Sermon

You were called to be free Galatians 5 1-13

Omega Church NZ

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  1. You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

  2. encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

  3. the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

  4. you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way

  5. today. And.

  6. If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or to find out

  7. more about Omega, get to our website or Facebook page through

  8. the links below. So we continue our series on the

  9. book of Galatians. We are into chapter 5.

  10. Before I go into the message, I want to give you a story of a

  11. man who was sentenced to 20 years of prison.

  12. So he finished his 20 years. The warden walks into the cell

  13. one day and says you have finished your sentence.

  14. Now you are free to go. Unlocks the thing, takes away

  15. the chains from his feet and hands, and you're free.

  16. But this man, what is he doing? He's still walking around with

  17. handcuffs on his hands in his home.

  18. He has handcuffs, goes to market, he goes with handcuffs.

  19. He still shuffles as if his ankles are chained.

  20. You know, he's feeling his legs all the time.

  21. He still asks permission before moving.

  22. Can I go to the bathroom? Can I go to do this?

  23. He is asking for permission. Why?

  24. That's what he did for 20 years in the prison.

  25. So he is continuing to do the same way.

  26. He still sleeps on the floor because he is used to it.

  27. Hard floor? Why?

  28. You got a nice bed? Why did you sleep on the bed?

  29. I am used to it. I like it on the floor.

  30. What's wrong with this man? Is he enjoying his freedom?

  31. He is not enjoying his freedom. Some of us are like that, some

  32. of us are like that. A friend finally says to him,

  33. why are you living like a prisoner?

  34. You are free. And he says to him, yes, I know

  35. I am free. But the chains feel familiar.

  36. Sometimes we want to have the familiar feeling.

  37. We want to feel nothing with new.

  38. We do not want to enjoy anything new.

  39. We want things to remain the same Before you know Christ,

  40. Whatever you do, you continue to do after you know Christ.

  41. But Jesus did not die on the cross so that you can be a

  42. prisoner to sin, Satan and the devil.

  43. No, he has come and died upon the cross to set you free.

  44. So this chapter 5 was 1 summarizes all that Paul has

  45. been teaching in the last four chapters.

  46. He is summarizing it with one single sentence and is giving a

  47. preview into what is going to talk more later on in the in the

  48. chapter and in chapter 6. So he says it is for freedom

  49. that Christ has set us free. The Greek word is Ulotharia.

  50. Ulotharia is basically freedom. You are set free.

  51. He bought your freedom basically with a great price.

  52. So what is this freedom in Christ?

  53. Ulotharia is a freedom or liberty to do or not to do

  54. something. You are free either to do or not

  55. to do. But before you become a

  56. Christian, you are doing or most of the time something wrong just

  57. because it feels good. But now you are set free from

  58. the dominion of Satan, dominion of sin.

  59. Over your life. Jesus has come to give you

  60. freedom to do the right thing, not the wrong thing.

  61. So now we have to keep our freedom.

  62. And one of the things about the freedom is we are set free.

  63. We our freedom is to obey, not freedom from obedience.

  64. We are we have a freedom to obey.

  65. Before we did not have the freedom to obey.

  66. Even though you know something is right, you do the wrong

  67. because you are not free. There was a principle of sin

  68. inside that will drag you down that Paul talks about in Romans

    Romans 7 chapter mention

  69. Chapter 7. Not freedom from obedience

  70. because you became a Christian. You don't have to obey God

  71. anymore. Doesn't mean that that doesn't

  72. mean that. So the whole world is subjected

  73. to slavery because of sin of Adam and Eve.

  74. When Adam sinned, God walked into the God of Eden asked where

  75. are you guys? They were hiding.

  76. Why are you hiding? Because you are naked.

  77. Who told you are naked? Did you eat the fruit I told you

  78. not to eat? Yeah, we did eat.

