Please open your scriptures to Galatians five. That and we'll read verses 13 through 15. Let's read the Word of God together. For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh.
but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word. You shall love your neighbour as yourselves. But if you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Let's pray.
Lord. We thank you for... Your word. For how you have Disclose yourself to us. and given us yourself that we may know you.
And believe in you. Lord, I thank you that You have not withheld. Any good gift from us, Lord. giving us your son who sacrificed himself willingly to earn our salvation. I thank you that We do not have to try and uh grasp at our own righteousness.
but that we can accept the righteousness of your Son as our own. I pray now that as a pastor brings the word before us, you would unite our heart and mind. Um to be focussed on you. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you, Daniel.
Galatians chapter five. This is a freedom chapter. As we are going through the book of Galatians, Paul's letter to the churches. of Galatia, numerous churches, many of them If not all of them that he planted, but churches that were suffering, teachers rising up from within and giving a false gospel. And if it is a false gospel, it's no gospel at all.
I mean, what does gospel mean? Good news. And if it's false good news, then It's not good news. Right? And so he says, freedom, he said, look at the beginning of chapter 5.
For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. And then the beginning, our first, our text for today, verse 13: for you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. You were called to freedom.
Let me give an illustration. start with an illustration this morning of of this freedom of which he speaks. Let me just say up front: the freedom that he's not talking about. There is a particular freedom that we have in Christ, and that is the freedom from our bondage to sin.
Okay, we get that. That is not the freedom of which Paul speaks here.
Okay. That's foundational. And because of that freedom from the bondage of sin, what is the freedom of which he speaks? What we've been talking about the whole time is why he wrote this letter to the Galatians. What were the false teachers coming in saying?
Listen, if you are a genuine follower of Christ, you have to keep the moral code of the law. If you're a genuine follower of Christ. Paul said, No, that's not true. If that's what you believe, you have missed the point and the power of the gospel. Because you have been set free from sin.
And so it is for us today, though we're not trying to keep. The Mosaic law of the Old Testament. Many people today feel like, you know, I have this list of things that's right to do and things that I shouldn't do. And if I just do these things and I don't do these things, then I'm right with God. And if that's how you understand your walk of faith to be, you have missed the point and the power of the gospel.
That's not the gospel. And so he says, You were called to freedom, so we are free from. Bondage. to regulations and moral codes.
Now that doesn't mean that Christianity is a faith without morality. Not at all.
So we're going to be talking about today.
Okay. So let me give an illustration. First of all, the bondage is the idea of the nuance there is tight restriction. Remember the Guardian. He says, while you were children, you grew up under the law.
The law was like a guardian. But that guardian was there to take you to Christ, and in Christ we have sonship.
So, the Guardian kept us under strict regulation.
So, let me use an illustration of. Rails. rails for a railroad, okay? The law was like those rails. you had to stay on the rails.
Because, what happens if the train falls off the rails? It's called a. This is not a hard question. It's called a train wreck.
Okay. Derailed, yes, a train wreck. It's not a pretty sight. It's disastrous, isn't it? Because those rails are there for a reason to keep the train going in the right direction, free of problem.
But what we have in Christ now Those rails are now gone. There's a new power. You're not just a boxcar being pulled along the rails. There is a new power. presence and power that we have in Christ.
Because he has met the righteous requirement of the law for us. And he has given himself to us. What's more, he's put his spirit within us. This is what chapter five is all about.
So, with that being the case, now we're no longer restricted to the rails.
Now, We have wide open space. in which we can travel.
Now are there dangers? Is there a cliff? At one side, yes, there are.
So, what do we normally put up at the edge of a cliff? There are guardrails. And so the commands that God gives us. Are loving boundaries. within which We live freely.
The commands that God gives us are loving boundaries within which we live freely. The rails are they're very specific. They're very limited. Not only are they specific and limited, but they are rigid. But the guard rails means that we have freedom and ability.
within lovingly designed boundaries. This is what we have in Christ. Our freedom is from, as of what Paul says in Romans chapter 7, verse 6: this is our freedom. Our freedom is from the old way of the letter. We have been released.
from it. Died to it, he says. Think about that for a minute. We have been released from it because we have died to it. The illustration that he gives in Romans seven is the same as.
The agreement, contract, it's not a contract between a married couple, right? The marriage lay, it's not a contract. The bond of marriage. Yes, there it is. The bond of marriage.
If your sp if a spouse dies That bond is no longer there. And the surviving spouse is free. To marry another. That's the illustration that he's given in Romans 7. In that same chapter, he talks about we are free from the law, having died to it.
