Good morning. Let's go to Galatians
chapter 4. Galatians 4, I want to look at
verses 8 through 11. What Paul has been declaring
to the Galatians is that in the Lord Jesus Christ, we've been
delivered from bondage. We've been delivered from the
bondage of false works, the bondage of dead letter religion. We've been delivered from the
things that simply cannot save us and don't make us righteous.
Things that man thinks make them accepted by God, but really bury
us in sin and death and darkness. And Paul is saying, you've been
delivered from that bondage in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, sometimes young people,
even old people. Some people just grew up in a
church and they say, well my mommy and daddy were Christian
and that's how they raised me and so that's just what I am.
And so they call themselves Christians because that's how they grew
up and that's what their mom and dad believed and they think
this is what makes them a Christian. But Simeon, if you remember Simeon,
he was there when Mary and Joseph brought Jesus. Eight days old,
they brought him into the temple to be circumcised and Simeon
took up Christ and he was speaking to Mary and he said, a sword
is going to pierce your soul also. And that's what the Lord
does for every one of his children. He brings a sword to pierce your
soul. We don't believe Christ. We're
not Christians. We're not accepted of God because
we were born into a Christian household or went to a Christian
church. A sword pierces our own souls. And we're brought to see I'm
the sinner. I need this salvation. I need
the blood of Christ. I don't need Him in name only.
I need a Savior who saves me from my sins because I'm undone
before God. I don't have any righteousness
of my own. I need the Lord Jesus Christ.
So a sword pierces our own soul, our own hearts. But the Galatian
church was being deceived. They had heard the gospel. They
heard the good news of Christ. They believed. They confessed
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But now they were being
deceived by another gospel, which was taking them back into bondage,
back into bondage, back into the shadows and the types and
the pictures under the law, things which cannot save us. And so
what we see here, one of the things that first jumps out to
us about this is, Lord keep me. Lord, keep me. I see how foolish,
how fickle I am in this flesh. I see how sinful this flesh is,
how weak I am, how easy it is to be deceived and turn back
to the weak and the beggarly elements of this world and to
think, this is my safety, this will keep me safe, If I wrap
myself up with the law and with harsh things in religion, religious
things, this will keep my mind where it's supposed to be and
this will teach me how to be good and how to be moral and
how to be accepted with God. And that's not the liberty that
Christ gives us. That brings us back into bondage
to things which corrupt, things which blind us from seeing the
Lord Jesus Christ, things which bind us in things that cannot
save. They're just a yoke of bondage.
And so in the Lord Jesus Christ, there's liberty, liberty to worship
God in spirit and in truth, liberty to look to Christ and trust him,
to believe him, to cry out to him, Lord, keep my heart, keep
me looking to your salvation whom you're pleased with. Make
me to be pleased with your son as you are pleased with your
son. bring me, draw me in Christ, cover me with the blood of Christ. And so the conclusion that Paul's
bringing us to can be found in Galatians 5. We're not going
to look at this today, but just jump up there to chapter 5, verse
1. where he says to believers, stand
fast, stand, stay right there, stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage. That's not your salvation. Your
salvation isn't in the practice of religion. Your salvation isn't
in doing things for the sake of doing religious things and
thinking this is how God sprinkles a little grace on you and says,
there you go, this will help you for the week. You did your
part, I'll do my part and give you a little extra blessing now
for the week. That's not salvation. Salvation
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's what Paul is declaring
to the Galatians and what we hear. that we are delivered from
bondage, don't go back into the yoke of the law and the yoke
of religion. So Paul is showing us what we
are by nature and he's reminding us that brethren, we didn't know
God. God doesn't receive us because
we knew him and we did all these right things and got our ducks
in a row and got ourselves straight and on the narrow path We did
our part now, and Paul's saying, that's not your salvation. You
didn't know God. God knew you. God chose you. God wrought this salvation in
your heart. In Galatians 4, verse 3, he's
saying, he's reminding us that we've been, even we Gentiles,
were in, under tutors and governors and under weak elements of this
world that could not save. He says, therefore, three, even
so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements
of the world. We were children of promise,
yes. We were chosen of God before the foundation of the world,
yes. But just like all the other inhabitants of the world, we
were under tutors and governors. We were in bondage to the weak
elements of this world. As he wrote to the Ephesians,
we were walking according to the course of this world. under
the prince, under the power of the prince of the power of the
air, under his sway, under his control. We were children of
wrath as far as one could tell just looking at us. We were in
need of salvation. We weren't doing things to save
ourselves. God wasn't pleased with our walk. We were under, we were in bondage
just like all the others. But Christ, Christ came and he
took us, he delivered his people out from that bondage. He took
us away from trusting in our works and our will and what we've
done from the Lord. He turned us from trusting those
things to behold the salvation of God in the face of Jesus Christ,
that God, did the work of salvation, that God has done this for us. And so verse eight, picking up
here in verse eight, we see this is where they're going right
back though into bondage. How be it then, when ye knew
not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods,
no gods. And so the problem isn't that
man lacks religion. You've probably heard this. I
heard it a number of times where I would meet people and they
would say, well, I need to get a little religion in my life.
