Paul’s Letter to the Gauls (Galatians) – Chapter 5

Well, that’s good, because this is the first and only piece of Christian literature in existence: Galatians. That’s all there is. There isn’t anything else. Let’s not worry about anything else. We got enough right here to keep us busy for it’s going to be another two years before another piece of Christian literature is written. This is enough, sister, right here. Now, be careful with this “put on” and “take off” stuff because people who teach and preach that don’t know what they’re talking about put you under the law. That’s right. We are not living in a particularly spiritual age. We’re living in a very surface objective age that does not understand other realms. Audience: It would probably be to remember Gene said, if you’ll seek to walk in other realms on a daily basis, you’ll put on what you need to put on.

You will have put on everything there is. Ephesians 6 – Oh, honey, you don’t have to do that one. That’s not for you to do. Forget it. It’s not yours. Be free. The church is supposed to do that. That book is written to a whole church. You can’t do that, huh? For you to do that would be, virtually, to take on trying to be Jesus Christ. You can’t do that. Yeah, but don’t listen to those people. Those people don’t know anything about the church. Those are preachers, professional preachers getting up, preaching things they don’t know anything about, putting you under the law.

That says, “Put on the new man.” You are not the new man. You are a part of the new man. The church is the new creation. The church is the new man. I slipped right past that verse. Sorry. That is for the church. The church puts that on. Now, you might be able to put on a shoe. Somebody else can pick up a sword. Maybe four or five of you together can pick up a sword. Six or eight of you hold up a shield, but I can’t do all that stuff. I’d be better. I couldn’t do more than David did, trying to put on Saul’s armor. I couldn’t come a lot closer to that. Me, put on the church’s entire uniform? No. And by the way, when you get through putting it on, when the church is totally armed, you don’t do anything. You don’t fight. You don’t go out and take a victory that you’ve already got. You just keep what you got. You just stand. Isn’t that nice? Is that better? Praise the Lord, but that’s a different conference, sister. (laughter) That letter won’t be written for another 20 years. All you have to do is worry about Galatians right now. That’s what I’m talking about. That’s what I am talking about. That was written to a church. Yep. You, the church in Ephesus, put on the whole armor of God. For you, the church in Ephesus, is the new man. I am not the new man. You are not the new man. The church is the new species. Let me take just a second. Here we go. Science fiction will help you a little bit.

Here is this planet out in a galaxy far, far away, and it’s disintegrating. It is going, going, going, gone, and just as it goes, utterly dissolves into nothingness. You see a little spacecraft leaving it, and that’s the only thing that survived that planet. And you know what it’s doing? It heads over here to a new planet just being formed. Brand spanking new. That one’s very old and died. And the spaceship lands on the brand new, beautiful, perfect, pristine planet. Jesus Christ crucified that planet upon the cross, and there was only one thing that escaped it: a totally new creation that had nothing to do with that creation. God started creating again when He created you. You are a new species that does not belong to that world. God ended creation on the sixth day, rested, and then creation disintegrated, but when it disintegrated, He started a new creation that had never existed before, and you are that. But it is not you, the individual. It is you, a body of believers, who are coming into more of the new creation. What’s inside that spaceship is going out to a new creation, and is part of the new creation, and was created when the old creation was collapsing. That was the church of the living God, a new species, a new humanity, a new creature, and that’s what the church is. It is she corporately, not you, individually, and that’s why you really need to be in the body of Christ.

First of all, you can’t live the Christian life because only God can. And secondly, the Christian life was never intended to be lived even by the Lord except in a corporate setting. Even the Trinity is a corporate setting. For you and me, God has ordained the body of Christ, and that’s why I really don’t want just to have a church in Atlanta. I want one all over the world, but I’m not going to live to see that. I tell you, you need to be in the body of Christ if you’re expecting anything to work out for you as a Christian. Everything that I have told you will become meaningless to you within a few weeks unless you’re in a body of believers who are sharing and encouraging one another in it. You will forget these things, and you can’t do them alone. You know, Drew can’t get up every morning, and Brad can hardly ever get up in the morning, but you will be amazed at what the church of Jesus Christ can do corporately. This is something most of you have never had the privilege of being part of – an organic, moving, living, pulsating body of believers. Not something you report into every Sunday; that isn’t it. No. That’s what I’m going to share right now. Just now. Nothing, no more about that. They hadn’t planned on this, and your sister cannot put on the whole armor of God. It is ridiculous, and any Christian in the first century would have told you that these letters were written to churches, and it is the church that is the new creation.

