Coming Back to the Truth

Transcript

GR 2100
10/22/2017
Coming Back to the Truth
Galatians 4:12-16
Gil Rugh

We are going to the book of Galatians in your Bibles, Paul’s letter to the churches in the region of Galatia. A rich book and as we noted when we began, sometimes it is viewed as a rough outline of the book of Romans as we find much of the subjects that are covered in the book of Romans dealt with here in a more brief way.

Galatians is a very doctrinal book and it is about the Gospel. So it doesn’t get any more important than that. Paul started with a very strong statement on the truth of the Gospel, the facts of the Gospel and the unchanging nature of the Gospel. In chapter 1 you remember, sort of an abrupt way for a letter to begin. There is no real introduction, greetings, comments of encouragement like you have in some of his letters that he even to the Corinthians writes about things he has heard and their growth and that all the gifts that they need for their maturity are there even though it’s a letter that has to deal with a lot of problems. But with the situation in the church at Galatia you can tell weighs upon Paul and so in chapter 1, verse 6 he launched right in: “I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different Gospel.” I mean we are right away attacking. Some would say, “I don’t even know what to say. What do you say when you call people deserters from Christ and the grace of the Gospel that is preached about Him?” It is to get their attention. This is serious, serious business.

Now these are churches that he established, people that he ministered to and now he has to confront them with such boldness. And he said in verse 10: “For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God or striving to please men. If I were still trying to please men I would not be a slave of Christ.” For Paul there is no middle ground. I can’t be a man pleaser and also be a faithful servant of Christ who is pleasing to him. So there is no other Gospel. There is no room for discussion or debate on this in that sense; so the concern of the doctrinal situation at Corinth in very real.

In chapter 2, verse 4 he says: “It was because of the false brethren secretly brought in who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage.” That is why he had to go up to Jerusalem to resolve this issue.

You know there is something about the error that the devil infiltrates among the church that it gets ahold and spreads. It is hard work to stay faithful to the truth, to maintain purity of doctrine. It seems when error comes in it just makes its way and has its impact and Paul cuts no slack here in verse 4 when he says, “They were false brethren secretly brought in. They sneaked in to spy out our liberty to turn us back from the Gospel of grace to some kind of Gospel of Law. We didn’t yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the Gospel would remain with you.”

What would there be for the church if Paul had decided we could compromise on this. We will probably reach more people if we are not too narrow. “We did this for your benefit” Paul tells the Galatian people “that the truth of the Gospel might remain with you.”

You know this is not just what we might call doctrinal. It is personal with Paul because doctrine is personal to him and this is intertwined but he has a personal relationship with the Galatians. He truly loves them. He is concerned for them. He is personally hurt by the fact that this has become an issue in the churches. So it is out of that kind of emotional situation that he now addresses them in chapter 4 and in chapter 4 verses 12-20 it is more an expression of his love for them, the relationship we have, not separated from the doctrine but in the truth.

John talks about our love “in the truth.” And that is what binds us together. When our love would be just some emotional feeling pretty soon we get fractured. It holds us together. It is not just an emotional feeling but the emotions we have for one another to come out of our being bound together in the truth and it is the truth of the Gospel that has established us in that binding relationship together in our God.

So he moves to something we would call more personal, more emotional. He is going to say in verse 12: “I beg of you, brethren.” Then he will conclude down in verse 20 “I am perplexed about you.” So the doctrinal truth is bound with that personal relationship he has with them. You know what that is like, the relationship you would have with a fellow believer and you see that fellow believer drifting away from the truth. You are concerned for them and the doctrinal truth but it is a personal issue too. We have a relationship together. You just don’t write this off, consider it nothing. No Paul here, this is not well, you know I have a lot on my plate, a lot of people I deal with in a lot of places. If you wander off that is up to you. It is more personal than that. There is more than Paul involved in this. The doctrine is just not some list of truth here. It is something that grips our hearts and binds our hearts together, not just our minds in that distinction. So he is concerned about their relationship together.

