This sermon delves into the Primitive Era, focusing on the letter to the Galatians addressing the Judaizers who sought to add works to faith for salvation. The Apostle Paul emphasizes the transition from being under the elemental laws to being heirs of God through Christ, highlighting the danger of returning to legalism and the importance of holding fast to the true gospel. The sermon urges believers to guard against false teachings that distort the purity of salvation by faith alone.

And our subject is the Primitive Era and the contrast with the coming of Gospel light. The Primitive Era. We've been studying this letter to the Galatians, collection of churches in the Galatian province of Rome, modern Turkey, a letter written A.D. 50 to A.D. 53, chiefly dedicated to refuting the error, the heresy of the so-called Judaizers who were penetrating the churches at that time. And the Judaizers would go as a party, no doubt very capable communicators but not true Christians, many of them, they no doubt thought they were, but they would go particularly to the Gentile churches and they would tell them, you cannot be Christ's and you cannot be God's unless, you cannot belong to God unless alongside Christ you become Jews too. And your men are circumcised and you take up the Jewish ceremonies and ritual the Jewish ceremonial law. You cannot be God's and this is what they would teach. So they were undermining the glorious doctrine of justification by faith alone, that Christ has purchased our salvation, that it is a free salvation and that we must depend entirely upon him and we secure it by faith in him and dependence upon him. No, they said, you must perform works as well and so by putting works alongside free salvation by faith they ruined everything. Now the Galatians, they are regarded by the Apostle Paul, by most of what he says, as true converts, true believers and he's amazed, he's astonished that they should be easily subverted by this false teaching. And so he says earlier, foolish Galatians, how can this be, is the tone of most of the letter, that you who've received the correct doctrines of the gospel can turn back to any form of works. Now we come in chapter 4 to this remarkable illustration and it teaches us such a lot. Now I say that the heir to an estate, what is pictured here, is a wealthy Roman or Greek estate, a man who has slaves, servants and lands, but he has a boy or boys, he has a child, children and particularly the oldest of them will one day inherit everything. But even before that time he's going to come of age. I think in this illustration the Apostle Paul doesn't have in mind a father who's died and while his child was underage to inherit, but a father who's still living. But anyway the son cannot assume his full privileges on the estate or behave as a son and fellow owner until he comes to a certain age. So in this illustration in all probability the father is still alive. But the heir, as long as he is a child, under age, whatever that might have been, whatever was appointed by the father, whether the father had decided he would come of age at 16 or 18 or 20 or 21, well that's beside the point. But while he is a minor he differs nothing from a servant and the word actually is a slave. A slave in the household with no status, with no spending money, not allowed to go in and out of the owner's presence. Either child couldn't even access his father freely and easily during the day. No, there was strict discipline for him. He differs nothing from a servant. He might just as well be a servant or a slave in spite of the fact that he is destined to be the master of the estate, verse 2, but is under tutors and governors. Actually the offices referred to are a little lowlier than our translation suggests. The words in the original Greek suggest officers who are servants or slaves themselves, which fits with the first verse, but they are trusted and more educated than many slaves, but nevertheless they are slaves. And one, the one who is translated here as a tutor, is a person who is in charge of the discipline of the boy. Yes, disciplined by a slave, perhaps even whipped by a slave, but a slave, albeit a more educated one, still a slave, determines when he gets up in the morning, what the day is like, what he does at certain hours and certain times, when he has some play, when he goes to bed. He's going to be under orders and under instruction the whole time. And the other officer who is referred to here, a governor, is not so much a teacher, but somebody who manages his affairs. He comes into teenage. There are certain lands and areas allotted to him, but they're not his yet, and there's another slave or servant who is the steward, the administrator, looking after his things because he's not entering into possession of them yet. So whether his father is dead or alive, he's a minor, and he's treated like a child, and he has no great rights or anything. Now, this illustration is going to be applied in the following way, in verse 3. Even so we, and the apostle says we to Gentile Christians. In other words, he is a converted Jew, and they as converted Gentiles. This is true of them, and it's remarkable what he says. Even so we, when we were children, by which he means before we came to Christ, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Now, this is a tremendously weighty statement. You might think this is an illustration about Jews only, or about Gentiles only, and you'd interpret it different ways. But the apostle says we, Jews and Gentiles alike, were in slavery, in bondage, in a sense. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage, enslaved, under the elements of the world. What does he mean? Well, the word translated elements means just that. It's used in classical Greek to refer, say, to the alphabet, something as basic as that. You've got to learn the alphabet first. If you don't know the absolute basics, the ABC, you can't spell, you can't do your grammar, you can't learn at any kind of rate. So you've got to do the very basic things first, the elements. Well, we understand it even with a smattering of school chemistry. We know about the elements, the very basic units. They're not the most basic units, I appreciate that, but speaking generally, we know what elements are, the fundamental, basic things. And Paul says that we were under, sorry, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. That is earthly elemental things, Jews and Gentiles. And it works like this, you see, that before Christ came, the Jews were given a law. There was the moral law, which goes on, that's very beautiful and very sophisticated, but then there was the ceremonial law. Now the ceremonial law gave them a manner of worship and all kinds of rituals and things to do. And it gave them these things in order to teach them, to teach the Jewish people about God. For example, when you think of some of the elements in the Jewish ceremonial law, when you think of the tabernacle or the temple with its holy of holies and its great elaborate curtain, God separated off, and the imagery that was within the holy place, all these things taught the people using very basic physical things that God is holy. And there is a separation between them and God. And then the diets, the rules of diets, and all these things teaching people, now there are certain things you can eat and there are certain things you mustn't eat. All this is done away with now. But what was the idea? To teach people some things would be classified as holy and some things would be classified as profane, as unholy. So we will give you diets and certain things you will rejoice in and certain things will be taboo. And this will teach you great gulfs, differences between holy things and profane things. Because we are a people cut off from God and we have to seek God who is holy. There is a separation. We're estranged from him. A bridge needs to be built. That's the mercy of God. So people were taught everything through very simple A, B, C, elemental things, physical things, that they did things they did themselves, processions, pilgrimages. Everything was physical, acted, earthly, components, using gold for God and cheap and dross things for things that were and not of God. You can imagine the brickyard rabble that came out of Egypt when the people of God were delivered from Egypt and they had to be re-educated. And there was this great ceremonial law given them, teaching them from the very basic elements, the difference between right and wrong, holy, unholy. We need to learn these things again today, don't we? When you see churches doing worldly things, worldly music, worldly worship, you think oh dear, we almost need the elemental things. Teach the people the difference between holy and profane. Because the world's got mixed up with the church. Well that's another subject. But this is the point, that these were the days when God was treating you like children. And God used simple, elemental, physical things, even deeply written into your worship, to teach you basic principles. Now for the Jews, though it was very elementary, very beautiful in a way, very sophisticated in a way, the ancient law and the ceremonial and the way of worship. Yet in another way, it was elemental, rudimentary, all with physical things and actions and foodstuffs and so on, and washings. And you see the Apostle is saying Jews were under that until Christ came. Unfortunately, simple as it was, the proud hearts of human beings misread it. And instead of reading the lessons, they said to themselves, oh, by doing these things we become virtuous before God, and we deserve his blessing. And their pride took it in entirely the wrong way, so that they ended up no better than the heathen. Because that's what the heathen were doing. Without a ceremonial law given by God, they made up their own ceremonies. And they were all earthly. You know, idols made of silver and gold and wood and stone, and you bow down to them, and physical offerings and physical rituals. But they made them up. They made up their gods, and they became in superstitious bondage to elementary, simple, pathetically simple, inadequate things. And don't you see the Jews, who also were given very elementary physical things, instead of reading the lessons in them, used them in exactly the same way as the pagans used their self-invented ones. So that's why what Paul says, I'm afraid I'm explaining it at too great length, that's why Paul is able to say, it might shock