Free Indeed, Part 2

Today, on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully-functioning person. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana. Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. Remember when Jesus came, he said, I have come to give you life and to give it to you abundantly. In other words, even in a fallen world, I want to give you a life. I want to give you a life that every day makes every day worth living.

I want to give you a life that no matter what the circumstances are in a fallen world, surrounded by fallen people, your life can be marked in a specific way. That's freedom. He says, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom, and here it is, into an opportunity for the flesh. There's the danger.

There's the attack. I can lose my freedom. All I have to do is give my flesh the opportunity. You see, I just stand firm against religion, but against me, against my own flesh, I can't give it an opportunity.

That's why, by the way, over and over again when it comes to sin in a believer's life, there's one word that always occurs in the temptation process. Flee. Run for it. Get out of there. Why?

Because if you stay, you're in trouble. You see, all my flesh needs is an opportunity. That's all it needs. Give me an opportunity to sin.

I'll do it. Think of this. There was a man after God's own heart.

What a great way to be described. And when kings went to war, that man, David, decided not to go. And he stayed. And based probably on information others had given him or he'd seen for himself, he decided to spend the evening up on the roof of his palace. And he just happened to know that there was a woman taking a bath on another rooftop.

What is God trying to say to him right there as soon as he got that first glance? Run. Flee. What did David do? No, no.

I'm king. I'm going to take a good look. Nothing wrong with looking. He looked. And he fell. And he ended up ordering the murder of Uriah the Hittite, the husband of that woman. How tragic. You see, how tragic. A man after God's own heart.

That's what Paul was saying. Do not let your flesh have opportunity. You put yourself in the wrong circumstances. You know what you'll do? You'll fornicate. You know what you'll do? You'll commit gossip.

You know what you do? You'll envy and be jealous of other people. You know what you'll do? You'll curse and swear. You'll drink until you're drunk. Just put yourself in those circumstances.

You'll do it. All your flesh needs is an opportunity. And that's what Paul was saying. He says, in contrast to that, he says, but through love, serve one another.

See, it's love. He goes on and says, look, the whole law is fulfilled in one word. In the statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus was asked the question, how would you summarize the whole testament, all the laws? Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. What has God set me free to do?

To love Him and to love you. And you know what's so great if I love Him and love you? I love life. I love life. You see, if I love Him and serve Him and I love you and serve you, the biggest beneficiary of it all? Me. I'm happy.

I'm content. You see, that's what it is. He said the only thing that can hurt you is to give your flesh opportunity. He says in verse 15, if you bite and devour one another, He says, take care that you're not consumed by one another. Apparently, there's fights going on in Galatia. What a description of the typical church.

One of the best ever. Churches where people bite each other. And boy, they still are.

They still are. The church gives Christians a tremendous context. A tremendous context to assassinate other people's characters.

And to gossip. And they always do it, as I've said before, like under, I'm just taking prayer requests. I just want to pray for people. But I want to talk about people. I want to bite them. See, what an image. This is the one place on earth where you should be safe.

People should not be talking about you here. Well, Paul then says, look, I say to you, and he says, walk by the Spirit and you'll not carry out the desire of the flesh. Let me give you the solution. Live by the Spirit of God. If you live by the Spirit of God, you will not carry out the desires of your own flesh. That's the Christian life. To live by the Spirit of God. The question we have, though, is, OK, what's that mean? What does it mean that I'm going to live by the Spirit of God?

Hold your place here. We'll look at two texts. Just turn to your right a few pages to Ephesians five. Verse 18, the apostle Paul says this to the Church of Ephesus. He says, Do not get drunk with wine.

Because that's dissipation. What Paul says is, you know what the problem is if you're drunk? You're not under control anymore. Whatever you're drunk with is. You get high, you get drunk. That's what controls you. And by the way, you know, don't you, that your judgment's kind of impaired when you're drunk, isn't it?

