Sermon: A Father’s Affection

I'm gonna ask you to take a copy of God's word this morning and we're gonna turn open to the book of Galatians.

And this morning we're looking at Galatians chapter four, and we will look at verses one through 20 and Galatians chapter four,

and let's go ahead and pray before we open God's word together this morning.

Our Father, even as we just sung, we confess that we are children and that we are in need of hearing from our heavenly Father. So we pray in your kindness that you would lisp to us, speak to us in a way that we can understand,

in a way that each of us have need. You know us better than we know ourselves. We pray that you would minister to each of your children in this room, those that are on livestream, as each of us have need, that your word would go out and it would not return void and that we would know that it's you that have spoken to us. I pray that the preacher would fade in our minds and that you and your son would be in the front and center of our minds as the spirit tends to the word.

And may you be exalted and we pray this in the strong name of Christ. Amen. This morning, Galatians chapter four verses one through 20. This is the holy iner sufficient word of God. 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 dates 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 a 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 a son into your hearts crying, Abba Father. So you are no longer a slave but the Son. And if a son, then an heir through God, God formerly when you did not know God, you were enslaved

to those that by nature are not Gods. 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? Who slaves? You want to be once more, you observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid I may have labored over you in vain brothers, I entreat you become as I am for I also have become as you are. You did me no wrong.

You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but receive me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. What then has become of your blessedness for I testify to you that if possible you would've gouged out your eyes and given them to me, have I then become your enemy by telling you the truth they make much of you

but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. It is always good to be made much of for a good purpose. And not only when I am present with you, 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 for the grass withers in the flower fades. The word of God is forever. Thanks be to God. Amen.

As a reminder, I want to remind you of where we're at here because it's been two weeks, but we were in Galatians three this morning. We be begin Galatians four. And in Galatians three we saw the case that salvation has always been by grace alone through faith alone that we receive an alien righteousness, a righteousness that is outside of ourselves. And that has always been the way of salvation. In fact, Paul will take it back to Abraham

and it'll show that Abraham was justified by faith. He was declared righteous before the throne of God by faith and as it was true of Abraham. So it is true of the people in Paul's day, these gentile Christians. And so it is true in our day. And then you'll remember in chapter three though, the question becomes what about the law? Then? Why were they given the law if this was always the case? And so Paul, in the previous chapter made it clear

that the promise of God, that promise that we trace from Genesis three 15 like a ribbon all the way through the scriptures of that promise of God, of the Savior to come, that it wasn't undone. Paul said, with the coming of the law, that promise has always been. And so that promise always is. And if you remember two weeks ago, Paul spoke of the law that when it came, it did not anno, it did not cancel. It did not change that covenant,

that God had already ratified with his people. The law was a guardian until the promise of Christ was fully revealed. Until that promise from Genesis three 15 when he would be born into the world, until he was revealed and came into the world, the law was simply a guardian till then.

Paul continues the argument from Galatians three in our passage this morning, having spoken about covenants or wills. His, his mind is racing and he's picturing something that he wants his his readers to understand. And the picture is this. The picture is that there is a boy that is an heir and he is an heir to a great estate. So let's imagine it in our minds. Maybe he is the heir of an estate that has all kinds of vineyards and has all kinds of mansions,

maybe a castle attached to it. He's got all kinds of bank accounts that are filled to the brim and then the father of this estate dies. And so this child is the inheritor of this great estate. As Paul says in verse one, the child is the owner of everything. But here's the issue, there's still a child. And so the father for foreseeing this before he died in his will, he provided a guardian. He, he provided a manager for the child

that oversees the estate. Verse two. And this guardian oversees the estate. And until the child is of a su sufficient age. So if we think about this as an historical example, there are a lot of different historical examples like this. The first one that came to my mind was King Louis, the 15th. King Louis the 15th became the king of France at the age of five. Incredible wealth, incredible prestige. All of France was his, but he was five.

And so the duke of or was appointed as his regent, his manager, his guardian, and the Duke of or Leons managed the nation of France for eight years, five years, not old enough to run a country. 13 you are. But he did it for eight years.

