This sermon delves into the concept of freedom in Christ, emphasizing the need to walk in the Spirit and not be entangled by the desires of the flesh. It explores the dangers of misusing freedom, such as using grace as an excuse for sin and speaking lightly of others. The importance of humility, responsibility, and considering the impact of our actions on others is highlighted, along with the call to live in a way that glorifies God and leads others to salvation.

I'd like to share with you on freedom this morning and the dangers of freedom. There are many Christians who understand the grace of God and freedom without taking seriously things in their own lives. In Galatians 5, verse 1, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. So remain firm and do not be entangled again under the yoke of bondage. Freedom is something that we acquired, we can see that. It's part of the plan of redemption of Christ. He died on the cross, he saved us, so we can be free free from sin and free to follow him to serve Jesus in freedom. No more under the regime of law, but in a new spirit, by the Spirit. We have often spoken about the presence of the Spirit of God in our lives there is no substitute for the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives and the way he leads us. In other words, we are no longer under the regime of law, but we are called to live by the Spirit that dwells in us. This is the freedom that we have acquired and which is the product of the cross of Jesus Christ. We know that Paul in his epistle to the Colossians speaks about how Jesus nailed the law to the cross. We see that by removing the law, he sets us free. Therefore that freedom is the fruit of what was accomplished by Christ at the cross. And today as children of God, born again by the Spirit of God, we are free. We serve the Lord in freedom. We are called to serve the Lord by listening to the voice of the Spirit. He is the one who leads us. He is the one who speaks to us. He is the one who guides us. Therefore, if the Spirit of God is in our hearts, we are therefore the temple of the Holy Spirit according to the Bible. We don't need anything else. Because if God lives in me, and speaks to me, and leads me, what else do I need? In fact, that's perfection. We need to learn to hear, to obey, to humble ourselves, to hear the voice of the Spirit, to humble ourselves before the Lord, and to follow Him. Because it's not always easy to obey the voice of the Spirit. But what's wonderful is that the Holy Spirit bypasses goes by, beyond the Lord, and speaks straight to our hearts. This is the voice we need to hear. And if we follow that voice, we will walk with Jesus in holiness, and our lives will be an example. And what is wonderful is that the Lord gives us that freedom. What is the aim of that freedom? Let's turn to Romans chapter 8. He sets us free to accomplish the righteousness of the law. Because there is no other way for us to accomplish the righteousness of the law if it is not by the Spirit. There is no other way. So, in verse 2, he says, the law of the spirit of life in Christ has set me free from the law of sin and death. In verse 2, chapter 8, in Romans, it says, For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, or the flesh made it so weak, that the flesh of man with its desires makes the law to be without strength, makes the law to lose all its strength, powerless. The Bible says that the flesh will not submit to the law of God. The law of the flesh to the law of God. It is against the law of God. It is against the law of God. It is opposed to God. It is incredible to understand how the desires of our flesh brings the law to be powerless. That very law that God wants us to accomplish. But the desires of our flesh brings it to become powerless. Because it cannot submit to that law. Everything that is contrary to the law can be found in the flesh. And I believe that you will notice that what we are struggling with every day for us to accomplish the righteousness of God, because the desires of our flesh are rising against what the Holy Spirit wants to bring us to do. Let's carry on. It says, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh on account of sin. He condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. God did by sending his own Son that is the aim why God sets us free. He gives us that freedom to take us out of that yoke of the law because our flesh cannot submit to that law. And because we are still in the flesh God removes us from under that law and sets us free. And this is the good reason why he nailed the law to the cross to set us free so that we would never again be under the power of law because our flesh cannot submit to that law. Therefore if we are not free from that law we will never be able to accomplish the righteousness of that very law. Is it clear guys? Is it clear? This is why we are free. The Lord gives us a choice He allows us to choose what we want to do. If we want to listen to the voice of the Spirit or if we want to submit to the desires of our flesh He gives us a choice. He removes us from under that law He gives us a freedom for us now to choose to hear the Spirit or to listen to our flesh. It's very simple. Yes or no? This is why that freedom is a fruit of what happened on the cross. It is part of the plan of the redemption of Christ that was given us. It's in His plan. The aim of that freedom therefore is to put us in a place where it becomes possible for us now to accomplish the law. There was no other way. The aim of that freedom that God gives us is to allow us to accomplish the righteousness of the law in other words to please God. Can you understand brothers and sisters? The world speaks of freedom of fellowship of brotherhood but the only true freedom can be found only in Christ because it is that freedom that will allow us to walk in righteousness and in holiness. We cannot walk we cannot please God outside that freedom. It's not possible. It's a great miracle. It's an opportunity. It's a choice. There's no more argument about that freedom. When I'm born again and I receive Christ in my life I'm automatically included in that plan of freedom. It's there for me. It's something that has been received, I've acquired it. Now I have a choice to accept to live by the Spirit submitting myself