Well, open up with me to Galatians 4, verse 12. This time we're actually going to take off and cover some ground. I had two messages there in that one spot. Actually, the first one was in the white spot in between verse 11 and 12. So when you have a whole sermon on the white space in between two verses, it's not looking good for how long we're going to be. But today we'll go from 412 to 420. says, I beg of you brethren, become as I am, because I also have become as you are. You have done me no wrong, but you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you the first time. And that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition, you did not despise or loathe. but you received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus himself. Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear you witness that if possible, you would have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. So have I become your enemy by telling you the truth? They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. But it is good always to be eagerly sought in a commendable manner, and not only when I am present with you, my children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you. But I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you." Let's go to the Lord and pray. Father, we come in this meeting that you have very evidently helped thus far to the time of giving attention, as Paul commanded Timothy, to the public reading of Scripture, and then to exhortation and teaching. And we know that what is written in Romans 12 about exhorting, that no one can just pull up his bootstraps and do it, but it is a gift. So, he who exhorts in his exhorting, and he who teaches in his teaching, And so I ask You, Lord, to grant me the Holy Spirit through Christ, not by any deeds of the law I could perform up here, but purely by faith. And we pray that You would give power and grace and reality through Christ and from Christ and for Christ and all about Christ. And we pray You would help then the speaker and the hearer as two fellow disciples to rejoice in Christ and bring our lives under His feet, as we read in Hebrews. In Jesus' name, Amen. You know that life is full of some pretty glorious relationships. For example, I think everybody would say there's something wonderful about relationship between a man and a woman that we call young love. There's something pretty about that, valuable about that. And we would also say there's something glorious about old love, about two old people with wrinkly hands sitting on a park bench holding hands in their 80s or 90s. And there's something glorious about that. And then we have other relationships, like father-to-son and mother-to-daughter. And you can swap those around too, where you have mother-to-son can be a wonderful thing, or a father-daughter relationship could be a really pretty thing. grandparents and grandchildren, those relationships and you got friendships and sometimes you have special friendships or there's a unique openness and helpfulness and there's just there's all kinds of relationships out there that we find glorious, but there's one I can guarantee you that if there were a Facebook article scrolling through your newsfeed on like top ten most important relationships in your life, that would not make the list. Pastor congregant. You wouldn't see that on there. You know, you wouldn't see like right up beside young love a picture of me and my pastor. Like, that would not be there. And really, though, the fact that it's not there is sad. It's sad. Because it's supposed to be, possibly, arguably, the most beautiful relationship you have on earth, if it's done rightly and working rightly on both ends. And so it's sad to me that when people think of a pastor, when they think of a pastor as kind of a spiritual leader, I think what most people think in their mind is either a pedophile or an old, boring guy that knows nothing about life. It's normally one of the two. There's an irrelevant person that takes up the space in between the singing and when I leave. And I try hard not to fall asleep to, because he's so irrelevant, or you think of worse. One person I saw the other day, all he said he knows of pastors is they drink a lot of coffee and go hunting and fishing. There's another reason that he is sad, because according to the verses we just read about Paul's relationship with the Galatians, Is it sad when there's a breakdown between a relationship with you and your pastor because God has ordained them to be the means through which you are kept from wandering from the gospel of grace? Otherwise, This book, which is written to get Christians, Galatians, who had wandered from it, wouldn't have a section where Paul pleads with them to get back on track. So just let me remind you that these Galatians have experienced a breakdown with their relationship with Paul, and as a result, have got off track and wandered from the Gospel. They could have sang the psalm The hymn that we sing, prone to wonder, Lord, we feel it, prone to leave the God we love. Here's our heart taken, seal it, seal it for thy courts above. That's what Galatians is written to do. So let me remind