Open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. The name
of the message is bondage again? Bondage again? Galatians chapter 4. We're starting
verse 4 and we'll go all the way to verse 15. Scripture declares, but when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Because
you're sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts, crying, I have a father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. So we finished that section last
week. I'm gonna say a little bit more on verse 7, but now
we're going to enter into a portion where Paul will show his concern
for the Galatian churches. Now remember he went and preached
the gospel to them, and the Lord saved them, saved a certain amount
of people in Galatia, different places, and churches were established. And so Paul knows them personally.
And he's very concerned for them, that they're being bewitched
by the Judaizers. False teachers, who not only
are compelling the Gentiles to be circumcised, but also to be
under all the law. All the law, all the Mosaic law. And think of this, I was thinking
about this as I was putting this study together. They're compelling
the Gentiles to be under that which they never were under. Because the law was only given
to the Israelites. Although we're all under the
law, aren't we? And Zayn, when I looked up again, the elements
of the world, which we're going to deal with again today, when
he says the weak and beggarly elements, that's the law. That's
the law. So they were compelling them
to be under the law. Now everyone is under the law. whether they're Jew or Gentile,
but the ordinances and the law of God was given to the nation
of Israel, given to them. So let's read verses 8 to 15
now. How abate then, when ye knew
not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements wherein ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months,
and times, and years. I am afraid for you, I am afraid
of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Brethren,
I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as ye are. Ye have not injured
me at all. You know how, through infirmity
of the flesh, I preached the gospel unto you at the first.
In my temptation, which was in my flesh, ye despised not, nor
rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ
Jesus. Where is then the blessedness
you speak of? For I bear you record that if
it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes
and have given them to me. Now last week I didn't quite
finish verse 7, so let's read that. Wherefore thou art no more
a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through
Christ. Now over in the book of 1 Peter,
the scriptures declare, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten
us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible. That means we
can't mess it up. Right? Incorruptible. Undefiled. It's perfect. It's awaiting us.
It's perfect. And that fadeth not away reserved
in heaven for you. So every born-again blood-washed
believer has an inheritance waiting, and that's Christ. He's our reward,
isn't He? He's our reward. Now in verse
7, the Scriptures declare that God's people are heirs of God
through the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that for the morning
message too as well. Heirs of God. Heirs of God. In the one who reserved the inheritance
for all his promised children in heaven, the text there says,
through Christ. So we're heirs through Christ.
That's the only way we're heirs of God, is through Christ and
Him alone. No other way. No other way. And our hope, our
hope must be in Christ alone, right? It must be. We have no
other hope other than Christ. None. No, no, he's all our hope
as believers. He's our all in all. And any
hope that a religious person has outside of Christ is a worthless
hope. It's absolutely worthless. I
don't care what it is. I don't care how strong their
supposed faith is. It's worthless. It's absolutely
worthless. And the songwriter put it this
way, my hope, blessed Jesus, is anchored in thee. Thy righteousness
only now covereth me. Thy blood shed on Calvary now
is my plea. My hope, my hope is in thee. Wonderful Savior, all glory to
thee. In thee is salvation so rich
and so free. I shout forth thy praises through
all eternity. My Savior, my Savior, my hope
is in thee. My hope, my hope is in thee.
What a wonderful truth, isn't it? Our hope is in nothing less
than Jesus Christ and His righteousness. So the message of the gospel
is plain and simple, clear. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Don't trust in anything of your
own, just believe on Christ. One may ask, how can I be saved
from my sin? How can I be made righteous before
God when I'm such a sinner? How can a sinner like me be justified
in the sight of God? Well, there's no need for perplexity. Paul said this, the word is nigh,
even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith,
which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, Thou shalt be saved, for with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made unto salvation. Oh, in God's people we acknowledge
Christ's Lordship, don't we? We acknowledge that He is Lord
of all. He has full dominion over all, and the only way we
can have all our sins pardoned is through the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ has done it all. He's
done it all. He's our Savior, He's our Redeemer,
He's our King, He's our Lord, He's our City of Refuge. And
if you do not know Him, may God give you grace to run to Him,
to flee to Him. Now let's read verses 8 to 12
where we will see Paul express his concern over the Galatian
believers. They've been bewitched by the
Judaizers. See these Judaizers came in and they came from Jerusalem
so They would be looked at as having maybe some clout coming
from the church in Jerusalem. Well, maybe, you know, there's
something. They might know John and they might know others. And here they come from Jerusalem
and they're nothing but false teachers. Nothing but men seeking
to enslave believers in Christ. My, oh, my. false teachers, seeking
to put the Galatian churches under the Mosaic law. And this
is going to be brought forth in verses 8 to 12. Look at this.
