Be Led By the Holy Spirit
Galatians Chapter 5
Freedom VS Law
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, stand firm then and do not let yourselves again be burdened by a yoke of slavery
Galatians 5:1
We are wanted and chosen to be in God’s family with all the rights and inheritance, we are not slaves anymore. This verse sums all that we have been learning up to now in one sentence.
Freedom is being accepted and loved by God because Christ paid the penalty for our sin and not because of our obedience.
For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God
Ephesians 2:8
Freedom was a new concept in the early church, the Jewish people had been living under the law. Jesus comes and pays the price for their sin and ours and gave them and us freedom like the had never experienced before. Freedom from the guilt of sin and the penalty of sin.
There were a couple of responses to this new found freedom.
1. Legalism
- Self Righteous / Religious
Where obedience to the law is how you win acceptance by God.
There are 613 Levitical laws, the yoke is a religious keeping of those laws to be acceptable to God. This is a heavy, difficult and impossible thing to keep
For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.
James 2:10
Just have bacon once and you are guilty of breaking every one of the laws. The law reveals the inability of man to make ourselves righteous- that is why Jesus came.
2. Antinomianism
- Anti-law/ Moral-less
This is a moral-less position that we are free from God’s moral law and since we are under grace we can sin all we want. There are no rules and no holds barred- you can do whatever you want. There is no law.
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
Romans 6:1-2
These two responses are real reactions to freedom that we have today - going back into earning our position before God or going headfirst into sin.
What is Freedom?
Walking in the Holy Spirit
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Galatians 5:16-18
All believers have the Spirit in them, that is the Holy Spirit and also the flesh. The flesh isn’t our bodies it is the sinful nature that we are born with- our selfish carnal desires.
Acts of the flesh
The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like
Galatians 5:19-21
Fruits of the Spirit
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
How do we walk in the Spirit?
1. Pay Attention
What are you thinking about? Sometimes we just let our minds run and we don’t keep our thoughts in check. Thoughts lead to actions so it is important for us to pay attention to what we are thinking and what we are doing.
Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!
Psalm 139:23-24
Thinking about the fruits of the spirit- love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. It isn’t natural for us to be all those things. We ask God to search our heart and show us his ways and we allow him to change us.
Set your mind on things above and not on earthly things
Colossians 3:3
We pay attention to what is important to God- pay attention to Him. Pray, worship, read the word. Pay attention to what is eternal rather than what is temporary.
2. Don’t tolerate sin in your life
Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.
Romans 13:14
This isn’t to say that we will never experience acts of the flesh. It is that we will not gratify them, that with the Holy Spirits power in our lives we will not indulge in them. We nail them to the cross where Jesus paid for our sins.
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires
Galatians 5:24
We are to actively crucify the flesh, because it is in direct opposition to the Holy Spirit in our lives.
When God reveals sin- we nail it to the cross- we leave it there. We don’t take it down. Even though we won’t completely destroy our flesh, we don’t indulge it or make any room for it in our lives.
3. Keep in step with the Spirit
Since we live by the Spirit let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other
Galatians 5:25-26
We are FREE from:
- demand of the law
- guilt of sin
- penalty of sin
- power of sin
None of our freedom is because of us,
we are free because Jesus set us free and we live in freedom because of the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives!
.