WWUTT 1777 Have I Now Become Your Enemy, Part 1 (Galatians 4:12-20)

Galatians 4:12-20 and the Opening of the Message

The Galatians had turned to a different gospel, and their behavior had changed as a result. Paul corrected their thinking and their behavior, out of love for them, not as their enemy but as a friend, when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of the book of Galatians, chapter 4. I'll be picking up in verse 12 and reading through verse 20 out of the English Standard Bible. This is the word of the Lord, through the Apostle Paul, writing to the churches in Galatia.

Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth, until Christ is formed in you.

I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. Here is part one of a message entitled, Have I Now Become Your Enemy? This past week, in fact, just in the last couple of days, the world has lost two very influential theologians, but these two theologians could not be on more opposite ends of the spectrum.

Warren Wiersbe’s Legacy and Ministry

A few days ago, a man by the name of Warren Wearsby died on May 2nd at the age of 89. Some of you probably know the name Warren Wearsby. As far as Bible teachers go on the radio, he was one of the very first voices, apart from my own father and maybe the pastor in my church, that I heard preach to me the Word of God.

Warren Wearsby was on the program called Back to the Bible from 1980 to 1990. I was born in 80, so for that first decade of my life, I was hearing Warren Wearsby read the Bible to me on the radio, on the Christian radio stations that my dad worked for.

After he retired from that position in 1990, Woodrow Kroll would become the one that would take over, and then I listened to Kroll for many years after that. He was on for even more than 10 years, longer than Wearsby was.

Prior to being on Back to the Bible, Wearsby pastored Moody Church from 1971 to 1978. He was the author of over 50 books, the titles of which begin with the word, Be. Be real. Be obedient. Be mature. Be joyful.

Be faithful. Be complete. Be ready. You think of a particular word or theme that applies to Christianity, and Warren Wearsby probably wrote a book about it with the word, Be, at the front. Wearsby had made such wonderful quotes.

One of my most favorite quotes from Wearsby, as a matter of fact, is one where he talks about how he has the ability to read the Word of God and understand it and then speak it, and then this is the very blessing of God.

And as a pastor, I loved that from Wearsby, because any day that I get to wake up and proclaim the Word of God is another day that God has blessed me to do so. Not because I have an ability to do it, but because it is the Lord's will that I do it.

And Wearsby believed that about his own ministry. Other wonderful quotes from Wearsby that I had collected over the years, God doesn't bless us just to make us happy. He blesses us to make us a blessing.

Never doubt in darkness what God has told you in the light. Wearsby also said, before we can minister to others, God must minister to us. So he was the first grand theologian that had passed away earlier this week, and again he died on May the 2nd at the age of 89.

Rachel Held Evans, Public Controversy, and a Call to Repentance

Just yesterday morning, my wife and I were notified of the passing of another person who was a very influential theologian, but could not be more opposite from Wearsby than she was. Very, very liberal theologian, and someone who was not very fond of me.

Her name was Rachel Held Evans, and she died yesterday at the age of 37. It was on April the 19th that she went into the hospital with the flu and an infection, and she had a bad reaction to the antibiotics and slipped into a coma, and yesterday morning she passed.

Someone who knew that I had been praying for her had contacted Becky and had said, did you guys see that Rachel Held Evans has passed away? And I resolved not to make any public statement about it yesterday because of controversy that had already been stirred up between the two of us and did not want to attract any attention to that.

The last public rant that she made was directed at me. There was a certain and heretical theology that she had been perpetuating that I warned people about through one of the videos that I had made. And Evans believed and taught heresy and got progressively worse.

She encouraged people in destructive behavior that God has promised that He will judge. When she went into the hospital, I made the decision not to respond to the comments that she had made regarding what I had said.

There would be time for that later. But I did make this statement. I said that I was praying for Evans. I was praying for her healing, that her body would be healed, and that God would grant her repentance.

I said, quote, I will pray for her recovery and her repentance. You who follow her, please understand. You, like she, value what God hates, especially sexual perversion, which the world calls love. Psalm 66, 18 says, The Lord does not listen to those who cherish sin.

Repent. Needless to say, the backlash was swift and harsh. I was called names, including Antichrist. I was accused of saying things I did not say. I became the subject of a few articles, including one in an online publication called Christian Today, not to be confused with Christianity Today.

The editor of Relevant Magazine came after me. But I responded to very few comments. I knew it would only add fuel to the fire. So I, even now, am going to wait until things diminish and her passing is no longer news before I say anything further.

Among the accusations that were made of me, one of the most common was that I was accused of grandstanding. Just trying to call attention to myself and using a woman who was in a coma to do it. But my plea was made in my statement.

I said, please understand. You, like she, value what God hates. When Evans became deathly ill and fell into a coma, I feared for her soul. And I feared for the souls of anyone else who followed what it was that she had taught.

God judges sin. Jesus said in Luke 13, 3, repent or you will likewise perish. Or what Jesus said in Matthew 10, 28, and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear him who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

I was not pronouncing a judgment on anybody. I was merely calling a person to fear God and repent. And it was because I loved and cared for souls, not because I was trying to make anything of myself. And my heart is still vexed.

