Why Turn Back? - Part 2
Galatians 4:12-14 · Randy Peterman · Jul 25, 2010
Galatians (2010), No. 30
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926210365107

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Last week we were covering the first part of this section, and Bob got to cover that. And the funny thing is that as we go through the three verses today, they really lead up to next week's lesson. So as we move through this, you'll know it's a transitional section of the longer passage. Hopefully that will mean that I set it up really well for next week. So Paul starts off this section after building up from last week.

He changes from ending with 12 where he had said I'm sorry, with 11, where he says, for I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. And then he turns into 12, and he says, I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You've done me no wrong, but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time, and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. So he switches from speaking about hypothetically having labored in vain over them, and then he appeals to them with, I beg of you. And that's a strong place to be. This is kind of an emotional passage. Paul has an emotional plea as he looks through this. And I think of that as a loving father, not that Paul is stirred emotionally and he's just being touchy-feely.

But here I have, I came to you And I'm begging of you, brethren, that you would respond. And the reason that he starts out with that is he says, because I came to you and became like you. And so please become like me. Now, the first part we want to ask is, what does he mean by I became like you?

It had nothing to do with citizenship. He probably didn't get a different haircut to be more Galatian. Assuming that the whole time he was talking about, you know, not being in law or under law or something or everything, so be like me, it means that he is talking to them from the bank of grace. I think this is actually talking about when he showed up in the Galatian towns and he became like them.

Paul uses this phrase in a few other places as he's talking about reaching out to the communities as he went on his missionary journeys. So to become like them had an evangelistic quality. And I wanted to take a few minutes to kind of explore this concept of becoming like some group of people. In missions, that's important that you're reaching people and they don't feel like, well, here's this outsider that we can't have any relationship with and an understanding with.

In our modern culture, in the church movement, there's a movement called the Emergent Church. Has anybody heard of that phrase? The Emergent Church is basically a blending of the secular philosophy called postmodernism and the uh... the church unfortunately post-modernism doesn't believe in truth or absolute truth and as orthodox you know orthodoxy within christianity says this is truth and it's reliable i mean if you come down to the sunday school classroom during the second hour when when when the kids are being taught i happen to know because i'm substitute teaching for a month we tell them every sunday morning we emphasize What's in the Bible? We ask them explicitly and the correct answer is not Jesus. The correct answer is God's truth. Jesus is God's truth and there's part of that but you know in Sunday school we've discovered that some of the kids have figured out that if you say Jesus it's right at like 50% of the time.

We are trying to work through that, but the idea is that it's truth. And so what this emergent church is trying to do is trying to be culturally relevant. They're trying to become like the people of our culture so that they can evangelize, or at least that's the way that it's presented. But they've compromised truth and they've compromised the inerrancy of scripture and various doctrinal points so that they can become like the people. And there's churches that meet in bars specifically, which I don't think it's just because it's a building, I guess we could be gracious and say that's fine, but they're functioning working bars and There's a bit of a heavy mix of what happens at a bar and what happens in the church. Even though communion could possibly have wine, this goes a little bit beyond that. But the idea is that Paul came and he became like them so that he could communicate with them.

And I wanted to take a moment to actually go to an example of this in Acts chapter 17. How many of you are familiar with the Aragapis or the Mars Hill scenario in Acts chapter 17? I said Aragapis, that's incorrect. Acts chapter 17, and we'll take a look. Let's see here, I had it in my notes so that I start from the right place. Acts chapter 17 starting in verse 16.

Paul has just done one of the many parts of his journey where he's escaped from one city and now he's in Athens. And in verse 16 it says, now while Paul was waiting for them in Athens, his spirit was being provoked within him as he was observing the city full of idols.

And I wanted to stop there and just point out that Paul was observing the people around him. And I think that's an important thing because when we take a look at this concept of becoming like the people, it wasn't just blindly becoming like the people, it was becoming aware of their religious scenario so that he could communicate to them where they believed.

If I'm a postmodernist and I don't believe truth is real, does it help you, or if you come to evangelize to me, does it help for you to come to me and say, I don't believe there's truth either, but let me tell you about Jesus? No, that's not a relevance that brings something that you should believe in. Come believe in my not-truth. That's ridiculous.

