What to Do with Your Freedom

Well, it's good to see you guys today. let me have you turn in your Bibles, this morning to Galatians chapter, 5. Galatians chapter 5. And, Carlos, left off last week in verse 12 of Galatians 5, and, this morning we're going to pick up in verse 13 and try to cover verses 13 through 15, and, at the same time, we're going to cheat a little bit and we're going to lump verse 1 of chapter 5 into, our study, today.

So this will essentially be a study of Ephesians 5:1 and then 13 through 15, and the title of the message is what to do with your, freedom. We're going to see today. It's not enough to just give people freedom. You have to teach people what to do with their freedom.

I think the war in Iraq, whether you agree or disagree with the fact that we should even be there, as a country involved in military action. I think that serves as a standing illustration of the fact that you have to do more than just give people freedom. people need to be instructed in what to do, with that freedom, or you have a mess on your hands. And we have the same thing in Christ and Paul, beginning at this point of the letter is going to lay some of the polemics aside, Having, I think, effectively dispelled the false gospel and gotten the Galatians back to the true gospel, Paul now wants to practically begin to show them how to walk in the freedom that they have in Christ, and we're going to see him beginning to do that, today.

I want to begin by reading to you a fairly lengthy story by Charles Riri, just an incident that happened in his life that serves, I think, as an effective introduction to what we're going to be talking about, today. He says this, in seminary days, I had a job working with underprivileged junior high and high school kids at the downtown YMCA. On what was then the outskirts of the city was a camp we used every Friday when weather permitted. We would load a bus with 40 to 50 kids, head for the camp, and enjoy an evening cookout and games.

On special occasions, we would sleep there overnight and return Saturday afternoon. Overnight camping trips were usually rewards given to those who had successfully passed certain requirements in our weekly Bible clubs. So the kids who stayed overnight, after the others went home were rather special. One Friday night, or more accurately early one Saturday morning, I awoke startled by some unexplained noise.

Soon I discovered that a few of my leaders had sneaked out of the dorm, gone down to the lake, launched one of the boats, and were having a great time far out from shore. Not only was this against every rule in the book, but it was dangerous. When the kids knew that I knew where they were, they came immediately into shore like dogs with their tails between their legs. They meekly went back to bed, wondering what punishment awaited them in the morning.

For me, sleep was now impossible. The night before, I had talked to these Christian young people about forgiving one another. So as I paced the grounds in those early morning hours deliberating their fate, my own words from the night before kept coming back to me and back to me and back to me. If I don't give them some punishment, I argued with myself, they will never be impressed with the seriousness of what they did.

I have a responsibility to the Y to enforce their rules and to punish the violators. But the more I debated with myself, talked to the Lord, and thought about a number of relevant Bible verses, the more Ephesians 4:32 grew larger and larger in my thinking. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other just as God and Christ also has forgiven you. But Lord, I can't forgive them.

They don't deserve it. Neither did I. But Lord, I have to enforce the rules. Hmm, I'm glad, Lord, that you didn't.

But Lord, first I'll make them promise never to do something like this again, and then I'll forgive them. That's a good thing you didn't require that of me or I never would have been forgiven. But Lord, your God, you can do anything. You're my child, he said.

Imitate me. So with great reluctance and very little faith, I told the Lord I would, and then in the morning I told the kids. You did a terrible thing, I said to them. It could have been disastrous consequences for yourselves, your families, for the why, and for me.

But I forgive you unconditionally. And completely. You're kidding, they said. There's got to be a catch somewhere.

No, I insisted you are fully forgiven. And then I told them what the Lord had been saying to me that night about His grace and how I wanted them to have another taste of that grace. I didn't even make them do the cleaning up that day. I did it myself because I didn't want them to think they could earn even a little bit of that forgiveness.

The sequel? Well, as long as those particular kids were in my clubs, they were the epitome, as much as kids of that age can be, of goodness, helpfulness, and usefulness. They never presumed on that grace. Their bond to me personally was much stronger.

They followed me around like puppy dogs, anxious to do whatever they could to please me. And they had new insight into the love of their savior for them. In this story we see some young people who were given freedom. They were given freedom from punishment, freedom from guilt, freedom from the consequences that they deserve for wrongdoing.

They even were given freedom from the bondage of having to earn the grace that had been given to them. And what impact did this freedom have on them? Well, as Ryri says, they were the epitome of goodness, helpfulness, usefulness. They didn't presume on that grace that was given to them, and it actually made them even more anxious to please the one who had given them this grace.

