Good evening.
Good to see you this evening.
Would you turn with me in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 5, the book of Galatians chapter 5.
As is our custom, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in verse 1.
Please read along silently with me Galatians chapter 5.
And in Galatians chapter 5 the Bible reads, "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Behold, I, Paul, say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
For I testify again to every man that has circumcised that he is a debtor to do the
whole law.
Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law.
You're fallen from grace.
For if we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, for in Jesus
Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith which worketh
by love.
Ye did run well.
Who did hinder you, that ye should not obey the truth?
This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will be none otherwise minded, but
he that troubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be.
And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution?
Then as the offence of the cross ceased, I would they were even cut off which trouble
you.
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
This I say then, walk in the spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, and these
are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envying, murderers, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.
Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which
do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the Spirit is love,
joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.
Against such there is no law, and they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with
the affections and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Brother Joshua, would you pray for us?
Amen.
Well, I forgot to bring my sermon.
I printed it all out, had it set in my backpack, and then I think I took it out to put some
other stuff in there, and so I'm just going to have to preach without notes tonight.
So no, I'm just joking.
I'm having it printed up right now.
But where we're at so far is we're in chapter five, obviously.
But you know, I mean, if the theme sounds like it's just continuing on to the same
stuff that we've been learning, it is because Paul is just hammering it from different perspectives
and tonight I'm going to be preaching about walking in the new man versus walking in the
flesh and so Paul is giving this lesson here and so in verse one it says, "Stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage." And what is that yoke of bondage? That yoke of bondage is talking
about going back under the Old Testament law. Now remember let's just quickly go over
to Acts chapter 15 and just kind of refresh ourselves here again about the whole purpose
that Paul is writing this letter because in Acts chapter 15 he goes up to that council
at Jerusalem, look at verse number one it says, "And certain men which came down from
Judea taught the brethren, and said, 'Except to be circumcised after the manner of Moses,
you cannot be saved.'"
And not only were they saying that, but they also said that you had to keep the law of
Moses as you get further into this, you know, when they have the showdown in Jerusalem with
these Pharisees, there actually kind of seems like they're just waiting for this to happen,
like they're just kind of in place.
And so not only are they saying you have to be circumcised, but yeah, you have to keep
the law of Moses to be saved.
Not just to, yeah, not just to be circumcised, but you have to actually keep the law of Moses
to be saved.
And that is adding works to salvation.
That is legalism.
So that's kind of what we have already covered.
But now Paul is saying what we've been set free, we've been given liberty to where we're
not under the bondage of that.
And so here's the thing is that Christ came and fulfilled those laws like the Sabbath,
we don't have to keep the Sabbath anymore.
So that one of the Ten Commandments is that we would keep the Sabbath and that what was
the penalty for breaking the Sabbath in the Old Testament?
It was the death penalty.
Why was it?
Like the first time I ever read the Old Testament and I read that that guy picked up sticks
on the Sabbath day and he was stoned to death for that, I was just like, "Bro, that's harsh."
I was like, "Man, God is not playing around."
I just kind of thought, "Well, he got killed for picking sticks up."
When I first read it, I just thought, "Man, God's not playing around."
And I kind of judged God a little bit and thought, "Man, that's really harsh."
My attitude was not right about that because it's a picture of the fact that Jesus died
for us and he fulfilled the Sabbath.
He did all the work for us so that we could be saved.
And so why was it the death penalty?
Because if you don't let Jesus do all the work for you, then you're going to die and
go to hell.
If you try to pick up any sticks, so to speak, you try to get your way into heaven by doing
works yourself, you're going to die and go to hell.
And so that's why the penalty was so harsh for breaking the Sabbath.
But now we don't have to do that.
We've been set free.
We don't have to be beholden to that anymore.
And so that's what Paul is saying, we're not under that yoke of bondage.
And really, any commandment that we break is not going to make us lose our salvation.
Any commandment that we don't keep is not going to make us not be saved anymore.
We're not under that yoke of bondage.
So it says in verse 2, "Behold, I, Paul, say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing."
If you're saved and then all of a sudden you think, oh, well, Hawk Flam, I need to
will get circumcised, you know? No, you don't. Some Jew comes up and tells you, "Hey, you
need to keep the law of Moses." No, you don't. You don't have to do that because the circumcision
is picturing the circumcision of the heart, which is the new man. You have to have a tender
heart to get saved. The new man is picturing the spiritual rebirth that you have. It's
not a physical thing. It's not of the flesh. It's of the spirit. So he's saying, "If you
get circumcised, it's profiting you nothing." So, and again, notice how Paul again brings
up circumcision. Why? Because that's the issue that's being brought. That was what was first
brought up in this whole controversy. This letter is basically responding to this controversy
and Paul is just nailing them chapter after chapter, six chapters in a row. And here's
what he's not saying. He's not saying, "Go ahead and be yourself and just murder people
again." That's not what he's saying. He's not like, "Oh, you're free to be yourself
again. You're free, bro. You're just free to just murder, rape, pillage, and just be
this horrible person. You're free, man. Be yourself." You've got to be careful when it's
saying you have this liberty. You have the liberty now to serve Christ the way you're
supposed to serve Him. You have the liberty. You can please God now because He's made you
righteous. And so it's not that we're just free to just live like heathen. That's not
the message He's saying. So He's not saying just go ahead and do whatever you want now.
And that's what people that believe the hyper grace belief think, that you can just do whatever
you want and you're not going to get in trouble for it. That's crazy. Yeah, you can do whatever
you want and you're still going to go to heaven. That's true if you are saved. But you will
get whooped, you will get beaten for those things with many stripes. So he's specifically
really actually talking here about the law of Moses to be saved and to remind you again
the whole reason why this is being written. So look at verse 3 it says, "For I testify
again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law." So you
want to go ahead and get circumcised? Well guess what? You're a debtor to do the whole
law. If you think that you're saved by keeping the law, well now you've got to keep all of
it. Now you've got to do everything. And it's not just about getting circumcised, which
would be a painful thing to do, especially if you're an adult or a teenager. I mean,
when you're a baby it's bad enough to watch them scream and cry, getting circumcised,
but when you're an adult it's way worse. And it's painful and it's, yeah, it's a very
sensitive spot in the body and it's not something that God wants us to do in the New Testament.
It's very clear that it's not something that we have to do in the New Testament. So if
you are, look at it, it says in verse 4, it says, "Christ has become of no effect unto
you, whosoever of you are justified by the law." You're fallen from grace. Now what does
that mean? People say, "Oh see, you lost your salvation." No, you didn't lose your salvation.
He's just saying if you want to be saved by the law, he's saying you're not saved. That's
what he's saying. Christ is no effect onto you. Christ has become no effect onto you
because you've tried to add and mix works in together with Christ. It's of no effect.
You're fallen from grace. Grace is something that you don't deserve because you trusted
in Christ alone for your salvation and then you're trying to add your works onto it.
Our works are nothing but filthy rags. And so if you're trying, it's like Cain trying
to bring his carrots or whatever. Your dirty carrots that you didn't wash off good enough.
Or just think about the pumpkin patch. You know you go to the pumpkin patch and they
have those like pumps where you can wash the pumpkins off and you never quite get them
all the way clean. But you try to get them the best you can before you put them in your
car. You know it's like trying to give your dirty pumpkins to God. And it's not good
enough. It never will be. So why try? Why try to do something that you don't even have
to do? That's the stupid thing about it. So fallen from grace, it doesn't mean you've
lost your salvation. It just means you're not saved and you never were if you're claiming
that you're saved by the law. So these guys that came down from James, obviously I don't
believe that James knew that they were believing that stuff. I don't think James knew. I don't
think James sent them down there to teach. He didn't teach that. I don't believe that
he taught that for one second. I think James was saved. I think that James sent them down
there thinking that they were saved, but obviously they weren't. So verse five says, "For we
through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." So what is that hope that we're
waiting for? Because we're saved right now, but we just haven't experienced the full enchilada,
right? What are we waiting for? We're waiting for our redeemed bodies. We're waiting for
Christ to come back. We're waiting for the rest of the promises in this book that we
haven't experienced yet. We haven't experienced anything hardly. We just have experienced
salvation and, you know, some hard times and some joy. But, you know, it's a joy that
we're saved. But we also, you know, go through hard times and trials in this life. And we
have not begun to enjoy our salvation at all. But while we're here on this earth, we've
been given work to do. And it says in verse 6, "For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision." So neither one. It makes a difference. It doesn't
make a difference is what he's saying. "But faith which worketh love." So what are we
here for? We're here to, we're supposed to have faith in that faith which worketh love.
So are we supposed to work? Absolutely. We're supposed to work in that love that Christ,
you know, we're supposed to work by the love that we have from Christ. It says, "Ye did
run well." You did. So, in other words, they were but they stopped doing well, right? Who
did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? Somebody has poisoned the well. Somebody
has told them stuff that's not true and they're evil affecting these Galatians here. And it's
become an epidemic. It's become like a plague. It's become like everybody has COVID all the
sudden. It's become like everybody's got the flu. It's infected the whole, it's like he's
riding, it's not just one church because he's riding to the churches of Galatia. Not just
one church. It's not just one church that's having a problem with this. It's a lot of
them. So this is infected and infested a lot of their churches. So he said, "You didn't
run well. Who did hinder you that you should not obey the truth? This persuasion cometh
not of him that calleth you." So the persuasion, what's the persuasion he's talking about?
That you got to do works. That you got to get circumcised. That you got to follow the
law of Moses. And who's the one that calleth them? Jesus Christ. This did not come from
Jesus is what he's saying. A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. So what I just get
done saying, it's infected their churches. And it's like leaven. And so let's turn to
Matthew chapter number 16. And Jesus, he warns of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
He warns the disciples about it. And now it's kind of coming to pass where you have fake
disciples that are actually like these Pharisees and these Sadducees that are pretending to
believe so they can, what, divert, you know, try, they can try to subvert these believers
and have them and glory in their flesh when they get them circumcised and have them keep
the law of Moses. And they're twofold more of the child of hell than they are themselves.
But Jesus warned about them. Look at what he says here. Verse number one, the Pharisees
also with the Sadducees came and tempting desired him that he would show them a sign
from heaven. He answered and said unto them, When it is evening, you say, it will be fair
weather for the sky is red. And in the morning it will be foul weather today for the sky
is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, you can discern the face of the sky, but can you
not discern the signs of the times? A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a
sign and there shall no sign be given unto it but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And
he left them and departed. So this is like the set up to what he is going to say next.
And when disciples were come to the other side they had forgotten to take bread. And
Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the Sadducees.
And they reason among themselves saying, Is it because we have taken no bread? Which when
Jesus perceived he said unto them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among yourselves
because ye have brought no bread? Do ye not yet understand? Neither remember the five
loaves of the five thousand and how many baskets ye took up? He's like, We had tons of bread
left over. You know, neither the seven loaves of the four thousand and how many baskets
ye took up? How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread,
that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? What is he
saying? Their doctrine is a problem. Because what are they doing? Hey, except they see
a sign, they're not going to believe. And so their doctrine is poison. They're poisoning
the people against them. Hey, do a magic trick, Jesus, or we're not going to believe you.
And Jesus just isn't interested. He said, "Hey, the resurrection is going to be good
enough for you. The fact that I go to hell for three days and three nights for you should
be enough for you," like the prophet, Jonas, pictured for them. But he says, "Then understood
they that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the
Pharisees and of the Sadducees." It's the doctrine that they teach. And so Paul now
is warning them of the same thing. This is what he's warning them about, a little leaven
leavened at the whole lump. And he's directly applying it to what? The same type of stuff,
the same type of teaching that the Pharisees taught. Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 5.
The apostle Paul repeats himself about certain things in other passages of the Bible because
he wrote half the New Testament. But he brings up certain things multiple times. And he brings
up in 1 Corinthians here, speaking about church discipline. And, you know, false doctrine
is leavened. And when we have somebody that comes in and teaches false doctrine, we've
got to get that person out of here, especially if it's damnable heresy like the Pharisees,
like these people that were coming and teaching the Galatians. That's why Paul said we gave
them space. No, not for an hour. He didn't let them teach even for an hour. He's like,
get out. Get out of here. Look at 1 Corinthians 5.4. It says, "In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, when you are gathered together in my spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus
Christ to deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the Spirit
may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that
a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that it
may be a new lump, as you are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed
for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven
of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
So what is important here, you know, and this is about church discipline, but it's like
you've got to get the leaven out of the church. You can't have the leaven inside the church
because it corrupts the rest of the church. It just passes it along and that's why he's
having to write letters to the churches at Galatia because it obviously spread too far
and now he's having to just hammer this home. Look back in Galatians 5 verse 10. It says,
"I have confidence in you through the Lord that you will be none otherwise minded, but
he that troubleeth you shall bear his judgment whoever he be." So this is, you know, now
Paul is just like saying this person is going to get judged whoever it is. "And I, brethren,
if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of
the cross ceased?" And this is a good point that he's making because, look, if you're
out preaching the cross, you will have people that get mad at you. And I think it was Pastor
Shelley that just recently was looking up the number one thing that people get upset
about, the number one thing that people are persecuted over. And I can't remember what
he actually, what statistics he was looking up, but that is the number one thing that
people get upset about is that. And people always think it's the sodomite issue or the
Jew issue or whatever else, but it's actually salvation because people don't like that we
believe that salvation is by faith alone and that there's no works that you have to do
and that you can't lose your salvation and that's what they like to fight with us about.
I can't tell you how many times people come to me after a soul winning session, they'll
say Pastor you might be getting a phone call because this weird Pentecostal was, I think
it was just you last Sunday right and they're like here and they were calling Brother Ramon
a false prophet because he was preaching the true gospel.
But we'll have people, I mean people follow us around, apartment complexes and stuff just
badgering us because what?
We're preaching the gospel.
It's not like we're going there to preach, you know they're standing with bull horns
saying you know come on out homos so we can preach against you.
No they just follow us around because they know what we're preaching is true and Satan's
going to send his dogs out after us and his apartment managers that are like have to sign
their name and blood in order to be in a manager there or something.
They have to like sell their soul to the devil or something because for some weird reason
they just come after us.
It's not really that weird though, it's because it's the offense of the cross and if we were
preaching something else, if we were preaching circumcision or we were preaching some other
false gospel they wouldn't be as mad.
I mean people get mad when you knock on their door no matter what it's for and that's the
foolishness that God's used for us to get the message out.
The foolishness, it's foolishness to people because they hate getting their door knocked
on but the other foolishness is the foolishness of preaching.
They don't like that either.
But when it comes down, then it really gets narrowed down to the foolishness of preaching
of the right gospel.
They don't like that.
It really angers them.
That's why Paul says, "Why do I yet suffer persecution?"
Because if he was going around preaching, "Hey, why don't you come and get circumcised
and join our synagogue?"
They're not going to get that mad.
People aren't going to get mad about that.
If you walked around and said, "Hey, come to our mosque," people wouldn't get mad
about that.
All these white people out here would be like, "Oh, what can I do to help you?"
They'd just be groveling at their feet because they just fall all over themselves to just
help Muslims for some reason.
But if it was Christians, they'd be badgering them and upset.
People are offended at the cross and more specifically, who we preach that died on that cross.
They don't like the Jesus of the Bible.
They like long-haired hippie Jesus that loves everybody and never gets mad at anybody and
never hates anybody.
They don't like the God of the Bible.
They don't like the God that stoned people, that stoned a man to death for picking up
sticks on the Sabbath day.
They don't like that God.
They don't like the God of judgment.
They don't like the God that will throw people in hell.
He's also the God of love, but see, you have to come to him on his terms.
You don't just get to pick whatever terms you want.
And that's what people say a lot, too.
"Well, I don't believe in the same God.
That's not the God that I believe in."
Yeah, because the God that you believe in is a figment of your imagination.
It's somebody that you made up to make yourself feel good about what you do wrong, because
men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, and they won't come
to them lest they should be reproved.
People don't like being reproved.
People don't like being told they're wrong.
People don't like being told that their religion's wrong.
The one that they grew up with is wrong.
But it is.
Kurt Cobain sang this song on MTV Unplugged, and it's called "Jesus Don't Want Me For
a Sunbeam."
Anybody ever heard that song?
But the real song is "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam."
Anybody ever heard that Sunday School song?
No?
Here's how it goes, the Kurt Cobain version, which he stole from some weirdos.
He didn't steal it, but I mean, he covered it or whatever.
It says, "Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam.
Sunbeams are never made like me.
Don't expect me to cry for all the reasons you had to die.
Don't ever ask your love of me.
Don't expect me to cry.
Don't expect me to lie.
Don't expect me to die for thee."
Don't expect me to cry, and he just keeps repeating the same thing over again.
But yeah, don't expect me to lie.
Don't expect me to die.
Don't expect me to die for me.
So Kurt Cobain, he was taken to church.
He had a rough home life, but he went to live with his Baptist family.
It was a Baptist church in the town that he lived in, and they were taking him to church
and he like proclaimed a profession of faith at some point.
But then he just started going around saying he was gay and spray painting cars and getting
in trouble and spray paint.
You know, I don't know what changed.
I don't know the exact story, but what was he so offended about?
A family that took him in and did right by him and helped him?
And I just kind of suspect that he just didn't like the message of the cross.
He probably just didn't like that the little fruity stuff he was into, God was reproving
because he started writing, "Everyone is gay, Jesus is gay, God is gay."
That's what he was spray painting all over people's stuff.
And I don't know that he really was.
I think he just liked to piss people off, probably liked to piss church people off.
I don't know.
He said the only reason why he didn't become a full homo is because Courtney was the only
person that could keep him from being, you know, the only reason why he was not a homo
is because of Courtney Love, who probably murdered him, by the way.
But I'm just using this as an example of, you know, it's weird how people will go to
church and they'll seem like they're all right, and all of a sudden they just completely
go the other way.
And it's like, and I sincerely believe that Kurt Cobain got offended, and it probably
wasn't some person at church that turned him away.
It was probably the Bible, God's word, you know, something that he hated about the Bible
or God that he just couldn't get over.
Probably got offended by the cross.
Jesus said, you know, and here's the thing about Jesus, and he turned to like Buddhism
and trying to, he really spread Buddhism.
He was responsible for spreading Buddhism and making it come to light in the western
side of the United States and in pop culture.
I mean, the name of their band was called, what, Nirvana, which is the dumbest belief
of all time.
Hey, I want to come back.
I want to keep like getting good karma until I come back as nothing.
I want to cease to exist, you know, you just come back as nothing, you know, I just cease
to, yeah, you don't come back as nothing.
You just cease to exist.
Well, that sounds like a great plan.
I just want to stop existing.
You've achieved Nirvana.
Like that's just, you know, who's had, you've knocked on someone's door and they're like,
I'm a Buddhist.
Anybody?
I think sometimes I think, I feel like people, they say that just to get us to leave because
most people don't know what Buddhists believe.
But that's what they believe.
I want to come back because they believe in reincarnation.
They worship animals, but somehow they believe you have to repent of your sins too.
Like almost every religion believes that.
Hindus believe that.
But Buddhists, if you look on the Buddhist, the Buddhist pages, it'll say repent of your
sins on there.
Like that's just like the devil's, one of his main go-tos.
But isn't that funny?
Like I want to, sign me up man, I want to stop existing, I want to achieve this nirvana,
how can I do this?
It's just like the dumbest religion ever.
And then most of those people, like if they actually believe in that, they're really hard
to get saved.
If they actually believe it, but I think that most of the people that say it to you, unless
they have like one of those little Buddhas in their yard or something, they probably
don't really believe it.
They're probably just lying to you so you'll leave.
But this is another thing that pisses people off.
Jesus sayeth unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
The fact that Jesus says exclusively, I'm the only way to go to heaven, there's no
other way to get there besides me, that ruffles people's feathers.
They don't like that at all because what do they want to believe?
Every road leads to heaven.
How is that even possible if they're just completely believe all the, yeah.
Stop not existing leads to heaven.
What?
They don't even believe in heaven.
They believe in not existing.
Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1.
1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1.
1 Corinthians 2 verse 1, the Bible says, "And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not
with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God."
So whose testimony?
Was it the testimony of him?
Paul?
No, it was the testimony of God.
"For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
And I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my
preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of
God."
So Paul, he didn't go around just teaching his own wisdom, go around teaching all telling
his testimony, you know, people like, "You should start this, I've, I've been around
Pete Baptist that was like, 'Start with your own testimony first.'"
It's like, "Why?"
Paul says, "I start with the testimony of God."
That's what we should start with.
Don't start with your own testimony.
"I was this and I was that and then Jesus said..."
You know, it's like, I mean, I think it's appropriate sometimes, but not when you first
knock at someone's door.
I think it comes off weird, actually.
Remember, we were like souling and we did like this big souling trip and it was like
in Washington.
It was like a very unreceptive place, but the pastor that we went with, he started with
his testimony every time and it was just really annoying, but it was just the way the Bible
College taught him to do it.
Anyway, go back to Galatians 5-12, but there are people that will train you to go souling
and they'll say, "Start with your own testimony.
Why?
Start with God's testimony."
Paul says this, "I would that they were even cut off, which trouble you."
What do you think he means by that?
Like that they just got cut off on the freeway and had to take another exit or something?
Is that what you think?
His wagon of horses had to go somewhere else?
No?
Because like if you study that term in the Bible, it's usually talking about like you're
cut off from the people, like you're outcast or told to go away, or you're just killed.
That's what it means.
And so what is the remedy for a false prophet in the Bible?
That they were put to death, right?
Now at this time, Israel didn't have control over putting people to death, and at this
time we don't have control over that either, and the United States does not put false prophets
to death.
That's just the time we live in.
There will be a time when that happens again, but that's when Jesus is going to rule and
reign on this earth.
So we don't put false prophets to death.
We don't put sodomites to death.
That is not our calling.
That is the government's call.
But Paul said, "I would," that they were even cut off, "which trouble you?"
I mean, Paul probably had some poles, like, "God just killed him."
But people were always like, "When did Paul ever wish death upon anybody?
Well, how about right there?"
Or he was like, "I would that they were even cut off that trouble you.
I wish that they would just die so that they couldn't keep corrupting you."
And so, you know, why though?
Because false teachers do a lot of damage.
Paul's having to write these letters and go to Jerusalem and travel and just go through
all this trouble because of false teachers that creep in and cause a lot of damage.
So let's look at verse number 13.
So I think I forgot to tell you what the first point was because I didn't have it in front
of me.
That crisis set us free from bondage was point number one.
Point number two is that the battle is the battle against the flesh is a daily battle.
And people will deny this, false teachers will deny this, they'll be like, "I've never sinned
since the day."
Some people take it too far, like they don't sin, like what's that guy's name, Jesse Lee
Peterson, who just denied that he sins at all, and then we come to find out he's a queer
later on.
Yeah, like wow dude, you don't sin, like that's the worst.
But yeah, I mean there's people, or people that say you gotta, like Ray Comfort who says
you have to repent, and then like he's interviewing that drunk guy, and then the drunk guy just
totally schools him on salvation, it's like, "Man, I mean I don't agree with him being
drunk, but like at least he was right."
Galatians 5 13 says, "For brethren, you have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty
for an occasion to the flesh."
What do you think he means by that?
Like maybe just don't go out and do a bunch of sin because, just because you have liberty?
"But by love, serve one another.
For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even in this, thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself."
Is that a commandment in the Bible?
Oh, I thought we weren't supposed to keep the commandments anymore according to the
free grace people.
Oh, that's interesting.
Is that just Jesus' commandment?
No.
I mean, but it is the number two commandment out of all the commandments in the Bible.
I think that's found in the Old Testament.
Oh, wow.
That's real interesting.
So, is that a moral commandment?
Yeah, it's pretty moral to not do bad things to your neighbors and to do good unto them.
That's pretty moral, isn't it?
So it's encompassed, it's fulfilled in one word that, yeah, I mean, you know, doing good
to people doesn't, you know, not doing ill to your neighbor is doing good unto them.
You know, not committing adultery with their wives or murdering them or coveting the things
that they have and envying them and all these other wicked things, yeah, that's doing good
unto your neighbor.
How about giving the gospel unto them and getting them saved?
Those are good things, aren't they?
And so, yeah, we're supposed to, by love, serve one another and the law is fulfilled.
So, you know, but according to free grace people, yeah, we don't have to keep any laws
anymore.
And we've never have had to keep laws to be saved, though, but, you know, it's always
been by faith.
But why is he saying this, then, that we should serve one another and the law is fulfilled
in one word, that thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
So it sounds like it is a law, but it's not for salvation, but it's to please him.
So because aren't we supposed to please God, just like you'd please your parents, right?
Like I've talked about this a lot recently, but let's look at a few verses here.
Let's look at 1 John chapter 3, 1 John chapter 3, because again, according to free grace
people that just believe that we just don't have to do anything that would be commandments
anymore, that we just never have to keep any commandments of God anymore, 1 John 322 says,
"And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him because we," what's that say there?
"Keep his commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight."
So do we want to please God?
Well, we keep his commandments because we keep his commandments, we do those things
that are pleasing in his sight.
That's interesting how those things are connected, right?
Now look, you're already in the neighborhood, let's look at 1 John 5, 3, 1 John 5, 3, 1
John 5, 3.
It says, "For this is the love of God that we do whatever we feel like doing," is that
what it says?
No, it says that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not grievous.
So again, those are New Testament verses, right?
I'm pretty sure we're in the New Testament.
Now turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 1, 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 1.
You've got to be careful when people are just twisting the Scriptures, twisting God's
Word and just picking, pulling Scriptures out of thin air and just saying, "We don't
have to keep God's commandments anymore.
It's just insane."
1 Thessalonians 4.1 says, "Furthermore, then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you
by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us, how ye ought to walk and to please
God and do abound yet more."
So we ought to walk and we ought to please God and do abound yet more.
So how do we abound yet more?
Well, because we walk and please God.
He wants us to do those things.
Look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 10, Colossians chapter 1 verse 10.
And while you're turning there, I'm going to read for you Philippians 2.13.
Philippians 2.13 says, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of
his good pleasure."
See, you know, people get this backwards sometimes, but you know, we're here to do God's pleasure.
So we're not here to do our own pleasure.
Now God allows us to have pleasure in our life and I think he wants us to have leisure
in our life.
But we're not here just to do our own thing and to live our own lives and to enjoy ourselves
all the time.
And that's kind of what junior church and you know, Sunday school kind of turned into
in Baptist churches is that it's all just fun and cookies and Kool-Aid and fun songs
and everything.
And then when it gets up to real big boy church then they, "I'm bored."
And then they just don't want to come to church anymore because church was never really church
for them.
It was a parade.
Colossians 1, 10 says, "That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being
fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God."
Sounds like, it seems like God just wants us to do some stuff that's positive and keep
commandments and stuff like that.
So now let's look at 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4, 2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4.
I know I'm having you turn to a lot of verses but just be patient.
2 Timothy chapter 2 verse 4, it says, "No man that warth and tangleeth himself with
the affairs of this life," because make no mistake, we are in a war, folks, "that he
may," what's it say there, "please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier."
And whether we like it or not, you were drafted the moment you got saved into the Lord's
army and we are in a war.
And you know, sometimes we're at peace, sometimes we're training, sometimes we're in different
parts of our war, but make no mistake about it, we are at war.
And the war is the battle between God and Satan and the powers of darkness and you know,
we are soldiers and it says we should try to please him who has chosen us to be a soldier.
Now obviously it's not all about keeping commandments and only just work, work, work and never have
any enjoyment and you know, that we should just do all these things by our flesh, okay.
Obviously God wants us to do these things in faith, he doesn't want us to just run ourselves
into the ground and never have any enjoyment.
I don't believe that we should never have enjoyment, I think that we should have hobbies
and things that we like to do and enjoy ourselves and enjoy our life, okay.
We're not just here to just mindlessly drone and you know, and obviously if you're doing
things just without doing it in the Spirit, then you know, and you're not doing it for
the right reasons and you're not really doing it for, it's not helping you anyway.
But go on to turn to Romans chapter 8, I'm going to read for you in Hebrews chapter 11.
Hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 says, "But without faith it is impossible to please Him."
So look, if you're not doing the works that you're doing for God and doing the things
for God that you're doing, if you're not doing it by faith, it's impossible to please Him.
So obviously we would have to do things in faith.
Romans 8, 8 says, "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
So obviously if we're doing things in the flesh, we can't please God.
And James 4, 17 says, "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him
it is sin."
And look, that covers a lot of ground.
That's the thing that, like, that verse to me, I forgot to put that in my scary verses,
but to me that is a scary verse, because to me that's like, man, there's a lot of things
that I know that I'm supposed to be doing and sometimes I'm not doing them and I'm like,
ugh, that's sin.
And that's the thing though, we're in this fleshly body and a lot of times we want to
do things and we don't do them, we're like, "I'm going to do that," and then you don't
do it.
You know, you try to make goals and you don't meet them.
It's tough having a body that doesn't want to do what the spirit wants you to do.
It's the same, the Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.
Our flesh is weak and we have to master and try to take control of our flesh and it's
hard to do sometimes.
And so when the Bible says, "Hend the note to do good and do what is not to him is sin,"
if you know that you should be in church, if you know that you should be reading your
Bible, if you know that you should be praying, if you know that you should be soul winning,
if you know that you should be helping the poor brethren in the church, or whatever it
may be, and you're not doing that, it is sin.
And if some clown preacher has talked you out of that, then you have been evil affected
and you've been undermined by somebody similar to what the Galatians are experiencing here.
And it doesn't even matter if you don't agree with that preacher, but if that preacher
has put a seed in your mind of doubt and said, "Yeah, maybe he is right about that.
Maybe I don't have to go to church.
Maybe, you know, maybe we are doing things in the flesh for the wrong reasons.
Maybe you are.
Maybe you need to get your act together and quit looking at what other people are doing.
But you know, why don't you focus on you and quit looking at what your neighbor is doing
or what other people, why don't you focus on yourself?"
There's a saying that's like, "There's two people looking in the mirror.
There's two people looking in the mirror."
When you look in the mirror, there's two people.
There's the one that is the good you and the one that's the bad you.
You know how in the Looney Tunes cartoons they'll have the bad, the devil on one side
and like the good one on the other side or whatever?
It's kind of, it's maybe not the devil but maybe it's the flesh and the new man if you're
saved.
And the new man wants you to do what's right and the flesh wants you to do what's wrong.
And if you've been feeding that flesh, the flesh is going to win.
It's going to be easier for you like if you're on a diet and you give in that time.
It's easier for you to cave the next time, you know.
It's tough.
And if you have a cheat day and you're just used to having that cheat day, well it's easier
to cheat the next day too, isn't it?
So it is hard.
Turn to Titus chapter 3, Titus chapter 3.
And this is, I really like this verse a lot.
I think it's helpful for us to kind of meditate on this verse here because it's really true
and this is Paul giving Titus some really good advice as a pastor.
It says, "This is a faithful saying, and these things I will that thou affirm," what does
it say there?
"Constantly."
You know, I harp on this kind of stuff all the time.
What?
Church attendance, Bible reading, prayer, soul winning, all that kind of stuff.
Why do I do that?
Well, because the Bible says for me to do that.
It says, "I will that thou affirm constantly that they which have believed in God," you
guys believe in God tonight?
Might be careful to maintain good works.
These things are good and profitable unto men.
Hey, it's good to maintain things.
It's good to maintain your car.
It's good to maintain anything.
It's good to, you know, what is a big thing in maintenance?
Cleaning things up.
Anybody that's worked in construction, you got to clean your tools, you got to clean
your truck, you got to clean all, you know, cleaning is a big part of maintenance.
You know, we got to clean ourselves up sometimes and we got to go to God and confess our faults
to Him and say, "Hey, God, I'm sorry I screwed up today."
And you know, just take it to the next, you know, you know, the Bible says if we confess
our sins, He's faithful and just forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
And people say, "Well, there's no, we don't have to confess our sins all the time, but
we're just, once we got saved, we don't have to do that anymore."
Okay.
Well, have you sinned since you've been saved?
Okay.
Well, yeah, you're sin, you're never going to go to hell, that's true, but try that with
your parents.
Well, I was born one time, and I'll always be my parent's son, so I don't ever have to
apologize for anything I've ever done.
That's a stupid way to think.
I don't understand that way of logic.
But I'm just talking about maintenance here though.
If you maintenance just, and women and men can get this because women like to have their
car cleaned too.
Women like, they like to do the cleaning stuff.
But Bobby fixed my truck the other day, and there was some stuff hanging down, and she
got underneath there and zip tied it up, made me feel like less of a man.
But we were out soul hunting, and she saw it hanging down there, and it was just like,
I don't think I could even fit underneath the truck.
I couldn't have, but she could, and she did it for me, and I was like, cool, thank you.
But it needed to be maintained.
I took it in to get it maintained by somebody else, and they left something underneath on
the oil change or whatever.
But oil change is good.
We need to have fresh oil sometimes.
The Holy Spirit is, David said he needed to have fresh oil.
Sometimes we just need to have fresh oil.
We need to be around the saints.
We need to be in the house of God.
We need to be singing the Psalms and the songs and the house of the Lord.
And we should not forsake the house of God.
It just shouldn't be something, to me it's just one of my biggest pet peeves is forsaking
the house of God.
It just really is.
And I know I've said that a million times, but I'm going to say it again.
But Paul told me to keep saying it, affirm constantly, I'm going to just keep saying
it.
I don't care.
But I'm also going to keep saying, read your Bible, you know.
It's more important than our daily bread.
Give us this day our daily bread, but you know what?
We should have the daily bread of God's word too.
It should be part of our daily life.
It's more important.
And going out and loving our neighbor as ourself, it's an important thing that we care about
other people.
And look, if we want to maintain our spiritual life, then we need to get a spiritual oil
change from time to time.
We need to check our breaks.
We need to pray to God.
And you know, we need to get that spiritual GPS locked in and get the location right.
Because sometimes God just leads us through things.
You know, sometimes you'll be on your GPS and it'll just divert you around some traffic
or something.
You're like, "Oh man, I'm glad I missed that, Rick."
But sometimes God, you know, when you're in close fellowship with God, He's going to divert
you around some safety things that you would have walked right into that.
But He guides and directs our steps on a daily basis when we're close to Him.
And obviously sometimes when we're not close to Him, He helps us out.
But I'm just saying that the more we maintain our spiritual life, the better off we're going
to be.
And these things are profitable and good unto men.
It's important for us to just get the basics down and to maintain our spiritual walk daily
and to, you know, we've got to care about these things.
And, you know, we've got to avoid these foolish questions and side quests that we get on and
the genealogies and the contentions and the strivings about the law for they're unprofitable
and vain.
You know what's important?
Reading your Bible for the right reasons.
You know what's important?
Going to church for the right reasons.
Not just when the sodomites show up.
Not just when there's a controversy.
But hey, why don't you show up every time the doors are open so you can get something
fresh from God, so you can get that fresh oil, so you can sing unto the Lord like he
wants you to.
We're missing things.
It's like if you go to church with the attitude that hey, I'm going to meet with the Lord.
Not everybody gets to do that.
Not everybody even knows about it because they haven't heard.
We get to pray to the God of heaven and earth who created everything and he actually loves
us, which I don't even understand why.
I don't understand why he loves us, but he does because he made us and he wants fellowship
with us.
I mean, he says why, but I don't understand why when I think about how I am as a person.
When I think about the things that I've done in my past, when I think about the things
that I do on a daily basis sometimes, because all have sinned and come short of the glory
of God and they'll just sit there and ask, "Well, what's the pastor doing?"
What are you doing?
You ain't better than me.
I know you're sinning just as much as anybody else.
We all sin.
That's why we need to get cleaned up.
That's why we need to put the car in the garage so it can get, you know, the paint
doesn't get dull and, you know, everybody, like, I don't even put my cars in the garage.
I'm such an idiot.
I got a bunch of junk in there that I don't need, and all my cars sit outside the garage
all the time and rot.
But that's just, you know, some people are like that.
They're like the car that never gets put in the garage, and they just get spoiled.
Anyway, I'm rambling on about this point, but it's important.
Turn back to Galatians chapter 5 verse 15, I'll ease my knee off your neck for a little
bit.
All right.
I know you can't breathe.
5 15, "But if you bite and devour one another, take heed that you be not consumed one of
another."
I've kind of always just wondered why that verse is just like right there, sandwiched
in the middle of all that other stuff.
But it's probably just because Christians have a tendency to do that to each other.
And sometimes in churches they do that to each other.
And sometimes we do that to each other.
You know, we turn into Christian cannibals and we, you know, we ought not to be doing
that.
It's a warning not to take our arguments too far because look, you can turn people
away from wanting to come to our church.
You can badger someone to the point where they want to leave by talking bad behind their
back and they hear it or, you know, treating their kids like garbage and they hear it and
they see it or, you know, just excluding them from your group and, you know, we don't want
to bite and devour one another.
We should be loving one another and treating each other and esteeming each other better
than ourselves.
So, you know, sometimes even smashing false prophets and false brethren, you know, we
can destroy weaker brethren, too, that aren't really quite ready to hear all that stuff
yet.
So, I mean, obviously in preaching I'm not going to hold back on stuff like that, but,
you know, if I see some new person walk in with long hair, I'm probably, and I had long
hair, you know, verses in my sermon, I'm not going to stop preaching about that.
But I might just, like, blunt, I might blunt it down a little bit and just say, "Hey,
if you've never been here before, you know, I'm not intentionally just bringing this up
just because, you know, I've done that before, but I'm not going to not preach it."
I've had that happen more times than I can count.
I'm telling you, like, I feel like every time I have something like that in my notes that,
like, some woman with pants walks in, or, you know, when I'm about to preach about,
I have it in my notes to preach about it, and it's like, I always, like, have that
enter into my mind as soon as I see them, and I'm like, "Don't be a sellout.
Don't be weak."
But then you have to preach it, because otherwise I might as well just turn and just say, "You
know what?
I resigned today.
I was in my notes and I didn't preach it, so I might as well just give it up."
All right, last point, and I'll make this quick.
Verse 16, and my last point is, "Walk in the Spirit in order to win the battle against
the flesh."
It says, "This I say then, walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these
are contrary, the one to the other."
So that you cannot do the things that you would.
See, you cannot do the things that you would.
You want to do them, but you can't do them, because they're contrary, one to the other.
And we have both natures.
This is what people don't realize, is what the false prophets, they love to just use
these kind of arguments to try to defeat salvation by grace alone.
And you can't be a carnal Christian, you know, who's it said that?
Paul Brainwasher, I think he's the one, "There's no such thing as a carnal Christian."
Yes, there is.
Paul said, "I am carnal."
What are you talking about, man?
Your name's Paul Washery, and you don't know what Paul said about that?
But anyways, it says, "But if you be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest," which are these.
And by the way, when it says, "If you be led by the Spirit, you're not under the law,"
I believe that this is talking about that you're saved.
If you're led by the Spirit, you're not under the law.
You're saved.
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest," which are these.
"Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, sedition, heresies, envying, murderers, drunkenness, revelings, and such
the like.
Of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which
do such things, shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Now this is what the false teachers will get a hold of this and they'll say, "See, if you
do any of these things, you're going to hell."
It's like, yeah, but here's the thing.
If you're saved, you won't go to hell.
That's the caveat to that.
It's like, but they're not saved so they don't understand this.
Now it says, "But the fruit of the Spirit," see, so verse 18 I'll prove that this is talking
about people who are saved, but if you be led by the Spirit, now look at what the fruit
of the Spirit is.
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith."
So is it the fruit of your Spirit, or is it the fruit of the Holy Spirit?
It's the fruit of the Holy Spirit because the new man is not your doing, it's God's
doing.
God saves you, salvation is of the Lord, the new man is put into you because you believed
in Christ and He gave you the down payment of the Holy Spirit, He gives you the earnest
of the Spirit and you are sealed unto the day of redemption.
So when you do good things and you are serving Christ through the Spirit, you're serving
the Kingdom of God, it's the fruit of the Spirit that produces these things.
It's not you.
See, the works of the flesh are the ones that are mentioned all above, right?
So if you're led by the Spirit, the Spirit is going to produce those things.
The fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit, not your Spirit and not your fruit.
See?
See that capital S right there?
And I know that S's aren't necessarily, you know, it's not capitalized necessarily in
the original language or whatever, but it is helping us to see that it is not talking
about our Spirit.
Look at verse 23, "Meekness, temperance, against such there is no law, and they that
are Christ," see, they that are Christ, save people, right, "have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit."
So you see the difference there?
If you live in the Spirit, so we live in the Spirit because we are saved, let us walk in
the Spirit.
So walking in the Spirit is different than living in the Spirit.
If we walk in the Spirit, that means we are actually doing the thing, you know, we are
walking in the new man.
So if we are saved, we live in the Spirit and by the Spirit, but we do not always walk
in the Spirit.
We are not always filled with the Spirit.
You know, the Bible, you know, we are commanded to be filled with the Spirit, but that means,
so that means what?
That we are not always filled with the Spirit.
So to be filled with the Spirit, you ask, and I do not have time to go through all these
verses because I am out of time, but the Bible does say, "Therefore, if any man is in Christ,
he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."
People say, "See, you have to have the works."
It is like, no.
It is just saying that you are a new creature.
But if you do not walk in that new creature, you are not going to do good works.
You know, there are two natures.
It just got done breaking it down for you.
Paul just said, "There are two natures.
You have the flesh and you have the spirit."
And Paul says, you know, I do not have time to go into this, but Romans 7, he says he
is carnal.
He says, "The things that I do, I allow not."
You know, he has got contradictory beliefs.
We have contradictory beliefs.
Think about this for a second.
There's things that you do that you don't even believe in.
You sin and you know it's wrong, and you don't believe it's right to do it, but you still
do it anyway, right?
We do.
We have contradictory beliefs.
Just because you believe something and you do the opposite of it, does it mean you don't
really believe it?
No.
It just means you screwed up.
It means that it's contradictory in the way that you just have done something that, you
know, it is hypocrisy to a certain extent, but it doesn't mean that, you know, true hypocrisy
is to say you believe something, but you don't actually believe it.
And then you say it, but you don't believe it.
But if you say something and you do believe it, but then you do the opposite of it, it
doesn't mean that you don't believe it.
It just means that you were walking in the flesh that day or something.
Because that's what Paul's saying in Romans 7.
He's like, you know, the things that I do, for the good I would, I do not.
But the evil which I would do, that I do.
Now if I do that which I would not, there's no more that I do it but sin that dwelleth
in me.
See, we have sin that still dwells in us and until Jesus comes back and gives us a
new body, sin's going to dwell in our bodies.
It's just a fact.
And you know, we can delight in the law of God after the inward man, as what Paul does,
but he says, "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing
me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members."
And he says, "O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death."
And he says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so that with the mind I myself serve
the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin."
And he just breaks it down for us, you know.
It's not super complicated but, you know, and I don't have time, again, to go to the
rest of this but, you know, if we are going, if we're walking in the Spirit, we're reading
our Bibles, we're going to church, we're praying, you know, we're maintaining our daily spiritual
lives which is easier said than done, then we're doing a lot better than a lot of other
people are doing because there's a lot of Christians out there that haven't even read
their Bible one time cover to cover.
But I would guarantee that most of the people in this room have probably read the Bible
one time.
So, it's a great chapter in the Bible and it does teach us a lot of things but just
know that we do have two natures but if you feed the dog that's filled with the flesh,
the fleshly dog, then that dog, when you let it loose, it's going to do bad things, it's
going to eat people's cats in the neighborhood, it's going to kill things, it's going to
get in fights.
But if you feed the spiritual dog, the obedient dog, that dog is going to sit when you tell
it to sit, it's going to do all the right things, right?
So it's easy to use the dog, the dog one, but anyway, I've got to be done.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank you so much for the book of Galatians and Lord, the clear teachings of
Paul.
Lord, I pray that we would just stick to the things that we need to know, the things that
we need to be doing and not just get into things that just get our minds off of the
true work that we need to be doing.
I pray, Lord, that if we're just off the path that we need to be on, I pray that anybody
in this room, anybody in our church, that Lord, we would just get back into one mind
and focus on the things that we need to focus on and Lord, that's just anybody and we all
need help.
From time to time, we all need a spiritual kick in the rear and I pray that you'd help
us to just look in the mirror and just take a spiritual inventory on ourselves and realize
what we need to fix and we all need to fix something.
So let's pray you'd help us Lord, in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Last song is 155, Doxology, I believe we've done this one recently but remember, we'll
be doing it twice as is our custom.
155 in red or green, Doxology.
Pray God from whom blessings flow to creatures, here be him above, he heavenly.
Brother Robert, bless us with a prayer.