Freed and Growing; How God Frees Us from Guilt.

The fifth chapter of Galatians deals with two great gifts that persons who trust God receive. The first half of the chapter explains the freedom that Christ brings into the life of the believer. The second half of the chapter explains the fruit that the Holy Spirit grows in the life of the Christian.

A. Freed from Fear and Sin, Galatians 5:1-12

It is 1948 and the Communists have occupied Czechoslovakia for three years. A small airplane takes off from Prague and is heading for London and freedom. On board are some 20 passengers, among them my father, my brother and I. We are the blessed ones, leaving an over-controlled society in the Old World and heading for the opportunities of a New World. For some 10 years we have lived in fear, first from the Nazis, then from the Communists. Thank God, we have been freed.

For some time in my childhood, I lived in fear of an angry God whom I had somehow offended. I was told that I had broken God's commandments and that I had to make it up somehow. Say more prayers, attend more church services. But I never could quite make it up, and I remained in fear. I could find no way to make up for my sins, for nothing I could ever do would erase the blots of my rebellion. Keeping the commandments better, working more for the church, helping others more could not do it.

As a child I stole some change from a purse that a workman kept in what he thought was a secure place. At that time I had never seen a Bible but I knew that stealing was wrong and sinful. I feared that my stealing would be discovered. I was fearful that I would be asked how I got that money. Sin imprisoned me.

In Galatians 5:1 I read: "Do not get entangled with a yoke of bondage." And in Rom 3:23 it reads: "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." Rom 6:16 reads: "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?"

Sin leads to fear and death. Sin is the prison that robs me of my freedom. Whenever I make a wrong choice I get myself into trouble. Overeating will get me a stomach-ache. Ignoring my appointments will rob people of the trust they have in me. Stealing will send me to jail. The evil I did was not so much against people, but against God. And I can never make up for that evil.

As a missionary I preached, I taught, I traveled, I slept on the floor many nights, I ate what I could find. Often I could not be sure how clean the food was. So I would pray before the meal that I would not get sick, after the meal I thanked the Lord that I had survived. I preached by faith, I taught by faith, I traveled by faith, I ate by faith. Thus I did not have to fear failure. Christ had taken care of all beforehand. Now I was free to serve, to do what missionaries do.

I read in Galatians 5:1 "Christ has really made us free. Now make sure you are kept free. 2. If you are counting on your actions to set you right with God, then Christ cannot help you. 6. What is important is faith expressing itself in love. 8. God has called you to freedom. 11. Salvation is through the cross alone. Gal.2:16 A man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ." Romans 3:20- 22, 25: "You are made right in God's sight when you trust in Jesus Christ to take away your sins...when you believe that Jesus shed His blood, sacrificing His life for you." And Romans 5:18: "By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life." Acts 5:31 reads: "Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins."

Christ came to this world to set me free. Christ reaches out to me. I take His hand. We connect. By faith, I accept His offer of forgiveness and freedom. I am set free by the gift of Christ's love. Not what I do, but what Christ has done, makes my freedom possible. Christ credits me with His righteousness. In addition, He forgives and blots out my sins. I have nothing more to fear. My relationship with God is set right as I accept Christ's forgiving love. I am justified and made His son by Christ's sacrifice. I am set free through Christ's death. No longer do I face an angry God, but a loving Father. "Justification by faith is the third angel's message." E.G. White, Evangelism 190.

David in Psalm 51 celebrates that freedom. Through neglect he had lost it, but he gets it back from a patient God. Psalm 51:7 reads: "Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean, wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, renew the right spirit within me. 12. Restore to me again the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. 16. You would not be pleased with a burnt sacrifice. 16. The sacrifice you want is a broken spirit."

Luke 15 tells of a son who left home and squandered his father’s inheritance. One day this prodigal son returned home, hungry and clothed in rags. But the Father accepted him as His son. Before he entered into his father’s house, the father clothed him with the best robe, signifying Christ as God’s righteousness to cover and justify the penitent sinner. That is justification. But he was still hungry. So the father ordered his servants to slaughter the fattened calf that they might eat it and be merry. That is sanctification.

Growing up means growing in freedom. As a child, I had to ask permission to go here or there, to buy this or that. I had to ask my parents to drive me to my friend's house or to a baseball game. Growing up physically means having a driver's license, having an income, having some responsibilities. Growing up spiritually means leaving some of the old evil behind, walking tall with your Lord and serving others.

John Newton once wrote: "I am not what I might be, I am not what I ought to be, I am not what I wish to be, I am not what I hope to be. But I thank God I am not what I once was, and I can say with the great apostle, 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' " I am growing up in Christ.