Father of the estate, he dies. And so he has a guardian, a manager, and impose argument as this in verse three. In the same way we also when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. So let's think back to that child, king Louis, when he is five years old, it's all of Francis. Yes, it's all his, it all belongs to him. He is the heir, he is the one that it belongs to. And yet he doesn't quite have full possession of all of it.

It hasn't been realized in his life. And Paul is saying the same thing. We are already heirs, but we were enslaved. Paul says, in bondage to the elementary principles of the world, that's a difficult phrase to try and figure out exactly what he means by it. But I take it as Paul referring to the basics, the the elementary, the that, the building blocks, these are the elementary things, the basic things, what we might say are the ABCs.

You, you have the ABCs, but the ABCs, they, that they are meant to lead you to forming words and forming sentences and even writing novels. And Paul is saying that about the law. It, it provides the basic knowledge, the ABCs of the faith, if you will, of our religion. But it's, it's an elementary education. The law is a guardian, it's a manager. It's meant to lead you from the kindergarten room to the graduate school.

It's a guardian to lead us to the full inheritance. It prepares us for the reception of the gospel.

Paul is so concerned about this emphasis upon the law as a, as a means of salvation because it is rudimentary, it's preparatory. You say all the promises are found in Christ, that's graduate school. That's what you're meant to be led to.

He is pointing out that these Jewish Christians from Jerusalem are advocating for what they believed was a more mature Christianity than what Paul had preached to these Galatians. They were advocating for these gentile Christians to turn to the law for some truer, for some grander, for salvation, for some truer, for some grander gospel, for a real gospel, for real acceptance with God. And Paul is saying it, that would be like a master returning

to apprenticeship

that would be like a Pulitzer Prize winner returning back to kindergarten to learn the ABCs.

The law is a guardian meant to lead and keep until Christ. It's not an end in itself, it's a primer.

Paul says, we were enslaved in verse three, in verse five, he shows that we needed to be redeemed, that is purchased in verse nine. He speaks of the law as being that which is weak and worthless, elementary principles of world. Not that the law was bad or is bad, but it's weak. It's worthless in the sense of not being able to redeem us from the bondage that we are in in sin. There's no power in the law for the redemption of sinners.

This was point. And our first point is the provision of God is ultimately found in Christ. That's the graduate school. The provision of God is ultimately found in Christ. The law is just a guardian to get you to Christ. Now we'll take you back to the laws. We'll see as we go on in the Book of Galatians, but not for your justification, not for your salvation.

Which leads to our second point. The pain of Paul, the pain of Paul, Paul's great pain in our passage is why would those who have gone from children to maturity now return back to being children? Why would those who are now heirs that enjoy everything go back to being heirs that are not enjoying everything? Why would those that are now free go back to bondage and to slavery, entertaining a return to the law as if the law could grant them what Christ could not?

And Paul is absolutely pained, he's in anguish. Look at his language. Verse nine, how can you turn back again? He says, who slaves you? You want to be once more, you want to be slaves again. He recalls to them in verse eight, formerly not now. Formerly you did not know God. They they do now, but formerly when they did not know God, he says, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods. Why would you want to run from God in the gospel

and head backwards to the elementary things and be enslaved

as he hits a exasperation level in verse 20, I am perplexed about you. He says in verse 11, I'm afraid I may have labored over you. In vain is pain.

All of you that are parents in the room, you have experienced this no doubt. And all of you that are dog owners in the room have experienced this. No doubt those of you that are cat owners that don't understand you at all, uh, that you instruct a child, you instruct a dog, you spend hours, you spend days, you spend maybe even years, and they, they turn to the folly that you have warned them about and they, they turn to it again even though they've

experienced the pain of it. And they, they go back to it. You, you keep warning them and they, they keep going back. It reminds me of that Proverbs 26 11, which is such a wonderful graphic proverb where it pictures this like a dog that returns to its vomit is a fool who repeats his folly. You silly dog. What are you doing? You just threw that up. Your stomach didn't like it the first time, but you think the regurgitated thing,

it's gonna like a second time that should disgust you.

