For Freedom, Christ has set us Free.

What Paul is showing us is that we only have one way. Against such thing there is no law.

Let me read for you , so we can read the whole section as a whole before focussing on the 9 fruits of the spirit.

Freedom is the name of Jesus' game. When God created man and woman, He created creatures who could respond to God freely. As they worked in that garden that God had created, they had full access to their volition. So many good things were there. But there were also moral choices to be made. When our original parents fell, they were no longer free in a very important sense. They had become slaves of that original disobedience. Now no longer able to respond in obedience, Israel increasingly repeated the sin of Adam and Eve.

Now the pattern was God continuously giving new opportunities, and man being unable to choose freely. We had a new law ruling in our hearts, and it lead always to death. God even created the law of Moses. Even before the tablets were etched, Israel proved that the slavery to sin was active, and so to this very day, we are born in slavery to sin.

There is a bit of an optimistic story going around that everyone is good 'at heart', but do some things wrong. The Bible teaches us that this has a grain of truth, but it incorrect. Everyone is actually a slave at heart, but because we have been made in the image of God, although the image is marred, it is still there.

Jesus, by coming the way that he did, in his life, death, resurrection and ascension, made it possible for us to become truly free again. That is an incredible story. We have had two terrible stories again this week that show the shocking reality of the slavery of life. Kate Spade and Anthony Bourdain - both people with (on the surface) so much achievement and accolades, and material benefits, yet they both committed suicide. I read stats out of the US, talking about a progressive increase in the rate of suicide over the last 10 years. We need Jesus. But it is more complicated than we might think on the surface, but we will get to that. Before we get to the complications, I want you to think of the simplicity of V1

For freedom, Christ has set us free. Isn't that just beautiful! He came to restore our dignity to choose Life, or to choose another way. He has restored to us the choice that our original parents frittered away. You know, one of the great universals, is that in Africa or Australia, having free will restored to us is hugely important. I refer you to and for cross references. He came to set the prisoner free. I am so glad that Jesus set me free, and continues to work out my freedom. I'm so glad that he didn't just stop at - YES, you are my son now Clinton. Now I have done my work. NO WAY! Now he wants to complete my freedom. That is what we are talking about when we talk about the fruits of the Spirit. It is Jesus completing our freedom.

I have represented the path here with a diagram, to try to explain Paul’s argument. I don’t have it as a powerpoint, but as a handout. If you have a pen and would like to fill in the blanks, I have a handout for you. I want you to first write your name down inside the box. On the left side, write slavery - law and on the right hand side freedom - grace.

What do we do with that freedom? That is the question! Well, Paul points to a narrow path. You will remember that Jesus told us about the narrow way, and this path was brought to life in Pilgrim's Progress. There are two wrong ways, and one correct way.

In verse 1 he points to the path to the right: So do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. This slavery submission happened to the Galatians with the thought brought in that one of the old Judaistic laws - circumcision - was a requirement for Gentiles to come to Christ. It was something that had to happen to qualify for salvation. We have our own substitutes for this in our day. But it is the classic statement of legalism.

n verse 1 he points to the path to the right: So do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. This slavery submission happened to the Galatians with the thought brought in that one of the old Judaistic laws - circumcision - was a requirement for Gentiles to come to Christ. It was something that had to happen to qualify for salvation. We have our own substitutes for this in our day. But it is the classic statement of legalism. The story goes that in order to be saved, we need to shape up first. The statement God helps them that helps themselves, is a statement of self-effort. Paul tells us that there are two big problems with this approach.

The story goes that in order to be saved, we need to shape up first. The statement God helps them that helps themselves, is a statement of self-effort. Paul tells us that there are two big problems with this approach.

You lose Jesus we read. Once you need something else, then Paul says that Jesus is of no advantage. We will get back to that further in, but verse 4 tells us that we are severed from Jesus.

The classic statement of this truth from Jesus mouth is : I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the Father but through me.You gain more rules - many more. The Jews of the church felt that circumcision was the one rule that they needed. But of course God had already laid down the way of righteousness. He gave his Law.

The illustration is from the passage itself - from Chapter 4 - Abraham was promised that God would grant him a son, even though Sarah was barren. Abraham chose the way of self-effort - having a son via Hagar, the servant girl to try to fulfil God's promise in his own way. ******

So much for falling off the road to the left. Freedom is next mentioned in our passage in V13. "“For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom to serve one another in love.” (, NLT).

