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Galatians chapter 4, starting at verse 8.

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Formally, when you did not know God,

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you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods.

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But now that you know God, or rather are known by God,

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how is it that you are turning back

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to those weak and miserable forces?

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Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

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You are observing special days and months

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and seasons and years.

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I fear for you that somehow I've wasted my efforts

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on you.

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I plead with you, brothers and sisters,

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become like me, for I became like you.

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You did me no wrong.

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As you know, I was becoming of illness.

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It was because of illness that I first

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preached the gospel to you.

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And even though my illness was a trial to you,

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you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.

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Instead, you welcomed me as I were an angel of God.

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And if I were Christ Jesus himself,

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where then is your blessing of me now?

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I can testify that if you can have done so,

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you would have not turned out your eyes and given them to me.

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Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

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Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good.

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What they want is to alienate you from us

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so that you may have zeal for them.

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It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good

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and to be so always, not just when I am with you.

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My dear children, for whom I am again

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in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

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how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone,

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because I am perplexed about you.

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Good morning, everyone.

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Good morning.

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Indeed, we just sang,

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You Are the One Who Has Words of Eternal Life.

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And let's come to the one now in prayer

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before we turn to the text that we have before us this morning

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and ask for his help.

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Would you do that with me now?

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Father God, we desperately need you.

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And we ask this morning that as we turn to these words

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of eternal life, that you would help us to understand

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what's being said, that your Holy Spirit would give us ears

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to hear, hearts to believe, that we would walk in faith,

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and that you would transform and conform us

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to be more like your Son.

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We ask for this, that you would help us

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for this, for your glory, and for the sake of Christ.

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Amen.

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Church, we're currently in the book of Galatians

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where our apostle has been explaining to us

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the role of the law and faith in regards to salvation.

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As we've seen over the months, it was revealed to Paul

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that Jesus gave himself for the sin of his people

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and thus releases all those that have faith in him

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from the curse of the law.

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And because of that perfect sacrifice given,

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all those that have faith in Jesus are reconciled to God

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and given the Holy Spirit for all eternity.

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To put it simply, Paul has been clearly showing us

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that because of Jesus Christ and faith in his work

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on our behalf, we are made sons and daughters

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of the living God.

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And none of this, none of this has come by our own efforts

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to keep the law.

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Paul has clearly told us that back in chapter 2, verse 16,

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by saying, we know that a person is not justified

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by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.

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And over the past few weeks, particularly since chapter 3,

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we've been looking at the question of what was going on

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before this faith came, before the Son of God in the flesh

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was manifested and revealed to the world,

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were people saved in the same way kind of thing.

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Well, this is where Paul has shown us that, yes,

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this has always been the case.

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In fact, Abraham was saved by faith in the Gospel also

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and not the law, because as Paul made the case,

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it wasn't even given.

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Going on to say, the just shall live by faith

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because all those that try to live under the law

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live under the curse of the law,

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to which Paul pointed out for us

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that the law was never given to save,

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but to be like a guardian that would teach and lead

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and guide God's people until the promised Saviour

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of the nations would come.

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Thus, now that Jesus has come, the age of guardianship is over

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and the time of maturity by being led by the Spirit of God has begun.

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That's where our heads have been in this book so far

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for the past few weeks.

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Paul has been showing us the role of faith

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in the life of the Christian in contrast to how the Judaizers,

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the legalists had been trying to get the Christians

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to live there in Galatia.

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We know that their doctrine was saying,

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yes, Jesus is important, faith in him is important,

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but you still have to follow the Jewish customs

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and the work of the Mosaic law in order for Jesus

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to be of any real benefit to you.

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In other words, they were teaching a Jesus

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plus something else kind of doctrine

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and as we've seen, the Galatians were in danger of falling for it.

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This morning, we're still looking at Paul's great concern

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for his brothers and sisters there in Galatia.

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And by implication, all Christians who have heard the Gospel,

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who have put their faith in Jesus,

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but are now turning to something else

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so that they might feel that they are really justified.

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And Paul is going to talk about this in sobering terms of backsliding.

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That's what we're going to see here this morning

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and Paul is going to show us this sobering truth in three ways.

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First, he's going to show us what lies at the heart of backsliding there

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in verses 8 through to 11, the tragedy of backsliding in verses 12 through to 16

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and then the perpetrators of this backsliding that we will see in verses 17 through to 20.

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But don't worry, it's not going to be all bad news this morning.

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We're also going to look at the cure for this disease of the heart

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there in verses 12 and 20 which we'll come back to at the very end.

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So first, let's have a look at what lies at the heart of backsliding.

