Do Not Return to Bondage — Adopted as Sons and Daughters (Galatians 4)

This evening's Bible reading is from Paul's letter to the Galatians, chapter 4, first eleven verses.

Galatians 4 · chapter mention

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

How be it then when ye knew not God ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods?

But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

Be observed days and months and times and years.

I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

This is God's holy word.

So I use a phrase, and I use this phrase because this recording goes out to many people, not just you guys here.

And I always start by this.

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, and I pray you are in Christ.

And although that's a general phrase I use with everything I write or with everything I say, you'll always see that catch.

It's like a byline, it's me.

I actually mean it quite sincerely because I don't know the people I'm always who always hear what I say.

So I pray you are all in Christ.

And I pray I know you as brothers and sisters in Christ.

And there may be two different things there.

It's a thought for another discussion.

We hear, we heard read a plea from Paul to his church at Galatia.

Paul the Hebrew of Hebrews, Paul the Benjaminite, Paul the man that sat under Gamalael to be taught.

And he's making this plea to a church at Galatia.

Or we don't know exactly where in Galatia, it could be south or or north.

But it is very poignant, and as I've said many times in the last couple of weeks, it's it's Paul is pleading as a father to his child because this is the very church that Paul founded.

I can, as an aside, I can relate strongly to this because of how this place has affected since I came.

I mean, I arrived here twenty odd years ago.

I don't think any of you were here then, baby accepted.

Um and it was a very different church.

In fact, I wouldn't have called it a church at all.

It was a social gathering.

And you had people in the pulpit that sang that, I think is a good way to put it, Linda.

Um you had people that came.

I actually remember asking one minister from uh it's a Church of England church by ancient racehorse, asking him to preach on the book of Ruth, and he couldn't do it.

And I'm going, how can you not preach on Ruth?

It's one of the simplest books in the Bible.

Even if you take the the core statement of whether thou goest, I will go.

You know that very famous phrase.

And he couldn't preach on it.

And nobody seemed to care.

And I've been through your you know, I often say this and I laugh about it, but it's quite seriously.

I have a deep attachment to all of you.

There are times when I love you dearly.

There are times when I'd like to strangle you dearly, you know, but there are times when I and but generally I'm concerned for all of you.

What I like about it, no, you're okay, you're all right, Gary.

Yeah, what I like about it is that you talk to me, so I actually know an awful lot about you to a point.

As much as you want me to know, but it allows me to pray for you, and I can focus my prayer for you, you know, and I can practice.

There are things that I do that I wish I hadn't done.

What's that great phrase?

Um those things I I have done, those things that I ought not to have done, and I've not done those things that I ought to have done.

And I'm rambling and I apologize, as Scott would say, I'm I'm I'm uh wibbling.

And sometimes, though, like Paul, there's a need for sharpness.

And in Paul's words, he has to be sharp.

And we hear something different.

You see, I hear a voice of Paul as a spiritual father here.

He's pleading with his people, those are he guided towards the Christ.

I've actually written he brought the Christ, but I don't like that phrase.

And he's asking them, don't abandon the liberty.

You've got to remember that these Judaism have come around.

He's saying to them, look, don't abandon the liberty of the gospel.

Don't think you've got to be circumcised, you've got to follow these ceremonial laws that these people say you have, otherwise you can't follow Christ.

Christ came to remove all of those sins.

Don't return to the bondage of idols of faith or the bondage of the idols of the law.

He's pleading almost on his knees to the very people he brought to Christ and to the liberty of Christ, and not to return to the worship of man-made idols.

Now, when I talk about idols, people may think I'm talking about statues, but every anything can be an idol.

You know, I've you you can make anything you could maybe go into a Sunday road at an idol.

It's something to be do that gets in the way between you and talking to God.

That makes sense.

You know, any uh I I can't remember who wrote it, but it's a it's a wonderful piece.

I read it in a Ryle document I wrote where he goes, when you uh actually I think it's trying to fly punto the evangelical Protestantism, and he goes, If you place anything between man and God, the thing you place between becomes an idol.

