Sound Doctrine

Guest (Male): Freedom is a foundational part of our way of life, but there's only one way to experience true freedom. Here's Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: Don't allow anybody else to rip you off and to say this is the abundant life or that is the abundant No, I said it. It's true. I am the only way, the only truth, the only life. There's only one way to the Father and to the inheritance. But this grace will not feed our flesh. Why? Cuz it's undeserved, unearned, unmerited favor, isn't it? It's nothing to do with us. And when we get that, when we really get it, we're going to experience liberty, the gracious liberty of Jesus in our lives.

Guest (Male): It's my pleasure to welcome you now to Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff Johnson from Calvary Chapel Downey. Today we find ourselves in chapter 4 of Galatians, paying close attention to verses 8 through 12. The subject is a serious one and one that is very relevant for today, the backsliding church. It's really alarming to see the way false doctrine has crept into the Christian church here in America and around the world. With much ground to cover in this important study, let's get right to it and turn things over to our teacher, Pastor Jeff.

Jeff Johnson: Galatians chapter 4 this morning as we're going to talk about it, it's a matter of choice. And life is about choices. And it's about the wise, hopefully the wise choices we make. But we know this, that scripture says you sow to the flesh, you reap corruption. But if you sow to the spirit, you reap everlasting life. So, there are bad choices and good choices. And so Paul is confronting those in Galatia with this choice that they need to make. Now, chapter 3 verse 29 We started out last week with the same verse, but it's key in Galatians there.

And he says if you be Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. If you've chosen Christ, you're Abraham's seed, that seed of righteousness, heir of promise that talked about way back in the Genesis. And then in chapter 4 verse 7 it says that because we are heir of God, we're heir of God through Christ. Again, Christ is the key. And then in verse 6 of Galatians 4, he says that the spirit of his son comes into our hearts. And that to me is a mind blower, that God's spirit would come into my heart and I'm no longer a slave.

I'm no longer, you know, under the law, but I'm a true son as the prodigal. And remember we talked a little bit about that last week where the prodigal son he he wanted to come home just to be a slave for his dad. No longer I don't care about the sonship thing. And the father wouldn't have it. Why? Because he's a son. So, man for the prodigals to come home, you're a son. What are you doing out there? Why are you spinning your wheels? Why are you striving with God? You must come home because then you're going to find that your father is waiting for you to kill the fatted calf, to put a ring on your finger, to call you his son because prodigals always come home.

I love that. We left off in verse 8. It says how be it, Paul says, how be it. What does that mean? If these things be true, then when you knew not God you did service unto them which by nature are no gods. But now after that you have known God, or rather are known of God how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements where unto you desire again to be in bondage? So, if these things be true, Paul is seeking to reason with the Galatians. Let's reason together. A decision needed to be made, a choice to live in the elements of the world.

And at one time that's where they were at. That's what they were living in. I mean they were BC days, okay, before Christ. They were under the law. They were in sin. By nature they were sinners with false gods. I mean pagan slavery, if you will. Over in 1 you just jot it down 1 Corinthians 12:2 You know that you were Gentiles carried away with these dumb idols, Paul says, even as you are you were led. These nothing idols. They have mouths but they don't speak. Ears they don't hear. I mean come on. You are bowing down to those things.

You are worshiping them and getting nothing in return but misery. Hm. Elements of the world. Or he's saying in chapter 4 verse 9 but now Okay, those were the BC days in verse 8, but now after that you have known God that word in the Greek is it means a knowing of God because of your experience with God. You had an experience with God. Do you remember that when you received Christ, when your eyes were open, your ears were unstopped, and you were born again? That's But now after you have been you have known God or or rather are known of God how do you turn to these beggarly things?

I mean how could you do this? You're the son of God. You're a child of God. And yet you turn back. You paid attention to the world, the flesh, and the devil. You go back into those things that you used to be involved with, God's with a little g of this world who used all kinds of weird things, divination and they lit candles. You lit candles. You lit incense. You did the sprinkling of of the water, you know. You used prayer wheels, you know. You were into all kinds of weird stuff. All to manipulate your gods, try to get them to do something.

I like this. And now you know God. You trusted Christ. And you go back and you choose bondage back to the prayer beads again, back to the baptism of the dead or back to the bondage that you were in. I like the second part where Paul says in in verse 9 there and rather you are known of God. I think that's an interesting statement. That means you're approved of God because of their receiving of Christ. He accepted you. He knows you intimately. He knows the hairs on your head. Do you remember Matthew chapter 7 where Jesus was speaking and he says not everyone that says to me Lord, Lord shall enter in to the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Many shall say unto me that day Lord, Lord, have we prophesied in your name and in your name cast out devils, and in your name done many wonderful works? And then I will profess unto them This is the heavy part of it. I never knew you. Depart from me, you workers of iniquity. We never had a relationship. I never knew you. Why would you turn to legalism? Notice he says and you're turning again to the weak beggarly elements where unto you desire again. Actually you're putting forth your heart's wishes to be in bondage. What's wrong with you?

