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Galatians chapter 5, 13 to 17.

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You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.

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But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh.

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Rather, serve one another humbly in love.

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For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command.

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Love your neighbor as yourself.

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If you bite and devour each other, watch out,

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or you will be destroyed by each other.

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So I say, walk by the spirit, and you

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will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

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For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit,

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and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh.

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They are in conflict with each other

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so that you are not to do whatever you want.

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Thanks, Sam.

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Good morning, everyone.

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Right, so before we get into the text that's

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before us this morning, why don't

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we pray together and ask the author for his help

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this morning, which please pray with me.

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Father God, we thank you that you have indeed gathered us here

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this morning to be together.

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And Lord, by your grace, you have sustained us for yet another week

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that we might hear the words of eternal life.

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This morning we ask that you would work by your Holy Spirit

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in our midst, that you would hold Christ high,

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that we would be drawn to Him.

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And we ask this in His name, amen.

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Imagine for a moment if you were given a car

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and told that you had all the freedom in the world

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and you could do whatever you wanted on the roads.

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Imagine it, the results would be absolutely disastrous,

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not only for yourself, but for all of those around you as well.

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Well, that's why we have laws in place

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so that we are kept from total carnage, like speed limits,

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places we can park, and rules with how

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to navigate the roads with other drivers.

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And so we might say when it comes to the many freedoms

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that we enjoy here in Australia, the law with its limits

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and restrictions is actually designed to be a good thing.

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Because in many cases, it's there

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to optimize both our freedom and public harmony.

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And I mentioned that to you this morning

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because that's the big idea that our apostle is going

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to address for us here.

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How do Christians treat the Mosaic law now

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that we've been set free from it?

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Do we cast it aside completely?

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Or is there something in it that is still important

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to help navigate us through this life?

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The law we have to remember doesn't save us.

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But what do we do with it now that we're not under it?

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Now with that said, as we've gone through the book of Galatians,

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admittedly, working for your salvation

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by keeping the law might not be the personal battle

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that you feel has raged in you.

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I mean, I don't personally meet a lot of Christians

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who are wanting to sign up to a system

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so that they can do even more work.

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Now, it's usually the complete opposite.

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Many are looking for ways to do less and less.

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I think our Christian walk is actually a mixture of both,

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of both legalism and lawlessness

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that we're in continual danger of falling into.

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I once heard put it like this, that the Christian life

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is like watching a clumsy rider who falls off their horse,

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then who tries to get back on only to fall off the other side.

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And Paul is going to address that very thing for us here.

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Christians must be aware of the danger of legalism

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which absolutely kills the freedom that Christ has won for us.

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But equally, Christians must be aware of the danger

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of the abuse of freedom that Christ has won for us as well,

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which leads to lawless living.

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And I want to show you this under two headings this morning.

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First, we're going to look at the way of freedom,

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there in verses 13 through to 15,

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and then second, the battle for freedom in verses 16 and 17.

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And I want you to see that the freedom that Christ has won for us

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isn't about being lawless people,

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but about living in a way where the law actually has a part

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in optimizing both our freedom and love for those around us.

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So if you have your Bibles with you this morning,

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have a look with me at verses 13 and 15, to 15, sorry.

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We read, you, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.

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But don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh.

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Rather, serve one another humbly in love,

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for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command.

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Love your neighbor as yourself.

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If you buy it and devour each other, watch out,

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or you'll be destroyed by each other.

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Right, so the first thing that I want you to notice here

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this morning is right there in verse 13.

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Paul's kind of repeating the theme of last week, right,

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where he said it's for freedom that Christ has set us free.

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Now he says a similar thing here.

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You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free.

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And so we might ask, what is this freedom

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that Paul is speaking about?

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Well, to answer that, we have to think about what we've seen

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in this book of Galatians so far.

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First, we are free from the penalty of sin.

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That was pretty much how Paul started this letter,

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was by saying that Christ gave himself for our sins

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to rescue us, which means that because we're lawbreakers

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and deserve God's wrath by the grace of God alone,

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he did something about it by sending his son, Jesus,

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who acted as a substitute and took the wrath

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that we deserved in our place.

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We owed God a fine, if you will, for breaking his law,

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something we could never pay back in and of ourselves.

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But Jesus, he stood in our place.

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He swapped places with us.

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That's what a substitute does.

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And he paid the price in full to set us free from sin's curse.

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So that's first, we're free from the penalty of sin.

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Second, we're free from the power of sin.

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Paul spoke about this in chapter 2,

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that when he came to put his trust in Christ alone,

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the Spirit of God came to dwell in him in such a way

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that he could say that it was no longer he that lived,

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but Christ living in him.

