Positively Obedient
Galatians “The Heart of the Gospel” Series
A Sermon By Jim Hammond from Galatians 5:22-23
Introduction
We all like being around
people who are generally upbeat, don’t we? (Show pictures of faces) I
mean, if you had your choice of being any of these people for half a day.
Which ones would you want to be with, and which ones would you hope you
didn’t have to spend a long time with? I’d pick those that seem happy
rather than grumpy, wouldn’t you?
What if I were to ask you,
which ones of these people do you think are Christians? Who would you
guess were the Christians? Isn’t that interesting?
Haven’t you ever been with
a Grumpy Christian? You have. Have you ever been a grumpy Christian?
Yeah, if we are honest, we’d all say we’ve been grumpy before.
Wouldn’t you agree with me
however, that the phrase “Grumpy Christian” sounds a little like an
Oxymoron? The dictionary defines an
oxymoron as "a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory
terms are combined."
Grumpy Christian sounds
like an oxymoron to me. Kind of like, Jumbo Shrimp, or Plastic Glass, or
Dry lake, or Good Beating, or Easy Payments. Payments aren’t easy, real
lakes aren’t dry, a glass is glass, and shrimp is small, so shouldn’t
Christians be joyful? After all, we are Christians because of the good
news.
Joyful Christians are … Positively Obedient [TITLE SLIDE]
One of the main points Paul
gives us throughout the letter to the Gentiles is this one. Christians
are Joyful, and positively obedient!
The Galatian Controversy Context
We have to remember the
context and controversy in Galatia to get the full impact of this passage.
Imagine an ancient brick
wall in Galatia, and the graffiti that encapsulated the controversy in
short slogans and phrases. This is what you see on the wall.
The only good Gentile is a Circumcised one! (obviously written by a Jew)
Abraham WAS a Gentile! (perhaps written by a Gentile Christian who was
listening to Paul)
Yeah but he got circumcised! (A Judaizer)
So What!?
Long Live THE LAW (to which someone crossed out “The Law” and wrote..)
Life!
Life Stinks
The LAW stinks!
Gentiles Stink!
Jews are just a cut above the rest!
Grace isn’t cheap but its Free
Nothing is FREE
There was a young man named Saul, Who changed his first name to Paul, It
didn’t make him an apostle or anything colossal, Just a fellow with an
awful lot of gall! (had to be written by a Judaizer)[1]
When Paul told the Galatians
to walk in the freedom of the power of Spirit rather than under bondage to
the law, this sounded like lawlessness and the Judaizers asked, “If you
are not trying to obey God’s Law, what’s to keep you from doing whatever
you want?”
Paul’s explained that
when you walk in step with the Spirit, you fulfill the intentions of God’s
Law more effectively than those who are trying to keep the law. Paul
explained that those who walk in step with the Spirit are
I.
Positively Obedient
Galatians 5:6 For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that
counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Galatians 5:22-23 But the fruit of
the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control. Against such things there
is no law. [NIV]
It becomes obvious in the
reading of this letter that Paul saw the Judaizer’s system as negative,
constricting, binding, and ineffective.
Compare Paul’s premise that
Christians are Positively Obedient with Jesus statement.
Jesus said, "If you
love me, you will obey what I command.”
(John 14:15)
Focus: Jesus made
obedience a matter of relationship, and relationship the basis for
obedience.
In the last message together
we were studying the Antidote to Dangerous Desires. That antidote is a
positive relationship with Jesus Christ, thereby walking in step with
God’s Spirit that fills us and gives us the right desires and the power to
live out those correct desires.
Today’s message highlights
the contrast between obedience that comes from people “under the law”
versus the obedience that results from keeping in step with the Spirit.
Paul sees the one form of obedience as a negative obedience, and the other
form of obedience as Positively Obedient.
"If you love me, you will
obey what I command.” (John 14:15)
Again, this form of obedience is not duty driven (I
have to because it’s my duty), but motivated by love (I want to because I
love you). This is positive obedience from the heart. Notice there is
also a difference in WHAT is obeyed. The Jews dutifully obeyed the 613
laws of Moses. Christians are to obey Christ from the heart as a grateful
and love response.
In Galatia, the dutifully obedient Jews resented the
positively obedient Gentiles. The dutifully obedient felt they had to
dutifully obey the Laws of the Mosaic Covenant. The positively obedient
felt a love for their savior and were motivated to make changes as Christ
and His Spirit directed them.
The difference between the two approaches was such
that Paul called the one group under bondage, and the positively obedient,
as experiencing FREEDOM! One was an enslaving religion, the other a life
giving relationship.
John 15:4 (NIV) Remain in me, and
I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain
in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
A.
Positive Obedience flows out of a Positive Connection
If you are positively connected, you will enjoy the
fruit of the Spirit. If you are not positively connected you won’t
experience this, and unless you are a Christian you don’t have this
connection.