But Paul was observing and saying, hey, these people have idols. They have a lot of idols. And then as we keep going through this section here, we're taking a rabbit trail into Acts chapter 17 but we are technically in Galatians and he said so he was reasoning in the synagogues with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the marketplace every day to those who happened to be present, and also some of the Epicureans and Stoic philosophers were conversing with him. Some were saying, what would this idle babbler wish to say? Others, he seems to be a proclaimer of strange deities because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, May we know what this new teaching is which you are proclaiming?

For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, so we want to know what these things mean. And in verse 21, Now all the Athenians and the strangers visiting were used to spend their time in nothing other than telling or hearing something new. So Paul had observed the idols, and he had observed that these people liked new things. How many of you find that last part about always wanting to hear new things to be relevant to our culture?

Whether it's technology or it's just news. I mean we have 24-hour news channels. Not only do we have one, but we have many. You know, because we've got to have the CNNs and the Fox News network and the 24-hour, every broadcasting network has to have their own subsection that's 24-hour news because you've got to have news. And when you turn it on, That doesn't get updated very often. Not with news. There's a rabbit trail right there. Don't go there. But there's always a desire for new things. What's the newest? Can I share something? Sure. Just from a missionary standpoint. You mentioned the touchdown. Edna Dyer Judson was an ineffective missionary for many years.

And he observed how the Indians would pray fast. And he did that for a period of time with the Lord to seek out, you know, how would you help me be as a vessel to reach these people. And he began teaching the exact same thing afterwards. And they listened. Because he did something. Went through the ceremonies that they had gone through with his own thinking with God. And also think of Hudson Taylor. For years he was ineffective. Lost his wife and family and many things.

And finally he said, they don't recognize that God is the same So he dressed like them, and took on their cultural appearances, and they began listening to him. There are so many stories of missionaries having impact, and Paul, here in this story at the Europagus, it's the same principle where you're not compromising the message. The message is always the gospel of Jesus Christ. But you have come and you've become, like Paul did to the Galatians, I became like you. Now, you please become like me, he says. I wonder if he wore a pharisaical robe, perhaps, but not among the Galatians, or the Athenians in this case. If he took it off and dressed like them, we don't know.

Yeah, we don't have a recording of that, but to become like them does imply a familiarity, and I think that's one thing that for myself as I look at the way that, and I had some questions that I should have gone over before we started, and I've probably mentioned this before, but organizations that try to do evangelism similar to the way that we might have found effective historically, probably have to change because of groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Mormons who have come in, polluted the reception to somebody showing up on your doorstep talking about religion. Well, one of the biggest things that's being done today is telling stories rather than teaching the scriptures. They tell the scriptures by stories instead.

And the people know stories, and they can memorize stories, and they can repeat stories. Versus reading the scriptures and saying, this is what the scriptures say. They just tell the story of the scriptures. It turns out to be very effective. In other words, creation. Instead of reading it, they tell it as a story. This is fact. This happened. Related as a story. Interesting.

Especially creation, because then you establish the authority of God, and then you can build on that. Right, and if they don't have that, they associate their history with our God, and it doesn't fit. Yeah, and they don't blend. And that's an important thing. So you have this concept evangelistically that Paul would observe. He would interpret what was going on and try to fit in within that scenario and then appropriate, let's communicate the gospel in a way that you understand.

When he responds to the folks in Acts 17.22, he says, So Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, To an unknown God. Therefore what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you.

The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and of earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor is He served by human hands, as though He needed anything, since He Himself gives to all people life and breath and all things.

And He made from one man every nation of mankind. Again, here's the creation account. Here's at the very beginning. every nation mankind to live on all the face of the earth having determined their appointed times and boundaries of their habitation that they would seek God if perhaps they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us for in him we live and move and exist and as even some of you your own poets have said for we also are his children so there he has a cultural reference that's relevant to the people that lived in Athens. Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man.

Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because he has fixed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising him from the dead. Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some began to sneer, but others said, We shall hear you again concerning this. So Paul went out of their midst. So Paul looks for a cultural on-ramp, if you will, and then presents the gospel and hits them right where they live.