We have the first approach to freedom - to hand it back. But the second wrong approach is take it and keep it to satisfy our sinful nature. Here we have the danger that fell first to Adam and Eve.

Eve was lured by the thought of personal gain - that God was holding out on her. So we are tempted to think that God holds out on us. Jesus gives us the freedom to think that we know better than him. That we can use our freedom selfishly.

The best illustration I can think of here is that of commons: imagine 3 people live around a Lake. The lake is big enough, with enough fish, to support all three, if they just take enough for their needs. But there are no rules - each must trust that the other 2 will only take what they need. Play this game on any computer, or at any lake, and someone will use their freedom to take more than their share, the fish will not be able to re-produce quickly enough, the others will distrust the others, and before you know it, there are no fish left. Freedom is so powerful, yet it is so dangerous! How does God trust us with Freedom? Our world introduces rules to try to keep everyone in line.

Do you feel God's vulnerability here? Think of that movie "For Better or Worse", why the church is both better and worse than we can imagine. This shows both the beauty of God expressed through the church, and the ugliness of Man, also expressed through the church. I am so looking forward to seeing that movie! I have mentioned already today. At the start of Jesus is hungry, and Satan comes to him and says - turn these stones into bread! Jesus has been granted the freedom to say YES - become bread. Yet Jesus chooses not to do this. Instead he chooses to feed on the will of His Father over the freedom of his own will.

What an instructive thing this is to me: How do I choose? How easy I find it to give myself an out. To use my freedom to feed my selfishness, or use my freedom to glorify my Father in Heaven. All to often, I choose my own selfishness, and I give myself an out.

So we can go off the track to the right with legalism, and we can go off track to the left, with permitting ourselves anything (the technical term is anti-nomianism). If you would like a book that talks about this problem in the life of the church, the book "The Whole Christ" by Sinclair Ferguson talks about both these errors in detail.

But Paul at the end of the verse implores us what to use our freedom: Use it to serve one another in love. And to not just serve those who we get along with, or agree with, or those who can help us climb the social ladder or who will back up our own thoughts.

No, even our enemies are to be served in love. There is nothing more beautiful than seeing a Christian use their freedom to serve others in love. I am constantly challenged by many of the examples I see around me here in the Sutherland Shire, or in Mulenga in Zambia, or those that I read about in the concentration camps of Germany! The challenge I leave you is: How are you going to use your freedom this week?

So we have the first Comparison - Freedom vs Slavery

We must move on to the second Comparison - Spirit vs the Flesh. This is a much faster comparison: Let us read V16-17 together : “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.” (, ESV)

This is such an important comparison. Before we get too far, though, there is a term there that might sound strange to your ears. It is "The Flesh". I have read my version from the ESV. What do other versions say where mine says - "the flesh" Message - selfishness, NLT sinful nature, NIV sinful nature.

The flesh represents everything that is against the Spirit. It is practically defined that way. V16 says that these two are opposed to each other. Growing up under the teaching of Major Ian Thomas at conferences, I learned that the Old Testament nation of Amalek was a symbol of the flesh.

Amalek was a grandson of Esau. Esau was the man’s man in the family of Isaac. He was the symbol of independence. You could give him a little penknife that Crocodile Dundee would scoff at, and bring you home wild game enough to feed a horde. but his Grandson Amalek became the symbol of independence from God. In Exodus, as an exhausted Israel emerged from the Red Sea, and Moses tells us in the story of how Amalekites hid in the desert, and attacked the stragglers - the vulnerable ones at the rear.

God chooses them as a picture of the flesh: In Exodus 17:18, “The Lord will have war with Amalek from generation to generation”. Hear the echo of Exodus in our passage: The desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the Spirit against the flesh.

