Sermon Outline

Living in Freedom – by Faith and by the Power of the Holy Spirit Galatians 5.1, 4-6, 13, 16, 25

Introduction

Walking in the Spirit is a vivid description used in the NT that points out that the Christians is to have his attitudes, his thinking, and all of his activities under the control and guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit.

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Review

1) To walk in the Spirit we must first of all be spiritually alive by the Spirit.

2) Justification by faith. Knowing for certain that in all circumstances God fully and completely accepts me as righteous because I am in His Son Jesus Christ.

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Called to Be Free verse 13

1) Freedom-Killers: The law and the flesh.

2) Free from the penalty of sin: Justification.

Free from the power of sin: Sanctification.

Free from the presence of sin: Glorification.

3) Romans 8.18-25: Freedom is our heritage and the Holy

Spirit is the deposit of complete freedom in Christ.

4) Revelation 1.5-6: Christ died for you. Justification.

5) Romans 6.5-7, 18, 22: I died with Christ. Sanctification

6) John 8.31-32: Know the truth and obey it to freedom.

7) 2 Corinthians 3.17: Freedom in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 14.17-18.

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Conclusion

Freedom is hard work. Determine to take hold of the freedom that Christ has purchased for you at all personal cost. By the grace of God I am determined to ___________________________________ in order to take hold of my freedom in Christ.

Sermon

Living in Freedom – by Faith and by the Power of the Holy Spirit

Galatians 5.1, 4-6, 13, 16, 25

-In May we turned our attention to the importance of prayer and to the practice of prayer and I am praying that some of you will join us for prayer on Wednesday evenings. …I am absolutely convinced that unless we call upon God in believing prayer not a whole lot will happen for eternity through our work here. …We need to see the power and grace of God at work in answer to prayer. …Come and pray with us and don’t give up as you learn to pray. …Make the time and take the effort to pray.

-This morning we return to Galatians 5 and the topic of walking in the Spirit. Walking in the Spirit is not a mystical, super spiritual, special guidance experience, of amazing feelings and overbearing consciousness of the Spirit of God. …Walking in the Spirit is a vivid description used in the NT that points out that the Christian walks his ordinary daily life with his attitudes, and her thinking, and all activities under the control and guidance and influence of the Holy Spirit. …A Christian is to take every step in life yielded to the Spirit’s guidance and dependant on the Spirit’s power. …Walking in the Spirit means to know God’s truth, and then to obey God’s truth in the power that God provides. …The goal for each one of us is to know that we are “keeping in step with the Spirit”. …You may be under stress and heavy trial, and not be all that happy about your circumstances, and still be walking in the Spirit.

-Let me review what we have learned so far about walking in the Spirit before we turn our attention to verse 13.

1) To walk in the Spirit we must first of all be spiritually alive by the Spirit. …Verse 25 says, “Since we live by the Spirit”. …Living by the Spirit comes first before walking in the Spirit. …Spiritual life is the prerequisite to keeping in step with the Spirit. …We all entered this world spiritually dead in sin and only God can make us spiritually alive by putting His Spirit inside of us. …To walk in the Spirit you need to first be spiritually alive by the Spirit. …If you do not have the Spirit of God living in you this morning get in touch with me and I will take you through the Word of God and show you how this can be your reality.

2) Once we are spiritually alive we need to understand the truth of justification by faith. …Justification by faith is the first basic truth that a Christian needs to understand. …The reason why Paul wrote this letter to the churches of Galatia was because they were spiritually alive by the Spirit but they were in danger of trying to be righteous before God by keeping the Jewish law. …Instead of accepting by faith the righteousness that God gives, based on the work of Jesus Christ on the cross they were seeking to replace the work of Christ with their own works. …To walk in the Spirit we must first know for certain that in all circumstances God fully and completely accepts us as righteous because we are in His Son Jesus Christ. …Acceptance with God is not a feeling but a fact. …When you fall into sin the last thing you feel is acceptable to God, but in Christ you are still fully accepted by God. …The consequences of your sin do not go away. …God may discipline you because of your sin but He still accepts you in Christ. …Acceptance with God does not depend on our faithfulness to God but on God’s faithfulness to His Word and to Himself. (1 Timothy 2.13).

