Pauls Personal Appeal

Today we're going to kind of wrap up this section Galatians 8 4 through 14 I'm going to go back and do a summary of what we kind of covered previously But then and then after this section we just kind of continue on in Galatians It's it's really a marvelous book that has so much to tell us about the Christian life So I'd like to just start by kind of going to my favorite outline here I keep each week if you've tracked different weeks to weeks, you'll see I keep changing this outline and Because I see, oh, this is what I should put in here. This is what I should put in here. So I keep changing it. So hopefully it gets better with time. So and this is from Macaulay.

He titled this section God's Sons in Slavery. So that their past, their past and religion, the no gods of religion. We talked about in four or eight. We're going to summarize that again. Their presence and legalism, kind of different aspects of that. It's interesting. I mentioned last week that in Galatians 4.9a, the first part, he kind of presents this wonderful topic about knowing God and being known by God. We're going to review that again.

Then he launches right in, you Galatians have turned back to your former ways. And he describes those former ways. He has concerns. He says, I fear for you. He has he has great emotion for the Galatian believers and they and it comes down to 412 and he says I beg of you And now he he'll he pulls out all the stops we'd say in the vernacular he he doesn't leave any stone unturned to try to convince them that they're going down the wrong path and He then he relates his bodily illness.

I believe it's the thorn in the flesh hopefully I can show you that as we go along here and how that relates to his preaching the gospel in Galatia and And then lastly, he says, you Galatians, this is amazing. You receive me, Paul, as an angel of God. And then he even says, as Christ Jesus, which is just amazing. So even with his infirmities, even with his thorn in the flesh, they saw the true message that he had and they were excited about it and they believed it.

But he's on their case, so to speak, because they're turning back. They're turning around. Just think about it. Think of your own children. You give them instructions day after day, week after week, month after month. And sometime comes along and they go some crazy way. You say, why did you do that? Why did you go that path? But his heart is for those Galatians. So let's look at a kind of review here.

So verse 7 and 8. Verse 7 says, therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. We covered this back in week 1 that I taught. And this is just this marvelous progression from going from slaves To a son at salvation to an heir and we talked about that that wonderful transition. So that's where he starts So if you notice he kind of interchanges He'll tell them something about their Christian life where they stand with the Lord and then the next thing he'll come back and say But you've gone this other direction and come back and say again you have this position the Lord but you've gone this direction he kind of interchanges where they are in Christ and What were they gone the wrong way?

So now in verse 8 However, at that time, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those by which, by nature, are no gods. So Paul lists three things in terms of their pre-salvation history. You kind of pick it up by that term, at that time, when you did not know God. So the three things are, pretty obviously, you did not know God. Not knowing God, you had no true knowledge. You only had man's knowledge. You were slaves, since you still were an Adam. And your slavery was to the no-gods.

We kind of talked a little bit about this in Sunday school today. I thought a little bit, you know, the no-gods are the world system. All these, the advice of the world. What would Aunt Sally do? What would so-and-so do? But what does God say is the key. There are many no-gods out there. And there were many no-gods for the Galatians as well.

So that's seven and eight. Then in 9a, this is this marvelous section, which I just I spent a lot of time last week talking about this It's just so cool. I thought you you came to know God when you heard the gospel and you trust him as your Savior But now you you realize there's much more. It's about him knowing you it's wonderful that you came to know him But the real wonderful news is that he knows you so I listed a bunch of things from that verse and actually what I taught last week and And it's about His love.

We love. The capacity for us to love comes from Him. We love because He first loved us. The important thing is that He loved us and sent His Son. God's knowledge of us includes His total acceptance in Christ. We don't have to worry. And some people worry about, well, there's some sin or whatever that wasn't accounted for Him. No, He totally accepts us. Christ's work is complete. He totally accepts us in Christ and His Son. Then lastly we looked at the psalm 139 just a beautiful psalm About he knows our intimate ways.

He knows our rising up and our he knows everything about us He knows where we when we start and when we I was thinking about you know, you you sit in your seats He knows that and when you get up and leave, you know, his knowledge is is beyond our comprehension Okay, so that's 9a then here here comes the switch right kind of in mid-verse How how is it or How is it possible that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? How is it possible that you turn back, you do a 180, you're going one direction, you turn around and go the other way, to the elemental things of the world?

