Freedom to Live Holy

Yesterday, I decided to get up and go to Refuge gym, that is the Crossfit gym that Mike and Nolan and a few others in our church got to. It is partially owned by some very sweet people who come to Mount Gilead, Matt and Amy Calhoun. Overnight I learned a very important lesson. Don’t start Cross Fit on Saturday when you have to preach on Sunday. In light of that lesson, I think that for the message today would would have a 25 minute silent meditation on Psalm 46:10 which says, “Be still and know that I am God.” That’s going to be easy for me since I can barely move. I am just kidding, but in truth since we are going back to finish up the last part of Galatians 5 that we skipped as we went through this, I am going to keep this shorter than normal.

As we worked through Galatians, the main theme that we heard from Paul was that we are not saved by any merit on our own. That our righteousness comes from the perfect righteousness of Christ. We are made righteous and right with God as we put our faith in Christ who paid for our sin on the cross and gives us eternal life through his resurrection. Because of that, we don’t change our spiritual identities based on how faithful we are we are. We are saved one day and lost the next. We are a saved people from all of our sins in the past, all of our present sins, and all of our future sins. They can’t be brought into an account against us.

Romans 8:1 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

But that brings up this obvious question, “If sin doesn’t affect your standing with God, why not just live in sin?” Or we might ask it like this, “Does grace promote sin?” Legalists claim that without the fear of hell, people will live like a hellion. That complete forgiveness gives people a license to sin. In reality, that is an issue that we need to be careful with, using our grace as a, “Well I’m forgiven, so it’s OK card” is a sin that Christians need to be mindful of. But the reality of the situation is that the person that truly understands grace, it makes us want to be more holy, not more sinful.

So we need to take a good look at grace.

I. The goal of grace is not to give you an excuse to sin, but a motivation to love. (Gal. 5:13-15)

Paul begins by giving us a warning against using grace as an excuse to sin. (v.13)

Galatians 5:13 ESV

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.

It’s real easy for a believer to justify their sin, but leaning on the fact that God forgives all our sins. No doubt that grace is a freedom. But, Jesus didn’t die to give you the freedom to sin more. He died to give us the freedom to love out of a pure motivation.

When someone who really embraces grace loves God and loves others, they are not loving out of a motivation that they are afraid to go to hell. The legalists would ask, “Then why are they loving?” Answer, “They are loving God because they are a new creation in Christ. And they love God because they love God. They love others because they love others. God has put that love in their hearts.

*We are not like the child who cleans their room just because they don’t want a spanking. We are more like the child who does it because it makes them happy to please their parents. (I know that’s not the normal child. That’s why God has to make us a new creation, first.)

What does God desire? Paul says, “One Word.”

Galatians 5:14 ESV

14 For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

So grace provides the proper motivation for Christians to love out of a pure heart. The same way that God loves each of us.

II. The grip of sin must be replaced by love.

Just because we are save and a new creation in Christ doesn’t mean that the sin nature doesn’t still have a grip on us. We still have a sinful flesh. We still live in a sinful world. Believers still face the temptation to sin and fall into sin daily. Sin always has destructive consequences.

Galatians 5:15 ESV

15 But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another.

How many churches have you seen destroyed because each side wanted to be right. Neither could find their way to act loving to another another. To apply the golden rule,

Matthew 7:12 ESV

12 “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

Love is thinking of the good of others before your own.

Philippians 2:1–4 ESV

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Paul goes on to say that is what Jesus did for us on the cross. He though of us first.

Where Christians can’t think of others above themselves, Satan can get a grip and the flesh directs our actions, destruction is soon to follow.

Love should mark us as Christians.

*It is reported that Mr. Whitefield (a Calvinist preacher during the 1st Great Awakening) was one day asked by a partisan, “Do you think that we, when we get to heaven, shall see John Wesley there?”

“No,” said George Whitefield, “I do not think we shall.” The questioner was very delighted with that answer, but Mr. White-field added, “I believe that Mr. John Wesley will have a place so near the throne of God, and that such poor creatures as you and I will be so far off, as to be hardly able to see him.”

As I read such remarks, I have said to myself, “By this I know that he must be a Christian,” for I saw that he loved his brother Wesley even while he so earnestly differed from him on certain points of doctrine

[Spurgeon, C. H. (1995). 2,200 quotations: from the writings of Charles H. Spurgeon : arranged topically or textually and indexed by subject, Scripture, and people. (T. Carter, Ed.) (p. 122). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.]

III. The gift of grace is the empowering of the Spirit. (Gal. 5:18-26)

Paul helps us to understand that we have 2 natures battling each other. A new nature in Christ that is empowered by the Spirit and an old nature that comes from the world that’s described as the flesh. These natures are at war within us.

Galatians 5:16–17 ESV

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 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.

He calls us to be led by the Spirit.

Galatians 5:18 ESV

18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

If God is leading you, you don’t have to worry about sinning (breaking the law). God is not going to lead you into sin.

So how do we know who is leading us our flesh or the Spirit? Look what is coming out of your life.

Galatians 5:19–21 ESV

19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

If this is what characterizes your life all the time, you don’t have the Spirit. You then are not saved.

What does it look like to be led by the Spirit?

Galatians 5:22–23 ESV

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

There is no law concerning these things, because the Spirit’s fruit doesn’t show our need for a Savior. The Spirit’s fruit shows us that we have a Savior.

-Do you ever wonder why this says, “fruit” of the Spirit and not “fruits” of the Spirit? It’s because all of these come from the same root. It points to the nature that produces them. Oranges are produces by orange trees. Peaches are produced by peach trees. Their fruit point to the root that produced them. But all of these things, “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control all comes from the same root.” Love comes from the Spirit tree. Patience comes from the Spirit tree. Kindness comes from the Spirit tree.

We can’t pursue the fruit without pursuing the root. Put simply, if you want to be changed, only God can do it. Pursue him.

Galatians 5:25–26 ESV

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

So, Christian, whatever side your currently are siding with will determine the fruit that comes from you life. And the fruit that comes from your life will yield real love or real destruction.

Are you choosing flesh or the Spirit?