Galatians 4:8-31

Turn, if you will, to Galatians chapter 4.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

So if you have a black church Bible, it's page 974.

And if you want to grab one, they're just by the door.

If you've come wanting a Christmas sermon,

you're going to be very, very disappointed.

But we're in Galatians,

and I need to get to the end of Galatians by the end of January,

and I'm struggling to get out of Galatians.

So I think I've got something,

well, I have got something to say tonight,

and it'll be a good sermon,

I hope, for the end of the year.

Galatians is pretty lively, isn't it?

It's pretty fiery.

And the Apostle Paul is giving a biblical

and a theological argument, step by step by step.

And what you find with the Apostle Paul

is his logic is unanswerable.

Relentlessly logical.

And I think, very often, when we think of the Apostle Paul,

we think of this kind of cerebral, stern, logical man,

and we can ask the question,

does anything get beyond his mind and reason?

People might ask that of churches like ours.

Do they feel anything?

Seem like stones sometimes.

The Apostle Paul, did anything move him?

Did he feel?

Well, look with me at verses 8 to 20.

Look at verse 11.

There he's saying this,

I'm afraid about you.

He's saying to the church in Galatia,

I'm afraid that my whole work amongst you

has gone down the drain.

Verses 15 to 16,

he's saying,

I'm disappointed in you.

I'm really disappointed in you.

I've told you the truth,

and now you see me as your enemy.

And in verse 19,

he says,

it's as if I'm like a mother suffering birth pains.

And I've not suffered birth pains,

but neither is the Apostle Paul.

But there's certainly feeling, isn't there,

in birth pains.

He says,

I'm like a mother suffering birth pains.

And he ensures his aim

until Christ is formed in you.

He says,

I'm in agony.

I'm like an apostle with birth pains.

That's what he felt for the Galatian Christians

on three things tonight.

As he speaks to them,

he says to the church in Galatia,

do not forfeit the freedom of Christ.

Don't forfeit the freedom of Christ.

He begins by saying,

before you came to know the Lord Jesus Christ,

you were in bondage.

You were in chains.

You were enslaved.

It was the bondage of paganism.

And he's saying that not knowing God

isn't actually freedom.

It is slavery.

When you didn't know God,

you weren't slaves.

And that's what they were

in their paganism and their idols.

And then he says,

that changed, didn't it?

You came to the Lord Jesus Christ

and you've had a taste of freedom.

Verse nine,

when you came to know God.

And then he corrects himself.

And he says,

when you came to know God,

or rather,

when you came to be known by God.

He's saying,

you came to know God,

but the fact that you came to know God

was not because of something that you did.

It was not because of an action that you did,

but you were known by God first.

And that is why you came to know God.

That's true, isn't it?

It's always his initiative that comes first.

You came to know God.

And that is freedom and wonderful,

but it is an even more wonderful thing

to be known by God.

It is God's initiative.

You love God because he first loved you.

But he said to the Galatians,

you've known that freedom.

You've known a taste of freedom.

And you've known a genuine,

living relationship with God.

And you are known by him.

But now you are regressing back into bondage.

He says in verses 9 and 10,

how is that?

How is it that you're turning your back

on freedom?

How is it that you're turning back

to the weak and powerless,

elementary principles of the world?

Why is it having a taste of freedom

you want to go back into slavery?

You're observing days and months

and seasons and years.

Why are you going back to bondage?

And so what's going on?

What are these days and months

and seasons and years?

They are days of special celebration

in the Jewish calendar.

Holidays, Jewish religious festivals.

Some of them were Sabbaths,

but then there were months.

Every new month,

there was a new moon festival

at the start of each month.

Seasons would be more prolonged festivals

like perhaps Pentecost

or the Feast of Tabernacles.

Some of the feasts and the years,

the year of Jubilee.

And they were commemorated

throughout the Jewish calendar.

And these teachers who've come to Galatia,

they're invading the church

and they're saying to these new believers,

if you really want to be part of the people of God,

if you really want to belong

and to know God,

you've got to keep the Jewish observances.

Paul is not anti-Jew.

He was one.

He wasn't against observances as such.

As long as they were an expression,

a voluntary expression.

But what he was upset by

was these teachers were saying,

this is essential.