I have this particular story. I've read it at least once a week over the last month as we've been going through Galatians because it just reminds me of a couple of things. It reminds me, first of all of the power of grace to just reshape the human heart, especially the heart of a child of God, as we Think upon and meditate on the grace that God has given to us. But this story also says something about the maturity of these young people.

The way these young people responded to the grace that was given to them, that's not automatic. Not everyone would respond the way that they did. And that leads us into the message for this morning because Paul in the book of Galatians has spoken much about God's grace and about the freedom that is given to us in Christ. And yet Paul understands that while this grace is hugely powerful, It is not automatic that a believer respond to this grace in a proper manner.

In fact, the Galatians absolutely have not been responding to this grace and this freedom that God has given to them in a proper manner. And so, Paul has to reestablish their understanding of the freedom they have in Christ and then in our passage today he's going to give them what amounts to 4 instructions. He's going to give to us 4 instructions that explain to us what we are to do with the freedom. that God has given to us in Christ.

But let's talk for a minute about the freedom that is given to us in Christ. First of all, it is a freedom from the curse of the law, because we have sinned and violated the law of God, the 10 Commandments, for example, We, are cursed by the law. We deserve to be eternally condemned because of our sins against the God who gave the law. However, in Christ, upon believing in Him, we are freed from the curse of the law.

Through Christ. In chapter 3, verse 13, Paul says Christ redeemed us from the curse. of the law, and that word redeemed means to free by the paying of a price. So literally, he freed us from the curse of the law.

Now as believers, we have freedom from the condemnation of the law, from the curse of the law, from the eternal damnation that we deserve as a result of our disobedience to the law, and our violations of the law of God. So the freedom that we have in Christ is a freedom, first of all, from the curse of the law. But it is secondly, a freedom from having to obey the law. Now, you're going to have to think carefully here, you're going to misunderstand what I'm saying.

Our freedom in Christ is a freedom from the curse, or the condemnation of the law. But it is also a freedom from having to obey the law in order to be saved, Freedom from having to obey the law in order to earn the right to be a child of God. we are freed from having to obey the law in order to earn the good favor of God in which we stand from day to day. in Christ, we are given freedom from ever having to obey a single provision in the law of God, in order to earn a righteous declaration from God.

You guys understand what's being communicated there. It, it's not so much that we're free from ever having to obey the word. or anything in the law, it's for free from the obligation of having to obey the law in order to be saved and be counted as righteous before God. So when we believed in Christ, we were given this freedom.

We were instantly delivered and made free from the curse of the law. And we were instantly freed from ever at any point. In our future life, ever having to obey a single command in the Old Testament law, in order to be righteous before God, in order to earn that righteous decree from God. Because the minute we believed in Christ, God said to us, you are righteous, all of your sins are forgiven, you're delivered from the curse of the law.

And I declare you righteous. And you've not even done a single good deed yet. But I declare you righteous today, tomorrow, and forever. And so we are forever freed from the law's curse.

We're forever freed from the obligation of having to obey the law in order to earn a righteous decree from God. So this is the essence of our freedom in Christ that Paul is speaking about in the book of Galatians, but beginning in our passage today, he's going to give us 4 instructions to show us how to deal with that freedom, how to make the most of that freedom, how to respond to this freedom that is given to us in, Christ. And instruction number one is this, if you want to make the most of your freedom, if you want to respond properly to this amazing freedom that has been given to you, in Christ, then here's the first thing you need to do, and that is you need to realize that God wants you to enjoy this freedom.

God wants you to enjoy this freedom.

Please don't think that, yeah, I know all that's true, but that's all describing conversion day. No, this goes beyond that. This describes every day of your life. This is the freedom that God wants you to walk in every day.

In fact, look at chapter 5, verse 1. Paul says to the Galatians, it was for freedom that Christ set us Free, notice the emphasis there. Paul is actually being redundant. he's saying, hey, Christ set you free, and what he set you free for?

For freedom. And most of us would go, well, duh, he set us free, he set us free for freedom. It's a no brainer a statement. And yet, the Galatians need to be talked to in this way.

Hey, Christ set you free. He set you free for freedom. Paul is wanting them to realize this, and then go to chapter 5, verse 13. Paul says, for you were called to freedom.

In other words, you were saved for freedom. In saving you, God was saving you for the purpose of freedom, and he called you into a life of freedom from the curse of the law, and from the obligation of having to obey the law in order to earn a righteous standing before him. In verse 13, he merely says you were called to freedom, but that word called is found earlier in Galatians in chapter 1 verse 6, we find out who that call comes from. Paul speaks of him, God, who called you, and in chapter 5, verse 8, a passage we looked at last week that Carlos took us through.

Again, Paul speaks of God as him who calls you. And so God is the one who delivers this call. It is the saving call. It is also a daily.