Or they started to have children. I remember I met a man a little
older than I was, but he had a young daughter. And he showed
up at church one day for a few weeks. And he told me, he's like,
I just felt like she needed a little religion. I want to give my daughter
some religion, as if religion is going to help us make good
decisions in life, better decisions. I need to be a little more moral.
I need to make better choices in my life. Well, a lot of people
need to make better choices, but that's not salvation. That
doesn't make us righteous with God. We need the salvation he's
provided in Christ. So it's not that man lacks religion. It's not that man lacks morality
or that he lacks things to do in the name of God. A lot of
people do that. And Paul says, we were doing
service unto them which are not gods. They're not the true and
living God. They're not salvation. You're
serving idols. And you're serving false gods. You're steeped in idolatry. And so the Christian isn't saved
because he finds religion, and he finds a religion with the
name Jesus on it. Christ delivers all his children
from the yoke of the bondage of religion, of trusting those
things and thinking these works save us. And the Jew also, he
was delivered from the yoke of the law. Look back in Galatians
3.24. Galatians 3.24, wherefore the
law was our schoolmaster. That was our schoolmaster. We
Jews were brought up under the law, who was our schoolmaster.
And it doesn't say, to bring us unto Christ. Those words,
to bring us, aren't in the original. It's unto Christ, or until Christ. We were under the law until Christ
came. And once Christ came in the flesh,
all those pictures, types, and shadows of the law were fulfilled
in Christ, who tabernacled among us and revealed the salvation
of God in the Savior, the mediator whom God wisely sent to save
his people from their sins. Well, what about the idolatrous
Gentile? Same thing, Galatians 4, verses
2 and 3. They too, in chapter 4, verse
2, they too were under tutors and governors until the time
appointed of the father, even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world. And so the Lord
teaches his people, it's not religion that saves, it's the
salvation of my son, Christ, by his own blood has put away
your sins. And the Father and the Son have
sent the Spirit. into the hearts of his people
to give us a new birth, making us a new creature, not serving
old dead things of the law, but serving the true and living God
in spirit and in truth, by faith, looking to him, trusting, God,
you said he is my salvation. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. Keep me looking to your son,
looking to your salvation. resting in Him, following Him,
serving you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom you love
and whom you've made me to love and to believe. So he says in
Galatians 4.9, but now after that ye have known God, or rather
are known of God, because God knew you, You're known of him.
How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage? You guys want to go back into
that bondage, thinking that these sticky things of religion is
what's going to insulate you and protect you in this world.
And nothing could be further from the truth. We're protected
and kept and delivered by the blood of Christ alone. And so
we sinners didn't know God, but God knew us. We're known of God. And this knowledge of us by God
is one of love. And when God sets his love upon
a sinner, that love always leads to salvation. That love always
delivers that prisoner in that dark prison cell in bondage,
always opens the door and brings them out. of that prison of darkness,
brings them out of the darkness into the light. The love of God
is salvation. The love of God delivers us from
death and dead works. It always leads us to repentance
from dead things to look to and trust in and rest in He who lives
and is our very life and our salvation. And so the love of
God results in life in the Lord Jesus Christ. The goodness of
God leadeth thee to repentance. He draws his people. He fills
his people with the spirit and hope in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, there are some who don't know the Lord, who the Lord doesn't
know. And they'll find out. Turn over to Matthew 7, because
it's important to know that there is a people whom the Lord loves,
and his love always results in the salvation of Christ. But
there's a people described in Matthew chapter 7, and we'll
look at verse 21 through 23. And here again, this exposes the
folly of trusting religion to save. Matthew 7, 21, not everyone that
saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven,
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
What is the will of the Father? That you believe on him whom
he hath sent. That's the will of God. Believe
on the one whom I've sent to save my people from their sins.
