How to Keep Growing

Introduction

I. Understand our Adoption

We love our clichés

People love to say things like, “We’re all God’s children!” However, not everybody is a child of God.

Before we are indwelled with God’s Holy Spirit by faith, the Bible says that we are children of wrath.

Ephesians 2:3 NKJV

among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

People are not born as children of God because of sin. We call that a sin nature. Thanks to Adam, we are all born into sin.

A. Born as Slaves (v. 3)

Galatians 4:3 NKJV

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

“Bondage” literally means enslaved.

“elements of the world” is talking about the basic morality for all mankind that says we can work ourselves to be worthy of Heaven.

This is why most people will say that they will go to heaven because they are a good person. They were born as a slave and their master forces them to work for a salvation that they can never obtain.

The slave will never receive the inheritance no matter how hard he works for it, because he is a slave.

For the Jews: The elements of their world was the law and legalism. It had to do with their ceremonies and their festivals.

For the Gentiles: The elements of their world was anything to do with their pagan religions or rituals.

B. Bought From Slavery (v. 4-5)

Galatians 4:4–5 NKJV

But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

1. God’s Son Sent

a. The Fullness of Time

So many people ask the question: Why did God wait so long to send Jesus?

Because, in His infinite wisdom, God knew that the people must be trained in the elementary principles of the world if they were going to be ready to receive the Messiah.

The world had to come to a place where they realized that even the most moral and good nation to ever exist, the Jewish nation, was totally unworthy of salvation.

The law of God was God’s way of educating the world of His holiness compared to their sinfulness.

b. Born Under the Law

Why was the Son of God born as a man?

The world needed to understand that even the best nation was destined for Hell, but they also needed to see that Jesus was the standard of the law and the administrator of the law. (This is why His conversations with the Pharisees were so public - Jesus came as One in authority over the traditions of man, He came in the authority of God’s law…He was literally the fulfillment of the law because He did all that the law required.

2. God’s Son Slain

This truth is found in that word “redeem”.

When Jesus died, He “redeemed” us because He paid for our sin.

That is, He literally purchased us out of the slavery that we were born into.

3. God’s Sons Secured

A lot of translations try to make this verse more gender neutral, and they do it a disservice.

At least once, the Bible says “sons and daughters of God”, and many other times it says, “children of God”, but the purpose of this verse is not to exclude anyone.

The reason that it is important we understand and accept that it says sons is because of the context in which it was written. That when we are secured by the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus, we are seen as His Son, and there is no more male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free, but that we are one in the same with Son.

When we are bought from slavery by the blood of Jesus, we all, regardless of our earthly condition or status, receive the inheritance of a Son, the Son of God.

C. Baptized in The Spirit (v. 6-7)

Galatians 4:6–7 NKJV

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

When we were bought from slavery, we were not bought to become slaves, but we were made sons.

We can know this because we were given the “Spirit of the Son” by the Father.

That means that we are indwelled with the Spirit of God.

Not in our minds, not in our into our heads, but the Bible says into our hearts.

Why the heart?

Because it is from our heart where all desires come. If we are going to be in a place where we are going to desire God, then the Holy Spirit must occupy and change our heart.

We can tell what possesses the heart of a person by what they say and how they behave.

Proverbs 4:23 NKJV

Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

If you want to know where a person’s treasure is, listen to what they talk about and you will find it.

If we want to grow, we must empty our hearts of all selfish ambition and fully embrace the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

D. Freed from the Law (v. 1-2)

Galatians 4:1–2 NKJV

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father.

There is some historical context at play here:

A Roman child was often placed under the care of a supervisor (nanny or babysitter). It didn’t matter how important that child’s father was, they were under the authority of that nanny, and they were as slaves to that guardian.

When that child came of age, they were set free from that guardian and were given back to the Father.

What Paul is illustrating is that even the children of the King of Kings, if they are subjected and under the authority of the guardian, they are nothing but slaves, and not able to access their rights as a son.

When a Christian places themselves under legalistic traditions and burdens, they put themselves in the place of a slave and forfeit their status as a son.