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Paul says in verses 8 and 9 formally,

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when you didn't know God, you were slaves to those by nature that are not gods.

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But now that you know God or rather are known by God,

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how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces?

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Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?

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Church, the first thing that we need to see here, that we need to understand,

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is that the Galatians came from a pagan culture.

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Now that doesn't mean that they were atheists.

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No, it meant that they followed their own religious practices

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which combined local myths and legends and was,

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as Paul said to the Corinthians, demonically inspired.

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Now I mentioned that to you this morning because we need to see

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that these Galatians weren't totally without some sort of

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religious law and order in their lives.

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No, they actually had cultic systems and rituals in place

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that they saw as laws given from the gods in which they were to keep

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so that their gods would bless them and keep them safe.

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Now whatever was going on with the Galatians at the time

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and how these religious laws were applied,

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Paul tells us that they were in bondage and living as slaves

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to these so-called gods and their demonic rule.

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But had at some point heard the gospel and turned to Christ.

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Which is to say they were now gods' people because of faith in Christ.

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Meaning when they heard about Jesus and they put their faith in him,

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when they received the Holy Spirit of God,

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they left their heathen ways and lived in the freedom that came with that.

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As Paul puts it here, they came to know God,

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but he has even more intimate language that we're meant to see there.

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They were known of God.

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And that's what every single one of us experiences when we come to Christ.

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No matter who you are, where you've come from, whatever you've done,

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when God opens your ears to the gospel,

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when he gives you the faith to trust in all that Christ has done on your behalf,

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when all your sin has been washed away and the Holy Spirit comes to reside in you

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and you now call from the depth of your hearts on God your Father.

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That is a freedom, that's a privilege of not just knowing things about God,

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but by being intimately known by God.

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We are his and we belong to him.

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What amazing grace.

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And that's what astounded Paul with these Galatians.

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Because after all they'd experienced, after all they'd been through,

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after all that they suffered, as the King James puts it,

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they were now willing and ready to turn back to what they had been rescued from.

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In fact, you might remember it, that's how Paul started his whole letter to the Galatians, Chapter 1, Verse 6.

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I'm astonished that you're so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ

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and are turning to a different gospel.

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Now this imagery church of being on a journey and turning back from the way forward

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where we get this imagery of backsliding and deserting God isn't unique to Paul.

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It's actually a picture that we see all throughout Scripture.

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Think about our Lord's Sermon on the Mount and how he described the Christian life

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like a journey to his disciples saying,

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broad is the road that leads to destruction, narrow the road that leads to life.

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And we're warned in Scripture over and over again that there are many things

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that are out to get us to turn from the road that we are to continue on,

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like enemies that are out to tempt our own faithlessness and Satan and the demonic realm, just to name a few.

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That's why the Bible warns that we must know the Word of God, that it must be a lamp unto our feet.

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God said to Joshua that we're not to turn to the left or the right.

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As turning back to slavery like Israel wanted to do has dire consequences for those that do so.

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That's exactly what Paul is worried about with his brothers and sisters here.

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They come to know God. They were walking with him, but now because of these false teachers

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and their doctrine, they were turning to something else than Jesus alone and as a result,

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deserting the one who called them to live in the grace of Christ.

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What was this something else?

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Paul gets specific here in verse 10.

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He says you're observing special days, months, seasons and years.

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Now straight off the bat, you might be a bit like, what? That's their problem.

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Out of all their cultic practices with all their blood sacrifices and all that temple prostitution,

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Paul is in fear of their very souls because of calendar appointments.

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Church, this is where we have to slow down.

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This is where we have to really think about the text that is before us this morning

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because this backsliding is subtle and deadly serious.

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Paul says it here in verse 11, I fear for you that somehow I've wasted my efforts on you.

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Now we know in context the Galatians had been infiltrated by the Judaizers.

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They wanted these people to embrace Jesus, but come under all the Mosaic customs at the same time

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for their assurance.

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Thus these days and seasons that Paul has in mind here, they have to do with the Jewish calendar.

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But what undergirds this whole thing, what makes it all so dangerous,

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was a desire on the Galatians part to again be under the yoke of something

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that they had actually been rescued from.

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And that was a pattern in the created order, if you will, that they could again point to

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and say, look, I followed this set course, I've kept this day, I've done this thing,

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now God will really be pleased with me.

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Now he really will accept me.

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We might say silly ancient people, but really Paul is touching on something here

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that can tempt every single one of us in this room this morning.

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And that's the temptation to use religion as a way to look for our justification.

