The Most Beautiful Girl in the World Part 2 – Freedom in Christ

I was a little slave. I was a slave in Galatia. I had chains on me, and then I touched Him. All I did was believe, and the chains fell off, and He put His Spirit in me. He put Himself in me. Do you think I’m going to go back to living by the demands of slavery? I’ll never do that. I will not touch anybody’s rules, anybody’s standards, or anybody’s demands of conduct because any demand of any kind placed on me is bondage. It is a creation of slavery and bondage. I began by Him, I began by Spirit, and I will continue by Him, in Him, through Him, and in Spirit, and I will not touch anything else.

Did you know that the scripture can see the future? The scripture saw me, a little gentile girl in slavery in Galatia. God didn’t see me there in the future, for He envelops all things, and He is always where I am. But, the scripture saw the day that Jesus Christ would leave Jerusalem, pass on through Antioch, cross the island of Cyprus, and go up to a place called Atalla and go up the mountains of Galatia and come and get me, a gentile girl living in a world where there was no knowledge of any kind of law, but living in a world of absolute lawlessness. And that He would come to me, a gentile heathen.

About the same time, He got there to come to me…well, let me just change that. About the same time…He came there, and He said to me, “There used to be a gentile just like you, an uncircumcised Gentile who had never heard of any kind of standards or rules. He lived in a world void of any understanding of any conduct, rules, standards, or regulations. He was just like you. There was no knowledge of any conduct, and he pleased me. Do you know how he pleased Me? The Lord said to me, and I said, No. “That gentile heathen just like you pleased Me by believing in Me.” And I said to Him, “Lord, who was this uncircumcised, heathen, lawless gentile who never heard of a law or a standard in his whole life?” And the Lord said, “This one who pleased Me, this heathen gentile like you who pleased Me just by trusting in Me was somebody named Abraham.” But don’t bother about that. It’s not important. Here’s the main point—Believe in Me. And I believed in Him, and the chains fell off. And I have never known law, but my lawlessness ended. I never heard any rules or regulations or anything about conduct. I was in a freewheeling society, but my lawlessness ended.

All in the world I did was believe in Him. Then someone came along who knew a lot of rules and regulations and said, “You got to pray and go to church and read your Bible and live a good life and not smoke nor cuss nor chew and you will please God.” And I responded to this person, Did you exist before Abraham or after Abraham? And he said, “Oh, I came along after Abraham.” And I said, “No way.” I have pleased my Lord by one means and one means only, and there is no other, and you cannot conceive of anything else that would ever please him. I simply put my faith in him, and that’s where I am and that’s where I’m going to stay. Are you following me?

And then I said to those people, I’m free. I used to be in slavery, and I’m free, and I’m going to stay free. And you cannot tell me to read my Bible and pray and fast and live a good life and not run around with people who smoke and chew and cuss and go to movies and dance. You can’t tell me that. And I’m going to tell you why you can’t tell me that, and I’m going to tell you why I’m not going to respond to you. Because if I start living by reading my Bible and fasting and tithing and going to church and living in a good life and staying away from people who don’t live a good life, then my God and my Lord will judge me according to whether or not I run around with good people and how much I read my Bible, how much I fast, and how much I tithe, and how often I go to church. He’s going to judge me by that. And I would really prefer that He find me pleasing only because I’m in Christ, and not because I do a bunch of things that are rules and regulations and conduct and standards. If you will please excuse me, I’m going to Christ. You go ahead and live by your standards, and you will never please Him. I am free from all things.

This is a girl talking. Don’t just sit there like that. This is the time to be liberated. See, you don’t believe this little girl said that. Wait until you get through listening to what else she’s got to say to you. I am in verse 13 if you will follow me. Jesus Christ came to my town and delivered me from my slavery of the Christian life. He died to deliver me from all Christian expectations, all of them. And if I go back to living under Christian expectations, concepts of rules and regulations, and demands that other people have thought up, like Moses and Jerry Falwell. I’m sorry. I don’t know if you love Jerry Falwell. That just came out. I’m trying to make a point here. Forget Jerry Falwell, forget Moses, because you’ve got enough of your own friends who are Moses. If I live by any known Christian standard, rule, concept, or conduct, I live in a curse. Excuse me. I’m in verse 12. The Christian life standard is not of faith. On the contrary, whoever practices these things must live by them. Christ came and redeemed me, this girl, from the curse of Christian standards. I can’t live them anyway, I cannot. Do you understand that? I cannot do this. If you do not understand that, you have not understood the first thing you need to understand as a Christian.

Simon Peter said, “I have lived under standards, and I cannot live up to them.” And Paul said, “I lived under standards, and I cannot live up to them. I’m not about to live up to a standard.” If Paul failed and Peter failed at living up to standards, and they said they were under a curse, I’m not going to pick up a standard to please God; the Christian standard is a curse. For it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree and my Lord hung on the tree and was cursed in order to deliver me from all expectations other than being in Him.

Now, I know that I sound a little radical, but I ask you, where will you begin your life in Christ? Will you begin your life in Christ by hearing all the things you ought to do and not do? Or will you begin your Christian life by discovering that you’re free from all things? Which one do you think would be a better vantage point to start your Christian life, your life in Christ? This is what you learn first. This is what I learned in Galatia—that no conduct, no rule, no regulation by anybody applies to me. The only thing that applies to me is the fact that I’m in Christ and God is pleased with Christ.

I’m really amazed that you’re sitting there looking at me like this (this is not the girl speaking; this is Gene Edwards here. She’s over there, I’m over here.) You are terrified of freedom. Hold your nose and jump in. Oh, but Gene, what might I do? You just might fall in love with Him. What a Lord! What a Lord! What a trusting Lord! He’s not like Baptist preachers; He actually trusts you.

Baptist preachers try to keep you from sinning a lot. That’s what they’re called to do. Keep your sinning to an absolute minimum. The Lord came to deliver you from everything except himself, and if that’s not true, I can’t read a book. I’ve got the blessing of Abraham. All I have to do is believe in Him, and that pleases Him.

Boy, this next verse is so pertinent, and nobody ever talks about it. Verse 15, brethren, I speak in terms of human conduct, and I would like for you to just underline that part, and we’ll come back to it in a minute.

The only one who pleases God, and no one else does, is a very strange person indeed. And I refer to a seed, the seed, and no one else pleases God. Christ (I’m in verse 16) pleases God. The Christian life came after Christ. Oh, if you try to adhere to it, it nullifies the covenant and the promise, and the promise is to believe in Him.