So Romans 7:6, we are free from the old way of the letter. That's what he's talking about. That's the rigid rails of the moral code of the law. We are free from that. For the old way of the letter.
Two, we're not just free from, say it with me, we're not just free from, we're free. Two. To what? To serve in the new way of the Spirit. We are free and released from the old way of the letter to serve in the new way of the Spirit.
Romans 7, 6.
Now, having said that, and talking about this freedom and the freedom that we have in Christ, you can see where the Judaism, the legalizers, would say, and They would raise an accusation against Paul.
So Paul then Where does morality come from? Where does right behavior come from? What is the standard? Of that. And you see, if you take away the law, then people are just going to be free to do whatever they want to do.
Here's the problem with that: that's if you believe freedom is only a freedom from. But it's not just a freedom from, it's a freedom from and a freedom. Two. Because if you believe that your liberty is just simply a freedom from, you will once again end up in bondage just the way you were before. It's a different kind of bondage, but it's a bondage nonetheless.
I'm going to talk about two extremes, two natural extremes this morning. When it comes to one's life of Behavior. Morality, if you will. Two natural extremes, but there's one outcome from both of those extremes. And the first one is the one that he's primarily tackling in this whole letter, and that's the extreme of legalism.
And it is an extreme, but here's the problem: it's a natural extreme. Remember what I've said before? We are all naturally legalists. We tend to be that way. Just tell me what I have to do.
Just tell me what I have to do, and I'll do it. And if I do this, this, and this, then I'll be good. And we approach a day like that: check, check, check, check. I've done all that, it's been a good day. That's not freedom.
And so Regulations. Legalism is about regulations. And when you have regulations, you have to inspect them.
So, your regulations are inspected, and we see that, well, that's what the authorities do. And so, people view church leadership that way as. People who inspect the regulations that are being imposed upon me, or they view God that way. God's just there simply inspecting the regulations that He's imposed on me. Is your view of God that way this morning?
May God rescue you from that by his grace. That's not who he is. Legalism also leads to comparison. We compare ourselves to each other. Look how spiritual I'm doing this and this and this.
And I am too, yeah, but I'm doing this twice as much as you are. Or giving twice as much as you are, or I'm at church twice as many times as you are, or My skirt is twice as long as yours. Yes. You name it. It's all measurable, quantifiable, tangible metrics.
And those are the things that determine spirituality. That's not freedom, that's not grace, that's not how it works. But we compare ourselves, we compare ourselves to each other, and with that comparison, what follows comparison? Pride. Or resentment.
How about judgment? When you see yourself as doing a better job than someone else. And someone else isn't quite keeping up the way you think they ought to, or the way the church leadership thinks they ought to. Then there's judgment. And what do we do?
We attack each other for failure. The Pharisees were a prime example of this. They did their spirituality. publicly. But what else did Jesus know about them?
Inside They were rotten to the core. And see, that's the problem with legalism. It's all about what you do on the outside, meanwhile, the inside can be rotting away. There's a problem there. And when we do that, when God's people do that, or those who claim to be God's people do that.
We can be guilty of, we could be doing the very same thing, deceiving ourselves. We might be beautifully, wonderfully keeping that checklist. Whoever makes that up in whatever is on that check list of do's and don'ts. And I might be thinking I'm doing a wonderful job.
Meanwhile, I am wasting away inside, and I'm wondering why my faith isn't working. I've seen that over and over and over again. The Pharisees, what did they do? They caught a woman. In the act of adultery, and they brought the woman to Jesus.
And I'm thinking, where's the man? Anyway, that's a different sermon. You know what Jesus did. You who are without sin, you cast the first stone. All they just wanted to do is make sure that her Her act of sin was punished.
And that's what legalism does. You have an act of sin, it's punished. Let me stop here just a minute. Is that how you view God? In your walk of faith.
That when you commit a sin You're all of a sudden being put under his thumb. May God rescue you from that. May you preach to yourself afresh the gospel of grace. My wife was having a phone conversation with someone at one time. She was just relating this story to someone.
It's the first I'd heard of it, but she was having a phone conversation with someone, and this person on the other end of the line was complaining about how many women in their church were wearing pants to church. And my wife pointed out, well, you're gossiping about them. Which is worse. As if wearing pants to church is even a sin. Yeah.
But gossip is a sin. And the Bible says it very clearly, doesn't it? You see how we can be so self-deluded. That's what legalism does. And I know specifically of an instance in a church that I had family attending this church up in New Jersey.
