CHAPTER 4

1-2
1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing
from a servant, though he be lord of all;
2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the
father.

A person is considered a minor (even today) until they are
old enough to vote.
In Paul's day, it was considerably older (usually about 30).

Therefore the "child" did not have control over his property
even though he was an "heir".
Education was managed by the parents, or "tutors".
And, actions were managed by the parents, or "governors".

The minor child has futuristic charge of the inheritance, but
not present charge.

Paul is using this analogy to make a point.

3-5
3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the
elements of the world:
4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth His son,
made of a woman, made under the law,
5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the
adoption of sons.

Children are subject to the "elements of the world".
For instance, they must conform to the teaching and direction
of parents.
Jewish people were subject to learning the legalistic religion of
Judaism.

However, at the perfect time, Christ came into the world.
He came to "redeem" people from the rudiments
of a lacking religion.

The rudiments of the Mosaic law served a purpose to
reveal to ALL men that they were sinners (apart from God) and,
in need of a Savior.
Those offered sacrifices continually; but the sacrifices were only
temporary - until they sinned again.

Then, Christ came!
He provided the PERFECT sacrifice for ALL men to be forgiven
and offered the opporutunity to become "sons of God" through
"adoption".

When a person truly surrenders to Christ as Lord of his/her life,
that person is "redeem(ed)" by the blood of Christ.
That person is literally bought out of the elementary curse
of the ultimate condemnation of sin.
That person becomes "joint-heirs" with Christ!
(See Romans 8:17)
STILL, that person is an "heir" not fully having present
control over the spiritual properties of life.
Those who have believed, trusted in Jesus have GRADUATED!
They have come from condemnation to salvation by Him!

But, even being saved from the ultimate condemnation because of
our sin, we STILL have a LOT to LEARN!
((Illustration: A golf pro at a local club had a duaghter that was 13.
She wanted to be a pro also. So her dad was teaching her.
One morning, she went out for a practice round. On the third hole,
a par 3, she approached the ball, took her stance and began her
backswing. Just then a train came by blowing the horn loudly.
She remembered her training, and forced her conentration to focus
on finishing the backswing and following with the forward swing.
She struck the ball well, and it flew to the green. It took one bounce
and went in the hole!! She had her first hole-in-one!! She told her
dad when she returned to the clubhouse. He said, "Honey, you have
a LOT to LEARN about golf. You have no WITNESSES! So you
cannot count that one." About a week later, a letter arrived for the
daughter at the clubhouse. When she came in after school, her dad
gave her the letter. The engineer on the train that blew the horn
loudly wrote that he witnessed her hole-in-one. She showed the
letter to her dad. He said, "Ok. That's great! Now you owe
everyone in the clubhouse a drink! Because you STILL have a LOT
to LEARN about golf!"))

Even OLD Christians STILL have a LOT to LEARN about our lives
with Christ on this earth!

6-7
6 And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His
son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.
7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then
an heir of God through Christ.

Perhaps the greatest thing that can ever happen to a sinner is to
receive the presence of God's Holy Spirit in his/her "heart".
(See Ephesians 1:13-14)
That is the middle part of the person, and includes thoughts and
intents of the person.
Decisions are made there.

The FIRST realization that we have when God sends His Spirit into
our hearts is this: we can CALL on God our Father ANYTIME!!!

Having this understanding we are no more ONLY servants, but are
sons and heirs.
Being a son of God is assurance that we will be with Him in
ETERNITY!
Being an heir of God is to know that we must be LISTENING and
LEARNING the rest of our earthly lives.

8-11
8 Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, or rather are known of God,
how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
ye desire again to be in bondage?
9. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather have been
known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements,
whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
10. Ye observe days, and months, and times and years.
11. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Before this, Paul has been writing about the Jewish Christians.
He explained they had fallen back into "customs" of the Mosaic
covenant and were not living under the freedom that comes from
believing and committing to Christ.

Here, now, Paul is speaking to those who were not Jews.
He is explaining how they had forsaken their freedom in Christ
by becoming slaves to the customs of other gods.
They are observing "days, months and times and years,"
of those things which they had done before they knew Christ.

Those other gods were fictional and not really gods!
(I remember a cute little rhyme my mother taught me while we
were walking the sidewalk to the hospital. "Crack, crack
step on the crack, and you break your mother's back."
That was just a little rhyme, but it causes you to think wrongly
as a child.)

Some of the customs the Gentile Christian were observing
were even more dangerous!
In every nation across the world, there are such customs taught
that deter us from the truths of God.
They are mainly superstition, like when a black cat crosses your
path, you are supposed to spit in your hands and rub them
together in order to prevent bad luck!

Christ died to give us LIBERTY!
Liberty is the freedom to act according to righteousness.
Freedom is the exercise of that liberty.

Your freedom to swing your fist is certainly yours.
But it ends where it might meet my nose!

Notice that Paul says, "I am AFRAID of you!"
He questions that he had spent time teaching them the truths
of God, and yet they have departed from them.

They had perverted the Gospel by turning back to UNtruths!

12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am; for I am as ye are:
ye have not injured me at all.

Notice that Paul says, "I am as ye are!"
This tells us that Paul was once a person given to observing
rites and customs (of Jewish laws).
However, he made a COMMITMENT to follow CHRIST!

So, Paul says "..be as I am.."
Be FREE from customs and rites that are fictional and not
spiritually of God.

Paul also says, "ye have not injured me at all."
In other words, this is not a PERSONAL thing.
In another place Paul said, "Yea doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ
Jesus my Lord: for Whom I have suffered the loss of all things,
and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."

When a Christian does wrong, in the sight of other Christians,
it is not PERSONAL; it is SPIRITUALLY a wrong to the CHURCH!
That sin is not a sin against the Christian, it is a sin against
the LORD!

Therefore, the Christian cannot impose blame, but only point
to the wrong and ask for change.

13-14
13 Ye know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the
Gospel unto you at the first.
14 And my temptation which was in my flesh ye despised not,
nor rejected; but received me as an angel of God, even as
Christ Jesus.

When Paul first came and preached to them, he had some
"infirmity of the flesh."
We know not what it was, for the Bible doesn't tell us.

We do know that it was a "temptation" to Paul and
even perhaps to them that they should "reject" him.

What we do know, is that though Paul was suffering, he
CONTINUED to share the Gospel of Christ with them.
AND, they RECEIVED it!

15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you
record, that, it it had been possible, ye would have plucked out
your own eys, and have given them to me.

Paul is saying in effect, "What JOY you had then to receive the
Gospel of Jesus Christ?"
In fact, they were so enthralled that they would have given Paul
ANYTHING because there was such joy in their hearts to receive
Christ!

16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

So often, the truth is enemy to those who forsake it!

17 They zealously affect you, but not well; yea, they would exclude
you, that ye might affect them.

The word "They" is referring to false teachers.
Ususally, false teachers show a great affection for the welfare
and prosperity of the ones to whom they teach.
But they do not do so "well."
The REASON is because they are seeking to gain them as
subjects, from which they can extract money for their own gain!

Those false teachers were trying to "exclude" Paul as
a truth-speaking prophet.
If they could exclude Paul's teachings they could attract more
paying followers.

Go back to Galatians 1:6, where Paul says, "I MARVEL that
you are so soon REMOVED from Him that called you into the
grace of Christ unto another gospel......"

It was certainly not Paul that called them to the true Gospel of Jesus.
He was the mouthpiece, but God's Holy Spirit was the
One working on their hearts to convict them of sin, and their need
of a Savior!

Christians, remember: as you speak the Word of God, the power
of His Holy Spirit moves WITH that word!
It affects a person's spirit, and causes him/her to know they are
sinful - separated from Almight God - and in NEED of salvation.
THEN, that same Spirit of God CALLS them to make a decision.
They can either receive, repent and commit, or they can reject
and go on in their own manner.

18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing,
and not only when I am present with you.

The best vitaming for a Christian is B1!
Be one ALL the time; not just in the presence of Christian leaders.

19-20
19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be
formed in you,
20 I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice; for
I stand in doubt of you.

Paul speaks to them as if they were his own "children."
He has taught them the principles of truth from Christ.

However, they have strayed from those principles by listening to
false prophets who only seek to gain from them.

Genuine Christians "travail" when those they have
brought to know Christ, leave His principles of faith.
Paul is no exception.
He yearns desperately to be "present" with them until there
hearts are completely given over to Christ, and they exhibit lives
which constantly follow Him.

May I refer to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:18-20.
The POWER of the Gospel is the Living Christ.
HE commands Christians to "teach" people how to BE
saved.
THEN, HE commands that we "teach" them how to LIVE
saved!

Our duty as Christians is to lead people to Christ as Lord and
Savior! And, our duty is to CONTINUE teaching them the principles of
living by faith in Christ.

21-27
21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?
22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a
bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh;
but he of the freewoman was by promise.
24 Which things are an allegory: for these are two covenants; the
one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to
Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is mother of us all.
27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth
and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath an husband.

Paul presents the two who had children by Abraham as an
ALLEGORY.
The Bible, in the Old Testament, presents EACH as FACT.
But Paul draws an allegory from the two.

Abraham had two sons.
The first was "born after the flesh" because Sarah
convinced Abraham that by law, he could have a child from the
bondwoman Hagar.
After God's promise to give a child through Sarah, a long time
had passed, and Sarah believed they should use the LAW
to produce the child God had promised.
Some laws are made AGAINST God's purposes.

Now Paul present Hagar as Mt. Sinai.
That mountain was where God gave Moses the LAW.

The FACT is that Hagar and her son were treated as slaves,
and ultimately BANISHED from the family.

However Isaac was born of the freewoman, Sarah.
When Abraham fully intended to offer Isaac as a sacrifice
according to the command of the Lord, God SAVED Isaac!

Now, in verse 22 of 1Samuel 15, we hear the prophet of the
lord (Samuel) as he told king Saul, "...to OBEY is better than
sacrifice!"

Paul's allegory is to show that obedience to the Lord is better
than all the animal sacrifices in the world!

In Gen. 22:8, Abraham said to Isaac, "..My son, God will
provide Himself a lamb..."
In Gen. 22:13 God provided a RAM to be offered instead of
Isaac!
In John 1:29, John the Baptist said, as he looked at Jesus,
"Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the
world."

THE Lamb of God is Jesus!
He was sacrificed for the sin of the WHOLE world!
ONLY He can offer salvation!
For ONLY He is the PERFECT sacrifice.
He is the MESSIAH, Who is "the Anointed One."

Therefore, ALL other idioms defer to the Lamb of God, born
of the freewoman!

28-31
28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of the promise.
29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that
was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
30 Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman
and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the
son of the freewoman.
31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of
the free.

Here lies the reason for all the confilict against Christianity!.
The children of the bondwoman PERSECUTE the children of the
freewoman.

Jesus said, "...strait (small) is the gate, and narrow is the way,
which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it!"
(Matt 7:14) The Christian walks on a narrow and stubbled path!
It AIN'T EASY!

But, we "....walk by FAITH and not by SIGHT!" (2Cor. 5:7)
We must walk BELIEVING, COMMITTED to Christ and NOT
shadowed by idolatry!

He who owns Christ as his master, is FREE INDEED!

Are you living free from superstition?

PLEASE CONTINUE WITH US IN BIBLE STUDY TOMORROW.
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