You Were Called to Freedom

Well, good morning. We're going to continue on in Galatians. We're up to verse 13 now. And actually, we're going to take some time and go back. I know it's both Mike and I do this, and I think it's good. We go back to where we have come from in the previous verses. And in this case, I'm going to go back to the beginning of the chapter because there's a strong connection between verse 13 and verse 1.

Okay, so let's just get right into it here. So basically I'm going to use the Macaulay outline. In this review, I'm going to use the Macaulay outline and I'm going to use the verses underneath each point in the Macaulay outline. So he titles the section, the 12 verses we've covered in the last several months, Freedom of the Christian Life. So the first aspect is a declaration.

Christ freed us for freedom. Sounds kind of sing-songy, but literally he freed us so that we can live in Christ's freedom, in his liberty. So that's the first point we covered back and we're going to see the connection with that to verse 13 here shortly. Then there's the appeal in both verse 1 and verse 13. Once a statement is made, then Paul has an appeal. In this case, he says, since you're free, since you're free in Christ, therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. He's saying don't go back. Don't go back from where you were at. You were enticed by these Juviaizers, these legalists. You went down that path for some time period.

Actually, there's, you know, and going back over this again, I saw some things I'd missed before, really cool. Paul's encouraged at some points and warned for other points. So now in the next section he talks about, so we had the transition, 5-1-A and B, and now he has this section, the tragedy of legalism. And in this he kind of lays out a couple of things. You can sideline Christ. You can take him, you can put him offline.

You say, it sounds, does that mean I'm going to lose my salvation? Is that, am I going to, I know, is that possible? Well, no, he's talking really about, about your fellowship with him, your interaction with him. The way he states it in verse two is, behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you are circumcised, literally you're counting upon circumcision for your salvation, Christ shall be no profit to you. And I taught this section, and I think we really kind of came to the conclusion that this is a fellowship derailment, if you will. You're going to lose your fellowship with Christ temporarily, possibly here. If you think circumcision is a way to salvation, if you're counting upon that, that's going to impact.

You won't increase in the things of Christ, is kind of the idea. Then it goes on, and the B part is, it's always inconsistent, and what he means by that is that, he says, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, once again, the focus is more on counting upon circumcision, depending upon that, just like we gave the analogy back when I taught it before, some people depend totally upon baptism, they say, I have relatives.

I've been baptized. I'm good to go. What's the problem? Roger, I don't need anything else. Well, there's so much more. Anyway, but these men were depending upon their circumcision. That was their badge. But the incredible thing is God points out to them the relationship between circumcision and the law.

And let me read Romans 2.25. For indeed, circumcision is of value if you practice the law. But if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. So there's a connection between circumcision and keeping the law.

They were a package deal, if you will. Even though they were given at a different time period, it was a package deal. So if you're going to go down that path, you've got to keep the law. That's a monumental task, if you think about that. 613 laws that you're going to keep? Pretty amazing.

Second, the C part here is it ruins grace. So how does it ruin grace? You have been severed from Christ. You have fallen. You have been severed from Christ. You are seeking to be justified by the law. You have fallen from grace. So the idea, once again, of being severed is not your salvation, but more your fellowship. And then the last part I just really love. I think it was our brother Hal that taught this. Think about this.

You have fallen from grace. You've fallen from something to something. You've fallen from grace to law. You were saved by grace through faith. You've fallen from that relationship back to law. You're going to keep the Christian life under a law system, which is not going to benefit you.

Okay? Now we go on to verses 5 through 6. It says, for we through the Spirit by faith are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, I mean anything but faith working through love. So this little section we've kind of traced through so far, this is a very encouraging part. Paul's encouraged in some parts of the Galatians and not encouraged in other parts. Here he just says, wonderful truths, we through the Spirit, by faith or waiting for the hope of righteousness, waiting for the Lord Jesus to return. Circumcision isn't really the issue in the Christian life. It's faith working through love.

