Back to Bondage?

Next Sunday night, October 13, following our evening service, our Adults on Mission group will meet, and one of our members will be sharing about his overseas mission work this past summer. Miller Hall at 6:30 pm.

Keith Buchanan’s memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 19, at 10 am here.

I would like to say a special thanks to all of the folks on our Safety & Security Ministry for all that they do week in and week out, and specifically for how hard the team worked over the past couple of weekends with the Aspire and REAL Women’s Conferences.

I want to mention something that our Children’s Ministry is starting that is very exciting. On Wednesday nights this school year, from 6:30 to 7:30, our “Father’s GYM” program for boys will be themed “Mimicking Dad,” and will be a combined father/son Bible study and activity time. The focus will be on fathers guiding their sons by example on a journey toward becoming godly young men. There will be 6 lesson topics: Embarking, Clean Hearts, Standing Strong, Leading Lessons, Working Well, and Manhood Myths. Each topic will be a six-week study. Dads with boys, please prayerfully consider coming and being a part of this great focus. We know it’s a school night, and that’s hard, but we believe it will be well worth it… not only for your sons, but also for our young men whose fathers cannot be there or for sons of single moms. We want these boys to come as well. There will be men who are willing and excited to step in on those Wednesday nights for those boys. 6:30 to 7:30, meet in the FLC.

Mission New Mexico State Mission Offering thru September and October. Goal is $8,000. Received so far: $6,885.

Just to let everyone know, we do have online giving available through our website (ehbc.org). It’s quick and easy, and you can even set up recurring giving if you’d like.

Opening

In our study last week in our series Dear Church, we looked at the doctrine of divine adoption in Galatians: that in the Gospel, God doesn’t only justify those who have faith in Christ, He also enters into a new kind of relationship with them: He adopts them into His family, calling them “sons,” which also makes them coheirs of the incredible inheritance of His Son, Jesus Christ. This is true for all those who have faith in Christ, regardless of race, social status, or gender, according to .

I open with this recap because it is vital for us to keep this in mind as we go forward today into the next few verses of this letter to the churches of Galatia.

Let’s stand for a moment as we read today’s focal passage:

Galatians 4:8–11 CSB

8 But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods. 9 But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again? 10 You are observing special days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

Pray

In this passage and in what follows, we see the beginnings of the heart of Paul toward his spiritual children in Galatia. To this point, Paul has been fairly harsh toward them, referring to them as “foolish,” calling them out for their willingness to follow a “different gospel,” which is truly not the Gospel at all. There is a time for being direct. Here, and in what follows through the rest of the letter, however, he shows the depth of his pastoral care for these confused believers.

Paul looks back at where the Galatians have come from to make an application of what he has been saying. He reminds them of who they once were, and what their lives were like apart from Christ.

Galatians 4:8 CSB

8 But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

Paul looks back at where the Galatians have come from to make an application of what he has been saying. He reminds them of who they once were, and what their lives were like apart from Christ.

In verse 8, Paul looks back at where the Galatians have come from to make an application of what he has been saying. He reminds them of who they once were, and what their lives were like apart from Christ. He opens with essentially the words, “But then...”

We have a little insight into life in the province of Galatia before Paul and Barnabas arrived on the scene during their first missionary journey. In our study, “The Foolishness of the Flesh,” we saw from and 14 that there had been a Jewish synagogue in both Pisidian Antioch and Iconium. This means that each town had at least 10 Hebrew male adults, as this was the required number before a synagogue would be built.

But most of the Galatians were Gentiles. They worshipped pagan idols, which included even the old Greek gods. Once the Jews in Antioch rejected the Gospel, Paul and Barnabas turned their attention to the Gentiles, and some were saved. Then again, they went to Iconium and preached, and God enabled them to do miraculous signs, and many Jews and Greeks believed. Then a group tried to lynch Paul and Barnabas there, so they went to Lystra.

This is where we get most of our understanding from Scripture of the pagan culture of the Galatians. Let’s look at what happened in Lystra:

Acts 14:8–10 CSB

8 In Lystra a man was sitting who was without strength in his feet, had never walked, and had been lame from birth. 9 He listened as Paul spoke. After looking directly at him and seeing that he had faith to be healed, 10 Paul said in a loud voice, “Stand up on your feet!” And he jumped up and began to walk around.

acts 14:8

There is no mention of a synagogue in Lystra, so Paul just starts in public, probably in the marketplace, which would have been a prime place for someone to beg. This man had never walked because he had been lame since birth. But he’s there, and listening, and Paul sees that “he had faith to be healed.” I’d surmise that this man was sitting there somehow affirming the Gospel that Paul was preaching, perhaps even declaring his faith at that moment. And Paul tells him to stand, and he does so, but even more than that: this man who had never stood, never walked, never jumped immediately does so.

Acts 14:11–12 CSB

11 When the crowds saw what Paul had done, they shouted, saying in the Lycaonian language, “The gods have come down to us in human form!” 12 Barnabas they called Zeus, and Paul, Hermes, because he was the chief speaker.

acts 14:11-

Obviously, this sort of thing is going to attract attention, and it certainly does in Lystra. However, the people’s interpretation of what has just occurred is inaccurate. They believe that the healing of the man had taken place because Paul and Barnabas are gods, specifically the Greek gods Zeus and Hermes. Zeus was conceived as essentially the chief of the Greek pantheon, and Hermes was the herald or messenger.

Acts 14:13 CSB

13 The priest of Zeus, whose temple was just outside the town, brought bulls and wreaths to the gates because he intended, with the crowds, to offer sacrifice.

A temple to Zeus was located just outside of Lystra, so certainly, if it is believed that Zeus was on location in person, his priest should be involved. So he comes, ready to offer sacrifices to Barnabas and Paul as faithful worshipers of Zeus. Luke (who wrote Acts) had noted in verse 11 that they shouted their belief about Paul and Barnabas in their own cultural language, and it would seem that at first, Paul and Barnabas don’t know what’s going on, exactly. But once they realize it, they spring into action to prevent this false worship.

Luke here (who wrote Acts) notes that they said these things in their own cultural language, and it would seem that at first, Paul and Barnabas don’t know what’s going on, exactly.

Acts 14:14–17 CSB

14 The apostles Barnabas and Paul tore their robes when they heard this and rushed into the crowd, shouting: 15 “People! Why are you doing these things? We are people also, just like you, and we are proclaiming good news to you, that you turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made the heaven, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. 16 In past generations he allowed all the nations to go their own way, 17 although he did not leave himself without a witness, since he did what is good by giving you rain from heaven and fruitful seasons and filling you with food and your hearts with joy.”

acts 14:14-

These two missionaries go running into the crowd, passionately crying out for them to stop what they are doing, and calling them to turn to God in faith, starting at the beginning of the Gospel: that God made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. Not Zeus, not Hermes: the one and only living God. Ultimately, their argument works, but just barely:

Acts 14:18 CSB

18 Even though they said these things, they barely stopped the crowds from sacrificing to them.

These people were zealous to worship Barnabas and Paul as Zeus and Hermes. Even though the men themselves tell them to stop, they “barely” succeed in getting them to stop worshiping them.

Just to finish up this part of the history with the Galatians:

Acts 14:19–20 CSB

19 Some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and when they won over the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, thinking he was dead. 20 After the disciples gathered around him, he got up and went into the town. The next day he left with Barnabas for Derbe.

The Jews who had caused so much trouble for Paul and Barnabas in Antioch and Iconium follow them to Lystra, and now they turn the tide of the crowd, who rapidly go from believing Paul to be a god and killing an animal FOR him, to deciding that they would rather just kill him. But he doesn’t die, and the disciples take him back into town, and then they leave for Derbe the next day. This will be important next week.

So these particular Galatians, those in Lystra, had a temple to Zeus just outside the town, and they actively practiced pagan worship, even willing to worship Barnabas and Paul because of the work that God had done through them. What had Paul written to them in verse 8?

They worshipped pagan gods.

Galatians 4:8 CSB

8 But in the past, since you didn’t know God, you were enslaved to things that by nature are not gods.

Paul says, “But then, because you didn’t know God, you were slaves in worshiping things that aren’t gods.” Even so far as to worship mere men, like themselves. And so dedicated to doing so that even the objects of their worship—in this case Barnabas and Paul—could barely keep them from sacrificing to them. They were enslaved to these practices.

