Galatians (Session 6) Chapter 4

chapter 4 of the book of galatians the first couple of chapters dealt with the authenticity of the gospel genuine as to its origin and genuine as to its nature the next two chapters dealt with the superiority of the gospel the new relation it affects and now we're going to explore the privilege it releases the the practical chapters five and six will be what we'll close the study with but we're going to go from the chapter three we looked at last session into this chapter the privilege that the gospel releases to us and we learned last time as we went through chapter three that paul launches six arguments three of them in chapter three and three of them in chapter four in chapter three we had his personal argument a scriptural argument quoting six passages and then the logical argument that we took in the previous session the next uh arguments in chapter four will be the dispensational argument a sentimental argument and an allegorical argument and that's a dozer we're going to take all three in this session so we're going from the intensity of last time's logical argument to what can be called the dispensational argument the dispensational view in this next section of the epistle paul is going to highlight the distinction that can help us discern the relative place of the old testament believers with those of us in this present dispensation by the way what closed the old testament we're in the new testament right what who whatever who closed the old testament john the baptist good for you exactly right and so we move on it's important to recognize that in all dispensations it was necessary for men to be born again in order to become sons of god and i think we covered that last time the new birth has always been the basis of faith in the divine revelation and of his own will begot he us with the word of truth that we should be a a kind of first fruits of his creature james says in james 1. so throughout all the ages every adult was begotten by faith in the word of truth and children before the age of accountability were imputed and imputed exception and matthew 18 even so it is not the will of your father which is in heaven that not one of these little ones should perish so and it really surprised me when i studied matthew 18 to realize guardian angels are a biblical concept i always sort of felt well that's just you know one of those traditional things no in any case but it's just as necessary that children be born again as a case of adults that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit and spirit so we're going to talk a little bit the difference between a child and an heir in the old testament times not all god's children were recognized as sons minor children were not recognized as their father's heirs until they were officially adopted as sons see we use the term adoption in our culture a little differently but in the roman and greek households even when the son became of age he was formally adopted he became of age by a a an action at the initiative of his father and that's part of uh he would he would aspire to to be adopted the first seven verses of chapter four galatians four uh represents this important perspective from the household of that day we have to put ourselves in that place so let's take a look at the first verse now i say paul said now i say that the heir as long as he is a child differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all he's a child that's destined to inherit the whole estate but as long as he's a child he is treated no more than a servant even though his destiny will be to inherit so the word this is paul is using this to demonstrate the spiritual immaturity of those who lived under the mosaic laws he's building an analogy here so paul reminds us that galatian believers have certain characteristics of an heir of a minor child they're very familiar with that so paul's using that to make his point uh his an analogy if you will and the word he's using as child here is which is an infant young child without speech even it's really a term used of an infant that's in contrast to the word he's been using the huios the the son and so under tutors and governors until the time appointed the father so the child is under uh pedagogues or tutors there's another type that gets in the picture too but the point is he's under supervision hired supervision if you will until the times appointed when the father finally uh goes forward with it and so um see he may have the birthright that he'll eventually inherit the whole estate nevertheless he's kept in subservience like a slave no freedom could make no decisions until that day and so he was under guardians as a pedagogist and this is ebitropos which are two different kinds um you watched over and taught and instructed acting like trustees to protect the estate and so forth so this is all true until he came of age as a son and that age varies by the way in the jewish the greek and the roman societies no surprise under roman law the age of maturity for a child was set by his father and involved a ceremonial darling of the toga varilus and his formal acknowledgement of the son and the mayor and so they they had a ceremonial event that took place in the family when that came about the analogy i think of the jewish culture would be the bar mitzvah for example paul applied the illustration in order to show a contrast between the believer's former position under the law and what they now enjoyed under the law they were protected they were slaves in effect now they're not that's the point he's trying to get across here even so we when we were children were in bondage under the elements of the world the analogy is growing the children the household versus the those that were under the law he's trying to goad these guys to get out from under the law they're gonna they can be better off see formerly in their state of in spiritual immaturity when we were children if you will they were like slaves they were under they were in bondage under the elements of the world that's the scope of that slavery was described as being under basic rudiments the stoichiome the the of the world the basic uh elements that make up their universe their ambience was when they were a slave to it and this though often interpreted as a reference to the mosaic law this view does not seem to fit the galatians most of whom were gentile pagans before conversion and were never under the law it seems better to understand these elements of the world to refer to the elements elementary stages of religious experience whether of jews under the law or gentiles in bondage to heathen religions and that's let's we underscore that religion is man's attempt to cover himself started with adam and eve trying to use fig leaves and god taught them even then that by the shedding of innocent blood they would be covered it's interesting that every cult every religion on the planet earth requires some form of bondage at some point do this do that don't do that and so we're i i you can get most people's attention by making the point that jesus christ was the most anti-religious person that ever walked the face of the earth and that you know you can drive a truck through that one okay the uh the same term that's used here also speaks of the weak and miserable principles uh in verse nine that we're going to get into and also basic principle of this world that colossians speaks up so the elements of the world is is a strange way to try to express that that that uh bondage that we undertake for ourselves we're all enslav enslaved until christ came to emancipate us and whether we're enslaved by the law of moses or whether we're enslaved by other pagan traditions same thing really the the the enslavement of the mosaic law is perhaps the most insidious because it would appear to be biblical being enslaved by some pagan traditions is easy for us to divorce because that's non-biblical the mosaic law thing is a little insidious because that has the trappings of being biblical anyway when the fullness of time has come god sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law and it goes on fullness of time it's interesting to explore just what that really means as exp you know back