Galatians 4:8-20

And you're gonna pray, all right.

Prayer for Wisdom and the Opening of Galatians

All right, well, let's go to the Lord in prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we are so blessed to be able to come to your presence now and to open your holy word, and we pray that you would be with our brother John, Pastor John, as he opens the scripture, Lord, and teaches us.

I pray that you would give him the words to say, lead him in your truth, and help us also in the conversations that we have that all of these things would be pleasing in your sight. In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Ephesians 2:8-9 and the Gift of Salvation

Does anybody know my favorite chapter of the Bible?

Ephesians chapter two.

You got it, dude. I know you so well.

Ephesians chapter two is amazing, because it starts right from where we were to what we become, and then we're built upon the... It's God's glory story in one chapter. Who can give me, from their mind, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9?

I've got nothing left. I believe you can learn.

Bud God, is that Bud God?

No.

Or by grace.

By grace, you are saved.

If you're a pastor, you're not allowed to answer this question. Anybody who's not a pastor, can they answer? Ephesians 2, 8, and 9.

Not of the worst, lest anyone may boast.

So by grace, you are saved through faith, and not of yourself. It's a gift of God, not of worse, lest any man should boast. There is a significant lesson in that that applies to this here. That can be used, is often used.

I wouldn't be surprised that you and Tim and Phil would use that in some way when you're out evangelizing on the campus. You're not going to satisfy the requirements. You are not gonna get saved by earning your salvation.

The religion doesn't get you there. None of this stuff gets you there. But try this on for size. The reality of, it's the gift of God, not of worse, lest any man should boast, can apply equally well to the believer.

And that you desire to be in God's good graces, if you would. You desire to do things that are pleasing to God. These are good motivations to have. You want to, you look for that day when you will hear the words, well done thou good and faithful servant.

What a hope that is for a future. As we live this dash, I call it the sanctified dash. It's from the date of your rebirth till the date you go home in glory. That's your sanctified dash. What do you do with this sanctified dash?

We were talking this morning, Tim and Jeff and I, about how amazing it was on Sunday. Now there was a draw which brought people here, Josiah Queen, and that was incredible. That being said, we do see faces that seem to be showing up.

And the desire is that the people that come here will come here wanting to be part of God's work here at Cornerstone, to be involved in the ministry and not just occupy a pew. And this is a good thing.

This is a good thought to have. The danger can be giving an impression that the more things that you do, the better a Christian you are. That's a bad thing. Wording that slightly different, putting the words in a different order, the better of a Christian you are, the more things you want to do.

That perhaps puts the words in a good order. The book of James, show me your faith. I'll show you my faith with my works. Faith without works is dead. We should be wanting to be involved. We should want to be responding in ways that our actual actions and stuff we do.

The problem is that being active and doing things, proving our relationship with God. That's what's happening in Galatia. Now, Galatia is not just one church. It's a series of churches, area, region we know as Turkey today.

Was it the churches that he founded in his first missionary journey, Derbe, Lystra, Iconium, what was the fourth one?

I think those three are the ones I know.

Pisidian Antioch. Pisidian Antioch, yeah. Or was it when he went up into the northern regions? That being said, it's a series of churches that had received the word as Paul went there and faithfully proclaimed the gospel.

But what ends up happening are Judaizers coming in and trying to convince these believers, you want to be a really good Christian, you gots to do A, B, C. You gots to be circumcised and all these other things.

And this is what we've been talking about for the last many, many weeks. Last week, he gave us a really strong teaching on the law. The week before, I put it into a courtroom. He is going to give an appeal, a series of appeals in this next section from verses eight to 20.

I desire you to consider these things. And through considering these things and responding to these things, ask yourself the question, why am I doing this? Why am I finding a need to improve on the gospel?

The gospel message, which is what I received in the first place. So we're going to look at this in three sections. Verses eight to 10, don't turn back, don't turn back. You had a good road, just don't turn back.

Then he's gonna appeal, remember the relationship that we had, that I had with you. And then Paul's attitude towards them. Think about how I look towards you. And these are the appeals that he's gonna give them so that they don't fall into this trap.

All right, Galatians four, you're gonna be my Galatians four guy. Tim, you've got Ephesians two, one to three. Those are, I think, power verses at the beginning of my favorite chapter. Acts 14, Joe, you'll have that.

John 17, Dominic and Ken, if you would just get First Corinthians 13, First Corinthians eight. I had a lot of trouble with this last night. Judy, I kept on mistakingly getting Judy and Candy. Judy and Candy.

