The Dangers of Covenant Mixing and the Power of God's Grace

0:00 How many of you are righteous and have rights standing with God? Let me see your hand. You have it right now. You are saved right now because faith says I have it now. Hope says hope is great, but hope is in the future, hope is for tomorrow. But now faith says I have it now. So you say I believe in Jesus, I believe that he died on the cross for my salvation. You're saved now. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYCcom.

0:41 That's CityLightNYCcom. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you. We're in the middle of a series on Galatians. We don't often do a series here, but when we do, it's usually on Galatians. And here we are right now in the middle.

1:22 We're in chapter five. So let me do a brief recap for the benefit of everyone, including the first-time guest and those of you who've been here for every single service of this series. We call it the Clash of the Covenants, the clash between the Old Covenant system of God's law and the New Covenant system of God's grace. And you'll see, throughout the New Testament you'll see clashes of it, but nowhere like in the book of Galatians, where that's the primary thing, over and over and over again. That's addressed and there's such benefits to really understanding the New Covenant of God's grace and actually living there, as opposed to what we too often find, which is a mixing of the two different systems.

2:11 And Paul says that if you mix, you actually get nothing. You have now nullified and frustrated the grace of God, and if there's mixture in your life, you're actually not mixing, but you're living under the Old Covenant system of the law. You might say what's so bad about that? Well, I'll define the Old Covenant system of God's law for you. It is a system I use that word system because that's one of the definitions for dispensation a system of order. It's a way in which we would relate to God, and it was based on our ability to keep God's law. Hint, we didn't have any. We constantly, under the system of law, kept falling and coming up short.

2:56 And so, under the Old Covenant system of law, you endeavored and attempted to be approved onto God, based on your own lawkeeping, based on your own holiness, based on your own strength and effort. It really was a system designed to show us up. That was the pretty definition. Here's a more vernacular definition, just kind of off the cup it's a system meant to show you up and cure you of your pride, where you would keep falling and realize that you're not all. That. That's it. It's a system where you realize you're not all, that You're stripped of your pride. You realize that there is a holy standard that's imposed upon you, but you are not giving any ability to meet and rise up to that holy standard, and so it forces you to look to a Savior, it forces you to look to God, who can now do for you on this side of the cross.

3:50 He can do for you what you could never do for yourself. Under the new Covenant system you're already past tense. There's a rest in ED, past tense, completed, finished. Under the new Covenant system you already past tense are totally approved unto God. You're accepted, you're forgiven, not based on what you've done or anything that you could ever do, but based on what he has done for you already. Amen. And so we just finished Galatians, chapter four, where Paul.

4:32 He talked about Abraham and Abraham's wife Sarah, and how they were given a promise that they were going to have Isaac. And Paul himself says Isaac is representative of the new Covenant. In fact, isaac's name means laughter because when you fully are living in the new Covenant, you'll have joy. Amen, you'll have a lot of laughter. This is what the world even notices that whenever there is religion there's no joy. And the old Covenant system of the law is religious Religion. The very word means back to bondage. What's the bondage? The bondage is that you have to work, you have to push, you have to try, you have to.

5:15 The burden is on you. You have to cross every T and dot every I. It's exhausting. But Isaac means laughter because under the new Covenant you realize, just like the song we sang, he did all the work for you and passed that victory on to you. That brings a ha, ha, ha, ha, ha ha. That's why I believe the Holy Spirit touches some people to laugh in service. By the way, the Holy Spirit wants to touch all people and fill them with joy. Some people yield and laugh Amen, because letting you know the new Covenant, it's a completed work.

5:57 He contrasts Sarah, who had Isaac and that's the new Covenant, with Hagar, who had Ishmael. That was a product of the flesh, a product of self-effort, and he says that's symbolic of the old Covenant system of the law. And then he says you cannot have them live in the tent. What was the word back then? The word was drive out, cast out. Hagar and Ishmael. They cannot live together in the same room, in the same house. They can't be together in the same tent. What's Paul saying? He's saying you cannot have the old Covenant system and the new Covenant system in the same tent. You cannot have any mixture. Pick one and go all in.

6:39 Then, if you want to be approved unto God, based on your own self-effort, based on your holiness, then go all in. The only catch is under the system of law if you're guilty of breaking it on not only one area, you're guilty of breaking the entire thing. So you have to be perfect forever on this side of heaven, without one slip up. Who's ready to take that challenge on? Oh well, welcome to the new Covenant then. Under the new Covenant, he's already kept the law and its perfection for you and transferred that victory over to you Amen. So let's continue on. In Galatians, chapter five, he spent all this time describing and illustrating and declaring this great liberty that we have as a result of grace, as a result of the completed work of Jesus under the new Covenant, and his admonition is for us to stand firmly.