Romans 8:9 (NIV)
You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the
Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the
Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
For the Christian Positive Obedience would be
easy except for one thing—“the flesh”, our sinful natures, or what I have
been calling it, those dangerous desires that have been ruling our lives
in the past. “The Flesh” is a power that pulls us away from the positive
connection. Though the flesh, is a powerful influence tugging us away,
remember this, the Spirit’s power is greater. When you have yielded to
the flesh, positive obedience seems like a big step. But when you yield
to the Spirit it isn’t as hard as you thought. If it is difficult to
yield to the Spirit, it is time to evaluate the closeness of your
connection. How is your relationship to Christ? Look into his face, the
eyes of love, as he says again to you, “If you love me, you will obey my
commands.”
B. The Fruit of the Spirit is the Produce of a Positive
Connection
Let’s browse God’s produce section again.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NIV)
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness and self-control.
Against such things there is no law.
Are you ready for something profound from this
familiar passage? This passage is a good mirror, or a good scale to
measure yourself by. This ruler or scale can be used as a measure to
evaluate your relationship with God and the impact you are allowing Him to
have in your life.
1. If you are not experiencing the Fruit, check your
connections
Do you have love, joy,
peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self control? To the
degree that you don’t is the degree that you are off in your relationship
with Christ. If you are not positively connected, you are not positively
obedient! If you are not exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit, you are not
walking as Jesus would have you to walk. And your relationship with Him is
less than it should be. At any given time we are either yielding to the
“flesh” or yielding to the Spirit. It’s not a matter of trying to produce
these fruit. It is more a matter of making sure that nothing comes
between us and God. If we look to keeping a close connection you will see
the results.
The fruit of the Spirit is the
spontaneous work of the Holy Spirit in us. The Spirit produces these
character traits that are found in the nature of Christ. They are the
by-products of Christ’s control—we can’t obtain them by trying to
get them without his help. If we want the fruit of the Spirit to grow in
us, we must join our life to his (see John 15:4, 5). We must know him,
love him, remember him, and imitate him. As a result, we will fulfill the
intended purpose of the law—to love God and our neighbors. Which of these
qualities do you want the Spirit to produce in you?
Because the God who sent the law also
sent the Spirit, the by-products of the Spirit-filled life are in perfect
harmony with the intent of God’s law. A person who exhibits the fruit of
the Spirit fulfills the law far better than a person who observes the
rituals but has little love in his or her heart.[2]
Love,
joy, and all that other good stuff are the fruit of the Spirit, not the
fruit of our efforts. We can't produce them on our own. Period. The fruit
comes only as we submit our lives and let the Spirit control us.
Citation:
Susan Maycinik (now Susan Nikaido), editor of
Discipleship Journal,
"Who's Afraid of the Holy Spirit?"
Discipleship Journal
(Issue 91)
Galatians 5:6 (NIV) … The only
thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
The fruit of the spirit are
all really the results and expressions of love.
The Different Faces of Love
Joy is love exalting,
and peace is love at rest.
Patience, love enduring
in every trial and test.
Gentleness, love yielding
to all that is not sin.
Goodness, love in actions
that flow from Christ within.
Faith is love's eyes opened,
the loving Christ to see.
Meekness, love not fighting
but bowed at
Calvary.
Temperance, love in harness
and under Christ's control.
The Christ is love in person,
and love, Christ in the soul.
Citation:
Missionary Dr. Kenneth Moyner, quoted by John Stott, "A Vision for
Holiness,"
Preaching Today,
Tape No. 94.
C. The Positive Produce
Love
This is Jesus’ kind of love: It is a
Self-sacrificing love. It is unchanging; it does good to others whether
deserving or not. It is not a feeling, but an action and a commitment.
Joy
An inner rejoicing that remains despite the outer
circumstances because of the good news of our relationship with God that
comes by connection with Christ. This has little to do with “happiness”
that depends on what is “happening” to us.
Peace
An inner quietness and trust in God’s sovereign care
and control even in the face of difficult circumstances. Peace with God
produces this inner peace.
Patience
Also translated “longsuffering”. This means being
able to put up with people who irritate us. The Holy Spirit increases our
endurance in this matter.
Kindness
Acting kindly and charitably toward others, as God
acted toward us. Kindness takes the initiative in responding to people’s
need.
Goodness
Doing good to those who don’t deserve good. Rather
than reacting to evil and returning evil for evil, it is returning good
for evil. Absorbing the evil, and returning positive action.
Faithfulness
All the manifestations of being reliable,
trustworthy, and loyal to Christ.
Gentleness
Humble, considerate of and sensitive to others.
Gentleness is the ability to apply answers, strength, and sometimes even
force, in the correct way.
Self Control
Mastery over sinful human desires and their lack of
restraint. True self control comes from yielding to the Spirit’s
control.
Our
young daughter was learning the fruits of the Spirit, so I asked her to
recite them to me. "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and remote control," was her reply.
Citation:
Laura Smith, Elkhart, Kans.
Christian Reader,
"Kids of the Kingdom."
Actually, she’s onto something here. When God
controls us like a remote control, that’s when we truly have self control,
but the secret is making sure his control is not that remote. God refuses
to give you what you need when he is held off at a distance by your sin.
[1]
These grafitti quotes came from the NIV Application Commentary p.
275-276, where Scot McKnight quotes Gary Stanley’s work The Garimus
File: A Back-Door Look at the New Testament
[2]
Life Application Bible notes.
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