You understand that where you are going is a statement about your love for me and your relationship with me and the relationship that we have together. A relationship won’t supersede the doctrine but Paul has the love for them and he is dealing with them as believers. He is frustrated. He expressed in verse 11: “I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.” We have jumped ahead and looked in chapter 5, verse 4. He will warn them about cutting themselves off from Christ. In all of this there is that personal attachment that he is not willing to let go, what we would expect.

So we move into that personal section when he says, “I beg of you brethren become as I am.” There is a little different structure in this than we have in our English Bibles. Sometimes in Greek you know you could rearrange the wording because you have different endings and so on that enable you to know the order of the words. We have that in other languages besides Greek but I mean in Greek you can put things where you want to put the emphasis and in verse 12 the first word is a verb given in an imperative mood, a command and incidentally this is the first imperative command Paul gives in the book of Galatians. Interestingly as firm as this letter has been to this point this is the first command given.

So it starts out, “Become as I am.” He says in verse 11: “My fear for you perhaps I have labored over you in vain. Become as I am.” And that is the command, present imperative. “For I also have become as you are.” So that is his command and then he will follow that up with “brethren, I beg of you,” but the command is first. You must become as I am and I have become as you are. Now in other places Paul says that “I want you to be imitators of me as I am of Christ.” But there is a different emphasis here. Paul says “Become as I am for I also have become as you are.” What is he saying? Well Paul, as a Jew, in affect had to become like a non-Jew because as he said back in chapter 2, verse 15. “We are Jews by nature and not sinners from among the Gentiles.”

Remember the Galatian churches are primarily Gentiles. This is the Gentile part of the world but we were Jews by nature. Not sinners from the Gentiles so you know the Jews generally thought the Gentiles did need to be saved. They were sinners. They were lost. They had to convert to Judaism, get circumcised and become submissive to the Law if they were going to be saved. Paul said that couldn’t save you. That has been his argument.

So what did he as a Jew do? “We are Jews by nature not sinners among the Gentiles. Nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified, declared righteous by God by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus even we,” (we Jews from verse 15, we) “Jews by nature. We couldn’t be justified before God by the Law,” by keeping the Law. “Even we Jews have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the Law. Since be works of the Law no flesh will be justified.”

Paul says what I tell you Galatians, you don’t want to be under the Law. I am exhorting you become as I am. I was a Jew raised under the Law. I lived under the Law. I was a Pharisee, a meticulous keeper of the Law. Even we who are Jews had to abandon our trust in the Law as a way of righteousness because “by the works of the Law no flesh can be justified,” never could be justified. Remember he has already dealt with that in chapter 3 using Abraham 500 years before the Mosaic Law, justified by faith.

So he is really exhorting them in chapter 4, verse 12. “Become as I am.” Really the Law is a non-issue in my salvation even though I am a Jew. It never could save me and to be saved I had to abandon that reliance upon the Law and my good works and place my faith in Christ. Now I am telling you Gentiles, “Become like me.” I am a Jew but my dependence is not on the Law. Why would you as a Gentile put yourself under the Law? You won’t be like me any longer. In effect we have cut off relationships because you have chosen a totally different way of salvation. That’s why when we get into chapter 5 he will say, “You have cut yourself off from Christ and grace is a way of salvation. You have become one committed to a works way of salvation.”

So his first command in the book, “Become as I am and I have become as you are. I am just like a Gentile who never had the Law because when it comes to salvation the Law is a non-issue. It never could save you. It can’t save you to this day,” Paul is saying. So we should be like each other. Our faith is in Christ alone. That is what we just read back in chapter 2. “Even we Jews have believed in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith.” So become like me, a Jew who has his faith in Christ. It is not under the Mosaic Law. So I have become like you, just like I never had the law.

Now as the Jews, the Law had a place during the time when God was dealing with the nation but it wasn’t to provide salvation for them. We have looked at the reasons for the Law and as a governor, a pedago to help keep Israel on the track in preparation for the coming Messiah but never as a way of salvation and when the Jews made it a way of salvation we referred to Isaiah 1, God said, “Stop bringing your sacrifices to Me. It is a trampling of My courts. It is a sacrilege. It is a mockery because you don’t come with faith in Me and a trust in Me and manifest that in your obedience.” Obedience always needs to be a manifestation of the relationship we have but it does not weigh into the relationship. It is a matter of honoring Him.

So “Become as I am, I have become as you are” is the point. “I beg of you brethren,” and he softens this. He gives this command and then he calls them ‘brethren,’ the adelphos, the brethren. With all he is saying, he really believed they have trusted Christ and they are being confused but if this confusion continues and grows then it will call into question the reality of their salvation. He just alluded to that in verse 11. He warned them of the danger in chapter 5. “You are going to have to settle where you really are and what you’re really trusting for your salvation.” We can understand that. You are dealing with someone as you have known them for some time. You have been involved in their life and you are sure they are a believer but you see the drift and you share your concern. You share your love for them but sometimes you have to say, “You know, if this persists and you continue on that road it raises serious questions whether you were ever really saved, whether you really understood the Gospel of grace.

I have shared with you one very prominent, evangelical Christian who was head of a Christian organization, saved out of Roman Catholicism. After a number of years resigned all his positions in evangelicalism and returned to Catholicism. One of the men who dealt with him said, “It grieves me but it has become increasingly clear, he never did understand and believe the true Gospel of grace.” That is where this comes to. That is what Paul is looking at here.

So “Brethren,” he is still addressing them as believers. “I beg of you.” I mean it is like your kids. They are your family and you don’t want to cut them off. This is family. You know the first thing is not to get rid of them. Your heart is in this. “I beg of you.” So it softens the appeal. I view you as brethren. I am pleading with you. You have done me no wrong. So Paul puts this, this hurts personally, but he is not attacking the Galatians and they treated him very kindly when he was there. That is where he is going. You have done me no wrong. He said what would be normally the past tense here, when he was with them and that is where he is going to go. It takes them back to his ministry with the Galatians and that is what he wants to do – draw them back. Let’s just go back to where you started, where our relationship began. Not that it depends on the personal relationship but the personal relationship was established through the ministry of the truth and back there in the beginning you didn’t do me any wrong. You showed kindness and love to me and it was in that context of obviously God working in their heart and their receptiveness to the Gospel that their relationship began and developed.

“You have done me no wrong.” I take it that goes back to his beginning relationship as he is going to do with verse 13. “But you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the Gospel to you the first time.” So he goes back to the beginning of their relationship when he came into the regions of Galatia and when he shared the Gospel with them. Evidently there was some kind of physical problem that brought Paul into Galatia. Now part of the difficulty we have in resolving this is in Acts chapter 13 and 14 during Paul’s first missionary journey when he established the churches in Galatia, brought the Gospel there. Luke says nothing about physical problems, interestingly, since Luke is a physician but he mentions nothing there. Paul doesn’t give any details that would enable us to know for sure.

If you would put the map up just to remind you of where we are and what we are doing here on the map. The blue, starting here is
where Paul takes off from Antioch, Jerusalem is down south here off the map you remember so we are in Antioch here to the north. He takes off and he comes over to the Island of Cyprus. Has a ministry there and then he is going to leave from there and come up to Pamphylia and then he is going to come from Pamphylia up into Galatia.

Why don’t you come back to Acts 13, just quickly to see one of the possibilities of what some have suggested? In Acts chapter 13 it started out they were in Antioch and then they are commissioned. Barnabas and Paul and a young man named John or John Mark accompanies them and he is traveling with them. They carry the Gospel. So they have carried the Gospel to the Island of Cyprus. Now they travel by ship and they come up into the region called Pamphylia and they are going to journey from here, the region you have, Perga in Pamphylia and they are going to come up and you can see this is the region of Galatia and the churches he is writing to, ones he has established. This is another Antioch. You note he left from Antioch. This is Antioch in Syria and this is Antioch in Pisidia so you distinguish the two Antioch’s and then you see Lystra, Iconium and Derbe along here. These are Galatian churches that he established. So these are the churches he is writing to. This is the region as you have it here, Galatia. This is Southern Galatia and as we noted earlier in our study, this is the region that Paul was ministering in.

