Paul and the Churches

I thought this was Coca-Cola country. My big brother said to me one day, he said, have you noticed how ill the Pope is looking? And I said, yeah, he's looking very ill. Well, he said, the runner-up, the number one who probably will succeed him is Archbishop Sicola from Italy.

But he said he wouldn't accept the job. I said, well, why not? He said, well, he doesn't want to be known as Pope Sicola. Of course, they always give him a new name.

Is everybody here? Okay, we'll go ahead. And Father, thank you now that we have the privilege of being together, have the privilege of serving you. We confess there are times when we don't like it, and there are times that we don't enjoy it.

But, Lord, we're serving you, and you know, and you're leading. And so we pray now you'll teach us and guide us. And we thank you in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen. What I'd like to do is stroll through seven of the epistles. I want the Romans, Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.

I want to stroll through these epistles and answer the question, how did Paul approach and solve problems in the churches? Now, I don't know why we're surprised that there are problems in churches. What did I do now? Oh, I don't know why we should be surprised that there are problems in churches because churches are made up of people. They're pastored by people.

I've created problems in churches. I've had to apologize to my congregation. I don't know if you've ever had to do that.

Maybe you should have. I remember we were in a building program at Calvary in Covington, and then after we finished we had to remodel the old church building. They were right next to each other in the educational space.

And then we had to move Sunday school classes. Now, it's easier to move mountains than it is to move Sunday school classes. I know of one church where a Sunday school class sued the church.

They sued the church because the church wanted to relocate them. And, of course, they didn't get the first base, but it didn't make the church any happier or healthier. And I thought, well, I know how to handle this.

You get this messianic complex where you've got to prove something to somebody, and I made a mess of it. I really made a mess of it. The adult superintendent showed up in my office one day, a very sharp guy, worked for Procter & Gamble, which was kind of strange.

He was totally bald. He probably never used shampoo, but anyway. He walked in and he looked at me and he said, well, are you through? I said, through what? He said, through messing up my department.

He said, let me take care of it. I said, it's all yours. And in one week he solved the whole problem.

I should have just let him do it to begin with. So I've had to apologize. Number one, there is a nature within us that makes it difficult for people to live together, work together, pray together, give together, make decisions together.

There's a nature within us. We're all sinners. We've all got this problem down inside.

One of my old bosses used to say, the heart of every problem is the problem in the heart. That's true. It's no wonder churches have problems because we have an enemy against us.

I don't know if our people appreciate how much Satan hates, Satan hates the church. I recommend that you do a little short series of messages on Paul's farewell address in Acts 20. It's a marvelous address.

He says, even of your own selves, people are going to arise drawing disciples after themselves. So we have a nature within us that creates problems. We have an enemy who's against us that creates problems.

And we have a culture around us, the Bible calls it the world, that creates problems. I recommend, brethren and sisters, that you sometime do a series of studies on the pictures of the church in the New Testament. There are a few good books out on it.

I recommend it. But the average church member does not know what the church is. They think it's a religious Kiwanis meeting or a religious PTA.

They have no idea what the church is. There are some 25, 30, some people say more than that, fine images of the church in the New Testament. When you discuss those images, people find out what the church is.

Now, if you were to ask me what is the major image of the church today, it's one that's not even in the Bible. The shopping center. The average church today, people look upon it as a shopping center.

Park as close to the front door as you can. Pick out what you want and forget about the rest of it. And have a good time while you're doing it.

The church we attend, and we have a fine pastor who expounds the word. But when you walk in, right down this wide hall to go into the main sanctuary are all of these displays and booths. The women's ministry, sign up for whatever.

The men's ministry. Children's ministry. That's fine.

That's what we're there for, you know. And you can pick up last week's sermon and either cassette or print it out. Coffee, obviously.

It's impossible. It's utterly impossible to go to church today without coffee. It's just like the shopping center.

You see people walking around with their coffee, you know. They also have a juice bar. Now that should be the first thing the Bible says, to the juice first.

And then they have to put a sign up, no food in the sanctuary. And the key verse to some people is, my cup is running all over. But the church property is starting to look like shopping center.

And the American mind is a consumer's mind. And I'm afraid in some churches they've carried it too far. Just give the customers what they want.

We've got to be very, very careful about that. Another reason why we have problems in the church and why Paul had them was because of either lack of leadership or poor leadership. Brothers and sisters, everything rises and falls with leadership.

I don't care if you're selling hamburgers or automobiles or building a church. Everything rises and falls with leadership. Nothing happens by itself.

And where there's leadership, there have to be followers. Followership is much harder to learn than leadership. And where there are followers, there are going to be disagreements.

Many churches have that sanctified obstructionist on every board that says as long as I'm a member of this board, there will be no unanimous votes. The diatrophies kind of person shows up who loves to have the preeminence. So there has to be leadership.

Remember, leaders are people who use their God-given authority, their God-given opportunity, their God-given ability to help other people become leaders. 2 Timothy 2.2, the things that you have heard of me among many witnesses, you teach others who will be able to teach others. You've got three generations there.

And our job is to help teach others so that if we're not there, if they have no pastor, they can keep on going. Paul stayed the longest probably in Ephesus. Had a lot of problems there too, had a riot.

