We are in a brief series entitled, The Great Need of Our Time. And so far we've learned that the great need of our time is that Christ be formed in the believer and consequently within the community so that the image of Christ, the character of Christ, the love of Christ, the holiness of Christ, the dignity and the majesty of Christ, may be made known to the surrounding community and indeed even into the world. This is a very mission-oriented goal that we have here in the fact that God has sent his Son into the world to fulfill the law for us and in us, so that as we are united to him by grace, through faith, that the Spirit has taken up residence within us, and immediately begins the work of conforming us in thought, deed, and character by nature to the life of Christ in us, that the natural consequence is that Christ himself is made manifest in the Church. And this is the devil's worst nightmare. The devil's worst nightmare is that Jesus would be replicated in his people and that the character of God would be manifested in the church to the point where people can see Christ. Not just hear about Christ, they can see him, they can experience them as they encounter the life and the daily conduct of the church. So, the great need of our time is not for more churchianity. The great need of our time is for more genuine Christianity that's focused on the whole counsel of God. And so far we've learned that the purpose of the new birth, indeed, is to bring about new life. We've learned that when Jesus said, you must be born again, he was not speaking in isolation, was he? He was speaking within the context of the kingdom of God. We've learned, as D. A. Carson defines it, that the kingdom of God is God's saving and transforming reign. And it is this transforming part that we too often dismiss into our peril. And in fact, in the last 200 years, there's been a growing popular but aberrant and subversion of the gospel through a theological system that would teach that sanctification is really not even part of salvation. Just get saved and think about sanctification later. But we've learned from the scripture thus far, and it is my contention, my passionate contention, that to claim that one is justified by faith alone without any correlate to sanctification is not justification. No one can live a life claiming to be justified before God by faith and be devoid of Christ-like character. It just is not biblical. So, you can see now why I say that Christ formed into believer is the great need of our time. In other words, the great need of our time is for the whole gospel. We need the full gospel. We need the complete whole counsel of God. And what we have too often gotten, especially in the last 50 years with all the secret sensitivity that has gone on, and the church becoming a retail center for religious consumers, We have left the Gospel altogether, and those even in conservative circles that have maintained the Gospel, they've only maintained part of it, the part that has to do with the imputation of Christ. What I'm saying is that the Church has slipped into a mode where they have the easy sell. Forgiveness of sins and the promise of heaven is an easy sell. Who wouldn't want that? But conformity to Christ and death to the self, dying to self, that's not so much an easy sell. That's something that strikes through the core of the sinful nature and that has to be repented of and conversion. So let me just say that again. In the last 50 years especially, and certainly as much as the last 200 years, we have begun to focus on the easy sell, we want people in the church. And so we've dumbed down the gospel, we have eliminated and gutted the gospel of its power, and we have gone for the easy sell of the promise of forgiveness in heaven. As opposed to, which is true, we certainly have part of the truth, But we need the whole truth. We need the whole counsel of God. So forgiveness and promise of heaven is an easy sell, but conformity to Christ and death to self is not so much. But that is exactly the need of our time, to emphasize dying to self and conformity to the person and character of Christ. Now we've learned so far that God's primary purpose in the last episode, God's primary purpose is to do just that, to conform you into the image of his Son. We read Romans 8, 28. And we know that in all things God works for good to those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, it says in the text, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those who He predestined, He also called. And those He called, He also justified. Those He justified, He also glorified. So it is God's primary purpose, His eternal purpose, long before you heard the gospel, long before you responded according to grace by faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ. You were predestined, you were an eternity in the mind of God that He would one day through the means of the Gospel, through the preaching of the Gospel, and the giving and working of the Spirit in you, begin the work of conforming you into the image of his Son, so that you not only have his righteousness imputed to you, whereby you stand justified before God, you have his righteousness at work in you, conforming you to the very image of his Son. So the great need of our time is for us to embrace the full gospel, the whole counsel of God, as being Christ formed in the believer. Now today, we're going to turn to Galatians and continue to examine how this thread, this message, has a thread all through the New Testament. This isn't one point in one part of the New Testament. This isn't a singular comment by the Apostle. We're not taking one passage out of context and building a big doctrine around