us at first, that Jews and Gentiles were both under the elemental physical forms of worship, and in bondage to them. Superstitious bondage. Now many Jews, I must say, in the Old Testament times, did understand the meaning of their elementary lessons. And they found the Lord, and they read mercy in all the wonderful ritual and the things that went on. And they didn't say to themselves, by doing these things, I merit the goodness of God. They said, these things teach me. I'm estranged from God, and they teach me about his mercy, and I must come by faith and repent before him, and receive new life from him. Many Jews were blessed, but the majority were not. And the whole system for Jew and Gentile is described here. Verse 3, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. And that's the meaning of the verse. But then verse 4, but when the fullness of the time was come, a verse we often expound at Christmas. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, when the time was ready. Oh, the fullness of the time. According to God's plan, the plan, the time table that God had determined before the foundation of the world, before the fall had ever taken place, God sent forth his son. It also suggests that the time was right according to development of things in the world. We can't be sure of that, but the world had gone on sufficient length of time for it to be established beyond all doubt that man could not gain the favour of God by his own works and his own efforts. A sufficient time had gone by to establish the point for all eternity that man desperately needed a saviour. When the time was right, and perhaps that had been proved, and even practical things had been put in place so that the Roman roads were built, and the Greek language had become universal and understood, and there was a language for the world and roads for the spread of the gospel. And the Roman Empire had imposed peace and trade, massive trade links and movements for the world. Perhaps all that was included and allowed and superintended in God's plan too. But when the time was right, had fully come the fullness of the times, God sent forth his son. Isn't it wonderful? Every word counts. God did it. God sent forth his son, his plan, his initiative. God sent his son. Don't you see what that tells us? What many other scriptures tell us? He pre-existed. Jesus Christ didn't start at his birth in Bethlehem. God sent him. He was the eternal son, equal with the Father, ever with him in eternity past. God sent him forth, which means he came on a mission. He came to carry out a purpose, the salvation of the world. When the time, the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son like him, like the Father, equally divine, equally glorious, and he sent forth his son born, look at the text, look at exactly what it says, made of a woman. You could translate that equally, born of a woman. The Greek just has the word, he became made or born of a woman, doesn't mention of a man. Of course other texts tell us this more clearly, but that's because it was a virgin birth. He couldn't be born of a man. Why not? Because man is fallen. The divine son of God could not inherit the fallen nature of man, and yet he must be human. He must be a human being in order to be our representative, in order to suffer and die for sinners, and be one of us. So he was born, made of a woman, conceived in the virgin's womb, not inheriting the fallen nature of man, and yet truly human, truly man, so that he could truly represent us and be our saviour and sin-bearer. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law. What an astonishing statement. He was pure, he was sinless, he did not deserve to be condemned, but he came as our representative, and in becoming human, he put himself under condemnation. You can almost hear the puzzled angels saying, Oh Lord, if you go into that world, you go under the curse, you go under condemnation, you become pure as you are, a member of a sinful race, and you place yourself under their condemnation. Yes, but I must, the saviour would reply, I must go under condemnation in order to pay the price for them, and to take the condemnation for all who will be mine. So he was made, born of a woman, under the law, as a Jew, bound to obey the law perfectly, and to be perfectly righteous, our representative. And why, verse five, to redeem, to purchase, to pay for, by his death, and his suffering on our behalf, his making of an atonement, to redeem and to purchase them that were under the law, under its curse and its condemnation. And he was under the curse, you know the curse of the law includes the curse of nature, and the human body. And Christ also had to wear a body which involved weariness, and aches, and pains, and he had to bear burdens, and sorrows, and live under the curse of the law, though he was pure and holy, just like one of us. To redeem, verse five, them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Now you get the illustration of verses one and two, brought to completion. Verses one and two, even believers, before they were believers, and even some of the believing Jews, even as they were believers, before Christ came, were under tutors and governors, under the elemental ABC, method of