But Paul would hit a place and quit a place, hit a place and quit a place. And leave behind leaders whom he had taught. And they'd keep going.

They'd have problems sometimes, but that's all right. Now I'll summarize it in three statements. How did Paul face and solve church problems? Number one, he reminded them of what we are in Christ.

What we are in Christ. We're sheep. We're members of the body.

We're branches in the vine. We're lights in the world. We're loaves of bread.

What we are in Christ. What we have in Christ. The riches of his grace.

The riches of his goodness. The riches of his wisdom. Unsearchable riches.

What we are in Christ. What we have in Christ. And what we see in Christ.

His example. You know the liberals preach you're saved by following Christ's example so much. We've backed off from that.

And we should. Somebody asked me about Harry Ironside who had been pastor of Moody Church from 1930 to 1948. Some lady came to him one day and said, Dr. Ironside, I believe we are saved by following the example of Jesus.

Ironside said, well, let's look at the Bible. And he opened to 1 Peter where Peter says we should follow in his steps. She said, see.

He said, look at the next verse. Who did no sin. Well, we backed off.

Christ is our example in leadership. Christ is the shepherd of the shepherds. Christ is the pastor of the pastors.

And as leaders we must follow his example. I say it again and I don't want to sound like a crank. Although I could be if I wanted to be I suppose.

I say it again. Beware of any book on leadership that is simply secular principles baptized with a few Bible verses. Now I see the man who wrote the One Minute Manager.

His name escapes me right now. Who? Did he do the One Minute Manager? He's got a course out now on Jesus the leader. But there are a half dozen books out on Jesus the leader.

Some of which are so bad that it's terrible. But I've got a Bible. When I got confirmed in the church they gave me a Bible.

When I got ordained they gave me a Bible. So I use my Bible and I see this is what Jesus did. This is what Paul did.

Paul said, now you follow me as I follow Christ. And that helps me. That really does.

So the basic philosophy of Paul in solving church problems is, look folks, this is what you are. He didn't say it's what you ought to be. This is what you are.

What we are in Christ, what we have in Christ, this is what you have. Now why don't you live up to it. And this is what you see in Christ.

And if you'll go through the epistles with that in your mind you'll find that it's true. I'm going to harangue a little bit now. Folks, magnify Christ in your ministry.

I have sat in conferences and listened to well-known preachers preach for 50 minutes and never once mention Christ. I've sat in churches and listened to preachers preach fine messages, good exposition. But they're what I call synagogue sermons.

You could give it in a synagogue. Nobody would get angry. You could give it in a mosque.

You talk about God, God, God. Jesus, now Jesus is God. But magnify Christ in your ministry.

Professor James Denny, if you ever see any of his books, they're old now but they're great. Made this statement, no man can bear witness to Christ and to himself at the same time. No man can give the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save.

That's true. I like what Spurgeon said. I'm a Spurgeon fan and I just thank God for his ministry.

He said this to his students. Of all I would wish to say, this is the sum, my brethren. Preach Christ always and evermore.

He is the whole gospel. His person, offices, and work must be our one great all-comprehending theme. I don't know if you read James S. Stewart, the Scottish preacher.

He's dead now. He's got a number of sermon books out, some good book on preaching, Heralds of God. James Stewart said this, if we are not determined that in every sermon Christ is to be preached, it were better that we should resign our commission and seek some other vocation.

Now, I believe that. When you have finished your outline, take a good look at it and say, where is Jesus in this outline? You'd be amazed how many times we've left him out. That means you go back and say, boy, there's something missing here.

I'm going to work this and I'm going to preach Christ. Now, Jesus is not salt and pepper that you add to your outline. He is the meat of the outline.

He is the substance of the message. Now, Paul had an interesting relationship to his churches. In a sense, he was a pastor.

In a sense, he wasn't. He was an apostle, which is higher than a pastor. We have no apostles today.

There are people who claim they are, but I don't think we have any apostles today. And yet, Paul gave his very best to people who sometimes kicked him right in the face. If you ever think you've been abused in a church, just read 2 Corinthians.

Because Paul knew what it was to go through those difficulties. Paul loved his people. Paul prayed for his people.

These sound like cliches, but this is ministry. Paul loved his people. Love never fails.

You start loving somebody in the church who is creating problems. They can't do it. They have nothing to do about it.

You love them. You pray for them. He had the courage to face people.

Remember in John 10, Jesus said, now, you've got shepherds. I'm the good shepherd. But you've got shepherds.

They take care of the sheep. They sacrifice for the sheep. They watch over the sheep.

You've got hirelings. They take care of the sheep because they're paid. And if things go wrong, they quit.

They leave. Recently, I was exhorting and praying for a young pastor. I said, you know, you don't want to leave.

You're not a hireling. Stay and fight the thing out. When Erwin Lutzer took over, when Erwin Lutzer was installed as pastor at Moody Church following me, I said, Erwin, I fought the battles, and you're going to claim the spoils.

Good arrangement, he said. Good arrangement. But it's sometimes that way.

God calls somebody in for a shorter period of time, kind of clean things up, get things ready. But we're shepherds. We're not hirelings.