That can be a church.

If you come to a church where the gospel isn't preached, where Jesus Christ sacrifice for your sins isn't raised above it, the cross isn't raised, need the repentance of sins isn't clearly stated.

That church is an idol.

You see, we we forget that the church is you people and me.

Not the building.

I don't wish to upset anybody, but the building's nice to have.

But if we were to sit around in George's front room, that would be a church.

If we were to go to um Ian's Little House of In Ray, that would be a church.

It's where the people are that becomes the church of Christ.

And what is this plea that Paul tells?

Well, we've got it in the first three verses.

Paul begins with an example his hearers would instantly recognize.

In the world of the first century, he uses this great idea of a child and a slave.

Now, I've got it in my head, and I'm not sure this is right, so another little aside, little aside, most aside, um, is that actually I think in the Greek the idea of child and slave are exactly the same.

They both have the same rights, that is to say, none at all.

They both have to do what they were told they could both be punished.

And in my head, I actually think there's a similarity in the word that was used to explain both a child and a slave, but I could be wrong there.

Neither was free.

A slave lived under the authority of a master, and a child, as all children do, live under the authority of parents.

But and it's one of those books of the Bible, if the parents were wealthy enough, the child lived under the authority of a tutor.

Neither, because of the laws of the land at that time, neither was free to live their own life.

And Paul's point is simple enough, and it's not a point I make to use often enough.

Before Christ we were all in bondage.

We were they were bound under the law, they were bound under the elements of the world, bound under anything that claims our loyalty apart from God.

I want you to take that bit into your minds tonight.

To be bound under the law, because this applies as much to you now as it did to the church at Galatia.

This one line sums up the argument.

Bound to anything that claimed your loyalty apart from God.

Yeah?

You get that?

So what I'm saying here is if you allow anything to get in the way of you and God, then you're in bondage to it.

You're a slave, you're not free.

So God has to come first.

That's why, as evangelicals, we would exhort you, exhort that's a great word, exhort you to read the Bible when you get up in the morning.

Before you do anything else, before you go to the bathroom, unless you have to, before you have your breakfast, open the word of God.

Before you go to sleep, open the word of God.

When it comes to going to church, if anything gets in the way, just think about it this way.

The devil will throw things at you to stop you from We've all been there.

We've all done it, we've all felt for it.

We have to plan our days.

We have to stop anything getting in between us or between us and God.

That's not just coming together.

That's a private prayer, that's a private study of the Bible.

Everything.

Anything that stops you talking to God, gets in the way between you and God, is a piece of bondage.

And that exactly the same argument that I would put to you that Paul is putting to his church in Galatians, so it's not you.

Don't think oh he's just picking on me because whatever.

I'm actually reading from the word of God here.

God recognizes this is a problem.

And he sent Christ to free us from the problem, to free us from that bondage of man-made rules that stop us dealing with God directly without any need of an intercessor, without a need of a priest or a vicar or whatever.

I'm putting rules in the way that don't need to be there.

In verses 46, there's a promise.

Then Paul lifts up his eyes to the gospel and says this, and he's talking here about the birth of Christ.

When the fullness of time came, when God was ready.

Another aside, when God was ready.

Notice when God was ready.

Not when man was ready, not when he was ready, not when George is ready.

God does things when he is ready.

Because he is supreme, he is the maker and creator of all things, and we are just a creature.

So, for Paul to write, when God was ready, in the fullness of time, God made the promise in Genesis 1, Genesis 2, sorry, and goes, When God is ready, in the fullness of time, he intervened in this world and he sent his son.

There are many that say Christ comes of his own accord, but Paul is actually saying something different here.

He is saying that God sent his son, born of a woman, so a natural birth, born under the law, because the law demanded that women give birth in pain because of the sin of Eve and Adam, born under the law.

Why?

So that all of those who are under the law, which is all of us, could be redeemed.

Christ had to know what our condition was like, what rules we had to live by, both men and women, so that he could free us from them.

So he had to be born as God made man under the law, so that those under the law can be made free, redeemed.

Paul's argument is raised ashar.

If Christ came to redeem the Jews from the Mosaic law, then why would Gentiles want to go and be put under bondage and go into it?

Why would anybody who doesn't have to go to prison volunteer to go to prison?

Because that's what being in bondage means.

It means you're in prison.

So those Jews that were in bondage are in prison of the law and engaged by the law.

And then you've got the Gentiles in Galatia going, you've got to come and join us in prison.

Paul's going, why?

Why do you want to imprison yourself by the law?

The ceremonial law.

Then comes this great declaration of verse 6.

You don't because they trust in Christ.

You don't, because you trust in Christ.

You are, they were, the ones in the future will be, if there are any, adopted into God's family.

And because of that, you can cry, Abba, Father.

Little aside, did you know the greatest curse in the Lord's Prayer?

You know the Lord's Prayer has a curse in it.

Do you know the most dangerous part of the Lord's Prayer?

Millions say it every day and condemn themselves.

The opening phrase.

What's the opening phrase of the Lord's Prayer?

Our Father.

How dare people who know not Christ call God Father?

They should be on their knees begging forgiveness, but they have no right to call God Father.

Only those who are in Christ who are adopted sons and daughters, higher than the angels, have a right.

That's you guys.

You have a right to get on your knees and go, or even actually, you don't even have to get on your knees.

You have a right to stand up and look at God and go, our Father, Abba Father.

The rest of the world says it, and the rest of the world are condemned by it.

All of those places where they have this ritual of saying the Lord's Prayer, and I cringe every time I hear it, because I think of the condemnation that people are pouring down on themselves.

Because they know not who Christ is.

This, you see, is the very heart of Christian identity.

We're not slaves.

We're free.

We're not servants.

We, you, me, us, and everybody else who puts their trust in Jesus Christ are the sons and daughters by adoption of a living God.

Think about what that means.

Because what that means is that when Christ returns through the crack through the clouds, as Revelation tells us, he's going to gather up the sons and daughters of God that are still alive, still walking the earth.

Matthew dies.

And there'd be people out there saying, Well, I'm a Christian, but I don't go to church.

But you can't be a Christian and not go to church.

Sorry, it doesn't work.

There are people, unless there are obviously there are sometimes reasons why you can't, but if you voluntarily try to avoid church, you can't call yourself a Christian.

I'm a Christian, but I don't believe Christ died on the cross, you're not a Christian.

I'm a Christian, but I don't believe in the virgin birth, you're not a Christian.

Don't know what you are, but I know what you're not.

You see, the thing is, a Christian believes the book.

We are people of the book.

The book, unmarked, not distorted, as it is, good, bad, and ugly, from our point of view.

The tough part, the easiest part.

If you take anything away from this book, as the warning in Revelation gives you, then we suffer the punishment of the book.

And opposite, if you add to it, we suffer the punishment of the book.

Revelation 1921, I think it is.

What's a fulfillment of the promise then?

Verses 7 to 11.

And Paul presses the point home.

If they are sons, if they are sons, then they are heirs and heirs of God through Christ.

No longer a servant under bondage, not a son under tutelage, but an heir of God through and in Jesus Christ.

And then Paul does something that many would say is mean, but I think is quite appropriate.

He reminds them of their past.

Before they knew God, they worshipped idols.

Things that were no gods at all.

And as I said before, we're not talking here little statues, we're talking about anything that gets in the way, anything that distracts us from God.

But now they know God, or rather they are known by God, and yet and yet.

Yes and this is where I feel for Paul and I I know what he's going through because I have the same problem this time and yet after everything Paul has taught them after everything Paul has said after all the work Paul has done they're being tempted to go into bondage.

All he's taught and all he profess all they profess they want to give it up and go back and be servants.

It's like you guys go, we're all gonna become Roman Catholic.

We're all gonna go off to the local Catholic church, we'll all say mass, we'll all go into a little box and confess to a priest, we'll all take the bread and believe the temptation of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.

We'll all sit down and say, Hey, a merry full of grace and light account because that's what we have to do.

That really is problematic.

There's a lot worse going on.

Oh Rachel Bachel.

This officer, one of the two ones in the temple.

The other ones on the docks.

When they were playing today, there were 35, 40 odd thousand people.

How many of them do you think are gone to church tonight?

They are in bondage because they're in bondage to the poor.

And there are people in here who know more who are in bondage in other places.

Paul confronts the issue directly.

They are observing Jewish feasts, feast days, as if they were binding upon Christians.

Do you want to do it?

And you want to do it at your own free will?

Absolutely fine.

But don't think you're forced to do it.

Observate observances are not not required, never required of Gentile believers.

And Paul is scared that their return to such practices will undo everything he's done.

Can you imagine how Cranmer and Latimer and Ridley and Hooper and all of the reformers, all the lollars of itself, if they saw the state of the reform church today?

You know, on the back we have the banner which has that famous line by play the man master written by the lights of the candle, maybe a little bit blown out in England.

I wonder what he would think if he could see it now.

I've been reading Cramley's Homily, started reading Cramley's homily.

All men and women who put effort in to us being able to be here tonight and in other places.

And yet the great majority, even in the Church of England, are turning their back on that wonderful gift of freedom in Christ Jesus and returning to the bondage of slavery of the Roman Church.

See, when Paul speaks of adoption in Galatians, and again another slight side, he is describing the moment God brings us out from under the old guardianship of the law and gives us the full status of sons and daughters.

It's a legal declaration that we now belong to him, with all the rights of ours.

Hebrews, as we'll see later on, carries the same truth but shows it from a different angle.

Instead of the legal picture, Hebrews gives the family picture.

Christ is the true son, and through him we become his brothers and sisters, the children God has given to him.

Galatians tells us what God has done.

He has adopted us.

Hebrews shows us what our adoption feels like.

And we stand before Christ as members of the same household, sharing his access, his inheritance, and his father.

Two voices, one reality.

In Christ we are no longer slaves, no longer strangers, but beloved children, welcome fully into the family of God.

Paul then, and this is a personal view, Paul invested himself deeply in the Galatian church.

It was, in a very real sense, his church, a congregation of Gentile believers who had received the gospel with joy.

He shouldn't needed to have worried about them adopting Jewish traditions after being fulfilled by Christ, yet false teachers.

In his case, Judaizers, I don't know what I would call them.

Arrived with persuasive arguments and impressive credentials.

Yet doctors, people claim to be doctors, people the reverend, new name, and people love their titles.

People of knowledge.

I'll call them that.

Possibly temple trained, theological college for another term.

Very dangerous to a fledgling church when they needed, when they had no need, uh no shepherds, shall I say, to guide them.

Paul's fear, you see, is not academic.

It's a fear of a parent watching a beloved child under wander towards danger.

The green man stopped flashing, the red man's showing, and the child has walked out in front of the traffic.

His heartbreaks at the thought that all his labor may be undone.

And then you turn the mirror towards us.

Human nature gravitates towards what looks powerful, successful, and impressive.

And yet the Church of Christ is the very opposite.

We follow a crucified Lord, a symbol, as the hymn said of suffering and shame.

We lay aside idols of gold and silver, we honor authority, but we do not worship people.

We live simply, faithfully, and quietly.

Christianity, you see, is the complete opposite of what the world expects and demands, and that's why the world is not our friend.

And sometimes, you know, we read Paul's letters, and we think he's a hard-headed theologian.

But at this stage in this letter, there's a very different picture emerging of an apostle crying out for a child that's in great danger.

Here we see not the stern theologian, but the grieving father, the wounded pastor, the shepherd who fears for his flock.

These first eleven verses of Galatians four call us to remember who we are, not slaves, not servants, not bound by idols, not bound by ritual, all the expectations of the world, but sons and daughters of God, ers through Christ, filled with the Spirit who cry Abba Father.

Paul's plea to the Galatians is Christ's plea to us.

Do not return to bondage.

Stand fast in the liberty wherein Christ has made you free.

Amen.