[0:00] Let us resume our public worship of God by singing to his praise from Psalm 96.
[0:13] Psalm 96, we're singing from verse 4 down to verse 9. Psalm 96 from verse 4. For great the Lord, and greatly he is to be magnified.
[0:28] Yea, worthy to be feared is he above all gods beside. For all the gods are idols dumb which blinded nations fear.
[0:39] But our God is the Lord by whom the heavens created well. Great honour is before his face and majesty divine. Strength is within his holy place and there does beauty shine.
[0:53] Do ye ascribe unto the Lord of people every tribe. Glory do ye unto the Lord and mighty power ascribe.
[1:04] Give ye the glory to the Lord and to his name is due. Come ye into his courts and bring an offering with you. In beauty of his holiness, so do the Lord adore.
[1:18] Likewise let all the earth throughout tremble his face before. And so on. We can sing these verses on 96 from verse 4 to 9.
[1:32] For great the Lord, and greatly he is to be magnified. O good the Lord, and greatly he is to be magnified.
[1:55] Give worthy to be feared is he above all gods beside.
[2:12] For all the gods are idols dumb which blinded nations fear.
[2:30] But our God is the Lord by whom the heavens created well.
[2:48] Great all the gods gave for his face. God has aNotch God to be magnified.
[3:02] God has aNotch God to be magnified. God has aשרous weaponry.born knowing such as thatayı ismez to the Lord and to the Lord, He has a jumped- Instant Share in the Word and through red characters. God has a Starman among men whofore mass who sees company or worldwide Jaire quiades场.
[3:21] God has aже high carburet которой doe business. God has a Belgian career. The sky unto the Lord, on the table every time.
[3:42] Glory to thee unto the Lord, and my ship of the skies.
[4:00] Give ye the glory to the Lord, that to his name is true.
[4:16] Come ye into this force and bring, and offer him with you.
[4:35] And beauty of his holiness, O to the Lord of your own.
[4:53] Thy quietness on the earth till I tremble his sins before.
[5:08] Amen. Let's join together in prayer. Let's pray. O Lord, help us to pray.
[5:21] Help us to pray, not just audibly, but from the bottom of our heart, to follow the lead of the one that you have appointed to direct others to pray, which is not just a minister, but your own spirit, as he directs us to your foodstool, and who is able to fill our mouth from on high.
[6:11] May what we come with be acceptable to you, and may it be acknowledged as sought, in the name and for the sake of Christ Jesus, that our petitions, and our wants, and our likes, and our desires, such as they are, may conform to your own revealed will for us.
[6:41] We bless you and thank you that we can fill our mouth with words that you yourself, our God, have given to us, that the more we fill our heart and mind with the scripture, the more we are able to come and to seek what is in accordance with your will for us.
[7:14] We bless you and thank you that we can trust to the direction that you give to us, even as we seek to lead others.
[7:30] May we magnify your name as God over all. May we lift our eyes above the mundane and the pleasant, present realities that occupy so much of our attention, if not our affection.
[7:50] This earthbound heart of ours is so taken up with the things of this world, that eternal realities are so remote from us.
[8:03] Until you bring them to bear upon our minds in a meaningful way. You are a God who inhabits eternity. You are high and lifted up.
[8:18] And you have no beginning and you have no end, nor should you have beginning or end in our prayers or petitions. We should not be satisfied with the expressions that we garner together and think of them as being complete.
[8:39] Because no matter how articulate we are and no matter how able we are to draw from scripture, that the God that is God over all is infinite and your ways that's beyond a reckoning.
[9:03] So we commit ourselves of the service of your house to your blessing this evening and ask that whatever need appears before you that you would meet it according to your own wisdom even in determining what the end is for these needs.
[9:26] You may have introduced them into our experience at this time to incline us towards you to make us think of God, to make us think of salvation, to make us think of our need offered.