In my high school years, I lived in New Jersey. Probably played basketball against Daryl Felker at one time. You know, we went to competing Christian schools. We were in the same high school class, and so I probably beat him at one time in basketball. Where was I going?
Oh, a church in New Jersey. They claimed to champion grace, and so there was an associate pastor in the church. who is estranged to his wife. And having been estranged to his wife, he was now developing a relationship with one of the girls in the youth group. and at an elders' meeting it was said, and I quote We are a church under grace.
That's why Paul writes this, what he writes this morning.
Okay, that's an that's an abuse of grace. Because that's Okay, I got ahead of myself here. Let me back up here, all right?
Okay, the Pharisees. Legalism. What happens with legalism? is that we judge people who sin differently than we do. Um yeah, yeah, yeah.
Nobody's perfect. And I have my list of do's and don'ts, and you have your list of do's and don'ts. And this church has their list, and another church has their list. And we judge people who sin differently than we do.
Some of us have been there, right?
So, legalism is the first natural extreme. We all tend to be legalists, but also we also tend to, and this is the second extreme, and that is indulge the flesh.
So we want to be legalists while at the same time we want to have the freedom to indulge the flesh. our natural appetites. of self-gratification. To indulge the flesh is to pursue pursue selfish desires. And that's the illustration of the church that I just mentioned in New Jersey.
We're under grace, so it's okay to be estranged from my wife and pursue a relationship with the girl in the youth group. who is supposedly under my ministry. And consider that grace. That's an abuse. That's indulging the flesh.
in the freedom that we have in Christ.
Okay. Indulging the flesh is to pursue selfish desires. And when you pursue, here's what happens. When you pursue selfish desires, I've used this illustration before. How many of you have ever flown a kite?
Hands are going up slowly. It's okay to admit that, okay? I know it's an old-fashioned way of pleasure and recreation. But you know what happens with a kite? We go into our neighborhood, and there's a kite hung up in a tree there in this family's yard.
And I'm like, I wonder what happened there. Here's what happens: a kite. Is blowing in the wind, and a kite is like a picture of freedom, right? But what needs what does that kite need to have? The kite needs to have someone holding the string.
If you think your freedom is you as a kite blowing in the wind and nobody's holding the string. What happens then? Disaster. Disaster. Remember those loving boundaries, those loving boundaries, those loving.
Guardrails that God has established for us. They are a reflection of His character and His purpose. That's why we build fires in the fireplace in the house, not in the middle of the living room. Same thing. And what happens with self-gratification?
We have no anchor or boundaries like the kite, no one holding the string, but Also, when we're bent on self-gratification and pursuing our selfish desires, we use others. for our gratification. We use other people. Instead of loving them and serving them, we use them. Again, this is natural behavior.
In your relationship with somebody, you can look at someone and say, how can you benefit me? How can you benefit me? and we use others for self-gratification or self-promotion.
So these two natural extremes, legalism and self-gratification, indulge the flesh. Both of them have one common outcome. And it's what he says In verse 15, If you bite and devour one another, watch out that you are not consumed by one another. Both of those end up that way. The outcome is to bite and devour one another.
Because what are you doing in Whether whether you're In legalism, you're comparing yourselves to each other. Or, in indulgence of the flesh, you're pursuing your pleasure, your agenda, even if it means consuming others. You're saying, I will fight for my priorities. This is what James 4:1 says. Your passions are at war within you.
Your passions are at war within you. I want what I want. It will be done my way. And we bite and And we consume each other, we devour each other.
So fighting for my priorities. Whether you're using someone or attacking someone, whether you use each other or attack each other, both destroy community and human flourishing. They do not contribute to community or human flourishing. And Here's another point. If you are enslaved to your own appetites, you will eventually consume others.
It's a given. We see that in the world, particularly in the last four years, when you are enslaved to your own appetites, you will eventually consume others. Do you know what that is? That was in America for four years and we're To some degree coming out of it it's the cancel culture Did you know Christians can do the cancel culture? It's called legalism.
If you don't line up perfectly with my theological framework, I'll have nothing to do with you. If you don't keep my checklist exactly the way I think it ought to be kept. I'm not going to have anything to do with you. It happens both ways, whether you're a legalist or you're one who's indulging the flesh, or probably both. Yeah yeah.
Fighting for my priorities. Enslave to your own appetites, you will eventually consume others. And the truth is, Paul is, this is a polemic against legalism. He says burdensome regulations create a spiritual cancel culture. That's what Peter was so afraid of back in chapter 2.