While all can be freed from fear and sin by Christ in the same way, people grow spiritually at different rates, some slower, others faster. Just as our height differs, so the rate of spiritual growth will not be the same for all. Thus it does not behoove us to compare our spiritual growth with others.

For Christmas I received a banzai tree as a gift from a kind person. It is a small pine tree that will never grow up, so it fits nicely on my side-table. While living in Japan, I learned to love these trees. Someone stunts the plant's growth by trimming its roots so that it could not take much nourishment. Sin does that to the spiritual life of some. They stay forever midgets in faith.

Galatians 5:17 reads: "My old sinful nature loves to do evil." The evil around me limits me and stunts my growth. The results of following my sinful nature are evil results. Anyone living that kind of life does not grow spiritually and cannot inherit the kingdom of God (Galatians 5: 19-21). The Bible calls that evil the works of the flesh and list some 17 examples.

Which of the following scenarios are likely true?
1A. A policeman stops me to give me a letter of thanks for driving within the speed limit.
       1B. A policeman stops me to give me a ticket for driving over the speed limit.
2A. My boss thanks me for coming to work on time.
       2B. My boss scolds me for not coming to work on time.
3A. Dad is pleased when I do not shoplift at Wal-Mart's.
       3B. I get into big trouble when I shoplift at Wal-Mart's.
I obey the laws and rules because that is the right thing to do. I do not keep the laws for special rewards. Keeping the law frees me to go on with my life and love God and men. But not obeying the laws gets me into trouble.

"When I focus on Christ, I let the Holy Spirit produce in me when He wants. Such as, when I focus on Christ and His patience and self-control, I drive within the speed limit, and the law is obeyed without specific intent. Because the law is not my focus. When I focus on Christ and His goodness and faithfulness I come to work on time, and the law is obeyed without specific intent. Because the law is not my focus. When I focus on Christ and His love and kindness I do not shoplift at Wal-Mart’s, and the law is obeyed without specific intent. Because the law is not my focus." Based on Freedom and the Law by Jay Draeger, MD."

As a child, Papa would buy me an ice-cream cone when I was good at the dentist. As an adult, being good at the dentist is just expected and I get no special reward. But acting up at the dentist would get me into trouble.

Luke 12:25 reads: "And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit?" I cannot add an inch to my physical or spiritual height. I cannot make myself grow or become good. The Holy Spirit has to do that.

Once I found my freedom from fear in Christ, I thought that now I could become a better person and friend of Christ by serving Him more. That I could somehow earn Brownie Points with God. Nothing I do will every make me a better or holier person. Righteousness is through the cross alone. Just like forgiveness from sins, righteousness is a free gift of God.

A lady was a house guest in a Christian home. After the lady left, the host commented to a friend: "She is such a lovely person, such a saint. And so careful in her vegan eating, so strict in observing the Sabbath." That is the major impression that lady gave, rather than the wonderful Jesus who sustains her, a sinner.

Before I belonged to Christ, while I was a rebel, ungodly, sinful, unholy and irreligious, God’s law had a very important part in my life. God's Law still has an important part in my life. The Ten Commandments are a summary code of what it means to love God and men. That Law helped and still helps me understand what is good and what is evil. As a child of God, I have set my mind to choose good and avoid evil. Without the Law I would not know what is good and what is evil. Guided by the Holy Spirit, I walk in the Good Way of Christ and avoid the ditches that get me into evil and trouble. Then it helped me understand what was good and what was evil.

Last Sabbath a group of children in our Adventurer's Club visited an assisted living center, singing, shaking hands and sharing plants with the residents. The Sabbath was kept because the children focused on joy, kindness and gentleness. They kept the Sabbath not out of a sense of duty but as a joyous celebration. The Holy Spirit in their young lives radiated God's love through their loving service. And so it is with all commandments.

I do not fit well into a little box. I always want to explore what is around me, stretch my legs and hike in the wilderness. I do not believe the expression: "It can's be done." I need to explore, to climb the highest mountain in Japan, to reach out with the power of the Gospel and the Internet. I want to be part of the Gospel People that grow, until the whole world is www.Bibled.org. Physically I am shrinking a bit. But by God's grace, spiritually I am growing some every day. The Holy Spirit frees me to grow. And the same Holy Spirit provides my spiritual food that makes me grow, the precious Word of God.

Galatians 5: 6 tells me that as I grow up in Christ, my faith expresses itself more and more in love. And Galatians 5:13 reads: " You have been called to freedom -- not freedom to satisfy your sinful nature, but freedom to serve others in love. 14. For the whole law can be summed up in this one commandment: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 22. When the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in you: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. 25. If we are now living by the Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives."