  79. So they are now covered with leaves and come before God.

  80. Why did you do it? This woman, she deceived me.

  81. So why did you eat this snake? He deceived me.

  82. So he begins with the snake, and he curses the snake and puts a

  83. curse upon the earth. Thoughts and things you will

  84. bring forward. So that curse on the earth is

  85. now being lifted. When Jesus died upon the cross,

  86. when he shed that blood on the Golgotha, the hill of Golgotha,

  87. He dropped the blood on that earth which was cursed.

  88. In the book of Genesis. He has put his blood and says I

  89. redeem you today by my blood I am buying you back.

  90. And still people are not yet reached with the gospel.

  91. Not everyone, everyone believes in Jesus.

  92. When everyone believes in Jesus Christ, when he comes back, then

  93. the whole creation which is under curse, is going to be set

  94. free into the freedom. Your freedom is linked to the

  95. freedom of the universe, the creation.

  96. When you are free, the world goes free, the earth grows free,

  97. the mountain goes free, the trees go free, the animals go

  98. free because Jesus is setting you free.

  99. So don't think what happens if I believe and don't believe if you

  100. believe it's going to impact the creation.

  101. Romans 821 says the creation itself also will be set free

  102. from its slavery to corruption, into the freedom of the glory of

  103. the children of God, into the glory of the children of God.

  104. Those words are powerful words, glory of the children of God.

  105. You do not have a glory when you are in sin, but when you believe

  106. in Jesus, God puts His righteousness upon you.

  107. And when the righteous robe comes upon you, you are covered

  108. with the glory, the glory that Adam and you had before they sin

  109. when they did not need the clothes.

  110. That glory covers you now, it doesn't mean you walk without

  111. clothes. Now I am not saying that the

  112. point I am trying to make is that glory covers you.

  113. That glory covers you. Is there anybody who wants to

  114. shout Hallelujah for that? Freedom should edify others.

  115. You are not free just to please yourself, to work for your

  116. benefit, to live for your pleasure, to live for your own

  117. comfort. No, this freedom that Jesus is

  118. giving you is to edify other people, to help other people, to

  119. lift them up. Those who are burdened, you go

  120. and give them a shoulder and put a hand under their arm and pull

  121. them up, those who are going down.

  122. Because that is the heart of God.

  123. That is the heart of God. The world is pursuing its own

  124. pleasure, its own comfort, its own profit.

  125. But Christians are called to live for others, and that is how

  126. they know the love of God through your life.

  127. But the world doesn't know the love of God.

  128. But when they look at you and when they reach out and help,

  129. they see God's love. Somebody is waiting to be helped

  130. by you. Somebody is waiting to be

  131. comforted by you. Somebody is waiting to hear the

  132. words of the good news through your lips.

  133. Somebody is waiting for the change to be shattered.

  134. Somebody is waiting to be let out of their prison.

  135. Why you who have believed in Jesus has the power to help, to

  136. power to set people free to share the gospel.

  137. So you see the same thing is repeated twice in verse 1.

  138. He says it is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

  139. Stand form then and do not let yourself be burdened.

  140. Again the same thing he talks about in verse 13 and verse 13.

  141. He says you, my brothers, were called to be free.

  142. You are called to be free. Tell somebody you are free.

  143. Give them a high five who is sitting next to you.

  144. Say you are free, shout it. You have to be excited about the

  145. word of God. I am telling you, you must get

  146. excited about the word of God. So verse 13 says you are called

  147. to be free. But again, that freedom is not

  148. to use freedom to indulge in sinful nature, rather serve one

  149. another in love, so one another in love.

  150. That is the purpose of being set free.

  151. Before you know Christ, you live for yourself.

  152. After after you know Christ, you live for others.

  153. It's very, very simple. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are

  154. given to serve other people, not yourself.

  155. If you have a gift of healing, you don't go every day put your

  156. hand on your head and pray for healing for yourself.

  157. You go lay hand that hand on somebody and say be healed.

  158. You don't talk to yourself and say every demon come out, it's

  159. good. You can self deliver yourself,

  160. but how long you do it? That authority is to set other

  161. people free. Say in the name of Jesus be

  162. loose, be set free. So every gift of the Holy Spirit

  163. is given so that we will be set free from our selfishness and so

  164. other people. That is the heart of God.