He's referenced them culturally. He said, I've observed. I'm not just coming in and yelling at you this thing that's new. I have some acquaintances that are really big on street preaching, and I think one of the problems in our culture, and I won't say this absolutely for every culture around the globe, but in our culture, we are bombarded by You know, who is that guy on the television who is always pitching OxiClean and various other cleaning products, and every time he'd come on the TV, he'd be yelling, Billy something or else, I can't think of his name. He died. Yeah.

But we're so used to advertising and people yelling at us, you need this, buy this, do this, that if you come to someone with a gospel, And that's the way it's being presented, especially after the Mormons have already tainted you to think that anybody preaching religion publicly is probably a wacko anyways. We lose that impact. In this case, Paul went to their public place where they did those kinds of things, and that was okay. But in our modern times, an appropriation might have to come from a personal relationship.

Hey, you know what? You're different from those Mormon guys that are whacked out and show up at 18 saying they know everything. I've known you long enough to know that that's not who you are. You're not wearing an elder badge. Well, Roger doesn't have a badge, but he is an elder. The thing is that if you come and you know somebody, then you know that they're reliable. You know that they're trustworthy.

And in our culture, being culturally irrelevant is probably not going to be the same thing. And it's going to be conditional. I know that Alishka has shared just at different times, different things that you run into that are unique in the Czech Republic compared to what our exposure is here.

And that's valuable because you've been able to say, I have the truth of God's word, and I know how I can apply it here. These people need this, I know that. And I can say that even we have some Americans working with our students and we usually need to discuss what ways the Czech kids can take and what not. So those leaders who work here with the US kids, the activities or the games or the approach they would do towards Americans, to check people, they wouldn't understand what is being done and said.

And I mean, it's almost unbelievable, because we are both Western cultures. But still, it's completely different. So the approach must be just slightly changed, so that the kids would actually say, oh, okay, well, we can do that with them. And that's, I think, not to beat this to death, but I think that's a relevant scenario wherein in missions that happens, just shifting between the different cultures.

So Paul said to them, I became like you. so that you could become like me. And that's where it comes into the relevancy of coming into being a believer, maturing and knowing and walking in the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul transitions from this begging for them to change, he says, you have done me no wrong.

And that's one of those things where clearly they've walked away doctrinally, but physically they hadn't harmed him. And the reason why I think this is relevant to physical harm is based on the next several verses where he moves on to the physical, he says, but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you in the first place. And that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe. So, you've done me no wrong. Clearly, doctrinally, they have caused him harm, emotionally, because they've walked away from the doctrinal truths of the gospel and embraced legalism. But I think he's saying, okay, you guys, it's not been a physical harm. In fact, here is Here's the situation.

He tells a story that isn't in the Book of Acts. When he showed up, it doesn't explicitly say that when he got to the churches in Galatia that he had these wounds. Luke doesn't record those things. Again, that doesn't bring into question the veracity of Luke and his letter in the Book of Acts, but it does.

Paul brings in this personal story. Hey guys, you remember this. I was here. I was wounded. Luke would have had an awareness of that. What's been actually interesting studying through Galatians, I don't know if you found this, but at least for myself, it's neat to see how Paul's letter pieces together some personal details with Luke's broader story in the book of Acts. To see those details filled in is neat. For me, it's not like, oh no, there's a difference. Because I remember when I was a lot younger, any time I saw a difference, it was time to panic, because maybe we had just found the crack in the Bible. Is it still reliable? No, no, this is good. But yeah, Luke being the doctor, you'd think he'd record that, but he didn't.

But Paul says, when I showed up, and I think that there's good, reasonable assumptions to see this is probably around Acts chapter 14 verse 19 where Paul was actually stoned. If you've read through the book of Acts, Paul was stoned and then because he was stoned and thought dead. They prayed and went, let's turn there. Might as well look at the text. It's the authority of God, I guess. Probably better to do that than me just trying to retell the story. Acts chapter 14 in verse 19 is where this takes place.

But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing him to be dead. So he's supposedly dead. I had it in the notes here, 2 Corinthians 11, 23-11, you have him retelling all the things in the trials that he went through, physical harm. I remember the first time I had somebody walk me through the second Corinthians passage where Paul lists off to the Corinthian church all that he suffered.

I was shocked. It was like, how did he live through that? Oh, well, God. Okay, I can buy that. We're okay. But yeah, he suffered immensely. But somehow, it seems like in our modern day culture, we think that even though scripture tells us over and over again we're going to suffer, we somehow think we shouldn't be suffering. I know I'm right there with you. I hope my guy shouldn't be suffering. But the Lord says, no, you're going to suffer. And don't be surprised.

And that's a hard pill to swallow, so to speak. But for Paul, it was just kind of, It was every day, it seemed. I know, I've seen believers that seem like they've unusually suffered their families. There's a family in England that we knew really well when we were there. I mean, the husband died of kind of poor medical.

Anyway, husband and wife and four daughters. One daughter, she became a nurse, she was driving home from Leeds. First night as a nurse and she ran into a telephone pole and was dead at about 17 or 18. A neat girl. Then actually Eva, she died early. Brain tumor. And then three girls left. But it's just rough. Some families just seem to say, Lord, why does this family just seem to... Well, Roger, if you do any genealogy, It's like how many men had multiple wives or wives that had multiple as modeling.

There's a life expectancy. That's a good point. And a lot of kids were lost. Yeah, I know. It's just hard. We expect today that every child should be, you know, no problems, they're all going to, you know, and it's just... Yeah. So, anyway, it's just different.

It just struck me that, you know, in the Galatians, he says, the reason I did this is because of this modeling. That's the reason I came here and did it. I think, well wait a minute, maybe the Lord has a purpose in trial. And that is really fundamentally one of the key messages through this text is that God had a purpose for that trial. If he hadn't have been stoned and left for dead, then he wouldn't have been carried or taken wounded to preach the gospel. And so Paul is okay and excited by the fact that he got to suffer because I got to preach the gospel to you and you listened. And that would make, let's think about that, that would make the concept of, I'm worried that I labored over you in vain. Come on, I suffered and I was severely wounded. and I came to you and God used that, why do you discount it?

Paul says in 13 here, he says... I'm back in Acts, but I should flip back to Galatians. We're going to keep flipping our Bibles this morning. I actually have really enjoyed seeing the interrelationship between the different passages, so hopefully you'll bear with me in all this page turning. But you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you for the first time. And that is really his embracing the trial. And I've got some thoughts on embracing a trial. What is the result of it?

I have just a small question. What is the Greek preposition for because of? I'm gonna have to say I don't know. That's a good question. I have in, so this would be completely different context. You have in in your translation? I've preached the gospel in like And by the way, I was physically wounded, so my Bible doesn't render it as a... Interesting. Does somebody have a King James or another translation that can point into that? Through infirmity. Interesting. So Daya, that would be Daya. Probably, yeah. Well that's... In other words, wild. Yeah. And that is a radically different thing. I didn't pick up on that as I was studying. That's frustrating. Sure.

Well, it still brings about the point that even the trials, while that's happening, the trials bring about growth and that's the next thing I wanted to take a look at is simply that when we see trials Paul saw them as an acceptable and okay thing. The endurance through the trial was okay. And then the thing that I've kind of observed about spiritual growth that happens during trials, I've got a list of three things here, and they're just observations, and hopefully they're relevant and have a sense of practicality in your own life. The process of growth necessitates a starting point of immaturity in a place that God wants us to grow in.

It's hard to see spiritual growth as a good thing if you think you've arrived. I know that it's very easy to especially as an adult parent, I think Abby does certain things that I used to do or maybe still do, but hopefully less often. And it drives me nuts when I see those things in her. I was like, come on, Abby, don't do that. I did that. That was a terrible decision. I know because I've been through it. But I still find myself growing because even though I have arrived to a point of being 32 years old and having been through a few life experiences, I'm not done yet.

And spiritual growth comes from recognizing, to a certain degree, the fact that we started from a place that was weaker and a place that was lesser. And I think that when you realize that that's okay and God needs me to start at that weaker, lesser point to take me to the greater, more conformed to the image of his Son point, that makes the trial valuable. And that leads me to the next point, which is trials viewed from a heavenly perspective knowing that Colossians 3, 1-3 tells us to set our mind on things above, so that Bob is often putting on, at the end of his lesson, keep looking down. But trials looked down from a heavenly perspective become interesting and engaging and not just distressing. I don't normally think of trials, if I'm being fleshly, as interesting and engaging. I might be engaged, but not for the right reason.