7:37 Stand fast, therefore, in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. What's the yoke of bondage? It's living under the old system of the law and another place, in Corinthians, he called that system the ministry of death. It keeps producing death in you. If you're looking at yourself and trusting in yourself and taking on the responsibility of trying to please God, it's going to bring death. So what's the solution? Shouldn't I be trying to please God? You should realize that when you put your faith in Jesus, you already are totally pleasing to him.

8:20 So, even with all my stuff, yes, yes, he sees you through a lens of the blood of Jesus. He sees you in Christ. There's nothing you could do to cause him to love you anymore. There's nothing you could do to add to the already finished work. There's nothing you could do to manipulate him into making you more righteous. It's done. And now out of that now flows fruit, not works, but fruit Fruit, and you look more like Jesus and you act more like Jesus. But the motivation is different. It's not because you're trying to get God to approve of you more, it's because you're resting that you already are approved. Do you see the difference? It's a huge difference.

9:01 It'll make a huge difference in your peace. It'll make a huge difference in the way you receive prayer. Answers to prayer, verse two. Indeed, I, paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, christ will profit you nothing. Now, here he was dealing with these Judaizers who came in and they told the believing Christians it's nice that you believe in Jesus, but you also have to do something. This sounds like church to me. Nice that you receive Jesus. I feel like in church we do this, this bait and switch tactic. We tell people salvation is free, your forgiveness is free and we get them in the door, we get them in the seat and then we do the bait.

9:46 We got them in with the bait, then we do the switch Okay, but now in order to stay saved. And then we make them work. And we make them work and we put all this law on them to extract more stuff from them more work, more money, more whatever and it produces death in them. And they've been guilted and manipulated and their motive is now all off. They're trying to add to the finished work of the cross. They're working. They think that if I do X, Y, z, then God is obligated to do ABC for me. And it's this weird transactional relationship. It's wrong, it's off, it produces death. Amen, Go back, just keep it there.

10:30 Thank you, because a lot of people get hung up with if you become circumcised, christ will profit you nothing, because that was the problem that they were dealing with. They were saying you have to also be circumcised. Now, that's not the problem. Today we don't have any group coming in, thankfully, and telling all the men in the church, but we do have other teachings, other preachers, also the sound of our own head. That will always side with the system of the law. The way we've been brought up, our fallen nature, our unredeemed mind, will always side with the system of the law, so that we will think we have to add to the completed work when the whole declaration of the new covenant, the declaration that he reiterates over and over again in Galatians, is Jesus plus nothing equals everything, not Jesus plus the stuff that you do, hallelujah.

11:33 Let's keep reading verse three, and I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised, who adds to the finished work of the cross that he is a debtor to keep the whole law. You gotta do the whole thing now. And if you're living that way, he says you have become in the next verse. You've become in the next verse, you've become estranged from Christ. The Bible says when you're saved you're married to Jesus. But if you turn your eyes onto yourself and your own strength, your own self effort, and you think that you fit into that equation of salvation, he's taking you out of the equation. All you have to do is receive. That's great news. You wanna get all involved Now?

12:15 You're divorced from Christ. You who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. Look at that phrase fallen from grace. Have you ever seen that phrase fallen from grace before? Whenever a pastor falls, the next day, the headlines are so and so falls from grace. But why don't we let the Bible define the Bible? And that's not how the Bible uses that statement. Falling from grace never in the Bible means that you fell into sin. Look how Paul uses it. It means that you're mixing the covenants. It means that you're not living under grace. That's what it means to fall from grace.

12:57 When we were in Guatemala, we try to go back every year. We're going again in February. We've partnered with the Guatemala mission since 2009. And I would notice some folks lying in the street, totally drunk out of their mind, and I asked the missionary about them and he said oh yeah, the church gave up on them and they told them that they've fallen from grace and maybe you've heard that statement fallen from grace with regard to somebody who fell into sin. And I asked about the stories and the stories when something like they went back to alcohol, the church said oh no, you've fallen from grace. And then guess where they ended up?

13:38 They ended up drinking more alcohol and they ended up sleeping in the gutter for 16 hours a day. And now the church has turned their back and I'm saying, oh, you've fallen from grace. If you sin, you don't have to sin, but should you fall, the Bible never says you fell from grace. In fact, if you're a Christian and you fall, you fall into the arms of a loving savior. He still loves you, you're still forgiven. But when you hear the lie that you've fallen from grace, it only forces you into sin even further. Falling from grace means that you've turned your back on grace. Falling from grace means that you're mixing covenants. Falling from grace means you're trusting in yourself.