worship of the Jews, or under the pagan, self-invented elemental methods of worship of the pagan world. And he came, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Imagine, the boy who's been treated just like a servant, now comes of age, now he's given a special robe. He's able to wear the expensive, distinctive robes of the adult family in this wealthy, perhaps noble, Greek or Roman household. He's able to wander into the very room where his father sits, any time he wishes. He's an adult, he's free to come and go. He can get up when he likes, he can leave the estate with his chariot or whatever, and go driving whenever and wherever he likes. He's a free person, and as large as the estate of his father is still alive, it's his to manage and to enjoy, and to indulge his capacities as a steward of these things, to advance and make it more prosperous. Why, life is altogether different for him. And that's the illustration that Paul uses. Since Christ, we have light, we consciously wear the robe of righteousness of Christ. How far free we are to come and go. We could go into his presence in prayer. We have riches and blessing. Why, it's so different. The adoption of sons, the Christian experience. Verse 5, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And verse 6, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. This is a very important verse. Because ye are sons, you know that there are Christians who teach that once you are converted, you need subsequently, at some later stage, a special blessing of the Holy Spirit. That's what they teach. A post-regeneration baptism or experience of the Holy Spirit. And many such people are good believers, but they're very confused at this. And many people have years of anxiety. I am a Christian, I've trusted in Christ, I've repented of my sin, but oh, I would like the Holy Spirit. And I must seek a special ecstatic experience. I don't know what, perhaps I will speak in tongues, they think, that's what some teach. Perhaps it'll just be a tremendously elevating experience. My body will tingle, glorious things will happen. I must have a special subsequent blessing of the Holy Spirit. But you know, the New Testament doesn't teach any such thing. And all references to the Holy Spirit, engaging in the life of the believer, put the Holy Spirit there right from conversion. If you're truly converted, you have the Holy Spirit. If you don't have the Holy Spirit, says the Apostle, you're none of his. And this is yet another verse that makes the same point. Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Son of Christ, the Spirit of his Son, into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. From your very first prayer, as a born again believer, when you knew you were a child of God, when you heard your repentant cry, and you embraced him by faith, and you were assured of your salvation, that was the Holy Spirit crying in you, Father, Abba, Father, with intimacy and love. Because you were a son, you received the Holy Spirit. Not subsequently, it belongs to being a son. Because ye are sons and daughters, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son, the Holy Spirit. It's a beautiful verse, isn't it? Because the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all there. The Father seems to be superintending our salvation, sending the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Christ, of course, is there in the verse. It's through him that we are saved, and his atoning death. And it's the Spirit who seems to apply that salvation to our hearts, and wake us up, and bring us all the feeling and the engagement of a true child of God. But look at the terms. Because ye are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, not, note, only into your minds. It's good to have the doctrines. We must have the doctrines. We must understand our faith, and grow in Christian doctrine. But God forbid that we should only have the doctrine. And some people who are very heady have no heart. And you wonder if they're really converted. Because the Holy Spirit comes not only into the head, but into the heart. And we are moved, and humbled, and touched by the things of God. And he transforms us. And he prays. We pray too. But it's the Spirit of God who cries, Abba Father. It is as though he starts us off. He teaches us to speak. He says the first prayer for us, and then we carry on in the same vein. He puts all the earnestness within us. He helps us to make this prayer an exclusive cry, so that we don't pray to God and trust the world at the same time. He gives us a sense of sonship, and a sense of praise. It's a tremendous verse. But look at verse 7, and resume with the reasoning of the Apostle. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if thou shouldst have a son, then an heir of God, through Christ, we've come of age, or we've inherited the estate, we've been converted, and we are heirs of God. I would be very, very happy if it said heirs of heaven. I'd be very happy if it said heirs of life. Of course it includes all those things, but it says something quite astonishing. Heirs of God. He is ours, and we are heirs of all things, with him. What a privilege. Add up everything. Why? We are heirs of God. Children of the living God. No more servants, but sons, through Christ. Notice that from the very beginning, we're children, sons, heirs. What stronger language could possibly be used? These dear friends who make so much of the Jews. The Jews were God's people in ancient times. The Jews were nations specially blessed by God. And out of that nation came Christ, the Saviour. And promises were made to the Jews in ancient times. Now they were not all God's people, but promises were made to all those Jews who were. The promises to Abraham were not made to his literal children, as we see in other verses in this passage, but to his spiritual children. His literal children who really had faith, plus Gentiles, non-Jews, who also trusted in Christ. Jews and Gentiles are the seed of Abraham. And we are children, and sons, and daughters, and heirs, and we inherit the promises. So those friends who say, ah, the Jews must be something extra special. The promises must literally apply to them as a race. And so one day, according to Old Testament prophecy, they're going to build a temple again, and special things are going to happen to the Jews, and we must track the fortunes of the nation of Jews. And we must somehow think that what is happening to them today, and in future history, is all an outworking of God's promises in the Old Testament. But in this chapter and others, what Paul is saying, the full impact of it, must strike us. He is saying, you are the children of the promise. You Gentiles, just like us converted Jews, like myself, the Apostle says. We are the children of Israel, the children of Abraham. And all those promises apply to us. The land promises were literally, in large measure, fulfilled to the Jews of old, but that was just a token, because the promises refer to all those who trust in Christ. Look at verse 28 in this very chapter 4. Now we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But Paul, I am not a Jew. How can you possibly say that? I, a non-Jew, am like Isaac, who was a Jew? Yes, says Paul. Don't you get it? Now we brethren, Jews and Gentiles, as Isaac, as though we were Jews, are the children of promise. What promise? The promise of God, communion with Him, the promise of the Saviour, that He would be ours, He is ours, the promise of land, yes it will be ours, literally, yes, all the land, the whole world, not just Palestine, is going to be beautified and glorified and made spiritual. It will be lifted up to heaven, heaven will come down to earth, possibly I suspect greatly enlarged, but that's my human thought, and made the eternal dwelling place for God's children. The very land promises are to be literally, but much more than literally, gloriously fulfilled. And this chapter tells us this repeatedly. You must get the terms. It's not Jews and Gentiles, all converted but Jews are number one and we are somehow number two. No, it's Jews and Gentiles, all one, no difference between us, in Christ Jesus, all children, sons, heirs, inheritors of the promise. Well Paul has said it in chapter 3 and verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then are ye Gentiles, Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise made to him. So that's why we believe that since Christ, it's converted Jews and converted Gentiles put together. So am I teaching that the church replaces Israel? No, I'm teaching not replacement theology, as it's sometimes contemptuously called, but unification theology. Save Jews and only save Jews and save Gentiles are united in the church of Jesus Christ, all together. The ancient promises apply to us as well as save Jews. That's what Paul says again and listen to his tone, he says repeatedly, don't you get it? Don't you see it? As he repeats himself over and over again in these glorious chapters. But I must go back to where we were and we must move to conclusion. Here in chapter 4, here's the reasoning, verse 8, how be it then, and these words literally mean however then, underline the then, that's what Paul says, that's where the emphasis is, how be it to us can read as a question, because it's a word that starts with how. It is not a question. It's an old fashioned word that really means something like however, or nevertheless. It doesn't suggest a question, the question comes later. However, then, referring to pre-Christ, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. Note that it's a statement, there's no question there, no question mark. However, then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them, you were enslaved to it, literally means, them which by nature are no gods. You Gentiles in Galatian churches, you worshipped, well, silver and gold and stone and wood, things which were not gods, just as the Jews did when they misused their ceremonial law. Verse 9, but now after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, yes, conversion brings us to know God, but it's because he makes himself known to us. So now that you've found God, here's the question, halfway through verse 9, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, the ABC, the abaca, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage. What are you doing? You were pagans, but going back to the same sort of thing, the Jewish ceremonial law, wrongly understood, is