Real Freedom

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

Every time that I preach I spend hours studying the text, praying over it, reading commentaries and other sermons and putting together the message. But I only spend a fraction of that time preparing the “In the Bag” message for the kids. But based on some of your comments, I’m pretty sure that much of the time most of you remember that simple illustration much better than the details of the message that I’ve labored over. And my guess that Ryan has experienced the same thing.

As frustrating as that is, it points out the importance of illustrations in helping us to understand not only the Bible but a lot of other things in life.

It seems that Paul knew that, too. So in the passage we’re going to study today, Paul is going to present an illustration that reinforces the ideas he has been writing about for nearly four chapters now. But I’m going to warn you right up front that illustration is not going to be nearly as simple to figure out as the message I shared with the kids a few minutes ago.

Tension

I want to set up what we’re going to learn together today by sharing with you a matrix that was developed by Pastor Timothy Keller that categorizes people into one of four groups. As I describe each of these, I want you to think about where you fit.

1.         Law-obeying, law-relying. These are the people that Paul is going to describe as being “under the law”. Externally, they are very sure they are right with God, but deep down, they have a lot of insecurity, since no one can truly be assured that they are living up to the standard. One indicator that you might belong to this group is that you tend to criticize others, but are overly sensitive to criticism yourself. You are also likely prideful about your spiritual maturity. In Jesus’s day the Pharisees were in this group.

2.         Law-disobeying, law-relying. These people intellectually believe they need to obey the law, but they are not living consistently with it. You might fit into this group if you are more humble and tolerant than those in the first group. But you are likely to beat yourself up over your own sin. So you may attend church but you never get involved beyond a surface level because of low spiritual self-esteem. Perhaps the woman at the well in John 4 was part of this group.

3.         Law-disobeying, not law-relying. These are the people who have thrown off the concept of the law of God completely. They largely choose their own moral standards and then insist that they are meeting them. But often at a sub-conscious level, they know there is a God who they should be obeying. You might belong to this group if you are overly tolerant of the beliefs of others, or if you have a “Coexist” bumper sticker on your car. Interestingly people in this group tend to be judgmental, however, since they are essentially earning their salvation based on adherence to their own standards. In the time of Jesus, the Gentiles would largely be in this group.

4.         Law-obeying, not law-relying. These are Christians who understand the gospel and are living out of the freedom of it. They obey the law of God out of grateful joy that comes from the knowledge of their sonship, not out of a sense of obligation or duty. I think most of us here this morning would say we belong to this group, but if we’re honest we would also admit we struggle to consistently live this way and we tend to fall back into one of the other three groups at times.

Truth

Keep these four kinds of people in mind as we read today’s text, which begins in verse 21 of chapter 4 of the book of Galatians. Even though most of your Bibles have a paragraph break after verse 31, I’m going to read through the first verse of chapter 5 because it really belongs with the rest of this passage.

Galatians 4:21–5:1 ESV

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. 1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

How many of you are at least a bit confused after reading that passage? If so, you are in good company. This week I listened to one well known pastor who said that the only pastors who would ever preach on this passage are the ones who are preaching through the entire book of Galatians. Because of how difficult it is, no one would pick out this passage for a sermon otherwise. And apparently I drew the short straw here at TFC.

Although this passage is admittedly not all that straight forward, I think we can work through it together in a way that it will make sense and we can apply it in our lives.

Let’s begin with the main idea we’ll develop today:

When I take things into my own hands, I am choosing slavery over freedom

That is certainly not how much of the world sees things is it? Perhaps, like me, you once thought that becoming a Christian meant losing all your freedom. That’s because, like most of the world I defined freedom as “the ability to do what I want when I want and how I want”.

But what the world calls “freedom”, God calls sin. Here in our passage, Paul calls a sinful lifestyle “living according to the flesh”. And that kind of life, contrary to what most of the world thinks does not lead to freedom, but rather to slavery. Listen to the words of Jesus:

John 8:34 ESV

34 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin.

Later, in his letter to the churches in Rome, Paul would expand on that idea:

Romans 6:17–18 ESV

17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.

On the other hand, when I give up my right to govern my own life and do things my own way, that is actually when I am really free. Here in this passage Paul equates that kind of life with living according to the Sprit.