14:24 I'm so glad God is stable, unlike us. God is strong, unlike us. I'm so glad he's not moody like us, up and down emotional, like us. We talk about these things. I know they might not be unrelatable, but a good thing, you know, because circumcision isn't relatable right now. No group is going to come in from the outside protesting us, because some men may not be, but all of us. I do this inventory of my life on the daily. What am I doing where I think I'm scoring points with the big guy? What am I doing where I feel that I can maybe get God to look at me more favorably?

15:10 That's mixing the covenants. We do this kind of stuff all the time. I shared in the first service. I'll share it here. We were on vacation this summer, went to Montenegro, then went to Bosnia. We were in Sarajevo and I just said very frankly when I'm on vacation, my prayer life is very different. It's not exactly like I'm waking up in the morning and pressing in for several hours. You know, I'm chilling. My prayer life is holding my wife's hand and going, oh, hallelujah. Oh, you know, lord, this is so beautiful. Praise the Lord, get a cappuccino, jesus, I love you and we're just enjoying, you know. And we're doing that for days and one night we're going to bed.

15:55 It's midnight in the Sarajevo hotel room and my phone rings and I see that it's my neighbor. My stomach just dropped. It's my neighbor from New York. I pick up the phone. I hear hey, man, big flood, lots of rain, your place is totally flooded. So is mine. I'm across the Atlantic Ocean and the first thing that I hear is because you're not praying like you should be. Oh, now you're going to come to God and ask Him to help. Now you're going to come and ask for a miracle. I heard that. This is me, I'm the preacher of grace, but I heard that voice, I heard that satanic. Do you think you're going to now just go into prayer mode and you're going to just activate God's?

16:40 No, see, there's people who think like if they were to get a call like that, they think, well, I can't now come to God. I'm not in the right place with Him. You're in the right place with Him, so they think I need to pay in some way. So they go. Okay, maybe I'll fast, maybe I'll first warm up with a three hour little prayer session just to show God that I mean business and that I'm serious and that really I just got distracted with Europe. But really his heart is mine and mine is his, and I'll show him it's still the same homie and they'll work and they'll work and then at the end they'll go also. God, my place flooded and maybe you can come and help me out with that. Haven't I showed you how that's mixing you? Let some Judaizing something come into your life.

17:23 I'm there at midnight. I'm not feeling particularly spiritual. I'd baklava all over me, we're on vacay and hotel room hanging out. I thought I thought I had that. I went. No, jesus, you are good Jesus, you are solid, you are stable and you're not relating to me based on my works. You're relating to me based on the finished, completed, done work of the cross. Do you believe that? And I had to just do a reship, lord, I am as qualified right now to receive answers to prayer as I would be if I was in the middle of a missions trip and a simultaneous 40 day fast.

18:14 Amen. If you think differently, it's only because of emotions. It's only because of the feelings and the thoughts swirling about in your own head and emotions go up and down. You might wake up on a Wednesday. You know I don't feel like God is with me, because it's ugly and raining outside and somehow you think God. No, his word doesn't change, amen. And if you're looking to Jesus, you've not fallen from grace. You don't fall from grace by slipping on a sinful banana peel. You fall from grace when you make the decision to depart from grace and to allow mixture. I keep using that word.

18:55 It's not because I made it up. That's the cry of Galatians no mixture, no mixture allowed. Get them out of the same tent. They can't even live under the same roof. Verse five For we, through the spirit, eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Remember how many of you are righteous right now and every hand don't make me run around this place how many of you are righteous and have rights standing with God. Let me see your hand. You have it right now. You are saved right now because faith says I have it now. Hope says hope is great, but hope is in the future.

19:37 Hope is where tomorrow. But now faith says I have it now. So you say I believe in Jesus, I believe that he died on the cross for my salvation. You're saved now, at the same time it's in the future. This is why Paul can say over and over again that the devil has been defeated past tense. But then in Romans he says and the God of peace will crush Satan shortly underneath your feet, kind of putting it in the future. We say oh, contradiction in the Bible. Which one is it? The answer is yes, it's both. He has already delivered past tense you from the power of darkness, but on that final day, when Satan will be cast into the lake of fire, that'll find its apex, that'll find its complete fulfillment, amen.

20:25 Just like with our salvation. We're saved now. We have righteousness now, but on that day we'll see the culmination of our salvation, hallelujah. So that's why he says, through the Spirit, we eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. It's both now and in the future. For in Christ Jesus, verse six for in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything but faith working through love. Faith working through love, everything you've ever received from the Lord. You know how you got it by faith.

