your church, God's grace, and I would invite you to bring the book to Galatians 4. Bring the book and settle in at Galatians 4, and may God add his blessing. There are many concerns in our day, and you know that. We could call them issues. There are concerns all around us in society, things that dominate the headlines and things that occupy our minds. Even the children in our church are very much aware of the concerns of our day. There's no hiding them. But we want to set those concerns aside and ask the question, what's the concern here in the book of Galatians? These six chapters? The Apostle Paul, these churches in the region of Galatia, all these months that we've been preaching it as a church. What's the concern here? Because whatever it is, it ought to be our concern. These things shouldn't just roll off of us, but the concern here is one that ought to be inside of all of us. so that with the Bible, it's mutual. We share the same concern that is here in the book of Galatians. And as real as all of those other concerns are out in this world, you know, all the things that trouble and bother us, all of those concerns, as real as they are, that's how real the concern is here in Galatians. And that's how real it ought to be inside of our hearts. And actually, As real as those other concerns are, the most important concern is right here in Galatians. Those other things are important, but the highest importance is right here. And so the concern is found in verse nine of our passage. And it's actually a word that we've seen back in chapter one, verse six, and it's showing up again in verse nine, and it's that word turn. The whole concern has to do with turning. And of course, Christians are those that turn to God. Everybody's turning. Everybody's moving in some direction. But what is a Christian? A Christian is one that turns to God. So that in our temptations, and if you're a believer, you know this, in the middle of our temptations, we turn to God. That in the midst of our sins, we turn to God. That's where we go. That in all of our trials, in all of our sickness, a Christian is one that turns to God. In all of our decisions and having to make decisions at work or decisions for our families, all of our decisions, we turn to God. And even when we come here to church, this is one big occasion for us to turn to God. Hopefully, in the direction that you went this week, as you come here, this is your time to turn back to God. We've wandered, we've been wayward, we are like sheep. And this is the occasion to turn to God when we come to church. And as you come to church in the streets around us, your neighbors, your family, everybody that knows that you come to church, it is a testimony to the world that you turn to God. That's what our gathering is testifying. And dear ones, every song that we sing, it's an occasion to turn to God. Every prayer that we utter, every activity that we have, every lesson that we hear, all the aspects of our church, it's an opportunity to turn to God. Brothers and sisters, as we sing, as we pray, as we open up the Bible, constantly for the last few minutes, we should be turning to God. That's what a Christian does. That's what God would have the church to do. But these people in Galatia, these churches in Galatia, they were turning away from the gospel. They were doing the opposite of what we just described. They were turning away from the gospel, and they were turning to their own religious performances, and how susceptible we are to do that, how prone people are to do that, to turn from the gospel to our own religious performances. And if you look at verse 20, Paul is perplexed over this. He's wondering, why would you all turn from the gospel? Why would you turn from Christ, who performs all of our religious duties for us, why would you turn from him to your own religious performances, which you can never really keep anyway? He's perplexed. He has doubts. And so his concern, much like that old hymn, His concern, which ought to be our concern, his concern is that they turn their eyes upon Jesus. Remember that old hymn. That's what he's saying here. Paul would be the first to sing, turn your eyes upon Jesus. And dear ones, that really is the case. That's where we are all found out this morning. You are looking somewhere, but the question is, where are you looking? Are you looking to Christ or away from Christ? But you can't be looking in both directions at once. Friday night at youth group, we gave this example and it's a familiar one from the synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke. In those three gospels, we have the occasion where Jesus was on the boat and you know what happened, the storm kicked up and there was a raging tempest. And the disciples acted like men. They acted like we do. And they were frantic. They were all out of sorts. We know that feeling. In the middle of a storm, they were a nervous wreck. And then finally, it's not so much that they came to Jesus, but that they came at Jesus. They came at him. And they said, don't you care that we're perishing? Don't you care what's happening here? And Jesus stood up and he showed how much he cared. And he said, peace be still. Do you remember what he said to the apostles in that boat? Where is your faith? Where are you looking? Five minutes ago, before the storm, they were looking at each other, looking at their boat. In the midst of the storm, they