it. Rather, what we're simply doing is acknowledging this reality within the New Testament, that from Matthew through Revelation, Christ is at the center. We have a Christocentric faith. And all I'm contending with you, beloved, is that we have stopped short of the whole counsel. We have stopped short of the whole gospel, so that what we have is a missing gospel. We have a hidden gospel. We've heard how important it is to be born of the Spirit. We've heard how important it is to be born again. We've heard how important it is to devote ourselves to some kind of a healthy Christian life, but we have yet to define that as dying to the self and to conformity to Christ. Okay, so today we want to look at the letter to the Galatians as we continue to follow this thread throughout the New Testament that points to the fact that Christ formed in the believer is the end result, the outcome of the gospel. No one can be said to have heard the gospel and believed it if this isn't at work in them. This is why this is so very important. So today I want to talk with you about the Apostle's agony. The Apostle Paul's agony. What does it mean that he was agonizing? In his letter to the Galatians, Paul is contending with new believers to hold to the gospel of grace in the face of Jewish false teachers that were touting salvation as some kind of a human achievement based upon an ethnic rite of circumcision and rituals observing the law. So the apostle writes in Galatians chapter three, for example, that there's only one thing that he wants to know from his readers. I really, really like this. There's only one thing that we need to know today too. And that is this, whether they received the spirit by the works of the law or by hearing with faith. These believers who had heard the gospel proclaimed by Paul, had had a legitimate, genuine experience with the Holy Spirit. They had been converted, they had been born again, and they had been included in Christ. But now these false teachers have come along and said, good, good, good, that's all very good, that's all fine, we're glad, we believe in Jesus too. But now we're gonna have to show you how to really live like a Christian by observing the law and going through the observances of Torah, the first five books of the Bible, as a means of gaining righteousness. as a means of growing in righteousness. And this is such a common folly among the Christian community, that we start out by the Spirit, we start out with joy, we start out with a glorious experience of conversion, and we then move into some kind of man-made set of rules as the means of how to live the Christian life. And suddenly we lose our joy, we lose our sense of purpose, we lose our sense of mission, and the Christian life simply becomes adherence to a bunch of rules, rather than life in the Spirit. So that's the central issue in Galatians. The main point in Galatians is not how one is justified, as important as that is, Rather, the central issue in Galatians is whether salvation is by the work of the Spirit, through hearing by faith, or by the fleshly works of Jewish law observances. And that has its application, of course, to us in our own propensity to subscribe to a bunch of man-made rules and laws, and even revert to the Ten Commandments as a standard for righteousness, as opposed to the life of Christ within us. Now, stay with me. Paul's primary point in Galatians is that if they enter life in Christ by the Spirit, they are to also continue to live in the Spirit. That's Galatians 5.25. The Spirit was not given to them only to bring them into the new birth, which too often again, you've heard me say it so far and I'll say it again, it bears repeating, beloved, Too often, the new birth is perceived as the end goal of the gospel. If we can just get people born again, we're good. We've all heard about the door-to-door missionaries, especially in the Baptist church. You go door-to-door, talk to people, and get them to pray the sinner's prayer, and then they walk away thinking that they have just won somebody for the kingdom of God. Now, of course, that could happen. but that's not how it typically happens. That is not God's primary means of bringing people into the kingdom, is a 20-second prayer, and oftentimes it's prayed only to get rid of the missionaries at the front door. So we have much more than that at stake here. So the Spirit was not given only to bring in the new birth. Being born again is not the end of the Christian life, it is the beginning of the Christian life. I have grandchildren, and we celebrate their birth. We gather at the hospital, and as that child comes into the world, we all celebrate, and we're full of joy and delight. And then every year, we celebrate that child's birthday. We remember what it was like when they were first brought into the world, and we beheld them and held them in our arms. But the minute that that child is born, we begin to seriously pursue their healthy development. The child just didn't come into the world to give us a happy moment at the birthday, at the moment of birth. The child came into the world for us to take seriously what it means now to raise that child and to bring that child into full maturity. So the new birth is the same way. We are brought into new life by the Spirit to work it out into our life, to grow and to mature, to form Christ in them, so that they learn to live and love as Christ did. So to put it succinctly, Christians are spirit people, and that's the contention that Paul is making in Galatians. Now, the promise of the new covenant. is that God will place his spirit within his people. So this goes way beyond Galatians. This goes way beyond the Gospels. This is prior to even the advent of