7-2-2022 Miami Seventh Day Baptist Pastor David S. “Freedom In Christ” Galatians 5;1-6
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We are free. We should have a feeling of freedom. We are free to move forward, free to move on and step into things that God has in mind. On July 4th we celebrate America’s freedom from British rule. We celebrate that freedom in America and we celebrate our freedom in Christ Jesus. We should recognize that we are in a place where we have freedom to worship as Christians. This should not be taken for granted. In colonial America, people didn’t have this religious freedom. The Seventh Day Baptists in the colonies were persecuted. They were persecuted because you were not allowed to be a Sabbath keeper. In Massachusetts Seventh Day Baptist were arrested in colonial America for keeping the Sabbath on the 7th day-Saturday. So they went to Rhode Island where there was freedom to worship as you pleased and be a Sabbath keeper (like Jesus).
We should be grateful to God that we can come to church today, can tell people about the church services and not be persecuted. We should honor this and thank God for this religious freedom. We should value freedom and it’s importance. Do you value freedom? Is freedom important to you? Do you like having freedom? We as people generally do not like being restricted and feeling trapped. We don’t want to be in chains, shackles or be tied up. We don’t want to be weighed down or slowed down. In the text in Galatians it tells us of our freedom in Christ. Its all about being able to step out in freedom and to walk in freedom and to live in freedom. Paul tells the Galatians in chapter one verse six that he is astonished that they are deserting, leaving Christ and turning to a different gospel. Which is really no gospel at all. The Galatians opened up Paul’s letter expecting something nice and Paul tells them they are doing something wrong. Paul is concerned for them spiritually.
Paul is concerned that the Galatian church is being mislead. He goes on about the love and promise of God and the things that God has done. Paul talks about the gospel being spread and the Pharisees rejecting Jesus Christ. He talks about the issues with the new Christian church taking on the Pharisee’s ways and being mislead. They were telling new Christians that they had to take on certain Jewish customs, practices and traditions of the Jews. They were telling people if they were going to call themselves people of God then they had to look and act like the Jews. This is not the message of the Gospel and you don’t have to take all these things onto you. This is what Paul was trying to communicate to the Galatians.
The freedom in the Gospel was being challenged. To sum it up in one word, it was legalism. Legalism is what was being put on the people. Its a set of rules that say if you are going to be a Christian, you need to look like this. Then they started to list rules. Now the Jews in their tradition had hundreds of rules. Rules about everything like when you could walk, how far you could walk, who you could talk to and what you could and couldn’t touch. What clothes you could wear and how you wore them were under these rules too. They had a rule for everything and had put themselves under bondage with all their rules. It was impossible to keep all these rules so the Jewish leaders used this as a way to lord themselves over all the people. Now Jesus comes along and destroys this whole way of thinking. Jesus says God is interested in whats going on in your heart. Jesus says He is coming to set you free from all of these things. Nobody could keep all these rules. Nobody could keep the basic ten commandments to be right with God. So Jesus said He was coming to make a way where there was no way.
Let me give you the way. The way is called Grace. Jesus says to follow Him under this Grace. He said if you are going to love God, you need to love other people. You need to try to do the things God would want you to do. Love other people and everything is under Grace. Paul was fussing at the church because they were putting on this legalism. They were judging people’s Christianity by what clothes they wore, by what foods they had eaten, by their hairstyle and by what jewelry they wore. This was and is nonsense. Paul also said it was wrong to follow these people that were coming in with rules that you needed to be circumcised. These were all outward things and God is interested in what is going on in your heart.
In our text verse 1, Paul says it was freedom and that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. The basic question Paul is asking is why would you turn back to what Christ has removed. Why would you go after it and put it back on? What sense does that make? Why would you do that to yourselves and others? Jesus came with the Grace and the way to get us to the Father. Believe in Jesus and His grace will cover our sins. Now we and the Father are connected again. Some people said this sounds too easy and they think they will take back the old system. Paul says to not be burdened again. Because without God you are burdened. Without Jesus you are burdened. When we have Jesus, the burden is lifted. Paul says if they take legalism and put it back on, you are saying that Jesus is not the way and Jesus is not the answer. You have rejected Jesus for the gospel of legalism.
