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An Appeal to Remember (Galatians 4:12-20)
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An Appeal to Remember (Galatians 4:12-20)
Galatians: The Truth of the Gospel :: A Study of Galatians
Sunday Message recorded 07 November 2021
by Associate Pastor Josh Shell
First Baptist Church
1700 Milam
Columbus, TX, USA 78934
http://fbccolumbustx.org/
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Transcript
Introduction and Greetings
00:00:08
Speaker
Welcome to Growing in Grace with Associate Pastor Josh Shell. This is a ministry of First Baptist Church located at 1700 Milam Street, Columbus, Texas. We are praying that God will bless you as you listen to this message. If you would like additional information on worship times and ministries at FBC Columbus, you can find out more at our website, fbccolumbustx.org. And now take your copy of God's timeless word as Pastor Josh gives today's message.
00:00:43
Speaker
How are you guys doing this morning? Man, it's good to see you guys. This is a packed house this morning. We need to do daylight savings more often. This is awesome.
Sermon Focus: Galatians 4:12-20
00:00:53
Speaker
Okay, so this morning we're gonna be in Galatians chapter four. We're gonna be continuing to go through this book like we have been of the letter of Galatians that Paul wrote to the churches verse by verse. And today we're gonna be looking at verses 12 through 20. And I'm excited to share with you all what the Lord has been revealing to me through this passage.
Parenting and Future Challenges
00:01:14
Speaker
So as you guys know, my wife and I have actually recently joined the parent club, right?
00:01:19
Speaker
which is awesome. It's been absolutely incredible. And I'm sure I can speak for all of us when I say this, that children are probably one of the greatest blessings this life can give us.
00:01:32
Speaker
Before I became a father, I had this idea of what it looked like to be a dad, and now that I'm a dad, it just far exceeds any expectation that I ever had of it. As we look ahead with our daughter, there's also gonna be a time that where all of these new things and all the things that she's learning is gonna come to a standstill and it's gonna be challenged.
Guiding Children Through Faith
00:01:58
Speaker
Society and culture, it's gonna catch up to her.
00:02:01
Speaker
And as a parent, Hannah and I have to be ready to be there for her when those challenges arise. And many of you guys know exactly what I'm talking about right now in this day. Many of you guys have children in schools who are being challenged with their way of thinking, with their religious beliefs, with their moral beliefs, with their integrity.
00:02:26
Speaker
And many of you have already experienced this with children and unfortunately it has severed or damaged that relationship with them and you still haven't been able to mend it. And as I said, as this day for Hannah and I approaches, it's one that kind of gets me anxious. And the thought of it is overwhelming.
00:02:49
Speaker
But at the same time, as scary and overwhelming or even as heartbreaking as it may be for us looking forward, I know it's also gonna be a great privilege for us to come along Shiloh and to remind her of God's truths. And I pray that's exactly what we all do currently in this day. We all need to remember what God has done for us and we all need to stand fast in his truth.
00:03:14
Speaker
This next generation, as a youth pastor, I see it all the time, not just with our students, but with students across the nation and the world. They are being challenged. Christianity as a whole, the foundational beliefs of what we understand and what we know is being challenged, and we have to be ready to stand firm with them.
Paul's Concern for Galatians
00:03:37
Speaker
And I say all this this morning to say that as we look at this passage in Galatians chapter four, that's exactly what we have been seeing this whole time from Paul with the Galatian people. He is seeing what is happening to this church and how their beliefs in which they welcome so joyfully what we'll see here are being challenged and they're being distorted and they're being turned away from the truth of the gospel and the freedom that we have in Christ.
00:04:07
Speaker
and that they had in Christ. And you can only imagine how this is making Paul feel as the one who brought this message to them. You can almost see that Paul is being the spiritual father to the Galatian people. So there's five things I want to pull out from this passage.
Key Takeaways from Galatians
00:04:25
Speaker
I know some of you are like, five, Josh, are you sure you'll be able to get through that? But five things I want to pull out of this passage. One is that Paul is appealing to them to remember their freedom in Christ. That's what we'll see in verse 12.
00:04:37
Speaker
The second thing is that he's appealing to them to remember how Christ encountered them, how they received the gospel. The third thing is for them to remember the joy of the true gospel. The fourth is to remember the deception of the flesh. And then the last thing we're gonna look at is the sanctifying work of the gospel.
00:05:03
Speaker
So let's read this passage together, shall we? If you guys like to stand with me in honor of God's word, that would be incredible if you're able to. So let's read this together, picking up in verse 12. It says, brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are, and you did me no wrong.
00:05:26
Speaker
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 nor despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?
00:05:55
Speaker
They made much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out so that you make much of them.