He said, oh, there's also thieves. And Jesus said, you know, there are people who have come in as shepherds, but they're just thieves. They're just going to take what they can get.

What can we get? And then there are wolves who just scatter and destroy the flock. I don't want to go to heaven and face the fact that I destroyed the church. In fact, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3, if you destroy God's church, he'll destroy you.

I don't know what that means, and I don't want to find out. If you destroy the church, God will destroy you. So Paul loved his people.

And when he wrote to them, he said, now, here's what you have in Christ. Here's what you are in Christ. Here's his example.

Now, let's live up to that. Now, let's quickly start going through Romans 14 and 15. What was the basic problem in the churches in Rome? There were a number of assemblies in Rome.

You read some of the people in Romans 16. One of the basic problems in Rome was that the Jews and the Gentiles weren't getting along. They fought over diets, and they fought over calendars.

And the Jews would come to the meeting and say, this is the day of atonement. The Gentiles would say, what's that? They'd come to midweek meeting with their covered dishes. And you knew that there were four wise men, didn't you? You knew this.

There weren't three. There were four. The fourth one was a Southern Baptist preacher, and he brought a covered dish.

But they'd come to the dinners, and the Gentiles were eating pork. Now, how can anybody be a Christian and eat pork? And so when you read Romans 14 and 15, you find that the Jews and the Gentiles in the church were at each other's throats because of cultural differences. The Jewish people did not realize their freedom in Christ, and the Gentiles were overemphasizing their freedom in Christ.

Now, what is freedom? One of the things we preachers have to be careful of is using words without defining them. If you get up in front of a group of young people and say, now, Jesus will make you free, they're going to define that word free five different ways. One's going to say, ah, freedom in Christ, I can do what I want to do.

Oh, freedom in Christ, my parents can't tell me what to do. What is freedom? Freedom is life controlled by truth and motivated by love. That's freedom.

Anybody whose life is not controlled by truth is in bondage. Anybody whose life is not motivated by love is in bondage. I don't care who they are.

Now, Paul had to teach them this. He said, look, you Gentiles think because you're free in Christ you can offend these people, and you Jews think that because you've got a law to back up what you're doing that you can tell the Gentiles what to do. And one was judging the other.

One was condemning the other. They must have had some great business meetings. Now, Paul talks in this section about the fact that the people on the Jewish side had a weak conscience.

See, we think that people who are very proper, punctilious, legalistic have a strong conscience. No, they're the ones with a weak conscience. The strong conscience says, I have freedom in Christ, and I have the faith to believe that God wants me to receive his gifts.

1 Timothy 6.17, he gives us all things richly to enjoy. I'm going to enjoy God's gifts. That's a strong conscience.

I have met, and I don't want to offend anybody, I've met people who have some strange rules that they live by, and they think that because I didn't live by them, I was a weak Christian. No, they were the weak Christians. But the strong Christian must not use freedom as a weapon to fight with.

You use freedom as a tool to build with. And in my freedom, I'm going to help these who need my help. We have four children, and when they were small, my wife and I were very legalistic.

We never left a knife sitting around. Is there a law that says that? No, I could have left the whole cutlery set out. But I loved my children, so I didn't leave the scissors out.

If I saw a pin on the floor, I picked it up. Is it a sin to have a pin on the floor? No, no, but it's dangerous. Now, Christians are this way.

So Paul tells them three things. He says, number one, receive one another. He starts the section with receiving one another, accepting one another, and he ends it with that, receive one another.

Don't let your legalism or your freedom be a test of fellowship. I've been in legalistic churches where you felt like you were in Alcatraz. So receive one another, receive one.

Secondly, edify one another. Receive one another not to argue but to build each other up. And in order to build each other up, sometimes you've got to bite your tongue, swallow your pride, just take it.

There were times when my children knew more about life than I did. Okay. And some people have to learn the hard way.

So receive one another, edify one another, and please one another. Now, please one another does not mean lead somebody down the primrose path into sin. Follow the example of Christ who didn't please himself, it says in Romans 15.

And just seek to please one another. Now, that would solve a lot of problems in our churches. Somebody comes into the church and says, oh, I would never go to a movie.

I never thought I'd see the day where they'd be using Hollywood movies in sermons. I preached to a college group one Sunday, and they used about four minutes out of some I'm not crazy about this idea, but it did prepare the way for the sermon. It really got their attention.

But I don't make that an issue. I'm not going to run your life. I'm not going to be God in your life.

So in the church, you're going to find weak consciences. They need to be built up, strengthened, but not by force. You don't force feed people, and you don't say, for goodness sake, grow up.

A simple illustration. You've got a three-year-old child, and it's raining outside, lightning, thunder, noisy, and she's in, oh, it's terrible. I'm so afraid.

Now, you don't go in and give a lecture on meteorology. You don't go in and say, come on out here and watch the Weather Channel. Now, that's going to help.

You go in, and you take the little girl in your arms and say, no, there's nothing to be afraid of. The roof is nailed down, and God is with us, and that thunder, according to the Psalms, that's just the voice of God. Well, he's talking too loud.

Well, isn't that right? That's how you take care of it. So you find somebody in the church that's offended at the translation you use. What do you do? Give them a lecture on manuscripts and all that? No, no, there's maybe a time when you can do that.