you what we saw in chapter 1, verse 6. Paul said there he was amazed that they were so quickly deserting Him who called them by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. So we see it there. And so, you know, the very first message I preached on Galatians, remember, was called Dear Recovering Pharisees. It's an amazing thing, is it not, that the book of Galatians is not about the Trinity. It's about how a man is made right with God. And it's written to Christians. You would think, well, that's a nice gospel tract, Paul. I'll go share it. No, it was written to saints. And when Paul came to Rome, he said he was eager to preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome. And when he dealt with the Corinthians, he says in chapter 15, verse 1, Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel. And as we see here, he's making known the gospel. Why? Because Christians are prone to wonder. Not from the Trinity. Prone to desert Him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel. And so we saw it there. Paul, in the text we just read, is asking him to become as he is. That implies what? They are not currently living as he is. There's a difference. between them. When he says in verse 16, and he asked them, have I become your enemy? It sounds like they used to be on friendly terms. So a shift has occurred. And in verse 18, when he contrasts always with the word present, like it's good to always be sought after. And not only when I'm present with you, it sounds like he took his hand off the wheel and it went in the ditch. And does not that little word, again, in verse 19 imply this, that my children with whom I am again in labor? Sounds like something was going well in labor and delivery room in Galatia, and it went south. And now there has to be some new technique. And so we're prone to wonder. And we saw even the mightiest of us in 2, 11 and 14, like Peter, are prone to wonder. Peter did. Remember that? Over this food issue? Remember what Paul told him in verse 14, when I saw that they were not walking straightly, literally orthopedic, we get the word from that, like straight, walking straight. They started out and they veered, they made a turn, they didn't stay straight. And so you see this again, this drifting, and so Paul has used the word knowing in 2.16. Remember that word? He says, nevertheless, knowing, and we took the grammatical time to say, what is that ing added on there for? An ongoing process. You see how it fits the context of the letter. He didn't just throw the ING there. An ongoing process of keeping this in mind, that this is how God accepts people, and this is how we accept people. And so when it's not an ongoing process, you can hear it on Sunday, and by Tuesday, quickly deserting Him who called you. by the grace of Christ, and wanting to go back to Egypt all over again. How about 3 verse 3? Does not that show it? Are you so foolish, having begun by the Spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? So they started well. Finally, I would add verse 9 of chapter 4 to this list. He says, but now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? They were saying it would have been better to go back to Egypt. They were going back. And so we see here, the great question in front of us in this text is, why do we wonder? We know we wonder. We just sang about it. But why? And according to this text, one reason why is a breakdown in the relationship they have with Paul. Which applying in our day, I'm not Paul, but the general point would be a breakdown in the relationship with your pastor. That would be the point. And so the question is, what broke it down? Was it Paul? He's going to answer that at the end of verse 12. Was it the Galatians? He's going to answer that in 13 to 16. Or was it someone else? He's going to answer that in verses 17 to 18. And then what do you do from here on out? He's going to answer that in verses 19 to 20. So answer number one Paul gives for this breakdown and this veering is at the very end of verse 12, you have done me no wrong. because of Paul. What he's saying in effect is, I'm not speaking out of a sense of personal resentment. Like Paul was not the type of man to bear a grudge and be pouty and selfish and you hurt my feelings and that's why I'm mad at you and that's why I'm talking. He's saying that's not what's going on with me in this letter. So he's saying, I'm not the snowman on frozen, like you didn't hit me with a snowball and I'm just growling at all of y'all. That's not what's happening to me. I think that's what he means by this. He was not a man to bear a grudge. He was not the kind of preacher that pouted when people listen to someone else's sermon. It's not the kind of guy Paul was. He wasn't an Ahithophel. And if you don't know who Ahithophel is, turn to 2 Samuel 17 and let me show him to you. 2 Samuel 17. There are many men in leadership that are Ahithophels. 