The Most Beautiful Girl in the World Part 3

You are not free. I’m going to show you the most overlooked verses in the book of Galatians. Would you turn with me? If you don’t have to do this, believe me. It’s not a big deal. It’s very short, very quick. I am in Galatians 3:15. What’s the most overlooked word in that? Does anybody have a revelation here?  The word that’s most overlooked is brothers. Chapter 4 verse 28. And you, brothers. Chapter 4, verse 31. So then, brothers. I never said you were free, and this is the revelation we need. And this is the understanding we do not have, and this is why we’re here this weekend. You are not free. She is free. You are only part of her.

The message of Galatians was not delivered to an individual. God’s people didn’t understand those things in that day. The gospel we have known has always been individual. And everything we hear on Sunday morning in church is aimed at an individual. We do not know this girl, and we cannot conceptualize this girl. We can only think as individuals. We don’t know this girl. Whatever happened to the most beautiful girl in the world? She is free. You are in her.

Brother, if you are in her, I will speak as a madman concerning freedom. There is no statement too radical for me to make. You are as free as free can get, and it is for freedom that she was set free. This book has no bearing on your life as an individual. (That’s an extreme statement, but take it anyway.) This book was not written to you and does not apply to you. It is not applicable to you and doesn’t work for you, doesn’t make sense for you. It is only within the context of that girl, that beautiful free-living, effervescent, freewheeling, free-swinging girl who has been set free from all things, and you are part of her, only then is Galatians applicable.

We don’t have anything without her. We don’t have that message, and we don’t have that freedom and we never will. Now, the scary part is what you’re thinking right now. Hot dog, I see it. I got it, Gene. She’s free and I’m safe in her. If the whole body’s free, wonderful. I’m going to get six people together, and we’re going to have a wonderful time, and you know, where two or three are gathered together, there is the Lord. There’s the Lord, and we’re going to be free.

You can locate me; you can find me. I exist; I have a beginning. You can find those who know me, and they can tell you my story. You will even hear that those who are not as free as I am have persecuted me because they can’t stand my freedom. You can come to me. You can sit with me. My Lord, who came to me and set me free in this land, was beaten and thrown out of the city.  And my beginning here in this city is very clear and very memorable, and all that has happened is etched in my memory. I’m here and I have suffered, but I have known Him, and it is I who is free and I am not to be taken lightly. I am experientable, I am an attendable, I am visible, and I am free. But I am not a mishmash, and I am not a goo, and I’m not something out in the theoretical, and I’m not floating around in the ectoplasm. I am the bride of Jesus Christ, and He is serious about me, and I am serious about Him, and you belong in me that you might know and taste my freedom as I know and taste being in Him, free of all things.

This is the girl who speaks to you today, and she is free. I’m not, she is. Brother, if you ever see that girl, if you ever see with the eyes of your heart, it’s going to destroy you. And if you ever get inside of her, it’s going to mess up your life. She’s going to mess up your life, and you’ll fall in love with her as much as you do with the Lord Jesus Christ, and if any of you have ever really known and fallen in love with her and met her and live in her, you know that’s true. Sometimes the love is indistinguishable. It is so intense and so powerful, and you will sell everything to be in her walls. No, to be in her. She is some lady, and if nothing else, she’s gorgeous.

Brother Mike R, I ask you a question. Have I understated the case? Sir, do you love the brothers and sisters? Do you find much distinction between your love for them and your love for Him? Is it more or less love than you had for Him before you got inside of her? Now, Mike, one other thing. Is that girl free? I mean, really, really free? Man, isn’t it the truth? Does the fact that she is free work its proper course in your life? Praise the Lord.

I love to quote this. Oh man, this is so funny. Maybe Mike should do this about the brothers and sisters there, but in another city, someone came in and said, “Y’all, just the sisters and brothers are around one another. I walk into one of the sisters’ houses with two or three brothers there, and doesn’t this cause immorality?” No.

Well, let’s just say what if one of the what if one of the brothers, you know, what I’m about to say? You know, what would you do? We would kill him. And we laugh at these questions, we all live so close to one another. Doesn’t that breed immorality? And I have watched the brothers and sisters have questions like that put to them, and it’s like hitting them in the face with a pie. You see, if I were to go back to Atlanta and preach to the brothers and sisters to not have not commit immorality, just duck, man, that’s all we’d be dealing with. But we happen to be free. And thoughts like that literally don’t cross our minds. And what would we do? We’d kill him. I mean, it’s almost unthinkable. She is free. We are in her. And the only thing I want to say to you is, I really would like to see you meet this girl and know her.

Whatever happened to this beautiful girl? I’d like to ask you to go back and reread, and don’t do like this, do like this. Just let her float free and go into chapter 4 and see what this girl has to say to you. And tonight, come back with what you’ve written and don’t try to force part of a passage that’s not there. Whenever Paul starts talking about himself, forget it. When he starts saying things, just forget Paul. Find the richest parts that you can find. The very richest parts that unquestionably concern her, and see if you can rewrite it. You don’t have to hold to the verse, just do like get about halfway between these sisters and that brother, and come back tonight, and I’m going to take volunteers, and I hope that when you open this again, you’ll find more, and it will be richer.

Well, Gene, I’d like to see that girl. Listen, saints, there are 350,000 organizations in America that are calling themselves by that girl’s name. I want to see her, too. I’m part of that lady. I doubt he’s coming back till she comes back. We’ve been waiting for the return of the Lord; we were waiting for the return of the wrong person. You don’t know how beautiful she is. She’s beautiful enough to get Paul’s back beaten bloody and let me close here on this. I’ve already closed, but I’m doing something I swear I’ll never do, and that’s have a postscript.

You see, where two or three are gathered in the name of the Lord, that’s the girl, and after all that girl – Ekklesia, Christa – that’s her name, after all, all she is relationships (sarcasm). It’s relationships. Paul’s got a beat-up back, and they’re hauling him out of town. They’re going to stone him on top of that, or he just got thrown in the water and he’s half drowned, or he’s trying to swim the river and he’s just about to go under. He comes back up, spits out the water, and says, “I’m doing all this for relationships. I’m doing this so two or three can get together in the Lord’s name and have a pleasant evening around cookies and tea.” No, she’s the center of the universe.