You just love them. Just love them. So receive one another, edify one another, and please one another.

Now, a little detour. One of the repeated images in the Bible of the church is the body. The church is a body.

Romans chapter 12, Ephesians chapter 4, and 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14. Now, why is the church compared to a body? Well, if you take these three references, Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, 13, and 14, and Ephesians 4, you discover that they all say the same thing. Point one, the church is a body.

A body has unity. I'm sure you heard about the schizophrenic who walked into the psychiatrist's office and said, I'm schizophrenic and so am I. Well, the body is not schizophrenic. The body is a unity.

My body is a unity. It's one body. Then, in each of these references, it switches to, number two, the body has diversity.

To each one of us is given gifts according to the will of God. My body has diversity. Back in 1990, I think it was, my gallbladder declared war on my body.

I mean, I thought I was going to die, and I had laparoscopic surgery, and I got well. I am now an Israelite in whom there is no bile. Now, in the local church body, there are people who declare war because somebody is different from them.

Now, think with me closely. You cannot have unity without diversity. You can have uniformity without diversity.

A cult has uniformity. A church has unity. When the choir sings in unison, it's nice.

When they sing in harmony, it's nicer. So, the body has diversity. You're tall.

I'm short. You have blue eyes. I have whatever.

You have hair. I don't. Our bodies are different.

My brothers were given the bodies of athletes, not me. So, there's diversity in the body. You're a teacher.

You're a preacher. You're a singer. You're an administrator.

You know how to show mercy. You love to go talk with people and pray. We're all different.

And the fact that we're different makes it so beautiful because that diversity is held together by unity. Now, what keeps diversity from wrecking unity? Maturity. And the third truth brought out in all three of those sections is maturity.

1 Corinthians 13, when I became a man, I put away childish things. The Corinthians were acting like a bunch of crazy kids in a playpen because they hadn't matured. So, the solution to the Roman problem was, don't holler at the Gentiles for flaunting their freedom and don't holler at the Jews for maintaining their tradition.

If they want to celebrate the Day of Atonement, that's fine. Let them do it, just as long as they don't make everybody else do it. In the city where I live, Lincoln, Nebraska, we have a large establishment of Seventh-day Adventists.

I believe many of them are truly born again. They're into legalism, I think. And I go over there occasionally and speak.

I speak to the pastor class, like I'm talking to you now. And it'd be so easy to get up there and say, now, look, why don't you read Galatians, for goodness sake? You think I'd accomplish very much? I don't think I would. I don't think I would.

Well, that's Rome. Now, let's move over to Corinth. Oh, boy, we could spend a month there.

Which one of these churches do you want? I don't want Corinth. There's one word in 1 and 2 Corinthians that is repeated 33 times. Now, I recommend when you study your Bible, notice the vocabulary.

Find out what words are repeated. That's what he's talking about. And in 1 and 2 Corinthians, one word is repeated 33 times, and that word is the word know, K-N-O-W.

It was to the Corinthians Paul wrote, I would not have you ignorant brothers. That's the biggest denomination in the world, the ignorant brothers. And because the Corinthians did not know what they had in Christ, what they were in Christ, and what they see in Christ, because they didn't know this, they were doing crazy things.

That's why we teach the Bible. The purpose of preaching and teaching is not to show how clever our outlines are. It's just to tell people this is what it's all about.

I say it again. I recommend you do a series of studies on the pictures of the church in the church, in the Bible, pictures of the church. Now, Paul in 1 Corinthians says, let me tell you why there's trouble in the Corinthian church, and there was trouble.

They were divided four ways. I'm for Paul. I'm for Peter.

I'm for Apollos. And then the hardest group of all, watch out for the people who say, we're for Jesus. We're the elite group.

If you want to know what Jesus wants in this church, we're the people to talk to. Oh, boy. A couple came into our son's church some, oh, it's been a couple years ago, and said, the Lord has sent us here to bring revival.

That's when you reach for your pistol. So here's a four-way split in the church. They were getting drunk at the dinners.

They were fussing at the business meetings. They were competing with each other in the worship services. Now, if you think that sounds like revival, you've got problems.

And Paul said, you're dumb. He was kinder about it than I am. You don't know.

Here is what you need to know. There are more images of the church given in 1 and 2 Corinthians than any other comparable literature in the New Testament. They didn't know what the church was.

He says, you know, the church is a family. 1 Corinthians 3, remember that? He said, I want to feed you. I want to feed you with meat, not with milk.

You're a family of children. You won't grow up. Church is a family.

Then he moves in and says, the church is a field. We're laborers together in the field, 1 Corinthians 3, verses 6 to 9. Then he switches and says, the church is a temple. And we don't want to build the local church with wood, hay, and stubble.

Now that passage in 1 Corinthians 3, 9 through 23, is often applied personally. Don't build your life with trash. Build your life with gold, silver, and costly stones.

The first application is not personal. It's to the local church. He said that local church is built on a foundation, and the foundation is not the preacher.

You don't build a church on a preacher. It's not a pet doctrine. I was driving down Irving Park Boulevard in Chicago, and here's what the big sign said, the King James Bible Church.

