"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Freedom" Galatians 5:16-26

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Freedom" Galatians 5:16-26

I would like to continue our worship time this morning by playing that opening song, “Come Now is the Time to Worship” on the piano. I want to play a beautiful version of that on the piano right now. Does anybody have any problem with me playing and continuing our worship? Would that be ok? I would really like to but there is a problem. I don’t have the music. And actually there is another problem. I can’t play the piano. At all. But I really want to.

I want to be able to play something beautiful here on this piano. The problem is that while I have the liberty to play (there is no law stopping me from banging out some notes) I don’t have the freedom to play because I never learned how. I was never disciplined enough to sit down and be obedient to a lesson plan long enough to learn to play anything more than “Oscar the Octopus” and that is not very worshipful so I will spare you.

See, in our spiritual lives there is a difference between “liberty” and “freedom”. So many people think that freedom is the license to do whatever a person wants, but true freedom is the ability to do what is right. It takes obedience in order to have true freedom. (Illustrations for Biblical Preaching)

Another illustration of this is the unchained dog lying in the sun in the front yard with no fence. He’s just lying there soaking up the sun watching the cars pass. He has the liberty to run off down the street. He can but when his master caught him he would be in trouble. But true freedom for that dog means he is obedient and therefore he can come and go as he wants from the front to the back and all over the yard instead of being chained or fenced. There is a difference in freedom and liberty.

Paul says in I Corinthians 10:23, “All things are lawful for me, but not all things are helpful.” As Baptists, there are several subjects that we all kind of have an unwritten understanding that we don’t talk about much; subjects like drinking, smoking, dancing and gambling. There are no laws saying you can’t do any or all of that and lots of people do. But the problem with these things is that they either lead to an addiction or they lead to other things that are destructive so while we have the liberty to do them, freedom comes from the Holy Spirit.

Now, on the other hand, many of us wish we could do incredible things for the Kingdom of God but it seems like for all of our good intentions, we get bogged down just trying to survive without killing somebody. How many of you know that feeling? One minute you are thinking of some powerful work that you could do to bring others to a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ and the next thought you have is“Lord, forgive me for the horrible thought I just had about that person”. Isn’t that frustrating? What can we do about all of that?

That must have been how Paul felt when he said in Romans 7:18, “For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing.” So, again, the Holy Spirit tells us that we have the liberty to do all things but not the freedom. And we have the desires to do good things but too often we do the bad things we don’t want to do. Man, are we messed up or what?

So, I go back to my question. What can we do about all that? Well, fortunately for us there is an answer that will help us to not only know the difference in what we should and should not do but it will also give us the power to do all those good things that we want to do and more. Turn to Galatians chapter 5 and let’s see the answer.

¹⁶ So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. ¹⁷ For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. ¹⁸ But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God .

²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. ²⁵ Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. ²⁶ Let us not become conceited; provoking and envying each other.

Last week we looked at the 10 Commandments in Exodus and between the Sunday morning and Sunday night services we saw why they were written and why they are still relevant to us today. And by the way, if you aren’t coming to the Sunday evening services you are missing a blessing. But we talked about how we are not under the Law as followers of Jesus but we are under grace and we are grateful for that, right? And yet, while we are not under the Law, the Law is still relevant to us and we are still supposed to keep the Law. Jesus Himself told the rich young ruler in Matthew 19to “Obey the commandments.”

Thankfully, we are not saved by keeping the commandments but we are saved by grace and through faith in Jesus Christ. But that doesn’t get us off the hook for obeying the commandments or anything else God tells us to do as individuals. We all know that there are consequences to falling short in that area. I will say again that there are BOOCOD, benefits of obedience and consequences of disobedience. We know we are not supposed to lie and there are consequences for that. And guys also know that there are consequences for answering your wife incorrectly when she asks, “Honey, does this dress make me look fat?”

That’s just a mean question. Ladies, don’t ask that. And guys, there is a correct answer there that is both truthful and will keep you out of trouble. I don’t know what it is but I’m sure there is one. Anyway, we want to do the right thing as opposed to the wrong thing but we struggle with that and we also want to do great things for the Lord but we struggle with that. This passage shows us the secret to doing both and then it tells us how to know when we are doing it wrong and also how to know when we are doing it right.

Let’s look at the secret to life, liberty and the pursuit of freedom as told by Paul to the church in Galatia . When 56 men sat down in Philadelphia and ratified the text of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, it included the famous words, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” They said the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness were endowed to us by our creator and I would like to add that the pursuit of spiritual freedom is not only endowed by our creator but is the only way in which we will ever find it.

And Paul makes the secret sound so easy. He says in verse 16, “Live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” Just live by the Spirit. Look, honey, we’re just gonna live by the Spirit. Hey, honey, what’s it mean to live by the Spirit? Well, I’ll tell you, honey, what that means. Let’s learn some more Greek. When Paul uses the word “Spirit” he is obviously talking about the Holy Spirit but the word he used was “pneuma”. It’s the word from which we get pneumatic and means having to do with air. It just meant air or sometimes wind.

What I found interesting in my study of this was that it always meant a powerful wind. There is another Greek word that means a calm, gentle breeze. This is the significance behind the wind at Pentecost that blew into that upper room with a loud noise in Acts chapter 2. There was no mistaking it for a calm breeze. It couldn’t be ignored. It was obviously the work of the Creator and it was powerful. The Spirit of God is the most powerful force in the universe and we have the ability to live in it or your text may say walk in it. And not only do we have the opportunity to walk in it but we are commanded to here by Paul who was, as he wrote this, under the powerful influence of the Spirit and so, therefore we are commanded by the Spirit to live in the Spirit. Not to do so is sin.

