And let us turn in God's words to Galatians chapter four. As we continue looking at Galatians, and of course, the main message of Galatians is that we are saved by grace through faith without any merit of ours. And going back to trying to save ourselves by works is a total undoing of what Christ has done for us. So let us read together Galatians chapter four as our scripture reading, as our text this morning. Now I say that the heir, as long as he has a child, does not differ at all from the slave, though he is a master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. And when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. But then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. In my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that if possible you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? They zealously court you, but for no good. Yes, they want to exclude you that you may be zealous for them, but it is good to be zealous in a good thing always and not only when I am present with you. my little children, for whom I labor and birth again until Christ is formed in you. I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I have doubts about you. Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise. Which things are symbolic? For these are the two covenants, the one for Mount Sinai, which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to Jerusalem, which now is and is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, which is the mother of us all, for it is written, Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear. Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor. For the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as he who was born according to the flesh, then persecuted him who was born according to the spirit, even so it is now. Nevertheless, what does the scripture say? Cast out the bond woman and her son, for the son of the bond woman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. So then brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free. Thus far the reading of God's word, may he add his blessing to our consideration of it this morning. Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, as we look at this passage of God's word, Paul expresses his fear for the church there in Galatia, of course, that area that is now in what we call Turkey today. And in Galatia, they had been pushed, we go back to chapter two, by Judaizers to go back to the law. to salvation by works. And it may seem very subtle. And yet at that same time, Paul says here, they're trying actually in the end to exclude you so that you may be, verse 17, zealous for them. And brothers and sisters, we have to understand that when people push us back to salvation by works, It becomes about us as human beings instead of about the grace of God in Jesus Christ. And we have to see that danger. It is subtle. And yet Paul here likens it. He says, verse 8, When you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather by known by Him, that they have seen the wonders of salvation in Jesus Christ. He says, how is it that you again turn to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? He says, it's the same thing. And we have to understand that. that true biblical Christianity is the only religion on earth where it isn't, be good and God will like you. Do this, do that to get salvation. And we have to understand that when biblical Christianity is twisted into a works religion, Paul is saying it's no different than any other religion on this earth. You might as well be Muslim, you might as well be following after the gods of Hinduism and all the other crazy stuff on this earth. You have to understand that. And by the way, that's We're used to those things. Paul's actually referring, of course, here not to those religions so much as the religions, the horrifically wicked religions that were going on in the culture today. By the way, those other religions that I mentioned and the other ones in our culture are horrifically wicked. We just don't see it as much today. So brothers and sisters, as we look at this passage, we have to realize that God gives us salvation. It is not our works somehow that save us. Going back to the law returns us into bondage. That's the theme that we want to see in God's Word this morning. God gives salvation to His people. And if we want to go back to the law, to somehow saving ourselves by works, That is returning ourselves to bondage, as we talked about in our catechism reading this morning. Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them. If we think that we're going to save ourselves somehow by obedience, then we have got to do everything perfectly. And so as we look at this passage in verses one through seven, we see that God sent his son and his spirit upon his people as sons and heirs. In verses eight through 18, we see that there are those who are eager to turn us back from the gospel to weak elements. And in verses 21 through 31, we look at the fact that, do you understand that the law means bondage? And the gospel means freedom. So God sent his son and his spirit upon his people as sons and heirs. As children, he says, going back into the previous chapter, he says, verse 26, for you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. As many as you have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Therefore, there's none of these groups in the regard to salvation. If you are Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. And he starts out chapter four and he says, I say that an heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, even though he's master of all, but it's under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. What was called a steward or a guardian in the previous chapter? Of course, the law. The law was a tutor pointing them to the need for a Savior, the need for the Messiah, for the Christ. And an heir, a child under the law, still looks very much like a slave, he says. And kids, as heirs, still need guardians and stewards to be brought up, appointed by their parents. And so as we were children, under bondage of the elements of this world, as a tutor pointing us to Christ, this broken world points us to our need for a Savior. Even without Christ, you will hear people realize how broken and sinful this world is. Of course, they won't use that word, but they don't have the answer. The answer, of course, is in Jesus Christ. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. God sent his son at just the right time, in just the right way to fulfill everything necessary for our salvation. If he hadn't, it would have all been wasted. And so the Savior had to be born at the right time. He had to be born as truly God, the Son of God. He had to be fully human. We talk about this in the next section of the catechism as we move forward. He had to be a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than all creatures. That is, one who is also true God. He had to live and be subject to the law. Otherwise, he would not be able to redeem those under the law. But notice where that goes. So that we would be able, verse 5, to receive the adoption as sons. And central to Paul's argument here in this chapter is our adoption as sons of God. That we are children of God and therefore heirs. Why are we children of God? Because of what Christ did. That through our elder brother, we have received adoption. We have become sons of God. And God has then, verse 6, sent forth His Spirit into your hearts by which we cry out, Abba, Father. And by the way, I've heard for years this idea that that word, Abba, has the idea of daddy in it. And so I chased that as I was studying for this sermon. And it does. And you know why, how that connection works out for us? It's because this is the address that Jesus used for God. And so we get to use the same address for our Father in heaven as Jesus used. Because that's our connection. We are children of God and we can cry out literally, Daddy, to God. That's the idea, by the way, contained when we start the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, Daddy, Almighty God. Yes, and don't forget that we're talking to Almighty God. Of course, the Lord's Prayer, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, of course, right? Not to have some earthly thought of the heavenly majesty in that connection, but that we have that connection because Jesus has given it to us. It is ours to claim, to live in. And because of this, He says, you are no longer a slave but a son. And if a son, an heir of God through Christ. If we're children of God, we're heirs. We have the promise of what God is promising, has given to His Son. That we have a home in the new heavens and the new earth. This earth is not our final home. And we look forward to that. We live for that. Now, we may or may not be dealing with inheritances ourselves. We may be considering our own, what we're gonna do with what God has blessed us with. But God has blessed us with more than just physical things. And I pray, brothers and sisters, for those of you who are thinking about the inheritance that we have to leave for our children. that we would also be thinking about how do we leave the inheritance of the salvation, of the eternal life which God has given to us, not just of the earthly things. That we make sure that we pass that. As Reverend Bowen said, he says, did you know you can take something with you to heaven? We always say you can't take anything, right? What can you take with you to heaven? You can take people who believe. You can take your kids, your grandkids, if they're believers. He said, some of us need to work on that. So as we think about it, what are we doing? We have an inheritance. You know, maybe some of us have a little bit of inheritance from someone before us. Maybe some of us have nothing. That's okay. We have far greater inheritance in Jesus Christ than we would ever have on this earth. Because God has given it to us. But then Paul says, there are those who are eager to turn us back from the gospel to the weak and beggarly elements. Now that you know the truth, God, why would you turn back to these things? Now, some of us grew up in the church and have never known what it is to truly run after the wickedness of this world. And sometimes those, by the way, make better pastors, better preachers of the gospel than those of us who grew up that way, that knew how rotten they were. But brothers and sisters, we all need to consider ourselves how sinful our hearts truly are. We need to face up to that. Because we do know what it means to follow the weak and beggarly elements. He talks about false gods. False gods is a slavery. They were from Asia Minor. They had come from horrendous religions that were full of human sacrifice and every other despicable thing. Sexual orgies as part of worship and crazy, ugly junk. And they knew what it was to be in service to the things of this world and these false spirits. It's honestly hard for us in modern America to imagine how ugly these false gods were. Now some of the stupidity of our culture is beginning to approach it, but we're not there yet. But we will