But dogs do this, children do this. Did did you experience the pain of that folly? Do you remember what it was like to be in that kind of bondage? Why in the world are you going back to it?

You can see it as parents so often they, they've done this before. You can see the harm that's gonna cause this like putting a hand before your face. You can see that hand and you can see the path that they're on. You know that there's going to be incredible pain. You're warning them of it. They may have even experienced it before

and they just keep returning. And you can get to the point that Paul gets to the point here in this passage where you just wonder may maybe all my instruction and all my laboring and all my sacrifice and all of my love, it's was all in vain.

It's one of the greatest pains of parenthood. It's one of the greatest pains of pastoring.

Paul is a good pastor. Uh, he loves the people that he serves. And as a good pastor, he, he, he's he's not about himself. He's about them and them. They are often a great source of pain.

Look at how he sees his relationship with them. He calls them in verse 19, my little children. And then he uses the imagery of bringing them forth like a mother does in childbirth. The the Lord used Paul to bring them to saving faith to bring them to new birth. He is their father, their father in the faith. And now he feels like as their father, he's again in anguish and he's giving needs to give birth to them again. He, he already labored to bring them to life and Christ.

And now he feels like he has to do it all over again. He's in great pain. And that entire section of verses 12 through 20, he simply recalls to them his relationship with them. He, he has great compassion for them. Verse 12, become as I am for, I also have become as you are. That is he became all things to all people as he sought to minister to them and reach them for Christ. He had great compassion, great love, but it wasn't just that he had compassion and love for them,

but they had compassion and love for him. That's what he recalls here. He details it in verses 14 through 16. Apparently he was sick when he came to them with the gospel and it was clear that it was some kind of severe sickness because he says their care for him was, he says in verse 14, a trial that they had to endure.

What kind of sickness did he have? We don't know. But I think something had to be tied to him being afflicted in his eyes because he says there in verse 15 that they would've been willing to gouge out their eyes to help him if they could. And that makes sense to me. When you flip to the end of the book and get to chapter six, verse 11 where Paul takes up the pen and he says, see with what large letters I'm writing to you

with my own hand, he's suffering in his eyes, maybe other parts of his body and they are going through this trial with him and they have great love and great compassion for him and he has great love and great compassion for them.

This is often the clearest sign, the fact that someone's a Christian as you have compassion. And it's what most shocked people about the Lord Jesus. Or one of the things that most strike struck people. He had compassion on the weak and the needy and the outcast and the marginalized. He sat with tax collectors. He touched lepers, he talked with the unclean. He had great love. He had great compassion. His people have great love and they have great compassion.

Paul had it for them. They had it for him. So what changed? Because it changes because Paul says now verse 16, that they view him as an enemy.

What changed?

Well that leads to our third point. The warning of Paul, the warning of Paul,

what change that others have come among them who do not have great love or great compassion, false teachers. And Paul points out about these false teachers. Verse 17 quote, they make much of you but for no good purpose. They want to shut you out that you may make much of them not love, not compassion, not others but self. Their ministry was about them and they were leading these galatian Christians astray because it was all about them.

These false teachers,

I say it is easy to miss when you're in the midst of it.

It is um, like that proverbial frog in a kettle. You're in the midst of it and you don't realize that the temperature keeps getting higher in that false teaching. And you being directed away from Christ increasingly happens.

And most of us who have been in the Christian life for any period of time have fallen into this at one time or another. Sometimes it's a brief period, sometimes an extended period. Some times we fall into it and we never recover from it. And that's Paul's concern about these Galatian Christians is that they're going to fall into this and never recover. They're being led away.

I wanna note four things to help you to be on guard and to help me to be on guard. They're clear from this passage. And I would say they're not only clear from this passage by my experience as a pastor. They are almost always there.

I've watched it time and again. First some or some people with leadership ability appear or they arise in the congregation. Now, in this day, it doesn't have to be just in the congregation, it can be on a podcast, it can be a YouTube talking head, but someone that is a leader that they don't have to be ordained to an office. It's clear that these men were not ordained to an office. They, they just have to have some kind of leadership ability.

They don't have to be the greatest leader of all time. Just have some type of leadership ability. And these false teachers clearly had it. So first, a leader, second the leader befriend in some way the leader befriend in some way. Paul says verse 17, they make much of you. Now that can look differently, but they make people feel special. They make them feel listened to. They make them feel understood. They, they often offer friendship.

Often it's a bringing you in or me in to that inner circle.

They bring them in on important conversations. They spend time and effort. First a leader, then a leader who befriends and they befriend under the guise of care or a friendship. Third, a leader who befriends under the guise of care or friendship who then sows seeds of discontent. And this is always a trial step. False teachers will, will test the waters with, with just throwing often a question out there or expressing a little bit of discontent.

A a little doubt. A little doubt about the teaching. You've heard about the church you attend, about the leadership you were under, about the gospel you've received.

You don't have to agree initially,

you just have to give a listening ear.

And if it's in person, that listening ear tells them that they can keep trying to reel you in

their conversations or teachings become more and more centered on discontent, what's being kept from you, concerns that they have for you and for others. Paul is not teaching the whole truth. He's doing harm to you. He's keeping you from, and in this case, what they're saying is he's keeping you from a full relationship with God. It's not a new strategy, it's the old, old strategy. This is Satan and the garden who says, did,

did God really say just a little bit of doubt, just testing.

And they give the listening ear just cause a little bit of doubt about, about goodness, about rightness.

It's the old strategy just sowing a question. What's being kept from you?

These Galatians, they have now been led to the point where they hate Paul, the man who preached the gospel to them and had such a great ministry among them. They're struggling with hatred for Paul now.

And he so loved them and so had compassion for them.

A leader, a leader who befriend under the guise of care. Friendship sows the seeds of discontent. And then finally, then they begin to offer the answers for the discontent. What's the answer? The answer's always about them. They always have the answer.

These judaizers have the answer. Paul's keeping a relationship with God from you. He wasn't preaching the whole truth. Well, where does the better preaching come from? Ah, from the false teachers of course, listen to us, look to us.

Paul points out, it's all about them though it's all under the guise of compassion and love for the Galatians. And this happens over and over and over throughout church history. They were not, as Paul says in another passage, pouring out their lives as a drink offering for the sake of these Galatians. No, they were filling their own cups.

Their ministry was about themselves. Not love, not compassion. Verse 17, they make much of you but for no good purpose, they want to shut you out, that you may make much of them. Paul sees it so clearly and these Galatian Christians are so blind to it, blind to the point of being led to hate him, but preach the gospel to them who had been used by the Lord to bring them to saving faith.

They aren't coming to you with love or compassion as you suppose. Can't you see it? Galatians, they are sowing poison and you're drinking it.

You might wonder, what's the payoff for these judaizers? Well, what's the payoff for Satan? It's the same sowing seeds of division and disunity and disinformation. What does Satan get by leading people astray. It makes much of him.

He's jealous of God and he wants to be made. Much of it's about him. Pride is always always at the root.

Well, what's the answer?

How do you know when you're being led astray? Because not all pastors or preachers or ministers or husbands or fathers or brothers or sisters or podcasters are talking heads on YouTube are like this. Paul's not like this. No, he's a good father. He's faithful. He makes much of the Galatians not for his prophet, but for their good. And the telltale sign is this. He points them to Christ. He keeps pointing them to Christ.

He only defends himself here because the gospel is at stake

and he's just gonna point 'em to Christ.

He wants them to have a full view of the goodness of God in Christ. He wants them to see how good this God is and that he keeps nothing from them and that he has given them all things in Christ. That's how you know

Paul's time and effort among them. It wasn't spent maligning others.

It wasn't spent pointing them to himself.

It wasn't spent complaining. It was spent turning them time and again to the goodness of God and Christ. And that leads to our last point, the affection of our father. The affection of our Father.

Paul does a S back in verses four through seven. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman born under the law to redeem those under the law so that we might receive adoptions as sons. And because you are sons, God sent forth the spirit of a son into our hearts crying, Abba, father. So you are not, you are no longer a slave but a son and of a son that an heir through God. He's saying this, it's already yours.