21:08 Salvation you receive by faith, answers to prayer by faith. Jesus was the ultimate faith preacher, preached a lot on faith everywhere he went. It's like he had a faithometer. He would detect people's faith. He had a faithometer. It was in his own spirit. Oh you of little faith, oh you great is your faith. To some people you don't want to hear him say this he said where is your faith? Not little, not great, I don't even is this thing on. And he would say according to your faith, be it unto you in proportion to your.

21:49 So that means I want to have robust, strong faith, because I will receive from heaven in proportion to my faith. How do I get an active, robust faith? One thing that I'm allergic to is a lot of praying with no, I got to see results. Prayer is not a time, especially group prayer, where we just kind of all become social together and let's have a little time with God and maybe, per chance, maybe one out of 10 of the things we ask for will get answered. No, every one of those things should be answered. So how do we get robust faith? How does it work? I'm so glad you asked. I'm so glad the apostle Paul answered.

22:30 Faith works by love. Now, everything that we get, we see it through that filter, through that lens of the system of law. So typically you'll read something like this and you'll immediately put a works burden on yourself. You'll say, oh, I know what the Bible is saying. It's saying that if I'm more loving to people, then my faith will work, and maybe you've heard it even preached that way. Is your faith not? Are you tired Not getting answered a prayer? Is your faith not working? Try being nicer to people, love them. Dial 1-800-NICE-TO-PEOPLE.

23:13 That's not what the scripture is talking about. Faith works by love. Your faith will work when you are receiving the love of God Love of God. By the way, the byproduct of receiving the love of God, besides robust faith, is that you'll have his love to give away and as a byproduct, you'll be kinder, you'll be gentler, you'll be more loving to all the people that are in your life. And here the emphasis is on you receiving mega doses of the love of God. When you're really drinking of the love of God, your faith will be strong. So chug, chug, chug. Become a daily sipper. Wake up in the morning and take a big chug of the love of God Right before breakfast.

23:58 Take a big chug of the love of God All throughout the day. Chug, receive his love. How do you do that? I don't know what works for you. I know what works for me. You got to figure out this is the part where we get into relationship. You got to figure out how to dance with Jesus. You got to figure out what works for you. And here's the thing so many people get stuck early on in the Christianity because they don't know how to explore that. How do I relate to him? And they keep him at arm's length and they keep it all like clinical and distant and artificial, get loose with him a little bit. And so for me one day it might be reading the Psalms and I'm like, oh, I'll see his love for me in the Psalms.

24:44 The next day I might just wake up and praying tongues in the shower the whole time. The next day it could be that I'm just silent before him the next day or season, not literally a day, I'm not. I'm erratic, but not that erratic. There's seasons, there's, there were seasons where I would just talk for hours a day and there are seasons where I couldn't even say anything. I didn't feel like I should. I'd just be quiet, I'd just sit there. I'd just think about his goodness, think about what he did for me on the cross. Either way, get to a place and you have freedom, you've been forgiven. Get to a place where you're like a sponge and you know how to. You know how to pull on the love of God all throughout the day.

25:27 The enemy does not want you encountering the love of God on the daily, and NYC is not here to help. I am convinced now, safe to say, there are parts of the country that are more conducive to receiving God's love. Nyc is not high on the list. Just, I feel like you need to have the gladiator arm or sharpen your elbows and you, just you get it. We all have our defenses on. Take a chill, just chill. I'm going to keep you safe. You don't have. You have to receive his love. This isn't a choice. If you don't, you're going to dry up and your faith will be. They'll always be like a short circuit.

26:07 It won't be working. So, hallelujah, women tend to receive the love of God quicker, easier. Men, we've been messed up, we've heard wrong things and we've hardened up and man figure it out. Talk to him, yell at him. He's not, he's not offended. Read the Psalms. Half of them are people shouting at God. It's true, he will. He's not, he's not scared of you. He will show himself loving and strong on your behalf, amen. Next verse so faith works through love.

26:48 Receive his love. Your faith will work. Whenever I feel like my faith isn't working, that's the first place I go. Am I really receiving the love of God? And then I'll. And then I'll always notice and all the dark periods of my life. They have the same thing in common. The same thing that's in common is I took my eyes off of his love for me and I made it about something else. It could be so many other things, so often a works mentality of performing for him, trying to win his approval. Oh, you've fallen from grace. You ran well. Who hindered? That's a military, a strategic military term where they would come in and Break up the roads going in and out of the city to lay siege of the city.

27:33 He's saying who did that to you? You were on a road called grace and you allowed someone To destroy it and to prevent you, to hinder you. Who hindered you from obeying the truth. The covenant mixers, the Judaizers it's usually not an outside group today, it's the voice of our own mind. Verse 8 this persuasion, this persuasion To mix the two systems, to mix the two covenants, to rely on yourself to try to serve God in your own strength, to add to the finished work of the cross, this persuasion does not come from him who calls you a little leaven Leavens the whole lump.