And Paul gives us a concrete illustration to demonstrate that idea.

Before we dig into our passage, I need to quickly address one particular phrase that Paul uses here. It is the phrase “interpreted allegorically” in verse 24. That is the translation of a single Greek word from which we get our English word “allegory”. But the problem is that it really doesn’t mean allegory the way we use that word today.

I don’t want to spend a lot of time here, but the word Paul uses here is a compound word that literally means “to speak of one thing by referring to another”. For instance I might say that a fast runner “runs like the wind”. That’s not an allegory. It is merely a figure of speech in which I am using the wind as an illustration to explain the way the runner runs.

In this passage, Paul uses some actual historical events recorded in the Bible to help explain why living under the law, according to the flesh, puts a person in bondage and how living by faith, according to the Spirit, produces true freedom.

But in typical Pauline fashion, he doesn’t exactly do that in a logical manner that is easy to follow. Even though they don’t appear in any kind of logical order in this passage, we can find:

2 covenants

2 women

2 sons

2 Jerusalems

2 approaches to salvation

Once we’ve identified all of these elements, it actually becomes fairly simple to arrange them into two groups:

The column on the left includes all the parts of Paul’s illustration that demonstrate living life in the flesh. The column on the right includes all the parts of the illustration that demonstrate what it is like to live by the Spirit.

The elements of this illustration are rooted in an account of real historical events. Because of time limitations, I’m just going to summarize for you some of the important details of the account we find in Genesis chapters 16-21.

Abraham and his wife Sarah were barren in their old age. When Abraham was in his mid-80’s, he complained to God that he had no son, and therefore no heir, even though God had promised to bless all the earth through his descendants. But God reaffirmed His promise to make Abraham and his descendants into a great nation and told him his offspring would be as numerous as the stars in the sky

But Abraham and Sarah got impatient. So Sarah devised a plan in which her Egyptian servant, Hagar, would bear Abraham’s child. And Abraham decided to go along with her plan. Out of that union, Hagar bore a son named Ishmael, who became the father of the Arabs.

Ishmael was the result of Abraham and Sarah trying to take God’s plan into their own hands and fulfill it in the flesh. And what we see going on between Israel and her neighbors today is a result of that decision. That’s how far things can get out of hand when we’re not willing to wait on God and we try to accomplish things on our own.

Paul explains that what Abraham and Sarah did on their own is an illustration of those who would try to come to God based on obedience to the law - those who belong to the first group I described earlier.

Paul also tells us that Hagar and Ishmael correspond to the Old Covenant that was based on obedience to the law that had been given to Moses on Mount Sinai. And they also correspond to what he calls “the present Jerusalem”, which is a phrase he uses to describe the Jewish religion that the Judaizers were trying to impose on the Christians in Galatia.

Paul contrasts that with the birth of Isaac that occurs some years later when Abraham is one hundred years old and his wife, Sarah, is ninety. When they finally quit trying to make things happen on their own and they instead relied completely on God, God intervenes in a miraculous way and even though both Abraham and Sarah are well beyond their child bearing years, they give birth to a son named Isaac.

Paul uses that as an illustration of what faith alone produces. He writes that Sarah and Isaac represent the new covenant which is in effect in the “Jerusalem above” which is a description of the abode of God where Jesus is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf.

So I hope you can now see why I said earlier that...

When I take things into my own hands, I am choosing slavery over freedom

While I think most of us here today would agree with that intellectually, it’s a lot harder to actually live our lives like that, isn’t it.

Application

So with our remaining time I’d like to discuss a few of the...

Implications for my life

Don’t compromise

In verse 30, Paul quotes from Genesis 21. If you go back and read that entire section of the Bible you will find that Sarah asked Abraham to cast out Hagar and Ishmael and that God told Abraham to do what Sarah had asked because God’s promises to Abraham were going to be fulfilled through Isaac. While God, in His mercy still provided for Hagar and Ishmael, He separated them from Abraham, Sarah, and Isaac.

That’s a pretty clear picture of how we are to treat any false teachers who would try to come into our midst and preach any other gospel other than faith in Jesus alone. We are to cast them out!

