It's really good to be here this morning and to share with you just a little bit from God's Word by way of appreciation for the fellowship that you've had with us in the Gospel. That's what Paul speaks about in Philippians in the first chapter. He commends the Philippians for the fellowship that they've had, the communion with him in spreading the Gospel. So you've been a very real part of what God is doing in Germany, in Poland, in Europe through the ministry that God has given us and the privilege of being your partner. So thank you very much. I was just reminded as we sang that last song, and by the way, let me compliment you on wonderful singing. I really enjoyed it this morning. That last song that we just sang is probably one of the very few hymns that just about every German knows. It doesn't mean that they can sing it from their hearts, but at least they've heard it. A good section of the German population today is secularized and about a third of the population would consider themselves without any religious affiliation. So that is the situation that we're ministering in. Not too long ago, we were at a missions conference and two of the theme songs of that conference, where we have a story to tell to the nations. I'm sure you're acquainted with that song. And the other one was, I love to tell the story. But sometimes, you know, I've asked myself, what is that story? What is the good news and what's good about the good news? If you want an answer to that question, I encourage you to research, to read through Acts, and just look for what was the message of the apostles. And you'll find that they preached Jesus Christ. And they preached Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. They didn't introduce a new system, a new religion to replace Judaism. They didn't preach a new religion. They didn't preach a new set of values. They didn't preach principles for living. They didn't preach solutions to life's challenges. How to improve your marriage. And I'm not knocking that. That's good to learn how to have a good marriage. They didn't preach how to get out of debt, and that's important to know, how to get out of debt and how not to get into debt to start with. But that was not their message. They did not preach on how to raise your children, although that is also very good to know. They preached Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. So that's the good news, that through His death, through the death of Jesus Christ, God reconciled us to Himself. And that's only part of the story. The other half and the glorious half is that Jesus Christ is alive. He's alive today. And because he is alive, he is our very life. And that was also in one of the songs that we sang in part of the worship. He is alive and he wants to be our life. So that's our story. That's what we have to tell. That's the good news. And that's what's good about the good news. But we also experience a lot of opposition to the good news, especially from people who are tied up in religion. That's our experience in the southeastern part of Germany and the state of Bavaria. We find many people still there are very religious. In fact, Regensburg, you may know, is the home of the former Pope Benedict XVI. He came from, he's one of the famous sons of the city. And he and his brother owned a house there. And his brother George was director for many years of the Regensburg Boys Choir. And Benedict XVI taught Catholic theology at the university for two decades before he was elected Pope. So we're in a very religious town. And we find that religion is often in opposition to true Christianity. We also find secularized, secular people who claim to have no belief at all, turning to other forms of so-called spirituality, following various methods of New Age and so on, Eastern religions and the like. And we also find in Germany a growing number of Muslims. So I was glad to hear that this is on your heart, or at least on some of your hearts, to reach out to that community. Now this morning, I want to share with you just briefly a part of what the good news is or one aspect of the good news. And I'm going to give you the gluten free gospel. Now, some of you, I don't know how many of you here this morning may be allergic to gluten. Our own son, our youngest son, Timothy, was allergic to that, to gluten for several years. He's out of that now. But what in the world is gluten? Now, the Bible talks about gluten in Galatians chapter 5 in the sense that it says, a little leaven or a little gluten leavens the whole clump of dough. Now, look at what gluten is. And here's the definition. Gluten from the Latin root is a protein composite found in foods processed from wheat and related grain species, including barley and rye. Gluten gives elasticity to dough, helping it rise and keep its shape. So it helps the leaven as it rises. And it's interesting, as Paul addresses this issue in Galatians 5, what he's saying is that just a little bit of gluten, or a little bit of leaven, or a little bit of yeast, once it gets into the batch, it can ruin the whole thing. So it's like if you're allergic to gluten, and I would ask you, is it okay to just