And don't you understand it wasn't your own doing. It was a gift. You inherited it. It was granted to you. And don't you know, dear Galatian Christians, you're already sons.

You have everything. What affection has already been given to you?

Paul's a good father.

They saying God is a great father. Paul is compassionate, but God is more compassionate.

Paul is loving, but God is more loving still.

His father brings us into his family. John Murray said it this way, this is surely the apex of grace and privilege. There's no privilege like this that you get to become children of God. And he's saying, you already are by grace through faith, you have the greatest privilege. It's been granted to you. You know, he's taken all of these chapters and we've seen over and over where he's walked through the doctrine of justification that we are justified,

declared righteous before the throne by grace through faith. And justification is a beautiful grace. But our adoption, our becoming sons of God is even a more beautiful grace, if we can say it that way. Because in justification, the scene is a courtroom in adoption, the scene is the family justification points to our legal relationship with God, adoption to our personal relationship with God.

In justification it, it speaks of a, a declaration,

but in adoption it, it speaks of a new status, a child

and and justification. I'm pardoned. Ah, but in adoption I'm accepted. I'm delighted in, I'm rejoiced over.

But false teachers so often prey upon is yours and my insecurities.

We're fearful, we're lonely. We feel in love, we, we feel unaccepted. We feel like we're not part of the inner circle.

And what Paul was reminding them and what he reminds us is that in Christ, in Christ, we're, we're safe, we're united, we're loved. We're now accepted in the family of God forever with all the rights and privileges of the sons of God. That we are heirs of all things, that we have everything in Christ.

When you and I begin to grasp that, to understand that I have everything in Christ,

it becomes a bulwark, a kind of fortress where let these false teachers come in, let them try their best to penetrate with their questions and with their doubts and with their alluring and with their flattering and what they're making. Much of us we're already complete in Christ. It's a mighty fortress.

I can't so easily manipulate our insecurities and we don't so easily become easy prey.

I often think about when the disciples go to Jesus and they say, Jesus, teach us to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. Isn't that a wonderful question? Even the disciples that walked with Jesus and watched him pray all the time, they struggled to pray. Lord, teach us to pray.

And what is absolutely fascinating and should rock your world and it should shape your entire spiritual life and living is that when Jesus teaches them to pray,

what he instructs them is to say, our Father,

when you are thinking about God, when you are approaching God, the dominant, the dominant thought that Jesus once in your head and my head sees my Father,

that there's acceptance, that there's belonging, that there's safety, that there's strength, that there's care, that there's love, that there's affection.

It's not simply a confession of faith. When we say our Father, though it is that we're professing God's loving, compassionate, caring, personal relationship with us. And you can't think too much upon that. You can't explore that deep enough. You can't be shaped by that enough.

You are God and he is yours if you're in Christ. Not, not in some kind of distant way. No. This is what Paul's reinforcing. Don't you understand? You already got it all in Christ. Your heirs, your children, these Galatian Christians, they forgot what they already had. They, they had a father's affection. Paul's affection, good. The father's affection better. Paul is compassion good? The father's compassion better. They have it.

They already have it.

So often we get all lured into things that we should not because people make much of us. They just tap into that insecurity. And what Paul is pointing out is, don't you understand? You've already been made much of

the Father sent forth his son so that you might receive adoption. This is why Paul is so perplexed. Why would you Galatians be so easily deceived by those that make much of you only to lead you astray from God who truly made much of you, you

And did it for your good. You already have it

and he's leading you home.

And to your brothers says Christ, you already have everything in Christ.

If a father who has made much of you. So don't be led astray. Know who you are, know what you have received in Christ and what is yours in Christ. Your children, children of a loving and compassionate Father,

now and forever, a heavenly Father. We pray for us,

Our Father, we are thankful that all things are in Christ.

It is not of our effort. It is not of our doing,

but that you made much of us in sending your son born, of a woman born under the law to redeem us from bondage and slavery.

Oh, may we find that we are sticking close to Christ, that we are not seeking to supplement him, to replace him, that we do not get a degree off from him. That we find that he is our all in all.

And we pray this in the strong name of our Lord and our savior. Amen.