Will you kindly turn with me for the
word of the Lord this morning to Galatians
chapter 4 Paul's letter to the churches of
Galatia Chapter 4 and I would like to
read verse 19 reading it again from the
New International Version my dear children For whom
I am again in the pains of childbirth
Until Christ is formed in you how I
wish I could be with you now and
change my tone Because I am perplexed about
you.
This is a very tender passage passage in
which the Apostle Paul Speaks of himself as
a mother giving birth to her children the
Churches of Galatia were brought into existence by
the human agency of the ministry of Paul
God sent him forth and by the Holy
Spirit used him To bring into existence in
these several locations Men and women who came
to a knowledge of Jesus Christ the Savior
and who were baptized into the body So
that they were members of Christ in very
truth since then however, many things have happened
and among the many things that happened there
have come into the Situation there in Galatia
those whom we should probably speak of as
quite heretical They may have had elements of
truth in their teaching, but they were certainly
heretical they had heretical aspects of truth at
any rate and they are Infiltrating into the
communities of believers and are turning their hearts
away from the simplicity Which is in Jesus
Christ our Lord They're turning them backwards as
it were diverting them backwards to a kind
of legalistic approach to life and indeed, they
are Tempting them to give vent as Paul
tells us in chapter 5 very especially to
give vent to passions and to the flesh
and Are suggesting that you can live very
much as you like now in consequence Paul
Tells us that or rather tells them in
chapter 3 and verse 1.
He says that you've been bewitched Who has
bewitched you he says Because as he goes
on to say in chapter 4 They have
now turned back from the principles that operated
in their early Christian life and are living
very much According to the principles or absence
of principles that ruled their pre-christian days
with the result says Paul Whereas I originally
thought that I had given birth To healthy
children Real converts Men and women boys and
girls who were born again of the Spirit
of God I Am now he says quite
perplexed about you chapter 4 and verse 20.
I really don't know what to say And
so he says I'm going through the through
the through the pains of childbirth all over
again I'm literally like a prospective mother in
labor and I will continue to be in
that Condition he says until I see something
not the sound of a cry heralding the
birth of a baby That's not enough spiritually
speaking Not just until I see a form
of a child that has apparently been born.
That is inadequate But I shall be going
through the pains of childbirth for you until
I see Christ Formed in you The
Apostle was perplexed.
He didn't know whether they were Christians on
What?
How can you rectify a situation such as
that Some of us this morning may be
in that in that situation Some of us
may be pastors.
It's good to see a number of pastors
here this morning We salute you in the
name of the Lord pray God's blessing upon
you as you go back your several ways
See some friends here who've been coming here
around this time of the year for a
number of years It's great to have you
from the United States and others from other
places Some of you pastors are looking at
converts that you think you have led to
Christ brought to birth And then a little
time has elapsed and you really don't know
what's happened.
They're just like children of the world They
haven't grown up.
They haven't moved from where they were born
Parents are concerned about children that have gone
through what appear to be an experience of
conversion They've not got very far sometimes Children
have such concern for their parents Sunday school
teachers for those that they teach and so
forth Now, how is it that you can
prove to your pastor to your parent or
to someone that's concerned for you?
That you really are a believer That you've
really been born Of God that you're a
new creation in Christ Jesus Well, here's the
answer Paul has much else to say about
the theme in Galatians and elsewhere in the
New Testament But here is something which seems
to cover the whole gamut of his teaching
elsewhere.
He says I'll not be satisfied I'll not
be persuaded I'll not be able to breathe
freely about you until he says I see
with my own eyes Features of Christ's life
in you Christ Formed in you so that
looking at you.
I see the Christ now There's much to
say there that I have no time really
to develop this morning.
It says something about Paul's evangelism.
I Can't develop this Paul's evangelism was not
simply a declaration of the gospel.
Take it or leave it I'm not suggesting
that there are evangelists to do that Anyway,
but I just want to make it clear
that was not Paul's evangelism of standing on
the square or in the synagogue or elsewhere
Declaring the truth and leaving it to people
take it or leave it.
No, no, no Accompanying the proclamation.
