In Galatians chapter 4, the title
of the lesson this morning is The Effects of Gospel Preaching.
You know, I'm not very interested, not interested at all, in the
effects of religion, man's religion on someone. You can be religious
and clean up your act and still not know the Lord. I'm not interested
in the effects that right doctrine might have on someone. you can
understand the right doctrine and not have a relationship with
the Lord, not have saving faith. So in our lesson this morning,
I'd like to answer two questions. And answer these questions in
such a way that you'll know this when you leave here this morning.
Has Christ affected my heart? Has the gospel of Christ affected
me or am I just affected by religion? All of us are at least And since
you're here this morning, I'm assuming in some way you're at
least affected by religion and things of the scriptures and
these kinds of things. Well, am I affected in my soul by Christ,
or is this just religious habit that I've always done? So what
are the effects of gospel preaching if the Almighty enables us to
hear with an ear of faith and with a believing heart? And second,
why am I so concerned? that we know the difference between
being affected by Christ and being affected by mere religious
experience. You remember Paul had come to
the brethren here in Galatians. He preached the gospel to them.
This is what he says in verse 13. You know how through infirmity
of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. Now look
over at 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This will give us some understanding
of how Paul came there preaching the gospel. However, it is that
Paul came preaching the gospel in other places at Corinth, for
example. That's how he came preaching the gospel at Galatia. And Paul
did not come with the wisdom of men's words and man's philosophy. He came with the bare gospel
of Christ preaching. Look at 1 Corinthians 2, verse
1. And I, brethren, when I came
to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring
unto you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know
anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Now
as with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,
in my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of
man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that
your faith," this is why Paul always came preaching this way,
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. And that's the way Paul came
preaching in Galatia. And he says he came preaching
with some obvious physical infirmities. And we don't know what Paul's
physical infirmities were, and it really doesn't matter. But
there are two important lessons that we can learn about Paul's
infirmities in his flesh. Number one is this. Salvation
is a heart work that does not affect the flesh. It doesn't
have any effect on the flesh. Now that kills the idea that
false preachers tell you if you've got enough faith, if you just
have enough faith, you'll be healthy and wealthy. Well, from
what I gather from reading the Word of God, Paul had enough
faith and he was neither healthy nor wealthy. So that kills that
idea. Salvation is a work that's done
in the heart. Salvation is the giving of a
new heart that does not affect the flesh. And the second lesson
we learn is this. Paul had some pretty serious
infirmities in his flesh. We know he had a thorn in the
flesh that the Lord gave him to keep him humble, and that
was very troublesome for the apostle. Paul had been beaten
many times. He'd been beaten with a cat and
knife held, beaten with rods. He'd been stoned. One time he stoned so bad they
thought he was dead. He'd been shipwrecked and spent
days in the open sea. And these things took a physical
toll on his body. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
10. Now we believe, I don't know if this was from birth and this
was just his stature or if all these other things affected him
and contributed to this, but we think that Paul looked and
sounded like a weak man. Look at 2 Corinthians 10, I'll
show you where we get that idea from in verse 9. Paul says that I may not seem
as if I would terrify you by letters. For his letters say
they, his enemies, his letters say they are weighty and powerful,
but his bodily presence is weak and his speech contemptible.
His speech is contemptible because he had a weak voice. He just
didn't have much to look at. But you know the Lord used Paul
anyway. He used him anyway. And this
is a good lesson for us. The Lord does not use our strength
in his service. Lord uses our weakness in His
service, that the glory will be His and not us. And Paul was
used of God despite his infirmities. And if you look in 2 Corinthians
12, verse 9, he had these infirmities and the Lord comforted him in
these infirmities. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 9. This
is after he had besought the Lord thrice to remove this thorn
in the flesh. And the Lord said unto me, My
grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect
in weakness." This is how comforted Paul was by God's grace, how
sufficient God's grace was for him. Most gladly, therefore,
will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches,
in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake.
For when I am weak, then am I strong. And we can take comfort and instruction
in our infirmities. We have all these infirmities.
The Lord's going to use us anyway. And the Lord will comfort us.
His grace will be sufficient for us just as much as it was
sufficient for the Apostle Paul. So Paul says, now I had all these
infirmities, all these things that would seem to hinder me.