The Bible is teaching us that we cannot grow until we fully embrace our adoptions as sons of grace.

II. Reject Our Former Heritage (v. 8-11)

The definition of heritage is “property that descends to an heir.”

Now, formerly, our heritage was our sin nature, because Adam sinned and passed the property of a wicked heart to every generation after him.

A. A Sinful Heritage (v. 8)

Galatians 4:8 NKJV

But then, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods.

Paul is reminding them of their past.

These were not Jews he was writing to, but Gentiles. And Paul is writing now to say, “At one time, you served demons and false gods. You were trapped in pagan religions.”

That was their heritage. That they worshipped pagan gods just as their fathers did.

B. A Weak and Beggarly Heritage (v. 9)

Galatians 4:9 NKJV

But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?

He calls their heritage “weak and beggarly”. That means that it is powerless. And they know that their heritage was powerless, because when they surrendered to God, they surrendered under His grace and not under His law.

Paul is relating their current condition to their former heritage.

What is their current condition?

C. A Legalistic Heritage (v. 10-11)

Galatians 4:10–11 NKJV

You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.

He is greatly concerned for them.

They have been rescued by God’s grace out of pagan idolatry just to dive head first into the fruitlessness of legalism. All they’ve done is traded their liberalism for legalism. They traded their ignorance and cravings for pride and arrogance.

They have totally missed out on grace because they want to return to their former heritage.

Immature Christians are all at risk of this.

We are dead in our sin, and we know that we are. We come to God broken, tired of living a life filled with alcohol, drugs, meaningless sex, or hopeless corporate ambition. We lay it all down at the cross and we humbly ask God to save us.

But something begins to change in us.

We develop a pious look and we start trying to earn the favor of God.

And then it gets worse: We start self-projecting.

We start taking our own flaws and our own heart posture, and we start enforcing those things upon other people for no good reason. It’s not done out of love. It’s not done out of grace. It’s done out of a vain attempt to make others conform to our standards beyond what God has required of us.

Matthew 7:3–5 NKJV

And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

That is where legalism begins, when we begin to inspect the eyes of others instead of inspecting our own eyes.

That is what Paul is battling. These Gentile believers have gone from pagan law, to God’s grace, and are now diving head first into Jewish law.

But, God’s grace has made us His adult sons. We don’t need to return to a place of infancy.

Galatians Exposition

How can you go back to the things of your spiritual childhood? As well may full-grown men begin again to read their ABC’s and learn from baby picture books! - Spurgeon

If we want to grow, we must reject our former heritage, read the perfect law of grace, and stay away from the elements of the world (the elementary principles of the faith).

III. Passionately Pursue Jesus (v. 12-20)

We are not trying to conform to a standard. What we want to do is be transformed by relational pursuit.

Romans 12:2 NKJV

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Here is why we need to be transformed instead of conforming to any kind of standard.

Because from childhood, our social groups, cultural norms, and traditions shape our behavior and personality and cause us to look within for the appropriate standard.

God’s word calls us to look up, and to be transformed by His grace.

Jesus tells us, “If anyone wishes to by my disciple, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.”

We must deny our self-imposed and worldly standards, and embrace Jesus Christ and His grace.

There is nothing that will stifle your personal growth or congregational growth like refusing to get rid of yourself and your way of doing things.

A. Passionately Pursue the Message of Jesus (v. 12-14)

Galatians 4:12–14 NKJV

Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of physical infirmity I preached the gospel to you at the first. And my trial which was in my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.

It is obvious that Paul, at one point in his journeys, did not intend to stop and preach in Galatia, but because of illness he stopped there and preached the gospel.

And they didn’t reject the message of grace then like they’re doing now.

Paul is reminding them of this moment, saying to them, “you recieved me as you would have recieved Jesus Christ. But now, you’re letting the false teachers come in and deny the grace of God that you already received? Don’t do that!”

He wants them to remember the passion they had for the message of grace, and he wants them to remember how much grace and love they showed him.

