Repercussions of slavery.

Steve Brown:
Repercussions of slavery. Let’s talk about it on Key Life.

Matthew Porter:
That was Steve Brown, and this is Key Life. We’re dedicated to the teaching that the only people who get any better are those who know that if they don’t get any better, God will still love them anyway. Steve is an author, seminary professor and our teacher on Key Life.

Steve Brown:
Thank you Matthew. If you have your Bible, open it to the fourth chapter of Galatians. And we’re looking at verses 21 through the end of that chapter. And we’ve been looking at that text for the last two or three weeks, and it has to do with slavery and freedom. And Paul uses an illustration of Sarah and Hagar, and he says, you know your mom? Jack Miller, who’s my late friend who adds a great attraction to heaven. Jack Miller used to say,

You’re acting like an orphan.

He could have said, you’re acting like the son of a slave. You’re acting like you don’t have a daddy. You’re acting like you’re depressed and you’re down. Don’t you have a home, don’t you have a father, who loves you?

You’re acting like an orphan.

Well Paul would say, you’re acting like the child of a slave woman, but there are results. Look at Galatians, and we have seen it as to do with roots. You’ve got to reflect on it. Discerned. It’s gotta be, you gotta be prepared for the reaction against your freedom. It grows and there are results, Galatians 4:30 through 31,

But what does the scripture say? “Cast the slave and her son out, for the son of the slave shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave, but of the free woman.

In other words, the heritage is ours. This Paul says in I Corinthians three,

That everything that you see in the entire world was made for the terrible meek, the people of God.

It’s your heritage. If your religion is based on your goodness, your faithfulness to the law, being responsible, being nice. Two things should happen, first God will judge you on the basis of your choice that you’ve made. And secondly, you’re going to fail. Those are absolute and they are real, but however, if your religion is a relationship, based on what Christ has done for you on the Cross. The fact that he has taken your sin, forgiven you completely, God will judge you on that basis. And let me say, you’re in good shape. You’re good to go, because the judgment has already been passed and you’re free. That’s what Paul was saying in this text. Romans 8:1, one of my favorite places to go in Scripture, when I’m just about at the end of my rope, Paul writes.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who were in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law weakened by the flesh, could not do. Sending his son in the likeness of sinful flesh. And for sin.

That is the mantra, the verse, the life text of free people. You remember that movie years ago, it was called Body Guard. I don’t even remember who was in it, but it was about some little kids in a high school, who were required to pay protection to the school bullies. One of the boys becomes a friend with a young, big, looking like a gorilla guy by the name of Linderman. And Linderman decides to become the body guard of this little kid. At one point in the movie, this little kid, who has been picked on by four bullies, walks into a soda shop, gets the ketchup and mustard and pours it all over the bullies and then he runs out and they chase him across the street and into an ally. And then the Linderman steps out from behind the truck and from the shadows. And the little kid says, Mooney, let me introduce you to my body guard. From now on, anything you have to say to me, you can say to him first. So, what Paul is saying in all of this is that you’ve got a body guard. Those kids were paying protection, trying to keep from getting killed. Maybe you’re doing that too. I’ve done it on occasion, but when Linderman slash Jesus enters the picture, you’re free. Maybe you’re paying protection right now. Maybe, maybe you’re working really hard at getting a God, who is Holy to accept you. Listen, it’s done. He’s already done it. You’re free. Now, go out and live it. Now, the next text, and I just have time to mention it. We’ll talk a lot about it, the next time we study Galatians. But the next text is about false teaching. It’s the first 12 verses of the fifth chapter of Galatians.

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand fast, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. Now I, Paul, say to you that if you receive circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who received circumcision that he is bound to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from peace. For through the spirit, by faith, we wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love. You were running well. Who in the world hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole loaf. I have confidence in the Lord that you will take no other view than mine, and he who is troubling. You. Will bear his judgment, whoever he is. But if I, brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still persecuted? In that case the stumbling block of the cross has been removed. I wish those who wouldn’t settled, you would mutilate themselves.

That doesn’t sound very Christian, does it? Well, I don’t know if time to go into it. We’ll do it the next time we get to Galatians and spend some time in this. Paul’s not really talking about circumcision. He’s talking about what that represents and he has righteous indignation directed at who? False teachers. You know, I have some of that too. I have to repent when it’s mixed with my own anger and my own ego, because there’s a lot of that too, I have to repent of. But as a matter of fact, the thing that really bothers me is sometimes those people who take the precious message of God’s absolute love and grace, and then turn it into something that it isn’t. Yeah, this grace thing is okay, but people will take advantage of it. And if you take it advantage of it, you’re probably not even saved. I mean, grace is taught and I understand that, but there’s a lot more than that. There’s some things that you need to understand and I’m going to tell you what they are and if you get it, God will love you. Oh my. Even saying what I just said makes me upset. And, I thought I dealt with my anger problem, but maybe just, maybe that has to do with how God feels about that. God went through a world of trouble, to make it different, to make us free, to make us alive in him. I got a link this morning from a dear friend of mine in Northern Ireland, died fairly recently, Noel Agnew. And I loved him a lot. And somebody sent me a link for his graduation service and I’ve been watching it this morning and was so thankful for my friend Noel, who’d been a pastor there, for so very long. But one time another friend in Northern Ireland didn’t know what to do about the problems and the division. And he was in the billboard business. So he hired billboards all over Northern Ireland and they read, I love you. Is that okay? Jesus. You think about that. Amen.

Matthew Porter:
Thanks Steve. We’ll continue our tour of Galatians soon, but next week, Steve has invited our favorite mega church Pastor Zach Van Dyke to join us again, loves Zach’s teaching. And tomorrow it’s time again for Friday Q&A. That’s when our friend Pete Alwinson joins Steve and together they answer the challenging questions you’ve sent in. On tap for tomorrow, is COVID part of Biblical prophecy? Tune in for the answer to that one. Now having said all of that, Steve doesn’t actually have all the answers. In fact, he used to,think that we should all be getting better and better every day in every way. Well, now he says he knows better, but it does raise questions. Right? If we’re called to radical obedience, why is it that we struggle so much? Why do we feel guilty? Well, the fact is we are weak and needy people and thus, when we run to Jesus, we find the power that we lack. Well, Steve spoke about this in a message called When Being Bad Isn’t Bad Enough. We’d love to send you that full talk on a CD for free. Just call 1-800-KEY-LIFE right now. That’s 1-800-539-5433. You can also drop an email to [email protected] and ask for the CD. By mail, send your request to

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