WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.480 Galatians 5 and verses 1 to 15. You may not have sensed it during the reading, but it 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:18.039 is an absolutely seismic chapter or passage-ness. It's almost like Paul is dealing with splitting 00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:24.039 the atom, splitting the spiritual atom, as it were. He gets to the very core, the very 00:00:24.039 --> 00:00:34.119 heart of believing and living as Christians and is defending it to absolutely His life. 00:00:34.119 --> 00:00:38.879 It's so important to Him, and you'll see that in the language that He uses as we go through 00:00:38.879 --> 00:00:45.239 it. It's not just an incidental matter He's dealing with, it's something of great significance 00:00:45.239 --> 00:00:51.079 in this young, fledgling church, and He wants to nail it, and He wants to remind them of 00:00:51.079 --> 00:00:58.359 how important Jesus is and the gospel is at this stage in their lives. And I'm going to 00:00:58.359 --> 00:01:04.679 start by just taking the two major principles that underlie this section and talking about 00:01:04.679 --> 00:01:10.319 them briefly first before looking at the actual situation, which I'm just going to briefly 00:01:10.319 --> 00:01:18.439 mention. Because it's so important to recognize the principles here are principles that apply 00:01:18.439 --> 00:01:25.239 absolutely to today and to your Christian life and to my Christian life. The two things 00:01:25.239 --> 00:01:34.359 are, verses 1 to 12, He's basically dealing with the idea that rules for many people appear 00:01:34.359 --> 00:01:41.799 easier than relationship, in spiritual terms, that rules appear easier than relationship. 00:01:41.799 --> 00:01:48.719 And then in verses 13 to 15 as He's working it out, He's talking about that sinning appears 00:01:48.719 --> 00:01:54.840 easier than serving. So as these two things that apply very much to ourselves, you might 00:01:54.840 --> 00:02:00.079 not get the context and the circumcision and all that stuff, but you get these principles, 00:02:00.079 --> 00:02:07.920 don't you, that rules appear easier than relationship and that sinning appears easier than serving. 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:12.960 Because there's that reality deep within each of us that we want things black and white, 00:02:12.960 --> 00:02:17.719 we want things absolutely clean cut, we want a relationship with God and a relationship 00:02:17.719 --> 00:02:26.199 with other people to be clean cut and absolute, because relationships with others just seem 00:02:26.199 --> 00:02:32.480 with God and with others just seem so messy and they seem so complicated. So we'd much 00:02:32.480 --> 00:02:37.159 rather if it just came to church and you told me what to do and told me what I had to do, 00:02:37.159 --> 00:02:41.120 then I could judge myself and I could judge other people by these standards and it would 00:02:41.120 --> 00:02:49.039 be much easier. All that stuff about joy and patience and gentleness, it's so unspecific, 00:02:49.039 --> 00:02:55.879 it's so nebulous, it's so imprecise, just give me some rules to follow and that's much easier. 00:02:55.879 --> 00:03:01.879 Much easier isn't it than the mess of relationships. And part of the reason that that's the case 00:03:01.879 --> 00:03:08.799 is because deep down when we have rules to follow or to break, it means we can be, it's 00:03:08.799 --> 00:03:16.719 much easier to be in control and it's much easier to seem like we can earn some favour 00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:23.120 with God if we're obeying the rules. We are hardwired at the very deepest level, we're 00:03:23.120 --> 00:03:29.680 hardwired, just you think about this, we're hardwired to reject anything good that we 00:03:29.680 --> 00:03:41.040 don't earn. Deep down we need to earn goodness that's given to us. We constantly are asking 00:03:41.040 --> 00:03:46.960 about whether we're good enough, whether we're doing enough, whether we're loved enough, 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:51.760 what more can we do? We're always deep down trying to justify ourselves, we do it all 00:03:51.759 --> 00:04:00.079 the time, all the time. You just