[9:42] We give thanks for the many ways in which you remind us of the need that we have of being made aware of our weakness and our inability.
[9:56] To be reminded of the humanity that is ours that is fallen because we are of the race of Adam created in the first instance in your own image but fallen from that.
[10:14] And that fall has affected every aspect of his nature even ability to commune with his creator and we acknowledge that.
[10:28] We pray for your blessing upon each one here according to your knowledge of them. and that you would meet them and direct them and sustain them even as they draw near to your food store and as they bow the knee to you as God over all.
[10:51] May they learn what it is to submit to your will for them. In all aspects of our creaturehood we acknowledge our dependence upon.
[11:02] In you we have live, move and have our being. Our spiritual lives are equally dependent upon you.
[11:13] We cannot draw breath without your own sovereign will being applied to us. So we acknowledge that that the breath of the spirit would be our portion this evening as we wait upon you.
[11:35] We ask that you would bless the homes and families represented, that you would visit every household within the community, those who are represented and many that are not.
[11:48] We remember to you those who have over decades been pleased to come to God's house, but now their race is run as far as being participants in the public worship of God.
[12:05] But their hearts have been so nourished and nurtured under your hand that they are crying out even where they are for a crumb even from the master's table.
[12:22] And you are pleased to offer it to them. We pray for those who are well remembering the aged and the infill remembering those who are housebound, hospitalized, being cared for in the hospice.
[12:39] We pray for those who are grieving and sorrowful whose hearts are broken and who are always reminded of their own loss.
[12:51] And because of the near presence of death to them. Even with the passage of time, it seems to weaken its impact upon them.
[13:03] But nevertheless, from time to time, you speak to the sorrowful by reminding them of the loss that they have endured and that will only be catered for by the direct intervention of the God who understands the sorrows of the sorrowing.
[13:27] Lord, help us to bear one another's burdens, to be conscious of the needs of one another, and to come to you often, crying out for light in darkness, discerning the needs of others, even when we may not have these needs ourselves.
[13:51] We pray for our nation, and our duty to pray for the nation, as a nation, even though, as a nation, we have taken a path away from the Christian doctrines that once permeated the thinking of so many that were privileged to serve God, even within Parliament and within the Royal House.
[14:22] We do pray for our King and his family. We pray for those who serve within these Houses of Parliament in Holyrood and in Westminster. We pray for our local government and those who serve there.
[14:37] Remember them according to the need that they have so that their path would be lit by the light of the gospel and the darkness would be disseminated, that it would be dispersed by the dissemination of light within it.
[14:57] We pray for your intervention in the horrors of war that exist in this world. Places that we frequently hear of in the news and are brought to our mind, we pray for them, we pray for the Ukraine, we pray for conflict between Israel and Palestine, we pray also for the parts of the world that have constantly been at war, places such as South Yemen and places such as that are not often spoken of.
[15:39] We pray Lord that you would remember civil wars that exist and have existed for a long time. Countless souls have lost their lives and entered into eternity in some contexts where there is no gospel to give comfort that they have departed this world to a better one.
[16:02] That is the only positive thing that we can say when life is so cheap in the eyes of sun that there are those of your people who have taken a step out of this world into the next and for them the day of death is better than the day of birth.
[16:30] But so far so few of them exist in this world and yet you have countless men and women of all ages who have come to know Christ and who can be assured that when their time is done in this world whatever circumstance has brought it about that they are ready to enter into the presence of the Lord because they are his and he has bought them with a great price.
[17:05] We ask that you would remember us now and continue to bless your word to us and bring each one of us into its influence and direction so that our thinking would be in accord with those who have sat at the master's feet.