2 Samuel 17, I'll just read one verse, you can get the whole story if you want. Verse 23, Now when Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his donkey and arose, and went to his home, to his city, and set his house in order, and strangled himself. Thus he died and was buried in the grave of his father. Suicide and depression can be the result of wounded pride. Wounded pride. This man literally his counsel was not followed and he killed himself. And so There are people saying, I'm not like that. Like, you didn't go follow the false teachers and I'm upset because I lost my following. He says, that's not who I am. You didn't do anything to me to hurt me, to harm me, to injure me. And I'm not acting this way toward you. So that's, we may take a lesson here about how we handle hurt and harm. see if we follow Paul here, but nevertheless, the point is he was not reacting to some mistreatment from them. So, it wasn't Paul. It wasn't Paul. Now, I know this, and I had to learn this. Like, you experience this in pastoring. Sometimes it's somebody that you've done the most for that says one of the most hurtful things. And you just have to go into this mode of like, you know what, unconditional love is the bottom line of all that you're doing. But Paul knew this. Remember what he asked Corinthian? He says, if I love you more, might I be loved less? And so he felt this reality. But he didn't respond to it in that way, or he had gotten victory over that. So it wasn't him. So now we move to answer 2 in verses 13-16. It wasn't the Galatians either. That's what verses 13 and 16 are about. It wasn't the Galatians. Notice how verse 13 begins with a but. So, you know, you didn't do me any wrong, but it wasn't you either. And he's going to go on to describe how positive their response was to him when he came. And the first thing he says is, you know that it was because of a bodily illness that I preached the gospel to you at first. Now, literally sweetness of the flesh. and weakness. Back when we were in Romans, we looked up all the places where weakness, sometimes a sickness is just that word weakness. And here it's clear that he's talking about a sickness because he adds a prepositional phrase, of the flesh, a weakness of the flesh. And here you get into this debate about what this was, but first let's point out the general point Paul is making. Note the word, because. At first I thought maybe it was supposed to be translated through, but then all the commentators and Greek, Gomerians, they're all in agreement that the construction means because. So now you have to think, like, what do you mean, Paul? Like, it's clear that's what you wrote. What do you mean it was because of a bodily illness? that I found in this church. What kind of reasoning is that? And that leads into the debates about what this bodily illness was. Because some have postulated from that that when he was going through this area, he contracted malaria. And malaria could be recouped from on higher elevations. And so they thought he went to the plateaus of Galatia because of malaria. Some have thought that. reasonable explanation. Some have thought he had an eye disease because he mentions here that they would have given him their eyes. Some have thought he had epilepsy because this word in 14, you did not despise or loathe. Loathe is literally spit out. And they had a thing of like spitting at someone who they thought was possessed by a spirit or a demon. And that's how people used to think of Epilepsy. And so, basically, you have all these options, you know, is it epilepsy, ophthalmia, or malaria? And, you know, I'm thinking, like, we have trouble diagnosing people today. And how much more, man, that lived 2,000 years ago. And one thing's for sure is they knew what it was, and so modern readers are just not in a position. Whatever view you take, I think you keep the same general point. And so now back to Paul's point about the word because, what I basically conclude from this is, If it was malaria, then that's the reason he went up on that plateau and preached the gospel there. If it was one of the other two, somehow it connected to the reason that he stopped there and planted the church there, which means this. Paul was literally an unstoppable guy. What we just said was, he got malaria, like life handed him a lemon, and he made lemonade, if ever that was done. Paul was the type of guy that he got malaria, or ophthalmia, or epilepsy, or whatever it was, and instead of just getting sick, he used it for the glory of Christ. He thought, well, while I'm here, might as well plant the Galatian churches. That's basically what this is saying. And so Paul was the kind of guy that you could take all his money and he could say, I've learned how to live in humble means. And you could give him a lot of money and tempt him with riches and he would say, I've learned how to live with an abundance. And then you could put him in prison and he would sing hymns and convert all your guards. You could beat him and he would say it's not worthy to be compared. And then you could just leave him alone to live as Christ. Or you could kill him to die's gain. You could give him a church of Corinthians with a bunch of problems. He writes a love chapter. There's just nothing that's unstoppable. This guy. You give him malaria, he plants the Galatian churches. And so, what are you doing with your sufferings? Could you write a statement like this? It was