I take your Bibles and turn them
in Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. We're looking
at verse 17 through 20 to 9. I've entitled this message, A
Pastor's Parental Zeal. A Pastor's Parental Zeal. Look at this in verse 17 again.
We went over this last, the Lord's Day and then last Wednesday.
They zealously affect you. Speaking about false prophets
that had come in, they zealously affect you but not well. Yes,
they would exclude you that you might affect them. But it is
good to be zealously affected always in a good thing and not
only when I'm present with you." And notice the term of endearment
he gives them. He says, my little children,
my little children of whom I travailed in birth, whom I travail in birth
again until Christ be formed in you. I desire to be present
with you and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you."
As we've seen in our study of this book, the Church of Galatia
had been seduced by Judaizers, those who would believe in justification
both by faith in Christ and by obedience to the law of Moses. These men believed that their
obedience had some, in some measure, a part in their salvation. It had some effectual work that
they had to do in order to finish the work of Christ. In this case,
it was circumcision. In our day, it's other things,
but nonetheless, the principle is still the same, that they
had some part to play in their salvation, whether it be in their
wisdom, in their righteousness, in their sanctification, or their
redemption. Yet Paul, being a pastor of this
church in love, desired that they turn from these false teachers,
that they would return to the gospel, that they profess to
believe at first. Which is what? Justification
by the faith of Christ. That's the message he preached
at the beginning. This is the message he desired
them to go back to. That our justification, that
our salvation is by the work of Christ alone. And that justification
is received by faith in Christ. Return to that. And so with the pastor's heart,
he rebukes them, and as we, I'm gonna, you see this again in
verses 8 through 12, he calls them back to remembrance. This
is what he, he's appealing to their memory. He's appealing
to them to remember how that they once were idolaters. They
once served in bondage to idols. But now that they know God, or
rather, this is rather, they're known of God. That God chose
them in sovereign mercy. Christ redeemed them by his blood
from the curse of the law. And then he asked this question.
How in the world do you want to return to the weak and beggarly
elements? Why do you want to go back to
bondage? If you're a son and not a servant, why do you want
to go back? Why would you return to those
things? So he calls to the memory how they were saved by the grace
of God. Why then would you want to return?
And then he says this, you know, now I've become an enemy to you.
I've told you this. Why then am I now your enemy? You once loved me when you heard
the gospel preached. You loved me. But now that these
men have come in teaching another gospel and I tell you, It's not
the gospel and you're mad at me. Then in verse 17 he says, They
zealously affect you, these false teachers. They seduced you. Now
we know this, all false religion does not lack zeal. False religion
is very zealous. Consider a Muslim. Are they not
zealous? They're so zealous that they
want to kill you. If you don't believe their false
doctrine, they'll kill you. That's pretty zealous, isn't
it? They'll die for their religion.
That's zealous. But we know this, that all free
will works religion is zealous. And so is the so-called reformed
theology of our days. Zealous people, they're very
zealous. So they're not without zeal.
They do good things, there's no doubt about it. You could
throw a stone from this building, probably hit about five churches
in that direction and five churches in this direction. And I guarantee
you going there, you're gonna find them doing some good stuff.
There's nothing you can say against some of the stuff that they do.
They do good, build buildings for homeless, they give to the
poor. There's good things that they
do. But none of their zeal, none
of their works, no matter how good they are, can please God. They can't satisfy God. They can't justify themselves
before God. No matter how much they do, they
cannot sanctify themselves. They cannot make themselves holy
by their works. It's impossible. And so then if they are by their
work striving to sanctify themselves before God, by their obedience
to become more holy, their labor is vain, it's empty, their zeal
is emptiness. All their labor and they will
die in their sins. They'll die in their sins because
they moved from Christ. That's the whole point of the
apostle, isn't it? At the very beginning, when I preached to
you, there's only one gospel. It's salvation by Jesus Christ
alone. And to move from that gospel
to a gospel of salvation by works is another gospel. And so you hear people, I believe
Jesus Christ is all my justification. I believe that. He's all my righteousness. He's all my wisdom, I believe
that. But you know what? I think sanctification
is part of his work and mine. No, you'll die on your sins if
you believe that. Sanctification is just as necessary
as justification. You can't be saved without it. And if sanctification is part
of your work and part of his work, it's a failure. You failed. Have you really sanctified yourself?