One of the suggestions for his problem, his physical bodily illness, one writer writes that he may have come because this region was a low lying region. At this time it was a place where a very severe form of Malaria could be prevalent. So one suggestion was that Paul in this low region developed Malaria and it was where Malaria could be a reoccurring affliction and that caused him to leave and travel to higher region crossing the mountains here than to a more elevated region to get relief. That is just a possibility. When they say he leaves this low lying coastal region, this is 3600 feet above sea level. So he has come up some region.

Here is what one wrote: “Pamphylia and the coastal plain were districts where Malaria fever raged. It is more than probably that Paul contracted this Malaria and his only remedy was to seek the highlands of Galatia. This Malaria recurs and it is accompanied by a prostrating headache which those who have experienced it liken it to a red hot bar thrust through the forehead or a dentist drill boring through the temple.” That is what that commentator says.

You know today as you get these kinds of afflictions, it can be very unpleasant. You know you don’t have sanitary things with the vomiting, the diarrhea and everything that comes, Paul is somewhat incapacitated. That may account for why John Mark decides it is time to go home. Before they leave Perga down in verse 13 of Acts 13: “Now Paul and his companions put out to sea from Paphos and came to Perga in Pamphylia; and John left them and returned to Jerusalem.” But they went on from Perga and that’s when they come up to Pisidia and Antioch.

So it may have been difficult. He has experienced something of the success and the trials in Cyprus traveling with Paul and Barnabas. Now you arrive here and you’ve got Paul becoming something of a basket case physically and whatever it is it is the unpleasant symptoms that makes him something, somewhat undesirable to be around. That is where Paul is going in Galatians, “They overlooked this.”

So this wasn’t just he had a headache and he didn’t feel well. Whatever he is suffering has its physical manifestations and in such a way it is, some people would prefer not and coupled with the difficulties of the travel, the opposition you experience and knows is going to come, John Mark decides he is going home. So he returns back to Antioch and the area. He is going home. For that when they prepare to go on the next journey and Barnabas wants to take John Mark who is a relative you remember Paul says, “No.” So he and Barnabas went. They have a strong disagreement. Who’s right, who’s wrong? Barnabas has a good ministry. John Mark is salvaged and Paul has a good ministry and takes a new traveling companion and from Paul’s standpoint you know he is, I don’t want to say a hard liner, but we are going into difficult territory. I can’t have people who can’t be trusted to endure with me. You are going in carrying the Gospel. There is going to be a lot of opposition. I have to have somebody who will stand with me through the opposition and Barnabas, God gives him the kind of ministry and before it is all done Paul will want John Mark to come and join him because he is profitable for ministry; so all of that there. Whether he had malaria there it is a guess.

Come back to Galatians. What we do know is he had a physical affliction. It was something that made him undesirable. Look in Galatians chapter 4, verse 14: “And that which was a trial to you,” a testing, a temptation to you “in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe.” And you will note in your margin that worth ‘loathe’ and loathe is a good translation. It literally means to spit out. Whatever was afflicting him created the kind of manifestations that this is a person you just don’t want to be around. There are bodily things now and you appreciate the people who work in the medical realm who work with these people but it is rather repulsive and in this day when you didn’t have the sanitary conditions and the things that could help Paul says, “that’s my condition and this bodily condition because of the temptation you could have just,” Here he comes into town and he is a stranger and he is bringing a strange religious message that is not anything they have heard. There is reason to do it, but you didn’t despise me, you didn’t loathe me. “You received me an as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus Himself.” I mean the Spirit of God had prepared them.

