This morning we are going to be looking at Galatians 4:12-31.  If you’d like to turn to Galatians 4 - starting at verse 12 - we’ll be coming there shortly.  If you need a Bible there should be one someplace under a chair in front of you.

A little bit of a reminder of what we’ve seen in previous Sundays - to help clear the turkey out of the system and bring us up to speed together.

The theme of Paul’s letter is found where?  in 5:1.  Let’s read verse 1 together.  “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.”

Christ has set us free.  Stand firm and live free.  Set Free.  Live Free.  Let’s repeat that together.  “Set free.  Live free.”  Living free is what it means to live the life that God has created us to live - the life that we long for but way too often find ourselves falling short of.

The churches in Galatia were probably the first congregations to fully experience what it meant to have both Jews and Gentiles worshipping side by side in the same congregation.  That mixture - Jew and Gentile - had created some significant problems.

Both groups - Jew and Gentile - had heard Paul share the gospel.  Both groups had come to faith in Jesus.  They were a congregation brought together because of Jesus.

But then some people had begun teaching that the Gentiles had to become like the Jews in order to really be a part of God’s people.  That the Gentiles had to do things like get circumcised - keep the dietary laws - basically live by the Old Testament law.   

Paul writes that all that becoming Jewish - all that - is going backwards.  Its moving away from the freedom that God had given them in Jesus.  Us doing things to get right with God - working to be more free - more saved than God has already made us in Jesus.  All that is really abandoning the heart of the gospel.

Which is kinda like trying to convince an Eskimo that there’s no such thing as snow.  Ever try that?

How is Paul suppose to convince the Jews that the law - what they’ve been living by for 1,500 years - which was at the heart of their culture and identity as a people - that the law - because of Jesus’ work on the cross - that living by the law isn’t necessary any more.  That’s tough.  Take away the law and what’s left?  It’s a big world out there.

Paul’s focus in chapters 3 and 4 is an explanation of why the law doesn’t bind us - isn’t necessary for us today.  The law was around to protect God’s people from destroying themselves with sin and to prepare them for Jesus - to preserve and prepare them for an intimate relationship with God.  The relationship that God - through Jesus - had set them free to live. 

Paul’s question - in chapters 3 and 4:  So, why go back to the law - why go back to defining ourselves by what we do rather than by what God has already done? 

Which they did.  Which we do. 

Remember Fence Plowing?  A fence is anything that keeps us back - enslaves us - that hinders us from experiencing the abundant and effective Spirit-filled life that God has created us for.  Fences are lines of security that we’ve learned to hide behind.  What we do.  What’s expected.  How we’re suppose to live our lives.  Who’s on our side of the fence - and who isn’t.  What I do to make myself feel more secure - to shut out what I fear.

Are we together?

For the community in Galatia that fence was the law.  But we all have our own fences.

God comes along and in Jesus tears down our fences and sets us free from all that.  God tears down our fences and we start to rebuild them.  Which is what Paul is writing about.  Why rebuild the fence?

Short video clip.  How many of you saw Cars?  The first one.  This is the scene where Mater first meets Lightening McQueen.  McQueen who’s just torn up Radiator Springs and who’s been impounded.

(Cars - scene selection #8 “The Impound”  28:00—29:30)

If there’s a main point to what we’re looking at this morning its tied up in Mater’s response.  “Mater, what did I tell you about talking to the accused?”  “To not to.”

If someone asks you, “What did Paul write about rebuilding fences?”  You should answer, “To not to.”  Don’t put up fences that God has torn down.

Coming to Galatians 4 - starting at verse 12:  Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.  You did me no wrong.  You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as the angel of God, as Christ Jesus.

Let’s pause there.  Question - verse 12 - What has Paul become?  “I also have become as you are.”

There’s a mutual - deep - relationship that Paul and these Galatians share together.  Paul calls them “brothers.”  Brothers from different mothers.  But the same Father.  Same blood of Christ runs through each of us.  We’re family. 

We may have different gifts and abilities.  We may be on different levels socially - economically - educationally - culturally.  Some of us may be further along in walking through life with God - more mature - less mature.  But we belong to each other.  Our involvement and respect and concern for each other should never vary.

