The Freedom Of The Gospel in A Culture of Slavery

INTRO

Galatians 5:1–15 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves! For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

BETTER HOOKL: NEED TO FIGURE THAT OUT

Jesus has given us the gift of freedom. But we have to continue to walk in it!

Freedom is one of the markers of our Western Culture.

In 2022, they found that when asked what makes someone “truly American” 96% of people asked said that a belief in individual freedoms such as freedom of speech.

"Give me liberty, or give me death!" John Patrick Henry

Galatians When Freedom Is Really Slavery

Sociologist Robert Bellah has concluded that “freedom is perhaps the most resonant, deeply held American value.… Yet freedom turns out to mean being left alone by others, not having other people’s values, ideas, or styles of life forced upon one, being free of arbitrary authority in work, family, and political life.” In other words, what Americans really want is the freedom to be left alone

Galatians When Freedom Is Really Slavery

What many Americans want these days, therefore, is not freedom of religion, but freedom from religion

For most of the Ancients, freedom was freedom from our natural desires and material needs. It rested on a mastery of these deep, natural urges in favor of self-control, restraint, and education into virtue…. They’d look at our freedom and see licentiousness, chaos, and slavery to desire. They’d predict misery not happiness to be the result. Andrew Sullivan

Question how do we live in the freedom of the Gospel while living in a culture of slavery?

Main Idea: Stand firm in the freedom of the Gospel.

Paul has spent the first 4 chapters telling us what freedom is. How the Gospel has set us free. Now Paul shifts his focus and tells us how to live that out. His command to the Galatians is to stand firm. It’s a picture of taking your position and not losing ground. Holding fast to your freedom.

Stand in the Hope Of The Gospel

Galatians 5:1–6 ESV

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

Self salvation is a false hope: Trying to do something to earn salvation or to earn your right standing before God is a false hope.

Paul says “if you accept circumcision Christ will be of no advantage to you”

Accept circumcision is just a shorthand way of saying “trusting in the law for your salvation”

Remember the Galatians dilemma. These false teachers were coming and they were saying, “Jesus is good, but you need something else plus Jesus=salvation”

You need Jesus plus works, you need Jesus plus following these rules and then you will be made right before God.

I can imagine the Galatians being like, “well hey we believe in Jesus but isn’t going above and beyond even better?!”

Isn’t it even better if we take Jesus but then we also take our personal holiness and works as a way to earn God’s favor? We can have some of Jesus, some of the law, some of this and then that will make us even more acceptable before God.

It’s similar to bundling. Right now there are all these deals going on. Where you can bundle and save. Every insurance commercial shows you how you can bundle and save. A little bit of car insurance, home insurance, and life insurance and you can save. Or TV bundles. If you take Hulu, ESPN, and Disney and put them all together you save even more. That’s what Paul is coming against here. We can’t take Jesus, then add our own personal holiness or our church attendance or our dress, add in our tithing, and bundle them all together thinking that will save us!

Paul says that is a false hope! When we operate in this false hope, when we seek to be made right before God because of something we do Paul tells the Galatians that they have been:

Cut off from Christ: Paul is so serious about this that he says if we want to be justified by what we do the result is that we are cut off from Christ. What does that mean exactly?

“Fallen away from grace”

Paul says sure you get the law but you lose Jesus. Sure you get being approved and accepted by these false teachers but you lose grace.

The law reveals our need FOR Jesus, it is not meant to remove our NEED for Jesus Jesus.

So what is the hope that Paul tells us to stand in?

Galatians 5:5 ESV

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness.

Do you know that God has called you to hope? God has called us to a sure hope, not a false hope.

Romans 8:24–25 ESV

For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Eagerly(talk about this)

This word describes a child who is waiting for presents on Christmas day. It’s a position of our hearts where we anticipate that God will make good on His promise.

What is that hope?

The Hope of our Righteousness

What is righteousness? It’s our right standing before God.

That righteousness, the hope of our being made right before God, is not something we work for but rather something we wait for(say that again)

We have been saved we are being saved and we will be saved

Illustration(NEED ILLUSTRATION HERE) How I wait not work. Either the positive or the negative. Where someone paid for something that was going to be given to them.

There was a man who had an old baseball autographed by Babe Ruth. The man had heard that the ball might be valuable, so one day he decided to sell it. He was worried, however, because he could see that the signature was badly faded. In order to make it clearer, he took out his baseball and carefully traced over the letters with a marking pen: “B-A-B-E R-U-T-H.” The effect was to obliterate the real autograph, so that by the time he was finished, he had turned something priceless into something worthless

APPLICATION

When you fail stand firm in this hope(SLOW THIS APPLICATION PART DOWN)

I want you to think about the last time you sinned, how did you respond?

GC Conversation

Jesus has saved you, He is enough

When you feel like you have nothing to offer: stand firm in this hope: Jesus will complete that work in you

Instead of running back to works, trying to clean yourself up, trying to make everything right, trust in this hope: Jesus has made you right before God

Etc.

