A Father's Fear (Galatians 4:7-11)

Here at Sovereign Grace Bible Church, we are big believers that God's word was written exactly how he wants it to be written.

And so, in light of that, we go through books of the Bible, verse by verse, line by line, and word by word, in order to understand what God has said, what he means by what he said, and what you and I must do in light of it.

Today we are in verses 7 through 11 in chapter 4.

And the title of the sermon is a unique one, and it is a father's fear.

We have spent all this time in Galatians so far, and Paul began the journey defending his apostleship.

These false teachers had snuck into the church, and they were saying, you don't need to listen to Paul because he can't even prove that he's in charge.

He cannot authenticate his message.

You should listen to us.

We have proof right here.

And they had a legitimate argument.

It looks logical from the outside.

But one of the things you learn as you study human nature and human reasoning is that the worst logical fallacies, the ones that fall in on themselves, often look decently reasonable at first glance.

Today, Paul now transitions us out of the courtroom and into the living room.

He goes from this weeks and weeks of explaining the law, the old covenant, the new covenant, where we are, how we should act, and why.

And he's explained that from many legal terms.

He's reasoned in the court, and now he walks you into the living room.

One of the unique things about human nature is that you and I are creatures of habit.

I remember in college, I was fascinated with psychology.

And there was a study that I got to enjoy while I was in school.

I didn't enjoy much of school, but this one I did.

And in this study, they looked at people who had been in jail for decades.

And what they realized was that the people who were in jail for decades of their life didn't know how to transition out of jail.

In fact, they felt very scared of all the freedom and the lack of structure and the lack of knowledge they had.

They had built a life in this bubble, and so now everything was expected.

Everything was told to them.

And you and I, we do the same thing with religion.

See, last week Paul pointed us to the elementary principles of this world.

That there are rules and regulations upon which you and I operate in.

And they're not just the laws that the government sets, but they're also the laws of how do you fit in in high school?

How do you get more likes on social media?

How do you get more pleasure out of this person or thing?

So these rules and these dynamics control us, and we live in that jail cell for however long until God opens the door.

The problem is that you and I are just like the lifetime prisoner.

We have all this freedom, and it feels scary and uncomfortable.

I don't want all this freedom.

I want a measurement.

Tell me how good I'm doing and that I'm okay because I'm doing good.

Show me that I'm loved by how many people pay attention or listen to me.

Don't tell me just to depend on the Father's love who I've never seen.

That requires trust.

I don't trust anything.

I trust only the observable fact in front of me that I either have power and prestige and position, or I have nothing.

No one is free from that.

We've all grown up in it.

It's one of those awkward moments when you get out of high school and you realize that adults outside of high school are just like they were in high school.

And you realize that no one just graduates into like a more mature way of living.

They still gossip, they're still catty, they're still vindictive, they're still judgmental, that person really only ever cared about themselves.

None of that changes.

And the problem, as I said before, is that you and I do that with Christianity.

The free offer of the gospel calls to all and says, Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And we're like, ooh, I can come to you and I get rest.

This is a great transaction.

I enjoy this.

I will come to you.

Here's the problem.

Week three of vacation starts to feel like ants in the pants.

I gotta do something.

I can't just sit here.

Everyone wants to sit in the recliner until you've been there for 10 hours.

And then all you desire is anything but sitting here.

If you don't believe me, break a rib.

And you can't you can't sleep in a normal bed.

And the recliner that you loved you now hate and despise.

And so what do we do?

Well, when Jesus is calling to the weary and the heavy laden, he's calling to those who are trying to work for their salvation, those that are trying to be good enough.

And he's saying, if you're finally tired, if you're finally willing to give up and say, I'm not good enough, if you're finally there, come.

And I will give you rest.

Not you've earned rest.

I will give it to you.

And you sit in the rest for a moment, and then you suck at life one day, you sin against your spouse, you yell at the kid, you kick your neighbor's dog, the list goes on, and what happens in that moment is I no longer feel like I'm resting now.

I need to do something to be okay.

Because every relationship, every process, every procedure I've been a part of has told me when I do wrong, when I don't measure up, when I am not enough, I've got to find some grit and some determination to be enough.