Call that is continuous, as we saw last week, because in verse 8, it is the present tense, Him who not only called you in the past, but him who every single day calls you. And what is it that God calls us to, what he calls us to, according to verse 13, is a life of freedom. And so God is putting this freedom in front of our face. And he's saying, this is why I saved you.

If you came to God and said, God, sum up in one word, What my salvation is all about. God just might say, freedom. That's what it's about. Freedom from the curse of the law that you deserve, and freedom from the obligation of having to perform the law perfectly in order to be viewed as righteous by me.

You are forever freed from that. And God daily calls us into the enjoyment of that reality. I've tried to do that this week. Again, we're not just rehearsing what happened on conversion day.

Every day that you awaken, you should awaken perhaps with a thought that says this is to be a day of freedom. God saved me so that today can be a day of freedom. Today, I am free from the curse of the law. I will go all day long today from morning to night, free from the curse of the law.

Today, I am. Completely free from any obligation of having to obey any single provision in the law in order to be righteous before God, because I already am free, I already am righteous in Christ by virtue of what Jesus did. And so today is to be a day in which I enjoy this freedom. I shouldn't carry around load of, I'm condemned.

No, I'm free from that. And I shouldn't have to carry on my shoulders the burden of having to perform a certain way in order to earn the favor of God, or to be viewed as righteous by God. All of that has been taken care of for me. And so today, I will enjoy this freedom.

God saved me so that I could enjoy this freedom. Sometimes we are afraid to enjoy this freedom in our conscience. Sometimes it feels wrong to enjoy this freedom. But then we hear God say, I saved you so that you could.

This is, this is why I called you. This is why I saved you, so that you would not only be free, but so that you could enjoy and walk in this freedom. So if you want to know how to respond to this freedom that God has given to you in Christ, the first thing you need to do is to realize that God wants you to enjoy this freedom that has been given to you. A second instruction is to stand firm inside that freedom, to stand firm inside that freedom.

Look what he says in verse one. It was for freedom that Christ set us free. Therefore, keep standing firm, present tense. keep on continuously standing firm, and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

What he's saying is, you have been given this freedom. You're right now located inside of this freedom, stand firm in this freedom. Don't ever go out of this freedom and back into any form of bondage, whether it's bondage to the law, slavery to the law, or even bondage to, the flesh, or sin. Now, here's the weird thing, guys.

all of us want freedom, right? In whatever form, whether it's national freedom, people in under dictatorships that are in bondage, they say we want freedom and everyone on paper would say they want freedom, right? So why is it that when Galatians get freedom, Paul has to say, stay in it, and don't go back to slavery. Why do you even have to give a command that says don't go back to slavery?

Think about that for a minute. The reason is, guys, because freedom can be terrifying. Freedom can often be terrifying, and bondage, on the other hand, can often be very Think in your own life, about the old slavery, old sinful patterns of behavior that are nothing short of bondage. And you're walking out in your freedom in Christ, and something happens that gets you upset, and you're feeling out of control and, and you're frustrated, and you're being tempted.

And here you are in this freedom. What, what do we often do? We go back. To the bondage because it's familiar and it's comfortable.

when a number of years ago, my wife and I, along with our two children at the time, went to the San Diego Zoo, or the wild animal park, whatever it's called, and I, I have a memory of us taking a ride touring this large reserve open area where there were some wild animals. There and there were the, the white rhinos out there in that that the area where we were and the tour guide was telling us the story about how they were transported. She told us that each of the rhinos were put inside, inside of very strong, holding bins.

You don't just put a rhino on a leash, and tell them to stay still, because they're so powerful.

So, they're put in these large, very confining, though, storage holding bins, and so they were transported to the, the wild animal park. And then she was telling us they, they, they unloaded each of these holding bins just side by side in a row in this wide open reserve area, and then the workers very carefully opened the doors of the Holding bins and this tour guide told us that as soon as the doors were open, every one of the white rhinos went running out, just, just bursting out of the holding bin into the wide open, lush green reserve area that was there for them to enjoy.

The reason I remember this is because the tour guide then said that amazingly the white rhinos very shortly after bursting out of those holding bins into the freedom that was now theirs, every single one of them rather quickly ended up being freaked out by that freedom, and every single one One of them went back into the holding bin, the confining holding bin that had been their bondage for the period of their transportation to the reserve area. So here they are, the doors open, they run out, and it's like, yes, freedom.

But then it freaks them out, and every one of them go back, and they're standing there, the doors open, they can come and go as they please. And every one of them are standing back inside the bondage that they had known because it was familiar to them. And I remember when I heard that, I just thought that is so much like me. That is so much like me.

