Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, we can now turn to Galatians.
So we're in Galatians.
What chapter?
Anybody?
Four. That's right. It's on the paper.
It's the easy first one.
So we're doing an inductive Bible study. Let's remind everyone. What is an inductive Bible study?
Yeah, we're studying just the immediate details and context at first, and then we want to also think after that about larger context from the book or from that Testament or from the entire Bible even. We want to kind of take in all that we can to help us understand these passages. Who wrote Galatians?
Paul. Who was Paul?
What?
[00:01:01] Speaker B: He was an apostle.
[00:01:02] Speaker A: He was an apostle. That's right.
How did he become an apostle? Was he following Jesus all his life like the others?
No. Right. What, what happened?
[00:01:15] Speaker B: Yeah, he was on this road and.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: Like light came out.
[00:01:18] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:01:22] Speaker A: So after Jesus ascended into heaven, he confronted Paul or Saul on the road and called him to not only follow him, but even to be an apostle.
So Paul is writing to the Galatians. Why is he writing to the Galatians?
[00:01:44] Speaker B: Mm, because they're being legalistic.
[00:01:46] Speaker A: They're being legalistic. What? Can someone tell us what being legalistic means?
Yeah, you're trying to justify yourself through works, not faith. So you might just be doing good works, or in the Galatians case, they're doing kind of unnecessary works. They're applying laws that do not apply in order to be justified.
So there's kind of a couple different kinds of legalism. Right. You can require things that are not required for salvation, or also you can do things that is true obedience, things that God does call us to do, but you are doing it also for justification. Both types of legalism are wrong, and I think we can apply them to Galatians.
Okay, so how is this book laid out?
What does he do? You know, what's he telling them in the first couple of chapters? Does anybody remember?
[00:03:06] Speaker B: Yeah, basically he says that he has the gospel because he got from Jesus himself.
And like all the other apostles.
Yeah, all the other apostles, like, they gather together and like. Yeah, your gospel.
[00:03:24] Speaker A: It's like.
[00:03:24] Speaker B: That is correct.
[00:03:25] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:03:27] Speaker A: It's kind of like the whole first half of the book.
We could summarize by saying Paul is telling them my gospel is the gospel. He's not saying that in a self elevating way, like I created the gospel. No, he's just saying the gospel I preach to you is the true one because I got it from Jesus.
I didn't hear from other people. And twisted around the other apostles who knew Jesus during his life on earth. They have heard it and affirm what I teach.
And so there's this argument from experience and from other people affirming.
And then he kind of turns into more of a scriptural argument for why his gospel is true and also how they're violating it. So in chapter three, what do we see him do?
What are some of the arguments he brings up? He's talking about faith.
[00:04:21] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:04:22] Speaker D: Contrast faith. Justified by.
You said justified by faith versus justified by the law.
[00:04:27] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: So he's.
[00:04:30] Speaker D: Sorry, I also thought he mentioned something about how Jesus fulfilled the law.
[00:04:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: So he's. You're right. He's contrasting justification by works or by faith. Works do not work. And he's also. So they just. It just doesn't work. You cannot do it. You could only ever be justified by faith. That's your only hope.
He's also saying we ought not require this sort of obedience to the law for justification because Jesus fulfilled it.
What's another Old Testament character? He brings up a lot to make the scriptural argument Abraham. Right. Does anyone remember why he's bringing up Abraham?
Think you might know?
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Because Abraham was justified because he, like, believed in Jesus.
[00:05:24] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:05:25] Speaker B: Then later became the law.
[00:05:28] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:28] Speaker B: And it's like it never changed.
[00:05:31] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:05:31] Speaker B: Abraham, like whenever he died.
[00:05:33] Speaker C: Yeah, right.
[00:05:33] Speaker A: Abraham was justified because he believed God's promise. And Paul also points out that not only was that just evident, he believed the promise that was his, how he was justified.
But the law didn't come for hundreds of years afterward. So how could anybody be justified before the law?
Well, it's. Because that's not what justified. Even after the law came, it was justification by faith in the promise. And the law had a few important functions that he mentions.
Well, now, most recently, we were. What was the last section we did?
We're kind of at the end of three.
Sorry, I got to get to it.
Yeah, we did 3, 26 through 4 7.
So that was two weeks ago now.
So does anyone remember what he was saying in this section just right before where we're going to be today?
Yeah, yeah, I think he is talking about that. He's talking about how the people are being brought together. They're all justified the same way. That's why we have that famous verse where he says, there's neither Jew nor Greek.
They're justified the same way. There's neither slave nor free. They're justified the same.
He says male and female are also justified in the same way. He's not saying there's no such thing as Greeks or Jews, no such thing as slaves or free people. There's no such thing as men or women. He's just saying it doesn't matter where you're coming from, what you're like, who you are, you can be justified by faith in Christ, all of you.
