Keep Pressin' On
Text: Gal. 4:8-20
Introduction
1. Illustration: Bob Dylan in his song, "Pressing On," said, "Many try to stop me, shake me up in my mind. Say, "Prove to me that He is Lord, show me a sign"
What kind of sign they need when it all comes from within
When what's lost has been found, what's to come has already been? I just keep pressing on. On and on and on and on. Pressing on
Well, I'm pressing on To the higher calling of my Lord."
2. That, in essence, is what Paul is telling the Galatians, and us; we must keep pressing on.
3. From this section of Paul's letter to the Galatians we learn that we must...
a. Keep moving forward
b. Keep living in joy
c. Keep up your guard
4. Let's stand together this morning as we read together Gal. 4:8-20.
Proposition: We must always keep pressing on with Jesus.
Transition: First, and foremost, we must...
I. Keep Moving Forward (8-11).
A. Why Do You Want To Go Back?
1. In studying Paul's letter to the Galatians that Paul was dealing with a group of people who were trying to move forward by going backwards.
2. Paul starts this section by reminding them of the past. He says, "Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist."
a. Put differently, there were two religious dimensions of their religious past: (1) they did not know the God of Israel, the true God of the world, and
b. (2) the gods they did know were "by nature… not gods" (McKnight, The NIV Application Commentary – Galatians: From biblical text...to contemporary life, 216).
c. Before they came to Christ their religion was that of works, and they were slaves to various man-made gods that were actually no gods at all. The unredeemed are slaves not only to the law but also to idols (MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Galatians, 110-111).
3. Then Paul brings them back to the future, saying, "So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? 10 You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years."
a. Paul goes on to state that now that they are converted, they have a good beginning.
b. He corrects his own language in his description of their conversion: "so now that you know God—or should I say, now that God know you…."
c. This correction is designed, not to teach that they did not know God, but to put the emphasis where Paul usually puts it: on God's sovereign grace as the initiating force in conversion.
d. He insists that people do not seek God (cf. Rom. 3:11: "no one who searches for God"); rather, God seeks people.
e. John 15:16 (NLT)
You didn’t choose me. I chose you. I appointed you to go and produce lasting fruit, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask for, using my name.
f. Humans are so caught in their sin and so in love with their sin that they do not seek holiness and love in and of themselves (McKnight, 216).
g. That good beginning has now become a bad situation; that is the Galatians' problem.
h. In spite of having received the knowledge of God, they have reverted back to their former ways. Paul wants to know, "How is it that you are turning back?"
i. He asks, "Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again?"
j. Their move from idolatry to Christianity and now to Judaism is for Paul no different than a venture back into "idolatry" or "paganism" (McKnight, 216).
4. Then Paul brings them to the seriousness of the situation. He says, "I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing."
a. This bad situation leads to Paul's fear: "that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you."
b. Paul had worked hard on the Galatians' behalf and for the universalism of the gospel.
c. Any pastor knows the heartache and fear that come when a parishioner wavers, stumbles, and even falls away.
d. That is all Paul is saying here, and he will say similar things to other churches and try to rectify the problems (McKnight, 217).
e. How sad for such a faithful servant of the Lord to believe that all the life-threatening, sacrificial service he had given in behalf of the people of Galatia was worthless.
f. All the travel, illness, loneliness, struggles, even the stoning he received in Lystra that left him for dead, was for nothing if they reverted to their old slavery (MacArthur, 112).
B. Hand To The Plow
1. Illustration: John Calvin said, "No words can express the base ingratitude of departing from God one he was been known...The greater God's grace toward us is, the heavier must be our guilt if we despise it" (Calvin, Reformation Commentary On Scripture, vol. 10, 145).
2. We must not look back.
a. Luke 9:62 (NLT)
But Jesus told him, “Anyone who puts a hand to the plow and then looks back is not fit for the Kingdom of God.”
b. How can we look back when the Lord has saved us from that life?
c. How can we look back when Jesus has paid such a high price to set us free from that life?
d. We must not look back.
e. We must always keep pressing on!