We're going to see that. We're going to focus on that a lot toward the end here. The last part is the invasion of legalism. This is 7-11. And remember, Mike taught each of these sections. Many weeks went by when we taught these parts, so I'm kind of just blitzing through it here. So I'll leave a part out that you remember. I know I apologize, but we're just going to kind of go through it quickly. First part is effect. And this is kind of cool. This is the analogy, the kind of the Olympic analogy or the racing analogy. You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? So Paul says, you know, you Galatians were on the right track. You came to Christ by faith, by grace. You were saved through faith, through your faith.

But something got you off the track. And the idea here is that you were hindered. It's the idea, maybe you guys remember in maybe more than one Olympics, there'll be a runner, especially in track and field, they'll be running their path and somebody will bump them or they'll stumble or kick. Well, they've basically, the race is over. With the quality of athletes, they never can catch up. So this is the idea.

Somebody came along and hindered you or tripped you up. You were going well, running well, but somebody tripped you up from obeying the truth. And then as source, This persuasion, I think it's kind of speaking of the fact of the Judaizers, again, the legalists, did not come from Him, from God, who calls you. That wasn't the source. They may claim that. They claim, well, we're following the law and we're circumcised. That certainly came from God, but that's not the way of salvation. It's nature.

And the nature of the law and those kind of things are a little leaven leavens the whole lump. If you have just a little tiny, teeny, tiny bit of law, teeny, tiny, tiny, tiny, it messes things up terribly. I don't care how tiny you get it. Well, I'll do everything but this one little thing I'm going to count some act I do or some ritual I do.

I'm a good Christian, but baptism is absolutely, you've got to be baptized. Well, that's a wonderful thing to do. But that's not the way you're saved. Okay, let's go on. I'm wrapping up here. The outcome in 10-11. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will adopt no other view. So Paul is very optimistic at this point, in this little section here. He says you will adopt no other viewpoint. The viewpoint is grace. So that was the outcome relative to the Galatians. Now the outcome relative to the Legalists. Basically he's going to say to the Legalists, you're going to get your due.

And he's rather harsh here. Very, very harsh. Especially the last verse in this section is very harsh. He doesn't give names, he doesn't list names, but he points to people. He says, but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. Look at how personal that is. So the outcome relative to Paul, Paul is going to say, you know, it's interesting, if I came preaching circumcision, you'd be cheering me.

But if I come preaching the cross of Christ, that's a stumbling block. And we see that. You preach the cross of Christ truly, that He is the way to salvation, is through His blood. Some people say, that's a bloody religion you're part of, Roger. That sounds kind of blatant to me. I don't want any blood, you know.

But that's what the cross is about. So Paul is just relaying that. And then the last verse is this very caustic verse. I wish that those, personal again, not by name, who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. Pretty harsh. He's basically saying, you know, they wanted circumcision. He says, don't stop there. Just go the whole, you know, go the whole route. You know, don't stop there.

So pretty, pretty caustic. So now we're going to see this. This is the first 12 verses in, you know, hyper mode. We're going to go to verse 13. He's going to return in 13. He's going to return back. to this wonderful liberty and freedom we have in Christ. And this section is labeled, The Dynamics of the Christian Life. And this is the outline, today's outline. So, we're going to talk about 13 through 15 in the next couple of weeks here. 13 today. A has the possession of liberty. B is the abuse of liberty. And C is the motivation for liberty. And next week we'll talk about 14 and 15. It's true expression and false expression.

And then we'll start into the wonderful section. Call your friends and neighbors. Get the word out. We're going to talk about the fruits of the Spirit. It's wonderful. I just cracked the door on 16. I had the privilege of looking at Hal's notes. I started looking at that and I said, One time, we've got to do this multiple times. We've got to do a lot. It's just amazing. So call your neighbors, call your friends, invite your enemies, your relatives, whoever. So anyway, that's coming.

