again to weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again. You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. So I beg of you, brethren, become as I am, for 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. Where then is that sense of blessing you had? For I bear witness that if possible you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me, so that I 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 again labor until Christ is formed in you, I wish that I could be present with you now to change my tone. for I am perplexed about you. Amen. So ends the reading of God's Word. You may be seated. I remember when I was a kid, there was a TV advertisement where a little old lady would come up to a hamburger counter and ask, Where's the beef? How many of you remember that? There's a few of you, good, I'm glad, I'm not the only one. When hamburger joints were putting less and less meat on the buns, supposedly this place was saying that they'd give you much more meat. What's the point in eating a hamburger if there's no meat on it, right? Don't give me any of those veggie burgers, that's not a hamburger. I need meat. There must be substance to the thing if I am to enjoy it. Well, Paul has been working hard to show us that one of the great privileges of salvation, one of the principal doctrines of the Bible is that God has adopted us as sons in Christ Jesus. So that now even us Gentiles, we who previously had no connection to God in the past, we have now been brought into the covenant of grace and have become an heir to all the promises God made to Abraham through faith in Christ. Now, this adoption of sons, this reception of the Holy Spirit comes to us not on the basis of works, but through faith alone in Christ alone. As we saw this morning in our baptism, we saw how baptism is a sign and a seal of this amazing unity that we believers have in Christ, so that through this sign, We may also see that as we put on Christ, we have a place in his kingdom. We have a place in the new creation. My friends, this is substantive. This is heavy, and it should carry weight in our souls that we who should be damned for all eternity because of our rebellion against God, because of our sin, because of our breaking all his holy laws, that we who deserve hell, have been forgiven and brought into God's household, not as prisoners, not as slaves, but as children. This is a grand demonstration of love and grace. And it should lead us to offer up eternal thanksgiving. We should swell up into everlasting joy because of the gospel. But sadly, Paul had to write this epistle because there are those who did not understand the gospel. They're more interested in what they can do for God, rather than in rejoicing what God has already done for us in Christ. These Judaizers, these Jews who came from Jerusalem to rob these Gentiles of their joy, taught that you had to earn a place in God's favor by keeping the whole law. That law that He gave to their forefathers. So they said it was only through circumcision, it was only through obedience to the rites and the rituals and the regulations of the Mosaic law that you can hope to stand before God in salvation. that might make sense to the natural man. Because we all, each and every one of us, want to think that we can contribute something, even just a very little bit, if nothing. But we always think that we can add something to our salvation, that we can do something. But the problem is, if you expect salvation to come through your obedience, you better be perfect, because that's what God demands. Perfection. And if you're not perfect, you're not entering into Perfect obedience is impossible, though, for the sinner whose being is bent, whose heart is corrupted by sin. There is no hope, and if there is no hope, there can be no joy in life. And so Paul, knowing this and understanding the danger that these Galatians were in, seeks to renew their joy by reminding them from whence they came as Christians. In this section, Paul deals with the question, again, of what happens when the child of God reverts back to the basic principles of the world as a means of receiving inheritance from the Father. And look at verse 9 where he describes these basic principles as weak and worthless. Perhaps your translation has weak and beggarly. The idea is of a beggar. Beggars have no real worth in society. They're a leech often times. They can't do anything for society. And Paul is saying that these basic principles are weak and beggarly. They're weak and worthless because they can do nothing for your soul. This term really was a picture of man's religious attempts to gain his place into heaven. through human merit, external rights, and ceremonies. And again, that may seem right to the natural man, because we love morality. We love morality. And it's easy to believe that morality is the essence of religion. We are religious mainly to be moral. And doesn't the Bible throughout all its pages teach morality? And if religion, though, is simply to teach us how to be moral, the question is, what difference does it make how we get there? And this is something that you hear in the world all the time. All religions lead to God. Perhaps it's just a matter of style. And you can call God by whatever name. You can call Him Yahweh, you can call Him Allah, you can call Him Buddha, you can call him whatever, it doesn't matter because it's all really just about morality, ultimately. Now, this is not something that's new, this is not a post-modern idea, it's been around ever since the beginning of time, in a certain sense. In fact, the OPC, or in this denomination, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, is coming up to its 75th anniversary. 