How abate then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto
them, which by nature are no gods. But now, after that ye
have known God, or rather are known of God, How turn ye again
to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to
be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months,
and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I bestow
upon you labour and vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as
I am, for I am as ye are, ye have not injured me at all. Now
the verses we're going to look at today is going to be verses
8 and 9. How abate then, when ye knew
not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods? But now, after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Look at that verse 8 there. Verse 8, Paul reminds the Galatian
believers of their past state. They were idol worshippers. They
were a bunch of idol worshippers. And so he's gonna bring forth
before them their past state and their behavior, who and what they were before
the gospel came to them. And this is a picture of all
believers, right? We're just worshiping self or
bowing down to some statue or imaginary God that we've made
in our minds. That's all of us. And look at
this, it says, how abate then when you knew not God you did
service unto them which by nature are no gods. So we see in verse
8 there that they didn't know God in that state. They were
ignorant of Him. Just, I can admit, that's how
I was. Even in religion, I was ignorant
of the true, one true living God. I didn't know who he was. I had a God in my imagination.
But I sure didn't know the one true living God. Not until he
revealed himself. And oh my, what a difference.
What a change. And look at this, it says that
they were ignorant of the true and living God, and they were
even ignorant of how He's to be worshipped, right? Which is
the same as we were. Look at this verse again. Howbeit
then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by
nature are no gods. And note, they're under the worst
of slaveries. They're under the worst of slaveries
where they did service to those false gods who by nature weren't
gods. And they did service unto them.
Well, that's how I was when I was locked in Catholicism. Statues everywhere. Crosses everywhere. No risen Savior, just a dead
Savior. Hanging on a cross still. Our Savior's risen, beloved.
He's gone home to be with the Lord. He's gone home to be with
the Father. So, they were employed in service for those who were
by nature no gods. Now remember, they worshipped
creatures even then. Animals, birds, wood, stone,
right? They made idols out of everything.
They'd see a bird doing something, they'd say, oh, that's a sign!
It's a sign. You know how many ravens Vicki and
I see go by? People used to say, but when
a raven comes by then, oh my, you better be careful. Something's
going to happen. It's just a bird flying in the
air. Right? That's all. God's ordained that
bird to fly by you. Just praise him and enjoy the
view. Right? Oh my. And we see in this
text that the gods that they worship were no gods at all.
They weren't gods. They were mere creatures. Perhaps,
again, they were idols of their own making. But they were utterly
unable to help them. We know in the Psalms it says
that they don't have ears to hear. They have ears, but they
can't hear. They have hands, but they can't
do anything. But our God's in the heavens,
and he does whatever he pleases. He's living. He's a living God. So Paul's reminding them, don't
forget where you came from. That's good for us. Henry used
to say, and I love this, I have it in my study on a thing that
Vicki painted me. Don't forget the rock you were
hewn from. Never forget the rock you were, don't forget where
you came from. Right? Don't ever forget where you came
from. Oh my. I'm a son of a trailer mechanic
and a housewife. That's all I am. And now I'm
a saved sinner. Hallelujah. My oh my. Don't ever forget where you came
from. Oh my. My oh my. So they were utterly
unable to hear and help them. And they're ignorant of the true
God, right? They're ignorant of the one true
God. They're absolutely ignorant of the one true God. And man in our nature, in our
natural state, we cannot be anything but inclined to worship false
gods, whether they be of our nature. Even the person who says,
I don't believe in God, you know what? Yeah, they're in misery
on their deathbed. Let me tell you. Oh my. Because the God of terrors is
going to come. My oh my. They're going to find
out there's God. There's one true living God.
My oh my. And see, when we're inclined
to false idols like that, we by nature turned our backs, right? On God, haven't we? That's why
we have to be turned around, right? Because by nature, our backs
are to the Lord, and we don't want to have nothing to do with
Him. And so these folks, and I can
say I was in the same place, and I'm sure you were too, they
have made gods of their imagination, cooked them up, And they were worshiping them.
And now Paul's saying, you want to go back to that? You want
to go back to bondage? The bondage that you were in?
You want to go back to that? He says, they weren't even gods.