But let's today talk about this kind of revisit of liberty. Okay, I want to do a comparison here. Contrast. Comparison. Okay, first of all, in 5.1 we see, talks about our liberty in Christ. He says in 5.1, he says, Christ set us free. In 5.13, we're going to see Christ called us to freedom. So he's going to kind of set the boundaries here. He's going to show some wonderful things. Yes, Christ set us free by his death on the cross. Yes, we were called to freedom. We're studying the riches of God's grace by Chafer. And that's one of the ones in there being called. We're called. He called us to many different things. In this case, he called us to freedom. He gives a warning in both 1 and 13. And the warning is in 5.1 it's a loss of freedom.

In 5.13 it's abuse of freedom. So neither one is where the believer should be. And then the loss of freedom was called the yoke of slavery. And the abuse of the flesh and the abuse of freedom is the opportunity of the flesh.

But the Lord really wants us. So the question, keep in mind, we're going to try to answer here is, how are we to conduct our lives in this freedom? It can't be on one side where we lose our freedom by returning back to the law. And it can't be where we abuse our freedom. And it's interesting. Keep this in mind. Does freedom mean that we can do whatever we want? I'm going to try to disprove that. And you guys already know it anyway. So, this is Holly Hills 101, right?

Alright, so in the verse 13, it says, For you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For you were called to freedom, And basically, here in context, he's speaking about the Galatian believers, but we see in Scripture that every believer is called. Not one single believer. You may think, well, I don't feel very called. I didn't get something in the mail that says, dear so-and-so, the Lord has called you. Maybe sometime they should send that out. I don't know.

But we have to read Scripture to see that. Okay, we're called. To call or invite His use of God's call, our invite to participate in all the blessings and the riches of Christ. It's a fact. We didn't do it. God accomplished it. It's a positional truth. It's bread and butter. One of these wonderful facts. You were called. You don't get to be uncalled. You were called. And it's truth.

It's indicative mood. God has done this calling out of His abundant grace. All believers are recipients of this gracious calling. So our privilege is to learn about that calling, understand that, so we can by faith walk in that truth. So here's some verses that talk about calling.

In 1 Corinthians 1.9 it says, God is faithful through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, so we were Another aspect we were called into fellowship a wonderful a wonderful way to say so we now by our calling we have this fellowship with our Savior In Galatians 1 6 I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel We're called by the grace of Christ. It's kind of the focus here and a warning about a different gospel Ephesians 4 1 therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling which you have been called." So again, the admonition many times we see the positional truth stated and we're to walk in concert with that. We're to walk in a manner worthy of the calling.

And then Colossians 3.15, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. And then lastly, Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.

Okay, so now let's go on, and a couple other points here. Okay, you were called, and you were called specifically in this verse to freedom. And the little preposition before that is, could be translated to, for, or unto. And it's the same, this freedom is the same word that showed up previously in verse 5, I mean in verse 1. You were called to liberty. So I want to do some comparison. I compared a little bit already. Let's compare some more aspects of 5.1a and 5.13a.

Christ freed us for freedom or for liberty. This verse tells us that Christ's death secured our liberty. 5.13 tells us that our liberty is part of God's riches of His grace. We were liberated from one thing to another, from our sin nature and the law to Christ's liberty. We share in the very liberty that is Christ, and we have the glorious liberty to glorify Him.

We're thinking that we talk about liberty and freedom, and I think we often We tend to think, oh, like I was saying, first thought, well, that means I can do whatever I want. Sort of like grace. People hear grace, and, well, that means I can do whatever I want. Well, no. God never, God never says we're to do whatever we want.

It's always part of who He is. And we are sharing in Christ's liberty, so it's Christ's liberty that is to be coming out of us. That is to be demonstrated. And that is to be our focus. It's not our liberty. You know, God's got His liberty, and I got my liberty, and hopefully they, meet up somewhere. No, it's Christ's liberty. We share Christ's liberty. And that's pretty key. So Christ's liberty.

Notice the absence in Christ's liberty of saying we can do whatever we want. It's never stated that way. It's always stated in relationship to what we have in our Savior. So next Paul will warn us of the abuse of the liberty. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. So the first part is Do not turn your freedom or not use your freedom. Freedom or liberty, the same words as before, is an opportunity for the flesh. An opportunity here, this is a really interesting word.