Before we leave this, come back to 2 Corinthians, the end of 2 Corinthians chapter 12. Paul is talking about all that God had revealed to him but Paul was a man and he was susceptible to things like pride. Since he was going to be used in a special and exceptional way by God and be an instrument of special revelation make sure Paul didn’t take any credit for himself because verse 7 says of 2 Corinthians 12: “Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations” that God gave to him, including being taken to heaven and we looked at that in a previous study “whether in the body or out of the body I do not know” but “because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations,” truths that had not been revealed to anyone else. “To keep me from exalting myself there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself” and some connect this to the bodily affliction that naturally kept Paul from presenting himself as something exceptional when you are reduced to this kind of bodily state whether you are somewhat repulsive to people and obviously you are not such a great person. Here you are a basket case and someone that is really rather revolting. That is humbling.

Whether that is it, we are not told but it was an ongoing affliction like some connected to Malaria which could be reoccurring. Again it is speculation and for God’s purposes He doesn’t make it known perhaps so we can all reminded that these kinds of afflictions, weaknesses, difficulties, personal problems aren’t an obstacle or a hindrance to Him using us to accomplish what He wants to accomplish through us; a good reminder for all of us.

What was it? I don’t know but a reminder those kinds of things aren’t a hindrance to keep us from being used by God. Who was used greater than Paul in the ministry? But it wasn’t because of his physical strength that dynamic attractive appearance that people are just drawn to. It was just the opposite and a reminder. The power was in the message that he preached, not in the messenger giving the message.

So come back to Galatians chapter 4. So “that which was a trial” (verse 14) “to you in my bodily condition,” a condition of my flesh, my physical state, “you didn’t despise or loathe. You received me as an angel of God,” as God’s messenger, as one who had come from God to you like an angel would come. I am not saying they thought he was a true angel. Obviously his physical condition would reflect something of his true physical makeup but they accepted him as God’s messenger.

You see what the Spirit of God is working and using the message. It impacts them and they are prepared by God’s grace to receive it and to welcome him. “You received me as Christ Jesus Himself.”

Now Paul is not elevating himself here. You understand. What did Jesus say several times? We will just go to one. Let’s go to John 13. This is the third time. In Matthew, in Luke and in John, the same thing is said. John chapter 13, look at verse 20: “Truly, truly I say to you, he who receives whomever I send receives Me.” That is what Paul is saying, “You receive me as Christ” because in receiving the message I bring to you, you are receiving the One who gave me the message, Christ. “And he who receives me receives Him who sent me.” There is an unbroken line from the Father through the Son to the messenger, to the person who receives the message. So that is what Paul is saying here. Again the same thing was stated in Matthew 10:40 and in Luke 10:16.

Come back to Galatians. He said, “You received me as an angel of God, as one sent to you from God.” This is no different than if Christ was here presenting the truth to you and that is the point. That’s what happens. When you share the Gospel with them it’s the Word of God that you have received when you placed your faith in Christ. “No different” Christ said than if He personally was there telling them that message. It would be the same message, wouldn’t it? So you tell them the same thing Christ would tell them if He were standing there. Now that is not to elevate us but it is to remind us that all the honor goes to God and it is His truth that accomplishes it.

You know we live in a day and the church gets absorbed in this. The external things become what is important. One of you passed on some material about a church and they have been among the most successful in the world in our day and they talk about that they had this plan and in a number of years they decided those methods and that way of approaching ministry were going out of style so they changed what their emphasis would be and now they are going through another change. They are noted for bringing in well-known leaders in the business world and experts and management and so on and doing seminars and you know you don’t know whether you are running a secular business or a church. What are we leading? That is the way the world does and we see businesses come and go and we see businesses now that one day, time in the past they were among the most successful and they have sort of declined and other businesses have come in. Now those businesses are making adjustments because new ideas come and the church gets caught up in this, church growth methods.

Many years ago when I was studying and reading in that realm and was told by one of the leaders, “These methods will work whatever your theology.” In other words we can build a church. We don’t need the Holy Spirit. Just use these methods. No blinking of the eye. These will work.