No. And so then if you believe that
you're sanctification, what's the difference between saying
that, well, I believe it's my justification, but not my sanctification. Can you be justified without
being sanctified? Is that possible? No, you can't be justified without
being holy. And so Paul says to these Jews,
you know, Paul in Romans 10, he says about the Jews, his brethren,
he said, I bear them record, they got a zeal. Now the Pharisees
had a zeal, friends. They were so zealous, they crucified
Christ. So zealous, they crucified the
Lord of glory because he went against their religion. That's
zeal. But not according to knowledge,
Paul said. Their zeal is ignorance. Now what's the measurement that
Paul uses about this ignorance? He says they go about to establish
their own righteousness. If you are going about to establish
your own righteousness, listen, you're ignorant of the righteousness
of God. I don't care who you are. You're
ignorant of the righteousness of God. Why? Because Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. So false religion has a zeal
and by this zeal they affect men, they attract men. They seek
to lift up man's works, to appeal to his fallen nature by teaching
him that he has something to contribute. He has something to contribute. Some part of his justification,
some part of his sanctification, some part of his redemption,
whatever part. False religion is always preaching
that you have to do your part. They teach falsely that Jesus
has done all that he can do and you must finish the rest. Isn't
this exactly what Paul is preaching against? Look at chapter 3. He
said in verse 3, Are you so foolish having begun in the spirit? Are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Is that how that works? No, he
says you're foolish if that's what you think. You're thoughtless.
You've not thought this through. Therefore, they say salvation
is up to you. It's up to you to keep it. It's
up to you to perfect it. It's up to you to become holier
in your life by the obedience of the law. But friends, all
this boils down to one thing, self-promotion. They want men
to look within and try to find something good so they can promote
themselves above someone else. Self-promotion. But all of this promotion of
your works is a disguise, it's self-promotion. The world would
exclude you. He said, they're zealous, so
they have a zeal to affect you, but not well, it's not good.
They would exclude you that you might affect them. All false
religion wants to put on a show so that you find somebody on
the outside and they say, man, I want to be in that. I want
to join that. That looks exciting. Look how
they're praising God and raising their hands. Oh, I don't feel
any of that. I want to be like that. Well,
they exclude you so that you might praise them, that you might
affect them. But true preachers, listen, now
look at this next verse here. He said, there is such thing
as a good zeal. There is such thing as a good zeal. He says,
but it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing. True preachers of the gospel
are also zealous. Yet our zeal is not the promotion
of men or ourselves. Now listen, we as preachers are
zealous for believers good works. I'm going to deal with works
later. This is, I know this, that in the end of this book,
he does deal with those people who did not lead, those people
who were sure, and he's going to tell them concerning their
conduct, how they should treat those who did lead. So we are
zealous that you maintain good works. But I'm also zealous in
this, that you never look at them. That you never trust them. that
you never depend on them for your acceptance with God. I'm
zealous about that. Our works have nothing to do
with our acceptance. It is completely the work of
Christ as all our acceptance with God. He is our wisdom, our
righteousness, our sanctification and redemption. And we zealously
preach that God has made him to be all those things for us.
That's what we zealously preach. But it is so that it is our zeal
in a good thing. What is the good thing that we're
zealous about? Lifting up Christ. I am zealous about setting Christ
before you, crucified among you. I am zealous about you looking
to Him. I am very zealous of you looking
away from you to Him. I'm zealous about that. It's
necessary that you do not look to yourselves. Spurgeon said
this, Every time I preach, I preach for the conversion of my hearers.
That's a very good thing, isn't it? Conversion. Salvation of
the hearers. I always desire that sinners
hear and believe the gospel. This is always our heart's desire,
that men be converted, that they hear our gospel and repent and
turn to Christ. But what is the means by which
we sinners are converted? It's preaching of the gospel,
isn't it? It is the means God chose. It
is the means God uses that sinners should be converted. So if there's
anybody going to be converted, it's only through the preaching
of Jesus Christ. That's it. This is the means.
