Freedom Through Conflict
Galatians: Faith, Freedom, & Love • Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 5 viewsNotes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
In the previous passage that Pastor Philip preached on last week we saw how Paul called the Galatians to freedom, to live out their freedom in Jesus through serving others with love. But what we see in this passage, here is that that freedom is only through the power of the Spirt.
Paul is writing to the church, explaining what it means to live in faith, freedom, and love.
But living in that freedom and love, however, reveals a fight or a conflict that all of us as believers must address:
Boxing announcer Michael Buffer, “Let’s Get Ready To Rumble!”
The difference is that a boxing match has a set time and is over the day of the fight, but for the Christian, we have to be ready to rumble every day from the time we wake up until we go to sleep and we repeat. It is wake up, fight, go to sleep, repeat
Our text for today is Galatians 5:16–26 (Read from Bible)
This text shows that: This is the only point of my passage:
We have to live in complete reliance on the Holy Spirit to live the Christian life.
This passage applies to all of us! Not just those who we think are super spiritual or
We are going to talk about 4 things to show this point:
The Charge to the believer
The Conflict within the believer
The Contrast between the flesh and the Spirit
The Commitment of the believer
The Charge
The Charge
I say, then, walk by the Spirit and you will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.
To walk : also means to live
To walk by the Spirit is both active and continuous: we must continually
discover God’s perspective
decide to honor God by how we live
depend on the Holy Spirit to live in holiness and obedience
This is not a one-time event, this is an every day event, every hour event, every minute event, every second event. It is a way of life!!!!
To live by the Spirit means to live in faith by faith in the work of Christ!
Paul uses this term, the flesh, but what does it mean?
It means to live independently of God, seeking to please self above pleasing God.
So we have either live with our dependence on Christ or self…
But I want us to notice something here:
Paul says to walk by the Spirit so that we “will certainly not carry out the desire of the flesh.”
He did not say that we would not have desires or temptation. He is saying To walk in the Spirit means that we won’t yield to the desires of the flesh.
Notice that this is a positive command. In other words, the focus isn’t on what not to do, but what to do. Walk by the Spirit…Focus on the Holy Spirit and dealing with the flesh will take care of itself.
If you spend your time doing what you are supposed to do then you won’t have time to do what you aren’t to do.
So we see that there is a charge to walk in the Spirit, but why is this so important? Why is it important that we don’t carry out the desires of the flesh? To understand that, we have to understand the conflict.
The Conflict
The Conflict
For the flesh desires what is against the Spirit, and the Spirit desires what is against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you don’t do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Every single one of us as believers is in this fight. This is a civil war within us and it is intense!
When we come to Christ, we get the Holy Spirit. It’s like the term if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself. When we come to faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit enters in our lives and the fight is on. The flesh does not surrender without a fight.
We need the Holy Spirit to help us to live a life that pleases God. The inward ministry of the Holy Spirit is to equip and empower us to live a life of victory in Christ.
Here’s the reality:
When we come to Christ, some of us think our temptations just go away. For some of us, some sins went away and we don’t struggle anymore with them, but there are those sins that will not go without a fight. It is an intense and ongoing war, and we will fight the flesh until Jesus comes back or we go to him.
Many times, we think the problems of the world are “out there” in the world, but the reality is that the problem is “in here.” (In our flesh)
We have to “check ourselves.”
Never underestimate the power of sin and temptation and never overestimate our ability to deal with it in our own strength. We will take “L’s” all the time.
We can seclude ourselves, we can hide from society, but we can’t hide from the desires of the flesh, we cannot escape this battle
Ephraim the Syrian, a 4th century theologian and church Father said in a reflection called “Inside I am not what I appear to be: Heal me,”
Thou knowest, O Lord, my passions hidden in darkness; the sores of my soul are known to Thee. Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. If Thou wilt not build the house of my soul, I labor in vain trying to build it myself. It is true that sometimes I prepare myself to do battle with the passions when they war against me; but the evil wiles of the serpent paralyze the efforts of my soul with sensuality and I yield to them. Through no one visibly ties my hands, the invisible passions drag me away like a captive.
He ends it saying,
No one is strong enough to heal the passionate temperament of my soul except Thou, O Lord, Who knowest the depths of my soul. Condescend and save me by Thy kindness!
We need the Holy Spirit!!!!
The reality is that the passions and desires of our hearts drive us to sin. We are at war within ourselves.
Why is this war so intense? Because they have opposite agendas.
The Spirit’s agenda is to conform us to the image of Christ
The flesh’s agenda is to place the self at the throne that belongs to Christ
In other words, the war is over the affections of our hearts, our deepest loves, and allegiances. Control of the throne of our lives.
Recognize that if you are not in Christ, we don’t have this battle because we embrace our state of sin. But when Christ comes in our lives, the fight is on.
