First Baptist Church Sermon of the Week
401 Pine Street Pastor
Texarkana, Texas 75501 D. L. Lowrie

FOR HIS PLEASURE  
Galatians 1:10
Introduction:
Being a Christian creates tension quite often for those who are serious about it. While being a Christian means that we have a very important personal relationship with Jesus Christ, we are still citizens of this world. Even though we have Christ as our Lord, we still have human parents, friends, teachers, employers, and neighbors. We often find ourselves caught between the two in some heavy pressures.

Paul alludes to this kind of pressure in this Galatian letter. Evidently he had been accused of being a "man‑pleaser". His critics were claiming that he would change his message to suit his crowd. They were leveling the charge that he was actually a politician. When speaking to a Gentile audience, he emphasized the things they wanted to hear, but when his audience was Jewish he emphasized the law of Moses. What is Paul's defense? "For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? For if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.''

Paul found personal release from the tensions by recognizing who he was, and by keeping his goal in life ever before him. This will work for us. As you seniors of 1978 come to this important turning point in your life, it is important that you turn this corner as a Christian This can involve a re‑examination of who we are and what our relationship with Jesus Christ really is, and a re‑examination of the basic goal of our lives. These are some things that are to be constant, never‑changing in our lives. They never changed in the life of this greatest of Christians, Paul the Apostle to the Gentiles.

From this text we can learn two things about living for His pleasure, which is the basic goal of the Christian life.

I. LIVING FOR HIS PLEASURE CONFLICTS WITH PLEASING MEN OFTEN.
Paul seeks to make it clear that he is not living for the pleasure of men. Gaining the approval of men could not be the goal of his life for He was the servant of Jesus Christ, and has His pleasure as His goal. Jesus Christ and the world of men do not agree, or find pleasure in the same thing. Each will have to decide on which of these we will try to please.

Living for the pleasure of men is a dangerous course of action. Just a brief survey of the Bible will reveal how often men make terrible moral blunders when they make gaining of the approval of the world the first thing in life, the determinant in their decision making process.

Probably the most notable example of this conflict is found in the life of Jesus. According to the Gospel of John there were a number of important people in high places who were actually convinced that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, the Son of God. But they were silent about their convictions concerning him, lest they be expelled from the synagogue. John explains their actions with the most revealing statement, "For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God." (John 12:43) When it became obvious to them that they could not please God and the men about them at the same time, they chose to please men. They loved having the approval of men. Such blunders on their part resulted in the cruel and unjust death of the Son of God. Other examples are found in the unjust treatment that Paul and other Christians received at the hand of the political leaders across the Roman world. Regularly Luke reveals the motivation as being an attempt to gain the pleasure of men.

You have made a giant step forward in your life when you become aware of the basic conflict that exists between these two. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot pleasure God and men at the same time. The world of mankind is in open rebellion against God. You cannot expect him to be pleased with the attitudes and actions that will please men.

It will not please men if you really give the place to Jesus Christ which is rightfully His. According to our Christian faith, Jesus Christ is to be the Lord of all of life. The outgrowth of this in our personal lives is that we give to Him authority and sovereignty over every decision of life. The world preaches a doctrine of independence. They teach that you should do those things which please yourself. Oh, they will approve you being nice, honest in most cases, cultured, etc.; but they do not want you to get too serious about Jesus Christ, and His place in life.

It will not please most of our world if you commit yourself to live by the moral values taught by Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ puts a high premium upon moral purity as is reflected in both our inner thoughts and outward actions. Many of you young people will find yourself in a moral climate soon in which to be a virgin and chaste morally will be considered strange. Your manhood will be suspected if you cannot boast of your sexual exploits. Your womanhood will be under a cloud if you have not been with a man. You might as well decide now which will be first in your life. Will you please Christ, or will you please your peers? You cannot please both.

Jesus Christ puts great value upon the stewardship of the body and influence. When you refrain from the use of drugs, tobacco, and alcohol because you want to maintain a strong body to be the instrument of Jesus Christ, the world of your friends will not be pleased. They take it as a personal affront when you decline to participate. When you concern yourself with how your actions will affect others, your friends do not understand.