1 Corinthians 1, Paul said, Christ sent me not to baptize, but what?
Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. How, Paul? Not with wisdom of words. Why? Lest the cross of Christ be made
of none effect. For the preaching of the cross
is to them that perish, what? Foolishness. This message we
preach, we're zealous about, that we constantly affirm before
your ears, is foolishness to them. Man, you've got to move
on from that. You can't just preach Christ all the time. People are going to get bored.
Let them get bored. Let them go. I'm zealous about
this. I'm going to preach Christ, and
only Christ, and always Christ. He's the only hope we've got.
He's the only Savior there is. There's no salvation in any other.
There is none other name. You get this? There is none other
name given among men whereby we must be saved. There's none
other. So why would I want to preach another? I'm not going
to preach you. I'm not going to preach me. There's no salvation
in that. For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God. And why do we preach? Why do
we preach Christ? It pleased God. That's the only
reason I need. It pleased God, and by the foolishness
of preaching, to save them that belief. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul
gives the reason. He said, I determined not to
know anything among you. Say what? What are you going
to do? There was never a more messed
up church than the church of Corinth. And he said, what have
I determined to do? What have I determined to preach?
I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ
and him crucified. And he gives the reason in verse
5, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but
in the power of God. Listen, we do not desire to convert
men to religion. I'm not here to convert you to
be a Baptist. I'm not here to convert you to
be a Calvinist. I spent many foolish years doing
that garbage, trying to convert men to a system of theology.
It was foolish. But rather, I'm here to convert
you to Christ. I'm here that you, a sinner,
should look to Christ for all your hope and salvation, that
only through Him can you be washed and cleansed and sanctified and
justified before God. It is our desire that you repent
from your works and deeds and turn to Christ. Turn from your
vain religion and vain salvation of works and ordinances and turn
to faith in Christ. Why? Because God has ordained
Him to be the only Savior. The only Savior. There's no other
Savior. Therefore, I don't preach any other Savior. There's only
one, Jesus Christ. Then He is ordained. Christ to be the Savior. And
listen, I preach this. He's accomplished salvation.
He's accomplished it. It's not left for you to do. There's nothing left for you
to fill in there. I don't know if I've told you
this, saw this movie one time. This guy was autistic, kid was
autistic, and he was missing one puzzle piece. That autistic
kid, he just couldn't stand it. There's one piece left and he
couldn't find it. Friends, there's no pieces left.
He put it together. It's done. It's finished. It's
accomplished. That's what we've declared to
you. What's left for you to do? Is He not all your righteousness?
Listen, I desire to be righteous. I desire to live righteous. But
I'm not gonna add what I'm doing to his righteousness. Just not
gonna do it. His is perfect. It's all I need. He's made me wholly acceptable
with God. He's washed away my sins by the
offering of himself. It's done. And then we preach
this that the Holy Spirit comes in and gives us. He actually
applies this to our hearts. We experience this by the power
and work of the Holy Spirit and regeneration. What do we experience?
Repent and believe. Repent and be converted that
your sins may be blotted out, what the Apostle said. Isn't
that what we heard? Repent. You know what I did when
I heard repent when God when God spoke? He said, repent. You
know what I did? I repented. He said, believe. You know what I did? I believed.
See, because it wasn't he wasn't asking. He wasn't asking. He was commanded. When he commands. We do. And we believed. And we're converted. And we believe this, that Christ's
blood and righteousness is all our salvation. And such true
conversion then is a constant, perpetual turning away from self
to Christ. Isn't your experience of your
conversion that you're constantly turning from yourself to Him?
The just shall live how? How are you going to live? By
faith. by faith. Don't you constantly
live by faith? I'm constantly, if I've got to
live by faith, I've got to constantly turn from what I'm seeing, what
I'm experiencing. Our experiences don't match our
faith, does it? Joanne, you know that you're
a child of the living God, that all things are yours. Is that
your experience though? It just don't match my experience.