get there if we keep denying who God is. And Paul says to them, now that you have known God, or rather known by God, how is it that you want to turn back to the weak and beggarly elements desiring to be in bondage to them again? They knew the difference. And yet they were being pushed back to salvation by works, by the Judaizers. Paul says that replacing grace with works is the same as going back to the unbelieving wicked religions that they had come from. He says, you observe days, months, seasons, and years. Going back to the Old Testament Jewish calendar and those things. Now, we have to be careful. It can be easy for us to make celebrations which God has not come up with. By the way, this is one of the reminders of the Reformation. The Roman Catholic Church, I was looking at a website with all the saints days on it. And some of them, I mean, the webpage is so long, they have to make sub lists for every day because there's thousand saints on this day and that day, not the thousand, but 20. And you were supposed to have, take the day off and worship these people and stuff like that. And the reformers objected to this desiring only to celebrate what God had ordained. There were and are some who reject any holy day other than the Sabbath. Now I would argue that there are certain days which God has set up, but we have to understand that these sorts of things become a slavery as well. He says you observe days and months and seasons and years. We're called to live in thanksgiving to God, in service to God, not following after a calendar, not following after the Old Testament ceremonial law. Our salvation is not in our keeping of dates. Our salvation, as Paul says, he who keeps the day, keeps it to the Lord and gives God thanks. He who does not keep the day, does not keep the date to the glory of the Lord and gives God thanks. But Paul says to these Galatian brothers and sisters, I'm afraid for you, lest my labor for you was in vain, that you were walking away from the salvation which God taught to them through Paul's ministry. If they were going back to salvation by works, if we think that our works is somehow going to save us, we might as well just go back to the false wicked religions. It's the same thing Paul's saying. And then he talks about his infirmity. And he says, it's better to have a physical infirmity than to walk away from the blessing of the gospel. He says, brothers, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. He says, you have not injured me at all. Now, what characterizes what Paul talks about in relationship to their becoming like him? Well, what does the next verses talk about? His physical infirmity, right? When he came to them. He says, you know that because of physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at first. And my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear witness that if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. He says, and we don't know what the infirmity was. Apparently, I mean, reading between the lines in verse 15, it probably had something to do with his eyes, but it was also something we're told that would have caused them to despise or reject him. Verse 14, he says, Because of that physical infirmity, and we don't know exactly how this interacts, but apparently he stopped there in the Galatian area and started preaching. Perhaps he couldn't go forward, who knows what was going on with his eyes and things like that. But God says that he stopped there because of that infirmity, he preached the gospel to them. And they didn't despise him, they didn't reject him, because of the trial that was in my flesh, But rather, you received me as an angel of God, even as Jesus Christ. His infirmity, while it could have made them think less of him, even reject him, rather, when they heard the message, they received him and God's word through him as though he were the Savior himself. And so you see the difference. He says, I wish you would become like me. Because the problem that you have is far greater going back to salvation by works than any physical infirmity he had. He says, what was the blessing you received? I bear you witness that you would have given your own eyes for me. Seeing the truth, they received great blessing in turning away from their false religions, from their beggarly elements of their false deities. They were so taken by Paul that they would have been willing to help him if any way that it were possible, even to lose their own sight, to pluck out their own eyes. And he says, seeing how much they received through Paul's ministry, now they're leaving his teaching and going back to essentially human religion. And then Paul talks about those who were courting them. He says, they zealously seek you, but for their own advantage. Paul is laboring for them, having doubts about them. He says, verse 16, have I become your enemy because I tell you the truth? How often do we kill the messenger? You say something, people don't like it, okay, I don't want to listen to him ever again. He who had been so loved by them for the preaching of the gospel to them, was he now their enemy for telling them the truth and contradicting these people, pushing them back to works? They zealously court you, he says. They want to pull you in for bad things. They want to exclude you and make you zealous for them. Instead of following Christ, following one who gave himself for them, they want you to give yourself for them. But their ideas are wrong. This actually brings about exclusion. Think of what happened with Peter in chapter 2. Before the Jews came, Peter ate