in verse two the time it was appointed by the father wasn't it when the child was to be adopted the father appointed the time well likewise god the father picked his time the fullness of time and just as the human father would would choose the time for his child to become an adult son so the heavenly father chose the provision for the people's transition from bondage under the law to spiritual sonship now this fullness of the time was when when the roman civilization had brought peace in a road system throughout the world of facility travel romans came along very conveniently and set up the infrastructure to allow the gospel when the time come to get transmitted we take that for granted no the time was when the grecian civilization provided a common language throughout the world which is adopted as lingua franca is a strange word to use but the term means you know the the the the widely used international language of the empire so the romans set up the the legal structure and the transportation structure the greeks provided had provided a common language alexander forced that on and did everybody a favor by doing so because everybody had a probably the most precise most sophisticated language ever ever put together and the jews that proclaimed monotheism and the messianic hope in all the synagogues of the mediterranean world so the stage the point is the stage was set every way you look at it i think it's interesting i personally harbor the view that the internet is god's mechanism to so the body of christ can be independent of borders and both geographic and denominational and we'll talk a little about that uh shortly and also as gabriel the fullness of time as gabriel predicted to daniel the exact day 500 years earlier the exact day that the messiah would present himself as king riding that donkey and that's one of the most exciting studies that you want to take if you haven't dug into that you'll want to do that when the fullest time had come god sent forth his son it was then when all those things are in place the pre-existent one out of heaven to earth on a mission and again that's my my uh problem with mel gibson's movie the passion i think it's a marvelous piece of work in many respects however it creates the impression that it was a tragedy no no no it was an achievement that was planned before the foundation of the world god sent forth the son made of a woman the son was not only deity he certainly was that but he also was humanity as the expression born of a woman indicates and uh this verse four emphasized the eternal sonship of christ he didn't become a man for three and a half years a ministry he didn't come a man become a man for 30 years on the earth when you first get into the into the bible one of the most astonishing things you you you come to grips with is that god not only created the universe he entered it as a man wow but then as you study further and you become aware of the holiness of god and the sinfulness of man as you become get a grasp of that gulf between the two the most astonishing thing is not that god became a man the interesting thing is that as we meet here right now there's a man sitting on the throne of god wild what do you think that went through so he sent for a son made of a woman the reference to his mother only harmonizes with the doctrine of the virgin birth as taught in the gospels of course but why a virgin birth great study i find it hard not to deviate to want to get into that whole one fabulous study starting in in the in eden at genesis 3 15 confirmed by isaiah in 7 and on and on and on so the course on jenaya it's hard for me to touch on these we're not getting into these fascinating stories but i think that's all ground for most of you so made under the law christ was born under the law as a jew important he kept the law perfectly he fulfilled the law and he paid its curse on our behalf that was his mission statement he was made sin for us second corinthians 5 21 tough verse than a holy god perfect in every in all respects was made sin for us i don't think we have the capacity to understand what that means i don't think we can really grasp the extremes that god has gone to that we might live to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons sees he's tying again our situation back to that what i'll call that roman model of the adoption of sons to redeem them that were under the law first he came to redeem those that are under the law and this is not a redemption from the curse of the law as the previous verse had but from the slavery to the entire mosaic system the emphasis is not on the penalty of the law but on its bondage since christ redeemed and set free those who were under the law why should gentile converts now wish to be placed under it see bear in mind he's writing to a gentile church and he's pointing out that that christ came to get everyone out of that slavery and bondage why do you choose gentile galatian gentiles to go back under the law that same question should be asked to many people many christians they've accepted christ and they today and they discover how exciting and how fruitful it is to really understand the old testament many christians are no no the new testament some extent but they are ignorant of the old testament you begin to discover that what paul says in romans 15 4 whatsoever things were written before time were written for our learning so we through the patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope and so as they get into passover and begin to understand how that all speaks of christ as they get into the jewish holidays they discover the richness of god's program for us fabulous and it's worth doing don't misunderstand me and the fact that robert hurst said that the jews catechism is his calendar understanding the jewish calendar when we celebrate easter we celebrate on the very day that noah left the ark you look at genesis 8 4 when the when did the flood of noah end on 4th verse of chapter 8. they came out of the ark on the 17th day of the seventh month terrific but that's the genesis calendar in exodus 12 the calendar shifts to a religious calendar so that nissan becomes the first of months well nissan was the seventh month on the old calendar ah then noah came out from the ark on the 17th of nisan passover's on the 14th jesus is in the in the tomb how long three days 14 plus 3 is 17. oh noah noah's new beginning on the planet earth was on the anniversary in anticipation of our new beginning in christ what a coincidence yeah anyway back to this here as as as christians begin to discover the richness and the worthwhileness of really understanding the old testament they can get so enamored and one of the it's it's a delight to worship with a messianic fellowship they have insights and and aspects that you you won't discover any other way on the one hand the tragedy is though many of them not all of them but many of them feel that you want to get back under the law that we have to keep they get confused they don't understand the book of galatians and or romans and hebrews for that matter in fact the messianics don't have a lot of use for paul but the point is is that there are people today that are serious christians they love the lord and yet they are in putting themselves in exactly the position that paul is writing to here in this epistle why should gentile converts now wish to be placed under the law now the second point he's going to make is that christ's incarnation and death secured for believers the full rights of sons the full rights of sons the adoption of sons in the king james version all the enjoyments and privileges of a mature son and a family belong to those who have entered into the benefits of christ's redemptive work and if children then heirs heirs of god joint heirs with christ if so be that we suffer with him that we might be glorified together that's just a quote from romans 8 verse 17 if we're children then heirs heirs of god and joint heirs with a boy we can't imagine what that means to be joint heirs with christ gee we're going to all by the way i should warn you about something else i'm writing some stuff my wife and i both have been publishing in another direction i take the position that most