My experience is, man, I suffer. I made the righteousness of God
in Christ, and yet all I feel is my guilt and my shame. So how do you reconcile that?
Faith. That's how you reconcile it.
I don't care how I feel or what I think. I believe him. I believe
him. I don't care what my circumstances
are. I believe him. Believe him, this is the heart
of one who is converted by the gospel. And so then, there's a great
change. One who has received the truth,
there's a great change. We've turned from the lie to
the truth. But in Galatia, it was the opposite. They were turning again from
the truth to a lie. They were turning from grace
to the weak and beggarly elements of the law. So Paul in zeal,
this is a good zeal. Every pastor has it. Listen to
me. If you be circumcised, chapter
5 and verse 4, Paul tells them, if you be circumcised, Christ
shall profit you nothing. We zealously say that. If you
add one thing to Christ, I am very zealous about this, Christ
will profit you nothing. My friends, isn't that a bold
statement? I mean, think about that. Now,
Paul, you must not really mean that, right? He meant it. It's not my word. It's just the
word of God. If you add your sanctification
to his, what happens? Christ shall profit you nothing.
You add your justification to his, what happens? Christ shall
profit you nothing. You add your wisdom to his, what
happens? Christ shall profit you nothing.
See how that works? You cannot add anything to Christ. We're
very zealous about that because the scripture is. So Paul here was fearful that
their conversion was only pretense. He was fearful for them. As a
pastor, you see someone turning from the truth back to a lie. You are fearful for them. You're
fearful for them. And Paul was fearful that there
was only pretense. And so they might come to the
apostle. They say, well, Paul, what's the matter? What's the
matter? What's so harmful about this? We believe in election. Well, Paul, we believe justification
is by faith. We believe that. We believe forgiveness of sins
is by the death, by the blood of Christ. The only thing we're
differing on here is how to live. You tell us that we're not under
the law and we say we are. What's the big deal? Paul said the big deal is you're
lost, if that's true. That's a big deal. He said the cross of Christ has
none effect to you. Listen how he said, whosoever
you are. I don't care if you're a preacher,
you're a king or a pauper, it doesn't matter. If you add anything
to Christ, Christ will profit you nothing. And so as a pastor, who is not
present with them, he longs to show his love for these people. He longs to show them his zeal. Listen in verse 18. It is good
always to be zealously affected in a good thing. And not only
when I'm present with you. So he was saying this, you know,
if I show up, you might pretend to go back. But when I leave,
you go back. No, it doesn't matter if I'm
there or not. This should always be your zeal. Christ is all. And he says this, My little children,
of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
Now, he labored in the gospel. He said, I travail in birth.
How does he travail? What is he talking about here?
He's travailing and laboring in preaching the gospel to them.
He's faithfully preaching Jesus Christ. When he preached to them at first,
he reminded them that he was not sidetracked by his afflictions, nor was he deterred by the hatred
of man. He would not be removed from
his one purpose, preaching Christ. He travailed in birth by preaching
the message that they professed to receive. Even so, with great
pain in his heart, he preaches it again, so that they should
be delivered from the danger that was assaulting their souls. He was travailing in birth again
for whatever the reason that they had not yet believed that
they should believe now. They should believe now. I've
told you this many times. Paul's saying, look, if all your
all your profession before was pretense, I'm laboring now that
perhaps peradventure God would give you life now. If you've
not believed before, you should believe now. Or whether you really believe
and are fallen, that you should return. And so all who preach
the gospel travail and labor, we do so with this hope that
Christ be formed in you. That is our hope, that Christ
be formed in you. We do not and must not ever promote
ourselves. We must always and only promote
Christ, that you follow Him, that to believe on Him, without
the merits of the flesh so that Christ might be formed in you,
that is, that you should... Two things is meant by this,
I believe. Either spiritual birth or spiritual growth. I travail
that you should be born again. If you're not, I preach the gospel
for this purpose, that you should be born again, that Christ be
formed in you. And secondly, I preach to you
who do believe that you should grow in the grace and knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And only those who are born again
of the Holy Spirit then have the nature created in him. When
he says Christ in you, the hope of glory, what is that? That
is the new nature. The new nature that is created
at our spiritual birth. Look at this in Ephesians. Go to Ephesians chapter 4. The
apostle here is encouraging them, strengthening them to put off
the old man. He said in verse 22, put off,
concerning the former conversation, the old man. You who believe,
you know you still got an old man, don't you? What do you do
with him? What do you got to do with him?
