of the few Bibles, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians. Of course, the writing of the New Testament letters after being organized by letter, organized from size, longest to shortest. So Galatians is longer than Ephesians, shorter than 1st and 2nd Corinthians. Galatians chapter 4, We'll read verses 8 through 20. Galatians 4, beginning at verse 8, let us hear the word of God. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to become once more? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain. Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong. You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness? For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me. Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth? They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose. And not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you." So far the reading of God's holy word. Dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, let us not fall into the error of thinking that only people who experience exactly and directly what I have experienced Can speak to me about what I go through This is this is this is a kind of thinking that is really taking over our world right now and It takes a form something like this if you are not blank type of person You can have no idea how to relate to blank type of person. It's a very divisive way of thinking. It's a very self-isolated and really in many ways self-centered way of thinking. It's again, it's a thinking that's driving many of the non-anti-Christian, the anti-Christian movements in our nation, in our state, and in our world. And it's a type of thinking that at least a softer version of it can be found really anywhere. And so we can have this thinking that, well, if someone hasn't experienced what I have, then they can't speak to me about that experience, right? We can have that thinking. And so there was once a pastor, and he was speaking not in a sermon, but in a conference, and he gave the illustration of childbirth. And he was speaking about a difficult ministry, and he gave the illustration of childbirth. Of course, he was a man, so he had never given birth. And afterwards, a woman comes up to him and says, you don't know what you're talking about. How could you do such a thing? And you know what the pastor could have said? The pastor could have said, well, the Apostle Paul uses the illustration of childbirth to talk about his difficult ministry. And he was a man, wasn't he? He was a man. He never experienced that difficult and painful thing. But he can use that as an illustration. He can relate to others, even when he's not gone through exactly what they have gone through. And again, we know the Apostle Paul never gave birth. And people of God, this passage, these verses, they are packed with information about how we speak to one another in love, how we relate to one another in love. And this reality that you can speak of another's experience, even if you haven't had exactly that experience on your own, in seeking to searly understand, in seeking to searly speak to others in a loving way, that's just one small part of the pie here. The Apostle speaks to the Galatians. He calls them both his brothers in verse 12 and his dear little children in verse 19. He speaks to them with love. He speaks to them from the heart. He speaks to them with sincerity. And as the Apostle says in another place, imitate me even as I would imitate Christ. We see that example. We see that loving speech. And we say now this morning, people of God, sincerely, direct your friends to the truth, seeing even the example of such before us this morning. And so first we'll see it is a theological plea. The apostle has not forgotten the theology. He is. He's not moving past that or away from it. No, they go together. It's a theological plea, but it's a personal plea. It's an open plea. So first, the theology. And we see that verses 8 to 11, they're giving us a link back to all of the heavy theology that we've worked through from the end of chapter 2 through the beginning of chapter 4. And that's not done. There's another heavy theological allegory upcoming. But he's linking back to that, even with the language of adoption that we just had in verses 5 to 7. But he's also introducing the personal side of his plea at the same time in this paragraph from 8 to 11, which are the verses for our first point. And so in verse 11, he speaks about his labor, which he'll further specify in verse 19 is like the labor of childbirth. So he's linking all of these things together on the personal side, on the theological side. And on the theological side, he's expanding the language of how we're adopted And he's saying that it's more precise, not to say that we have come to know God, but really it's more precise to turn that around and say we have come to be known by God. And so now if we think of that, and we think of that in terms of adopted, and we kind of press that illustration a little bit, following Philip Rykin, who has done this, we can ask ourselves, when we're adopted by God, are we adopted as children? or as teenagers, or are we adopted as infants? You see, we're adopted as infants, aren't we? Because when parents who