I had some leaders of a major denomination that used the laws and a mixture and they want me to come and speak to them on church growth and how our church grows. They came and sat in a Sunday morning service and then met in my office with me. “We want you to come and tell us how to grow a church.” I say, “You know, we have a major problem. I will come and address those 700 ministers but I want you to know I want to be honest. I am going to tell them what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is and this is the only way to have Christ build His church whether it results in large numbers or small numbers.” “Oh, couldn’t you come and just talk about the methods?” Well the message is the method, not external things. The message is the method. Preach the Word, teach the Word. The church is the pillar and support of the truth. Somehow we lose that and “oh yes, we believe the Bible but we also realize this is what people are looking for today. So it is important that we have more story telling preaching because people are into stories.

I understand. They are not into the Word. Unless God in His grace is working in a life, we are not interested in the Word. The unbeliever has no interest in the things of God. We know that but God in His grace breaks through.

That is what happened in the region of Galatia. God had prepared their rebellious unbelieving hearts to be receptive to the message of the truth. When this man who is a basket case physically comes to town and is somewhat revolting in the physical affliction he is experiencing and whatever that involved they were responding to the truth. What was the power? Well what did Paul tell the Romans? “I can’t wait to come to Rome. I’ve got some new methods that you can employ.” No. I want to come and what? Share the Gospel with you for “it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.” That is where God’s power is. Not in the messenger, in the message the messenger brings. So Paul takes them back to that. My physical condition was pretty weak, pretty poor. You know this may have been Paul’s normal state.

You are in 2 Corinthians, come back to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. I thought I ought to emphasize this since I’m looking out here and you all look pretty pathetic. We are average, normal people but in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 10 what did Paul say people who went around after him said, “They say his letters are weighty and strong but his personal presence is unimpressive. His speech is contemptible.” Even when Paul was feeling well, physically he wasn’t very impressive. I wonder if the word went out that the Apostle Paul was coming to preach some Sunday would everybody be packing in? We are going to get to hear Paul. Then what do you get? You get this little Jewish guy come up and stand. He wasn’t all that good in talking. Didn’t have an eloquence and power about him like that. He just sort of gave out the message. What did you think? “Yes, I guess he was all right.” But when the Spirit is using the Word and the Word impacts a life that goes away. So you see. What happens when there is distance put there? People begin to get it. It is the message that matters. Then they begin to think about the external things.

You know I never did like the way he did this. I never did like the way they did that and this is what has happened to the Galatians. Well yes, I think back, there were things about Paul and maybe his message wasn’t complete. Then from the Corinthians, well, yes maybe, I have to say I have heard better preachers. I have heard better speakers. You know he wasn’t anything particularly dynamic in his presence and these kinds of things with the passing of time the Galatians are losing their grasp on what matters, the message.

Come back to Galatians 4. You remember Paul had to tell the Corinthians when he started his letter, “God was well pleased” in I Corinthians chapter 1, verse 21, “God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached.” The foolishness of the message preached is not foolishness from God’s perspective. The world’s foolishness is God’s wisdom. They look at it as foolishness. “The foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.” “The Greeks want wisdom, the Jews want miracles.” “We preach Christ crucified.” That is what Paul does.

So Galatians chapter 4, verse 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.” And this comes to some people to think, well this is some sort of eye disease. Obviously it could be a combination. Some of these physical afflictions you get the running eyes. It could have been some kind of affliction with the eyes. Some commentators say this was a form of expression like we would use – they would give me the clothes off their back to show that there was no limit to what they would do for him and that’s true, whether it is indicative of some kind of eye affliction that is a possibility. Like I say, God does not give us specifics. And I think one of the reasons is so that we can identify with it. In our weaknesses and our own frailties we can appreciate. That doesn’t mean I am less useable. God has put me in this condition because this is how He wants to use me. I sometimes fight against it and use it as an excuse. Well you know, that’s why I can’t be, well why not? Has God failed? No.

So whether it was an eye affliction all I want to say is they had such a sense of blessing in having received the truth and its impact on them. And that word ‘blessing’ carrying the idea of salvation blessings, the riches of the salvation blessing. That impacted their heart and they overlooked everything else. The wonder of what God had done. What happened? What has gone on? Where is that sense of blessing you had? I testify you would have done whatever you could do to help me. You were so overwhelmed with the joy of your salvation.