What are you doing? The law, the religion, ritual, rules, regulations, the works trip. You want to get in back into that? You know I I think they probably feel more holy. You know you hear the chanting. And if you get into chanting I was used to be into into chanting. And when you everybody gets in one accord in the chanting, oh man you feel like you're really there. You feel like you've hit the holy note. And and it's very you know and you're very into it. And then the smell of burning incense and wow you're entering in, you know.

And and people get caught up in stuff like this back into bondage. Notice chapter 4 verse 3 of Galatians. He says and so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world. You were children. You were You were You were like a slave. You were just a You Everything was is childish. It was stupid what you were doing. And you were in bondage. The Galatians definitely were wavering in their faith. Wouldn't you say? As Paul is trying to get their attention Guys, you're being seduced. You're being bewitched. They needed to turn away from these Judaizers.

And Paul knows because he was a Judaizer. He knows their their gimmicks and their trips with the law and legalism and idolatry. These have the appearance of spiritual maturity. And all the Pharisees and the scribes with their big hats on, you know, pompadour, you know, you know. They were out there. They were on the street corners, clean, white, everything they wore. And Jesus finally said you you whited sepulcher, you whited graveyard. You're full of dead man's bones, man. He busted them. It was all outward religiosity. Sick. And he got them right where they they needed to be got.

With all the chanting, the holy water, and on and on and on childish things. They dropped out of the school of grace into the kindergarten of law, being childish again and missing it. To choose the weakness of the world there's no strength in that, nothing. The beggarly elements like a lame man at the gates of religion, you know. You You will get no help here. They're bankrupt. Verse 10 You observe days, months, times, years. Interesting statement. Days. You get off on on celebrating these special days. Now, granted we do have our own little special days that we celebrate, Christmas, Easter.

You know I think Thanksgiving out of all of them is the most holy of all because he's giving thanks to the Lord. The other two are kind of weird, aren't they? They're just not right because the reason they're not right number one is they were set up by heathens on the the dates that they wanted to set it up on. They're not It's not even the real dates. Now, you know we we can get into that and that's a whole another message. But these are days that some people get into so much. There's so much strength and effort and and and and planning and and worry and fretting and oh my gosh.

It's here again. What are we going to do? Well, we got to do everything we did last year. You're kidding. That? And you get weary, man. What What are we nuts? Why aren't we putting that energy into getting the message out for what that certain day means? And at least for Christians, I mean, we we need to use Christmas. We need to use Easter to God's glory. But we we put these special days up. The Jews they had seven great feasts. They were very holy days. And they poured themselves into it. They spent time about it.

Pagan holidays. When he says months and times, he's talking about the pagan holiday, not just the religious Jewish feasts and the Sabbaths that they have. Oh, they have so many Sabbaths. Special days. And this Sabbath is for this and this Sabbath is for that. What are you doing? But new moons, months they're all demonic. Every single one of them is a legalistic trip. That's what Paul's saying here. What are you doing setting these things up and looking to them? It's end is to give up the wealth that Christ wants to give to us and to end up with poverty and bankruptcy.

To give up liberty for bondage, to get under these things and then end up being powerless and being beat up by them. That's what they're there for, just to take our our strength from us and to deceive us, to to bewitch us, if you will, to pull us into its, you know, its draw. Well, we've always done it. It's tradition. And we get into it. God help us. Paganism instead of relationship. The Sabbath. You know that finally in the scriptures Paul screams it out. Christ is our Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath rest. He is our all and all.

He is who we need to have our eyes on him. He's our daily Sabbath rest. You see they were getting so off into these things. Now, it's you go back to the beginning. God says I worked six days. I rested the seventh. That's a good thing. We all need a day off, don't we? Far as psych our psyche and our strength it's good. You you need to do it. But you don't you know put it up as something that that is because you do it. You're holy. But see that's what the Jews did. See the Gentiles didn't do that.

They worked seven 24/7 just about. I mean they were into just going for it. Jews said no we're special. God told us to be special. So, we're going to hold the Sabbath. But then the Sabbath is not even in the New Testament and it has nothing to do with the church. So, what are we doing? Does that mean we don't get a day off? No, you should take a day off, man. If you're wise you need to talk to your employer if he is not giving you one. Say you know I need some time with my family.

Give me a break. But it has nothing to do with, you know, being special and now you're holy. But the Jews thought it was. I mean the Sabbath to them was everything. You break the Sabbath. Jesus You know Jesus did he just broke it all the time just to blow their minds. Just to say you guys, you're caught up in days. Your eyes aren't on me. They're on something else. And so he just broke that something else all the time. And they were so angry. They hated him. They wanted to get rid of him so bad cuz he was coming against their Sabbaths.

So, you observe these things and you think this is good, Paul is saying. Once you were in bondage then he redeemed you. He saved you. People are like sheep at times. And they're told what to do. These Judaizers came in. They were very strong at what they did. They were not They were just They were educated. They knew everything that was going on. So, they were strong in that way, their leadership. And then they backed it up with Old Testament scriptures. And that really got the people. I remember when I was reading my Yogananda meditation books.