There was there was a Struggle like a
woman in travel Evidently he is referring to
his intercession To his life of prayer to
his ministry at the throne to that which
must always accompany biblical preaching namely biblical praying
But now we come to this Paul is
concerned that there must be Evident in the
life of a genuine Christian the Manifestation of
the Christ till Christ be formed in you
And no Christian pastor or teacher or parent
should slacken his prayers or ministrations until this
happens This is not a new concept by
the way in the New Testament.
You have it in the old in Isaiah
53 the prophet says Jesus the Messiah that
is coming he will see of the travel
of his soul But Before he ends that
section of Isaiah.
He says this as soon as Zion was
in labor as soon as Zion traveled She
brought forth her sons Are there conversions among
us here in Knox are there conversions in
the departments?
Do people come to birth here in Christ
or in your congregation or assembly?
If not, may I ask the question could
it be that we do not bring our
own travel?
Alongside of the travel of Christ because the
promises as soon as Zion was in labor
She brought forth God has joined these two
things together the preaching of his word and
gospel and the intercession of his people and
When these two things are wedded together and
our practice day in and day out Year
in and year out there must be men
and women claimed from darkness Who are born
anew into the kingdom of God and where
this does not happen.
It may very well be That we're lacking
somewhere Now this is the kind of difficulty
then that Paul envisaged and I want to
come to this very practical question this morning
What do you do in a situation like
this?
I want to apply to ourselves particularly How
would you speak to someone in this condition
who has made a profession of faith But
who's very much where he or she was
on that particular day never grown up never
shown evidence of the Christ life There is
no real indication that Christ is formed or
being formed in that person What would you
say to such a person?
Now I may be charged with over simplification
this morning But there are certain things that
I want to get across as basic It's
a theme that is endless, but may the
Spirit of God enable us to take up
one or two things that are absolutely vital
to this And I come to you this
morning I acknowledge that this has been burning
in my soul ever since I stood in
this pulpit before I went away for a
little vacation Now the first thing I want
to say is this If Christ is to
be formed in any of us There must
be an extension of his rule Over the
whole of our life.
I'll put it in another way The reason
why Jesus Christ is not evident in some
of our lives is this because Jesus Christ
is not Lord Over our life and we
have somehow Imbibed the devil's lie That Jesus
can be our Savior without being our Lord
That's not true.
Now the acknowledgement of the fact of Christ's
Lordship is inherent in the very act of
saving faith Of course it is Paul makes
that clear and so do others Paul says
in Romans 10 and 9 if you confess
with your mouth Jesus is Lord and Believe
in your heart that God raised him from
the dead.
You will be saved No question about that
That's as clear as crystal the acknowledgement that
Jesus is Lord.
Jehovah God Is integral to the confession of
a Christian now if you do not confess
Jesus as Lord this morning You may be
a very good man.
You may be morally upright but listen The
New Testament does not give you the right
to call yourself a Christian It denies it
to you Implicit in the Christian confession is
the acknowledgement that the incarnate Lord Jesus of
Nazareth is God Having faith in him is
essential to being a Christian At the same
time the application of that Acknowledged fact to
the issues of daily life and living may
very well become a fool And become modified
in practice So that we are in constant
need of checking up on this Let me
repeat Christ is formed within us to the
extent in which Christ is Lord over us
If he is not Lord over you his
character will not be seen in you You
may play around with scriptures You may claim
any kind of experience you like but if
Jesus is not Lord over you Jesus will
not be formed in you now I want
to say in the first place concerning this
that Jesus Christ has well Established the right
to rule thus in the lives of his
people And to do so regularly and exclusively
Constantly and without any rival He has done
this in many ways.
Shall I summarize what I would like to
say?
He has proved his saving interest In every
one of his redeemed people he has proved
that he has your well-being at heart
So that you should be able to trust
him as Lord he did this of course
by his very incarnation Why did Jesus become
man?
Why did the Son of God become man?
Why did he take our humanity to his
deity?
Why was he born of the Virgin?
Why did he leave the mansions of glory?
It was for you believer, you know that
it was for for you for me He
Didn't come down here on an escapade to
see what things were like he had made
all things He knew the universe it had
been fashioned by him, but he came down
for you men and women who are redeemed
with his blood Every one of you he
came for you Bethlehem was organized for you
Why was he tempted of Satan for you
and for me?
Why did he live the simple?