And whatever else was going on with me, when I came to you,
I preached the gospel to you. And here's the first effect of
the gospel preached, is we receive the Lord's servants. Now, these
effects of having the gospel preached, if the gospel is affecting
us, they're not in order of importance. They're not in order of the way
we experience them when the Lord saves us. They're just in order
that's given to us in the text. But the first effect of the gospel
preached is we receive the Lord's servants. Look at verse 14. In
my temptation, which was in my flesh, and ye despised not, nor
rejected. But ye received me as an angel
of God, even as Christ Jesus." Now, obviously, most importantly,
we'll touch on this in a moment. When you hear the gospel preached
with the ear of faith, you receive Christ. You have Christ formed
in you, in your heart. You have union with Christ. But
if you receive Christ, you will receive his servant. Of course
you will. Now, is he a perfect man? Far
from it. He's got plenty of sin, plenty
of infirmities in the flesh. The Apostle Paul is an illustration
of that. But you're still going to receive
him because he preaches Christ. He's an ambassador for Christ
and you receive him like you receive Christ. You welcome him
like you welcome Christ. And his physical weaknesses and
these things about him, they don't turn you away from the
gospel because you're going to receive God's service. Now, aren't
you thankful? for the men that preach the gospel
to you? Of course we are. And we love them because they're
the instrument. This is the reason we love them.
They're the instrument in the hands of our Savior. They're
the instrument that God uses to preach Christ to us. And I
was looking over my notes this morning and I thought, that doesn't
just apply to God's preachers. That applies to the whole family
of God. I love God's family. I mean, I love wherever I see
them. Jan, I went up to Fairmont just last Thursday, and I saw
folks I bet I hadn't seen in 12 or 15 years maybe. I just loved them. Just loved
seeing them. Met some new folks. Just loved them. I received them
and welcomed them. Because they're my brother. They're
my sister. They're part of the family of God. And God sends
His servant to you to preach the gospel to you. If you hear
it, if it affects your heart, you'll receive it. Here's the
second fact of the gospel preached. It's blessedness or blessing.
Look at verse 15. Where is then the blessedness
that you speak of? When we hear the gospel and the
gospel affects our heart, there's a blessedness. What a blessing
to be set free from the law. What a blessing. What a blessing
to be set free from the burden of the guilt of sin. What a blessing
to be set free from the condemnation of sin. You don't have fear of
punishment or fear of death anymore. There's no fear in grace. What a blessing it is to be known
of God and to know God. That's a blessing. What a blessing,
even though you can't understand it, to have union with Christ. That you're in Christ and Christ
is in you. Christ is in your heart. What a blessing. And when we
truly hear Christ preach these blessings, it's to overwhelm
the heart. And you only hear this blessedness
in the preaching of the Gospel. There is a blessedness in the
Gospel you can't find anywhere else. There's a blessedness.
The third effect of the Gospel preached is an attitude of generosity. Verse 15, he says, Where is then
the blessedness you speak of? for I bear you record, that if
it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes,
and have given them unto me." Now, many people think Paul's
thorn in the flesh was bad eyesight. I don't know if that was his
thorn in the flesh or not. It certainly appears he had bad
eyesight. Now, it may have been his thorn
in the flesh, or it may have been from being stoned, having
a big rock stoned his head, you know, that maybe he couldn't
see very good. It may have been from studying
too hard and bad light. Well, he's a Pharisee. I don't
know. It certainly appears he did have bad eyesight. If you
look over in Galatians 6, this is one of the things that seemed
to indicate that Paul had bad eyesight. Galatians 6, verse
11. You see how large a letter I've
written unto you with mine own hand. Paul wrote with large letters
because he couldn't see normal sized ones. He had bad eyesight.
That's kind of why we think that he may have had bad eyesight.
And the people that God saved through Paul's preaching were
thankful. They were so thankful they wanted
to give. They wanted to give to the Lord.