That is so much like, just the instinct that the fleshly instinct that all of us have, even as Christians, we have been given freedom in Christ. And we say, yes, I want that freedom. And we long for that freedom from the guilt and from bondage to sin. And Christ opens the door and we go running out.

We're like, thank you, Jesus, this freedom is awesome. But then something happens, we get upset, we're tempted, we get frustrated or feeling out of control or whatever. And before we know it, we find ourselves retreating back to the old bondages, the old slavery. And it's because of that natural instinct that Paul says to the Galatians, you were saved for freedom.

Stay inside of this freedom, and don't go back to the comfortable old bondage, forms of bondage that you used to know. Guys, do you really want freedom? Do you really want freedom? On paper, it looks great, but it's not comfortable.

Freedom is not comfortable. But Paul does not say in verse one, it was for comfort that Christ set us free. No, God's goal is not our comfort. His goal is our freedom.

He wants us to be free. And that's why Christ came and died so that we could walk in freedom as uncomfortable and as unsettling, and as raw as that may be. God calls us to a life of freedom. And he says, I want you to know that you possess it.

I want you to enjoy this freedom. And I want you to position yourself inside of this freedom. And when forces from without try to get you out of that freedom and back into bondage, stand firm. When forces inside of yourself try to get you to go back to the old slavery, don't go back, but instead stand firm inside of this freedom.

And I want to counsel you guys, we're not going to linger on this any longer, but I want to counsel you guys to think about the slavery that you often retreat back to. It's going to be different for all of us. I have my set of holding bins, that, the bondages that I can retreat back to in moments of temptation or when, things aren't going the way that I want them to go. What are yours?

And whatever they are, just realize that God would say to you, I saved you freedom from these things. And my counsel to you is, if you want to make the most of this freedom, stand firm inside of it and never go back to these former bondages that though they may be comfortable, they are not where I want you to be. There's a 3rd instruction. Instruction number 1, we need to realize that God wants us to enjoy this freedom.

Number 2, we need to stand firm inside of this freedom. And number 3, we're instructed in verse 13, to not turn this freedom into an opportunity to serve our flesh. Paul would say, don't use the freedom that you've been given as an opportunity to serve. your flesh.

This is a very logical instruction that Paul feels constrained to give. Think about it, guys, that, you come to know the Lord, and you're basically told, you are free from the eternal consequences of every sin you ever have or will commit. You're completely free. through Christ and what he's done for you on the cross.

And not only that, but you're completely free from ever having to obey the law, or the 10 Commandments ever again, in order to earn the favor of God or to, to have a righteous standing before him. You're completely free. Now, what's a logical question that would come to our minds at that point? A logical thought would be, well, then I guess that means I can do whatever I want.

And it doesn't matter. It's forgiven. If I sin, it's forgiven, and, even if I sin, I'm still righteous before God by virtue of what Christ has done. They're actually people called the libertines, even in the New Testament, that actually did think that way.

And they ended up living a lifestyle of license because they only focused on this part of the gospel. But if you find your thoughts going down that road, it's like, I'm free from the consequences eternally of all of the sins I've ever committed, past, present, and future. I'm free from ever having to obey the law in order to be declared righteous by God. then, therefore, maybe I can just do whatever I want.

If you start to go down to that, down that road, guess what's going to happen? You're going to bump right into the apostle Paul, who's going to say, don't go here. Don't go here. And his third instruction is, do not use the freedom that God has given to you.

as an opportunity for the flesh. Look what he says in verse 13, for you are called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. And we're going to learn much about the flesh in Galatians 5. The flesh is that part of our fallen nature, that in defiance of God always craves the opposite of what God commands.

It is the unredeemed part of us. It is the unredeemable part of us. God has no plan whatsoever to redeem our flesh. He's just going to kill it.

When we die, he basically kills it, and we go to glory completely without it. It is the unredeemed, unredeemable part of us that always, every day craves the opposite of what God desires for us. In verse 17, he says the flesh sets its desire continuously against the spirit, no matter what God wants you to do, no matter what the Spirit wants you to do, guaranteed. Always your flesh will want to do the opposite.

All right. And so the flesh is defiant against God. And we have that flesh inside of us that still wants to do wrong. And Paul says, you've been given this incredible freedom in Christ.

Don't turn this freedom into an opportunity to serve your flesh. Don't do that. That's not why he gave you this freedom that we're speaking. About But there's a 4th instruction, and we're going to talk much more about the flesh in the coming verses of chapter 5.

