RIGHT LIVING
I don’t know if you like reading biographies or if you like those documentary programmes that show you how other people live. Apparently one of the most popular TV programmes over the past year has been The Osbournes – a reality TV programme which follows Ozzy Osbourne and his family. Now I don’t think they are an example of Right Living. Yet all of us, to some degree or another, are fascinated with how people live. It may only be a fascination with out neighbours or that eccentric family member – but never-the-less we are interested in how someone else lives. So here are a few question for you all this morning:
Is there something or anything distinct about living as a Christian?
How do we live in such a way that we grow spiritually as Christians?
I want to try and give you some answers to those questions this morning.
There was a time in my life as a Christian that I would have stood up here and given you a long list of things which Christians ‘do’ and ‘do not’ do. In fact I would say that very many people today still view Christians and Christianity in such a way. However, Christian living is about ‘life in all its fullness (or abundant life).’ Yes there are certain marks or things which we do and do not do but they are not the basis of our life, nor the reason we are Christians. Turn with me to Galatians 5.1. I want you to listen very closely to these words as I read them. Aren’t they amazing words spoken by God through the apostle Paul. Here is Paul giving Christian people instructions on how to live as Christians in a pagan world and look at how he begins. He speaks about ‘freedom’, He tells them that they have been set free by Christ in order to live a life of freedom.
Terry Waite was held captive for 1763 days. In his book Taken on Trust he describes the conditions in which he was held. He spent many months chained to a radiator. Do you think that after his release if his captors called and asked him to come back into captivity again he would have gone? Imagine they promised ‘new handcuffs, chain and a new radiator.’ Would he have gone back into captivity again? Of course not. Well let me ask you a question this morning: If, as Paul says here, Christ has set us free, then why would any of us go back into slavery/captivity again? ‘Bt, Alan, I am not in slavery/captivity?’
You know it is amazing how many Christians are bound by chains of guilt, of shame, of fear, of anger. It is amazing how many Christians are handcuffed to habits. It is amazing how many Christians are shackled with attitudes that are so unlike that of Christ Jesus. Paul says that ‘it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. . . therefore, stand firm, do not be burdened again with the yoke of slavery.’ This morning if Christ has set you free from sin, from the burden of sin, from the guilt and shame of sin – why are you still walking around with the burden on your back.
In Pilgrim’s Progress Christian carries a heavy burden on his back. But in the book when Christian arrives at the cross the burden falls off his back and rolls down a hill into an empty tomb. He is freed from his burden. Listen to these words from Isaiah 1.18 and 6.7. you have been freed from your burden of sin. Why would you go back and put that burden back on your shoulders again. Jesus said ‘come unto me all that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you…? Another burden to carry? Another burden of rules and regulations? No, ‘and I will give you rest.’ On another occasion he said that his ‘yoke was easy and light.’ Christ has freed us from the burden of sin and he has freed us from it to live in that freedom. He does not come to weigh us down with another burden of rules and regulations. You see the people to whom Paul was writing were in great danger of putting back on themselves the yoke of the Law. There were some amongst them who were saying that yes they needed Christ for salvation but they also needed to obey the Law. These people were known as the Judaizers – and they wanted the Christians in Galatia to be circumcised. Circumcision in and of itself was a small medical procedure but the theological implications were enormous. Basically what they were saying was that Christ was not enough. If you wanted to be saved you needed to observe the Law also. Paul says that Christ is sufficient and that adding anything else as necessary for salvation is actually a different gospel altogether. He actually deems it going back into slavery again.
When Moses was given the Law on the tablets of stone on Mt. Sinai and he brought them down into the camp of Israel what happened? Immediately the people were convicted, made aware of their sin and sinfulness before God. Hence the need for a sacrificial system to atone for their sin. In essence the Law laid a burden on the people of God and held them in bondage until Christ came. When Christ came he fulfilled the requirements of the Law, lifted the burden off the people of God and set them free.
Now I want you to listen to me very closely here because it is vital that you hear and understand this next part. Paul says you are free from the burden of the Law, from the punishment of the Law because Christ has fulfilled the Law, but you are not free to break the Law. You are justified before God the Father because of the atoning sacrifice and death of Christ the Son. Your salvation is secure on the basis of the Cross. Yet your spiritual growth, your growth in sanctification, your experience of peace and joy and your communion with God is dependent on your obedience.
There are always two dangers in the Christian life:
Legalism – that the Christian life is a set of rules and regulations in order both to be right with God and to please God. Friends I know of no relationship that survives or is healthy if it is based on a set of rules and regulations. You cannot be right with or before God this morning by obeying rules and regulations. Your relationship with God will not deepen and grow simply by obeying rules and regulations. Many people like the legalistic way – because it seems safe. You have a list of do’s and don’ts and you can measure yourself and other people. But it is not biblical Christianity.