Please don’t take my messages as individualistic. Try to remember, in the beginning, I said imagine you’re the church in Pisidia Antioch and your hope for not getting back under the law is the fellowship of free men and your hope of walking in the Spirit in which you live is in a group of people bound together, determined to love one another and serve one another into walking in their spirit. Audience: Where does that leave out those outside of Memphis who will go home to the body that doesn’t know anything about this?

Well, see, this is the most frequently asked question in my world. That’s the most frequently asked question in the world. Well, here it goes again. You have got these choices. Go back home and forget it. That’s probably the most merciful thing you can do. The second thing you can do is go back home and pray that God will raise up a work in your home, in your city. He may do it, and it may remain and be prevailing. Chances are it will not happen, and if it does, it will last six or eight months. I just heard the death knell last night of a group of Christians in Atlanta who’ve been meeting and breaking up, who wanted the body of Christ, but they wanted it without any help. But God may bless your little town, or big town, and there may be something there already. Or you can move. I want you all to get really clear. Here’s what moving is like. Is the tape still on?

Moving is like putting 364 cyanide tablets in front of you and one vitamin, all looking identical. There are 365 places you could very well move, and 364 of them will kill you dead. That’s the truth. You’re going to find legalism, fighting, weirdness, or whatever. There’s one vitamin in there. Dare you pick one of those up, take some water, and swallow it? Dare you do that? That’s the kind of Russian roulette you’re playing when you move to go somewhere to be in the church. And remember, you heard it from me, and I warned you. Oh, Gene, there’s Atlanta down in there somewhere. No, Atlanta may be one of the poison pills. I cannot guarantee you it is not. Did you hear me? I have absolutely no guarantee that it will not wreck your life. Best you go back home, forget the whole thing. Start a church, fine. To me, that is one of the most arrogant things in the world to do, and it usually ends up in heartbreak.

You know, stay where you are and die in your sand, or go and take a pill that very likely is cyanide. And that’s the only two illustrations I can give you. Not very hopeful, is it? But let me tell you something. It was true in the first century. As far as I can tell, by the close of the first century, in a world population of, say, 100 million, there were probably 200 churches in Judea, and a hundred gentile churches in the rest of the world. That’s 200 out of 100 million people across thousands of towns, and it’s never been any better than that. Today, there are churches all over Memphis that meet in buildings, but if you’re talking about the fellowship of the believers and the gathering of the body of Christ, we have about as many on this planet today as there were in the first century that are not cyanide pills. That’s just kind of the mess we will always be in. It’s just a fairly rare thing and probably will remain that way till the Lord comes. I hope not, but that’s the way it’s been most of the time.

Did you hear all of that? I’m being really honest with you, and I’m not recommending my work. I’ve always tried to recommend other men’s work; I really have. Sometimes I get a letter: Gene, you believe only three or four churches around here have body life. I don’t mean that by the wildest stretch of imagination. There are probably 500 or a thousand of them in this city, in this nation, having body life, but three years from now, you’re going to see caskets as far as the eye can go in most of them. I don’t know which ones, and I’m not taking responsibility because I don’t know. Somewhere today in the North American continent, there’s going to be church life spring up. It’s going to be better than anything you and I have ever experienced. Six months from now, it’s going to die. Yes? Audience: There must be another side to this because about half the books in Christian Books, like Jeanne Guyon’s books, are for the individual with no real connection to church life.

Yeah, that’s true. You can go home and, by an enormous exercise of devotion to Christ, establish a relationship with Him, but it’s not scriptural. And I’ll tell you something else. You might end up being like Jeanne Guyon. Well, that would be wonderful. Don’t be too sure. I think I know that woman’s life about as well as anyone has known it since she died, and that little lady could have well used the Church of the Living God. She was a little this way. On the other hand, if I had to choose between what she was and having nothing, I would take that.

Well, I want to tell you something – a ‘Jeanne Guyon’ comes around about once every hundred years. Now, brother, maybe you are one of those. I think we have him here. Here’s another Jeanne Guyon. No, those people are very, very rare. And by the way, they bug the daylights out of me. They put me under condemnation. If you think I am a ‘Jeanne Guyon’, you don’t know how to spell Edwards. You got the first name right. You got the last name all wrong. I’m holding on. I mean, I’m a Christian just by…I really feel like I’m the world’s lowest common denominator here. I feel like if I can stagger and muddle through this stuff, anybody can. No, I’m not a very good Christian. I’m not a ‘Jeanne Guyon’, I’ll tell you for sure. I told a group of Christians on September 1^st, 1969, that I can’t live the Christian life without you, and you can’t live the Christian life without one another, and that’s where I take my stand. I’m not worth a toot outside the body of Christ. That’s enough. We’re going to quit, but those last 10 minutes are worth their weight in gold. And I don’t have any good, clear answers. I wish I did. Ask me after the meeting. Let’s stand up, and you’re dismissed.