Freedom!

INTRO

Good morning everyone, if you have your Bible you can turn to Galatians 5 today. Before we get going I just wanted to say a big thank you to Cameron, Billy, and TJ For doing an incredible job sharing God’s word the past three weeks. We are, not just me, all grateful for you!

Today I’m not going to do a recap because there is a lot to discuss in today’s message and I really want to give us as much time to hear, learn, and listen to God’s word as much as possible today, so lets just take a moment to pray and position our hearts this morning to hear from the Lord today.

Pray. Wait.

BODY

English Standard Version Chapter 5

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

Paul boils down his message of all of Galatians for everyone and their mom to understand what he is trying to say in this letter in case they have not understood it thus far. Jesus came to set you free. Stand firm in the freedom and don’t get weighed down in bondage and slavery. Remember the key word that we talked about in chapter 1? How God has delivered you from this present evil age? Here is the theme again of freedom, deliverance, being released from bondage that Paul has been continually showing us through this letter. Don’t for a moment, churches of Galatia, come under this yoke of slavery that these jewish leaders are telling you about. He uses an everyday example that people would see of a yoke that would go around the cattle’s neck to plow ground. What a powerful image. You are either free, or you are under a yoke of slavery. Like an animal that can’t get out of working and being driven for another persons work. Paul then makes it clear what this slavery and this yoke is in the next couple verses.

English Standard Version (Chapter 5) 2 Look: I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. 3 I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. 4 You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. 5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.

So let’s talk about this because circumcision is a pretty strange thing to be passionate about, yea? I want to read for you Acts 15 to give you a little more background to what Paul was fighting in a sharp discussion herea. This is Acts 15:1 where this distorted Gospel was starting to arise in the early church.

English Standard Version Chapter 15

But some men came down from Judea and were teaching the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved.” 2 And after Paul and Barnabas had no small dissension and debate with them, Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question.

I would encourage you to read the rest of Acts 15 because it is a powerful chapter to see what Paul is saying here. Let’s look a little deeper at these key words that most of us are not discussing on a daily basis in depth: Circumcision and saved.

LOOKING DEEPER

Circumcision was important to Jews because it was a symbol of the eternal covenant God made with Abraham.

So that is a big deal for the Jews because it was this way that showed their community and gentiles that they were accepted by God. Well Paul, Barnabas and the other Apostles in Acts 15 decided that the Holy Spirit is the thing that was the defining factor of God accepting them. Wait Josh, I thought Jesus was what accepted us? Yes he does, but the evidence of the faith that you have will be the Spirit living in you to live a different way of life. It’s called being saved. Let’s discuss that word because sometimes we take our definition and try to force it into the Bible instead of humbling ourselves and learn what they meant to apply to us.

Saved means healed, delivered, cured, purified when discussed in the Bible.

The greek word is Sozo and it is mean more than a ticket to heaven. It means all these words which are important because they are worship words. If you were an invalid, demonically oppressed, and impure you could not go into God’s temple. But what did we see Jesus do in his life? Saved people. Healed people, delivered, purified people. Because he is the only way to the father. So this discussion of being saved for us is an all consuming life transofrmation understanding that God accepts you as a child, not just getting you a passport to heaven. This is why it is so important for Paul to make sure they are understanding this. It’s more than an afterlife discussion, it is a life right now discussion.

7 You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? 8 This persuasion is not from him who calls you. 9 A little leaven leavens the whole lump. 10 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. 11 But if I, brothers, still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been removed. 12 I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves!

Ah, yes, you just heard that right. Paul says in modern lingo, hey you guys who are so obsessed with circumsicion, just cut it all off. That will make you more spiritual! Why is he like this, did God really let this get into His word? Yes, because the Gospel is important! These Galatians were running really well and someone triped them. They were listening to another voice, not the one who called them at first. The person who was doing this was going to be held accountable. Paul keeps pointing them back to the cross. If the cross is not their focus, they will be running in the wrong direction. They will continue to believe this false Gospel and that is wrong. BUT, if they do follow the true Gospel, the cross of Jesus, and live in the faith. Something will happen. They will live in the freedom and actualy stand firm in the freedom that Chirst purchased for them. But this is a freedom that is different than anyone has ever known. So Paul shows them the difference of the kingdom of this world’s freedom and the kingdom of God’s freedom.