But there's a 4th instruction that he gives that instead of taking this freedom and saying, well, I'm just going to go do whatever I please, I'm going to live it up, because I'm forgiven. And I am righteous before God. Instead of doing that, here's what Paul tells you to do with your freedom. And that is use this freedom that has been given to you in Christ to serve others with the love that you've been shown.

Use this freedom to serve others with the love that you have been shown. Now, I can just imagine what some are thinking at this point. You might be thinking, OK, I should have known this was coming. All right, we're given freedom in Christ and now use this freedom to show love to other people.

I guess that's the right thing to do and the spiritual thing to do. But that thought doesn't excite you. And if it doesn't excite you, then you don't get it yet. You just don't get it., let me start with this.

You guys have probably read in the news from time to time, like how at a Starbucks, store, somebody pays for the person behind them in the drive-through window. are in the drive through, and then that person ends up paying for the person behind them. In fact, back in December of '07, just a few months ago, a lady, on a Wednesday morning paid for the drinks of the person behind her, and the person behind her was so blessed by that act of kindness that the person, behind her ended up paying for the person behind her, and one person after another did this, and it went from Wednesday morning all the way to the following, or the next Thursday afternoon, which the next day, Thursday afternoon, 813 people.

Receive this good deed from the person ahead of them, and then pass it on to the person behind them.

They received an act of kindness, and they looked at that and said, that's really cool. That blesses me. I think I'll pass this on. All right.

Even unsafe people have sense enough to appreciate something like that and say, what should I do with this? I think I will take this act of kindness, and I will pass it on. That's exactly the spirit of what Paul is talking about. Look at what he says in verse 13 at the end of the verse.

He says, You were called to freedom, brethren. Only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. This word serve comes from the Greek noun that means slave, doulos, which is a slave which creates an oxymoron. Here.

Paul is saying you were called to freedom. Don't use that freedom to serve your flesh, but instead serve as a slave others with this love. But the beauty of this is Paul explains the mechanics of how this works. We, we're not each other's slaves.

That's not what he's saying. When he says serve one another, he's not saying be slaves of one another. What he's saying is, as a slave of Christ, serve other people. You need to realize, man, I've been given this freedom.

This is an amazing freedom. I'm free from the curse of the law that I deserve because of my sins against a holy God. I'm free every day from ever having to obey a single provision in the law in order to be decreed. righteous by God.

Whoa, what a load is off of me. Now I don't have to consume my energy with these things. And what love this is that God has shown to me. I think what I'm going to do now, because I've been taken care of.

What, what will I think about now myself? No, I've been taken care of. I will now serve other people. See, this freedom that is given to us in Christ delivers us from self-absorption, if we really understand it.

It delivers us from being consumed with ourselves to where now we are free to think of others, and now to serve them and to pass on to them the love that has been shown to us. In fact, let me show this to you guys, from the Greek text itself. If you look again at verse 13, Paul says, but through love serve one another. I don't know what all the translations say.

Literally, there's a definite article in front of the word love. Literally, it's through the love. Serve one another, and it could be translated through this love, serve one another. He's not saying through your love, serve other people.

No, he's saying through this love, through the love. Serve other people. What is the love, guys? What is this love?

That Paul is speaking about. It is the love of God. The love of God. in Galatians 2:20, Paul speaks of this love, he says, speaking of Christ, he says, the one who loved me and gave himself for me, and basically, he's the one.

It's this love that is in control of my life. I'm controlled by this one who has loved me and given himself for me. And that's why I could say essentially that I have died. I've died for me.

I am in the grip of this one who has loved me. And so a good paraphrase of the end of verse 13 would be. serve others using this love, which God has given to you. In other words, you look at this freedom.

And this is why we should preach the gospel to ourselves, guys, because every day we get up and we just take time to contemplate this freedom, this love that God has shown to us, freedom from the curse of the law and freedom from bondage to having to obey the law in order to be decreed righteous, or even to maintain this righteous standing with God. And if we're just looking at this and absorbed in this, we will be Seeing that this is incredible love. And we're going to be holding this love in our hands and holding it before us and saying, wow, what love is this that God has shown to me.

Now, what will I do with this love?

I know. I will use this very love and serve others with it. I, I will take from this love. And serve other people, and meet their needs with this love.

So if you're walking around through the day, and you've got this love, before you, and, your spouse wrongs you, and your natural instinct is to get angry. If you're looking at this love, you'll be like, yeah. Yeah, they've wronged me, all right, but, here, have some love. Let me love you with this love that has been given to me.

See, I deserve hell too. I deserve to be cursed by God. But instead, he's given me freedom. He's given me forgiveness.