Freedom in Christ vs. the Law
00:06:04
Speaker
It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose. And not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone for I am perplexed about you. You guys pray with me.
00:06:25
Speaker
Lord God, we again come before you. We just ask that you lead us through this text, Lord, that your spirit will reveal in us the truths that we need to hear this morning, that you'll prepare our hearts for it. But God, I just pray that as we look at this passage, that we'll see just the love and the desire of Paul for the Galatian people, and not just for the Galatians, but also for us in this culture today, in our society. The Lord, we love you. We praise you. We thank you. It's in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you. You guys may be seated.
00:06:55
Speaker
All right, so the main point I want us to get out of this passage today is this, is that when we encounter the elementary principles of the world, which Paul referenced back to in verse nine of the same chapter, we must remember to trust God's word and his purpose in our life.
00:07:16
Speaker
OK, so the first thing I want us to look at here, though, is the first appeal is that is to remember your freedom in Christ. And that's exactly what we see here in verse 12, where he says, brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.
00:07:34
Speaker
And what Paul is doing here, when he says to become as I am as I have become as you are, is he is referring to the freedom in which he gained in the gospel, the same gospel which he brought to them. He's referencing back to what he talked to them about in chapter one, where he gave his credentials, where he shared his testimony of how I was once a Judaizer, I was once a religious leader of the law.
00:08:02
Speaker
I was enslaved to this law, but now when Christ revealed himself to me on that road to Damascus, he not only transformed my life, but he now called me to go to the Gentiles, to you guys to share this freedom. He said, remember this, just as I have become as you are, you need to become as I am. And that is this plain and simple, free in Christ.
00:08:29
Speaker
What we see from Paul here is an appeal to put all religious regulations and laws and all these things aside. He's saying, you need to put these aside and you need to remain free in Christ. Become as I am, as I become as you are. But here's the irony of the situation. When you remember Paul here, as he is saying this, this is a man, like I said before, who was once enslaved to the law and is now walking in freedom to the gospel.
00:08:57
Speaker
And he is now making an appeal to these people who never experienced enslavement from the beginning. Before the gospel came, they were walking in their sin, yes. But when the gospel came, they just knew freedom right away. They never even knew what the law was as Gentiles. And so Paul, he's saying, what are y'all doing? He says, have y'all not listened to what I have told you?
00:09:24
Speaker
This law is only bringing you to condemnation. Don't be legalistic. Experience and enjoy the freedom that you now have in Christ. All Christ wants from you is for you to submit to him by faith and let him do the rest. That's what he's appealing to when he says this in verse 12.
00:09:51
Speaker
So you can hear the urgency from Paul for the people to turn back to the true gospel. But he continues on in verses 13 and 14, and this leads me to the second point is that he's appealing to them to remember how Christ encountered them.
Receiving the Gospel
00:10:06
Speaker
And for us, it's how Christ encountered us, right? How Christ encountered you in your own life.
00:10:11
Speaker
And what we see here, verse 13 says, you know it was because of a bodily ailment that I have preached the gospel to you at first. And in verse 14 says, and though my condition was a trial to you, you do not what? You do not scorn or despise me, but receive me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. So what Paul is appealing to them here is to remember how Christ encountered them in the sense that it was not by coincidence or by accident that the gospel came to them.
00:10:42
Speaker
This was something that was ordained from the beginning by Paul. If you remember, during his conversion, Jesus called Paul to go to the Gentiles and to preach the gospel. So Paul here, what he's talking about with this ailment,
00:10:57
Speaker
Um, some believe that he may have contracted malaria along the way in his journey. Uh, some people also believe that he may have actually had an eye condition that was, uh, producing like pus coming out of his eyes, which is kind of gross. I'm sorry. But it would make sense going on to verse 15 when he talks about how they would joyfully gouge their eyes out for them. Right? The little things, right? That you never really noticed before. Uh, but so all this to say though, is that Paul,
00:11:24
Speaker
because of this ailment that he has now received, he went into the region of Galatia. And as a result of him going to the region of Galatia, he met these people and they received him gladly. And guess what? He got to share the gospel with them. And as a result of sharing the gospel, they came to know the gospel and they got to experience the freedom in Christ.
00:11:50
Speaker
So again, he's appealing to them to remember how Christ encountered you. He said it's not by Paul's journey, it is not by Paul's ability that the gospel came to you, but rather it's by Christ in his divine appointment that he sent me to you to preach the gospel to you.
00:12:09
Speaker
And as a result of this, receiving Paul and receiving the gospel, we saw last week in verses eight and nine of this same chapter, what happened to them? He said, formally, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
00:12:26
Speaker
But, but now that you have come to know God or God, get this, or rather to be known by God. So not that they came to know God, but rather it was the reversal here that God came to know them. How can you turn back to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more?
