GALATIANS 4 IF YOU TURN FROM GRACE2019 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Galatians 4 If You Turn From Grace

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2019. You can turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4 this evening as we continue working our way through the book of Galatians and talking about foundations for Christian living.

And here in the book of Galatians, we're really talking about the subject of the doctrine of grace and understanding what it means, the gospel of grace and the goodness of God that we don't deserve, starting with, of course, salvation and being born again, but then continuing in that. And the Galatians had said,

Well, they had departed from grace. They had been led astray by these false teachers who had come in. And so Paul has been writing to them. Back in chapter 1, he was shocked. He marveled. He said, I can't believe you're turning away from the gospel of grace to another gospel, which isn't a gospel.

It is, you know, trying to relate to God on the basis of your efforts, your works, your merits. And they were in particular turning back to the Jewish legalism and the old covenant, you know, practices, which were established by God, but

as we've been talking about over the past few weeks, although that was established by God, it was temporary. It was always designed from the beginning to be temporary. It wasn't the final solution, the ultimate way to have relationship with God, but it was temporary until the Messiah came. And then once Christ has come, the law has been fulfilled. And so we now have access to God by faith in Jesus Christ. And that's what the grace of God is all about.

Grace is related to faith, that God has designed salvation to work. He's designed relationship with him to work by grace, that it might be according to faith so that all might have the opportunity to know God and to walk with him.

with God and the dangers of legalism we've been talking about quite a bit as we've been working our way through these chapters. But here tonight in chapter 4, Paul addresses them pretty directly and deals with some of the things that he is concerned about with their condition having departed from grace. And so let's read through our passage together and then we'll jump into the message that God has for us. We're here in Galatians chapter 4.

We'll start in verse 8, and I'll go ahead and read down all the way to verse 20. Here's what it says in Galatians 4, verse 8. You observe days and months and seasons and years.

Verse 12. What then was the blessing you enjoyed?

Verse 17. Verse 18.

Here Paul clearly expresses his concern for the Galatians.

this region and the Christians within, the churches within, have departed from the gospel of grace. And it's not a little thing. It's not, you know, like, you know, there could be better ways, you know, to handle things or approach things. It's not a minor issue, a minor doctrine. That is why Paul's heart is so concerned. And so he lays out for them their condition now, having departed from grace. And it's

Well, he's very concerned. You can hear it in his tone. You can see it in the things that he is saying. He gets very personal here in these verses as he is addressing them and reminding them of when he first came and he speaks to them about this condition. And so I've titled the message this evening, If You Turn From Grace. And there's three points we'll look at and consider. What Paul describes for them is,

in their condition as they have turned from grace. And the first point is found in verses 8 through 11, and that is that you turn to weak and powerless things. Anytime we turn from grace, we are turning toward, we're replacing that relationship with God, that access to God by His grace, and we're replacing it with something that is weak and powerless. Now, it doesn't sound weak and powerless, right?

in the moment we're turning towards it. We're convinced it's going to be better. We're convinced, you know, that that path will, you know, be better for us in the long run. But we need to remember and understand that when we turn from grace, when we try to approach God by our efforts, when we stay away from God because of our failures, we've departed from grace. And we've turned instead to things that are weak,

and powerless. Now, that made sense before we knew the gospel of grace. Jumping back to verse 8, Paul says, but then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those things which by nature are not God's. Not a surprise that before you knew God, you were all confused and chased after things that couldn't help you, that really didn't minister to your need, that didn't fulfill your life, that you pursued after those things that are not God's because you didn't know God. And that's

That's to be expected. That's normal. That's, you know, what life before God or before Christ is like. But the marveling thing, the thing that is, you know, has Paul perplexed is verse 9, but now after you have known God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage?

Now you know God, and he kind of rephrases it a little bit, or rather you're known by God. You've come into a real relationship with God by grace. And the amazing thing about grace is God is, you know, throwing open the doors of heaven and saying, enter in, even though you don't deserve it, even though you're not worthy, even though you're filled with sin, by faith in Jesus Christ, you're washed, you're cleansed, and you have access to God. And so you have known God, it

more appropriately. God has known you. You've entered into a relationship with God. You've been born again. So from there, how are you turning back now to the weak and beggarly elements? The powerless, the worthless elements. You're turning back to things that can't enrich your life, that don't actually help you. Now again, at the moment,

It doesn't seem like that. And there were these false teachers amongst the Galatians who were presenting a good case, right? And so the Galatians were moving in the direction of legalism, not because they were trying to rebel against God, but because they thought, well, we can have better access to God this way.

