Now, if someone is not worshipping
the God of the Bible, they're idolaters. Without worshipping
the true and living God as He's revealed Himself in His Word,
they're idolaters. God's wrath is on them. God's
not happy with them. He's not happy with their religion.
He's not happy because people think they're good, moral people
in the community. God's angry with them. They're
idolaters. And you might think that's pretty
narrow. This is what God's Word says. There's one God, one Savior,
one God to worship, and any other form of worship is idolatry.
And by nature, man doesn't know God. A man's religious, but he
doesn't know God, so his religious ceremony is to worship and serve
idols. The word service Paul uses here
means the service of a slave. Men willingly become slaves to
an idol, an idol that doesn't have any life in them, an idol
that doesn't have any existence. Now I want you to think how foolish
this is. Over the course of history, men and women, I'm talking about
mothers who gave birth to children, willingly, because they willingly
became a slave to an idol, sacrificed their children to that idol.
They put their children to death. That's the service of a slave.
Now, I'm telling you, a slave. They offered the most precious
blood they knew of, the blood of their children, to an idol
because they're religious. Some would cut themselves. Now,
I want you to notice human nature. They cut themselves. Sacrifice
the children. They put their children to death.
This is our nature. The nature of a slave. Men do
rain dances. Just crazy things. Rain dances. And all that stuff
they do is useless. Because those things are done
in a slave's service to an idol that has no existence. Now that,
everybody here will admit, that's crazy. You know it's just as
crazy to give up something you enjoy for how many ever days
Lent lasts? Just as crazy. It's religious
slave service to an idol. Not eating meat on a certain
day. Jan and I were up at a conference in Danville and saw a couple
we hadn't seen in a while. They'd lost weight. And Jan asked
them, how'd you do? They said, we quit eating meat.
And not exclusively, but we quit eating meat. I'd rather be overweight. I mean, you know, I love to eat
meat. Well, is God really going to
be pleased with me if I give up eating meat one day a week?
What about the rest of the days? That's crazy. Now, it's just
as crazy, you know, this idolatry gets more subtle. It's just as
crazy to use the name Jesus and say things about him that are
not true. And when men do that, and that's what men in this country,
you know, do is they use the name Jesus, but they attribute
things to him that are not found in God's word. And all they've
done is give their idol a name. He's not Buddha. He's not whatever. They just named him Jesus. But
he's just a reel of an idol as Buddha. If they speak contrary
to the scripture, this is what they've done. They've just named
their idol Jesus. When they say salvation is up
to your free will, that you've got to decide to do this. All
you have is an idol who's just as wicked as that idol men sacrifice
their children to. That idol doesn't have the nature
of God. He doesn't have any nature. He certainly doesn't have the
nature of God. His nature shows he's not God. He's not sovereign. He's not holy. He can't save.
Now, before you knew God, You were an idolater. I was too. We knew there was a God, but
we didn't know God. But nature tells you that. There's
no special revelation to know that there is a God. Just look
outside. Nature tells you that. Your conscience
tells you that there's a God. Paul said in Romans 1 that God
has shown men both by nature and by conscience. God is. God exists. A friend of mine
was telling me they took a trip out west and they camped one
night on some beach in Northern California. And he said, you
know, there's no pollution. There's no clouds. They're just
there on the beach. And he said the stars just... And his teenage
daughter just sat and looked at that and said, how can people
say there's no God? That's evidence God is. A 13
year old can tell you that. That's no special revelation.
The prince of this world, they knew there was a God, but they
didn't know the Lord Jesus was Him or they never would have
crucified Him. People know there is a God, but they don't know
Him. And the only way any of that will change is when God
reveals Himself to you. Then you know who He is. Then
you see God and you know God because He's revealed Himself
to you. Look at verse 9. But now, after that you have
known God. Do know God. You know Him. You
know Him in part, though, don't you? We know God, but it's in
part. We see through a glass darkly,
but we do see God. We see and know the triune God. We know the Father in electing
love. What love there is that the Father
would choose sinners to save. That's love. We know that love. We know that Father. We know
the Son and His redemptive glory. What glory there is in Christ
saving sinners. I'm not talking about saving
good people. I'm not talking about saving people that deserve it.