00:12:53
Speaker
which leads me to the third thing here in verses 15 and 16. He's making appeal now for them not only to remember the freedom that they had in Christ or how Christ encountered them, but he's ultimately appealing to them to remember the joy and the truth of the gospel. And we see that here in verses 15 and 16. It says, what then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and give them to me.
00:13:21
Speaker
We see here the transformation of the gospel when they received it as it encountered Paul. Paul is recounting here in verse 15 the favor in which he had in their eyes with the Galatian people, quite literally, in the sense of they would have literally given their eyes for Paul, is what he's saying here. So we're seeing this immediate transformation in the Galatian people of joy when they received the truth.
00:13:46
Speaker
And the same holds true for us. If we all stopped and reflected back or remembered how we first received the gospel, oh my goodness. I remember it, right? I remember it when I received the gospel. It was just the weight of it, just all the weight of my pain, my suffering, my sin just went away from me.
00:14:08
Speaker
But yet as time has gone on and my journey through this life has continued, my flesh, again, my spirit's willing. My flesh is weak, right? And in verse 16, Paul goes on and says, have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? The law in which these Judaizers are bringing in, it's new. They've never experienced it before and it's enticing.
00:14:36
Speaker
Let's be honest, every time we hear a new pastor or we hear a new teaching of what somebody else is bringing and then we think like, wow, this is like incredible. This is new insight. We get so excited about it. Cause it's new. It's something that we have never experienced before. Something that we've never recognized before. And we have a tendency to what? Jump on the bandwagon.
00:15:01
Speaker
versus stopping and understanding what they're trying to say and comparing it to the actual truth. Y'all following me on that? So for the Galatian people, the law which is now being brought to them is new, it's appealing to them. And as a result, they are accepting of it and they are refusing to listen to Paul now.
00:15:25
Speaker
And so what we're seeing here is that the Galatian people would rather place themselves under the law that in the right state was supposed to be our guardian. And it was our guardian until when? Christ came. Until Christ came. And when Christ came, what happened? He fulfilled the law. He has become the law for us. So that when we put our whole life in Christ, when we receive Him and accept Him, the law is fulfilled. We don't have to worry about the law at that point.
00:15:53
Speaker
Cause he's fulfilled it for us, right? Don't submit to man's regulations and man's laws that will only bring you down, but rather stay in the freedom of Christ. But what Paul is doing here is a great example for all of us, by the way, of how we need to hold each other accountable. Because even members in this church or even in other churches, guess what? We fall into the trap of following the law.
00:16:25
Speaker
Yeah, I stepped on toes, I'm sorry. But it's the truth. And what Paul's doing here is what we see in Proverbs 27, five and six, he says, better is open rebuke than hidden love. And we are such a passive people today. We would rather sit back on our hands and not say anything thinking that's true love to our brother and our sister in Christ, but really what we're doing is we're sending them to hell. So I'm getting hot, so.
00:16:54
Speaker
And it goes on, it says, faithful are the wounds of a friend, profuse are the kisses of an enemy. So what Paul is doing is the loving thing right here. He is addressing the Galatian people regardless of their actions, and they just don't wanna hear it. And guess what? We're gonna encounter that today. As we present the gospel truth to people and as we confront what is going on in the world, people are gonna reject it. But guess what? We're not called to go and save them. We're just called to go and preach the truth.
00:17:24
Speaker
We're called to go and live out the truth and allow the truth to set them free. Not Josh, not Victor, not you. So we must remember the joy that we have in the gospel and we must do exactly what Paul's doing here by confronting the issue, but out of love. Which leads me to the fourth thing, we gotta start wrapping up.
Warning Against Judaizers
00:17:51
Speaker
What Paul is appealing to now is for them to remember the deception of the flesh. He's reminding the people here of the ultimate goal of the Judaizers, and that's what we see here in 17 and 18 where it says, they make much of you but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out that you may make much of them. See, the flesh is deceiving.
00:18:12
Speaker
We think that we are walking in the righteousness of God, but really on the inside, if we're not walking by the Spirit and we're walking by our own desires, all it's going to do is lead us astray and we're going to make it about us instead of about the gospel. And that's exactly what the Judaizers are doing. Because if you remember with me, the Judaizers, the goal is to bring all the Gentile believers back or under the law
00:18:36
Speaker
so that way they can become true Jews. They're trying to make a people something that they're not, for their own glory and for their own gain. Because if you remember also back when we went Jesus, when he's walking with the disciples and he's teaching them how to pray, do I remember this account? Jesus, the disciples says, Jesus, please teach us how to pray. And what does he say? He says, don't be like those hypocrites.