Bud Robinson relates the following: A preacher came to me and asked me if I had ever seen anyone who was sanctified, stating that he did not believe anyone had it. I said, "Yes, Dr. Godbey has it." Then said he, "How do you know he has it?" I answered, "By the way he acts." "How does he act?" "Well," I said, "they cussed him on the street, and he did not talk back; and they broke stale eggs all over him, and he did not even wipe them off; and when he went to preach, he did not even mention the way he had been treated; but he just preached and shouted as if nothing had happened." Then said the preacher, "I would say a man like that is crazy." My answer was, "No, he is not crazy; he is sanctified." William Moses Tidwell, "Pointed Illustrations." He showed that Christ produced the fruit of the Spirit through him.

Christ keeps me free from fear because His Holy Spirit guides me. He heals my fears. He heals my reluctance to talk to strangers, to invite people to share a meal, to speak up against gossip or slander. Christ keeps me free to love and serve because I grow in Him day by day. I do not serve Him to earn rewards, but because that is what Christians do.

Misty Mowrey wrote: "A man once bought a home with a tree in the backyard. It was winter, and nothing marked this tree as different from any other tree. When spring came, the tree grew leaves and tiny pink buds. 'How wonderful,' thought the man. 'A flower tree! I will enjoy its beauty all summer.' But before he had time to enjoy the flowers, the wind began to blow and soon all the petals were strewn in the yard. "What a mess," he thought. 'This tree isn't any use after all.' The summer passed, and one day the man noticed the tree was full of green fruit the size of large nuts. He picked one and took a bite. 'Bleagh!' he cried and threw it to the ground. 'What a horrible taste! This tree is worthless. Its flowers are so fragile the wind blows them away, and its fruit is terrible and bitter. When winter comes, I'm cutting it down.' But the tree took no notice of the man and continued to draw water from the ground and warmth from the sun and in late fall produced crisp red apples. Some of us see Christians with their early blossoms of happiness and think they should be that way forever. Or we see bitterness in their lives, and we're sure they will never bear the better fruit of joy. Could it be that we forget some of the best fruit ripens late?"

As I connect with Christ, He sets me free from the enslavement of this sinful world. But I have to stay connected with Him in order that He may produce in me His Fruits and to keep me free to love. God's part is to grow love, my part is to stay connected and not to wiggle out of His arms. I stay connected with Christ so that He can grow me, not that I would perfect myself and thus become sinless.

Loving me, God sets me free so that I might be free to pass on His love to others. As I truly love others, over time all that is unloving and unlawful in me is naturally washed out and I more and more I reflect God's love. I do not work on my cleansing, God through the Holy Spirit does. That is sanctification.

"Sanctification, the work of God by which He makes righteous those whom He has already justified, is distinct from justification, but without exception, always follows it." John MacArthur, editor (The MacArthur Study Bible, Word, 1997) p. 1689.

Freed from sin, the Holy Spirit produces through me good fruit. Slaves to sin produce only bad fruit.

Justification is for the sinner, sanctification is for the believer. The first comes through Jesus Christ, the second through the Holy Spirit. "All Spirit and no Word, you blow up. All Word and no Spirit and you dry up. Word and Spirit - you grow up." Donald Gee. May we all grow up in Christ.

"When I focus on Christ, He leads me on the paths of righteousness. My goal is to submit to Christ's leading, rather than to focus on myself and what I should and what I shouldn’t be doing." Based on Freedom and the Law by Jay Draeger, MD. Thus I am free to grow.

The story is told of a young girl who accepted Christ as her Savior and applied for membership in a local church. "Were you a sinner before you received the Lord Jesus into your Life?" inquired an old deacon. "Yes, sir," she replied. "Well, are you still a sinner?" "To tell you the truth, I feel I'm a greater sinner than ever." "Then what real change have you experienced?" "I don't quite know how to explain it," she said, "except I used to be a sinner running after sin, but now that I am saved. I'm a sinner running from sin!" she was received into the fellowship of the church, and she proved by her consistent life that she was truly converted. Our Daily Bread.

"When I was a child, I often had a toothache, and I knew that if I went to my mother, she would give me something which would deaden the pain for that night and let me get to sleep. But I did not go to my mother--at least not till the pain became very bad. And the reason I did not go was this: I did not doubt she would give me the aspirin; but I knew she would also do something else. I knew she would take me to the dentist the next morning. I could not get what I wanted out of her without getting something more, which I did not want. I wanted immediate relief from my pain; but I could not get it without having my teeth set permanently right. And I knew those dentists; I knew they would start fiddling about with all sorts of other teeth which had not yet begun to ache. Our Lord is like the dentists. Dozens of people go to him to be cured of some particular sin. Well, he will cure it all right, but he will not stop there. That may be all you asked; but if you once call him in, he will give you the full treatment." C.S. Lewis.