He was eating with the Gentiles. And these Gentiles were not, they were believers, they were followers of Christ, but they were not keeping the law of Moses. And then the legalists came, the Judaizers came. And Peter saw them, and he knew that they would be judging him, that if he continued eating with the uncircumcised Gentiles, that they would cancel him. And so what did he do?
He walked away from the Gentiles and went to eat with the Jews, and that's why Paul confronted him. It's ugly, isn't it? It's just ugly. It is so contrary to the gospel of grace. And so, the title for today's message, here I'm halfway through it, and I'm just giving you the title.
You know it, free to love your neighbor. This is what the law of Christ does. This is what grace does. It operates according to new creation and divine power instead of simply staying on those strict rails of the railroad.
So let's talk now, instead of those two extremes with one outcome, let's now talk about the new way of the Spirit. What does the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ empower us to do? Look what he says once again, verse 13: For you are called to freedom, brothers, only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, one statement. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
Through love, serve one another. Look back up at verse six. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. And then he says in verse 13, through love serve one another. What was the purpose of the law?
What did the law do? Why was the law necessary? Because in our humanness, in our natural self-preeminence, We misbehave selfish living. And selfish living injures others. at the very least, is indifferent to others.
And indifference is tantamount to hate.
Okay. And so the law was to curtail Bad behavior, selfish behavior. and to protect the vulnerable. That's why the law was necessary. But they represented the character and the purpose of God.
They were loving boundaries. in their time. And so he says now Under in Christ Under the new covenant, indwelt with the Holy Spirit, through love, serve one another.
So it's not just about don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, and you have to make sure you are hospitable and you treat, you know, you treat kindness to each other. He says instead of offering the rails, he offers a transformation of one's affections and attitudes.
so that through love we serve each other. You see, this is where morality comes in.
Some of you have talked to me and you've pushed back, say, rich. Aren't we supposed to be doing what's right? Yes. Are you doing what's right because it's what you have to do? Or are you doing what's right because this is what God has created in your heart and mind?
Which reflects his love and his goodness. Do you see the difference there? It's a big difference. We have a staple in our ministry here. It's called Parenting University.
The first book is: what is it? What is it? Shepherding a child's heart. Shepherding a child's heart. Why is that so?
It's not about give them all the rules you have to give them. Listen, kids need rules. Do kids need rules? Yes, they do. What good are rules if you're not shepherding their heart?
And so it is with us. What the Lord gives us in the Gospel of Grace. And in this statement, through love serve one another. He lifts our humanity up.
Now again, and as I'm saying this, as I'm saying this, I'm saying to those of us who are in Christ.
Okay. We who are in Christ. We have Surrender ourselves in faith to Him, and we have received His righteousness and are now reconciled to God and indwelt with His Holy Spirit.
Okay. This is what's true of us. In this statement, through love serve one another, God is giving us the divine perspective. As well. as a provision.
He's given us the divine perspective as well as the provision. What is the provision He's given? He has reconciled us to Himself. He has given us newness. Partakers of the divine nature, Peter says.
The new man Paul keeps talking about. New creation. And what's more than that, he has taken up residence within us through the presence of his Holy Spirit. All of that. is the engine, if you will.
For Through love, serve one another. And it's not just simply a command, this is what you have to do because you're a Christian. It's more like This is what you can do. Because you've been reconciled to God and you are indwelt with Him. This is what you can do.
This is what you can rise up to. You can rise up beyond natural behavior. Seeing the difference here? You see, the law couldn't provide that. the law could not provide transformation.
Jesus can. The gospel of grace can.
So, Jesus has given us the supreme standard in himself. And the supreme example. It is what we call the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ. Paul says in Philippians 2.
Have the mind of Christ. Have this mind in you, which is yours in Christ. What is the mind of Christ? Talk about here in just a couple minutes. Do nothing through selfish ambition or empty conceit.
But in lowliness of mind, what? Consider others what? more significant than yourself. That's the mind of Christ. And we have the supreme example of that.
That Jesus The second person of the Trinity, Christ. Eternal God. In his glory, he was willing to set aside all of his glory and his privilege and come and be born as a human child and grow up in this broken world. and live a perfect life and be betrayed and executed by sinful people. And therein taking on all of our sin upon himself, so that when you surrender yourself to him in faith, You get his righteousness.
How's that for the mind of Christ? And listen. We Have that. Paul says, This is yours in Christ. That's our MO.