And that's the dangerous thing about legalism. It doesn't often start out as a, I'm against God, I want nothing to do with God. It can start out from what you might call good motivations, but it accomplishes the opposite of what it promises. And so any system of works that we develop, for them, they were going back to the old covenant. And we can try to do the same and find ourselves in the same situation. But also we...

are prone to develop our own systems. And we pursue after God and try to walk with God on the basis of, you know, whatever rules that we have made up. If I don't do this, if I don't do that, if I do this and I do that, then, you know, I'm in right standing with God. Then God will bless me. Then I will be able to have, you know, that right relationship with God. And it comes back to us. And that's what makes it weak and beggarly because we are weak people.

and beggarly. We're weak and powerless. We don't have what it takes to maintain a relationship with God on our efforts. And that's the problem with these kinds of approaches to God is it keeps us from God because we don't measure up to our rules or whatever system that we follow. And when we fail, we stay away. But what God wants us to do is to approach him even if we fail and even if we don't measure up, that he wants us to live in that relationship with him.

But again, it often starts out with kind of a good motivation. You know, it's put in very spiritual terms. I like the way that Paul addresses this in Colossians chapter 2. In Colossians 2.23, Paul dealing with another false doctrine, but similar in the church of Colossae. He says, "...these things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body."

but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. And there you can see, where did it start? It started with trying to fight the battle against the flesh. And oh man, the struggle with the flesh is difficult. And I need strength and power to win the battles against the flesh and to have victory in my life. I need strength. And so there can be a reach for a turning towards things that appear wise. Well,

if you really want to, you know, finish off that sin and never have a tantrum again, never lose your temper again, here's what you need to do. Make five rules, you know, rule number one, you count to 10 before you say anything, you know, rule number two, and, and we can impose these laws and, and I'm saying it in a way that doesn't appear wise, right? But, but,

in your own mind or when it's presented to you, it's presented as, oh, this sounds good. This sounds doable. It sounds, yes, attainable. Yes, we can do that. And so there is this self-imposed religion, he says. There's this applying of rules and regulations for dealing with this sin or accomplishing that spiritual thing. And we try with our systems to move forward and to progress, to have power and to be strong and

but it turns out to be weak and powerless. Paul uses a specific example of something they're turning to in verse 10. He says, you observe days and months and seasons and years. And so as they're turning back to the legalism of the Judaizers, the Old Testament law, they're putting into practice, okay, we must keep Sabbath. Now they're Gentiles, they're not Jews. They've never kept the Sabbath.

When they were born again through the ministry of the Apostle Paul, they weren't practicing Judaism at all. But now they're thinking they can add to their relationship with God and make themselves stronger with the Lord and be in a better standing before the Lord. And they're attempting to do that by observing God.

Days and months and seasons and years. And this is probably referring to the feasts and special days and celebrations that are outlined for us in the Old Testament. And so they were thinking, well, if we keep these feasts, if we keep these times, if we observe these days, we'll be stronger. We'll have power. But Paul refers to these as weak feasts.

and beggarly elements. They're powerless. They're not actually able to help you walk with God better, to know Him more. They're not able to help you overcome sin. They're not valuable and profitable the way that it sounds in your head or the way that it's being presented to you. Pastor Warren Wiersbe puts it this way, if we observe special days like slaves hoping to gain some spiritual merit, then we are sinning.

But if in the observance we express our liberty in Christ and let the Spirit enrich us with His grace, then the observance can be a spiritual blessing. We run the risk of these kinds of things when we have, you know, our traditions. This coming Sunday is Communion Sunday, right? And it's what we do on the first Sunday of the month. We partake of communion together, and it's an awesome time to stop and remember the Lord. But

But we always have to come back and put it in perspective. It's not the ritual itself. It's not the actual juice and bread that makes that meaningful. It's what it symbolizes. It's us coming back to oneness with Christ.

And refreshing in our mind, renewing in our mind and in our hearts the appreciation for what Christ has done for us and remembering. And it's our relationship to God and that's a tool to help us remember. And so those days and months and seasons and years can be beneficial in the sense that it drives us to the Lord and helps us to remember who he is and what he's done for us.

But we can also observe those days, months, seasons, and years in a way that we're not actually seeking the Lord in it, but we're performing it, we're practicing it, we're going through the ritual of it in an effort to be more spiritual or to maintain our position. And we can completely miss the point. And it becomes a weak and powerless thing, even though it once was used powerfully in our lives to remind us of the Lord.

And so here are the Galatians in this condition of they've gone back to the law. Back to really isn't the right terminology because they never followed the law before, but they've gone to the law. They've followed the instruction of these Judaizers and they're trying to draw near to God, thinking they'll be stronger, but finding themselves weak and powerless. And Paul says in verse 11, I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. It leaves the Galatians in a condition where Paul says, I'm,

I'm fearful for you. I don't know where you're at. I don't know where your hearts are. And I don't know, did I labor for you in vain? Now, Paul, you know, initially was there in the region of Galatia and brought the gospel there and

He's talking back to that labor. You know, I worked hard. I brought the gospel. It's there in the region of the southern part of Galatia that Paul was stoned to death. Remember that in the book of Acts, right? He worked hard. He got up after the stoning and went back into the city to preach the gospel. If you don't call that working hard, then I don't know what you'd call working hard, right? He worked hard. He labored for them to bring the gospel message to them.

But now they've turned to this other gospel, which is not a gospel at all. And he's saying, was it all in vain? Did I work so hard and bring forth the gospel message among you for no reason? Was it all in vain? Because now you've turned to something else and you're not seeking after the Lord by the gospel of grace, but you're trying to draw near to God through legalism, through your efforts, through your merits, right?

Paul says, I'm afraid for you. Now, this brings up a little bit of a discussion, which I won't have all the answers to, but it might bring up the question in your mind. Is Paul saying that they've potentially lost their salvation, that they're now in a position, now they're in a standing where they are not saved because of this? And

Bible scholars and teachers have been, you know, debating that for 2,000 years. So finally, all those scholars and all those guys, they've been waiting long enough. Now Jerry is here and he can set the record straight. No, that's not going to happen, right? But think about it this way. If Paul goes into the region of Galatia, he preaches the gospel of grace, and then people get saved and

and they hold the course and stay fast on the gospel of grace, then, well, new people in their community come. And what do they hear when they come? The gospel of grace. What do they hear when they run into the people who are in the church? The gospel of grace. And the gospel is able to spread, to multiply, to impact lives and change lives because they hold the course and they're walking with God by grace. Now,

If they're in the condition that they're in now and new people show up at the church, what do they hear? They don't hear the gospel of grace. Now, trying to approach God by legalism, that's never going to save you. Trying to be right before God and be righteous by some system of rules and regulations. So Paul is saying, I'm concerned that I've labored amongst you in vain. I planted those churches. Those churches are not being effective now.

Because now what's being presented is not the gospel of grace, but another gospel. And Paul, again, back in chapter one says, it's not a gospel at all. It doesn't have the power of salvation. It doesn't bring people to right standing before God. So Paul doesn't have to be saying here, they're in a position that now they're not saved, but there is something there, right? There is warning there. There's reason for him to fear for the further impact, but then also for their current condition. It's

I think sufficient to say that there is serious concern for the issue of legalism. It's not the unpardonable sin in the sense that, you know, the moment that you come up with a system of rules and regulations or try to approach God, you know, by your efforts that now that's it, you're done. But at the same time, I would say there's reason for fear. And it has an impact on you, on your life, and on the people around you when you depart from, when you turn from grace.

You turn to weak and powerless things, and then you try to turn other people to those same weak and powerless things that are unable to save and unable to fulfill a person's heart and life. You turn from grace. You turn to weak and powerless things. Well, moving on to verses 12 through 16, we get point number two, and that is you turn against love and truth. When you turn from grace, you turn against love as well as truth. Now, Paul is going to talk about their relationship

their initial introductions and how he was when he first came among them and the love relationship that they had. He loved them and ministered the gospel to them and they loved him in response. In verse 12, Paul says, "'Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all.'" He calls them to become like him.

Paul did this a few times throughout his letters. He would call people to imitate him as he imitated Christ. And here he's calling them to imitate him, to become like him. And he reminds them of how he became like them. And what he's talking about here is, well, in 1 Corinthians 9, Paul talks about this a little bit. He says, look, I become all things to all peoples.