put a little bit of that into your food? Would it be okay if I inserted just a little bit of gluten in your food? And you say, no. And if you're acquainted with this allergy, you would say, no, no, it's poison to me. Well, Paul basically saying the same thing here in Galatians 5. He's saying that the poison is the law. that the gluten is the law. So when you've got this nice batch of grace bread going and you've got it in the oven, the last thing you need is to toss in a little bit of the law because it will ruin the whole thing. So that's what he's saying in the midst of this chapter that we're going to be looking at today. A little bit of gluten or a little bit of leaven, it's going to leaven the whole thing. So we begin in verse 1. And Paul is going to be talking about this gluten-free Gospel. And one thing that marks it, one thing that defines it, is freedom. So if you're acquainted with the true Gospel of grace, then one thing that marks your life or marks our life will be freedom. We'll understand freedom. So even words like obedience, when they come up, we'll think of obedience in a different way. And we'll see that in this chapter, obeying the obedience of faith is what Paul is going to be talking about. So we begin to look at obedience in a freeing, in a liberating way. Then people start talking about works. You've got to have works. And then we begin to look at works in a freeing way. And then people begin talking about the results that they think that Christians should be having in their lives, that Christians should look like this or act like this and they should talk like this. And we too, we cannot our heads. But we begin to look at the behavior through the grid of freedom. We begin to see it through the grid of Jesus, because if If we're going to see these things in our lives, it's going to be because of Jesus Christ. And Jesus is a free gift to us. So Paul is beginning this chapter and he's saying, hey, what did I preach to you guys? I didn't march into town and give you a bunch of to do lists. I taught you freedom and it's for freedom that Christ set you free. Therefore, maintain it. Stick with it. Stand firm and don't be subject again to a yoke of slavery. It would be like freedom in Christ has been preached in this church for a long time. And now imagine that your pastor Scott is out of town and you bring in a guest preacher, say, from Germany. And he gets out the Ten Commandments and then he gets out the book of Leviticus and then he just starts slamming people with the 613 things that you guys haven't been doing out of Leviticus. This is what Paul was encountering. Paul presented the purity of the gospel of grace and then some other people came in to ruin it. And so he's trying to clear this up for the people and. He gets quite passionate about it, as we'll see in just a moment. Verse two, Behold, I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no benefit to you. So he's drawing a line in the sand and he's saying, if you're going to be a law person, you've got to go the whole way. So if you're going to commit to the Jewish law with your membership card, If you're meaning to impress God, then you can't pull out your 10 commandments and call it a day. No, it's not 10 things. It's 613 things. Well, what's happening today is that we are looking at the law and we're saying, I'll take thou shalt this and I'll take a little bit of thou shalt that and some more of thou shalt not here and thou shalt not that. And we assemble nine or 10 commands and we look at it and we think this is what God is after. What Paul is saying in Galatians is no way. Don't flirt with 10 things from the law. It's all or nothing. So you receive circumcision and you go after it. Or you say Christ and nothing else. Now, he says, verse three, I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole law. Now, again, I want you to think about what circumcision meant to those folks. Circumcision meant I'm committed. I'm making myself an Israelite in every sense. I'm part of this lineage. I'm part of this heritage. I've got this DNA. And now I'm going to commit myself fully into the Lord's hands via the law. Now, today, in Christian circles and Christian teaching, what we've got What we're hearing often is something that's the polar opposite to what Paul is teaching here. No, no, no, you're not. No, you're no. Let me comfort you. You're not under obligation to the whole law. No, you're a Christian. So clearly you don't need the sacrificial law because you rely on Jesus as your sacrifice. Oh, and you don't need the ceremonial law, the washings and the wardrobe restrictions and all that. All that's Old Testament. All you need is the moral law. See, the Ten Commandments, you're not under obligation to keep the whole law, just the moral law. In other words, we're not worried about your washings and your wardrobe. We're just worried that you might misbehave. And the answer to misbehaving is the law. If you see that, so in other words, the one big thing that Christians are all stressed about, sin, immorality, misbehavior, we're going to apply the law to this problem as the answer. So we're not worried about what you