That if you want to be one of the people of God,

you've got to keep these observances.

That they try to impose on the Galatians

as necessary to salvation.

He is saying,

it's not like the paganism you've come from

in one sense,

but it is the same bondage.

It is the same principle

in thinking that outward observance

is what really matters.

It's a form of legalism.

As if by doing,

keeping certain days,

that is going to claim you credit with God.

I wonder how,

whether you realise how barren that is.

I'm John Wesley,

the founder of Methodism,

the kind of great 18th century preacher.

In his early days,

he graduated from Oxford University.

And he and his friends

formed something like a holy club.

Well, that's what it was called.

Wesley was the son of a clergyman.

And John himself was already ordained.

He was quite sound and orthodox in his belief.

He was religious in his practice.

He was upright in his conduct.

He was moral.

He was full,

overflowing of good works.

He and his friends

visited inmates

in the prison and workhouses

around Oxford.

John Wesley took pity

on slum children.

He provided them with food

and clothing and education.

In the holy club,

they not only observed the Sabbath,

but they observed Saturday

as all hell.

They went to church.

They had holy communion.

They gave alms.

They searched the scripture.

They did lots of Bible studies.

They fasted.

They prayed.

But they were enslaved

by the shackles of religion.

And they were trusting

in their religious observances

and their procedures

and not in Jesus Christ alone.

And that is barren.

That is a dead end street.

When you are trusting

in that stuff,

it is barren

and it is a dead end.

Can you see the difference here?

Freedom,

Paul says,

is knowing God

and being known by him.

Bondages,

you observe days

and months

and seasons

and years.

There is a difference.

There is all the world

of difference

between having

a genuine relationship

with God

and keeping

external

religious

observances.

You can carefully

be in church

and keep the days

and keep the seasons

and keep the months

and keep the years

and not know God at all.

25 years ago,

we just got married

and we went

to Northern Ireland

for Christmas.

I was running a youth group

and the youth group

gave me a present

for Christmas

and they said,

don't open it

until you get

to Northern Ireland.

We were getting

the earliest flight

from Newton Airport

a couple of days

before Christmas

and we arrived

at Newton Airport.

It was absolutely rammed,

easy jet,

overbooking flights

and all that,

absolutely packed.

We put our bag

through the security

and the security

alarm went off

and started flashing.

our bag went through.

They took our bag away.

They took it to the side.

He looked at me

and he said,

you've got a gun

in your bag.

I said to him,

I've got a gun

in my bag.

He said,

you've got a gun

in your bag.

Two other men arrived.

The bag is there.

They say,

you've got a gun

in your bag.

I said,

I haven't got a gun

in my bag.

I haven't got a gun.

They opened it up

very, very carefully

and there in the wrapping paper

is a potato gun

from the young people.

I could have killed them.

I could have absolutely killed them.

On the x-ray,

it looked like a real gun.

On the x-ray,

you look at it

and you say,

you've got a gun

in your bag

but it wasn't a proper gun.

It wasn't a real gun.

There was the shape

and there was the form

but there was no reality.

And religious practice,

even tonight,

even coming to church

on the last,

on graveyard Sunday,

Sunday night,

it can look real

but there'd be no reality to it.

And we need to be

very careful as a church.

Do I really know

the freedom

of being known by God?

The reality of a relationship

of really knowing God.

We can say that.

Or am I caught up

in the practice of religion?

Why is it that

formal religiosity,

if I put it like that,

is so attractive to some people?

Well, for one thing,

it's flattering, isn't it?

Because we think to ourselves,

if I can throw myself

into religious observance,

then it probably earns me credit with God.

God will see how much

I'm doing for him.

But I think I can do something

to earn God's favour.

But it's also safe, isn't it?

There are some people out there,

maybe you tonight,

and you are afraid

of the language

of an intimate relationship

with God.

You don't want God

to get too close to you.

And religious observances

and practices

and formal

kind of occasions

provide just the right form

of structured insulation

to keep us away

from meeting

with the living God.

And we have to be careful,

don't we,

and examine ourselves.

Do I know tonight,

at the end of this year,

the freedom of knowing God,

or more accurately

and more wonderfully,

of being known by him?

Or am I merely

practising religion?

Secondly,

Paul appeals to the church,

don't forfeit

the freedom of Christ,

but he says to them,

hold on to the truth of Christ.

