Heirs of God, Enemy of Hell

FCF: To keep Christians from leaving their sonship for a Gospel of false spirituality. 

Since we are sons of God in Christ Jesus, we must reject all other forms of false spirituality.

Introduction

One of the earliest Christian leaders said the following.

All diseases of Christians are to be ascribed to demons.

Augustine of Hippo

Notice that word “all.” All diseases we face come from demons! All of them. Every sniffle and every scraped toe comes from the devil himself.

You can hear my sarcasm here. As much as I love this teacher, and I do, I think he is far of the margin. God does not call us to look for demons behind every smashed pinky toe.

But here me this morning: just because a demon did not not make you late for work does not mean they are not involved in your everyday life.

The danger, as C.S. Lewis said, is that we think the Devil is either behind every bush or no bush at all.

One of his tactics today in the church is coming in through false spirituality. Things that look easy and simple; practices that you can do and feel good about, feel connected to God through.

The danger we face is that, as always, Satan appears as an angel of light. We must have our eyes and ears trained to look for this false spirituality.

That is our duty as sons of God.

I want to remind you of where we are in our study of Galatians.

Chapters 1-2: autobiography

Chapter 3: saved by faith like Abraham; we are his heirs now, not because of anything we have done.

This brings us into chapter 4. Paul lays out for us the following principle:

Since we are sons of God in Christ Jesus, we must reject all other forms of false spirituality.

I. We have received a sonship (vv. 1-7)

vv. 1-2—In talking about our salvation, Paul draws a parallel between us and the Greco-Roman world of childrearing.

He uses two terms here:

tutors—protector

governors—οἰκονόμος (dispensator) a guardian, a legal guardian, Gal. 4:2. In any case he manages the property of the ‘infant’ till the age of 25, perhaps11 Alexander Souter, A Pocket Lexicon to the Greek New Testament (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1917), 173.

One emphasizes the protection of and one the managing of the infant under age.

His point is this: Heirs cannot use their rights until they are no longer children. They possess the privilege but cannot live it. The money is in the bank, but it cannot be spent.

Paul draws this to us in the next several verses

v. 3 —Pre conversion, Paul says, we were like those underage children: we were waiting to grow up. Here’s the key: we were slaves to demons. That’s what that phrase “elements of the world” means. We, and Paul includes himself as a religious jew under the law, served demons. Like a child with a leash.

But.

v. 4—“fullness of time” when everything was ripe and ready

v. 5— “to redeem”, to buy back. And we see God’s purpose of it all here. Why did Jesus come? Why did he lower himself to the level of a man? Why did he suffer, and sweat, and eat, and sleep? Here’s the purpose: to give us adoption.

The word “might” here scares people. We use this word to say if something may or may not happen. That is not how it’s used here. It’s translating a grammatical construction that’s used to show purpose. God is not saying “Welp, I’ve redeemed you, but I may not grant you adoption into my family.”

That’s absurd. It flies in the face of God’s character. Look at what he does in verses 6-7

v. 6-7 —Because we are already sons, God is going to make sure we get it. He puts the Spirit into our hearts, into our innermost being. That is the reason the Christian feels comforted with God as his father: there is something inside of Him that knows what he is. Who he belongs to. That, as verse 8 says, you are not a servant, but a son and an heir.

APP: Did you notice that your weekly performance was nowhere in this passage? Your ability to work extra hard and pull long hours? Your capability to keep your cool? It isn’t there. This is the foundation of everything else.

Your membership in God’s family is not earned: it is received. You have already received your sonship. Your adoption is secure. You are loved by the Father for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Trans: You have received a sonship. And now we must be on guard.

II. We might receive the enemy (vv. 8-11)

v.8—Paul starts this section very clearly: when you were pagans, you served demons. Those who “by nature are no gods.” Those things are real.

Notice how he lumps Jews into this as well, even though they were fastidiously obeying the law of Moses. It did not matter: if it is not for God, it is for something else.

Here’s why Paul brings up this tidbit of their past:

vv. 9-11—After you have God for your Father, why are you turning back to demons? Why are you turning around and going backwards to the elemental forces of Satan himself?

v. 10 shows us how they are doing this.

This reads as if is talking about the OT law. He says they are following “days, and months, and times, and years.” You might ask how I am connecting this observance of Moses to demons.

We know Paul is not referencing the OT specifically because of verse 9. That world “elements” pops up again, like in verse 3.

What has happened is that the Galatians have taken the superstitious practices from their pagan background and blended it with something spiritual.

They have taken demonic practices and tried to ‘baptize’ them into being Christian.

APP: Yoga’s origins. Tarrot cards.

Trans: This is our danger. We have received sonship, but we are in danger of receiving the enemy. What must we do?

III. We must return to zeal (vv. 12-16)

v.12—”I am as ye are” I am doing what you used to do! Paul wishes that they would return to their original zeal for the true Gospel. He goes into the context of his first proclamation to them. He reminds them of what their zeal for Christ was like at the beginning.

vv. 13-14—temptation—trial, but its translated this way because Paul’s trial contained, as all do, a temptation to sin

v. 15-16—The Galatians were so stuck on the true Gospel that they were He reminds them what this looked like: receiving and loving Paul in spite of his physical infirmity

The Galatians are called to be zealous for one thing: Christ.

APP: The only way we can defend against false things is if we love the true. We will only defend the true Gospel of Christ when we love the true Gospel of Christ.

The amazing thing here church is that we a duty to perform, and we cannot do it. We cannot make ourselves love God. We cannot grit our teeth and make it happen. We cannot grow in our sanctification by our own effort.

Philippians 2:12–13 KJV 1900

12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

Sanctification is not drawing from Jesus the power to be holy; it is drawing from Jesus the holiness that was manifested in Him, and He manifests it in me. Sanctification is an impartation, not an imitation.

Oswald Chambers

IV. We must avoid the jealous (vv. 17-20)

The Judaizers are pursuing the Galatians like a man pursues a woman (vv. 17-18)

Paul wishes he could let the Galatians hear his voice and see how concerned he is for them. (vv. 19-20)

Since we are sons of God in Christ Jesus, we must reject all other forms of false spirituality.