Recognition of this basic conflict between pleasing Christ and pleasing others is an important step in the Christian. That Foul should ever be accused of being more concerned with pleasing men than he was with pleasing Christ was surely a strange thing. Later in this very letter he will remind the Galatians that he bears in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus. His desire to please Christ above all else often made this displeasing to the world. His commitment to Christ as Saviour and Messiah must have displeased his family. Have you ever noticed the silence of Paul about his family? Evidently they did not follow Him into his chosen discipleship before the Lord Jesus. He became displeasing to the best friends he had when he made pleasing Christ first in his life. He was no longer welcome into the august halls of the rabbinical school in Jerusalem after his decision about Jesus Christ. His best friends moved his name to their enemies list when he placed Christ first in his life. He was never pleasing to the political powers in his day. The only appropriate place they could find for him was in their jails. He was constantly causing turmoil in their cities as he preached his message concerning Jesus. You cannot serve two gods, you cannot please two masters. Which will it be for you?

II. LIVING FOR HIS PLEASURE IS RIGHT BECAUSE WE ARE HIS BOND SLAVES.
What justification is there for a man launching forth on such a radical course of action that he is going to become outcast to his friends and to many of the people of his generation. Is not a peace at any price philosophy for life a better philosophy? Such a course of action is predetermined for the serious follower of Jesus Christ because he willingly acknowledges himself to be the bondslave of Jesus Christ. This is the word that Paul uses of himself in our text.

Doulos is the Greek word. That Foul would ever use such a word of himself is a remarkable thing. He would have resisted unto death the attempt of any mortal to make him a bondslave. Yet he willingly acknowledged himself to be the bondslave of Jesus Christ. This explained his utter disregard for the opinions of men in most matters. Since he was a bondslave there could be only one important opinion ‑‑‑ that of Jesus Christ. What are the implications of this relationship?
A bondslave is the property of his owner. He has been purchased by his master with the result that he is owned by him. Foul acknowledged this to be the case, as do all Christians. We are the bondslaves of Jesus Christ because we belong to Jesus Christ. We know ourselves to be His property because He purchased us unto Himself by his sacrificial death upon the Cross for us. We are not our own for we are bought with a price. This confirms that we owe Jesus Christ everything ‑‑‑ and the world nothing except our love for His sake. This is Paul's argument here. If he was living for the pleasure of men it would be a denial of the basic relationship of his life with Jesus Christ.

Furthermore the bondslave is totally dependent upon his owner. The owner provides him with the food he eats, the shelter he enjoys, the clothes he wears. He owns nothing himself, but must turn to his master for every need of his life. Which means that he will not be looking to the world for the meeting of his needs. Why put so much value upon the pleasure of men when they are not able to meet any of the fundamental needs of your life? Jesus Christ alone can do this.
Furthermore the pleasure of the master is the first goal and duty of the bondslave. If you meet a bondslave in the morning, and you ask him about his plans for the day, he will inform you that his plans are to do whatever the master has planned for the day. He will measure his success at the end of the day by the amount of pleasure he has brought to His master. Do you see the implications of this for our relationship with Jesus Christ? People are asking you graduates about your plans for the years ahead. Will you go to college? Will you look for a job? Will you take an extended vacation? Sometimes you get tired of them asking. Sometimes their questions only emphasize your uncertainty about the future. You tire of saying, "I do not know. I am uncertain." Let me suggest a good response to such questions. Why not say, "I have committed those things to Jesus Christ. I am waiting for Him to make His will known. I will be doing whatever pleases Him." Are you reluctant to give to Jesus Christ the right to make these decisions? Are you retaining the right to choose your college, your vocation, your marriage partner, or your anything? Then you are not being a true bondslave of Jesus Christ. You are attempting to divide the allegiance of your life. Just remember that you cannot serve two masters. You will have to make a choice between them. You cannot serve men and Christ, or yourself and Christ at the same time. Which will it be?

CONCLUSION:
Does this mean that Paul did not find pleasure in his life? If you could make an interview with Paul today in heaven, I am convinced that he would announce to you that his only regret was that he did not more fully please his Lord. When the whole story is told, that is all that will really matter, just to hear Him say, "Well done, thou Good and faithful servant.''