Freedom Isn’t Free - Gal 5:1 - Raw Notes

Freedom is very important to Americans. Our country was founded on freedom or liberty. Listen to the words of our Pledge: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

• Patrick Henry, a name once known to every school boy, a prominent figure in the American Revolution, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States is best known for his heroic exclamation: “Give me liberty, or give me death!”
  
• We celebrate freedom. We fight valiantly for freedom and utter such phrases as “Don’t tread on me” and sing words like, “From every mountain side, Let Freedom ring!”
  
• It would seem that as such big believers in freedom, that we would never let anyone corner us. That we would never give up or be forced in to something we did not want to do, but that is not the truth. We find ourselves doing things all the time because someone wants us to or we feel guilty or we are afraid of what someone will think. Paul addressed people just like us who suffered with this.

The Apostle Paul explains to a group of believers in Galatia that they need not be slaves. He reminds them that they should not return to old ways and become prisoners of their faith. He explains to them that no one should force them to practice more than the faith that Jesus gave them. And Paul finally reminds them that they are not slaves but free men and women.

These words are good for us here today, and every generation until Christ returns … will you join me in reading Galatians 5:1.

Galatians 5:1. - It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.

It is for freedom that we are set free. This sounds a little redundant at first. It would almost seem to break the grade school rule that a word can never be used to define it’s self. Paul found it necessary to tell the Galatians and us the truth that our hearts should know, WE ARE FREE. Christ’s death on the Cross was the emancipation proclamation of our salvation. Lincoln freed the slaves and Jesus freed our souls from the clutches of Hell.

Lincoln’s proclamation and did two things. The first it declared the freedom of all slaves in any state of the Confederate States of America and second it named ten specific states where it would apply. Jesus’ sacrificially written, blood bought proclamation set us free from Spiritual Bondage, from Sin and Satan and it specially tell us we are Free. But what are we freed from. We are ….

We are free from our old self… we are free from who we used to be. We are released from who we once were. You and I have done things that we are ashamed of. That we don’t even like to think about. Things that we would just die if someone found out about, but with Christ’s death, we have been freed from this. He has wiped the slate of our soul clean.

1. 2 Corinthians 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!
2. You are who you used to be, you are a new creation. The Old You is dead. It was buried with Jesus. If you have sold or used drugs, when you trusted Christ it was buried in the grave with Him. If you have found lust in your heart or held it in the grasp of your hands, when Jesus became the Ruling King of your life, it was interred with His body. The thoughts of revenge and murder; the wants of pleasure, excess and greed; the lying lips, embezzling hand, wandering eye - all of these were laid to rest with Christ’s glorious body.
3. Our sins are buried forever and we can not let the dog of Satan dig them up and try to bring the back to us. They are dead and buried. Those sins are no longer remembered by God

We are Free from Condemnation…

4. We are free for the hurtful words of other who remember our past. We can not let those who know you make you a slave again to the old you.
5. Micah 7:19 - You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.
6. To remain free we can not going diving back into the past bring up feels of past guilt over and over.
7. A song writer once wrote: I stand before you guilty and unworthy. How can I be forgiven and Holy. And I know I break Your Heart. But you promised I could start all over. And all the things I’ve done. You placed them each and everyone. Into the sea of forgetfulness.
8. If God has forgotten you past iniquities, then you can be free from the personal guilt, free from the cutting words of family members, free from the guilt, free from the self loathing, free from the condemnation that Lucifer tries to impose upon you.

Finally, we are Free to live…

1. This means we are free from man’s religious rules. We are free from the religious code of holier than thou huddles. We are free to live by the word and not by man’s view of how things should be. We are free to live our faith as we follow the Holy Spirit and not worry if it is Hallel, Kosher. Or you can’t wear make up, or jeans. You can’t bob your hair or dye it or trim your beard.
2. Romans 6:6-7 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
3. Christ did not die so that we could worry about picking up a candle stick on Shabbat, or the Sabbath. Or be fretful that God would Strike us dead if we flip the switch on the electric ice cream maker.
4. Jesus’ death set’s us free from the law and from man’s opinions. Jesus, the Savior of Our Souls, Lord of All, he too found that some would seek to condemn Him and His disciples.
5. Matthew 12:4-8 He (that being Jesus) entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread--which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. 5 Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent? 6 I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. 7 If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath."
6. Jesus, the same Son of God who said He came not to change one jot or title, one period or crossing of a “T”, found that what was more important that trying to keep a religious checklist was a relationship with the Lord. Their religion, might have keep them looking holy, but they we dead from a lack of a living faith. They had a religion, not a relationship with Jehovah.
7. As Believers we are to live by the powerful Living Word and not the corrupted comments of those who would have us looking backward in religion instead of forward in faith.

For all of these aspects of Freedom and many more can only be found in a Christ, they are only available to those who love and trust their lives to Christ.

This beautiful freedom that is offered to us is not free. It is not free because it had to be bought. The overwhelming problem for us is that we can not buy it. We don’t have the right currency. We don’t have a life free of sin. This means our freedom has to be paid for by Jesus. Jesus paid for our sins with His life. Because His life was perfect and pure and holy, Jesus as the Spotless Son of God, served as the only and perfect sacrifice for our sinful lives.

We have freedom because of His death. Our liberty had the cost of Christ’s life. Our Salvation is due to His sacrifice, we are no longer condemned because of the Cross. But to enjoy all that this entails you must choose to take Jesus as your Lord. You must put yourself under His authority if you are going to benefit from the Jesus’ death. Real freedom comes in surrender to Christ and His atoning work in the Cross for you and your sin. Real freedom is found at the alter with a confession of Sin. A real independence day is when you find your dependence upon Christ.