Self-abnegating life he did for for over
30 years for you and for me Why
was he humbled by Satan and by men
for you and for me Why did he
die the atoning death of the cross it
was for you and for me He had
your good in mind.
He had your salvation on his heart.
He wanted to save you and Redeem you
from all iniquity to be his own treasure
for all eternity.
That's why He became man and lived as
man and died on the cross of Calvary.
He had your good at heart As I
was meditating over this yesterday and and and
previously and again this morning The thing that
thrilled me was this Jesus did not only
enter a state of humiliation Because he had
our good at heart But now that he
is ascended at the right hand of the
majesty upon high what's he thinking about him?
What's he doing?
What's his business?
What's he thinking about this morning?
Shall I tell you?
He is there says the writer of the
epistle to the Hebrews and he ever lives
To make intercession for you.
Now, let's get that Jesus the Lord, what
are you doing this morning?
I'm pleading for my people Are you sprinkled
with his blood are you born of his
spirit?
Do you know him?
Do you love him?
Are you his listen, my friend?
He's alive and he's living only for you.
I Say to you if that doesn't establish
his claim to be rule ruler of your
life.
What does in?
his humiliation and in his glorious Enthronement it's
all for you.
He lives for you as he died for
you But I must focus attention very especially
of course as the New Testament does upon
the fact that he paid the price of
your ransom and mine the price of our
redemption Paul puts it like this and I'll
only refer to this Scripture there are so
many to which one could could refer Christ
redeemed us.
He says it here in Galatians 3 13
He redeemed us from the curse of the
law By becoming a curse for us The
curse of the law You who are saved
men and women do remember this you were
under the curse.
I was under the curse We were all
under the curse the curse of a holy
God the wrath of a holy God and
Justice could do nothing for us other than
condemn us There is none righteous no not
one there was not one Solitary individual who
could claim acceptance with God not one neither.
There is there today?
Those who do only prove that they know
nothing about God in his holiness They have
come near to God know the depravity of
their hearts and the rebellion of their wills
All of us are under the curse of
God, but God in Christ came and he
took our curse and took it away and
We can live Now that's the gospel And
he did that for you.
Therefore my friend hasn't he some right to
rule your life and mine?
Isn't he the kind of person that you
can trust to make decisions for you to
be your master to be to be the
one To lead you through life to be
the one to serve Indeed he died for
this very purpose He says so categorically that
he died says Paul for all that those
who live through his death Should no longer
live for themselves, but for him who died
for them and was raised again Jesus had
this in mind when he died for you.
He was dying to have the right to
rule over your life So that Paul challenges
the Corinthians with this Remarkable stab in their
complacency and rebellion.
He says to them look men and women
don't you know, you're not your own It
don't belong to yourselves You were bought with
a price And I want to say to
anybody that may be in our service this
morning a member of Knox or a visitor
here If you are rebelling and living your
own life to the flesh and according to
your own lust I tell you you have
no right to it.
You are not your own and Heaven would
have us shout at one another and we
have no right to live to ourselves Never
mind what the world says never mind What
your passions say to you heaven says if
the blood of Christ has redeemed you and
you claim it as your own You've got
no right to go on sinning as if
there was no Christ and no Lord You're
as guilty as they were who crucified him
on the tree Were it not for his
grace that could be no hope for you
you are not your own he died for
that He lives for that and he deserves
nothing other than the crown of Lordship upon
his brow Now, let me come back The
right Which our Lord has so evidently established
must not only be acknowledged But respected and
honored now, I'm going to ask you this
morning though.
I'm not through with my message yet I'm
going to ask you right where you are
here and now If you're a rebel against
the Lordship of Jesus Christ put it right
now Honor him in your heart now set
him aside in your heart now Worship him
now.
You can't worship him if he's not your
Lord Make him the Lord of your life
now right now the only thing I have
time to say about this aspect of it
is that The late dr.
A W toes are somewhere.
I don't remember where Says that the position
of Jesus Christ in the life of many
Christians so-called May be likened to that
of a king or a queen in a
limited constitutional monarchy Now, you know what that
means, don't you?
In a limited constitutional monarchy the king or
the Queen is just a symbol just like
the national flag or the national anthem a
rallying point useful But has no real power
You know, it is written into the Dutch
Constitution.
We have some Dutch people here this morning.