Come back to Romans 4, that word ‘blessing.’ Romans chapter 4, verse 6 where David speaks of the blessing on the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works; similar idea that we are having in Galatians. “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account,” this blessing on the circumcised or the uncircumcised. “Now faith was credited to Abraham as righteousness.” It is the same idea but it is the blessings of salvation. Why have you let that go?

You know we forget and then we begin to drift. Where are the blessings that were so rich to you, you were so appreciative of me bringing you the message of salvation? You would have done whatever necessary, give me your eyes. Whether it was a physical affliction of the eyes or it is an expression that tells you something of what they would do for him and yet verse 16: “So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” Somehow there is a shifting of loyalties as one person put it.

Paul didn’t make adjustments in the message. So the message is the same but somehow now their attitude toward Paul is changing. What has happened? The blessings of the message that I brought you gave you a deep love for me. You know what has happened? They are being lured away from the beauty and sufficiency of the message of the Gospel Paul preached and that has weakened their attachment to him. So now they are going to be drawn over to the enemy who is corrupting the Gospel that Paul preached and so they have to take a stand against Paul.

So you can see the emotion that there is here, the attachment that there is here. “Brethren, I beg of you.” There is that because when you turn away from the message that I preach you are turning against the message that I preach because there is no middle ground. That is how he started out chapter 1 “and so now I must become your enemy because I tell you the truth.” What is he telling them? When you begin to identify with the enemy of the truth and then you view me as an enemy because I tell you the truth. What is the problem here? Some dear people and I still keep the momentum that they made for me to encourage me. That is identified with Paul, to stand with Paul alone. You know what the sad thing is? One day those people left. They had decided that and it had to do with similar kind of thing. We don’t have the complete message and I hadn’t been preaching it after all. So we could no longer go together because they had attached themselves to a different gospel. So I wasn’t preaching the true Gospel anymore. They had identified the truth to something different. It happens. It goes down. Paul is concerned. It hurts.

You know what it is like. It hurts to have people leave. I am not talking about people you leave. If the Lord wants them in another ministry to be used over there, great. But don’t lose our focus on the truth.

You know for the first ten years at Indian Hills I can go back to the beginning. We didn’t have anybody leave for any reason. By God’s grace nobody got transferred. Nobody left. That’s why we just continued to grow and grow and grow because hundreds of people were getting saved and being baptized and nobody was leaving. We went through four building programs in the 1970’s and nobody left. You say, what were they thinking? Everybody was so excited about the truth that other things didn’t matter. Well do you agree with that building or not, it doesn’t matter. I mean this is exciting and this is what Paul is taking them back. Let’s go back to the truth and the focus on the truth.

A couple of summary points and we wrap it up. Number one – most importantly, the terms of salvation are the same for everyone. That came from verse 12. “Brethren become as I am. I have become as you are.” That is the same thing as he mentioned. We talk about salvation in chapter 3, verse 28: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. You are all one in Christ so that is what he is saying. “Become like me. I am a Jew whose become like a Gentile. I have no dependence on the Law, no trust in the Law, my faith is in Christ. I have become like you as a Gentile. One not bound to the Law in any way. You need to become like me, not get drawn into like I was.” The terms of the Gospel from salvation is the same for everyone.

Secondly – I tend to be laboring this. The Gospel, not the messenger is the power of God for salvation. That is in verse 13. It didn’t matter that Paul had bodily illness. It doesn’t matter how dynamic you are. None of that matters. The world looks for that personal magnetism and that ability to – we present a message of truth and then the Spirit has to take that and impress it upon a heart. The power is in the message, not the messenger. The power is in the message, not some kind of altering methods we use. For me the message is the method. When you change the method, you change the content because we have a message to bring. Well yes, the method is in that. What do you mean? We tell the truth. That is the method. We teach the truth. That is the method. We preach the truth. That is the method. We tell the Gospel. That is the method. What is this that is seductive? We don’t change the message, we change the methods.

