How Can You Turn Back?

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Good morning! Open up your Bibles to Galatians chapter 4 and today we're going to be looking at verses 8 through 11.
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Lord willing, we're going to look through all of that.
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We're halfway, a little bit more than halfway through the book, so I'm already kind of thinking about where we're going to go next, but of course we're still several months away, so yeah, okay, so maybe I shouldn't be looking too hard at what we're going to be doing next.
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Let's read.
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We're going to go to chapter 4, verse 8.
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Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
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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.
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I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
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Father in heaven, we come to you in Jesus' name.
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And Lord of mercies, I thank you for the opportunity to be with these men today.
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I look forward to this every week and I thank you for this blessing.
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I pray Lord as we engage the text today that you would first and foremost keep me from error.
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For Lord, I am certainly capable of that and don't want to preach error.
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And I pray for the hearts of these men, Lord, for those who are believers, I pray that today would be an encouragement to them and that the preaching of the gospel would be life to life for them.
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And Lord, for those who are not believers, I pray that today would be a challenge to their heart and by the work of the Spirit that they might fall under the conviction of the gospel and that they might go from death to life today.
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And Lord God, for those who might be teetering on the brink of recoiling from the gospel, those who might be considering going back to an old life, Lord, this text speaks directly to them.
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And so Lord, I pray that we would see the awesome application of the text today, that we would not put our hand to the plow and then look back, but that we would be as Christ has commanded us, those who put our hand to the plow and stay on the path.
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Father, I thank you for this opportunity to study your word.
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May your spirit be the teacher.
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In Christ's name, Amen.
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Excuse me, did you say Galatians? Galatians Galatians Galatians Galatians four, verse eight through 11, verse eight through 11.
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Right before you you were there when it was written.
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I want to I want to remind you just for a second of what we've learned so far.
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Because again, it's easy to forget.
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You guys go through different classes every day, different teachers every day.
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And so it's easy to kind of get off track as to where you're at.
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So we know we are in the book of Galatians, which is Paul's letter.
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First writing of the Apostle Paul.
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This is the first letter that he wrote that we know of in the New Testament.
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And he's writing it as an argument against the Judaizers.
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The Judaizers were those who had come into the region of Galatia after he had planted the churches there.
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And they came in preaching that his gospel was insufficient.
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The gospel of grace, the gospel of justification by faith is not enough.
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Yes, Jesus is necessary, but Jesus is only part of the equation.
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You also must keep the law.
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You must also hold fast to all of the ceremonial requirements of the nation of Israel that the nation of Israel received from God on Mount Sinai.
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Those are the rules.
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And that was what was being taught by the Judaizers.
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And Paul repudiates that.
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Paul says that is a false gospel.
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It is either Christ and nothing else or it's a false gospel.
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That's it.
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You cannot add law.
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You cannot add requirements.
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You cannot add anything to the work of Christ.
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You either are trusting in Him alone or you're not trusting in Him at all.
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And that is the message of Paul in Galatians.
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We have seen in the first two chapters, he defends his his apostleship and his message.
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And then in chapter three, he explains by way of using Scripture and history and the life of Abraham and the example of a child being raised by a disciplinarian.
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Remember, we called them the pedagogos, what the Bible calls a schoolmaster.
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That person is in charge of their life.
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And he said that's what the law was.
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The law was in charge of Israel until the Son came, until Christ came.
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And when Christ came, Christ came with the purpose of giving us the faith.
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And he says when the faith came, that which was held under bondage is no longer in effect.
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Now, we've had a lot of talks over the last several weeks, and I'm certainly not saying that the law has no purpose.
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But what did we learn? The law cannot save.
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That's Paul's whole point.
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Paul's not saying the law doesn't have a purpose.
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Paul's not saying the law can't have a benefit, that the law doesn't show us certain things about the character and nature of God.
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But the point is this, if you believe that you are being saved by adhering to the law rather than saved by the finished and completed work of Christ, then you are wrong.
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In fact, you are, as he says in chapter 1, you are cursed.
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Chapter 1, verses 6-9, he says if anyone teaches a false gospel, and a false gospel of law, then let him be accursed.
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So now we come to verse 8 of chapter 4.
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And Paul is actually ending his argument that he's been making since the beginning of chapter 3.