You were worshiping these supposed gods and they weren't even gods.
They couldn't do nothing. Now you worship the one true
living God. And you want to go back to that? My oh my. See, I love how the
Holy Spirit has Paul write these words because it's so clear,
isn't it? He just sets it right before us. And you can see in
these words Paul's concern for the Galatian churches. Oh my. There's only one who's
worthy of worship, beloved. There's only one who's worthy
of worship. That's the Most High God. He alone is worthy of all
our worship. He alone is worthy of all our
praise. No one else. He is the one true living God. That's who He is, Jehovah. And
think of this love. He loves His people so much that
He sent His only Son to die in our room and place. Christ laid aside His glory to
come in humiliation and become a man that he could save us from
our sins by his death and by the shedding of his precious,
precious blood. That's love. That's love in action,
isn't it? People say, well, I love you,
but that's love in action. Isn't it? That's love in action
right there. He's manifested His love. He doesn't even just
tell us He loves us, but He's manifest His love in a way that's
greater than anyone can ever manifest their love. He gave
His Son for us, who willingly came. He's a willing sacrifice,
isn't He? He's the perfect, spotless Lamb
of God. God in the flesh. He's the only
one who could save us. Right? I can't save myself, I
can't save you. But I can tell you about one
who can save all who come to him, and that's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He saved my soul. Oh my. He says, come. Unto me all ye
who labor are heavy laden." Are you heavy laden? Oh, come to
Christ. Come to Him. Just cast yourself.
It says, cast yourself upon Him because He careth for you. That's
for His people, right? He cares for us. We can cast
everything upon Him. Everything upon Him. Because
He cares for us. Oh my. He's Jehovah, God over
all. And we were at one time slaves
to sin and slaves to the gods of our own imagination too. And
that's what Paul's bringing up here is that you were doing service
to these gods, little g, who were not gods at all. They're
just a piece of stone. Or something you cooked up in
your imagination. Or worshiping a creature rather
than the creator. Oh my. And we were slaves to sin. But
praise be to God, the Lord Jesus Christ has saved us, redeemed
us by his precious blood. And then, he's so gracious that
he sends his Holy Spirit to us. That we're born again. Otherwise,
we'd never be born again. He says, you must be born again.
And he sends his Spirit to regenerate us. And then not just to regenerate
us and leave us, but to stay with us and teach us and guide
us and direct us. and show us the things of Christ.
What love, what love. So we see then that when we were Gentiles, we didn't
know the true and living God. We didn't know him. We worship
idols and we were in bondage to gods that did not exist and
that's what Paul's bringing forth. You're in bondage. This was your
past. You were in bondage. We were
in bondage to the gods of our own imagination. Or even sometimes
to self, right? The god of self. Right? A lot of people worship themselves. My oh my. And we can't say anything
because we were there. But he's telling them. He's telling
them here. You were in bondage. How do we
know that? Look at verse 9. But now, after
that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye
again to the weak and beggary elements wherein ye desire again
to be in bondage? That's why I named the message,
Bondage Again? See, these Judaizers were doing
nothing but trying to put the people of God in bondage. And
that's what false teachers will do. That's what legal, they'll
tell you, you gotta do something. You're not doing this enough,
or you're not doing that enough, or I have a friend of mine, I
keep just presenting him Christ. And all he does is complain about
what Christians aren't doing. So I finally asked him, well,
what are you doing? Well, that changed the whole
conversation. Yeah, exactly. Take the beam out. Don't be poor. I said, well, I said, I don't
know if that's what it's like where you go to church, but I
go to church with a bunch of people who love the Lord, who are sinners
saved by grace, and we serve the Lord in whatever we're in,
wherever we're at in our lives. I said, I, you know, I don't,
I don't have to tell them what to do. Right? I just preach the gospel, and
that corrects us, doesn't it? I'll tell you what, when I'm
a little gone like this, and I hear a gospel message, ba-bing! Right in the middle of his head.