You must put him off. Which is corrupt according to
deceitful lust. What's his nature, this old man?
Corrupt. Now he's not speaking to unbelievers,
is he? He's speaking to believers. You got an old man, he's corrupt.
Put him off and be renewed in the spirit of your mind that
you put on the new man. Oh boy, who is this guy? It's
Christ formed in you. It is a new nature which is after
God created in righteousness and true holiness. So what do you do with that man?
Put him on. How? By faith. By looking to Christ. And so when we're born again,
consider the greatness of this statement, Christ in you. We talk about us being in Christ
all the time, right? That's wonderful, isn't it? That
we're in Christ, we're one with Christ. How about this? Christ in you. Christ in you. This is what happens at the new
birth. Christ is formed in you. This is what he's talking about
in Romans chapter 8. He says, We know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
called according to His purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. That new man that's created after
God in true holiness is formed in the very image of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ in you. What a blessed thought that Christ
is formed in us. And when Christ is formed in
us, there is no other means of justification, is there? Sanctification
or redemption? For we in the new man are now
made holy." We're now made holy. This is the very experience of
our sanctification. We are created after God in true
holiness. The faith of Christ alone then
is the work of our salvation, the complete work of our salvation.
We that have Christ formed in us, this is what we know. We
know that Christ is all. We know that. Why? Because He is in us. His Spirit
teaches us this. And I would have you answer this. Are you converted? Do you know
this? Is Christ formed in you? How do we know this? Do you believe? Do you believe? You're not going to find it by
looking at what you do or how you feel. Do you believe on the
Son of God? This is how we know Christ is
formed in us. Do you look to Christ? or the
law for your means of justification, sanctification, or redemption,
which one, Christ or your marriage? Then I would zealously affect
you for good. I would labor and constantly
labor until Christ be formed in you, either until you're born
again of the spirit or until you repent. So now then look at this, Paul
says, my little children. Now Paul was not their biological
father, but we know this, that he was the one God used in their
spiritual birth. So as we preach the gospel, as
preachers preach the gospel, and are used of the Holy Spirit,
those who are affected for good by our ministry, there's a bond. There's a bond formed. This bond
was formed with the Apostle Paul and these members of the Church
of Galatia because he was the one that God used in their spiritual
birth. And so now he looks at them as
a father. And I want to see the parental
concern of Paul as it relates to every preacher of the gospel.
He says, my little children. My little children, he looks
at them as a father would look at his child. And we as parents, we often pity
our erring children. We have a child and they've erred,
they've made horrible decisions that endanger themselves. Something that will lead to their
hurt or suffering. We look upon them in helpless
pity. Even so do those who preach the
gospel. We who love and desire your safety. But when one of God's sheep goes
astray, one that leaves the gospel and
follows after these zealous legalists, it is in the heart of every preacher
to pity them. We know where they're going is
nothing but danger and pain. And yet, just like our children,
there's nothing we can do to stop them. Nothing you can do. Secondly, just as a parent constantly
repeats themselves, hoping that they'll eventually hear, you
got that? You keep telling them and telling
them and telling them, and they roll their eyes and say, I know,
I know, I've heard this before. Yet you keep what? You keep telling. Well, this is what pastors do.