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Which is to say that Jesus is now the Lord of our hearts,

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ruling and reigning our lives.

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We once lived under the complete mastery of sin,

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totally unable to not follow its orders.

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But now because of the work of God in our hearts,

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we've been set free from the old slave driver

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to serve our new master Jesus.

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And thus we are now able to resist sin.

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We're free from the penalty of sin.

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We're free from the power of sin.

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Third, we're being set free from the stain of sin.

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What do I mean by that?

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Well, it might be helpful to think about it like this.

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Because sin has had an all-access pass in our lives.

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It's been like a welcomed guest in the house, so to speak.

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And wherever it's been, it's left stains.

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Which is to say, every part of our heart, our mind,

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our soul and body has been affected by sin and been corrupted.

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It's corrupted us.

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But now Christ has purchased the house

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and His Spirit has moved in.

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Sin's contamination is slowly being eradicated from all areas

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as we're being transformed from the inside out.

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That's what it is to be in Christ and for Him to be in us.

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We're being set free from the stain of sin.

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Fourth, and finally, we will know this real freedom in fullness

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one day.

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Going back to the very beginning of Galatians,

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Jesus gave Himself up to rescue us from this present evil age.

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Meaning that there's coming an age where the kingdom of God

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will be manifested in full.

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And we will see in full our freedom from sin's curse,

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sin's power, and sin's stain.

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That is what the Christian has, brothers and sisters.

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That is what Christ has achieved for His people.

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This is the freedom to which we have been called to live in.

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That is true for every single person who

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is called upon the name of the Lord.

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We are free.

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That is your status before God Almighty at this very moment.

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That status, because of Christ, can never be taken away.

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We are free.

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But what does that mean for us in the way we should live now?

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Just this week, I heard a pretty funny story

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that happened in the state of Arkansas back in the 1940s.

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State legislators wanted to get rid of some old laws that

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weren't valid anymore, nothing out of the ordinary there.

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But where things went a bit wonky was when they made the ruling,

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it was found that they passed a motion that

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stated all laws and parts of laws are hereby repealed.

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Now, historians think the blunder was by the clerk

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in that he left off the first part of the sentence

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being the actual laws that they were wanting to get rid of.

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But whatever happened in their eagerness

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to rid themselves of some laws, they actually

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passed a motion to rid themselves of all laws.

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That was until someone picked up on the error and corrected it.

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And I mention that because our apostle wants

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to correct the thinking of some Christians here.

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Indeed, as we've seen, the Christian

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is free from the demands of the Mosaic covenant

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with all its ceremonies and civil constraints, no doubt.

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But we must be aware that in our eagerness

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to see those laws gone and to walk in our newfound freedom,

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that we don't then make the mistake of thinking

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that we've been set free to now be a totally lawless people.

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That's not what Paul wants us to get from the book of Galatians.

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No, we must make the mistake of thinking

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that we have been set free to just go and do whatever

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we want in this world.

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That's what Paul balances out for us here in the rest of verse 13.

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He says, don't use your freedom to indulge the flesh.

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Now, just so we're all on the same page here this morning,

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the flesh isn't just talking about our bodies,

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but what we were before we were born again.

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You see, as I said before, sin has infiltrated every part of us.

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Yet when we were born again, the old passed away

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and the new came.

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We are new creatures in that sense.

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But as we're all very aware in this room this morning,

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we're not perfect just yet.

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No, we're still waiting to see that righteousness fully realized.

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And so when Paul talks about the flesh,

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it's a way of speaking about the person

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that we used to be, the remnant of the old sin nature kind of thing

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that we still live with.

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Think back to that picture of the house.

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God has moved in. The stain of sin is really being cleaned up.

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But we still live in the house, right?

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It's not like when God purchased us

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that we got a completely new body and mind.

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And that's the idea behind Paul's use of the flesh here.

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If you are in Christ, the old is gone and the new has come.

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Though we still have the remnants of our old life lingering.

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All that to say, Paul tells us that we mustn't use our newfound freedom

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as an opportunity to indulge in whatever our old nature desires.

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No, instead, we're to serve one another humbly

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for the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command.

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Love your neighbor as you love yourself.

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Now, remember last week in verse 6,

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when Paul said the only thing that counts is faith,

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expressing itself through love.

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Well, here, Paul tells us that this godly manifestation of love

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actually has a role in fulfilling of all things the law.

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Now, straight away, you might be like the whole law of God

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is fulfilled by loving other people.