It is the fountain that flows within us because of who God is and what He has done. The Gospel of Grace The law could not do that. Not at all, not even close. All it could do was provide the rails. And if you fell off the rails, you You were a train wreck.
I've said it before. I'm going to say it again. I said as we were talking about verse 6, I said this. I'm going to say it again. The truly free person.
Look again what he says, verse 5. For freedom Christ has set us free. Verse 13: you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. That word opportunity is like a, it's like a base.
A base point, a military base where from which you launch an offensive. Right? So I am free. That means I get to do whatever I want to do. You're not free.
If that's how you think your freedom is. Right. Here's the statement. The truly free person. The truly free Person.
Let me unpack that here for a minute. When you're truly free, it means you are not in bondage to promote and protect yourself. That's self-indulgence. When you're living for yourself, you are in bondage to protect and promote yourself. That's not freedom.
Neither are you in bondage to rigid regulations and fear. Rigid regulations and fear. The truly free person. lovingly serves. The truly free person lovingly, again, the prime example, Jesus Christ.
Was he truly free? Absolutely. You can't get freer than him. That's what sovereignty means. God is absolutely free.
The only thing that can limit God is God himself. And Jesus chose to limit himself, set aside all of his glory, and limit himself and come in the form of human flesh. for our sake. He was truly free, and he invested, he served us. By investing himself in us for our Godward movement.
So back to the statement, the truly free person. lovingly serves. This is something to live up to, isn't it? The law said, Love one another as you love. Yourself.
Jesus says, love one another as what? I have loved you.
Now, do you love yourself? Yes, you do. Say, Rich, there are some people who don't. No, they do. How do you love yourself?
You nurture yourself, you protect yourself. When you're cold, you put something warm on. If you have needs, you seek to meet those needs. You seek to. Be advanced you seek to flourish.
You seek to do well. The truly free person lovingly serves.
So if I am going to love another as I love myself, I'm going to do all those things for that person too. Indifference. Indifference is tantamount to hate. Ellie Weisel said that. survivor of the Holocaust.
Indifference is the opposite of love. As we lovingly serve others, we are compelled and empowered to help others flourish. Compelled and empowered to help others flourish. I want you to look at a scripture here. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 15 and 16, have it on the screen.
He died for all. There's his love. What is that? That's love. He died for all.
That those who live Who's that? That's those of us who are in Christ. Those who have surrendered ourselves in faith to Jesus Christ, that those who live. Might no longer live. For themselves.
What is that? That's. natural behavior. To live for yourself is natural behavior. In Christ, we have the capacity to rise above the natural behavior of simply living for self.
Are you getting the picture here where this is now beyond? Mirror. Morality? This is not just Our capacity to be moral. This is now rising up.
to a character that reflects God himself. The gospel of grace gives us that power. That those who live should live no longer for themselves. But for him who for their sake died and was raised, from now on, therefore, there should be a therefore, from now on, therefore, there is a therefore. It's just in a different place in a different translation.
From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Think about that. From now on, we regard no one ago. If you're in your natural behavior, Your interaction with others is to see them as one of two things, some someone that will be advantageous to you or someone who is in your way and needs to get out of the way. That's natural behavior.
And in those cases, we fight and devour. Right. We regard no one according to the flesh.
So, in other words, now that I am in Christ, in the newness that I have in Christ, I look at any other individual, saved, unsaved, unregenerate. Friend, foe, Republican, Democrat. Liberal, conservative. You name the category. What is that person?
They are God's image. That ought to radically impact. How you approach that person. Not only are they God's image. But they have significance.
And it is your call to consider them more significant than yourself. And to lovingly serve. What is love? To invest in another for their Godward movement. Let's remember how Jesus loved us, okay?
When it talks about Jesus' love for us, it's not talking about how he felt for us.
Okay, so when the Bible calls us to love one another, he's not talking about how we should feel about each other. He's talking about how we interact with each other. And that interaction is loving service. To what end? Godward movement.
How they respond is not your responsibility. How you treat them is.
Okay. So lovingly, serve, we no longer seek others according to the flesh. This is the activity of a new creation. Um verse 17, verse 17 says that. We're gonna be getting into that but look at um look at chapter s flip over to chapter six for just a minute.
For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. To not live for self, but for him. That is his character, and so. in Christ, indwelt with His Spirit, reconciled to God. In the newness of the gospel, you reflect and please him.