to the Spirit and not to the desires of my flesh. This is why we need the message of the cross that will bring us in a conviction not to keep our lives anymore but to offer them up to the Lord to take our cross and follow Him and to go through all the breaking that we need to go through in our hearts because obedience to the Spirit is an experience of breaking of humility to obey Christ to hear the voice of the Spirit It's a submission It's a breaking It's to come face to face against the desires of the flesh. If only we could grasp and catch the real reason why God sets us free why He gives us that freedom It is so sad to see that many Christians use that freedom for their own interest instead of their own gain. Grace, freedom, love of God Wonderful! But we can't hide behind these things keep our lives in our hands and do what we want with our lives It's not possible But if only our eyes can be opened and we can see the real reason of that freedom to allow us to live according to God And I want to assure you there is no other way There is no possibility of accomplishing the righteousness of the law by law We've seen it We don't need to go back over it again This is why Christ came in the flesh The same flesh that you and I have And He overcame sin in the flesh The second reason of that freedom is to never again feel condemned If we dwell under the law we will always be condemned by that very law But the fact of getting out of under that law and be free Faillison Faillon Never mind Faillison La faillison And even though if we fall if we fail In a true repentance there is no condemnation There is nothing that can match with true Christianity Because only Christians are free from all condemnation Past Present Future Why? Because we have come out of under the law Do you understand that? Can you see or you don't see? We came out of under that regime And this is the very regime that used to condemn us That very regime caused us to see our state But yet it could not deliver us from that state This is why God removes us from under that regime Gives us the freedom that at the same time He shows us a road But when we fall we repent and we are not condemned We cannot compare that to anything That's not religion This is a relationship with Christ Where our life doesn't belong to us anymore My life belongs to Christ It gives me that freedom And I want to use it for Him Not for the world Not for the devil Not for his plans Not to please my flesh Because I'm not in debt to the flesh I'm no more I do not owe anything I do not owe anything to my flesh Nothing My life is for Christ Our lives belong to Him That's great It's incredible It's wonderful Can you remember David when he sinned and God sent Nathan the prophet to him Do you know what it shows me? That somewhere David received as tasted the cross David got the freedom in repentance He found freedom in repentance When David sinned and took Bathsheba as his wife He wasn't very conscious fully He didn't have a total conviction He didn't have a real fear of God He didn't have a true repentance He had not tasted the true grace of God But when Nathan the prophet came to him and God revealed to him his state and this is when he saw his state This is when he came out from under condemnation This is when he came out of his misery and he became free This is when he started to taste the fear of God This is why when the cross of Jesus Christ comes to us We taste to the grace of God We taste to freedom At this very moment he became a free man He adored God Go and read in the book of Psalms the state of his heart when he is worshipping God It's like the revelation of a cross coming to his heart He had not understood that before And this is what we are experiencing today This is when all the condemnation was removed All the weight and burden was removed off from his life A man according to God's heart who failed and fell and didn't know how to get out until the prophet Nathan came to him and showed him his state And God in his grace gave him a conviction He had a true repentance He tasted a real grace true grace And he was no more condemned by what he did Freedom Brothers and sisters When we sin and we fall We can't turn to the law You understand why? I will not turn to the law under which I was and that I've been now delivered from Because if I do something wrong and I have a bad attitude I can no longer turn to the law Because I will just know that what I did was not good I will not be able to get out of it And I will continue to live under the condemnation of my sins But when I fall and I seek a true repentance in freedom There is no more condemnation I am free I live under a different regime The regime of freedom in Christ Therefore I don't want to refer any more to the law No more The spirit of God in my sincerity will lead me in a conviction and a true repentance I will no longer have the weight of condemnation in my life to be done away with Because true repentance brings the forgiveness of God And I don't turn any more to what happened to me That belongs to the past now Do we agree? Do we understand why God gives us that freedom? And so often we question that freedom It's as if we are letting people free to do what they want And there is no more limit or reference There is no more reference But there is no more reference Why? Because the spirit of God now lives in me He is going to put all the limits in my life He is the one who will stop me He will bring me to repent to my wife or to you He is the one I'm not going to turn to the law for that Because I will stay condemned all the time for having done that to have hurt my wife or a brother or to have fallen I won't be able to live anymore You know what it is to live under condemnation? To feel condemned because we've done something wrong? I give grace to God that Paul after having been the great persecutor of the Christians and even bring some of them to die tasted salvation and he understood freedom from everything he did against God did not stop him in any way in the call God had for him a free man This is why he's been fighting for that freedom to the end Amen Let me just mention the last thing before we carry on When we live in freedom the aim of it that God gives us that freedom that we can carry his fear the fear of God the hatred of sin Law