wear or what you wash and how you do that. We're worried about what you do. And so we're telling you the answer to what you do is the Ten Commandments. Now, Paul is actually saying the opposite to that. He's saying, no, you don't get to dice up the law in three or five sections and then you pick a couple. He's saying it's all or nothing. You're under obligation to keep the whole law. That's what he's saying here. And the point Paul is making is it's the law or Jesus. And there's no mixing the two. Verse 4, you've been severed from Christ. You who are seeking to be justified by keeping the law, you have fallen from grace. Ouch! That hurts. I mean, this is serious. Look at the language Paul is using. Number one, severed from Christ, cut off, nothing to do with him. Why? Because you're choosing Moses. So Paul's not playing around here. And this doesn't mean that somebody is a Christian, you know, for a while and then they lose their salvation. It just means wherever you are, wherever you are, if you are looking to the law, then you are cut off from Christ. There is no connection between you and Christ. You've connected yourself to Moses and you have said, God, watch my behavior. I'm going to give it my best shot here. And you and you have no connection with Jesus. And number two, you know, it's funny how today we use the term fallen from grace. You hear it on the news, so somebody fell from grace today and it's something about their behavior, isn't it? They did something awful in their behavior, but Paul is not using it this way here in Galatians. The fall to the way to fall from grace is in our belief system. When I choose to go after law rather than the free gift of righteousness, totally free. If I add a pinch, an ounce or just a hint of gluten in there, then the whole thing is poisonous to me. I'm allergic to it. I react to it. So he's saying that's what it is to fall from grace. You see, if I would fall from the stage here right now, if I fall, I'd be falling into something. If I fall from the stage, I'd be falling into the floor. So now if we fall from grace, we're falling into something. And what is that? It's the law. See, we're not falling from grace into bad behavior. They were falling from grace into law, and that's why Paul is chewing them out. In fact, it's going to get worse. Verse 5. We, through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. So you see, then, there is an urgency. And it's an urgency that law people create. And there is a patience, a faith that faith people know. So there is urgency and there's patience. And so our job is to be patient and to say, no, Jesus is enough. No, I repeat, no, Jesus is enough. And then we get a knock at the door saying there is an urgency and we need to add on to our Christianity. And we say, no, Jesus is enough. And we turn from the door and we even ignore the door. We turn away from it and we fix our eyes on Jesus and we say, Jesus, you are enough. And that's what patience looks like. Urgency is, oh, my gosh, oh, my gosh, I'm going to miss out. Is there something better? Is there something deeper? Is there something richer that I've missed? Is there something more? Is there perhaps another level? Is there another phase, another aspect that somehow I've missed and I've got to achieve now and earn or experience? You see, all that is an urgency and an impatience. But as a true believer, our job is to simply say, no, no, Jesus is enough. And the hardest thing sometimes is just to ignore the door when religion comes knocking. Verse 5, we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. Does that mean we are not righteous yet? Now, some people might misunderstand this verse and they say, gosh, I hope I'm I hope I'm going to be righteous. I'm waiting. I'm hoping I'm begging. Maybe one day. And this is what they say in our part of the world. Maybe when I get out of purgatory and I get to heaven, then I'll be righteous. No, Paul is talking about hope that is contained in righteousness. We have the righteousness now. And therefore, we have this hope. What hope do we have? The hope that righteousness brought, the hope of righteousness. This is why Paul says in another verse, he says, you've become the righteousness of God. You're not waiting and hoping and begging and pleading to become righteous. There are six for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything. So all you Jews over there 2000 years ago, all of you are wasting your time. But you're so serious, you're so fervent and they're crying and they're wailing and they're waiting and they're hoping and they're begging and they're pleading and they're obeying. They're going in their cabinets and sweeping out every little bit of dust. I mean, it's pretty serious. And they're sincere. But they're wrong. And it doesn't matter how sincere you are if you are wrong. And so Paul's point is, it doesn't mean anything. But faith, working through love, that's the only thing that matters. Verse 7, you were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? Now, today in Christian circles, When we hear the word obey, we may even get a little nervous. We start shaking in our boots. Am