Because if I'm not enough for me, where does that leave me?

And Paul will take all of this legal forensic argument he's had for weeks now in the courtroom, and he brings it into the living room and he looks you square in the eyes today and says, Are you going to live like you're a slave?

Or are you going to live like you're a son?

Please read with me, God's holy word.

Paul says, So you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir through God.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not God's.

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.

This is a father's fear.

And our text will break down into the following outline.

Verse 7 will be the standing of a son.

Verses 8 and 9 will be the danger of turning back.

And verses 10 and 11 will be the slavery of religious performance.

We begin with the standing of a son.

Paul says, So you are no longer a slave, but a son.

The so is there as a conclusion to the entire argument we went over last week.

That the spirit that lives inside of your chest is constantly testifying to this truth.

That the son who was sent down to redeem you and to pay for you actually did it.

And that the Father's been in control the whole time, and it has always been according to his schedule and not yours.

That before you even could have thought of earning something, God chose you before the foundation of the world.

And that is true and is a Bible verse because if God chose you after you were born, you might have just an inkling to claim credit.

And to say, maybe I was good enough.

Maybe I did have a chance.

Maybe God did see something in me.

But if before He created me, He saved me, what do I have to boast in?

And that's why in Ephesians, Paul says, For by grace you have been saved through faith, and it's not of yourselves, it is a gift of God.

Why?

He says, so that, and we all know that so that means here's why.

So that no one may boast.

Salvation is 100% God and God alone.

God saves sinners.

Sinners do not climb up into God's graces.

Paul says, so, in conclusion to what I just said, you are, not you might be, not you are sometimes, not on your good days, you definitely are, but on your bad days, you are no longer a slave.

That means that what?

Once upon a time, you were a slave, but now you are definitively, perfectly, personally a son.

One of the cool things that you would miss in an English translation is that as Peter Paul has been talking throughout this letter, and you see the word you, it has been what my alma mater would say, y'all.

Every you was a plural, right?

Y'all.

In verse 7, the language changes for the first time, and the you is now singular.

And this is why I said we're going from the courtroom, this wide argument, to the living room.

Do you personally believe this?

Do you personally know this?

That you are no longer a slave, you are a son.

And if a son, then you are an heir through God.

What's the mechanism that makes you an heir?

Is it through your effort?

Right?

Do you earn heaven?

Do you do you get to work really hard for a bigger plot of land in the new creation?

Or is it through God and God alone?

You and I can forget the parables sometimes.

And the idea that uh God gives the talents to these three different men, and they all have different levels of talent.

And I'm here to tell you the one with one can work as hard as he wants, but he will never, ever be the one with five talents.

Ever.

Paul points to the church as a human body and says, Hey, I get it.

Everybody thinks being the mouth would be cool, or the head would be cool, or the eyes, or the hands.

Uh, but someone's got to be the stomach.

Okay?

Like someone has got to be this because it is all one unit.

And then what he says is, you and I are so fickle that we look at the parts that are more covered up and we say, Yeah, those aren't as important.

And Paul says, uh, excuse me, the foot can never say to the hand, I don't need you.

Because a foot and a hand do completely different things that are both necessary in the same way as this family grows, as it matures, as it multiplies, as people are added in, it will look different.

And thank God for that.

Because if there was just 18 of me, we would be screwed.

It would be terrible for us.

I am like the definition of a spear.

I'm really strong in like three things, and I'm terrible at pretty much everything else.

Like, hands down, like not even close.

We need each other, and we need a well-rounded body that commits to different categories because God has made us that way.

And why?

For his own glory.

Because God is glorified when this mess is blessed because we all did our job.

And not because we all sought to be the most popular or the most profound.

God gets the glory.

You are no longer a slave, but a son.

Let me give you a good question to ask yourself that will help you to figure out this slave-son dynamic.

When you pray, or when you read the Bible, do you feel like uh an employee that's turning their time card in?

Like, all right, we did that.

Or do you feel like a child talking to their father?

I have often found myself going to God as my heavenly employer and saying, look how well I'm gonna do this year.

I'm gonna read my Bible four times through this year.

And I'm here to tell you that some of the years where I have read the Bible more than once in a year have been less profitable for me than the years where I read 1 John over and over and over again.

There are some years where I didn't read through the Bible.

Instead, I just tried to memorize a handful of verses and it over and over and over again.

And I'm here to tell you that God has done more for me when I've done less for him than when I've done more for him.

And I'm always constantly relearning that lesson.

I'm not an employee with a time card, I'm a child talking to a father.

Do I treat my relationship with God that way?

If your obedience is driven out of any semblance of fear, right?

We can get so funny, we're like, no, I'm not afraid.

Like, okay, you're not afraid.

Okay.

Uh so then what's what's what's the concern?

I'm worried I'm gonna let God down.

Okay, well, that's fear.

Like, like, I don't want people to know that I struggle with that.

Okay, that's called fear.

And the problem, as we will explore further in this text, is that fear is highly effective.

Oh man, fear can make you change your life and look beautiful on the outside while you're dead on the inside.

Do not begin each day by trying to earn your way back into the house that God's already bought for you.

Instead, begin where Paul begins by reminding yourself in the morning that you are no longer a slave, as who you used to be, but you are now a son and daughter of the Most High King.

Identity is not something that helps you to live your Christian life, it is everything to your Christian life.

And that leads us into verses eight and nine the danger of turning back.

Paul says, Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

So he's pointing to this past that you and I all share.

No one graduates from this, no one got to skip the boat here.

Formerly, when you did not know God, when you did not know his love, when you did not know his truth, when he did not know you in this intimate, personal, specific sense.

Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

You and I are the world's greatest hypocrites.

Uh, we look at the guy who can't help himself uh playing video games and plays it for hours and hours, and we're like, pitiful, lack of a man.

And then you turn back over to your plate of five cheeseburgers.

We look at the woman that's overwhelmed and is giving into anxiety and depression, and we say, weak woman.

And then we go and gossip about her to our friends and puff ourselves up.

We create categories where we find certain sins to be more respectable.

And we miss the point that all of us, before we are saved, are absolutely and entirely enslaved to sin.

Some of them look better on the outside to the world, but all of them corrupt, all of them fail, all of them leave you empty and wanting more and needing something other than what you've gone for.

You were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.

This is also reflective of Romans chapter 1, where Paul talks about the world and how what did they do?

Romans 1 · chapter mention

Did they worship the creator?

No, no, they worship the creation.

They said, Look, I know that God's up there and He's in control and He could give me everything I need and so much more, but girls.

I know that God is with me.

What my soul needs, that he's made me for a purpose.

And when someone tells me your purpose is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, that doesn't sound like a lot of enjoyment in comparison to sitting back in my recliner and having to not worry about anything.

We so easily make the created our master.

You'll buy a car, super nice car, and let it control your life.

You'll buy a house, very nice house, and let it control your life.

You'll work a job that you never should have worked that pulls you away from your family and your friends and the church, and let it dictate everything about you.

Why?

Because I'd rather worship the creation than the creator.

And the world system that's all around you that you engage with probably over a hundred hours every week, that world system is designed to constantly make you discontent.

I don't have enough.

I don't compare as well.

I need more.

I wish I had that.

And on and on it goes, and we miss the fact that you and I walk into the idolatry factory every day.

And never put our garda.

We never have a clear mindset.

We never have perspective.

He says, Formerly you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods, but now that you have come to know God, and I love this, Paul immediately corrects himself.

Now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, why is Paul doing that?

Because theoretically it's true, right?

Now that you've come to know God, it's true.

But also, so is God knowing you.

So why is he correcting that?

And he's correcting it because he's fixing a heart posture.

The pastoral aspect of Paul cannot help but see that that language of you've come to know God to those that are performance mindset is like, yeah, I did come to know God.

And he says, Okay, wait, wait, let's let's pause.

That's true.

But first, before that, God knew you.

You and I are reminded of Jesus' words in the Gospel of John, where he says, No one can come to me unless the Father draws them.

Where Jesus says, These things have been hidden from them.

God has always been in control.

God has never questioned who he's gonna save, how he's gonna save, when he's going to save, because he exists outside of time.

He created time.