cannot give that to me Law could not give to David that fear of God Yet he had a heart according to God This is why I'm saying to you somewhere David tasted the cross No more fear of God without freedom There's no fear of God Galatians chapter 5 verse 13 We are going to speak for a few minutes on the dangers of that freedom that we need to know so that not to fall into the trap Verse 13 Paul says Remember verse 1 of Galatians OK Do you remember this one of chapter 5 that said that to stand fast in the freedom that Christ made us free and not to be entangled again with the yoke of bondage Now he comes and says Brethren you have been called to liberty only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh In other words he's warning us he's giving us a warning not to take sin lightly Because when we've got some light and some understanding of God's grace we can come to the point where somewhere we do not have the fear of God anymore and we carry on living in sin because somewhere there's a grace because somewhere the grace of God covers it all and we allow ourselves to live according to the flesh In other words we use our freedom to live according to our flesh we are light shallow concerning sin because we are under grace We are now no more under grace and no more under law and we do what we want up to the place where we do things which we know are not right things that do not please God In other words we submit ourselves to the flesh instead of the spirit But we say to ourselves God understands There is a grace on our lives We are no more under law now We are no more condemned We are under grace That's dangerous Look at what Paul says to the Epistles to the Thessalonians Chapter 4 First Epistles Verse 3 For this is the will of God your sanctification that you should abstain from sexual immorality that each of you should know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honor not in passion of lust like the Gentiles like the Gentiles who do not know God like they do If you knew how to possess If you knew how many Christians live as pagans and Gentiles who do not know God and they satisfy themselves of their salvation but give themselves to the pleasures of sin because they are under grace That's dangerous Can no more live like the Gentiles Even Paul says it in Ephesians In Chapter 4 he says that He says how we were before How we lived before This is why people who do not know Christ they can't understand why Christians live the way they do They don't understand How real Christians can separate themselves from the things of the world that is trying to push our flesh to live to bring us to sin But Paul says don't do like the pagans or the Gentiles who do not know God In other words let's not live the way we used to live before There is another life for us in that freedom We can't take sin lightly We cannot carry on We can't carry on knowing that we are living in sin and just saying to ourselves we are under grace Let's turn Let's refer to what Paul says in the book of Romans Chapter 6, verse 14 For sin shall not have dominion over you For you are not under law but under grace Because now we are under law and we are under grace the sin that we do cannot condemn us What Paul is saying here is that somewhere that when we came out from under the law and now we live under that freedom in grace sin does not have any more power to condemn us Two things in there Sin does not have any more power on us in other words It is possible for us not to live under the power of that sin as we used to do before And at the same time that same sin does not have any more power to condemn us Because the law that used to condemn us we are no more under that regime And the law that could not stop us from that sinning now we are under grace There are two things in there We can't misinterpret that text We can't just say because we are under grace We can have an attitude that allows us to continue to sin No, we can't do that It's not what Paul says Paul is confirming that the freedom that God gives us is the only way for us for sin not to keep us captive and not to condemn us But he is not giving us a license to sin Because anyway grace is there and grace will cover up So we live like we want We don't have this fear of God anymore This is one of the dangers of freedom But Paul says in Galatians 5.18 that if we walk by the spirit we are no more under law And in verse 16 he says we've got a choice Look at Galatians 5.16 We have the choice But we need to make the good choice and not to allow ourselves to be deceived by all kinds of lies I say then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh One thing to do only How many things do we need to do? One thing To walk by the spirit And verse 18 says if you are led by the spirit you are no more under the law It's clear It's clear We have the choice We need to take our Christian life seriously It's for us to realize that we cannot carry on living in sin and allowing the sin to control us and to be happy with that And even if we are not happy we still carry on And we hear a message on grace that covers us and we carry on No my brother Grace doesn't remove our identification to Christ Grace doesn't remove our identification to Christ Our responsibility to return our carnal lives our life in the flesh Do we agree? Do we agree? This is why we must be careful that that freedom doesn't turn against us We don't want law We are under grace We carry on Our life carries on in the flesh But the church has done grace Never the more problem I carry on working in unholiness And I come to church Glory to God Hallelujah No one can stop us from that Only the Lord This is why we need to hear the message To convince us We need a message to confront us To make us feel uncomfortable in our chair To show us that we cannot carry on that way And that a death needs to take place in our lives That there is a cross that we need to take That there is a separation that needs to take place with the world A separation Paul says be he separate I shall be your father and you shall be my children We can't live in deception And think that we cannot carry on singing Because we are under grace There is a grace that covers us That is a lie That's deception And brothers and sisters If the cross If the message of the cross does not confront us every