because of Fill in the blame that I did this, this, this, and this for Christ. Now, his point in bringing it up is not just that. That's all a side application for me. But his point in bringing it up is he says in verse 14 at the beginning, and that which was a trial to you in my bodily condition. Whatever it was, if he was contagious, if he was sickly, if he was ugly looking or whatever it was, if it was difficult to deal with, it was something that like messed up the meeting or required extra attention, it was something and it was a trial to them. And it could have been, it's the typical, apparently was some kind of an ailment that, like, you would rather not have in your life and rather not be dealing with. And it was a trial, meaning like we say, trial period, a testing. It was a test for them. Did they love Paul because he was lovable? Or did they just love Paul because he was an apostle of Christ? And so he says this when he first came, this test, he was, uh, he was Leah, not Rachel. There's nothing to look at. It was nothing glorious. It was nothing. Matter of fact, there was reasons to push him away. There's a reason to spit at him, apparently. And he says they didn't do that, they received Him. And that word received we had back in Romans about receiving one another, you know, Romans 14, don't despise the one who eats. And it's the same word. They didn't despise Him, they didn't loathe Him, they received Him. Then he says, not just kind of like made room for Him, as an angel of God, indeed taking it higher as Christ Himself. So let me just make another aside here, another incredible aside is we see here a principle, when the relationships in the church are right, how to receive one another. You see that there? He's not like This is not like the Hermes and Zeus moment in Acts where He's saying He's tearing His clothes and He's upset. He's not rebuking them for receiving Him as Christ. It means when they were doing it, He would have let it happen. It's looked at as a positive thing. So let me ask you this. Despite our differences, sicknesses, difficulties, things we would rather one another not have. I mean, how would you react if Christ came to church this morning? If this isn't a rebuke and a correction, I don't know what is, because that's how we receive one another. We are in Christ. God views us in the Beloved. And as much as you did it to one of the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me. he expects us to treat. And when you sin against a Christian, Paul says, you sin against Christ in 1 Corinthians 8. There's this union between the believer and Christ. And so when it's all right, they're receiving, and they were receiving in that way. They were justifying each other. That's what it is. Like, you're carrying out the doctrine of the justification of the ungodly in the relationships in the church. So you see something you don't like, I know it's terrible, it's bad, but God received him. And so you're receiving him as Christ. And you're getting in there, and then that thing slowly gets fixed while they're accepted. So it's not this thing like, yeah, you can come in and sit to the side until you get your schooling right. And then you'll really feel like you're part. It's, no, by faith alone you can really feel like you're a part. And then we'll just go from there. And so that's how they were. They received Him that way. And so we see another principle here that our trials are to become one another's trials. It's interesting, isn't it? That which was a trial, and you think He's going to say, for Him, He says, for you. The difficulty of my life was a trial for you. So Jeremy's sufferings are my sufferings, and my son's autism is all of y'all's autism. Like it's a collective suffering. Your trial is my trial. Bear one another's burdens. They did, they did, they bore it that way. I don't know what all they did for him, if they gave him medicines and helps and assistances, but apparently they were all over it. Such to the point that he says in verse 15, where then is that sense of blessing you had? Now he's saying the word blessing. It's a synonym for justification. We saw it back in 3 verse 8, "...all the nations will be blessed in you." So then those who are of faith are blessed. We saw it in verse 14 of chapter 3, "...in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham..." It just means favor and kindness and warmth and love and embracing and affection. The kind of positive view of someone that not only you will not say anything negative and have anything negative to say about them, everybody else knows you won't tolerate them saying anything negative about that person. Just a sense of blessing they had toward him. That's how radical it was. Clearly, it wasn't the Galatians. that caused this breakdown. They were all about him. And they had great, great fellowship to the point that Paul says they would have plucked out their eyes and given them to him. Like if they knew how to do eye transplant surgery, they would have done it. And I don't, you know, does he mean literally here? Some take this to show that and, you know, you link that to 2 Corinthians 12, the thorn in the flesh, and you can