And the God of the universe is always in control.

So he changes the viewpoint.

And you and I can learn a lot from that because we're not very thoughtful with our words all the time.

And we'll say something that's true.

It's just true, and they need to hear it.

It's like, yeah.

But hear me out.

Sometimes they need that same truth from a different angle that's maybe a little more gentle or a little more God-oriented.

One of the joys of my life outside of family shepherding, discipling my wife and my children, is pouring my life into men.

And I've done so for years and years now.

One of the greatest joys is seeing them progress to get more holy, to become a more intimate and thoughtful man of God.

One of the things it took me years to realize is that I could unintentionally motivate them out of performance.

That I could tell them to man up without first grounding them in the fact that God is the one that made them the man that can.

That I would push them to sacrificially love.

And I wouldn't always ground that in the fact that you're just following in the footsteps of Christ who laid down his life for you.

It is easy to have performance language and to dress it up in religious clothing and say, do more for Jesus.

Is that true?

Am I gonna call you today to lay your life down?

That's where we're headed.

But dear friends, we do so as a son and not as a slave.

I wrestle to remain pure and holy and humble and correctable, not out of fear of consequence.

But out of thankfulness for what God has done in my life.

And slowly but surely he keeps fixing my heart to where I delight in pleasing him.

At the beginning of your Christian journey, you look at the husband and the father and you say, Your call is to die.

And it looks and sounds to them like raw kale.

You're like, This is the worst diet I've ever heard of.

You look to the wife and you say, Your job is to love your husband, to love your children, to keep your home, to submit to your husband, and it's like none of that sounds like woohoo! You look to the widow and to the orphan, to the broken and to the lonely, and you say, the answer is found in Christ and his perfect love for you.

And they say that might be true, but it doesn't change the fact that I'm hungry and tired and depressed right now.

It is so easy as a Christian who's learned more and grown more to just put facts in front of people and say, jump, do, grow, be?

How do you grow in your Christian life?

Is it through all this, right?

Is it through these elementary principles?

Is it through keeping a checklist?

Or do you overcome the world by faith, by trusting that God is enough, by continuing to look to Him for the answer, not to yourself?

Are you willing to admit that you've always been weak and unable, and He's always been strong and able, and that's the only answer?

Or do you still, every now and then, hold on to a little bit of your own performance?

Because, my friends, the most dangerous slavery is the kind that feels like maturity.

Right?

I'm doing good.

I'm I'm I'm doing these things, I'm I'm keeping this.

Why are you keeping that?

He says, 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?

The words weak and worthless there are worth spending some time looking at.

Why does he call them weak and worthless?

Well, the weak part is that they can't justify you or give you life.

You can keep as many rules as you want, and it will not give you actual peace.

You can present yourself as clean as you want on a Sunday morning, and it will not change your depression on a Wednesday night.

They are weak, unable to change you, unable to fix you.

And that's why we talk all the time in our church culture here about don't just tell me I'm good on a Sunday morning.

If I took the time to ask you how you're doing, I mean it.

I'm invested.

Let's do this.

And you can look at me and say, I didn't sleep last night.

I cried for hours, I threw a dish against the wall, and I'm barely here just because I don't even know what else to do.

One of the most freeing moments that actually even people in this room have experienced is the moment when you come to church on a Sunday morning and someone says, How are you doing?

And you're honest and open up and tell them the truth.

You and I are great at protecting ourselves.

We're great at building those walls up.

And we don't realize that the walls that you build are the exact mechanism that keeps you in the vicious cycle of your sin.

You were not made to walk this life alone.

You and I have to be different.

We have to define masculinity, we have to define strength, we have to define femininity differently than the world.

Or else we will end up being just like the world.

And that's not a warning from a man in a pulpit.

That's a history lesson that lives itself out around you every day.

He says, Whose slaves you want to be once more.

The word want is fascinating there.

Because you and I don't like wake up in the morning and you're like, you know what I want to do is be addicted to pornography.

That's what I want to do.

That I would love today if I just couldn't help myself.

You know what I want today is to be an alcoholic.

I would love to just be an alcoholic today.

You know what I would love to be?

