Pauls concern

Paul is concerned, and rightfully so. We have over the past few months seen this argument of justification by faith alone unfold, and how the people of Galatia have exchanged the truth for a lie, and that they are trying to add to the finished work of Christ. Paul is at his wits end about all that has taken place in the church there at Galatia, but he is still pursing them despite there great confusion, and their turning away from the true gospel of Jesus Christ, and Paul today in this text is going to stress his concern for them.

Read Galatians 4:8-20.

Main idea is this Believers in Christ are to fight for their faith.

Prior to coming to Christ the people of Galatia were enslaved to the ideas of the previous Gods they worshiped. They did not know the true God, and they worshiped these other god’s and not the one true God. If you have ever had the pleasure of going to a museum or oversees to see these statues of these other God’s is quite incredible. The people of Rome and many other religions had a god for everything, and each god required different sacrifices , different worship, and had different abilities that other gods did not. Non of their gods alone had the ability to save, to forgive, to provide all their basic needs. Their gods were made by man.

Romans 1:23 describes these type of people who worshiped all these Gods. It says, “and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

The carnal natural man, makes up Gods to whom they want to serve. And Paul is greatly concerned for them. That they would turn back to some sort of legal system that promised salvation, and security, or even their old religion.

Why was he concerned? Because these Galatian people had tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord. These people had been redeemed, these people had known by God. God had turned there sinful hearts and desires toward him when they were not seeking him. He had the people of Galatian in mind when he died for them, and yet even though God had loved them, and changed them, there desire was to turn back and worship something else.

Paul says it in such a thought provoking way, How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world whose slaves you want to be once more?

Last week’s text Paul mentioned those elementary principles, and we unpacked what some of those were and how those were a guide or manager because the people didn't know how to live, but in the process we discovered that the gospel came and redeemed people from those principles, but notice how Paul explains those principles now. He again says again they are elementary, but he also says they are weak and worthless. They have no power, in it salvation does not exist, they are worthless. The idea’s that the judaizers had preposed to the people of Galatia were weak and worthless, because what they offered could not be delivered.

The people were returning to legalism. They had took what God had given them in the old covenant, and make it a requirement for new covenant. The Jewish people had all kinds of things that had to do each and every year, specially on certain days in order to follow God’s law, and what the people of Galatia were doing was they were making those things gospel, meaning they were required for salvation. But as we have learned over and over again in our study of Galatians you cannot add to the gospel. You dont take things away from or add it to the finished work of Christ, because when you do this you distort the work of Christ on the cross.

Today in our culture we have so many ideologues that are competing with the gospel that are trying to influence the church. I don’t want to get into all these ideologues, but I will say that there are things that people inside and outside the church try to add to the finish work of Christ. This can be certain theories, politics, scientific findings, and so much more, and what they do church and for those who are listening is they attach these things to the gospel, and say hey if you a really a christian you will buy into this idea that this theory, or policy, or scientific finding, or whatever else the hot topic of the day is and what they will do is required for you to believe these things in order to really be a christian. Listen church there will always be those who try and influence the church from outside to believe its Jesus plus something, but its always going to be Jesus plus nothing.

Listen closely from what i am about to say, Their is not an asterisk when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Christ died on the cross, because you could not pay that debt, Christ lived that life, because you could not, and Christ shed his blood, because you couldn’t, and he did not die so you could add to his work.

Paul wanted the people of Galatia to know that truth, but he was afraid that the love God showed them and the work he put in were all in vain. Paul had laid the foundation for a faithful fruitful church, and the people of Galatia were exchanging a rock solid foundation once that was reinforced with the best material for a foundation that was like sand. Paul had poured his heart and soul into the people of Galatia and they abandoned it for weak, worthless elementary principles, and a few days a year.

Yet, Paul in his love for them, continued to preach to them. Listen starting in verse 12-20.

Before Paul was a saved man we have learned during our study, he was a man who was legalist in every sort of way, but when Jesus came and revealed himself to Paul everything changed, the life of legalism went away. He no longer looked upon his works for salvation, but looked toward the Lord, and the amazing thing about this was everything in his life changed, and as a result he was a different person, a changed person just like the people of Galatia were, but the difference between Paul and them was he didn’t go back. He entreated them which means he asked them to earnestly to go back to the God who loved them and died for them.

He reminds the people of Galatia that he himself was not done wrong by them, Paul had faced the worst persecution imaginable, even from the Judaizers, yet the people of Galatia never did him wrong they loved Paul.

Many biblical scholars believe that when Paul came to Galatia he had some sort of ailment, some sort of disease that gave him a sence of urgency when he arrived. It is believed that Paul had malaria, which is an awful debilitating disease which includes fever, yet the people did not run from him they recieved him they took care of him, and wasn’t an inconvenience to them even though he was sick.

They treated him so well even like an angel, willing to give up their own eyes to make sure he was ok. There love for him was undeniable. Yet, their actions with the judaizers, proved to Paul and to Christ that the love they had previously showed him was worthless.

The actions they had showed Paul through trusting the judaizers had proved to be a slap in the face to Paul, and the love they had for him. Paul was like a father to them, and they treated him like an enemy when they abandoned his teachings.

All Paul had done to the people of Galatia was tell them the truth. The greatest truth known to man, and that is the truth about Jesus Christ. The people of Galatia were happy to know this truth, they loved it so much, but they abandoned it.

Because theThe judaizers had come with this zeal that was misdirected that was aimed not towards Christ, but towards self glorification. Their aim as we have discussed was to get the people to abandon the truth, and cause them to believe in faith plus works, but what took place when this was occuring was it actually separated them from Christ and Paul.

Listen to how one man put it, “When Paul says that the Judaizers “want … to alienate you” or as the esv says shut you out (literally, “lock you up,” ekkleisai), he is probably thinking of the function of the law in “locking” men up under sin (sunklei-omenoi, 3:23). The locking up was the same action, but the purposes were different. The law served a proper function in locking men up as sinners so that they might find salvation in Christ. The legalizers were trying to lock the Galatians up under law so that they might be separated from Christ and serve their teachers. For the present, the legalizers are courting the Galatians. But the Galatians must take note. When once they are courted and thereby estranged from both Paul and Christ, then the roles will be reversed and the Galatians will find that they must court the legalizers. Failure to maintain Christian liberty always leads to ecclesiastical as well as other forms of bondage.

just a quick note ecclesiastical is referring to the church and how it functions.

The point the commentary and Paul is making is clear these judaizers were using there zeal their passion to persuade the people to believe something they should not in order to win followers for themselves, so in return the people of Galatia would not come running to Christ or to Paul they would run to them instead.

This is what false teachers do they point you to themselves rather than Christ. Church, people listening if you ever see a teacher of Gods word direct you to something other than Christ and his word run, and dont follow them, because what happens is if you go down that path they may praise you in the moment, but you will be bound to them, because its only in those teachers where you can have eternal life, or whatever else they may be promising you. And if you are on that road long enough you will see that these teachers are just men looking for praise not men who are directing you to praise Jesus.

Paul wants them to return to there first love, the one who loved them first which is Christ. I love what John Macarthur says,” Paul encouraged the Galatians to have the same zeal for the true gospel of grace that they had shown when he was with them”

The Judaizers may have came with this zeal that was quite contagious that was quite appealing to the flesh, but it wasn’t a zeal that saved them, it was Christ all along.

He wanted the zeal they had for the faith to be directed toward the Lord not mean. He wanted to see them have true worship of the one true God.

Paul wasn’t trying to make followers of himself, but only Christ. Paul was so different from the Judaizers, this was because his goal was to point people to Christ, and not just himself. The language that is used here is interesting he calls them little children, he was their parent, not the judaizers. He labored over them, he taught them, and nurtured him.

Listen to the words of one man, “He had not come to them in order to build up his own personal following, as the false teachers had. He had come to help them: first, to see that they were born again, and second, to labor for them till Christ himself should be formed in them. In calling the Galatians his “dear children” and in speaking of his labor “pains” on their behalf, Paul pictures himself as a mother who went through the pains of childbirth at the time of their conversion to Christ and who is apparently in labor once again as the result of their apparent defection. It is pedantic and foolish to ask whether Paul is thinking of Christ being formed in the Galatians after their birth or as an embryo before birth, or again whether it is Christ who is being formed or the Galatians. Paul’s metaphors are mixed. His point is merely that his pastoral concern matches his evangelistic fervor and, indeed, that neither has diminished because of the Galatians’ listening to the legalizers.”

He had a great concern for the people of Galatia that they be like Christ, that was always his goal, like a mother in labor he wanted to do all he could to bring them them to life.

He wanted to be with them so he could know what had happened, but in mean that he is perplexed of all that has happened in the church at Galatia.

For believers this text has many applications. If we apply these truths that I am about to list then if Paul would see us today he would not be concerned. Personally as the pastor of this church, It makes me want to be an example like Paul preaching faithfully, laboring over you, and this community. Pointing you to Christ and not myself. Having those who hear this message, and know me see that I am striving to follow the Lord and in turn hoping that you will do the same.

Philippians 4:9 is a key verse that I want both myself and this church to be familiar with, and it says this, “What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

1. Practice your faith. As a church we need to practice the things we hear from God’s word, because its true that practice does in fact make perfect, and while perfection will never happen in his life, Christ likeness will, and when we by the power of the Holy Spirit put to practice what we have learned then we can be more like him.

Our goal as a church should never be anything other than becoming more like Christ, sure we will struggle we will do wrong, but our savior didn’t die because we are perfect, but because we need him.

The Christian life is hard, thats why Paul referred to his own work as being in labor, we must work with such intensity like Paul, because its worth it. Paul knew when he wrote this letter to the Galatians that it would cause alot of backlash, but fruit would come from it, the same goes for the Christian life we work with zeal and passion knowing that our labor was not in vain. Every woman that I have talked to has spoke of the pain of childbirth, but when they finished and seen the finished product they knew that it was all worth it.

2. Stay grounded in your faith. There is also a warning that we can clearly see to not return back to our former faith, because it is weak and worthless it does not ofter the same kind of hope that Christ does and I am concerned that after many of us our saved we turn back to some sort of legalism, or like i mentioned earlier some sort of ideology, and all to often and miss out on the blessings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dont turn to another gospel, because there isn’t one. Do not add to the gospel, because if you do you are adding to the finished work of Christ, and that is no gospel at all.

3. Be passionate for your faith. Live your faith with passionate zeal toward the lord, and let your passion be directed toward serving him and his church.

4. Fuel your faith. It is important that each and every one follow solid biblical teachers, and not teachers who are trying to make followers of themselves. Teachers who make much of Jesus like Paul did, and teachers who lead you to Christ and not themselves, and to consistently be in our bibles so when we hear teachers of the word we will be able to discern what is right and wrong.

If you an unbeliever today, we briefly talked about Christ and what he did. Christ died on the cross, because you could not pay that debt, Christ lived a perfect life, because you could not, and Christ shed his blood, because you couldn’t, and he did not die so you could add to his work. If you believe that today and repent of your sins, and trust in him alone for salvation you can have eternal life.

Let us pray.