Now, you don't build a church on a translation. I mean, I love the King James Bible. It's one of the greatest pieces of literature ever produced, and it's a good translation.

But you don't build a church on a translation, or a preacher, or a doctrine, Christ. Now, the foundation determines the size of the building, the shape of the building, and the strength of the building. You build on the preacher, you get as big as he is.

You build on Jesus, man, you've got opportunity. He said, now you've got two kinds of material, permanent, temporary, cheap, expensive. I used to read that passage and say, what in the world does gold, silver, and costly stones stand for? Then I began to read Proverbs.

Read in the book of Proverbs, chapter 2 and chapter 8. He says, I want you to dig. I want you to get wisdom, not gold and silver and rubies. I want you to get wisdom.

God's wisdom is represented by the gold and the silver and the costly stones. Wood, hay, and straw are on the surface. If you want gold and silver and costly stones, you've got to dig.

You can walk out the door and get wood, hay, and straw, but it doesn't last. He compares the church to stewards in chapter 4, to spectacles in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. Chapter 5, he compares us to a loaf of bread. Church is a loaf of bread.

You ever preach on that? Anybody here ever preach on the church as a loaf of bread? Ties right in with the Lord's Supper. He's talking about keeping your lives clean, keeping the church clean. The body, the athletic pictures, the flock, the army.

All the way through 1 Corinthians, here's what the church is, here's what the church is. Now live up to this. Of course, in going after Paul and Apollos and Cephas and we're for Jesus, they just split everything open.

Paul was very patient with Corinth. I said to somebody recently, it's a good thing I'm not pastoring now. I probably wouldn't counsel people.

I'd shoot them. Now you know I wouldn't, but sometimes you feel that way. And you've got people in your church who irritate you.

Now let's look at those three pictures just in 1 Corinthians 3. The family, the field, and the temple. They say to us God has three ways of solving problems. Some problems are solved just by growing.

When our children were small, we had all kinds of problems. Fall down the stairs, skin your knees, break this, break that, spill this, spill that. But you know if you wait long enough, you won't have those problems anymore.

You have a whole new set. Now you've got people in your church, all they have to do is grow up. Move off of the milk diet and start getting the solid food diet, and they'll grow out of some of these problems.

The field. If people get to work with other people out in serving God, some problems will be solved. Remember when your children first started spending money? They didn't know the value of it.

I think one of the funniest Bill Cosby shows was when Theo was telling him he was going to leave home, go get an apartment, get a job at a filling station, and really enjoy life. Remember that one? It's fabulous. It ought to be shown to every teenager.

So Bill Cosby goes and gets a stack of Monopoly money. He says, now Theo, how much is this apartment going to cost you? $400 a month. One, two, three, four, okay.

Is there any furniture in it? No, you've got to have furniture. Okay, one, two, three. $300 to get some furniture.

Are you going to eat? Well, yeah, I'm going to eat. Okay, $100 for food for a month. Car? Yeah, okay.

And before long, the guy, Theo, was finding out money doesn't grow on trees. But you grow out of that crazy attitude. We just waited long enough, and our kids grew out of it.

Then they go out and work for themselves. Go out and get a job. You say, man alive, I didn't know insurance was that expensive.

Man alive, I need a new tire. That's, whoo, I'm going to buy a lottery ticket, you know. Now, D.L. Moody was such a wise man.

I recommend you read a good biography of Moody. Read a good biography of D.L. Moody. He was such a wise man.

He said, I'd rather put 10 men to work than do the work of 10 men. You put people to work. They haven't got time to gripe.

If you're rowing the boat, you haven't got time to shake it, rock it, keep them busy. Find out what it is they enjoy doing, what they can't do, keep them busy. So some problems are solved by just growing up.

Some problems are solved by getting out and working, working with other people and learning what it's like. And then you get that third picture, the temple, the gold, the silver, and the precious stones, talking about the wisdom of God. Some people are going to get rid of their problems when they see how smart God is.

They start getting into the Word. And the Word of God says, now, you don't do it that way. You do it this way.

And the preacher is right. The preacher is right. You do what the preacher says about that.

The Corinthian church broke his heart. You've wept over people. I've wept over people.

I didn't do it out in public, but many a time I've said, dear Lord, what's going to happen next? And then out of the clear blue sky, the Holy Spirit does some very wonderful thing. Somebody gets into the Bible and says, how long has that verse been there? And Paul pointed them to Christ in 1 and 2 Corinthians. Well, the Corinthian church was not – I don't think it was a church at all.

I think it was a rescue mission. But that's okay. He told them, you don't know.

You don't know. Now I want you to know. I want you to have the wisdom of God.

Galatians, oh boy. This is the crowd to whom Jesus – to whom Paul said, you are biting and devouring one another. Legalism was the problem in the Galatian church.

Now, remember what we said, freedom? Freedom is life controlled by truth, motivated by love. Legalism is life controlled by tradition and motivated by fear. The legalist is scared.

And when people are frightened, they're hard to be led. So Paul had to deal with them. And one word – here I am again – one word is mentioned 16 times in that little letter.

Sixteen times. You know what that word is? Spirit. Capital S-P-I-R-I-T.