were looking at their own resources and what they could do to fix the problem. And Jesus stands up and says to them, where is your faith? And essentially what he's saying in that whole boat situation is, turn your eyes upon me. You know, coaches say this, we've heard this before, teachers say this, bosses say this, commanders say this, they say, all eyes on me. And that's what Jesus was saying in the boat. That's what Jesus says all over the gospels, all over the scriptures. The essence of the Bible is all eyes on Jesus. And so that when we come together as a church, what Jesus is saying to us in our songs, in our prayers, in our ministries, in our fellowship, in our lessons, in our sermons, what he is saying, if you could hear his voice in all of it, he's essentially saying, all eyes on me. And he, in fact, is the only one that deserves, that commands such attention. And so that's the concern here, that all eyes would be on Jesus, not what we do. but on what he does. And so with that, let's read our passage. And we'll keep looking at this as we have been over the last weeks. Galatians 4, beginning in verse 8, this is God's word. But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you serve those which by nature are not God's. But now, 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? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I'm afraid for you. lest I have labored for you in vain. Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at the first. In my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise or 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. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? They zealously, the Judaizers zealously court you, but for no good. Yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing 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. I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I have doubts. I am perplexed about you. Amen. Our Father, we pray to be concerned. We pray that you would concern us now with these things. Concern us with the gospel and concern us with our own duties and obligations. Father, we pray that you would work in our hearts and that you would teach and speak and be glorified. Be patient and merciful, we pray. And it's in Jesus that we come. Amen. The basic tone here that Paul talks about in verse 20 is one of concern. You can tell when somebody's talking with concern, and that's certainly Paul. He has a certain tone with them. And so we see a concern here, and the concern is that these Galatians were religious, and it's not a stretch to say that they were very religious. How do you know? If you're looking at these verses, how do you know that they're religious? There's actually a few things that would tip us off, but we can tell that they're very religious from the first two words of verse 10. Paul says, you observe. He's acknowledging, he's admitting that these Galatians are very busy. You observe. Now, the significance of that might be easily missed when he says, you observe. But actually, what he's talking about was basically what we were just describing five minutes ago before we read and prayed. He says, you observe. We already talked about this. What part of your body typically does the observing? It's the eyes. And did we not just talk five minutes ago about looking and seeing? and turning your eyes. And so he's back at the same idea. He says, you observe. He's referring to the eyes. And what they're doing here is that they are turning their gaze away from Christ. To what? What are they observing? And if you look there, you see what they're observing. They are observing days, weeks, seasons, years. In other words, they're observing rituals, religious performances. Brothers and sisters, if I were to tell you to look around this room, you would be able to observe things. And Paul is saying that when you go to a Galatian church, you observe certain things. Brothers and sisters, come back to this room. If you were to observe the things in this room, you would easily observe blue, creamy walls, drums, a golden cross, the Lord's table, a pulpit, You would easily observe these things. Now, if you were to go to Galatia, what would you easily see about these people? You would easily see the churches there observing days, seasons, months, years. They were occupied with all of these religious things. And when Paul says in verse 10 there, you observe, the word literally means to watch carefully. They're watching carefully the things in verse 10. This word refers to inspection. They had an inspector's eye on these things. They were scrupulous about days, seasons, months, and years. And again, they were scrupulous about all of these rituals. Let's leave them for a moment and connect here. It is clear that these Galatians were very ceremonial and religious. What about America? What about the country that you live in right now? Are we religious? Do we have our practices? Well, it's interesting, it's too easy at this time of the year. Do you know in the next few months, or in the next few weeks, next month, The Jews will be celebrating one of their main holidays, they will be celebrating Passover. Just right now, it's coming up. And not only that, but the Muslims right now, in about a week from now, they will be celebrating one of their pillars of Islam. There are five and one of them happens in about a week and it lasts for a month. In just a few days