FREE, part 2

Sermon Notes, June 30, 2019

Rev. Garry McGlinchy

Pastor Garry’s sermon was titled “Free, Part 2,” and was based on Galatians 5:1, 13-26.

Verse 1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.  Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”  Christ died to set us free from the bondage of our sins along with a long list of laws and regulations. 

This freedom, however, does not give us free license to do what we want when we want—No!  That will only lead us back into the bondage of our sins and not only that, the bondage of sin will be greater than it was when we first left it!  This is not at all what God wants for the most beloved of His creations!  However, thanks to Christ, we are free to do the things that we once thought to be impossible: we are free to live unselfishly.  With Christ our selfish desires no longer have a hold on us. They no longer have power over us!  And all those who use their freedom so that they can have their own way, or indulge their own desires, will only tumble back into sin.

With that said, it is also wrong to put the restraints of keeping the Laws, religiously speaking, on Christ-followers.  We must stand against those who try to enslave us with rules, methods, or special conditions for being saved or growing in Christ.

In verse 13, Paul identifies the difference between being free from sin and free to serve.  Freedom or license to sin is not freedom, because it brings about enslavement to Satan, to others, or our own sinful nature.  Those who follow Christ, by contrast, should not give in to sin, because we are FREE to do right and GLORIFY God through our loving service to others.

Verses 14 & 15 warn us of the danger of losing the motivation of love.  We are prone to becoming critical of others.  We fail to see the GOOD in people and focus only on their faults.  And the longer we go on being critical of each other, the more and more we become disjointed and un-unified.  The truth is that this is exactly what Satan wants to see happen to God’s people!  Talking behind each other’s backs, spreading rumors and gossip, focusing on someone’s shortcomings.  This is what brings Satan joy: dissension amongst God’s people.  A fractured church.  This is not what our Freedom stands for!  We are to be UNITED!  And when we find ourselves playing into Satan’s little game of dissension, we must remind ourselves of Jesus’ command to “Love one another as you love yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)  How about instead of being critical of someone’s shortcomings, we made a list of their positive qualities instead.  What if, instead of gossiping and spreading rumors about a person or group we have a problem with, we, out of love, confronted them to seek common ground?

In verses 16-18 we see that if we desire the Fruit of the Spirit (verses 22-23) then we can be assured that the Holy Spirit is in fact guiding us.  However, we need to be careful that our emotions and feelings aren’t being confused with the leading of the Holy Spirit.  We can be sure that we don’t confuse the two in that being led by the Holy Spirit requires a desire to HEAR, the readiness to OBEY the Word of God, and DISCERNMENT to distinguish between our emotions/feelings and the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  We need to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us each and every day.  When we do our Freedom in Christ will be fully unlocked because the WORDS of Christ will dwell in our hearts and minds, the LOVE of Christ will motivate our actions, and the POWER of Christ will control our selfish desires!

In verse 17, Paul describes two forces at odds within each of us: The Holy Spirit and our sinful nature.  These two forces are not equally matched.  For those of us who have allowed the Holy Spirit to truly lead us, we can testify that the power of the Holy Spirit is infinitely stronger than our sinful desires.  That said, when we lean on our own wisdom, we often make poor choices.  Along this line, when we try to follow the Holy Spirit by our own human effort, we ultimately fail.  The only way we will experience true FREEDOM from our own sinful desires is when we allow the Holy Spirit to empower us!

In verses 19-21, we see that one cannot simply ignore their sinful desires.  If we are to truly follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit we must deal with our sinful desires head on.  Paul gives a list of vices that encompass many different sinful desires that we are all subject to fall into.  Some of them are obvious sins, such as sexual immorality and demonic activities; others are less obvious, like hostility, jealousy and selfish ambition.  When we ignore these sins, or refuse to deal with them, we are demonstrating the lack of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and we are not truly free from our sins.

In verses 22 and 23, however, Paul gives a second list that demonstrates what a Spirit-filled life, a life free from the oppression of sin, looks like.  And here’s the thing, these traits, the Fruit of the Spirit, that the Spirit bears in us, are ALL traits that we can find in the life of Jesus.  They are the products of Christ’s control in our lives.  We can only receive them with His help.  You can try all your life, but unless you have Christ you will never bear them on your own.  We must be grafted into the life of Christ, as He says in John 15:4-5.  We must KNOW Him, LOVE Him, REMEMBER Him, and IMITATE Him!  When we do, we fulfill the purpose of the Law to love both God and our neighbor.  Because the God who sent the Law also sent the Spirit, the fruit that the Spirit bears in us is in perfect harmony with the purpose of the Law.  A person who exhibits the Fruit of the Spirit fulfills God’s Law far greater than someone who keeps the rituals and has little love in their heart.

Verse 24 lets us know that if we are to truly accept Jesus as our savior we must turn from our sinful desires, and, along with our sinful nature, nail them to the Cross!  It should be noted that this doesn’t mean that our sinful natures will never come back, or that we will never see traces of our sins trying to creep back into our lives again.  Just because you accept Christ as your Lord and Savior doesn’t mean that you no longer have the capacity to sin.  It means that we no longer HAVE to sin….It means that we are free from the power of sin over us!  That said, we must take care to come to the cross daily, through prayer, through the daily reading of the scriptures, and it also means that we MUST have the support of our brothers and sisters in Christ!  We must also develop the practice of submitting our sinful natures to God’s control, and we must draw on the power of the Holy Spirit every moment of every day.

Verse 26 helps us to know this: God is highly interested in every part of our lives.  This means that we are to submit every aspect of our lives to the Holy Spirit: spiritual, social, physical, emotional, intellectual and vocational.  Paul points out that because we are saved we ought to LIVE LIKE WE ARE SAVED.  This is why we ought to remain “On the move, in step with the Spirit!”  We need to make sure that we aren’t derailed by life,,,, people or situations that get in our way.  And we shouldn’t allow anyone or anything other than the Holy Spirit to determine the values and standards of our everyday lives.