[17:24] Hear us O Lord and pardon sin in Jesus name Amen. Amen. Let us sing now to God's praise Psalm 89 from verse 13 to 18 Psalm 89 from verse 13 to 18 Thou hast an arm that's full of power Thy hand is great in might and Thy right hand exceedingly exalted is in height Justice and judgment of Thy throne are made to any place mercy mercy accompanied with truth shall go before Thy face O greatly blessed the people are the joyful sound that know in brightness of Thy face O Lord they ever on shall go they in Thy name shall all the day rejoice exceedingly and in Thy righteousness shall they exalted be on high down to the verse marked 18 O hast an arm that's full of power thy hand is great in might
[18:29] O hast an arm that's full of power thy hand is great in might and thy right hand exceedingly exalted exalted in sin high just as some just men of thy form and with the dwelling ways may may be accompanied with truth shall hold before thy face
[19:33] O greatly blessed be thy heart and joy for son that flow in brightness of thy face O Lord the ever home shall grow the end thy name shall all but hear rejoice exceeding thee and when thy righteous mess of thee and start to be on high on high because the glory of their strength the hope is found in thee and when
[20:56] I give a shot of the horn and power exalted thee for God is our defense and he to us just if we bring the holy heart of the Israel is the Lord of mighty King I'm going to read from Paul's epistle to the Galatians chapter 4 and we'll read from the beginning down to verse 20.
[21:58] Galatians 4 from the beginning to verse 20. Now I say that the heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
[22:20] Even so we, when we were children, we were in bondage unto the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
[22:44] And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
[23:02] How be it then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods? But now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
[23:26] Ye observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Ye have not injured me at all.
[23:46] Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
[24:04] Where is then the blessedness ye speak of? For I bear your record that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me.
[24:19] Am I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. They zealously affect you, but not well. Yea, they would exclude you that ye might affect them. But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you.
[24:41] My little children of whom I am present with you now, and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you.
[25:02] And so on, may the Lord add his blessing through this reading of his word. We can sing now from Psalm 85, Psalm 85 from verse 6 down to the end.
[25:21] That in thee may thy people joy, would thou not us revive? Show us thy mercy, Lord, to us do thy salvation give.
[25:33] I'll hear what God the Lord will speak to his folk, he'll speak peace. And to his saints, but let them not return to foolishness. To them that fear, and surely near is his salvation, that glory in our land may have her habitation.
[25:52] Truth met with mercy, righteousness and peace kissed mutually. Truth springs from earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven high.
[26:05] Yea, what is good the Lord shall give, our land shall yield increase. Justice to set us in his steps shall go before his face.
[26:18] These verses to God's praise. Psalm 85 from verse 6 to the end. That in thee may thy people joy, would thou not us revive?
[26:29] At the end. That in thee may thy people joy, would thou not us revive?
[26:43] Show us thy mercy, Lord, to us. Good night's salvation give.
[26:59] Good night's salvation give. I'll hear what God the Lord will speak. Through his folk gives me peace.
[27:14] And to his saints, but let them not return to foolishness.
[27:29] To them that fear, and surely near is his salvation, that glory in our land may have her habitation.
[27:57] Truth met with mercy, righteousness and peace, his spirit shall be.
[28:14] Truths change from earth, and righteousness and righteousness, who stand from heaven high.
[28:30] angels and who stand from earth, and who stand from heaven high. The God, and holy on earth, and who stand by the Lord should be. Hur Buff Essele 7, Threling 1.
