GALATIANS 5:13 | MOTIVATED BY LIBERTY
Kyle Gilstrap
Galatians : No Turning Back • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 36:09
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TEXT: GALATIANS 5:13 | MOTIVATED BY LIBERTY
TEXT: GALATIANS 5:13 | MOTIVATED BY LIBERTY
INTRO
INTRO
ILLUSTRATION: It was 248 years ago that 56 men including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock, signed the declaration of independence.
ILLUSTRATION: It was 248 years ago that 56 men including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and John Hancock, signed the declaration of independence.
They were agreeing with the terms, conditions, and guarantees of that documents.
In what may be the most famous line of the constitution it says:
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”
Liberty… Freedom.
I am grateful to live in a country where we can enjoy liberty.
This past week we spent two nights in a row watching fireworks and celebrating our freedom!
Jayce asked me, “why do we shoot fireworks off at 4th of July?”
I reminded him of the words of our star spangled banner.
“And the rockets red glare, the bombs bursting in air, gave proof through the night that our flag was still there! Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave. For the land of the free, and the home of the brave!”
Man I’m grateful to live in America!
We certainly don’t have it all figured out but it is still the greatest country on earth!
But as is always the case, there will always be those who take advantage of and abuse the freedom that we have here in America.
Things they may have the freedom to do because of their liberty, but most would agree it isn’t morally right.
EXPLANATION: Paul has spent a great deal of time dealing with the subject of works vs grace for salvation here in Galatians.
EXPLANATION: Paul has spent a great deal of time dealing with the subject of works vs grace for salvation here in Galatians.
Just last week we once again dealt with the subject that our righteousness cannot be obtained by doing the works of the Law, and it is either by grace alone or works alone, it cannot be a mixture of the two.
If you are here today and you are depending on what you can do to get yourself into heaven, you will fall short!
For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
You have decide if you are going to allow God’s Word to be your final authority or if you are going to make yourself the final authority.
ILLUSTRATION: Just this week I was talking with a guy about this very subject, and he said, “I just think if I do enough good, it’ll all work out in the end.”
ILLUSTRATION: Just this week I was talking with a guy about this very subject, and he said, “I just think if I do enough good, it’ll all work out in the end.”
And I told him, “A lot of people believe a lot of things about religion and how to get to heaven, but you have to determine who is going to be the final authority… You or the Bible.”
APPLICATION: Friend, if you would be willing to humble yourself and make this book your final authority, you would discover that Ephesians 2:8-9 says
APPLICATION: Friend, if you would be willing to humble yourself and make this book your final authority, you would discover that Ephesians 2:8-9 says
For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Not of works, lest any man should boast.
That means you can’t get there on your own!
It is only by God’s grace!
If you have never trusted in Christ to save you, why don’t you decide to get that settled this morning!
EXPLANATION: But now, Paul turns the corner from what he has spent a good deal of this book discussing and he says something that is vital for every believer here this morning to hear.
EXPLANATION: But now, Paul turns the corner from what he has spent a good deal of this book discussing and he says something that is vital for every believer here this morning to hear.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
When you accept Christ as Savior, you are no longer under the bondage of sin!
Paul touched on this a couple times throughout his book:
Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world:
But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Paul challenged these Galatians believers that they no longer had to live under the control of sin… they had been liberated!
They were free from sin and the control of sin!
But what Paul is addressing here in v.13 is not that they were living under the bondage and weight of sin…
No, they were now saying they could live however they wanted to because everything was under grace.
They were using the liberty that they had in Christ to say because God had forgiven their sins past, present, and future, they could live however they wanted to live.
They were using their liberty as a license to sin.
APPLICATION: Friend, we live in a day and age where this is rampant in a lot of churches and lives of Christians.
APPLICATION: Friend, we live in a day and age where this is rampant in a lot of churches and lives of Christians.
They have been saved by the grace of God.
They are eternally secure because it wasn’t based on their works for salvation and it isn’t based on their works to keep it!
They have liberty in Christ!
So, if we are free, why do we have to live a certain way?
Why can’t we just do whatever we want to do?
Why can’t we just do whatever we want to do in church?
Why can’t we just do whatever we want to do in our homes?
Why can’t we do whatever we want to do in our own lives?
What do we do when there isn’t a clear verse that says you should do things a certain specific way?
Do we have liberty to just do whatever we want to do?
Here in this passage, Paul is giving us some principles to live by as Christians.
Principles to guide our lives and our decisions after salvation.
Christian, you have been “called unto liberty”… you’ve been saved by God’s grace… but as we are going to see, that doesn’t mean we should just live however you want to live.
V.13b, YOUR LIBERTY ISN’T A LICENSE
V.13b, YOUR LIBERTY ISN’T A LICENSE
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
EXPLANATION: Paul makes clear in the second part of v.13, the freedom you have in the grace of Christ is not a license to live however you want.
EXPLANATION: Paul makes clear in the second part of v.13, the freedom you have in the grace of Christ is not a license to live however you want.
ILLUSTRATION: Have you ever heard someone say, “I can do whatever I want because it’s all under grace.”
ILLUSTRATION: Have you ever heard someone say, “I can do whatever I want because it’s all under grace.”
It doesn’t matter how I look
It doesn’t matter how I talk
It doesn’t matter where I go
It doesn’t matter what I put into my body
It doesn’t matter how I live
It doesn’t matter what I watch
It’s all under grace.
ILLUSTRATION: There was a preacher that once told Tressa and I that it didn’t matter what he and his wife watched on the tv.
ILLUSTRATION: There was a preacher that once told Tressa and I that it didn’t matter what he and his wife watched on the tv.
