Sunday Sermon: Have I Become Your Enemy? (Galatians 4:12-20)

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You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a New Testament book.

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On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday. Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series.

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This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe. In honor of the word of the

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King, would you please stand. Galatians 4, verse 8 through verse 20. The apostle

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Paul wrote, formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

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But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

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You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

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Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.

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You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first.

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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.

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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.

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Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

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They want to shut you out that they may make much of themselves. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when

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I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

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I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

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Let us pray. Heavenly Father, as we come again to this word and as we consider what has been written, led by your

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Holy Spirit, I pray that we would be convicted in heart, that we would desire to pursue holiness.

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And if in those moments that we have gone astray from righteousness and someone has to correct us, to bring us back to the path that has been set forth for us in Christ, that we not regard that person as an enemy, but we are loved by them as a brother.

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We see that person as a brother or sister in the Lord who loves us, who desires to bring us to righteousness, who is looking out for our best interests, not offending us to make much of themselves, but to make much of Christ.

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If there is any offense in us, it is because we are warring with our flesh, not because this person who intended good will to us wanted to do us harm.

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So let us be considerate of one another, considering each other's needs ahead of our own, and looking to what would be needed to put to death the works of the flesh, so that Christ may be made alive in us, whatever sacrifice that would require.

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May we be driven to it so that we may be as our

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Lord Christ. And we pray these things in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen.

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Thank you. You may be seated. 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.

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A few days ago, a man by the name of Warren Weirsbe died on May the 2nd at the age of 89.

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Some of you probably know the name Warren Weirsbe. 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

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Word of God. Warren Weirsbe was on the program called Back to the Bible from 1980 to 1990.

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I was born in 80, so for that first decade of my life, I was hearing Warren Weirsbe read the

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Bible to me on the radio, on the Christian radio stations that my dad worked for. After he retired from that position in 1990,

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Woodrow Kroll would become the one that would take over, and then I listened to Kroll for many years after that.

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He was on for even more than 10 years, longer than Weirsbe was. Prior to being on Back to the

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Bible, Weirsbe pastored Moody Church from 1971 to 1978.

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He was the author of over 50 books, the titles of which begin with the word,

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Be. Be real. Be obedient. Be mature.

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Be joyful. Be faithful. Be complete. Be ready.

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You think of a particular word or theme that applies to Christianity, and Warren Weirsbe probably wrote a book about it with the word be at the front.

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Weirsbe had made such wonderful quotes. One of my most favorite quotes from Weirsbe, as a matter of fact, is one where he talks about how he has the ability to read the

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Word of God and understand it and then speak it, and then this is the very blessing of God.

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And as a pastor, I loved that from Weirsbe, because any day that I get to wake up and proclaim the

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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

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Lord's will that I do it. And Weirsbe believed that about his own ministry. Other wonderful quotes from Weirsbe that I had collected over the years,

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God doesn't bless us just to make us happy. He blesses us to make us a blessing.

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Never doubt in darkness what God has told you in the light.

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Weirsbe also said, before we can minister to others, God must minister to us.

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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.

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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 Weirsbe than she was, very, very liberal theologian, and someone who was not very fond of me.

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Her name was Rachel Held Evans, and she died yesterday at the age of 37.

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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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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She encouraged people in destructive behavior that God has promised that he will judge. When she went into the hospital,

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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.

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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.

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I said, quote, I will pray for her recovery and her repentance. You who follow her, please understand, you like she value what

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God hates, especially sexual perversion, which the world calls love. Psalm 66, 18 says, the

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Lord does not listen to those who cherish sin, repent. Needless to say, the backlash was swift and harsh.

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I was called names, including Antichrist. I was accused of saying things I did not say.

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I became the subject of a few articles, including one in an online publication called Christian Today, not to be confused with Christianity Today.

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The editor of Relevant Magazine came after me, but I responded to very few comments.

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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.

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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.

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But my plea was made in my statement. I said, please understand, you, like she, value what

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God hates. When Evans became deathly ill and fell into a coma,

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I feared for her soul, and I feared for the souls of anyone else who followed what it was that she had taught.

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God judges sin. Jesus said in Luke 13, 3, repent or you will likewise perish.

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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.