28:23 Mom, do you remember all that bread you made? When I was a kid? My mom was baking fresh bread before it was cool to bake fresh bread, before the hipsters were baking bread and a little apartment in Forest Hills, queens. My mom was breaking fresh bread and I come up to the kitchen counter and I'd look and she'd take a little yeast, a little Leaven and it'll leaven the whole lump, the whole loaf of bread. Here's what the Apostle Paul is saying a little Law is too much, it'll mess up the whole loaf of bread. But preachers love, because they secretly don't trust you. You know, I don't want you to get too uppity in your freedom.

29:04 I'll lose control. So I Gotta, I gotta, mix this great gospel of grace and freedom. I gotta remember emerald Bam kick it up a notch, throw a little dash. No, I gotta stop doing my like. 90s and early 2000s. I just, you know, as you get older your jokes don't progress and so it loses. 20 years goes by like this and Well, the 30s. I was like that's funny, pre. Or let me, let me try again. Preachers are notorious for salt and peppering. They're teachings and churches with the system of law.

29:46 Really, because we don't trust you, we can get a lot more work and a lot more money out of you if we mix some law with it. I'm saying the stuff I'm not supposed to say. You should be loving this. It's not right, it's wrong. It leads to death. It leads to being estranged and divorced from Christ. It leads to death and frustration inside of you. Preachers feel let me try to rephrase that maybe I lost you with 11 analogy. Try another way. It's gonna come out the same way. We, we, we Feel that you're not to be trusted with, really, the freedom of grace and the liberty of grace.

30:36 So we try to temper God's amazing grace with some good old-fashioned law. You have to, you have to, you have to, and that's what the old system of law is thou shalt, thou shalt, thou shalt. We read just the other week that the new covenant isn't about you, it's not about me. The finger isn't wagging at you saying thou shalt not, thou shalt not. He, when he establishes the new covenant, says I Will form a new covenant with you, I will take out the heart of stone, I will put in a heart of flesh. I want his, I will not my. You must I Fail?

31:16 He doesn't fail. So what this is saying is stay away from the leaven. You smell that system of law. Get it away, because a little will leaven the whole lump. And hopefully we try to present everything that way. For example, pastor James, he made an invitation for people to come and help with Christmas decorating. We want to see this whole place up, you know, like Radio City back in the day, and we really need some people to come and help. Pastor Moe is gonna have the hot cocoa going and decorate this whole place up. Do you notice how he presented that? You may not have even heard him because he just said if you can come.

31:57 He didn't say how many of you love Jesus. Give me a J, j, give me an E. Get everybody hyped up. Everybody love Jesus. All right now. If you really love Jesus, you're gonna come and show it and help decorate. Everybody, pass the sign-up sheet up and down. This stuff happens all the time to manipulate you, to guilt you, to To extract something out of you. No, we're gonna trust here's a novel idea we're gonna trust the Holy Spirit inside of you. Ah, do you know? Our church is death-free, hallelujah. That's rare for churches, and it's not because we're whipping people telling them that if they don't hide they're gonna be cursed.

32:41 It's not like our church is that free and we're in barely, but we have staff and we have numerous International missions projects that we give generously to, and you, thankfully, in nearly 22 years, not once have I had to stand here and say it's been a bad year for City Line. We may not be around unless, unless you reach into your pocket and dig real deep. What are we doing? We're trusting the Holy Spirit, under the new covenant, to speak to his people. That means my primary job, then, is to make sure that you are full of the word and full of the Spirit, so we can get the job done. Amen, hallelujah.

33:21 Verse 10 Is this helping you? I? There's a lot of things I can teach, and of course I have and I will. But I don't know anything better To get you on the road to victory, to get you. Here's a novel idea, also to get you enjoying your salvation. Salvation, then, a proper understanding of the finished work of the cross and the new covenant of his grace. I can't think of anything better. And I didn't get it till I was a few years old in the Lord, and I was simultaneously Joyous and very upset that they didn't tell me sooner. Why didn't they tell me sooner? Turns out, they weren't hiding it from me. They themselves didn't know they were.

34:03 They were victims of victims. I have confidence in you, in the Lord. You see how that throws that in. So I have confidence in you, well, really, in the Lord, in you. And if you have confidence in me, adjust that. Have confidence in the Jesus in me, have confidence in the Jesus in you. I've confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind. But he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is. Now the Bible says there is therefore now a little bit of condemnation to those who are in Christ. No condemnation. Condemnation means judgment.