I obeying? Am I obeying God? Am I obedient? I mean, am I obeying God? Have I been disobeying? I don't want to disobey. And the word disobedience can mean so many things to us. It can actually, depending on how it's used, it can strike fear in us. And yet Paul is using it in a different way. What does it mean to obey the truth? In this context, here in Galatians 5, what does it mean to obey the truth? You want to be obedient? Then what you're saying is, I choose, with all that I call faith within me, I appoint my faith and choose to obey the fact that Jesus is enough. I obey the fact that Jesus is enough. And if I don't obey the fact that Jesus is enough, then I'm essentially saying that there is some other way and that I don't need Jesus. And then I'm back to being one of those people who are severed from Christ and I'm seeking to be justified by the law. That's what religion is about. So a saved person is obeying the truth that Jesus is enough. So there is no law in the mix. Now, let's have this gluten free gospel. Here it is. Verse nine, a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough. Paul is saying, don't flirt with the law. Don't play with the law. Don't give it an ounce of your life. Don't open the door to its ideas. You really, you really are OK. because of Jesus. Not because of yourself, but because of Jesus and for no other reason. Verse 10, I have confidence in you in the Lord that you will adopt no other view, but the one who is disturbing you will bear his judgment, whoever he is. And maybe you know someone who said, you know, David, I was going along just fine. I was doing just great. I was really enjoying Jesus. I was understanding my forgiveness. I was seeing Jesus as my friend. I was beginning to understand my freedom from the law. I was beginning to understand my identity in Christ. I was beginning to see how close I am to Jesus that I'm sitting right next to him. And then this person, he disturbed me. This person brought in a different idea. And I feel I'm kind of shipwrecked now, like I was enjoying a beautiful sail out on the open seas. And now I'm just shipwrecked on this island with this idea that is basically killing me, sucking the life out of me. What these folks are saying is it was Jesus plus Nothing. It was Jesus plus nothing. And then it became Jesus plus something. And it just killed it for me because a little gluten got in there and it killed the whole thing. Now, notice, though, that Paul's words, what Paul's words are here. Hey, the guy that's disturbing you, he's going to bear his judgment. In other words, the very thing he's heaping on you will turn around and smack him in the face. Because that's what the law does. You see, the law, as you're pointing your finger at someone else, look at what the thumb is doing. It's pointing right back at you. And that's what we read in Romans chapters 1 and 2. You know, you think you're innocent, Paul says. You think you're a guide to the blind. You think you're this. You think you're that. But you too disobey the law. And it will get you every time. But I, brethren..." Hey, he's saying, I'm the Apostle Paul. If I still preach the stuff that is circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? You know, those Jews, they would be loving me if I was still be preaching circumcision. They'd be loving me. They'd be patting me on the back and they'd be thanking me for my ministry to those dirty Gentiles, helping them to keep the law like they should. See, the point is, if I were preaching that stuff, I wouldn't be hated. But I am hated. I'm persecuted. So, you know, if I were preaching that stuff, the cross would be meaningless. The stumbling block of the cross, nobody would be tripping over it. We just marry a little bit of Jesus with a little bit of Moses and have a beautiful marriage of ideas and everyone would get along fine. We find this. in the people that we're ministering to, this marriage of ideas. No, we don't have anything against Jesus, but it's Jesus plus this, Jesus plus that, and so on. And Paul says, it's Jesus and only Jesus. Verse 12, I wish that those who are troubling you would even mutilate themselves. That's in the Bible. This is showing how serious Paul is about this thing. He's saying, you want circumcision? Consider the idea of circumcision 2.0. You know, the serious version. This is what he's saying. Don't play with this law gospel. Verse 13, for you were called to freedom, brethren, only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh. But through love, serve one another. So now you see what he's saying here is you are free. I just got to tell you, Mr. And Mrs. Christian, you can't lose your salvation. You are secure. You're safe. You're loved. You're forgiven and you're free. And, you know, there's nothing that can ruin this. God has secured this for you. And now, in the light of all this freedom, can I just say something? You can waste your time with a bunch of bitterness and envy and lust. and going off here and going off and all this getting involved in all this stuff, you could lose, you could use your freedom either for that or for love. And I'm telling you this, this is the way to go is what Paul is saying. It is totally the way to go. So let the freedom, let this freedom that you have well up within you realize that your freedom will not be exhausted. You cannot out sin the grace of God. The blood of Jesus will not run out. So let that goodness and the unconditional love of God well up within you and then use all that as a catalyst to choose love. Now again, you could abuse it. Otherwise, this verse wouldn't be there. You can abuse it, but it'll get you nowhere. Verse 14, For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law. This thing that they've been pushing. Well, it's fulfilled in one word anyway. Love. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Fulfilled in one word. Love. Verse 15, but if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another. But this thing can't happen in church, right? It's not a concern for the church. Of course it is. Paul, 2,000 years ago, he's realizing that church folks can argue and bicker and bite and devour each other over any little thing. And it also, I dare say, could even apply to marriage. Or maybe not. Maybe it's just me. Or can anybody else testify to that? Is there biting in marriage? So, you know what I'm talking about. Biting and devouring. Take care that you're not consumed by one another. So, it's like saying there is this thing, this thing you probably or perhaps can't relate to. We may call it bickering, right? where there's the husband and the wife and they're competing and bickering and arguing and trying to be right. You men don't care anything about being right, I'm sure. Maybe it's just me. So we argue and we bicker and we fight. We want to be right. And Paul is basically saying, have you recognized the cycle? The cycle in church or the cycle in marriage or the cycle in friendships or the cycle in any relationship, really, because if you can get free from the cycle, there's another better way. And that is I am willing to be wrong. I am willing to be seen as wrong. I'm willing to be right. But for no one to know it. So I'm willing to be seen as wrong. Because, folks, because my righteousness is not about being right. My rightness is about being righteous, and that's a gift. Now, that attitude, it takes about 85 years to learn to walk in, and I'm only in my 50s. And if anybody, any of you wants to know how I'm doing, Uta will be at the back of the church later on. You can ask her. OK, there is a cycle and we can all get into this cycle. And he's saying, Paul is saying there's something higher, greater and better than that. And it's another attitude. So what's this attitude? Oh, I better not sin. I better not sin. I don't want to be bickering. I don't want to be fighting. I better not. I better not. No. Folks, that's a dead end, too. See, that's just 613 things to not do. in your head. What this is saying is don't sit around focusing on do not. Instead, think about what to do. And what it says here in verse 16, walk by the Spirit and then you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. So it's like if I tell you I've got these 27 things that I don't want you to think about right now. And then I rattle off 27 things that you shouldn't be thinking about right now. Well, it's going to really be tough because as I rattle off these things, this long list, things begin to fill your mind. Maybe you'll remember six or eight or 10 of those things that I told you not to think about. But if I give you one thing to think about and one thing only, Wow, that's for people like me. For dumb sheep. I can remember that one thing. And what is that one thing? It's walking the Spirit to love. We need one thing to think about. Verse 17, For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. There's a fight going on. Spirit, flesh. Flesh, Spirit. For these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you please. We're almost done, but check this this thought, flesh and the spirit fighting, and it says so that you may not do the things that you please. Now, what I love about this phrase is that it's totally ambiguous. It can mean one thing. Or it can mean another thing. In other words, it can mean that the Spirit is keeping you from sinning. But that's not what it means here, in my opinion. What it really means is that the flesh is trying to keep you from doing what you really want to do. Now, what do you as a Christian really please to do? Good works, right? What's keeping you from expressing Christ at times? The flesh. So the flesh and the spirit are in a battle. And the legalist looks at this verse and says, oh, my gosh, what do I please? What do I want to do? Well, I want to sin. I want to sin. I was born to sin. Right. I was born in sin. And that's what I want to do. And so the spirit is keeping me from what I want to do. I hope, I hope, I hope. And and that's how the legalist would read this verse. But we're but what we're called to is we're called to see, wait a minute, what does the whole of the New Testament say about our desires now as Christians and what pleases us? What pleases us is not to hold on to the bitterness and the envy and the anger, but to let it go and to surrender it and to