These things are, in their times, where the Judaizers that came along, even their own Gentile religions, they're called weak because they have no power. They're called worthless or beggarly because they cannot produce any spiritual blessing. They advertise they can. They advertise that if you keep the Mosaic Law, that's going to bring blessing to you.

It doesn't work that way. The law was there for a purpose, but it was not for that purpose. To you the former religious rites But what the bottom line was when all was said and done Paul was saying, you know These keeping these rituals and these rites are more attractive to you You think keep, you know crossing the I's and T's are more important to you than Christ But you become enslaved all over again when you go down that path Then in 10 he talks about you observe the days months seasons and years and And what's interesting that word observe is the idea, it's not just a casual, it's not just I casually observe days like the Sabbath or other Jewish holidays.

You meticulously and rigidly observe them. You get your Spiritual, I don't know what to say, moxie. Is that the right word? Moxie? I think that's right. I grew up in Miami, Florida, so a lot of Jewish kids I went to school with, and so, anyway, whatever. Moxie, I think that's where it came from. Maybe not. Okay, whatever. Meticulous and rigid observance. That's what you're about, but that's not knowing Christ. And here's where it comes, this is kind of the first part we see is emotion.

He says, I fear for you. Perhaps I have labored over you in vain. And so the tense of the verb here is that I labored over you in the past, and I continue to labor over you into the present, and I'm afraid that it was in vain, for no purpose. All this effort, all this time I spent with you is for naught, because you've turned away. You've turned back to your former ways. Okay, so that's the review.

So now today, we have these Three verses 12 13 14 if you notice if you look carefully, this is one sentence and He starts off with I beg of you. So he's you think boy Paul's getting down to the last straws here He's gone from I fear for you now. I beg you I mean He's intense about this and actually there's another verse. I even like better which which Mike's gonna get to cover and Which is a really cool verse how he how he he's in labor pains over them, which I think is just what he'll get That's verse 19 coming up here But this is what I beg of you and it's some interesting things. He says become as I am interesting and he talks about his bodily illness that that's when he preached the gospel the first time and And he talks about the trial of this thorn in the flesh in his body. And he ends it by saying, but you receive me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. OK, so let's just kind of go through the verse by verse here.

So he starts off with, I beg of you, brethren. So the word for brethren is adelphos. It's a word typically used in the New Testament of a brother or near kinsman. Based upon common identity of origin. So that was the Galatian believers. There were fellow believers in the Lord. He's talking to believers here He says I beg of you It could be translated.

I think King James has it. I beseech you possibly I pray thee So there's an example of this word. It's used in a couple different places in Scripture a couple times in Acts This is the one occasion in Acts and this is Paul before Agrippa. I And he says, King Agrippa, that I'm about to make my defense before you today, especially because you are an expert in all the customs and questions among the Jews.

Therefore, I beg you to listen to me patiently. So what Paul is saying here, the word beg expresses humility, it's like you're You say, I beg your indulgence. Please give me an opportunity. Don't put me off. I beg you. Let me get my words out. You know, sometimes when we're talking, husband and wife are a good example. You know, it's hard. You know, sometimes I'll talk when I should listen. And that happens. So I get reminded that listening is good. And so Paul is asking them, he's saying, I beg you, I want you to listen to what I have to say.

So now let's consider this phrase, become as I am. And some people have really, you know, I have the privilege of studying and using Hal Malloy's notes from 20 years ago, and he has all these little notes on the side, and on this particular one, I beg of you, he had some women I talked to think Paul's a is a chauvinist. He does a man thing, and that's not for women.

I'm not going to read Paul. And Hal says, they're not going to grow. What are these women thinking about? I'm not going to read Paul. Duh. What are you thinking? Most of the books in the New Testament are Paul. I'm not going to read Paul because he thinks he's hot stuff. Well, this at first appears that that might be the case. So here's some possibilities. So what's the meaning? Become as I am. He's arrogant. That's what some women think, or some people think. Paul's putting himself above the Galatian believers. Is Paul the standard for Christian behavior? Should it be WWP? I can't get the acronym right. What would Paul do?