  165. Purpose of God in everything he does is outward from inside out,

  166. not from outside in. Like we are not like sponge

  167. receiving and receiving and receiving always In India, you

  168. know we are very selfish people. So when somebody comes home, you

  169. ask the question, what have you brought to give me?

  170. What do you want to give me? Any gift you brought sweet

  171. packet. You know, some people don't go

  172. just like that, visit somebody and that's our culture.

  173. You know, you take some fruits or sweets or something like

  174. that. So it's just the way of doing

  175. things, you know, culture sometimes, but we are not born

  176. by any culture. So we don't we go without

  177. anything in our hands now. Just joking.

  178. So anyway, so that is what we have to, we shouldn't be always

  179. receiving, but should be giving. Giving, What can I give you?

  180. How can I help you? Word of comfort, word of

  181. encouragement. Let's just do it liberally,

  182. generously because we have been set free.

  183. You are not under obligation, but you have that inward power

  184. to love people as they they should be loved basically.

  185. So this is all about the freedom.

  186. There is so much we see. Let's not walk around with

  187. handcuffs, let's not sleep on the hard ground.

  188. Let's not ask for question. No.

  189. Am I free? Can I go to market now?

  190. Can I go to this mall now? Can I buy this?

  191. Can I? No, no, no.

  192. We, you have been set free. We have to know that we are free

  193. and that is a very big issue because many Christians don't

  194. think they are free. Ask yourself when did you feel

  195. free in your mind? When did you feel free in your

  196. spirit? Do you feel it always?

  197. If you don't feel it always, it is time to say I want to remind

  198. myself I am free. I don't want to forget it.

  199. I want to remind myself every day I am set free, I am free.

  200. I am free, I am free. This is very important.

  201. Why it is important? When you know that you are free,

  202. only then you can help somebody. If you are not free, you cannot

  203. help anybody. We cannot help anybody.

  204. That's the thing. So genuine freedom expresses

  205. itself in spirit directed worship.

  206. This is another benefit of we, we have been worshipping God,

  207. praising God. You know one of the things is

  208. when you are set free, the freedom will bubble from inside

  209. and bring a spirit directed worship.

  210. You will worship God in spirit and truth because you are set

  211. free. Human nature is not to worship

  212. God. Human nature now is not to bow

  213. to God. Human nature is in rebellion

  214. against God. But when you are set free, the

  215. that miracle happens and you bow to the Lord.

  216. You worship him. You ascribe dominion, authority,

  217. power, glory to Him. He's worthy.

  218. He's worthy, He's worthy. He's holy.

  219. He's holy, He's holy. To say that you need to be set

  220. free. If you are free, you will

  221. worship Him. So what is Paul fighting in his

  222. time is that there were a group of people who are Judaizers who

  223. are trying to pull these Christians and tell them you had

  224. to obey the Mosaic Law. You cannot forget the Torah.

  225. You cannot forget the the seven festivals.

  226. You have to do it. You have to do it.

  227. You should go through circumcision.

  228. This is again and again and again.

  229. They were fishing for people in the Christian community.

  230. The Gentiles are coming to know God.

  231. They're trying to impose Torah, impose the festivals, impose

  232. circumcision, and Paul was fighting it.

  233. That's why he says you have been called for freedom and stand

  234. firm. He says stand firm in your

  235. freedom, stand firm, say stand firm.