That he, by the grace of God, he didn't have to keep the law amongst the Galatians and practice days and months and seasons and years. And, you know, he wasn't trying to be Jewish amongst them. He became like them. He came and had fellowship with them. He had meals with them. He, you know, observed their holidays. And, you know, he just participated with them in an effort to reach them and minister the gospel to them.

He says, I became like you. I didn't follow the law in a strict sense in that way in order to, you know, have salvation or to present that to you. He says, I became like you, so you become like me. And he makes the point here, you haven't injured me at all.

You've turned from grace, but Paul is wanting them to know this is not about me. I'm not telling you these things for my benefit. Hey, turn and acknowledge that I'm right so that I can feel good about how right I am. Paul is going to go on as he outlines these things. These are weak and powerless. These are things that are harmful to you. And so I'm not sharing this with you because you've injured me. I'm sharing this with you because I became like you because I really do care for you.

So he calls them to become like him. I like what Pastor John Stott had to say about this. He says, all Christians should be able to say something like this, especially to unbelievers, namely that we are so satisfied with Jesus Christ, with his freedom, joy, and salvation, that we want other people to become like us. We all should be able to say this, become like me, not in an effort to say because I'm so great and so perfect, but

but because I rely upon the grace of God and my life is fulfilled. And there is a freedom that is found and there's a joy in the salvation that comes in the relationship with God by grace that I want you to become like me so that you can experience the grace of God and what he has for you. Now, as we go on again, Paul reminds them back of when he first

came among them. In verse 13, he says, you know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at first. Now, there's a lot that we don't know about some of the details that Paul is addressing here. What was the physical infirmity that Paul had when he first brought the gospel to them? What was the circumstances when he first went there? Well, we have a

What Paul is describing here doesn't, we don't understand what he's talking about. It doesn't, you know, the details aren't explained or laid out for us in the book of Acts. And so we don't exactly know what physical infirmity he had and why it caused him to be there in the region of Galatia. But it was some kind of trial. And it affected him seriously, but it also affected him externally. And so he says in verse 14,

So he says, think about when I first came to the region and I was suffering. And it was an affliction that wasn't just internal. And I couldn't just resolve it by, you know, putting on a mask and, you know, then everything was fine. But there was some kind of issue that, well, they would have had opportunity to despise or reject. Right?

There's been lots of speculation about what that might have been. There's different types of malaria that are common to that region that have some serious impacts and affect the way that a person looks and smells and the ability for people to spend time with them because it doesn't work out good. There's eye disease, and many people believe that the Apostle Paul had some kind of eye condition or disease,

But that, you know, just like goops and runs and continually like there's just this gunk, you know, coming from the eyes perpetually. And so it's possible that the Apostle Paul had that. We can take note in the book of Acts how Luke, the physician, right? He joined with Paul and his team on the missionary journeys right around the middle of the book and then stayed with Paul. And so it's possible that he had a lifelong perpetual physical ailment, which is,

Perhaps is also what he called his thorn in the flesh in 1 Corinthians 12 or 2 Corinthians 12. So there's all these things that tie together, but again, none of them we know for sure. But here's what we know. There was some sort of physical infirmity brought him to Galatia. And although it would have been normal for them to kind of keep Paul at a distance as a result of that, they received him as a messenger of the Lord. That's what angel of God means. It's the messenger of God.

And they received the gospel message from Paul, even though he came to them not in great impressive power and health, but he came in weakness and infirmity. In verse 15, he goes on to say, 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. And so here, a little hint, maybe he did have an eye condition perhaps. And if it would have helped, they were like, you know, we would pluck out our eye and give it to you if it would help you.

Now, what kind of love do you have to have for someone to be able to say, I would pluck out my eye and give it to you if it would help you, right? What Paul is describing here is when he came to them, he was not in good condition, but they connected. And there was a real love for one another, right?

He loved them and he brought forth the gospel as a result. They loved him as they responded to the gospel, as they received the gospel of grace. There was a strong bond that developed and there was a desire, oh man, we wish we could help you, Paul. We wish and if it would help, I would donate my kidney. I would donate my eye. It expresses this kind of love and he reminds them, remember where we started and the love that we shared. Remember?

You would have given me your eye if that were possible because you loved me so much. And he says, think about the blessing that you enjoyed during that time. Think about the condition of your heart. Now, this is something to remember about legalism. And whenever you find your heart in a condition where you're not blessed and able to find joy, then look for legalism in your life because legalism always destroys blessing and joy. It doesn't fulfill us.

It doesn't fill our lives and hearts with joy and blessing, but they were filled with joy and blessing because they had turned to the gospel of grace. But as Paul reminds them back, it's in contrast to where they're at now, having turned to the weak and beggarly elements. And there would be a strong contrast in their own mind as they would understand. Yeah, there was that joy. There was that fullness from God in those days with the apostle Paul. And now,

Well, they're not in that condition. And not only that, but although they started out loving Paul so greatly in verse 16, he says, have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth. Now they find themselves in opposition to Paul. And what a big change.

The one who brought the gospel to them. The one who evangelized them and prayed with them the sinner's prayer. And they had this strong bond because they started their relationship with God there with the Apostle Paul. And now they are putting themselves in opposition to the Apostle Paul. And it's partly due to these Judaizers. The Judaizers would come in and they would come against Paul.

They would speak against Paul and they were endeavoring, as Paul will go on to explain, to turn the hearts of the Galatians against Paul so that there would be this opposition. And again, it didn't start out as a let's rebel against Paul or let's rebel against God kind of thing. But where they find themselves now, as Paul is reminding them, they find themselves now that, yeah, why are we fighting against Paul?

Why are we having this battle with the one who is used by the Lord to bring the gospel to us? The gospel of grace. And they can think back to that relationship that they once had with Paul. They could think back to their hearts conditioned towards Paul at the beginning and the love that they shared. They could think back to their own, well, joy and state of blessing in their life that they could see the difference. And now they're in a position where they've turned against God.

the one who loved them enough to tell them the truth. How could this be? Well, I think you could probably think back to your own life. Have you ever turned against someone who loved you enough to tell you the truth? Different seasons and occasions in our life, that can happen pretty easily, can't it? Where our heart's in a state where we don't want to hear the truth. And someone loves us enough to tell us the truth, and boy, we hate them for it, right? Here's the state of the Galatians, right?

They're not aware of it, but that's why Paul is writing this letter to call to their attention, recognize where you're at. Realize the condition of your heart that you have made yourself an enemy to me. And now going back a few verses, Paul says, you haven't injured me. Like I'm not your enemy. I'm not writing this to, you know, for my reputation's sake. I'm writing this for your sake. Think about where you're at. There needs to be in our lives something

an openness to receive from and to hear from those who love us. There needs to be a willingness to receive, to be corrected, even though none of us like to be corrected. But like the Galatians, sometimes we start down a path, not for evil reasons, but we find ourselves in a condition where we need to be told the truth. And it's people who love us who are willing to tell us the truth in those conditions.

Have you ever been angry at someone who loved you enough to tell you the truth? Paul says, am I now your enemy? Because I'm calling you back to grace. Think about where we started. Think about the condition of your life, your walk with God, your relationship with God. Before you turn to these things, you were filled. You were blessed. You were joyful. And if you ever want to get rid of joy, just turn to legalism. You'll get rid of it really quickly. Because whatever system it is, we can't measure up.

Make up your own rules. Follow somebody else's rules. Go back to the Old Testament rules. Whatever you want to do. We can't measure up. We can't keep it. We can't follow it. We're going to fall short. And it keeps us from God. We're going to fail. And it keeps us from God, which is the one who gives us joy and blessing and fills our hearts and fills our lives. You've turned from grace. You turn to weak and powerless things. They can't help you. God can help you.

The biggest thing, the most important thing is maintain your relationship with God. Keep drawing near to him. It also alienates you from those who love you when you turn from grace. It disconnects you from the truth. You start to live in a delusion. You start to live in a fantasy. And it's not the good kind of fantasy where things are great and there's unicorns and rainbows and flowers and cotton candy everywhere. It's the nightmare because of the misery that comes from

and turning from grace. It turns you against love. It breaks those relationships of those who love you and would tell you the truth. Thirdly, as we move on to verses 17 through 20, slides say 17 through 18, but it's 17 through 20. Point number three is you turn to pursue man instead of God. When you turn from grace, here's what happens. You don't just stop pursuing something and

You replace that pursuit of God by grace. And what you replace it with, whatever system you choose, whatever path it is that you're going to take, it's going to be man. Whether it be yourself or somebody else, you pursue man instead of God. Verse 17, Paul says, They zealously court you, but for no good. They want to exclude you that you may be zealous for them. They zealously court you, Paul says.