It's a joy to have you You know,
it is written into the Dutch Constitution these
words the monarch may reign But not rule.
Oh, yes, it's the monarch you find in
the palace and on occasions It's the monarch
that will rule that with that that will
read what statement has to be made on
formal occasions But he doesn't compose those statements
He doesn't make those speeches the real rulers
behind the scene make the speeches he or
she reads them The monarch may reign but
not rule many of us have that concept
of Jesus Christ We call him Lord, but
he doesn't rule We say he's the Son
of God but we don't let him take
charge of of hands and feet and ears
and eyes and lips and heart and will
He's not in control And what I'm saying
is this my friend there must come a
moment in your life and mine when we
realize it's not enough to call Him Lord,
we must make him Lord We must hand
over the scepter to him So that henceforth
we look not upon ourselves as our own
property, but as exclusively his Now the second
main thing I wanted today and this will
be all that I'll have time for insofar
as Jesus Christ is Lord over us and
rules over us then we may know something
about the Exploration and the experience of his
power within our life the power that Transforms
the power that transfigures the power that beautifies
the power that makes us like him.
I know many Pardon me.
I know many people who have made a
profession of faith in Jesus Christ and a
few months later They wonder what happened because
they're not aware of any Real mighty power
in their lives that they had been given
to understand would be theirs as Christians So
they falter into direct gloom and disappointment and
What can be the trouble?
The trouble may be invariably traced I believe
to the attempt to limit the rule of
Christ For the moment you limit the rule
of Christ You are saying to God that
You can't trust me God with your power
the power of your spirit The man who
doesn't acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord would do
anything if he had power and authority in
the church But the man who is under
the lordship of Jesus Christ can be trusted
with power trusted with God's best To me.
This is something very serious.
I I wish I were able to declare
it and to expound it better.
I Had a friend who was born in
Africa He was the son of missionary parents
Still have him by the way this is
not in the past, but as a boy
of 16 he was very fond of the
gun and a very fond of shooting birds
But in the part of the world where
he and his father were there were certain
birds that you should never shoot And it
was against the law But whenever he got
hold of the gun he had his eye
on certain birds and they were Prohibit you
shouldn't you were not to shoot them But
he couldn't be trusted with a gun so
his father who would honor the Lord and
honor the people that he was serving got
the gun and the cartridges Locked up and
Stephen was very hurt about it One day
his father said to him Stephen when I
can trust you to do what is right
I'll open the door and I'll unlock the
lock and I'll let you have the gun
and I'll let you have the cartridges, but
so far I can't trust you with that
power That illustration may fall down at many
points, but surely surely it it is suggestive
My friend do you know could it be
that you and I can't be trusted with
certain dimensions of divine power?
Simply because we couldn't be trusted with it
We would use it for our own glory
We would use it for this and for
that rather than for the glory of God
But you see the moment you put yourself
under the yoke of Jesus Christ and say
this Jesus is my Lord He will govern
what I look at what I listen to
what I say what I do with my
hands where I go with my Body with
my feet.
He will rule me.
No, you see you're saying to the Lord
Lord, whatever I will do I will do
it under the Lordship of Jesus Christ And
so whenever God sees fit he can pour
the mighty spirit upon you in Pentecostal benefits
And he can trust you you won't use
the grace or the power of the spirit
to your own ends I believe you may
argue with me somebody.
I believe that there are vast Dimensions of
divine power shut off from the carnal men
and women who come to our churches in
the 20th century Just because we do not
honor Jesus Christ as Lord we sing about
it we talk about it and if the
preacher were not Believing in it.
We would soon get rid of him and
rightly so But we do not practice it
Jesus is Lord on paper Jesus is not
Lord in our hearts and in our lives
Brothers and sisters, there is so much I
would like to say But you see then
once we get this issue resolved about the
totality of the Lordship of Jesus Christ We
are now on the threshold into a new
territory of Christian experience and living and usefulness
for God Because the power of our Lord
Jesus Christ is a power that is Always
adequate Always adequate and especially for the promoting
of Christian character as well as for Christian
conduct The power of Christ to save and
create his image in our lives is not
dependent upon any natural capacity in us It
is a it is adequate for the most
profligate and debauched You remember how Paul speaks
of some people in Corinth having given a
list of the most terrible sins of the
age He says such were some of you
but you're washed You're sanctified.
