• How discouraging is it to invest so much into something only to see it go in a dangerous direction after you are no longer there to influence it.
a) Business you once owned
b) A child after he/she moves out of the house
c) Church you once were a member of(or pastor of)
• Paul is dealing with a problem in the Galatian church that has the potential, if not dealt with, to undermine the enter message Paul has preached to establish the churches.
PAUL APPEALS TO THE PROBLEM: 8 However at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?
I am told that after the Emancipation Proclamation that many of the slaves chose to remain in their slavery because they knew of no other life. When Paul came he preached a message of freedom and deliverance which sounded wonderful. The underlining problem was the when those who followed him came with a message of legalism and strict religiosity that it found more of a home in the minds of those who were used to those things in the past.
• Paul says that it is the difference between knowing God and not knowing God.
a) Legalism is being a slave that that which you think is God but is not(8)
b) It makes the gospel preached to you as something done in vain.(11)
• It is also the difference between the deeper things of God and the weak and worthless elementary things that we are to move beyond.(9)
Elementary: Do you think that it made sense to these churches that to do more was to actually do less?
What God did through the lives of the Jews was meant to be a preparation for what He would do through the church. It is not a step up to go back to a more religious system just because the more rules makes you feel more religious than others.
10 You observe days and months and seasons and years.
• Sometimes we are deceived because we can do so much that it must be more right than those that seem to be doing less.
A good example of this is John Wesley. Before his conversion:
• He was the son of a clergyman and a clergyman himself.
• He was orthodox in belief, faithful in morality, and full of good works.
• He did ministry in prisons, sweatshops, and slums.
• He gave food, clothing, and education to slum children.
• He observed both Saturday and Sunday as the Sabbath.
• He sailed from England to the American colonies as a missionary.
• He studied his Bible, prayed, fasted, and gave regularly.
Yet all the time, he was bound in the chains of his own religious efforts, because he trusted in what he could do to make himself right before God instead of trusting in what Jesus had done.
Later, he came to “trust in Christ, in Christ only for salvation,” and came to an inner assurance that he was now forgiven, saved, and a son of God. Looking back on all his religious activity before he was truly saved, he said: “I had then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son.”
• The world is filled with religious people. Religion is man’s nature without God. If the criteria were based upon just doing works alone how would the average Baptist compare to the average Muslim? Hindu? Mormon? JW?
11 I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.
• Paul was concerned that all his labor and love for this church had now been in vain. In a sense it was now worse than if he had never come because the church would now preach a gospel that was false which is worse than no gospel at all.
• Church of Laodicea in the last days: Preached a message that made them think they were rich and wealthy and in need of nothing but Jesus came to tell them that they were really poor and wretched and naked. Is that the direction the modern church is going when they no longer focus on the Word of God?
PAUL APPEALS TO THEIR PAST:
His Example before them: 12 I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.
1 Cor 9:19-22 For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more; 20 and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; 21 to those who are without law, as without law(not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law; 22 to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.
• There is a sense where you sacrifice some of your freedoms for the sake of avoiding offence but you never sacrifice the essentials of the faith.
PAUL IS DRAWING A LINE saying that although he has compromised his freedoms to be more able to minister that this was something beyond compromise.
Example in their Past:
You have done me no wrong; 13 but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time; 14 and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.
On his first missionary journey Paul apparently became seriously ill. Some suggest that he contracted malaria while traveling through the low, swampy regions of Pamphylia and decided to go up into the higher and healthier area of Galatia and minister there for a while until he was better
It is believed that what Paul suffered from affected his eyes – always oozing & running / Painful Wasn’t just painful for Paul – but it was painful for others to look at
• Paul former time of ministry among them was done with much personal difficulty on his part. How effective can a sick preacher be?
1985-86 I served as an associate pastor in a church in Virginia. The church was slowly moving from traditional Southern Baptist to a Baptist-charismatic mix. Because of this the pastor sometimes allowed some interesting speakers. One Sunday night with the pastor out of town a man in a purple suit came to preach. He ever other word seemed to be ‘thus saith the Lord’. I had the privilege of MCing the evening. I had a new cast on my leg from a broken ankle I had gotten playing in a church basketball league. Part of his message was about a kid in South America who broke his arm and had a cast and by faith they cut the cast off and the kid went back to playing. One of my deacons sitting next to me leaned over and said to me, ‘I have a hacksaw in my trunk if you want me to go get it’.
• Although Paul came to them struggling bodily they did not reject him nor his message but received him as if he were an angel from God. They received him as Jesus Himself even with his physical problem.
• No pictures in the Bible of Jesus on crutches healing a lame man.
This church was so impacted by Paul’s message that the illness was not a barrier but now they were actually compromising that message that had been so special to them.