People will do things when they're drunk that they wouldn't do any other time in their life. He said, Don't do that. Don't let that happen. He says, But be filled with the Spirit. And he doesn't mean like your gas tank.

He doesn't mean that. He means be controlled by the Spirit of God. In other words, the Spirit of God has when we come to Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God now indwells you. You have been baptized, identified with Christ in your body.

God has taken up residency through his spirit in you. And now he says, Let that spirit control you. He said, Well, what would happen if I am controlled by the Spirit? He says, Well, you will be speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and you'll be singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. He said, You will worship.

You have a worshipful attitude toward the Lord. And I don't mean singing on Sunday morning. I mean at your office on Monday.

I mean on the golf course on Wednesday evening. You see, that's what's in my heart. I'm worshiping God. Then he says, Always giving thanks. Now, don't miss this for the things you like best in life.

Don't you wish? Always giving thanks for all things. You see, everybody gives thanks for something they want. Everybody gives thanks.

It doesn't matter if you're a believer or not a believer. But what about all things? What does it take to give thanks for everything?

See, that's hard. If anything ever happened in your life in the last year or two you don't want to be thankful about? You see, in our flesh, I don't want to give thanks for that. Why do I want to thank God for pain?

I don't like pain. Well, the Spirit of God controls you. You'll give thanks. Spirit of God knows what Romans 828 says, For all things work together for the good. You see, the Spirit of God knows that. God will use it all in one great orchestra in my life. It'll be for my better end. So he says, That's what will happen. So God Word, he says, You will be thankful, grateful and worshipful.

What about Man Word? He says, Verse 21, Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. If the Spirit of God is controlling me, I willingly subject myself to you and anyone else.

What's that mean? Well, what it means is, remember what Paul wrote to the Philippians, Consider everybody else is more important than you are. By having the same attitude in you that Christ had in him.

And notice how this plays it out. Verse 22, Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. Then look at verse 25, Husbands, be subject to your wives by loving your wife just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for it. Chapter six, verse one, Children, submit to your parents by obeying your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor them. Verse four, Fathers or parents, do not provoke your children to anger. There's how I subject myself as a parent. Verse five, Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh.

Verse nine, Masters, do the same things to them and give up threatening, knowing that both their master and yours is in heaven. There's no partiality with him. It affects every human relationship. I consider everyone else in the world is more important than me.

I give myself away. You see, roles are different, but that's my attitude. OK, so that's the key to be filled or controlled by the Spirit.

But you still have the question, but how does that work? Well, turn to the Book of Colossians, just another couple of pages to your right. And chapter three. And verse 16. Again, the apostle Paul right into the Church of Colossae.

Here he says something different. He said, Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you. Let the word of God be something richly dwelling in you, something you know, something you memorize, something you meditate on, most importantly, something you submit to. Let the word of God, the word of Christ richly dwell within me.

Well, what would happen if I did that? He says, Here's what will happen. He said, With all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God, whatever you do in word and deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through him to God the Father. Same thing.

The exact same thing he said it happens when you're filled with the Spirit. Then he says, Wives, be subject to your own husbands. Husbands, love your wives. Children, obedient to parents.

Parents, don't exasperate your children. Twenty-two, slaves and all things, obey your masters. Chapter four, verse one. Masters, grant your slaves justice and fairness, knowing that you too have a master in heaven. All relationships are affected again. So what can I deduce from that? I can deduce this, that letting the word of Christ indwell me richly is exactly the same as being controlled by the Spirit of God.

They produce exactly the same results. And so if I submit myself to the word of God and I am powered by the presence of God through his Spirit, I can be all that God wants me to be. I can be free. Now back to Galatians. Paul is not naive. That's one thing I love most about Paul.

He is not naive. Verse seventeen. He said, The flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, the Spirit against the flesh. He said, These are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Paul said, I want to tell you something, though. This enemy from within, he's tough.

This is hard. Paul says, This is hard for me. Remember in Romans seven what Paul wrote? Paul said, You know, the very things I think I should be doing, I don't do them. And at times I start doing things that I shouldn't be doing at all. See, Paul understands there's a battle on the inside.