So yeah, you've wronged me, but it's that big compared to my wrongs against God. So here's the love God's given me here. Take some of this. And even just thinking this way this week, guys, I get up in the morning and it's like I get to homeschool my, my son, and, and my thought has been to get up in the morning and to look at this love.

And it's like, this is a love that's been given to me. And guess what? I get to, I get to take this love and give it to my wife, and give it to my children, and give it to other people. And I'm not, it's no virtue on me.

It's not like I, I'm loving them with my love. No, I'm just walking around with his love that he's given to me, and I'm just, just passing it out to other people. Paul says, take this love and serve other people with this love that you've been given. That's how to use your freedom.

And I think the more time we spend, guys, contemplating the magnitude of this love that God has given to us, and being amazed by it, the more we'll experience the power of that love to so change our hearts to where we're delivered from being obsessed with ourselves, and we'll begin to look around at other people, and, and we'll just catch ourselves taking this love and giving it to other people. And we get to do this every day. Every day we get to take this love and give it to other people, and sometimes profound ways, and many times the most mundane of ways, and acts of service and words of encouragement and words of service.

to other people.

Whatever needs we see, our thoughts should be, I'm going to take this love I've been given, and I will address that need with this love that God has given to me. That's what God wants us to do with this love that He has given to us. we, people at Starbucks, they come to the drive-thru window and someone says, hey, I got some good news for you. The person in front of you, they paid for your drink.

Oh, that's really cool. Here, I'll pay for the drink of the person behind me. We as Christians, guys need to realize that God has done a little more for us than buying a drink. Buying a Frappuccino?

we drive up to the window and the person at the window says, hey, I got some good news for you. The person in front of you, died for you. surrendered his life so that you could be forgiven of every single one of the millions of sins you have and are and will commit throughout your life. He died so that you could experience that freedom.

He surrendered his life, so that you could become a child of God and be justified before God and have an eternal home in heaven. And just, I wanted to let that. And we're like, whoa. He died so that I could have this.

Wow. Hum. Isn't your natural instinct as a believer to just say, To look behind you at the person coming behind you, to look at those around you and say, I think I'll pass this on. I will pay this forward.

I will bless other people with the same love that is mine to enjoy today. Here's the genius of the gospel, guys, look at verse 14. Paul says, for the whole law is fulfilled in one word, and the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.

He's quoting from Leviticus 19:18. And this is an amazing thing that Paul says here. He, he has spent the entire book up to this point, saying, you don't have to obey the law. Christ died to deliver you out from underneath the law.

You don't, you're delivered from the curse of the law, the condemnation of the law, you're redeemed from all of that, you're delivered from ever having to obey any provision in the law in order to be righteous, or to maintain that righteous standing with God. And now he says, take this freedom from the law, and serve others with this love that you've been given. And then he says, 4. This is basically what the law says to do, love others as yourself.

And you might say, well, that's a contradiction, but it's really not. Paul is saying this. That if you take this freedom and use it this way, You will catch yourself living out the full spirit of the Old Testament law anyway. That's the genius of the gospel.

See, there's two approaches here. God can come to people and say to them, Here is my law, summed up in the words love me with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbor as yourself. That is my law to you. And if you obey it perfectly, you will be blessed.

If you disobey in any single provision of these commands, you will be cursed forever. Oh, OK. I better start loving other people. That's approach number one.

That's the approach of those that are living under bondage to the law. Approach number 2 is God comes to us and says, hey, I have really good news for you. I sent my son into the world to bear the curse of the law for you. So that if you believe in him, you don't have to bear it any longer.

And you believe in my son, I will declare you perfectly righteous. I will wrap you in the righteousness of my son who perfectly obeyed the law. So you will be forever freed from ever having to earn this righteousness, or even having to maintain it. It is yours today and forever, completely free.

OK? And then we're like, wow. Wow, what love is this? Man.

And then that love does something in our hearts to where we're like, we start loving other people. And then one day we're reading in our Bibles in Leviticus 19:18, it says, love your neighbor as yourself. And you read that and you laugh and say, what? I've been doing that.

Not because I've had to in order to be righteous. But I have done this because of the love that God has shown me. Those that are under bondage to the law, their command is love your neighbor as you love yourself. For those of us in Christ, we read that verse.

And what we read is it's saying, you shall love your neighbor as you yourself have been loved. By God. Through Jesus. Love your neighbor as you yourself have been loved.

And see the people that have truly experienced Christ's love in this way. They're walking in this freedom. They're believing in this freedom. They're cherishing and celebrating this freedom.