think about yourself in a new situation, a new job or 00:04:00.079 --> 00:04:05.479 a new community or a different church, a new situation, what am I going to do with a question 00:04:05.479 --> 00:04:10.519 subconsciously, maybe I ask you, what am I going to do to be accepted? How can I be 00:04:10.519 --> 00:04:15.799 accepted? What will I do? How can I act in such a way that will make me accepted? We 00:04:15.800 --> 00:04:22.840 work to be popular, we want to be liked, we want to be loved, we want to be accepted, 00:04:22.840 --> 00:04:27.960 and we want to know the rules of the game that will enable us to be accepted. And we 00:04:27.960 --> 00:04:34.120 can bring that very easily and quickly into our Christian lives. It's so hard for us to 00:04:34.120 --> 00:04:40.680 accept grace and to accept something that we haven't earned, something that we don't 00:04:40.680 --> 00:04:49.879 deserve. It goes against every ounce of our innate being from within us. So rules are 00:04:49.879 --> 00:04:55.680 easier than relationship because they help us to feel that we're earning some kind of 00:04:55.680 --> 00:05:04.480 favor with God or with one another. And also I think sinning appears easier than serving, 00:05:04.480 --> 00:05:10.360 doesn't it? Because when we're sinning, we're kind of fitting in with the majority, and 00:05:10.360 --> 00:05:17.040 it appeals to the natural desires, the selfish desires we have within us. It can be very 00:05:17.040 --> 00:05:23.000 satisfying, we can focus on ourselves. And there's much less stress, isn't there? We're 00:05:23.000 --> 00:05:29.960 avoiding a spiritual battle. We're avoiding the eye of God and the disapproval of others, 00:05:29.960 --> 00:05:39.000 and we can just close the Bible and stop praying and stop serving and just live for 00:05:39.000 --> 00:05:46.279 ourselves. It appears much easier, especially the whole concept that the Bible seems to 00:05:46.279 --> 00:05:54.079 always be driving about serving, serving others. But Christians are so hard work. It's much 00:05:54.079 --> 00:05:59.199 easier to just sit back and find fault with them and there's plenty to find fault with. 00:05:59.199 --> 00:06:04.639 And that makes me feel better about myself. The church is so demanding and it doesn't 00:06:04.639 --> 00:06:11.560 understand. It's a failed institution. The walk of Christ, the walk of faith, even with 00:06:11.560 --> 00:06:19.759 Christ is demanding. I can't cope with the battle. It's much easier to give in. And in 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:25.519 reality, that's the two issues that Paul is dealing with in this church in Galatia, in 00:06:25.519 --> 00:06:33.959 a specific context that doesn't mean a great deal to us at its fundamental level. But you'll 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:40.839 have seen from the other sermons that Paul was dealing with an issue of adding to the 00:06:40.839 --> 00:06:47.719 gospel. And it was adding to the gospel with works of the law, so that you were saved by 00:06:47.719 --> 00:06:53.719 Jesus but you also had to obey the law. Particularly, it was speaking about the need for circumcision 00:06:53.719 --> 00:06:59.199 and all that went with that in terms of the law. And so these false teachers were coming 00:06:59.199 --> 00:07:04.839 in and they were saying, you need to obey the Old Testament and trust Jesus. Jesus isn't 00:07:04.839 --> 00:07:09.839 enough on his own. You need these rules. You need these regulations. You need these things 00:07:09.839 --> 00:07:16.399 in black and white. And once you tick all them, then you can have Jesus as well. Christ 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:21.519 and faith in Christ wasn't enough. You needed the rules. You needed the regulations. You 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:26.959 needed the things that were black and white, in this case circumcision. But the result 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:34.159 of that was that they weren't loving one another. They were divided. They were treating one 00:07:34.159 --> 00:07:42.799 another sinfully. And Paul talks about that. You're evoking, sorry, you're abiding and 00:07:42.799 --> 00:07:48.959 devouring one another and you will consume one another because there was factions. We 