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This is sort of the closing statement of his argument.
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Because in chapter 4, verse 12, look at it with me real quick.
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He says, brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as you are.
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That's what we're going to look at next week.
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And basically what he's doing in verse 12 is he's moving from his argument, this is why I'm right, this is why what I've said is correct, this is the truth based on scripture, based on history, based on logic, this is why I'm right.
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And in verse 12 of chapter 4, he's moving to an entreaty or what we would call an encouragement.
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Okay, now that I've told you these things, I want to encourage you.
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And so his entire, really his entire argument shifts from one of reasoning to one of appealing.
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You ever been there with someone? You reason with them, you tell them why they're wrong, and you explain all the things, and then when you're done reasoning, you say, now I want you to know I love you and I want you to change.
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You know, so that's where the shift comes in verse 12.
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He moves from reason to appeal.
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We're going to see that more next week.
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So today we're looking at the last part of his reasoning argument, the last part of this, and basically what he is going to ask them in this section is a very simple question.
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How can you even consider going back to where you were? How can you even consider going back to the condition that you were in prior to coming to Christ, prior to hearing the Gospel? How can you even fathom going back? That is the question, and that is the shortened version of what he says in verses 8 through 11.
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So let's look beginning at verse 8.
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You know how I normally do this? I just go word for word, line for line, and I explain it as we go.
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I teach in sort of a commentary style.
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So in verse 8 it says this, formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not God's.
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Now when is he talking? He says formerly.
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When is this? When is he referring to? Well, this time period that he's talking about is he's talking about the time before they had the Gospel.
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The Galatians, which we know is southern Turkey, in the Bible you read about Iconium, Lystra, Derbe, all those cities that Paul brought the Gospel to on his missionary, that's Galatia.
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So Paul is saying to the Galatians, there was a time when you did not know God.
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There was a time when you were a pagan.
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Most likely they lived under the pagan religions of the day, whether it be the Roman pantheon of gods or possibly the Greek pantheon of gods, and there was a lot of overlap between the Roman gods and the Greek gods.
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This idea that there isn't a one single God who created all things, but that there is a pantheon or a group of gods, and the sea has his God, it's Poseidon, and love has its God, and that's Astarte or Ishtar.
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And then you have the other gods, Zeus and Jupiter, and depending on whether or not you had a Roman background or a Greek background, there might be some overlap in those.
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And so that is likely the religious background that these people had.
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They had a belief in gods who were much like men, because the Greek gods were essentially just very powerful men.
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And the reason why the world was always suffering the constant turmoil that it was, was the gods were at war with one another.
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And you had Ares, who was the god of war, and of course he would be embattled, and that's why the sea would roar, and the lightning would strike, and that was of course the lightning of Zeus, you know, was the power.
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And so there's this idea of the gods, and this was paganism, and this has always been the default of mankind.
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Read Romans 1, and what does it say? Men know that God exists, they suppress that truth and unrighteousness, and they replace the Creator with created things.
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They worship animals, look back at ancient times, or not ancient, but look back at the older times of the Native Americans.
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What did they worship? The animals, and the trees, and the fields, and they said there was the Great Spirit, right, who was over these things.
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And it was always something to do with the created order.
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It was always something to do with worshipping the animals, or worshipping the earth itself, and you see that today.
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Think about how many people today worship the planet.
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You say, I've never seen anybody worship the planet.
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I can show you videos of people that cry out to the trees for forgiveness.
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Yeah, and they cry out to the trees, oh forgive us for for cutting you down, as if the trees are going to say it's cool.
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You know, I mean, they're not going to answer, but there's this idea of a spirit world that exists within the natural realm, and so this is the paganism that would have been among the Galatians.
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And Paul says formerly, that's what he's referring to, and then he says, when you did not know God, understand this, all of the people who say, well my God is in the trees, or my God is in the bushes, or my God is the great eagle, or my God is Zeus, or Olympus, they do not know God.
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They do not know God.
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Years ago, and I don't know if I've ever told this story before, but I know Bobby's heard it, when I went into Kmart, and that's how long ago it was, I didn't even Kmart anymore, and I was looking for a pair of shoes, and as I walked in, I used to carry a gospel, I still carry gospel tracks, but I used to carry a gospel track with me that had a optical illusion on the front.