our Lord and his coming into the world. This goes back into the prophets. For example, in Ezekiel 36, 27, we read, quote, the promise of the New Covenant, quote, I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them, end quote. The very essence of the New Covenant under which you live, if you are in Christ, you are under a new covenant, a covenant consecrated by his own blood, is that God will put his spirit within you and cause you to walk in his statutes and to keep his judgments. New Testament scholar, Gordon Fee, reminds us, quote, for Paul, the elimination of Torah, again, Torah simply means first five books of the Bible. For Paul, the elimination of Torah does not mean their end of righteousness. To the contrary, the spirit produces the real thing, The righteousness of God himself is now etched into their hearts as his children reflect his likeness in their lives together and in the world. And this is what I'm contending for. As his children reflect his likeness, his character, his image in their lives together and in the world. Okay, so now this is a real point of contention for Paul. He's agonizing over this, as you'll hear in just a few moments. Now some may wonder why Paul is agonizing, why Paul was so emphatic on this point. I mean, after all, it appears that his readers had been born again. They were now in Christ. So why sweat the details, Paul? Celebrate the successful evangelistic campaign and go on to the next mission field. Many modern missionaries and evangelists would do precisely that. But here's the point of our text today. But in chapter four, we read, quote, my dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I'm perplexed about you." Let me read that again. My dear children, Paul is speaking very tenderly here, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. Paul is using the metaphor or the example of a woman in childbirth pains. Now, of course, he's a man, so he's speaking only from observation and from what he's been told. But we must remember too that this is the first century and there was not anesthesia. When a woman gave birth, oftentimes she lost her own life in giving birth. It was a very precarious thing to give birth in those days. There was no anesthesia, there was no medical care like we have today. And so to watch and even hear from a distance the screams of a woman giving birth was something that was momentous. they realize that new life came at the cost of great pain at times. So Paul is using this as an example of that he's in agony, great agony, wanting these Christians to be fully mature. He wants Christ to be formed in them. He wants them to escape the clutches of these Jewish false teachers who are pointing them away from Christ and toward the law again as a means of righteousness instead of the very life of Christ in them by the new covenant. Remember, the end of the old covenant does not mean there's no more righteousness or no more obedience or no more holiness. It means that it has now become an internal work of the Spirit to etch the law into our hearts and minds, so that it's a matter of nature now. So how many Christian leaders do you know who agonize over Christ being formed in their people? Very few, I would think. I mean, most Christian leaders today, especially in the evangelical world, and particularly of a conservative stripe, are those who really still emphasize that the goal is to get people born again. And then, you know, get them to be good church people. But here Paul is agonizing. He wants so much for them to become conformed into the image of Christ. That's the goal. That's the end purpose. That's the purpose for which he proclaimed the gospel to these people in the first place. Now why is this so very important? It is important because one gospel, the false gospel, produces only works of the flesh. Any gospel that's not of the Holy Spirit is of the flesh. It has its roots in the flesh and in the world and of the devil himself. So there's a false gospel that produces only the works of the flesh, that's why we read that in Galatians 5, though covered by a thin veneer of Jewish legalism, whereas the true gospel, the true gospel produces the fruit of the Spirit, which is the result or the manifestation of Christ in them. I encourage you to read that again in Galatians chapter 5. This list of the fruit of the Spirit is something that we cannot fabricate within ourself. It's not something we can even do well at imitating. It has to be something that is produced in us by the Spirit. But the fruit of the Spirit, he says, is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh. See, we don't just concede to being in the flesh part-time and in the spirit part-time. That's not how it works. If we are in Christ, we are now in the realm of the spirit. We have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And that's why he goes on to say, if we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. And the chief manifestation of that, he says, is, let us not become conceited, provoking one another, ebbing one another. In other words, as we are growing in the image of Christ, we, as spirit people, know that that's happening because the fruit of the Spirit is becoming more and more manifest in our life. And that works its way out, now hear me now, that works its way out in our interpersonal relationships. especially in our homes and our marriages and our relationships with our children, as well as, of course, in those relationships in the Church, and then, of course, into the greater society. This is the goal. God's goal is to so image Christ in the Church that He is made visible to the world. It's the Incarnation. It's the continuing of the Incarnation. So Christ formed