A sermon on Galatians 4:9 preached on Sunday 31st July, 2022 by Pastor Enoch Awuku Anti
This morning, I want us to look at what I have entitled “Turning Back To The World.” Look at the verse 9, that is where I am picking the title from the phrase “how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the word”
I will share with you three ways by which the Galatians were turning to the world. But before then, let’s get an understanding of the word world here. Notice how Paul uses the phrase “the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world” Many commentators have noted this to be the observation of the rituals and rites of the Mosaic law. And that is true if you consider that Paul says You observe days and months and seasons and years! Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians is my companion through this series in Galatians, so let me share some words of his with you
In calling the Law the elements of the world Paul refers to the whole Law, principally to the ceremonial law which dealt with external matters, as meat, drink, dress, places, times, feasts, cleansing, sacrifices, etc. These are mundane matters which cannot save the sinner. Ceremonial laws are like the statutes of governments dealing with purely civil matters, as commerce, inheritance, etc.
Now, at this point in our journey through Galatians, if you don’t remember anything at all about Galatians which we have been treating for the past month, there is one thing you shouldn’t forget or you should remember. And that is, the whole of Galatians is about how sinners are justified before God or simply how sinners are saved. Is it by our good works? Is it by obeying the ten commandments or some moral code? Is it by our morality—, I don’t fornicate. I don’t steal, I don’t smoke, I don’t fornicate, I don’t commit adultery? What else? I am regular at church, I obey my parents etc….What other things can people hinge their salvation on? Think about it. Don’t tell me the answer. But there are so many wrong reasons by which people believe they will be saved.
Now morality is good. In fact morality is ideal for every human society and most importantly a society like ours. I was having a conversation with my wife during the week and I said that many of us believers don’t think about our decisions and actions biblically. For example, if you drive consider the lawlessness on our roads, people driving on the shoulder of the road when there is a traffic jam or rush, if Christians, the number of Christians behind steering wheels will just think biblically about this, they will realise they are breaking the laws of the land and they are not being good neighbours. In fact if you are a Christian, you are expected to be moral. You are expected to be law abiding
But herein lies the rub: Your morality and your good works cannot save you. Though it is required of you to be moral and have good works.
The Jews in this letter, whom Paul wrote to oppose, say keeping and obeying the law brings justification. Paul says no no, Sinners are not justified by keeping the law but through faith. And this is not only the message of Galatians, it is the message of the whole Bible. From Genesis to Revelation, the way sinners are saved is through faith. The popular text in Ephesians 2:8 says “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it’s the gift of God.” You see that? This is a consistent pattern or teaching of Scripture.
Sadly, the Galatians bought into the Jewish error of justification by work. And sadly, many people today, even professing Christians, makes their good works their basis for justification. I ask the question again. How much good works must one keep to be saved?
Zilch! None! Because none can save you.
Now though Galatians is about law and faith; we can also look at it from the perspective of Paul expressing his frustration and angst about what is going on in Galatians. Indeed this is the tone of the letter. We see this running through the letter constantly.
He opened the letter with an expression of shock:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel (Galatians 1:6)
Then when you go on in the text, you see this astonishment running through.
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. 2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by[a] the flesh? 4 Did you suffer[b] so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 Does he who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you do so by works of the law, or by hearing with faith (Galatians 3:1-5)
I am afraid I may have laboured over you in vain (4:11)
You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth (5:7)
We see clearly in these texts how Paul expresses shock and his sentiments about the Galatians situation. He is perplexed. He is at a loss. He is like “What is going on here? How did you so soon get here?” Paul is an apostle. He has a shepherd heart. After he has gone hard fisted on them from the beginning, he starts to tenderly address the Galatian problem pouring his heart out.
My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! I wish I could be present with you now and change my tone, for I am perplexed about you (4:19-20).
Now why is Paul expressing all these? Because the Galatians were turning back to the world. In the text, you will notice how Paul made some distinctions between the past and the present life of the Galatians.
“Formerly he said” Before they had become Christians, they had a past. And what was this past (i) They didn’t know God (ii) They were enslaved to idolatry (The Galatains were known to be idolatrous). (Read v.8).