I'm talking about saving sinners. There's glory in that redemption.
That's the Son we know and worship. We know the Holy Spirit in life-giving
power. There is power in giving life
to those who are spiritually dead. What power there is in
that, giving them eternal life. Now we know God. That's the God
we know because we see Him in the face of Jesus Christ. We
know God. But now we know in part, don't
we? We know so little of God. How can we know God who's eternal
when we're so finite? How can we know all about God
who's omnipresent when we can hardly be in one place at a time? How often are you in one place?
Particularly in the worship service. And you're not there. Your mind's
somewhere else. You can't even be in one place at one time.
Well, how can we know God? All of God who's omnipresent.
How can we know all there is to know about God who knows everything
we know so little? How can we know all about God
who dwells outside of time when time just constrains our every
movement? We need to be awful careful, thinking that we've
got God in the box, know what God's doing and why He's doing
it, because we just know very little about Him. One sure evidence
that we don't know anything about, or we don't know very much about
God is when we think we do know everything about Him. That's
a very sure evidence we don't know much about Him. God's too
vast for us to know Him, to know all there is to know about Him.
So I can't find much assurance. in my knowledge of God. Now,
I know Him. By God's grace, I know Him. You
do too. But I can't find much assurance
in my knowledge of who He is. Can you? We just know in part.
Well, that's good. It's good if you can't find much
assurance of your salvation and your knowledge of God. Because
salvation doesn't depend on our knowledge of God. Salvation depends
on God's knowledge of us. Look at verse 9 again. But now,
after that you have known God, or rather, are known of God.
How turn you again to weak and beggarly elements, where to you
desire again to be in bondage? Now, we don't know much about
God, but God knows all things. He knows His people. He knows
everything. And salvation depends on God's
knowledge of us, not on our knowledge of Him. God told Israel, I'm
going to bring you by way. You do not. We didn't know that
way of salvation. We didn't know the way of salvation
in Christ Jesus until God revealed Him to us. I'm going to bring
you by a way that you knew not. Salvation depends upon God's
knowledge of me. Not on my knowledge of Him. I'm
going to get Alzheimer's and I'm going to forget. God never
forgets. You're the only thing God's ever
forgotten. The only thing God's ever forgotten. sin put under
the blood of his son. He'd not forgotten anything else.
He's not going to forget you. He's not going to forget his
people. My knowledge is imperfect. God's knowledge is perfect. Salvation
begins and ends with God's knowledge. It begins with God's knowledge.
Known unto God are all his works from the beginning. We're elect,
how? according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. Salvation begins with God. God
told Jeremiah. He said, Jeremiah, before I formed
you in the belly, I knew you. Before I formed you in the belly,
I knew you, I loved you, I sanctified you. Salvation begins with God's
knowledge of us. Look in Psalm 139. Before time
began, God knew his people by name. He wrote their name. in the Lamb's Book of Life before
eternity. Look at Psalm 139, verse 6. I'm sorry, verse 1. We'll read
the first six verses. O Lord, Thou hast searched me
and known me. Thou knowest my down-sitting
and mine uprising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassed my path and my
lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word of my tongue, but, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before, and laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto
it." But God knows. We know in part, and that knowledge
is too wonderful for us. Now look at Matthew chapter 7. is based on God's knowledge of
us. And you know damnation is based on God's knowledge, too.