think that he had the eye disease. But you should know there were stories in the ancient world about tales and fables about giving one's eyes for one's friend. It was viewed as like the extremity of self-sacrifice for a friend to give them their eyes. But either way, the point is, I mean, they were radical in their love for Paul. I mean, I don't know what else you could say. And the language is vivid. You would have plucked out, like dug out your eyeball. Like it's very, very vivid language. It's intense. That being the case, he finishes in classic Pauline style with sarcasm, verse 16. So, meaning, if that's how we were, did we get to where we are now because I told you the truth? Did that cause it? Obviously it didn't. No one wants to stand up and say, I don't like you because I don't like the truth. That's not ever how it comes out. And the truth here, by the way, there's people that misuse this verse all the time to use any and every kind of truth. I don't think that's what we're talking about here. The gospel. Right? And we've already seen it back in 2.14 when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel. And we saw it back in 2.5 that we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you. It's the same thing in Ephesians. Over there where he says, "...in Him you, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you are sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise." So he's just talking about the gospel, the truth of the gospel. Now, there's something else to take away here and apply. I'm just applying some of these as we go. You notice Paul was willing, he was willing to jeopardize his most precious relationships for the truth of the gospel. He was willing to lose mother, father, brother, sister, good friend. I remember Jeremy, I just thinking, looking at, I see both of them in view there. Jeremy and Justin were emailing years ago, back in the day, like he gave the last one back to Justin. I come by to see it and he said, I think I just lost a friend. But you know what? Like, one of the people Justin's going to go to for the rest of his life when he really wants honesty is Jeremy. Because faithful are the wounds of a friend. Because that person loves you and your welfare more than the good feelings they get from your friendship. And Paul, we see here, was willing to become their enemy for the sake of the truth. Are we willing to do that? But again, the point is obviously the breakdown didn't come from the Galatians. So it didn't come from Paul. That's verse 12. It didn't come from the Galatians. That's verses 13 to 16. So where then did it come from? Verses 17 and 18. It came from the false teachers, who He calls they. That's kind of how you speak about somebody you're not real fond of, them, that guy. Her, Him, you just leave it that way. And so in moving from the question of verse 16, like, did it happen because of me? Did it happen because of you? How did we become enemies? And he just all of a sudden says, they eagerly seek you. It's obvious what he's saying is, now I'm going to tell you where it came from now. This is where it came from. This is what got in between us. These false teachers we met in chapter 1 verse 7 for the first time. He says, it's really not another gospel, only there are some. Here we are again, this indefinite reference. Some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. And so we see how they're deceptive. They're claiming, he says, it's really not another gospel. So it's claiming to be a gospel. So you don't get duped and wonder by false prophets and voices because they just come up and say, Yeah, we had a false gospel. We were looking for some people to lead to hell. And you say, yeah, we were hoping to go to hell and hoping a false teacher would come speak to us. That's not how it happens. They claim to be true Christians with true message. They got the gospel. They're talking about family and homeschooling and the kind of food to eat and Daniel plan and that Daniel's in the Bible. And they're just all kinds of stuff. And it sounds really nice and warm and biblical. But if it leaves the impression, and if you don't do this, you have left of a standing with Christ, it's a false teaching. If it gives that impression at all. Not verbally, just by their actions. No passive aggressiveness with this. This is 100% false. Remember the actions matter in chapter 2? Remember Paul talked about it there. He says he took Titus with him up there to Galatia and he said we didn't yield in subjection even for an hour. So his actions. Why? So that we would have fruit? No, so that the truth of the gospel would stay with you. It's the actions. You can start acting like something and it gives off vibes and impressions. Paul didn't want any vibes being given off even. Not even through the actions. And so we ran into those false teachers for the first time there. We run into them in chapter 2, what I just referred to, when Paul was there. He refers to them in verse 3. They compelled Titus to be circumcised. And that word means to squeeze and pop something out. They squeeze you. They just push by their actions or speech to get you to do something. And anyway, I read