Then we have the dramatic picture in of war. King Saul has waged war against the Philistines. And David had been out with his men waging war against the Amalekites. But Saul has lost his men and his sons, and is alone on the hill, and enemies are coming. Saul is injured, and tries to kill himself by leaning on his own spear. Let’s read 4 verses together:

“And the young man who told him said, “By chance I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him. And when he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. And I answered, ‘Here I am.’ And he said to me, ‘Who are you?’ I answered him, ‘I am an Amalekite.’ And he said to me, ‘Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.’ So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head and the armlet that was on his arm, and I have brought them here to my lord.”” (, ESV)

Ian Thomas makes the point that our flesh is like this man with Saul and David, with us in our weakness and in our strength. “The flesh, or the sinful nature, is both heartless and cunning. Saul and David are mini symbols of us, as Kings - we have authority to make decisions, like they do. If we are in despair in our Kingdom, like Saul is, then our flesh is self-destructive. Like Amalek waiting for the vulnerable Israelites - your Sinful Flesh is just waiting to strike you when you are at your weakest. And when he strikes, he will not be happy until you are dead. And you will die just as surely as Saul did when the Amalekite struck him down. But for David - the newly crowned King, returned from battle victorious. The flesh comes up to David, humble and bearing gifts, addressing him as “My Lord”. He goes on to say, with words I can hear now as clearly as when I heard them as a 25 year old: The Flesh, that part of you that hates the Spirit, will say anything or do anything to stay as a part of your life.

When you are strong it will affirm you, it will take your side, it will speak kind words to your heart as a treasured advisor. Anything to stay in a position of influence. But when you are down, when you are vulnerable, when you know the grief of loss: It will plunge the knife in as surely that young man did to King Saul. He will almost make it seem like a mercy. Have you heard that condemning voice - the one that says - “you’ve blown it again Clinton, you are no good to God” Just admit it, you’ll never be good enough. John speaks about that condemning voice, I think, in . Yet when you are going well, it will be an affirming voice - you don’t need God, you are doing fine on your own.

Little wonder that Paul describes it as a war. In my own heart my flesh excused the worst in me, flattered the best in me, but when I was down, it crushed me in condemnation. You might have been a Christian for 4 or 50 years, or you might just be a new Christian. Your own flesh, though, is your worst enemy. You might have been let down by your mum or dad, betrayed by a close friend or an employer. But here is the truth: No-one has let you down or betrayed you more than you have yourself. Because we all have this flesh within us - claiming all the credit, feigning innocence, and yet always ready to hit you when you are down.

I love how the story of David finishes with this man: It is violent, but instructive. David gets to the heart straight away with two questions:

Where do you come from ?

Why were you not afraid to destroy the Lord’s anointed?

These two questions are questions that we should never be afraid to ask ourselves: When we come across the flesh in our own life, dare to ask those two questions: And dare to be honest , like David, to discern the answers.

David had the young man who had flattered him so, killed. Another famous Amalekite was Haman, from the book of Esther, who was an enemy of the Jews, and sought to kill them. Esther had him uncovered and killed on the hangman’s noose that Haman had built for Mordecai. Herod, who had all the young children in Bethlehem killed - he also was an Amalekite.

Your flesh will do anything, so that the Lord Jesus will not be made King. Your flesh is at war with the Holy Spirit. What are you going to do about it? Choose sides like Joshua did all those years ago in I think . Choose this day who you will serve? I pray that you will make a conscious decision to follow the Spirit.

Let me read from “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires”. Just like David - you have the choice to be a man or woman after God’s own heart. Because of Jesus, we are free to crucify the flesh. And make no mistake, it can be peeled away, as we will study over the next 9 weeks, as the Spirit is allowed to take control and bear his fruit, like the picture of Eustace in the Dawn Treader:

(a) In The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, we’re introduced to Eustace Scrubb, who is a pretty shocking character. He’s selfish, short-tempered and treats people terribly.

(b) While Eustace is in Narnia, he happens to wander into a cave and find huge hoard of treasure and he starts planning all the things he’s going to do now that he’s so rich.

(c) Eustace ends up falling asleep in this cave and when he wakes up, he finds that he has been transformed into a terrible dragon. Straight away he realises the gravity of the situation.

(d) He can’t go the ship he was travelling on, or back to his family. He will be left to live forever by himself on this island as this dragon.

(e) Eventually Aslan the lion, who is the King of Narnia, appears and leads Eustace to clean pool of water. Aslan tells him that he’ll need to strip off and get into the pool. In other words, Eustace will have to get rid of his dragon skin.

(f) So Eustace starts to tear at his scales with dragon claws. He takes one layer of the scales off, only to find there is just another one underneath. He tried again only to discover a third layer of scales. Eustace starts to realise that he can’t do it himself and is desperate.

(g) Aslan tells Eustace that he’s going to need to let him go deeper.

