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Skip Heitzig: When I grew up and my mother would say, "Your father wants to speak to you," that was different than, "Your dad would like to see you." When she said my father, that's a buttoned-up phrase. That's sit up and pay attention. But dad, especially daddy, that's relational. That's familiar. That's let me sit you down and tell you a story. That's a daddy.

God has sent the spirit of His son into our hearts where we have a personal relationship with Him like Abraham, who believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Then the law came. The law served its purpose. Jesus died on the cross. That religious system is out of the way. Now we cry once again in that relational way, "Abba, Father." It's intimate. It's personal.

Therefore, you are no longer a slave but a son. If a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, "Though Jesus was rich, he became poor for your sakes, that you through his poverty might be rich." The son of God became a man to enable men to become sons of God.

But verse eight, then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which are by nature not gods. The Galatians, their background was pagan. They worshipped a whole host of Roman and Greek gods, the pantheon of gods. They worshipped gods, but they were all fake, just as there are many religions in the world today that worship different gods, but they're all fake. They're all made up.

Every religious system that worships this god or that god, they're just people who made these things up. It's by human imagination. There's only one divine revelation that tells us there's one true God. He's referring now to the Galatian worship system. When you did not know God, you Galatians served those which by nature are not gods. They're just made-up deities.

You remember Paul went to Athens. We've gone through the story even in Galatians. He looked around and he went to the men on the Areopagus. He said, "I've been hanging around your town today and I noticed all the statues that you have to so many different gods. You are a very religious group of people. I even saw a statue that said to the unknown god. You have all these gods by name, but in case you left one out and you don't want to offend some unknown god, you have a statue to the unknown god. Well, I have come here to tell you about that unknown god and make him known to you." He preached the gospel of the true and living God to the Athenians.

But now verse nine, but now after you have known God—now watch this—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? We often refer to somebody who is a believer as somebody who knows God. He knows the Lord. She knows the Lord. It's pretty amazing to an unbeliever. What do you mean you know the Lord? If they're not initiated into what we believe, that falls on their ears like, "Who do you think you are? You know God?"

"Yeah, I know God. I talked to him earlier. We're friends." "How can you say that?" It's just weird to them. Well, here's something even more astonishing than "I know God." God knows me. Now that you know God, or rather Paul says, are known by God. You couldn't know God unless you were known by God. God always takes the initiative.

The reason you know Him is because He has taken the initiative to know you and to call you. It's like love. We love Him because He first loved us. We choose Him because He first chose us. That's what Jesus told His disciples, "You didn't choose me. I chose you." I know God. Well, actually God knows you and you are inscribed, it says in Isaiah, on the palms of His hands. He knows your going out, your coming in. He knows your secret thoughts. It's a beautiful thought. God knows me and took the initiative.

After that happened and you've known God and you've been known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, the ABCs, those elements he spoke about to which you desire again to be in bondage? Why are you going back to Judaism? Why are you going backward, not forward? You're Gentiles and somebody's convinced you that you need to keep the law of Moses, which served a purpose, keeping people caged and in restraint until the Messiah could come so they could enjoy the full expression as adult sons and daughters of God.

Why are you going backwards? Religion does this. Religion enslaves people. It makes people feel good. If you keep this, then God will love you. I've kept that, so God must love me. Then I feel like I'm in jeopardy if I didn't keep that. Now God maybe doesn't love me as much. That's all religious system. That's bondage. They were going back into that. It keeps a person in fear.

What were they doing specifically? Verse 10, "You observe days and months and seasons and years." They get hung up on certain days. "Oh no, it's the Sabbath." "So?" "Well, it's the Sabbath. There are certain things I can't do on the Sabbath." Well, I can. Don't you keep the Sabbath? Well, the Sabbath has been kept for me in Christ.

One man esteems one day of the week, the Sabbath, over all the other days. Another man esteems all the days alike. These are Paul's words. Let each be persuaded in his own mind. So in my mind, in Skip's mind, the Sabbath is no different to me than Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. I worship God on all those days. Well, that's not my conviction. Great. Be convinced in your own mind. Keep it to yourself.

Verse 11, "I'm afraid for you," Paul writes, this once-Jewish rabbi writes to these Gentile Christians. "I'm afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. I came there. I shared the gospel of grace, of liberty. Now you're going backward. I feel like all the labor that I did in Galatia was for no good reason. You're going back to bondage. Brethren, I urge you to become as I am."