And as an important application, we should be unified in the Church, no matter how different we are, no matter how much if we were in the outside world, how much we might rival and not like each other.
We love each other instead, because we can all be justified undeservingly because of Christ. He brings us together. He calls us Abraham's offspring, children of God, heirs of this inheritance, as in inheriting the kingdom of God with Christ.
All these are amazing truths.
But then he kind of goes into verse eight, where we're going to start today.
And he is as many of your maybe you have a subtitle that says this. He's addressing his concern.
What is his concern for these people?
So let's read verses 8 through 11 and we'll talk about those.
He says, formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
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?
You observe days and months and seasons and years.
I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
So as we can see that we're learning a lot of encouraging lessons.
Let's just remember his tone. Remember how he started chapter three. He says, o foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? And now he's saying, I may have labored over you in vain.
So just remember how he's writing now in this first verse. Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
Are there any themes that seem familiar in this verse that may be tied to what we've talked about or phrases that look familiar?
[00:09:41] Speaker B: It.
[00:10:09] Speaker A: Can someone read verse three of chapter four?
Someone read verse three.
Good, good.
When it says held in bondage, what does that mean? Or maybe you have a translation that uses a different word.
[00:10:30] Speaker D: Slavery.
[00:10:32] Speaker A: Slavery.
So that's just a few verses ago. He's saying they were held in slavery or in bondage by the elementary principles of the world.
And here what do we see? Again, he is talking and telling them you were enslaved.
So he's still. We're still having the Same discussion. There's a subtitle. We've, you know, taken two weeks since we've talked about this, but this is the same conversation.
He says, when you did not know God. So when they did not know God, what does that mean?
We use that phrase a lot. What does it mean when we say someone knows God or doesn't know God?
[00:11:12] Speaker D: Whether they're Christian or not?
[00:11:14] Speaker A: Yeah, whether they're Christian or whether they're converted or whether they've been justified. So he's saying when they did not know God, when they did not have faith, they were sin slaves.
Their slavery, as we saw before in verse 3, was to sin and the world.
They were worshiping anything but God. So he's bringing up that again. They were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. What he's saying is they're worshiping anything but God.
They're worshiping things, false gods themselves.
Which is a theme that Paul picks up often in his writing.
Will you turn over to Romans, chapter one? He writes something similar that I think can help us.
So just a little bit before where we are in Galatians, just a couple books in between, Romans 1, starting in verse 21.
For although they knew God, he's just talking about people of the world. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for any images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore, God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator who is blessed forever. Amen.
So notice there that not believing in God leads to being given up by God. To worship both idols of animals and man and worshiping themselves, they served the creature.
That just means something that is created. To serve and worship something that is created is futile, as Paul says, because there is a Creator to be. The Creator puts himself above all creatures.
Yet people, in their sin because they're enslaved to it, will always turn to serve and worship the creature, something like them. Now, maybe a bird or an animal doesn't seem much like you, but you have much more in common with a bird than you do with God.
You are a creature.
That's what they served. Now, later in that same passage, Paul mentions how one common form of this creature worship is homosexuality, which I think is important because that seems to be a heavy emphasis. It seems to be almost like a pinnacle of worshiping oneself in such a way that you idolize you, worship you, romantically pursue other humans resembling yourselves. The point is that human nature and sin, though it plays out in different ways in people's lives.
Wants to serve and worship himself or herself. That's what sinful humans want when they are enslaved to sin, which is what he's saying all people were like before they know God. Before you know God. That is what you want. You serve yourself.
And so I think in Galatians 4, and you can flip back there, he's using verse 8 to refer to all sorts of sinful slavery that is true of people when they don't know God.
So I think that's what he's doing there now. Verse 9, it says, 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.
So I kind of mentioned this a minute ago.
What are you imagining? Paul's tone is like. What do you think it's like? Someone describe it.
Reprimanding. Or you can. You could.
You could mimic it how you think it would sound.
Yeah, I think he's reprimanding.
That's a good. Yeah. How are you doing this?
I think.
I think I experienced this this last week. It's like when. It's like when I take people to. To Buc ee's Zion, the promised land, and they complain about it.
I still can't believe.
Was mind boggling to me. I was flabbergasted.
That's how I think he's reading it when I was.
I wish Jaylee was here because we were joking about it in the van. I would, you know, like I was just nailing her on it, you know, like, how could.
What do you mean? It is like an amusement park on a road trip.
And I just couldn't believe it that I think that's how he is. He just cannot understand how they have been freed from sin like that slavery, descend to worship themselves and do all these grotesque things.