75 years of being a Church of Jesus Christ. In 1932, one of the things that led up to the formation of this denomination was a book, a massive report published by the title of Rethinking Missions, a layman's inquiry after 100 years. In 1932, this was a report that was handed out, several different denominations gathered together, sent missionaries out into the East, to Asia, to look at missions and to think about the importance of missions. One of the things that that report came out and said, that in fact the essence of Christian truth is found in other religions. So that we should seek to work with other religions in an effort to create social reform. The idea here is that religion is about social reform. It's about morality. It's how to make people better people. That's all religion is, and so it doesn't matter if you're a Buddhist or a Confucius or if you are Shinto. It doesn't matter if you're any of these, or if you're a Christian or a Muslim. That doesn't matter. The important thing is that you hold to your religious convictions and to your traditions so that you will become a better person. And because the kernel of religion is about this, we can work together. Now again, this is not something new. There was an interesting book that was written by Jonathan Spence called The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci was a Jesuit priest who in the late part of the 1500s, 1590s, early 1600s went to China as a missionary. He would dress in the garb of a Buddhist monk and he would take the stance of a Confucius scholar and proclaim Roman Catholic Gospel. He said that the Chinese could certainly become Christians, since the essence of their doctrine contains nothing contrary to the essence of the Catholic faith. Nor would the Catholic faith hinder them in any way, but would indeed aid in the attainment of the quiet and peace of the republic which their books claim as their goal. See, now remember that the Chinese at this time were mainly Confucius and Buddhist. And they're saying that the essence of their religion, the essence, the goal that they're shooting for is the same goal of Roman Catholicism. The essence of their doctrine is the essence of ours. And therefore, you see, at the bottom of all this, again, the belief is that religion is really all about morality and social reform and little else. Well, of course, I'm not suggesting here that the Jews held to that kind of syncretism. They did not. They believed that people had to become Jews in order to become moral. They looked upon Gentiles as dogs, as undisciplined, immoral, or amoral individuals. And therefore, they had to become Jews in order to become moral. But nevertheless, the emphasis of their religion, when you all boil it down, was still the same thing. It was morality. That is the goal of all man-made religion, morality. That's the elemental principle that Paul was talking about here. This is the basic glue that binds all man-made religions together. Though non-Christian religious practices and philosophies might have some truth mixed in with them, They might have an air of respectability to them. Nevertheless, Paul denies that they have any power at all to help a person. They can do nothing except to enslave a person. Now, to make that point, note how Paul talks. He tells them that they did not know God. They didn't know God, but were in fact slaves to those which were by nature no gods at all. He said, when you were not a Christian, when you were a pagan, you looked at those idols and you saw them as gods. You believed that they had power to help you. But in reality, they are nothing but stone and metal, or wood. They have no power. They are nothing but lifeless statues and figments of the sinful imagination. Moreover, Greece and Rome was built upon human philosophies of Plato, Aristotle, and Hippolytus and others. But those human philosophies are all self-deceptive. And believing and serving those philosophies and those idols, you could be enslaved to lies and deception. There is no substance to these things. We could ask, where is the beef, if you will? These Galatians left these worthless idols when they turned to Christ. But as they were now listening to the Judaizers who said that you need to obey the Mosaic regulations and laws, And as they place themselves under the law as a means of getting right with God, Paul now has to rebuke them. And he says that you turn again back to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you have desired to be enslaved all over again. Then he goes on, you observe days and months and seasons and years. Now note what he's doing here. Note the connection that he's making between their legalism and idolatry. He's basically saying this. He's saying your legalism has brought you back to idolatry. Now, perhaps it's not the same kind of idolatry that you had when you were bowing down to those worthless idols, but nevertheless, it is idolatry. You took what God gave you to convince you of your sin and to prepare you for Christ, and you made it a tool for you to deny God and His grace. You see, again, the law's purpose, he's already said this in the third chapter, and he's going to go on and say it again in chapter 4 and chapter 5. The law's purpose wasn't ever to save you. But all these days and months and seasons and years, these things of the law were meant to drive you to Christ. to push you to Christ so that you would see your own worthlessness, your own helplessness, and to see in Christ the beauty of His strength and His abilities because He was the perfect law keeper. The law was to drive you to Christ, not away from Christ. But you see, when you seek to work your way into salvation, When you are seeking to obey God, and by this obedience to become closer to God, you are moving away from Christ into the Gospel. And the sad thing is, you're in the same pitiful position and error as pagan idolatry. It may look better than idolatry. It may even look like you're serving God, but ultimately, what's at the center of your idolatry? Yourself. a worship of self, and when you are seeking self-righteousness, you are putting yourself above God. Through these rites and works, you are seeking to replace Christ. I don't need Christ anymore, because I can have my obedience. Though the place, the rites, the works, the worship may be different, any movement away from the gospel into works is the same idolatry that you'll find in all religions, whether it be Protestant fundamentalism, or Roman Catholic monasticism, or Buddhism, or Islam, or Confucianism. It doesn't matter. The legalism of these Judaizers, as the legalism of today, is nothing but a form of idolatry, because it sets itself up. as a means of salvation, and it ignores the truth that Jesus Christ himself preached. It denies that his work is sufficient to give you a right standing before God. Now, these Judaizers claim that Paul made it easy for the Gentiles, since all they had to do was believe. I remember many years ago, Some Mormons came knocking at my door and I began to tell them the gospel and ask them some questions they couldn't answer. So they said, well, let's go to our bishop. Would you mind if our bishop comes and talks with you? I said, bring him on. I don't care. I'll talk to anybody about the gospel. And so the bishop came with these two missionaries a week later, and as I was beginning to explain the gospel again, and the message of salvation is that justification comes by faith alone in Christ, that bishop began to laugh at me. He mocked me. And he says, you know, sonny boy, if it was that easy just to believe in Christ and you'd be saved, everyone would be saved. You see, for him, as is in the mindset of all works-based religions, Christianity is too easy. Because natural man says you need to do something, not just believe in someone. But against those words, Paul declares in our text tonight that those who claim to know God but emphasize law-keeping as a way to please God, show themselves as being ignorant of God. They really don't know God at all. Ironic, isn't it? We know God! We're obeying His law! Paul says, you don't know God at all. You don't really know the truth either about yourselves, because you're rejecting the righteousness of God. They think that they can obey the law enough to please God, but the point of the law is to show us that we can't obey God enough. Beloved, I'm here to tell you tonight, beware of legalism. It is a form of idolatry. Self-righteousness. But to further this point, Paul mentions that they believe the Gospel, and they have come to know God, or rather, they've been known by God. The idea of being known by God implies an election unto grace. It applies an effectual calling wherein God calls the sinner to faith in Christ when they were formerly dead in their transgressions and sin. Now this is a point that he brought out earlier. For instance, if you go back to chapter 1 and verse 6, it says there that God is the one who has called you. The point of all this is that if God called them when they were dead in sin, salvation can only now be a thing of grace. What can you add to God's grace? So Paul is expressing his shock. They who were set free by God's grace felt it more important to go back to slavery under the law. Do you see how silly, do you see how insane sin and legalism is? No wonder why Paul lamented, I fear for you that perhaps I labored over you in vain. Anyone who would give up their liberty for a form of slavery, anyone who would give up the power and the wealth of the gospel for the weakness and the poverty of the law, that law which could never justify because of the weakness of the flesh, well, what can you say about such people? Such actions and such a movement is insane. And Paul says it's hard to reclaim anyone from that. Perhaps I've wasted my time with you, he's wondering. Is there any cure? Is there anything that can be done to waken them up? To see what they are doing? Well, verses 12-20, Paul shows a deep love that he has for them and he appeals to them out of this love. Even in verse 19, calling them, my little children. You know, legalism is a strong force. And idolatry really is hard to shake out of the human heart. But Paul also knows something of the power of the Gospel, the power of sound mind and of love. And so in these verses, Paul pleads with them by reminding them, not only of the Gospel, but of their connection to him and of his connection to them. And in this, he urges them Become like me, for I became like you." That's not a strange way of talking. What does Paul mean when he says this? What does Paul mean? Become as I am, for I have also become as you are. Well, remember, Paul was raised as a strict Jew, as a Pharisee. And he had been rigid as a Pharisee in his own law keeping. But when Christ appeared to him, he exchanged his self-righteousness for the righteousness that is found in Christ Jesus. in his observance to the law, and though externally he was very obedient to the law, and said in another place that I have observed it all, I was obedient to all of it, nevertheless he could not appeal to one single thing that he did as a means of being justified, because while externally he obeyed the law, inside he knew that he broke it. So he couldn't point to one