Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) – Chapter 4

A sister came up to me yesterday or today and said…I think it was this lady right here, I don’t know who it was…and said, “I’m afraid my husband’s going to go back to smoking.” Saints, you don’t go back to anything. You don’t return to the elemental. You go forward. You don’t go back. Well, Gene, you can’t guarantee that. I can come close to it. You know why? Because God lives in you. Because the Lord lives in you. I have the faith to believe that the people who are gathered here in this conference, most of you, and I know there will be one or two exceptions, and I’ll be so glad to discover who you are; we really needed to know this about you. You cannot go back to living in a continuous state of fleshly, sinful acts. You might think you can. I don’t believe something inside of you would ever let you get close to it. You are free; why live under fear? You’ve got a Lord living in you. You’ve got someone who has caused you to have love in you. You have a faith that is His very own. Now, I am not afraid. I am much more fearful that if you are put under bondage and told to do this and do that, one day you’re going to go bonkers.

I am told that one of the first things that people who live in the Muslim world do when they fly is, and I’ll speak of Great Britain because I think this story was told to me from Great Britain. You know the very first thing they do when they get off the airplane. They go buy some alcohol and drink it because they have never seen it. They never touched it, and they’ve been told over and over again that they must never drink it. So as soon as they step off the plane in the Western world, one of the first things they do is they go get drunk. That’s where law will lead you. It will lead you to ridiculous conformity, outrageous behavior, unbelievable conceit, and sin the first time you can do it without getting caught. That is not the conduct. That is not the way. That is not…that is just not the new species. Alright, I’m going to go on here. Are you following me? The law is hunting for you right now. All it can find is a tombstone. Died here on April 30 AD in Jerusalem on a hill called Golgotha.

Okay, I think I am in verse 10. Why would you go back then, in the light of all this, to get under the law? My dear Christian, you got all these things piled up in your favor. Why would you want to go back and put yourself under law? You Galatians have gone back to observing days, months, seasons, and years. I throw up my hands. I don’t know what to do. This is what he said. I didn’t say that. I was driving down the freeway in Dallas, Texas, as a young Baptist minister on Sunday afternoon. Now, there’s one thing that can be said for Dallas. Two things. It is the most materialistic town in America, and it is so religious it’s unbelievable, and how they manage to do both of those…you have to be a Baptist to understand that.

I’m driving down the road on Sunday, and I see this church building up ahead, a Seventh Day Adventist, and all over the roof, there are Seventh Day Adventists. They’re building this building, and they are just working on Sunday like crazy. And being the good Christian that I was, I drove past, saw them breaking a holy day, and went, “Those Seventh Day Adventists are working on Sunday.” See, they didn’t work on Saturday, but they didn’t have any respect for our Sunday at all. I wish the Seventh Day Adventists and the Baptists, and all of us Christians, could get together and understand that every holiday and every holy day, as well as every ordinance, every season, every commemorated day, the Sabbath itself was crucified upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That includes Sunday.

Now, Gene, no, wait, wait, wait a minute. That’s going too far. That is just too far. I got something to tell you. I realized that two times in the New Testament, beyond the day of Pentecost, Sunday, the Lord’s day is referred to. I don’t doubt that Sunday was called the Lord’s day. Don’t doubt it at all. Don’t doubt that they met on that day. My brothers and sisters, it was not till the time of Constantine that that thing was ever observed by Christians, and we Christians have created in our own mind logic, and that’s all we’ve got is logic. It goes something like this: “It’s a new order; it’s a new covenant, and God and we moved it from Saturday to Sunday.” Man, if you can find that in my Bible, my page fell out with that on it. I thank God that the world has provided us a day of rest, and we should take it whenever we can get it. Rest. You can take it. If you can find it, get it. Take it. God made us, and he showed us, and that’s why he established the Sabbath: to show all men that our bodies have got to unwind one day out of the week. He established the holy day of the Sabbath, but that day, along with the laws of Moses, was crucified upon the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look it up. It was crucified. The Sabbath was crucified upon the cross of Jesus Christ. You are free from the observance of all days.

Paul throws up his hands at Christians who observe special days and seasons, wondering whether he has labored in vain. I think maybe I’d better stop here and let you ask a question. This may be getting too much for some of you. Yes, brother. Audience: You imply, I think you are, that what holds most Christian groups together is that this particular group of people has agreed that they can live with each other by following certain things. Once you stop doing that, then you have to find another group.

That’s really true. Actually, very few Christian fellowships are held together by Christ. You take all the ordinances away, and all the rules and all the peer pressure and all the doctrines…I bet you Gene has some doctrines. I bet you can’t find them, no matter how hard you look. I’m not a premillennialist. I don’t know what that birthmark on his face is, but I’ll bet you a nickel before the next 12 months are up, somebody’s going to write a pamphlet telling what that thing is for. I am absolutely certain that if that man gets more popular, he is going to be proven to be, beyond all shadow of a doubt, the beast. No question about it. Why not? Mussolini was the beast. Adolf Hitler was the beast. Anthony Eden was the beast. Jimmy Carter was the beast…or the man of sin; which one was he? I’ve forgotten. Henry Kissinger was. That’s correct. Ronnie…no. Ronnie (Ronald Reagan) is too laid back to be much of anything. Oh, come on. I voted for the man. I didn’t mean that as an insult, but that doesn’t seem to fit him. Brothers and sisters, lay it down. All of it. Every bit of it. Clear the way for Jesus Christ.