When our boys grew up, Ryan and Mark and others, they always had these bases. You would find these toys and they would have their If it's like a military toy, they have their home base, right? They put all their guys in their home base and their tanks would go in and out. That was their base of operation, right? They operated from that and they'd go out and fight the bad guys.

Well, this word is that kind of word. It says that our sinful nature, our flesh, is a base of operation. And it's a base of operation that impacts your freedom. So let's see how that works. And Wiest renders this, do not turn your liberty into a base of operation for the evil nature or the sinful nature.

So I want to look at some other cases where I kind of find it's good to kind of go back and say, okay, how is this word used elsewhere in Scripture? So let's look at a couple of those. And it's not actually translated always the same way. Okay, and we actually read through all of Romans 7 today, and the word shows up there a couple of times.

But sin, or the sin nature, taking opportunity, or a base of operation, through the commandment. So the commandment, that was a launching point, a base of operation, produced in me coveting of every kind. And then Romans 7 11 for the sin or the sin nature taking opportunity or a base of operation through the commandment again Deceive me and through it it killed me so that so Paul's pointing out here. There's you have this freedom But the execution of that freedom has there there can be stumbling blocks You can it can the sin nature can take it and run the wrong direction Then Timothy it says Given and give the enemy no occasion or no opportunity for Reproach for some have already turned aside to follow Satan And here's a positive one We are not this Paul's kind of pointing out by his at his lifestyle. This actually helped Glorify God we are not again commending ourselves to you but as giving you a base of operation for which to glorify about us so he's saying You could glory in the fact of my ministry and what was happening.

Okay, so let's go on from there. And we'll skip that for now. Okay. So now we're going to move to the last part of the verse, which is really cool. But through love serve one another. So what does that mean? So it's actually a strong contrast. Or, on the contrary, on the contrary to letting the sin nature serve as a base of operation for the flesh, in contrast to that, serve.

And this is the word doulos, the core word, to serve as a doulos. Doulos is a slave by birth, born into slavery. Only death could free the slave. Its present tense is continuous action. So we're to continually serve, do this. So the main idea here is you serve as a slave to one another, fellow believers. So this is a relationship in the body of Christ, and it's to happen continuously. Keep on constantly serving one another. We surrender it. And Ephesians kind of backs this up. And be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

So how did this come about? How do we become a slave to one another? Sounds kind of, you know, I don't know why I like that. I'm a slave to one another. I'm a slave, you know, to... Maybe I'm not like that. So how did this happen? And it's a wonderful thing, really. It is. So I borrowed this from Hal, this believer's history. And you guys know this already, but it's good to review it.

We were born into slavery at our physical birth, right? We are a slave to our sin nature. Only death could free us. At our new birth, our faith in the personal work of Christ, we died unto our sin nature. And we were cut loose, no longer a slave to our sin nature. But unfortunately, it's still around. And we can go back there. But now we have a new slavery. But at our new spiritual birth, we are born into another slavery. We are now slaves to God, and we are slaves to His righteousness. So we are now slaves, and this slavery isn't a burdensome slavery.

It's our relationship. As we walk by faith with Christ, we have this relationship, and His righteousness can come out and be manifest in our lives. So how are we to constantly serve as slaves to one another? Vani was proofreading this, and she went, constantly serve as slaves to one another?

Whoa. You're not doing too well, Matt. I said, yeah, I'm probably not. Because it can't be me, right? You guys know this. It can't be you. It can't be us. I'm going to say that shortly. We can't manufacture this. If we try to manufacture it, we're going to fail. The verse says, and here's how we're going to do it. Here's what the Lord says. This is how we're going to accomplish it. It's through love. Can this be man's love for our brothers and sisters in Christ? It can't be. I can't gin it up. I can't crank it up. It must be God's love. And Christ is the source of true love He utilizes us to manifest it to one another.

And the very familiar verse in Galatians, and this is how it happens, right? I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. Christ living in you, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God. So, as He lives His life through us, our part in that is faith.