Look at Matthew 7, verse 21. Not everyone that saith unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he
that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will
say unto me in that day, Lord, Have we not prophesied in thy
name, and in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done
many wonderful works? They thought they knew God, didn't
they? They thought they knew the Lord. They'd done all these
things for Him in His name, but they didn't know Him. More importantly,
the Lord didn't know them. Look at verse 23. And then while
I profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye
that work iniquity. Now, if God knows you, he's going
to reveal himself to you so that you know him, so that you'll
know him, and you'll trust him, you'll rely upon him. And a very
good indicator that God knows you is you remain faithful. He'll keep you faithful. If he
knows you, he will keep you faithful. So, this is the issue there in
Galatia. You'd have to question God's
knowledge of someone and their knowledge of God If they keep
turning back to the law, if they keep wanting to go back to those
idols and serve them like a slave serves an idol. This is what
Paul's telling the Galatians. If God really knows you. And
you really know God. How can you turn from God to
idols? Look, 1 Thessalonians chapter one. Isn't that the exact
opposite of salvation? That's the exact opposite of
the way a person is saved. Turning from God to idols. 1 Thessalonians 1 verse 9. For they themselves show of us
what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how you turned
to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait
for his Son. You're waiting for him. You're
not turning back to those idols. You're waiting for his Son from
heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered
us from the wrath to come. Turn from the true and living
God back to those idols. You've got to question God's
knowledge of you and your knowledge of God, because this is the opposite
of salvation. And this is what Paul keeps asking
the Galatians, how can you turn from the Lord? From the Lord
who has been merciful and gracious to you, the Lord who has shown
you something of his greatness. If you're going to turn from
God, you're going to have to turn to something inferior. You
have to. He's Lord of all. He's Lord overall. His greatness, nothing can be
compared to it. If you turn from Him, you've
got to turn to something inferior. Any idol is inferior to God. Well, that's true of ourselves,
isn't it? If we make our salvation dependent
upon our decision or on our law-keeping or on our doing this or this
or this to keep our salvation, we've made ourselves an idol.
And that's a mighty poor idol, far inferior to God. Paul calls
these idols, they're weak and beggarly. Now the word weak he
uses here means impotent, which is exactly the opposite of omnipotent. Not only do they not have all
power, they have no power. They're weak. Now why would you
want to serve an idol that has no power to say? Why would you
want to serve an idol that has no power to forgive. Sinners need the forgiveness
of sins. We don't need to earn forgiveness. We can't earn it. Why would you
want to serve an idol that's powerless to forgive? Why would
you want to serve an idol that's powerless to keep you? You know,
if this idol that they named Jesus saves you, but then you've
got to keep yourself? Why would you want to worship
this idol who doesn't have the power to keep you? He didn't
have the power to protect you. You think of the power of our
God, the power of the God of the Bible, the power to save,
the power to forgive sin, the power to give life to the dead.
He saves to the uttermost all that come to God by him. This
word weak, it also means sick, which is the opposite of health.
It's the opposite of the health that we have in Christ. These
idols have no power to heal. Isn't that especially true of
the law? You want to go back to the law?
All the law can do is wound and kill. The law is an instrument
of death. The law can never heal. But Christ
heals His people from every spiritual disease. By His stripes we're
healed. Why would you ever turn from
Him, from the health that we have in Him? And then beggarly,
this word Paul uses to describe idols, beggarly, means lacking. This idol is lacking in righteousness. He's lacking in holiness. He's
lacking in mercy. He's lacking in forgiveness.
He's lacking in wisdom. But in Christ, we lack nothing. There was an article in the Bulletin,
I think it was last week, in Christ we lack nothing. Why would
you turn from the sufficiency of Christ to this idol who lacks
everything? Why would you turn from Christ
who lacks nothing to an idol that lacks everything? And this
word beggarly also means powerless to accomplish a need. Powerless
to accomplish a purpose. Isn't that an idol? If the purpose
is to save your soul, he can't do it without you. He's powerless
to accomplish his end. And again, this is especially
true of the law. What does Paul tell us in Romans
8 verse 3? He tells us that the law is powerless
to save. It cannot accomplish the end
of salvation because it's weak through the flesh. It's weak
through our flesh. We can't do it. We can't keep
it. We can't fulfill the law. Yet Christ has all power. It's not he might save his people.
It's not he's going to make salvation possible. He shall save his people
from their sins. He has the power to accomplish
his end. This word beggarly, it means
having what a beggar has. What does a beggar have? A beggar,
a true beggar, has got nothing of any value. He's got some rags
for a coat. How does that compare to the
spotless robe of Christ's righteousness? A beggar doesn't have a home
or shelter. Maybe he's got a cardboard box. How does that compare to a believer's
home? Where we abide in our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our shelter
from the stormy blast of God's wrath against sin. A beggar doesn't
have a shelter like that. A beggar is dirty. Dirty, he doesn't have a home
to go to to wash and be clean. He stinks. Christ cleanses us
from all of our sin and cleanses us from the stench of our sin,
from the corruption of our sin. A beggar doesn't have shoes to
wear. He might have some rag or something to wrap around his
feet. He don't have shoes. A believer's feet are shod with
the preparation of the gospel of peace. A beggar doesn't have
a hat to wear to protect his head. A believer's head is protected
by the helmet of salvation in Christ. Why would you leave Christ
who has given you everything you need, who has become everything
you need? For a beggar, that's nothing.