in the believer is the end goal of the Gospel. All genuine Christian spirituality has conformity to the Christ as its chief purpose and ethic. Now, Paul was not agonizing over whether they should respond to the proclamation of the gospel. They had done that. Let me just summarize here. They had, in fact, received the gospel. They had received Christ. They had had a powerful experience with the Holy Spirit. So Paul wasn't agonizing over whether or not they were gonna receive Christ. He was agonizing like a woman in birth pangs until Christ was formed in them. And that should be the ethic, the pastoral ethic of every group of pastors and elders and Christian leaders, is to agonize and to work towards Christ being formed in believers through sound teaching and reminding them that this is the end goal of the gospel. So Christ formed in you is the natural expectation for spiritual development following conversion. Let me just say that again. Christ formed in you so that you're thinking like him, you're feeling like him, your affections have changed, your conduct is reflecting him. is the natural expectation for spiritual development following conversion. And this is not some kind of call to spiritual elitism. This is a call for every Christian at any stage of spiritual development, whether you're a babe in Christ, or you're an adolescent in Christ, or you're a fully mature adult. The goal still for all of us is that Christ be formed in us. So we don't have to sell everything, go to a mountaintop, and meditate for the rest of our lives, hoping Christ will be formed in us. This is something that's a very natural progress that happens within the life of the Church. At least it should be. And to the degree it's not, it's disgraceful. It's grievous. It's agonizing. So Paul longed to present these people in Galatia to God as spiritually mature people in whom the image of Christ was fully formed and therefore imaged to each other and into that region of the world. Let me just say that he says something very similar. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul reminds them, it is Christ in you, he says, that is the hope of glory. Christ in you, that is the hope of glory. Not spiritual visions, not religious ritual or law keeping. That's Colossians 1.27 by the way. So my point today is to continue to point to the text of scripture to show you that when I contend so passionately for the great need of our time, being Christ formed in you." I'm not speaking of some subjective idea that I have here. This is the very essence of New Testament Christianity. And the witness to that has a thread all through the New Testament. My point here in this brief series is to help you see that ever-increasing conformity to Christ is the normative Christian life. It's a life for which we must all strive. This is not an isolated point for the Apostles, but entails the very purpose of the Gospel throughout the New Testament. Sadly, we still hear little or nothing of this preached and taught in our churches, but we can pray that this will change. We can pray that God will have mercy on our churches and bring us back to the whole counsel of God, where Christ formed in the believer is indeed something not only the pastors and the elders agonize over, but that we all agonize in a holy agony, a righteous agony. that we long to be more like Jesus Christ. And while we will not reach perfection in this lifetime, as I said in the last episode, we want to pursue this conformity as though perfection were possible in this lifetime. It's like Christ as a groom and the church as his bride. It's a great metaphor because who would not want to, if you love your spouse, it's like a bride, a new bride and a new groom. We don't have to issue minimums amount of time that they should spend to each other. That's all they want to do is spend time together. That's all they want to do, is be together, and form a union, and create a family, and have children. When a couple is first married, they delight in spending time with each other. They long to spend time with each other. And so it's the same thing with Christ. We are to grow in our love for Him, in our passion and desire to be more like Him, so that this is not something that we just ask for whatever the minimum standards that we have to do. We don't reduce it down to a set of rules to be followed, or a set of spiritual disciplines, as some have tried to do. No, we're talking about working out in you the very life of Christ so that your fellowship with him gains a new degree of intimacy and fellowship and grace that you never could imagine so that you know him best because you're becoming like him in thought, word, and deed, in nature. You are participants in the divine nature by the Holy Spirit. And now we're called to work that out. Now, in the next episode, I will be talking more about this, and we'll be looking at the letter of John, John's first epistle, and learning how to live in love as Christ did. That's the mission statement of every believer. Do you know that? Do you realize that? The mission statement of every believer is to live and love as Christ did. And that will be our topic next time we're together. So I hope you stay with me. I hope you are enjoying. I hope you are more than enjoying. I hope you are in taking in this principle that Christ formed in you is a great need of our time. We need to recover the gospel. We need to recover this principle, because in it, Christ is made known to each other, to our families, and to the world, and God's purpose for the gospel is made complete. May the Lord give you His grace and mercy to continue as we walk through this series. Thanks for joining me. Talk to you next time. Bye-bye.