Let me give you 2 quick verses on how to live by the Spirit. First, Colossians 3:16 says, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.” That’s worship. That includes preaching and teaching and singing and prayer, fellowshipping with other brothers and sisters.

Secondly,Romans 8:5 says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.” Do you know how you set your mind on what the Spirit desires? Let me just tell you, it is hard to gossip when you are quoting Proverbs 18:7 over and over. “A fool’s mouth is his undoing. A fool’s mouth is his undoing. A fool’s mouth is his undoing”

It’s hard to lust when you are singing “On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross,
The emblem of suffering and shame;
And I love that old cross where the dearest and best
For a world of lost sinners was slain.”

Or how about trying to steal, lie or cheat when you are praying the prayer David prayed in Psalm 51 after he sinned with Bathsheba,“Create in me a pure heart oh God and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

In other words be prepared for temptation to come and be ready to set your mind on what the Spirit desires by immersing yourself in Him. Have a verse ready and memorized to combat whatever your favorite little nasty sin is. Or have a song or a prayer or whatever it takes to continue living in the powerful Spirit of God.

When I see some guy with a flat belly, I think, “Man, I’d like to look like that again.” I’m tired of having this gut and I really want to be thin. I really do. But do you know how much I want to be thin? I want to be thin this bad (patting stomach). I want to be thin but I have not done everything I can to be that way. I have not used the tools and the knowledge I have to make that happen and it is the same way for us when we struggle with the same sin over and over. God has provided a way and the tools and the power necessary to accomplish it. It’s just up to us to use it by living in the Spirit.

Now fortunately, Paul tells us how to know when we are not living in the Spirit just like our bathroom scales at home tell us when we have not been living correctly in that sense. He has a long list of sins but the list is not exhaustive as Paul says at the end in verse 21, “…and the like”. He lists, “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; ²⁰ idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions ²¹ and envy; drunkenness, orgies.”

When we read this we might be tempted to see this as a list of only the worst of the worst; a list that we can be proud of not having anything to do with things like debauchery or witchcraft or orgies. But look closer. You can know you are not living in the Spirit when you have impurity of any kind in your life. You can know you are not living in the Spirit when you have discord or jealousy, dissensions or factions. Think about that and that is why I say that any time there is discord in the church you can always trace it back to sin somewhere. People don’t always have to agree on everything but when there is dissension or quarrelling you can bet somebody is sinning.

That’s why Paul puts envy right next to idolatry. One is just as bad as the other and both are proof that we are not living in the Spirit. It is so serious that he ends the paragraph saying that those who live like this (and that verb means to continually live, not a one-time lapse) will not inherit the kingdom of God . If you can read that list and name any single one with which you have an ongoing problem then you need to take drastic measures because you just stepped on the scale and broke it! Paul is not saying that if you do all of these then you are in trouble. He is saying you are in trouble if you do any one of these.

Now, I have a question. It seems to me that Paul is being pretty judgmental here. In fact, just a few paragraphs earlier in chapter 2 verse 16 he says that we are not justified by keeping the law but here he is saying that those folks who don’t keep the law are not going to inherit the kingdom of God . How do you justify that?

Some have thought this to be a contradiction in his theology but a closer look shows that the evidence that the Galatian believers had been justified by faith was the presence of the Spirit in their lives. People love to quote Matthew 7that says, “Judge not lest ye be judged.” But Paul is saying that the proof is in the pudding. When you see someone continually living that way you know that they are not living in the Spirit and therefore will not inherit the kingdom. It’s not about keeping the law and it’s not about being judgmental. It’s just proof.

So we know that the secret to living in freedom is to live in the Spirit. And we know what it looks like when we are not living in the Spirit. Now let’s see what living in the Spirit looks like. Paul says that when we are living in the Spirit we will bear the fruit of love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Just like the previous list would prove that someone is not living in the Spirit, so it is that this list is proof or the fruit of living in the Spirit. And the first thing I want to say about this is that the proof of the maturity of a Christian is not the gifts of the Spirit but the fruit of the Spirit. I Corinthians 13:1-2 says, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. ² If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

Paul is telling the Corinthian church that it doesn’t matter if they have the gift of tongues or prophesy or knowledge or anything else, without the fruit of love they are just wasting their breath. It doesn’t matter to us today if you are a great teacher or preacher or musician or any other gift you have, the proof of your maturity as a Christian will show up in the fruit you bear.

Secondly, we might have the tendency to read this and think that we will never bear all of this fruit because that is when life is perfect. Only a perfect person with a perfect life can have love, joy, peace, patience, etc., right? That’s not what Jesus said in John 15:2. “He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” Sometimes a fruitful person can be pruned by God which, in itself is what brings the maturity. So it is not the gifts of the Spirit that show one’s maturity. It is the fruit of the Spirit.

So, again, we have seen the secret to living in freedom is to live in the Spirit. We know what it looks like when we are not and when we are living in the Spirit. And I love how Paul ends that list. “Against such things there is no law.” You not only have the liberty to have love and joy and peace even in the difficult times, you have the power and the freedom as well.