This, dear brethren, is naturally the state of every human being that comes into the world. And the Scriptures clearly states this. We don’t know God, we don’t seek him, we follow naturally things that will not save us. We are naturally idolatrous.
1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins
2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—
3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind (Ephesians 2:1-3)
as it is written:“None is righteous, no, not one;no one understands; no one seeks for God. “There is no fear of God before their eyes (Romans 3:10-11,18)
Now for the believer, this is no more their reality, but their past. But for the unbeliever, this is your past. You don’t know God. You are alienated from God. You are under the control of Satan. And you are under condemnation from God until you come to faith in Christ. The joy is that, every believer seated here has a past. We once didn’t know God. Or if we knew God at all, we were not living for him. Or we were living self-righteously hoping we will find acceptance with God. But now we know God.
Paul, after he has spoken of the past of the Galatians, now speaks about their present, that is, what God has done for them. They have come to know God. God has revealed himself to them. How Paul writes verse 9 is a bit startling.
It appears that (I am only speculating here) he wrote the first line” “But now that you have come to know God” then he paused and thought through that this may be misleading. They may think they came to Know God by themselves. So he adds or rather to be known by God. This is a fact of Scripture. Nobody can have a knowledge of God until God has revealed himself through the preaching of the gospel and through his word. Remember that in our first session in our Sunday School, we spoke about General Revelation and Special Revelation.
General Revelation is General and lacks the ability to bring anybody to salvation, though it reveals things to us about God. But special revelation, the revelation of God through the person of Christ and the way of salvation captured in the Holy Scriptures is how God reveals himself to save us. So Paul is careful to point that out. One of the joys of biblical interpretation is when you interpret a Scripture, then you look it up in commentaries to be sure and your words square up with giants of the faith, it is exhilarating. So let me share a quote with you from John Calvin
Still farther to heighten the blame, he corrects his language, and says, or rather have been, known by God; for the greater the grace of God is towards us, our guilt in despising it must be the heavier. Paul reminds the Galatians whence they had derived the knowledge of God. He affirms that they did not obtain it by their own exertions, by the acuteness or industry of their own minds, but because, when they were at the farthest possible remove from thinking of him, God visited them in his mercy. What is said of the Galatians may be extended to all; for in all are fulfilled the words of Isaiah, “I am sought by them that asked not for me: I am found by them that sought me not.” (Isaiah 65:1.)
You and I who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ have received such great work of God in the sense that God has revealed himself to us and brought us into a relationship with himself through faith in Christ. He has reconciled us to himself. And Paul beautifully makes that point out in the opening verses of Chapter 4
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
Despite this great and wonderful work of God in their lives, the Galatians were deceived and are turning back into the world. Now here are three ways by which the Galatians were turning to “weak and worthless elementary principles of the world”
They Turned From Grace Back To The Law
This is the clear problem in Galatians, instead of continuing in the grace of God, they are now making circumcision and observation of the law their standard practice. These principles which speak of our outward acts are prevalent among many Christian teachings today. Today, in many churches and among many Christians, there are so many so-called principles that Christians are supposed to live by if they are to receive blessings and grace from God.
Friends, if you hear anyone teaching you anything apart from the grace of God for salvation, don’t listen. Truly, there are many principles about marriage, about love, about money, about dating/courting, about financial management etc etc. There is nothing wrong with these. But these cannot save you. You can adhere to all these and not be saved. Unfortunately, that is what is been put forward for us these days as Christianity.
Dear friends, look to Christ. Look to him intently. Savour the work of Christ on behalf of sinners and on your very behalf. He died to save you from your sins and to reconcile you to God. Let it sink in proper. You are a child of God if you have come to faith in him. Don’t let anyone derail you from the faith.
Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits[a] of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:6-8).
They Turned Their Backs On God
Turning back to the law means turning from something. And we know who they are turning from. They are turning their back to God. They are putting aside God’s established way of salvation to establish their own salvation. And this point has been clearly made from the beginning of the letter (1:6). “Deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ” Who called them God?
They Turned Into Slavery
“Whose slaves they want to be once more”
They going back to their idols. To their old lifestyle. What have you left behind because of Christ, that you are turning to? Christ calls you back
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