You're justified in the name of the Lord.
Jesus.
You're washed You're not what you were and
he expects them now mark this he expects
them now To have Christ formed in them
Just like the Galatians Christ's power is adequate
to keep his people despite the subtlety of
Satan and the end of sin He is
able says Jude to keep you from falling
and to present you before the his glorious
presence without fault and without wrinkle Christ's power
is adequate to keep his people in all
Inconceivable circumstances Paul in Romans chapter 8 envisages
Such a variety of what we would call
evil circumstances difficult circumstances But you remember what
he says in all these things We are
more than conqueror Through him that loved us
in them in the middle of them So
many of us are brave before the event
before the trouble comes Many more of us
are very brave after the trouble has come
and gone and we Read a lot of
things in but we're not true to the
fact when we when we talk about it
in retrospect No, no says Paul in all
these things in all these things in the
loneliness in The world of temptation in all
these things.
We are more than conquerors.
I guess power you see Where does it
come from?
The power comes By the grace of the
Holy Spirit's indwelling To those over whom Jesus
Christ is Lord The ever adequate power of
Christ is everywhere available.
I find this one of the most precious
things in the New Testament You don't have
to run here for it or run there
for it beware of people who say they've
got to get go here or Go there
in order to get grace or to get
power Jesus taught this lesson very early in
his life when he told the woman of
Samaria The water that I will give you
will be in you like a well of
water Right inside you.
You don't need to run hither and thither
The man of the world has got to
run.
He's got nothing in him.
No joy.
No basis for peace and so forth He's
got to go hither and thither but you
have the mighty spirit of God in you
within you I Read the other day of
a tragedy in Western Australia But a whole
family father mother, I believe and three children
were traveling in the car They were going
hundreds of miles between certain two locations and
they didn't have enough gas They went out
of gas there were no gas stations anywhere
and the heat was absolutely terrifying And the
father and the mother died carrying the three
children my friend You need not perish like
that spiritually You need not wilt like that
spiritually because if the Spirit of God is
within you you may have power anywhere Everywhere
always available Was available even in the Old
Testament.
Yeah, I know what I'm saying.
I Say to you that the power of
Christ was available in the Old Testament Abraham
rejoiced to see my day afar off.
He saw it and was glad How did
Abram March over a hundred over a thousand
miles along the Euphrates Valley?
To a place to which God had called
him How did he manage it when there
were people of his own family who didn't
want him to go?
He had the power and the grace of
the Spirit of God the power of Christ
by the Spirit the power of the coming
Messiah by the Spirit in his heart How
was he able to lay his father at
rest in Haran and go into the Interior
of the promised land where God was waiting
to speak to him face to face.
How could he do it?
Well, you see the power of God That's
why the power of the Messiah was given
him there the Spirit was given him How
were the Israelites able to walk in the
desert?
Well, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10
that they were able to go because the
rock that followed them and Satisfied their needs
was Christ In the wilderness before he was
born of Mary.
That's what Paul says What about those three
young men those three friends of Daniel you
remember how they were hurled into the into
the cauldron of fire?
Don't you remember that?
It says there was a fourth there and
the form of the fourth was like a
son of the gods What did Nebuchadnezzar see
I believe he saw the mighty presence of
the Lord Jesus given to them Not only
was this power adequate then of course, but
when we come to New Testament times and
we come to the time of Pentecost Well,
I don't need to talk to you about
these I see that early church just a
handful of people today very frightened and bewildered
Tomorrow going out into the streets of Jerusalem
where their Lord was crucified.
Remember that But Difficulties in Jerusalem were not
that the streets were narrow or anything like
that But difficulty of preaching in Jerusalem was
this that's where the headquarters was of those
would crucify their Lord Jesus was crucified there.
All his enemies were there.
They were there in concert They go out
into Jerusalem Into Jerusalem to preach that Christ
was risen from the dead Ascended at the
right hand of the Father had sent forth
the Holy Spirit you see into Jerusalem Didn't
that require power?
I tell you it did but they had
it And I see those men moving into
all parts of the globe Carrying the gospel
with them taking the name of Jesus to
Rome taking the name of Jesus to to
Greece taking the name of Jesus crucified risen
and reigning to Europe How do they have
the power they were ordinary simple men and
women ah But the Spirit of God was
welling within them Christ was Lord over them.
