Abounding Grace

Guest (Male): Enjoy the freedom that is already ours in Jesus next on Abounding Grace. Religion does nothing to save a person. It leads to emptiness and bondage. It might make a person feel holier when they do some religious activity, but it doesn't touch the soul. It doesn't help them.

Pastor Ed Taylor: And Paul says, "I want you to be like me. I'm free." You know, you guys born-again believers, you're free too. You're just not enjoying it.

Guest (Male): Glad you've joined us today for Abounding Grace, as we pick up where we left off in Galatians. We'll join Pastor Ed Taylor in chapter 4 in a moment.

Leaving the grace of God and taking a giant step down to a performance-based relationship with God is a big and tragic mistake, something the Galatians were starting to do. So the apostle Paul stepped in and reminded them they are already free in Jesus. So why would you leave that? A good word for us to consider as well. So let's do that now as we join Pastor Ed.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Take your Bibles, open them to Galatians chapter 4. We're going to pick up where we left off last time in verse 8. And I've entitled our Bible study "You Are Already Free in Jesus." You're already free. And this is the substance of this section that we're going to be studying today. It's like Paul saying, "Why would you leave? You have everything that you need in Christ. You're already free."

And even as I'm saying that, I noticed how I changed the tone of my voice and the posture of my body because Paul is taking the position of pleading. He's pleading with the believers in Galatia. And it brought a question to my mind: how do you plead? How do you plead with someone to leave religion and rituals for a relationship with Jesus Christ? Now, the answer to that question, of course, is going to vary.

There are different ways because it all depends on who the person is and the type of relationship you have with them and your personality and what religion they're a part of or what they're all into. So the approach will be different, but it is important that we plead. Because we're all praying for unsaved family and friends, praying for those that are close to us. We're getting a glimpse, though, of one way to plead right here.

We're getting a glimpse of how important it is that we plead with those that are stuck in legalism or being ripped off by false teaching. And that really is the essence. Like it's a frustrating and kind of a painful thing where you're seeing somebody being ripped off in their life and God has sent you to them, but they're unwilling to see it with their own eyes. They're like, "But bro, you're getting ripped off." "Oh, no, no, no, this is the way. This is the truth. This is the full revelation." No, it's not. It's actually not.

And I saw this increase more and more. I've been around ministering for many years now, but I've saw it increase way more when COVID hit and everybody were watching people on YouTube. And everybody was developing — and I say everybody, it's truly not everybody, a few or many or more — were developing these new theologies and these new beliefs because of YouTube. They'd go on and now they'd spend 40, 50, 60 hours studying some guy's weird doctrine.

And then they'd bring it to me. They'd go, "Hey, Pastor, I got this new doctrine." No, bro, it's not new. It's not new. And I could dismantle it with just one verse. Just one verse. So you spend 50, 60, 100 hours of your time on some false teacher, and one verse dismantles their whole viewpoint. And then they say, "Bro, you're getting ripped off." No, no, no, I'm not getting ripped off. You've just never seen this before, Ed. Okay, okay.

You're probably right. I've never seen some whacked-out false teaching that was invented by some dude on YouTube. You're right. I probably haven't. But even so, I know the truth. I spend those 50, 100 hours in the Word of God so that when you know the truth, any false thing can be easily seen. It's like, that doesn't sound like God. That doesn't look like God. That's not something that God would say. Like, you had to get that from a man.

And so this is where Paul is. And you're going to feel a little bit of passion. You're going to see some sternness. I mean, we've already seen that so far in Galatians, for sure. But in this section alone, there'll be a little bit of sternness, there'll be some like, "What are you guys doing?" kind of like we saw last week where he said, "Who's bewitched you?" And then he's going to appeal to their relationship, which is always helpful. That's always a good tool to use to appeal to the type of relationship that you have with the person.

What are the Galatians dealing with? They're dealing with false teachers that they never met before rolling into town after Paul left, telling them grace is not enough. That Jesus alone by faith is not enough. You have to keep the law. That was their message. You have to keep the law in order to be saved. And the way that we're applying that today would be those that are stuck in legalism. Those that want to relate to God through a list of rules and regulations.