There we go. Thank you. So is that what we were to do? Okay. So in answering this question, It's going to get a little bit techy here. I apologize. I'm not the world's best at the Greek language, but there are a few couple of things I learned in my Greek class that Hal taught, actually. A couple of cool verbs. So we're going to look at these couple of cool verbs. Hopefully, they'll explain what this means. If they don't, see me afterwards. OK. All right. So here we go.

So it's become as I am, for I also have become as you are. So I liked, actually, I like the King James better here, because it helped me to kind of match up the verbs with what Paul's saying. He says, be as I am, for I am as you are. Sounds like gibberish, almost. But actually, I think it makes sense. So two important verbs. So here are the two verbs. The first verb is be. It's a to be verb. Become. Genome. Genome. Speaks of a change in a state of being.

Example of that is this wonderful verse in John 1 14. It says the word the Lord Jesus Became flesh. He came into a new state of being he went he went from God. He became man So that's where that verb comes to play. He became flesh genome a and dwelt among us So that's the first verb. The second verb is I am or you are a me It speaks of a state of being that one exists in and An example of that is in John 8, 58, Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. He's saying, I exist as God now. That's my state of being as God. So we have these two verbs that we're going to try to fit into this passage. The first one is be or become. The second one is I am or you are. Ginome and Amy. So let's try to plug in the thing here. So first statement, be as I am. So be is ginome.

So Paul's saying to them, change your state of being. He says, become as I am. So Paul's saying, eucalations, become as I am. And with the two verbs we have, he's going to, from the state of being, he's going to change to a state of permanent being, a state where something continuously exists. So Paul's, so the question comes up, two questions. What was the state of being?

He's asking the Galatians to change from where they are to where Paul's at. So what's he talking about here? And it can be confusing. This may seem confusing, but I think when you see what the answer is, it's pretty straightforward. So where were the Galatians at? They lived under law, right? So he wants them to change from living under law. And where was Paul at? He was under grace. So that little compact thing, be as I am, I believe, is a very gracious thing. He says, change your ways, change your state of being from being under the law to under grace.

Okay, so that's the first part of that phrase. So if that didn't confuse you, this probably will. For I am as you are. So this actually is interesting. So, be as I am was the first part. For I am as you are. So what does that tell us? For is because. I'm in that state of being that I'm existing in right now.

As you are, you're in a state of being as Galatians existing in that state of being. So the question is, what state of being does Paul share with the Galatians? I know this seems confusing. Okay, now Paul says they have the same state of being, but before he wanted them to change their state of being. Okay, so here's the question for all you Holly Hillites. What truth do we teach every week here at Holly Hills that could explain a seeming dilemma? He first says, change your state of being to like I am. Then he says, we share a state of being. So what do you think about that? One more time? Okay, keep going. How about this?

How about position and condition? Okay, he asked him conditionally says conditionally moved from law to grace right and he says but brothers For I am as you are we already are in the Lord Jesus. We already know him as our Savior So so I think I think this is talk. This is a conditional statement first be as I am moved from law to grace For and the reason you do that is because we're in Christ. We're already positioned in Christ the reason you can do that is you want to make your condition equal your position So I think that, you know, if you go home, type this in, try to find somebody to explain this. There aren't too many people that can explain that well, I don't think. I think using these verbs really helps tremendously because it shows that they're changing from the state of being under law to grace and they share the same state of being in their position. So he's encouraged him, be as I am, for I am as you are. We have the capacity as believers in the Lord Jesus, that we're in Him, that we can change from law to grace. That's possible. Okay.

So now it seems like, at the last part of this, he says, you have done me no wrong. He wants to point out that, yes, you're under law, but that hasn't, it hurts my heart tremendously, but you haven't done me wrong, so to speak. You haven't wronged me. You haven't caused me injury. And this word is used in 2 Corinthians 7, to make room for us in your hearts. We wronged no one. We corrupted no one. We took advantage of no one. So he says, by the fact that you're hanging out under the law, it causes me great pain, but it doesn't offend me.