would go to an orphanage for an adoption, and sadly, adoption is a lot more complicated than that today, but it used to be a simpler process. So when parents would go to an orphanage to adopt a child, they first know the child, right? It's the parents who first say, we'll adopt this baby girl or baby boy, and we're going to call this child our son or daughter. They say that first, right? And then after they've taken that infant into their home, after they knew that infant, then that infant grows up and knows to call them father, mother. And so it is with our heavenly adoption. We're adopted as infants. First, God knew us. First, He called us son, daughter, infants taken by Him, to Him. And then we come to a point where we know Him because He has grabbed hold of us and we say, Heavenly Father, Abba, Father, the perfect Heavenly Father. That's the language going on here, that's verse 5 and 6 and 7 together with verse 9. And the apostle is saying, in this sweet relationship, because he's not just any father, God is the perfect heavenly father, why would you want to go back to the orphanage? Why would you want to throw this away? Because that's what you're doing when you return to works righteousness, when you heed these false teachers, the Judaizers, the circumcision party who wants to bring you back to all of the Old Testament system. And that's what seasons and days and years, like putting that all together, that's a way of referring to the whole Old Testament system. And some of those things have parallels in the New Testament system. Some of them don't even have any parallel, right? We don't even have years in the same way anymore. And he's saying, why would you return to all of that? To do so is to return to elementary principles, is to return to the way you were just when you were pagans. Now, the Judaizers probably don't want to hear that at all, do they? They don't want to hear that returning to Judaism and making that the basis for your salvation is the same as returning to paganism. That's what the Apostle is saying. To return to works righteousness in any way is to return to slavery. And so he's even linking it back to how he had used that phrase of elementary principles in verse 3. It's all one. It doesn't matter if you're enslaved to the pagan false gods or if in the name of returning to Moses in Old Testament theology you're doing works righteousness in that way. It doesn't matter. It's all the same. It's all slavery. It's all not trusting in Christ alone. And therefore, again, the Judaizers aren't going to be happy about this. But to trust in Old Testament ceremonies of Moses is the same as paganism. The same as your former pagan enslavement of verse 8. And so they're now observing days and months and seasons and years. There's two problems with this. First, at least two problems. the Old Testament, the whole Old Testament system, has been replaced by the New Testament signs and days. That's the first problem. The second problem, and the one essential problem that runs all through the text, is that they want to return to these things for the sake of works righteousness. The apostle does not say that they have in Galatia, replace the New Testament signs and days. Presumably, the Galatians are still observing the new Christian Sabbath. They're still observing the new Christian signs, baptism and the Lord's Supper, but they're presumably still doing that while adding on top of it all of the Old Testament things as well. They're like, it's not something commonly done, but we know it has been done. John Wesley did that. Have you ever heard of the Oxford Holy Club? Probably not. But that's what they did. They were a group of holy rollers, to use that expression. They called themselves the Oxford Holy Club. And what they did is they practiced all kinds of good works, which were seen as the basis of their salvation. And they practiced both Sabbath observance, not one day in seven, but two days. They did it both on Saturday and on Sunday, because they wanted to do everything, right? They wanted to check all their boxes. The indication is that the Galatians, they're not getting rid of the Lord's Supper. They're not rebuked for that. But they're putting everything together. And then, in putting all of this together, they're trusting in all these things. No, they need to be led out of this. They need to be led to say what John Wesley said later in his life when he came to true conversion, not depending upon his own works, and he said looking back, quote, I had even then the faith of a servant, though not that of a son. And so when John Wesley walked out of the Oxford Holy Club, he walked out of slavery to works and into sonship by Christ. And that's what the apostle wants for them. These were the two errors of the false teachers and we really only need to state them a little bit differently to speak about two errors that we must avoid today, right? The first error is do not add Old Testament ceremonies and signs to the New Testament ones. Now we continue in the New Testament ones, right? The application of this is not throw out the New Testament signs and day completely. This is one of a handful of passages that's frequently used to say that we don't have a Sabbath anymore. That makes absolutely no sense. If you were being consistent and you use this passage to say that, then you'd have to throw out every day, the Old Testament day and the New Testament day, and you'd have to throw out every season. What are the seasons? What does it mean when he says every season? Well, it's the season of the feasts, right? Including the feasts of Passover. And so if you're going to this passage to say there's no one-in-seven pattern anymore, there's no New Testament day to follow, to be consistent you'd also have to throw out every day, every season, you'd have to throw out the feast we have now. What's the one feast that replaced all of the Old Testament seasons, all the Old Testament feasts? It's the Lord's Supper. But thankfully, those who say that we should throw out every day don't usually say we should throw out every sign. What it is telling us is not to go back, not to add on the Old Testament ceremonies, the whole Old Testament system. We don't set apart two days in seven, we set apart one, and we set apart the New Testament day now, which is the first day, Sunday, as the Apostle speaks of elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 16. We get rid of the Old Testament seasons because they all, Passover and all the rest of them, have been replaced by the one season that we have now, the Lord's Supper. And we take the whole system together and we take the Old Testament sign of circumcision and we replace that with the New Testament sign of baptism. So the first is we don't add Old Testament to New Testament. The second one is we just restate slightly the error of trusting in these things and we say that always, only, we trust in Jesus Christ. It does not matter if you're trusting in only the Old Testament signs for your salvation. That was wrong in the Old Testament when Abraham lived by faith, and that's wrong today when we shouldn't use those signs at all. You should not trust in, for your salvation, the Old Testament signs together with the New Testament signs, as presumably the Galatians were doing. And you do not trust, just as Abraham in the Old Testament couldn't trust in the Old Testament signs, you do not trust in the New Testament signs in day and hour. Again, we're not throwing out Sunday, we're not throwing out the Lord's Supper, we're not throwing out baptism, but you are not saved. by your observance of these things. You are not saved by that bread and wine. You are not saved by that water. We are saved always and only by Jesus Christ. Always and only by Him alone. It is His blood. These are just signs. They're the New Testament signs. They're the ones we have now. But they are just signs. We need Jesus himself. So these theological elements are here and we now move even with that word entreat. I entreat you. I plea with you. That's our second point. It's a personal plea. The Apostle Paul is not afraid to speak about or display his emotions. He opens himself up to speak personally from the heart. Now, the Apostle Paul, he is an egghead. He speaks with literally big words and literally huge sentences. Usually in the English, that's toned down and we make his sentences a lot shorter. But he never leaves it there, does he? He comes out of his soaring theological arguments and he speaks very personally. He doesn't ever leave it in the head. He speaks also from his heart. You know, some have called the Apostle Paul the weepy apostle. We call Jeremiah the weeping prophet. There are a handful of times when the New Testament references the tears of the Apostle Paul. It does so in obviously positive ways. It's hard for, I'm speaking especially to men right now, because studies have shown that you put men and women in a room, And you ask them to write down all the emotional words they can think of, women usually come up with a list that's twice as long. Women have a longer emotional vocabulary, literally. And there's even, we're trying to understand some of this, even scientifically. As far as we can tell, one Christian counselor put it this way, The testosterone that's infused into males, even from the womb, literally rips their brain apart at birth. And so the male has a right side and a left side, and it's hard to bring his whole brain together. It's literally difficult for men to learn emotional language. But is that a good thing? Is it a good thing that men have a hard time? Knowing and speaking about emotions and showing emotions. Is that is that a good thing? You know sometimes we think it's a good thing, right? What's the saying? You know grown men don't cry saying go if you want to be a real man You just flex your muscle muscles, and you're stone-cold. No emotions. This is a real man Boys you want to learn how to be men Learn how to cry Imitate me, the Apostle says, even as I imitate Christ. The Apostle cries when he departs from his friends. The Apostle cries when he considers the lost and those who are not coming to repentance. Acts 20, 2 Corinthians 2, Philippians 3. Is the Apostle imitating Christ in these things? He certainly is. When does Jesus weep? Well, maybe you know one time, the shortest verse in the Bible, Jesus wept. When was that? He wept at the death of his friend, Lazarus. Is the apostle following the example of Christ when he weeps about those who will not repent? What's the other specific time that we read about the tears of our Savior, Jesus Christ? It's when he's standing over Jerusalem, isn't it? And before he goes into the city to die for sinners, he weeps. Why? Because they will not see peace and where peace comes from. And so he stands, Luke 19, and he stands and looks over Jerusalem and he weeps. I am going to die for them and they will not look to me for life. The apostle follows that example and cries for those who will not repent, who will not turn to Jesus Christ. You want to be a real man? Learn how to cry. Learn how to cry for those who do not come to Jesus Christ. Learn how to cry for your friends. Never leave it stone cold. Never leave it just at the soaring theological arguments. Bring it to your heart. Bring it to your heart. Follow the Apostle as he follows the Savior. Those are the two specific times when we read of our Savior crying. We also read that just generally, he did it often in praying for others. Hebrews chapter 5. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter 5. Learn how to be a real man and turn to Hebrews 5 and read Hebrews 5 verse 7. In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. to him who was able to save him from death and he was heard because of his reverence. He is the one, reading on, who became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears. Does the Bible have a large emotional vocabulary? Does Jesus have a large emotional vocabulary and display of emotions? Yes, he does. In imitating him, does the apostle do the same thing? You know, this is not one of those handful of times when it explicitly says that he cries. Although, when he speaks about the anguish of childbirth, that often includes tears, doesn't it? Every indication is that the apostle cried for the Galatians, too, because he's concerned about their salvation. And in Philippians 3, he says that's when he's brought to tears. This is a personal, heartfelt plea. He then speaks of a personal example of their love to him. Again, he's pleaded. for them to go away from false teaching based upon his apostolic authority, which he defends in chapter 2. He's done so with many doctrinal arguments from the end of chapter 2 through the first verses of chapter 4. Now he's appealing based, not just with a heartfelt plea, but based on their personal relationship. He says, I had an ailment. What is this ailment? We don't know. It's too bad. It could it could be referring to disease that word can refer to something. That's not a disease Maybe it's one of the times that the Apostle was was beaten Right second Corinthians 11 says that Paul was lashed at the hands of the Jews five times He was beaten with rods three times. He was stoned once Acts doesn't record all of those times for us to That would explain, that's just a guess, but that would explain how it's a temporary condition, right? Maybe this is one of the times he's been lashed, he's been beaten, and he needs people to care for him. We can almost picture him stumbling into Galatia and needing assistance. And that could have been an excuse for them to look down upon him. That was the common practice of the ancient world, Jew or Greek, was if someone was deformed, it meant that they had a demon. It meant that it was their own fault somehow. And so it was common to see a deformed person in the street and spit at them. And the apostle says, I came to you with an ailment. I came to you when you could have scorned me. But instead of treating me like I had a demon, you treated me like you were my angels. We have a beautiful history together. And then as you were caring for me, I preached the gospel to you. And I did so with understanding, right? That's what he means when he says, I became like you. That's what he means when he says that. He means, I sought to understand you. I sought to know how you ticked. I didn't just say it in any way. I said it with understanding of how you could receive it. It reminds us of the time when the apostle says to the Jew, I became like a Jew, and to a Gentile, I became like a Gentile. What is he saying? He's saying, I'm doing all that I can to speak what you will understand, to speak the good news in a way that you will be able to receive it. You loved me beautifully. Being willing to give up your most valuable possession. That's what the expression you would have gouged out your eyes for me means. That was seen as a person's most valuable possession. Blindness was the worst disease. Your eye was your most valuable possession. You were willing to do anything for me. You loved me beautifully. Though, by the standards of the day, many would have spit at me. Oh, it's a beautiful picture of love. and seeking to help those who are downtrodden. It's beautiful whenever we see this, isn't it? So the Apostle is pleading with them in every way, from the heart, appeals to their close personal relationship. Of course, he hasn't thrown out all that theology that he works through, and so the word truth appears again. You know that I love you. Just as I know that you showed great love for me. But now, are you being led astray by these false teachers? So that when I correct you, when I bring