It's like, I'm worried about this all the time. This last week I was sharing at the Doyle's Bible study that I was really stressed out. I had some stuff happen at work that was just really stressing me out. And I had not given those things over to the Lord and just trusted Him. And it was one of those things where I wasn't looking down, I wasn't engaged for what is God doing with this. Instead I was just, in a fleshly way, just emotionally stressed out.

No, but Randy, as you commented on that, it was beautiful, because we could see how emotions, well at least I could tell, you were completely different, because it was still you, which means it was still a good part of you, He was walking me through it. Once the light of God's word shone on my emotional reaction, it became obvious that this was not the Holy Spirit that I was initially responding with, but that the Holy Spirit was showing me the weakness of my fleshly attitude. So this was fresh for me as we were looking through this.

But trials viewed from a heavenly perspective become interesting and engaging. I just wanted to comment that I don't like it when I'm going through a trial, but I think what I'm beginning to understand is that while we're in the midst of it and we're struggling back and forth and we're being conformed and we're learning, the Lord is showing his life through us and other people who observe.

And we usually, we're just involved, you know, with what's going on spiritually with us, and yet God is able to show his life through us during that time with other people. can, even if they don't say it out loud, maybe observe and think to themselves, yeah, there's something real there.

Yeah. This person really does have a life. Yeah. I think as you are saying it, it just struck me that it may be because they see us in integrity and then they have seen us before and they have seen, you know, they don't think just Oh, this is a one minute situation and I see you in terrible mess or something. But they see stress, but then they relate that stress to what has proceeded and how they perceive us in the total. That may be it. There's a reality that they see that something's going on there that's real.

That's one of the parts of evangelism, again, is that if you're trustworthy, you're reliable, you've shown the life of Christ, then that's different, because that's not the way people respond on television. That's not the way that people respond on Facebook or anywhere else that I see people responding in a carnal, fleshly way. But you're standing out differently. Why is that? So again, there is a very practical relevance there for evangelism. And this third point is definitely one that we talked about this last Tuesday at the Doyle's house.

But we can pray for the removal of a trial, but we embrace God's response of, no, because I love you. And we know this because he's predestined us to be conformed to the image of his son. We know that the no doesn't come without a response and growth. We know that the no comes as a response of I'm using this in you. And that's how, in part, the trial can become interesting and engaging, even if it's not fun.

In Paul's own life, if we want to take yet another rabbit trail, we can turn to 2 Corinthians 12, 2-10. I do believe that if my dad hasn't been over this recently, I've been down in Sunday school, so I don't know exactly where he's at, or the kids' Sunday school, that he will be going over it shortly if he has not done so already. Twelve, two through ten.

And would somebody else mind reading this? Because I've been doing all kinds of talking and I need to preserve my voice. I can tell I should have a glass of water. Yes. I know a man in Christ. That's where you want to start, right there? Yes. Okay. 14 years ago, whether in the body, I do not know, or out of the body, I do not know.

God knows such a man was caught up to the third heaven, and I know how much such a man, and I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know. God knows. was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak.

On behalf of such a man will I boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except in regards to my weakness. For if I do wish to boast, I shall not be foolish, for I shall be speaking the truth, but I refrain from this so that no one may credit me with more than he sees in me or hears from me.

And because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to buffet me, to keep me from exalting myself. Concerning this, I entreated the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you. For power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weaknesses that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am safe.

When you take a look at this passage here, he starts off by saying, here I had this friend who the Lord, whether in physical form or just in spirit, took him up to paradise or the heavenly realms, and he got to see these things, but Paul didn't. But he's not worried about that. That's okay. I've done other things, but I'm still not going to boast. And then he starts talking about these things, but I will boast. about these things, these torments, these trials, and these difficulties, because these things are where God shines through me.