christians when they get to heaven are going to be disappointed that gets everyone's attention right how many of you are going to get to heaven how many think you might be disappointed when you get there a little nervous there you know i can't respond all right you see we were all taught that we're going to rule with christ right we don't read the footnote we'll be joined heirs with christ if so be that we suffer with him oh really really well what's the first thing we have the harpazzo the rapture great what's the first thing that happens after the rapture on the earth all kinds of things there's an interval at least before the antichrist revealed when he's revealed that he gets a he enforces a covenant for seven years the middle east covenant there's a yet violates his covenant by the abomination of desolation which and that the great tribulation is not seven years three the lord himself jesus um labels the last three and a half years the great tribulation that gets interrupted by arm he will release armageddon that gets interrupted by the christ return he sets up his kingdom right that's on the earth okay great what happens in heaven after the rapture it's in the scripture the bema seat of christ yes exactly second corinthians 5 10. we'll all be we all every one of us are going to be before the judgment for our final exam oh boy are we all going to be equal no there'll be some that got there by the skin of the teeth so it's as we might you experience the expression there are others that are going to some going to get crowns there's five of them listed i think there's more than that they're just representative but there's crowns there's all kinds of things there is a spectrum of rewards for what works no no no for faithfulness of accomplishments that were done through the holy spirit how is that going to be handled it's all explained for you in first corinthians 3. that verse 11 to 15. your works are going to be judged by fire and there's two categories flammable and inflammable really gold silver precious stones would hay stubble in my office i've got two walls brag walls as they call them and the executive on the one are all my corporate things 30 years in the strategic community with corporations and stuff i've been on 12 books all that is you know is on one wall and says wood hey stubble the other wall are replicas of our books and briefing packs and stuff and that's called gold super precious stones anyway the point is that which has been done by the spirit will endure that which isn't been done through the holy spirit will be consumed yet the person will be saved but like as by fire in other words that really that's the defending the definitive passage for smith so the point is um god's going to wipe away the tears in heaven right why are there any tears there's no shortages there's no lack of knowledge of god you can go through a whole list you know illness no deaths why are there any tears i'll tell you it's going to be over lost opportunities i believe that when we get to heaven and we begin to realize the time we wasted the opportunities what we might have done for the lord in this little boot camp we call life boot camp for heaven when we get things in perspective i think we're going to be in shock to realize how we blew it emerson summarized it so well he said the saddest words of tongue or pen are these it might have been when we realize that our responsibilities throughout eternity are being determined by our faithfulness here the parable of the ten talents yeah you know all the parables they take a whole different complexion when you realize that matthew's talking about the kingdom of heaven anyway a little off the subject but i thought i'd throw that in sorry what does all this mean and because ye are sons god hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying abba father that term occurs several times many people don't realize the richness of what that word means how do you translate the aramaic word or the hebrew word abba it actually should be daddy it's an affectionate intimate expression of father okay god the father now he sent his son he also sent the spirit that means the whole trinity is involved the father the son and the spirit right the holy spirit is the gift of god to every believer because of his sonship no sons or daughters lack the holy spirit further he's present within each believer's heart to give evidence that that one's position of one's position in god's family but this word abba i want to talk about this a little bit see the spirit moves the believer to pray to god addressing him as abba or father that also occurs in romans 8. abba is the aramaic word for father it's also derives from the greek i'll show you in a very i mean from the hebrew another way abba is the diminutive form used by small children addressing their fathers abba that's why you could justify a translation here of daddy in our vernacular this was the work used by christ in gethsemane mark 14. this familiar form indicates intimacy and also trust in contrast to the formalism of legalism but i'd like to just insert here a little alphabet lesson if i can the first letter in the hebrew language the hebrew language is different than all other languages on the planet earth there are language most of our alphabets are phonetic if you know the letter you know how it's pronounced if you pronounce the word you can learn what it means that's i don't want to conver confuse us with a pictograph like chinese which is a whole complex thing that represents some concept no the alph the hebrew alphabet itself there's 22 letters the first letter is an aleph it was originally written sort of like an ox's head sort of like a like a long horse there but i'm not going to get to that part right here but the aleph means first or leader that makes sense each letter in the hebrew language has a meaning not just a pronunciation a meaning what's called a semi if you will the second letter is beth beth means house bethlehem house of bread right bethel the house of god you're with me so far okay if you take an aleph and the bet together it's ab that's the leader of the house who's the leader of the house that's the word for father abbas the intimate version of it now if you take a breath a hey you remember my fair lady henry higgins is getting eliza doolittle so she doesn't miss her ages in hartford hereford in hampshire hurricanes hardly happen remember the idea was to get the ancients of breath in the hebrew the hay is just that it's the breath it is an abbreviation for the holy spirit if you will if you put a hay in the middle of a word you are implying the essence of whatever that is when you change the name of abraham to abraham all you do is put an a in the middle of it and that implies he has the spirit of god sarai becomes sarah only difference in spelling is a hey and then if you take the ab and put a hey that is the essence or breath spirit in the middle of ab you get ahab which is the essence of ab which is the father what is the essence of the father that is the hebrew word for love love is the essence of the father now i'm getting into this is the university of zona has discovered that if you teach the kids the way these letters are written before babylon which are more characteristic of their meaning it takes about half an hour to learn that and when you do that you can learn you can read about eighty percent of hebrew because the letters all hebrew words are a three-letter root if you understand what those letters mean you can generally infer what that word means you may not have the grammatical struction but you have the rest of it so here's an example we take a and a b to make ab being father you put a hand in the middle it's the essence of the father which is love it's their word for love and you can go on and on with this in terms they even have numerical values those numerical values are significant the the the hebrew word for pregnancy is worth it has a value of 271. the number of days the hebrew word for for a year has a value of 355. it's a lunar year and so on it's amazing to see you get into all of that anyway back to this back to galatians 4 verse 7 wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of god through christ the echoing again in the book of romans so to conclude paul declared that the galatians were no longer slaves but were sons and heirs that's his point on all going through all this the plural forms in verse 6 have been replaced by singular forms in verse 7 which is making it more personal and you might want to realize that when you look at the niv the translators admit they made 3 000 changes from singular to plural to relieve responsibility really that's kind of gutsy they admit it in the french piece check it out so the point is singular is personal and that's what paul is doing here he's shifting from plural of verse 6 to the singular verse 7. in god's family sonship carries with it airship whether you get the airship is a function of faithfulness i forget where we get into this but one of the things that we need to get into is the fact that inheritance can be forfeit it's interesting to notice that after the resurrection of the lord jesus from the dead he said to mary go to my brethren say unto them i ascend to my father and your father and to my god and your god do you realize in the language he's indicating your joint sonship with him the mind you and it's not our mind and yours his own relationship is unique from eternity but you have a one that's correlative with that we are still merely creatures he's our creator he was crucified on a cross of wood yet he made the hill on which is good he is still our creator but at the same time we have a relationship with him of the fatherhood of god in john 20 verse 17 he was fulfilling psalm 22 i will declare thy name unto my brethren he says so in a sense he's entrusted the honor of his name to us now it's interesting as i'll talk i'll share when i talk about the institute the institute has three legs the berean leg is the bible study part of it to be like the bereans study the verse by verse all through the bible the second leg is that what we call the issachar leg they understood that the sons of this car understood the times and knew what they had to do that's the prophecy and stewardship leg but the third leg we call the coinless leg and it's it's motivated by exodus 20 verse 7 thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy god in vain we argue has nothing to do with vocabulary that's not about swearing no no it's about ambassadorship if you're going to take the name of the king you better be prepared to represent them faithfully and competently so [Music] for what it's worth i'll declare thy name unto thy brethren any wicked or corrupt behavior on our part reflects on our king that we represent quote out of verse 8 how be it then when ye knew not god ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods see prior to conversion the galatians and their ignorance of the one true god were misled by pagan priestcraft and the modern media into bondage and false guards such as zeus and hermes and so forth we're in the same boat all you have to do is try to read the paper watch the news on television you realize you're being pawns of manipulators but now after ye have known god or are rather known of god how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements where unto ye desire again to be in bondage this is an echo of the earlier uh foundation that was laid you have known god and known of god the word there known as gnosco to learn to know to come to know to get a knowledge of perceive feel to become known the same word by the way is also used to represent sexual intercourse that kind of intimacy between a man and woman and the tense here is second arrest voice is active and the mood is participle strange straightforward i won't start on that okay but a great change took place and they became they came to know god the salvation and perspective of man and to be known by god that's salvation from god's perspective yet having come to know to know intimately on a personal level the true god the galatians were giving up the liberty and the light of christianity for the twilight and bondage of judaism that's why paul is so emotional and so assertive in this whole letter they're blowing it paul was amazed and also dismayed did they understand that they were being drawn back into a state of religious slavery was that really what they wanted to go again to the weak and beggarly elements that enslaved the murder that same word that he used earlier for those for the ambience that we find ourselves in if so why would they be attracted to a system that was weak that could not justify or energize godly living and be miserable that couldn't provide an inheritance see the same principles the word stokie of that system of the world is the same same one he'd used back there in verse three see there are only two religions in the world the true and the false false religions are all alike because they all say something in my hand i bring the true religion revealed from heaven leads one is saying nothing in my hand i bring not by word to quote titus 3 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the holy holy ghost paul is attacking the galatians he's saying ye observe days and months and times and years this is an echo of the fact that the jews catechism is their calendar in effect under the influence of the judaizers the galatians had begun to observe the mosaic calendar now don't misunderstand there's nothing wrong with observing it celebrating it not being slave to it big difference the jewish community is a slave to it nothing wrong with having a good christian passover seder on the 14th of the sun it's enriching but you're not required to there's nothing wrong with observing shabbat that's shabbat today's shabbat i don't think any of us are concerned about pushing an elevator button to go up a floor if you're jewish you would you'd look for shabbat elevator and so on and don't don't assume that sunday is our sabbath that's also a a piece of nonsense we can worship any day we like and if we choose to to observe and celebrate the lord's resurrection on sunday praise god that's wonderful but understand this when jesus returns he's got a temple that's described in ezekiel that's going to be built and it's only open on shabbat and the new moons it won't be open on sunday okay sunday is not it's our opportunity to celebrate christ's resurrection praise god for that but there's nothing and there's nothing enslaving about a christian who chooses with maybe some of his friends to have a a a celebration a meeting what have you friday night when shabbat starts at sundown friday my wife and i do that we're not under the law we have three rules whatever we do we do together whatever we do we do deliberately as a joint commitment and the third is there are no other rules okay because there's a it's an opportunity it's all about creation most of us are oriented the redemption let's praise god for that but shabbat is really all about about creation that's why it was instituted in genesis chapter 2. not exodus chapter 20. anyway no we're not 7th avenue don't misunderstand me we're not under the law it's the point now the jews kept special days in fact every jew will tell you there are 70 hamoidim 70 appointed times there are 52 weekly sabbaths and they're add to that the other seasonal the eights here and so forth the other things you end up with 70 appointed times something very interesting if you search the book of genesis with a computer and take the hebrew for hamou yadim you'll find that that different at all possible word intervals the letter intervals you'll discover it shows up only once in an encrypted way centered on the very verse that identifies in genesis chapter one verse four the hamoyadeem and the interval that it shows up with is 70 which is kind of interesting to a jew that's staggeringly profound obviously not just a result of statistical language it's been designed even letter by letter but we could go on here so you observe days months and times see they the galatians have been observing those times thinking that they would gain additional merit for god for doing so see they were putting themselves under the law it's a big difference between just enjoying the celebration and being under the law that's what paul is attacking here so paul is making it clear that works cannot