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I was not pronouncing a judgment on anybody. I was merely calling a person to fear

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God and repent. And it was because I loved and cared for souls, not because I was trying to make anything of myself.

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And my heart is still vexed. Yet we need to understand that God still judges sin, and we need to fear the

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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

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Timothy 2, that none should perish, but all would come to repentance.

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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

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Galatians. According to what is said at the end of the letter, he writes with large letters.

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You think of this being written in all caps, in bold, exclamation marks,

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Galatians repent. If you follow in false doctrine, you're accursed.

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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?

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He says, brothers, I entreat you because as I am. That was where we stopped last week.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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He has given up everything. He is beaten, he is scourged, and yet he continues to preach.

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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.

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That's part of what autobiographically Paul is sharing with the Galatians in this particular section.

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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.

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Love Christ. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Become as I am, for I also have become as you are.

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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

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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.

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When Paul went to the Gentiles, he was as a Gentile, not keeping Jewish laws or custom that would otherwise make a

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Gentile to turn away from the gospel or not want to accept it because, well, that's the

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Jewish religion. To the Jews, Paul continued to keep the Jewish laws so not to cause a

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Yet he continued to love and preach and call to repentance because his affection was for souls.

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We see his affection for souls in an even deeper way when you look at Romans chapter 9 right at the very start of that particular chapter.

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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.

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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 heaven.

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But that's not the way that the gospel of God works, so Paul knows he cannot do that.

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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.

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His safety was really, it was nothing to him because he knew that the Lord God was going to deliver him.

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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

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Lord, I'm kind of torn between the two. If I die,

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I get to go be with God. That's awesome. That's what I want. But if I stay here with you,

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I get to help grow you in your faith and lead others to Christ, and that's awesome too. So which one do

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I want? I'm kind of stuck between the two. See, what Paul wants in this world is not the things of this world.

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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.

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It's still for the kingdom of God. So when Paul says, become as I am, let your first love be

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Christ and his kingdom. As Jesus said in Matthew 6, 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.

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But we seek first God's kingdom and his righteousness. So become as I am,

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Paul says. As he said to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 6, imitate me for I am of Christ.

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I'm sorry, it'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.

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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.

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And Paul is also calling attention to the fact that they at one point had very compassionate hearts.

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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?

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You know that it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first.

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Now we don't know exactly what this bodily ailment was. It would be easy enough to just say,

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Paul got the flu and he couldn't keep on walking, so he just stopped there in Galatia.

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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

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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,

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I testified 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.

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And there have been theologians that have postulated that Paul may have had bad eyesight.

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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.

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And I don't know if you've ever been felt or you've felt completely crippled because you got something in your eye before.

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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 my eye and go do something else.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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So it's amazing how dependent we are on our eyes and we don't think about how important our eyes are until we don't have use of them anymore, when you don't even have use of one eye.

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And 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.

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Those of you who have prescription lenses, you go for a while trying to read without your glasses, maybe get that kind of headache, right?

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It was something to that effect. We don't know, but we know it was debilitating enough that Paul had to stop there. He couldn't continue on his journey.

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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

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I was doing and your charity toward us who were 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,

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Paul, be well, continue the missionary work that God has you doing. If it was possible for a person to do that,

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Paul said, you would have done that for me. You know that it was because of a bodily ailment.

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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.

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So the seriousness of this illness that he had was enough that the Galatians had to wait on him.

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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.

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As we are told in the scriptures that sometimes we are entertaining angels unaware.

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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.

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Paul says, as Christ Jesus, you receive me as if I were Christ. Remember what our

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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.

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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

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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.

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For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me drink.

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I was sick and you cared for me. I was naked and you clothed me.

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I was in prison and you visited me. And those who are on my right are going to say,

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Lord, when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you or naked and clothe you or hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink?

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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.

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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.

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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

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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,

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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?

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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,

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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.

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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.

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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.

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And so when Paul was being cared for by the Galatians, recognize this about Paul, he was sick, right?

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This is a man who's been thrown in prison for the gospel. This is a man who has been hungry.

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He talks about this in his autobiographical account in 2 Corinthians chapter 11.

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He has been beaten. He has been thirsty. He has been without shelter. And yet there are people who have cared for him.