00:07:48.959 --> 00:07:53.879 know about that. Well, some of us know about that. We've been a bit longer in the tooth 00:07:53.879 --> 00:08:01.920 and others in the church. Divisions, different theological positions that didn't bring people 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:14.519 together but dragged them powerfully apart. And because they had these wrong gospel understandings 00:08:14.519 --> 00:08:23.839 and were adding to Christ in Galatia, then they were divided and being loveless. Well, 00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:29.759 how does Paul respond to this major issue within the church in Galatia? Well, under 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:37.279 the inspiration of God, he responds with urgent passion. That's what he responds with. He 00:08:37.279 --> 00:08:45.279 responds very powerfully with blunt and brutal language because he sees that the very heart 00:08:45.279 --> 00:08:52.639 of the gospel is at stake. It's not just a minor fracas. It's not just a difference of 00:08:52.639 --> 00:08:58.799 opinion. The very, the heart of the gospel, the person of Christ and the truth. And your 00:08:58.799 --> 00:09:03.360 understanding and my understanding of what it means to be a Christian is subsumed within 00:09:03.360 --> 00:09:08.560 this whole understanding that Paul deals with. Think, look at the imagery that he uses in 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:14.960 this particular section. He talks about knowing Christ being freedom and anything else is 00:09:14.960 --> 00:09:20.919 slavery. He says you stand up tall. You're standing upright when you're following Jesus 00:09:20.919 --> 00:09:26.539 Christ. You're not weighed down. He says you're going back to imprisonment, submitting to 00:09:26.539 --> 00:09:33.919 darkness if you move away from the gospel. Severed from Christ, from Christ is the life. 00:09:33.919 --> 00:09:41.839 Now recently someone that I know was shaving and they were shaving, listening to their 00:09:41.839 --> 00:09:56.000 phone with earphones on as they were shaving. And they severed the wire as they were shaving, 00:09:56.000 --> 00:10:02.519 which meant of course that it was useless, the earphone. Severed, completely useless. 00:10:02.519 --> 00:10:08.720 And that's exactly the picture that Paul is using here. You're being severed from Jesus 00:10:08.720 --> 00:10:15.600 Christ. You're being cut off from Jesus. What's left is completely rendered useless. 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:22.480 Then he goes on to say you're falling off a cliff. You're falling away from Jesus Christ. 00:10:22.480 --> 00:10:32.879 He uses this strong language in these different verses. And he then says it's like falling 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:38.879 off a cliff. It's almost suicidal, he's saying. And he talks about the race. You were running 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:44.600 well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This race of your life, someone significant 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:50.920 cut in in front of you and tripped you up and stopped you finishing in this incredibly 00:10:50.919 --> 00:10:56.439 significant race, a malevolent influence of others. And he uses the whole idea of yeast 00:10:56.439 --> 00:11:02.919 in dough, which means that it was going to affect everyone else negatively. Then he uses 00:11:02.919 --> 00:11:07.799 castration. It's getting stronger and stronger all the way through. He says to the people 00:11:07.799 --> 00:11:13.599 that have done that, he said, I wish I'd go the whole hog. Not just circumcision but castration. 00:11:13.600 --> 00:11:22.279 It's so significant that it will involve disempowering. It will involve fruitlessness and death and 00:11:22.279 --> 00:11:30.080 the end of anything significant and life-giving. So it's very powerful, very brutal, very strong 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:41.360 language that he uses as he goes on to explain why Jesus is... cannot be Jesus plus and it 00:11:41.360 --> 00:11:49.639 cannot be loveless Christianity. So he does two things. He stresses the crucial truth 00:11:49.639 --> 00:11:54.240 of God's grace in verses 1 to 12. Now Alistair was preaching about grace this morning and 00:11:54.240 --> 00:12:00.600 I don't intend to say much more. I know he'll have explained it powerfully and clearly. 