They're preaching this freedom to themselves, they're walking around with the gospel or with the love of God directly in front of their face, amazed by this. Those people, of all people are the only ones who truly fulfill The spirit of the law anyway. See, God, God's agenda all along has been that the spirit of His law be fulfilled in the lives of his people. But it's the gospel that brings about that fulfillment to the fullest degree, rather than under threats and thunderings and lightnings and, and so forth, and the threat of eternal cursing if we disobey in one provision.

Instead, God gives us this grace freely in Jesus. And then he says, stand in this freedom that I have given to you, gaze upon it, cherish it, celebrate it, and then take this love and serve other people with it. And if you do that, freely, you will do exactly What the spirit of the law is. Paul's argument for why we should take our freedom and love others with it is that serving others actually fulfills the law if we serve others with the love that we've been given.

Notice the quote though from Leviticus 19, you shall love your neighbor as yourself, and you might say, well, who is my neighbor? Well, someone in the Gospel of Luke asked Jesus that same question. He told the story of the Good Samaritan, which will not rehearse here. But essentially, his answer to that question is your neighbor is not just the person who lives next door, your neighbor is any person that God brings across your path, on any given day, who has a need that you can meet.

And so when you get up in the morning, you don't know who your neighbors are going to be that day. They're not just the people who reside next to you in your neighborhood. They are the people who will cross your path that you will encounter in the day. And so we get up every morning and it's like, Lord, I don't even know who my neighbors will be today.

But whoever my neighbor will be, I'm going to take this love that you've given, and I'm going to love them with it. Got to love them with it. I told you guys a few weeks ago about a man in a wheelchair that I met at Ralph's supermarket. and was able to help out a little bit and, and get to know him.

I saw him a couple weeks later, in his wheelchair going down Frederick Street in Moreno Valley, and I had seen him down about a mile further and I thought, well, maybe he lives there or, and maybe that's where he's heading, and he looked like he was laboring really hard. So I was with my family and I just told them I was near our house and I just said, what, let me get out right now. I'm going to go push his wheelchair for a while and I'll, I'll walk home. And so I get out and I, I catch up to the guy and introduce myself to him and it seemed like he remembered me, but I start pushing his wheelchair and at first he seemed grateful, but then, I, I think he got to worrying about wherever he lived, he didn't want me to know where it was.

And so, I'm pushing his wheelchair and I get up to the first intersection, And, and he, I go to press the button so that we can wait for the signal to go across. He just takes off across the street anyway, to, to get away from me. And it's like he didn't trust me. and I'm sure, wherever he lives, he's had people that have lied to him who want to know all about him and what he has so that they could take advantage of him.

And so as I saw him going across the street, I just, I let him go. And, I thought, what, maybe the Lord will give me an opportunity to love him another day, but at least for 150 yards, for 150 yards. I got to take something of this love, just, A little bit. And give that to this man, because on that day, his path crossed mine.

And when it did, he became my neighbor. And there'll be another day, I hope when our paths will cross. And when it does, he will be my neighbor again. Who are those that cross your paths each day in the workplace, in your own actual neighborhood, whoever God brings to you, and across your path, those are your neighbors.

And your calling is take this love that you've been given and just love them with, serve them with this love. Well, doing this fulfills the law. That's the beautiful picture. The other argument Paul gives for why we should use our freedom in this way is that the alternative only brings hurt and ruin.

He's like, what, there are other people who take this freedom, and they use it to serve their flesh, and they bite and devour people. But he says in verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by each other. It's like, what, if you're not going to enjoy this love, and instead, you're just going to live according to the flesh, you're going to, The opposite of what the law really commands. You're not loving your neighbor as yourself.

You're merely biting and devouring, each other. And if you're going to do that, just understand that that brings consumption, that brings ruin, that brings hurt. And understand that the language here that Paul uses is he's not saying simply, if you bite and devour other people and their reputations, like through your words, for example, that you're consuming them. Now, the actual language implies also that when you take a bite out of another person, you've just taken a bite out of yourself.

You're, you're consuming yourself. You've just become less of a person by virtue of the bite you just took out of another person. And you might say, I don't bite people. I was taught at an early age that biting is bad.

Oh, we bite all the time, guys. Every time, every time you lash back at someone, including your spouse, you're just biting. anytime your spouse has offended you and caused you hurt and a little bit of misery and you retaliate with a silent treatment or lashing back at them, your goal is to take a bite out of their happiness in that moment, right? you're trying to inflict pain.

When we back bite, what are we doing? We are complaining about somebody, behind their backs. When we, are running somebody down behind their back. We're talking to someone else in the church and we're running someone else down.