Instead of coming to God in the freedom that they have in Christ, they would rather come to God through a list of what to do, what not to do. Whether they developed them themselves or, more likely, somebody gave it to them and said, "This is the way to relate to God." Paul is pleading with them, and we pick up now in verse 8 where he says, "But then indeed, when you did not know God." Let's pause there for a minute and be reminded.

The time that they did not know God refers to the days when they were unbelievers. And the days that they were unbelievers, they were pagans. They did not worship the one true God. They did not care about the one true God. They woke up in the morning and they worshipped their false idols, did their own thing. Whatever was their life, they didn't care about God at all. They had false gods. So he's saying, "I want you to remember your life before you were saved when you didn't know God."

And then he describes it: "You guys served those which by nature are not gods. But now," verse 9, "after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage?" Here's the essence. Through their idolatry, through their fear of false gods, through their desire to appease the false gods so they don't have judgment shot down upon them and suffer all the superstitious consequences that they made up in their pagan minds, they were in bondage every day.

Not sure if they pleased the gods (little g). Not sure if they did things right. God sends them a messenger, Paul the Apostle, with the message of hope, the Gospel. Your sins can be forgiven. God is appeased through the blood that was shed by His own Son, that He loved you so much He sent His Son to die for you. He was buried and rose again the third day. Your life can be altered and radically changed beginning today.

Those who received were born again, they started to live the joy-filled life. The false teachers come in and go, "No, no, no, that's not how it works. That's not enough. You need to keep the law. You need to be circumcised. Jesus Messiah is attached to the Torah. He is promised in the Old Testament, so if you want to follow Him, you need to keep the Old Testament," and on and on, as we have learned. And Paul says, "Why are you making this choice?"

"You're not going back to paganism. You're adopting another form of bondage when you're already free." And he keys in on this, verse 9, "after you have known God, or rather are known by God." Those are relational statements: "known." It's the Greek word ginosko. It's a word that's used to describe personal, intimate knowledge of someone. It is a relational aspect. I mean, we use the same language today: "known." When you know someone. To the degree that you know someone is to the degree that they're in relationship with you.

You know someone from a distance, you know someone close — there's a big difference between the two. Every relationship in our lives, whether it be a relationship with God or a relationship with one another, grows or doesn't grow the same way. So in relationship, your relationship will grow or not grow with two things — you might want to jot them down. Super important, but also easy to remember. Relationships grow through time and testing.

Time and testing. Think about it: the longer you spend time with someone, the more you share your life with them, and the more you experience — and the new phrase today is "do life together" — you'll either grow closer or not grow closer at all. That's relationships. So you go through something together and you go through it together, what happens? On the other side, your relationship is stronger. Or you go through something and it reveals in a person their true identity and you're like, "Oh no, I don't know, they didn't show up or they didn't help or they're really mean." And then you go, "Okay, now our relationship has to change."

Because time and testing has revealed the depth of our relationship. With the Galatians here, they're newer believers, but they know God enough. He says, "Look, you guys already lived this life as pagans. Why now as Christians do you want to live a life in bondage to rules and regulations?" Then he identifies one, notice in verse 10: "You observe days and months and seasons and years." You've imposed all of the celebrations of the Old Testament on yourself now.

And because of them, these self-imposed laws, you have now used them as a means to approach God. But all the while in Christ, you can come to God anytime you want. Any day you want. Any moment that you want. Why would you go to that? Now, not only that, later on Paul would teach and the Bible would be very clear about days. You know, take days for example. It really doesn't matter what day you worship on. It doesn't matter.

So anybody that wants to throw some heavy trip on you about worshipping on Saturday or Monday or what, don't let them. It doesn't matter. As a matter of fact, the way the Bible teaches, the day on which you worship should be — you ready? — every day. That everything is as an worship unto the Lord. So notice with me, you can just jot it down in Romans chapter 14 and verse 5. It says, "One person esteems one day above another; and another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind."

Just let them worship. If Saturday's important to you, as long as it's not legalistic, we've got a Saturday night service. See you there. If Sunday's important to you, then we'll see you on Sunday. You want to make it — you can't make it on Sunday? That's fine. We'll be here on Wednesday. We worship the Lord together. And it's important that we do. Then let me give you another one. We'll get here soon enough when we study Colossians, but in Colossians chapter 2 and verse 16, it says this:

"So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ." Don't let anyone judge you. The substance, these things, these religious activities in the Old Testament are pointing to Messiah. That's their whole point. The whole point was to get your eyes on God who promised to save you. All these rituals, all these sacrifices, all these days pointed to Jesus.