Libertarianism – because I am justified and saved on the basis of the finished work of Christ on the Cross is no grounds or reason for living as and how I wish or like. The Cross does not give me a licence to live as I please. Why? Because I have been bought at a cost (the blood of Christ) and I am no longer my own but His. Many people like the libertarian way – it seems to allow them to live as they please whilst claiming to belong to Christ. Truth is they actually belong to satan. Galatians 5.13 warns me not to use my new found freedom in Christ in order to justify my sin.
So if I am free from sin but not free to sin what kind of freedom do I have in Christ?
FREEDOM TO ENJOY A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD MY FATHER. There was a time when I could not, on account of my sin, enjoy a relationship with God. But now because of Christ I am free to enter into the presence of God and to enjoy a relationship with Him. Christ has freed me from the burden of the Law, from the burden of sin and from the burden of ‘works righteousness.’ In their place he has given me a relationship with God as one of his children. Listen to these words from Deut. 32.10. That was God speaking about His children. He kept them as ‘the apple of His eye.’ Friends this morning if you belong to Christ Jesus you are the apple of God’s eye. Isn’t that amazing? The God who created this universe looks at you and He loves you. Not only does He love you but He has given you a freedom to enjoy a relationship with Him. Friends that is the very foundation of Right Living – a relationship with God through Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit.
FREEDOM TO LIVE WITHOUT FEAR – ACTS 3.19. My new life will be a time of refreshing and not a time of condemnation. There are no memory handcuffs with God. When I repent and he cleanses me from sin I have freedom to live without fear. His promise that his love will cast our fear is true for me now, because of Christ. You cannot live right when you live in fear. You cannot live right when fear of the past, or the present or the future dominates. For some of you this morning this is the only part of this message you need to hear. You need that freedom from fear that only Christ can give. Some of you need to take the memory handcuffs off yourselves and some of you need to take them off other people this morning. Each of this morning needs that forgiveness, that cleansing, and that refreshing of our souls which we find in Christ alone.
FREEDOM TO ENJOY A RELATIONSHIP WITH MY NEIGHBOURS. On one occasion Jesus was asked what is the greatest commandment. The religious leaders of Israel said there were 613 commandments in the Law and they constantly argued over what were the foundational ones. In answer to the questions Jesus called upon us to firstly love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength (taking his answer from Deut.6) but he then added ‘ to love your neighbour as yourself’ (from Leviticus). You see if you and I enjoy a relationship with God then it will ultimately be seen, be lived out, in a relationship to and with other people. When Christ came to teach about being a neighbour he taught the parable of the Good Samaritan – I don’t have to teach that to you this morning. Our relationship with God is displayed, reflected and revealed in our relationships with one another. Listen to what Paul said in Galatians 5.13-15. He challenged the Christians at Galatia to love one another, to love their neighbours. He challenged them to stop devouring one another because they were in danger of destroying one another. Do you remember the little playground rhyme ‘sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me?’ You know it was lies, wasn’t it? Of course words hurt. In fact words cut the deepest and their wounds fester for a long time. Some of the most painful experience of our lives have been due to words spoken to us, or rather at us. Jesus on one occasion warned his listeners that they were in danger of the very fires of hell for calling their brother a fool. He knew the power of words. The power which they have for building up and the power for destruction and even death.
This morning I want you to hear God speak to you all about your relationships with one another. I want you to listen to God as He speaks in Galatians 5.13-15. Where do you need to change here? Are you backbiting at someone in this fellowship? Don’t tell me it does not go on because it does. Are you devouring someone with your words and attitude? Have you shown love to one another? I think this is a timely word for us all, especially at this Christmas time when The Word became flesh because of the love of the Father for you and me.
So your relationship with God is seen in your relationship with one another. What does your relationships with one another say about your relationship with God?
FREED FROM SELF-INDULGENCE AND FILLED WITH THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT – Galatians 5.22. I am not going to preach on the Fruit of the Spirit this morning but I want to draw your attention to this verse
Here is a glass. How do I get all the air out of it? I could use a suction pump and get all the air out – the only problem is that the vacuum created is likely to shatter the glass. Alternatively I could do this (pour in water). All the air has been replaced by water. The same is true of my life – when the Holy Spirit comes into my life gradually over time sin, the desires of the flesh and the world, worldly passions are forced out and more and more of the Spirit is seen in my life. These fruit mentioned in verse 22 come to be seen more and more in my life. Not just one or two of them but all of them. Did you hear what Paul said about these things? There is no condemnation with these things.
CONCLUSION
As I said at the beginning of this sermon – it would have been easy for me to come along this morning with a list of things for us all to do and not to do in order that we might live right but the Christian life is about a relationship and not a set of rules. It is not that we live as we please – we live according to the Scriptures and we live in the strength of the Holy Spirit. We show God that we love him by obeying His Word and by loving our neighbour as ourselves. Right Living begins with a right relationship with God in Christ. It is sustained and nourished by Right Food and Right Fellowship. Today your life reflects, reveals and witnesses to your relationship with God. Good or bad? Right Living is actually the evidence of my right relationship with God. It reflects my heart for God. So this morning are you living right? Or do you need to make some changes to your food intake, to your fellowship commitments and more importantly to your relationship with God?
AMEN.