Trust him, that's why I've sent him. He delivers all who come
to Him, crying out for mercy. He's a faithful Savior. Verse
22, many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name? Didn't we preach Jesus? And in
thy name have cast out devils? Didn't we tell people, hey, put
that cigarette down. Stop drinking that beer. Throw
away that fatty hamburger. Get yourself cleaned up. Comb
your hair. Take a shower. put some good clothes on, and
come to church. Didn't we tell people to do that, Lord? Didn't
we tell people how to live right? And in thy name, we did many
wonderful works. And then will I profess unto
them, I never knew you. I never knew you. Depart from
me, ye that work iniquity. What? We did all these good things
in the name of religion. We helped people get religion.
We got them fixed up. Got them sitting in the church
every week. Didn't we do good things? And he says, depart from
me. I never knew you, you that work
iniquity. Why? They're trusting in their
works. They think these are the things
that save. These are the things that save
them. And these are the things that save others. And that's
what they preached and taught. This is how you get yourself
saved. And the Lord says, that's not salvation. Salvation is the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Savior. Look at John
chapter 10. Flip over to John chapter 10.
While you're turning there, we see that religion, that's not
what saves sinners. That's not what keeps our hearts. That's not what saves us and
protects us and insulates us from the evil that's in this
world because we have evil in our own hearts that we need to
be delivered from. And religion only seems to lock
in that evil and guard evil within ourselves, causing us to trust
in our own self-righteousness rather than trusting in the righteousness
of God in Christ. Now John 10 verse 14. He says,
I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. Look down to verse 26 and 27.
But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said
unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me. so that Christ delivers His people
out from under the tutors and the governors and the schoolmasters,
out from that bondage, because we're brought to see the fulfillment
of all those things. The fulfillment of the law is
here. He's come in the flesh. He's fulfilled all righteousness
for us. And God has blessed His people
in Christ, who's done everything necessary to put away their sins,
to make us righteous, gives us His Spirit, sealing us with the
Holy Spirit, whereby we walk in faith and trust Him and follow
Him as disciples of Christ, believing Him, trusting Him. And so Paul
says, if you've heard the gospel, if you've heard what Christ has
done for His people, how are you turned back again to the
weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? He's delivered you from that.
How could you, you that believe on Christ, you that confess His
name, you that have been baptized in the name of Christ, why would
you ever want to go back to that yoking law and the dead works? And that's what a lot of people
do. They declare themselves, I'm following the law now. Give
me something to do. Is there a robe to put on? I'll
put on a robe. Oh, is there a candle to light? I'll go light a candle.
And I'll say a prayer. Let me do these little things
here in the name of religion, these works, so that I could
feel like I'm doing something to pay things to God and to do
my part and be a partner with God. That's not salvation. That's foolishness. That's foolishness. God doesn't save in those things. In Galatians 3.3, Paul said,
are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are
you now made perfect by the flesh? Is God turning his people back
to the types in the shadows in the pictures? Is that how we're
going to be saved and kept? Or having begun in the spirit,
does God keep us in the spirit, keep us trusting our first love,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who delivered us from sin and comforted our
hearts, assuring us that He is salvation. Is that where God
keeps His people? That's right where He keeps them,
at the feet of Jesus. Just like Mary, who sat at the
feet of Jesus, listening to His words, being comforted by Him
and assured by Him. Now, don't misunderstand me.
We don't live in sin. Liberty doesn't mean that we
have a license to now party it up. and do whatever we want in
this world, that's not the liberty he's talking about. He's saying,
you've been delivered from that bondage of the yoking law and
trusting dead works that cannot save. We're happy to do good
works. We're happy to serve our brethren.
We're thankful to be here and to hear this gospel word. We're
thankful. We're encouraged, comforted by
the Lord Jesus Christ. We desire Christ. We want to
hear Christ. But we know that our doing these
things by taking a shower and coming in smelling nice, we want
to be here. There's nothing wrong with that.
But we're thankful to be here and to be with our brethren and
to encourage one another in these things. An example of this, and
let me just add, in Galatians 4.6, he says, because you are
sons, God hath sent his spirit into your hearts, crying, Abba,
Father. We do follow Christ. We are disciples
of Christ. He that follows me shall not
walk in darkness. That's the promise of Christ,
that he keeps us. He delivers us from dark, dead
works that don't save, and from the dark works of this flesh.
He keeps us looking to him and following him and crying out,
Lord, I see what I am in this flesh. I see the folly of this
world. I see the wickedness of man,
because it's in my own breast. Lord, keep me. Abba, Father. I'm looking for your coming.