00:12:00.600 --> 00:12:06.639 But here Paul is, again, it's great that it's dovetailing because he's saying that God's 00:12:06.639 --> 00:12:13.600 grace is absolutely all we need. It's not Christ plus. So you know he's saying if you're 00:12:13.600 --> 00:12:18.439 trying verse 4, you know, it's a very strong verse, he says, you're severed from Christ, 00:12:18.439 --> 00:12:23.639 you who would be justified by the law. You've fallen away from grace. If you're... if we're 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:29.639 trying to earn God's favour by our works, then we're alienated, severed, fallen away 00:12:29.639 --> 00:12:36.799 from grace. It's all about grace. It's the simplest truth, isn't it? Grace, mercy, that 00:12:36.799 --> 00:12:45.840 as undeserved people we get what we don't deserve and we get what we don't deserve and 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:50.199 we forget, I can't remember the other side of that. But it's the simplest truth, it's 00:12:50.199 --> 00:12:56.120 so simple I can't get it. It's hard to accept mercy. Mercy's the hardest thing. It's getting 00:12:56.120 --> 00:13:04.879 something for nothing. It's reminding ourselves we can't do anything to earn our favour with 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:11.399 God and heaven. Nothing. There's nothing that we can do to earn our place in God's kingdom. 00:13:11.399 --> 00:13:16.120 He loves you as a Christian tonight because He loves you. He's chosen you because you're 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:23.759 chosen. We are saved because of what Jesus earned for us on His death and resurrection 00:13:23.759 --> 00:13:29.559 2,000 years ago. There's no greater love than that. There's no greater gift than that. 00:13:29.559 --> 00:13:35.519 I've got nothing that I can compare it to. It is a free gift of His grace. He's taken 00:13:35.519 --> 00:13:42.519 our sin. He's dealt with it. It's punished. It's finished. We are free. And the freedom 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:47.159 that's been spoken of here is a freedom of conscience, that we are not guilty anymore 00:13:47.159 --> 00:13:52.919 before God. We are innocent before God as believers. That's why we are free. And He will 00:13:52.919 --> 00:13:59.039 always love us. He will never leave us. And there's nothing that we can do, nothing that 00:13:59.039 --> 00:14:08.000 we can do that can add to what He has done on our behalf. We have simply to accept that. 00:14:08.000 --> 00:14:13.799 And Paul so powerfully speaks about that. He says that there's absolutely nothing else 00:14:13.799 --> 00:14:19.399 for us. For in Christ Jesus, verse 6, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for 00:14:19.399 --> 00:14:27.799 anything, but it counts for nothing except faith working through love. And nothing, in 00:14:27.799 --> 00:14:33.519 other words, he says, nothing is any power. There's no power. There's no gospel power 00:14:33.519 --> 00:14:40.159 unless it's faith working through love, unless we accept what Jesus has done for us. And 00:14:40.159 --> 00:14:46.439 that our faith is in what Jesus Christ has gifted to us. And we build that relationship 00:14:46.440 --> 00:14:53.120 of trust with Him, listening to Him, going to Him, talking to Him, trusting in His promises, 00:14:53.120 --> 00:15:00.320 believing what He says. We don't need to do anything to be accepted by Jesus Christ. 00:15:00.320 --> 00:15:04.720 He's done it all on our behalf. And He says to us this evening, like the prodigal Father 00:15:04.720 --> 00:15:13.040 with His arms open wide, I love you. I've already done it for you. You are free. Your 00:15:13.039 --> 00:15:21.559 conscience is being dealt with. You are innocent because Jesus Christ has paid the price for 00:15:21.559 --> 00:15:31.159 your sins, and He has taken your guilt. Because Jesus says, if that's not the case, Christ 00:15:31.159 --> 00:15:38.759 is of no value. He's of no value to us. So we've fallen from grace, in other words, and 00:15:38.759 --> 00:15:47.240 Christ is worthless to us. We've returned to slavery. We're out of the race. It's