the truth to correct you, now you're going to call me your enemy? How can you do this? I'm appealing to you in every way. No. I'm speaking the truth in love. I'm not your enemy. And that brings us into our third point, because it's an open plea contrasted with the false teachers who want everything to be closed. They want to shut you out, verse 17 says. Let's work through some of the differences in motivation between false teaching and true teaching. And we're looking at these verses, especially verse 17, to do this. We're also with the first one let's let's remember where where we are just broadly speaking False teaching leads to bondage and rituals and works righteousness true teaching wants to lead to freedom in Christ That's one what's two false teachers want disciples in their own image True teachers want disciples in the image of Christ. I Verse 17, they make much of you, not for a good purpose, they do it, at the end of the verse, so that you may make much of them, so that you'll be disciples in their image, so that their name will be exalted. That's what false teachers want. What does the Apostle Paul say? He says, imitate me just as I imitate Christ. I'm the chief of sinners, don't look at me, look at Christ. 1 Corinthians chapter 1 says, when people were starting to associate themselves with Paul or with Apollos, Did Paul want disciples in his own image? No. He was so distraught by that that he says, I'm glad I hardly baptized any of you so that you wouldn't walk around saying, I'm of Paul. I was baptized by Paul. I'm his disciple. No, he's a true teacher. He doesn't want any of this. He wants them to be in Christ. He doesn't want to make much of them for the bad purpose of false teachers that the false teachers themselves would be made much of. Now this is a contrast between false teachers and true teachers. And then related to that, these things are all related to each other, but number three, false teachers want things hidden. True teachers want things in the open. And so the false teachers, the middle of verse 17, they want to shut you out. Then building off of that, number four, false teachers want their message heard, True teachers want the preaching of any faithful preacher, any faithful preacher. It doesn't matter if it's me. It only matters if they're preaching Christ. And so here now we're basically paraphrasing Philippians chapter 1, where the apostle says, I don't even care if they're doing it out of bad motivation. I just care that they're preaching Christ. If they preach Christ, I'm happy. I don't care if they don't like me. I just care if they're preaching Christ. That's the kind of things the Apostle says. The false teachers want it all about themselves. They want themselves to be built up. They don't want the focus on Christ. They want the focus on works. And then, of course, any works-based religion is going to lead to all kinds of dependence upon the teachers, right? Because they're the ones who are going to define what all the works are. We see this in Amish and Mennonite communities, don't we? It's the leaders of the community. They have all the control because they define what rules they do have to follow, what rules they don't have to follow. Works, righteousness always leads to complete dependence upon the teachers. Preaching Christ leads to freedom in Christ. Oh, he loves them. He loves his little children, verse 19. He's willing to give birth twice. Did you notice that going back to verse 11, I'm afraid that I've labored over you in vain. That's the illustration image we have here. I am again in the anguish of childbirth. Now from the human perspective, now God knows all those who are once saved, always saved, but from the human perspective, the apostle sees that they came to profess Christ, now they're drifting out of Christ, now he has to bring them back into Christ again. Now that's a hard labor. You've got to tell people that they're wrong, you've got to lead them to repentance, you've got to lead them to Christ alone. That's difficult labor. But he's saying, I went through that difficult labor once. I love you. I'm willing to go through it again. I remember after the birth of our first child, maybe a few days afterward, it's kind of fresh on my mind. Again, I didn't experience it. I'm a man, but I was there. I had some knowledge of it, right? Enough to speak of it in illustration. All that pain is fresh on my mind, right? So I basically said to my mom, thank you for going through that to give birth to me. And my mom said, I'd go through it again. I'd go through it again. That's what the apostles say, isn't it? I will labor again. I will labor again. I want you to see the truth. I want you to see Christ. You have drifted away from him. You have drifted back to elementary principles. I will labor again. Jesus Christ, I love you like a mother loves her child. That's another reason why this is an appropriate illustration, isn't it? What's the best moment? When after birth you hear the words, give the baby to the mother. give the baby to the mother. And then after all of that labor, the mother can take that child into her arms, the first one to hold the baby. I will do it again. And I love you. I am pleading openly with you from my