And so Paul, when he takes on having arrived at Galatia with the wounds and having preached the gospel to them, even though he was in a physical state of affliction, he's okay. He has a heavenly context for these things that gives them value. When Paul continues on in chapter 4 to verse 14, he says, And that which was at trial to you in my bodily condition you did not despise or loathe, but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. And really this is part of a longer longer thought, because in verse 15 he continues on and actually expresses that his eyes must have been causing him particular grief, and that the Galatians, if they could have, they would have plucked their own eyes out and given them to Paul if they could have done an eye transplant. The technology apparently wasn't there. No laser surgeries for eye swapping. But Paul says that they responded to his bodily condition without despising it or loathing it or having responded to it as negatively.

If I come to you saying I'm a messenger of God, I have a special message from God who's told me to go out and reach the Jews with the message of his son that he had promised. and I'm bleeding and wounded and have been stoned recently and left for dead?" The carnal, fleshy response is that, I don't know that you're really a messenger from God because God would take care of his people and you've been really beat up. I'm not sure if you're really reliable because, and you start coming with reasons. Paul said, that's not a problem with you guys. You guys knew that I had a message of truth you could tell. that this gospel message was true, and he responded to it without being negative towards my physical condition.

And then he said they received him as an angel of God. Now the word angel there could be translated messenger, and I personally prefer that we use the word messenger there of my own. Again, that's a preference, but when you see angel there, it's not something where we should start to develop awkward theology, or even received as Christ Jesus. Basically, they received him as carrying the very message of Christ Jesus and that he had been sent by God and there was not a question about the authority with which Paul spoke. Actually, they received him correctly, didn't they? They did. Well, absolutely.

And that's a As you look at this from the emotional aspect of Paul's writing, if you were received so well by someone and then have them turn and reject the core fundamental message of the gospel and grace, that's got to hurt a lot emotionally. Again, we don't want to play up the emotion side of things so that we all leave here crying, but the aspect of Again, I think of a father. I love Abigail, and when I give her certain instructions, it's not so I can see how tormented she can be. It's like, no, you really should stop doing that because it's safer that way. You should stop doing that because I love you.

Respond to this in love. Hopefully, And I say this optimistically, because she will be her own human being. She's not going to reject the gospel, or not reject the gospel, she's a believer. Not walk away from the gospel later on. Because I have poured myself and tried to be genuinely a godly father. That being said, it's still possible, and I don't...

There's something that you mentioned, that may you look at the scriptures, sometimes you, oh my goodness, there's a crack in the scriptures. Yeah. Isn't that pretty common among all of us, that as we open His Word and look at things in the Old Testament in particular, God, you're that way? I didn't see you that way. But through that we learn who we are. I mean, this is the perspective that God is giving us of Himself. Not just to know Him, but to know His ways. Well, the Old Testament reveals a lot of parts of God's interaction with those who are not under.

And I think our sin nature just hinges on that. It just curls at us. See, I told you so. God's unjust or whatever. I think that's where a lot of believers trip up, listening to the sin nature. we have from Adam, no matter what, gets stronger and stronger and better and better at accusing God. Sure. Well, it sees the more we know God, though, the more relaxed we are in the face of that accusation and doubt or whatever you want to call it. Yeah.

Well, the things that I've wrestled with, at least personally, and of course, obviously I can't speak for anybody else here, but when I wrestle with some part of the text, I often find it's It's because I didn't, well just like you said, I didn't recognize a reflection or expression of God's righteousness or his justice or something like that in a way that the Old Testament records. And it's difficult because the flesh wants for God to be a big teddy bear, but without justice. But at the same time, when we see the same moments or details from the point of Holy Spirit, then we get instead of this, I don't want to say stupid, but I cannot think of another word, like feeble, you know, plastic Jesus, or something like that. But then we see the whole, and then we can see, wow, I'm actually communicating with somebody who would meet only once a year, over the Ark of Covenant with one priest and under very strict and all the conditions.

And then if we stop fleshly thinking, well this is ridiculous, then it's the... awe and you have the respect and you have everything and it gives a completely different perspective to the tender side of it. The element that comes out with this is that faith is in fact, but there are times when God has not revealed absolutely everything, being an infinite God.

This is not a big enough book to contain infinity. Even the best digital e-book readers can't hold an infinite amount of data. God has revealed enough to reveal His character and His love, and that's probably the biggest thing for me, is that I have questions. What about this or what about that? I haven't revealed that and that's okay.

The problem with the secular perspective of faith is that it's not in something. It's not faith in facts or a person or anything. It's just simply a mystical, I feel this way. It's mysticism. It's not right. I can imagine that what makes it true is the way the world is right now. Well, especially when you get the idea of, well, we're going to pray for this thing, and if we have a big enough group praying, or if we pray the right way, we'll manipulate those things. There was actually a Christian band that had a song that basically talked about white-knuckling the rosary was the name of the song. But it was basically, I go to God only when I need things, and then I'm just really praying and hoping that if I do the right things, then my genie in the bottle is one of the references in the song, where there's no relationship, and the faith is only in some mystical way to manipulate God and get something, and that's just simply not the way that a God that we can have a relationship with. I think that was well put, Alishka.

We have a relationship with a God who has a standard of righteousness that is that perfect. Which then leads us to ask, of course, a totally rabbit trail kind of a question, but how do we have that righteousness? How did the Galatians have that righteousness? It's not our righteousness. Yeah, it's Christ's righteousness. on our account, because we've died, buried, resurrected, ascended and seated with Him. And that's it.

That right there, Paul came to them with the gospel, presenting them the identification truths, presenting to them the truth revealed, and they were rejecting it, and that was a pretty Tough thing for him. That was a very nice, easy way to wrap things up around for the end of this passage. As this continues on, Paul is going to assert that you guys have now come to treat me as enemies. And that's coming up in the next two weeks. Bob gets to teach that. Thank you for It's a weighty responsibility to have been given the opportunity to share the gospel. Paul did that.

They responded to it positively, and then they walked away from it, and that was a big deal. Any thoughts or questions before we close in prayer? I don't even know if the bell is rung twice or once. I wasn't paying attention. When I think of us in Christ, and probably each of us thinks of that differently, but by the same token, we recognize in each other that we are individual parts of a body, His body.

We are Christ here on earth. I mean, wow, what a perspective that is that He's given us here. The Holy Spirit showed us this, right? That He's showing us Christ, but He's also showing us That union is so important to understand. The spiritual growth conditionally is sometimes our distraction. We forget that positional union, the union that's there, the completion that's there. And we should encourage one another with that and that's one of those things where The encouragement aspect of that really is exciting for me because I don't find the world very encouraging. No. But when I come to church and we get to interact with one another and fellowship with one another and you get to share what the Lord's doing in your lives and hopefully I get to share a little bit of what He's doing in my life, it's amazing to see that we get to encourage one another with that intimacy together and that growth together and that the truths of identification and how they impact us.

And he shows us, at least in my own life, I found it amazing to see how he shows me a principle and I understand that principle. I'm identified with Christ. I get that on a high-level perspective. But it seems like every day and every week he shines like a little laser on, here's the practical application of that right now. Here's this thing and then when we get together I get to find out how he's been shining again the same thing in your life. And we come together and it's amazing as he's illuminating our lives. with the truth of his word and the life of Christ.

It's cool. It makes it easy to keep looking down. What is also cool about this is how each of us is limited and different. We can actually keep talking, like in dialogue, because otherwise, when two people have the same context, even in literature, it's called monologue with two parts. Otherwise, if we share the same content, if we would be saying all the time, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, we had nothing to bring or nothing to share, that would be just boring. Yeah. That's because you made a wish kit.

Well, we should close, but I will add to that. Ephesians chapter 3, he actually talks about how, I'm going to start in verse 14, but for this reason I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts, plural, through faith, and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints together. what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.

So that we have to measure those things together and explore those things together and we can't have them on our own. They must be done together. Alright, that's a rabbit trail. It doesn't tie into Galatians 4, 12-14, but it's an important thing as we look at the togetherness of the body.

Let's go before the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you for this time that we've had together. Thank you that we can come together and share your work in our lives and the truth of your word that you've expressed to us throughout the week and weeks that we've got together. We just thank you for this time and we pray for the main service that we may continue to set our mind on things above. In Jesus' name, Amen.