from now, the Muslims will be observing Ramadan. It's a month of fasting. It's a month of observation. It's one of the biggest things for the Muslims. You say, Pastor George, I'm not a Jew, and I'm not a Muslim, but that's what's happening right now. Now, we tend to think of the holiday season back in November and December with Thanksgiving and Christmas and the New Year. But, actually, we're in a holiday season right now, if you think about it. Just two weeks ago or so, we had St. Valentine's Day. A holiday of love, a holiday of religious roots. In just a few days from now, we will have St. Patrick's Day, another religious observation. Just two, three weeks ago, people were walking around, people that claim to be Christians, they were walking around with some ash on their foreheads in the shape of a cross. Lots of them did that. You could even see those people on TV wearing them. And if you think about it, we are right now for the last few weeks in the midst of the 40 days of Lent. This is the Lent season. It's 40 days of fasting, 40 days of observation. And I was talking to one of you a few weeks ago, and right now, many Christians, and you know this, they are focused on what they can do and what they can't do, what they can eat, what they cannot eat, this, that, and the other. They're focused on ritual during the Lent season. And in just a few weeks, we can't even get out of this month now, but in just a few weeks, we will come across Palm Sunday. And we will start Holy Week. And we will have Good Friday, and Tomb Saturday, and Easter Sunday. And so, if you think about it, when Paul says, you observe days, months, seasons, and years, that fits us very well, too well right now. There are a lot of rituals going on, whether you're Christian or not. You remember when Paul goes to Athens in Acts chapter 17, he was there in Athens and he looked around and he said, I see that you all are very religious. And when he went to Galatia, he could see that they were very religious, they were observing. And dear saints, if Paul came to 21st century America, he would walk around our society, walk around our town, and he would be able to see that we too are very religious. Just look at the season we're in. And most people here in America would say, this is great. It's a positive. It's part of who we are. Passover, Ramadan, Ash, Saint this, Saint that. All of these celebrations right now, these things are valuable. It's part of who we are as American people. But what does Paul say? What does Paul say about all the rituals, all the days and seasons? What does he say here? And actually, he gives us two pictures. He responds with two illustrations. And what he says about all the rituals would actually offend a lot of people. Here are Americans saying, all the rituals are wonderful, it's part of who we are. And Paul gives two illustrations, and he would actually offend most Americans. So what does he say? about all of our religion. And you see it there in verse 9. It's just one word. He calls it all weak. It's weak. Most people would say that these things, whether it's Ramadan or Passover, putting ash on your forehead, or Saint this and Saint that, and all the rituals, and when we come to church and we do all of our ritualistic things, most people would say that's quite powerful. But Paul says it's weak. And if you look at that word, they're weak, in the New Testament, it's used of sick people. That's kind of the image here. When he refers in verse nine to weakness, he's referring the image there is sick people. That's how the word is used in the New Testament. And you and I know that weakness and sickness go together, don't they? There are times when you're so sick, you can't even sit up in bed. And so Paul's imagery here is weakness, sickness. And so his picture that he's setting before us is that Ramadan, Passover, your holidays, your ceremonies, your performances, they're like a sick guy in bed. And what can a sick guy in bed do for you? The sick guy in bed can't do anything for you, you have to do for him. Your religion, your rituals can't do anything for you. You have to do for them. That's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying a sick guy in bed is the totality of your rituals and ceremonies. They could do nothing for you. But in contrast to that, Christ is not a sick guy in bed. Christ is mighty to save. The rituals and ashes and Ramadan and Passover and whatever you want to say, any kind of volunteer work, anything we might do in church, all of these things may be good, they may have their place, but they're not mighty to save. They're weak. Only Christ, who is not a sick guy in bed, Only Christ is mighty to save. And if there's a sick guy in bed, it's all of us. And what we need is not ritual, we need Christ, who is mighty to save. That's what he's saying. Why would you turn back to the sick guy in bed? Why would you do it? Christ is mighty to save. Then he gives another illustration, and it's the same kind of thing. Some of you have the word beggarly. That's an interesting word, we don't really talk that way, but if you look at the root of it, it's very easy. The word beggarly is the word beg. We know what it is to beg. We know what a beggar is. And this word in the New Testament is used of poor, destitute, needy people. Think of blind Bartimaeus begging on the side of the road. We've seen beggars before. That's the imagery here. So we go from