They

Remember that a few things about the churches of Galatia, to whom Paul is writing this letter:

First, they were (at least in Antioch and Iconium for certain) a racially mixed group. Paul had come with the message of the Gospel to the synagogues in both towns, and Jewish believed the Gospel. After rejection by the Jews in each town, Paul and Barnabas preached the Gospel to the Gentiles there, and many believed. Apparently there was no synagogue in either Lystra or Derbe, so Paul started where the people were. In both cases, he was preaching to at least primarily Gentiles. And many of them believed.

Second, this letter is the only letter that we have from Paul that was written to churches in a wider geographic area, instead of a single city or an individual. We have to keep in mind that, while the entire letter is to the entire church of Christ in Galatia, certainly each location didn’t have exactly the same situation, issues, or set of results. As an example, Paul and Barnabas are “expelled” from Antioch, fled from the possibility of being lynched in Iconium, Paul was actually stoned and left for dead in Lystra, and there is no record of anything bad at all happening in Derbe. Paul would necessarily have to address both Jewish thinking and Gentile thinking.

So it makes sense that Paul would speak to

Third, Paul is writing this letter to correct what had been happening in Galatia probably since just after Paul left: that people were saying that just believing in Christ was not enough for salvation: that you had to follow the Jewish law as well. Paul is refuting that fact here in Galatians, and telling them that believing in Christ really is enough both to save us and to keep us saved.

So it is with the Gentile thinking in view that he writes verse 9:

Galatians 4:9 CSB

9 But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved to them all over again?

He started 8 with “But then...” and here in 9 he starts with “but now...” “But now, since you know God, or rather have become known by God...” It is God who takes the initiative to be in a relationship with us. All the way back in the Garden of Eden, when mankind had fallen from their right relationship with God, it is the Lord Himself who walked in the midst of the Garden, calling out to His beloved creation, “Where are you?”

So, while the first statement is technically correct, that the Galatian believers “know God,” it is by God’s grace that they have any ability or opportunity to do so. Therefore, Paul highlights the divine initiative in salvation by saying, “or rather have become known by God.” Becoming known by God in way reflects back on last week’s passage, where God had taken the initiative at just the right time to give His Son so that we could be adopted as His sons, and be able to receive the inheritance of a son. We can do nothing to force God to save us, and we can do nothing to force God to adopt us into His family.

Instead, God wants to be in a relationship with us, but we rebel against Him, and

We have “But then...”, and “But now...” and then in the latter half of verse 9, we find “how can you?” “How can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elements? Do you want to be enslaved all over again?” Paul has already used this image of these “elements” back in 4:3, referring to them as the “elements of the world” that we are in “slavery under” before receiving the Gospel.

Galatians 4:3 CSB

3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world.

For the Galatians, Paul is being pastoral, almost parental here. Any parents here ever have their children do something foolish, where they go back and repeat a poor choice that you thought they had overcome the desire for? And the question springs forth, “How can you?” Paul has just shown the Galatians what they have in Christ: adoption as sons. And they’ve chosen to listen to the lies that say that God’s grace in Christ is not enough. “How can you do that?” Paul asks. “Do you not remember how pointless your pagan worship was?” “Do you not remember how the rules and regulations enslaved you?” “Is that what you want?”

But it’s not back to pagan worship that they are turning, but to something else:

Galatians 4:10–11 CSB

10 You are observing special days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

gal 4:

It’s to the Jewish regulations as expressed in the legalistic following of special days, months, seasons, and years. Paul is comparing the Galatians’ former pagan worship with the legalistic following of the law in order to earn your salvation, and he is saying that doing so—trusting your salvation to your ability to keep the law—is essentially the same as trusting in pagan worship to earn your salvation. It enslaves you.

And as such, he says that he is concerned that his labor has been “wasted.” This verse has caused some debate. What does it mean that his work could be “wasted?” Paul is not saying that the Galatian believers are not saved. This would go against how he has referred to them throughout the letter to this point—always in the positive of what they are. But while their justification was secure, and their adoption was secure, what would come of the future if they continued to listen to the Judaizers?