34:44 Jesus was totally judged, totally condemned. The wrath of God that you and I deserved, that wrath was exhausted on Jesus. So is there any more condemnation and judgment left for the person who is in Christ? No, there is no more judgment, no more condemnation. God cannot condemn you when he has already condemned your sin in Jesus. Amen. The whole story of the children of Israel fleeing Egypt and the Passover lamb.

35:24 They were told to slay the first born lamb and apply the blood to the doorposts, and when the death angel came, he would pass over the house with the blood. Why? Death cannot come where death has already been. Judgment cannot come to you where you have already been judged. You have already been judged, but in the person of Jesus. You wanna know what that judgment looks like, how severe. Look at the Son of God whipped, beaten, brutalized, pierced. That was the judgment that we deserved, and he was separated from God, the Father, on the cross. That's really where the pain was, where he cried out Eloi, eloi, lama Sabachtini. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? So that you would never be judged and God would never turn his back on you and you would never be forsaken.

36:09 But yet here Paul says to those who trouble you there is a judgment. Uh-huh, this is important. What's happening here? Well, for the person who is in Christ, there is no condemnation. But for those who are now mixing the covenants, the Bible says several things. They're estranged or divorced from Jesus. They have nullified the grace of God. They no longer qualify for no judgment. For anyone who mixes the covenant. They're fair game for the law, and the law demands justice. So he says to those covenant mixers who are bothering you, they're gonna be judged because they're not hidden away in Christ.

36:55 I think the proper response right now is just inwardly go. Thank you, lord, I'm hidden in Christ. I receive your grace. By your grace, I will continually live under the new covenant, with no mixture, hallelujah. It's just. It's almost hilarious, because this is the only time where I feel like I have to fight and wrestle with people to see them happier, more free, enjoying salvation. And there are some folk who would get upset at this. No, don't take the pain out of my Christianity. Christianity, don't. It's supposed to be hard.

37:36 All my life I've been on that treadmill. Don't tell me I didn't have to be. All that was for nothing. Verse 11. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Some of them were saying hey, paul, we heard you got Timothy circumcised. So you are preaching circumcision, and that's true. Paul took a young pastor, timothy, and they were preaching to a bunch of Jewish people and Timothy had to get circumcised because the Jews wouldn't receive him if he didn't. So I imagine the conversation went something like Timothy, you sure you wanna go on this mission trip with me? Yes, paul, I really do.

38:17 How far are you prepared to go to fulfill the call of God on your life? Because those folks over there, they're not gonna hear a word you say unless you get circumcised. Timothy said you know, I'm prepared to go all the way. So he got circumcised. But he didn't get circumcised to be approved unto God. He didn't do something extra to get forgiven by God, he just did this because it was a cultural thing and he was taught as Paul to be all things to all men. You see the difference. It's always a question of motive, like we're gonna go on a 21 day fast come the new year. I haven't even gotten Christmas fat yet and I'm looking forward to it.

38:57 I can't wait for the 21 days of fasting. We'll all be praying together every single night via Zoom meeting. It's lovely time, but with fasting, for example, so many Christians treated like it's a hunger strike and if they suffer enough through fasting, they're gonna twist God's arm into releasing a blessing that normally he's just keeping back from them. Fasting doesn't change God. It changes you, it aligns you. Hey men, you see the difference in motivation. Now we're fasting out of a love motive. We're fasting not to change his mind.

39:40 We realize his mind is always good towards us. But we're fasting because it causes us to focus on him. It causes us our spirit to come alive. Why do I still? Why are they still wanting to kill me? I actually preached circumcision. He didn't. Then the offense of the cross has ceased. And then verse 12, the other week I joked and said I'd love a little plaque for my desk of one of Paul's quotes in an earlier chapter where he says have I become your enemy Now that I tell you the truth? And I said it kind of as a joke.

40:21 And just this Friday night a precious couple from our church came and blessed me with that plaque and I love it and it's right now in my office on the desk. But I thought after that. I thought, oh, I should have asked for this in the plaque. This is the better verse this has. Maybe we'll just get a giant plaque. When we get our own building, we'll hang that in the men's restroom. If you don't know what I'm talking about, put on your seatbelt. Here's what Paul is saying, because his problem is covenant mixers. Right, covenant mixers rob you of your liberty in Christ. They rob you of your freedom. They don't get you to receive the love of God.

41:03 They add to the finished work of the cross. And here's what Paul is saying. I could wish. That's him being nice. He didn't say I wish, but he's saying they drive me so crazy and they're so evil. I could wish that those who trouble you, who want you circumcised, would even cut themselves off. Yes, he's talking about that. Do you get what Paul is talking about? Mom Sounds crazy, right, paul? The holy apostle Paul, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, said that what's the takeaway from that? That this is serious. Okay, some of you still don't get it. He's saying that those people who like to just take a little off the top of your circumcision, they should go all the way chop, chop, chop and emasculate themselves.

41:50 Can you believe that, bro? That's what he's saying. I know pearl clutching right here in the third row. Oh, oh, oh, oh, paul. Do you know who the Bible was written by? You think it was written by a bunch of poets and cloistered seminarian scholars. These were barbarians. Actually, paul was the most academic of all of them. Some of you, man, you need to read that book the Barbarian Way and realize that the gospel was spread and Christianity was formed really by poet warriors and by men who weren't afraid to get their hands dirty and beam.

42:33 Men and all that's trying to get squashed now and it's label as toxic masculinity. Yet men would be the first to run into a fire, first one to rescue a baby, first one to just break to get killed in wars, to advance the gospel, to have their own lives taken. Don't shout me down, because I'm preaching the truth, amen. And sometimes under that a little bit of this comes out Amen, don't tune me out, but he didn't really mean it. He said I could wish he tempered it All right. Verse 13, everybody after Sarah's gonna Google. Did Paul really mean that? Yeah, he did. There's a lot of things theologians disagree about.

43:14 85% of them agree that that's what he was talking about. The others wear ladies dresses, anyway. Verse five, chapter five, verse 13. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty Only. Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flag Only. Do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love, serve one another. He's saying, because grace, grace can be abused.

43:59 It doesn't mean it should be, but only do you know, only when you really love someone, only when you really give them your heart, only when you really make yourself vulnerable, you now have lost power. Huh, that other person cannot really hurt you. But that's really what true love is. And he's given you himself and put you under a system of grace. You can abuse it, should you? He says no, god forbid. And allow that grace now to have a working in you to where you allow it to change you and you become more like Jesus. Hallelujah, verse 14.

44:40 Hey, on that note of grace, changing you and making you more like Jesus, I've shared before. I've offended my wife with that Paul thing. She's gone. I'll make it up to you, babe. Tonight we're gonna read the song of Solomon by the fireplace. I didn't mean that in that way. I literally meant I didn't Come back. I didn't. Pastor James, you're terrible. I didn't mean it like that. I was sharing. Listen, come back to me, don't tune out. With transformation, I've had the Lord.

45:24 When I first got saved, some sins just like fell off of me without any effort. Others persisted and then they were like deep hooks inside of me and obviously I still haven't arrived. But I'm better. I'm better with regard to holiness, better than where I once was. The Lord is shaping me and molding me and changing me, and you too. But here's what I've noticed no, especially the heavy sins. I mean by heavy, I mean heavy for me. They persisted. It's like I can't shake them off, and then the Lord would deliver me and the hook would shh their sins. I thought I'd never be free of them. They're gone.

46:05 None of those ever came. Those deliverances. They never came when I was trying to change, never. They never came when I said you know what I really need to clean my act up. Let me take a step back, quote unquote work on myself. And really they always came when I put my eyes on Jesus. I fell in love with him, I was receiving his love, I got caught up in the things of Jesus and then, like weeks later, it hit me. Wait, that sin that was plaguing me, it's gone. It's gone. When did he do that? It's gone. He did that. But I wasn't trying, I was just receiving Jesus.

46:46 That's how it'll happen. That's how it does happen. That's why a pastor's primary job is to get you to receive more of God's love and enjoy Jesus, and that's where the transformation comes. For all the laws fulfilled in one word, even in this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself Verse 15,. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another. I say then and here he gives the entire key to the new covenant it's called walking in the spirit. I say then walk in the spirit. Just say that with me.

47:26 Please walk in the spirit. When you walk in the spirit, you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. So how do you walk in the spirit? What does it mean to walk in the spirit? What does walking in the spirit mean, I was told. Walking in the spirit means read your Bible every day, worship every day, come to church. That's walking in the spirit. That is not walking in the spirit. That is the fruit of walking in the spirit. But we're infamous for always analyzing the fruit, never getting to the root.

48:07 Walking in the spirit means living under grace. It means following the Holy Spirit. By the way. Do you know what the Holy Spirit's job is, what his primary job is? Jesus said it in John 14, when he first talked about the Holy Spirit, he said the Holy Spirit will come and he will testify of me. So the Holy Spirit's primary job, before being helper, comforter, the paracletos, all that stuff he always points the way to Jesus. When the Holy Spirit comes, he says look at Jesus. This is what Jesus has done, this is what Jesus brings. To walk in the spirit is to look at Jesus. Take your eyes off of yourself, look at Jesus, cling to Jesus. Basically live under grace.

48:49 To walk according to the flesh means you're walking in your own strength. That's being under the old covenant system of the law. So walking in the spirit is walking the new covenant. Walk under grace. When you're walking in the spirit, then you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh. The power of sin is broken under grace. When you're under the system of the law, the power of sin is heated up and amplified. That's why Paul said not me. Paul said the strength of sin is in the law. You show me a church that's heavy on the system of the law and I will show you an army of closet sinners An army?

49:35 They're not that way. On Sunday, come on, how are you doing Welcome? And you won't see many relationships. Many because they all keep private because they don't want anybody to know what they're secretly up to. But can you believe there can be a new covenant church that doesn't downplace sin, that doesn't compromise on calling sin sin? Yet at the same time, we recognize that we're all works of God in progress and we give you space to grow and develop and nobody's gonna condemn you, nobody's gonna be mean to you, nobody's gonna be harsh with you. But we understand that we're all at different places, ultimately going to the same destination. J-e-s-u-s.

50:16 Wow, sounds exceedingly new covenant church-y to me. Hallelujah, I say. Then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh Verse 17,. For the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. Verse 18,. But if you are led by God, if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. So to walk in the spirit means you're not walking under the law, you're walking under grace.

50:58 Hallelujah, verse 19,. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, sex outside of the marriage, covenant, fornication, sex before marriage, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery. Sorcery in Revelation is translated from the Greek pharmacia, which is drug use, where we get pharmacy from. But here sorcery is actually witchcraft. And do you know what all these flavors of the flesh, all these works of the flesh have in common?

51:42 Nobody has to teach them to you. They're in your flesh. Thankfully, your flesh has been crucified with Christ, if you will receive that and appropriate it daily by faith. But what this means is that you can take any group of people from any continent, any place. You put them on a remote island and all of this stuff will come out of them. It's a murder. I would never murder it, yes, yes, you would. Just the environment wasn't right, but it's there. That also means you can take a group of people, you put them on that island, come back a hundred years and they're all practicing witchcraft. Remember, mom, when you first got saved. Remember the reading, the Turkish cups that you put upside down.

52:24 These are things no one had to teach my Mom that this is stuff that was just in our Balkan culture. Did you, did they do that in my they did All the time right. The Turkish cup of coffee is very muddy at the bottom. They flip it upside down and then they would divine their future by looking at it. It looked like hieroglyphic images in there and it seems innocent, right and playful. But you're really entering a realm that God has an ordained for you to enter, and you can open the door and give way to spirits, and it is witchcraft. My Mom's not a witch, you can see she. I got my humor from her, though what's my point?

53:04 It's in the flesh Jealousy's outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. He says the exact same thing, I believe, in three, possibly four different places where he'll do this. He'll list these flavors of the flesh and he'll list these sins, and whenever I read the list, the mood in the atmosphere just goes down, cause you found yourself somewhere here.

53:53 If you didn't, you're not being totally honest, there's something that's off. So you go, oh, and I try not to look at it, and I notice I'm looking at the floor as I read down the list. No eye contact Each time. What he's saying is what the supposition is. Is that if you're practicing notice he says practicing, you're practicing, it's part of your life, it's habitual. You don't even care, you're not even convicted. If that's you, then you're not saved. If you're living like this, you are not saved. You may come to church, you may do churchy things, but you need to really get saved.

54:33 Only when you get saved, you actually hate sin. Do you still sometimes have trouble with sin? Yeah, what's the solution? What's the antidote? More of God's love, more of His grace, more of His goodness. Say, how long does it take? I don't know. He surprises me every time. Some things I thought I'd be plaguing in my whole life, he got rid of. Some other things that seem easy on paper. It's like are things still there? So so good, so so patient, so so merciful, so so loving? Verse 22,. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, worshiping.

55:16 Come on up. Long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Again such there is no law, and those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Hallelujah, I want you to just sing this next song, okay, I wanna pray for you. I hope that you will receive this invitation to walk down the path of grace and not mix, and to allow him to trust him enough to do a transformative work in you.

56:05 To be Christ-like is a pleasure, to be Christ-like is a joy, and the wages of sin is still death. But the way to overcome sin is not by trying real hard, not by going to where you get flogged every Sunday by a preacher who's gonna wave his index finger in your face. It's gonna come from that relationship with him. Father, teach us to enjoy salvation. Teach us to enjoy Jesus. Teach us to be recipients of all that you purchased for us with your own blood. We love you, but, even more importantly, we receive your love for us.

56:47 Amen. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansic in City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyccom. That's citylightnyccom. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.