Acting Like an Heir (Galatians 4:1-11)
Acting Like An Heir
Galatians 4:1-11
May 25, 2014
As you know we are presently studying this letter
That Paul wrote to the churches in the region of Galatia.
It is a fiery letter where Paul shows passion for truth and hatred for legalism
If you fail to understand why Paul is so angry,
It is because you fail to understand the true goal of the apostle.
• Many today talk about the desire to win souls.
• Many today talk about the desire to make converts.
• Many today push for church growth and numerical increases.
But I can confidently say to you that these were not the goal of Paul’s ministry.
Paul understood that the number of those who were saved
Was really up to the sovereign call of God.
He knew that he planted, but God was causing the growth.
Paul’s driving passion was not to make converts.
Paul’s driving passion was to take those whom God had called
And make sure that they became all that God intended for them to be.
Colossians 1:28-29 “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”
Romans 15:15-16 “But I have written very boldly to you on some points so as to remind you again, because of the grace that was given me from God, to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, ministering as a priest the gospel of God, so that my offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.”
Paul wanted those whom God had entrusted to him
To become all that God intended.
And when it appeared that this reality was in jeopardy,
Paul immediately focused in on it and tried to fix it.
Remember the church at Corinth?
2 Corinthians 11:1-3 “I wish that you would bear with me in a little foolishness; but indeed you are bearing with me. For I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy; for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin. But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
Paul pictured himself like a stage coach driver,
Entrusted with the duty of transporting Christ’s bride to Him safe and unstained.
He wanted to make sure that when Christ received her,
She was everything He intended her to be.
He will write a similar truth later to the Galatians.
Galatians 4:19 “My children, with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you”
And there the point is made abundantly clear.
Paul wants to see Christ in everyone under his care.
He isn’t so focused about church attendance…
He isn’t really even focused on baptisms…
In fact he wrote:
1 Corinthians 1:14-17 “I thank God that I baptized none of you except Crispus and Gaius, so that no one would say you were baptized in my name. Now I did baptize also the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I do not know whether I baptized any other. For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not in cleverness of speech, so that the cross of Christ would not be made void.”
Obviously baptisms and attendance were not the goal.
• He wanted to see Christ fully formed in those who claimed to follow Him.
• He wanted to see the flesh die and the new life shine through.
• He wanted to see people transformed by the renewing of their mind, proving what the will of God was.
• He wanted to see sinners turned saints
• He wanted to see Jesus in those who claimed to follow Him
That was his goal
And so you understand why he was so upset with the Galatians.
They had prayed the prayer…
They had been baptized…
But in regard to Christlikeness, they were actually digressing.
They were not becoming like Christ, and this grieved Paul.
Paul wanted them to live like the Christians Christ intended them to be.
Last time we met
We saw those three “you are” statements in the end of chapter 3.
“You are sons”
“You are one”
“You are heirs”
That is what you are – now Paul wants them to live like it!
There are four points in our text tonight.
#1 THEIR REMINDER
Galatians 4:1-3
Now let’s pull ourselves back into the middle of Paul’s argument.
He has been on a rather long discourse talking about the purpose of the Law,
And how we are no longer under it.
• We’ve seen the Law as a mirror which exposes our sin.
• We’ve seen the Law as prison which keeps us under guilt.
• We’ve seen the Law as a tutor which prepares us for Christ.
But Paul reminded us that once the purpose of the Law was fulfilled,
We were no longer under that tutor any longer.
We had become full blown sons
We had become full blown heirs of the promise
NOW PAUL IS READY TO MAKE ANOTHER POINT.
Hence the “Now I say…”
And again he starts with a natural or earthly illustration.
“Now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by the father.”
As a son you may in fact be an heir of all that your father owns,
But you don’t get to have full use of it until you are deemed ready for it
Let’s say you own a 10,000 acre cattle ranch with a full blown cattle operation.
And your wife gets pregnant and you have a son.
Now, that ranch is going to be his someday.
He is your heir.
Someday he’ll get to call the shots and make the decisions.
However, just because he is three years old and rides his tricycle out to the barn does not mean you are going to let him tell the foreman which cows to sell and which cows to keep.
Instead, he is actually treated just like the hired hands.
He fixes fence
He works cattle
He brands, he vaccinates, he ships
Eventually he goes to the sale
In many ways you make him work just as hard (if not harder)
Than every hired hand you have.
Because you are preparing him to run the place some day.
Now is there a difference between him and the hired hands? Absolutely
But if you were to just observe them both on any given day,
You would be hard pressed to tell the difference.
A son might be an heir, but before he takes his full position,
He is first treated like a slave.
That is a natural illustration.
Now let’s look at the spiritual reality.
(3) “So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.”
Now please follow the analogy here.
Many times in Scripture people give the analogy of children
As a positive analogy.
People take the story where Jesus said if you don’t become like this child,
You won’t enter the kingdom of heaven.
People then take that story and assume that
Christ wanted you to be like a child.
That wasn’t what Christ meant.
He chose a child because by the world’s standards
The child was the least important person in the room.
He was talking about the necessary humility that is required to enter the kingdom, but Jesus was not promoting that you be like a child.
In fact, Scripture repeatedly tells you NOT to be like a child.
Ephesians 4:11-14 “And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;”
1 Corinthians 13:11 “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.”
1 Corinthians 3:1-4 “And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to men of flesh, as to infants in Christ. I gave you milk to drink, not solid food; for you were not yet able to receive it. Indeed, even now you are not yet able, for you are still fleshly. For since there is jealousy and strife among you, are you not fleshly, and are you not walking like mere men? For when one says, “I am of Paul,” and another, “I am of Apollos,” are you not mere men?”
Hebrews 5:12-14 “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is not accustomed to the word of righteousness, for he is an infant. But solid food is for the mature, who because of practice have their senses trained to discern good and evil.”
In Scripture children are painted as gullible, naïve, ignorant, and foolish.
• That doesn’t mean they aren’t precious or important.
• It doesn’t mean God doesn’t love them.
• It doesn’t mean God doesn’t have big plans for them.
He does, but just because He loves them
Doesn’t mean He is finished with them.
Repeatedly we are told NOT to be children.
We are to literally “grow up” into who God intends us to be.
So when Paul says here that “we were children”
He is not talking about a time that we should be proud of.
In fact he explains what he means further down in verse 8.
“However at that time when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.”
Obviously Paul is not talking about a time we should be proud of.
He’s talking about a time when we were deceived, ignorant, and enslaved.
“we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world.”
And the main thing I want you to see is that
WE WERE IN AN UNFAVORABLE POSITION.
• Many a son has felt frustrated that he couldn’t call the shots on the ranch sooner…
• Many a son grew tired of working like a slave…
It may have been a beneficial position, but it was not a favorable one.
So here is the point.
IF YOU ARE AN HEIR,
THEN YOU NATURALLY ASPIRE TO BE AN HEIR, NOT A SLAVE
You may endure some slavery,
But it is all for the purpose of finally being the heir.
Their Reminder
#2 THEIR REDEMPTION
Galatians 4:4-5
So picture a son, working like a slave, waiting for the day
When he can finally realize his true calling as an heir…
Well here Paul speaks of the day when that longing became a reality.
It is the spiritual bar mitzvah if you will.
Here is how:
“But when the fullness of the time came…”
That merely indicates that when God was ready.
We read earlier that the son is no different than a slave
Until “the date set by the father”
So the father sets the date.
Well, when that date arrived…
“when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”
NOW PLEASE PAY ATTENTION.
We gave the illustration about being an heir, but being treated like a slave.
Paul is here is referring to something even bigger.
Paul is not talking about being a son, but being treated like a slave.
PAUL IS TALKING ABOUT BEING A SLAVE,
AND YET ADOPTED AS A SON
The Son who was treated like a slave was Christ.
• Christ came, “born of a woman” (because we were)
• “born under the Law” (because we were)
So that He could “redeem” us.
Romans 8:3-4 “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”
Christ came to “redeem” us.
That simply means to purchase us out of our position.
Now, we’ve been talking about a prison we were in
We’ve been talking about slavery we were in
But one aspect of this that we have not mentioned
Is the inherent debt that is associated with that.
We often say criminals must pay “their debt to society”
So did we.
Only our debt was to God.
We were incarcerated as slaves, with a debt we could not pay,
Doomed to be slaves forever.
And yet Christ came and redeemed us from it.
Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
John 8:31-36 “So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.” They answered Him, ” We are Abraham’s descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, ‘You will become free’?” Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. “The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. “So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.”
Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace”
Christ came to those who were slaves, with a debt to pay,
And freed us from our slavery.
This freedom then made it possible for us to become more than a slave.
We “receive the adoption as sons.”
Listen, for a slave freedom was enough.
This going the extra mile for sure.
Not only is their debt paid, but now they actually receive benefits.
They get adopted and become full blown heirs of the kingdom.
They weren’t born into it
They didn’t deserve it
But they did receive it
AND PICTURE THIS REALITY FOR A MOMENT.
Now we hold nothing against the orphans in this world.
After all, it isn’t their fault they are orphans.
However, we will admit that because of the cruelty of this world
An orphan begins life with a great disadvantage.
Imagine now that one orphan who is chosen by a family,
Adopted in to their home, and instantly promised to be an heir.
We would all admit that the orphan was quite fortunate.
How much more could we say that about ourselves?
Born in sin, doomed to suffer, yet because of the sacrifice of God’s own Son,
Our debt was paid and we were free to be adopted.
That is what happened to the Galatians.
Once Slaves, Now Sons
Their Reminder, Their Redemption
#3 THEIR REALITY
Galatians 4:6-7
Now admittedly, all that Paul said in the first 5 verses
Seems a little too good to be true.
• I can believe I was a slave…
• I can believe I was a prisoner…
I could honestly look at my life and see that.
But now, all of a sudden you are telling me that I’ve been set free from my slavery and am now an adopted child of God and an heir of His kingdom?
Come on?
You’re yanking my chain.