That's verses 12 to 16.

He goes back in his memory

and he says,

can't you remember,

don't you remember

how you first received me?

When I came to Galatia,

don't you remember?

The reason I came

was because of

a bodily ailment.

I was unwell.

That's how I preached

the gospel first to you.

What does he mean by that?

What is this bodily ailment?

We don't know.

It was some

physical condition

that he had.

It may well have been

because he was persecuted.

That had bloodied him

and disfigured him.

The Apostle Paul

wasn't an attractive guy at all.

Or it could be

that there's something

physical that he suffers with

that's alluded to

in 2 Corinthians 12

with a thorn in the flesh.

We know that there's

loads of different views

on this.

Did Paul have problems

with his eyes?

Did he have a squint?

There's all sorts of theories

out there.

No one knows.

But Paul says here

in verses 13 and 14

that although my condition

was a trial to you,

you did not scorn me

or despise me.

The word literally there

is you did not spit at me.

There was something

about my physical condition

that was repulsive to you.

But in spite of that,

you received me.

How did they receive him?

As an angel of God.

It's a beautiful description

of a preacher.

As an angel of God,

a messenger of God,

as though I were Christ,

Jesus himself.

And you held on

to the truth of the gospel

that I brought to you

and you were not turned off

and you were not discouraged

because of the package

in which it came.

Because the package

in which the gospel

came to Galatia

was not very attractive,

was it?

And we live in a culture,

don't we,

that values the packaging

more than what's in the package.

Where appearance

really matters.

Where personality

really matters.

You think of

advertising.

You think of the popular people

in our culture.

You think of the social commentators.

It's very rare

there's a bald one,

isn't there?

Bald men get a very,

very hard time

in our culture.

There'll never be another

bald prime minister

or president

because the packaging matters,

doesn't it?

The packaging matters.

The church can begin

to operate that way.

Be very anti-bold men.

There's very few

bald men are asked

to speak at conferences.

I'm kidding, alright?

But we look for the minister,

don't we,

who's omnicompetent,

socially adept,

an executive,

somebody who gives off

positivity.

And if the truth

of the gospel

relies primarily

on personality

and packaging,

well,

oftentimes it would not

be accepted

because Jesus Christ

does not use

smooth operators.

Let me give you,

I've given this

illustration this year

at the lunchtime talk.

I've given it

every other year

on a Sunday

but I don't think

I've given it

this year on a Sunday.

It's the testimony

of Charles Hamilton Spurgeon.

Alright?

I love the story.

He's 15 years old.

Spurgeon says,

I was thinking about

salvation one day.

He was exercised

about his soul.

He realised there was

a God in heaven

he wasn't right with.

And one Sunday morning

he goes to a particular chapel.

He wants to go

to one particular church

and congregation

but it's snowing so hard

that it forced him

to turn down a side street

and go into a primitive

little Methodist chapel.

Spurgeon didn't know

anything about

the primitive Methodists,

he says,

apart from he did

that they sung so loud

it made you a headache.

But he said he didn't care

if only he could learn

how to be saved

and get into the kingdom of God.

He went in there

but the minister

hadn't come that morning

because of the snow.

He was probably snowed in.

It came to the sermon time

and a rather thin looking fellow

who must have been

a shoemaker

or a tailor

made his way to the pulpit

and Spurgeon said

it is well for ministers

to be instructed

and educated

but he said

this man was really stupid.

He said,

he took his text

from Isaiah 45

which says

look unto me

and be saved

all the ends of the earth.

And Spurgeon said

that the man

had to stick to his text

closely

because he didn't have

much else to say.

He said he didn't even

pronounce the words

of the text properly

but he said

that didn't matter

if only I could get

a gleam of hope

from it.

Spurgeon said

he went on

don't take a great deal

of pain to look

even a child can look.

It's not lifting a finger

or a toe

it's just look.

That's all the text says

look unto me.

Jesus Christ

went on and says

look to me.

Look at me sweating

drops of blood

in the garden.

Look at me hanging

on the cross.

Look at me dead

and buried.

Look at me

risen again

and so on.

After ten minutes

Spurgeon said

he came to the end

of his tether

and he had nothing

else to say.