So he's saying Paul wants to show that he is doesn't have a personal grievance for his with his strong language And that and this is the verse that Mike gets to cover that I really love. So this shows Paul's true heart He truly cared for these believers and he expresses it this way my children with whom I am again in labor into Christ be formed in you and I think that being formed in you Michael give you a lot more details, but I It's moving from the law to grace. They have Him positionally, but they aren't living it out conditionally. And Christ being formed in you is to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him.

So that's Paul's desire. Okay. So now we move on to verse 13. But you know, it was because of a bodily injury that I preached the gospel to you for the first time. So this is kind of a cool verse because it's going to tell us some things we may not have understood about Paul's missionary journeys. He's basically saying that in his missionary journeys, his bodily illness, the fact that he had that, probably the thorn in the flesh, caused him to minister in Galatia.

You can't find that. I mean, I don't see that like an ax. You can't see that. But this statement seems to make that a possibility. But in contrast, the previous verses, this is the word to know, or you know, oida, to have or seen or perceive, hence to know or to have knowledge of.

It's in the perfect tense. You Galatians knew when I came to you in the past, his first missionary journey, And you still know it today. They still knew somehow, and this verse is telling us, that Paul got to Galatia because of this illness. Because it was a bodily illness, or through a bodily illness.

It's a weakness, a want of strength, indicated inability to produce results. So actually, you know, in looking at, you know, Paul talks a lot about weakness. If you go through just if you do a little search on on weakness and what Paul said about it So I have a few verses that talk about that. He really saw that weakness was a key to living the Christian life and He understood it more than I think any person in Scripture He really understood that that weakness his inability to do things was actually a key to his spiritual growth So he says that in a variety of ways. So here we go I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

If I have to boast, I will boast of what pertains to my weakness. So it's funny, he doesn't want to boast about that he was this, you know, some aspect of his apostasy. He's going to boast about the fact that he was unable to do something and that God had to do it. Have you heard too many people including myself, get up here and say, well, you know, I couldn't do that. I want to boast about that. That seems kind of counter to what we're about, but it's wonderful. And somehow I got all those individually coming in. Okay. On behalf of such a man, I will boast, but on behalf, I will not boast except in regards to my weakness.

So he wants to be, he wants to boast in regard to his weakness. In this verse it says, and he said to me, this is the thorn in the flesh account, and he said to me, this is Christ speaking, my grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. So weakness was key to Paul's understanding of God working through him.

And he agreed that this thorn in the flesh that he had was what was God's plan. Not initially. He went to the Lord three times. Remember that? And he inquired about removing this thorn in the flesh. But he ultimately agreed that was God's plan. That's how God would use him for his purposes. OK. OK. So now the last part of this verse. So let's just read the whole thing again.

But you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time. So preaching the gospel, we see that, you know, Paul talks about that. If you look through Galatians, we kind of hit that a bunch of times through Galatians. This is the word euangelizo, and it's almost always use of the good news. Preaching the good news is a few exceptions to that. about the Lord Jesus. So here's a couple of verses.

Galatians 1.9. As we have said before, so I say it again, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you receive, he is to be accursed. Pretty strong language. For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to men. OK, so I like what Macaulay had to say about this verse and what it says.

Paul apparently had not planned to preach the gospel in Galatian territory. Paul had come to Galatia as a result of an unavoidable circumstances, a physical illness of some sort. Now, I'm going to have us think a little bit about this illness in just a second. So why does he bring up this bodily illness?

Because it's going to point to a couple of things. He's reminding them that even though he had this bodily illness, that their response was to both to the messenger of the message of God about his glory, and to the messenger, despite his bodily illness. They didn't reject the message, and they didn't reject the messenger. That's kind of the point here.

Okay, so verse 14 and that which was a trial to you and my body Bodily condition you did not despise or loathe but you but you received me as an angel of God as Christ Jesus himself Okay, so Okay in this verse the first part so one of the questions comes up here in this verse about this trial so The New American Standard, which is in the blue here, says, and that which was a trial to you, my bodily condition.