He says in the beginning there, “You have not injured me at all.”

-It is the heart cry of every pastor that loves the sheep that we do not want to be competition with you. That we want to love you, and that we stand ready and willing to forgive in the face of offense, because that’s exactly what Jesus did for us.

“While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

So, Paul says, “You have not injured me. Please remember the love we have for one another and the love you have for the message of grace.”

B. Passionately Pursue the Truth of Jesus (v. 15-16)

Galatians 4:15–16 NKJV

What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that, if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?

There comes a time when wolves invade the church. It is a dangerous thing.

They come along and they preach some other doctrine. They want to infect the church with their bad attitudes, their legalism or their liberalism. And they rally people to their side so that their pastor, their shepherd becomes their enemy.

What Satan seeks to do is isolate members from the shepherd and the flock so that they cannot be protected.

And they get some kind of exciting new doctrine, some kind of teaching that makes their flesh spring up, and the one that teaches the truth of the gospel becomes evil to them.

2 Timothy 4:3–4 NKJV

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.

In your life and in the church this is possible.

Instead of wanting true growth that comes from a knowledge of the truth, people want to obtain power and status from false teachings, tickled ears, and personal gain.

This type of behavior is the difference in having a million dollars cash and a million dollars in credit.

The one with cash, when they spend and they toil, and they work, and even though they don’t look like much, they own what they have and their wealth continues to grow.

The one with credit, even though they get a bunch of nice things and they look like they have riches, the more that they spend the further back they go. They give the appearance of riches, but pretty soon the interest becomes overwhelming and they end up bankrupt.

This is what happens when we try to grow spiritually without a passionate pursuit of the Truth of Jesus.

We can accomplish things in our own strength, but pretty soon we’ll be bankrupt.

But when we accomplish things through the power and the truth of Jesus Christ, holding firm to His grace, then the process may be slow, but the wealth never runs out!

C. Passionately Pursue the Person of Jesus (v. 17-20)

Galatians 4:17–20 NKJV

They zealously court you, but for no good; yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them. But it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone; for I have doubts about you.

The mark of a false teacher is if their brand is bigger than their heart for brining people to Jesus.

My task as a teacher of God’s word is to move you to love and to follow Jesus Christ.

Moses gives us a great example of what the man of God (the leader, pastor, or teacher) ought to be.

In Numbers 11, Moses is having a difficult time with the people of Israel.

God instructs him to get 70 elders and to bring them to surround the tabernacle.

Numbers 11:25 NKJV

Then the Lord came down in the cloud, and spoke to him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and placed the same upon the seventy elders; and it happened, when the Spirit rested upon them, that they prophesied, although they never did so again.

The story goes on to say that there were two men in the camp, who were on the list of elders that did not go to the tabernacle but stayed in the camp, and they began to prophesy there.

Word got to Joshua and Moses that these men were prophesying in the camp.

Now Joshua was intensely loyal to Moses and this is what Joshua said.

Numbers 11:28 NKJV

So Joshua the son of Nun, Moses’ assistant, one of his choice men, answered and said, “Moses my lord, forbid them!”

Joshua was afraid that Moses’s leadership might be further damaged. He was afraid that Moses’s anointing from the Lord might be threatened. He was nervous that the people would stop following Moses…but here is what Moses said to young Joshua.

Numbers 11:29 NKJV

Then Moses said to him, “Are you zealous for my sake? Oh, that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put His Spirit upon them!”

Moses said, don’t be zealous for me! I wish that all our men were mature in the Lord and could perform his work.

Moses didn’t make it about himself, he wasn’t concerned about his brand being damaged, he was hopeful that his people would passionately pursue the persons of God.

Conclusion

What about you? Are you hopeful that others are pursuing Jesus?

Or are you using your position, your influence, or your status to get people to obey you?

If you are, you are going backwards in your faith and you are moving the church backwards in their faith.

Are you hopeful that others are pursuing Jesus? Or are you territorial and legalistic, restricting the life and vibrancy of the congregation?