What does that mean? Free. I'm free. I grew up in that stuff. I was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. I kept the law. I worked hard at it. But he continues in Philippians 3 and he says, those things that I thought were awesome and I counted as important, they're dung, they're refuse to me. I put them aside that I might be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is by faith in Jesus Christ.

I want you to become like I am, free in Christ. Brethren, I urge you, become as I am, for I am as you are. I was steeped in Judaism and now I have become like you guys, not hung up on it. But now you guys are getting hung up on what the Judaizers are feeding you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh, you did not despise nor reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that if possible you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me.

Now I need to unravel that a little bit for you. First of all, take note that Paul said he was sick. I say take note especially if you are of the persuasion of word of faith kind of church, the Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin school that says if you're a child of God, you'll never be sick. You never have to be sick. You can walk in perfect health and you can be healed.

Poor Paul. He wasn't smart enough to have your theology because he says, "You know that the reason I came to Galatia is because I was sick. I had an infirmity. You know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at first." I do thank God that He is a God who heals and I believe God heals today. I think Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

When somebody's sick, I'll pray for healing. I've prayed for people and I've seen them with my own eyes get healed, sometimes miraculously. I've prayed for other people and they've died. Now, I've been healed of every disease I've ever had. Here I am. I'm alive. But one day I won't be. As Walter Martin used to say, we all die of our last disease. Even faith healers. They don't like to broadcast it and their followers certainly don't like to let you in on it, but they die of their last disease.

Guest (Male): This is Connect with Skip Heitzig. When you give to this ministry, you help reach thousands of people every day with God's life-changing truth, encouraging them to know Him, trust Him, and walk in His freedom. This month, we want to thank you with a special resource package. You'll receive Skip's book, Biography of God, which helps you explore God's nature, His power, the mystery of the Trinity, and the hope that comes from removing the false limitations we sometimes place on Him.

Plus, you'll get Skip's six-message CD series, Expound: Galatians, where Skip unpacks the book of Galatians and the freedom believers have through grace, not works. Your gift today helps bring the life-changing message of Jesus to people around the world through Connect with Skip. Request your resources when you give $50 or more at connectwithskip.com/offer or by calling 800-922-1888. Now, here's more from Pastor Skip.

Skip Heitzig: Now, Paul had some kind of an infirmity. What was it exactly? Most people, most scholars, believe it was a form of malaria and that the malaria was especially prevalent in the area of Galatia that he first went to. You remember in Acts 13 and 14, which is Paul's first missionary journey, that Paul went from Antioch in Syria to the island of Cyprus, conducted his ministry there, then he sailed north to Perga, the port of Perga in Pamphylia.

Pamphylia was known for its moist climate and it was filled with malaria. A lot of people got malaria in the area of Pamphylia. It is believed that perhaps Paul got malaria and he needed to get to higher elevation, which the area, the cities of Galatia—Iconium, Lystra, Derbe—the area that he preached in, is at 3,600 feet above sea level. That's higher and drier. That would have taken care of the symptoms he was experiencing of malaria.

It could be that when Paul in 2 Corinthians 12 speaks about his thorn in the flesh, some physical ailment, some physical infirmity that he had that he called a thorn in the flesh. He said, "I prayed three times that God would deliver me from it." God basically said, "No." He said, "My grace is all you need, Paul." You're going to have to live with it. Paul said, "All right, I'll live with it. I'll boast in it because as long as I'm sick and I'm weak, then I'm depending on Jesus for his strength. So I embrace it and I glory in it."

What was that thorn in the flesh? Perhaps malaria that affected his eyes. It could be a combination of this. But when he was in Iconium and then he went to Lystra and preached the gospel in Lystra, they took him outside the city and stoned him. They thought he was dead. But the believers got around him, prayed for him, and he got back up on his feet. He went from there to Derbe, the next town, then he went back to Lystra where they stoned him and kept preaching the gospel.

It could be that when he was stoned, that affected his eyes and he had a perpetual case of running eyes. Some say because of malaria, others say because of the stoning. But it would seem, and I'm just guessing here, that part of Paul's condition was an eye condition, an ophthalmic condition, because he mentions here in verse 15, "I bear you witness that if possible you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. You saw my condition and you welcomed me and you loved me."

