us how if we are actually living by our sinful nature if we're carnal Christians not walking by the spirit but living according to our fleshly sinful nature this is what will be in your life this is what will be demonstrated and I think the reason why Paul spells this out is because we're all very good we're all very good lawyers we can justify ourselves we can excuse ourselves and excuse our behavior and you're nearly most of you there are thinking to yourself this does not apply to me I'm not abusing my freedom but just take the test have a look at the works of the flesh are these things coming out in your life look down in verse 19 now the works of the flesh are evident sexual immorality impurity sensuality the first thing in the works of the flesh are sexual sins now I know it is very very difficult for us to live a life of sexual purity in our world and I know because what we've done is we've elevated sex in our culture to this to this height where where unless you are having amazing awesome sex you're a nobody and people get their identity from their sexual performance and their sexual orientation but the way that God has designed sex is that it isn't a consumer act it isn't about me fulfilling my own desires it's a covenant act reserved for marriage between a husband and a wife so if you're looking at pornography if you're having sex with your girlfriend or boyfriend or fiancé if you are if you're masturbating then that demonstrates that you're operating according to the sinful nature you're in the flesh you're not walking by the spirit because he would produce self-control and love in you the next sins that Paul talks about our religious sins in verse 20 idolatry and sorcery now in Galatia at the time there would have been literal idols that they would have bowed down to we don't have literal idols today in our society although if we lived in Malaysia when I preach to the OC F guys they know what I'm talking about they have idols everywhere in their in their culture you can you go walk into a shop and there's a little statue of a Buddha there and you have to burn incense and all that sort of stuff we might not have that sort of stuff in our in our culture here in Adelaide but we yet bowed down and we we worship money we worship relationships we worship you know various other things and we Center our lives around those things and make them ultimate in our life the next sins are relational sins so so Paul has talked about sexual sins that has talked about religious sins but then he talks about relational sins he says em natee strife jealousy fits of anger rivalry dissensions divisions envy now there's more of these things on this list than any other category and I think that's because this was the this was the issue that the Galatian Church were dealing with I mean they had lost the gospel and what was happening is in the church there was all these divisions and dissensions and envy Paul says in verse 15 that they were biting and devouring one another in verse 26 he says that they were provoking and envying one another I don't know if you've ever been through a church split but churches split over the most ridiculous things the the color of the walls in a church that I told you about that legalistic church that I grew up in we had arguments about one cup whether in communion we should have one cup or multiple little cups whether on a Sunday morning we should use an organ or not use an organ I was in the not use an organ category by the way but but when you look at all that that is not that is not that is not right they're just Christians discussing issues it is a work of the flesh it is carnal Christians being led by their sinful natures now allow me to get myself into real trouble the last category on this list is sins of excess so we have sexual sins we have religious sins we have relational sins and then we have sins of excess drunkenness and orgies pastor paul said to me last year he said team on when you preach about sin you often talk a lot about sexual sin but you never talk about drunkenness and he said i think a lot of our young people struggle with drunkenness getting drunk is a sin the bible says to get drunk with red wine is a sin or to get drunk with any sort of alcohol is a sin don't become a legalist get drunk with any sort of liquid alcohol is a sin and obviously it's a sin because it leads us to losing our inhibitions and we can just do anything now how many times have you heard on the news young people who have got drunk and then have gone driving and then have had accidents that have killed them and killed their friends that's really not really really at the heart of why drunkenness is such a sin let me tell you I think what is at the heart of why drunkenness is a sin because when you drink to get drunk the reason that you drink is because you're looking in your heart for some joy and for some comfort and some relief and so you go to the bottle in order to try and find some joy and relief in your life to lose your inhibitions so you can just find some joy and relief in your life rather than going to Christ and finding your joy and relief in him but let me tell you something let me tell you something right now is guess what you can not only get drunk with wine you can get drunk on food a few years ago Kerry Kerry Al and she's a counselor here she showed me this first in Ecclesiastes where it says blessed are a city whose princes eat for strength not for drunkenness how many times do we upstanding Christians we don't go to the bottle for joy and comfort and escape but we'll go to the cupboard and we'll take out a whole heap of food and we'll binge eat trying to find our comfort and our joy in food that's a work of the flesh that's a demonstration of the flesh the last thing on this list is orgies and orgies at this time we're places where the alcohol would flow and where people would go there to engage in sexual immorality I want to ask you are there places in Adelaide where the alcohol flows and where people go to engage in sexual immorality and do you really think that as a child of God who's one day going to be around the holy throne of God that you should be engaging as a child of God in those sort of activities why are you just going there as a work of your flesh because you're controlled by a sinful nature don't be deceived God is not mocked that was a person shows they shall also reap now Paul is a very good pastor and in the very next breath he gives us a piece of advice or a piece of counsel and it's not the counsel that we would expect but it is the counsel that we need you see we would expect him right here to go back to Galatians 5 verse 1 but he actually gives us this counsel in verse 21 look at what he says he says I warn you as I warned you before that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God Wow I would have thought that after outlining all of these sins and these works of the flesh that Paul would have reminded us of our identity in Christ he's going to get there but the very