Just waste my whole day depressed in a dark room fretting over the world.

That's what I want to be today.

To want to be a slave is a fascinating turn of events because you and I think by the world's metrics.

Right?

When we think slavery to money, we're like, oh, okay, that makes sense because like you're getting a bunch of money.

We think slavery to anger, and we're like, what are you gonna get?

And you and I act like sin is reasonable or logical.

Like, obviously, I'm gaining something from this.

You never gain anything from sin ever, except for death and more sin.

That's it.

Whose slaves you want to be once more.

That's the word that we would use now as desire.

You desire to be a slave to the elementary principles.

Why?

Why do we want to be a slave?

And it's very, very simple.

Because when my identity is found in being a successful businessman, there's a metric.

When my identity is found in being attractive enough, there's a metric.

When my identity is found in being likable enough or popular enough, there's a way I can measure that.

So every day I have this daily factory reset that happens in my mind that says, How are you gonna get up today and earn?

How are you gonna earn your standing?

How are you gonna earn comfort and security?

How are you gonna earn love today?

The most dangerous slavery in your life is not the one that you pity that others have, but is the one that looks mature in your mind.

And what's crazy is that Paul looks at these men and women who are trying to be religious elites, and he says, What you're doing is the exact same as pagan idolatry.

Your legalism, you're you're working for security with God on a daily basis.

You're treating God like the holy vending machine.

I just pressed the right buttons and put it in enough quarters.

I'll get my blessing for today.

I want you to think of the last time your walk with God felt like it was going well.

And then I want you to think through did you think it was going well because you were doing good?

You didn't have that, you didn't have that sinful of a week, and you read your Bible most days that week?

Or did it go well because you kept in your mind God's unchanging love for you?

Maybe a better way of saying this is when you look at your week, what do you need to do or to not do in order to feel secure, loved, and accepted?

Right?

I can't go to you and tell you that I know I was supposed to read my Bible seven days this last week, and I read it for only two or one or none because there's this tension, and I'm disappointing you, and like I might not be okay in that moment.

What do you need to do or not do every week in order to feel secure, loved, and accepted?

So I want you to go home and identify where you've allowed a good thing to become a God thing.

Where you have this wonderful thing in your life.

Right?

As a man, it's easy sometimes to like make that into a job.

Right?

I idolize my job.

And so I put everything I have into that and I bring nothing home.

What is the good thing that you've made a God thing?

And then I want you to tell somebody in your life that can hold you accountable.

What good idols do you need to throw out?

And that leads us into verses 10 and 11, the slavery of religious performance.

Paul says, You observe days and months and seasons and years.

I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

Turning the gospel life into a checklist takes all of the life out of it and leaves you with the skeleton of what should be.

A calendar can order your life, but it cannot justify your soul.

It cannot make you feel better.

It cannot fix you.

He says, You observe days and months and seasons and years.

The word observe there actually has this meaning underneath that is the idea of scrupulously keeping something and maintaining it.

It's the idea of I'm not okay if I don't do this.

And he points to the days and months and seasons and years.

And this would point back to the Levitical calendar, keeping Sabbaths, having the festivals.

But I want you to be empathetic and sympathetic with these Galatians, because these are young believers that don't have a Jewish background, that are looking for security and comfort.

And these religious leaders come in and say, We've got a way for you to make sure you're secure.

Start keeping all these things, right?

Show us on a weekly basis that you're doing all of these rules, and then you can be assured you're good to go.

You observe these things.

You've turned the gospel life into a checklist.

And he says, I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.

One of the hardest things in discipleship is pouring your life into somebody, and you see them waffle, and you know that they may fall, and there's nothing you can do about it.

You're the parent, and this baby bird's about to go.

And what do you want to do with the 16-year-old?

You want to create as many parameters as possible.

Keep restrictions, keep it tight.

Why?

I don't want you to go the wrong direction.

As a pastor, as a guy who literally has staked his life planting a church in Henderson County, and has brought a wife and four small children into the middle of Biggsville to plant a church in an old funeral home in a town that didn't ask for another church.

In a county with over 20 church buildings.

There's a lot at stake.

And the problem is that you and I can easily look out and say, Well, at least we're doing it right.