The Holy Spirit. Bishop Hanley Mole, that marvelous expositor, has a little book. I've not seen it for years.

I've got a copy and you can't have it, called The Cross and the Spirit. If you ever see it, get it. The Cross and the Spirit.

It's on Galatians. He said their problem was the flesh. Legalism is fleshly.

Legalism satisfies the flesh. I read 18 chapters. Oh, what did you learn? That makes no difference.

I read 18 chapters. I passed out 814 tracts. That's fine.

Praise God. I hope people get saved. But why are you keeping count like that? The legalist wants to satisfy that ego down inside.

And it's not the flesh that motivates or controls a Christian life. It's the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit.

So Paul writes to them and says, now look, let's talk about the Cross. That old nature of yours. You've been crucified with Christ.

I tell you, when you stop to think that when Jesus died, we died. When he was buried, we were buried. When he rose, we rose with him.

When he ascended, we ascended with him. When he sat down on the throne, we sat down with him. You can't beat that.

You say, yeah, but what's the connection between that and me? The Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who works in our lives to apply this. So he says of these Galatians, let's get rid of this legalism.

When you live under law, it brings out the worst in you. You say, you made that up. No, no.

1 Corinthians 15, Paul said, the strength of sin is the law. I would say to my little son, don't go near the curb. What's the next thing he does? He heads for the curb.

Why? There's something in human nature that says you can't tell me what to do. And law is like a magnet that just pulls sin out of people. I will not lie today before you.

You know what? They've lied. I will not have another drink today. It makes no difference.

Law brings out the worst in us. Grace brings out the best in us. And the Holy Spirit is the spirit of grace, not the spirit of law.

And so he has to tell these people, look, you can't live under law. Now, put this down and keep it in mind because when you counsel people, you may need it. To the unsaved person, God's law is an enemy.

A sinner can't find God's law any more than a criminal can find a policeman. They're not looking. To the lost sinner, the law is an enemy.

It condemns him. To the spirit-filled believer, the law is a servant. The Holy Spirit uses God's law to serve us, shows us the holiness of God, the beauty of God.

Oh, it's wonderful how the Holy Spirit takes that law and applies it to our hearts, but not in a legalistic way. Last year about this time, I was finishing a commentary on the Psalms, the book of Psalms. And in Psalm 119, I thought I was going to fly off to heaven.

I said, here is a man who never read Ephesians. Never read 1 John. But when you read Psalm 119, you meet a man whose heart loved the law.

And in that deeper relationship to the word of God, he was living a godly life. So to the unsaved person, the law is an enemy. To the spirit-filled believer, the law is a servant.

To the legalist, the law is a master. And they're slaves. Paul told him that.

I want you to notice the imagery in Galatians. Brethren and sisters, when you read the word of God and study it, look for the pictures. He says now, the law is a yoke.

Get rid of that yoke. Now, a yoke is a good thing. A yoke keeps animals working.

But if you're putting on that yoke to try to please God, no, it's not going to work that way. The law, you're running a race. Be careful now.

You're going to get bumped off into the wrong lane. There's a number of beautiful pictures in there in Galatians. I think the Galatian church has broke his heart.

And the problem came because false teachers got in. When I went to Calvary in Covington back in 1961, D.B. Estep was the pastor. It was a very fine Southern Baptist church, and they loved each other.

It was built on the word of God. He said to me one day, we were only together six months. He had a heart attack and died, and then I became pastor.

He said to me one day, if I took my eyes off this church for 24 hours, we'd be in trouble. I said, why? Somebody would come in with a new idea. Not a new idea for ministry.

We're always looking for some new way to win souls. Some new doctrine, some new thing, like the Athenians. And I thought, well, he's exaggerating.

Then he died, and I became pastor. And, buddy, he was right. He was right.

That's why it's difficult to be an overseer. That's what you are. You're an overseer, and you've got to oversee.

And your elders have to help you oversee. And your Sunday school teachers have to help you oversee. Not prison.

No, no, no, it's not prison. It's a loving, just like with my children. I had to watch them until they could walk by themselves.

Well, let's go to Ephesians. God sent four letters to the church at Ephesus. Did you know that? God sent four letters to the church at Ephesus.

One was Ephesians, 1 Timothy and 2 Timothy, because Timothy was Paul's envoy to Ephesus. I don't know that Timothy pastored the Ephesus church, but he was Paul's envoy there. He was his representative.

And then Revelation chapter 2. And the problem in Ephesus was they knew theology. Man, you read Ephesians, you've got theology. Marvelous book.

They knew theology. They'd had the advantage of Paul's pastorate for almost three years. Paul had done special miracles there.

I mean, it was a tremendous ministry. But in Revelation 2, 1 to 7, what was wrong with the church at Ephesus? They'd left. Not lost.

Left. Same word for divorce in the New Testament. They had left their first love.

The last thing Paul wrote to them in the last chapter, the last verse of Ephesians was, Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an incorruptible love. The last thing he said to them was love Jesus. Ephesians 6.24. And they quit doing it.

Now, the Ephesian church was a doctrinally sound church. Anybody tried to sneak in with false doctrine, they threw them out. It was a disciplined church.