  236. You need to know you're free and you have to stand firm in it so

  237. that nobody will come and push you to make do something other

  238. than be free and submit yourself to don't let yourself be

  239. burdened again by yoke of slavery is comparing life under

  240. the Old Testament, the Mosaic law as slavery and the life in

  241. Christ is freedom. Am I clear here?

  242. So recently I came across somebody who is a Messianic Jew,

  243. Messianic Jew. Previously I thought Messianic

  244. Jews are nice bunch of people. I do not think differently now.

  245. But I found that different kinds of Messianic Jews, not just one

  246. kind, several kinds. The first kind they agree with

  247. Paul. They say we are set free by the

  248. death of Jesus, by his resurrection, by his burial and

  249. resurrection. We are set free and we believe

  250. in Jesus. We have no problem with the the

  251. set of Messianic Jews. They continue to follow their

  252. culture, like follow the festivals, do other kinds of

  253. things together as a fellowship. We have no problem with this

  254. Messianic Jews who believe the Bible, basically the New

  255. Testament. They were living just with the

  256. Old Testament. Now they accept both old and new

  257. number problem. There is another bunch of

  258. Messianic Jews who believe that Paul is mistaken, his gospel is

  259. not correct, it is not true. They think that he has preached

  260. the wrong gospel. I feel sorry for that bunch of

  261. people. And there is 1/3 category which

  262. is in between these two. And there are many other shades

  263. of all these three you have. If you meet 10 different

  264. Messianic Jews, they may have something common, something

  265. different. But what I want to say is in

  266. whatever way you want to go back to the law, you are going back

  267. into slavery. Are we clear here?

  268. Jesus has set us free and He has poured out Holy Spirit so that

  269. we can obey the law joyfully from inside.

  270. Because you are free, you are not forcing yourself to do it.

  271. I have to tell the truth. I have to tell the truth.

  272. Oh no, no, no. I have to do, it is so difficult

  273. for me. It is not like that You have the

  274. Holy Spirit who who is inside you, who helps you to tell the

  275. truth, always joyfully, freely. But they, those people, they are

  276. still under the law, they place themselves.

  277. It is just like walking around with handcuffs.

  278. Basically. The example I gave you is the

  279. messianic juice. Most of them, except the first

  280. group, they impose the law on themselves.

  281. Even though Christ is the fulfillment of the law, Jesus

  282. was not against the law. You read his words in the

  283. Matthew, in the book of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

  284. His words when you read he is not against.

  285. He said I came to fulfill the law.

  286. Every dot, every jot, whatever it is, I have come to fulfill it

  287. because He fulfilled it on your behalf and my behalf on behalf

  288. of the Jewish people. We no longer are bound by it.

  289. We are no longer going to be justified because we obey the

  290. law. We are justified because we

  291. believe Him who fulfilled the law for you and me.

  292. So these people, I mean, do not want to say too much about them,

  293. referring to them, but we are set free from the law.

  294. Basically, we are not going into slavery again.

  295. That's why Paul says don't submit yourself, stand up, stand

  296. firm, don't be burned again by yoke of slavery that is going

  297. back to the Old Testament. Cool.

  298. And now he is not done with just saying that.

  299. He said it once. Now second time he's saying what

  300. is he saying? Mark my words, I, Paul, tell you

  301. that Christ will be of no value to you at all if you let

  302. yourself be circumcised. Second time.

  303. Third time, verse 3. Again.

  304. I declare to every man who lets himself be circumcised that he

  305. is obligated to obey the whole law.

  306. Same thing he is saying three times.

  307. Why is he, Why is he doing it? There is a tendency in every man

  308. to win the favour of God by doing something good, by doing

  309. something good. It can be a simple thing like

  310. coming to church for some people can be to win the favour of God,

  311. or you want to pray, or you want to read Bible, or you want to

  312. give or you want to do anything just to win the favour of God.

  313. There are lots of people. If you say you pay $100 today,

  314. tomorrow God will give you $1000, you will have 1000 people

  315. come rushing to the front and give you $100.

  316. Why? Because the human nature wants

  317. to be dominated and He wants to win the favour.

  318. Am I communicating here? That is the fallen nature.

  319. It is not a redeemed nature, it is a fallen nature.

  320. Because of that fallen nature, the prosperity gospel people

  321. have a field day. They are becoming billionaires

  322. because they know how to get the money.

  323. They appeal to the fallen nature and say, hey guys, do you want

  324. more money? Give some.

  325. By the way, that is not what I prepare to speak.

  326. It is just flowing with the teaching.

  327. So cool. And again you see I declare to

  328. every man, OK, so there is a slide there in the in the drive

  329. for the 1st 6 verses. So when I read through the

  330. passage, I said I need to make sense out of it, I need to

  331. grapple with it. I have to make it simple.

