810 - Les Feldick Bible Study - Lesson 2 Part 2 Book 68 - But When - The Fullness of Time - Part 2

https://lesfeldickbiblestudy.com Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 2 * PART 2 * BOOK 68 BUT WHEN - THE FULLNESS OF THE TIME – PART 2 Galatians 4:4; Galatians 4:9; Ephesians 2:4 Again, we’re glad to have everybody back. I see you’ve all gotten your coffee, and we’re ready to hit another “But Now.” This one is in Galatians chapter 4 verse 9. Again, we’re just an informal Bible study. My only hope is to help people to study the Word on their own. You don’t have to just sit there and fold your arms and listen to me or listen to some preacher. Get into the Book, because after all this is where your spiritual food lies. I had someone call yesterday, and she said, “I’ve been a believer for 17 years and off and on I’ll try to read my Bible. I didn’t understand it. I would just lay it aside. But I caught your program a few weeks ago, and now I’m learning how to study.” Well, that’s the best news I could ever hear. So, that’s the whole premise for our teaching. It is to show you how to take the Word and compare Scripture with Scripture, because the cults build all their false doctrines on isolated verses. But we want to use the whole Book cover to cover, because it all fits. It all dovetails together. All right, Galatians chapter 4 going on a little further down the page to verse 8 where Paul writes: Galatians 4:8-9a “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them who by nature are no gods. 9. But now,…” All right, what’s the “But Now?” After you’ve become a believer. Now, I always have to back up and give the historical backdrop. Before these people became Christians, or believers, what were they? Pagans. Idolaters. Gentiles. Galatia is up there in Central Turkey. Like all the rest of Paul’s churches and audiences, it was predominately Gentile. There might have been a sprinkling of Jews, but it’s mostly Gentile, and they were pagan. They were idolaters. They followed all the gods and goddesses and all the immoral and stupid ramifications of it. You know, I can’t help but use the word, because I remember when I was reading the book by Homer, years and years ago. The whole thing is just saturated with how these sailors, including Odysseus, were all hung up on the control of the gods and goddesses. Everything, the winds that blew and the ocean and the enemy of warfare, was all resting on their gods and goddesses. Well, that’s the kind of people Paul dealt with. The same thing. They had no moral standard. They had no understanding of a One True God. They were steeped in all the foolishness of gods and goddesses, with an idol to that god, an idol to that female god and so forth. All right, so this is what Paul is saying here in verse 8 - “back when you knew not the God of Scripture, the God of Israel.” All they knew were gods and goddesses of mythology. Galatians 4:8a “Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them…” My goodness, do you have any idea how the pagan worshipped? Why, sacrifices after sacrifices if they could afford it. I think I shared this on the program several months ago. You know I love history. So, while I was going through my hip replacement recuperation, I did a lot of sitting and reading. I read the whole gambit of Alexander the Great. All the way from when he began to when he finally died at the age of 33. I was just flabbergasted at how that young man was constantly sacrificing animals to his gods and goddesses. If he was ready for battle, he would sacrifice 200-300 of them! Unbelievable! Now, that was the mentality, then, of these people that Paul brought into the faith of Christ. So, you have to get an understanding of that. They were slaves to their religion. They were constantly making offerings and oblations and everything to their idols. Whether it was on a high hill, or whether it was in a grove, or whether it was in their house, they were always worshipping some idol. All right, so he says: Galatians 4:8b “…ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods.” They’re just wood and stone. They’re figments of somebody’s imagination. A sorry state of affairs, isn’t it? Yet the world isn’t all that much different even today. Now, I hate to say it, but it’s the truth. Now then verse 9, that’s the crux of the thing. Galatians 4:9a “But now, (Since you’ve become a believer. Since you’ve come out of all that false worship and--) after that ye have known (the one true) God, (as a result of trusting Paul’s Gospel) or rather are known of God,...” You know what I like about that? When we become a believer, we not only know God, but what? God knows us! He knows us in a way intrinsically different than He knows the rest of the world. In His omniscience, sure, He’s aware of everybody. But when we become a believer, we are intrinsically His! He knows all about us. #LesFeldick #BibleStudy #Bible