So if you read that, it kind of gives you the impression that it was a trial to the Galatians. The Galatians had a trial. When Paul was with them, that caused them to go through a trial. But you know, you look at that and you think, is that really what What is being said, the King James and the Darby translation render it this way, and my temptation or trial was with me in my flesh, and you did not despise or loathe me. So I think the second one fits his thorn in the flesh better. It was, Paul had this trial that led him to Galatia. And he's saying, you didn't despise me because of that. I don't think the Galatians had a trial. I think Paul had the trial. He was there, and they graciously accepted him. They didn't loathe him or despise him.

And here's another place where this talks about the thorn in the flesh. And this is the account of that, basically, kind of defining that. Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelation, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me, to keep me from exalting myself. So we see here, here's a purpose where a trial or a weakness was for a specific purpose. God said, Paul, I think it's possible that if I don't give you this thorn in the flesh, you're going to exalt yourself. Think of yourself more highly than you ought so I'm gonna and Paul said it was to keep me from exalting myself So that's how Paul could could think of those weaknesses and trials as being as being beneficial Okay, so let's go on here So let's just read it again and my temptation or trial which was in my flesh.

I'm gonna go with the King James Translation here you did not despise or loathe So what's interesting here is So despise is the idea to treat with contempt as unworthy or scorn and loathe is to spit out or reject. You know, it seems like Paul's thorn in the flesh must have been significant.

It wasn't just, and you know, there's all kinds of conjecture. We don't have, you know, any real solid verse that tells us what it is. There's some illusion about his eyes possibly. But the more I thought about this, this is just me. So you can argue with me about this last statement here. I kept thinking about that. Boy, if they didn't, he says, you did not despise me and you did not loathe me.

I mean, for Paul to even say those words, it must have been pretty, pretty bad. He must have not looked too good. It must have been what they would consider almost unclean. I don't know. Don't get near me. But they did accept him. So I thought, well, maybe something... It couldn't be leprosy. They wouldn't have accepted him at all. But it could be maybe something like that. Some physical condition that looked pretty bad.

Okay, so the last part tells us how they did receive him. But Allah, in strong contrast, you received me as an angel of God. To receive is to receive by deliberate and ready reception of what is offered. Okay, I don't think I want to upgrade. Okay. But you receive me as an angel of God and I was thinking about that I had it's funny I go through these with Bonnie and I had some different thoughts and why so I don't think I first went down the line, you know in scripture we notice that when angels show up many times men just fall to their feet and they start worshiping angels and the angels almost invariably say don't worship me worship God, you know, they Here it says Galatians said you receive me as an angel of God so I I You know, after thinking about it, and with Wally's comment, I think it's, you know, it's a good thing.

I was thinking about, like, Cornelius. He had a visit from an angel, and that's when Peter was going to be sent to the Gentiles. So there are various occasions, sometimes in dreams, when an angel of God appears before them, and usually that's a pretty amazing thing. So they saw Paul as an angel of God, and then to make it even stronger, Christ Jesus himself Pretty pretty amazing. So Paul was was even with all his you know Shortcomings of his physical being and it reminds me many times that to not to look on the appearance, you know Sometimes you'll you look at a person you'll evaluate them I've had that happen where I look at a person to say what you know what I think and I hear them talk or say something as a boy, that's totally different than what I thought from their from their appearance. Their appearance told me one thing, but what they said told me something totally different. So just a few final thoughts.

You know, we, early back, we studied the verse in Galatians 1.6, I'm amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel.

So, you know, that theme kind of carries through almost the entire book. So when Paul says, become as I am, because I am as you are also, he wants them to move from law to grace. And he requests that out of love for them. I was thinking about, how will we put that little phrase in our time? How will we make that verse applicable to us? And so I borrowed a statement by Brother Hal here. He says, Paul says to us today, Become as I am.

Change your focus from self and life circumstances to the object of your faith, the Lord Jesus. Rest in his grace, which is sufficient for you. And I'll just read this one last verse. And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that you always having all sufficiency in everything. His sufficiency, you have his sufficient in all of your circumstances of life. He wants to be sufficient for you. Thank you. Dear Heavenly Father, we just thank you for our time today, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. Thank you for just your marvelous grace and your marvelous Book of Galatians, how we can learn about you. In Christ's name, Amen.