be added to faith as a grounds for either justification or sanctification so doing it to enjoy the opportunity one thing putting yourself under the law is a denial of christ's completed work on the cross that's why it's so serious paul does not object to these observances for he kept himself as a jew he objected to gentiles taking to them as a means of salvation do you see the difference the difference is the crucial part nothing wrong with celebrating somebody learning about some of these celebrations and joining your jewish friends or you christian friends in understanding a little better what do they do at passover why do they do it you know why they take three monsters and break one and hide it why do they add warm wine to the why do they why do they add warm water to the wine they don't know you have to find out from matthew 27 when his heart broke on the cross and on and on [Music] sabbath day of rest boy that is that a subject of a lot of confusion over the years the sabbath rest has found fulfillment in him who said come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and i will give you rest he's our sabbath not the sabbath of the law the book of hebrews will deal with that when you get the chance to go into that there remains therefore a rest that is a true sabbath for the people of god and uh christ is our passover first corinthians 5. he is our first fruits john 12. we need to understand passover you understand need to understand shavuot of feast of first fruits to understand every one of the jewish feasts are prophetic they're commemorative historically they're also prophetic future you have three in the first month three in the seventh month and one in between the first three in the first in the month of nassau are predictive of his first coming the last three of the second coming in between you've got this weird one that uses leavened bread it's the only thing in the entire torah that is leavened bread because it's gentile in its focus interesting enough check it out you're on your way let's go to verse 11. i'm afraid of you lest i have bestowed upon you labor in vain paul talking to his his uh former converts here i've labored to the point of exhaustion is what it literally says if their attachment to legal practice legalistic practices continued there's a difference between just observing them and and celebrating and putting yourself under the law that's what he's objecting to the apostles words are emphasized his strong antipathy towards legalistic religion of any kind his focus is on the judaizers but this applies to any form of legalism boy we've got to go to church on sunday really might be neat to go it may have some value but is there a value i i haven't missed a sunday in 20 years that sounds like legalistic works to me i'm afraid for you unless i have bestowed upon you labor in vain see some make good make good impressions but not of us john 1 john 2 they went out from us but they were not of us for if they'd been of us they would no doubt have continued with us but they went out that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us well anyway we got six arguments that we went through in the last chapter we've taken the dispensational argument here the sentimental argument and an allegorical argument we're going to get all three of these the dispensational argument we've just had let's talk about the sentimental argument brethren i beseech you be as i am for i am as ye are ye have not injured me at all so he's not now he's starting to shift his appeal to a personal thing he's challenging the christians become like me for i became like you that is became free from the law as i am for after for after my conversion i became like the gentiles no longer living under the law this is paul a pharisee a a pharisee of pharisees and he no longer lives under the law doesn't mean he doesn't facilitate someone with his nazarite vows and things that's in a whole other whole discussion but the irony here is that the galatian gentiles are here here's paul a trained one of the best trained pharisees on the planet earth who has left that and his converts these gentiles are putting themselves under the law after after their conversions he's you know he this is something's wrong with his picture in his mind see the last clause of verse 12 also belongs to the following verses which paul related how he's received by the galatians see he's you have not injured me at all this makes sense to get the next verse is what i'm trying to say here he was received by the galatians see at that time that he met with him previously he was under a handicap of an illness that but remained until he had preached the gospel to him he was ill the previous time he was there but it's interesting to discover what kind of illness he had you know how through infirmity of the flesh i preached the gospel unto you at the first he's referring to a previous visit and even though he was seriously sick somehow he didn't deal with that until he finished preaching the gospel to them he you know he's here in this making references he's trying to touch their hearts on a personal basis here now those earlier days when he came to antioch and basilia iconium lyster and derby all these were the galatian cities of course and he didn't come with pomp and ceremony in order to profess authority over them but lowly just preaching christ crucified is this point they made those points in the first couple chapters now whatever his infirmity was we're not sure but we make some speculations here in a minute the galatians did not treat paul with contempt or scorn as a weak messenger but rather they received him as one that would receive an angel or even christ himself in other words here he he he came lowly but he was ill but they received him with great hospitality in what he's pointing out we suspect because a verse that's coming up here what he was ill with was a felony a an eye problem that was not only injured his eyesight but also was unsightly because it has it it secretes pus and it's it's a very uh you know unpleasant uh situation and we suspect that for some reasons i'll come to the balcony and my temptation which was in my flesh he despised not temptation of my trial might be better in my trial in my flesh you despise not nor rejected but receive me as an angel of god even as christ jesus is saying now it's widely assumed by scholars that this infirmity has involved his eyes because they were visibly distracting or offensive but they apparently overlooked that and spared any rejection because of that it's interesting that paul healed many sick but never healed himself in fact he prayed three times that this thorn in the flesh as he calls it would be taken and god says my grace is sufficient for you okay that's bad news for a lot of tv evangelists who tell you if you're sick that's your fault because you don't have faith or whatever anyway three times paul had prayed that in second corinthians 12 but god's grace had to be sufficient and this is a sobering bottle to these people on television that will tell you that you know we all should be approved god wants you to be happy and god wants you to be healthy and if you're if you're sick then if it's a lack of faith or something no that's balderdash continuing verse 15 where is then the blessedness he spoke of for i bear your record that if it had been possible ye would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me see that verse alone gives us causes to infer that what was bought what the the problem he had sick wise was his eyes you you know i bear your record that if it had been possible you would have given me your own eyes see that replies that was the issue that was so distracting they'd received paul with joy and uh congratulating themselves that the apostle had preached in their midst but they were plucked out their appreciation knew no limits in paul's money they would have made a sacrifice their eyes and why their eyes because that's where we draw that inference okay so this is his throne in the flesh that he talks about in second corinthians 12 and so forth that's not conclusive by the way this could simply be a bold figure of speech that he used but i think the abundance of scholastic opinion