a sick guy to a homeless guy. who's poor and destitute. And what Paul is saying, again, the stuff in verse 10, the rituals, the Passover, the Ramadan, the ash, the things that we might do in this room, all of these things are like a poor, needy beggar. And what can a poor, needy beggar do for you? A poor, needy beggar can't do anything for you. You have to do for him. And Paul is saying all of your rituals, all of your religiosity is like a poor, needy beggar. You have to do for religion. You have to do for rituals. Those things cannot do for you. They're not mighty to save, and they're not worthy to save. As Paul says here, they're worthless to save. Christ is not a poor, helpless beggar. Christ is worthy. He's valuable to save. We are the beggars. We are the ones that are poor and destitute before God. In our sin, in our death, we could do nothing to remedy the situation. You're going to die and you can't stop it. You're going to sin and you can't stop it. There's only one who is valuable to save, and it's not your rituals. It's Jesus Christ who has done all that we need for salvation. So brothers and sisters, all of our stuff and actions and ceremonies, all of verse 10, apart from Christ, does nothing. They're weak and beggarly. Now, notice there verse 10. He says, you observe. He says to the Galatians, you observe. There would have probably been countless people, hundreds, maybe even several thousands in the Galatian churches. And he says, you all observe. You all observe rituals, laws, things that have to get done spiritually. You observe. But did they really? Let's not have a low view on what God requires of us. You observe, but did they really? And the answer is, there's no way. There's no way any one of us, with all of our observations, with all of our duties, there's no way any of us could keep what God requires perfectly. You observe, but did they really know? How can we fix this statement? Instead of you observe rituals, how can we fix this to make it a correct statement? Christ observes everything that God requires. We don't. We're the problem. We don't need Christ if we could do all that God requires. But the way we would fix verse 10 is not by we observe, but that Christ observes. He observed all the law, all the ceremonies, all the rituals, all the demands of God. He has satisfied completely. And so when it says, what must I do for eternal life? It's believe on Christ. It's look to Christ. Why? Because he has accomplished on our behalf everything that God requires. You need to be righteous, but you can't. But Jesus was righteous, and he gives it as a gift of righteousness so that when you stand before God in Christ, you are righteous. And you have a sin problem, and you are to die in your sins. You are to be judged because of your sins. The payment and what we deserve is death. You work and get a paycheck? Well, your life amounts to sinning, and the paycheck is destruction. But Christ on the cross bore our sins, taking it away from us. Christ on the cross took our punishment and judgment. He was destroyed for us. What must I do to inherit eternal life? It's observe Christ. It's look to Christ who has observed all. He has kept his eye and fulfilled everything that God requires of us. God doesn't lighten up. It's just that you can give everything that God requires because of Christ, as Christ does it for you. So you observe as ought to be Christ observed. Christ observed the law. But it is true that we observe. In a sense, we have our rituals, don't we? We observe songs. prayers, lessons, sermons, ministries, fellowships, we observe communion. We observe. But isn't it true that we observe these things ever so imperfectly? How do we sing and pray and listen? How do we sing? With pride. How do we serve and do our ministries? I hope so-and-so sees me. We often are preoccupied with what other people think. How do we observe these things? We observe by wandering. How many times do you have to pull back your attention, pull back your eyes to what we're doing? Our minds float around in the songs, our minds float around in prayer, our minds float around when the Bible is read. We observe with all kinds of distraction. We observe with doubts, don't we? We come in here and, is this really the right thing? Is this really true? Does God really accept us? Is God happy with us? We come with all kinds of imperfections, pride and wandering and doubt and fear. That's how we observe. It's kind of like a little girl and she wants to help her mom set the kitchen table for dinner. So her mom gives her the napkins and this little girl crinkles up all the napkins and she takes them to the table and she puts them out and inevitably the napkins are all crinkled up and creased and folded and crooked and then she goes back and mom gives her forks and spoons and three times on the way she drops the forks and spoons on the floor and she picks them up and she lays them out and when you look at them they're all crooked and in the wrong place and they have smudges and fingerprints all over when she steps back she's so happy at what she did You look at it, and it's not very presentable. It's surely not perfect. What does mom do? Mom comes and smooths out and reorders the napkins. She takes a cloth and wipes off the smudges, wipes off the Fingerprints, she orders everything just right and she steps back and now through the mom, the little daughter's stuff was perfected. Through