Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 2 Study # 1
August 5, 2012
Dayton, Texas
(Download Audio)

<195> Thesis: The bondage of slavery to vanity is inescapable apart from the Gospel. Introduction: In our studies of 4:1-7 we were impressed with Paul's insistence that God has made us heirs of His promise of Life. We were pointedly told that, as those who have crossed the threshold of the understanding of Grace, we have the capacity and privilege of exercising "lordship" over "Life" so that we now have the opportunity to "grow" our experience of the Joy of Life without boundaries. To the degree that we grow in our confidence in the grace of God and how He exercises it in our circumstances, to that degree we possess the peacefulness of soul that allows Joy to settle over us. High sounding words. But true words if we do not lose sight of God in His character as the gracious Abba Who has made us His heirs for no other reason than that He loves us. This evening we are going to launch out into a consideration of the alternative that Paul sets before us: a reversal of course in which a person turns from Grace back to his/her former hardness of heart and mind. The occasion of this study is Paul's question to his readers: "How turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?"