4/4/26 – 6 Pts. From Galatians IV

Last wk we made the Pt. about our worth from Gal 3:26-29.

3: ²⁶ So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

This time let’s extend this to make the next Pt. bc this is golden for our everyday walk.

4:1 What I am saying is that as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. ² The heir is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.

This is speaking of a legal process with people put over the heir for multiple purposes before that day comes before the heir receives what is entitled legally. Here the term which is offensive to some is that the heir is a slave, but it is a slave with a prosperous future. Slaves are subject of being ruled over. They are told what to engage in & at a cost physically. Now sometimes that cost can even be psychological. As a slave you’re not doing it of your own free will, you are engaging in whatever activity because of whatever is above you that has power over you. Here the instances being underage, this means that in most civilizations there are structures to abide by whether you like it or not.

We are all slaves to this world and that’s going to be met with a great deal of resistance especially by my audience here in the United States of America who declares they are not slaves. I beg to differ. We were all slaves to the grind, we are all slaves to structures and protocols. No one has absolute freedom. You go to work to earn a wage to be able to pay for what society says you have to have. Food water shelter clothes transportation at minimum. If you want entertainment it’s going to cost you. If you want items it’s going to cost you. If you want health care it’s going to cost you. 1/3 of your paycheck do you willingly give it to the government knowing that it is going to be completely misused or do you simply ignore it and do the best you can with what you’ve got?

Notice though it says the air subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. This means that there is a limitation in way of time. But what is that time? Is this an appointed age or an appointed level of maturity? We are no different than a slave, because we are forced to do things that we would not do of ourselves. Here’s what is what I mean,

If you are enslaved you are expected to complete certain tasks under a watchful eye, labor, sweat & pay the price, but there is something here equation wise that gets missed in the narrative of a slave.

³ So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.

Paul adequately states something misunderstood when we are underage we are too blind to see that we are I’m slaved but it’s for our own good that we are. Here he means an illustration it’s not a literal context. This is why this is often miss preached. He was referring to the time before coming to faith in Jesus Christ as the savior of your life. Historically, biblically Jews were slaves to the law which is what Paul referred to when we spoke last week. Those outside of Jewish circles known as gentiles were slaves under folklore mythology false religion. Both of these share the commonality of being based on the philosophy and the ideology that how you behave and how you perform will grant you or deny you acceptance to almighty God and whether or not you get blessed. This is all built on legalism and has the effect of making God indebted to us which is absurd.

Some of you may be hung up on elemental spiritual forces of this world. This phrase appears in the New Testament here and in verse 9 as well as Colossians 2:8 and 2:20, as it is only used by Paul in the Bible. What this represents is the worldly elementary spiritual teachings that are highly perpetuated in our world. This is essentially to some degree heresy that is taught from the pulpits um such as secret knowledge that is not biblical or the teachings that salvation is needed to be the combination of the work of Christ and some sort of human activity or sacrifice.

The real essence of truth however behind those teachings are the evil spiritual powers that are mentioned throughout Paul’s letters such as in Romans 8: 38-39 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1st Corinthians 15: 24 Then the end will come, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father after he has destroyed all dominion, authority and power.

Ephesians 6:10-12 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. ¹¹ Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. ¹² For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Colossians 2: 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross

1 Peter 3:19-20 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— ²⁰ to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built.

From these verses We can understand that Paul’s meaning in Galatians 4 that we are in slaved by spiritual forces that many would call demons or fallen angels or the devil and as we denote and Ephesians chapter 6 there’s multiple levels in a hierarchical scheme. Let’s not be confused about elemental spiritual forces and their role in our lives. These are entities that shape our culture to allow deviance in. The time limit that is indicated here by the father was introduced in verse 4.

⁴ But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, ⁵ to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship. ⁶ Because you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”

This is the Set time that Paul was addressing by the father. This is the baby in the Manger, which was announced by the heavenly hosts beforehand in a war declaration. Because of those verses that I just read to you and the after effect of the victory of Jesus and that war the opportunity to no longer be enslaved depends upon our connection to the son of God and our faith in him as having encountered, addressed, and overcome, the elemental spiritual forces that which enslaved us. Verse 7 is where we conclude today.

⁷ So you are no longer a slave, but God’s child; and since you are his child, God has made you also an heir.

Here’s the declaration you’re no longer a slave once you become a child of God you are no longer a slave. That is the point of today’s message.

• You are no longer a slave; you are a child of God.

This is where it gets messy, being a slave in the world now is a choice. You can choose Jesus as the author and perfector of your faith, give him power over every step you take every move you make every breath you take, and reject the worldly system controlled by the elemental spiritual forces or you can remain a slave.

The Lord has something bigger the Lord has something greater for you than just the rummage of this world he has an opportunity for you to have those chains broken by the pierced hands of his son. This is normally where preachers would begin to talk about being an heir, and what that brings; but I’m not here to talk about what lies on the other side of life because today I’m here to help you on this side of life. Because we can all agree that just because Jesus walked upon elemental spiritual forces that doesn’t mean that they’re done shaping our culture, that doesn’t mean that they’re done prompting us to act upon temptations that are otherwise culturally acceptable.

Today I’m going to talk to you about being an heir and how it affects you in the day-to-day. Because you are a child of God because you have an inheritance that means that you have been elevated on the throne with the king. That means in your day-to-day because of the authority of the king and because you are an ambassador of that Kingdom you operate in the spiritual forces of the king. How was healing brought about? How was exorcism accomplished? How are mountains moved? It is all by the authority in Jesus name which has been granted to us as ambassadors of the Kingdom. You are in the family and you have been given authority to operate under the operatives of the Kingdom. To operate and the authority of the ruler of the Kingdom.