  332. I should have some way of understanding what all this is

  333. all about. See, why do we need a story in

  334. the beginning? That story is going to nail

  335. everything so that you can hang a coat on it and you can hang

  336. anything you want on it. So that is we that is why we

  337. need a story. So here is again a picture of

  338. trying to understand what Paul is saying.

  339. Worst one, he says freedom. Christ has set us free for

  340. freedom. Christ has set us free.

  341. And then on the right side you see, do not be burned again by

  342. yoke of slavery. So that is antithesis.

  343. This is thesis. That is antithesis.

  344. This is a statement. The opposite of it is if you

  345. are, if you do not have this experience, you are going to

  346. have that experience. You will be slave.

  347. You will be in slavery because you are set free.

  348. Do not go go back into slavery. Verse 2 If you let yourself be

  349. circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all.

  350. Jesus died in vain for you. So powerful.

  351. So, as I mentioned, is another set of people who want to obey

  352. the law in every form of it. Are those people who make the

  353. death of Christ of no value to them.

  354. If you value the death of Christ, if you value his life

  355. for you on the cross, you will not go back to the law anymore

  356. because he came and fulfilled it on your behalf and my behalf.

  357. Are we together here Cool. Let's go forward in verse three.

  358. If you let yourself be circumcised, you will be

  359. obligated to obey the whole law. It's not just one thing is 100

  360. things or they say if you take the whole book of all the five

  361. books of Moses Genesis to Deuteronomy.

  362. There are about 616 commandments, something like

  363. that. Circumcision is only one.

  364. And these people who want impose the Jewish system, they say you

  365. must be circumcised. They are telling the Gentiles,

  366. they are telling anybody for that matter, you must be

  367. circumcised. But Paul is saying if you get

  368. circumcised, you have to fulfill not just the 10 commandments,

  369. all the 616 commandments. Am I here together?

  370. So God has set us free. Why do you want to go back into

  371. your slavery? That's his, that's his argument.

  372. Basically, again, trying to be justified by law.

  373. Verse 4, you are being alienated from Christ.

  374. You are separated from Christ. Christ death has no meaning to

  375. you. You will not be justified by

  376. works. You will be justified by faith.

  377. So he says, OK, you will be alienated from Christ.

  378. Don't do it, my friends. But these people are saying

  379. Paul's gospel is wrong and they want to keep doing the law.

  380. Am I here together? So when you come across somebody

  381. who says Messianic Jew, you have to make sure what kind of

  382. Messianic Jew there? If they don't agree with Paul,

  383. give them a salute, say goodbye. If they agree with Paul, good,

  384. we have fellowship. Next I put the do there again.

  385. He repeats himself, trying to be justified by law.

  386. You are falling away from grace. These are incompatible things.

  387. Justification by faith and practicing the law incompatible.

  388. You do 1. The other one you cannot do at

  389. the same time. I was looking at the word is

  390. truth exclusive? It is exclusive.

  391. Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the life.

  392. That is where he stop. He is the way, the truth and the

  393. life. What he says that is final and

  394. anything else, what he does not say is false.

  395. What he says is truth. It is exclusive.

  396. And when you say Jesus is the Saviour, you are saying all

  397. other philosophies, all other religions are false.

  398. That is why people, some people do not like Christianity,

  399. because it claims to be an exclusive faith.

  400. It excludes everybody, and that is what it is.

  401. You cannot have in the Old Testament you have the

  402. Philistines captured the ark and put it to the temple of Dagon.

  403. And when they came in the morning, the Dagon's idol was

  404. fallen down. They put it back again, put some

  405. more nails and next day they come again.

  406. Its fallen on this time, neck is broken off, it is rolled and is

  407. come on the threshold. Hands were cut off.

  408. These two are incompatible. Yahweh Ishwa cannot coexist with

  409. any other God, any other philosophy, any other system.