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So if you looked at it, it sort of had a cool little thing that it would change color, and it would look like it was spinning.
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It was kind of neat to look at, and then on the back it would have a gospel message.
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And so I walk up and I say, hey look at this, it's pretty cool, and by the way, when you get done looking at it, on the back there's a message, read it.
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It was just a nice sort of polite way to hand someone the gospel, right? So I walked into Kmart, and there was a lady who worked at Kmart, and I said, can I give you this to look at? And she said, sure, and she took it, and I walked past her, and I walked back to look at the shoes.
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As I was standing there looking at the shoes, she walks up to me, she found me, walks up to me, and she shoves it at me, and she says, I don't want this.
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I said, okay, thank you for not tearing it up, because most people who I give tracks to, if they don't want it, they'll tear it up, throw it away, and I have found tracks that I've given away torn up on the ground, so it's kind of nice to have it back, and I can give it to somebody else.
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So I just said, thank you, and I went back to looking at the shoes, and she stood there, like hands on her hips, like tapping her toe, like she's waiting on me to say something, and I'm like, well, I guess this is going to happen, because I wasn't in the mood to engage her, not that I wasn't, well, I just didn't want to get into an argument in the middle of Kmart.
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Yeah, she's just, she's tapping her foot, and she said, don't you want to know why I don't want it? I said, I know very well why you don't want it.
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I know why, I don't have to guess, and she said, well, I just want you to know that my goddess would never send anyone to hell.
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I said, you're right, because your goddess doesn't exist, and she just, I said, your goddess is a figment of your imagination.
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She does not exist, therefore she doesn't have the power to send anyone to hell.
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I said, and the real thing is, she's just like you, because you've created a God in your image, rather than believing the God whom you were made in His image.
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The problem is, you don't know God, and you've created a God in your own mind.
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Well, what was interesting is, we went on to have a very good conversation after that, and toward the end of it, she was writing down Bible verses and things.
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I don't know if she ever got saved, pray the Lord she did, and she certainly didn't fall down on her knees and start praising Jesus, but it was a good interaction, because I was willing to be honest with her.
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You're lying to yourself, you have created a God in your own mind, you don't know God, and she knew she didn't.
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Yeah.
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She knew His eternal power in God, and so that day without excuse.
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Yes.
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So, I mean, even knowing, like I was saying about the woman you were talking about, she just made her, it was a figment of her imagination, but I'm sure she knew.
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Well, I'm getting there.
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You jumped ahead of me, because that's in my notes, but like that's two lines down, so you're a little ahead of me.
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It's alright, because I'm getting there, because I do believe that all men know that God exists, but not all men know God.
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I think, too, like you said before, is that people will take God's name and say, and they always preface it with, My God.
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Yeah, well, My God wouldn't send someone to hell.
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Exactly, it's always, it's because they've created an idol.
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John Calvin said this, he said, John Calvin said, the human mind is a factory of idols.
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It's constantly creating new idols to believe in, and that's the problem.
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That's what, I mean, when the Jehovah's Witnesses come to my door, they have created an idol.
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When the Mormons come to my door, they have created, the goal in conversating with them is to share the Gospel with them and to show them their idolatry.
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You have created a God in your own mind.
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So, it's a figment of their imagination.
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Yes, but go ahead.
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You're right, but some people know, they use it as a lifestyle, too.
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I got a couple of friends that are older than me.
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You know what I'm saying? They believe in Greek mythology and stuff like that.
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Yeah, well, that's Viking, right? The Norse, Norse mythology.
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Yeah, so they believe in Thor, not the Marvel version, but yeah.
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It's interesting.
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Did you know Thursday is actually Thor's day? That's where the word, yeah, and I've heard a lot of arguments for that.
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Well, yeah, we celebrate Thor's day, you know, on Thursday.
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Okay, whatever.
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Saturday, Saturn day, a lot of our names come from mythology, Greek mythology and Roman.
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So, yeah, it's definitely got its influences for certain.
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But I want to show you all a verse because this is very important.
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I want you to, the difference between knowing God exists and knowing God.
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Turn to Ephesians 2 and look at verse 11 because what's interesting, Ephesians 2, 11 is almost the same argument that Paul's making in Galatians 4, 8.
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Because Paul is saying, formerly you did not know God.
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Now look at Ephesians 2, 11.