It's sort of like, As I look at my brother and sister, I don't really see them. I'm looking at Christ. I see them, but I don't see them. I'm looking at Christ. So if my brother isn't all that lovable, and I'm not all that lovable, as we focus on our Savior, that's the way the life is to be lived. So I said, what does this look like? And I always like to go back here, I've done this a couple of times before, It is just amazing. And you realize that you can't accomplish this. So what verse in scripture do you think will show us this?

In Galatians... Galatians... Corinthians 13, 4 through 8. And I've added Christ in here. Christ's love is patient. And this is the love that's to be shown out of you. Don't go home and write patient. More patient. Roger says be more patient. I'm not terribly impatient. Christ's love is patient. Christ's love is kind and is not jealous. This is what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our lives. Christ's love does not brag, is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly. Christ's love does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered. does not rejoice in unrighteousness. That's key. Maybe you're interacting with your brother or sister and maybe there's some unrighteousness. You weep over that. You mourn with them over that.

But rejoices in the truth. Christ's love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Christ's love never fails. That's the picture of the life that Christ wants to live out through us as we walk by faith. And you think about that. You try to accomplish any of those and you know right off the bat you cannot do it. It's impossible to do that. Okay, a couple more things here. So how do we conduct our lives in this freedom? So we remember back in 5.1 and 5.13, He first stated our position in freedom, then He declared a warning about that, how it can be corrupted. God's desire for a believer is true freedom. So what we're going to see here, and it's coming, this is when you're going to tell your neighbors and friends to come.

True freedom is expressed in Galatians 5.16. But I say, Walk by the Spirit. What's walk a metaphor for? It's faith, right? Walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.

So that's where we're going. That's where we're headed. So I had a kind of a summary thing I wanted to do here for you. A thing from Ron Merriman. It's really cool here. Okay. The Christian is free, and this is where we're not free to do what we want. The Christian is free in order that he may serve other Christians. Whoa. Think about that. True liberty is expressed itself in the love of one another. Boy, it doesn't sound... A lot of people say, that's not liberty. I mean, I have to be kind to all my brothers and sisters? Maybe somebody I don't really get along with. Christ is a perfect example of this. Think about this.

Christ was totally free from the domination of sin of the flesh. Totally free. He never sinned, right? He never had an issue with that. He knew maximum liberty. So therefore, He knew maximum liberty. But what did He do? What did Christ do? He took to Himself the mentality of a servant. Wasn't that His earthly ministry? He washed the disciples' feet. He was a servant. Wow, that's freedom. And because he loved the church, he gave himself for it. Where agape love is the motivating power, God's love, doulos, doulos service, is without constraint, hence not an irksome burden.

OK, so I have one story to close. So I was thinking, is there an earthly example I could think of? And the one that comes to mind And we get the privilege of living this out to some degree right now, is that with your children, with your own children, I don't think that... Courtney, I won't be able to get through this. I don't think you can find a better example of due loss or sacrificial service than a mother for her child. If you've ever watched your wife, You can't, guys, I don't know, I'm not sure it's in our DNA. We try. I'm not sure I've tried as much as I should, but anyway. And then also with our grandkids, too. Just the love that comes from a grandmother or a mom for her kids.

That's just, to me, because the focus, you know, I thought the similarity here is the focus for our Christian life is to be Christ, not the object. So if you focus on the kids, they're good sometimes and not so good other times. They need correction sometimes, sometimes they don't. So if you focus on them, then that's the wrong focus.

But if you focus on, wow, these are the wonderful children that God has given me. Look at this wonderful child. He's allowed me to be part of their lives and to tell about the Lord. I mean, that gets it in the right perspective. Then his love can be shown out through you. So that's the best example that I have about that. Okay, so let's close.

We thank you, Father, so much, Lord, for your marvelous grace. We thank you for your love that you desire to show out through us to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ, Father. We pray that we would just be able to trust you for that. It can be scary sometimes. We thank you for that. In Christ's name, amen.