I’m going to need a little proof here.
• Do you have the parole paper work?
• Do you have my adoption papers?
• Do you have a copy of the will where I can see I’m an heir?
Here it is:
“Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
Incidentally there is another Trinitarian reference,
Since here the Holy Spirit is referred to as “the Spirit of His Son”
But God sent His Spirit to dwell in us.
How do we know He is there?
He cries out “Abba! Father!”
The Spirit within us actually causes us to love and trust God
In a way we didn’t before.
I may not fully understand the implications of being adopted in my mind,
But I sure am thankful for it in my heart.
Something in me sure does love God.
Romans 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
Genuine love for God is one of the true fruits of salvation,
Because it does not come from you.
The love of God must be poured into your heart.
It is the Spirit who causes that.
Romans 8:15-17 “For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”
We know the Spirit is in us (among other things)
Because of the love He produces in us for God.
The next question is: WHY IS THE SPIRIT IN US?
“Because you are sons”
If you weren’t a son, He wouldn’t have given you the Spirit of His Son.
Romans 8:9 “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.”
The only people who receive God’s Spirit are those who are God’s sons.
He gave us the Spirit because we are sons.
AND SO HERE IS THE IMPLICATION.
I know the reality is far-fetched that God would take you, as slave, and redeem you from slavery, and then adopt you as a son, and make you a full blown heir.
I know that is hard to believe.
But if you want proof, just look at the fact that His Spirit dwells within you.
Ephesians 1:13-14 “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation — having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
The Spirit is the proof that you are an heir of God.
(7) “Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.”
WOW!
It may be unlikely, but it is the truth none the less.
You are a fortunate person.
• Far more than a son who is treated like a slave for a while.
• You are a slave who was set free and adopted as a son.
You may not deserve it…
You may not understand it…
But it is reality none the less.
Luke 12:31-32 “But seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has chosen gladly to give you the kingdom.”
Their Reminder, Their Redemption, Their Reality
#4 THEIR REBUKE
Galatians 4:8-9
Well, it’s been all flowers up until now.
Paul has really made us feel good about who we are thanks to Christ.
Here comes the big stick!
“However at that time when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods.”
And we remember that.
• Just when he gets us to understand that we are adopted as heirs of God, now he takes us back and reminds us of that old dirty orphanage.
• Now he takes us back and says, “Remember that cold lonely prison?”
And we say, “Yes” I remember it.
(9) “But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, to which you desire to be enslaved all over again?”
And together we all say BOOM!
Do you remember the story of the prodigal son?
• How he wanted his inheritance early and then he went and squandered
it?
• He then came back, humbled himself before his father, and asked if he
could be a slave.
How degrading would that have been?
Could you imagine being the son who worked as a slave on your father’s farm?
Your life would be a continual shame and disgrace.
And yet, that is precisely what Paul says the Galatians are trying to do.
God pulled you out of slavery, made you a son, made you an heir,
And now you are willing to go right back into the slavery.
WHAT ARE YOU THINKING!
You say, “What do you mean Paul? What are we doing?”
(10) “You observe days and month and seasons and years”
You are back into this mode of trying to earn God’s favor.
You think that something you can do will actually cause God to love you more.
You act like a slave in the midst of slaves who is trying to outwork all of his counter parts to make the master take notice of you.
Ever see a guy like that on the jobsite?
You’re out here acting like God is going to notice you
And love you more if you keep the Law too.
• Have you forgotten you are already a son?
• Have you forgotten you are already an heir?
• Have you forgotten God has already decided to give you everything?
AND THEN THE CRUSHING STATEMENT.
(11) “I fear for you, that perhaps I have labored over you in vain.”
What did we say Paul’s goal was?
It wasn’t to get converts, but rather to see those who were saved
Become all that God intended them to be.
He wanted to see them conformed into the image of Christ.
In short, he wanted to see them start to be who God had made them.
• Since God had made them sons, he wanted to see them start acting like sons.
• Since God had made them heirs, he wanted to see them start acting like heirs.
And yet the Galatians had gone the exact opposite direction.
They are sons acting like slaves.
They are heirs acting like orphans.
Paul is totally exasperated.
You just don’t get it at all, and I feel like my entire ministry to you
Has been a waste of time.
DO YOU CATCH THE POINT THEN?
Be who God made you to be.
God has adopted you as a son…
God has sent the Spirit of His Son inside of you…
WHAT DO YOU SUPPOSE GOD WANTS YOU TO BE?
A son!
• Quit trying to earn His favor…
• Quit doubting His goodness…
• Quit doubting His love for you…
Just live like a child of God.
• A child who is loved by his Father…
• A child who is provided for by his Father…
• A child who is carried by his Father…
• A child who is protected by his Father…
• A child who will one day inherit his Father’s kingdom…
Constantly acting like a slave or an orphan is not what God desires.
Legalism is a sin before God.
It shames Him as though He can’t be trusted.
It makes Him look like a tyrant father who can’t be pleased.
But that is not who our God is at all.
(That’s what the older brother thought of the Father)
Don’t treat Him like that.
Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