Which one did I just give you, Judy? First Corinthians eight? Eight three, good. Colossians two, Candy. I'm doing bad. Yes, I'm just, anyway, Bob. Acts 13, and then there's a verse in 14. What about Mark?

You missed Mark 2 .27.

Okay, thank you.

You want me to do Mark?

Yes, please.

All right.

And then I'll go to the other Bob. You've got the ones in Acts 13 and 14. And Sue, if you would have Jeremiah 17 ready, we'll go on from there when we get there. All right, give me verses eight through 10, please.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 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?

You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid that I, oh, sorry, that's 11.

I don't know why they stopped the paragraph there. This would drive Rick batty, my stopping in the middle of a paragraph. This now is a formerly now. And what he's going to be doing is turning their eyes back to the fact that you had an existence.

And at some point in time, you were able to be relieved from that existence. You become a new creation. And now you've got this, but now you're acting in a weird way. And then he's got some questions.

So formally, he says, you did not know God. And that's a truth that everybody would get. You've got Ephesians two. This is who we all were.

Go ahead.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you want this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in, the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature, children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

That's who we were. And he's saying formally, that's what you were. And in fact, he says that they were enslaved to those that by nature were not God. Now, the interesting thing about Galatia, and we're going to see this in Acts 14, is they were really deeply ensconced in idol worship.

And they had all these different gods for this, that, and the other thing. And so here comes Paul, Barnabas, and their preaching really gets to them. And they see things happening and they go, these are really amazing guys.

They must be gods. Because when they see something of such impact and of such power and such strength, they must be gods. Give me that, if you would, 11 to 15.

And when the crowd saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in Lyconian, the gods have come down to us in the likeness of men, Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul Hermes, because he was the chief speaker, and the priest of Zeus, whose temple was at the entrance to the city, brought oxen and garlands to the gates and wanted to offer sacrifice with the crowds.

But when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, they tore their garments and rushed out into the crowd, crying out, men, why are you doing these things? We also are men of like nature with you,.

And we bring you good news,.

That you should turn from these vain things to a living God, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them.

To have a lifestyle, first of all, that is completely dead and incapable of even responding to God. Jeff, you preach that very strongly. Without salvation, without the presence of God and his grace, you can't even respond to him.

That's what Tim read. But these people have now established a world view that says things of this power, of this significance, must be Zeus or Hermes or something like that, because that's all they knew.

They were enslaved to that mindset and to that feeling. And so Paul is now reminding the Galatians, he's been talking to them about going back to the law, he's been talking to them about this folly, and he says, I want you to stop and think for a minute.

Before we came there, formerly,.

You guys didn't even know God. You didn't even know, you knew God, small g, but you did not know God. And he can claim that to them, because by now he's writing to believers who now know that there is a difference between a small g God and Yahweh.

You did not know Yahweh. And he said, because of that, not knowing Yahweh, you were slaves to the only thing you knew, which was by nature, not a god, false gods, if you would. Verse nine, but now, but now he's got some things to say.

You have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, and you're no longer slaves to the things of this world. This is, I think, part of the real strength of this passage here is the concept of knowing God, being known by God.

What does Paul mean here when he says that you know God?

That you've, God would know you, that you develop a relationship.

You have a little bottle in front of you. Your thermos, what's in there?

What's in your thermos? March 15th was my 52nd year, so.

Is it water, is it juice, what's in it?

No, it's a combination of Mountain Dew.

Okay.

And what was the, cranberry juice.

Oh, I like that, that is a good, that's a good mixed drink.

You know that.

Familiar.

Empirically, you know that. But experientially, pick it up and take a drink. Experientially, now, go ahead, go ahead. Now you know it. This is the difference.

He tasted it, that really is good.

He's tasted it, he's taking it in. Not empirically saying, I took a can of Mountain Dew, poured some in it. I took a bottle of cranberry juice, put it in, put some ice and mixed it. And I can attest to the fact that that is a mixed drink of Mountain Dew and cranberry juice.

And I could know that because you told me that.

John, that's awesome, awesome. Taste and see.

I can't know that in the sense of this unless, which I can't do because you just did it and you just probably splashed back in it so I won't drink it.

That's one way about it.

Okay, maybe I could. But I could know it when I actually take it. That's what he wants us to do. Let's look at some verses. John 17.

Is not knowing God.

J .I. Packer, anybody read this book? Knowing God. If you've never read this book, I put a five-star recommendation on it. It's not an easy book to read. But I'm gonna read a couple of excerpts. I marked your book up so I'm gonna buy you a new one because I can't find mine.