Come, Lord Jesus, come. Keep me, Lord, because I see
how easy man falls into dead works. Keep me, Lord." And so
Paul goes on describing these works, which as we can see from
this, verse 10, they were going into Judaism. They were going
back into Judaism. They were leaving Christ for
an outward form of religion. He said, you observe days and
months and times and years. So days, what were they doing?
They were looking away from Christ, who is our Sabbath rest. He is
the rest of God's people. And they were looking to a day.
They were trusting in a day, oh, let me shut things down. Let's make things hard and abusive
for the kids so that they can't do anything either and make them
really hate religion, hate God in these things. Let's turn away
from Christ, who is the rest, and those comforting words of
what Christ has done for you. And let's trust in our keeping
a day and just keeping things quiet for the day. God will bless
that. That's not salvation. Keep a
day if you want. Keep a day if you want to keep
things calm and mellow and not do work on it. That's fine. But
that's not the hope of our salvation. The hope is the rest of God in
the Lord Jesus Christ. They observed the months, right? They were looking to the moon.
And not talking about when to know how to plant things, when
you should plant foods. Try planting something in the
north in November or December. Unless it's garlic, you're not
going to get anything. Garlic's okay, you can plant it, but anything
else, forget it. You're wasting your time and
your seed planting. And now, it's not talking about
the moon, but they were blowing trumpets and having feasts as
if this was their hope of salvation. We blow the trumpet every time
we meet, brethren, in the preaching of the gospel. We're blowing
the gospel trumpet, declaring salvation has come in Christ,
in Christ. We don't need to look to these
other outward forms of religion. There's people today who claim
to be Messianic Jews that go out there and blow a trumpet
at certain times of the year, once a month, thinking that that
is somehow calling people back to God and that that's their
hope and their salvation, doing those works. As Paul said in Galatians 3.5,
he therefore that ministereth to the spirit and worketh miracles
among you, God raising people from the dead, spiritual death
to spiritual life, working miracles among you. Doeth he it by the
works of the law or by the hearing of faith? By the hearing of faith,
which is preaching Christ. And you that hear it and are
blessed by the Spirit hear, Lord, you've done everything. Thank
you, Lord. for putting away my sin by the
death of yourself, Lord, keep me, draw me, fill me with your
spirit, fill me with that hope of your saints. Let me look to
you and never turn away from you. That's the hearing of faith
in the preaching of the gospel. That's what he's saying, the
times, what are the times? That's speaking of those, likely of
those three feasts. The three feasts that the men,
all the men in Israel were required to go to Jerusalem and to present
themselves before the Lord in the temple at Jerusalem. It was
the Feast of Tabernacles, it was the Feast of the Passover,
and it was the Feast of Pentecost. Every one of those has been fulfilled
by Christ. Christ came in the flesh and
tabernacled among us. Christ came and is the Passover
lamb of God's people, putting away their sins, sacrificing
himself to put away our wickedness and our dead works and to obtain
forgiveness for us. He's the propitiation of God. who delivered his son up for
us all, for his people, making him the one to be to bear the
wrath, the righteous judgment of God, which we deserve, but
Christ bore it for his people instead. and Pentecost when he
poured out his spirit upon his people, making us the first fruits
of his glory, of his work. He's fulfilled all those times.
And years, years, picturing the Jubilee year, picturing that
setting free that deliverance which Christ has done to set
his people free in himself. And so Paul says, I'm afraid
of you, verse 11, Galatians 4, 11, I'm afraid of you, lest I
have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Christ is, what Paul is saying
here, what he's saying here is that You that have heard Christ
and you that believed in him and trusted him, but now are
being seduced back to and charmed back to some outward form of
religion, thinking that this is what God is calling you to
and this is how your heart is kept. He's saying that is a denial
that Christ has come in the flesh. He's come. When John said that,
when the Apostle John said, that he that denieth that Christ came
in the flesh is Antichrist, he's saying, what we're saying Christ
came in the flesh is that He came and fulfilled all that the
law spoke of. all that it pictured, all the
types and shadows that were declared there, that the people serving
on those things were looking unto the promise of the coming
of God, the seed of woman that God promised and said, He'll
come and He'll crush the serpent's head. He'll deliver my people.
He'll put away your sin and deliver you once and for all. By trusting,
going back to those dead works, that is denying that Christ came
in the flesh, who fulfilled it all. He accomplished everything.