And I remember how he he would always throw in a scripture, scripture here, scripture there. And I thought oh this guy's on, man. This guy's right on. He's using the Bible. And that authority, you know. And I was totally duped. And people are like get caught up in that all the time. And they're led as sheep to the slaughter. So, we have to be careful. Listen you guys, Jesus freed you. How can you go back to the same pagan state? How can you go back into those weak beggarly elements that are going to do nothing for you?

This is unexcusable is what Paul is saying. Or inexcusable. You shouldn't be doing this. Second Peter jot it down chapter 1 verse 9 Here's what Peter says, but he that lacks these things is blind. And they were lacking those things. They were blind and cannot see afar off. You have no vision. That's why it's important for us to have a vision. And our vision needs to be eyes on him and him alone. And has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Have you forgotten you've been redeemed by the blood of the lamb? Freed, totally freed.

What a liberty that we have. But the Judaizers demanded they observe the Old Testament systems. You know they need You know you guys need to get circumcised. You got to do the Moses thing cuz he's the main man. No, no, no, he's not the main man. He was just the man that was filling in at the time because there was a greater coming and that was Jesus Christ. But they were getting trapped up, tripped up. Well, listen they were saying you're going to be spiritually stronger if you do what we say to do because you're going to have the best of all the worlds.

Oh yes, Jesus is important, but you got to be baptized. Oh yes, Jesus is important, but you got to get circumcised. You know and they just added this and that and we've been going through that as going through Galatians. Yet it only brought misery to them to feed the flesh, to focus on what we achieve for God instead of what Jesus did for us. See that's where our focus needs to be. That's why we have communion. That's why we look at the body and the blood of the Lord. That's why we we fall in love with him that much more again and again and again and rightly so.

Look at what he did for us. His grace gives us liberty to be his sons, to receive our rich inheritance. And it is rich. We are rich in him. He says come to me and buy riches of me. Don't allow anybody else to rip you off and to say this is this is the abundant life or that is the abundant No, I said it. It's true. I am the only way, the only truth, the only life. There's only one way to the Father and to the inheritance. But this grace will not feed our flesh. Why?

Cuz it's undeserved, unearned, unmerited favor, isn't it? It's nothing to do with us. And when we get that, when we really get it, we're going to experience liberty. The gracious liberty of Jesus in our lives. And it's going to keep us safe from all the bewitching and the wizardry and all the weird stuff going on out there that even catches up Christians to start looking at something else. And many have been ripped off. So, what Paul is saying here theologically, it's deep. It It It It's It It goes into the fiber of what God wants to do within the church.

So, this is heavy stuff. And we need to seek to understand it. But But people say well but we're keeping the Sabbath, the seventh day adventists. They crack me up. And there's some of them that are born again. But they're deceived because their big deal is they keep the Sabbath. Now, where is that in the New Testament where the church is to keep the Sabbath? And they get into it. They're very serious about it. Vegetarians and they go do the whole route. What happened? Well, they got deceived. And they put emphasis on the Sabbath when there isn't any.

It's It's not for us, church. What are you doing? What And And if you keep the Sabbath, that's good. But what about the other nine commandments? How are you doing with those? Over in Check this out. Or just write it down. James chapter 2 verse 10 James 2:10 For whosoever keeps the whole law and yet offend in one point he is guilty of all the law. So, you might be good at the Sabbath deal and I worship God on Saturday and that's it, man. You worship him on any other day, you're sinning. But if you break any of the others, you broke them all.

James 2:10 We are not to let an outward event be a substitute for an inward experience. Did you get it? We're not to let an outward event be a substitute for an inward experience. Special days have nothing to do with salvation. Holy days don't make you holy. It has nothing to do with it. And yet these guys they're into it. Legalism. Listen we don't need these things that Jesus freed us from. Isn't that great? Just let them fall off your back like water off a duck's back. Don't get into it. Now, verse 11 is interesting.

Galatians 4:11 He says I am afraid of you, Paul says, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. Paul felt that he was spinning his wheels as he was trying to minister to them. And that attraction to leadership Paul feared would void out all of his labor towards them. It would just be for nothing.

Guest (Male): We'll stop here for today. This is Sound Doctrine and what you just heard is part one of a message from Pastor Jeff Johnson in Galatians chapter 4 verses 8 through 12. We pray you've been blessed by what you've heard today. Galatians is filled with challenging insights for Christian living. And if you'd like to hear this study again, simply go to sounddoctrineradio.org, sounddoctrineradio.org, or listen through the Sound Doctrine podcast app. You can also hear Sound Doctrine on oneplace.com and wherever you enjoy podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify. We'd appreciate your support of this radio ministry. It helps us do what we do each day.

And you can donate to this radio outreach at sounddoctrineradio.org. sounddoctrineradio.org We hope you'll join us for our next study in Galatians here on Sound Doctrine with Pastor Jeff. Presented each day by Calvary Chapel Downey. Have a blessed day in the Lord.