They wanted to give to support the gospel. And they wanted to
give to Paul, too. Paul said, if it had been possible
for you, you would have pulled out your own eyes and given them
to me. If you could have pulled out
your eyes and given them to me so that I could see, you'd have
done that. That's how giving the gospel made you be. And about
every one of us here understand that perfectly. Henry Mahan would
have thousands of ears if it were possible for us to pull
them off and give them to him so he could hear. He'd have thousands
of ears. Just last week, Brother Clay
Curtis was spending some time with us at our house, and he's
having trouble with one of his hearing aids. I was thinking,
I wish I could get him in here. And I was going over my notes
and I thought, I guess I'm not as generous in giving as the
Galatians. They'd have given Paul both their
eyes. I'm thinking, I'll just give Clay one here. You know, he's
got none, I've got two. If I give him one, we both have
one. Maybe that's not very generous,
but this is the effect of the gospel. God makes his people
generous. He gives them a new heart that's
generous. It's a heart that's after his
heart. How generous is he? That's the heart He gives His
people. And God's people, they're generous with their money and
they put an offering. They're so generous, just, oh,
I'm so thankful. That's the effect of Christ in
the heart. They give generously their time
and talents. Boy, something needs done and
people are so willing. That's because God gave them
a generous heart. They're loving, giving people
because they're filled with love for Christ. Christ affects their
heart. Now where'd they learn about that giving? Did Paul go
through there and go through the law and talk about tithing?
No, he didn't go over there. He's trying to get them to ignore
the law. Well, then how'd they learn about
giving if he didn't give them, you know, guidelines of what
to give? He preached the gospel to them.
He preached the gospel. You learn about giving generously
by the gospel being preached. The Father gave. his only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have everlasting life." Does that make you want to give? Does
that just touch your heart and make you want to give? It does
if you've heard the gospel in faith. Christ came and gave himself
to be the sacrifice for the sin of his people. He gave his back
to the smiters. He gave his cheeks to those that
pluck out his He gave. They didn't take him against
his will. He gave his hands and his feet to have nails driven
through them so that he'd be held to that cross and suffer
and die. He gave himself to be made sin and made a curse for
his people. He gave his life. He gave up
the ghost. He gave his life so his people
would live. He gave himself into the hands
of justice. so that his people would be held
in that great hand of God's grace. Does that make you want to give? Does that break your heart? Well,
it does if you've heard the gospel in faith. Then the Father's given
us of His Spirit. He's given us the spirit of adoption
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Father's given us His Spirit
to dwell in the heart, to teach us all things, to show us Christ,
Does that make you want to give? Does that make you thankful so
you want to give? It does if you've heard the gospel in faith.
The gospel priest produces an attitude of generosity. The fourth
effect of the gospel priest is the new birth, having Christ
formed in you. Look at verse 19. We'll come
back to these other verses in a moment. In verse 19 of Galatians
4, Paul says, My little children of whom I prevail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you. I remember Paul's writing to
those who want to go back under the law. And this is the evidence
of not being born again. The evidence of not being born
again is not various sins and attitudes that immediately come
to our minds. The evidence of not being born
again is you desire to be under the law. You have some desire
to be under the law to make yourself better or improve your standing
with God. You'd never think that way if
you had life. If Christ was formed in you,
it would be impossible. If Christ is formed in you, you
love Christ and you only want grace. You don't want anything
to do with the law. Being born again is the same as having Christ
formed in you. It's a vital union with Christ.
Salvation is not having the right form of religion. Salvation is
having Christ formed in you. Salvation is not having the right
form of the law. Salvation is having Christ formed
in you. Salvation is not observing the right form of ceremony. You
know, there's a certain way we conduct our services, but salvation
is not having the right form of ceremony. Salvation is having
Christ formed in you. And if you're born again, you
have Christ formed in you and you resemble him. Because he's
formed in you, just like a child resembles his parents. A child
resembles his parents. He looks like them and he acts
like them. Because he's got the nature of
his parents. And if Christ is formed in you, you'll be the
same way. Look at Philippians chapter 2.
If Christ is formed in you, you are really and truly justified. Philippians 2 verse 6. Who being in the form of God,
that word form is the same word form over in our text, who being
in the form of God, thought no robbery to be equal with God,
but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. Now the Son
of God, He is God. He's in the form of God. It wasn't
robbery for him to call himself equal with God because he is
God. That's his form. And the Son of God came in the
form of a man. The God-man. He came as a real
man. He wasn't a pretend man. He wasn't a ghost. He wasn't
a hologram. He was a real man. That's the
form he came in. Well, if Christ is formed in
you, you are truly It's justified. It's not like you're justified.
It's not like you're holy. It's not like you're saved. No,
you really are saved, justified in Him. The Son of God was in
the form of man, yet He was still God. Well, did He look like God
to most people? Did most people perceive, oh,
that's God? No, they didn't. But He was still
God. Whether they perceived it or
not, He's still God. If Christ is formed in you, you
are really justified. You really are without sin. Now, do you see that in yourself?