I reflect and please him as I follow him. Here's the difference, okay? This is the freedom that Paul is talking about. You have been freed from the rails of the railroad. Because all you were doing is just gliding along the rails of the railroad, and if you.
Fell off the railroads, off the rails, you were a train wreck. Under necessary judgment. But now in Christ, You reflect and please him as you follow him. You're no longer following a moral code. I have to do this, have to, have to, have to, have to.
No, you're following a person, a person who loves you, and you love that person, and you want to become like him. That's the power of the gospel of grace, folks. And in that, following him. Your new person grows and develops, and you develop. his character.
And that takes us beyond mere morality to. Rise up and actually reflect the character of the one who loves us and made us for himself. That's the gospel of grace. Philippians 2:00 from verses 3 and 5. I've mentioned it before.
You know this well. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit. But in humility Count others more significant than yourselves. Humility. Think about that for a minute.
It's not thinking less of yourself, it's simply thinking about yourself less. Everyone loves themselves. Everyone. You might take issue with me on that. It's okay.
We can have a dialogue. Everyone loves themselves. The question is: how much of themselves are they thinking? Yeah. Different sermon for a different time.
In humility, count others more significant than yourself. Let each of you look not only on his own interest, but also to the interest of others. Here it is. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. It's part of the package of being in Christ.
It's your new creation person. As a partaker of the divine nature, nothing done through selfish ambition or empty pride. Think about that. Think about you not doing a single thing through selfish ambition or empty pride. Notice that it does not say that ambition is wrong.
All right. But selfish ambition is wrong.
Okay. And to look out for the interests of others. that in as I got up every day, I'm looking out. and thinking, how can I serve, how can I help others? How can I help my spouse?
How can I help my children? Sunday morning you get up. Are you thinking about when the church gathers and comes together? How can I be a blessing to someone? as we gather today.
That's far beyond just being here like a sponge to absorb.
Sometimes we need to just be a sponge and absorb. But you're not called to that lifestyle.
Okay. Again, that's another sermon. Good. To value them above yourself, this is the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is this: to invest myself in you.
for your Godward movement. And in doing that, I myself. Become more like Christ. That's the power of it. Here's the whole point.
Of what Paul is saying here in Philippians, sorry, Galatians, I don't know why I said Philippians, Galatians chapter 5. Verses 13 to 15. Paul champions our freedom from the law's regulation and judgment. to fulfill the law's essence. The essence of the law.
Two things, two statements. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. That's paramount. That's paramount. That's first.
Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. When you do that, the outflow will be to love your neighbor as yourself. and to even as Jesus raised the bar to love others as I have loved you. That's how the gospel works. The law's essence.
I love these verses when, as a serious student of the scriptures, I first discovered them. Romans 8. Versus three and four. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. What we're talking about here today is what the law could not do.
By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that, here it is, the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk Not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
So you're in one of two categories here this morning. Either you're walking according to the flesh, or you're walking according to the spirit. And one of those ways of walking according to the flesh might be walking in the old way of the letter. Just tell me what to do. Just give me a list of stuff I have to do, and I'll do it.
And I'll make sure that if I do it, I'm right with God. Listen to me. That's the flesh. We don't serve. We've been released from that.
We don't serve in the old way of the letter, we serve in the new way of the spirit. And that's what the whole law points to. To love God. And love whatever person is next to you. at any given time.
Yes. Is why? Jesus was so attractive. to the marginalized people of his day. They flocked to him.
The religious leaders. The Pharisees Did not. Because they were bent on comparison and judgment. Jesus. loved and served.
Why? 'Cause he was free. That's why. We are free too. Let's lovingly serve the way he did.
and reflect his character and his purpose. Stand with me, please. In the quietness of the moment, heads bowed. I'm asking you to Pray to the Father. Father, by your Spirit.
Transform. My affection. My affections and my attitudes. To be like Christ's. Christ's affections and Christ's attitudes.
What he loved. How he thought. Transformation is ours. in the power of the gospel of grace.
So that as we go about our daily lives. and our daily interactions with whatever other people. They are characterized by lovingly serving others. This is powerful. Father, this is beyond our natural ability.
And we thank you that you have given us. the resource and your presence. Your forgiveness and your newness. To be able to rise up. To this.
We are your people. We want to reflect you and do it well. May we do it, Father. not out of sense of duty to the rails. But may we do it in the outflow?
of our loving communion with you. Thank you, Father, that you've made yourself known to us.
so that we can know you and be reconciled to you. Through Jesus Christ. And by his spirit. Pray this. In his name.
Amen.
Okay.