Something else toward the end of this book, look at chapter six, verse 11. "See with what large letters I have written to you with my own hand." Now, when Paul wrote a letter, he dictated it. Somebody else wrote it, a scribe wrote it, an amanuensis wrote it. But the amanuensis would stop short, leaving Paul the ability to sign off the last few words with his own handwriting. But evidently, when he wrote this epistle of Galatians, he had to use pretty big printing, pretty big lettering. "With large letters I wrote to you."

Then look at verse 17. "From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Perhaps he's referring to the result of being stoned in Lystra on that first missionary journey that it affected his eyesight. All of that to say, I don't know, but those are possibilities.

Verse 16 of chapter four. "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" They, the Judaizers, court you, but for no good. Yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. The Judaizers came in, this group of Jewish people from Jerusalem telling them to get circumcised. They came in and tried to isolate the Galatians from Paul and Paul's influence.

They were very zealous. They were very persuasive. Paul is saying, look, there's nothing wrong with being zealous as long as it's for a good cause, for a good reason. Remember what Paul said about the Jews in Romans? They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. Some people get swept up by the dynamic of a person. They're just so zealous and they're almost mesmerized by it. A person's zeal can be persuasive.

Be careful when somebody's really zealous for something. If it's for a good cause, cool. If it's for truth, cool. But weigh the words, weigh the doctrine. Make sure that it's for the right cause. It is good to be zealous in a good thing, verse 18, always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

That sounds like a beautiful sentiment and a lot of times that is quoted. That's the heart of Paul the apostle, this pastor, "I labor for you again in Christ until Christ is formed in you." He wants to see them grow. But get what he's saying here. Let me put it to you this way, women. Imagine having the same baby twice. No thanks, right? Once that baby's born, that baby's born. You don't want to have that baby twice.

Paul labored just to bring them to a born-again experience. Now he feels like he has to labor again to rebirth them into the grace that they have left behind. But I'm willing to do it if I have to do it because I want to see Christ formed in you. I love how he begins verse 19, "my little children." Let me tell you why I'm drawing your attention to that. It's the only time Paul writes like that.

This is not unusual for the apostle John. If you're familiar with 1 John, he uses "my little children" seven times in those epistles. That's a John kind of thing to say. But Paul isn't that kind of touchy-feely, my little children. But here he is. He has given a lot of his time and labor to the Galatian church. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.

I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I have doubts about you. This is the problem of writing a letter or a text. You don't get the tone of voice. This is why I don't like text messaging. You can't get the intonation and the meaning. You can say something and the tone of your voice makes it mean something different.

I could take my little puppy, Maisie, and say, "Oh Maisie, you're the stupidest, ugliest dog ever." She's not going to know the difference. She's not going to know the insult I just gave because the tone of my voice is different than the meaning of my words. When you write something like a letter or a text, you don't always get the tone correctly. It's a handicap way of communicating. I wish I was with you.

Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. Who was the bondwoman? What was her name? Hagar. And the free woman, what was her name? Sarah. Sarai, Sarah became his wife. Hagar was the handmaid of Sarah, the Egyptian handmaid, and they had Ishmael.

But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through the promise, which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, that corresponds to Jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with her children.

But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, "Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you who do not travail. For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband." Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise.

But as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman." So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free.

I feel that's going to take some explaining because there are so many different thoughts and unless you're immersed in that literature of Genesis, it might seem a little awkward to you. Maybe you all understand that perfectly, but because of the time, I wanted to finish chapter four. Now we'll reach a little bit into chapter four next time, like we did in chapter three this time, to set the pace for chapter five next week and unravel all that we just read that sounds to some of you like mumbo jumbo.

Let's pray. Father, we know it's not mumbo jumbo. We know it is your word and these are very powerful truths, especially for those who have been immersed in the law and are trusting in the law, or are hearing from others that they should trust in the law, trust in themselves and keeping the law, rather than the freedom of just trusting completely, unreservedly in the work that Jesus did.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we go, remember, your generosity helps share God's word around the world, bringing truth and hope to people who need Jesus. This month, we'd love to thank you for your support by sending you a special resource bundle: Skip's book, Biography of God, along with his six-message CD series, Expound: Galatians.

Together, these resources help you explore who God really is and how to live in the spiritual freedom He offers. Give today at connectwithskip.com/offer or call 800-922-1888. See you next time on Connect with Skip.

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