first thing that he does is he warns us because he's a good pastor because he knows he needs to and he's not saying he's not saying that you know if if you find yourself in the to the flesh that you've lost your salvation or anything like that he's not saying that but rather this is what he's saying he's saying if your life is characteristic only by the works of the flesh if the works of the flesh are the only things that can't are coming out of your life then maybe there is no spirit you see you can profess faith but not really possess faith and Paul knows this and he's a good pastor and he wants to warn people and I want to warn warn you because you can you can come along here and you can enjoy the community you can enjoy people here but you may not really have the Spirit of God in your life and you may not be really producing the fruit of the Spirit in your life I know this this past week I I was tagged in a Facebook post of one of these one of the girls I was a youth pastor and this was one of the girls in my youth group in it and I was tagged in a post and I'm not a friend of hers on Facebook so just I just clicked on her clicked on her name and it took me to her Facebook and I just was horrified as I looked on her Facebook and saw all these pictures of her drunk and all the comments that she was making and I was just grieved because at one time she was in my youth group and she was holding her hands high worshiping Jesus but now she's just living a flesh flesh life and if I had words to say to her I would just warn her the type of lifestyle you're living is a type of lifestyle that people who don't inherit the kingdom of God live people who are saved people who have the Spirit produced the fruit of the Spirit in their life they don't produce the works of the flesh now let's be honest we can see ourselves in this list can't we I can see myself in this list as I walk throughout my week there are some times when I am controlled by the flesh and I produce the works of the flesh so how do we walk by the spirit how do we how do we produce produce the fruit of the Spirit in our life well there's three steps so you ready his step number one we need to crucify the flesh look down in verse 24 Paul says those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires we need to crucify the flesh now the interesting thing about that verse is it uses the past tense it says those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh when you came to Christ you did put off the old nature and in position you were dead to your old nature and alive to God that is true but what happens with the old age I don't know if you realize this but your old nature is crucified but he tends to keep on getting off the cross the old nature the old man's we keep on feeding him and he gains strength and he jumps off the cross again and starts controlling us again and so we need to go back to step 1 confess our sins and repent before God crucify the flesh confess your sin before God confess the works of the flesh in your life before him that's step one step two is verse 16 you need to walk by the spirit if you walk by the spirit you will not gratify the desires of the flesh to walk by the spirit means that you surrender your life to Jesus and allow the spirit to fill you and the spirit to control you now it's interesting that that verb their walk is parry potato which is a Greek imperative and it's a present which means that it's ongoing action I get up every day and this day I determine I'm going to live for Jesus I'm going to live dead to sin alive to God I surrender myself afresh every day to God I walk by the spirit every day I get up and I walk and I and I asked Jesus to empower me and I surrender my life to Jesus that's what it means to walk by the spirit and thirdly the third step crucify the flesh walk by the spirit and the third thing is so to the spirit and not to the flesh look down in verse 24 it says and those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires do you know what often happens in our lives is we feed the flesh we feed its desires if you're struggling guys if you're struggling with pornography you're not going to defeat pornography by watching a whole heap of movies that have like just wicked stuff in it you'll be feeding your flesh you'll be feeding your fleshly desires you'll be strengthening the flesh you need to stop that that is not legalism that is good Christian living motivated by a desire for holiness I'm going to stop this behavior some of you get drunk all the time you can't drink without getting drunk so what you need to do is maybe you need to give up drinking altogether some of you can't go out with your friends without being led astray by them into wickedness you need to stop going out with them because you're feeding the flesh it will lead you into wickedness that's not legalism that's not legalism that's not legalism that's just good Christian common-sense based upon the Bible crucify the flesh walk by the spirit so do the flesh so to the spirit because let me tell you the life of intimacy with Jesus and being used by Jesus is way better than a life lived in the flesh I wish I wish I wish I wish I could get you to all meet Arne Marilyn you know I want to be a man that when people meet me they go I don't know what what is about teaming but he's just got Jesus all over him this is what it's like when you meet Arnie Marilyn it's you meet someone who knows Jesus just he's got Jesus all over her like and it's it's not because she swum in the shallow pool just indulging her flesh it's because she died to herself every day walked by the spirit and produced intimacy with Christ now the interesting thing Farley Marilyn is auntie Marilyn said to us this she said God is no man's debtor she gave up marriage and family in order to go on the mission field but you know what she's discovered she's discovered in intimacy with Jesus that far outweighs that and what she's also discovered is that she has thousands of spiritual children all around the world people who look to her as their spiritual mother because she has led them to Christ and shown them how to walk by the spirit and shown them the greatness of Christ that's true freedom that's true freedom my friends I don't want you to just drown in the flesh and in the world I want you to walk by the spirit and be used powerfully by God so the question is my friends Jesus told me to give you this question are you using your freedom it's a beautiful thing we sung about it tonight I'm no longer a slave to fear I am a child of God are you using your freedom for the right purpose are using it just to indulge your flesh or are you using it in order to glorify Christ to serve others to lift high his name let's pray

Channel: CityReach Oakden Church

Views: 18,944

Rating: 4.7362638 out of 5

Keywords: oakden, baptist, church, obc, sermon, message, advice, bible, city, reach, cityreach

Id: IgrMSY8SYyE

Length: 36min 51sec (2211 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 17 2016