Participants: Mark Howard & Jim Howard
Series Code: GBOTB
Program Code: GBOTB000008A
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00:22 Welcome to Books of the Book, I'm Pastor Mark Howard and
00:25 the director of the Emmanuel Institute of Evangelism for 00:27 Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventist a training 00:30 school to train people how to share their faith, 00:32 as well as the Pastor of the Gobels Seventh-day Adventist 00:35 church in Gobels Michigan. 00:37 I'm here with my co-host, my brother Jim. 00:39 Yes my name is Jim Howard and I am also a Pastor in 00:42 Michigan Conference of the Detroit Metropolitan and South 00:46 Lyon Seventh-day Adventist church and I'm excited to 00:48 study the book of Galatians with you today. 00:50 Today we are, as Jim has mentioned, we have been studying 00:55 the book of Galatians. 00:56 In our last study together we were talking about the Seed 01:01 of Abraham and what it means to understand and receive 01:05 the Seed of Abraham, actually to become sons of God. 01:09 That was the point that Paul was getting to. 01:13 We are going to pick up on that today. 01:15 I want to tell you today of all the topics Jim in the 01:20 book of Galatians, this is one of the most precious as it 01:24 really brings out the heart of our own spiritual 01:28 experience and the affection of not only God, 01:32 for us but us for God. 01:33 We're talking about being slaves or sons today. 01:37 So what we are going to do is begin in Chapter 4, 01:41 but we are going to recap in Chapter 3 of Galatians. 01:44 If you have your Bibles with you I would encourage you 01:47 to turn with us, we are in the book of Galatians. 01:49 You go to the New Testament Scriptures Matthew, Mark, 01:51 Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 01:53 1 and 2 Corinthians and then the book of Galatians. 01:57 In Galatians were going to Chapter 3:26 and the apostle 02:02 writes, "for you are all sons of God through faith in 02:06 "Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized 02:10 "into Christ have put on Christ. And there is neither 02:14 "Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, 02:17 "there is neither male nor female; for you are all 02:21 "one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then 02:24 "you are Abraham's seed, 02:26 "and heirs according to the promise. " 02:28 The idea here is Paul talking about how we can become 02:32 sons of God through faith in Jesus. 02:36 There is a lot to the sons of God that can really 02:39 make a world of difference, the world of difference, 02:42 in our own spiritual experience and I think that is 02:45 where we are going to go here. 02:46 Yes that is exactly right. 02:48 Right after this passage, and the news and we need 02:50 to review this is because after the end of chapter 3 02:53 the apostle uses an illustration to talk about 02:56 the importance of being sons. 02:58 So what we are wanting to do is to keep reading. 03:01 Let's read verses 1-7 together and that will be the 03:03 framework from which we will study today. 03:06 Verse one says, "Now I say that the heir, as long 03:10 "as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, 03:13 "though he is master of all, but he is under 03:16 "guardians and stewards until the time appointed 03:19 "by the father. Even so we, when we were children, 03:22 "were in bondage under the elements of the world. 03:25 "But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent 03:28 "forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 03:31 "to redeem those who were under the law, that we might 03:35 "receive the adoption as sons. And because you are 03:39 "sons, God has set forth the Spirit of His Son into 03:43 "your hearts, crying out, 'Abba Father!' Therefore you 03:47 "are no longer slave but a son, and if a son, then an 03:51 "heir of God through Christ. " 03:54 Now this is a powerful passage of Scripture and he is 03:57 contrasting hear Mark, the idea of a slave with a son. 04:00 He is trying to tell the Galatians you want to be sons, 04:03 and it is not just a suggestion. 04:06 That is something we will draw how right from the start. 04:08 If you look at that last verse 7, it says, 04:12 "therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a 04:15 "son, then an heir of God through Christ. " 04:19 This seems to be a tradition of being an heir of God 04:23 through Christ. - that's right! 04:25 If we are a slave you are not an heir. 04:28 The only way to become an heir is to be a son so this 04:33 is very critical to understand. 04:34 What is the difference between being a slave and being 04:36 a son? And how is it that we can be a son? 04:39 One aspect of this I just think about how 04:43 meaningful it is, it touches my heart to think about the 04:47 fact that Jesus, when referring to God said we should 04:51 pray our Father who art in heaven. 