Stand When You’re Persecuted for The Gospel

While we were visiting Taiwan a reminder that Taiwan is seen by most of the world as an independent country. Yet, Taiwan always has to be on alert because there is a constant threat to their freedom. Communist China. There are planes that regularly do fly bys, they have spies that have infiltrated Taiwan, China has propaganda that they market to the Taiwanese. All to tear away at the freedom Taiwan has gained.

In the same way Paul reminds the Galatians, that your freedom will be threatened. Your faith will be tested. Paul’s call here is to stand even when you are persecuted for the Gospel.

Paul starts off by comparing the Christian life to a race. You were running well. Paul does this in other places. For those of you who have run a 5K, half marathon, marathon, or if you are crazy enough to run an ultra marathon, you know that there are different phases in the race. There are many things that will try and stop you from finishing. Your body will begin to quit, could be the environment that you are running in, or your own mind telling you to stop.

Paul tells the Galatians that persecution, or what is hindering the Galatians, looks like deception.

Persecution looks like deception

The word “persuaded” is the only time it is used in the NT and it can mean seduce.

The New Testament writers followed up Jesus’s warning with upwards of forty more warnings of deception, especially in the areas of sexual immorality and false teaching

Paul is saying that the enemy’s assault on the Galatians and for us many times is not always guns a blazing, but seduction, deception.

Winston Churchill was once quoted as saying that the future of military warfare will not be a war of bombs, but of ideas.

This is many times the same tactic that the enemy uses to make war upon your soul. The age old accusation, “Did God really say?”

What did this look like now? Slow this down, really go hard and pastoral right here:

Think about this

This deception has hindered the Galatians from running the race:

This happened at a Olympics in one of the women’s distance races. The favorite was the American track star Mary Decker Slaney. The contender was the young South African Zola Budd. Early in the race, Miss Budd inadvertently tripped Mrs. Slaney while they were running in the pack. Slaney fell awkwardly on the infield, she was unable to finish the race, and her dreams of winning the gold medal ended in tears

Trip(Thats what hinder means)

Little Bit

Paul says Galatians even the slightest acceptance of this false Gospel, of this deception has a way to make a shipwreck of your faith.

Just a little bit.

Talk about what this looks like practically

He wants to just trip you up a little bit in your thought life

Trip you up a little bit in you cheating on your finances

Trip you up a little bit in your relationships

Trip you up a little bit in cycnicism

Etc

Right now there are billions of dollars being spent to actively shipwreck your faith. (tease this out)

It’s not physical persecution that will stop the church of Jesus Christ but false doctrine(Mary Lloyd Jones)

Why are we persecuted? Why does this persecution happen?

Persecuted Because the Gospel Is Offensive

Paul doesn’t say that HE is offensive, but rather the Gospel is offensive.

The Gospel is offensive to our American tribalism:

Which groups?

We’ve all seen and heard examples of people who share the Gospel while being a jerk. Just a few weeks ago the PRIDE parade at Wilson(Example)

The Gospel message is offensive because it confronts man’s pride and ability to save ourselves.

But I want to focus on one aspect of the Gospel and why it is offensive:

People say “IF God showed Himself I would believe in Him..”

Illustrate

“For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God, while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. Man claims abilities that belong to God alone; God accepts penalties that belong to man alone.” –John Stott

Apply

Stand In The Fruit Of The Gospel

Freedom has to stand against both legalism and license. First point legalism now Paul combats license.

Don’t abuse your freedom, but rather use it to love one another

As the Galatians hear this news that they have been set free from the penalty of sin by Jesus’ work, it would be easy to say, “GREAT I can live however I want”, but Paul defines Christian freedom not as a freedom to be self serving but rather serving others. Not to be self-centered, but others centered.

It seems that Paul is saying that those who are the most free are those who surrender their rights rather than demand their rights. Those who are the most free are those who are free to love others without expecting anything in return instead of loving someone else with a hook

In 1850 Harriet Tubman made the great escape to the North. Escaping years of torment, slavery, cruelty, and violence, she finally experienced what she had prayed for and dreamt for: Freedom. Yet, what did Harriet Tubman do with this new found freedom? Did she hide away in the North, experiencing all the joys for herself that she had missed out on for so many years? No she used her freedom to risk her life to save others. By risking her life Tubman would go on to help at least 70 people - family, friends, and strangers - escape slavery in this way, taking enormous risks with her own hard-won freedom.

This is the type of freedom that Paul envisions. While that story is amazing it pales in comparison with Jesus.

Love is the fruit of the Gospel. One of the goals of Jesus’ liberation, of the freedom HE has granted you is to make you and I into people of love. A person of love.

It’s interesting that Paul shows us that one of the ways we stand firm, we withstand the attacks of the enemy is by serving and loving one another.

Maybe you are in a season where you feel weak, I wonder if taking your mind off your pain(not completely), and loving someone else, putting someone above you, would that strengthen your faith and love for Jesus?

Where have you experienced the freedom of the Gospel? How can you use that your freedom to go and help someone else?

Porn

Marriage

Finances

Mental Health

Etc.

Illustrate

Apply