no better than the pagan ways of worship, the Paul seems to say. What are you doing going back to elementary things that God taught his word through simple things, diets and objects and big curtains, separating off the holy, teaching these fundamental principles? You've known Christ. God has come down and embraced you and drawn you up to himself. You are in full communion with him. You have deep and glorious doctrines. The bright sunshine of the gospel has come to you. And what are you doing going back to the first form and to the learning to read, the simple things of physical object-based worship? So the apostle reasons with them along these lines. He observed days and months, verse 10, and times and years, and verse 11, I am afraid of you, lest, and we can insert the word somehow there, because the Greek word translated lest is, that's what it means, lest somehow, I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. I put that in because it's not as though the apostle is seriously thinking that after all they're not saved. He's reasoning with them. He's saying, oh, it could almost be as though you were never saved in the first place. This mistake is so bad. This is so foolish. It's almost as though I've wasted my time with you. All that struggle and difficulty in getting to you and preaching to you, and he was very sick when he went to them, and now he says, I am afraid of you, lest somehow it's possible that I might have bestowed upon you labour in vain. What a tragedy when the people of God are misled. Oh dear friends, today there are so many denials of true doctrine and of true salvation. I've just been reading a book, I won't go into the details of it, where somebody is trying to correct a particular false teacher who is tremendously influential in denying the doctrine of justification by faith alone. What a tragedy. How many people are hurt and drawn away from Christ. Direct attacks on the doctrine of salvation. And then there are other foolish attacks on the doctrines of salvation. People who say, I believe in the atoning death of Christ and the need for conversion and reconciliation with God, but there are some people who say this, eminent people, and at the same time they say, but I believe that being a Roman Catholic is just as valid, even though they're trusting in Mary and all this type of thing, and not in Christ Jesus alone, and salvation by faith and coming to know him. This is just as good, and pretty well any religion is just as good. And people who support the ecumenical movement, and how they're undermining the gospel. The only truth that can save the soul. And then there are other things which ruin the gospel today. People who say, I believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ, that he died for sinners, and then they ruin it all by inviting people to become Christians without repentance. All you've got to do is say, I trust in Christ, make a mental assent to him, walk the aisle or something, and you're a Christian. And they're not requiring any repentance, any real sincerity, any turning away from the world. And of course they've ruined, it's really a denial of salvation. It's a denial of the gospel. To say, you're like the Judaizers in a way. They say, yes, Christ is true, but you've got to have works as well. And these people say, yes, Christ is true, but you don't have to be deeply sincere, and you don't have to repent, and you don't have to come away from the world to trust in Christ. That's ruined everything. It's different, but in a way it's the same as being a Judaizer. You spoil the essential message of salvation, which is to say, I am a sinner, I need forgiveness, I need new life, I repent of my sin, I trust in Christ alone, I want to be his Lord, help me, I cannot do this by myself. Change me and help me, and I will be ever, only, all for thee. And that's not what's going on in many, many Bible churches today, where all the entertainment washes away Christ, and conviction of sin, and serious earnestness. So we have to be careful, dear friends, and I must come to conclusion, because it is a terrible thing, the damage that error does, when it wrecks and ruins the gospel, and it ruins lives and souls. And oh, it's a, look at the very words of the Apostle Paul, when he pronounces really the curse upon these things, and condemnation. Chapter 1 and verse 6, I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel, and then which is not another. But there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ, and listen to this, but though we, or an angel from heaven, hypothetical reasoning, preach any other gospel unto you, than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. It sounds fierce language, but you know, there are many people who would present themselves as Christian, who are actually under the curse of God, under condemnation and rejection, because they are perverting the simplicity, and the sincerity, and the purity of the true gospel. How important it is for us to be clear on these things. Well, we've looked at some of the blessings we have, spiritually, with gospel daylight, the wonderful sophistication of the gospel, and we must treasure it, and hold on to it, and love it, and proclaim it for all we're worth.