What we're doing is we're trying to take a bite out of, The reputation. We're trying to consume their reputation. But we need to realize that in those moments when we do that, we're taking a bite out of ourselves, we ourselves are being consumed by either the hate or the anger, or the malice that is in us, and we become less and less and less and less of a person, as we walk the path of biting and devouring. And so Paul's trying to present an ugly picture here.

The word bite, devour, consume, these are all words associated with the jungle. They really are. This is the, this is the way wildlife behave, where tooth and claw basically reign supreme and animals kill each other. And unfortunately in the church.

This is sometimes the case. I've shared with you guys before that in one of the Baptist churches that I attended for a few years when we lived in South Carolina, there was an actual fistfight that broke out in a church business meeting. A guy in our church stood up on the chair and, and the organist husband came over and punched the guy and knocked him off the chair. This was in a church business meeting.

and so this thing happens amongst Christians. But may it not happen here. And to the degree that it does, may we turn our eyes away from that. This is the only reason this thing happens in our marriages, and our homes, relationships between brothers and sisters in the homes, relationships between fellow Christians in the church.

This is the only reason this behavior happens. It's because Christians, this love they've been given, they take their eyes off of it. And Paul is inviting us to come back to this freedom and realize I've been called to this, I've been saved for this. And what amazing love is this.

And Paul's message to us would be stare at this love, make it the object of your meditation, be consumed by it, and appreciate this loving freedom that's been given to you. And then take this loving freedom, and start serving others with it. some of you may have a spouse or may have someone in your life that's really wronged you in a certain way, and you refuse to grant them loving freedom. You will not release them from the consequences.

Of what they have done and a whole history of what they've done, perhaps in your marriage. My message to you would be, Gaze at this love, at this undeserved freedom that's been granted to you. Gaze at it, meditate on it. And then take that freedom that God has given to you that you don't deserve.

And start passing that on to your spouse, to your children. To your brothers and sisters and the Lord, to those in the workplace, to where they, when they experience love at your hand, they, they know I'm being loved with something that doesn't originate from earth. A love that originates from God. And if they come up to you and say, oh, you're just so loving, so kind, don't say, well, yeah, yeah, actually, I've been thinking about that myself.

Just say no. what? All I'm doing is just passing on to you the love, That I've been eating. That's all.

It didn't originate, People who live this way Catch themselves fulfilling the very law. That the Orthodox Jews are slaving each day to obey and falling short. It is only the gospel that gives us the power. To freely And even the desire to freely fulfill the spirit of the law.

And so, let us make this the meditation of our heart. Basically, what we've learned today is what do we do with this freedom that has been given to us, Realize it's yours, guys. Secondly, don't give it away. Thirdly, don't abuse it and use it as an opportunity to serve yourself.

And fourthly, use it, use it to serve other people. And what, it's not like that's my duty. I got to do this. No, guess what will happen?

As God's love is passing through you to that other person, His love will bless you while it's passing through. That's why Paul says, quotes Jesus as saying it is more blessed to give than to. receive, you most deeply experience the love of God when you allow it to pass through you to other people. And so, let us live our lives doing this in response to the gospel.

Let me ask you to bow your heads this morning. Just a few verses that we have looked at today and yet there is so much here. That is worthy of our thoughtful, Consideration. May a passage like this make us all the more devoted to plumbing the depths of the gospel.

So that we might know more of the height. And breadth and the length. Of this love that's been shown us so that we can then love others with the full dimensions of this love. And if you have found very little love in your heart, very little grace in your heart to give to other people, that's, don't beat yourself up about that.

Just confess that to the Lord. And then don't walk out of here and say, all right, I'm going to be more loving, and I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that. No, no, don't do that. Just resolve.

To put God's love in front of your face more than you've been doing. To make his love the object of your study. If you do that, You will then catch yourself passing this love on. So, that's my challenge.

And let us ask God to help us to do that. Lord, we have been given an amazing love. What wondrous love is this, Lord. That you have given to us in the form of freedom that is ours in Christ.

And yet often, Lord, we find our hearts empty. And we have little to give to others. But the reason for that, Lord, is that we're not walking in the freedom, we're not enjoying the freedom. We're not preaching this freedom to ourselves.

We're not consciously mindful of this freedom. And the amazing love that this freedom comes to us with. So our request, Lord, is that you would help us to just rivet our focus upon you and upon this gospel love that you have shown us, that we would walk in and enjoy the lightening of our burden, the forgiving of our sins, the release from ever having to earn or maintain our righteous standing, and release from the burden of that task, Lord, that we would then take this love and pay it forward.

To every neighbor that you bring across our path this week.

Help us to do this, Lord, and to thereby honor you. In doing this. In Christ's name we pray. And all God's people said, Amen.