When you stop and think about it, how do you do that? We have to teach the truth; how can we change the method? I am not telling anything about whether you use a screen or don’t use the screen; whether you write notes or don’t write notes but what we have to do is teach the truth, preach the truth and it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter what your appearance. It doesn’t matter whether you have a physical affliction, if you are on your back on a bed in the hospital you can share the truth, present the Gospel. You may be in a weakened physical condition. It doesn’t depend on that. It depends on the power of the Gospel.

Third and connected to that, God uses our trials for His purposes, verse 13. “It was because of bodily illness I preached the Gospel to you the first time.” We look at it and say, “Boy, that just hit the wrong time. Lord here I am on this trip to carry the Gospel to a new area and now man, I am a mess. I am physically done in. Nobody would want to be around me. Even John Mark bails and you want me to go into a new area. People aren’t going to be attracted.

You know, God is in charge. He used the bodily illness in His own way. It wasn’t a detriment at all. God is at work. So Paul said what could have been repulsive to them and make you want to spit me out, you didn’t even see because of the blessings of the message.

So don’t get discouraged by your trials. God is in charge of those. We know they are. We tell everybody that we minister they are and then when it hits me, “Lord, what’s wrong. I could be so effective for You if.” As if the Lord doesn’t know how I could be effective for Him.

Like Paul beseeching the Lord three times in 2 Corinthians 12 to remove this messenger of Satan that was allowed to buffet him and make his life difficult. But Paul doesn’t seem to understand. What he ended up then, “I praise God for my weaknesses because when I am weak then am I strong” and Paul came to realize when I was so sick and repulsive at Galatia I was used mightily of God, there are Galatian churches. So he says, “I have come to accept weaknesses as an opportunity for God’s strength to be used.”

Number four and that ties to that human weakness is not a hindrance to the Gospel. It is the Gospel which is the power of God. People aren’t saved, is not because I am physically weak or I don’t have a good job or I am not that influential person. It is probably because I don’t tell them the Gospel. The Gospel is the power of God for salvation. How can they believe in someone they have not heard about? So human weakness is not a hindrance to the Gospel.

Number five – remember the early days of your salvation. That is good for us all. Let’s go back to the beginning. Remember the early days of blessing, the truth that we received, the riches of the Word as it filled our hearts and minds. That’s what he does with the Galatians. Remember the days when I brought the Gospel to you, the excitement about the truth, the thrill of the Word of God, the blessings of God’s salvation. You know everything else just was faded in the background. It is good to go back and remember those days for all of us. The longer we are saved the more we can get somewhat scatterbrained spiritually. Sometime just sit and reflect back on what God has done when I came to know the Lord and the riches of the Word in my life. It is good for me to reflect back. We get entangled in today’s problems and go back and say, “The Word is rich, so alive. I want to have that thrill and passion for the Word that I had in the early days.” That is what God used, the Word.

And number six – don’t be selective in your response to the truth. Be careful about being selective in your response to the truth. “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?” and we allow error to come in. You know we have to hold on to the truth as the truth. And Paul didn’t preach part of the truth. He preached the whole truth and then as he talks about his ministry he says, “My hands are freed from the blood of all men because I taught you the whole council of God.”

And we want to be faithful to the truth. I don’t want to become someone’s enemy because I teach them the truth. If someone is upset with me I want to know what truth am I not teaching? If I altered the truth, if I change the truth we don’t want to be selective in the truth. You hear people say, “Well, I know what he said was true, but…” That’s what the Judaizers said, “Paul taught the truth. He just didn’t teach the whole truth. He wasn’t faithful to the truth.” Wait a minute. Let’s get a hold on the truth. Don’t get selective with the truth.

Let’s pray together. Thank You Lord for Your Word. Thank You for the faithfulness of Paul. Lord, how encouraged and blessed we are so many years later to read of his life, his difficulties, his trials. We want to be careful. it is easy for us to be observers of Paul’s sufferings and yet Lord we are reminded the difficulties, the trials, they were all part of Your plan and his effectiveness was because in all of that he was faithful with the truth, faithful to the truth. May that be true of us. Bless the week ahead of us. Lord, use us as lights in the darkness wherever we are we pray in Christ’s name, amen.