No. Do your friends and neighbors
see it in you? No, I promise you, they don't. But are you
really justified? Yes, you are. Yes, if Christ
is formed in you, you're really justified, and it doesn't matter
whether you perceive it or not. It's so, because God said it.
And the only place that you'll hear that's in the gospel, the
only way that that's possible for you to understand that you're
justified, even though you can't see anything but sin in yourself,
is by being born again. Only the new man can look inside
me and see there's nothing but sin. The old man can't see that.
The old man can look inside me and say, that was pretty good.
Only the new man can look in me and say, there's nothing but
sin. That's an evidence of being born
again. Then look at Colossians chapter 1. If you have Christ
formed in you, you have a good hope of glory. Colossians 1 verse
26. Even the mystery, now what we're
talking about here is a mystery. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints. whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory." Now this is a great mystery, something we can't understand. But I tell you, not only is it
a good hope of glory, Christ formed in you is the only hope
of glory a sinner can ever have. If you have Christ formed in
you, you have a good hope of glory. Now look at John chapter
14. If Christ is formed in you, Christ
is in you, and you're in Christ, too. John 14, verse 20. At that day, ye shall know that
I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. The best illustration
I can think of for this is a thimble. You take a thimble and toss it
in the ocean. That thimble's in the ocean,
isn't it? But you know what else? The ocean's
in that thimble. And the only way you'll ever
hear you're that thimble, that you're in Christ and Christ is
in you, is in the gospel. Now that's the effects of gospel
preaching. The effect in the heart of a
believer when they hear the gospel and Christ is formed in them.
And here's the second question I want to answer. Why am I so
concerned that we know the difference between being affected by Christ,
being affected by the gospel, and being affected by religion
or doctrine. I'm so concerned about that because
those two effects, they can look alike for a while, and eventually
they're going to separate and start to look different. But
this is serious warning. Even believers can get pulled
aside for a time. You know, Paul, he has hope.
that these Galatians still know Christ. They're giving a lot
of indication that they haven't been born again, but he has hope
that they know Christ and that they'll come back to the belief
and love of the truth. In verse 15, Paul asks them,
where's the blessedness that you used to speak of? You're
not talking about that blessedness anymore. Now you're talking about
something different. And he's hopeful that these are
believers. Even believers can get pulled
aside and look off the wrong direction for a time. Now look
at verse 16 in our text with Galatians 4. Am I therefore become
your enemy because I tell you the truth? Paul said we used
to be good friends. Now you don't consider me a friend.
You consider me your enemy. You used to consider me your
friend. Such a good friend you'd pluck out your own eyes for me.
Now you don't even want to look at me. And here's the sad thing. Paul says, here's why we've become
enemies. Because I told you the truth. I told you the truth. I told you the good news in Christ. That you're complete in Christ.
That you don't have to do anything to make salvation complete. You're
complete in Christ. Christ has accomplished it all.
Gives that freely to His people. I told you about the miracles
of God's grace. I told you about the miracle
that your sin is forgiven for Christ's sake. that Christ bore
the curse of your sin away, you'll bear it no more. I told you that
Christ is formed in you in the new birth and that you are as
righteous and as holy and as accepted of the Father as Christ
is. Now, the only person that hate
me for telling you that truth is a person that's not been born
again. If you've never received the love of the truth, you'll
hate me for telling the truth. That's what Paul's saying. You
know, they used to be Paul's friends. They used to love to
hear him preach. What happened? What has happened? I can tell you what happened.
Somebody came in and told you a lie and you believed it. Look
at verse 17. Paul says, they zealously affect
you, but not well. Yea, they would exclude you that
you might affect them. This word affect is to court.
Like a young man courts a woman. He's putting his best foot forward
all the time. Trying to win her affection to
him and to nobody else. He didn't want her affection
divided between him and a bunch of other boyfriends. He's courting
her. So he wins her affection solely
to him. Paul says that's what these false
prophets are doing to you. They're courting you. But not
for a good reason. They're courting you to gain
you as a convert to them. To be a follower of them and
not of Christ. And this is a mark of these men.