single thing as a thing of being justified. And as a result of this, he saw himself as a sinner. So what does that put him? That puts him in the same footing as any Gentile. Yes, he had the law. Yes, he tried to obey it. But nevertheless, he was a breaker of the law, just as the Gentile was a pagan. Just as the Gentile were breakers of the law, so he was. He's the same thing. He was just like one of these Gentile Galatians. And now these Gentiles, through the Judaizers, had fallen to the same mesmerizing teaching that he had as a Pharisee. If I just work hard enough, God will accept me. And so Paul here is pleading with them, begging them, he says, I beg of you, brethren, become as I am. to count their newly acquired legal pretensions as loss, as rubbish, as dung, even as he had done in order that he may gain Christ. He had learned that law keeping cannot save anyone, whether you are a Jew or whether you are a Gentile, it can't save you. He knew what the law would do for them, nothing except condemn them. And he had been there, he had done that. It wasn't pretty, and it gave him no joy. But in Christ, he had been set free, and now he desires for them to be set free. We brought him to the same joy that he has. He wants them to have what he has. He doesn't want them to be trapped into thinking that their righteousness from the law could do anything for God. This righteousness that we produce is nothing but filthy rags, as Isaiah 64 tells us. And so in love, he says, I was like you. Like you, I was thinking that legalism was the right way to God. But here's the thing, beloved. The more I practiced legalism, the harder I tried, the more I could not find God. And I'm telling you this through my experience. You cannot find peace and joy except through Christ Himself. Now, as I was a Roman Catholic in the monastery, thinking that I could earn my way to God, I would flagellate, I would take cords and I would whip my back with it, I would wear sackcloth, go on vigils of prayer and fasting, thinking that I could find God, and the more and more I tried to find God, the farther and farther he seemed to be. The better I thought I was, the worse I became. That's what Paul is getting on here. So suddenly he writes to them, you've done me no wrong, literally you've done me no harm. By these words he's seeking to draw them back, rehearsing how they first met and how they fell in love with each other. He says, don't forget this, beloved. Now we're not given all the details of what happened, but most biblical scholars and historians believe that as Paul was on a missionary journey, somehow he picked up some kind of disease that no doubt affected his eyesight. And so he was forced to stay amongst these Galatians in order to recuperate. But Paul used that as an opportunity to preach the gospel to them. And his preaching had good effect. God used that preaching to win these souls, to himself, and so they believed in the gospel. And this kind of explains some of his statements, that they did not despise or loathe his trial and his bodily condition, that they would have plucked out their very own eyes and given them to him. Obviously, he had some kind of disease and it was causing him to go blind, perhaps. They were saying, we love you so much, Paul, that if we could, we would take upon ourselves the sacrifice. We would pluck out our own eyes and give them to you if it could help. So great was their love. This is an aside here. We can see how God is able to turn a calamity like Paul's disease and use it for good. God can take all those horrible trials and difficulties that we go through and use them for good as he did in bringing about the Gospel to the Galatians. But the point is that this was a proof of God's love for them. And so they should take this and let it work godly sorrow in them by reminding them of what they already had. You don't have to work for God's love. God's already shown you His love. Providentially, He brought me to you. When I was ill and you took care of me, you heard the gospel. And this is a proof of God's love for you because you would never have found God on your own. You would never have loved God until He sent me to you. A proof of God's love. You don't need to earn it. Now, what he's getting at is that we have this wonderful, loving relationship as brothers. But now you're treating me as an enemy. Does that sound right? You who claim to be more spiritual, now that you're obeying the law, does that sound right to you? Here's another interesting thing I want you to know here. It's interesting that legalists always claim to be more mature and spiritually better than everyone else. And yet it's very common for legalists to show very little love to other people. They have very little patience for those who are less mature or who are spiritually worse than them. In fact, this last week or so, look at how Westboro Baptist Church has gotten to the news. Their whole message is on judgment for the wicked. Now, beloved, you know I believe in God's judgment. God will judge the wicked. The Bible tells us so. He will judge the wicked when Jesus Christ returns. But now, in this dispensation, while we are in this time period before the Lord's return, Jesus said, God did not send the Son to the world to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And the church's mission is to preach the love of God in Christ. And through that, call men to repentance. We are to understand that it's the kindness of God that leads to repentance, not the message of judgment. We need to warn the unbeliever. We need to warn them of the judgment that is to come and call them to repentance and flee that wrath. But we're