Yet we need to understand that God still judges sin. And we need to fear the Lord and repent. And such declarations are not made to harm anyone. They must be made because we love and we desire. As Paul instructed us to desire, according to 1 Timothy 2, that none should perish but all would come to repentance.

All would come to a knowledge of the faith, the truth that we have in Christ Jesus. This has been a very scathing letter that Paul has written to the Galatians. According to what is said at the end of the letter, he writes with large letters.

You think of this being written in all caps, in bold, exclamation marks, Galatians repent. If you follow in false doctrine, you're accursed. And here he even gets to this point in the letter and says to them, have I become your enemy because I have given you the truth?

He says, brothers, I entreat you because as I am. That was where we stopped last week. And once again, I repeat to you as what I said last week, Paul is not drawing attention to himself to make much of himself.

That's not why he's saying that. Don't follow these false teachers and make much of them. Instead, follow me and make much of me. That's not the way that Paul is approaching them. But Paul is an apostle.

This is a man who is suffering for the cause of the truth, of preaching the truth of Christ. He has given up everything. He is beaten, he is scourged, and yet he continues to preach. Though he is scorned, though people turn their backs on him, though he would even come into an area like Galatia and get sick, and his illness there would cause for him to stop and preach the gospel so that many might be saved.

That's part of what, autobiographically, Paul is sharing with the Galatians in this particular section. He does all of these things, not for himself, but for Christ. You've even seen me get ill, and yet I continue to preach the gospel to you.

Love Christ. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Become as I am, for I also have become as you are. Paul making himself what he needs to be in order to reach those who need the gospel.

When he went to the barbarians, he became as a barbarian, who were not Greek speakers, who did not know how to read and write Greek, and yet Paul found ways that he could communicate the gospel with them.

When Paul went to the Gentiles, he was as a Gentile, not keeping Jewish laws or custom that would otherwise make a Gentile to turn away from the gospel or not want to accept it because, well, that's the Jewish religion.

To the Jews, Paul continued to keep the Jewish laws so not to cause a Jew to stumble, but that they might listen to this gospel that he's proclaiming and not thinking that he's preaching something like antinomianism, greasy grace, just sin all you want and God will just pour out his grace upon you.

That was not the message that he had, but that Christ was the fulfillment of the law. And as he came and proclaimed the truth to these people, whether it was a Gentile or Jew or otherwise, there were people who hated him for it.

Yet he continued to love and preach and call to repentance because his affection was for souls. We see his affection for souls in an even deeper way when you look at Romans 9, right at the very start of that particular chapter, he says, if it was possible for me to give up my life, I could go into the depths of hell for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen, those who share a common line with me, to whom the promises were given, descendants of the patriarchs.

If I could give up my life for their sake, I would gladly do it. Paul would even be willing to go to hell if it meant that for their sake, they would get to go to heaven. But that's not the way that the gospel of God works.

So Paul knows he cannot do that, but it just displays an affection that he has in his heart for those who are perishing. He does not want anyone to perish and would be willing to speak anyone the truth, even if it might cause him bodily harm, because he wants them to be saved.

His safety was really, it was nothing to him because he knew that the Lord God was going to deliver him. When he spoke to the Philippians about this, he says, you know, when it comes to sticking around with you or dying and becoming a martyr and going to be with my Lord, I'm kind of torn between the two.

If I die, I get to go be with God. That's awesome. That's what I want. But if I stay here with you, I get to help grow you in your faith and lead others to Christ. And that's awesome too. So which one do I want?

I'm kind of stuck, kind of stuck between the two. See what Paul wants in this world is not the things of this world. He wants the people who are of the world to become people of the kingdom. So even his desire while he's in this world is to preach the kingdom of God.

It's still for the kingdom of God. So when Paul says, become as I am, let your first love be Christ and his kingdom. As Jesus said in Matthew chapter six, seek first his righteousness and the kingdom of God and all of these other things that you need on this earth, they will be added to you as well.

But we seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness. So become as I am, Paul says. As he said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians chapter six, imitate me for I am of Christ. I'm sorry. That's 1 Corinthians 11.

Imitate me because I am of Christ. Brothers, I entreat you become as I am for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. In other words, I'm not coming at you with this because I'm trying to get revenge on you.

And Paul is also calling attention to the fact that they at one point had very compassionate hearts and he's saying to them, return to that. What happened? How did you stumble off the way from the compassion that you once had?

You know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first. Now we don't know exactly what this bodily ailment was. It'd be easy enough to just say Paul got the flu and he couldn't keep on walking.

So we just stopped there in Galatia, but being forced to have to stop, which by the way would have been according to the providential working of God, that Paul would even get sick or some sort of illness would happen to him so that he might proclaim the gospel there to the Galatians.

So we don't know exactly what it was, but we get kind of a hint of what it might be a little bit later on when he said, I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

So something that was bothering him apparently had something to do with his vision. And there have been theologians that have postulated that Paul may have had bad eyesight. He may have had something that was wrong with his eyes that caused him to have to stop some sort of pain.