is that it's it's it's a justified inference in our part anyway moving on and i therefore became your enemy because i tell you the truth see the contrast when he was there despite all this they were abundantly supportive of him now is he are they suddenly his enemy because he's giving them the truth you know one of the most blessed things you can do is to be exhorted by someone that loves you you can often you can take the measure of a person by their response to exhortation and if they and the the the a wise person receives correction am i there for your enemy because i tell you the truth but apparently that all had changed they no longer apparently contemplate his presence as with joy they acted as though he had been his enemy force for the simple reason that he had been telling them the truth get you're not under the law telling the truth can be alienating especially among the immature yet how fickle were these galatians turning against the lord the gospel of grace and the very messenger who brought them the news of justification by faith they zealously affect you but not well yea they would exclude you that ye might affect them paul's attitude toward the galatians was guileless the the legalists had improper motives paul didn't have a motive here he wasn't trying to to to uh uh enrich himself some way here the legalists are the ones that in proper bonus the apostles spoke the truth the judaizers used flattery they would exclude you and the word actually means to lock out in the greek they want to alienate the galatians from paul and his teachings so they would be followers instead of the false teachers and their influence that's part of what's going on here if you spend any time in the messianic fellowship you will be drowned with promotional materials from the fruit of zion publishers who have all these books and things that will explain to you why you as a christian need to keep the law and it's a it's subtle it's logically erroneous it always assumes what they're trying to prove and i won't start on all that and the messianic fellowships are great i spent a lot of time with them but that is the threat that underlies so often that they draw you under the under the law paul came in in a self-denying service the legalists came seeking to extend their own influence okay but it is good but it is it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing and not only when i am present with you there's a double use of the word zealous here he said that the judaizers were zealous to win over the galatians so that the latter would be zealous for the judaizers if you will and so it's acknowledged that was good for anyone to be sought after paul nonetheless insisted that the intention must be honorable but in the case of the judaizer was not they had an agenda is what he's basically saying okay well of these six arguments in chapter four we've been through what we call the sentimental one let's get to the complicated one this is where you may want to start trying to make some diagrams i'll spare you mine we'll do it simpler here but the allegorical argument the last few verses of this chapter my little children of whom i travail in birth again until christ be formed in you see always had good motives towards the galatians my little children very affectionate term here very tender very my my dearborn ones is the way it should could be translated and so he compared himself almost like a mother in in the throes of birth pangs here and he had experienced this already once for their salvation now he's in travail again to get them delivered from these false teachers until christ be formed in you he longed for these believers to be transformed into the image of christ that is our objective that is our goal that is our destiny this in fact is god's ideal and purpose for christ to live his life in and then through each of us that's what it's all about galatians 2 20. remember your memory verse for that but the apostle here is perplexed and frustrated about the galatians because he felt their spiritual development was being arrested and by the way that's the whole purpose of the epistle to the hebrews is to move on to maturity it's not about getting saved they were all saved that's very clear you need to understand it or you won't understand the epistle paul says i desire to be present with you now and to change my voice for i stand in doubt of you he had a deep desire to be but so he could speak gently though firmly concerning his very grave concerns now in a very masterful stroke here this is very skillful he's going to turn to a scriptural illustration to conclude his whole theological defense of justification by faith and this is this is a dandy an old testament story from the life of abraham enables paul to review what he's already declared about contrast between mosaic law and grace and between works and faith he's going to take an old testament story he understood and he's going to draw an analogy an allegory if you will and it's going to give them an opportunity to verbalize the pointed charge to the galatians that they should cast out of their fellowship the legalizers so he goes tell me ye that desire to be under the law do you not hear the law see the galatians have not resubmitted to the boundary of the law but they desire to paul desperately wanted to stop them in their tracks and turn them back to a life under grace and as a transition to to what would immediately follow he challenged the galatians to be aware of and understand what the law really said here's the way he goes he says for it is written that abraham had two sons the one by the bond maid the other by a free woman now you obviously talk about sarah and hagar right so he's he's appealing again to use the founder of the jewish nation whose physical dissent all jews trace all the jews trace their blessings to abraham so he's using a familiar context to draw an analogy here and you know i want to remind you john the baptist and jesus both declared that physical descent from abraham was not enough it was no guarantee of spiritual blessing in mark 3 so let's not overdo this but here's the allegory it was addre now this is being addressed to justified but immature believers who under influence of the legalists desired to be under the law so it there's no application here to a sinner seeking justification get that clear that's that can cause confusion here that's what caught that presumption causes confusion when people study the epistle hebrews also it ra this is going to raise for the fifth time in this epistle the question is the believer under the law okay we've got an analogy under the old covenant of the law and under the new covenant of grace the following under the old covenant we have it symbolized by hagar the slave girl that gave birth to ishmael right under the new covenant we have sarah the free woman who was barren for a long time out of the old covenant we had ishmael the son born after the flesh under the new covenant we have isaac a son born miraculously by god's promise see the distinctives paul is using this as an allegory because the old covenant represents jerusalem and paul's day still in bondage both spiritual and political bondage under the new covenant of grace we have represents the heavenly jerusalem which is free and glorious and so on so he's going to draw this analogy and he's going to he's going to press it in some surprising ways so here's what he says for it is written that abram had two sons one by bond bond made other by a free woman and uh those that are born later and they're worse than born later are not important for this illustration they're just looking at these he's just considering these two what they're most like one son isaac was born of sarah free woman the other ishmael board of hagar the slave woman and according to ancient law and custom the status of the mother affected the status of her son obviously but he who was of the bond woman was born after the flesh but he of the free woman was by promise or prophecy if you will so there's a second contrast here that's concerned the manner in which the sons were conceived ishmael was born in the ordinary way that is in the course of nature the flesh and requiring no miracle or promise