It is just like on the TV shows when wounded animals are taken in and they are healed, fed and nourished back to health. Then the people take them out to set them free. I never saw on any of these wounded animal TV shows where the animal says No he doesn’t want to be set free. Never saw an animal say naaahhh he wants to go back to his cage. None of the animals turned around even though there was free food back with the animal caretakers. None of them turned around to go back into captivity and bondage. Why would you turn around? We have tasted freedom with Jesus Christ so why turn from it?
We, Christians, get ourselves all wrapped up again in sins or burdens. Things were burdensome before and we allow ourselves to get wrapped back up in them again. Addictions, sin cycles, sinful relationships and things we know are not good for us. We walk right back into a trap. And then we do this thing where outwardly, we put these things on where if we check off all the boxes or do these things outwardly, then we are somehow going to be okay with God. I went to church this week, sat there and endured it so I’m good with God. I wore a cross necklace this week so I’m good with God. We put all these outward things on individually and say as long as I do this thing then I’m portraying myself as a Christian. This is the same thing that Paul was talking about here in our text. It is saying Jesus Christ in my heart is not enough so I’ll do these things outwardly and hope they make me right with God. This is not what God asked for. He wants our heart, soul, mind and wants us to live for Him. Period.
Be careful. Christ has set us free. In verse 13 it says to not use our freedom to indulge in sins. We should serve one another in love. Love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t use Grace as an excuse to be a filthy rotten sinner for a week and then come back and ask for forgiveness under Grace. This also is a rejection of Jesus Christ and the Lord will not be mocked. What we are saying when we go and indulge in sin, is that we see who Jesus is but we don’t care. We want Him to save us but we still want to do our own thing anyway. This also is rejecting Christ and not making Jesus lord of our lives. The freedom in Jesus Christ is to have the burden and yoke lifted off of you.
AMEN
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We are free. We should have a feeling of freedom. We are free to move forward, free to move on and step into things that God has in mind. On July 4th we celebrate America’s freedom from British rule. We celebrate that freedom in America and we celebrate our freedom in Christ Jesus. We should recognize that we are in a place where we have freedom to worship as Christians. This should not be taken for granted. In colonial America, people didn’t have this religious freedom. The Seventh Day Baptists in the colonies were persecuted. They were persecuted because you were not allowed to be a Sabbath keeper. In Massachusetts Seventh Day Baptist were arrested in colonial America for keeping the Sabbath on the 7th day-Saturday. So they went to Rhode Island where there was freedom to worship as you pleased and be a Sabbath keeper (like Jesus).
We should be grateful to God that we can come to church today, can tell people about the church services and not be persecuted. We should honor this and thank God for this religious freedom. We should value freedom and it’s importance. Do you value freedom? Is freedom important to you? Do you like having freedom? We as people generally do not like being restricted and feeling trapped. We don’t want to be in chains, shackles or be tied up. We don’t want to be weighed down or slowed down. In the text in Galatians it tells us of our freedom in Christ. Its all about being able to step out in freedom and to walk in freedom and to live in freedom. Paul tells the Galatians in chapter one verse six that he is astonished that they are deserting, leaving Christ and turning to a different gospel. Which is really no gospel at all. The Galatians opened up Paul’s letter expecting something nice and Paul tells them they are doing something wrong. Paul is concerned for them spiritually.
Paul is concerned that the Galatian church is being mislead. He goes on about the love and promise of God and the things that God has done. Paul talks about the gospel being spread and the Pharisees rejecting Jesus Christ. He talks about the issues with the new Christian church taking on the Pharisee’s ways and being mislead. They were telling new Christians that they had to take on certain Jewish customs, practices and traditions of the Jews. They were telling people if they were going to call themselves people of God then they had to look and act like the Jews. This is not the message of the Gospel and you don’t have to take all these things onto you. This is what Paul was trying to communicate to the Galatians.
The freedom in the Gospel was being challenged. To sum it up in one word, it was legalism. Legalism is what was being put on the people. Its a set of rules that say if you are going to be a Christian, you need to look like this. Then they started to list rules. Now the Jews in their tradition had hundreds of rules. Rules about everything like when you could walk, how far you could walk, who you could talk to and what you could and couldn’t touch. What clothes you could wear and how you wore them were under these rules too. They had a rule for everything and had put themselves under bondage with all their rules. It was impossible to keep all these rules so the Jewish leaders used this as a way to lord themselves over all the people. Now Jesus comes along and destroys this whole way of thinking. Jesus says God is interested in whats going on in your heart. Jesus says He is coming to set you free from all of these things. Nobody could keep all these rules. Nobody could keep the basic ten commandments to be right with God. So Jesus said He was coming to make a way where there was no way.
Let me give you the way. The way is called Grace. Jesus says to follow Him under this Grace. He said if you are going to love God, you need to love other people. You need to try to do the things God would want you to do. Love other people and everything is under Grace. Paul was fussing at the church because they were putting on this legalism. They were judging people’s Christianity by what clothes they wore, by what foods they had eaten, by their hairstyle and by what jewelry they wore. This was and is nonsense. Paul also said it was wrong to follow these people that were coming in with rules that you needed to be circumcised. These were all outward things and God is interested in what is going on in your heart.
In our text verse 1, Paul says it was freedom and that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. The basic question Paul is asking is why would you turn back to what Christ has removed. Why would you go after it and put it back on? What sense does that make? Why would you do that to yourselves and others? Jesus came with the Grace and the way to get us to the Father. Believe in Jesus and His grace will cover our sins. Now we and the Father are connected again. Some people said this sounds too easy and they think they will take back the old system. Paul says to not be burdened again. Because without God you are burdened. Without Jesus you are burdened. When we have Jesus, the burden is lifted. Paul says if they take legalism and put it back on, you are saying that Jesus is not the way and Jesus is not the answer. You have rejected Jesus for the gospel of legalism.
It is just like on the TV shows when wounded animals are taken in and they are healed, fed and nourished back to health. Then the people take them out to set them free. I never saw on any of these wounded animal TV shows where the animal says No he doesn’t want to be set free. Never saw an animal say naaahhh he wants to go back to his cage. None of the animals turned around even though there was free food back with the animal caretakers. None of them turned around to go back into captivity and bondage. Why would you turn around? We have tasted freedom with Jesus Christ so why turn from it?
We, Christians, get ourselves all wrapped up again in sins or burdens. Things were burdensome before and we allow ourselves to get wrapped back up in them again. Addictions, sin cycles, sinful relationships and things we know are not good for us. We walk right back into a trap. And then we do this thing where outwardly, we put these things on where if we check off all the boxes or do these things outwardly, then we are somehow going to be okay with God. I went to church this week, sat there and endured it so I’m good with God. I wore a cross necklace this week so I’m good with God. We put all these outward things on individually and say as long as I do this thing then I’m portraying myself as a Christian. This is the same thing that Paul was talking about here in our text. It is saying Jesus Christ in my heart is not enough so I’ll do these things outwardly and hope they make me right with God. This is not what God asked for. He wants our heart, soul, mind and wants us to live for Him. Period.
Be careful. Christ has set us free. In verse 13 it says to not use our freedom to indulge in sins. We should serve one another in love. Love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t use Grace as an excuse to be a filthy rotten sinner for a week and then come back and ask for forgiveness under Grace. This also is a rejection of Jesus Christ and the Lord will not be mocked. What we are saying when we go and indulge in sin, is that we see who Jesus is but we don’t care. We want Him to save us but we still want to do our own thing anyway. This also is rejecting Christ and not making Jesus lord of our lives. The freedom in Jesus Christ is to have the burden and yoke lifted off of you.
AMEN