They would continue to live in spiritual bondage, even though they had been set free. And they would pass on the “weak and worthless” elements to those who came after them, leading people not to the life-changing power of the Gospel of Christ, but something else entirely. Paul’s example as an evangelist would be lost. But more importantly, the true message of the Gospel would be tainted.

Application

For us this morning, I would like for us to take a look at each of those things that Paul said to the Galatians: “But then...”, “But now...”, and “How can you...”

1: “But then...”: Where have we come from?

When Paul addressed this statement to the Galatians, he knew where they had come from. He knew their pagan worship and way of life, and had even experienced first hand the fervent devotion that they had given to the worship of false “gods.”

What about us? Where have we come from? Who were we before we heard and believed the Gospel? When we talk about sharing our “testimony”, this is often a big part of it. For those of you who don’t know what a “testimony” is, it’s simply telling your story of how God saved you.

And while being prepared to share your own salvation story is important, I’m not really talking about this from an evangelistic perspective today. This is really more about being reflective about the true state of our lives before coming to faith in Christ—remembering who we were, Christians. And for those in this room this morning, or listening on the internet, who have never surrendered your lives to Christ for your salvation, then this is where you are right now.

Paul didn’t just speak to the Galatians about this. Here’s what he said to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 2:1–3 CSB

1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins 2 in which you previously lived according to the ways of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient. 3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

eph 2: 1-3

Look at the words that Paul uses here: “dead,” “disobedient,” “fleshly”, “under wrath.” Apart from the saving power of the Gospel, we are dead because of sin (missing the mark). We might use words like “lost” and “blind” and “deceived” to talk about this, but the truth is that we were dead. God created us and loves us, and wants to be in a relationship with us. But our sin separates us from Him because He’s perfect and we aren’t. Because of our sins, we are spiritually dead and apart from from God. Nothing we do can make us alive again, because we can’t ever be good enough to get back to being perfect.

That’s the beauty of the Gospel message that Paul is sharing with the Galatians! God made the way for us to be given perfection by a substitution: His Son Jesus lived that perfect life and then died in our place as our substitute, paying the penalty for our sins so we can be forgiven, and then He rose again, defeating death in our place as our Savior, so that we are no longer dead, but alive forever with Him.

We can’t forget though that Paul was talking about

If you have never trusted in Jesus to save you, then you are still dead. Even if you’ve been coming to church for years. Even if you give. Even if you’ve been baptized. Even if you're nice or good or kind or moral. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God for salvation:

Romans 1:16–17 CSB

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, first to the Jew, and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, just as it is written: The righteous will live by faith.

If we aren’t made spiritually alive by the power of God found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then we don’t live. And if we don’t live, then we are enslaved to death, just like the Galatians were, just like the Ephesians were.

Christian brothers and sisters: where have we come from? What enslaved us in the past? What were we trusting in to save us, to give us hope and life? Remembering what God has saved us from through the Gospel will help us live by faith, which leads us to the next statement:

2: “But now...”: Where are we now?

After helping the Galatians reflect on where they had come from, Paul reminds them of where they are now: they have come to know God, or more importantly, be known by God. They have been saved by the power of the Gospel. The have been justified (made right with God) simply because of God’s grace through faith. They have been adopted and made into sons of God because of God’s love for them. They have been promised an inheritance and even given the very Spirit of God to dwell within them as a promise that they will receive that inheritance.

The same reflection goes to us: Where are we now? If we believe in Christ, then we have the same promises that the Galatians did. We’ve been made alive. We’ve been justified. We’ve been adopted as sons and promised an inheritance, sealed with the guarantee of God’s very presence with us in His Holy Spirit.

Look at how Paul continued what he wrote to the church at Ephesus:

Ephesians 2:4–7 CSB

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us, 5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace! 6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.

eph 2:4-

Where are we now? We are alive. We are saved by grace. We are raised up and in Christ, we are seated in the heavens. We are now objects of His kindness instead of objects of His wrath.

Since you have been saved by the power of the Gospel. Since you’ve been justified. Since you’ve been adopted. Since you have an inheritance.

We must keep the Gospel central in our lives, not out of some legalistic means of keeping ourselves saved, but because it is in the Gospel of Christ that God delivered us from all that was against us. It is in the Gospel that we have been set free from our bondage to sin and death, our slavery to weak and worthless elements that cannot save us.