[28:51] in his death shall be born his face we turn to the passage that we read together Paul's epistle to the Galatians in chapter 4 and we're going to just look at this section that we've read this evening from verse 8 down to verse 20 how be it then when ye knew not God ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods but now after that ye have known God or rather have known of God how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements where unto ye desire again to be in bondage and so on one can hardly consider the passage of scripture that we've been considering over the last number of weeks without being convinced of the fact that the desire to keep the law in order to attain to salvation is something that is wasted energy not just
[30:45] I suppose you have to be careful how that is worded Paul isn't dismissing as we've seen the law as if it is something that has no worth or no benefit at all what he is doing however is insisting that to keep the law with a view to be saved by that exercise is not just fraught with difficulty but a futile exercise and while Paul is clearly dealing with a situation in his own day that had had specific characteristics it is not unique to his day it's not unique to the church in Galatia as we shall see it is something that we can say that in one form or another it manifests itself and whether we recognise it or not if you analyse it down to its finer detail the same problem is at its heart that we are not content to rest upon the finished work of
[32:25] Christ we want to add to it or we think that we should take from it in some way however we dress it up as one divine put it legalism in any system by which a sinner seeks to earn or to keep God's favour is just that it's legalism it is the intention is there the law is either to be kept and by doing so you please God or you gain the favour of God and if that is the case then you've missed the whole point of the gospel and we have seen how Paul once you know he addresses this several times it's just not something he picks up and drops and doesn't come back to it again he finds it necessary to to repeatedly emphasise the same thing now what does that say to you
[33:46] I think it should say to you that naturally there is this inclination on our part to in some way seek to police God by something that we do even when it comes to the gospel for example the gospel is something we spoke of this morning you're given God's word comes to you encouraging you requiring of you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to save your soul and when you do that it's as if you're clapping yourself on the back because you've done something that God wants you to do in order to save your soul you're so pleased with yourself because you've obeyed the gospel what is that what does that say to you well it tells you that in some way your eye is upon on God and you're saying well
[34:58] God I've done now what you asked me to do or want me to do and surely I'm worthy now of this clap on the back as it were Donald McLeod principle Donald McLeod when he's talking about the gospel he's very good at putting in a memorable way the truths that Paul is repeatedly bringing to our attention and he explains what we have in Romans and what we have in Galatians and what we have in Ephesians and what we have in Colossians with regard to the law in this way the law which said do and live brought death not because of any deficiency in the law itself but because in the words of the apostle the law could not do because it was weak through the flesh is there referring to
[36:05] Paul's epistle to the Romans because humans are humans they could not rise to its standards and we have already seen Paul say that in chapter 3 but because we could not rise to its standards we are cursed that's what Paul insists on for as many as are of the works of the law are under their curse for it is written curse it is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them all things so all are under God's condemnation in that sense so Donald Macleod continues the underlying message is clear legalism kills and it kills because while the law like all human moralism can lay down principles and press home great imperatives it has no power to ensure compliance that's the thing and we've discovered that through
[37:21] Paul's emphasis while the law tells us what to do tells us what to do and why we must do it and that there is no escape from doing that it doesn't show us how that law can be kept by us direct us beyond ourselves we we are required to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ nothing more nothing less whatever else accompanies our faith it is not because of that that we are saved without it we are not because it's an evidence of our salvation no question but it is not because the evidence is there of salvation that we are saved it's because that we have rested upon
[38:48] Christ for the salvation of our soul so here we continue with Paul to see not only the privilege of sonship as he has spoken of but also the obligations that accompanied and because there are obligations and because being a son requires compliance with God's fatherly instruction to return to the past form of living to the past lifestyle to the past experience of doing in order to gain life is completely wrong that is what Paul highlights and he highlights it in a very dramatic way he speaks here how be it when you knew not
[39:55] God you did service unto them which by nature are no gods that's what you wear this is how you lived your life you were a slave to deities that had no right to the name but now after that you have known God or rather are known of God how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto you decide again to be in bondage it's as if he's saying how ridiculous is that how perverse is that I've already seen it we've already heard Paul emphasize the foolishness that the Galatians are guilty of and now he finds it necessary to state the same thing again he describes what they are returning to as weak and beggarly elements perhaps they have been many or few but they were enslaved by them they were enslaved by them to do these things in order to satisfy themselves or to satisfy some desire that they had to please God by them and if they did not do these things they were lost or so their thinking went and perhaps you know of your own behaviour or maybe you don't recognise it you don't recognise this appearing in the way that you live your life even if you're a
[41:48] Christian you don't see these things encroaching into your liberty as a Christian you don't see these things touching your peace as a believer and yet that's exactly what they do I was reading the bi-monthly it's just a magazine that we get through the Middle East Reformed Fellowship and it describes the missionary activities of that group to do with evangelising the Muslims in the Middle East and in this last month they were talking about one particular thing to do with what is called the five pillars of Islam and one thing came to mind as I was thinking of this one of the five pillars requires the
[43:07] Muslim to go to Mecca once in their lifetime this is what was said travel once in a lifetime in ritual pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca in Saudi Arabia and every Muslim will be required to do that in their lifetime I remember I spoke in the morning about Muslims that came round the door selling their wares I remember one of these men going to Mecca I think he probably went twice but I remember his son saying about him that it was an expensive thing to do that it was costly and in fact this magazine tells us that you'll know Saudi
[44:08] Arabia is an oil rich country and it gets a lot of money from that resource but it gets far more from those Muslims that make a journey to Mecca once in a lifetime sometimes more than once because they want to do that and it's an obligation that they're under now you might think well that's ridiculous that's ridiculous why should anybody think that there is that there is something to be gained by fulfilling this and that doctrine is part of the Muslim faith and yet the same psyche the same mindset exists within the life of many people who think by fulfilling some obligation that they think themselves to be under that they will in some way gain
[45:14] God's favour now you think no that's not right of course it's not right but that doesn't mean that people don't think like that why else would Paul find it necessary to speak to the church in Galatia to people who have been born again by the spirit and yet who have been in some way persuaded to think that the salvation that they have been gifted through Christ Jesus is incomplete and they need to do something in order to make sure that that salvation is complete and he goes on to say here you turn to weak and beggarly elements where until you decide again to be in bondage you observe days and months and times and years and strangely well not strangely as opposed if you go to his epistle to the
[46:19] Colossians he there speaks about the situation that applies to the church in Colossae he tells them what Jesus Christ has accomplished for them he says you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh as he quickened together with him having forgiven you all trespasses blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing it to his cross and having spoiled principalities and powers he made a show of them openly trying think over them in it but then he warns them he tells them quite clearly let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink or in respect of an holy day or of the new moons or of the sabbath days which are a shadow of things to come but the body of
[47:25] Christ the body is of Christ let no man beguile you of your reward in involuntary humility and worshipping of angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind and not holding the head from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and it together increases with the increase of God and so on talks about the things that people trust in rest in thinking that in some way these are the things that makes their faith secure that these are the things that they can trust in while they may be obliged to fulfill whatever it is their faith has brought into their experience it is not because of these things that their salvation is secure it is by reason of what
[48:34] Christ alone has done you observe days and months and times and years he says of them I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain in other words what you're doing is so at odds with what you've been taught what you're doing is I can't recognise it that's not the way you were instructed or informed in how to live your life in God's grace and this I think is something that Paul finds necessary to remind us of because of the weakness that exists in our human condition that we revert to almost unconsciously we may not follow the church in
[49:42] Galatia in the minutiae of the detail we may not follow the example of the church in Colossae but in some way we may think very much along the same lines and when we do we are vacating the power of the gospel upon our lives of its power and its efficacy we are in some way suggesting that Christ is not sufficient for us we need to improve upon we need to have to in some way and that is dangerous thinking however it comes into our reckoning wisely there but for the grace of