So I'll give you a clean one. I underlined a couple of things.

Your markings are probably helpful.

The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God. Okay, who's a child of God? Somebody that is born again. Is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, the existence of the great God whom he calls Father.

Now we do know scripturally that somebody who is not, this is a John paraphrase, somebody who is not a believer cannot even understand the things of God. Without the Holy Spirit, you can't. But with the Holy Spirit, this is a goal, this is an aspiration that we can go to.

Then he says, we need to ask ourselves, what is my ultimate aim and object in occupying my mind with these things? What do I tend to do with my knowledge about God once I have it? And then he says, if we pursue theological knowledge for its own sake, it's bound to go bad on us and it will make us proud and conceited.

And then he goes on and says, our aim in studying the Godhead must be to know God himself better. Our concern must be to enlarge our acquaintance not simply with the doctrine of God's attributes, but with the living God whose attributes they are.

And that's kind of like taking his thermos and saying, I know that there's cranberry juice, ice, and Mountain Dew because he told me so. I'm pretty smart, but until I actually taste it, I don't experience it.

And that's what he's saying now. We need to come to know God, but I would now rather have you come to know God or rather be known by God. And this is our ultimate. Did I have somebody read 17th reading?

Go ahead.

And this is life eternal. They may know the only true God.

I consider what transpired between chapter three and chapter four of Genesis, where Adam and Eve knew God experientially. And even after the fall, the invitation was there as God approached them, as Jeff, you preached on Sunday, as God had preached them and said, where are you?

And the invitation was to respond with the God that they already knew. But there was a barrier. There was a barrier that was set up in chapter four. Not only was there this barrier set up, but they were excluded.

And so Cain and Abel could never know God. And in fact, I honestly wonder, Adam and Eve knew God in the garden because sin hadn't gotten in their way. Did they know God the same after they had sinned?

Perhaps, perhaps not, because they never really confessed their sin. At least it's not recorded. Anyway, that being said,. 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13, 12.

12.

Now we see in Amir Gimli, this passage here says that not only do we get to know God, but God gets to know us. Now in truth, there is never a time when God does not fully know each and every one of us.

Nothing is hidden from God. But there is this opportunity that we have to live in and relish and to experience and to be part of the reality that God knows me intimately. It says in 1 Corinthians 13, 1 Corinthians 13, we see through a mirror dimly.

We only see in part, but eventually we will know in full as we are already fully known by God. And to accept that and to desire that is what Paul is encouraging the people. 1 Corinthians 8.

Three.

One knows God, one is known by him. There is a relationship that is going to occur on May 24th, is it?

25th. 25th.

Tim and Mary Elizabeth will be married and the knowledge that you will have of each other only grows. And that's why God uses this marriage relationship to talk about we are the bride of Christ and known by him.

And so he says that we are no longer slaves to the things of this world. We formerly were. Now we know God. Now we are known by God. And we are no longer slaves. You don't have an excuse that says, I can't help it because I'm a slave.

And in fact, you're not even being attacked as that. Verse nine. Give me verse nine again. The rest of verse nine. The whole, all of verse nine.

Okay.

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?

Isn't that an amazing question? If here's the fact, once you were bad, now you are gods. Now you know God. Now God knows you. You're no longer slaves. Why on earth would you want to turn back to your former way?

It's a question that almost demands the only answer because there is no reason except that there is a, there is an urge. There is an urge that is coming into the people to prove themselves to be more worthy of God.

It's just a matter of security, I think, as well. To buffer up the things that are the metaphysical with the physical. I know some folks that truly say it but still dive in headfirst into trying to do works and trying to make that their focus and only to find out that that crumbles later on.

But they did return to Christ. It's hard to base someone's salvation on their faith in works.

So one of the things that we are encouraged as church leaders, somebody comes up and they said we would like church membership. And there is an obligation on the part of the church leaders to, as best we can, through the Holy Spirit, to protect church membership to only those that are already members of the church of God.

Okay, how do you do that? You do that by asking questions. There are some diagnostic questions. And quite frankly, the evidence of their walk. Is there zero evidence in the walk? And there is a danger of not only people saying I want to become better, I want my own assurance, I want this, I want that.

But then there's the danger of churches encouraging, and the term is legalism. We don't think you should dance. We think that if you drink a beer, man, you're out of here. There are legalisms that are thrown out.

Yes, you know them all.

Did anybody here go to Bob Jones?