It's amazing because the logic of going back to the law or the logic of saying, "Okay, now I'm a Christian, I need to keep the law," doesn't make sense. Because if you come back to the law and you start following the law for what it is, what does the law say over and over again? "Messiah is coming, Messiah is coming, Messiah is coming, Messiah is coming." And then you learn or you already know, Messiah has come. So now that He's come, He's to be embraced.

New covenant replaces the old covenant. And there's no reason now, and no good logical reason besides theological, no good logical or theological reason to go back to the law, because the law is going to just take you back to Christ. And then you're going to embrace and it's just a vicious circle of man-made religion. And that's what man-made religion is: a vicious circle of frustration and confusion.

He says back in our text, "You observe the days." He says in verse 11, "I'm afraid for you, lest I've labored for you in vain." Circle the word "vain" there in verse 11 if you like to write in your Bibles. Circle the word "vain." It means empty. But I also put a little phrase here just to remind me when I read through this section — you should write this phrase too, it might help you — I just wrote a little note here that says: "Legalism can destroy."

Legalism can destroy. And here's what I see: Paul invested his life in the Gospel. He invested a portion of his life in the lives of these unbelieving Galatians. He's been beat up, he's already been run out of town, but he's committed. Nothing's going to stop him. He is a committed man to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. He's committed to his ministry. He'll do whatever it takes. He is a man sold out to the things of God. And nothing's going to stop him.

And yet he comes to the Galatians and goes, "Man, everything I've done for you guys, maybe it wasn't worth it. Maybe you're just going to throw it away. All the work that I've invested in your life, I'm concerned." Now he uses the word "afraid," again in the context of pleading with someone. You may feel the same way when you're talking to people. You may not use the word "afraid." You may use the word "concerned." "I'm concerned for you."

I can't tell you how many times I've spoken with someone where I'm trying to help them see what God sees in their life and even what I see, so that they would just pray through it. And I'm not using my words lightly when I'm sharing with them. I've thought them through. I've prayed them through. And then when they just keep pushing back, pushing back, pushing back, I'm just like, "I'm concerned for you. What's happened? This is not how it started. What happened?"

I can't help you if you don't identify what happened. Why did you turn? Either what happened in the beginning you didn't give us the truth, or something changed. And here Paul is very clear: something changed. And he labored and labored for them and he's concerned. Then he says in verse 12, "Brethren" — now again, a very relational statement. Some hard words, and he's got a few more hard words, but "Brethren" is very relational. "Hey brothers, sisters," very relational.

"I urge you to become as I am, for I am as you are. You have not injured me at all." It's like Paul saying, "Don't be offended at what I'm sharing with you. I love you, and I must tell you the truth, even if it hurts." And you know, that's what a person does when they love you. They tell you the truth. People that don't tell you the truth, you have a right to question their love. Like, what is this? Whether it's in the moment or it's in relationship — what do you mean? Why would you not tell me the truth?

"Because I love you, I'm going to tell you the truth," Paul says. He says, "You haven't injured me because I'm still walking in freedom, but you are injuring yourself and you're probably going to injure a lot of other people unless there's a change that takes place." Not only that, this phrase "verse 12" is interesting. You have to pause there. It's one of those awkwardly staged sentences, the way it's all set up. "I urge you to become as I am, for I am as you are." And you're like, "What? What is he saying?"

And as I thought about it, here's my conclusion. He says, "I want you to be like me because I'm enjoying freedom. I want you to be like me. Because you are, you're believers, you have freedom, but you're not like me because you're not enjoying it. You have set it aside and listened to these people. You've listened to these people and now you're following them." And really what Paul's saying is, hey, both then and now, religion does nothing to save a person.

It leads to emptiness and bondage. It might make a person feel holier when they do some religious activity, but it doesn't touch the soul. It doesn't help them. And Paul says, "I want you to be like me. I'm free." You know, you guys born-again believers, you're free too. You're just not enjoying it. Paul was able to take the freedom that God gave him in Christ and use it for the Gospel. I think that's another ingredient here.