  410. He is an exclusive God. You have to worship Him as an

  411. exclusive God. He is the truth, He is the

  412. light, He is the way, He is the bread.

  413. He is everything to us. You can't be a Christian and be

  414. going to meditation. You can't be a Christian and go

  415. into yoga. You can't be a Christian and go

  416. into sacrifice of our offer to idols.

  417. You cannot do these things because it is an exclusive claim

  418. on your life. When you believe in Jesus, you

  419. belong to Him. He belongs to you.

  420. That's a bond. There's a covenant there.

  421. There is a relationship there. There is a truth there.

  422. There is freedom there and you move out of it.

  423. You move into slavery was fine by faith.

  424. We we eagerly await through the Spirit for the righteousness for

  425. which we hope. There is a righteousness you

  426. receive now, but there is a complete righteousness.

  427. When he appears, we are going to be like Him, we are going to be

  428. like Jesus when you see him face to face.

  429. So we have already and not yet. I am telling my friends this

  430. phrase. I learnt it long time ago, 30-40

  431. years ago already and not yet and it is not going to change.

  432. I have gone through so much of theology and discussion in my

  433. mind with other people. These words are not going to

  434. change. There is an aspect of Christian

  435. life which is already done in Christ.

  436. There is an aspect which is going to unfold in the future.

  437. You have the Holy Spirit already now, but there will be a time

  438. when you will be in the Spirit always.

  439. You are. They should be a set free from

  440. sin now, from dominina sin now, but not the presence of sin but

  441. in the future. We are going to be set free from

  442. the presence of sin. Sin will not be there where you

  443. are going in the future, right now.

  444. It can be in the community, it can be in the family, it can be

  445. the society anywhere. Presence of sin may be there,

  446. but you will be saved, delivered, set free, that

  447. dominion broken over your life. But the future, even the

  448. presence of sin will not be there where you are going.

  449. So these are already and then not yet.

  450. Are we here agreeing? Let us say already and not yet.

  451. Powerful statement. You will remember after 30 more

  452. years you will say this man preached 30 years ago.

  453. It is true. I am telling you now in Christ,

  454. neither circumcision or uncircumcision has any value.

  455. It has no value at all, Paul says.

  456. But why are you talking about if it has no value?

  457. Why would you let people do whatever they like?

  458. Because when they do whatever they like, they are going into

  459. slavery again. But in itself it does not mean

  460. anything. Circumcision has no value.

  461. Uncircumcision has no value. What matters is that love

  462. expressed through faith. If you have faith, you must

  463. express it through love and that's what is all important.

  464. Only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.

  465. One more slide please. I just put them in red to

  466. distinguish, that's all. No other purpose.

  467. I wanted one in my notes. I wanted to see differently, so

  468. I put in a different color. So verse 7, you are running a

  469. good race. Who cut in on you kept you from

  470. obeying the truth. He is Paul is giving you an

  471. athletic figure of speech here. Say you're running fast.

  472. You you may be noticing that when you when you see them

  473. running on the track, the everybody is going but it

  474. somebody will try to overtake and come in front of them.

  475. That's what is Paul is saying. Who is cutting in on you?

  476. Sometimes it happens. You know, once I was going on my

  477. cycle bicycle and somebody cut in before me and I was thrown.

  478. Boom. I was flying like a bird in the

  479. next moment and hit some rocks. So it is going to be an

  480. accident. So what Paul is saying is you're

  481. running a race quite well. Who cut in on you?

  482. Who has stopped you? Who has obstructed you?

  483. Who has tried to do harm to you? That's what he's asking.

  484. Disobedience to the truth does not come from the one who calls

  485. you. When you move away from this

  486. freedom and go back to keeping the law until you do the law,

  487. you are going, you are not going to be justified.

  488. You are not going to be accepted by God, then you are you are,

  489. you are going back into slavery and this is not what is

  490. happening. This is this does not come from

  491. the one who calls you the God who called.

  492. He made a clear cut. Demos, I mean a distinction

  493. between the Old Testament is the Old Covenant and a New

  494. Testament, a new covenant. You cannot be belonging to the

  495. new covenant and be doing things of the old covenant.