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You see, the Galatians were starting to look to something other,

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something more than the final and finished work of Jesus Christ

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so that they might feel more acceptable to God and be more pleasing to him.

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So that, like they thought with their own gods, he would have to bless them.

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To say that another way, they were turning back to these very things that they were rescued from

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in regards to their pagan practices, though with a different mask this time.

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That's what Paul's identifying for us here.

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These people had been rescued from a life of being enslaved to observing certain times

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and seasons for favour and luck, only to return themselves to similar practices

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just with a different face to it.

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And I say that we're all in danger of this because each and every single one of us

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in this room is tempted to succumb to something other than looking to Christ alone for our assurance.

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That's what Paul calls back-siding.

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I have to admit, it's so much easier to think of back-siding in regards to our friends

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who may have once been so dedicated at church, at Bible studies, at church camps,

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but then turned back to their old slavish masters and then seemed to just disappear overnight.

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But is it possible, brothers and sisters, that why we think of those people

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and identify only that as back-siding, that we ourselves have been doing a very similar thing

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but with just a different mask to it.

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Like using our dedication to church, our commitment to Bible studies,

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our self-discipline with being nice to strangers, our serving in various ministries

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as something to hold up to God and say, see, I am good and worthy.

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I deserve God's salvation.

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Well, in a way, that's exactly what Paul is addressing here.

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That mindset, that's what he calls back-siding.

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He's saying to the Galatians, in fact, all of us that look to something other than Christ alone for assurance.

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If you're looking to certain religious practices as a means to show God how good you can be

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so that he has to accept and keep you, you're going back.

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You're coming off the straight and narrow.

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You're sliding back into slavery with that mindset.

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You're turning back just with a different mask to it.

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Church, when any of us point to something other than Christ

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in order to feel like God will have to accept and bless and keep you,

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no matter how religious it might seem, no matter how pious it might be,

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well, in looking to that thing, while holding to that thing,

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you're actually putting yourself in slavery all over again.

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That's at the heart of the matter.

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Back-siding, in this context, it's looking to something other or more than Jesus for justification.

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And as we've seen this morning, it is so much more subtle and insidious than we often realise.

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The prodigal son can go both ways in that case.

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We can back-slide into religion as well as away from it.

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And Paul calls it for what it is.

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Next, he addresses the tragedy of back-siding there in verses 12 through to 16.

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He says, I plead with you, brothers and sisters, become like me, for I became like you.

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You did me no wrong.

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As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the Gospel to you.

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And even though my illness was a trial to you, you didn't treat me with contempt or scorn.

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Instead, you welcomed me as if I was an angel of God, as if I were Christ himself.

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Where then is your blessing of me now?

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I can testify that if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me.

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Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

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We are meant to feel how personal Paul is getting here.

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We are meant to feel the heart of the pastor pleading with the congregations there.

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He remembers these people with such fondness in regards to the first time he met them,

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and he thinks of them as family.

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He was sick, but they loved him.

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They accepted him despite him being a burden to them.

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That's what Paul reflects on here.

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God led him to them.

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He was ill, and even though he was a trial to them, they did all they could to help.

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And more than that, they accepted what he had to tell them, like a message from God himself.

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Notice that verse 14, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus himself.

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Something interesting to reflect on here about the context.

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Weakness and sickness was a sign that the gods weren't happy with a person.

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And so Paul is saying that these people, somehow they saw through all of that cultural paganism,

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and they accepted and loved him for coming to them.

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They loved this man for bringing the gospel to them,

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and they did everything to make sure that their brother was taken care of.

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It's a beautiful picture of what a missionary or a pastor might have with the people that he's brought the gospel to.

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They're his children in that sense.

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But now he wonders in verse 15.

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Now he wonders where then is your blessing of me now?

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To put that another way, Paul is pleading.

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He said, you accepted, you loved me because of what I came to tell you.

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There's a love, a bond that's God given because you knew that I was sent with the message that open your eyes to set you free.

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But now, but now have I become your enemy by telling you the truth.

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That is the heart breaking, wrenching question there in verse 16.

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This is a heartbroken man.

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And that's what's meant to happen to the hearts of God's people when we see our brothers and sisters slipping back and falling away.

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It should break our hearts.

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Because among other tragic things, it ruptures the bonds of that wonderful Christian fellowship that's been a gift of God.

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Think again of those precious people that you once fellowshiped with, that you had that deep intimacy with, that great Christian friendship.

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But then for whatever reason, something other captured their heart and they left.

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How does that make you feel?

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Backsliding, it rips the very fabric of Christian community.

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That's because God has designed us, you and me, this church, the church wider, the church of Armidale, the church of Perth, the church universal to be family.