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He says, Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision which is made in the flesh by hands.
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Remember that you at one time were separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
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Now that's a longer version of what Paul says in Galatians 4, 8.
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When he says, formerly you did not know God.
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Here he explains what it means to not know God.
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It means that you're separate from Israel.
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It means you're separate from the covenants.
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It means you have no hope.
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If you do not know God, you have no hope.
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That's a powerful thought.
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How many people do you know who live hopeless existence? Just this past week I got a message from a friend of a friend who had committed suicide.
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He committed suicide.
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What leads a man to hang himself or to put a gun barrel in his mouth? What leads a man to take an overdose on purpose? Hopelessness.
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Hopelessness, right? And so, that is the natural condition of the lost person.
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Hopeless.
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Why do you think there has been a tremendous rise, not only in drugs and alcohol, but in the participation in the prescription medications to try to numb the senses? To try to get to a point where I can feel some happiness because all I have is hopelessness.
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That is the state of the unbelieving world.
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It is a hopeless state.
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All men know God exists, but not all men know God.
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And knowing God exists and knowing God are two different things.
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So going back to Galatians 4.
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Formerly, when you did not know God, so in a longer way you could say, formerly when you were hopeless, when you were outside of Israel, when you were outside of the covenants, when you did not have any hope, formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
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A pagan person may think he is free, but in actuality he is a slut.
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Have you ever heard somebody say, I do not need your God, I am a free thinker.
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I was outside of a Trump rally, back when he was running for president in 2016-ish, and we went there just to hand out tracts.
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And I was not there because it was Trump, I was there because there were thousands of people, and I got gospel tracts, and I want to hand them out.
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So I am walking down the line of all these people that are waiting to see Donald Trump, and I am handing out gospel tracts, and most of them nice people, taking them from me, thank you, reading it.
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As I go by, I am looking back, and I am seeing people reading the gospel tracts.
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I get to this one old boy, and I go to hand it out, I do not want it.
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Do not you want to know why? I know why.
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I always know why.
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I do not need you to explain your sin.
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Like the Bible, I know why.
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You do not want it? No, I did not.
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In my heart, I am screaming, I know.
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And he starts telling me how much of a free thinker he is, and how I needed to give up this whole religion because I needed to learn to be a free thinker like him.
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And this cat, he was something else.
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He just looked like a really strange fellow.
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I do not know if you have ever seen...
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Well, never mind.
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He looked strange.
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I was going to mention a movie, but we will leave it be.
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He just looked kind of weird.
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And he is all up in my face, yelling about how much of a free thinker he is.
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And behind me, there is a woman who had been selling like flags or something, and she apparently agreed with him.
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So she is now behind me.
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So I am the meat in an idiot sandwich.
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I am surrounded.
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And she is behind me.
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And if I am lying, I am dying.
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This is exactly what happened.
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She goes, We are all energy! We are all energy! And she is yelling while he is talking.
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And I was like, this could be the best story of my life.
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And I tried to reason with him.
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You cannot reason with someone who is unreasonable, and he wasn't reasonable.
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But the point of the matter is, these people were, I am so free! No, you are not.
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You are enslaved to sin.
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You are so enslaved, and you don't even realize the bounds that hold you.
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A pagan thinks he is free, but he is actually enslaved.
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He is enslaved to sin.
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And he is enslaved to the spiritual forces of this world.
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Look at what it says.
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It says, You are enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
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What is he talking about? The Galatians were pagans.
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And because they were pagans, they were enslaved to their pagan religions.
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They were enslaved to the pagan spirits.
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And Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians, behind those pagan deities are actually demonic spirits.
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Do you realize that? The Bible tells us that we don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers over the present darkness, against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
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There is real spiritual evil in this world.
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People don't believe that.
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Oh, that spiritual...
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If you believe the Bible, you can't help but believe that.
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That there are spiritual forces in this world.
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There are spiritual forces whose purpose is to be opposed to the things of God.
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And what Paul is saying, he's saying Galatians, understand this, before you knew God, you were slaves to those who were not gods and who were not gods.
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Demons.
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That's what he's talking about.
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He says you were actually enslaved to them.
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In fact, Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 10.
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You don't have to turn there, but verses 19 and 20, he says that the food that is offered to idols is actually offered to demons and not to God.