We live in a day of excuses. How many different types of excuses can be heard now for people not serving God? Paul had a great excuse to stay home from church or not be involved on a committee or in a ministry. Sometimes what we see as an excuse God has put in our lives as an opportunity. Joni Erickson Tada for example. David Ring….What is your excuse for what you don’t do?
Some might be surprised that we will not only be held accountable for the things we have done but the things we didn’t do. The second group might be a greater sins.
• What have you done for God lately in spite of your weaknesses?
Did you go to church in spite of the weather?
Did you serve on a committee even if it cost you some TV time?
Did you serve in a ministry in spite of your fear?
Did you give to a ministry even when it cost you the money for a round of golf or for that new whatever you were wanting to buy yourself?
I am amazed by those in our church who show up on a Sunday and sit in wheelchairs or struggle with canes and walkers but are here where they know God wants them to be.
I was talking to my mom Monday night about some side effects of medicines and told her that at least she had a healthy heart and lungs. She said that with her struggles over the last years that now when she walked to church she had to stop to catch her breath. BUT she still goes while thousands in Tulsa will sit home because of a runny nose.
15 Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me.
• Paul reminds them of the connection they had with one another in the past that they would have given their own eyes if possible to help him with his illness.
a) Today we might say that ‘you would have given me one of your kidneys’.
Can things go from that level of intimacy to a place where this church is now rejecting the message Paul had brought them.
16 So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?
• That is the power of a deceptive message. These new teachers had come in and misled them in such a way that Paul was now more of an enemy to them than the intimate brother they had once considered him.
• Many people want to hear a preacher until he says things they don’t like.
He says something about something they are doing and becomes their enemy.
We like to hear sermons about other people’s sins and not our own.
When the prophet Samuel was getting old, he started planning to have his sons take his place as the judge over the nation. Instead, the people wanted a king "like all the other nations".
This made Samuel feel rejected but this is what God said to him.
1Samuel 8:7 And the LORD said unto Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. People might not have a problem with you but you might just be caught up in a bigger problem that they have with God.
PAUL APPEALS TO THE TRUE MOTIVES:
• What are the true motives of a false teacher?
Their Wrong Motive: 17 They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. The motive to build their own kingdom and not God’s.
18 But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you.
• Paul agrees that it is a good thing to be sought for the right reason.
Jesus came for the purpose of seeking the lost.
It is a bad thing to be sought to be exploited by others for their own gain.
• Verse 19 is an amazing verse that establishes the true nature of Paul’s concern.
Those in the Galatian churches began a journey as Paul came and shared the gospel with them. They were newly born in Christ, babe in their relationship with Him.
In their vulnerable state of growth in came these false teachers to distort and detour from their destination which was to grow more and more into the image of Christ in our lives.
Paul’s Right Motive: 19 My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you-
• Paul describes his agony over their issue as like him being a woman in labor not until the birth but until the child’s full growth is achieved.
Someone has said that the birth is the easiest part of having children. Sometimes evangelism is the easiest part of church. It is discipleship, growing into Christ’s image that is rarely seen in our midst.
What if we sent numbers to the SBC each year not only of our baptisms but of those we felt had now grown to be true disciples of Christ in their walk with Him?
THAT WAS PAUL’S GREATEST CONCERN: He shared in ROMANS 8 that this is the ultimate goal of the Christian life. Foreknew/Predestined/Called/justied/glorified.. predestined to be conformed to the image of Christ.(8:29)
I get anonymous letters from Baptist snipers from time to time. I got one a few months back from someone who was concerned that I spent too much time teaching the Bible. They felt the Bible was only to be taught in Sunday School and not in church services. The said church services were to be for preaching only two messages: evangelism and tithing.
• It would be nice to be able to discuss and debate that difference of opinion face to face but I have no clue who those people are.
• Paul wished he could be face to face with those in Galatia because if he could then maybe they could work thru the problem and his concern could be addressed and the issue fixed.
20 but I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you.
When the Crystal Palace Exhibition opened in 1851, people flocked to London's Hyde Park to behold the marvels. One of the greatest marvels back then was steam. Steam plows were displayed. Steam locomotives. Steam looms. Steam organs. Even a steam cannon.
Of all the great exhibits that year, the first-prize winner was a steam invention with seven thousand parts. When it was turned on, its pulleys, whistles, bells, and gears made a lot of noise, but, ironically, the contraption didn't do a thing! Seven thousand moving parts making a lot of commotion... but having no practical use.
• Paul was concerned that those who came with this big noise had stolen the future in Christ that these churches could have enjoyed.
• Has Satan been able to use anything in your life to ARREST your spiritual growth and actually send you backwards from where you once were? Sometimes we need to go back and build again on the truths of the message we once began with and consider what has come in that has stolen those truths from our lives and caused us to go no further in our journey with Christ.
HEB 5:12 For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food.
When did you come to faith in Christ? Where did you think then that you would be by now? What is the major reason that has not happened in your life? That is your greatest spiritual enemy.