release it and to forgive people. That's what we really want to do as Christians. And yet the flesh wants to be right. and be seen as right, and to hold on to that. So the flesh is keeping us from what we really please. It's keeping us from what we really want to do. Verse 16, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Plain and simple. Verse 19-20, Now the deeds of the flesh, and there's a long list of things, are evident which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, A lot of crazy stuff on the list and then a lot of stuff we can really relate to enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions. Now, notice, too, as we finish up here that the deeds of the flesh, you know what another translation calls the works of the flesh. I want to point this out. The deeds of the flesh are the works of the flesh. You know what this communicates to me? It takes work. Stakes work to live in. You know, it's really hard to live in jealousy. It just it really grates on you. It's really hard to live in envy because it grates on you. It's really hard to live in constant disputes and to be a troublemaker. That's hard work being a troublemaker. As a Christian, you have to actually go against your heart and you have to work at it and it can stress you. These are the works of the flesh. It's a lot of work. And then you see the fruit of the spirit in just a second. We'll see now the fruit of the spirit just happens. It grows your branch and it sort of comes forth. It's not work. So you see the effort of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Now, at the end of this, Paul says, verse 21, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So if any of you have ever envied, you're going to hell. Just checking to see if you're still awake. Now, what does it mean here? It means that if I'm practicing it, if I'm in this thing and I want to get better at it and if it's my lifestyle, If it's who I am. If I'm an envier, if I'm a drunkard, if I'm a sinner at the core and if I'm practicing this stuff, well, then I won't inherit the kingdom of God because I'm not a child of God. So let me finish with a story, there's a story, true story of a man who inherited by a heart transplant, an Olympic swimmer's heart. And as you look at the interview, it's online, basically what this man is saying, I was going to die and I inherited this Olympic swimmer's heart. And as I got this heart, I began to get stronger. I got out of the hospital. I went through rehab and I started to almost feel, I don't know what the word is, he said, maybe responsible because I had this Olympic swimmer's heart. I felt inspired to keep in shape. I felt inspired to take good care of my heart because I had this new, this awesome, this improved or this proven heart. And what Paul is essentially saying here is that if you've had heart surgery, you've had this transplant every child of God has had this heart surgery. So you have you've had this heart transplant. You've got a proven heart, the heart of Jesus Christ living in you. So you see that it doesn't create the attitude. Oh, my gosh, I've got a license to sin now. Now, I just want to sin, sin. No, that's not the result. It's the opposite. It's like I want to take good care of this heart. I am inspired by this heart that I possess." You've got an Olympic heart and that's what the fruit of the Spirit is all about. Verses 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Go through a long list of soft things and then at the end he says, against such things there is no law. In other words, need law for this. You're not going to be a lawbreaker with this going on. You're not going to be in chaos. So why fear this? It's safe. Well, we're running out of time. I'll finish up. It says here, verse 24, Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. You've crucified the flesh. You've said, wow, this is a dead end way. I came to Christ. I don't want this. I'm dead to it. I don't need it. There is no life in it. I choose the spirit. If we live by the spirit, then what's the logical thing? Walk by the spirit. So the flesh leads to boastfulness. Verse 26. Boastfulness, challenging one another, envying one another. In other words, competition alley. So the church becomes something that's constantly about challenging people. As you know, Paul is even speaking about this a little bit saying, let's not think, folks, let's not think we're hot stuff. Let's not challenge each other and each other for their spirituality or law keeping or obedience or any of those things. So basically, we start by Jesus, we continue by Jesus and we finish with Jesus and that Dear friends, it's the gluten-free gospel. That's the good news. And it's wonderful news. And that's the story that we have to tell to the nations. The story that we tell people who are tied up in all sorts of religions with all their do's and don'ts and laws and so on. It's about Jesus Christ. And because He was crucified, we have been reconciled to God. And because He lives, He wants to live his very own life through us. We've had an exchange of hearts. So let's cherish that heart, that new heart in us. Let's walk by the Spirit.