We constantly, continually, perpetually keep telling you and telling
you and telling you. Preachers, therefore, remain
faithful in preaching the gospel over and over and over in hope that God would use it
to draw them back. I don't change my message. They
left because they don't like my message. But I'm not going
to stop preaching it because the only message they need to
draw them back. So we keep repeating ourselves over and over. And
in this, we must never resort to earthly wisdom to draw them
back. As a pastor, I must preach the gospel, but never resort
to earthly wisdom to get people to come back. Never. I remember there was a man, attended
the services and was made a profession of faith and seemed to have all
the wonderful signs of a convert. And by and by he eventually just
stopped attending the worship. He would every once in a while
sporadically come, go, One day his mother called me, and he
was in older bellies, in his 30s or 40s, and his mom called
me. His mom was a wonderful believer
in Christ. And we talked about this, and she was concerned for
her son. And I made this statement to her, and it's just true. If he's God's, he'll bring him
back. If he's not, he won't. What I must do as a faithful
pastor is continually preach the same message of Christ to
you. When he comes or when he doesn't. And she agreed. John said they
went out from us. Why? They were not of us. If they were of us, they would
have no doubt what? Stayed right here. But they went
out that they might be manifest. that they're not of us. I tell
you, as a pastor, you feel helpless sometimes,
helpless. But we're true to know this,
that only the gospel can draw them. Thirdly, as pastors, as
like parents, we must feed and comfort the children of God.
Parents are responsible to feed and provide the needs of their
children, never the wants. You got that? You're not responsible
for their wants. You're responsible for their
needs. And so as a pastor of the gospel,
I know what you need. You need what I need. You need
Christ. You need the Lord Jesus Christ
to come and give you life and faith and all your acceptance
with God. That's what you need. That's
what I need. And so what I do as a faithful
pastor, I must continually feed you with Christ. I remember this
woman came to me and she says, you know, could you tell me about
your church? We're looking for a church. I
began to tell her the gospel. I began to tell her what we preach.
I was excited. I want to tell her about Christ.
And she said, oh, no, no, no, no, no. What I mean is, what
do you have for the children? I said, I have the same thing
for the children I have for you. Jesus Christ and him crucified.
That's what I have. And this is what we do is we
feed and comfort you with this same gospel. And we must defend you. As a
parent defends their child, so must we defend you. And oftentimes
we feel helpless. You ever had that helpless feeling?
Your child is in trouble and you're far away and you can't
get to them? Listen, when that happens to the children of God,
when they're in trouble, I always feel that way. I'm helpless. I can't make these things effectual
to you. I can warn you. I can preach
Christ to you. But I can't make you hear it.
I can't put it into your heart. That's the work of God. It's
not my work. So I often feel helpless in this
matter of protecting you. But how do we do this? We know
this. the gospel we preach is the power of God. Isn't the power
of God sufficient to protect you? The gospel then is sufficient.
It is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
We believe this is the power of God. Therefore, what must
we do as faithful pastors? We must preach the gospel until
Christ is formed in you. Either until you're born again
or Those that stray, repent. We
keep preaching Christ. The legalists, they always labor.
They labor for power and influence. I labor for none of those. I
labor that Christ should be set forth among you crucified. They labor that you touch not,
taste not, handle not. I labor that Christ should be
all your hope and salvation, not your works. A true minister of the gospel
always labors that Christ may be formed in you. I long that
you all be found in Christ and that Christ be formed in you. I long that the spiritually dead
should be given life. I long that those that are living
should be comforted. that you should grow in the grace
and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. I long that you, that
you experience his love and his mercy and his grace. I long that you continue to look
to him as all your merit before God. And this is only done through
the preaching of the gospel, faithful, constant preaching. And I tell you, it breaks my
heart when people turn from the gospel. It just does. But I know this, the only thing
that'll draw them back is what? The same thing that drew them
in the first time. The gospel. Jesus Christ. Not a doctrine
person. Jesus Christ and his work crucified. I know he's all my hope, all
my standing before God. I confess. I'm a sinner solely
saved by the grace and mercy of God through the offering of
Christ. And I will not dare not add one
thing to his work. It's perfect. It's perfect. I pray God will bless this. I
pray God will show us that the zeal that is good is to preach
Christ. The zeal of every pastor is to
preach Christ. The zeal of every pastor is that
Christ be formed in you through the preaching of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, what do we do? We preach Christ. We preach Christ. I pray God will bless this too.
Stand and be dismissed in prayer.