Maybe he got something in his eye. I don't know if you've ever been felt or you've felt completely crippled because you got something in your eye before. Has that ever happened to you? I've had a pain in my eye so bad that you just leave me here on the floor grasping me my eye and go do something else.

It is a painful part of the body to get anything into your eye. When I was in college, I fell asleep with a stye in my eye and during REM sleep, you know, while your eyes are going back and forth, it just rubbed that thing all over, did significant damage to my eye and the doctors thought that the damage was permanent.

So they gave me a patch. I had to wear a patch over my eye for a period of time, which was kind of weird because everything became two dimensional. Like for a period, you just cover your eye like this and you try to look around and it doesn't really feel like that much has changed.

But when you've been walking around like that for several days, you kind of lose depth perception. When you don't have two eyes that you're looking through, you're only trying to perceive the world through one.

So it's amazing how dependent we are on our eyes and we don't think about how important our eyes are until we can't, we don't have use of them anymore when you don't even have use of one eye. So Paul had got something in his eye or he had some sort of illness that was causing him pain in his eye, or maybe he just had bad vision and those maybe bad vision caused him headaches.

But we know it was debilitating enough that Paul had to stop there. He couldn't continue on his journey. And Paul says, I know that your affection for me was so great that if it were possible for you to, your love for me and what I was doing and your charity toward us who are preaching the gospel, if you could have done it, you would have taken your own eyes out and given them to me and said, here, Paul, be well, continue the missionary work that God has you doing.

If it was possible for a person to do that, Paul said, you would have done that for me. You know that it was because of a bodily ailment, I preached the gospel to you at first. And though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but you received me as an angel of God as Christ Jesus.

So the seriousness of this illness that he had was enough that the Galatians had to wait on him. Many of them probably didn't even know who he was. But they were kind to him, nevertheless charitable, gave him a place to stay, helped him eat if he couldn't see.

And they received him as an angel of God. As we are told in the scriptures that sometimes we are entertaining angels unaware. And so Paul said, you would receive me as though I had become an angel of God, a messenger of God, preaching in holiness, preaching goodwill.

Paul says, as Christ Jesus, you receive me as if I were Christ. Remember what our Lord said to us in Matthew chapter 25, at the great white throne of judgment, when all the nations are gathered before him, he says he is going to separate the peoples one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

He says the sheep are going to go on my right hand and the goats are going to go on my left. And to those on my right, I will say now Jesus is speaking in the third person in the sense he's saying the son of man who is sitting on his glorious throne.

And to those who are on his right, he will say, enter into the kingdom that has been prepared for you by my father from before the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.

I was thirsty and you gave me drink. I was sick and you cared for me. I was naked and you clothed me. I was in prison and you visited me. And those who are on my right are going to say, Lord, when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you or naked and clothed you or hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

And Jesus will say to them, I tell you that which you do to the least of these brothers of mine, you have done also unto me. To those on his left, the Lord Christ is going to say, enter into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels.

For you did not feed me when I was hungry. You did not give me drink. You did not clothe me. You did not visit me when I was sick. You did not attend to me when I was in prison. And even those who are the goats who are on his left who are going to say, Lord, when did we not see you hungry?

When did this ever happen? When did we not give you drink when we were supposed to give you drink? When did we not clothe you? When did we not visit you when you were sick or in prison? And Jesus will say to them, I say to you that which you did not do to the least of these brothers of mine, you did not do it to me.

And at the conclusion of that prophecy that Jesus gives about the coming judgment, he says these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous will go away into eternal life. Jesus associating himself with his own followers in such a way to say that which you do to the least of these brothers of mine, you do it also unto me.

And so when Paul was being cared for by the Galatians, recognize this about Paul. He was sick, right? This is a man who's been thrown in prison for the gospel. This is a man who has been hungry. He talks about this in his autobiographical account in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

He has been beaten. He has been thirsty. He has been without shelter. And yet there are people who have cared for him. Paul became as one who was the least of these brothers of Christ. And the Galatians showed this kind of charity for Paul.

But remember, though he is congratulating them in this, all is not well with the Galatians because they have walked away from the truth that was once proclaimed to them. Right at the start of the letter, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him, Christ Jesus, the true gospel, him who died for you.

I'm quick, I'm astonished at how quickly you're turning from that and to another gospel. Not that there is another one, but the Galatians had been fooled by false teachers. And Paul said to them, Galatians 1, 8, and 9, if anyone comes to you proclaiming a different gospel other than the one we first proclaimed to you, let him be accursed.

So I say to you again, if we or even an angel from heaven come to you proclaiming a different gospel, he is accursed. He is not only warning the Galatians, but also rebuking them for having gone after this other gospel.

So though he is calling to attention their charity that they had once given to Paul, and though he is congratulating them for it, he's bringing their attention to this because they're not doing it anymore.

You were so charitable because of the gospel that you proclaimed, but what has become of your blessedness? That's verse 15. What has become? What has changed? For I testify to you, I have to remind you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me if you were able to.

Warren Wearsby, another quote from him, he has said, the past is there for us, for our benefit, not that we would forget the past, not that we would try to leave the past, but that we would learn from the past.