3. To turn back to our old life is foolish.
a. Proverbs 26:11 (NLT)
As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his foolishness.
b. Have you ever seen a dog return to its vomit?
c. Just as that thought makes us sick, so it makes God sick when we turn away from him and back to our old life.
d. We cannot turn back; that person is dead.
e. We cannot turn back; Jesus has given us new life.
f. We cannot turn back; there is nothing there worth having anymore.
g. Don't look back keep your eyes on Jesus!
Transition: In addition to moving forward, we must...
II. Keep Living In Joy (12-16).
A. Where Is That Joyful and Grateful Spirit?
1. Paul is so heartbroken over their falling away that he pleads with them to come to their senses.
2. He says, "Dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to live as I do in freedom from these things, for I have become like you Gentiles—free from those laws."
a. Most likely Paul means something like this: "Become like me by freeing yourself from the law of Moses, just as I abandoned the law of Moses as God's dominant revelation for his people."
b. The second clause, "for I became like you," would then mean: I became like you Gentiles when I abandoned the law, accepted that I too was a sinner, and then turned to Jesus Christ (McKnight, 218).
c. He was convinced that they would realize in an instant the folly of what was being offered to them if they would only reflect on the change that had actually occurred in their lives when they had trusted Christ (Barton B. Bruce et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary,783).
3. He then reminds them of the joy of their salvation and the incredible transformation they experienced when they came to Jesus. He says, "You did not mistreat me when I first preached to you. 13 Surely you remember that I was sick when I first brought you the Good News. 14 But even though my condition tempted you to reject me, you did not despise me or turn me away. No, you took me in and cared for me as though I were an angel from God or even Christ Jesus himself."
a. What was this illness? There have been many guesses but no consensus. Some of the guesses are that he had malaria, epilepsy, or an eye disease.
b. The evidence is incomplete, and we do not know even that it was the same as the "splinter" of 2 Corinthians 12:7.
c. What we do know is that it was "because" of this illness that Paul ended up in Galatia.
d. It is possible that he needed help that could only be found there (i.e., some kind of doctor) or that the conditions there were favorable for his recuperation.
e. The illness was obvious and certainly the kind that could be offensive to an audience (McKnight, 219).
f. The illness, however, did not bother the Galatians; they looked beyond it and saw in Paul's preaching the truth of God because his message was attended by the power of the Holy Spirit.
1. Paul then asks them, "Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then? I am sure you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible. 16 Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth?"
a. Paul says they were so receptive that they would have given their eyes to him, had they been able to.
b. It is this verse that has led so many to think Paul's "illness" was an eye disease; this is possible but hardly certain.
c. H. D. Betz, in fact, shows that the theme of friendship in antiquity often associates such things as giving one's eyes as a demonstration of the depth of one's commitment to a friend (McKnight, 219).
d. The Galatians had received Paul with open arms and joyfully received the message he had preached among them.
e. So Paul asked, “Where is that joyful spirit?” The Galatians loved and respected Paul greatly.
f. But Paul was now being treated like an enemy. Why? The only possible reason would be that the Galatians didn’t want to hear the truth.
g. The Galatians needed to realize that they were in real danger of believing a lie rather than the truth of the gospel (Barton B. Bruce et al., Life Application New Testament Commentary, 783).
B. Joy Of Your Salvation
1. Illustration: Last week when I preached at First Baptist I got to show off my new iPad to Pastor Josh. I told him, "I really love my new iPad!" He said, "I can tell." Then I told him it was my gift this year for Pastor Appreciation, and he just said, "Wow!" That is how we should be about our relationship with the Lord! We should be so in love with Jesus that we cannot help but tell people about him.
2. We need to fall in love with Jesus again!
a. Revelation 2:4-5 (NLT)
“But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! 5 Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches.
b. Our relationship with Jesus is a lot like other relationships we have; we can get too comfortable and take it for granted.
c. We need to nurture that relationship and keep it fresh.
d. We should long to be in his presence.
e. We should come to him in worship with joy in our hearts.
f. We should look forward to spending time in the Word everyday.
g. Has your relationship with Jesus gone stale?
Transition: We must keep moving forward, keep living in joy, and...