00:19:03
Speaker
Don't be like those hypocrites who stand on the street corners and in the synagogues and they make a scene. So that way it's about them rather than about the intimacy of their relationship with Jesus. But he says rather, but when you pray, go and pray in secret and the father who's in secret will reward you. You will hear you.
00:19:27
Speaker
So again, Paul is appealing to the Galatian people to remember the deception of the flesh, not to fall into it. And then that's exactly what we see back in chapter one and verse 10 with this big, bold question that we looked at where Paul was saying, for am I now seeking the approval of man or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ. Man.
00:19:58
Speaker
We need, again, I think we talked about this previously, but we need to stop and ask this question every single morning when we wake up. Because if we're only seeking the approval of man, and we're trying to get their approval in our lives, man, we're in a bad spot.
00:20:17
Speaker
And we also see the same kind of heartbeat later on when Paul writes the letter to the Romans in chapter 12, verses one and two, and it says, I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Get this, he says, do not, do not be conformed to this world, but be what?
00:20:41
Speaker
Transformed, wow, you guys get a gold star. Transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing, you may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. We need to be on guard against the deception of the flesh and those teachers who are trying to lead us astray. And if it doesn't line up with the word of God, we need to cast it out, which leads you to the last point.
Transformative Power of the Gospel
00:21:09
Speaker
We need to trust in the sanctifying work of the gospel. We need to trust in the spirit to lead us in this life. We need to remember what the gospel has done in our lives. So now what we're seeing here in verses 19 to 20 is that we go from seeing Paul, who started out this letter as a harsh and stern coach, is now changing the tone here.
00:21:33
Speaker
And he is revealing his true care for their spiritual wellbeing in their lives. He goes from, like I said, from being a harsh spiritual coach to being a compassionate father longing for the wellbeing of his children in verse 19, where it says, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth. And so Christ is formed in you. I don't know how Paul knows what childbirth feels like, cause he's a guy, but as a new father, I kind of get a glimpse of what he's talking about.
00:22:03
Speaker
My wife understands. But what he's saying here is my longing for you is that you just come back and be formed and shaped back into the picture in the image of Christ. He says, hear my plea. Remember the sanctifying work of the gospel when you first received and how it brought joy in your life. It brought purpose in your life. And now the law is only leading you astray.
00:22:32
Speaker
as Paul is not only appealing to these Galatian people, but he is also appealing to us. He says, after you've come to know God, the true and living God who set you free from your sins and your transgressions, how can you go back to the things in which he tore down for you? Because let me tell you something, you did not tear down any of your strongholds. Christ did when he died on the cross that day. So as we wrap up our time together though,
00:23:02
Speaker
My prayer this morning as we've walked through this passage and as we've reflected and remembered what Christ, you know, well, ultimately what Paul is appealing to the people, I pray that's exactly what we were doing in our own time together, is asking these same questions and remembering the things in which Christ did for us, right? But I pray that we will never stop and that we will never forget to praise God for what he's done in our lives. We are called to be a remembering people.
00:23:33
Speaker
We are called to remember the mercies and the glory of God. I know that we're all in different places in our spiritual journey today. Some of us, you're like Hannah and I where we're experiencing a lot of joyous things right now with our baby girl Shiloh. Whereas some of you are probably on the other side of that spectrum where you're walking through one of the hardest things that you've ever walked through in your life, whether it's a loss of a loved one.
00:24:01
Speaker
or whether it's a disease or a sickness, or whether it's a broken relationship in your family, or a broken relationship in your life that you cannot seem to fix. I just pray that as we think about these things, no matter where you're at in the spiritual journey right now, that at the end of the day that we will stop, that we will remember what Christ has done for us.
Praising God's Work
00:24:31
Speaker
and what the truth has done for us in this life and how it has ultimately set us free. So why should we submit again to a yoke of slavery? Will you guys pray with me? God, we thank you so much for your truth. We thank you, Father, for the way you first loved us.
00:24:53
Speaker
It's not about us at all. It's all about you and the fact that you sent your one and only Son, Jesus, to come and to die on the cross for our sins so that by those who confess and believe in the name of Jesus may come to have life and life eternal.
00:25:08
Speaker
And God, as I said, there's so many people, whether it's in this room, in our community, in our nation, who are all over the spectrum on their spiritual journey. And I pray, God, that you'll meet us right where we're at today. That we will remember what you've done and that you will do a good work in us and through us. We give you praise, honor, and glory for the way that you pursue us, the way that you love us, and the way that you intercede on our behalf.
00:25:39
Speaker
God, we pray all these things in the only name that can save us. And that's Jesus. Amen.