-Never depend on your devotional life, or your good works, or your Christian service, or your charitable giving, or your church membership, for God’s acceptance. …God fully accepts you only in Christ. …You are fully accepted in Christ, the beloved of God. …Be careful Christian that you do not slip into trying to be righteous before God by your own efforts apart from faith Christ’s work.

-A clear understanding of the truth of justification by faith will keep you from a great deal of mental turmoil, and frustration, and discouragement with yourself. …Make sure you learn this great Biblical truth and then live by it each and every day of your life. …Justification by faith is a solid foundation upon which to build a righteous and godly life and a first step in walking in the Spirit.

-So those are the two main points we have learned so far about walking in the Spirit – be alive spiritually, and know that God fully accepts you as righteous in Christ.

-Paul began chapter five by saying that Christians have freedom because Christ has set them free. …Walking in the Spirit is the practice and the experience of the freedom that we have in Christ. …When a Christian does not understand and live by the doctrine of justification by faith, and continues to try and please God by keeping the law, freedom is restricted, they are not walking in the Spirit. …The freedom we should enjoy in the grace of Christ is replaced by legalism, by negativism, by harsh and burdensome demands, and the joy of freedom in Christ is severally restricted. …Paul does not want the Galatian believers to lose their freedom in Christ and warns them of the danger of seeking to be accepted by God through keeping the law. …In order that we might live in the freedom for which Christ has set us free we need to understand the truth of justification by faith and then we need to live in that truth.

-There is great freedom in knowing that you are fully and completely accepted by God in Christ, but that is only the beginning of your freedom in Christ. …It does not take a young Christian very long to recognize that sin is still actively working in them, calling them to follow the old ways of sin. …If you have been a Christian for any length of time you know that even as an older Christian sin continues to have a strong pull in your life and that overcoming sin can seem like an insurmountable task. …This pull of sin is called the flesh, translated as “sinful nature” in NIV. …We will explain the meaning of that term next week but this week I want to point out that the freedom we have in Christ is to extend even over the power of sin manifested in our flesh.

-Verse 13 says we are “called to be free”. …In Christ, God has called us to be free. …But life is full of freedom-killers. …Paul teaches us about the two biggest freedom-killers around, the law, which is me trying to get to God by self-effort, and the flesh, which is sin in my body trying to claim control over me. …Another is un- forgiveness. …God’s calling is to freedom in Christ over both the law and the flesh.

-We have already learned how justification by faith brings freedom from the law. …Over the next number of weeks we are going to learn how the cross of Christ brings freedom from the flesh (sinful nature). …We have a lot of truth to cover and we will go slowly.

-Verse 13 declares that we were “called to be free”. …Called means that once you were blind and dead in your sins, but now you can see. …God opened your eyes and your mind to His truth and you responded by faith and He made you spiritually alive by His Spirit and set you free from sin.

-In Christ, through the cross, God set us free from the penalty of sin and declared us righteous. …That is justification.

-In Christ, through the cross, God set us free from the power of sin. …That is the process of sanctification where we become righteous.

-In Christ, through the cross, God set us free from the very presence of sin. …That is called glorification and is yet to come. …Get familiar with these Biblical words and their meaning and you will be grounded in your faith. …God has called us to be free from sin in Christ. …That means free from the law which empowers sin, free from the flesh which calls us back to sin, and one day free from this body of sin. …God has called us to total freedom from sin in Christ.

-For the rest of this morning let us look at the freedom we are called to in Christ.

1) Begin with Romans 8.18-25 [Read]

-The greatest suffering you will ever endure on earth is not even worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in you. (burnt toast, lose of finances, loss of a loved one) …Notice that the glory is not revealed to you but glory is revealed in you. …Creation is under the curse of sin but waits with eager expectation to experience freedom from that curse, the same glorious freedom that the Christian has already been given in Christ. …The creation is groaning for this future freedom even as the Christian is groaning for the fullness of freedom. …The Christian has the Holy Spirit as a down payment of the full freedom to come, a fullness that will be complete when we receive our resurrection bodies. …For now we live in freedom from the penalty of sin, and we groan and fight to live in freedom from the power of sin, as hope and await deliverance from the very presence of sin. …The heritage of the Christian is full, and complete, and eternal, freedom in Christ. …My plea to you this morning is to determine to live in as much freedom in Christ as is possible in this world as you hope and patiently wait for God’s full freedom to come.