On a broader scale it is a call to make sure that we don’t compromise with the principles of this world. Earlier I joked about the “Coexist” bumper stickers, but in reality they represent how the culture around us is trying to get us to just accept and even promote values that are contrary to the Word of God. While we always want to treat others who believe differently than we do with gentleness and respect, we can’t interact with them to the extent that they begin to cause us to compromise our biblical convictions.

Expect persecution

Look at verse 29 again:

Galatians 4:29 ESV

29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.

If you go back to the account in the book of Genesis you will see that Ishmael despised Isaac because the birth of Isaac meant that he lost out on any inheritance from Abraham. And, as I mentioned earlier, that persecution that began thousands of years ago is being played out today in Israel as the descendants of Ishmael are attacking the descendants of Isaac.

So we shouldn’t be surprised that those who live according to the flesh are always going to hate and mock those who choose to live by the Spirit. We are certainly seeing this more and more in our culture aren’t we? Those of us who submit our lives to Christ and who choose to find our truth in God’s Word are called bigots and the Bible is called “hate speech”. And that is probably not going to change any time soon.

Quit trying to help God

I don’t see them around any more, but many years ago I used to see a lot of bumper stickers that read “God is my co-pilot”. I

And unfortunately, that’s the way a lot of Christians still try to live their lives today. But I’ve got news for you. God does not want to be your co-pilot.

Interestingly enough a few years later someone came up with another bumper sticker that read “if God is your co-pilot, switch seats.

I suppose that sounds a little more godly, but even that is wrong. God doesn’t need you to be His co-pilot either.

I am not at all saying that we just “let go and let God” to quote another Christian cliche. If we are going to grow in our relationship with God there are some things we must do in order to live according to the Spirit. I would suggest that you can’t possibly live by the Spirit without reading your Bible and praying and gathering with other brothers and sisters to worship. What matters is why we do those things.

The fact is that when we try to “help God” like Abraham and Sarah did initially, we are going to get into trouble every time. And we are likely to make things worse.

But when we live by faith and we truly trust God 100%, then we will truly be free. The practical decisions we make every day will show whether we are trusting God or trying to make things work by our own ability. Let me share a few examples for you to think about:

Kids, will you take your next test on your own and face the consequences if you didn’t study enough? Or will you find a way to cheat so that you can keep your grades up? Will you trust that God will honor your integrity or will you try to take things into your own hands?

If you’re not married, will you trust God to provide a believing spouse or will you make a decision based on your biological clock?

Will you trust God to supply your needs or will you go into debt because you just can’t pass up a good deal?

When others mistreat you, will you treat them with grace and dignity and trust the results to God, or will you mistreat them or seek revenge?

Will you trust God to provide the right job where you can serve Him and others or will you take a job where you have to compromise your principles because you can make a lot more money?

Don’t go back

Paul ends his illustration with an exhortation:

Galatians 5:1 ESV

1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Once we’ve experienced the freedom that comes from putting our faith in Jesus alone and living by the Spirit daily, you would think that we would never want to go back to the slavery that comes from living according to the flesh.

But as I mentioned at the beginning of the message, we all have a tendency to go back there at times, don’t we? Even though intellectually we are part of group 4 - the law-abiding, not law-relying group - we can easily slip back into one of the other groups if we’re not constantly guarding against that.

The best way I know to do that is something I’ve called “re-gospeling”. Every day I need to remind myself of the gospel. I need to remember that I am a sinner saved by the grace of God, not because of anything I have to offer, but only because of God’s love for me. That is the best antidote I know to keep me from going back to the self-centered, “I’ll do it myself” life I once lived.

We’ve seen this morning that...

When I take things into my own hands, I am choosing slavery over freedom

Action

I’m going to close by taking you back once again to the matrix I shared with you at the beginning of the message. I’m going to ask that you spend a few moments prayerfully considering which group you belong to. And if you can’t honestly say you belong to group four, will you also ask God to help you get there.

1.         Law-obeying, law-relying.

2.         Law-disobeying, law-relying.

3.         Law-disobeying, not law-relying.

4.         Law-obeying, not law-relying.

[Prayer time]

Inspiration

I have no doubt that we all want to be free, But I hope you’ve learned this morning that there are different kinds of freedom. The only kind that is true freedom is the freedom that comes from trusting my life completely to Jesus and what He has done for me and not on anything I can do. I can assure you based on my own personal experience and on the Word of God, that is freedom worth having.