Why are you looking back to those dead works, those things of bondage? Trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe Him. He has accomplished our salvation. It's all fulfilled in Him. And so we don't go back to those
things. Now, first of all, and this is
the last point here, is that first, Paul is, the servants
of God are never laboring in vain. He said, when we preach,
when we make known that savor of Christ everywhere we go, which
is, again, another view of the preaching of the gospel. We're
making known the savor of Christ to all who we meet in the preaching
of the gospel. He's saying, always, we're a
sweet-smelling savor of Christ unto God in that. Whether they
hear it and believe, or whether they hear it and reject it and
want nothing to do with it. Whether they believe or not,
it's always a sweet savior of Christ because Christ divides.
Christ is the one who calls his people and turns away those for
whom he has not given his life for and shed his blood for. And
so our God, it's always effectual. Whether they hear or not, it's
always effectual because Christ is the successful savior. He's
accomplished all that which he's come to do. And so, in that light,
what Paul's saying is, I'm afraid for your sakes. You've heard
in vain, is what he's saying. So, for example, in 1 Corinthians
15, verses 1 and 2, he says, Moreover, brethren, I declare
unto you the gospel. I'm making known to you what
God has accomplished in His Son, Jesus Christ, which I preached
unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand."
There again, he's saying, you stand in Christ. Don't go back
to those weak and beggarly elements. By which also ye are saved, if
ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed
in vain. That's speaking of our perseverance,
which God works in His people. They stay in Christ. They don't
go back to the dead works. We stay in Christ. We're kept
in Christ and we persevere in Christ because we are preserved
by our God in the Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews, again, he
says that if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing
of the hope, firm unto the end. And again, if we hold the beginning
of our confidence steadfast unto the end. Those are in Hebrews
3, verse 6 and 14. If we do, we persevere. And when
Paul was writing to the Hebrews in that letter to the Hebrews,
it's because the Jews themselves were turning back to the bondage. They were going back. It was
hard. They were being persecuted. They were having their things
taken from them. Their friends and family rejected them and
hated them for believing Christ. And so they were starting to
turn back to those weak and beggarly elements just to get along. And
Paul said, don't turn back to those things. Why are you giving
up on the hope which God has given to you in Christ? And so
the Jews did it, and here we see Gentiles doing it as well
in the Galatian church. They're going back. And our Savior
shows us, He declares things like this to show us that without
Him, we can do nothing. Lord, keep me. Don't let me go
back to those weak elements. He says in Romans 8.23, even
we ourselves grown within ourselves waiting for the adoption to wit,
the redemption of our body. We see the weakness, we see our
need of our Savior, and we cry and groan, Lord, keep me, keep
me, breathing out by His Spirit. Now I'm just going to close reading
from Colossians. So Paul said it this way to the
Colossians. Go to Colossians 1, verse 20
through 23. You know, to the Galatian church
it sounds It sounds more severe, because they were going into
it. But we see how Paul is dealing with their folly. He declares the gospel to them.
He reminds them of what Christ has done, and then says, but
you guys are turning away from that now. He's warning them.
But in Colossians, he does the same thing. He declares Christ. And he warns them in the sense
of, don't turn back to those false ways. Colossians chapter
one, verse 20 through 23. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven. and you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind. You knew not God, but God knew
you. You were enemies in your mind
by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of
his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and
unprovable in his sight. See that in the body of his flesh,
Christ has come in the flesh. We believe him, we confess that
Christ has come into flesh and fulfilled all things, all things
necessary. Verse 23, if ye continue in the
faith. grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have
heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under
heaven, whereof I, Paul, am made a minister. And so to believe
Christ, to rest in him, to trust that his blood is sufficient
to save even a vile sinner, wretched, wicked sinner like me, is to
be grounded and settled. to turn back to the law and try
to add to what Christ has done to secure your salvation, that's
not grounded and that's not settled. That's going back into bondage.
You rest in Christ. You trust Him and believe Him.
You follow Him because He makes us His disciples, ever looking
to Him, going where He leads. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to your hearts and comfort you in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Believe Him. He is the comfort of His people.
Amen. All right, let's close in prayer.
Our gracious Lord, we thank you, Father, for your grace and mercy
to us and your Son, Jesus Christ. Lord, we see how impossible it
is for man to save himself and to keep himself safe and secure
and to deliver himself in any part. Lord, salvation is of the
Lord. It's all your work. And Lord,
we ask that you would keep us. You would keep our hearts from
being turned back to weak and beggarly things, from the bondage
which you've delivered us from. Keep us, Lord. Keep us ever looking
to your son and being satisfied in him, even as you are satisfied
in him. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. All right, brethren, so let's
take about 12 minutes, try to cut it a little bit short, and
get back here at about five after the hour on that clock there. Five after, so it's about 12
minutes from now.