what he said, but I'll read it in verse 2. But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in and sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus in order to bring us into bondage. That's what they wanted to do. We ran into these false teachers again in verse 12 of chapter 2, where he speaks of the coming of certain men from James. And when those men came, Peter changed his actions. You see, to squeeze, there was pressure. We read about them again in chapter 3, verse 1. We saw them there. You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?" There was a who. It was people. And Paul wants them to discover who the who is. We ran into them after that, where we are now in chapter 4, verse 17, they. What do we see about them here? Well, what we've seen about them so far is that these false teachers were accursed, they were distorting the gospel, meaning reversing it, turning it from grace to performance, and in fellowshipping with people based on what they do or do not do. Circumcised, warmly receive you. Not circumcised, don't warmly receive you. What we see about him here is he says that they seek you eagerly, They eagerly seek you. They're very passionate about it, but not commendably. And that word is kalos where we get calligraphy. It means beautifully, honorably, like it's not a good seeking going on. And why is it not a good seeking? Because they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them. In other words, it's ultimately selfish. False teachers are ultimately selfish. And so here's how it works. To shut out is ekklesis. The kle is for a key, and ek is like the ex on the word exit there, out. It means to shut out. It's like shutting the door, locking the door, pushing someone out. So there's a way to let people come in the church physically, but they feel locked out emotionally. They're in there, but not in there. They're kind of in the group, but not part of the group. And they feel it. And they're being shut out. And they're being pushed. There's a pushing. It's kind of a little pushing. Just to let you know, like, you've still got some things you need to do. Got a few things you need to get in order. And that push has a goal. So that they'll come join the group. So that they'll come seek you. Well, what do I need to do then? What books have you been reading? Where is this teaching? And then you get it and you do the thing and you're like, oh yeah, he's one of us. That's how it works. There's pushing and then a pulling. That's exactly how it works. To seek their approval. That's what it is, becoming a slave to another man's conscience, becoming a servant to another human being's opinion. That's what it is. Then that's why it's so bad. You're no longer seeking the approval of Christ, but you're now trying to get your life in line to get the approval of whoever this guy may happen to be. That's why in 2.12 it says, prior to the coming of certain men, there were men that had an opinion, and Peter was wondered from the gospel of grace and bowed to their opinion. So that's the tactic, it's pushing and pulling, and ultimately they just They love, like Jesus said, they love the chief seats. They love the Q&A. They love the attention. And what do you think? And how do I live? And like they just love, they just love that. Just cloning themselves. They're just little scientists, these false teachers they are. They're just little clones of themselves everywhere. And Paul says the opposite is, It is good, verse 18, it's beautiful always to be eagerly sought in a beautiful manner. Now what would that look like? Well, it would look like this, 2 Corinthians 11 verse 2, For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I betroth thee to Christ, so that I may present thee to him as a pure virgin. Like, that's a godly jealousy. I'm zealous and flaming and firing, Paul says, just like John the Baptist. And my whole church leaves, and they just all go marry Christ, and I'm on the doorstep of the chapel just smiling like he increased and I decreased. Like, the whole congregation left. It was the best day of John the Baptist's life. This joy of mine is just full. But a false teacher is only concerned with you because it boomerangs back to his pride. He can't even stand it if someone happens to live a better Christian life by listening to a different teacher and not coming to him. It's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, how? You see pride. See, their idea of Ralph the Bat is like, surely nobody could grow without me. That's what's underneath it. And so, Paul said it's beautiful to be sought after by someone that seeks you because he wants you to latch on to Christ. Not just so he wants to make you feel terrible because you haven't done this or that thing, so that you'll then turn around and seek him, and you're just scratching him every time you come to him for his attention and his opinions and everything, and then he's just sit back and look at all his clones. That's what they do. Paul told the Corinthians, he said, I don't even care if we appear unapproved as long as you appear approved. He could care less about his reputation and his personhood. Quite a difference. He finishes with saying, always versus being present here. He says, it's good that I have this kind of relationship with you, basically, not only when I'm present, but always. In other words, he feels like the little boy who built his sandcastle on the beach that afternoon. He woke up in the morning and the ocean washed it away. I ask that Paul feels like everything was smooth and he left Galatia and in come the wave of these false teachers and is messing everything up. And he wants them to be able to walk worthy, not just when he's there. Not just when he's there. Which is another mark of a false teacher. That he doesn't really want you to walk with Christ. And therefore, he wants to tell you everything to do down to the T. A true teacher is actually glad when you stop coming to Him so much. Because now you're learning to walk. And he sits back like John the Baptist and says, the joy is full because they didn't come to me. Do you see that? False teacher wants you to stay dumb, stay ignorant, stay stupid, and always coming to Him. Go to their churches. How many people are just oaks of righteousness in there that minute? That minute. Because if they were, number one, they would leave. And then they're not because there ain't no water. And there can't be any water because then you can't have the following. Because everyone knows the Lord in the New Covenant. Every Christian and so... He's just a true pastor. I can't tell you how many times I've called Charles Leiter and he's just told me, I don't know, brother. I'm like, well, if someone's about to commit suicide, I'm going to talk to them. I just don't have nothing. May the Lord be with you. It's quite different than like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know exactly. Do it this way. No, you get in there and discern the will of the Lord. You get in there and live the Christian life. We give you a few pointers, but you get in there and live it. And you start asking like, what do you think I should do here? True pastors start saying like, well, I don't know, what do you think? And you're like, oh, I get to think? Yeah, you get the take. So I do need to say here that there is a thought that like maybe this shut out some people have and it's an interesting funny thought that like they could have been saying, they could have been trying to shut them out from Paul's ministry by saying like this guy don't have justification and he don't have righteousness in the law because we all know and this is true, you go back and read the law that like all these blessings will overtake you, you won't have any miscarriages and your carrots won't have mold on them anymore, and all this kind of stuff. And here's Paul with his eye hanging out like not... He couldn't preach for many hen, you know? Like it just wouldn't work. And so it's very embarrassing to him. I mean, what an embarrassing text for the prosperity. What do they do with this? It's like, because of a bodily illness, I can't preach the gospel. Paul says, because of a bodily illness, I did. Quite different view. So we just see here, you know, let's blow that out of the water. Christ never promises to get rid of all our bodily illnesses, all of our sufferings, but He does promise what He told us about Mary. You know what? This part right here, this won't be taken from you. you can sing hymns in a prison. This part, isn't that glorious? All that can be taken from you. He says, Mary chose the good part, which shall not be taken. He will protect that. He's like, that shall not be taken from him. So he promises to be enough. That doesn't mean that you may spend days of heartache, and your snot may be your food, and your tears may be your makeup, and you may be curled up in a fetal position, laying a ball on the floor, because you just feel like the thought of going one more day is too much. But He will be enough. That's what He promises. So all of this being said, what's the conclusion? If it wasn't Paul, that broke it down and got it derailed. It wasn't the Galatians that broke it down and got it derailed. It was these other voices coming in. Other than quit listening to the voices, like put on your headphones of biblical teaching and just say, you know what that's like? Like I was in line getting the dog food last week and I'm just listening to listening to Ryan Fullerton and all, I just look up and like everybody's behind me and there's like three people worth of standing and the guy's like, like waving at me. I can't, I didn't even hear. I didn't know what was going on. And that's what, Paul, like be caught up in the true teaching. And don't even listen. And even give an ear to it. When you discover who the who is, cut it off. And then give an ear to it. So, other than that, though, what do you do? I think what he basically goes to in verses 19 to 20, you could sum up in this, is restore the relationship. Let's get it back. That's what Paul's saying. My children, with whom this labor went off, now, with all that being said, I pointed it out, I'm going to get back on the birthing stool. And I am again in labor. until, all the way to the end, Christ is formed in you. So let's get back together. I think the general point is