[51:01] God go I there but for the grace of God go I this was the converted Newton who saw himself as someone who was spared this by God's grace but the same person who was telling me that then went on shortly afterwards to speak about a fellow believer and whatever it was it doesn't matter he said of the fellow believer oh well I said I would never ever do what that man did and well I was saying to myself where does the grace of God come in there surely the same grace that saved John Newton from the gallows the same grace that would save you from going wrong in your life as a Christian and there is this inclination on our part to self justify and to say well
[52:02] I would never do that well if you would not do something that God considers to be offensive well thank God for it and be thankful that you have been spared from that but don't use it as a plank in your justification don't suggest for one minute that in some way you're a better person than the person who has succumbed to it and if you are well thank God for it because the same Newton went on in his life you remember how he was converted he was converted by reason of I think John Stott mentions this in his commentary he was a vile sinner there's no question about it he was somebody who was a despicable sinful creature involved in the slave trade and he was involved in all kinds of vile acts that that lifestyle led him into but he was caught up in a storm and because of the storm he took
[53:13] Christ and cried out to God for salvation God heard his prayer and it was answered and he was gloriously converted but one thing that he said out to do was to remind himself of where God took him from to remind himself always of where he was so he purposely wrote out a text from the book of Deuteronomy and it was this thou shalt remember that thou was a bond man in the land of Egypt and the Lord thy God redeemed thee what was he doing when he was doing that placing this placard on his mantelpiece grace it was something that he kept in full view of his mind so that he would not forget that he wasn't saved by reason of anything that he became by his own endeavours he was saved by
[54:28] God's grace he was like every other sinner saved by God he was taken from slavery to liberty by God's grace now that's what that's what causes Paul grief that he has come with the gospel to preach the gospel to sinners having experienced salvation by reason of the gospel that is preached they seemingly seem to forget what they were saved from that they were being saved from the few time to keep the law and the law was something that was just condemning them because of their weakness so we find Paul having to remind them of this full of concern for it but then he turns and becomes more personal in his appeal to them and he says to them brethren
[55:37] I beseech you be as I am for I am as ye are ye have not injured me at all I wonder what that means what does he actually mean when he says that clearly it doesn't mean you to understand that Paul is somebody who doesn't appreciate the gospel who doesn't appreciate the weakness of the person who tries to secure salvation the inability of that person to seek salvation by his own endeavours I think what he is saying to them he says I am somebody who have been taken from the life of the self righteous Pharisee somebody who God in his grace took from there to be a sinner saved by grace and
[56:44] I understand where you're at I understand where you've come from that's where I've come from myself but he has the ability to come alongside them I think and to help them understand that he's not standing sort of looking down on them but wanting them to understand that he appreciates the foolishness of what they are doing because that was what he was himself foolish and lost but then there's this area in a passage that attracts a lot of conjecture he says you know how through infirmity of the flesh I preach the gospel unto you at the first and my temptation which was in my flesh he despised not nor rejected but received me as an angel of
[57:49] God even as Christ Jesus so there he is not only coming alongside them helping them to appreciate that he is somebody who understands because of where he came from himself but he also remembers what they were like to him when he came to them at the first and this is where the conjecture arises because some people suggest from what we have here that at some point the apostle Paul was suffering from an illness or he was possibly suffering from some disfigurement that made him outwardly unattractive but they were prepared as a people to overlook that and they received him into their midst with charity he says my temptation which was in my flesh you despised not not rejected but received me as an angel of
[59:02] God even in Christ Jesus even as Christ Jesus which is really a commendation a remarkable observation on his part that this people the Galatians that he was now forced to correct and rebuke and bring God's condemnation upon their life he remembers how they were to him when he met them first now it's this point that people are wondering well I wonder what was wrong with Paul some say well possibly it was because of an illness that he suffered in his journey that took him there when he didn't expect to when he wasn't intending to the illness took him to be in their midst others because of what he says in verse 15 whereas in the blessedness you spoke of for I bear you record that if it had been possible you would have plucked out your own eyes and have given them to me and while this isn't explained it is suggested by some at least that
[60:14] Paul had an eye problem that he had some kind of disability that affected his eyes and because of that he says because of your affection for me you would have given me one of your own eyes now we can't really say but we can say that that the apostle Paul is reminding them of the way they were to him when he came to them with the gospel that they embraced him and they embraced his doctrine and they believed what he had to tell them about the salvation that was in Christ Jesus and their lives were interloped they were bound up together such was the intimacy that they enjoyed together and that's where
[61:15] Paul suffers confusion he says am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth where is the problem arisen from what is it that has taken place that causes you to treat me like an enemy why are you seeing me the way that you see me now well we we've already covered this ground in this epistle how the problem that existed in Galatia was of those who insinuated themselves into the believing community those who were Judaizers those who were expecting them to embrace along with the gospel the teachings of the Jewish faith the observation the observation of the many days and festivals that were a requirement to them in order to be believers and
[62:29] Paul is saying to them what has happened that you turn on me because of what I am saying to you am I become your enemy they celestly affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them but it's good to be celestly affected always in a good thing and not only when I am present with you and this is the problem that Paul is identifying yes he says there shall seal on the part of these people that are insinuating themselves into your fellowship and their doctrines are false and their practices are undermining the gospel and not only are they undermining the gospel they are affecting your relationship with me when there is no reason for it there is no reason why you should treat me like your enemy what has changed
[63:40] Paul says when you were so dear to me and I to you that all of a sudden you now treat me as an enemy I think this is coming back to what he said before but we know how fickle men and women are bosom bodies can one minute be arm and arm and then all of a sudden for something quite trivial they can be bitter enemies but this isn't trivial this is serious and this is something that Paul must address and this is something that Paul must identify why because of the place this people has in his heart my little children of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you so I desire to be present with you now and to change my voice where I stand in my little children of whom
[64:47] I travail in birth
[66:19] Christ Christ Christ likeness being the very end product of the preaching a fruit of his preaching even in himself as the preacher and then as hearers of the word God it's quite amazing how how how easily things can can be turned upside down in our congregation how quickly things fester well the the the very thing that's supposed to to be binding people together is the very thing that is turned on its head to make it less so and Paul wants them to understand that what the gospel has introduced to them and what the gospel has introduced them to is the very thing that they need to adhere to and to be resistant to anything that takes away from them all the liberty that is theirs by right through
[67:35] Christ Jesus and it's amazing I suppose but I don't I don't imagine for one minute that that it is anything other than than what it is that very often what most undermines the truth is the very thing that comes alongside the truth without actually being true counterfeit counterfeit teachings that are so like what the real thing is all about but it is counterfeit it is not what the Lord has taught and what the Lord would want us to believe and this is what the apostle is dealing with in his own time here in this church and he wants as we shall see the liberty that is rightfully there to be secure and to be free from undermining let us pray oh Lord our God in whichever way we tend towards self justification and in that moment not trusting in the righteousness that is without without flaw we pray
[69:13] Lord that you would preserve us from it that we would see it for what it is that we would have thankful hearts for the perfections that Christ alone possesses and that he has presented to us in his word where we can stand hear our petitions and cleanse from Jesus name Amen concluding Psalm 132 Psalm 132 and verse 9 verses 9 to 12 O let thy priests be clothed Lord with truth and righteousness and let all those that are thy saints shout loud for joyfulness for thine own servant David sake do not deny thy grace nor of thine own anointed one turn away the face the Lord in truth to
[70:14] David swear he will not turn from it I of thy body's fruit will make upon thy throne to sit my covenant my covenant if thy sons will keep and laws to them made known their children then shall also sit forever on thy throne these verses O let thy priests be clothed Lord with truth and righteousness O let thy priests be clothed Lord with the rules of our righteousness and let the rules that thou are and say shall Lord for to hum for
[71:28] Lord Thine old Thou life is born, turn thou away with thy face.
[71:45] The Lord is with his way, he will not turn from me.
[72:02] I hope thy body's deliver me, upon thy throne to say.
[72:19] My come and thy stars will be, and those who have been born.
[72:37] And children, and children, and children, and children. Amen.
[72:49] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. May we praise, mercy, and God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit rest and abide with you all now and always.
[73:05] Amen. Thank you.