The following is a quotation from Moody Anecdotes. Professor Drummond once described a man going into one of our after meetings and saying he wanted to become a Christian. "Well, my friend, what is the trouble?" He doesn't like to tell. He is greatly agitated. Finally he says, "The fact is, I have overdrawn my account" -- a polite way of saying he has been stealing.

"Did you take your employer's money?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"I don't know. I have never kept account of it."
"Well, you have an idea you stole $1,500 last year?"
"I am afraid it is that much."
"Now, look here, sir, I don't believe in sudden work; don't steal more than a thousand dollars this next year, and the next year not more that five hundred, and in the course of the next few years you will get so that you won't steal any. If your employer catches you, tell him you are being converted; and you will get so that you won't steal any by and by."

My friends, the thing is a perfect farce! "Let him that stole, steal no more," that is what the Bible says. It is right about face. Take another illustration. Here comes a man, and he admits that he gets drunk every week. That man comes to a meeting, and wants to be converted. Shall I say, "Don't you be in a hurry. I believe in doing the work gradually. Don't you get drunk and knock your wife down more than once a month?" Wouldn't it be refreshing to his wife to go a whole month without being knocked down? Once a month, only twelve times in a year! Wouldn't she be glad to have him converted in this new way! Only get drunk after a few years on the anniversary of your wedding, and at Christmas, and then it will be effective because it is gradual! Oh! I detest all that kind of teaching. Let us go to the Bible and see what that old Book teaches. Let us believe it, and go and act as if we believed it, too. Salvation is instantaneous. I admit that a man may be converted so that he cannot tell when he crossed the line between death and life, but I also believe a man may be a thief one moment and a saint the next. I believe a man may be as vile as hell itself one moment, and be saved the next. Christian growth is gradual, just as physical growth is; but a man passes from death unto everlasting life quick as an act of the will -- "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life." Moody's Anecdotes, pp. 99 - 100.

"With God we can find healing for our wounds, rest for our soul and the strength to obey. Like a terribly tarnished silver setting can be shined to brilliance by buffing, so also, a believer, through our loving connection with God and others, can have the effects of sin on our self worn slowly away to expose the shining image of Christ underneath." http://www-students.biola.edu/~jay/theo-sanctification.html

Uncle Bud Robinson relates the following concerning when he was sanctified: "The only way I can describe my feelings is that envy boiled up, and the Lord skimmed it off; anger boiled up, and the Lord skimmed it off; pride boiled up, and the Lord skimmed it off. Then I said, "Lord, there won't be anything left of me." And the Lord said, "There will not be much left, but what is left will be clean." William Moses Tidwell, "Pointed Illustrations.

"In the Vatican art collection sits Michelangelo's Pieta, a marble statue of Mary in anguish as she holds her crucified son. It's regarded as a masterpiece. A number of years ago a visitor to the gallery took a sledgehammer and started smashing the statue. By the time the guards got to him the damage was extensive. But it wasn't irreparable. The Vatican's artists were able to restore the Pieta to near-perfect condition. According to Scripture we are God's workmanship, God's work of art, created to reflect his character on earth. Sadly, sin has taken a sledgehammer to us. But the Spirit is like those workmen restoring us to the image of Jesus. " Reported in John Ortberg, The Life You've Always Wanted.

"Some people say that the word justified means 'to declare someone righteous.' They say, 'Justified means just-as-if-I'd never sinned.' But God isn't saying, 'I'm going to pretend that it was just as if they had never sinned.' To justify doesn't mean to declare you are righteous when you are not; it means to make you righteous. That is an important distinction.' Paul's usage [of the word justify] was drawn from the Old Testament concept. The equivalent in the Hebrew is the verb tsadeq, which primarily means 'to cause someone to be righteous.' God does not say, 'I'm going to pretend you are righteous'—He makes us righteous. It is the opposite of condemnation. It is a transformation. If we believe that God is saying that we are righteous when we are not, then conversion isn't a transformation. But justification makes us righteous. And I believe we are made right with God—that we receive an actual acquittal, an actual imputation of the righteous nature granted to us." From Justification by Faith, John MacArthur, Moody Press, 1985, p. 50.

Some California farmers plant asparagus as a vegetable. They plant it once, and it is good for twenty or thirty years. Every spring time without fail the asparagus comes up. Justification is like asparagus planting. It is done only once.

"He said unto him, What is written in the law? how do you read it? And he answering said, Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shall live." Lk.10:26-28

Demonstration: Have the teens exchange coats.

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