heart. Philippians 3. If you are really drifting away from Christ, I am shedding tears that you might repent. There are, of course, advantages to the written word. So personal as the apostle, he speaks of the advantages of the spoken word. He wants them to be able to hear his tone, his heartfelt tone. We're, of course, working through the advantages of the written word in Belgian Confession. Five articles focused on that divinely written word, even as it was divinely spoken first. We're looking at that a little bit tonight. But now we have it only in written form. Written words have many advantages to them, but the advantage of the spoken word is tone. I want to be there in person. I'm perplexed about what's going on, but I want to be there and I want to speak to you in person. You can hear the love in my voice. That's what I desire. Kind of an expanded conclusion here. Because there are so many... Pulling all these verses together then, there are so many things that this tells us about how to relate to one another. And so we're going to speak about, almost in list form, four characteristics of a word fitly spoken. But first, we're going to work through some lessons of a congregation relating to an ordained teacher. Of course, this has some application to any relationship, especially any relationship of labor, of bringing one to Jesus Christ. And here's one big lesson. So this one's not in list form. One big lesson in the way that a congregation should treat the teacher. We'll judge the pastor just as they judge the special pastor, the apostle, based on his faithfulness and only on his faithfulness. His faithfulness in directing to Christ, his focus on Jesus Christ. The Apostle, right, they didn't judge him based on his personal appearance. They didn't judge him based on the fact that he's single. They didn't judge him based on the fact that he's not very eloquent. The Apostle says that, right? He says, I can't preach like Apollos. I'm not eloquent like that. They didn't judge him on any of those things. When he first came to him, they judged him on the good news that he was preaching and they were receiving. And that's a big lesson for how we are to look at any minister, or when days might come, whenever the need might arise to call new ministers. That's what we focus on. We focus on the content of the preaching, the faithfulness, and the faithfulness in sincerely in love directing others to Jesus Christ. And then three lessons in the way that a teacher should treat the congregation. And again, this has some application how all of us treat others, especially others under our care in some form or another. First is that, remember that people are confusing. The apostle was perplexed, but through that confusion and through the wishy-washy activity of people, because we're all sinners, remain patient and loving and gentle and kind. So we're anticipating a little bit, once again, the fruits of the Spirit that we're getting closer to. Second, when people who have treated us kindly in the past are not treating us well now, and that happens, remind them of the kindness they once had. In so doing, point them back to a better way. That's what the Apostle is doing here, isn't it? Think upon that past kindness in order to think of them in the best way, even as you're directing them out of their current error. And third, speaking the truth, never be afraid. Never be afraid to speak the truth, even when it may make people label you as the enemy. And so then following on the heels of that, four characteristics, these are related, four characteristics of a word fitly spoken in sincere love. So it's spoken in accordance with the word of truth, never depart from the truth. It's spoken with an understanding of the one listening. I'm even gonna be open about the fact that I'm confused by you, the apostle says. But spoken with as much understanding as possible. Spoken with good purposes, that comes back to the contrast between false and true teachers. spoken with a loving tone. Again, the apostle wants to speak to them face-to-face, they can hear his tone. Is the apostle saying that so that he can go and they can hear his angry, amped-up tone? No, he wants them to hear the love in his voice. The labor of a teacher, minister, and the labors that we all have The labor of a loving friendship, a friend departing from the truth as too many young persons do, as too many people of any age do. The labor of a parent in raising their children. That labor may sometimes be in vain insofar as we will direct again and again and again to Jesus Christ and it will not be heeded. It will not be listened to. But even then, what do we do? We continue to love. We say that we're willing to labor again. And we do so with that sincere heart felt love. A sincere love that imitates the apostle, even as he imitates Christ, our savior himself. Amen. Let us pray. Lord, our Savior, you have shed tears for your church. Make us to be your sincere and loving people, especially following your direct example of pleading, even with tears, that all would see your love, your grace, our salvation in you alone. This we pray by the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let us stand together, people of God, singing number 400.