04:54 I mean when you think about other religions, world 04:59 religions and their deities, you don't see the same 05:03 bond of affection that God is asking us to call Me Father. 05:08 Call Me Father, it denotes that there is more than just a 05:12 servile relationship here, it denotes there is an 05:15 affection here, there is a bond, a union and God is 05:18 calling us to that union in this passage of Galatians. 05:22 Absolutely, we are going to unpack this, these 7 verses 05:25 are so full of instruction. 05:28 I want to go back to verse 1 and look at the first few 05:31 verses here, Paul is making a point of what happens 05:35 in the growth of the Christian so let's start in verse 1 05:37 and then I'll comment. 05:39 " Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, 05:42 "does not differ at all from a slave, 05:44 "though he is master of all 05:46 "though he is master of all," so here you have a son, 05:48 but he is in the same relation as a servant would be. 05:51 Paul is going to talk about what that means as we go 05:54 to verse 2 where he says, "does not differ at all from 05:57 "a slave, even though he is master of all," because he is 06:00 heir of what his father owns, "but he is under guardians 06:03 "and stewards until the time appointed by the father. " 06:08 And then he says in verse 3, "Even so we, 06:13 so he compares us, our experience from slave to son. 06:17 He compares us to this child who is under guardians and 06:21 stewards and says, "Even so we, when we were children, 06:25 "were in bondage under the elements of the world. " 06:29 - what's that talking about? 06:31 And these elements of the world, it's beneficial to 06:34 us as the apostle Paul uses the exact same language 06:38 in the book of Colossians so if we go forward past 06:41 the book of Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians and 06:46 Colossians 2:20 we are going to see a similar 06:50 illustration that will help us to grasp what he 06:54 is pointing out. 06:56 Colossians 2:20, notice what Paul says here. 06:59 "Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic 07:03 "principles of the world," now I know in Galatians it said 07:07 elements, but in the Greek language these are the exact 07:10 same terms that are a being used here. 07:12 Some Bibles will even say rudiments. 07:15 A rudiment in the Greek are talking about the very basic 07:18 building blocks of learning, your ABCs if you will. 07:22 So basic principles of the world he says. 07:27 Let's start in verse 20 again, "therefore, if you died 07:30 "with Christ from the basic principles of the world, 07:33 "why, as though living in the world, do you subject 07:35 "yourselves to regulations - Do not touch, do not taste, 07:39 "do not handle, which all concerns things which perish 07:43 "with the using-according to the Commandments and 07:46 "the doctrines of men?" 07:48 Now you know Paul is talking about how when we are 07:51 children in Galatians and were under these elements of 07:53 the world until the time appointed by the Father. 07:56 What some people have done unfortunately, not grasping 07:59 what he is trying to say is that they have read into 08:02 this and said all oh yeah, do not taste or touch but what Paul 08:05 is saying that when you come to Christ you shouldn't 08:08 have any regulations, you don't need to obey God's 08:12 commands anymore, you are led by the Spirit as if the 08:15 two would be conflicting or contrary. 08:17 What he is trying to say, let's take a practical example. 08:20 I have children Jim, you have two children and I have two 08:24 children and when our children, you viewers at home, some 08:27 of you have children, or you are children and what a child 08:30 is under his parents, but parent as that child is growing 08:33 up makes certain regulations. 08:35 Do not taste, do not touch, right? Don't touch that! 08:39 Don't eat that! Right? The basic elements when you are 08:42 growing up you have certain restrictions and regulations. 08:45 For example, this one is probably fairly common for a 08:48 parent is I don't want you playing out in busy traffic. 08:52 That is pretty easy and a no-brainer to a parent, however; 08:56 I know with my children and maybe with your children, 08:57 sometimes the children say, but why? 09:00 Why can't I go out and play in the road? 09:02 They don't understand what I understand. 09:05 They don't understand the danger we as parents understand. 09:07 So we make these restrictions and regulations. 