§ “I was afraid of his claws, I can tell you, but I was pretty nearly desperate now. So I just lay flat down on my back to let him do it.

§ “The very first tear he made was so deep that I thought it had gone right into my heart. And when he began pulling the skin off, it hurt worse than anything I’ve ever felt. The only thing that made me able to bear it was just the pleasure of feeling the stuff peel off…

§ Well, he peeled the beastly stuff right off – just as I thought I’d done it myself the other three times, only they hadn’t hurt – and there it was lying on the grass, only ever so much thicker, and darker, and more knobbly-looking than the others had been… Then he caught hold of me… and threw me into the water. It smarted like anything but only for a moment. After that it became perfectly delicious… I’d turned into a boy again.”

Facing up to the flesh, that part of your heart that doesn’t want God, will be the biggest battle you will face. Let us encourage each other in this battle.

So we have had Freedom and Bondage, and we have had the Spirit, and the Flesh.

Paul has one last comparison for us: It is Works of the Flesh, compared to the Fruit of the Spirit. We learnt, shockingly, in the last section, that the flesh is just at home at church, as it is in a brothel. It is the ultimate chameleon, doing what it needs to do to survive. But Paul teaches us here, that the Flesh, our sinful nature, has WORKS. Without God, Paul knows that there are signs of the flesh. Paul gives us a list so we will know the signs:

sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity

strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, division, envy

drunkenness, orgies and things like these . . . .

Here’s the thing: There are three ways to generate these works. They happen automatically like night follows day. This is us, with all the masking stripped away. There but for the grace of God we all go. Notice how Paul builds a ‘morality sandwich’, with all the ‘bad’ sins on the buns top and bottom, but with all the smaller sins in the middle. We think the big sins are the bad sins. But Paul fits jealousy, anger, envy and dissension right in with orgies and idolatry.

You can see from the diagram all the arrows leading inevitably down to the bottom left. Do nothing about these three battles, don’t acknowledge them in your own heart - and you end up in the ‘Works of the flesh’. As Jesus said to the Pharisees talking about His Father - These people honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

Paul strips away the words. He strips away the excuses. He exposes the battle for what it is. He knows that the flesh will “keep you from the things you want to do” v17.

But there is one safe corner for us to head to. There are just two arrows leading up and to the right. Serve one another in love we learned earlier in the talk. Let us fill in the second arrow from v25 - If we live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit.

It is a two-pronged arrow, just like I want to leave you with a double-barrelled conclusion and an illustration from CS Lewis:

Firstly, Jesus when asked about what was important, never beat around the bush: Teacher, what must I do to be saved: What would he reply? What does the law say! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself.

Firstly, Jesus when asked about what was important, never beat around the bush: Teacher, what must I do to be saved: What would he reply? What does the law say! Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself.

The Christmas decorations were spectacular. I went down the street from store to store, and in each window—and indeed in the street itself—there were pretty lights and multicoloured decorations. Every shop seemed to have sparkling trees, alive with parcels, bells, fairies, glass balls, and all kinds of trinkets and decorations.

Or at least, they looked alive. In reality, of course, they weren’t. It was all a show. I went down the same street a month later, as the decorations were being taken down. It was very bleak. The tinsel and coloured balls went back into boxes. The trees were either folded up (they weren’t real, after all) or thrown out. Nothing had actually been growing on them. It looked magnificent, but it was all artificial.

If Paul is famous for his contrast of ‘flesh’ and ‘spirit’, he is also famous for the key words he uses that go with them both. He speaks of the works of the ‘flesh’, but the fruit of the ‘spirit’. Compare those Christmas trees for a minute with ordinary, humdrum but real fruit trees in an orchard. The Christmas trees look wonderful for a short while, but then they get packed away or thrown out. The fruit trees may not look so spectacular, but if they’re properly cared for they will go on bearing fruit year after year. Which is more important? You hardly have to ask.

We have another opportunity this morning, to commit ourselves to the real battle for our hearts. It is a battle that our Saviour Jesus has committed himself to. Nothing is more important to him than to have his bride ready for him. And that means that we are confronted with that question: What are we going to do with our freedom?

Are we going to exchange it for another bondage, are we going to use it for our own benefit, or are we going to love each other with our freedom, and give Aslan free reign to remove that skin of ours, that flesh that hates God and is an enemy of His Spirit.

Let’s pray