This is not easy. Paul said, I get that, but you've got to not give the flesh any opportunity, he said. He said, Because if you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law. The only hope you have is to let the Spirit of God control you.

Let the word of Christ indwell you richly. See, when Jesus Christ died, he set you free. When you put your faith and trust in him, you have been free. Free for what? I'm free from religion, and I'm free from myself.

I'm free. You see, why does an unbeliever sin? He can't help it.

Why do you sin? Can you help it? You bet.

See, that's Paul's whole point. Yesterday morning, I had a good friend come in from out of town. Don't look so skeptical. I had a good friend come in from out of town, and every time he comes in, we have a very early breakfast together. And when we have this early breakfast together, we talk about three things. We talk about Christ and family and the saints, okay? Now, we have taken a solemn oath that we will never reveal the priority order of those conversations, okay?

So we're not about to. But yesterday, we were talking about the Lord. The lion's share was all about the Lord, and we were talking about this very idea. And he was talking about how he had learned something from a really great Bible teacher about why do Christians sin?

What's going on when we sin? And he said what he learned, and I believe he was exactly right. He said it just comes down to two issues. One is that I don't trust God enough. In other words, God says to me, don't do that because. And when I say, I don't really trust you. I trust my own judgment. I trust the guy I work with.

I trust my brother-in-law. And they said it would be a good thing to go ahead and try. And so I did. And then I faced the consequences. And the second reason we sin is I don't love God enough. You see, I do not love him enough. And the idea of it is, the reason I say I don't love him enough is I love me more in that moment. I love my flesh more. And I'm going to do what I want to do. You see, I'm going to satisfy me.

I care more about satisfying me than I do about satisfying him because I love me more than I love him. And that's the issue for us as a Christian. You see, you can't hide behind the idea, no, no, I sin because I don't even, I sin but I'm helpless. You're not. That's why God put a spirit in you. You're not helpless. You've been free. You're free from the flesh. You're free from the dominance. You're free from the slavery.

You're free. But you have to allow the spirit of God to control you. You have to not give your flesh any opportunity at all. And if Paul said, this is no easy task.

This is not hard. He said, but notice in 18, if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law. You don't have to worry about religion. You don't have to worry about what am I going to do. Am I going to do enough good things? When you are led by the spirit of God, that's all you do are good things.

It's great. He then does a contrast. He says, look, now the deeds of the flesh are evident. He said, they're this, immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger.

Disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. You know, when I first looked through a list like that, I always feel kind of self-righteous. I can't even remember the last time I was involved in sorcery. Like, I got that down.

I never had a problem with it. In fact, when I look at some of these, I'm thinking I'm doing well. And then I look at impurity, and I realize that's my thought life. The same thing with sensuality. It gets worse. Jealousy.

Mmm. Outburst of anger. Disputing with people. Envy.

Guilty. You see, I understand that. Even though I don't have to deal with some of the things that some folks have to deal with their flesh, I certainly have more than enough on my plate.

You see, these are the kind of things we struggle with. Paul then goes on and says, he says, just as I forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. He is not telling the believer, like if you do one of these things, if you're a believer and you ever envy anybody, then you're out. That is not what Paul means. Paul means that this is the grievousness of sin. That sin makes you at enmity with God. Sin alienates you from God. He told the Corinthian church the same thing. He had a list for them. And then after he said it, he said they will not inherit the kingdom of God, and then he said, and such were some of you.

Well, what are they now? They're believers. You see, I might have been a sorcerer, but now I'm a believer.

I might have been an idolater, but now I'm a believer. You see, he said sin is so serious that it separates you from God. You never inherit the kingdom of God on the basis of your own sin and flesh. Then he says, but the fruit of the Spirit, and please understand the word is fruit. It's not fruits, okay? I mean, I've had people tell me, I've got some of the fruits.