09:11 Now here's the question, is that for the purpose of my 09:16 regulation don't play in the traffic, but why my child 09:20 becomes of age, my son turns 18 I can say hey content 09:25 yourself, play in busy traffic all you want. 09:27 Go get hit by a car for all I care. 09:28 Is that the idea? No! The reality is what I am hoping 09:32 for is that those basic principles that I lay out as a 09:37 parent will become a part of his reasoning process so when 09:42 the child matures, instead of having to be told what to 09:45 do all the time, it will be in his heart what to do. 09:49 And this is what the Bible is trying to express here 09:52 with these basic elements of the world. 09:55 One other thing I want to see there and Colossians 2 09:58 he says in verse 21 again, " Do not touch, do not taste, 10:01 "do not handle, which all concerns things which perish 10:03 "with the using-according to the Commandments 10:05 and "doctrines of men?" 10:07 And then in verse 23 he says, "these things indeed have 10:11 "an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false 10:14 "humility, and neglect of the body," 10:17 Now he is talking about those things in the spiritual life 10:21 having using certain outward and regulations. 10:24 It is not outward religion and we will talk about that. 10:26 Outward religion is part of inward religion, 10:28 but there are those who can have outward religion 10:30 with no inward religion. 10:32 And here he says, they have an appearance of wisdom, 10:37 but he says, "but are of no value against the 10:41 "indulgence of the flesh. " 10:43 So here Paul is saying, I don't have an issue with outward 10:46 regulations, but problem is that your outward regulations 10:49 are not addressing the real issue. 10:51 That is your heart is uncir- cumcised and you are carnal. 10:54 That's right, you can't just do things because someone is 10:57 telling you to do them, you are going to have to embody 10:59 it yourself. - that's right and we have seen it and I 11:02 have done it, I'm a child who my parents try to raise 11:04 right, and what happened I grew up. 11:07 I had those principles growing up, but what did I do when 11:10 I got older? I said I don't think it's important that I 11:13 do those things and it wasn't in my heart to do them. 11:16 I went against what my parents had taught me to do. 11:19 Exactly, exactly and you know. - and that's what's going 11:22 to happen when it's not in your heart. 11:23 Umm Hmmm and back in Galatians 4 there is another passage 11:26 that touches on this idea of the elements of the world. 11:29 I thought maybe we can look at that too. 11:30 Galatians 4:8 it says, "but then, indeed, when you did 11:36 "not know God," so he is talking to these Gentiles 11:41 believers, there was a time when they didn't know God and 11:44 "served those which by nature are not gods. " 11:46 They were into idolatry, pagan religion. 11:48 vs. 9. "But now after you have known God, or rather are known 11:52 "by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and 11:55 "beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in 11:58 "bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and 12:01 "years. I am afraid for you, 12:03 "lest I have labored for you in vain. " 12:06 Now to think about this idea of serving other gods, these 12:11 Gentile believers at one time believed in gods that were 12:18 idols of wood and stone and planets or whatever else. 12:24 The Sun, so when they thought about serving God it was 12:30 all from a servile relationship. 12:32 They had a fear over war relationship with God. 12:36 They did things out of fear, or they do things only for 12:38 the reward that will come from serving. 12:41 So what they did and everything they did as a way of 12:43 appeasing god, nothing in the heart, no affection for their 12:49 god they just had to do with their god had to say, 12:51 or what their god told them to do. 12:55 So what he is saying here is do you want to go back to 12:58 that? Do you want to go back to a servile relationship. 13:01 The apostle Paul is not here against the idea of 13:04 observing things, like you were saying a moment ago. 13:07 But the idea of observing things whether it is days or 13:11 months or seasons or years or anything else as a 13:13 replacement for a genuine heart religion with Christ and 13:18 with God, so some people try to say this is saying that 13:23 the Sabbath is unimportant. 13:24 I don't think that is the case. 13:26 Well that's not even in the context of all. 13:29 The apostle Paul no problem with the observances 13:32 because he observe the Sabbath and we today observe the 13:35 communion, we observe baptism we have of observances and 13:39 there's nothing wrong with observances. 13:40 Yep we get focused on the observances in this passage we 13:43 are missing his point. 13:45 That's right, and it will take us away from the 13:47 understanding that a servile relationship is what the 13:49 apostle Paul was speaking against. 13:51 We need to dig into this a little bit deeper, 13:53 but before we do we have to take a break. 13:56 So right now take a couple minutes and 13:58 we will be right back with you. |
Revised 2023-04-24