the 00:15:47.240 --> 00:15:54.759 only foundation. And we've been rescued from that whole way, and it's very hard. It's part 00:15:54.759 --> 00:15:58.919 of what the battle is that we always have right through our lives. But we've been freed 00:15:58.919 --> 00:16:03.519 from that whole way of living where we wake up in the morning and say, if I do this and 00:16:03.519 --> 00:16:09.439 I do that for God, He'll love me more. If I read my Bible today, then He'll accept me. 00:16:09.439 --> 00:16:18.799 If I pray, then I'll be clean. And if I try harder, He'll love me more. And that is the 00:16:18.799 --> 00:16:25.960 antithesis of the gospel, because the gospel says, no, grace is His gift. We can't do anything 00:16:25.960 --> 00:16:36.200 to be made more loved or more righteous or closer to God legislatively, legally, before 00:16:36.200 --> 00:16:44.240 the throne of heaven, because it's all been done for us. But when we understand that, 00:16:44.240 --> 00:16:51.080 then we understand verses 13 to 15, because there's the link word there, isn't there? 00:16:51.080 --> 00:16:57.800 Where you were called to freedom, and that links us to the earlier part. And He therefore 00:16:57.800 --> 00:17:02.080 goes on and says, only use your freedom as an opportunity, not for the flesh, but through 00:17:02.080 --> 00:17:08.160 love to serve one another. For the whole, the whole law is fulfilled in one word, you 00:17:08.160 --> 00:17:14.440 shall love your neighbour as yourself, but you bite and devour one another. Therefore, 00:17:14.440 --> 00:17:22.880 we've got this truth that we recognize the crucial centrality of grace and the way of 00:17:22.880 --> 00:17:29.640 living grace. Therefore, as we understand that, it's only then can we serve others in 00:17:29.640 --> 00:17:37.519 love as we love ourselves. Recognize that you shall love your neighbour as yourself. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:43.600 I'm going to define the terms here briefly. We can only serve others in love when we love 00:17:43.599 --> 00:17:50.679 ourselves, and when we understand the gospel of grace. Now usually when we think of loving 00:17:50.679 --> 00:17:54.480 ourselves, we think that, well, that's not a very Christian concept, loving ourselves. 00:17:54.480 --> 00:18:00.599 It seems a bit selfish putting ourselves first, looking out for number one. That seems to 00:18:00.599 --> 00:18:08.799 be the way of the world. But it's a Christ-like love of ourselves. In other words, it's only 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:16.240 as we understand grace and as we understand the love of Christ for us, can we truly love 00:18:16.240 --> 00:18:23.559 ourselves in the right way? So that we can say, in other words, I am unworthy, but I'm 00:18:23.559 --> 00:18:30.000 not worthless. A lot of Christians think they're worthless. That's not biblical, it's not 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:38.119 right. You're not a worm. We are unworthy, but we are not worthless. We love ourselves 00:18:38.119 --> 00:18:44.039 because Christ loves us. We love ourselves because we are made and redeemed in God's 00:18:44.039 --> 00:18:51.519 image. Grace has rescued me to be a child of the Father, to have, to belong, to be in 00:18:51.519 --> 00:19:00.879 His home, and therefore we can love ourselves in a different way. It sees myself differently, 00:19:00.879 --> 00:19:07.199 and it sees God differently, and then it will see others differently because we have that 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:16.720 sense of self-love that comes from understanding grace. And that self-love enables us to accept 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:25.240 who we are without constantly seeking God or other people's approval, and it helps us 00:19:25.240 --> 00:19:34.480 to live without hypocrisy. So as we love ourselves with a Christ-like love, then we are also 00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:48.200 able to serve with a Christ-like service. We are to be those who love one another and 00:19:48.200 --> 00:19:57.599 through love serve one another. See, very often our service, Christian service, is a 00:19:57.599 --> 00:20:04.240 work we do to impress. We do it to impress ourselves. We do it to impress the minister. 