This is what they just such a common tactic. They exclude you, Paul
says. They want to separate you from
those that preached the gospel to you in the past. They don't
want you to have a generous spirit. They don't want you to listen
to them preach and you preach because we're all preaching the
same Christ. You get a blessing from them like you do me. No,
they don't want that. Because they're afraid they want
to exclude you. They're afraid you go back and talk to these
fellows that preached the gospel to you in the past. If these
Galatians have visited with Paul, they're not going to follow these
false prophets anymore. And then they go and they take these friends
of yours and they lie about them. So you'll think less of them.
They twist what they say and they make it a matter of loyalty
that you listen exclusively to them, not to these other brethren. And they do that so you can affect
them. So you can pump up their ego. You can add to their bottom
line and add to their numbers. And there's not room for you
and them. For the false prophet and Paul.
Because they preach a different message. Now look at verse 18.
Paul says, not that there's anything wrong with zeal. But it's good
to be zealous. Zealously affected always in
a good thing. But not only when I'm present
with you. There's nothing wrong with zeal. We ought to have zeal
for God, shouldn't we? ought to. The problem is motive. The motive of a false prophet
is not toward God and toward His glory for your good. Their
motive, what they're so zealous about, is their own gain, their
own good. Not for you to gain Christ. God's servant, that one
that you'll receive, his goal, his zeal is that you gain Christ. That's all he cares about. Now,
there's no problem. with a zeal to feed the poor
and to help the homeless, as long as it does not replace and
take away from the zeal to preach Christ. The church does not exist
to feed the poor. The church does not exist to
house the homeless. The church exists to preach Christ. That's our zeal to preach Him.
Nothing wrong with doing those other things, as long as it does
not detract from our zeal to preach Christ. And true zeal, true love, burns
in the heart even when you're not present with that one that
you love. If you only love the gospel when the preacher's present
with you, you're in a heap of trouble. Now, you're in big trouble.
That's why Brother Henry taught preachers to care a whole lot
more that people that hear you preach know the name of Christ
more than your name. More than your name. Because
if you've got a zeal for Him, and you know Him, or take care
of you, whether the preacher's there or not. And a false prophet
can't do that because that's not his nature. Now look at verse
20. We'll end here with this verse.
Paul, he's concerned and he's talking to these Galatians like
they're his children. He said, I desire to be present
with you now and to change my voice for I stand in doubt of
you. Now, when a woman's in labor,
she has laser focus. All of her being is devoted to
giving life to her child. The things that she thought about
yesterday, she thought yesterday, I need to go to the grocery store,
I need to run the vacuum and clean the corners and dust the
windows and clean the windows. Those things that she may be
a really fanatical housekeeper, and those things are very important
to her. She goes into labor, all that's forgotten. All of
it. And all of her being is focused
on giving life to that child. That's exactly what it's like
to preach the gospel. There are a lot of things I care
about and make a difference to me, but nothing else matters. Nothing else matters but that
you know Christ. That's all that matters. And
any sacrifice, any of God's servants will tell you this, any sacrifice,
all the hours of prayer and study and carrying the burden of the
Word of God are all worth it. to see a child of God be given
life, to have Christ formed in you. And the only way that's
going to happen is by the preaching of the gospel. That's not limiting
God's power. This is just the way God's ordained
to do it. This is what it pleases Him to do, to give life to the
preaching of the gospel. And this is also the means that
God uses to keep us from straying off, like these Galatians have
done. It's through the preaching of the gospel. So we're going
to preach the gospel. This is going to be our focus.
This is going to be all we do. This is what we do. We preach
Christ. And Paul was not their spiritual
father in the sense that he gave them life. God did that in him.
But Paul was their spiritual father in this sense. He was
instrumental in their new birth. And just like a father, he was
instrumental in feeding them so that they grow up and they
learn. And as a loving father, Paul
wants to sit down and talk to them. plain language that they'll
understand, to pull them back from this folly that they've
entered into. And Paul says, now I doubt you. I doubt you. Listen to me, I'm doubting you.
If you want to be under the law instead of grace, you've not
been born again. And that's all Paul wanted for
them in the first place, is to be born again. He wants what's
best for them. You fathers want what's best
for your children. No matter what it costs you,
you want what's best for them. That's what Paul wants for his
Galatians. He wants what's best for him. Well, what's he going
to do? Preach Christ to them. Because
that's the only way they'll know him. And that's what's best for
him. All right. Well, I hope the Lord will bless
that too.