Paul writes, “As your brother in Christ I’ve entered into your life.”

Paul had come to Galatia.  Evidently when he’d come because of a bodily ailment - some physical problem - maybe an illness.  We don’t know what that was.  As you can imagine there’s a whole lot of speculation about that.  Bottom line:  We don’t know.  But they did.

Whatever it was it wasn’t something easy to deal with.  Literally - the word in Greek means that it was a “test.”  It was something that pushed the Galatian brethren and systren to the limit of what they were capable of going through.

Maybe it was something hard to look at.  Maybe something repulsive or stomach turning.  It was something that would have made it easy to look down on Paul or reject him completely.  Something a whole lot of other people would have passed on.  “We are so not going there.”

But the Galatians didn’t do that.  When Paul preached the gospel they received Paul and the gospel just as if they were receiving Jesus Himself.  They cared for him.  Were merciful to him.  From the very beginning they had a blessed - deep - intimate - loving - mutually giving - enviable relationship.

Paul has become as they are.

Going on - question number two - verse 15:  What then has become of the blessing you felt?

Did you grab the question?  “There was this huge blessing that you all were experiencing because of the kind of awesome relationship that we all had together.  What happened?”

Going on:  What then has become of the blessing you felt?  For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.

That’s intense.  Isn’t it?  Okay, maybe you can have a kidney or my gallbladder.  But an eye?  Maybe in an extreme case, one eye.  Maybe.  But two?  That’s choosing to become blind.

And not just surgically removed - a sterile operating environment with latex gloves and anesthesia.  Look at what it says:  “You would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.”  The word in Greek literally means they would have pulled out their own eyes - dug them out of their own sockets themselves.  “Here they are.  All yours.”

Can we say a collective - “ewe.”

That’s a Jesus going to the cross kind of sacrifice - or pretty close to it.

How many of us would do that for any of our Christian siblings? 

Intense.  Isn’t it?  Their relationship - their fellowship - with brother Paul. 

“What happened?”

Question number 3 - verse 16:  Have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Paul has been writing truth.  Apparently some people were offended.

Flattery and phony smiles - being PC is not a gift of the Spirit.  A true loving honest commitment to enter into what is really going on in each other’s lives is a work of God within us.  Paul - by the leading of the Holy Spirit has spoken God’s truth into the lives of these Galatian brothers. 

Like so many of us who struggle to deal with the deeper issues of our lives it was a whole lot easier to shoot at the messenger than to allow God to apply His message.  To listen to Paul means allowing God to tear down the fence I’m so carefully trying to rebuild.

That’s intense.  Isn’t it?  We can deal with someone else’s really horrible disgusting disease.  But deal with the truth of what’s really in our hearts and we get all bent out of shape defensive.  Ever been there?

Verse 17:  They make much of you, but for no good purpose.

“They” is the “keep the law” crowd - the one’s that want you to go backwards - to get bound up in keeping the law.  “They make much of you.”  Meaning “they” enthusiastically seek you out - talk flattery to you - show concern for you.  But not for your good.

They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

They want to own you.  To make you dependent on them.  To enslave you.  People playing politics to gain your vote - your buy in - to what they’re peddling.

Paul - at the end of this letter - in 6:13 - Paul writes that the “keep the law” crowd only wants to see the Galatian believers circumcised so they - the “keep the law” crowd can boast about their - the believer’s flesh.  Like Christians who brag about how many “souls” they’ve “won” for Christ.  Where its all about what we’re doing for God and not what God - by His grace, mercy, and love - is doing in us and through us.

Salvation isn’t a game.  People aren’t keeping score.  But the “keep the law” crowd needed those numbers so they could boast to the Jews back home in Jerusalem about how many circumcisions there’d been in Galatia.  We’re winning the Galatians to our cause.  Influencing the church where we think it should go.

They need those circumcisions to keep their fences strong.

Ever see this happen in a church?  Where the congregational meeting is all about who has the greater influence?  Arguments based more in what people fear than they’re faith in God?