It was a busy church. Man, they were at work. It was a church that had suffered persecution.

They stood true. They had so many good points. But in the midst of all of this, their hearts got cold.

That's why Jesus said to Peter, do you love me? Do you love me? I tell you, you get a group of people who love Jesus, they'll love one another. They'll love the word of God. They'll love to give.

They'll love to pray. You won't have to push them. And we need to preach, not to tell people, love him, love him, but preach him in such a wonderful way they want to love him.

That's the secret of preaching. Don't get up and exhort, you must love him, you must love him. Make him so beautiful, so wonderful, that they're going to love him.

The problem in the Ephesian church was they got lukewarm. Now, there are only three spiritual temperatures in the Bible. Did not our hearts burn within us when he opened the scriptures to us? That's the first temperature.

We're warm with God's love, Luke 24, 32. Cold, Matthew 24, 12. Because iniquity abounds, they'll become cold.

So here you have a warm heart from the word of God, cold. What was Ephesian temperature? Lukewarm, lukewarm. My mother, when she made coffee, I think she made it in a Bessemer converter.

It was the hottest coffee. It's amazing the whole family didn't have throat cancer. But I don't like lukewarm coffee, and God doesn't like lukewarm Christians.

And oh, just pray that your people will love God. I think that's one reason why the Lord gave us the Lord's Supper. To remind them, this is what he did for you.

And we're here together, the ground is level here at this table. Philippians, got to hurry, Philippians. One of my favorite New Testament books, if not my favorite New Testament book.

Philippians, there were some problems in the Philippian church, but they weren't as deep as Galatia, Corinthian. They had a good testimony. Some pride was creeping in.

That's why in chapter 2 he said, look, here's the example of Jesus. You follow this example. Now, you've preached Philippians, but let me just mention this.

Chapter 1, Paul says, now you Philippian Christians, Christ is your life. Philippians 121. For to me, to live is Christ.

We hear a great deal today, and rightly so, about the purpose-driven life. Paul wrote about the life-driven purpose. Christ is your life.

Now, life is what you are alive to. You call me up and say, hey, Brother Warren, we're going fishing. 5.30 tomorrow morning.

I say, have fun. Click. I'm not a fisherman.

Now, my brother, you call me up and you say, big political conference. Sorry. Call me up and say, there's a used book sale going on.

See, life is what you're alive to. Friends called up the other day and said, we've got some tickets to a concert. You want to go? Of course, I sure do.

I'm alive to that. Now, we ought to be alive to Christ. So Christ is our life, Chapter 1. Chapter 2, Christ is our example.

Christ is our example. The city of Philippi, as you know, was a Roman colony. It was founded by the Romans.

It was run by Roman law. They gave their allegiance to the Roman emperor. They followed the Roman emperor's commands.

Paul said, now, the church there is a colony of heaven. Our citizenship is up in heaven. And Jesus is the one you pay attention to.

Jesus is your life, Chapter 1. Jesus is your example, Chapter 2. Have this attitude that he had. What attitude did he have? I'm not going to hold on to anything. People in church are holding on to things.

Preachers can hold on to things. I'm not going to give that up. He gave up the whole thing and came down to be our Savior.

Chapter 3, Christ is our goal. I press. I press.

I run. Allow me to remind you that in the Greek Olympics and in the Roman games, the Isthmian games, there were no second prizes. If you ran in the Greek Olympics, there wasn't gold, silver, bronze.

It was gold. Now, the second thing is, in those games, in those races, you stayed in your lane. They put you in this lane.

You got out of that lane. You were disqualified. I can't run in your lane.

You can't run in my lane. God gives us each a lane. And we're not competing with each other.

We're competing with ourselves. So Paul says, Christ is my goal. I'm not running this race to get the approval of people or to show how good I am.

I just want to please Jesus, and I want him to be my goal. I like especially chapter 4 of Philippians. Christ is my sufficiency.

How many of you remember a sermon from a seminary or college or university chapel? Any of you remember any sermons? Do you? How many? One? Yeah? Way up there. Did you have your hand up? Four? You remember four? Yeah, I heard five years of chapel services. And there's one sermon that when I think about it, it just brings tears of joy to my eyes, my heart.

Our president, Dr. Kohler, it was the last chapel before commencement. Last chance he had to let us have it. But he didn't let us have it.

He preached from Philippians 4. Christ is our sufficiency. This is not my outline. This is his outline.

I can't forget it. The only other sermon I remember from a chapel, except the bad ones I wish I could forget, was from Vance Havner. Oh, man.

Oh, I can't forget that one. He preached from Hebrews 11 on Moses. He said, Moses saw the invisible, Moses chose the imperishable, and Moses did the impossible.

Boy, you can't forget that. But Dr. Kohler said, men, as you go out, women, as you go out into your ministry, Christ is your sufficiency. Philippians 4. Through Christ, I can have what I ought to have.

Through Christ, I can have what I ought to have. My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in Christ Jesus. Verse 19.

Through Christ, you can have what you ought to have. Secondly, through Christ, you can do what you ought to do. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Verse 13. And thirdly, through Christ, I can be what I ought to be. I've learned to be content in whatever circumstances I'm in.