00:20:04.240 --> 00:20:10.920 We do it to impress other people in the church. We do it to find favor with God, or as probably 00:20:10.920 --> 00:20:17.279 more importantly as a religious chore or a duty. But Christ-like serving is different 00:20:17.279 --> 00:20:24.960 because we've begun to see others and ourselves as Christ sees us. There's a joy in our rescue 00:20:24.960 --> 00:20:35.640 and a wholeness in our love that can put other people first in a beautiful way. But there's 00:20:35.640 --> 00:20:47.000 a great battle for us to overcome in so doing because we so often find ourselves being sinfully 00:20:47.000 --> 00:20:57.680 self-indulgent and judging others and being divisive and wanting the praise of people 00:20:57.680 --> 00:21:05.680 and serving with a grimace. Because we have... it's difficult for us to understand grace 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:14.720 and Christ. So we can only truly love ourselves and we can only truly serve others in the 00:21:14.720 --> 00:21:23.559 church when we understand grace. And Paul sees that as utterly and completely crucial 00:21:23.559 --> 00:21:30.360 to the health and well-being of the church. So much so that he says without that we have... 00:21:30.360 --> 00:21:37.240 we're severed from Christ. We've fallen off the edge of the cliff. And therefore I want 00:21:37.240 --> 00:21:43.200 to finish just by posing a couple of questions for you to consider as you sit at the Lord's 00:21:43.200 --> 00:21:54.519 table. And the first is, as a Christian, are you standing firm? You see, for freedom, verse 00:21:54.519 --> 00:22:00.759 1, Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore. It could be translated stand upright, not 00:22:00.759 --> 00:22:07.840 bowed over and burdened. Don't submit again to a yoke of slavery. Are you standing straight 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:14.639 with confidence, spiritually visualizing it in your relationship with Jesus and His saving 00:22:14.639 --> 00:22:23.959 grace? That's why communion is about the death and the hope that resurrection of Jesus brings 00:22:23.959 --> 00:22:34.199 for us until He returns. It's because the crucifixion speaks of God's grace and of Christ's 00:22:34.200 --> 00:22:39.200 sufficiency. And when Jesus of the cross said, it's finished, He wasn't just talking about 00:22:39.200 --> 00:22:46.600 Himself being done. He was speaking about His work of salvation. It's done. He's faced 00:22:46.600 --> 00:22:53.600 the darkness, the wrath, the hell that is due to all of us. And it's complete. And He 00:22:53.600 --> 00:22:59.720 gifts us life. And He gifts us His grace and His forgiveness. Because if you're not standing 00:22:59.720 --> 00:23:09.440 firm in Jesus Christ, that you're falling off a cliff. And Christ is of no value. Christ 00:23:09.440 --> 00:23:18.720 is of no value to you. He kind of speaks in these terms that Christ is of no value when 00:23:18.720 --> 00:23:31.720 we have fallen away from Him. Are you standing firm? And if you're not a Christian this evening, 00:23:31.720 --> 00:23:39.799 then I can only assume that Christ is actually isn't of any value to you. And I want to challenge 00:23:39.799 --> 00:23:47.000 you with that because that's hugely significant. And if you're spending your life as a Christian 00:23:47.000 --> 00:23:54.920 waking up and saying, I wonder if Christ will accept me this morning. I wonder how I can 00:23:54.920 --> 00:24:04.160 obey Him better to gain more favour from Him. I wonder how I can impress Him. I wonder I 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:09.640 had better do more things and different things. Then can I ask you just to meditate? And I 00:24:09.640 --> 00:24:18.040 have to do it absolutely, crucially, all the time. Because there's that reality within 00:24:18.040 --> 00:24:24.640 my soul and it will be within yours that we can't, we don't get anything for nothing. 00:24:24.640 --> 00:24:30.680 And we can't accept something that we haven't earned ourselves or added to to make it important. 