not to make that the central theme. That's not the gospel. Jesus said that the gospel is God's love in Christ Jesus. And so here are these people saying, well, I am so glad that these six people are dead. On their website, we rejoice that these six are dead. God sent the shooter to them. But that's what legalism does. It makes you feel superior to everyone else and then condemns them. Paul will show later in this letter that real godly spirituality is about love and about showing compassion, even on unbelievers. Yes, again, God is going to judge them for their sin, and we need to warn them for that. But in our message and in our warning, we need to remember that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. And by the way, chapter 5, he will tell us what the fruit of the Spirit is. What is the summary of the law that they claim to keep? Look at chapter 5, verse 22. It gives us the answer. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, and these things. Ironic. They claim to be superior because they're keeping the law, but yet they show very little love, if any at all. Are they superior? Anyway, Paul asked them, after all the love you showed me, You saw Me have for you, and I now become your enemy." With Paul, they experienced the joy of salvation. Their sins had been forgiven. God regarded them as righteous in Christ. They had a hope of heaven. Jesus Christ was their only comfort in life and death. But now, verse 15, Paul has to ask them the essence. What has happened to that blessed joy that you had? Joy, by the way, is one of the great blessings of the Christian faith. And if you're lacking joy, you're being robbed of your heritage, dear Christian. Something is wrong. You need to ask yourself, do I have this joy? Is it in my life? Now, some of you may be thinking that you need to do more in order to get that joy. Others may think that you need to change your environment, change your circumstances to have joy. Nonsense, nonsense. When Paul was in prison, his feet were shackled, his back was ripped open, he rejoiced. He had joy. Peter and John, when their backs were striped for their preaching of the gospel, for their defense of Jesus Christ and their witness of Him, they rejoiced. You see, joy is not the same thing as happiness. Happiness is based upon circumstances, environmental factors and fluxes. But joy is stable. And joy is produced by the knowledge that God is no longer angry with me because Christ died for me. He took upon himself the punishment that I earned. And as Jesus Christ was raised for my justification, I now have peace with God. And that produces joy. Now, I believe these Judaizers who came down didn't have that joy. They were envious of others who did. And so they sought to enslave them with this awful deception of legalism. You know, misery loves company. And therefore, they said, let's make everyone miserable. For those who are enslaved to the law cannot know the joy of a right standing with God. Because you know what? You never know where you stand. Today I'm obedient, and so I have God's smile. But tomorrow, when I fall and I fail, I have God's frown. There's not stability there as you face your own weaknesses. You can never be confident that you've done enough when you're a legalist. You can never be confident that you've been faithful enough. But if your right standing is based upon Christ's obedience, there's no fear because He was perfect and God showed His acceptance of His obedience as He was raised from the dead. Now, the false gospel of law-keeping robs God's people of the assurance of salvation. It takes away the comfort that we can have in life and in death, as it seeks to replace Christ's righteousness with our own. And so let me just close with these words here. If you think you need anything other than Jesus Christ to make you joyful, you are sadly mistaken. At the end of the day, you will look at all your works, and you will look at all the things of this world, and you will still say, where's the beef? Life without Christ is all pomp and smoke. It has no substance. Let me say, though, that the only way to really be happy in Christ is to be desperately unhappy without Him. Let me say that again. The only way to really be happy in Christ is to be desperately unhappy without Him. In other words, if you think that you can live a Christian life in your own power and believe that you can put yourself right by what you do, you will never know joy. In the Beatitudes Christ came to tell us that we must become absolutely empty of ourselves, and in our poverty a spirit and our helplessness must come to him. As the hymn says, nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. What's sad about these Galatians is that they didn't even realize their loss. They were so beguiled into thinking that they were becoming better Christians by substituting religious deed for the liberty of the sons of God, when in fact they were on the same path as idolatry. Warning you, please be careful about what legalism does. It looks good. You can measure how well you're doing in legalism, but it will ultimately crush you. And again, you will lose all assurance because try as hard as you can, you will eventually fail. And when you fail, you will come to think that God hates you. Or, you will think that you're better than everyone else. Because you're keeping the rules better. But when you come empty to the cross, come desperately acknowledging that you are guilty, that you are unable to fix the problems of your life on your own. When you come to the cross, you will come to see the joy of the Lord, and there experience the freedom of the sons of God. Amen. Let's pray.