  496. To make this truth very powerful, Jesus has talked about

  497. two different analysis parables he gave.

  498. Who will sow a old cloth on in? Who will sow a new cloth and a

  499. old patch? If you have some tear in your

  500. shirt those days you do not just throw away because it is a small

  501. tear. You put some cloth on it, patch,

  502. and then keep wearing it. One more tear, you put one more

  503. patch. But what the whole problem is

  504. when you put a new cloth on an old garment and stitch it up,

  505. and you wash it, the new garment will shrink, new patch will

  506. shrink, and the tear becomes worse.

  507. So if you want to patch up a old shirt, if you tears up, you have

  508. to find something that's already used, a piece of another shirt.

  509. That's not no good anymore. Take a piece of it and stitch it

  510. there. It will stay intact.

  511. I do not know whether it makes sense to most of us because we

  512. do not do these things these days, but do it.

  513. We do not do it. We just throw the shirt, go back

  514. and buy something. So that is that is those days.

  515. It was not that easy. Clothes were not so coming so

  516. easily. So people have to use it.

  517. So Jesus is saying if you have a tear in your garment, you do not

  518. put a new cloth as a patch because it is going to destroy

  519. your clothes. Same way he says who will put a

  520. new wine in a old wine skin when you have a wine skin made of a

  521. leather and you put the new one into it.

  522. If it is a old wine skin because the new one is bubbling,

  523. effervescent fermentation, gas are built up, it is going to

  524. burst open the skin. You will lose the skin and the

  525. wine. So he says new wine has been put

  526. into new wine skin. Why?

  527. It is strong enough to hold it. So you have both preserved the

  528. New Testament faith in Jesus Christ is the new wine.

  529. Jesus is the new wine. He is the new wine and you

  530. cannot put your body belongs to old old covenant.

  531. You are trying to do things according to the old covenant.

  532. You are hanging on for acceptance by God.

  533. By doing something good, you are putting the new one into the old

  534. wine skin. It will destroy you.

  535. So this well meaning friends of ours Besanic Jews, we have to be

  536. a little careful with them and we need to be gentle with them

  537. because God loves them. They are under blindness.

  538. They are under blindness. We you can talk to them.

  539. They won't listen to they will stop talking to you.

  540. The moment you say, hey, that's not right.

  541. They say you are wrong. Paul is wrong.

  542. I don't believe in it and don't want to have any fellowship with

  543. you. So goodbye, let's part in peace.

  544. You have done your job. We cannot convert everybody.

  545. Those, particularly those who are blinded required a light, a

  546. revelation. And until the Holy Spirit gives

  547. a revelation, we cannot bring them out.

  548. So that is where we leave the matter there.

  549. So let's go again back into He gives another example of a East

  550. Again, this is not something we do these days.

  551. Olden days. You want to make bread with

  552. yeast. You will have some dough in the

  553. house that ferments and you keep a little of the dough aside.

  554. When you make a fresh batch, you add the dough to the fresh

  555. batch. Why?

  556. By next day it becomes completely sour sourdough.

  557. So that is how they were, they were making bread.

  558. So he says if you put hide a little yeast in the dough, it

  559. makes a whole dough sour, it makes the yeast walks through

  560. it. So sin is like that.

  561. You allow little sin, little lie, little of this, little of

  562. that, little of lust, it is going to make ferment and spoil

  563. the whole dough, whole batch is going to.

  564. So Paul is saying, hey guys, you know when you go we want to go

  565. back to the old law again. You are basically hiding the

  566. East in the whole new batch of dough, which is going to ruin

  567. the whole dough, is going to spoil the whole dough.

  568. Sin is like that. So he is giving one more example

  569. of that and then he goes back again.

  570. I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view.

  571. He is encouraging the Galatians. Please agree with me.

  572. Let us have the same kind of a view.

  573. Don't have any other view. Let's agree together.

  574. He is saying the one throwing into confusion will pay the

  575. penalty. Whoever he may be, whoever is

  576. teaching the wrong thing, whoever is trying to spoil your

  577. mind, God will judge that person.