That'll preach, and you can live it. Through Christ, I can have what I ought to have. Through Christ, I can do what I ought to do.

And through Christ, I can be what I ought to be. Now, the interesting thing is there were two women in the Philippian church that weren't getting along. That's an unusual problem.

It all started with the cantata. They both wanted to sing the solo. And he wrote to them, and he said, Now would you please tell Euodia and tell Syntyche, be of one mind in the Lord.

And you know what he called them? Verse 3. These women who have shared my struggle. That's an awkward translation. You know what he really said? These women who were teammates with me.

The athletic imagery in Philippians is phenomenal. They were teammates. Now, I'm a lousy athlete.

I played left drawback on every team, but I'm just not an athlete. And I watched the Cornhuskers. I watched the last quarter with the mute button on.

I can't stand those guys. Well, I can't. I'm sorry.

But this much I know. If I'm on a team, it doesn't make any difference who makes the basket. It doesn't make any difference who makes the touchdown.

Or who whips the puck and makes the goal. The important thing is you win. Oh, can we get this across to our people? It makes no difference whose name gets on the marquee, whose name gets in the bulletin.

That doesn't make any difference. The main thing is that Jesus is glorified and the church is built. And how many times has the pastor sacrificed and prayed and wept and worked? And somebody who didn't do a whole lot got a lot of credit.

Who cares? Who cares? We don't care. We don't care who gets the credit as long as Jesus gets the glory. I've labored with people who wanted to break into writing.

Please don't ask me to do this for you, but I've done it in the past and worked with them. And then their book comes out. And it's just neat.

You've got the first book that just came out. And you open it up and they give thanks to the guy that built the computer and to the church janitor. My name's not mentioned here.

I went through the manuscript and worked with them. That's okay. Somebody got started.

Somebody got started on a ministry. What difference does it make? So in the Philippians, he had a loving church there, and he just said, Now, look, just keep living for Jesus. These two women will get it.

Dr. Ironside, you say it's no wonder these two women couldn't get along. One was odious and the other was soon touchy. That's a bad translation, but the point is well taken.

Just a few words about Colossae and then we'll be on our way. The problem in the Colossian church was they had an open mind. Now, an open mind is a good thing if you've got some filters.

But if you don't have some filters, an open mind can be like an open sewer. And every crazy doctrine that was floating around got in there. They had Jewish legalism.

They had oriental mysticism. They had diets. They had punishing of your flesh.

They were just pulling it. It was just kind of a hodgepodge, kind of a tossed salad. I think the technical theological term is syncretism.

Everything just came in. Can't do that. Just can't do that.

When I began my ministry at Moody Church, a very lovely lady, we were good friends, came to me and said, have you ever been to so-and-so's seminars? I said, no. She said, I thought you were because you teach a great deal like he does. I said, well, maybe we both use the Bible.

I've known the man for years, so I know what she was talking about. But our saints have the idea that whatever is interesting, they can bring it in. No, no, no, can't do that, can't do that.

You say, well, you're asking me to be a dictator. No, I'm not. I'm just asking you to be a good doctor, good physician.

Don't let all this stuff come in. People stop me at some times. They say, oh, I love to hear you on the radio.

I say, excuse me, I have been on the radio for 14 years. Well, I hear you on Back to the Bible. I said, no, they have a policy not to play old programs, so I don't know what you're listening to.

Now, sometimes some of my tapes show up on conference programs, I guess, but when they say Back to the Bible, I know they don't know who they're listening to. It could be the biggest heretic in the country. They don't know.

The sheep don't always know who they're listening to. So we've got to be careful. A man came to me one day, and he said, when are you going to bring so-and-so in to speak at the church? I said, never.

Never saw that man again. We have to guard what goes on in the church. I'm sorry.

I have to answer to God. I have to answer to God. And in the Colossian church, Paul had to write and say, look, all the fullness you need is in Jesus.

The fullness of God is in Jesus. What more do you need? When you were born, you were born complete. You are complete in him.

Now, what more do you want? Wouldn't it be weird when our daughter Judy was born for the doctor to come in and say, well, you've got a little girl, and she's beautiful. Bring her back two weeks from now, and we'll give her her feet. And then two weeks later, we'll give her her ears.

No, no, she was born complete. And when I was born again in Jesus, I was born complete. Some guy comes in and says, oh, we've got something you need.

No, I've already got it. I've already got it. We've got to be careful about this.

And so Paul wrote and said, when you've got Jesus, you've got it all. God was going to give one gift to the world. Now, if you're going to give one gift to the whole world, what are you going to give them? Books that some people can't read? Clothes? Some don't wear clothes.

Money? Whose money? God said, I've got one gift. Everything's here. Jesus.

So he told the Colossians, would you just quit looking at this other stuff? Forgive me. I get so tired of these people who run from one place to another looking for that one thing that's going to transform them instantly into Mother Teresa. We have a great Savior to preach.

We've got a great Bible to teach. Now, what more do we want? So major on this. Next time we get together, God willing, I want to talk to you just about some personal things.

That we need to do to expedite some of this. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for these dear men and women.

Some come with real burdens, real battles. And, Lord, I pray you'll encourage them. Encourage us all now in Jesus' name. Amen.