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But wait, I thought Jesus said the law was summed up as loving God

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with all that you are and to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

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So what on earth has happened to the first bit, Paul?

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Well, think a bit of context will help us here.

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You see, Jesus was summing up the moral law of God

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as most clearly defined for us in the Ten Commandments.

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The first five is what it looks like to love God,

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and the second five is what it looks like to love others.

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Maybe you divide them or have heard them divided a little differently.

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But whatever the case may be,

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Paul's not really saying anything different here

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once you understand what he's doing with the second half of the Ten.

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You see, Paul has been drumming this to the Galatians over and over and over

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to really love God, is to trust him.

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And trusting him will always result in doing what he says.

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And so Paul is kind of summing things up for us here.

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To love and trust God as he defines it,

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well, it will always lead to loving one another

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because that is our faith expressing itself through love.

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And to do that is to fulfill the whole law.

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Haley and I, we're already starting to see this sort of thing with our own children.

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They know that mum and dad get hurt by their bickering and their fighting

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and their learning more and more and more.

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That's saying, I love you mum, I love you dad,

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but then going and hitting their brother or tearing down their sister

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isn't as powerful a display of their love for us

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when they do what they can to not only play nice together,

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but to help each other with the little things like bedtime and sharing

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and helping with the different fears that they might have.

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And so in Paul's mind, the law can be summed up by what he's saying here

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because it's all connected for him.

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If you love God, you will want to do what he says.

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And the overflow of that love and trust will be love for others.

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And that's it's abundantly clear that God's moral law

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as found in the Ten Commandments as explained there still has a role

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to play for the Christian.

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I mean, once you see how Paul is using it in this context this morning,

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it becomes obvious that God's revelation of how to please him

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continues to guide the Christian in the way that we are to live our faith.

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Brothers and sisters, I want to be abundantly clear with you here this morning.

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At the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ,

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he took our place and bore on himself all the damnation

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that the law of God says you and I deserve for smashing it in every which way.

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Jesus really and truly acted as a substitute in our place

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and took all that we deserved on himself.

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Therefore, God's law was like our enemy and that it was used as a scalpel

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to expose our hearts and condemn us.

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But now that we have come to know Jesus,

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now that we have been filled with the Holy Spirit,

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that very same law that God wrote on stone.

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Well, it's been written on our hearts and thus he has commanded us.

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Thus the way he has commanded us to live, we will do out of love for him.

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But I want to say a little bit more on this.

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I want us to be crystal clear here.

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You see, we don't as Christians just look at the law.

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You see, it's because of Jesus that we can now look at the law

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and understand it through the gospel.

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In that we know what it is to love our God perfectly

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and our neighbor genuinely because Jesus showed us

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what it was to do that without sin.

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You might say that we can view the law with gospel goggles on.

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And because of these gospel goggles, the law is completely flipped on its head.

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Where it once judged us saying,

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you shall not have any gods before me because of Jesus,

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because of the Spirit in us,

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we can now see that as something we're being transformed into.

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There really will come a time when we will have no other gods

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vying for our affection before our Heavenly Father.

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Where the law judged us saying, you shall not murder

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because of the gospel, we are really able now to put to death

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our hatred towards others and learn to love each other.

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Even our enemies like Jesus loved his.

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Church where the law really was our judge,

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handing down a death sentence time and time and time and time again.

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Because of the gospel, the law can never be the voice

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of condemnation in our lives ever again.

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But only ever the staff in the hand of the great shepherd

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guiding us in the way that we are to live.

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And we obey as we obey its direction,

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we will look more and more like the one who kept it perfectly.

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And so again, we are free from the condemnation of the law.

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But in saying that, we're not free to now go and do whatever we want.

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No, we've been set free as Paul says, to serve and love and obey God

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from a position of total acceptance.

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Free to serve as an adopted son and daughter.

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And the law brothers and sisters, it's no longer there to crush us.

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It's there to help lead us in our freedom and love for those around us.

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And that was certainly what the church in Galatia had to hear at this time.

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Read with me verse 15.

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Paul says, if you buy it and devour each other, watch out

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or you'll be destroyed by each other.

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You see, the fruit of legalism becomes suspicion

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and condemnation of one another because in people's self-righteousness,

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it leads people to look down on others who aren't working as hard as them.

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But if you were to fall off the other side of the so-called horse,

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lawlessness, well, things are much better there either.

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Because when people don't love their neighbour and want to serve them like Christ

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has demonstrated for us, then that will only ever lead people

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to being selfish and jealous of others.

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That is the fruit of legalism and lawlessness.

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And our apostle is saying, if you don't begin to understand the limits

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and restrictions of our Christian freedom as defined for us by God,

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then you will tear each other apart.