2) Revelation 1.5-6 [Read]

-Jesus Christ has freed us from the penalty of sin by His blood. …Christ died for us. …This is the foundation for our justification in Christ. …World promises freedom by lottery, a fast/sexy car, alcohol, holidays, retirement, music. …But these are only temporary. …God’s promise of freedom is based on the blood of His Son, Jesus Christ and is permanent.

3) Romans 6.5-7, 18, 22 [Read]

-Jesus Christ has freed us from the power of sin by His death. …I died with Christ. …This is the foundation for our sanctification in Christ. …Because we are free from the power of sin we can yield the members of our body to God and through that process become holy people who will one day reap a holy inheritance.

4) Keep your Bibles open to Romans 6. …Paul teaches us in verse 1 of Galatians 5 that we are to “stand firm” in the freedom that Christ has won for us and we are “not to turn back to the slavery of sin”. …To remain in the freedom for which Christ has set us free, and to grow in that freedom, we need to learn God’s truth about what God has done for us in the cross and in Christ. …That truth is found in God’s Word. …Then we need to put that truth into practice and persevere in that truth every day. …Living in freedom in Christ requires that we continue to focus our minds on truth and that we continue to yield and obey the truth.

-Look at Romans 6.3, 6, 9, 11, 13 [Read]. “Don’t you know, we know, count yourselves, offer yourselves”. …The whole process begins with knowing the truth.

–John 8.31-32 [Read]

-Hold to the teaching of the Word. …Know the truth. …Apply the truth and experience the freedom of God that Christ has won for you. …The Word of God is vital to Christian maturity which leads to freedom, peace and joy. ( Romans 12.1-2)

5) 2 Corinthians 3.17 [Read]

-Jesus Christ is now present on earth in the Holy Spirit. …Where the Holy Spirit reigns there is freedom. …Every day the Spirit of God wants to transform us into the likeness of Christ that we might experience the freedom purchased at the cross for us by Jesus Christ. …Romans 14.17-18 [Read]

-“It is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourself be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. …You, my brothers and sisters, are called to be free.” …Freedom is the Christian’s heritage but living in freedom takes hard work. …It takes time to study and meditate on God’s Word, to know the truth of what God has done for us in Christ at the cross. …It takes obedience to the truth, counting the cost to pride, and to self, and to sensual pleasures. …It takes daily perseverance, the development of habits over time, discipline, maturing in character, patience. …It takes a willingness to be teachable and to learn through suffering and trials and rejection. …The glorious reward is the experience of the peace and joy and freedom that Christ has won for you. …“You my brothers and sisters are called to be free”. …Determine today no matter what the personal cost, that you are going to take hold of the freedom that Christ has purchased for you.

-By the grace of God I am determined to ________________ in order to take hold of my freedom in Christ

MEDITATIONS FOR THE WEEK

[Take some daily quiet time alone with God]

Monday: Read Romans 3.21-24. Justified freely by His Grace. Take time to praise for His Grace and then ask God to make His Grace more real to you so that you might be filled with gratitude and worship.

Tuesday: Think about Ephesians 1.3-8; 2.4-9. God is rich in Mercy and Grace and freely extends those riches to us. Take time to ask God for a fuller understanding of His Mercy and Grace and bow down in worship.

Wednesday: Read Colossians 1.9-14. Meditate on this prayer and pray it for yourself this week. Take time to worship God for His great inheritance to you in Christ.

Thursday: Meditate on Romans 5.12-19. Compare the “gift” with the “trespass”. Take time to thank God for the great gift of His Son freely given (gift).

Friday: Think about Hebrews 9.11-12. How long will your redemption last. Take time to worship God for His free and rich and eternal redemption and pray for God to work in you to live worthy of this salvation.

Sin’s power

A man purchased a white mouse to use as food for his pet snake. He dropped the unsuspecting mouse into the snake’s glass cage, where the snake was sleeping in a bed of sawdust. The tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands. At any moment he could be swallowed alive. Obviously, the mouse needed to come up with a brilliant plan.

What did the terrified creature do? He quickly set up work covering the snake with sawdust chips until it was completely buried. With that, the mouse apparently thought he had solved his problem.

The solution, however, came from outside. The man took pity on the silly little mouse and removed him from the cage. No matter how hard we try to cover or deny our sinful nature, it’s fool’s work. Sin will eventually awake from sleep and shake off its cover. Were it not for the saving grace of the Master’s hand, sin would eat us alive.