00:24:30.680 --> 00:24:35.960 Meditate on the supremacy and the finished work of Christ that we're asked to accept 00:24:35.960 --> 00:24:43.240 by faith working itself through love. So are you standing firm and then do I truly 00:24:43.240 --> 00:24:49.720 love myself as Christ loves me? I think that's a very important question. I think it's a 00:24:49.720 --> 00:24:55.440 very important question for us all because I think part of loving yourself means that 00:24:55.440 --> 00:25:03.079 you're willing to be loved by others. It means within the kingdom of God and within the community 00:25:03.079 --> 00:25:10.000 of believers, you're willing to be helped, you're willing to rest, you're willing to 00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:16.919 have others carry your burden, you're willing to step back, you're willing to accept who 00:25:16.919 --> 00:25:22.839 you are as you are in Christ and that you don't wish you were someone else because Christ 00:25:22.839 --> 00:25:32.759 doesn't wish that for you. And there's a huge amount of identity crisis among Christians. 00:25:32.759 --> 00:25:43.599 A huge amount of lack of self-confidence in a godly self-confidence and a wishing we were 00:25:43.599 --> 00:25:51.799 somewhere else or was somebody else and we don't truly love ourselves in Christ. But 00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:57.440 it's a hugely significant reality because it's a place of peace and it's a place of 00:25:57.440 --> 00:26:05.240 recognition that God has gifted us to be who we are by His grace and to progress through 00:26:05.240 --> 00:26:15.160 that. And then do I love myself so that I can love others well? Love others well. And 00:26:15.160 --> 00:26:21.120 that's a huge, again, a massive challenge for us. Not hating people, not fighting with 00:26:21.119 --> 00:26:29.319 them, not being bitter or jealous. Within the church context, not biting and destroying, 00:26:29.319 --> 00:26:34.559 but loving because it's of the essence of the gospel. It's not the icing on the cake, 00:26:34.559 --> 00:26:41.719 it's the essence of the gospel. It's the essence of what we believe that we are to love others 00:26:41.719 --> 00:26:47.639 well because that is how Paul finishes his statement. He reminds us that the whole law 00:26:47.640 --> 00:26:54.320 is fulfilled in this one word, this one statement, you shall love your neighbor as yourself because 00:26:54.320 --> 00:27:00.240 that subsumes the knowledge of loving God, it subsumes the first table of the law and 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:06.840 therefore the outworking of our love for God is loving one another as we love ourselves. 00:27:06.840 --> 00:27:15.680 So our services becomes and ought to be a gift, not a grind, and it is freedom for us. 00:27:15.680 --> 00:27:22.320 And I think therefore the Christian community is a unique community of people and we are 00:27:22.320 --> 00:27:28.560 called to be very different from any other community in this universe because we can 00:27:28.560 --> 00:27:37.000 love ourselves and have a right opinion of ourselves in Christ and we can rest and we 00:27:37.000 --> 00:27:46.400 can be looked after and we can look after and we can serve and we can be served and 00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:55.200 we can love because we are loved. We are able to love others well and that is the only thing 00:27:55.200 --> 00:28:01.200 that counts. So if I repeat that, in the 19 years that I've been here, it's because I 00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:08.600 forget it so easily and it's easy to try and move beyond that, he's always on about that. 00:28:08.600 --> 00:28:17.559 Without it you're alienated from Jesus, you're falling off a cliff, severed, there's nothing, 00:28:17.559 --> 00:28:26.120 there's nothing there, he's fulfilled the law for us, we can't add anything to it and 00:28:26.119 --> 00:28:34.519 unless we recognize that we'll never be able to love others as we love ourselves because 00:28:34.519 --> 00:28:40.879 of what Christ has done for us. So please meditate on these things as we celebrate the 00:28:40.879 --> 00:28:46.159 Lord's Supper together. Amen. 00:28:46.160 --> 00:29:04.000 Okay, so in just a moment we're going to celebrate the Lord's Supper and before we do so, I'll 00:29:04.000 --> 00:29:11.600 explain a little bit of what we do and also welcome a new member to us. We, a number of 00:29:11.599 --> 00:29:19.079 times a year, we welcome new members into the congregation, either at