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And so when even one of us goes astray, when one of us slips back into slavery, never to be seen again, it's grievous.

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No wonder Jesus says, I'll leave the 99 to look for the 1.

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That's what's happening here.

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Our apostle, he had heard through the grapevine that his precious people, these precious people have gone off the beaten track.

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They're turning to a life of slavery.

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It's killing him.

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But notice it.

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This is why he's reaching out to them, speaking the words of life, holding the gospel to them.

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And notice he's not writing this letter to tell them that he's utterly disgusted and that they all deserve hell.

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No, he's calling them back by holding the hope of the gospel out to them.

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We've seen that week after week after week after week.

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But this is the tragic thing because of the slippery slope that they found themselves on,

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because of their swallowing of these legalists doctrine, the very same truth that set them free,

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that made them fall in love with Jesus was now making them possibly turn on their own apostle like an enemy.

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This tells us something of the tragedy of backsliding.

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It does something to the very heart so that the same truth that once made us repent and rejoice and leap

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and bound in the freedom that we knew we had, well, that same truth to the backslidden

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can make the heart angry and bitter and absolutely resent those who bring the gospel to them.

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It's a classic mark of a guilty conscience that's trapped in sin.

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When it's challenged, it usually retaliates by disregarding the messenger.

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It can look for ways to discredit and attack a person's character all the while ignoring what is being really held out to them.

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The messenger is very much shot in that sense.

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So that's the heart, that's the tragedy of backsliding. Third Paul turns his attention to these perpetrators in verses 17 to 20.

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Those people are zealous to win you over but not for good.

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What they want to do is isolate you from us so that you may have zeal for them.

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It's fine to be zealous provided the purpose is good and to be so always, not just when I'm with you.

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My dear children, for whom I'm again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you,

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how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone because I'm perplexed about you.

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We're not going to spend as much time here but basically Paul is saying that after these people had come to know the Lord,

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these false teachers had moved in and they saw that these people were God-fearing and zealous,

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that they wanted to serve God with all that they were.

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And so these false teachers, they actually played on that.

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They played on it. They played on the fact that they wanted to be obedient to God

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and thus made them zealous not for the things of the Lord and the Holy Spirit to be led of him

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but for their own traditions and their application of the law

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so that they would be fans of them and reject Paul's gracious doctrine of Christ alone in faith alone.

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I don't know if this has been your experience but what's so tragic with door-knockers is

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when they come to tell you their version of the gospel, which is really no gospel at all,

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what's so heartbreaking is that these people, though they seem so zealous,

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they're actually out there because they've been told by their teachers that they need to do this

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in a way to either earn or keep their place in the kingdom of heaven.

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And then when you speak to them about the truth of the gospel, about who Jesus Christ is

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and what he's come to do for his people, they usually double down and ignore you until it's their time to speak,

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then reply that they need to get their leaders or their so-called prophets or apostles to come back and speak with you.

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They've become zealous but not for the right thing.

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They're trapped, trapped in a system that they've been sold on by false teachers with demonic doctrine.

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And that's what Paul is looking at here.

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He's saying to the Christians there in Galatia, these guys have come to you,

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they've won you over with what looks like piety and dedication, but it's not for the sake of Christ.

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It's for their own edification and you're falling for it.

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You're in danger, dear ones, of being zealous for this workspace righteousness.

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And I'm afraid it's going to deafen you to hear from us.

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Paul will later say in chapter five, verse one, for freedom, Christ has set us free.

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Stand firm then and don't submit again to a yoke of slavery.

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And that's the very thing. Because of Christ, because of his work on behalf of his people,

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he has set us free from slavery.

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He has set us free from the weak and miserable forces of this world.

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And because of him, we are on this journey, a narrow path, if you will,

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and sliding back into that slavery of which we once all so gladly served can come so subtly,

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either from without or within.

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We can slide either into worldliness and rebellion or into a trust in religious performance and self-righteousness.

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And it's here that Paul gives us the crucial advice to stay on the straight and narrow.

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And brothers and sisters, let me just say, if you have found yourself in either one of these camps,

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while there is breath in your lungs, while there is eyes in your head,

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whatever ditch you keep finding yourself in, there is still a way to be on track.

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And as I said before, we'll revisit that in verses 12 and 20.

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First verse 12. Notice our apostle, he sets the standard.

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He sets the standard and it's himself. Straight away you might be,

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wow, that's pretty big-headed of you, Paul.

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Think about what he's told us about himself in this book over the months.

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He's told us that he was one of the biggest zealot religious people out there

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that looked to his own works as his righteousness before the Lord.

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But what else has he told us?

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That by no effort of his own, by the grace of God alone, Jesus was revealed in him,

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and thus he gave it all up in light of the gospel.

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That's who Paul was. He was a man who was zealous for the works of the law.

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And in light of the gospel, he saw that the mosaic system could never save him.

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It was impossible. And now that Christ had come,

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faith in him was the only way to be made right with God,

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which meant there was no longer any need for circumcision,

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for animal sacrifice or the complex liturgical seasons of the Jewish calendar.

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All of that had been fulfilled in the light of the gospel.

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And Paul knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that the only way that we can be accepted as righteous in the sight of God,

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the only way is by the perfect obedience and righteousness of Jesus Christ credited to us.

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And that, Paul has preached over and over and over, comes by faith alone.

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Not by going back, not by trying to keep days and months and seasons.

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That's what Paul is talking about here in verse 12.

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In regards to the law, in regards to your own religious efforts, in regards to your own works, become like me.

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Reform back to the simplicity of the thing that saved you in the first place,

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to the freedom of the gospel in which you first believed.

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And I love that that's the essence of verse 20.

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That second, the legalists wanted to make them zealous for their traditions and enslave them to their doctrine.

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Yet Paul agonises like a mum who's giving birth to little ones to see that his precious brothers and sisters are zealous for Christ as presented in the gospel.

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That's what our dear apostle travails over here.

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He wants these precious people to be zealous for the truth of the gospel.

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That's how we're set free.

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That's how we're cured of our backsliding.

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It's by the Spirit of God calling us back to the truth of the gospel and showing us the freedom that has been won for us in the Lord Jesus Christ.

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Brother, sister, if you're here this morning and you have found yourself drifting away,

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if you've found yourself once again off the beaten track and hindered by the gutters of this life that you keep falling into,

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the gospel has been held out to you this morning.

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It's calling.

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Now straight off the mark you might be like, well, what do I need to do?

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What do I need to do? I'll try harder by reading my Bible. I'll come to church more often.

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I'll be one of those people that sing louder in the pews. I'll help out more. I'll join a Bible study. I'll even join some sort of committee.

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Great things.

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But don't think for a moment that you're putting things right.

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As we've seen this morning, all you'll be doing is swapping one form of backsliding for another.

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There's one thing, dear one.

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You need to call out to the Lord.

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Turn from trusting in your own religious works, from indulging in the things of the flesh

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and in the power of the Spirit that has been given to you by our loving Father.

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Call upon the name of the Lord.

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Confess where you see things going wrong and call out to Him.

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Every single one of us in this room, myself included, is tempted by this thing.

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We think that when we have made a mess of things, when we've stuffed up for even a prolonged season of doing things our own way,

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when we've walked in the way of high-handed rebellion, that somehow we need to go and make ourselves clean

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and do a whole bunch of things before God will finally accept our repentance.

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Nothing could be further from the truth.

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The holy word of God says to all of us this morning, like sheep, we have all gone astray.

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Each and every single one of us has gone our own way.

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But what else are we told?

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God clearly says that He laid on Him the Lord Jesus Christ, the iniquity, the sin, the blasphemy, the rebellion of us all.

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To put it as simply as we can this morning, Jesus died to restore backsliders like you and me by and through the cross.

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So the Gospel calls us to quit looking at our own works.

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Quit relying on your own promises and look to Christ this morning.

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The Gospel calls us to call out to Jesus and repent and believe because it is He.

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It is the inspired word of God that says if we confess our sin, He is faithful and He is righteous to forgive us of our sin

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and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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Would you pray with me?

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Father God, we thank you for the words of eternal life.

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We thank you that the word is a lamp unto our feet and we're not clamouring around in the darkness wondering what you're like.

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That we can call out to you this morning and ask you like David did all those years ago,

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Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

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And that in the Lord Jesus these prayers are answered with yes and amen.

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Lord, we ask that where we see our rebellious ways, where we see our backslidings,

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where we see the gutters and maybe don't slip into them but run into them Lord,

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that you would please show us the grievousness of it all.

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And that we would have a heart that would be repelled by that.

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That we would trust you and follow you all the days of our life.

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And Lord God, we think of our precious friends that have left.

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That were once with us that are no longer.

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We ask Lord that they too would be surrounded with people that love you.

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That don't encourage them to just get back to church but encourage them to come back to you.

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And to know that you will in no way cast anyone out that comes to you no matter what they've done.

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Lord, we ask that we would be a church used for your glory here in the city of Armidale.

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That the gospel would be held high.

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We ask this in Jesus' name, Amen.