restore the relationship. So we're all different, and so the application for us, I mean, it's got some for me, it's got some for you. Obviously, we're to have a relationship. Like, obviously, the exhortation is make it better than it is, wherever it happens to be. And notice what God is saying to you in verse 19, through Paul, He's saying that your Christian maturity is compared to the formation of an infant in the womb. So that little nine months is like a picture of the Christian life, and you just form into this mature character. Now let me ask you, how dependent that baby forming in, there is on its mother. And that's where Paul places himself. And I know this is hard to believe, but by the grace of God in me. Do you really think that? Do I really think like that? That it's that necessary? Paul did. Paul said, you know, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, but I can't. It's more necessary for you that I stay. That's quite a thought. That it would be that someone could have already gone to be with Christ, and the sovereign reason why they're not is you still need help. I mean, Paul believed that God was sovereign, but he believed that He used means. And so, what a thing that pastoring is compared to childbirth. I have heard that, like, one hour of impassioned preaching is like eight hours of hard labor, but I don't know. I don't know how this compares to, you know, I think apparently I get a new license here because, like, there's that, what's it say, Alex, that meme that's been going around about, I got to pause there, about men, like, when they have a cold or whatever, how does it go? When a woman in labor feels so much pain, it's almost as much as a man would feel. And it's like, a woman in labor feels this much. And you're thinking it's going to give like a stat at the end of it. And it just drops it and says, almost as much as a man with fever. And so there's this joke, of course, that women and men feel different pain. But apparently, I get to be a unique exception to the rule and tell all the women, hey, we're on the same page here. Because you're compared to me, and I'm compared to you. But it's labor. Well, I think in linking it like this, God is trying to tell us surely that it matters that you have a relationship with a biblical pastor. Surely. That he is at labor until Christ is formed in him. And look at how close Paul wants it to be in verse 20. And with that, I'll close. I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone for I'm perplexed about you. Like, Paul's acknowledging the distance. He's saying, like, I wish I was there. I wish I could see facial expressions and tones of voices. And I wish I could use a different tone. This is an amazing... Let me make application here, by the way, for like, when you're growing in these things, you're like, I just told them how it was. Like, well, that's not really Pauline. He paid attention to tone. Do you see that? He had a desire to use the right tone. I think it's amazing. Like, sure, we're supposed to imitate it. And he's just saying, like, I wish it was there. I wish it was close. Surely the implication is let's get close. Let's make communication as clear and good and best as possible. So I think I would end this sermon then. since it's basically a call to wherever this text finds you, make that relationship closer because of how important it is. I think that's the basic call. You know, I thought about Jeremy and I are watching Lord of the Rings. And y'all know that wonderful scene? Frodo and Sam are walking and And Sam says, I wonder if there'll ever be stories about us, like if there'll ever be tales. And he pictures this young hobbit kid talking to their dad, like, tell me the story of Frodo and the ring. And he starts talking about Frodo and everything. And Frodo turns around and says, Frodo couldn't have gotten very far without Sam. And he thinks he's picking, he says, oh, don't make fun, Mr. Frodo. And he says he's not. And you know, it's a good saying that every Frodo needs a Sam, right? And as Christians, you're on this journey. And I think what this text is saying is you couldn't have got very far. without biblical shepherding. And every Frodo needs a Sam. So make that relationship is pure and good and open and lots of visiting and talking and sharing and going through that journey together. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for all of your word. We thank you for the pieces that sometimes come and we get like a very heavy exhortation and we thank you for the tender sides of your word that sometimes come and tell us, like, keep this relationship right here whole and good and helpful and necessary. So, Lord, it's been in your will that we hear this one today. And we just pray you would give us grace to handle it rightly, apply it rightly, live by it rightly, and value this journey that we're all on to the promised land. And really lay hold of this truth that every Christian needs a pastor. Every Frodo needs a Sam. and that we're meant to have this beautiful relationship with one another as we carry on to the new heaven and the new earth, that we might make it all the way to the end. In Jesus' name, amen.