I remember Henry called these who want to be under the law,
serve this idol. He said they're children of a
lesser God. And if you're a child of a lesser God, You're in bondage
to that idol. You've got to serve that idol
like a slave serves his master. You can never quit. You don't
get a day off. Most of y'all got Monday off.
It's national holiday. Slave doesn't. You've got to
serve that idol with a slavish fear every day. If you leave
Christ for the law, you remember this. The law's never satisfied. I don't care how good you've
done in the past. The law is never satisfied. It requires
constant perfection. But in Christ you're free. Free
from the law. Oh, happy condition. If you're
a child of God, you're the heir who's come of full age, why would
you ever want to go back to be under that tutor of the law?
Why would you want to turn back to that bondage and give up the
freedom that you have of being the heir of all? But this is
our nature. I mean, I can answer the question
why we want to do that, because this is our nature. Israel was
in bondage for hundreds of years in Egypt, and they cried every
day that God would set us free from this horrible place. And God did. And what did they
do? Well, it was better for us being
back here in bondage. I'm going to go back. I'd rather eat the
weeds and stuff that they give us than be out here. You want
to go back to bondage. That's our nature. The only way
you'd ever choose slavish fear rather than freedom in Christ
is God doesn't know you and you don't know Him. If you're under
the law, you don't have freedom and that law will damn you. Look
at verse 10. You observe days and months and
times and years. If you're under that law, you've
got to observe these things, these days. Sabbath day, the
Passover day, all the high holy days that are required under
the law. Now today, we don't make ourselves, you know, observe
the law so strictly, but the Christian Sabbath is something
you hear, you know, a lot about. And to them, I say this, Christ
is the Lord of every day, of every day. We call Sunday the
Lord's day, but every day is the Lord's day. He's the Lord
of every day. Now listen. Rest on a day if you want to.
It's good to get some rest. Rest on a day if you want to.
But do not make it a matter of salvation. Don't do it. Don't
rest on a day and think that's going to make you closer to God
than somebody who doesn't keep the day. Because it's not. Christ
is our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath rest. And
we rest in Him. Then rest in Him. And these months
and times and years, these are all appointed times for religious
ceremonies. Dietary restrictions is a time
that men are required to go make an appearance at Jerusalem, you
know, at the temple. And people do the same thing
today. You know, we don't go to Jerusalem. But people don't,
well, they won't go to a church service any Sunday of the entire
year. Well, we won't miss Easter Sunday.
We've got to make an appearance Easter Sunday. Brethren, believers
celebrate Easter, the rising of our Lord for our justification
every day, not just one day a year. It's not even the same day. We
celebrate the resurrection of our Lord every day, every service. We don't have dietary restrictions
that you set aside for a few days a year. Eat healthy or eat
junk food. I don't care. You probably ought
to eat more healthy food than junk food, but eat what you want.
But whatever it is you eat, eat it with thanksgiving to the Lord
every day. Don't think whatever you don't
eat makes you closer to God. These things just go out in the
waste. Look to Christ. Trust in Christ. All these ceremonies that were
required by the law were just ceremonies given for this reason. It's not that God be pleased
with us for the ceremony. The ceremony was given us to
point us to Christ, who is the fulfillment of all these things.
Christ is our salvation. He is our standing before God.
