Sons and Heirs

Sons and Heirs

Sunday Preaching

By Pastor Rick Jumaquio
BACF, Sunday, Oct 2, 2016
Communion Sunday

Theme: Study of Galatians

Text: Galatians 3:26 to Gal 4:7

Title: Sons and Heirs

Good afternoon to all! It’s been a while that I did not preach. I praise the Lord for giving me some time off from the pulpit and allowing me to look after some personal stuff and also just to commune with the Lord and ask for His direction as I embark into full time ministry. I thank also the leaders of our church for being supportive of me in those weeks that I was off. Also, let’s thank the Lord together for giving us another opportunity to minister to the seniors at Allendale this afternoon. Here’s the thing, our continued study of the grace of God and of faith; and of God’s word will mean nothing to us if we will just remain listener and receiver. As James put it, “faith without work is dead”. We are blessed that simultaneous to our learning there’s always an opportunity to minister and apply what we learned. We are able to exercise the faith we receive in hearing God’s word, extend the grace we receive by being the hands and feet of Jesus in our own community like Allendale. We are bringing the church to the unchurched and I believe that’s the heartbeat of God. With all of that let’s all give GOD the glory and praise! We are now on our 3rd week of our study of the epistle of Paul to Galatians and we are getting into a more deeper, exciting and crucial part of the message Paul is imparting to his audience, first to the Galatians and second to the believers of today like we are. This is hardcore Theology so I am praying that you are paying close attention to the preachings about Galatians. My prayer is that at the end of our study all of us will be free from legalism and will open our eyes to some heresies that infiltrate the church today. As a way of review let me give you the “gist” of what was already preached the last 3 Sundays. Brother Kinh in his preaching explicitly explained that the gospel is Jesus plus nothing. He spoke about the truth of the gospel. What is the truth of the gospel? That Jesus gave Himself for our sins, (1:4) Jesus alone can save. We can also say the truth of the gospel this way: justification is only through Jesus Christ, nothing more, and nothing less. The truth of the gospel is equal to good news but when we adopt another teaching and that adherence to the laws of Moses is necessary to complete and keep our salvation, then it means bad news. Pastor Daniel in his first preaching reiterated that we couldn’t compromise the truth of the gospel by adding anything to it. He also talked about how Paul bravely depended himself against the Judaizers who actively infested the church in Galatia by teaching them heresy; that the Judaizers was questioning Paul’s apostleship and his message of justification by faith alone. Paul depended that the gospel he preached was not his own, not from any men and taught by any men but the gospel message he preached was directly from Jesus Christ Himself. Last week Pastor Daniel reiterated once again that our justification is by faith alone, “Per Solam Fidem” and because of our justification by faith we are sealed by the Holy Spirit. The proof of the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life includes the day-to-day miracles we experience, the freedom we have in Christ and lastly the manifestation of the fruit of the spirit in our live. Today I will be talking about “sons and heirs” which also is the title of my preaching. Please stand with me as we read our passage from Galatians 3:26 to 4:1-7 26 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise. 4 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, 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born[a] of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of[b] God through Christ. Let us pray! The context of this passage: In order to help you understand every preaching you will hear from this series of teaching it is important to understand the MAIN problem Paul is confronting in Galatia at the time when he wrote this letter.

The Big Problem:

The church of Galatia whom Paul founded was quickly falling away from the gospel of grace and listening and accepting another gospel (which is not a gospel at all according to Paul) being taught by the Judaizers. What is the false gospel? It is believing Jesus Christ as the Messiah plus obedience and observance of the laws of Moses especially the needs for circumcision and following the dietary laws. The Judaizers’ claim is that Paul’s gospel message was incomplete; that living by grace and freedom meant to live a lawless and degenerate (sub-standard) life. All throughout this letter Paul’s focus is to emphasize that justification is by faith in Jesus Christ alone, nothing more and nothing less. This will be the platform I will build on my preaching today.

The Big Idea:

By faith alone we become sons and daughters of God; we are no longer slaves but heirs of “all” of the promises of God, even the same promise God made with Abraham. To help us understand the main points of my preaching today let me differentiate few terminologies and some of the key characters from our passage.

Who are the Jews and the Gentiles?

Jews

  • They are the covenant people of God
  • They are the recipients of God’s “promise” to Abraham (see God’s covenant Gen 12:1-3, Gen 17:1-8)
  • God told them, “you will be my people and I will be your God”
  • They are by birth the “heirs” of the promises of God.
  • They have the Law of Moses
  • The are in bondage with the Law of Moses
  • They were circumcised as a sign/seal of their covenant with God
  • They despise the Gentiles (ex: Pharisees’ prayer thanking they are gentiles)

Gentiles

  • They are the nobodies.
  • They are the outcasts.
  • They don’t have any promise from God.
  • They are pagans by religion or no religion at all.
  • They don’t have the Law of Moses.
  • They are the uncircumcised people.
  • They stay away from the Jews (mostly they were bought as slaves to the Jews)
  • They are in bondage to their false gods and their lust.
The whole point of Paul’s letter to the Galatians is to persuade them (Gentile believers) to repel the false gospel that the Judaizers have imposed on them.