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Church, we have been set free not to indulge in the flesh.

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No, as we've seen this morning, we have been set free to love,

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to love others as defined by God and shown to us by our Lord Jesus Christ.

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And it's as we trust and obey that we will actually find that our obedience

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will bring an incredible amount of freedom and joy with those around us.

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We're free.

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We are free, but this freedom that we have is a freedom to serve and love one another

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as God has defined it and demonstrated for us in the Lord Jesus Christ

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by living out the intention of the law.

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So that's first, that's the way of freedom.

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It's not lawlessness, it's obedience.

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Second, maintaining this freedom will come with its challenges.

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There will be battles to keep it.

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Ribbon me verses 16 and 17. So I say, walk by the Spirit

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and you won't gratify the desires of the flesh.

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For the flesh desires what's contrary to the Spirit

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and the Spirit what's contrary to the flesh.

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They're in conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want.

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I was reading just the other day about a guy called Hiro Onoda.

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Now if you haven't heard about this guy, he's pretty famous for fighting for the Japanese

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and being captured in 1974 somewhere in the jungles of the Philippines.

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Now why might he be famous for being captured in 1974

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somewhere in the jungles of the Philippines?

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Well it's because he was first deployed in 1944 during World War II to fight the Allies.

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But reports say that when he was told that the Emperor of Japan had surrendered

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and that the war was over, he didn't believe it

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and ran off into the jungle to keep fighting for the next 30 years until he was captured.

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Talk about being stubborn.

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And I think that story serves as a great illustration of the stubbornness of our flesh.

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It's as we've seen this morning, the flesh has been infiltrated by God.

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The old regime has been defeated in that sense.

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Yet we still live with this flesh that somewhat refuses to fully submit to the good news

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and which will still desire things that are contrary to the leading of God.

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And so it's since that the war has been won for the Christian because of the perfect work of Jesus.

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But the battle still rages because the flesh is a stubborn piece of work.

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The spirit and the flesh says Paul.

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They're in conflict with one another.

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And so in one sense that is so incredibly frustrating because until kingdom come

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we'll be in a battle and we will struggle with our sinful desires.

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But in another sense, I hope you take comfort in what Paul is saying here

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because with the sin that you struggle with, with the fleshly desires

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that still linger and threaten with the wickedness that still tempts you to partake even daily.

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Well, Paul is saying that is all part of the normal Christian life.

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And so if you hear this morning and you're struggling with sin, battling sin,

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then be encouraged because there is a battle.

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I mean, if there was no battle, if there was no resistance,

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if there was no desire to do the right thing and live in accordance to the leading and guiding of God,

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then that calls into question if you were following Jesus at all.

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Now the normal Christian life says, Paul, it means to battle.

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And day after day it's a fight to put sin to death.

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We have a stubborn enemy, it's so stubborn and it continues to threaten us to surrender to the flesh.

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And so if you're struggling and striving with your flesh,

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then that battle that you're feeling, even maybe at this very moment,

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going on for your freedom, it's totally normal.

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And so how do Christians treat the law?

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Now that we have been set free from it.

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I think Paul has shown us the answer to that this morning.

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Well, Christ is one for us, isn't about being lawless people,

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but about living in a way where the law actually has a part

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in optimizing both our freedom and love for those around us.

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We aren't under the law, but we're guided by it.

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And so as we trust and obey, we will look more and more like the one who kept it perfectly.

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00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:31,400
And because of the Holy Spirit with us, the Holy Spirit in us,

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when the law shows us where we're going off track,

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we're able more and more to put sin to death and live unto God.

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Growing and holiness, which isn't just possible,

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but even inevitable because we are in Christ and He is in us.

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Now, just before we finish and stand together,

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I just want to end on this this morning.

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Paul commands us.

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He commands all Christians there in verse 16,

402
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that as we do battle, that we are to not walk by the Spirit

403
00:31:12,040 --> 00:31:17,160
so as to gratify the desires of the flesh.

404
00:31:17,160 --> 00:31:22,200
Now, the Holy Spirit isn't some weird or strange feeling

405
00:31:22,200 --> 00:31:26,440
that we're meant to get vibes off and just guess what He's up to.

406
00:31:26,440 --> 00:31:31,760
Now, God has given us ways in which to support us in the battle

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on this side of kingdom come.

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00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:39,880
He has given us what the Reformers call means of grace,

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in which He said He will help us, that He'll use to help us

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in the battle where we can walk with Him, so to speak.

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00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:53,360
His word is certainly one of those things.

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The word is alive and active.