day This is how we will end That freedom that we have Will bring us to live according to our flesh To hide Yes Because we are called as children of God To have a life of holiness of righteousness But be careful Beware That this wrong understanding of grace removes that conviction We can't carry on that way The second thing I'd like us to speak about Is about what I've just shared But it's more in details Often We feel free to criticize to speak lightly of other people Our brother Our sister An elder A servant of God And we feel free to talk Speak How he is What I don't like With a wrong attitude That doesn't transmit That doesn't build And we can so easily entertain ourselves Among brothers Among brothers and sisters There was a man and a woman In the old covenant We can have a look at it In the book of Numbers Chapter 12 You remember Aaron And Mary They spoke against Moses Because he had taken a wife From Ethiopia And they spoke Against Moses In verse 1 it says And Miriam and Aaron Spoke against Moses Because of the Ethiopian woman Whom he had married For he had married An Ethiopian woman Verse 8 we can read When God speaks to Miriam Miriam I speak with him face to face Even plainly And not in dark sayings And he sees from The form of the Lord Why then were you not afraid To speak against My servant Moses We must be careful That we don't get into Where we can speak Freely and lightly On the life of someone And even less On that of a servant of God Despite his weaknesses His lacks Once again There is a fear Which must Take our heart Because you know Brothers and sisters The ministry The call of God Transports a certain Authority From God Whether we like it or not And we must be careful That we don't speak Lightly Against a servant of God Because somewhere It carries An authority A divine authority I mean we speak A true servant of God We must make a difference In the life of someone That falls And who is not ready To repent And someone who falls Who has a heart Who is ready to repent You see the difference Between the two Even if that person Is weak He's got the blacks Anything If in his heart He's got a desire To take his cross And follow Jesus And to repent When he needs to It's very different From someone Even a servant of God Who lives in sin And who is not ready To repent But in any case But it still doesn't Give us the freedom To speak about it We must be careful Not to speak freely But lightly Because once again Because we are free We must be careful Not to carry an attitude Of judgment and criticism Towards our brothers And sisters And towards the servants Of God Freedom Is a pen of God But beware Not to use it And it turns against us That we stay in the parameters Of that freedom of Christ Unfortunately I don't have time To speak to anyone else But I will give you the scripture I have a few minutes to speak You can read You can look for another preacher Somewhere In Paul-Iguan-Corinthians Chapter 10 I'm going to read Verse 23 All things are lawful For me But not all things Are helpful All things are lawful For me But not all things Edify Let no one Seek his own But each one Let the other Worse being Eat whatever is sold In the meat market Asking no questions For conscience sake For the earth is the Lord's And all is fullness But if anyone says to you This was offered to idols Do not eat it For the sake of the one Who told you And for conscience For conscience I say Not your own But that of the other And he asks a question For why is my liberty Being judged by another Man's conscience He is saying In some way My freedom Should give me The green light To do anything That I feel free in my heart To do As long as I know I'm not walking Against the gospel So he says If I partake with thanks Why I evil-spoken Or for the food Over which I give thanks Why am I evil-spoken Therefore whether you eat Or drink or whatever you do Do all to the glory of God Give no offense Either to the Jews Or to the Greeks Or to the church of God Just as also Please all men In all things Not seeking my own profit But the profit of many That they may be saved My freedom can become A stumbling block For somebody else My freedom can become A reason for somebody else To fall This is what Paul is saying And in fact in this text If we read well Even the text of 1 Corinthians 8 Those who are free Of a certain maturity Should forsake their rights Their rights Of freedom For the salvation Of others Or not to cause Somebody else to fall Not to be the one Who causes somebody else To fall This is all part Of the work of humility Because we can do something Without displeasing God But at the same time We are destroying This is what the work Of the spirit It's the key It's the key I can be free From many things Without them affecting me Because I'm above these things They are not for me A stumbling block But maybe while doing them And that somebody else Who is weak See me doing these things That I'm free of Free from He can fall He falls This is why more and more We need more wisdom To work in more humility And to know that somewhere We have to give up Our rights Of freedom He says if I'm with the Jews I'm like them If I live among those Who are under the law I suddenly become Under the law To win And gain someone To Christ Therefore our freedom Somewhere Is something that we have Acquired It belongs to us But there are dangers For our lives And that we are not A cause for somebody Else to stumble Not how much time left I bless the Lord For the freedom That he has given us And the choice that is Set before me everyday To walk according to the flesh Or to walk according to the spirit And I'm aware And I realize That when I walk under the spirit I've got peace in my heart I'm quiet I'm at rest And when I walk according to the spirit I taste the grace of God The strength of God But I have a choice We have a choice Amen We are free In Christ we are free I don't like to hear You must, you mustn't I need a testimony All the spirit in me And that This is my rudder My wheel My loud speaker The voice of the spirit The direction of the spirit He is the one who stops me He is the one who warns me Glory to God that this freedom Brings me to serve Jesus And to have victory in my life I haven't spoken yet Of the benefits of freedom It will be for another time Next week, next time