Or a marriage?  Where the couple is arguing from their fears rather than encouraging each other towards greater faith in God?

Verse 18:  It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose, and not only when I am present with you, my little children, for whom I am again in the aguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!  I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you. 

When we have children we received two kinds of congratulations cards.  One kind of congratulations card is from friends and family expressing joy and excitement.  The other kind of card expresses joy and excitement and the encouragement to try a different type of baby food - a better diaper service - information on where to buy baby furniture.  Very different motivations.

Huge contrast.  Do you see it?  Paul’s motivation - his desire is to see his spiritual children continue growing towards Jesus - living in freedom - faith not fear.  Paul’s motivation is hugely different than the “keep the law” crowd that wants to profit from the Galatian believers.  To use them to keep their fences strong.

In Christ we ought to love each other with the character of Godly grace, and mercy, and love that we see in Jesus going to the cross.  Our fellowship should be filled with such truth and honesty and joy and commitment and respect - a giving and receiving - that we’d be willing to give our lives for each other - even our eyes - both of them.  To overlook and work through issues with each other that would repel others.

Imagine if that kind of fellowship was at the core of Christian marriage?

Every man has his…  price.  We can pay people to laugh at our jokes.  Some of us would have to pay more for that than others.  We can pay and manipulate people to just about anything.  Even like us.  But all that’s the Splenda version of fellowship.  Its imitation.  Man-made.

Paul writes, “What happened?  Why are you selling out for some cheap imitation of what God has already given you in Jesus?”

The depth of fellowship that Paul is writing about isn’t based on the influence we gain over others as we run around trophy collecting.  What Paul’s writing about comes with the price tag of the blood of Jesus Christ.  Fellowship that can only be created in us and through us by God as we learn to trust Him - to follow Him through life by faith.

The implications of that are huge.  Marriage works when marriage isn’t about me - or us - but about God.  What He creates in us as we lay down our fences and follow Him together by faith.  Parents and children in fellowship together created by God as they learn to follow God together by faith - when He is the focus of our home.  Church that really feels and acts like the Body of Christ.

Hear this:  If we’re trying to create the Christian life by our own power we will never experience the Christian life that God has created for us to live together.

Paul’s point:  Good fences make… bad neighbors.

Fences destroy our fellowship as Christians.  They destroy our intimacy as brothers and sisters in Christ.  That’s true of our fellowship together and our fellowship with God.  Fences destroy fellowship - horizontal and vertical.

Going on - verse 21:  Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?

Question number 4:  “You - the one wanting to go backwards - wanting to hide behind the fence - are you paying attention to what that really means?”

To make sure they - and we - get the implications of what we’re choosing - Paul gives us an illustration.

Verse 22:  For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman.  But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.  Now this may be interpreted allegorically:  these women are two covenants.  One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.  Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

Verse 26:  But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.  For it is written,  “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor!  For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.”

Verse 28:  Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.  But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.  But what does the Scripture say?  “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.”  So brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

That’s a lot to take in.  Yes?  Let’s unpack Paul’s illustration.

In C.S. Lewis’ book “The Silver Chair” - Eustace and Jill Pole and a Marshwiggle - Puddleglum - travel to the land of the giants looking for Prince Caspian’s lost son Prince Rilian.  How many of you have read the book?

At one point in their journey they’re crossing the flat top of a hill that’s broken up by these strange trenches or groves that seem to appear randomly and don’t really lead anywhere.  Trenches that they can’t figure out.

Later, when they’re looking out the window of the Giant’s castle - so they’re up quite a bit higher - looking down on the flat hill top - they realize that the trenches were actually letters that formed a message:  “Under Me.”

What Paul is saying is that in Scripture there’s a message - a very clear message - a very important message running through Scripture that if we just take a step back - gain some perspective - we should recognize what God is trying to get across to us.

In human history there are two sons - two mothers - two covenants - two mountains - two cities - two inheritances - and all of humanity falls into one of either of these two camps - slave or free. 

Verse 23 tells us that these two kinds of humanity have two different origins.