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Paul became as one who was the least of these brothers of Christ. And the

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Galatians showed this kind of charity for Paul. But remember, though he is congratulating them in this, all is not well with the

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Galatians because they have walked away from the truth that was once proclaimed to them. Right at the start of the letter,

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I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him, Christ Jesus, the true gospel, him who died for you.

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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

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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.

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So I say to you again, if we or even an angel from heaven come to you proclaiming a different gospel, he is accursed.

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He is not only warning the Galatians, but also rebuking them for having gone after this other gospel.

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So though he is calling to attention their understanding or 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.

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You were so charitable because of the gospel that you proclaimed, but what has become of your blessedness?

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That's verse 15. What has become? What has changed? For I testify to you,

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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.

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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.

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So many of us try to say things like, I regret nothing, or I'm trying not to become part of the past, but I'm trying to change things.

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Well, that would be learning from the past, certainly, but we don't forget those things as though there's nothing to benefit from the past.

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Those things teach us. In fact, even when you come to an understanding of what the Bible is supposed to be teaching us, we have

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Romans 15 .4, that which was written in former days, was written for our instruction, that through the scriptures, through the encouragement and the hope that we find in scripture, we may have hope.

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So these things that are past are even for our encouragement, or these things that are past are for our learning, so we will not repeat them, repeat those sins that we have done in the past.

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I think it was Aldous Huxley that said, those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

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And so it is necessary for us to learn from the past. And in this case, Paul is even saying, you should learn from the past in such a positive way that you go back to what you were doing before.

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You've left the path of righteousness, you're doing something different. One of the other things that Paul is going to confront the

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Galatians with a little later on in this letter is how they've devolved into squabbling and infighting.

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They're devouring one another, even within this church. Why is that happening in Galatia? Because they've left the gospel.

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And false teaching is becoming manifest in even their actions, the things that they're doing.

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I was very troubled in spirit yesterday after the passing of Rachel Held Evans to see a hashtag that was trending on Twitter that said, because of R -H -E, her initials, and it was people that were saying, because of her,

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I am now this. And when you went down that list, it was just sin, after sin, after sin, after sin.

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And people were celebrating it. Because of Rachel Held Evans, I'm now this.

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And rejoicing that she had made them into something that God will someday judge.

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And I still pray for repentance that people will not continue to be led astray by her false teaching, even in her passing.

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When we leave sound doctrine, it manifests in a sinful behavior, and we celebrate the sin instead of pursuing the righteousness.

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You know why? Because the sin is so much easier to do than the righteousness. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7, broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many are going to find it because that's the easy way.

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But narrow is the gate, and long is the road that leads to life, and few will find that because that's the difficult road.

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This is right after Jesus has said, enter through the narrow gate. As Christians, we're supposed to choose the difficult path, but we do not walk that path alone, for we know that our

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Lord Christ is with us. The Word of Christ guides us.

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We know what righteousness is because Jesus has told us what righteousness is.

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And something I've come back to you, come back with you over and over again as we've been going through this particular section of Galatians.

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God does indeed demand righteousness of us, but the thing He demands of us,

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He gives to us. He gives us righteousness. He demands that we be perfect, and He gives us

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His perfect Son who died for us, taking our sins upon Himself so that all who believe in Him will not perish under the righteous, holy judgment of God.

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If God judges anyone, it's because He is good, not because He is a wicked, vindictive

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God. But because He is doing righteousness. God knows nothing but righteousness.

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As we read through Moses in the book of Deuteronomy, God is just and all

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His ways are justice. And this should indeed cause us to fear because as it says in the book of Hebrews, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living

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God. We must hate the garment that has been stained by sin.

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We must put to death what is earthly in us, for it is only in the righteousness of Christ that we will see

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God and see Him with His love and not with His wrath and His justice.

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For without Christ, there is only death. Paul warns them that their straying from sound doctrine has even caused change in their behavior.

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That even the blessedness that they had first shown Paul was no longer a mark of Christian virtue within their actions.

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What then has become of your blessedness, he says, for I testify that if possible, you would have gouged out your own eyes.

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Sacrifice of parts of your body if necessary for me because of your love and affection that you showed for me when we first came to you and proclaimed the gospel.

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So now he says in verse 16, have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

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Do you hate that I now come to you and tell you to repent? Are you hating me for this?

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Why? What would be the reason for this animosity that you would have toward me because I told you to repent?