The Spirit was within them.
That's the secret Until you come to the
post biblical times.
I especially like to look back and I'm
closing with this.
I Especially like to look back to those
early days of the apostolic fathers and just
after that There are some illustrations, you know
that come from those eras that we need
to read We should appreciate what God has
done through me and not simply the Apostles
but others after them The Apostles are unique,
but the grace of God was available when
the Apostles were gone.
I Often like to read these words of
Tertullian one of the early church fathers Talking
to his persecutors who were threatening his life
and you know what he says to them
We he says talking about Christians We are
a wonder to you We conquer when we
are killed You may call us food for
the faggots and Burn us bound to the
stake in the circle of fire That is
the fashion of our victory.
He says That is our festival array That
is the chariot in which we ride home
in triumph Or listen to Latimer Speaking to
his fellow martyr Ridley in in England You
remember as the fire was burning around them
And faggots were added Dear old Latimer turned
to his friend be of good cheer master
Ridley By the grace of God we shall
this day light such a candle in England
as shall never be put out Where does
he get the power from?
I'll tell you my friend Jesus was his
Lord Not a paper Lord, but a real
Lord and As Jesus Christ was his Lord
the grace and the power of the provisions
of the Spirit were released When the need
was his So we could go on I
could speak of Savonarola in Another part of
the church People trying to offer him this
and offer him that to be quiet because
he was preaching the Word of God Against
the sins of the church as well as
the sins of princes Italian reformer as he
was he was at one of the most
daring preachers of the gospel and He was
offered a cardinal's hat by the Pope of
the day to be quiet But you couldn't
silence Savonarola.
He says I will have no hat but
that of a martyrs read in my own
blood For I am dedicated to the truth
of the gospel of my Lord Brothers and
sisters we're living in a different world We're
just like men and women gathering and on
the table to play a little few religious
games Come to church when you feel like
it Come to prayer meeting when you feel
like it give of your money to the
Lord's service if you feel like it If
you feel like it, this is the rule
today the common rule.
There are glorious exceptions Blessed be the name
of the Lord But this is far too
prevalent if I feel like it.
It's not if I feel like it The
gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ means this
Christ is Lord He has established lordship over
our every life who believe in him.
He has the right to rule us and
Christian Honesty requires that we hand back to
him the right the crown rights Of the
Redeemer Christ.
I ask you to do that this morning
as This operates in our lives what will
happen is this Christ will become formed in
us.
His life in us will begin to express
itself even in the look of our eyes
and in the attitude that we Manifest wherever
we are and wherever we go as well
as in what we do That is obvious
to all people in character and in conduct
in attitude in action But Christ must be
Lord, what are you prepared to do this
morning my friend?
To implement this in your own life forget
about everybody else Forget about the people next
to you forget about the people on the
gallery.
Just think of yourself Are you prepared this
morning to tell the risen reigning Son of
God who loved you and gave himself for
you?
by your great grace, I Will not only
make you Lord, but Live under your Lordship,
whether you give me great experiences of the
spirit And deeper things than some other people
may know is neither here nor there But
I want to be at your disposal To
do with me and in me and through
me what is pleasing in your eyes.
I Therefore is incapable of Experiencing the deep
things of the Christian faith or of being
used to serve your end.
Let us by the grace of God Put
the crown on his brow.
Let's pray our Heavenly Father.
Thank you for this morning This new day
this new hour in the sanctuary You will
forgive us all Lord for you are a
merciful God that we preachers and people alike
can so often get into the routine of
things and we become So accustomed with truth
that we treat it as if it were
not truth.
Oh God have mercy upon us We are
champions at mouthing truths that have no real
impact upon our lives.
I acknowledge my sin Help my brethren and
sisters here this morning to do the same.
Oh Lord Take us a new take us
over we place the scepter in your right
hand and Asked that you will reign over
us Lord Jesus In every solitary respect to
the glory of your name To the good
of your church to the in gathering of
the lost and to the well-being of
a society that is disintegrating in its sin
and misery for lack of men and women
of saline properties under the lordship of your
son Lord hear us and use us where
that may please you through Jesus Christ our
Lord Amen