13 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. 14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

This is brillant of Paul. You guys want to obey the law? Love others. Jesus said it himself that the greatest law is to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. But the second greatest commandment is love your neighbor as yourself. IF you are free, you love. Why? Because you have been delivered from the present evil age. And what is this present evil age? Is it tatoos and harry potter? Or is it selfishness, pride, self focused, and people’s hearts growing cold because that’s the direction you will go if you are living life on your own. True freedom is being able to love others and you are not biting and devouring other people. This is true freedom.

Now as we journeyed through this text today, I think there are some questions that we can reflect on that Paul stated here to help us today.

REFLECTION QUESTIONS

1.ARE YOU FREE?

It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Praise God. But are you free? Not free in the sense that you get to own land, a car, and get to go wherever you want. But are you free to love others? Are you free because you have put off the old yoke of slavery (slave to sin, slave to the flesh, slave to religion) and you have heard the voice of Jesus who said, Come to me all who weary and heavy laden. Take my yoke upon you and you will find rest! Are you a slave to yourself where you keep feeding your flesh and from there you bite and devour others? Some people might think God has given them a spiritual gift of gossip and backbiting. That’s not a gift, that’s slavery! You don’t have a gift of criticism, that is slavery. Are you free from everything that you can actually stand firm in the freedom that Christ has give you today?

Illustration of a yoke, a burden, and being bound.

Let’s do this, I still have more to say but if you are listening to me right now and realize you are in bondage. You realize you are self absorbed, enslaved by your flesh, addicted to something that you cannot find freedom of can you just step into the light this morning? Let’s not play pretend here. Let’s walk in the light today. We are not asking you to tell us exactly what is going on.

2. ARE YOU WALKING IN FAITH?

This is what Paul has been pounding throughout the whole letter. You guys want to be dependent on the law? You want to be dependent on circomsicion? Great! Good for you! You are severed from Christ and he has no advantage to you. Why? Because that is all about you and your works. It has nothing to do with faith, belief, covenant, and trust. TJ nailed it last week with talking about covenant has to have relationship otherwise it is pointless. See, even today we have a temptation to walk in the flesh and make it look spiritual. Instead of us actually walking in faith, trusting God that he has called us righteous, we just try to prove our righteousness through religious practices. And the only way you know that this is happening is through relationship and in community. Here is how you know you are walking in faith of what God has said, which we are believing that he has made us righteous rather than living in our own righteousness. Are you ready? What happens to you when you realize you are wrong? I’m getting into the messy parts of marriages and relationships now! Think about this, if you are confident in the Lord and someone comes up and points out something that you did wrong, do you puff yourself up? Do you squirm for excuses? Men, are you like Adam and blame your wife? Women are you like eve and blame the serpent? The devil made me lie to you! OR do you humble yourself and realize you did do something wrong and that it is okay to confess that because it is not your identity to be right. Your identity is in Jesus and you know you will never be perfect, that is the first half of the Gospel! The second half is that Jesus is perfect and he has been given authority to proclaim me as righteous! When you have faith in that you will be less prickly and judgmental. You will be less insecure and less shameful. And when that happens, this last question will be a little easier to answer.

ARE YOU LOVING?

I believe it was the late and great philosopher Tina Turner who asked us, what’s love got to do, got to do with it? And while I’m guessing she was not talking about Christianity, I believe it is everything to Christianity. Walking in Freedom is not doing whatever you want. Walking in faith is not just believing whatever you think you want to think. Both of these things will be fuel for your life to walk in love. Jesus, on the night of his betrayal turned to his disciples and said they will know you are my disciples, by the way you love. Not just hugs and kisses, but love in the way that lays down his life for another. Who is patient, kind, slow to anger, not insisting on it’s own way. Can you tell I’ve been apart of three wedding’s in the past three weeks? But this is what it is about. If we are community that has not love, this is all in vain. We can have the best doctrine, best worship, best life groups, and yet if they are not being done in love and there is backbiting and devouring each other because we are all about pointing out each other’s flaws, then what good is it?

But here is the good news today when we realize we do fall short of this we turn to verse 5 again and read this,

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

Everyone repeat this after me, for through the Spirit. Again. We need the Holy Spirit to live what Christ has called us to live. He has not left us as orphans, he has not left us powerless. He has not said good luck on trying to resist the flesh and pursue your own righteousness! No, he has gives us power from on high, the counselor and the comforter, the very Spirit who raised Jesus form the dead, and the Spirit as we will see soon, that produces the fruit in us that glorifies God.

By the Spirit you are free, by the Spirit you can live by faith, by the Spirit you can love.