I get it. I just get it. And I'm, oh my lord, I'm so sorry. And sometimes that's just what
I needed. And it's not like religion where it's like, yeah, bam, we're
going to take your legs out. You're going to be maimed. It's
not like that. It's a hit, right? It's a waking up for us, but
it's with cords of love, isn't it? Oh, Lord, I've sinned against
Thee. I'm so sorry, Lord. My, oh, my. My, oh my. Help my unbelief. Help me, Lord. Help me to overcome my sin. My,
oh my. One day we will, when we're in
glory. It won't ever bother us again, will it? Oh my. Oh my. Now, note the words. Let's go
back to verse 8. There's something here I want
to bring out. Look at this. Verse 8. How then, when ye knew not
God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. Now, see the word there, knew
not God? The word's there. Well, that word knew there, in
the Greek, it means to be aware. It's Ido in the Greek. It means
to be aware. So, what Paul's saying by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God, he's telling the Galatian believers
and telling us that before we were saved, we were not aware
of God. We may have heard about Him,
but we didn't know Him. We weren't aware of Him. Not
the one true living God, were we? No. And then, so, Note in the next verse, note
the word knowing is used twice in verse nine. It's a different
Greek word. And wow, this is, when I saw
this, I've been waiting for this verse because I remember looking
at this a long time ago and going, oh my goodness, I can't wait
to get to that verse. Okay, so the first one is in
verse eight, right, is To be aware. We weren't aware of who
God was. Now look at this. This word is
used twice. This next Greek word is used
twice. It says, but now after that ye have known God, or, more
importantly, rather are known of God, right? That's more important.
That God knows us. That we're his people. That's
way more important. Because if we're his people,
we're gonna know him. He's gonna reveal himself. Right? How turn
ye again to weak and beggarly ailments, wherein ye desire again
to be in bondage? So this next word is used twice
in the same sentence. And so, again, it says that ye
have known God, or rather are known of God. To me, the more
important aspect there is to be known of God. To be known
as one of his people. To be known as adopted son. Oh my. But the next instance of this
Greek word, which is used twice in verse 9, is called ginoska. You've heard me say that word
before. Ginoska brings forth an intimate knowledge. And intimate knowledge, in the
Greek it means to know, to come to know. So we were unaware of
who God is. Now we've come to know him, right? To come to know, to get a knowledge
of, to perceive. So do you see what Paul's done
here and what the Holy Spirit's had him do with these words?
He's brought forth that we were unaware of who God was. Now we
perceive him. Now we know him. And then again,
it has an underlying, it brings forth an underlying aspect of
an intimate knowledge like between a man and a woman, a man and
his wife, knowing each other. So marvel at this. Before time
was, time, God knew us. God knew us. And there was a time when we
didn't know God, right? That's what the scripture brings
forth too. But now, after that you have known God, so the scripture
before brought forth that we didn't know God. We didn't know
Him. We were unaware of Him. But now we know Him. Now we know
Him. Now we know by Him revealing
Himself to us. And it's an intimate knowledge.
It's not a knowledge that's a general knowledge. No. It's for His people. He knows us in a different way
than He knows everyone else. Because we're in Christ. So before
There was a time when we were not aware of our great God. But
now He's revealed Himself. So now we're aware of Him. Now
we know Him. And He knows us. He's always
known us with Gnoska. Because He's loved us with an
agape love. Only a love that God can have.
Right? My oh my. An eternal love. But He knows us in an intimate
way. How so? Because we were given to the
Lord Jesus Christ by Him in eternity. My oh my. Now let's read verse
9 again. But now after that ye have known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire to be again in bondage?
Now after God's revealed Himself to us in Christ Jesus, now we
know the true living God. Now we know him by his grace,
by his mercy. We know him because he chose
us. He foreknew us. He foreknew us. And Paul brings before the Galatians
here, why are you going to turn back to that stuff? Why are you
going to turn back to rituals? Why do you want to put yourself
under bondage to things that you were in bondage before, but
you were in bondage to God you didn't know? And now, here, the Judaizers,
they want to put them under the law, which is rituals, ceremonies,
keeping of holy days. Well, Christ fulfilled all those,
beloved. They were just but types and
pictures of Christ, weren't they? All those sacrifices pointed
to Christ. All of them. On the day of atonement,
they bought two goats. One was the sacrifice, one was
the scapegoat. No one knew which one. And when
the lot fell on the one, it was the sacrifice, and when the lot
fell on the other, it was the scapegoat. That pictures Christ,
doesn't it? He's our sacrifice, and he's
our scapegoat, carrying our sins to a place where God don't remember
them no more. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And Paul's astonished that these
who are professed believers would want to be in bondage again to
the things from which Christ has set them free, which we're
going to see in chapter five. We've been set free, beloved.