We can only stand before God in Him. And if you try to add
anything to that, to make you on some higher spiritual plane,
Christ has become no effect to you. So rest in Christ. Now Paul
gets personal. He gets personal, and I like
it. And we don't want to make a decision based upon a personal
appeal from a pastor, from a preacher. But I don't want to listen to
a man preach. It doesn't get personal. It doesn't
get personal. We were at the conference on
Friday night, and Don Portner preached it. message, just 10
things Christ was made. I mean, just wonderful message. Then he got personal. And as
I thought of my notes when he was doing that, he said, now
you come to Christ. You see all these truths in scripture. You come to Christ. You come
to him. He gets personal. That's what
Paul is doing here. A man's not preaching the gospel
right unless he gets personal. Because He cares about you. Look
at verse 11. Paul gets personal. He says,
I'm afraid of you, lest I bestowed upon you labor in vain. I'm afraid
for you, Paul says. I'm afraid for your souls. Your souls are mighty important.
Mighty important to me. I pray for you every day. And
Paul says, you've been on my heart, your soul. Your eternal
well-being has been on my heart since I labored to give birth
to you. Now, later on in this chapter,
we'll talk more about this labor, birth. But it's a big deal. It's a big deal. I, Paul, said
I labored for you, for your souls. Now, obviously, I've never labored
to give birth to a child. But I can understand this is
important. Important business. Whenever
a mother is mad at her children, what does she say? I labored
34 hours for you to give you life. I went through the valley
of the shadow of death so you could have life. How can you
do this to me? How can you act like you don't
love me? I labored for you. After you were born, I was the
one who nursed you when you were sick. Every skinned knee, every
bath time, every time you got fed, How can you act like I never
taught you anything? How can you act like you don't
know what love is? That's what a mother says. Does
all this mean nothing? Did all this make no difference?
That's exactly what Paul's saying. Did I labor to give birth to
a stillborn child? If I was God's child, I didn't.
Did I labor to teach you, to teach you the word? labor to
feed you in the green pastures of God's Word and you didn't
learn anything? Did you not learn Christ? Were
you not fed on Him? How can you leave life in Christ
for the deadness of the law? How can you leave the life and
sweetness of the gospel for the cold, hard steel of the law? The only reason you do that You
don't know God. The only reason you'd be so ungrateful
is you don't know God. Look at verse 12. Brethren, and
here's Paul getting personal, he says, I beseech you, be as
I am, for I am as you are, and you've not injured me at all.
Now, you notice Paul doesn't command him. He doesn't beat
him back in the line, you know. He beseeches. Brethren, I beseech
you. I'm appealing to your heart.
Be as I am. How was Paul? What does he mean
by that? Paul was free from the law. He
was teaching them, you be free from the law. Paul was raised
in the ceremonies and the traditions and did them better than anybody
else, didn't he? He did them better than anybody else his
age. But Paul counted all that but done that he might win Christ
and be found in Him. He counted that but done that
I might not have my righteousness. which is of the law, but the
righteousness of Christ which is by faith. Now you be like
Paul. Be free from the law and seek
Christ to be found in him to lay hold on him. How was Paul? He understood all the ceremonies
and motions of the law and he gave every bit of it up and trusted
Christ for all of his salvation. Now you be like Paul. Give it
all up. and lay hold on Christ. Salvation's
in Him. Paul says, you be like me. And
he said, I've become like you. I've become like you Gentiles.
I grew up in that law. But I left that law and all those
ceremonies so completely that I treat the law just like a Gentile
would treat it. Just like a Gentile never, the
law was never part of a Gentile's life. So they treated it as something
that didn't matter. Paul said, I'm doing the exact
same thing. And I look at the law that way, I look at my obedience
to the law that way, because I trust in Christ for everything.
Now you be that way. Paul says you're Gentiles, I'm
a Jew, but I'm going to be saved the same way you are. Not through
the obedience to the ceremonies, but by grace in Christ. I'm going
to be redeemed by the blood of Christ alone. You are too. I've become just like you. And
you know what? That hurt me a bit. I gave up
all that law and the ceremonies and doing it better than anybody
else. I gave it all up. That hurt me a bit. Matter of
fact, it helped me. That's the only way you can have
life, is to give all that deadness up and lay hold on Christ. Now
you be like Paul. You turn from your idols. You
turn from that law. You turn from that ceremonies
and come to Christ. You come to Him. You lay hold
on Him. You call out. upon Him and depend
on Him, it won't harm you. Save yourself. Oh, I hope the
Lord blessed that to you.