III. Keep Up Your Guard (17-20).
A. Their Intentions Are Not Good
1. In our effort to keep pressing on we need to be aware that the enemy constantly puts roadblocks in our way.
2. Paul makes this evident to the Galatians when he says, "Those false teachers are so eager to win your favor, but their intentions are not good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay attention only to them."
a. Paul contends that the Judaizing Christians (i.e., "those people") "are eager to win your favor."
b. They want to "alienate you [from us], so that you may pay attention only to them." This term eager is highly important for understanding the Galatian context.
c. When used negatively, this term describes an emotion of "jealousy" and "intensity" that seeks to remedy a situation, frequently with violence.
d. "To shut you off [from us]" means "to enter you, through circumcision, into Israel," "to allow your passage from one group into another."
e. The Judaizers' goal, of course, was that the Galatians might be "eager" for them: devoted so much to the law that they would carry on their agenda of separating God's people from the Gentile world by constructing the barriers that Jesus Christ had broken down.
f. Their action, however, was "for no good" (v. 17): that is, it would not lead to acceptance with God as Paul has outlined from the beginning of the letter (McKnight, 220).
3. Paul then gives us guidelines for determining the nature of people's intentions. He says, "If someone is eager to do good things for you, that’s all right; but let them do it all the time, not just when I’m with you."
a. Paul now pauses to interject a note about being "eager": it is good to be eager if one is eager for God, as some of the saints of Israel had been.
b. It is "for no good," however, if one's eagerness is contrary to the promises of God. And their eagerness ought to be expressed for God "always" and not just when Paul was with them.
c. We can only guess that their conversion must have led to an outpouring of commitment to everything Paul had taught them.
d. Paul now senses that this "eagerness for the gospel" has dwindled and needs to be rekindled (McKnight, 221).
4. Paul now shows them the difference between his intentions and the false teachers intentions. He tells them, "Oh, my dear children! I feel as if I’m going through labor pains for you again, and they will continue until Christ is fully developed in your lives."
a. Children is from teknion, a word that was used figuratively as a term of special affection.
b. Literally, it referred to a small child, and therefore can be translated here as "little children."
c. In light of Paul's figure of childbirth, both ideas are appropriate. The Galatian believers were extremely dear to Paul but were acting like infants who refused to be born (MacArthur, MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Galatians, 120).
d. Paul’s concern would continue until Christ would be fully developed in their lives. Paul wanted each of his children to reach spiritual maturity in the faith.
e. They would do so by having the likeness of Christ portrayed in their lives.
f. “Fully developed in your lives” refers to a mother carrying an embryo until it is developed enough to be born.
g. Having Christ becoming fully developed in their lives emphasizes the personal changes necessary to become like Jesus (Barton 784).
h. Those whose intentions are good are those who want to draw us closer to Jesus, and those whose intentions are not good are those looking out only for themselves.
B. Prowling Like A Lion
1. Illustration: "Satan promises the best, but pays with the worst; He promises honor and pays with disgrace; He promises pleasure and pays with pain; He promises profit and pays with loss; He promises life and pays with death" (Thomas Brooks).
2. Always keep up your guard against the enemy.
a. 1 Peter 5:8-9 (NLT)
Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are.
b. Satan task is to try and keep us away from God, and he is constantly trying to put up obstacles for us.
c. He will do everything within his power to trip you up and lead you astray.
d. He will make everything look and sound appealing to you.
e. He will use twisted logic to try and mess with your mind.
f. Most of all he will try and get you to think that you are the only one and you are all by yourself.
g. But he is a liar, a thief and a murderer!
h. Always be on the look out for his tricks and schemes.
3. The good news is that he has already lost!
a. Romans 8:37 (NLT)
No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.
b. Jesus defeated him on the cross.
c. Jesus defeated him when he rose from the dead.
d. Overwhelming victory is ours through Jesus!
Conclusion
1. We must...
a. Keep moving forward
b. Keep living in joy
c. Keep up our guard
2. Are you moving forward in Jesus?
3. Are you living in the joy of your relationship with Jesus?
4. Are you keeping up your guard against the enemy?
5. "Many try to stop me, shake me up in my mind. Say, "Prove to me that He is Lord, show me a sign"
What kind of sign they need when it all comes from within
When what's lost has been found, what's to come has already been? I just keep pressing on. On and on and on and on. Pressing on
Well, I'm pressing on To the higher calling of my Lord."