They could watch shows with illicit scenes, they could watch things with obscene language, because they were married and it’s all under grace.
It was only a few years later that preacher found himself in the middle of a divorce.
EXPLANATION: Paul is telling these young believers that the grace of God does not give a license to sin!
EXPLANATION: Paul is telling these young believers that the grace of God does not give a license to sin!
You see there were those on the one side who were saying you have to keep all the law to be righteous,
But then there were clearly those on the other side who were saying it doesn’t matter what you do, because it’s all under grace anyway.
And the reality is, there are ditches on both sides of that road and neither one is right!
APPLICATION: You see, it is true when you get saved that your sins are covered in the blood of Christ, past, present, and future!
APPLICATION: You see, it is true when you get saved that your sins are covered in the blood of Christ, past, present, and future!
Paul makes clear in Romans that there is nothing that could ever separate us from Christ.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.
My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you,
Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.
Friend, the Bible is so abundantly clear, there is nothing that you can do to lose your salvation!
But just because you can’t lose it doesn’t mean you should test the boundaries!
ILLUSTRATION: I shared a couple weeks ago about how the trampoline we had, had blown across our yard and had been bent over a fence.
ILLUSTRATION: I shared a couple weeks ago about how the trampoline we had, had blown across our yard and had been bent over a fence.
Well, a little while later, we decided to get another one that, as I mentioned, we have staked down!
They new one that we got has a net around it to help make sure the kids aren’t going to fall out.
Every once in a while I’ll look out the window and I’ll see the kids bouncing and then I’ll watch them pile into the side of the trampoline into that net.
The first few times I saw it, it made me nervous as I watched the net stretch with them pushing against it.
To this day I get nervous because I know that net can only take so much stretching before it could break!
You see, just because you can lean into that net and stretch it, doesn’t mean that you should.
APPLICATION: You know, you have been given the grace of Christ and the liberty in that grace.
APPLICATION: You know, you have been given the grace of Christ and the liberty in that grace.
But just because you can stretch the grace and mercy of God, doesn’t mean that you should!
In fact, Paul is passionate that we don’t in Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Friend, if you have trusted in Christ to save you, you are no longer under the bondage or the law or the bondage of sin.
This is key, you no longer live in the world of can I or can’t I… know you have been moved into a new world of thinking… Now the question should be should I or shouldn’t I.
You see, can you continue in sin and grace still abound, you keep your salvation… yes.
But should you? NO!
When Paul said those words in Romans 6:2, “God forbid” it was the strongest greek phrase that could be used!
It contained within it a sense of outrage that anyone would even think of doing such a thing!
Paul is emphatically stating, your liberty isn’t a license to sin against God!
You’re liberty isn’t a license to live however you want to live!
APPLICATION: So practically, what does that mean for us today?
APPLICATION: So practically, what does that mean for us today?
We should stop living like our life is ours to do with it whatever we want!
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Paul even said that most famous verse right in Galatians 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Friend, every part of our life should be filtered through the question “Is the decisions I’m making and the life I am living, worthy of the sacrifice that Christ paid for me?”
So does it matter how I live?
Does it matter what I drink?
Does it matter what I watch?
Does it matter what I listen to?
Does it matter how I speak?
Does it matter where I go and how I look?
Yes!
Not because you must keep or could lose your salvation.
But because Christ gave His live for your life!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
As we wrap things up today, the question then must be asked, why?
Why should I choose to live a life of should I or shouldn’t I, instead of can I or can’t I?
Then answer is found in the rest of v.13
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
“By love serve one another.”
What love?
Well next time we are going to dive deeper into that question, but that love is two-fold
Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.
Next time we will dive into the second love he mentions, but today, I want us to understand the ultimate love that should motivate us…
You see we shouldn’t live a life that pleases God out of duty
We shouldn’t live a life that pleases God because of the law.
We should live a life that pleases God because of love.
And it doesn’t begin with our love for God… it starts with His love for us.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.
We love him, because he first loved us.
The grace of God that was given to you and to me because of the love of God does not give us a license to sin.
No, it should motivate us to live for Him!
Friend, the truth is there is nothing that we could “give up” in this life to live for God that is truly a “sacrifice”
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
ILLUSTRATION: You know it hurts when I see someone living in America putting down America.
ILLUSTRATION: You know it hurts when I see someone living in America putting down America.
See on tv as some one destroys an American flag or tries to deface a monument.
If you’re a red blooded American like me, you see those things and you know that they may have the “freedom” to do some of that stuff… they shouldn’t!
Why?
Because someone gave their life for the flag!
Someone gave their life for their freedom!
Someone gave their life so they could say those negative things about America
ILLUSTRATION: You know when those men signed that declaration of independence they believed that first line we mentioned earlier about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
ILLUSTRATION: You know when those men signed that declaration of independence they believed that first line we mentioned earlier about “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
But that wasn’t the only thing they were signing to.
The final line of the Declaration of Independence states:
“And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
Of those that signed that document:
5 were captured by the British and tortured as traitors
9 Fought in the Revolutionary War and died
2 Lost their sons in the war
2 Others had sons captured
And at least a dozen of them had their homes pillaged and burned.
Why? Because they loved their country!
APPLICATION: Friend, may we be a room full of patriots that love their country.
APPLICATION: Friend, may we be a room full of patriots that love their country.
May we stand boldly for the principles it was founded upon!
May we never forget those who gave everything so we could enjoy the liberties we have today.
And while we strive to be great patriots, may we purpose to be even better Christians!
Christians who live their lives not for themselves, but for the One Who gave everything for us!
For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
Friend, you’ve been liberated by the love of Christ… don’t use that liberty to live for yourself… use that liberty as a motivation to live a life that pleases Christ!