with the Gentiles. Afterward, no, can't do it unless a few are totally become proselytes. He says, truly it's good to be zealous always in a good thing. It's good to follow after the important things and to be zealous for them. But this isn't a good thing is obviously the subtext here. He says, my little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you. Paul is just in throes of childbirth, he says. in love, saying, I would labor for you anything I can do. He says, I'd like to come to you even now and change my tone, for I have doubts about you. Paul says, whatever I can do, I want to get to you. I want to speak the truth to you so that you're not pulled away by these people who are pointing us to works. And he concludes by saying, do you understand that the law means bondage? The gospel means freedom. And we have this picture and it's a little hard for us to get our brains around. We talk about Isaac and Ishmael of course here, the two covenants, symbolism here, the bond woman and the free woman, the child of the bond woman and the free woman. If you want to return to the law, do you understand what that means? Verse 21, it's written that Abraham had two sons, one by a bond woman, the other by a free woman. So he says, do you hear the law? The law talks about this. And he says, he who was born of the bond woman was born according to the flesh. He was born of the free woman was through promise. How did Ishmael come into this world? He came by natural means, right? How did Isaac come into this world? That was not natural. How old was Sarah? 90 years old. She was definitely not of childbearing age. It was against nature. And so he who is of the bond woman is symbolic. He who is of the free woman is symbolic. And we have to understand that. These symbolize, of course, Sinai and Jerusalem, which is now, he says, under bondage. And Isaac points us forward to the new Jerusalem. The Jerusalem, verse 26, which is above is free, which is mother of us all. For it is written, verse 27, rejoice you barren, you who do not bear, break forth and shout, you who are not in labor, for the desolate has many more children than she who has a husband. Bondage happens naturally. Freedom does not happen naturally. Freedom is the gift of God. It is the miracle of God. And so, Sarah, the mother of the free, was about pointing us forward to how do we receive our salvation? Not by natural means. Natural generation brings us judgment, leaves us under the law, but we are children of the promise. Isaac was born by the miraculous power of God, and we are reborn by the miraculous power of God. As he who was born according to the flesh persecuted the one who was born according to the Spirit, even so it is now. The natural way persecutes the way of the gospel. We read, nonetheless, what does Scripture say? Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. As we read that in Genesis, it twists my brain a little bit. But brothers and sisters, as we read it here and we're reminded of what this points to, the natural children who live according to the flesh will receive eternal judgment. And he says that in the context of what we've been talking about this morning. Those who return to works, who think that our works somehow get involved in us saving ourselves, are returning to that natural way, which leads to eternal judgment. He says, don't you hear that? Don't you understand? This is all the way back in the law. And he concludes by saying, so then brethren, we are not children of the bond woman, but of the free. We live as those who are saved by grace. It is so easy for us to live as those who, I got to throw in a little bit, I got to do something, I got to be good. That's our natural reaction. Be good and God will like you. But brothers and sisters, the beauty of what God has done is it's not how good we are. Yes, we want to live in thanksgiving to God. Yes, God has commandments for us, but where do they come in the catechism? Quite rightly so. How do we live in thanksgiving to God? Not how do we save ourselves? And brothers and sisters, we are children of the free. We are children of God. Go back to that. It just makes me shiver to think that God says, you can call me daddy. And you have given to us, that God has given to us an eternal inheritance better than anything we could ever receive on this earth. Amen. Let us then come before our God in prayer. Let us rise for prayer, and we'll close this prayer together with the Lord's Prayer. Shall we pray? Almighty, gracious, heavenly Father, we confess that it is so easy for us to seek to put our works in, and it is so easily subtle And yet, Lord, you remind us that this is no different than any other world religion. And Lord, we thank you that the gospel is not like any other world religion. The gospel addresses us and addresses our greatest problem, sin, and the judgment to which we're exposed. And it gives us the answer not of being good, but it gives us the answer of the God who gave himself for us. We thank you, Lord, that you have given us access to you so that we can come before you as our daddy, as our true father in heaven who loves us better than our earthly fathers ever could. And we pray, Lord, that we would always more and more live in thanksgiving to you. But Lord, that we would not get confused to think that somehow our works save us. For that is all completed perfectly in your Son, our Savior. Help us, Lord, to always live then in thanksgiving and in praise to you. For we pray this in Jesus' name as he taught us to pray, saying, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen.