Well, when Heidi and I first moved to Madison about 10 years or so ago, the missions pastor at First Baptist Church in Madison where I was currently serving approached me and he said, Hey, man, let's commit to honor God with our bodies and work out, you know, three days a week and go to the gym. I'll meet you there. I've been meeting with the trainer recently for accountability, and he's given me some tips and stuff, but, but I think if you and I held each other accountable to meet every Monday, Wednesday and Friday morning at 5am we can use, we can use the workout schedule my personal trainer has given me. So I was ready. I knew it was something I needed to do. I went out. I bought me some new shoes, I bought me some workout clothes. Bought me some brand new air pods. For those of you who don't know what those are. Remember the cassette tapes you keep on your side with the Walkman? Yeah, those, but they go in your ears and they don't stay in there. So anyway, I was in the zone. I was ready. Then 5am Monday came, and it took an act of God to get me out of bed. But finally, I made it over to the gym, and I met Anthony there. I was impressed with how much I could do at the ripe old age of then 31 considering I hadn't worked out since I was 17 years old, I knocked out the leg presses, I soared over the squats and I conquered the lunges. I was on top of my game. I was feeling healthy, refreshed, and I was ready for the next meeting, time of Wednesday morning, until I went to get out of my truck after I had arrived back at our second floor apartment complex when I tell you that I crawled like a baby up the stairs and I looked like a newborn baby deer trying to even walk to the door I was in the worst pain of my life the next morning. Tuesday, my feet and my knees hit the floor at the same exact time. They just kept going. The pain in my body had doubled when my alarm went off at 5am Wednesday, morning, second day of the gym. Oh, I turned my alarm off. I text my gym buddy and I said, I'm out. His response, me too. Let me ask you this question, have you ever started off things with good intentions and then you quit? I think we all can say we have. Maybe it was a diet plan, maybe it was a workout plan, maybe it was a Bible reading. We've all started things with good intentions and then quit. Over the past four chapters, the book of Galatians, Paul has spent a great deal of time trying to explain this doctrinal understanding of justification by faith, that it is by faith and grace, through Jesus Christ, that we have been saved nothing, that we have done, nothing that we can do. It's all because of Jesus. And now we get to chapters five and six, and you're going to see Paul now apply this doctrinal understanding to your everyday life as he applied it to the lives of the Galatians. And Paul says, he says, if you've got right doctrine, you need to have right living. It doesn't matter if you don't swear, if you don't drink, if you don't smoke. Doesn't matter if you serve on the food pantry once a month, helping people out. It doesn't matter if you've gone to church your whole life. It doesn't matter if you're a faithful member and attender of your Sunday school class. It doesn't matter even if you are a faithful tither to your church. What matters is that after you have accepted Jesus, Christ as your Lord and Savior, the life that you profess as a follower of Christ actually makes a difference in your life. And so the difference is, am I living like Jesus, or am I just going to church, doing the church motions, having the church routines? So we get to Galatians, chapter five, this morning in Galatians, chapter five, if it's not, if, if, chapter five. One is not a verse that is not currently highlighted underlying asterisk in your Bible. It needs to be because Galatians chapter five is this important realization for us at our lives to know that this one verse is a summary of everything that Paul has written and that we have studied up until this point. So if you'll take your Bibles and turn with me to Galatians chapter five, we'll be in verses one through 12. And will you stand with me as we honor God by the reading of His Holy Word? You God for freedom. Christ has set us free. Stand firm therefore and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Look, I Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. For through the Spirit by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. You were what running well who hindered you from obeying the truth. This persuasion is not from him who calls you a little leaven. Leavens, the whole lump, I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear the penalty, whoever he is. But if I brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted. In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. Father God, help us to understand that salvation only comes through your Son, Jesus Christ, that He is the one who has offered us freedom, that our freedom does not come through works or actions or circumcision or uncircumcision. Our freedom comes through Christ. Reveal that to our hearts today, for it's in Christ's name that I pray Amen well. And so the big idea that I have for you this morning is this, and it's it's simple, it is for the freedom that Christ has set you free. If you want freedom, Christ will set you free. And so this morning, I'm going to unpack three different applications from these 12 verses, three applications for freedom of every believer in everyday life. So as you go through your day to day routines in your life as a believer, these are three applications from this passage of Scripture that you can apply and understand what God has for you as a believer. And the first one that we're going to look at is number one, that a believer should live every day in the freedom Christ gives every day we should be living in the freedom that Christ gives you see the freedom given by Christ liberates us as Christians from the law. It liberates us when he says he uses the example in verse one as a yoke of slavery in the Jewish tradition, this image of a yoke, you know, the yoke that you would put around an oxen or or a plow mule or something to to help plow the ground, to keep them in check, to show them the way, so that they wouldn't go out and do what they weren't supposed to. In Jewish tradition, this image of the yoke was often used to describe the law's role of guiding people in righteousness. You know, Jewish people put the yoke on so that you will stay in the righteousness and in check with God, so that you won't stray this way or that way, that you've got the yoke of the law on and you're good to go. Now there's a book that came about about 200 BC, 200 ad, and it's called The Mishna. The Mishnah is a foundational text for the Jews of their oral law, the law that was passed down verbally by mouth. And so when it was written, it compiled this collection of. Traditions that were had been passed down orally. But the main job of the Mishna is to serve as the first major work of Rabbinic Judaism to help the Jewish people know how to keep the law. And so in the Mishnah, chapter three, verse five, parts A and B. Rabbi nehunia, that guy says, I'm not going to even try. He was a rabbi. He says, quote, for Whoever accepts upon himself the yoke of the Torah, the law, they remove the yoke of the state and the yoke of hard labor. And whoever removes from himself the yoke of the Torah, they lay the yoke of the state and the yoke of hard labor on themselves. You see the Torah, the law told them, This is how you act in order to be find righteousness. And so the Torah was the yoke that they would put around their neck. And he's saying, if you have this, you don't have to worry about the state. You don't have to worry about hard labor. He didn't say labor. He said hard labor. So there's still actions that the Jewish people still have to keep in order to obey the Torah, obey the law. And he says, but those who take the yoke of the Torah off of them, you're submitting yourself to the state. You're submitting yourself to hard labor. But let me tell you something Jesus came. He did not come to abolish the law. He came to fulfill the law. And in this sense, Jesus says, in Matthew 1129, and 30, he says, Take my yoke upon you. Same wording, this is in the book of Matthew. Matthew was written to the Jewish, the traditional Jewish people. Okay, you're not going to find this illustration in Mark or Luke. It's only in Matthew, because Matthew wrote to the Jewish people, because the the Gentiles wouldn't have understood this terminology. So Matthew writing to the Jewish people, tells the story that what Jesus said, Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Verse 30, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So Jesus didn't come to abolish the law. He's saying, I am that new yoke. I am that new opportunity for you to not have to work yourselves to death to impress God. Take my yoke upon you. My burden is easy and light. And so Paul, what he's doing here in in verse one is he is reflecting and redirecting this imagery to clarify that the law's effect. Now that Christ has come, you'll need the law anymore. You don't need all of that so it does not lead or teach people anymore. The law doesn't do that anymore. You have to worry about it. But instead, the law will enslave you if you choose it over Jesus Christ. So number one, a believer should live every day in freedom of Christ and His yoke offers that freedom. Number two, a believer should guard himself or herself against legalism. This has been the whole message of Galatians. You know, freedom in Christ. Don't Don't worry about works and all of that, because Jesus has paid it all. And so number two, a believer should guard themselves against legalism. And he, and he uses this, and he used it earlier in the letter. He uses this phrase. He says, If you accept circumcision. Okay, why is he bringing this up to the Galatians? You know, they, they're not Jewish. They don't, they don't have to worry about all of that. Well, these Judaizers, these knuckleheads that were coming in and trying to convince them that, you know, hey, that you you gotta do all of these things in order to be saved. Yes, you need Jesus and this so basically saying, you need the oil and the water, like we talked about last week, and that's never going to mix. And so Paul comes in and he's, he's saying, If you accept circumcision, so if, if the Galatians used circumcision to appease God, they're going to nullify Christ's work on their behalf, and since his death had already redeemed them from the law. So what do you what do you want you? You want the works to redeem you, or do you want Jesus Christ to redeem you? And so how do we apply that today? Right in America where circumcision is still practiced for hygienic purposes and not even religious purposes, what? What does that mean to us today? Well, we understand today that that this particular verse and statement isn't just about circumcision, right? We believe that it it's it's about replacing Jesus, replacing the grace that his death offers with anything fill in the blank you see, works based faith for the Galatians and for us today, is still a problem. It's still a problem works faiths. Faith is still a problem for us today, and some of you are even guilty of saying things like and I am too. If I start doing this and stop doing that, then God will be satisfied. You've thought that way, haven't you, it's hard to not think if I if, if I stop using that kind of language, God will be satisfied. If I stop dating that girl or that guy, God will be satisfied if I stop smoking, if I stop drinking, maybe if I start reading my Bible every day, if I start going to church every Sunday. If I start going to Sunday school, if I start tithing, God will be satisfied, then I'll be the right kind of Christian. Well, let me let you in on a little secret. You need to start and stop every one of those things and much more, okay, but I don't want any of you to hear me say, if I just check all these boxes, I'll be right with God, because you can get all of these boxes checked and be totally wrong with God. You can do all of these things and be missed the mark 100% the point that Paul is trying to make here is not that we earn favor with God, but we experience the beauty and the splendor of the gospel. That's his point. And the reason we sing songs like I know John sang the song a few months ago. No longer slaves. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I am a child of God. The reason that we sing songs like that is is that the reason I am no longer motivated to drink, the reason I'm no longer motivated to swear, no longer motivated to have sex outside of marriage, no no longer motivated to gossip and that and that I may be motivated to be kind to people at school, work and at home and at church and in public, isn't so I meet the standards and I check all of the boxes. No, we sing the song. I'm no longer a slave to fear. I'm no longer a slave. I'm a child of God. We sing that song because I have experienced the glory of God, and it has changed the way that I relate to people. That's why we sing and we worship in that capacity. And Paul does not mean that that circumcised Jews or Americans or whoever cannot become believers, or that Christ's values can be diminished by the law. His point is this is that anyone who insists on living under the law fails to trust Jesus, Christ. So you can try to start and stop all of the things that you need to or you can do it with Christ's help, and Let Christ be first and foremost. And only you see, Christ's work is completely sufficient. In the life of the believer, it's sufficient, that word means it's enough. You don't need anything else. It's sufficient. And so to trust in the value of circumcision or any other work or action is to diminish the work of Christ. In verse four, he said, You are severed from Christ. You who would be justified by the law, you have fallen away from grace. Look family, seeking to be justified by means outside of Christ is foreign to the gospel message, and it results in estrangement, isolation from Jesus Christ when you seek anything other than Jesus, and we're all guilty of this from time to time. We let non essentials in our lives become essentials, right? We allow other things to take priority over Jesus Christ, our relationships, our finances, jealousy, unconfessed habitual sins. Sometimes the things that that aren't even bad in and of themselves, they become sinful. And what do I mean by that? Kids and Families are really busy nowadays, and it's not anything to to pass somewhere. On a Wednesday night and see the the ballpark, the soccer fields packed full of families practicing or having games, same things for Sundays and so on and so forth and and but they are busy, and ask a room full of young people today, how many are involved in band? How many are involved in sports. How many are involved in other extracurricular activities outside of school, including church? Okay? And all of you could raise your hand for that one because you're in church currently, in case you didn't know that, but ask em, what all they're involved in. And take all of these things and and what ends up happening is that we make these things that are non essentials. In the beginning, essentials, we have ultimately dethroned God because our priorities are out of control, big time. And Paul's point is that you you have turned aside from the true essential. You've gotten away from him. You're not standing with one foot on Grace and one foot upon the law anymore, but you've gone right away from grace, making everything else more important. You care about everything else more but it's okay, because you give God the glory for it. All right, we gotta got a ball game on a Sunday that makes us miss church, but we won, so To God be the glory. No, and it's not just young people and families, so don't get ready. I'm about ready to come at you too. Many of you sitting here today are letting other people step in and dictate how you value yourself, rather than you remembering how God values you, you're letting people get into you, into your mind, into your spirit, and let them dictate how you are, other than remembering I am a child of God. It doesn't matter what this world thinks about me if I'm living faithfully for the gospel of Jesus Christ, that's all that matters. It doesn't matter if someone thinks that I don't wear the best clothing, or that I'm not filling the blame with the issues that you're faced with. But we're all sitting here today, and we let people step in and dictate how we value ourself and how they value us, rather than remembering how God values us, we start putting the grace of God and and and how he values us in front of people. Then, then suddenly, the non essential values have taken the place of God at the top of our ladders begins to fall dim in the light of His glory and grace. When we let God stand in front of those people in verse five, he says, through the Spirit, by faith, he words by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. If I wanted to describe saving faith in one word, I would say that it is trust. It is believing in God so much and believing in Christ so much that we trust ourselves and our eternal destinies in the hands of a loving God who values us. And so number three, the believers should express their faith every day through love. Do you know that we express our faith through love every day? Legend has it. This is not a true story. Preface it that legend has it that a wealthy merchant traveling through the Mediterranean. Mediterranean world was looking for Paul. He encountered Timothy. Timothy arranged the visit. Paul was, at the time, prisoner in Rome, stepping inside the cell. The the cell, the merchant was surprised to find another old man, physically frail and whose serenity and appeal really challenged the visitor. They talked for hours, and finally, the merchant left with Paul's blessing, and outside the prison, the man the merchant inquired of Timothy said, What's the secret of Paul's power. I've never seen anything like it before. And Timothy replied, He said, did you not guess, is it not obvious, Paul is in love? In love? The merchant was a little bewildered, yes, Paul is in love with Jesus Christ. And the merchant looked even more bewildered. He said, is that all smiling? Timothy looked back at him, and he said, that is everything see in verse six, Paul writes, he says, I. For in Christ, Jesus, neither circumcision or nor uncircumcision counts for anything but only faith working through love. You know, the goal of every Christian life is to express faith in Christ through love, not to live out the requirements under the law, but faith in Christ through love. You know, believers are called to demonstrate their faith through this sacrificial love for others, because our faith is placed in the one who first demonstrated such love. So in verses seven through 10, Paul brings up the the question again about who has been leading these people astray. He reminds them. He uses this, this phrase here, a little leaven leavens up the whole lump. Your version might say a little yeast will go a long way. Any, any bakers in the house? Anybody? Okay, you just okay. I'm expecting great things from you. Okay, what is Paul saying here with this comparison? You know when, when you're going to bake bread, the smallest amount of yeast does a lot, right? Like you don't. You don't need to dump the whole jar in there. You may have catastrophe. But Paul is saying here, and using this comparison, is, is that there are a few agitators who have broad influence among the Galatians, and so that that yeast has gotten in a little too much and has really messed messed up their way of thinking, messed up the batch. He says in verse 10, I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view, and the one who is troubling you will bear penalty, whoever he is, this here church, this here confirms Paul's trust in God to persuade the Galatians through his letter that he wrote this letter, trusting that God was going to change their heart. Why? Because of his love for them and the gospel. You see when, when we see a brother or a sister struggling in their faith, oftentimes we just sit and hope for some better Christian to step in the gap and and help right? I do it too. And some people, not calling any names, will come up to me and they'll say, Brian, the Lord has placed it on my heart to help this person praise God. And then you'll continue. Is there a team or ministry that can do that? Or how about the deacons? No, no, absolutely not. The Lord placed it on your heart. That doesn't mean that, that I shouldn't equip you and help you and pray for you and do what I can, but you're not going to pawn off the Lord's work on someone else. That's why he laid it on your heart, because you are a better person to minister to that person than maybe a deacon or someone else in the church. He put it on your heart. Let me know how I can help you, but I'm not doing the work for you, and other people will come. Brian, I don't know if you know it, but Betty Sue she's sharing all kinds of false biblical teaching on Facebook. Again, I think you need to have a chat with her. No, no. When you see brothers and sisters in Christ being led astray, when you see him being led astray, no matter what, you take the lead and speak truth to them, not publicly. By the way, never change anybody's opinion. On Facebook, you go to them face to face, one on one, and in a loving way, you explain to them, Hey, this is what I saw. That's what I heard. You say, This is what the Bible teaches. So it's not my job to reprimand people for posting false things on Facebook. If I see it, I'll probably say something, but if you see it, you help brothers and sisters out. That's why the church is so shallow in their faith and their theology. Now is because we're getting all of our information from TV preachers who think that if you give them$100,000 you can fly in a jet too. We we're too scared to step up and say anything, but the gospel is at stake. Believers, believers, they express their faith daily through love and helping one another out. And if this and if this great essential of looking out for, looking out for and helping your brothers and sisters in a time of need, isn't it essential in your life, it'll all start crashing down. That's what we do as. Christians, we love, we help, we don't pawn it off on somebody else just because they've got a title, deacon or pastor, you've got a title. It's Christian literally translated little Christ. What would Jesus do? To use the 1990s cliche, Jesus would help him where he saw fit, and he says in verse 11, but if I brothers, if I'm still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. You see church family, every Christian has the responsibility to watch for the first bit of yeast that infects the fellowship and eventually grows into a serious problem. Every single one of you as a church member, as a Christian, has the job, the responsibility to watch out for the yeast that will affect the fellowship. No wonder Paul is so vehement, and as he as he denounces these false teachers, it's I'm suffering persecution because I preach the cross, because these false teachers are probably celebrities, because they preach a religion that pampers the flesh and feeds the ego. So the agitators had claimed that Paul was still advocating circumcision, which was a lie. If I'm doing that, why am I being persecuted? If I was preaching persecute if I was preaching circumcision, people would leave me alone, but I'm not. So don't take them at their word. And he says, lastly, in verse 12, I wish those who unsettle you would emasculate themselves. Now I'm going to let you use your Webster's dictionary to find out the different definitions of emasculate and what Paul meant here. But what Paul is basically saying is I wish that they would cut themselves off from you, from leading you astray. And ultimately, he's to an extent one one person's commentary that I read said that he was probably hoping that they would do this to themselves, so that they would not carry on the tradition of more of their offspring leading other people astray. That that's what he was saying. And so since the death and the resurrection of Christ, there there's no spiritual value to circumcision. Just let you know, nothing wrong with it if you're not, if it's it's something that you do as a whatever, and you're not using it as a religious works based thing, hygienic purposes, all. That's fine. That's a sermon for another day, but it has no salvific purposes. It's only a physical operation. But if we're going to take works and actions and we're going to elevate them above the grace of Christ, then we are a slave, and we need to, right now, purge out the yeast the false doctrine that mixes Law and Grace, purge it out and yield to the Son of God. You.