And if you would just think about that for a moment, he's describing this deliberate effort by these Judaizers. These Judaizers are not like the Galatians. They're not like, you know, caught up in this and deceived by it. They're going out deliberately seeking to deceive others. There's a bit of a difference between the condition of the Judaizers and the condition of the Galatians. They zealously court you.

They've got all kinds of passion and fervor because they're trying to recruit you. They are pouring out, you know, all kinds of what looks like love. They're bringing forth arguments that sound really convincing. They're mounting a full campaign, recruit you with the intention of they want to exclude you, Paul says. The Bible also talks about false teachers, those who draw men after themselves. What we're called to do is,

is to point people to God or draw people to God, to help people have their own connection and relationship to God. What these guys were doing was trying to convert them to themselves, the Judaizers. He says that you may be zealous for them. They want you to be all fired up and passionate about them. And so they're working hard to convince you to, you know, jump on their bandwagon so that they would be zealous for them.

Their hearts are not right. Their motivations are wrong. It's not just their doctrine that's wrong. They're not just deceived. They're seeking after themselves and so they're working hard to get you, to convince you to turn from grace for their own objective, for their own purposes, for what they want.

Pastor David Guzik says the zeal cultivated by legalism is often more a zeal for the group itself than for Jesus Christ. Though they name the name of Jesus, in practice, the group itself is exalted as the main focus. There's a change of focus when it comes to legalism. And this applies to Judaizers. It applies to our legal systems that we invent in

There's some application here to other gospels and cults and different presentations of gospel messages in the world around us today. And it's kind of important to be able to identify what's the end result here. Is it a glorifying of Jesus?

Now, I would take you back to verse 1 of chapter 3 here in Galatians, where Paul says, We need to keep going back to the cross, Paul says. This is what happens when legalism comes into the picture.

And these Judaizers, they're zealous among you. They are passionate and they are fervent and they're bringing forth some strong arguments. But what's the end result? What's the objective? Is that, well, you would be excited about them. Well, let me tell you about these people and this new doctrine. Let me tell you about this. And they want to get you on their team.

convert you. And again, this is another red flag. When a person or a group is going to great effort to convert believers to some doctrine, to some particular thing, there's some red flags that should be going up in our minds and in our hearts because our objective is not to get people on our side. Our objective is to get people to draw near to God. And that's what we need. That's what the people around us need.

And the Galatians here, they're being duped. They're totally falling for this message of the Judaizers. The people who've shown up, they're impressive and their arguments are great. And Paul says, but here's the problem with that. You're starting to pursue man. You're pursuing man's thoughts, man's ideas, and not God's ideas. You're not pursuing what God has said.

In verse 18, Paul goes on to say, it's good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I'm present with you. You know, Paul says, look, when I was there amongst you, you were excited then too, but you need to hold that course. Not just when I'm with you, now the next group comes and then you're excited about what they say. And then the next group comes and you're excited about what they say. And you know, no, no, no. You need to hold the course.

Hold fast and pursue God by faith, through grace, that you would maintain that. And not just for the moment, you know, that I'm with you or that someone is with you, but that you would be faithful to walk with God by grace and through faith. Verse 19, Paul says, 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. When I'm present with you, you're zealous for grace. Now in my absence, while you're zealous for grace,

for what these people are telling you to be zealous about. And they're zealously courting you because they want you to be zealous for them. They see your fire towards the Lord and they want that towards themselves. And so they're trying to get you to redirect your fire, your passion, your pursuit from the Lord to them. When I'm present with you, when I was present with you, you were on fire for the Lord. And now Paul says, I would like to be present with you now. I wish I could be there now and to change my tone.

to not be in this state of correction, but to see you back on track, back pursuing God again instead of the things of man. And again, he says at the end of verse 20 there, for I have doubts about you. We can wrestle with this idea of once saved, always saved for a long time. But the thing is at the end is the end result is doubts, questions. If you try to switch to a system of legalism after believing in Jesus Christ,

There's doubts. There's question. There's reason for concern and fear. Where is your condition? Where are you at? Because, well, you're trying to approach God in a way that he has not prescribed, and in fact, in a way that he has forbidden. You're pursuing your thoughts, and you're preferring your own thoughts and your own ways over God's ways. It's not just a minor thing. Hey, you want to believe, you know, that the rapture happens at a different time than pre-trib? Go for it.