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Is it not out of love that we would proclaim the truth to our neighbor?

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In Ephesians chapter 4, the instruction that we speak the truth in love.

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Now it is, of course, possible to speak the truth in a very unloving way. But I say you corrupt the message of what it is that you're proclaiming and you don't even understand what it is that you're saying when you do it that way.

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When you take the truth and you're beating people over the head for it, or you call them idiots because they don't understand it, then you've even lost the foundational understanding of the message that God in his kindness and his mercy has given us the gospel that we might live, has given his own son to die for us that we would have our sins forgiven.

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In Romans chapter 2, it says, do you presume on the Lord's kindness and the riches of his mercy, not knowing that his kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

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And so we must know the kindness of God that he has shown toward every one of us, that while we were yet sinners,

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Christ died for us, so that we would have that same kind of kindness for the lost.

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We must be careful in the way that we communicate these things, not delving into squabbling and arguing, but speaking with peace, for the gospel is a message of peace.

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And even when it comes to correcting a brother or sister in the Lord, we don't do so in vindictive ways.

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For Paul even gave this instruction to the Thessalonians in 2 Thessalonians 3, do not regard the one who walks in sin among you as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

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The purpose is to bring him to repentance, not to get the wicked guy out of your church so that, now we can be holy because that guy is gone.

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If ever that kind of discipline has to be done here, may we mourn to have to do it.

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We do it because the Lord Christ instructs us to do it and he himself did it for us, opposing even

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Peter, get behind me, Satan. And even in doing this, if we know that God is love, don't we know that when

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Jesus said to Peter, get behind me, Satan, that he said so in love? How would such a comment be received in our midst?

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If someone had to stand before someone else and say, get behind me, Satan, or turn from the path you're on, because if you do not, it leads you to hell.

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And we might regard such a statement as being from the mouth of an enemy rather than the warning of a friend.

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We must speak the truth in love, but we must also understand that the truth is being spoken to us in love and we must turn from our sin and repent.

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Warren Wearsby said, truth without love is brutality and love without truth is hypocrisy.

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In Proverbs 27 .6, faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy.

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There are a lot of people would love to tell you flattering things because your affection for them makes them feel good.

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They might want something for you, whether it's attention, whether it's a claim, whether it's money, but they'll tell you the things that you want to hear in order to make everybody happy and feel good.

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Not even concerned about the truth, not concerned about the eternal value of your soul, but just concerned with their own prejudices, biases, ideology.

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Paul says in verse 17, they make much of you, talking about those false teachers that have come to you.

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They make much of you, but for no good purpose. So one of the things that we seem to, we can understand from this here is that false teachers in their heart, they probably do mean the best for you.

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Like there's no reason for us to believe that some person is lying through their teeth, but in their heart, they're going, they're conniving, they're going,

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I'm using this person to get something for myself. That may not actually be the attitude of their heart.

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They may actually genuinely care for the people that they think they're speaking lovingly to. But if they're speaking lies, it can't possibly be love.

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They're deceived and they're deceiving others. And Paul says in 2 Timothy that that's going to be signs of the end, that there are going to be people who will be deceived and being deceived.

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They are deceiving and being deceived. Otherwise, I just said that twice. They're deceived and being deceived.

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That's the same thing. Anyway, they themselves are deceived and they are deceiving others, leading to more and more lawlessness.

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But the person who truly loves others, loves the truth and speaks the truth in love.

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And David said in the Psalms, let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness.

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If I have to be slapped, I hope it's a righteous man that does it.

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And somebody who does it for my good to tell me that I must follow

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Christ or call my attention to the fact that I have left the way. As Paul is doing for the

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Galatians here, these false teachers make much of you, but they do it for no good purpose.

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They want to shut you out that you may make much of them, shut you out of what? Shut you out of the church, shut you out of the kingdom so that you are able to make much of them, make them feel good, justify themselves, even get them money if that's what it is that they're after.

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And we do have false teachers today that do that very thing. Tell you what it is that you want to hear so that you'll give them your money.

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It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, Paul says. And not only when

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I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.

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Paul was laboring and he was vexed in his spirit and he was in pain to write these letters.

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He did not want to have to rebuke the Galatians. He wanted to rejoice in the truth that was first of all proclaimed to them.

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Jude, at the start of his letter, he said, brothers, I wanted to write to you and rejoice over the common faith that has been given once for all to the saints, but I felt it necessary instead to warn you about false teachers that have come into your midst.

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So Jude, even when he's writing that letter, he kind of starts it the same way that Paul comes to here in the middle of Galatians.

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He says, I want to rejoice in the good news. I don't want to have to be that guy that's constantly showing up and telling you what you're doing wrong.

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I don't want to be that guy. And personally, I don't either. I would love to just rejoice in truth and speak the glories of the gospel, but you know what?

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I'm probably going to have to wait until heaven to do that. The wonderful grace and mercy that God has given us and so all we have is rejoicing and joy and praise and there's nothing else.

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There's no mourning. There's no needing to correct one another. There is no grief over those who have turned away from righteousness and instead following in the way of sin.

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That won't exist anymore for all the former things will have passed away and Jesus will have done away with all corruption for everything will have been made brand new incorruptible in his presence forever in his kingdom with joy.

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And we look forward to that day with hope, but in the meantime, we labor on behalf of one another that we may present everyone holy in Christ Jesus.

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And Paul is troubled in his spirit for the Galatians. They're making much of you,

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Paul says, but not for your good, for their good. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose.

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So this is Paul saying, if I have to make an example of you, it's so no one will make the same mistakes you're making.

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It's not because Paul's trying to make much of himself or make them feel bad and him more high and mighty than everybody else.

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It's not why Paul does it. He does it for their good and for the good of others that they may not fall into the same pattern of mistakes that the

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Galatians have. And my friends, may that be the same with us as well. We are learning from the

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Galatians to whom this letter was written 2000 years ago. We don't know what became of them.

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We really don't know what the outcome of this church was after this particular letter. I'm sure some came to repentance and some probably did not.

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We do have a benefit in some places of like 1st and 2nd Corinthians, where Paul issues a rebuke. And then in 2nd

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Corinthians, we get to see some people did indeed repent of that rebuke, but there was still more work that needed to be done. Others that were continuing to reject the words of the apostle, which had been given to him by Christ and needed to be called to repentance.

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Even people there in the church in Corinth by that 2nd letter, 3rd letter, but 2nd that we have in canon, who were still going after false apostles and Paul needing to warn them about those false teachers and correct other behaviors that had still been prevalent in the church at that particular time.

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And these things were done for their benefit and praise God, they were even done for our benefit today.

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That we may not fall into the same pattern of behavior. We understand what God demands of us, what righteous living looks like.

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That there not be any sexual immorality, but instead that we are sanctified by Christ.

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That there not be any anger or wrath or bitterness, but rather we show kindness and love to one another.

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All these instructions that have been given to us in Scripture are for our benefit. That we would be made more like Christ.

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And my friends, if you in your life have begun falling into an attitude that if you were to carefully examine it, you were to look at your attitude and your personality right now and think,

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I don't think this is indicative of Christian behavior. I don't think a Christian should be acting like I'm acting right now.

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Have you fallen into bitterness? Are you complaining all the time? Do you have nothing but anger toward other people?

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Do you see yourself as right and everybody else wrong? And so everyone needs to listen to you and you're looking down on everyone else.

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You don't get joy out of coming to church anymore. Church is just kind of a thing that happens when it happens, but I don't really try.

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I don't labor. I don't try to get there and enjoy worship with the people of God and love to hear the

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Word of God proclaimed and gather together at the Lord's table. These things don't excite you. Instead, you're even trying to find ways that you can have certain sinful things and tiptoe the line, but as long as I'm not crossing it, then maybe

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I'm not doing anything really wrong. Is that how you're justifying your behavior? Well, then let me challenge you with this.

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If that's where your attitude is gone, the possibility is you believe false doctrine and you have left the joy of the gospel and are believing instead after worldly patterns and those things in their toxic ways have gotten into your mind and your heart and that dead person in there, right?

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The dead person that we once were, that's supposed to be suppressed, that's supposed to be way, way deep down and gone and we're not that dead person anymore, but we've been made alive together in Christ.

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That dead person has become a zombie and is trying to get back out. And it's because you love false doctrine instead of rejoicing in the truth of the gospel.