And we can miss the fact that many of the ones that are doing it wrong started off just like us.

And they were doing it right.

But they've forgotten the mission.

And that's why Paul says, I fear I may have labored over you in vain, is because the gospel mission, the gospel truth has gone out from their eyes, and they're infatuated with just keeping the calendar.

We're doing a fall block party the first Saturday in October here at Sovereign Grace Bible Church.

And it's very possible that over the next 10, 20 years, that could become its own idol.

Right?

We have to do the fall block party.

It's like, well, we had five people die in our church last week, and the building was caught on fire, and I don't think we have money for it, so I think we should not do it.

Like, no, no, we have to do it! We've done it for ten years.

Will you and I plant a church that is in more love with the Messiah and the mission than the model or the material?

What if this building goes?

What if we had to meet in a field?

What if we never got a fully Working nursery and pre-K room, and we just keep getting more kids.

Will you quit?

Will you give up?

Will you give in?

The first day in this church where we have a biblical decision to make.

Right?

We're gonna cut the fall block party this year, whatever, in the in the future.

And then someone says, if you do, I'll leave.

And then we don't do it.

We have damned this church.

We have condemned the building.

And we've created just another religious organization that the world will look in and say there's no salt and there's no light in there?

Am I here because I love Jesus?

Am I here because God's called me to something more than just to live this life for me?

Do I recognize my own need for a Savior?

Have I repented of my sin and trusted in God alone for the forgiveness of my sin?

You and I need to daily look into our lives and ask the question: what am I tempted to make more important than the gospel today?

It could be your phone, it could be social media, it could be not being embarrassed, it could be your comfort.

And when you look at this church, do you just see something that's supposed to give to you?

Or do you see something that Christ said is worthy of laying your life down for?

A family gathering where everyone comes into grandma's house, eats the food, tears it all up, makes a mess, cleans up nothing, and runs out.

Even if they say thank you on the way, they have missed the meaning of family.

I want you to live your life like the gospel is true.

I want you to live from sonship and not for sonship.

And in conclusion, I want you to think of Jacob's example in Genesis.

God takes a man who his entire life has grasped and grappled to get what he wants.

He has lied, he has fought, he has betrayed people.

And on the night that he's wrestling with God, first off, God allows him to wrestle with him.

You and I miss that.

Right?

Like at the end of the fight, God touches his hip and the whole thing's out of socket.

That's not someone that was actually wrestling with you, okay?

Like he lets him wrestle all night.

And he breaks his hip.

Why?

So that the man who grasped for everything, who sought to grab God's blessing for himself, is only able to cling to Christ and beg him for blessing.

That's the call today.

I fear that there is a possibility that with some of you I have labored in vain.

But the beautiful news is that you and I are still here today.

There is still opportunity to repent.

There is still opportunity to turn.

And though we're not promised tomorrow, you still have today.

Christ is worthy of your life.

And a son's only response to this message is just like Jacob, I want you to cling to the cross of Jesus Christ.

And I want you to keep holding and to not let go until the end.

And I want you to beg for blessing, because that's the only way that I've killed sin in my life.

That's the only way that I've ever found any comfort in this life, is when I have humbled myself to the point of saying, I so cannot do this, that I will lay on the ground and cling to the foot of the cross and beg and yell and scream and cry and not care what anyone thinks because you are enough.

Let us pray.

Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us to live like sons.

Lord, that we would take this Christian life seriously.

That we would not allow ourselves to just freely walk back into the slavery that you purchased us out of.

That you would invigorate us and equip us to battle our sin and to live real life with each other and to hold each other accountable and to encourage each other.

Lord, please help us in our weakness to be different.

Help us to change.

Help us to be a family after your own heart.

That when people look in this building and see us scatter throughout the county and the surrounding area, they would say there's something different about them.

And it wouldn't be because we're performing, but because we know we're loved.

Because we know we're secure.

Because we live in real and authentic community with each other.

Lord, I ask for your grace and for your mercy over these people.

Help us, Lord, to be broken over our sin, to be your hands and feet here where you've planted us.

And Lord, may your will be done here at Sovereign Grace Bible Church.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.