the mom, now it is acceptable for somebody to come. Do you see what Jesus Christ does when we observe? He comes and he perfects what we're doing. It's acceptable to God through Christ. That's what it means that no man comes to the Father but by me. He's our mediator. We offer up, as Peter says, sacrifices of praise. We offer up worship through Christ. And so, dear saints, our last thoughts. What if the Apostle Paul would come here, just like he went to the New Testament churches, just like he was well aware and had his eye on these Galatians. What if he had his eye upon us? What if Paul came to Emmanuel Baptist Church on a day like today? He would say, you observe, but fill in the blank. He would look at our church, having spent time with us, he would say, you observe, and what would go there? Where are we looking? What are we given to? Would Paul say the same thing as verse 10? You observe your rituals, your holidays. You do all these religious stuff in these walls. You observe drums and music. You observe facilities and business meetings. You observe ministries. You observe nice people and nice food and nice discussions. Would he say basically the same thing, that we observe a lot of religious stuff? What should go there? Instead of verse 10 saying, you observe rituals and ceremonies, what ought to be there is that these Galatians and Emmanuel Baptist Church and every other church, you observe Christ. That we are looking to Him. When people come to our church, when we all come to our church, it ought to be evident, it ought to be clear, that we're not merely doing rituals and ceremonies, but that we are observing Christ. That He has our faith, He has our attention. The most important thing to do at Emmanuel Baptist Church is not to observe rituals. It's to observe Christ. And we can go through the motions, but brothers and sisters, you have to answer it right now. And when you walk away in a few minutes, you have to answer it right now. Did I merely do what Paul's talking about in verse 10? Did I merely do rituals and ceremonies and go through the motions? Was I very religious? in the songs, in the prayers, in the communion, did I observe Christ? Did I put my eyes upon Christ? We ought to be saying in John 12, remember the Greeks came to the apostles and they said, we want to see Jesus. Brothers and sisters, when you walk into this room, it's not what so-and-so is wearing, how so-and-so did this past week, what the pastor does, all that might have its place, but we ought to be coming in, we want to see Jesus. Not high church and rituals and all these performances. We would see Jesus. What does Hebrew say? Looking unto Jesus. That we observe Christ. And lastly, you've heard it before and we understand it, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We know what that means. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. So that you might like a pair of shoes and I don't. And I might like a certain car and you don't. And we have all kinds of opinions and preferences because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. That is pretty much true, whether it be a movie or a song or a book, that is true, except in one case. It's not just that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, that we think Jesus is wonderful. He is wonderful and awesome and beautiful, whether you think it or not. has nothing to do with you beholding beauty about him, but he is awesome. And oh, don't you wish you could observe the magnitude and glory and salvation and works and love and grace of Jesus Christ. He is awesome. Don't you wish you had spiritual eyes and spiritual observation to actually see that he is. He is, but do you miss it? And isn't this really the prayer that we ought to utter, open my eyes, open my eyes, that I might behold wonderful things out of your word. I'm going to be coming here seeking to observe Christ, We want to see Christ and asking him to open the eyes of our hearts, and we sing that ritualistically, but is that the cry of our hearts? And this is the great destiny, this is eternal life, John 17. In John 17, Jesus says, I will, you wanna know what Christ desires? I desire that those you have given me be with me where I am, that they might behold my glory. You don't have to wait to eternity to behold his glory, it's in his word, it's in the gospel. One day our eyes of faith will become sight and we will see his glory. Jesus wills that we would behold his glory. And isn't that what Revelation 1-7 says? That every eye will observe me, every eye will see him. The whole world, every man will see him. Some will see Him as Lord and Savior, as full of righteousness and forgiveness. That some will see Him as treasure, full of grace and truth. For those of us that have been touched by grace, those of us that have had our eyes opened by the sovereign work of God, we will see Jesus as awesome and full of grace and full of truth and full of salvation. We will see Him as He is. But there will be others, apart from saving faith, they will see him as Lord and judge. And it'll be a tremendous and fearful thing. Brothers and sisters, are you turning to Christ or away from Christ? What do you observe Sunday after Sunday? Will you observe him on the last day as Lord and Savior, or will you observe him as Lord and Judge? That's where we are. Believe on the Lord Jesus. All eyes on him. God bless it to us through Jesus Christ. Amen.