transfer from 00:29:19.079 --> 00:29:27.159 other places or by profession of faith and we ask them a couple of questions which just 00:29:27.159 --> 00:29:34.379 help to explain a little bit about what membership is about and the biblical principle, the outworking 00:29:34.379 --> 00:29:41.159 of biblical principles of being a people together with leaders appointed to be under shepherds 00:29:41.160 --> 00:29:49.160 to care for, to encourage, to love, to pray, to serve, to be honest and to disciple the 00:29:49.160 --> 00:29:58.120 community. And so this evening we're welcoming Ken Dawson who is with us for a period of 00:29:58.120 --> 00:30:05.519 time. Ken is a retired surgeon from North of Sydney. He's decided to use some of his 00:30:05.519 --> 00:30:14.480 retirement time to study a ETS as you do in your retirement. And we're delighted to have 00:30:14.480 --> 00:30:20.400 Ken worshiping with us and among us and hope that we welcome him into our homes and into 00:30:20.400 --> 00:30:26.680 our hearts as he is away from his own home and from his wife who he doesn't get to see 00:30:26.680 --> 00:30:33.440 at term times and we remember him during that time. So Ken is here somewhere, I think. Ken, 00:30:33.440 --> 00:30:37.920 you're there. Ken, I'm just going to ask you these questions which you can stand because 00:30:37.920 --> 00:30:44.640 then people will see you and know you then to welcome you next time. We've got four 00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:50.559 questions that just highlight membership and then I've got a question that the congregation 00:30:50.559 --> 00:30:58.039 respond to as well in recognition. So Ken, you believe that Jesus is the Son of God, 00:30:58.039 --> 00:31:02.720 the only Savior of sinners in whom you have put your personal hope and trust as a sinner, 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:11.000 ooh, needing grace, forgiveness, spirit, life and light? Do you resolve in prayerful reliance 00:31:11.000 --> 00:31:15.400 on the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit to continue to live as a disciple of 00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:21.600 Christ? Do you promise to support this church, family and its worship and work with your gifts 00:31:21.600 --> 00:31:26.720 and graces to the best of your ability? And do you submit yourself to the pastoral care, 00:31:26.720 --> 00:31:30.839 teaching and discipline of the spiritual leaders of the church, seek its peace and prosperity 00:31:30.839 --> 00:31:37.399 as we promise to love and care for you? Thanks, Ken. And the congregation, do you promise 00:31:37.399 --> 00:31:42.519 to pray for Ken? Welcome him warmly, love him as part of this church family and together 00:31:42.519 --> 00:31:49.199 help him grow in grace as we all seek to do ourselves. We do. Okay, thanks, Ken. I'm 00:31:49.199 --> 00:31:59.839 going to pray. Lord God, we give thanks for this day. We give thanks for this opportunity 00:31:59.839 --> 00:32:06.359 to participate in the sacrament. And we thank you for the bread and the wine, symbols of 00:32:06.359 --> 00:32:16.359 your body and blood, taking us to Calvary Institute and these dark, that dark night before the 00:32:16.359 --> 00:32:24.359 crucifixion, but given for the church of Christ for all time. So we thank you for the Lord's 00:32:24.359 --> 00:32:33.199 Supper. We thank you for all it reminds us of in its physicality and individuality of 00:32:33.199 --> 00:32:40.159 it and yet in the corporate nature of doing it together. We thank you for Ken. We pray 00:32:40.159 --> 00:32:46.159 for him. Bless him in his studies, bless him in his life here in Edinburgh and also remember 00:32:46.159 --> 00:32:52.000 his wife and family back home in Australia. Bless them as they're apart. Bless them when 00:32:52.000 --> 00:32:58.400 they're together and we pray for his protection and his growth in grace as we pray for each 00:32:58.400 --> 00:33:08.000 of us and that we would use this time of communion to consider our growth in grace and our need 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:16.200 for constantly finding ourselves at the foot of the cross. So bless as we pray and help 00:33:16.200 --> 00:33:24.559 us as we come to you with thanksgiving and grace to remember your death. Amen.