We're set free. We're no longer slaves. Now,
Zayn and I had a good talk this week. We're servants for Christ,
but we're willing servants because we love him. See, we were serving
them false gods. I never even thought of that
until just now. When we were serving all those false gods,
we were in bondage and slavery to them. Not out of love, but
out of duty. But now, out of love, we serve
the Lord. Gladly, right? Or like that once, okay, bore
my ear, Lord, I'm yours forever. Hey, it's so true, isn't it?
I'm yours, Lord. And the Mosaic law had been given
specifically to the nation of Israel. You know, it was made
up of three parts, right? The Ten Commandments, the ordinances,
and then the whole worship system, which included, again, the priesthood,
the tabernacle, the offerings, and the festivals. And there
was 600, I looked this up, 613 laws. 613 laws that they had
to observe from the Old Testament. No wonder the Lord had to come
fill them, we couldn't even do one. He fulfilled them all, beloved,
for us. 613 Jewish commandments from
the Old Testament, which were to be observed. And then by the
time the Lord had come, they'd even added more traditions of
man, hadn't they? My, oh, my. And there was times and seasons
which were to be observed. They called them holy days. There
were ceremonies they had to observe. And they would, see what they
were trying to do? These Gentiles were set free. Like we are. We're
set free. And these Judaizers were just
trying to yoke them up in bondage. You gotta do this to be saved.
You gotta do this other thing to be saved. Along with Christ. And I even wonder if they even
said with Christ. My oh my, because once you add
the law again, or anything we have to do, there's no grace
there, is there? Grace has vanished. Because grace
comes to us with nothing in our hands. We have nothing in our
hands to offer to the Lord. We are bankrupt sinners in desperate
need of Christ. And all those things that they
were Trying to yoke again the Gentile believers under Christ
has already fulfilled them all. He's the end of the law for righteousness,
isn't he? Turn, if you would, to one chapter
over, Galatians chapter three. And note, we have a similar portion
here. What Paul's gonna do here in
Galatians three is he's going to contrast the law and grace.
We're almost finished, I just look at the clock. We're almost
done here. Look at this in Galatians chapter 3, starting verse 1 to
7. O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, so these Judaizers
have come in and bewitched them, that you should not obey the
truth before whose eyes Christ had been evidently set forth,
crucified among you. So Paul preached Christ and him
crucified, the only Savior of sinners, just like I do, just
like all grace preachers do, just Christ, right? This only
will I learn of you. Number one, received ye the spirit
by works of the law or by the hearing of the flesh? So did
you receive the spirit by these so-called works that these Judaizers
are saying you have to do, or did you receive it by the hearing
of faith? Well, by the hearing of faith,
of course, right? Are you so foolish, having begun in the
Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? That's a good question
for us to ask people who try to put us under the law. Well,
are you made perfect by something you do? Because I ain't. No. I'm only saved by Christ and
Him alone. No one else. Nothing else. Right? Oh my. Have you suffered so many
things in vain? If it be yet in vain, now they've
been persecuted for their faith, beloved. He, therefore, that
ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you,
doeth it he by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
Well, of course, by the hearing of faith, right? Even as Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness, know
ye, therefore, that they which are of the faith, the same are
the children of Abraham. So we see then in verse 9, Paul
is asking our dear brethren in the Galatian churches, why are
you going back to bondage? Why? After you've been set free,
why are you going back to bondage? Oh my! Look at verse 9 one more
time here. Look at this. But now after that
ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye
again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire
again to be in bondage? Bondage. And notice the word
weak there in that, you know what that's translated? Strengthless. Strengthless. And then elements
in the Greek text means destitute. Destitute. Begging. And then
bondage in verse 9 means slave. Oh, strengthless, destitute slaves. That's what we were. And Paul's
saying, you want to go back to that? You want to go back to
that? Listen to this verse in the Greek
literal Bible. But now having known God, but rather having
been known by God, more importantly, how do you turn again to the
weak and destitute principles to which you desire to be enslaved
again anew? Enslaved all over again. That's
why the message called bondage again. Paul's saying, why? You're free. And the law and
the ceremonies and the observance of holy days could never give
life, could never give righteousness, could never give joy, could never
give peace, could never give comfort, could never give salvation. It only comes in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. So any hope that a religious
person has outside of Christ is nothing but a false hope. It's a refuge of lies. Oh my,
may God show you mercy to flee the Lord Jesus Christ, the only
Savior of sinners. Brother Travis, can you close
us in prayer?