Enslaved To False Gods
Sermon • Submitted • Presented
0 ratings
· 1 viewNotes
Transcript
Review of Last Lesson
Review of Last Lesson
Last lesson we discussed that our sonship in God gives us many rights and blessings, such as assurance of salvation by the work of the Holy Spirit within us
This can be seen in bearing the fruits of the Holy Spirit, which is simply seen in 1 John 5:1-3
1 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome.
Faith in Jesus as Christ accompanied by having love for God, that of which is manifest by the obeying of his commandments - note remember that obeying is not a requirement for salvation, but an evidence that one has salvation
Reading of the Text
Reading of the Text
8 Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more? 10 You observe days and months and seasons and years! 11 I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain.
Verse 8
Paul is bringing reminder to the Galatians that at one time they were enslaved to the worship of false idols.
What does Paul mean by enslaved here and what does that communicate to us about humanity? If we take a look at Romans we can see Paul explaining how men subject themselves to false idols.
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
We, in our unrighteousness, hide ourselves from the truth of God that had been revealed to all men. The evidence of God’s attributes are clearly perceived in creation, yet we did not honor God because our hearts were foolish, and we darkened our own hearts, a cycle of deeper sin. Note that the reason for these actions is in the fact that we had foolish hearts, which is a statement on our condition and nature. The result of a depraved heart is that we reject worshiping God in favor of worshiping the creature and God then may remove his hand of grace allowing sinful men to indulge deeper into their own sinful desires.
In verse 23 we also see what Paul may mean by “those that are by nature not gods”. Sinful man elevates what is created over God and misplaces proper worship. This misplaced worship can be directed towards creatures, personal imaginations and ideals, or even demons (Deuteronomy 32:16-17), though ultimately it is men making a standard for themselves doing what is right in their own eyes, desiring to be arbiters of truth.
16 They stirred him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked him to anger. 17 They sacrificed to demons that were no gods, to gods they had never known, to new gods that had come recently, whom your fathers had never dreaded.
As John Calvin has said, “In the opinion of men idols may be gods, but in reality they are nothing.”
John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 122.
This again is a reminder to the Galatians that they were enslaved to the worship of false gods, when they did not know God,
Verse 9
This is where we see the sting of the charge that Paul is now bringing against the Galatians comes in full force.
The Galatians are no longer slaves to their former idols, because they have come to know God, but Paul clarifies and points us to something every important. It is not by any exertion or insight or product of the mind that the Galatians have come to know God, but it is God himself that has come in His mercy towards them so that they may know God, by Him first coming to us.
1 I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that was not called by my name. 2 I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices;
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” 14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” 15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” 16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Now we can see the ingratitude that may come from even the elect of God, as they have been saved out of their slavery to the elemental principles of the world by the grace of our Lord, yet are seemingly on a road turned back towards that very slavery again. The false apostles neglected the promises of Christ and instead lay a yoke of slavery back onto the people as if the work of Christ was insufficient for the redemption of our souls. The rejection of the promise demonstrates the desire to be ruled by that which is by not nature not God.
Verse 10