Remember Then. Remember Now.
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Read “Happy MD”
Read “Happy MD”
Galatians 4:1–11 (ESV)
1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. 4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
We are here today, those who are in Christ, as a local expression of the Kingdom of Heaven...
And, every single one of us, who are in Christ, have been adopted into the Kingdom of God...
The Kingdom of Christ...The Kingdom of Heaven.
Let us rejoice in Jesus this morning.
Opening Prayer
Opening Prayer
Recap
Recap
In Chapter 4:1-7 Paul is showing the foolishness of walking away from freedom in Christ...
Back to the bondage of sin.
He illustrates that by stating it like this...
Why would a minor, who is to inherit all things...
Once they come of age and inherit all things...
Why would they ever say, you know what...
I think I want to give this freedom and authority of ownership up...
And place my self back under the guardians that told me what to do...
And relinquish the benefits of ownership and this management of all things.
And, the answer is…No one would do that.
In the verses for this morning, Paul is having them think about their former life...
And the new life they have in Jesus, if they have truly enjoyed Him.
The first thing we see is Paul gives us...
A Summary of Conversion
A Summary of Conversion
Galatians 4:8–9 (ESV)
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God,
Here we see what actually happens at conversion.
We once did not know God.
And, now we do.
We once were not known by God...
And, now we are known by Him.
Now, I’m going to talk more about the definition of this knowledge later.
But do you hear New Covenant language in this?
Jeremiah 31:34 And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord.
The New Covenant people all know God.
And the Church is intended to be a visible expression of the New Covenant people.
Imperfect picture, but still a visible, earthly, pre-glorified bodies, pre-consummation picture of the Kingdom of Heaven.
And, Paul is calling the Galatians to:
Remember these truths.
Know these truths.
Ground themselves in these truths.
And, remember what they’ve been delivered from.
Our Past: Chasing Freedom & Fulfillment through Idols
Our Past: Chasing Freedom & Fulfillment through Idols
Read v.8 formerly, …you were enslaved to...false gods
Idols and false gods are useless.
They have no power to fulfill.
They have no power to free us from sin.
They only enslave us to sin.
They only feed the flesh.
Why?
Because anything not of faith is sin.
Listen, if you’re faith for righteousness and forgiveness is not in Christ...
It is in performing it for yourself...
Which is impossible and sinful...
And only leads a person to greater transgression.
And, we cannot be ignorant in these things that we pursue rather than God...
1 Timothy 4:1 (ESV)
1 Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,
Behind sin is demonic influence that is in absolute opposition to God.
Which is why Paul says...
2 Corinthians 10:3–5 (ESV)
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
We are fighting against ideas, thoughts, worldviews...
That want to lead us away from Christ.
They are ideas that are propagated and promoted by demons.
They are false gods intended for catching your eye...
And, then hoping you become fixated.
They promise freedom, but deliver chains.
In Christ, and only in Christ, we are freed from the chains of sin.
And, Paul says that was your former life...
And now Paul gives...
The Contrast of Two Lives
The Contrast of Two Lives
Read v.9 But now…you know God…or rather known by God
What does Paul mean with the clarification?
Well, there’s more than just mere knowledge being spoken of here...
This knowledge according to the Bible is an intimate, loving knowledge.
It’s not a basic knowledge.
God knows all things.
So He knows everyone.
This is a deeply affectionate knowledge filled with love.
And, the point Paul is making is two-fold:
If you’re knowledge of God is filled with affection for Him...
If your knowledge of God is such that you cry out Abba! Father!...
Then it is not mere knowledge...
Like looking at the back of a sports card and knowing stats.
Knowing their height, weight, wins, eye color, hair color.
That only allows us to say I know of them, but I don’t know them.
Paul is speaking here of a true knowledge that has as a result—love.
It is an intimate knowledge that is filled with affection for God.
Like if one were to say they know their spouse.
And, if that is the case, Paul is saying you can rest assured that God knows you with a greater intimate, loving knowledge...
By which He calls you His child and heir of His promises...
All made possible by faith in Christ and His covenant blessings.
Second, and additionally, Paul wants them to remember that if they love God...
As, the Apostle John states...
It is because He loved us first.
And, so Paul begs the question...
Is Bondage to Sin & Death What You Really Want?
Is Bondage to Sin & Death What You Really Want?
v.9b how can you turn...away from God...to enslavement to sin
Paul is really stating this as an overall impossibility in an ultimate finality, if v.9a is true.
Obviously it is true that we can be tempted back to such things, as Christians.
Obviously it is true that we can give in to these temptations...
But, it is not possible for one who is in Christ...
To truly and finally turn away from Christ.
But, the present reality is that Paul is concerned that they have given into temptations...
They are doing things out of a skewing of the gospel...
So, that it is no longer the gospel at all.
And, he wants to make sure that it is not a turning away with finality...
Otherwise, as he says in v.11...
I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
Meaning, if you turn away from Christ, with finality...
You prove that you never received the gospel at all.
That you were never in Christ.
That you were never in covenant with Christ.
You we’re never a true convert.
As the Apostle John states so clearly...
1 John 2:19 (ESV)
19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.
If you walk away from Christ and His gospel...
Its proof of one thing...
You never understood the gospel by the illumination of the Holy Spirit...
And, you never truly submitted to Christ in salvation.
Galatians 4:9 (ESV)
9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?
If you know God...
If you truly understand the gospel...
Not only in mind, but in affection...
There is no way you would want to go back to slavery to sin.
No one, in their right mind...
Which, biblically, a right mind is a regenerated mind...
No one, with a regenerated mind, would ultimately choose slavery to sin over freedom in Christ?
So, Galatians, why would you get on a path of bondage over liberty?
Why would someone ever want to go back?
It’s like getting to heaven and asking to come back to this fallen life.
It’s like being at peace with God and asking if you can battle Him.
It makes no sense.
And, such is the power of sin.
It makes us attempt foolish things.
And, here is what is interesting...
And, would have been absolutely mind-shaking to the Judaizers in the midst of the Galatians.
Look at what Paul is stating specifically a way in which they are choosing slavery over freedom...
Galatians 4:10 (ESV)
10 You observe days and months and seasons and years!
In the context of this epistle we have no other reason but to believe that Paul is speaking of them observing the Jewish Calendar...
With its days, months, seasons, and years.
They’ve yet to submit to circumcision...
But, evidently, they are, evidently, submitting to the Jewish calendar.
They’re observing all the special days and feasts...
In the hopes that they will be accepted by God by becoming a Jew...
Rather than understanding the gospel...
And its blessings, that are received by faith, alone...
In Christ, alone.
The promise in Genesis 3 of the seed...
That promised being funneled through the seed of Abraham...
Is not received by being or becoming Jewish.
It, which is Jesus, is received by faith.
Which is what Paul has proven in Chapter 3.
Abraham who was not a Jew, was justified by faith alone...
Before circumcision.
Before the giving of the Law.
Before the Nation of Israel.
And, although the OT covenants were how the promised Offspring would come to be...
Those old covenants are not how you relate to Jesus.
It is not of the flesh that you relate to Jesus...
It is by the Spirit.
It is not being born into the family of Abraham, physically.
It is being born again...into a relationship with Jesus.
Now, I want to close by saying a little more about the burden of the Paul...
Which any good shepherd of the Lord shares...
I am Afraid
I am Afraid
Galatians 4:11 (ESV)
11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
A shepherd’s work is labor.
It is a labor of love.
But, it is also a labor of love towards the people that God has placed under their watch.
A shepherd takes his concerns, his joys, his sorrows, his anguish, his desires for the people...
And, offers them to the Lord in prayer.
A shepherd’s heart is that he and God’s people walk in the ways of the Lord...
Earnestly, faithfully, repentantly, sorrowfully, joyfully, redemptively.
Knowing the severity, the cost, for trampling underfoot the Son of God...
And the salvation in Him.
Knowing what is at stake when someone rejects the gospel.
What is at stake when one rejects Jesus.
It is a heavy burden.
Lots of emotions that are dealt with.
Sorrow, anguish, tears shed, sleep lost...
When a shepherd sees one walking in an unbiblical direction...
It is absolutely heart-breaking.
I really can’t describe it any better than that...
I don’t think.
And, so I want to close by praying for us as a church...
As a people of the Lord...
As an earthly expression of the Kingdom of Heaven...
That we would walk in the ways of the Lord...
Obeying His commands...
And living a worshipful life before Him.
Will you pray that with me?
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer