Here it is again. Let's read
it in its fullness one more time. Verse 21, Galatians chapter 4,
the great allegory. Tell me, ye that desire to be
under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that
Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, and the other
by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman
was born after the flesh, and he of the free woman was by promise,
which things are an allegory. For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is
Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage
with her children. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written,
Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not, Break forth and cry, thou
that travailest not, For the desolate hath many more children
Than she which hath an husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. But as then, he that was born
after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit,
even so is it now. Nevertheless, what saith the
Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her
son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son
of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not
children of the bondwoman, but of the free." Now, for the sake
of putting our minds back in our line of thought, Let's take
a minute or two that we might rehearse quickly and review what
we covered in our first study so as to line up our thoughts
again with this passage of the scripture. There were those among
the churches in Galatia who were subverting the gospel that Paul
had preached unto them. They were undermining the gospel
that Paul had preached unto them, whereby they responded, made
a profession of faith, and claimed to be a Christian. Now in this
Galatian epistle, Paul uses some form of the word bondage at least
seven times, six times it is in the epistle. In chapter 2
and verse 4, it is to be utterly enslaved, that they might utterly
bring us into slavery. Chapter 4 and verse 3, it is
to be enslaved. chapter 4 verse 9, chapter 5
and verse 1 it is slavery or bondage. So that we have these
mentions of bondage and slavery in the Galatian epistle. Now
this bondage consisted in bringing the Galatian in some degree or
form under the law again. For many of them, it was a second
bondage that they were being engaged in. Chapter 4, verse
9, we look at that a little bit later in our study of the morning. And this bondage that Paul speaks
out against and warns them against included the ceremonial law. And we know that from chapter
4 and verse 10 where it says, you observe days and months and
time and season and years. And they were compelling the
professing Galatian to submit themselves under that Jewish
circumcision first instituted unto Abraham, and they did that,
that they might glory or that they might boast in your flesh,
that is, in your circumcision, chapter 6 and verse 12, by putting
you under the external ordinances, but these had died with the Lord
Jesus Christ. When our Lord died upon the cross,
he carried those things with him, and they were nailed unto
his cross, and he put them to an end, or as a dead. Now, it
is rather certain that these corruptors of the gospel in Galatia
did not call their proselytization bondage. They did not present
what they were preaching and wanting to enforce upon them
a form of bondage or enslavement. They did not say openly, we desire
to bring you into slavery or entrapment. And they did not
regard themselves as corruptors or perverters of the gospel or
of the things of God. In fact, they were both. a corrupter of the gospel and
a purveyor of slavery. What they proposed was bondage
indeed, at least to a Christian or a professing Christian, and
it was a perversion of the gospel. 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 19
speaks of some who promised them liberty by being the slaves of
corruption themselves. They said, we know how to gain
you liberty, but they were themselves in corruption. Now, they promised
liberty. They present themselves as liberators,
that they would lead and guide them into a fuller or a fullness
of freedom. They promised them freedom But
it turned out to be only another form of slavery. And I want you to hear Paul,
back in chapter 4, verse 8 and verse 9, and we'll deal with
this some this morning. Galatians 4, 8 and 9. How be it then, when you knew
not God, watch this, ye did service unto them which by nature are
no gods. But now, that you have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn you again to the weak
and the beggarly elements wherein you desire to be again in bondage."
Now from the focus on the words, at least in the King James, verse
9, which are in the form of of a question. Where unto you desire
to be again in bondage? You are wanting. You are wishing
to be. You are inclined. You are disposed. to enter into bondage again. The word can mean you mean to
be in bondage again. For the word that Paul uses here
means desire and it can mean intend, mean to, or pleased. You mean to, you intend, you
are pleased to be in bondage again. But then also notice the
word in verse 9 of chapter 4. Now, in fact, the word again
is twice here used by Paul in verse 9. Here it is. How turn
you again to be in bondage again? Now expositors reconcile the
two words this way, that the first again refers to place,
that is, back again. You refer to go back to the place
where you have been delivered, back again, back again to the
weak and the beggarly elements of this world. And the second
again refers, they say, to time. That is, again, anew, afresh,
a second time to be again in bondage. Now before explaining
this, let's here position our portions of our original text
in verse 22 and 23. We have a bondwoman's son. Verse 24, A, a covenant that
gendereth to bondage. And in verse 25, Jerusalem, which
now or then was and is in bondage with her children. She is in
servitude. She is held under. and that with
her children. Now coming back here to 4 and
verse 8 and 9 where I'm quoting from Lightfoot. Verse 8 he said
prepares us for the word again in verse 9. As we read the 8th
verse, it prepares us for Paul using the word again in verse
9. And Paul, as William Perkins
said in another commentary, noted that these Galatians were in
a threefold way under bondage, and he sums that up. A threefold
state. He looks at them in a threefold
aspect. petition number one before their
profession when they knew not God when they were ignorant when
they were pagans when they were blind of the true character of
God, but they were not atheists in the sense of the word, but
idolaters. Being not atheists, but idolaters. Knowing not God, they did service
unto them, which literally were no God. Knowing not God. When they had no knowledge of
God, then you served, you slaved, and that to such as were not
even gods by nature. By nature, they were no gods. They might have been the sun,
the moon, the stars, elements, material, or whatever. But then
Paul speaks about them in their second state or condition, and
that's in verse 9. Having to come, having come to
know God. Now first of all, you knew not
God, but then having come to know God. This was an enlightenment
with God, from God, And it was in conjunction with the preaching
of the gospel of Christ in their midst. And yet Paul adds, you
being known by God, yes, a divine sovereignty lay behind their
coming to know God. Once blind and ignorant, then
enlightened. And once in slavery, and then
made free. into glorious liberty once in
darkness but now in the light of the Lord and Paul uses this
to shame them and to aggravate their sin what you were and what
you became but then he speaks also of a third state or condition
and that is upon their defection from the glorious gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ into another form of slavery much like that
they were previously in. Again, that's in verse 9. How
is it that you are desiring again to turn back to the weak and
beggarly element to be enslaved all over again. This is the height
of ingratitude, the height of stupidity, and the height of
sin. To be given life and knowledge
from God, to be rescued from an enslavement, and to hear the
truth of God, and to experience a measure of truth through Jesus
Christ, and then to put on the shackles of enslavement again
is the height of their ingratitude. Now here is a question that we
might raise and consider. Paul speaking to this church
or these churches from the standpoint of the Jew or from the standpoint
of the Gentile or from the standpoint of them both mixed together. This is a point noticed by some
very good expositor. What does Paul say or mean by
what is included in his reference to weak and beggarly elements
of the world? There can be little doubt that
the things that are mentioned there in verse 10 refer to the
elements of the ceremonial law given through Moses unto the
Jew at and after Mount Sinai. And that helps us to understand,
at least in part, who the enslavers were, and that would be Judaizers
or Judaists attempting to bring them under Judaistic legalism
and put them in bondage. Now let's look, weak and beggary. The word weak here is interesting
impotent and feeble, strengthless. And then we have the word beggarly. The word is almost, and it's
several times in the New Testament, and it's almost always translated
by the word poor, poor. And it's the same word that we
have here translated beggarly. Some 30 times you'll find that
word in the New Testament. W.E. Vine defined the word as
an adjective, meaning poverty, stricken, and powerless to enrich,
and thus, quote, metaphorically descriptive of the religion of
the Jew, unquote. Weak and poor are beggarly. Now to answer the question, does
Paul speak from the Jew standpoint, the Gentile standpoint, or from
the standpoint of them collectively when he speaks to them of a former
bondage? Now we can think of the Jew former
bondage, but were the Gentiles in a former bondage also? He speaks of a former and a present
bondage unto them. It is expressed by The double
use of the word again, as we just noted in verse 9. And we
have that word again another time in chapter 5 and verse 1. Be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage and a desire to be under it. Chapter 4 and
verse 21. Now for what it is worth, I agree
with those authors that I read who think that Paul speaks to
both the Jew and the Gentile about a former bondage and a
present bondage. that came to an end when they
found the liberty that was in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. That both Jew and Gentile were
in bondage before coming to know God through the Lord Christ. Neal said there was some likeness
between the Jew bondage and the Gentile bondage, and not just
in kind or in degree. For in no sense do we put Judaism,
however, in the same level with paganism, even in its Old Testament
state. But Paul's point is, before entering
into the liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ. Both Jew and Gentile
were in a form of bondage, though it was a different form of bondage,
yet both of them were in their unregeneracy and before Christ
in slavery. Now, Paul identifies the bondage
of both of them. First of all, the Gentiles, what
did they do? Well, we look at chapter 4 again
and verse 8. They did service to them that
were no gods. And that word could be translated,
you slaved, you were enslaved. You were slaves, you were in
bondage to them which were no God. They groveled before their
idols in that state and in that time. Even worshiping some that
were much inferior unto themselves. As Paul puts it, this way they
slaved to idols. Chapter 4 and verse 8. But then
what of the bondage of the Jew. How were they in bondage? In
what did it consist? And to what degree? Now we know
that the claim of the Jew is expressed before Christ in John
chapter 8 and verse 33. We are Abraham's seed. We were never in bondage to any
man. That was their response when
the Lord spoke of making them free free indeed. They bristled at any suggestion
of being in such an inferior position in their existence. But let's listen to Galatians
4 and verse 3. Even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage Under the elements of the world he's speaking principally
there under the Jew and the we are Jews under the figure of
a child trainer or pedagogue until the time appointed by the
father now the word differs nothing from a slave if we look back
at chapter 3 and verse 23 and as we come to that place, but
before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under
the faith, which should afterward be redeemed. So they were in
a form of bondage or servitude or of slavery. So let's add the
words then of the Apostle Peter in the Council in Acts chapter
15 and verse 10, I believe it is. where Peter calls the ceremonial
law a yoke which neither we nor our fathers were able to bear. And then Galatians 5 and verse
1. What does Paul mean by the yoke
of bondage? Judaism, submission by former
heathens to a new yoke, and then note in Galatians 5, 1, Paul
uses the word again another time, to be in bondage again. So let's look at Galatians chapter
4 verse 24 and 25 for our refreshing today. Refresh our mind on the
significance of the two women and their respective sons, who
each were born into the condition of their mother. That's the important
point here to remember. Abraham had two sons by two women,
They were each born into the condition of their mother, even
though Abraham was the father of both of them, making the sons
what we call half-brothers. So their kinship was not by or
through their mother, but through their father. father, and that
was Abraham. Anyway, Paul said, being allegorized,
which things are, that is, all these things, the women bonded
free, their son, these are allegorized, these are the two covenants. Now, the two women represent
typically and mystically the two covenants, and we can learn
lessons from them, but only in connection with their children
and the condition of their children that they brought forth. Without
the sons, the women lose their status as symbols of the two
covenants. For Paul's subject is the state
and condition of those under the two covenants that he has
mentioned, especially those desiring to be under the law in Galatia. describes the two covenants which
the women represent based on the condition of the offspring
produced by the two women, even though Abraham begat them both. Now look what he said, the one,
the one. He's going to focus on one or
the first, the one. The one woman, one covenant from
Mount Sinai, gendering to bondage, bringing forth into bondage,
bringing forth slaves in the condition of their mother, which
is an answer to Hagar, the bondmaid or the bondwoman. And verse 25,
Mount Sinai in Arabia, he said, is Hagar and answers or corresponds
or represent the Jerusalem which now is. That is, the Jerusalem
in the day when Paul ministered and wrote. And, he said, is in
bondage with her children. And Paul does not, I am persuaded,
refer to the bondage of the Roman government which they held over
them at the time, but to their spiritual bondage And that consisted
in seeking justification by the law. For what were they doing?
They were choosing Moses over Christ. They were choosing the
flesh over the spirit. They were choosing circumcision
in the flesh over circumcision of the heart. They were choosing
law over grace, works over faith, Sinai over Mount Sinai. or the Jerusalem which was above. So, says Paul, the one covenant
is symbolized by Hagar. She being a bondmaid, bringing
forth children into bondage, she answers or corresponds to
Mount Sinai in Arabia and is a picture of Jerusalem or Judaism
up to the time of Paul with her children. A mother of slaves
begatting children in or under bondage. Now, that being said,
I'd like for you to come with me, if you would, to Mount Sinai. And like Moses, let's turn aside
and see this wonderful event and how and why it comes to pass. And it is the giving of the law. Exodus 19. and verse 20. As stated by Paul, it occurred
at Sinai. It's recorded there in Exodus
19 and 20. And there were elaborate and
specific preparation for the Passover Supper, was there not? As well as a certain day for
it to occur. So it was with the giving of
the law. There were preparation that were
to be made for the giving of the law. From that time that
it was announced, it would be on the third day. Exodus chapter
19, 10 and 11, verse 15 and 16 emphasizes the third day. To prepare for it, we see that
the people would, number one, the people were told to spend
the next two days concentrating or sanctifying themselves unto
the Lord. They were to wash their clothes.
in verse 10, especially were the priests to do that in verse
22. And the second thing they were
to do in preparation for the giving of the law, they were
to mark off the mountain. They were to put bounds all around
the mountain. that would keep the people at
a distance, that they did not enter upon or even touch the
mountain. Markers were to be set up, and
you find that in verse 12 of Exodus 19. Why? Because any that touched the
mountain on that third day would die. And that's in verse 12 and
13 of chapter 19. And that was whether it was a
human or a beast. if one of their beasts wandered
upon the mount, it was to be put to death. Now, we can climb
Mount Zion, but not so much as going to Mount Sinai. There is not a good place to
climb. For it was a sinful people. It
was a mountain of death unto them. And if they touched it,
they would die right there in the flesh. And you see that in
Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 18. A mountain that may be touched
resulting in death. But we have climbed Mount Zion,
says the writer. Now the third thing that they
were to do in preparation for the giving of the law is in Exodus
19 and verse 15, that is they were to forego intimacy with
their wives for that period of time. Read also 1 Corinthians
chapter 7 and verse 5 for devotion to holy purposes. So here's the
conclusion. Everything about that event at
Sinai was designed to fill the people with fear and with awe
of the Almighty Jehovah, even to terrorize them, to fill them
with a fear of death and the greatness and the majesty of
their God. For they thought that they might
die when they saw and heard the things done at Sinai. And verse
19, they said to Moses, don't let God speak anymore lest we
die. You go and come and speak with
us. Now the design of the great manifestation
is expressed in Exodus 20 verse 20 and the last part. Quote,
for God is come to prove you, or literally to test you. This
appears to be the very same word used in Genesis 22 and verse
1, God did test or tempt Abraham. So he said, God has come to prove
you whether you will walk in his ways, whether you will sin
not. And that's the purpose of it.
Now consider the manifestation at Sinai. It cannot be explained
as any natural phenomenons of nature. It was not that at all. In Exodus 19, 16 through 19,
a very loud trumpet. thunder and lightning, a thick
cloud, the mount under smoke, and fire was there. Both the
people and the mountain trembled at what went on there. Hebrews
12, 18 through 21, the mountain burned with fire, blackness,
darkness, tepid. They could not endure that which
was commanded. And so terrible was the sight
that Moses himself said, I exceedingly fear and quake. Remember, when
Christ died upon the cross, an inanimate creature creation gave
witness. When the Lord died upon the cross,
what mighty manifestations there were in the creation. It went
into convulsion, if I might use that expression, when Christ
died, to bear witness that it was of God. And you can see that
in Matthew 28, 50 through 54. This was a great manifestation
that this was the Son of God. It never happened at any other
crucifixion there upon the hill of Calvary outside of Jerusalem. And it never happened at another
time at Mount Sinai, but upon this occasion for a strict purpose. Now Paul's words are these. and we must catch them. It gendereth
to bondage. Hagar brought forth a son of
the flesh in bondage like her, and this covenant gendereth unto
bondage. So let us consider how and why
it gendereth to bondage as well as the nature of that bondage. Now the how and the why are basically
the same because it is what Paul calls a bill of indictment. It is a certificate of death. It consisted in decrees contrary
to those that were under it, Galatians 2 and 14. Paul called
this administration of death in 2nd Corinthians 3 and verse
7. Cursed are all of they who do
not keep the whole law." Deuteronomy 27, 26. Galatians 3, 10. James
2 and verse 10. That if one puts himself under
a part of the law, he then is a debtor to the whole law. Galatians 5 and verse 3. Now the nature of this bondage
is spiritual. It is spiritual bondage. It is
bondage of soul in all of its faculties. And Paul is clear
in Romans 6 and verse 14, to be under the law is to be under
the dominion of sin. And the only way to be free from
the rule of sin is to be free from the dominion of the law,
since the strength of sin is the law." 1 Corinthians 15 and
verse 55. This is a strong statement from
Paul that the power of sin is the law. So to be free from the
dominion of sin is to be free from the dominion and from the
curse of the law, since Romans 4 and 15, where no law is, there
is no transgression. If there's not a law, there's
not a transgression. Romans 5 and 13 again, sin is
not imputed when there is no law. Now those under that law
could never have a completely free and purged conscience, Hebrews
10, 1 and 2, and are always subject to the fear of death, Hebrews
2 and verse 15. Death is the penalty of the transgression
of the law. The wages of sin is death, Romans
6 and 23. And as an old-timer wrote, death
stands ready to take the lawbreaker by the throat, unquote. That is, to choke the life out
of him. And then he added, In one hand
it holds a sickle to mow them down, that is death, with the
other to push them in to that great destruction that is to
come. Now this sums up what Paul means.
It genders, it brings forth unabonded. Those children of the flesh are
subject to the curse of the law, to the dominion of sin, to the
tyranny of Satan, terrors of death, and the torments of hell.
like Hagar and her son, they will be cast out. They will not
inherit with the freeborn son, the son of grace. Now when Paul
says to them, tell me, you desiring to be under the law, Do you hear
the law? He would show them the Arave
who make the nature and the purpose of the law given at Mount Sinai
to be justification or to seek life by the law. Each seek righteousness
and justification, but those who seek it by the law find that
it is a curse instead and it is a failure. Someone likened
them to Abraham and to Sarah in their time or day of unbelief. desiring seed, sending Abraham
under the bed of Hagar, instead of looking, waiting for the promise
of God, who is faithful. So the flesh came in, in the
household of Abraham. Well, the Jews turned that covenant
into a covenant of works. And I want to get into this later.
The relationship of the free promise to Abraham and the law
given at Sinai. I will not do it today, but we
need to do it sometime during our study. ignoring, they did,
the free promise made unto Abraham of a son and of a seed. And what happened unto the son
of the bondmaid? He was cast out. And what did
they do? They chained themselves to Sinai. This error prevailed among the
Jew until the time of Paul, until the time of the death of Christ
until 70 AD, though the error itself did not die. with mankind,
it is still found new life in Christendom. This era of chaining
people to the law also found a new life in Christendom. And
it is still practiced until this very day. And I think it's because
this era is ingrained in the thinking of all of the children
of Adam and of Eve. In every era, in every age of
the church, we have found those attempting to bring people back
under the bondage of the law. So, like leaven, it is leavening,
as it were, the entire lump of Christendom until, in some circles,
there is more law than there is grace. Now, With all of that
said, I'd like to make a practical application and run out the clock
this morning on that until the end. And I've been waiting during
our two studies for the right place to make this practical
application for our edification. We think this is the right time
and the right place. Now, the premise is this. It
is an easy thing to bring people into bondage. You might think,
oh, it's very hard to get people to give up their liberty and
their freedom and get into bondage. But if you look at both civil
and spiritual, you will find that that is not so. It is an
easy thing to bring people into bondage, to rob them of their
liberty, to talk them into giving up their liberty for a false
security that they are promised. To shackle them to unnecessary
and unwarranted laws and precepts is an easy thing. They little
resist. world. Look in the churches.
They do not throw away the shackles and disdain them. They go willingly. They will even put their own
neck in the noose and hold out their hand that they might receive
the shackle and be cut. Now this is through both of civil
and of religious bondage. It is as if they desire to be
in bondage when they think it will add to their security or
to their happiness. Consider this example. If you would, ask a sinner, ask
one unregenerate, someone who's not in church. Ask a sinner how
he hopes to be saved. Ask him, what are your hopes
and desires of ever being saved and being in the favor of God?
What must one do to be saved? Acts 16 verse 31 or Matthew 19
In verse 6, so that man who came and ran down and fell before
our Lord Jesus Christ and asked, what good thing must I do that
I might inherit eternal life? Matthew 19 and 16. Well, then
you see that indeed People are willing to ask what kind of bondage
they must answer. Very few of them will answer,
oh, by grace through faith in the finished work and the redemption
of Christ, by Christ and by Christ only. You'll find very few senators
that will give you that answer. Most will say things like this.
Oh, I need to start keeping more of the Ten Commandments. I've
broken a few of them. I need to start keeping more
of the Ten Commandments. I need to practice the Golden
Rule a little better. I need to do unto others as I
would have them do unto me. Someone will tell you, and they
have told me. I need to stop drinking, and
I need to stop cussing, and I need to stop smoking so much if I'm
ever going to come to the Lord God. Yes, I ought to go to church.
Maybe I'll start reading the Bible and see what it has to
say. I guess I could give some money to the church or go and
volunteer." And they are willing to go so far as to pronounce
themselves basically a good person in spite of all of this. Now
there are others, if you ask them that question, how they
expect to be saved, they'll excuse themselves because they are better
than someone they know who is regular at the church. And then
they play the hypocrite card, and they claim they don't have
to go to church to be a Christian, and beside, the church is full
of hypocrites. Most of the people in the cults
are in bondage. It is a form of bondage, and
a false way of salvation is bondage. Any false way of salvation is
a bondage. Now, two kinds of people are
easy to prey upon. and corrupt teachers and preachers
who promise them liberty. Those two kinds of people are
the unregenerate. The religion is having not the
spirit, not spiritually enlightened, they do not know the things of
God, but they're taken captive by Satan at his will. 2 Peter
2.26, 2 Timothy 3 and verse 6, and they lead captive silly women
who are laden with sin, and yet they deny that they are in bondage
as did the Jew. Now some cannot discern their
left hand from their right Jonah said, some cannot discern heresy
from truth, and that makes them victims. Secondly, there are
the babes in Christ, or the beginner, or the novice, they're not well
grounded in the solid doctrine of Christ and of the gospel,
while they pray upon them who are wolves in sheep's clothing,
and seek to draw them under a form of bondage. So I disclose this
morning by saying, let us not choose the law or Moses over
Christ as our Savior, nor even as our co-Savior. Let us not
seek to be wedded to the law, but free from it in order that
we might be married to another, as in Romans chapter 7. Neither
let us mistake Let us not make the mistake of the Jew to mix
law and grace or promise and law and hope that an amalgamation
of them will bring us to a happy state and justification. It's
Christ and Christ only. No justification from that mouth
burning with fire. but from the Jerusalem above,
the grace of God in Christ Jesus, our blessed Lord. So it generate
the bondage, the other is liberty. Thank God for that.