True Liberty
Stand Firm in Freedom • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Introduction
Introduction
Like many here, when I was very young I memorized the Pledge of Allegiance...
When I do sports announcing for the high school, when the band isn’t at the game, I start the Pledge of Allegiance...
However, last year I announced for a soccer game, and it didn’t go well...
Of course, when I was young, I didn’t really understand the words or meaning behind the Pledge of Allegiance, I just did it because I was supposed to. I had no idea what any of it meant, particularly the last line: “...with liberty and justice for all.”
I’d actually argue the many adults don’t really even understand what liberty and justice for all actually mean. Particularly liberty.
Today, for a growing number of people liberty means that they can do whatever they want, as long as it’s not against the law…or as long as they actually agree with said law.
Yet, as believers, if we say that true liberty is only found in Christ and that our liberty frees us to serve God as we were designed, it is confusing for most modern Americans.
And yet, that is exactly what we will see here this morning as we look at Galatians 5:13-15.
Body: Galatians 5:13-15
Body: Galatians 5:13-15
Verse 13 marks a transition in that Paul is done talking about the Judaizers and is now focused solely on the believers.
He just told them to emasculate themselves, so not much else needs to be said.
Paul returns to his early line of thinking from verse 1:
For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
Because we our a free people in Christ, we can stand firm in the faith and not become slaves to the yoke of a works-based salvation, or to the slavery of a libertine lifestyle that takes grace for granted and continues wallowing in sin.
Both are forms of slavery. So far, Paul has spent all his time dealing with the works-based salvation view. Now Paul transitions into challenging those who would use the freedom that is our in Christ as license to sin.
Notice that we are called to freedom.
It’s so vital that we understand that it was God who called us to Himself and created a way for us to come to Him.
The Triune God is the sole agent of our salvation. We are the beneficiaries of the free gift of salvation.
And, as Paul has been stating throughout the first half of this letter, we are a free people from the justifiable punishment brought on because of our sins because we’ve been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ Jesus alone.
So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
As believers, we have been called to liberty in Christ.
As believers, we have been called to liberty in Christ.
If you’ve trusted Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, then you have the liberty of no longer having to make atonement for your own sins, which is ultimately impossible.
He has not called you to be a slave to the flesh and a slave to death, but to new life in Christ.
This is the greatest news in all of human history.
The guilty are found guiltless because the Only One not guilty took our guilt upon Himself!
Our next sermon series is going to focus on the necessity of loving Jesus more than anyone or anything.
The catalysis for this love is this:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
That’s the love of Christ Jesus. That He would become sin so that we can be righteous before God.
You might be here this morning and you don’t have this liberty in Christ I’m talking about.
If you haven’t genuinely recognized and owned the fact that you are a sinner who needs a savior; that Jesus is the only one who can save you; and that you must believe the Jesus is Lord, confess Him as your Savior, and follow Him as His disciple; then you are not saved.
Some want to wait until later…some assume Jesus and go about their business…others believe that they are good because of their parents, grandparents, or something they said as a child when pressured…but, when it comes right down to it, we must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.
because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
As believers, we are not called to liberty in the flesh.
As believers, we are not called to liberty in the flesh.
Paul’s opponents claimed that Paul was preaching a Gospel of easy-believism. Meaning that it didn’t matter what one did as long as they had faith, they were all good.
But, as we will see, Paul taught that good works flow from the life of a genuinely saved person.
While good works cannot save us, lack of good works is an indication that someone was never saved in the first place.
In fact, over the next few weeks we are going to see that Paul has very strong words for those who would use their freedom in Christ as license to sin.
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 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.
For modern American Christians, this is as important, and probably even more so than Paul’s warnings against legalism and a works-based salvation.
We live in a liberal society that struggles to even call sin, sin.
Men were once broken by their sin, but today we excuse sin; we blame God for our sin; we justify our sin; we point out others who are greater sinners than us; we say “Yeah, I know, but...”
Paul’s words resound to this generation: our freedom is not license to sin.
If our liberty isn’t a license to sin, then what does it lead us to?
As believers, our liberty leads us to serve one another in love.
As believers, our liberty leads us to serve one another in love.
Because of the liberty won for us by Christ Jesus alone, we can serve one another in love. What does that look like?
Paul will unpack that in the following verses, but to begin let’s consider four ways we serve one another:
Develop a servant’s heart.
A servant’s heart sees no opportunity to serve as too low or not worth your time.
Instead of looking for ways out and excuses not to serve, a person with a servant’s heart looks for ways to serve.
The best way to develop a servant’s heart is to: serve...
For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them.
Putting others before yourself.
Paul says in clearly in verse 14...
Instead of just thinking about ourselves, we care for and love others with tangible actions...
I hate when people say, “Sending thoughts and prayers...”
Serve from your ministry strengths.
When I talk about ministry strengths, I define it as your:
Spiritual gifts...
Skills...
Passions...
Willingness...
As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace:
And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,
Know your ministry strength and serve from your ministry strength.
Resist tearing down other believers.
Look again at what Paul says in verse 15...
Apparently the churches were being damaged by the Judaizers in more ways than their theology. They were tearing one another down with their words.
What does Paul say will happen? They are eventually going to consume each other.
That’s the way it works. When we tear down our Christian brothers and sisters we are eventually going to tear down ourselves.
This happens through gossip, unkind words, back biting, unwillingness to deal with disagreements biblically, whining, complaining, and on we could go.
You know where it needs to stop? With me! If I don’t participate, then all of this loses it’s strength.
End with verse 13...