  578. Is it a kind word, very nice word that Paul is saying?

  579. No, because truth is exclusive. It cannot coexist with untruth,

  580. with lie. So that is the reason why he

  581. talks about it. And then I am still preaching.

  582. If I am still preaching and some people said no, no Paul, you are

  583. still preaching circumcision. He says if I am still preaching

  584. circumcision, why am I being persecuted?

  585. Why is the offence of the cross? If I am preaching persecution,

  586. the offence of the cross is abolished.

  587. No one will be offended by the cross.

  588. So if we are going back to the law, we are making Christ's

  589. death of no value to us. We are out of grace, we are not

  590. in the covenant, we are playing with sin, and we are going into

  591. slavery. So many images in one little

  592. passage just to tell us that we ought to be very clear in our

  593. mind that Jesus is our Savior and we have nothing to do with

  594. the law. The old wine you can't put into

  595. new wine skin. A Gentile who is becoming

  596. believer is a new wine skin. You put the old wine, it is not

  597. going to work. Same way you put new wine into

  598. the old wine skin. It does not work.

  599. You need new wine skin. New wine.

  600. Jesus is the wine and we are the new wine skin.

  601. He comes in, everything is beautiful.

  602. The agitators who promote circumcision, Paul wishes that

  603. they would go the whole way and emasculate themselves.

  604. Why a little did of the whole thing that is, I added those

  605. words circumcision is a little skin is cut off.

  606. But he says why you want to cut a little portion, take the whole

  607. out, emasculate yourself, become a eunuch, because they will

  608. become unprofitable, will not be accepted in the in the community

  609. and they will be of no value. Basically he says just do not be

  610. satisfied with the little cut, get rid of the whole thing,

  611. become a eunuch. It is just he is angry.

  612. I see that that Paul is very angry towards these people who

  613. are promoting the law, obedience to the law.

  614. But we do we not obey the law? We do obey the law.

  615. Why? Because we have a new nature,

  616. the help of the Holy Spirit who dwells in US, who helps us to do

  617. it right all the time, not because we ought to, but it is

  618. His nature. Our nature is change.

  619. We have a new power, we have a new energy, we have a new

  620. strength, we have a new vision, we have new purpose.

  621. And that energizes us, motivates us and pushes, propels us to do

  622. what the Holy Spirit wants us to do.

  623. That is why he says you have to show love, love, love.

  624. And that is how you, you, you approve these things.

  625. So let us conclude it. Verse 13.

  626. What does he say in verse 13? But you and my brothers were

  627. called to be free. But do not use your freedom to

  628. indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another in

  629. love. Serve one another in love.

  630. This is very, very important. When we don't serve people, we

  631. become selfish. It's like a pond that doesn't

  632. have a fresh water coming in. You'll become stale and useless.

  633. God designed us to give out, share the gospel, do good

  634. things, help somebody who is in need, visit somebody who is

  635. grieving, send a meal to somebody who cannot make a meal.

  636. Whatever way. Show that love, Demonstrate that

  637. love. Why?

  638. The moment you keep doing that, you are a fresh pawn and when

  639. you don't serve others, you become a stale pawn.

  640. Mass will grow. It will be of no use.

  641. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you for this

  642. morning. We thank you for the price you

  643. paid to set us free. Infinite price.

  644. Because our problem was too big. Man cannot fix it himself.

  645. That's why you came into the world, died on the cross.

  646. We worship, we honor you, we thank you, Jesus.

  647. You are the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the whole

  648. world. We praise you, we praise you, we

  649. praise you for you. Cry out from the cross, it is

  650. finished. Every drop you shed on the cross

  651. is to set us free and help us to stand in freedom by faith in

  652. you, doing good things to other people to the glory of your

  653. name. In Jesus name we ask, Amen.

  654. Thanks for joining us at Omega. If you need prayer for healing

  655. or breakthrough, or simply to find out more, please head to

  656. our website or Facebook page in the links below.