Can you repeat that John?

She said she grew up in a house, in a church, where there was. Thou shalt not, thou shalt not,.

Thou shalt not.

And it becomes enslaving, the thou shalt not, because as you're able to check off the things that I do that, you know, that I, what do the rich rung rulers say, what must I do to achieve the kingdom of God?

And Jesus said, keep the 10 commandments. He said, I kept them all since my youth. And Jesus said, go sell what you have. And the young man walked away sad, because he realized, I believe, that he coveted it.

And he broke one commandment.

The, I'm sorry, wait.

About what, please? I'm all over it, please. And 4 .9 is where many, the elementary principles.

Yeah, and vaguely elements.

The what, please?

My point is that with the world, sometimes, like when I'm looking at the scripture, this is my thought process. First of all, he's coming off of all the legal aspects of the Judaic law. His argument with Paul was, I'm fighting with Paul and Peter because he's not, he's going back to this religious attempt to earn it through the law.

Which was a good thing in a sense that, you know, it was good just like with the Pharisees. Jesus said, what the Pharisees do, but don't do what they don't, how do you say it?

Do what they teach.

They're whitewashed sepulchres.

Do what they teach, but don't do as they do.

Yeah.

And you know, and then I was reading today, and Matthew's very moved, because in Matthew, it talks about where he says, he talks about asking it shall be given you, seeking you shall find, knocking it shall.

So he says, everyone that asks, receives. And he's talking to people who aren't even New Testament believers, so to say. He's telling them like they're children. Like, you know, they were entrapped by this, what I use as the term, bastardized religion of Judaism that they've bastardized over the years.

We're adding all these laws of men, and all these laws of, you know, into the Judaic law, and expectations. And then when Peter, when the disciples said, he said, well, the rich man he sent away, and right away, oh, of course the rich man can't get saved.

And the other guy said he kept all the laws up into his.

So the verse that you.

The disciples said, well, who can be saved?

The verse.

No one can be saved.

The verse you quoted is in Matthew six or seven?

Seven. Seven.

Okay, here's an interesting context. Matthew five, six, and seven are the Sermon on the Mount. Okay, context. Jesus saw the crowds. He went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him.

He began to teach them, saying, and then it goes on to the Beatitudes. Jesus was in the valley, wherever he was, in the crowds. And in the crowds were disciples, were seekers, were antagonists. They're all a mixture of people in the crowd.

Jesus goes up on the mountainside and sits down. Who came to him? His disciples came to him. And he began to teach them. This teaching in Matthew five, six, and seven is given to people who already have a heart turned towards Christ.

So these words are not words that are given because somebody who is not a believer, somebody who is actually an antagonist, wouldn't understand these words. These words are best understood in the context that they're given to somebody who already has a heart turned towards God.

And so these words that you read are given that those who are believers are encouraged in their belief. That being said, we need to move on. He asks a question in verse 10. Why are you observing days, months, and seasons?

What is he saying there? Now just for time, I'm going to summarize what's going on here. Why are you trying to earn your position before God by doing things? These are the new moon Sabbaths. These are the dates, these are the festivals that they're supposed to be doing.

Why are you going back to that? Why are you going back to that? Because you have the better already. Colossians 2 .16 is going to talk about these things are a mere shadow. They are not even exposing who God is.

They are merely a shadow, a foretelling. And the law, what does the law have to do? To lead us to Christ. Because you can't keep it. And Mark 2 is going to say, the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

Why are you going back to these things which are merely a shadow, thinking that the more you do these things, the more God's going to love you? How foolish a question is that? Give me verses 11 to 16, please.

I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Brothers, I treat 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. Keep going?

Yeah, 16.

Okay.

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?

So here's the thing. Paul wants to get them back as a second appeal to avoiding what's going on with the intrusion of these Judaizers is to go to back, just go back to our relationship. And if you go into Acts 13 and 14, and I know I handed them out, but for time I've got to do some summarizing.

Paul goes into Derbe and Lystra and Iconium and Antioch, Antioch. Poseidon. And in many cases, the crowds react positively. And they say, we want more, we want more, we want more. Now on the other side, there are the Jews and those who are going to be upset by the presence of Paul.

And so they're going to oppose it. But for the believers, the ones that this letter is written to, they received it with enthusiasm. This ministry was given to them in a way that they were encouraged by here.

I want you to go back guys. When I first came to you and I preached the word to you in the synagogue by the riverside, you couldn't get enough of it. You wanted it. I want you to go back to it. See, here's the thing.

I came to you and I treat you become as me because I became as you. Paul went into these regions where there were Gentiles and the Gentiles by nature were not Jews. And by nature, they didn't have the law.

And Paul says, I came to you without the law. I came to you with the gospel. I want you to be as I am. I don't want you to get gripped by the law now. I'm not gripped by the law. That's what he's saying here.

I came to you who didn't have the law in the way and I am a believer, I am a follower of Christ, not being constrained by the law. Now I want you to be like me. I have Christ, but I'm not constrained by the law.

That's what he's asking them. That's what he's appealing to them. And he says that you treated me with respect that was so amazing. You know, I had a bodily ailment, but I preached the gospel. And though my condition was tough for you, we don't know which trial, other places there's talking about he has a thorn in the flesh, was it his eye, was it a speech impediment?

You can question these. But Paul was not the perfect example of a preacher without any, he had problems. He had physical problems, but they didn't let that stop them. They heard the gospel message. And it was even to the point, he said that you would have gouged your eyes out for me.

What's he saying there? There was nothing that you were going to hold back for me. That's how encouraged you were by what I was saying. You weren't being in any way distracted by an infirmity. You just wanted the gospel so much so that you would have gouged your eyes out and given to me.

That's how encouraged you were. There was no limits to what you would have done. He was treated with respect. And then in verse 15, what happened?

What happened?

You would have given me your eyes. What has become of your blessedness? You would have sacrificed everything for me.

What happened?

Where did it go?

What changed?

And in verse 16, to the point he says, have I become your enemy by telling you what would have driven the believers at Galatia to get it to the point where instead of giving their everything, and it's a hyperbole, they would have gouged out their eyes for me.

They would have given them everything to the point now where they actually are considering Paul an enemy. What happened? What message is Paul giving them?

Well, again, there goes their security. The worst versus faith. There are a lot of people that recoil immediately to mention the name Jesus.

Sure.

You mentioned anything that has to do with, that would strike your heart as deeply. I mentioned my upholism because I'm different. The reflection of that, not my holiness, the reflection of that holiness, they look at as holier than thou.

So you're taking the juxtaposition of your prior life, your current life, and the world saying, I don't get it. Try this one on for size. So you said you had a church life, which was the church of thou shalt not.

And at this point in life, I perceive that you're living in the grace of God, not in the church of thou shalt not. But just a second.

That's it.

Because if you go to the next verse, they make much of you. That's the answer to the question. Why are they now turning against Paul? Because they're listening to somebody else's false gospel. And Paul doesn't live up to their false gospel.

So they're turning the hearts of the people against Paul. They have said it. Go ahead, Donald.

They abandoned the gospel.

Yes.

But more than the gospel, because like that point you made, taste and sin.

Yes.

All disciples, I said women and children, and there are multiples. He took a couple loaves of bread and fish, and two fish and a couple, broke it with his hands. And literally, he was the chef. He literally fed each and every one of those multitudes by his hands.

He handed it to them.

Yes, absolutely.

And those people marveled. And then he went on, and there's more to that story. But that's how God, we taste and see. He feeds us by his hands.

And here's the question that he's got for them. Are you listening to what you first heard, or are you accepting they? That's the problem. And that's the, that's it. Give me 17 to 20. By the way, Jesus doing that, that was just the opposite of shrink-flation.

I'm sorry, go ahead. Give me 17 to 20.

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, but 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.

Paul wants them to just reflect on the fact, I, Paul, I'm the one who came. My heart aches for you guys. Just be aware of what's happening. The first thing he's telling them is that the Judaizers are trying to send you away.

They're trying to lead you astray. When I was there, when I, Paul, was there, what I gave you is now becoming a target that these Judaizers are going after. John 10 .10 is going to say that the thief comes to steal, I come to give life.

John?

Yeah.

Couldn't it be?

So as Paul goes in the first missionary journey, this is his first foray out into the world. And at Antioch, the church leaders lay hands on him and he is sent. By the way, I was at a mission conference.

We were talking about missionaries being sent out into the field and we all had a penny in front of us and he said, what's that penny? It's one cent. Anyway, Paul was sent out. He didn't have a reputation yet.

In fact, if anything, his reputation was Paul, the one who used to persecute the church. He's now one of us. But he goes into Galatia and he's an unknown commodity. But the power of his word is so strong that it's life-changing and it upsets the apple cart of the existing establishment who now come in and Paul's message is now the target of attack.

The one point that we've missed and it's obvious is Satan.