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It is God speaking to us and He hears us

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00:32:00,160 --> 00:32:05,080
when we speak back to Him in prayer.

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00:32:05,080 --> 00:32:07,480
So the word and prayer.

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00:32:07,480 --> 00:32:11,240
The church is another where we can bear one another's burdens

417
00:32:11,240 --> 00:32:14,200
and hold each other up.

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And so, dear ones, if you're finding things hard,

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these are sure ways to be encouraged and strengthened.

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Another way God has chosen to meet us

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00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:29,160
is through the Lord's table.

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This is something that He is given to His church

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00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:37,720
so that we might really meet with Him in a profound way

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00:32:37,720 --> 00:32:40,480
and be strengthened in our faith.

425
00:32:40,480 --> 00:32:44,160
And so this morning, if you're here and you're battling

426
00:32:44,160 --> 00:32:48,480
and you're feeling the emotion of one step forward

427
00:32:48,480 --> 00:32:52,680
and two steps back, feeling the weight of running well,

428
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:57,000
but then tripping and falling flat on your face once again

429
00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:02,680
and you're getting tired, then there is a place for you.

430
00:33:02,680 --> 00:33:06,480
A place in and amongst your spiritual family

431
00:33:06,480 --> 00:33:10,680
to cry out to Him for help to sustain you

432
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:13,200
and give you the victory.

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00:33:13,200 --> 00:33:19,640
His table is a wonderful place for the children of God

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00:33:19,640 --> 00:33:21,640
that need help.

435
00:33:21,640 --> 00:33:24,480
And so in the next few moments, as we stand and sing

436
00:33:24,480 --> 00:33:28,280
in response to the words that we've heard this morning

437
00:33:28,280 --> 00:33:33,200
in preparation of coming to the Lord's table,

438
00:33:33,200 --> 00:33:36,240
let me encourage you to speak to Him

439
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:40,400
and to ask you to help you in the battle,

440
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:43,800
to strengthen you, to sustain you.

441
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:48,600
And as you do this, I want you to remember the gospel.

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00:33:48,600 --> 00:33:51,920
Remember the gospel, though we might lose some skirmishes,

443
00:33:51,920 --> 00:33:55,200
though we might get bashed and beaten here and there,

444
00:33:55,200 --> 00:34:00,400
there will come a day when all things will be made new,

445
00:34:00,400 --> 00:34:03,080
where our Lord will wipe away every tear,

446
00:34:03,080 --> 00:34:07,320
where the very presence of sin will be eradicated

447
00:34:07,320 --> 00:34:10,960
by the very presence of God.

448
00:34:10,960 --> 00:34:14,880
We battle church, we do, but we battle knowing

449
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:18,480
that the victory has already been won

450
00:34:18,480 --> 00:34:23,000
by the gracious work of our substitute

451
00:34:23,000 --> 00:34:25,040
who stood in our place.

452
00:34:25,040 --> 00:34:28,480
His name is Jesus Christ.

453
00:34:28,480 --> 00:34:29,480
Let's pray.

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00:34:35,880 --> 00:34:40,080
Father, we thank you for your word.

455
00:34:40,080 --> 00:34:42,920
We thank you for the gospel, and we thank you

456
00:34:42,920 --> 00:34:45,640
for the Lord Jesus Christ.

457
00:34:45,640 --> 00:34:49,080
We thank you that your spirit is the one

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00:34:49,080 --> 00:34:52,160
who circumcises our hearts.

459
00:34:52,160 --> 00:34:56,120
That Lord, we are new creatures, we are a new creation.

460
00:34:56,120 --> 00:35:02,640
The old really has passed away, and the new is here.

461
00:35:02,640 --> 00:35:04,840
Father, we thank you that we have,

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00:35:04,840 --> 00:35:10,680
what we have to look forward to is eternity with you.

463
00:35:10,680 --> 00:35:14,160
But on this side of Kingdom come,

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00:35:14,160 --> 00:35:17,400
we would ask that you help us in our battle.

465
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:20,760
We thank you that you do help us in our battles.

466
00:35:20,760 --> 00:35:26,080
And Lord, we ask that we would know the gospel more and more,

467
00:35:26,080 --> 00:35:28,280
that we know that we can come to you

468
00:35:28,280 --> 00:35:33,280
and find grace and mercy in our time of trouble.

469
00:35:33,280 --> 00:35:36,400
Lord, we thank you that these aren't things we're making up,

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00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:40,680
but truths that you have told us through your word.

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00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:43,560
Lord, we thank you for all of these things in Jesus' name.

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00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:44,560
Amen.