He turned

and looked at

fifteen year old

Spurgeon sitting

under the gallery

and said

young man

you look very miserable

and you will be

very miserable

in life

and miserable in death

unless you obey

the words of my text.

And then Spurgeon said

he lifted his hands

and he yelled

as only a primitive

Methodist could

look to Jesus Christ

young man

look to Jesus Christ

look look.

Spurgeon said

even though the

packaging was

offensive and

repulsive and

not refined at all

I went out of that

primitive Methodist

chapel having

entered the

kingdom of God.

Now come back to

our text.

Paul is saying

hold on to the

truth of Jesus Christ.

There was that time

when the Galatians

in spite of the

packaging

in spite of how

repulsive the

apostle Paul was

received the

gospel.

you nevertheless

received the

truth of it

and now he says

we're in another

situation.

Look at verse 16

it shouldn't be a

question mark there

it should be an

exclamation mark.

So then have I

become your enemy

by telling you the

truth?

What does he mean

by that?

He's saying they've

come now to another

situation

in which I've

conveyed the

truth to you

and the truth

is unattractive

to you.

This time it's not

the packaging so

much it's what he

said.

I brought you a

chastening word.

I brought you a

correcting word, a

rebuking word.

I've rebuked you

for that tendency

to depart and

drift from the

good news of the

Lord Jesus.

And so now you

regard me as your

enemy?

The truth again is

unattractive.

But Galatians

remember how you

originally received

it when there

was nothing to

commend it as

far as beauty or

attraction or

glitz.

Am I your

enemy?

Am I your

enemy because I

put you under the

criticism of the

word of God?

He's saying hold

on to the truth of

Jesus Christ even

when it criticises

you.

And that's a

great challenge

to us, isn't

it?

Do we hold on to

the truth of

Christ, the word

of God, even

when that word

rebukes you or

criticises you or

corrects you?

Are we willing to

receive that?

Are we willing to

receive the word of

Christ when it

comes to us in an

unattractive form?

When it doesn't

comfort but it

corrects?

When it wounds and

when it bruises, do

we still receive it as

Christ's truth?

Proverbs 27, 6

famously says,

doesn't it?

Faithful are the

wounds of a

friend.

And so for us as a

church family, do we

hold on to the truth

of Christ even when

it corrects us?

When it cuts us?

When it pulls us up

short?

Do you submit to it?

Thirdly, there's

something else that

you must do and

this is what's

helped me this week

is you must evaluate

the servants of

Christ.

That's verses 17, 20.

You must evaluate the

servants of Christ.

You've heard this

before.

The pastor, the

vicar, the minister,

whatever we call him,

it's still a tough

job.

If he visits the

flock, he's nosy.

If he doesn't, he's

a snob.

If he preaches

longer than 10

minutes, it's too

long.

If he preaches

less than 10

minutes, then he

can't have prepared

his sermons and

what are we paying

for?

If he runs a

car, he's

worldly.

If he doesn't, he's

always late for

appointments.

If he tells a joke,

he's flippant.

If he doesn't, he's

far too serious.

If he starts the

service on time, his

watch must be fast.

If he's a minute

late, he's keeping

the congregation

waiting.

If he takes a

holiday, he's never

in the parish.

If he doesn't, he's

a stick in the mud.

If he runs a gala

or a bazaar, he's

money mad.

If he doesn't, there's

no social life in the

parish.

If he has the

church painted and

redecorated, he's

extravagant.

And if he doesn't,

the church is

shabby.

If he's young, he's

inexperienced.

If he's getting old, he

ought to retire.

But when he dies, there's

no one like him.

Well, Paul speaks

about himself here, and

he speaks about the

difficulties of

ministry.

And he contrasts

himself with these

false teachers.

And I find this very,

very helpful.

Look what he says in

verses 17 and 18.

He says, they make

much of you.

And they zealously

seek you.

Not out of a good

motive.

Why do they make

much of you?

Why do they make a

fuss of you?

Why do they seek you

in order to shut you

off and shut you

out?

And that's what they

want to do.

They want to shut you

out from me, says the

Apostle Paul.

They want to shut you

out in order that you

might zealously seek

them.

So verse 17, evaluate

these teachers.

Evaluate those who

come to you.

Evaluate those people

who aren't seeking you

out of a proper

motive.

But they're seeking

you that you would be

zealous after them.

And their ministry.

And they are seeking

you for their own

reputation.

And for their own

ego.

And they are seeking

your loyalty.

And I think this is

something really, really

subtle.

And it can happen in

churches like ours.

And we can fall for it

so easily.

And it happens in our

constituency, if that's

the right word.

that we can be made

to feel special

by Christian leaders.

C.S. Lewis has got

this beautiful article

about the inner ring.

And all of us want

to be made to feel

special.

To be made as if

we're one of the

favourites.

And in doing so,

what happens when

Christian leaders do

that is they are

demanding loyalty.

And Paul says,

in contrast,

he says,

let me show you,

in contrast,

the heart of a

genuine apostle.

And so in our

constituency,

in churches like us,

how's it been done?

It's been done on

special trips.

It's been done by

giving cards.

It's been done by

lots of things where

people are made to

feel,

I'm in.

I'm in with the

minister.

But Paul says,

let me show you

the heart of a

genuine apostle.

And it's as if he

rips open.

He throws up his

hands and he

pleads for them.

And look what it

says.

It's an incredible

thing.

It says,

my little children,

for whom I'm

again in the

anguish of

childbirth until

Christ is formed

in you.

That's what we're

about.

That's what he's

saying.

And so you

want to know if

you're a genuine

servant of Christ

or not,

or whether you

yourself are

genuine.

Then you ask in

the case of a

minister, for

instance, Calvin

says this,

if ministers

wish to do

anything, let

them labour to

form Christ,

not to form

themselves in

their hearers.

themselves.

It's a remarkable

phrase.

Let them labour

to form Christ,

not to form

themselves in

their hearers.

So the

apostle Paul,

he's not

content that

Christ should

just dwell in

their hearts.

That's a

wonderful truth.

That Christ

dwells in their

hearts by faith.

That is a

glorious truth.

But he's not

content with

that.

He wants to

see Christ

formed in

them.

He wants

to see Christ

formed in

his hearers so

that they take

on maturity

and wisdom

and his

likeness.

He wants

them to be

growing into

the shape of

Jesus Christ

and the

character of

Christ.

And he

says, I

have birth

pains over

that.

Until Christ

is formed

in you.

And that is

the motive

that must

dominate

Christ's

servants.

I think

many of

you here

know that.

If you

are a

Christian

parent here

tonight,

you know

what it's

like to

have birth

pains.

If you're a

Christian

parent or you

grew up in a

Christian home

and you had

Christian

parents,

let me tell

you, in

your home

your parents

had birth

pains.

All over

again, for

those you

love.

Isn't it

true that

there are

Christian

parents who

in one

sense, they

felt this,

they feel the

agony of it,

they feel the

birth pains.

We pray, like

we prayed

earlier, the

sex petition of

the Lord's

Prayer of the

Heidelberg

Catechism for

our children,

don't we?

We pray, lead

them not into

temptation, but

deliver them

from the evil

one.

And isn't

it true that

some of you

tonight, you

know, tonight

even, those

birth pains, that

you long for

Christ to be

formed in

them.

That they

would walk in

His wisdom and

in His maturity

and they'd show

His likeness.

And surely that

should be our

desire as a

church, isn't

it?

As individual

believers within

the church, what

are we aiming

at?

What are we

driving at?

What do we

want you

children and

young people to

grow up like?

that Christ

would be

formed in

you, and

me and

others?

And so as we

finish the

year, Galatians

I think for

us, some

really pointed

questions at

the end of

the year.

It asks you

tonight, do

you genuinely

know God?

Or are you

merely

practicing

religion?

them?

And then

secondly, Galatians

4 asks us,

when the

word of God

brings criticism

to you, which

it inevitably

does, do I

turn away from

it?

If you're like

me, you tend to

really welcome the

comfort of

scripture, but

refuse its

criticism.

baptism.

And can you

say that the

supreme yearning

of your own

life is that

Christ be

formed in

you?

Because that

was the

apostolic

priority.

Because the

Holy Spirit and

the Apostle and

his word and

his appeal leap

over the

centuries,

tonight,

shortly, to

the end of

2025.

And they

investigate our

hearts, that

Christ may be

formed in us.

Let's pray.