You want to believe that baptism should be sprinkling instead of immersion? Okay, go for it. But you want to believe that you must now follow some system of rules or regulations in order to really have access to God, in order to really have power? Now you're getting into really dangerous territory. And people who have not known the Lord are never going to be saved by that gospel message. It's not another gospel at all. Now God has a lot of grace.

And so, you know, perhaps let me put it this way. If you know somebody who's bound up in legalism, it's not for us to say, and we can't say for sure whether or not they are eternally saved or, you know, in a state of salvation. The Lord's working that out. So this isn't, you know, material to try to sort out all of those issues. This is material to remind us

If I turn from grace, I know the truth. I know about grace. I know that God wants me to relate to him and to draw near to him, not by my efforts, but trusting in what he has done. I know that God wants me to draw near to him and call out to him and ask him for forgiveness when I've failed and not to stay away and put myself on time out, but trust

But God wants me to draw near by grace because of what Christ has done. I have the freedom to do that. I have right standing before God. And so I know that if I now turn to something else, that is a dangerous course to take. And at the very least, it's a state of great doubt, reason for fear. Paul says, I'm afraid for you because you've turned to pursue man. You've turned to pursue their thoughts, your own thoughts, your own ways. Instead,

of God. If you turn from grace, you turn to weak and powerless things. You turn against love, alienating yourself from those who love you and would speak to you the truth. You turn against the truth. The gospel of grace is the truth. It's the only way of salvation. Paul's been hammering that home for four chapters now. It's the truth. If you turn from grace, you turn against the truth and you pursue man instead of God. You replace God's thoughts with man's thoughts.

You prefer your ways to God's ways. Now again, the very difficult thing about legalism is it typically doesn't start out in a deliberate effort to rebel against God. And so there is a very deceptive and subtle thing that happens within us. And there's a tendency in our hearts to draw near or to go after, to pursue after this kind of relationship with God that is by our efforts and by our merits.

I'll finish up with this quote from Pastor Warren Wiersbe. He says, they actually thought they were becoming better Christians by substituting law for grace and the religious deeds of the flesh for the fruit of the spirit. He asked the question, is your Christian life moving forward into liberty or backward into bondage? It's a question that we need to ask. It's a question that we need to consider because there is the tendency, the possibility for our hearts to be turned towards legalism.

and to try to approach God, to try to draw near to God. Have you ever done that? Pursued something that you thought would help. You thought it would help you in your Christian walk. You thought it would help you in your life. And it turns out it was not helpful. It was man's thoughts and not God's thoughts. We all have this potential. We all have this tendency. And it's why we need to periodically go through the book of Galatians and be reminded, this is what happens if you turn from grace. It leaves you in a condition where

That's not good. Weak and powerless. Where once you were vibrant, you had strength in the Lord, have you found yourself in a position of weakness and powerless and kind of lifeless in your relationship with God? Having cut off relationships that, oh man, once you shared love, it was great affection together as we sought the Lord together. Have you cut yourself off from love, from the truth?

And have you replaced God's instruction and God's ideas with man's ideas? And you've become fired up and passionate, not about the Lord, but about something else, about yourself, or some other system, or some other group, or some other activity, or some other political party, or whatever it might be. Have you replaced that love for the Lord, that pursuit of the Lord, with something else? Let this be a reminder for us here in Galatians to not turn from grace, but to hold that course.

and to continue to walk with God by faith in what Christ has done for us. And that means even when I don't measure up, even when I can't keep my own conscience and follow the code and follow the things even that God has declared that He wants, even when I fail and I've completely blown it, what God wants most is for me to still come back to Him, for me to still walk in relationship with Him.

for me to still call out to him and ask him for help and for blessing and for him to work and reveal himself and show himself to wash and to cleanse what god wants most from us is for us to walk with him so don't turn from grace because that'll keep you from walking with him amen we pray you have been blessed by this bible teaching the power of god to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and bible study resources