You are, in fact, your brother’s keeper.

Steve Brown:
You are, in fact, your brother’s keeper. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
If you’re sick of guilt and manipulation. And if you’re looking for an honest and thoughtful presentation of Biblical truth, you’ve come to the right place. This is Key Life with the founder of Key Life Network, Steve Brown. Keep listening for teaching that will make you free.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. We’re looking at Galatians the fourth chapter verses 12 through 20, as Paul addresses the new Christians among the Galatians. And by looking at what Paul is doing here, we’re learning something about the care and the feeding of new Christians. We’ve seen that we’re to model for new Christians. We’re to identify with him, they should say “you too?”. And accept them and be honest with them. We’re also called to protect them. And I mentioned it yesterday. I’m going to talk a little bit more about it today, Galatians 4:17.

They make much of you, but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them.

That doesn’t sound very Christian, does it? I mean, Paul, you’re supposed to be a lot nicer than that. Paul, how could you to say things about others that way? I’ll tell you why. Because Paul knew that he had been called to protect his brothers and sisters in Christ from the wolves in sheep’s clothing. Jesus said the same thing. And we should, and Paul, we have seen in that first chapter of Galatians is absolutely devastating in what he says about people who have come into the church and started destroying the new Christians that are there and dumping on them things that didn’t come from God. Let me tell you something you ought to know, when a person becomes a Christian, they become fair game for every weirdo in creation. They start getting letters from all kinds of ministries, they begin to be buffeted, every kind of doctrine, they are called from every kind of cult. And dear friend, it’s our business to protect the new Christian until the new Christian reaches a point of discernment. And sometimes that takes a while, fater. Look at his book, I just found, man it is wonderful. It, and I look at it and it comes from the Sons and Daughters of Heavenly Hope. And it is really bad. My inclination is to say, well, he’s a new Christian and he’ll learn discernment someday, but friends that’s wrong. I should say, and I do, the best thing you can do with that book right now is to burn it. Now, no, you don’t have to say it the way I do, but I think you ought to sit down with his Scriptures and say, let me show you something that’s really important. There are a lot of ideas out there, now I’m not talking about the little things of doctrine, over which Christians disagree. That’s always been true and it always will be true. I’m convinced that I’m right and you’re wrong, but I’m not going to make an issue out of it. I’m talking about major stuff. I mean, things like the divinity of Christ, there’s a cult that comes around to people’s doors. And they don’t believe that Jesus is God. In fact, they have Scriptures, where they’ve changed the words, so it won’t say what it does say about who Jesus is. And when those people come, they seem very spiritual and people, especially new uninformed Christians get sucked into that. I had some of those people come to my house, not too long ago. I spent years teaching at the seminary, which is fairly close to where my house is. And I was closing the garage door and a couple of these folks, dear folks, and I liked them, came up and said, sir, could we talk to you a moment? And I knew who they were. And I said, no, you can’t. And I’m doing you a favor by not talking to you. And the older guy said, how so? I said, because most of the people you talk to don’t know what they’re talking about. And I do, and I pointed to the tower at the seminary and I said, I teach there, I’m a Bible teacher. I know the Christian faith, and what you believe about the Christian faith is not only wrong, it’s dangerous. So go talk to somebody else. And the young Christian said, Hey, I want to talk, the young guy, he wasn’t a Christian, I don’t think. He said, no, I’d like to talk to you. And the older guy said, son come on, this is not a man we want to talk to. You know, it’s important that we have some standards. And that we protect new Christians as they begin to develop a theological and Biblical worldview. As I said, everybody in the world wants to get to a new Christian, cause they’re excited and they’re telling everybody. They’ll say, I’m a Christian, is that cool? Or what? And some, some Turkey will say, well, I’m glad, but there’s some things you ought to know. And then they get out their rule book and their gun, where they shoot the gospel and kill it off. And we’ve got a watch, we’ve gotta be careful, because a part of our calling as Christians is to protect new Christians until they are mature enough to correct others who are new Christians. Guys, there’s a lot of weird stuff floating around. There isn’t any lie, so big that a bunch of people won’t believe it. And there isn’t any religious guru, so weird that a bunch of people won’t follow him or her, so protect them for God’s sake and theirs. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thank you Steve. So much more to dig into about caring for new Christians, and tomorrow we will pick up our study of Galatians right here. Now I’m going to tell you something you already know. Steve is a smart guy. But he will be the first to tell you that he’s gotten it wrong. In fact, Steve says he used to think that we should all be getting better and better every day and every way. Well, if that were true, then why do you and I still struggle so much. Why do we feel guilty? Well, Steve delved into those answers and a powerful sermon called When Being Bad. Isn’t Bad Enough. Take a quick listen, then I’ll be back to tell you about a free offer. Here’s Steve.

Steve Brown:
So there’s real guilt. And as I read this text to you, if you didn’t wince, you didn’t understand. If you didn’t hold up the mirror of God’s absolute call to obedience, you didn’t get it. God is not calling you to be religious and have power. He’s calling you to run to Jesus and be weak. And in your weakness and your lack of mercy and your need for forgiveness, then God’s going to do something. And these, I don’t know where do we get this celebrity thing? That’s crazy. So, so you can’t, you can’t soften the radical obedience to which Jesus calls us. He calls us to come to the end of ourselves. He calls us to take up a cross, what’s a cross? It’s a place where people die. He’s calling us to self death. And erase And erase that, it leaves a smudge on the page every time you do that. But Jesus, didn’t just say that. Notice, not only is call to radical obedience. Notice his reference to a radical God. Look at the second part of the 35th verse, but I’ll start at 35th verse,

But love your enemies, do good, lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great.

And here comes sports fans.

You will be the sons of the most high, for he is kind to the ungrateful. He is kind to the evil.

That’s not us. That’s them.

Be merciful even as your father is merciful.

If you’ve listened to me teach much. I often say that God’s not angry at his people and he’s not. I don’t care where you’ve been or what you’ve been smoking or where even sleeping or what you’ve been drinking or where you’ve gone. I don’t care about the far country. If you’re his, he’ll never be angry at you, because of the imputation of Christ’s righteousness in the believers life. And I’ve said that, that’s who I am. But I always, cause you never know when unbelievers are going to be in our congregation. I always say, but if you don’t know him, you be afraid, you be very, very afraid, because you’re living under the wrath of a Holy God. I still believe that, but I’m not going to say it that way anymore. I’m going to say it softer, cause of this text. Do you notice what Jesus said? Jesus says that God and we’ll be his sons and daughters, that God likes Dan Brown and the DaVinci Code, what’s with that? That God likes the strippers and the gays and the sinners and the atheists, that God is that, one time Lincoln went to visit a hospital peopled with wounded soldiers that were captured from the Confederate army. And they knew their enemy was coming to visit and they hated that, they were angry until Lincoln showed up and he didn’t say anything. And he stood in the door, looked at the soldiers and he wept. It’s the kind of God we worship, it seems to me he aught like us better then he does them. I mean, don’t you think? That we’re in church after all? I mean, we’re, we read the Bible and pray after all. It seems to me he aught to like us a little bit better. We’ve been saved by the blood of the lamb. He aught to like us, but here God, God is portrayed as a God who is kind to the evil and is a merciful God. To all of you. Yeah, I believe in the wrath of God, but I must say that softly, because there’s something else going on here.

Matthew Porter:
Would it be okay if we sent you that full sermon on a CD for free? If so, then do this for me, grab your phone and call 1-800-KEY-LIFE. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also email [email protected] and ask for the CD. If you’d like to mail your request, send it to

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