"I want you to be like me because you guys are listening to false teachers and you're not evangelizing. You're not serving others. You're not loving others. You're all caught up now in your little doctrine. That's all we ever hear about: your little doctrine, your little binder, your little emails, your videos. They're not talking about the things of the Lord anymore. They're talking about the law." And you meet people like that. They get into stuff. They're not talking about the Lord anymore. They're talking about their stuff. Their new thing, their new idea, their new theory.

And it's like, "No, no, no, what happened? What happened?" Paul says. Let me show you in 1 Corinthians chapter 9. Would you turn there with me? That's going to be left from Galatians. So go left. I want you to see this because I think this is a great description of what Paul says. "I want you to be where I am. I want you to enjoy the life that I have. I want it to be for the sake of the Gospel."

I want you guys to know that you have so much freedom that you can approach people where they're at with the Gospel. And when you get there — this is a great cross-reference, by the way. Some of the best cross-references in your Bible are the ones you write down and the ones you find — this is a great one for Galatians 4. When you come back, you can just jot it down. Notice in verse 19, Paul says, "For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more."

"To the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win the Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those under the law; to those who are without the law" — which would be the Galatians — "I am as as without the law." Verse 22, "To the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. But this I do for the gospel's sake, that I may be a partaker of it with you."

Paul is teaching them that his freedom has led him to be a servant of the Lord and a servant to people for the Gospel. This group of believers in Galatia have become followers of false teachers. That's their new identity. They've adopted a false teaching and have begun to follow these people, turning against Paul. Now come back to Galatians 4 with me where he continues and he says, "Brethren, I urge you, be like me. You haven't injured me at all."

Verse 13, "You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at first. And my trial which was in my flesh, in my body, you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus." Again, after some deep theology, Paul says, "Don't you guys remember?" Again, he's pleading. "Do you guys remember the time we spent together? Do you remember me?"

It's almost like he's saying, "Do you remember? You know, remember when we met? Remember I rolled into town? Remember how sick I was? How much pain I was carrying in my body? Do you remember my eyes?" He points that out. "You remember my eyes? My eyes, they were in need. I needed some help, man. I was so sick, it was in my eyes." Many people believe that this was some oriental eye disease that made his eyes puff out and kind of bulge out and nasty with pus running out of his eyes down his face.

Very unattractive. Very difficult. You combine that with a description of Paul from the first century, and Paul was a very unattractive man. It says he was a man of small stature with meeting, furrowed eyebrows, bald head, bow-legged, strongly built, red complexion — which means his skin was red — with a beard, bulging eyes, and pus coming all down his face. That's how he came to Galatia. But not only that, he came to Galatia, no doubt, having been beat up, chased out of town.

I mean, this could have been malaria, could have been epilepsy. It could have been the beatings he took after he was beaten and stoned. It could have been a lot of different things. But he doesn't come to the Galatians with anything to prove and anything to show off. He came very weak, like physically, in his appearance. He came weak in physical appearance, but he came in the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit. He says, "Don't you guys remember? You guys need to remember this."

Guest (Male): This is Abounding Grace, and Pastor Ed Taylor is leading a study of Galatians right now. You can hear these radio programs on our website anytime at aboundinggraceradio.com. Another way to go and grow in the Word is by downloading the Calvary Church app. This is a great way for you to take in the Word of God wherever you may be.

Today we'd like to recommend Pastor Ed's book "Letting Go of Your Past." It ties in so nicely to this study of Galatians. Can you think of something that occurred a while back that is continually plaguing you? Maybe someone did something to you that really hurt, or you did something that you're ashamed of. God wants to set you free. No matter what you've been through or what you've done, I think you'll find this book encouraging and helpful.

Request a copy of "Letting Go of Your Past" today when you give a gift of $25 or more to Abounding Grace. Call 877-30-GRACE or order online at calvaryco.store. And please remember we are listener-supported. We'd very much appreciate your standing with us. If the Lord is leading you to take an active role in this ministry through either a one-time gift or ongoing support, please visit us online at aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE.

Well, that'll do it for today. Come back next time when Pastor Ed will pick up where we left off in Galatians here on Abounding Grace. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.