The slave woman bears a son according to the flesh.  Abraham doing his best - using his intelligence and reasoning and the resources he had - trying to accomplish by his own power what God said God would do.  Abraham taking his slave woman Hagar and by her having a son - Ishmael.  A son of the flesh - of Abraham’s efforts apart from God.

It illustrates the slavery of men and women rejecting God - binding themselves to doing their best - to being wise enough and strong enough and clever enough to do their best at life without God.  All of which only produces more slavery.

The free women - Sarah - Abraham’s wife - Sarah bears a son through the promise.

Remember all that God promised Abraham?  We saw that when we looked at chapter 3.  Promises that God applies to us through Jesus.  To bless us with a name - an identity - self worth.  To shield us giving us freedom from fear.  To give our lives purpose - an eternal legacy.  To use us according to His will and for His glory.  To bring us into a restored relationship with Him - knowing Him - being known by Him now and forever.  Ultimately fulfilling the deepest needs of our hearts - forever.

It’s a promise made by God to Abraham - transmitted down through history beginning with Isaac the miraculously born son of the free woman Sarah - fulfilled in Jesus Christ - and offered to us.  God fulfilling His promise which brings freedom.

Are we together?

One camp originates in a desire on our parts to make things work.  That keeps us in bondage.  The other camp of humanity originates from the promise of God to do good to us - giving us life through His Son Jesus Christ.  That camp is set free. 

In verse 29 Paul writes that these two camps of humanity are inevitably in conflict with each other.  Before Sarah had Isaac - Hagar the slave woman - ridiculed Sarah the wife.  After God kept His promise and gave Sarah a son Ishmael tormented Isaac.

The flesh and the Spirit are always in conflict with each other.  The evidence is all around us.  We see that going on in the issues we struggle with just in our own hearts.  Yes?

That conflict - in the stuff of our lives - that conflict tempts us.  Tempts us to run back to what was familiar - to desire what isn’t from God - to seek approval that isn’t God’s - to turn back from the awesome privilege of knowing God as our Father - from all that He promises us - from the life and salvation that God has laid before us through the undeserved and unearned sacrifice of Jesus in our place - to build fences and hide behind them.

Paul is pleading with the Galatians - and us.  Think about who you are and the huge cost of going back to building fences.

In verse 30 Paul writes, “Cast out the slave woman and her son.”  “cast out” - in the Greek - “cast our” literally means to throw away - to reject - to expel - if necessary use violence.  Do what ever it takes.  That’s pretty cut and dry - an absolute.  It was the God blessed solution of Abraham back in Genesis.  Its Paul’s instruction to the Galatians - and us.

All of humanity is in one of either of these two camps - slavery with the inheritance of eternal separation from God and eternal punishment - or freed with the inheritance of eternity with God and His rewards.

The two cannot be mixed together.  We’re not baking a cake here.  Throw all the ingredients into a bowl and stir until thoroughly mixed and come out with something really tasty.

There’s no way to pick and choose the best of both worlds.  There’s a huge divide between the two that cannot be bridged.  Either were in one camp or the other.  There is no DMZ someplace in between.  Some neutral zone - some fence to balance on.

Verse 31:  So, brothers - those that I have shared deep fellowship with - who I deeply care about and whom I see turning back to slavery - we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

Hear this:  Its an absolute.  Either you’re a slave or you’re free.  Grab this for yourself:  In Jesus - you’re not a slave.  You’re free.  Share that with someone next to you.   “You’re free.” 

What did Paul write about rebuilding fences?  Remember Mater?  “To not to.”  Stop talking to the accused.  Don’t put up a fence that God has torn down.  As someone set free don’t choose to live as a slave.

That’s an absolute.  If we really desire the life that God offers us in Jesus - and we do.  If we really desire true fellowship with each other and with God - and we do.  When tempted:  Don’t go there.  Don’t dabble.  Don’t look back.  Choose a dogged determination to trust that God really has set you free - choose to doggedly pursue that life by trusting Him with everything you are.

Which camp will you choose?

_________________________
Reference:  “Passing A True/False Test,” Galatians 4:12-5:1, Steve Zeisler, July 30, 2001

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®  (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.