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And I don't want you to participate in the table of demons.
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In that context, he's talking about because Christians in his day would go into the pagan temples and eat.
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And they would say, well, I'm free in Christ.
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Can't I just go in here and just enjoy this paganism? I mean, it's good meat.
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It's cheap.
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And the meat was cheap because the meat was used to sacrifice to the false gods.
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And then they would take that meat and they would sell it as meals.
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And so the meat was cheaper.
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And so the Christians would go and enjoy the cheap meat.
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And maybe there was some kind of an event happening.
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They would go into the temple and they would enjoy the food.
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And Paul's saying, don't you understand that you're sitting at the table of a demon? Yes, you have liberty in Christ, but why would you use that liberty to go enjoy the table of a demon? You know, a lot of people tell me all the time, I have freedom in Christ.
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I can do whatever I want.
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Okay.
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But why? Why would you want to enjoy that for which Christ died? Why would you want to fill your minds and hearts with the things that Christ died over? Why do we love sin so much? So Paul is saying, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.
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Essentially, I understand this to mean you were enslaved to the demonic forces of the world.
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So Paul is reminding them where they were spiritually.
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Before Christ, you did not know God and you were enslaved to your idolatry which was ultimately demonic.
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Verse 9.
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But now...
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Don't you love that word? The adversative, but.
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You guys got shirts that say, but God.
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Right? Well, but now is a very similar term.
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Huh? Love but.
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Okay.
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I didn't hear.
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You said it kind of fast.
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I had to think about what you were saying.
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Okay.
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Yes.
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Love the word but.
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But now that you have come to know God or rather to be known by God.
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I love it when Paul corrects himself because the Bible...
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Hear me now because this is very important.
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This is a theological statement that I'm about to make and it's very important.
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The whole Bible is true.
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The whole Bible is God-breathed.
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It is without error and it is infallible.
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I believe that.
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But it is written through the agency of men whose styles and whose language and vocabulary are not removed from the text.
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Paul writes differently than John.
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John writes much differently than the writer of Hebrews.
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John has the simplest of the Greek.
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Hebrews has the highest of Greek.
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And so there's a much different vocabulary and style which is used.
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And that is not removed simply because it's superintended by the Holy Spirit.
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And what's interesting in text like this, Paul says something and then he says, well, actually...
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And it's almost as if he's correcting himself.
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Both statements are true.
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Neither statement is false.
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But he wants to make sure we understand.
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He says, but now that you have come to know God or actually that God knows you.
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Because let me ask you a question.
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What's more important? You know God or God knows you? Very important that God knows you.
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And you say, well, God knows everything.
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Yes, God knows everything in the sense that God has all knowledge.
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But when the Bible uses the word know, K-N-O-W, when the Bible uses the word know, it's always in the sense of a relationship.
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Go back to Adam and Eve.
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Adam knew Eve and they conceived and bore a child.
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What is the word know there? Does it just mean He knew who she was? No, it speaks of intimacy.
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Amos 3.2 God is speaking to Israel through the prophet Amos and He says, O Israel, you have I known of all the nations of the world.
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Does that mean that He didn't know all the other nations? No, what it means is God had set His affection upon Israel.
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God's relationship and covenants was with Israel.
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So there was a different understanding of the word know.
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It doesn't simply mean taking in knowledge because God knows everything.
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God never takes in knowledge.
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God never learns.
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You ever thought of that? God doesn't learn because He who knows all things cannot learn.
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He cannot not know.
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So when He says, you above all I have known of all the nations, He's speaking of relationship.
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Jesus said this.
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He said, on that day, many will come to Me and say, Lord, Lord, did we not do many mighty works in Your name and miracles in Your name and cast out demons in Your name? And He said, depart from Me.
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I never knew you.
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See, that's why I say it's more important that God knows you than you know God.
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Because if you face Christ and He says, I never knew you, you've got a problem.
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You say, well, I knew you.
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Those people said, Lord, Lord.
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They thought they knew Him, but He didn't know them.
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So Paul is, in a sense, correcting his own statement here to help them understand that the most important thing is not that they know God, but that God knows them.
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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? How can you turn back? Now here's the very interesting part of this.
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When Paul is talking about them turning back, he's not talking about them turning back to paganism.
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Because even though that's where they came from, that's not what they're being tempted by.
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The Judaizers aren't coming and tempting them with paganism.
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The Judaizers are coming and tempting them with law keeping.
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But notice Paul is comparing their former life of paganism and the life the Judaizers are calling them to.
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A life which seeks to keep the law for salvation.
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He calls it the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world.
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And you say, wait a minute, how can he say that the law is weak and the law is elementary? He's already said those things.
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Go back and read verse 3.
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He calls it the elementary principles.
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Go back to chapter 2 and he talks about the law as being weak and unable to save.
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This is the context of what he's saying.
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And so here, he's saying if you go to the law for salvation, it would be the same as if you went back to your paganism.
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Because Judaizing is nothing but a biblically steeped version of the same paganism that you've always had.
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Trying to find salvation in what you do rather than what Christ has done.
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I want to read a quote by Martin Luther.
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Now you guys remember, this is not Martin Luther King.
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Martin Luther, 16th century German reformer.
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The Lutheran church is named after Martin Luther.
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He said this, Paul seems to think rather ill of the law.
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He calls it the elements of the world, the weak and beggarly elements of the world.
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Was it not irreverent for him to speak that way about the holy law of God? The law ought to prepare the way for Christ into the hearts of men.
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That is the true purpose and function of the law.
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But if the law, listen to this, this is key.
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If the law presumes to usurp the place and function of the gospel, it is no longer the holy law of God, but a false gospel.
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If the law seeks to usurp Christ as the way of salvation, then the law itself becomes a false gospel.
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That's a powerful thought.
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Because we're not saying the law is bad when it's used lawfully.
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And Paul himself says that.
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The law is good when it's used lawfully.
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But what is an unlawful use of the law? Trying to find your salvation in it.
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Trying to believe that in some way that is how you were saved.
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Or that is how you maintain your salvation.
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Is somehow by your law keeping.
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I'm going to tell you this.
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I got saved in 1999.
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And I am just as much dependent on the grace of Christ today as I was in 1999.
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More so today than I was in 1999.
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I didn't go from Christ to law keeping.
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I went from Christ to Christ to Christ to Christ.
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And every day, it's a relationship with God that is based on Christ, not on the law.
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Every day that I live, it's a relationship that is based on grace through faith, not on what I have done.
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When I face God at the end of my life and I look at Him and He says, why should I let you into heaven? If I say anything other than Jesus Christ, I will be damned.
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If I say it's because I was a pastor, damn you! If I say it was because I gave to the church, damn you! If I say it's because I went and preached and set free, damn you! But if I say it is Christ and Christ alone, then I will be welcomed into the kingdom.
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That is the difference.
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And so the law, when it is set up as a Savior, becomes a false gospel.
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And therefore, He says, how can you turn back to a false gospel? How can you turn back to the weak and worthless elementary principles when you have Christ? You know God more so.
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You are known by God.
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How can you go back? Now verse 10 seems to come up out of nowhere.
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But verse 10 and 11 are huge.
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Because verse 10 proves my point.
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Verse 10 He says, you observe days and months and seasons and years.
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That is a euphemism.
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A euphemism is an expression or a way of speaking.
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And the euphemism there is days and months and seasons and years was a way that the Jewish people would describe their keeping of the law.
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Because they kept their days, the Sabbath.
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They kept their months, which were their new moons and their festivals.
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They kept their seasons, which were their annual festivals and also their years.
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And so when it talks about the days and months and seasons and years, He is referring to the annual Jewish calendar.
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There was something that happened every week, that was the Sabbath.
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There was something that happened every month.
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There was something that happened during the seasons.
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There was something that happened annually, which was Yom Kippur, the day of atonement.
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So when He says days and months and seasons and years, He is very specifically addressing the fact that look at what you've done.
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You've gone from Christ back under the old law.
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You've gone from Christ to the keeping of these requirements.
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Very quickly, turn in your Bibles if you will to Colossians 2.
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This is the sister passage to this.
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Colossians 2.16 Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians.
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General Electric Power Company.
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If you have trouble, those four kind of come in a row.
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General Electric Power Company.
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Colossians 2.16 The Apostle Paul says this, Therefore, let no one pass judgment on you in question of food and drink or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath.
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These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.
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So all of the Old Testament feasts, festivals, and all of the calendar of the Old Testament were shadows that find their substance in Christ.
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Every one of the feasts points to the work of Christ.
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Every one of the sacrifices points to Christ.
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Even the Sabbath day points to Jesus Christ.
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I'm talking about this on Sunday mornings.
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For those of you who come on Sunday mornings, I'm preaching through Genesis.
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We're in Genesis 2 where God makes the Sabbath holy, that seventh day.
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Later, He's going to give it to Israel to observe.
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And then when it comes to the church, what do we have? Jesus says, come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you Sabbath.
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I will give you rest.
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Not one day in seven, but a rest for your soul.
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You will go from works to rest because you will rest in Me.
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He is the substance of all of those shadows of the old covenant.
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Remember this, if somebody says you have to keep the law, you have to keep the whole law.
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That's why He says here, observe days and months and seasons and years.
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Because it wasn't just they were saying you have to be circumcised.
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It wasn't just them saying you have to have the dietary restriction.
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They weren't just saying you have to keep the Sabbath.
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They were saying you have to keep everything.
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And at this point, the Galatians were doing it all because the Judaizers had come in and demanded of them a strict adherence to the ceremonies of the old covenant.
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And Paul says, you are turning back.
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You are turning back.
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Last verse, back in Galatians 4, verse 11.
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He says this, I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
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Think about that.
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That's kind of a harsh statement.
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What's that? Say it again, brother.
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He's afraid for your spiritual welfare.
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Yes, yes.
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And he's saying, I'm afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
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That word in vain means uselessly or for nothing.
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Wasting my efforts.
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Wasting my efforts.
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That's a good translation.
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And basically this statement has a two-fold intention.
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One, it shows his grief.
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This book is a grieving book for Paul.
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Paul, I tell you, you sometimes may think I get a little overpassionate when I'm teaching.
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I think Paul is yelling at certain points of this book.
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I think he is just absolutely beside it, especially in the first chapter when he says, if anyone preaches to you a Gospel that is contrary to the one you were given, let him be cursed.
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As I said when I preached that text, it literally means let him be damned.
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Let him be damned if he would preach something that is opposed to the Gospel that I gave you.
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Paul's message is clearly this.
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It has nothing to do with ego, but this is clearly Paul's message.
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My Gospel is the Gospel and anything that's opposed to it is not the Gospel.
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I got it from Christ and I make no apologies.
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I didn't get it from any man.
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I didn't get it from the Apostles, but I did take it to the Apostles and we spoke to one another and we all agreed we had the same Gospel, so it's not as if I have something else.
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But just know this, my Gospel is the Gospel and any Gospel that's opposed to my Gospel is not the Gospel.
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You say, well, who is Paul to say that? Paul is the man God chose to be this person.
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He is the one that was taken on the road to Damascus as Jesus' Gentile Apostle.
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You will be the Apostle to the Gentiles and that's who he is.
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Judaizers.
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Do you think they knew them? That's a good question.
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Let me say this.
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People ask me sometimes like false teachers today.
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Do they know they're false teachers? I think some do.
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There was a movie that came out years and years ago called Leap of Faith and it was with Steve Martin and it was about a false faith healer.
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And he knew he was a fraud.
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And he ate it up.
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I see guys like Benny Hinn.
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I think he knows he's a fraud.
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I really do.
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I don't see how after this many years he can't know that what he's doing is a trick.
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It's a magic trick.
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He's do this over here, don't look over here.
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It's a trick.
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But there are guys that I think are sincere and sincerely wrong.
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I don't want to name names to who I think might be sincere.
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But you can be sincere and wrong.
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Muslims are sincere.
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They're wrong.
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Because I guess that's all they've been taught.
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That's all they know.
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Well, but it's still an act of rebellion.
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They have the Scriptures and they don't...
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The thing about the Judaizers, and going back to the Judaizers, do I think they knew? I think they probably felt very righteous like the Pharisees felt very righteous.
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You must do this if you're going to be saved.
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They did not understand the Gospel.
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We have a sign.
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I made this sign years ago.
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It's just a big wide sign that says, Do you understand the Gospel? And we hang it up.
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When we go out and evangelize, we have a booth that we take.
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And I hang it up.
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Do you understand the Gospel? Because that's the key.
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If you don't understand the Gospel, if you don't understand what that means, then how can you really say that you know God or that you know Christ? Exactly.
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Then it says, For the invisible thing of Him from the creation of the world are plainly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
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Absolutely.
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None of them are going to...
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Anapologetus, the Greek there, it literally means that they are defenseless.
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When they face God, they will have no defense.
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I have a question.
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Yes, sir.
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You said that the last statement in verse 11 was a two-part...
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Intention? Yeah, I didn't get to read it yet.
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No, no, let me read it.
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One, it shows His grief at the fact that His preaching might have been useless, might have been in vain.
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That's grief.
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And I know that grief where you preach and you preach and you preach and you feel like it just didn't have any effect.
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That's the first.
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But the second thing, it's a rebuke.
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Not only does it show His grief, but it's a rebuke.
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When He says, I may have labored over you in vain, that's a rebuke.
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Because if somebody came to me, let's say I had been studying with someone for years, and they came to me, and you know what, I think the last few years have just been worthless because you haven't learned a thing.
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Boy, I'd be like, well, I think I'm going to go die now.
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I mean, that's a pretty harsh rebuke, right? So I think one, it shows His grieving heart as a pastor, teacher, elder in the church that He's an evangelist rather.
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Not an elder, but an evangelist.
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That He's that.
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And He's grieving over the fact that I planted these churches and I may have done so in vain because you're all turning back to a false gospel.
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But also, how dare you turn back to a false gospel? How dare you make my work in vain? And so it's a rebuke.
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So one, it's a word of grief, but it's also a word of rebuke.
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And it's both.
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Now I want to finish today's message.
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I want to close.
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We're about out of time anyway.
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I wrote something of a thought that I think is a good practical application.
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And by saying this, I want to preface this by saying I come here because I genuinely love you guys.
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This is one of the highlights of my week.
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You guys want to know the Scripture and you study with me and you write with me and you've got your Bibles open.
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This is a very encouraging time during the week.
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But it can also be discouraging.
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And this is how I want to bring this to an application for you guys.
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Because this ministry, Set Free, this is about recovery.
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And whatever brought you here, everybody's here for a different reason.
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Everybody came with a different background.
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Everybody has a situation that led them here.
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None of it was good.
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But every week I come, I recognize somebody's gone.
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Almost every week, I say, hey, where's this guy? Where's that guy? Well, Pastor, he went back.
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He went back to his old life.
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Sometimes it's a good notice.
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Pastor, he went on.
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He got a job.
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He's out.
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He's got a house.
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He's living.
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He's moved on.
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He's gone out of the program and things are good.
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Praise God.
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Nobody wants to be here forever.
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And I certainly don't want you guys to be here forever.
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I want to see you progress and move forward in Christ and in your life.
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But the one thing I do not want to see, and the one thing I know Pastor Mark does not want to see, is to see you go back to your former life.
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That's what Paul is saying to the Galatians.
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How can you even consider going back to where you were? How can you even consider going back? You know God.
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You have come to a place that's preaching the Gospel to you.
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How can you consider going back? Go ahead, brother.
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Ever since you've been teaching in Galatians, it's always been taking me back to this certain verse.
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Galatians 2.16 Know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.
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So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law because by the works of the law no one will be justified.
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That's right.
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That's right.
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And so, that is the Gospel in a nutshell.
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You will not be justified by what you do, but by what Christ has done.
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You will either trust in yourself or trust in Christ.
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But finalizing what I was saying, and then I'm going to pray.
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If you are thinking about going back to your former life, I want to call you to truly repent of that because you're not leaving Pastor Mark.
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You're not leaving your brothers and sisters here.
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You're not leaving the teachers.
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You're not leaving me.
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If you go back to pursuing sinfulness, if you go back to pursuing a life outside of Christ, you're actually abandoning Christ.
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Why would you do such a thing? Why would you even give such a thing a thought? Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for this opportunity.
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I pray that the words that I've said have been truly understood that where my heart's at, Lord, that I love these men and I know that You love them.
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You brought them here for a reason.
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Lord, let them not abandon and go back to their old lives, but Lord, let them see success.
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Let them see fulfillment and wholeness and healing.
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Let them see true recovery and true regeneration that they might live a new life, a life that is changed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
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And I pray that in His name.
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Amen.