20260705 Liberty in Christ Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Let's pray together once more. Heavenly Father,

we do thank you for your help thus far, for meeting

with us and guiding and directing the time for

your glory and our good. We come to express our

need of you once again, our weakness and our

frailties, our inabilities. But we come with

confidence indeed as well that you will fill

that void. for us today, that you would own your

word, that you would open our hearts and our

minds to receive it, that you would grant to

us faith to trust you and to put this blessed

word into action into each of our lives. We ask

again for the loss that they might be found of

you, and we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Well,

I thought it'd be good just to spend a few minutes

this morning reflecting on our liberty in Christ.

We spent yesterday celebrating the liberty that

the Lord has given us as a country. And so that

is a great blessing, one that we should all be

thankful for. We live in the greatest country

in the world. There's no place else on earth

like it. There never has been. There probably

never will be again. But all that pales in comparison

to our liberty in Christ. We don't have to live

in America to have liberty in Christ. Our brothers

and sisters in China and Russia, in Iran, they

equally are at liberty with us in Christ. The

liberty of Christ is a glorious reality. One

that we need to be aware of, we need to be conscious

of, we need to put it into practice in our lives,

in the way we think, in the way that we speak,

in the way that we do. So I'd like us to turn

to Galatians, chapter 5. And as I'm sure we're

Galatians 5 · chapter mention

all aware probably that this is a book in comparison

between the old covenant and the new covenant.

And how the old covenant was totally inadequate

to save men. It was a covenant of condemnation

and death. The new covenant was a covenant of

life. Abundant life. So, Paul's been working

those comparisons in chapter 4. He builds up

here to chapter 5, which is where we're going

to read a few verses. And hopefully remind ourselves

of what a privilege and blessing is ours in Christ

Jesus. We've already been reminded. We've sung

such wonderful songs today. Michael had such

a beautiful opening. David in the unity of the

church. We are in a blessed state, brothers and

sisters. Something that the world knows nothing

of. And can only be known in Christ through the

power of the Holy Spirit. So Paul tells us then

in the first verse. Stand fast, therefore, in

the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.

So there's a vast difference between the old

covenant and the new covenant. The new covenant

is liberty in Christ. The old covenant is bondage

to the law. He says, behold. Behold here, listen

up, pay attention. I, Paul, say unto you. that

if I be circumcised, Christ shall profit you

nothing. For I testify again to every man that

is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the

whole law. Christ is become of no effect unto

you, whosoever of you are justified by the law,

or fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit

wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

Or in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth

anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which

worketh by love. So you have it there. The position.

The position that can only be attained in Christ.

It can be attained through no other. It's not

law keeping. It's not circumcision. If we would

for a moment here agree with our... Paedo -Baptist

brothers, that baptism has taken the place of

circumcision. So if that's true, then we would

say baptism or unbaptized doesn't matter. Only

faith matters. And obviously I don't agree that

circumcision has taken the place of baptism.

But whatever, if we bring this into our day and

time, is there anybody here that's going to...

trip on back into the old covenant? No, right?

None of us would dream of doing that. But there

was attention in the early church because it

was full of Jewish folk who were cultured Jews,

loved their culture, loved the law, and believed

with all of their hearts that this was the way

to be right with God, and Paul was teaching antinomianism

by denying the need for the law. But we want

to look just briefly, as I said this morning,

in the liberty of Christ. Christ has given us

liberty. He set us free from the power and the

penalty of sin. We have complete freedom, liberty

from sin and its power. We no longer have to

sin. We no longer are controlled by sin or by

our sinful passions. Our sinful desires. That's

gone. It's gone in Christ. We no longer fear

the penalty of sin. The penalty of sin has been

paid. But what is the penalty of sin? It's death.

All the way back to the garden. What happened?

God killed the animals and clothed Adam and Eve

with their skins. A covering was given to Adam

and Eve. by the animals that died for their sin.

We have the covering of Christ. Christ's righteousness

has completely covered us. That has made us free

from death, from the penalty of sin, which is

death. Can we even possibly forget that? Well,

we have the Lord's Supper every Sunday. And it's

to remember Jesus Christ. That's what it's all

about. Remembering that freedom that we have

from our sin. Sin has no power over us. The penalty

of sin is completely paid. It's a beautiful place

to be. Covered with the righteousness of Christ.

What do I bring? I only bring my old sinful self.

That's what we all bring. And we leave it there

at the cross. We agree with God that yes, we're

sinners and we need Christ. Please save me. Save

me, Father. Give me repentance and faith because

I know I'm a sinner. And I know I'm undone. And

I know I'm going to hell. And I know I'm not

going to heaven unless you save me. My Savior

lives. We rejoice in Christ's resurrection. How

do we know that we're saved? How do we know that

we're justified? How do we know that we're not

guilty? How do we know that we've been declared

by God of the universe, this ginormous God of

this ginormous universe? How do we know that

he's declared us righteous, justified, not guilty?

We know because Christ has risen from the grave.

Death could not hold him. He rose victorious

from the grave. Victorious over sin and death.

In other words, the sacrifice has been accepted

by God. His wrath, we would say, has been propitiated.

We're free from the wrath of God. God is no longer

against us. Can we remember this? Can we come

to the settled and final conclusion that God

of the universe is for us? He wants us to prosper.

He wants us to live a spiritually full life.

He wants us to experience all of his goodness,

all of his mercy. He's not stingy. He's not rationing

it out. He's giving it all to us. He's pouring

it all over us. He wants us to live and live

abundantly. He's for us. Get going. Do it. Step

out of your comfort zone, whatever it is. I am

with you. I am equipping you. I love you. I'm

no longer against you. I no longer have my thumb

over you and to hold you down. No, I'm lifting

you up constantly. Can we remember these things?

Can we live accordingly? Can we show the world

what a real Christian attitude is? What a real

Christian person enjoys? Can we? Yeah, we can.

That's what we call for. That's what the Lord

is glorified in. He's not glorified in moping

over our sins, folks. He's not glorified in,

am I really forgiven? Am I really a Christian?

All that is is sin itself. Doubting the Lord.

Showing the world that you can't know. Showing

the world that you're not confident there's a

real difference between a Christian. and a non

-Christian. And there is a mountain of difference.

We're freed, as we know then, as I've said, from

spiritual death. We're freed from the fear of

death itself. This is a difficult subject. It's

the most dreaded thing that's left for us, isn't

it? To face death. To face the grand unknown.

What is life possibly going to be like without

a body? Without a mouth to communicate? Just

a spirit. We're going out into a spiritual world.

Something that's going to be altogether new.

And it's going to be altogether better than what

we've got now. But yet we're still tentative.

We still wonder. And that's, I'm not saying that's

sin or anything else. I'm just saying. It's all

part of the package. There's going to be physical

death. There's going to be physical suffering.

There's not going to be spiritual death. There's

not going to be spiritual suffering. None of

that. You may suffer spiritually, but it's not

because God is lacking. It's because we are lacking.

We should rejoice in all things, remember? We

should rejoice in our weaknesses and our frailties

and our aches and our pains and even our tribulation

and suffering at the hands of other people. It's

all for our good because we receive it all from

the hand of God who loves us, who's lifting us

up, remember? He's for us. Everything is good

to us. Save those times when we get into sin.

We're free from the fear of death. Convince yourself

of it. It's in the scriptures. It's Bible. It's

all throughout church history. Read some testimonies

of the saints that have departed. The youngest,

the youngest little kids have said the most sweetest

and the most wonderful things in their deathbeds.

You don't have to be a theologian to escape the

fear of death. How about the authority of Satan?

Satan has no authority over us. Satan gets authority

over the Christian when we grant it to him. That's

how he works, you know. He gets us thinking wrongly.

He gets us experiencing things that we shouldn't

experience. In other words, he tempts us here

and he tempts us there and he gets us in sin.

And when we're all mixed up and confused and

we've totally lost our way, then he comes in

and strikes the final blow and gets you really

off track. And he's done that. He's doing it

to the world. But he can't do it unless we grant

him the opportunity. So at the first sight, rebuke

him and he will flee from you. That's what the

word says. Don't listen to his insinuations.

Don't let him whisper in your ear. Don't give

him any inroads. Don't give him any inroads in

the church. Don't listen to what he's telling

you about somebody in the church. It's not true.

And if it is true, it's nothing worse than what

we are. Don't let him in here. He has no authority

over us. We're in Christ. He who is in us is

much stronger than him. That's Bible. It's true.

We are totally been freed from Satan. We're free.

I mean, we could go on. We're free from loneliness.

Did you lose your father and mother because you

became a Christian? You may have. Did you lose

some brothers and sisters or some friends along

the way? Maybe so. Maybe you didn't. Maybe you

were the last one to be saved. So you didn't

experience those losses. Again, the Bible tells

us he made all that up to us. We have more brothers

and sisters now than we ever did have. In Christ.

We're all one family in Christ. We're all Christ's

family. We're in a family. We're adopted children

of the heavenly king. The child of the king.

I love that hymn. I'm a child of the king. Remember,

it's the king, regardless of what's in the hymn.

We're king's children. Cause of Christ. Beautiful.

So we saw, we said in the beginning, circumcision

avails nothing. Uncircumcision avails nothing.

The only thing that matters is faith that works

by love. So we should gather that there is then

a faith that works by love. That's what we need

to know. We need to remember that. It doesn't

work because of duty. It doesn't work because

somebody's beating me over the head. It doesn't

work because somebody's finally convinced me

to do something. It works because you love the

Lord. That's why we do what we do. Any other

motive is false. Any other motive makes it not

a good work of faith. The world is going to outwork

us. We don't have a billion dollars to give away

as a great philanthropist or whatever the case

may be. But it's not a good work because it's

not done to glorify God. It's not done out of

a love for Christ. The liberty in Christ then

gives us what? Liberty of service. We can serve

the king. We can. And he delights in our service.

And all of the frailty or all of the weakness

that's in our service is made up by Christ. We're

going to very seldom put ourselves to the task

without messing up. In some way or another, we're

going to lose our temper. We're going to be just,

something's going to happen. Well, that's where

the Spirit and Christ step in and overcomes that

failure. So again, our sin does not mar our work

of faith because Christ covers that up. And go,

it does go before the Lord as a good work because

of Christ. Because we did it out of love. But

we don't have to. It can be. It can be better

or worse. We're in the body. We're in the flesh.

We struggle. We all know it. We've all felt it.

But again, there's no discouragement. We can't

allow discouragement to get in because what?

God is lifting us up. Christ is making up for

our weaknesses. He's bringing a perfect work

before God. Even though we are imperfect. So

take courage. Step out. Do it. Because you love

Christ. You love his service. You're set free

from the service of sin and unrighteousness.

Dedicate your members to righteousness. Because

we're free in Christ. So then in verse 7, he

says, you did run well. Who did hinder you that

you should not obey the truth? This persuasion

cometh not of him that calleth you. So in other

words, there is, there are those who persuade

us contrary to truth. That's just the way it

is. You're going to have to be on guard. We all

are, passively. On guard against those who would

take us off the truth. Lead us down some primrose

path of baloney. They're still there. Just like

the. He's again talking about those Pharisees.

Those Jewish teachers. Rabbis. Whatever. That

are teaching. Contrary to the truth. It didn't

come from God. It's this longing for. The Old

Testament did not, or the Old Covenant did not

come from God. It's not according to the truth.

A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. And

that's a good thing for us to remember. We're

admonished, which I'll read in a minute, not

to use our liberty for sinful purposes, but,

and this is really what it's talking about here.

You take on a little sin, you've leavened the

whole lump. Of course, he's got in mind the little

sin that ruins the law for the law keeping for

salvation. But we don't want any part of sin.

I think part of the problem that we have in our

day is that we have a hard time really coming

to grips and to realize the sinfulness that is

in us. We're just too blinded by it. We've just

come to live with it. Perhaps. Look at it. I'm

not saying it's true of anybody here in particular.

But I am admonishing us all to take a harder

look. To evaluate ourselves in the line of scripture.

To come to the truth that we do have sin remaining

in our flesh. Of course, we're going to get into

this. This is really an introduction to the next

sermon. But I'm not going to say any more about

that at this time. But we will get into that

again next week. So it says then in verse 10,

I have confidence in you through the Lord that

you will be none otherwise minded. But he that

troubleth you shall bear his judgment whosoever

he be. So again, really this is the confidence

of the preacher. At any time, any time a man

who is trying to faithfully present the word

of God, this is our confidence. We don't have

any confidence in you alone. We have confidence

in you and the Lord. But the Lord is going to

take his word and accomplish his will in your

life. That you are going to be able to live a

happier, joyous, joy -filled life as a result

of contemplating the truths of our liberty in

Christ. Because Christ lives in you. The Holy

Spirit empowers you, enables you. That's what

Paul's saying. Paul's confident that these people

are going to receive his word because his confidence

is in the Lord and what the Lord is going to

work in them. And then in verse 11 and after,

I'll read it, but he's really just trying to

vindicate or show that he doesn't preach circumcision.

where people were telling others that Paul's

not preaching anything different than we are.

And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision,

why do I yet suffer persecution? This then is

the offense of the cross ceased. I would they

were even cut off which trouble you. For, brethren,

ye have been called unto liberty. Only use not

liberty for an occasion to the flesh. but by

love serve one another. So we see there again,

Christ, Paul's telling them, I'm persecuted because

I'm preaching the cross, not because I'm preaching

circumcision. If I was preaching circumcision,

I wouldn't have any Jewish persecution. So it's

not true. The cross is the offense, not Paul.

But then he goes on, what we want to look at

just briefly here is that You have been called

unto liberty. Use not your liberty for the occasion

of the flesh, but by love serve one another.

So that's what we've talked about, I don't know,

probably ever since we started meeting here.

We love God. We love Jesus. We love the Holy

Spirit. God has poured out his love in our hearts.

What's the result? We love one another. We serve

one another. That's the result. Can you love

God and not his people? You've heard it. You

can testify how many times you've heard it. You

can't do it. You cannot separate God and his

people. When we look at one another, we should

see Jesus. We should see the love of God in them.

We should love and serve them because we can.

We don't have to sin, folks. We don't have to

hide. We don't have to be careful. We can be

totally free in our service one to the other

because what? We all love one another. Because

why? Because God has loved us, poured out his

spirit into our hearts, and tells us to love

each other and serve each other. That's a beautiful

thing. You don't have to, what are they going

to think of me? I wonder if I'll be received.

Well, you know, truthfully, sometimes you're

not, right? Sometimes they don't want any help.

But that shouldn't deter us. We should go on.

We should be in each other's lives. We should

be knowing each other better and better. That's

what he's talking about. That's service. That's

serving the Lord. Serving his people. For all

the law in 14. For all the law is fulfilled in

one word even in this. Thou shalt love thy neighbor

as thyself. So there you have it. Pretty plain.

It's not complicated. It's not 633 laws. It's

love thy neighbor as thyself. Does everybody

here know how to love themself? Well, I have

three words. If you need help with that, come

and see me and I'll talk to you about it. I don't

expect anybody to show up. That's how you should

love others. That's all. It's simple. Don't withhold

any good from anyone. Do all that you can, one

for another. Rejoice when someone else thrives,

when someone else profits. That's a time for

rejoicing. Love your neighbor as yourself. And

then, finally then, I'm closing briefly with

this. In verse 16. This I say then. Walk in the

spirit. And you shall not fulfill. The lust of

the flesh. So that's. The end of this. Message.

Walk in the spirit. That's really what we've

been talking about. But we're realizing. That

we're walking in the spirit. Because of the liberty

that is ours in Christ. And if you do. then you're

not going to fulfill the lusts of the flesh.

You're not going to go back. You're not going

to come under the authority of Satan. You're

not going to come under the power of sin. You're

not going to be cast around by every wind of

doctrine. You're not going to be subject to doubting

and dreariness and mourning and pouring over

your sin. You're going to walk by the Spirit

and not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. So again,

That's the. We're going to pick that up. That

theme next week. Of serving one another. And

walking. In the spirit. So amen.