Colossians 2:6–7 CSB

6 So then, just as you have received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, 7 being rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with gratitude.

And as a result, we can live lives that honor God out of grateful hearts for all that He’s done. But as we know, the issue with the Galatians brought out one more question:

3: “How can you…?”: Where are we turning back?

3: “How can you…?”: Where are you turning back?

This is the crucial question for us this morning. The false teachers were telling the Galatians that they needed to submit again to a set of rules to be saved, and Paul said that trusting anything other than only the finished work of Christ to save you is no longer trusting in the Gospel. In fact, if you say that salvation comes from jumping through the appropriate hoops, then you might as well just go worship a false god, because either way, you’ve got an idol that can’t save you.

This question of “How can you…?”

Look at how Paul spoke to the Colossians about trusting in legalism to save:

Colossians 2:20–23 CSB

20 If you died with Christ to the elements of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: 21 “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? 22 All these regulations refer to what is destined to perish by being used up; they are human commands and doctrines. 23 Although these have a reputation for wisdom by promoting self-made religion, false humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.

Here we see that statement of “the elements of this world” again. What are the elements of this world that enslave us? Some of them are more obvious than others:

Money. Work. Entertainment. Activity. Accomplishment. Is it wrong to have money? No. Wrong to work? No. Wrong to be entertained? No. To be active? To accomplish something? No. But when we see any of these things as what gives us “life,” we make them into something that they aren’t. When we trust in these things for our ultimate hope and security, we make them gods who control us, instead of the One who truly is in charge of us.

But what about serving others? Serving the church body? Being “moral?” Are these things wrong? Of course not! But again, if we reach the point where we are trusting in these things, or deciding that by doing these things that we are somehow earning more merit points with God or keeping our salvation, then we have created idols… just not things that we might think look like idols. Ultimately, if anything other than Jesus is a requirement for us being right before God, then that thing will become a slave master to us.

Put this together with those things that we have now: Trusting in something else for our salvation is like being rescued from a burning building by a firefighter only to tell them “No thanks… I can handle the fire myself,” and running back into the building with a squirt gun. Trusting in something else for our justification is like being given a full pardon of a life sentence but deciding that our cell was just too cozy to leave. Trusting in something else for our adoption is like being brought into a family and then deciding that we’d rather live on the street.

What are we trusting other than Jesus? How can we do this? Do we want to be enslaved all over again?

Closing

What are you trusting in other than Jesus?

Closing

In 3, Paul writes:

Philippians 3:7–9 CSB

7 But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ. 8 More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them as dung, so that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own from the law, but one that is through faith in Christ—the righteousness from God based on faith.

romans 6:16-

phil 2:7-

Romans 6:16–18 CSB

16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness? 17 But thank God that, although you used to be slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that pattern of teaching to which you were handed over, 18 and having been set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.

Our righteousness doesn’t come through keeping the law. It doesn’t come through a checklist. It comes from God on the basis of faith, and we live out that righteousness in the same way: on the basis of a daily walk of faith. Our salvation, our justification, our adoption are all things that God Himself does, and they are permanent. We don’t have to keep earning them, because they are given as a promise from God.

We choose to offer ourselves to as obedient slaves: either to bondage

Christian: what have you gone back to the bondage of? What controls you? Our focus today has been on going back to the bondage of legalism, but certainly our sins can put us in bondage. In the Gospel, Christ has set us free. We need not be enslaved to our sins. We do not need to earn God’s love, because He’s already proven it in Christ. We don’t need to convince Him to adopt us, because He already has. Find your joy and your identity in Christ alone.

Romans 6:16 CSB

16 Don’t you know that if you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of that one you obey—either of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?

If this morning you’ve heard the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and you’ve discovered that you’re dead because of your sins, you don’t have to be dead. You can place your trust in what Jesus has done right where you are, right now. Surrender to Him as your Savior and Lord. And come share with one of us, so we can celebrate with you.

romans 6:

If God is calling you this morning to become a formal part of this body of believers through church membership, please come and share that as well, so we can celebrate with you.

Confess your sins and walk in faith this morning

Pray at the steps?

Pray

Invite to Parlor.

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