Share my testimony in how God changed my heart
Victory does not come from human effort or our performance. In the greater context of Galatians, being right with God doesn’t come from living under the law. It comes from faith in Christ and the Spirit works within our lives by faith and through faith.
To be right with God, it is through faith in Jesus alone. And to walk and live God’s way, we have to rely on the Holy Spirit. He empowers us to live a life that pleases Him.
In other words, when the Spirit frees us from the law, He gives us freedom From sin not freedom to sin.
Now we need to see what these two opponents looks like.
The Contrast
The Contrast
First, let’s look at the flesh
19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, carousing, and anything similar. I am warning you about these things—as I warned you before—that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
This list is by no means exhaustive:
One commentary categorized the works of the flesh in categories that I found to be helpful.
They are: sex, worship, relationships, and indulgences
Sex: sexual immorality, moral impurity, promiscuity,
What is the big deal with sex? It’s my body!
It grieves the Holy Spirit
It impacts more than just our own bodies but others as well
It can dishonor fellow image bearers
It is an obvious way to display self-centeredness
It violates God’s pure plan for marriage and sexuality. God created sex and human lusts disorders what God made as good and holy.
How many of us have issues in our lives due to sexual sin? Broken hearts, broken relationships, etc.
The problem with how we view sexual sin is that what Scripture calls sin, we in our society call being free and exercising the rights of our bodies.
Working in college ministry, especially with athletes, sex is a key topic in discipleship. And I ask them oftentimes when we have sex outside of marriage, its considered to be like test driving a car, but the question is which one is the test driver and which one is the test vehicle? Oftentimes they recognize that they were both but couldn’t distinguish between the two.
When we live based on the passions and desires of our bodies, then we have made a disordering of the beauty of sex in the way God created it. Sexual immorality, moral impurity, and promiscuity is anything sexually that is outside of God’s intention and order.
worship: idolatry–when we set our affections to anything other than God.
sorcery– it is an attempt to manipulate circumstances through “spiritual” ends other than trusting in God alone. (Horoscopes, Tarot Cards, Oiji boards) Witchcraft
What it points to is that we are worshiping beings. We were created for worship and created to worship. The question is what or who do we worship?
Relationships: Hatreds, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, factions, envy
Indulgences: Drunkenness, and carousing – The lack of self-control
The warning: If this is our lifestyle then we have rejected the gift of grace that is Christ and his transforming work by grace through faith.
David Platt said
If you are living under the rule of the flesh, then you should stand in fear because you will not enter the coming kingdom. Those who come to faith in Christ by grace alone are new people (6:15). While they will still wrestle with sin, the flesh will not dominate them. They have new desires and new power to live. Our good works do not save us, but true salvation leads to fruitfulness and faithfulness.
[David Platt (2014). (p. 114). Christ-Centered Exposition. Broadman & Holman. Retrieved from https://app.wordsearchbible.lifeway.com]
So what does that fruitfulness and faithfulness look like?
We are talking about
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things.
When we walk in the Spirit, we produce fruit that looks like Christ. This is not a work of the law, but the Spirit in the life of the believer.
This is the fruit of faith, freedom, and love because this is the work of the Spirit in the lives of the believer.
So we have examined the charge to the believer, the conflict within the believer, the contrast of the combatants, and now to our final category, the commitment of the believer.
The Commitment
The Commitment
Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.
Our commitment is based not on our effort above all but on what Jesus did first on our behalf.
Jesus is committed to us: we belong to Him
Our commitment to Him: to crucify the Flesh: To put to death the flesh by the power of the Spirit.
We are identifying with Christ in his death and resurrection. We are identifying with the victory provided by the cross and the empty tomb and in doing so, we take on a new identity as we live like we have gone from death to life.
20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When we crucify the flesh daily, we are reminding ourselves to whom we belong.
Then he said to them all, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.
To crucify the flesh is an act of worship: Paul said in Romans:
Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; this is your true worship.
We ought to live well by loving well, in humility, knowing that this is not out of human effort and performance but is a grace of God through the Holy Spirit.
To live in Freedom is to live by the Spirit!
Conclusion
Conclusion
So what does this mean for us as believer?
If you are a believer, you need to check yourself daily. Am I living according to the flesh or the Spirit?Is the fruit of the Spirit evident in my life? It’s time to do some fruit inspecting in our lives. And wherever there is the work of the flesh, don’t live in shame over what you have done, chase after the grace and love of God. Sometimes we fail so much that we give up and say what’s the point!
But, there are brand new mercies every single day! Get up, confess, repent, and run to Jesus not from him. Grace is found in Jesus, Forgiveness is found in Jesus, Healing is found in Jesus, Freedom is found in Jesus. It is not enough to run from something, but we have to run to someone: JESUS
If you are an unbeliever, you have to recognize that you are already living according to the flesh because you are on the throne of your heart.