But they're like. They're freed from it and they're like, no, no, no chains. Actually put those back on.
I want to go back that way.
That's actually what I want.
I'd rather go back and serve the elementary principles of the world rather than the Creator.
They're choosing to go back now. Just as a reminder. What are the elementary principles of the world?
We did talk about this two weeks ago.
But what do we say it means?
And if you don't remember, you can just guess. It's okay.
Yeah, the elements. Yeah, I think there's something to be said for that. I think that's included in the meaning.
Yeah, I think. I think that's kind of what I think Gabe was saying. Yeah, just like basic elements that make up the world.
Yeah, I do think it's related to that. I think what he's doing is he is using this elements, just basic building blocks of the created universe, like matter.
But he's using it, maybe the words metaphorically to help us understand just like the basic tenets of the world. And this world is absolutely infected with sin.
And so I think what he's doing is he's just saying they want to turn back and serve. Just like the created things, the sinful things, which is what they're doing when they are being legalistic, they're just turning back into the world to serve it.
So the routine way of the world that is dominated by sin, I think that's what he means. Now, the worst part is they're again, they're doing this after coming to know God.
They knew God. They were once enslaved to sin, but then they learned and encountered God and know him, as verse 6 says, as Abba Father. They know him intimately as their own Father, yet they are turning from their father.
You know, few, few things can seem more painful than children turning on their parent. Yet that's what they're doing.
They truly came to know God. And while they truly did know God, something even more important is asserted to kind of strengthen how crazy this rebellion is.
What does he say?
He emphasizes that God knew them.
It's not just that they knew who God was. God knew them.
This elevates the rebellion, the scandal of the rebellion that they're doing.
By telling them you just didn't know God. He knew you.
Which is to say, he loved them.
He called them to himself.
They were true converts ultimately because God knew them, not because they knew God.
They were true converts because of that relationship initiated by him and because he initiated to know them. That is how they can know him in the first place.
God as the Creator is high and above.
If he does not reveal Himself to us, we cannot know Him.
But we can know about God all the way from looking at his creation to his special revelation in the Bible. He has made Himself known.
If he did not do that, we would all just be serving the creature. We would have no understanding of the Creator. So the fact that he knew them and called them, and then they knew him and turned from him, that is the offense that Paul cannot believe.
So be careful that if God is calling you to himself to turn from your sins and trust him, don't delay. And when you turn and know him, hold onto him, cling to Jesus, trust in him, and love him.
But instead, for the Galatians, it appears that they'd rather be slaves to the world again.
At least that's what their actions are communicating. I think if we probably talked to these Christians, they would say, no, I don't want to be a slave to the world. I love Jesus.
But the way they're acting in requiring Old Testament laws like circumcision, it just communicates something completely different.
Now, verse 10, he kind of gives this example out of his exasperation. He says, you observe days and months and seasons and years.
What does that mean?
We have days and months and seasons and years.
Right.
What does he mean? Does he just mean.
Well, I. I'll just say. I don't think he means just like Tuesdays and Julys and years and, you know, fall and winter and, you know, so what. What is he talking about?
Or what's your guess?
[00:22:59] Speaker D: It's like you see creation.
[00:23:01] Speaker A: I'm sorry, it's like you're saying, like.
[00:23:03] Speaker D: You see God, you see creation.
[00:23:07] Speaker A: That's a good guess, but I think it's actually something different. It is a little tricky.
Yeah, I think it's. I think because of the circumcision issue, I think he is referring to the Jewish calendar, the ritualistic calendar of worship.
Now, the main point, I believe people kind of debate this text a lot.
It's not the clearest text, but people kind of use it a lot when they're debating the Christian Sabbath, the Lord's day.
But I'll just say, without getting into the whole issue, I don't believe the point of what he's saying is to say no more Sabbath. What he is saying is that the festivals, the Sabbaths, the feasts, do not justify.
They don't.
You know, it is a matter of Christian liberty and disagreement as to whether or not we should completely rest from all labors on the Lord's Day.
But he's mostly saying those things do not justify not carrying a match or starting a fire on the Lord's Day, does not justify celebrating the Feast of Booths, does not justify the import that. So I think the justification because of the context of the passage is what we want to focus on. Now, just as an aside, many Christians believe that, you know, the Sabbath on Sunday stands. But if it ever crosses into being a matter of justification, that's the issue. The reason that even, you know, I don't presume that really anyone in here. Maybe somebody does believe that the Lord's day must be completely without work.
But if anyone does believe that it's for sanctification, it's to be made more like Christ. And even if we don't believe it, very few of your parents work on Sundays.
Very few.
There are very few. There are fewer things open. And there's a reason for this, because it is just normal for us to rest. But what Paul wants to declare is those things you're doing, you're trying to turn back to the Old Covenant. And that will not justify you. It won't.