of god in fact he was a result of abraham trying to help god who he represents in the allegory the works of the flesh isaac on the other hand was born as a result of promise or prophecy plus faith abraham and sarah were beyond the age of childbearing but god miraculously fulfilled his promise in bringing life out of the deadness of sarah's womb see the parallel paul is building here isaac was the type of christ supernaturally announced beforehand named before he was born in isaac thy seed shall be called and see the singular incidentally and he was offered as a substitutionary offering boy that's pretty interesting we turned to abraham after three days and so on right the agidas genesis 22 and one i i don't think i included here he eliezer the comforter went to their own people to call out a bride for isaac did it for him oh we can go down that road later sometime in order to emphasize the contrast between law and grace paul now uses these historical events as a type or an allegory that is he treated these two mothers figuratively let's keep that in mind allegorically if you will he did not in any sense deny the literal meaning of the story don't miss don't get confused about this but he declared that the story especially in the matters relating to the conception of two sons contained an additional meaning it's an illustration if you will it's an allegory and he compared the conflict between the two sons with the conflict between judaism and christianity and this reminds us in hosea chapter 12 verse 10 where god says i have also spoken by the prophets and i have multiplied visions and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets this is the license if you will the mandate for similitudes metaphors similar allegories uh analogies those are parts those are tools of rhetoric those are instruments of rhetoric do you know how many different rhetorical devices are used in the bible how many different kinds we've mentioned a few metaphor allegories analogies types similes that's five how many different rhetorical devices do you think are in the bible over 200 and they're all catalogued with examples as an appendix in some of our materials in cosmic codes and elsewhere it's an interesting study we don't study rhetoric that much as they as they did classically but it's amazing what you pull together if you want to track that stuff down we've done that for you in summer materials anyway first corinthians 10 paul says now all these things happened unto them for types that's where we get prototype or antitype a type type of a model if you will the word in our vocabulary the word model is perhaps more comfortable than types but that's the traditional classical way of speaking of types and for they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come let's get back to galatians 14 4. which things are an allegory for these are two covenants so not only two women and two sons they're two covenants the one from mount sinai which gendereth to bondage which is agar agar that's the greek translation of hagar if you will see first he appointed two covenants the mosaic had its origin mount sinai those uh this that was the legal covenant if you will for slaves and hagar brought forth a slave so does the law and the greek form of hagar is agar uh synonymous with hagar if you will the reader is expected to understand and this and then that must supply the implied reference to the abrahamic covenant in contrast to the sinaitic covenant because the synaiac covenant was conditional it was the law the abrahamic covenant was not conditional it was a system of grace represented here in the analogy by sarah because she gave birth through the promise of god and she brought forth children who are free in contrast to the other one the the bondwoman paul continues for the egg for this agar is mount sinai in arabia and answers to jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with their children boy does this open the door for some things i i haven't included diagrams maybe that's a blessing i didn't go down this path for you but let me just mention that your bible's in the back of your bible you have a place called in fact it's called the sinai peninsula right because saint catherine's monastery and mount sinai are traditionally there but after 120 years of searching they can find no evidence of any large group of people that would have left evidence of having been there all of the book of exodus it's been recently discovered and confirmed by the way that the real mount sinai is jabal al-laws in the arabian peninsula and that those materials are really worth studying because it's exciting to realize what they've discovered and it's been well confirmed but it's interesting the reason one of the reasons has been discovered is because of this verse jim irwin the the astronaut and bob corny got into this partly because here it says mount sinai is in arabia the sinai peninsula is not arabia it's the the mount sinai is in midian moses spent 40 years there before he even went to egypt for the for the exodus and so on they have found it the the arabian government has sealed it off they found gold they have found archaeological things they found the rock huge vertical rock that's been split and there's evidence of erosion of the the very events that refudeem and so on so it's astonishing it's really fun to get into all of that but i mentioned that this is the place in the bible which tells us that the tradition about sinai and saint catherine's monastery and all that is uh not biblical but anyway agar is about signing represents mount sinai and arabia and answers to jerusalem which now is and is in bondage with the children the jerusalem which now is in contrast sees now he's pointed to he pointed to two two women two sons two covenants two two cities the two jerusalems hagar stood for the first century city of jerusalem a city enslaved to rome and in slavery to the law and jerusalem of course at that time was the center of the jew the judaizers religion the reason the jews were driven out of jerusalem over 1900 years ago was because they knew not the time of their visitation those are christ's words why was jerusalem destroyed in 70 jesus says so in luke 19 verse 44 because they did not recognize this very day as a whole boy it's a good thing i'm using powerpoint meandering all these things i'd never get to our termination here okay we have no king but caesar remember that john 19 no jerusalem is enslaved his blood be on us and our children oh boy that's echoed through history see they remain the children of hagar but the dark days of the great tribulation will bring another day a day of repentance hosea 5 15 gives you the purpose of the the great tribulation the purpose of the time of jacob's trouble god says i will return to my place that must mean he left it in their affliction i i will return to my place and they will until they acknowledge their offense that's singular and specific in their affliction they will seek me earnestly and we can go through urge our jewish friends to read isaiah 53 and psalm 22 and psalm 69 and zechariah chapter 12 through 14 and then read the epistle to the hebrews and the gospel of matthew and see what the spirit leads them to but jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all different jerusalem two jerusalems here we'll summarize this in the chart here in a minute well here it is i guess we have two women hey garden sir two sons ishmael and isaac two covenants law and grace two mountains sinai and calvary two cities earthly and heavenly so this is paul indulging using these realities as an analogy for what they're dealing with here with galatians and so you can you can take the notes and study further from that but uh sarah on the other hand correspond to the new jerusalem above the mother of all the children of grace this heavenly city will one day come to earth revelation 21 describes it it is now the city of the living god of the home of the departed believers of all ages and paul uses the rabbinical idea of a heavenly jerusalem corresponding to one here to illustrate his point without necessarily endorsing their ideas he's drawing upon their presumptions their rabbinical perceptions to draw his analogy it would be inappropriate to try to use this to endorse going the other way if you will but in philippians 3 our citizenship is heaven from once we look for a savior of the lord jesus christ abraham looked for a city which hath foundations whose builder and maker's god hebrews 11. are you a citizen of heaven if so study it find out about it there's a lot revealed about it and is this the citizenship that prioritizes your life if you really are a citizen of heaven that citizenship will prioritize your life for it is written rejoice thou barren that bearish not break forth and cry and thou that travail is not for the desolate hath more many more children than she which hath a husband and he's quoting from isaiah 54 which follows obviously isaiah 53 if you get the continuity there what 53 is all about it's prophesying the changing fortunes of israel which paul applied to sarah's history the bareness of israel and diaspora having rejected her messiah and now he's applying isaiah 54 1 to the church the prophet refers to sarah's prolonged barrenness and paul uses this fact as a figure for the progress and glory of christianity that's the new jerusalem of freedom in his mind in contrast with the old jerusalem of bondage that is the current judaism his thoughts moving very rapidly here but he doesn't lose his connection israel was prophesied to enter a period in which she was not my people i thought she's a chosen people yes but god says jose there's going to be a time when you're not my people and you're not pitied and christ announced her her subsequent blindness when she failed to recognize him as the messiah he pronounced judicial blindness there in luke 19 verse 44. now not forever paul tells us how long it's going to last in romans 11 25 until the fullness of the gentiles become in and that reinitiates the whole kingdom program again okay now in the ultimate sense her eventual fullness also portrays her millennial blessings there's going to be probably more people saved by that later than before now paul applied this passage he did not claim it was fulfilled to this extent to sarah who was previously burned later blessed with a child who would then ultimately enjoy greater progeny than hagar now first he compares you know we brethren as isaac was are the children of promise see paul's comparing the birth of isaac to that of christians as isaac experienced a supernatural birth and was a child of the means of promise so each believer experiences a supernatural birth john 3 be born again and so forth and is a recipient of the promise of salvation as we've seen all through chapter 3 of this epistle for the law was given by moses but grace and truth came by jesus christ and are you a child of that promise or are you in bondage that's the implied question paul's asking you today as children to promise christians are in a distinct category and should not live as children of bondage that's his point too but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now isn't that the truth he compares is ishmael's persecution of isaac to the false teachers opposition to the believers abraham celebrated the wearing of the weaning of isaac with a banquet but on that occasion ishmael mocked isaac laughing derisively as the younger boy um ishmael was the elder son you see and and assumed that he would be heir to the father's estate didn't turn out that way despite the protestations of islam that early animosity has been perpetuated in the two peoples which descended from the two sons of abraham and is seen in the current muslim israel pensions it's not quite we should expand on that but i won't take the time here it's interesting you should realize that no arab can claim his lineage from ishmael they like to claim it but they can't prove it for a lot of reasons but i don't want to start on that here let's go on here paul likened the judaizers to ishmael as those who were born out of legalistic self-effort he charged that they continued to persecute the true believers who were born by the power of the spirit see how the analogy can be pressed it's rather interesting with few exceptions paul's persecution came from the jews the people in bondage to the law when you read luke all through the book of acts there's insurrections and problems it's the jews that are causing the disruption isn't the romans yet that happens later nevertheless what does the scripture say back to jesus cast out the bound woman and her son for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman see paul is comparing the action of abraham back against with casting out uh hagar to the obligations of the galatians there's to cast out see sarah observed ishmael mocking isaac she asked abraham to expel the slave woman and her son lest ishmael become a joint heir with isaac and god granted sarah's request in genesis 21 get rid of your legalism is the application it shall not be heir with the son of the freeman this should remind paul's readers that the law observance brought no inheritance in the family of god and it also charged them to excommunicate the judaizers and those who accepted their false doctrines so there's a fundamental incompatibility between law and grace between religion based on works and a religion based on faith there are only two kinds the first becomes the last and the last becomes the first the barren wife sarah becomes fruitful and the bond woman hagar is set aside grace supersedes the law is paul's intrepid report so then brethren we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free so he's paul's including here firm that he and the galatian believers were not children of the slave woman who was driven away and was denied a share in the inheritance we needed inheritance in the old testament could be lost for lack of faithfulness inheritance in the new testament can be lost for lack of faithfulness all believers are children of the free woman heirs of god and co-heirs with christ that doesn't relieve us of the need to be faithful i want to put a final caveat here because allegorizing is also a path to error because an allegory is a license to invent paul has done it skillfully and correctly but allegorizing allegorical interpretation of the text followed by origen augustine and many others through the ages down to the present day is which the historical facts are relegated to the lower less significant level and the fanciful or hidden meanings unrelated to the text are considered vastly more important that's just an invitation to disaster and that's not what paul is doing but that's what many people do do paul does not deny the actual historical narrative but he simply uses it as an allegorical sense to illustrate his point for the benefit of his readers who are tempted to go under the bird of the law he puts a secondary meaning on the narrative just as he uses as a type of the narrative the scripture uses types all through the scripture and uh many good examples that we don't have to press that the unduly but it's each each is used in a variety of ways the allegory in one sense is a speaking parable like buddhist pelican's progress the prodigal son in luke 15 the good shepherd in john 10 and so on but the allegory was also used by philo and paul here for a secret meeting not obvious at first one not in the mind of the writer like our illustration which throws light upon the point paul was familiar with this rabbinical method of exegesis and rabbi akiva that he found a mystical sense in every nook and cranny and he's notorious for that but paul makes skillful use of that kind of knowledge here but observe that what paul says here that he's using an allegory not an ordinary interpretation and um it's not necessary to emphasize i think that paul intended his readers to understand the allegory was designed uh by the negative narrative not the other way around he just illustrates his point with it okay for the next session study galatians 5. in the final two chapters of this epistle paul is going to deal with the practicalities he's going to answer the so what question so what do we do about all this and that should be the result of our salvation justification sacrification by faith

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Published: Thu Oct 15 2020