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And what would it take to bring you back to righteousness? What would it take to once again bury that dead man and put on Christ, put on the new self, which is being renewed after the image and the knowledge of our creator?

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What would it take? Would a rebuke be offensive to you? And are you so far deep in your fleshly desires that you would scorn such a rebuke if it came?

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Or is there still enough of a longing of the Spirit of God? And I pray that there is, that if you have to be rebuked for your sinfulness, you will thank the person who has done so and rejoices with David did.

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Let a righteous man strike me. It is a kindness. Paul does not want the

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Galatians to be shut out of the kingdom of heaven. That's why he's writing what he is writing. But those false teachers, they don't have your best interest in mind.

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They want to shut you out that you may make much of them. It's good to be made much of for a good purpose.

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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,

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I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.

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Again, Paul says, I don't want to be this guy that's constantly beating you over the head. You know, when

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I was an older brother, I would watch my younger brothers take advantage of my mom and dad.

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What I would watch them do is the same stupid stuff I did when I was their age. That's what I'm watching them do. But you know what

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I wanted to do with my brothers? I wanted to have fun. I wanted to play video games. I wanted to go out and watch movies together.

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I wanted to wrestle with each other, get out and get dirty, and punch and beat each other up all in love, all in good fun.

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That's what I wanted to do with my brothers. I did not want to have to get in their faces and tell them the way that they're acting, and the way that they're behaving, and even to tell them, do not make the same mistakes that I'm making.

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And a lot of times those conversations did not go well. It wasn't like a kind little, hey man, straighten up.

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No, they were digging in their heels and falling into seriously sinful behavior that had to be confronted and confronted harshly.

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And I did not want that between us. I wanted the goodness, the fun times that we had, the goofiness that we would do with each other, and those memories still so fond in my mind.

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That's what I wanted. I didn't want to have to be in a constant state of a correcting spirit. And that's what

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I want in this body, not just between me and you, but between you, and you, and you, and each other across the aisles, behind you, in front of you, everyone in this room in harmony with one another.

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No need for correction. No need for calling out sin. No need for spending our days and talking about what you have been doing wrong, and how you need to correct it and come back to Christ.

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Because those things are massively distracting from what we need to be doing as a body, pursuing

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Christ and preaching his gospel to our community. The ways that we could be serving one another, body and soul, and rejoicing to do so, get lost when there's a constant need for correction.

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And those things need to be dealt with. We can't ignore them just because we want all the good times.

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So now let's, we'll take care of all this other stuff later. No. Our God demands holiness.

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And there is much joy in holiness, my brothers and sisters. There's much joy in it.

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Take it from me, who once walked in darkness so dark, I am amazed that God even cared enough about me to pull me out of the valley of the shadow of death

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I was walking in. But he did not leave me nor forsake me. His rod and staff, they comforted me.

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As Becky shared with the kids, I believe it was last week. You know what that rod is? It's a rod of correction. For God, between God and me, it was more like a two by four.

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But he got me straightened out. And it's only on this side of this pursuit of holiness that I am in, that I'm looking back on where I was, lacking sanctification instead of pursuing sin, that I see in that guy, there was no joy.

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You know why I loved my sin? Because my heart was dark. And now in holiness,

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I hate that sin, that I may never walk in it again, that I would instead be like my

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Lord Christ. And the fear that I have of God is not a fear of judgment.

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It is a reverent fear, because he is a holy God. And he is good to me, who has delivered me up from my transgressions and given me grace through his son and forgiveness of sins.

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That is what my Lord God has done for me. And I want you to know him that intimately as well.

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We sang this morning songs that were all related to friendship that we have with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed, he is a friend to us. And my friends, he is a friend to us enough to tell us when we've been stupid, and we need correction, because he wants to be our friend.

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He does not want to be our judge. But for the sake of his righteousness, he will be if it comes to that.

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Hear what Jesus said to the church at Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3. I know your works.

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You are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold,

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I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing.

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Not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

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I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich, and white garments, so that you may clothe yourself, and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.

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Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

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Let me repeat that again. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.

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Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door,

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I will come into him and eat with him, and he with me. Fellowship with our

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Savior. The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my

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Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who has an ear, let him hear what the

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Spirit says to the churches. Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

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For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

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On behalf of our church family, Finally, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, growing together in Christ, when we understand the text.