This calendar won't justify you. Circumcision won't justify you. Only Jesus will.
And because of this, out of frustration, he ends this passage saying, I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
So what does this mean?
Like, what does he mean by labored?
[00:25:56] Speaker D: Maybe that his time was wasted.
[00:25:59] Speaker A: Yeah, his time. What was he. You know, what was he doing during his time?
Yeah, discipling them. He was trying to teach them the gospel that Christ had given him.
So his labor is referring to his ministry to them.
And he thinks he may have done it in vain. He had wasted his time with them.
His gospel ministry seems to not have taken root if they're so quickly turning. He's probably thinking even of the rocky soil in the parable of the sower and the seeds, how it sprouts up quickly, but it's choked out by the rocks.
Now, he may be thinking that this is them, but he. I think he probably also wants to shock them into reality by saying this.
They knew him well. They remembered what he did for them.
But now he is questioning, did I do this all for nothing?
That is how serious the issue is. Now, are there any Bible stories that this scene reminds you of?
Might be a little hard, but I'll read one. I actually think there are many.
You don't have to turn here for the sake of time. I'll just read it. Exodus 14, verses 5 through 12.
So the people are gonna. They've left Egypt now. Verse 5. When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people. And they said, what is this we have done that we have let Israel go from serving us? So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him. And and took 600 chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt, with officers over all of them. And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel. While the people of Israel were going out defiantly, the Egyptians pursued them all, Pharaoh's horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea by PI Hahiroth in front of BAAL Zephon.
When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the Lord. They said to Moses, Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt? Leave us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians, for it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.
Israel did the same thing that the Galatians did several times over. This is just one example.
They forsook the grace of God that was delivering them from slavery, and they wanted to go back. They wished they had never left.
Paul's using this same imagery, probably bringing this story and others to their minds, so that with the power of the Holy Spirit, they won't continue to desire slavery to the world like ancient Israel did.
Unlike Israel, they do have the Spirit. They have conviction. They have the ability to walk with God closer because of him dwelling with them.
Paul wants them to see this.
Don't make the mistake that Israel made.
That's what he wants them to see.
He knows that they should know the story of the Exodus. They know that Israel wanted to go back to slavery, and they're doing the same thing. They must not do that.
Now, as we close, let's apply this passage. I have four things.
So we learn in this passage about conversion that all people were once slaves to sin and alienated to God.
So I want you to think, is that you.
Are you in slavery to sin? Are you an alien to God?
Or are you clawing to get back there?
Are you trying to still hold onto your sin while while claiming to know God?
You cannot do that.
Second, we learn that through conversion we become known by God and know him truly.
We become known by him and know him truly.
One of my former professors, Thomas Schreiner, he wrote something, he said, a new relationship has commenced, a new love has dawned. A a new Lord is the passion of our lives.
Conversion is not marked by merely doing what God commands, it manifests itself in an intimacy with God, a love for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Do you truly love the Lord Jesus Christ?
Third, knowing God is a gift. It's a gift given to us by God's election, where he first knows us and he lovingly reveals himself to us.
And then finally, another quote from Tom Schreiner. He writes, we see the complexity of conversion in these verses.
Paul wonders if he has labored in vain over the Galatians. He contemplates the possibility that they are not truly converted at all.
Genuine conversion cannot be restricted to a one time event in the past.
Those who are saved demonstrate their new life by continuing in faith until the last day.
Their perseverance and faith functions as the evidence that they have truly come to know God.
Therefore, the grace of God can never become an excuse to sin. Those who are truly saved demonstrate such by clinging to the cross of Christ until the end.
So if that encourages you to not just look back at, you know, a card you may have filled out at a camp or a moment and say, well, that's good, you know, I got that. So many conversations I've had evangelistically in my life where people have just. I asked them about their, their faith, if they believe, what their walk is like, and that's the only thing they have.
Thirty years ago, you know, they prayed this prayer.
They checked the box on the card that said decision for Christ, but there's nothing to show after that. I don't want that to be any of you.
Remember, we demonstrate faith by walking with him, loving and clinging to the cross.
We don't just have this trump card, the get into heaven card as people sometimes call it.
That's not the point. We want. We must love the Savior, not simply want to avoid the consequences of our sin.
All right, we've gone much too late. So I will pray and we will resume next week.
Father, thank you for your word and for the gift of salvation. Lord, we pray that you would gift faith and salvation to everyone in here and that you would grow our love for your son, that we would persevere and be sustained in clinging to the cross of Christ.
God keep us from sneaky legalism that creeps up in the heart and in the actions unknowingly.
Lord, help us to grow more like Christ. And we pray this in his name. Amen.