There's just other ones I'm working on. You can't have some of the fruit. Everybody has some of the fruit.

You could be as lost as a loss can be, and you might be a pretty patient person. But that's not what he's talking about. The fruit of the Spirit means when the Spirit is in control of your life, this is what your life looks like. And this is exactly what Jesus meant when he said, I've come to give you life, and I've come to give you abundantly. Notice what it is. When the Spirit of God is in control of my life, my life is marked by love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

And Paul says, against such things there is no law. Now, here's something else. When my life is filled with love and joy and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and self-control because of my love for God and love for others and my service of God and service of others, guess who's the biggest beneficiary? Me. I'm happy. I'm really happy.

You see, one of the best kept secrets of all of life is this. Happiness is giving yourself away. That's what makes people happy. And we don't believe it, do we? Happiness is having people give stuff to me. We buy it.

That's what we think. And so our expectations of everybody is, what can you do for me? What can you do for me? I mean, I can't even tell you the percentage. It would be enormous of people that are married and struggling in their marriage. And immediately, once they're in my office for five minutes, I can tell you what the problem is. They're so miserable because they didn't meet my expectations. I have expectations and they're not meeting them.

Why not give yourself away? You see, God has expectations. You love and serve. Paul then says, he said, Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

One of the great truths. Whenever you put your faith in Jesus Christ, God placed you in Jesus Christ. And what that means is amazing. It means that where you are, He is. And where He is, you are.

And where He was, you were. That's why Paul wrote to the Romans and said, Don't you know that when Christ was crucified, you were crucified? Don't you know when He was buried, you were buried?

Don't you know when He was raised, you were raised? Don't you know that He sits at the right hand of God? And it says right now in Ephesians chapter 2, We sit in the heavenlies.

He said that's what it means to be in Christ. I've crucified it. See, the flesh does not have to enslave me anymore. I don't have to let the flesh enslave me.

There was a time when it did, but I don't have to let it do that now. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. He said if we live by the Spirit, if we've come to Christ, He said by the Spirit of God through faith, let us also walk by the Spirit. The way to live the Christian life is exactly the same way as the way to be a Christian. Faith in the power of God. That's how you live the Christian life.

That's how you became a Christian. He said let us not become boastful. He says challenging one another, envying one another.

He hits everybody there. What's the problem with a religious person? Boastful. Earned it.

Did it myself. What's the problem of the licentious person? I envy. My problem's on the inside. You see, Christ has made us free. And so we have to stand firm against outside attack of religion. Christ has called us to freedom.

He says don't give your flesh the opportunity to attack it from the inside. Freedom is a wonderful thing. It is, but it's precarious. You see, are you living the free life? Do you live the free life? Is your life marked by love and joy and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness? And if it's not, then something's attacking you and winning, either from the outside, religious expectations, or from the inside. You're giving way too much opportunity to your flesh.

Let's pray. Father, I can identify with the Apostle Paul. He understands so clearly that we have a natural penchant within our fallen nature to be religious, to earn our way to God, or to be licentious, to sin openly and willfully against you. Father, I pray for each person hearing this morning this message that they examine their own heart.

Where is their freedom being attacked? To what do they find themselves so easily enslaved? Is it religious duty, or is it the flesh? Father, I thank you for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for the person of the Holy Spirit that indwells us, for the power that we possess, for the word of God that you have inspired and protected to lead and to guide us, that we don't have to succumb to religion.

We can stand firm against it, and that we don't have to give opportunity to our flesh. We can be controlled by your word and your spirit. Father, I thank you for these great gifts. I know you've given them to us for your glory, but also for our good. I thank you in Christ's name.

Amen. You've been listening to Pastor Bill Gebhardt on the Radio Ministry of Fellowship in the Word. If you ever miss one of our broadcasts, or maybe you would just like to listen to the message one more time, remember that you can go to a great website called oneplace.com. That's oneplace.com, and you can listen to Fellowship in the Word online.

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