Goal of the Judaizers: To Judaize the Gentiles.

What the Juadaizers were doing was they want the Gentile believers to act like Jews and live like the Jews. They want them to be circumcised to be like them and to be accepted as brothers. They want them to eat the same food that they eat.

Illustration: Just like we want to Filipinonize brother Kinh.

Remember the main problem Paul has? His main focus is how to counteract the false teaching about justification and grace! Paul’s addressees in his letter are the Jewish believers and the Gentile believers. So Paul’s approach in this particular passage is to tell and remind them of who they were during the old covenant and who they are now in the new covenant.

First he addressed the Gentile believers:

Verse 26-29

26 For you (Gentile believers) are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you (Gentile believers) as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you (gentile believers) are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise (Jesus is the promise)

What has become of the Gentiles after they believed by faith?

  • They become sons of God. They are no longer children of the devil but they became spiritual children of God.Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
  • They were baptized into Christ (Place into Christ). This is not water baptism, but a spiritual union with Christ in His death and resurrection.They are placed into Christ. It means they are in Christ and Christ is in them.
  • Because they are placed (baptized) into Christ they also put on Christ. Put on Christ is their new Spiritual condition after salvation. It means they need to clothe themselves with Christ before men, in their conduct.This is a great defense against the Judaizers in accusing Paul that if Christians will live by faith and grace alone it means they will live lawless and degenerate. Romans 13:14 But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts.

Application:

Because we are in Christ and Christ is in us we are to live holy and righteous by and through the power of the Holy Spirit. It’s not by compulsion to obey the law but as a result of having Christ in us. Amen! That’s what Ptr Daniel said in his preaching as a proof of our faith, we bear the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
  • They are no longer classified as 2nd class people or nobodies.1 Peter 2:10 Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
  • They were now NOT being separated as Gentiles because in Christ there are no more racial (Jew or gentile), social (slave or free), and sexual distinctions (male or female)
  • By adoption they become descendants of Abraham, thus the covenant promises of God belong to them as well.

Application:

You and I because of our faith in Jesus Christ are technically Jewish through Christ’ DNA. Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus therefore we are as blessed as the Jewish; we are the children of Abraham by adoption.

John 1:12

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name Please take note that God is not abolishing the gender distinction in any way. I am a male and my wife is a female. So are the husbands are male and wives are female. God is not abolishing His ordained roles of headship and submission in church, society and at home. This is not the equality Paul meant in this passage. It means in God’s eyes we’re all the same. In His dispensation of grace, blessings, and sovereign will God see us as one.

Now Paul turned his focus to the Jewish believers:

4 Now I say that the heir (Jewish believers), as long as he (Jewish) is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he (Jewish) is master of all, 2 but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. 3 Even so we (Jewish), when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. 4 But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born[a] of a woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those (Jewish believers) who were under the law, that we (Jewish believers) might receive the adoption as sons (adulthood-coming of age or full sonship) Before we proceed to the next point let me just talk about the phrase, “the fullness of time”. This will help us understand my next point. This phrase can be interpreted in two ways, one in its literal meaning and the other in it metaphorical meaning. In its literal meaning, the fullness of time means in God’s timetable, when the exact religious, cultural and political conditions demanded by His perfect plan were in place, Jesus came into the world. Born of a woman: This emphasizes Jesus full humanity, not merely His virgin birth. Jesus had to be fully God for His sacrifice to be of the infinite worth needed to atone for sin. But, He also had to be fully man so He could take upon Himself the penalty of sin as the substitute for man (John 1:14). It was man who committed the sin, not Jesus. Jesus was our substitute. Under the law: Jesus was born under the law: Like all men, Jesus was obligated to obey God’s law but unlike anyone else Jesus perfectly obeyed all the law (John 8:46, 2 Cor 5:21). His sinless-ness made Him the unblemished sacrifice for our sins, who perfectly obey God in everything.

That perfect righteousness is what was imputed to those who believe in Him.

Metaphorical meaning of fullness of time:

As a father’s set time for the ceremony of his son becoming of age and being released from the guardians, managers and tutors, so God sent His son Jesus at the precise moment to bring all who believe out under the bondage to the law.

In Jewish culture

A child will not be given the full access and privilege to all of what he owns as a son not until he reach a certain age when the father thinks he is mature enough to handle his own affair. During this time the father will appoint one of his trusted slave to be the child’s guardian and steward. It means the Jewish child is living alongside with the slave, being taught, guided, supervised and monitored by the appointed slave (tutor). In parallel the Jewish believers before Christ’s coming are considered a child that needs a guardian and stewards (pedagogue). Their pedagogue is the Law of Moses. The Law of Moses is their guide in living, the “how to of life”; what to eat and not to eat, when and how to eat; what to wear and not to wear. The Jewish believers at this point are “under the law”, still under the supervision of the law, or in other words slave of the law. They don’t have freedom at all.

Who would want to be a slave of someone? No one, right? Don’t you want to live in freedom?

I told you that this is “hardcore” Theology! I hope you’re all still with me. The purpose of the law for them as Paul pointed out from verses 19-24 was to be the tutor, or guardian and steward or pedagogue. 19 What purpose then does the law serve? It was added because of transgressions, till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed through angels by the hand of a mediator. 20 Now a mediator does not mediate for one only, but God is one. 21 Is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. 22 But the Scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. 23 But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith, which would afterward be revealed. 24 Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Pedagogue (Greek) means teacher or tutor.

In Jewish culture there’s a big birthday celebration for a 13 year-old male child called Bar Mitzbah and Bat Mitzbah for a 12 year-old girl. They are also called the coming of age ceremony. I’ve done a few of this ceremony to many young girls from our church during their debut. Now that we’re studying the book of Galatians I understand it more better what the Bar/Bat Mitzbah meant. Similarly with the Jewish believers, they are considered a “child” that needs to be under a tutor (pedagogue) until they reach the certain age, which in our passage is called, “the fullness of time”. This fullness of time for the Jewish believers is when they accept Jesus as the Messiah and that is the time when they turn into a full adult, freed from their tutor and being able to enjoy their inheritance in full, thus the “heir becomes also a son” In contrast the fullness of time for Gentile believers is when they accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and at that time they immediately been placed into (baptized into Christ) and the Holy Spirit dwells in them. They don’t need to be freed from the bondage of the law because they were never “under the law” as they did not have the Law of Moses, but they were freed from their false gods and their own lusts. They (Gentile believers) became sons and heirs right away. At the time of their conversion they immediately are placed into the family of Abraham wherein they have the full access and enjoyment the inheritance and promises God made to Abraham (Full Son-ship) For the Jewish believers the fullness of time means it’s the coming of age (bar mitzbah) when they no longer need the tutor (a guardian or steward), they were adopted into full sonship (adulthood) or they move from being a child into a full adulthood and the holy spirit came and indwells them to become as their pedagogue. At this point in their life they no longer need a tutor or a pedagogue. The pedagogue was dismissed because they are no longer needed. It means they have been freed from being under the law and now they are under the tutorship of the Holy Spirit.

This is the whole point Paul is driving at into the heart of the Jewish and Gentile believers; that justification is solely, completely, wholly and only by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

The law is not needed for them to keep their salvation. The law already served its purpose; that is making them realized of their lost-ness and needing of a savior; to point them to Christ as the only way, as the only truth to the Father and as the only life. Illustration: An x-ray machine is to diagnose a patient what’s the problem but it is NOT the cure. It only shows you what is needed to be cured. The law was to show us our sin but not to prevent it. Our Daddy GOD! You and I have a “daddy”. God is our loving Daddy. This is my last point today, from verses 6-7 6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, “Abba, Father!” 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of[b] God through Christ. At this point Paul revert back his attention to the Gentile believers. Paul uses the pronoun “we” when he is talking to the Jewish believers, remember Paul is a Jew so he is one of them. When he is talking to the gentiles, he refers them as “you” Paul said, “and because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts….” Because of the HS that came into their life, the son became also an heir (verse 7) 7 Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of[b] God through Christ. Notice the difference between the Jews and the Gentile believers? The Jews were heirs and became sons in the fullness of time, while the Gentiles became sons and heirs in the fullness of time. What Paul was saying to the Gentile believers is, you don’t need to be like the Jews, you don’t need to be circumcised and follow the laws of Moses and be like them for you to call out to God. By your faith in Jesus God sent you the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, and therefore you can call God “Daddy”, “Abba Father”. Abba Father is a New Testament language. This is the title the believers call God the Father. It means a very intimate, personal and loving relationship between Father and sons. In OT the Israelites can’t or won’t even try to say or write YAHWEH for fear of desecrating the Holy name of God. For us, NT believers when Jesus died on the cross the veil in the temple was torn into two opening the presence of the Holy God to those who have Jesus as Savior and Lord. Why can we call God “Abba Father”? Because you are no longer a slave but a son, if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. The Jewish believers have always been an heir by birth because they are sons of God. They don’t need to know they are heir because they already know. The Gentiles because they were slaves of their false gods and lust before coming into faith they need to know who they become; they need to know who their Father is after their conversion.

What can you take home out of these, as I close?

Unfortunately, the false teaching brought to the Galatian church by the Judaizers has been extremely difficult to root out even today. They have the Judaizers in their time; we have the legalist in our time. The legalist are in every churches and they are those who looks at every Christians waiting what mistake they will commit and points them at their face. We must watch out for them but at the same time we must walk a fine line: On one hand, we do not want to fall into legalism that the Galatians struggled with, but on the other, we cannot just live as if anything goes. Paul said, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more (Rom 5:20), but he counter; “Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? (Rom 6:1)He said, “Certainly not” The Christian’s commitment to Christ is based on the free gift of grace through faith, but as Paul wrote at the end of Galatians (which we will study next week), it also results in a life of walking in the spirit and bearing the fruit of the spirit. (END) Let us pray!