Book of Galatians Chpt 4 (Heirship Illustrated) Part 4

Bible Study For 2/10/2014

Book of Galatians Chpt 4 (Heirship Illustrated) Part 4

[Note to Blog Readers: Expositor’s Notes are in Bold Italic Font]

There is a war going on in many of our Churches, all around the world, not a physical war, but a spiritual war. We have some Churches, or like what I prefer to call them, meeting house’s, that are Saved and not Saved. We are the Church, the bodies that we live in, many are saved and there are those who are not, even though they claim to be. The one’s who are Saved, are the one’s who are living under the new Covenant Law, which is under Grace, meaning, once we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts, believe and have Faith in what Jesus Christ did on the Cross, Believe that He has shed His Blood for our sins, will be Baptized by the Holy Ghost and will be Saved, because of Faith and not works, which is water Baptism. We just went through that last week, that is where Law comes in at. Those who makes the Cross their object of Faith, will be Saved. Those who makes legalism, which is done by living by Law, which would be, Baptism by Water and it takes us back in time, replaces Jesus Christ back on the Cross, to die for sin again. There are some Churches that believes that a person should get married once, and no more. That is true, unless the other person is not a Christian. If a marriage, is destroyed, due to satan interfering with the couple and the wife, or husband leaves and falls away from God, you can tell by the bad fruits that may be flying out of their mouth’s, then they are not Saved, Biblically. If the man or woman, whatever the case maybe, if the man or woman that has been cast out from the marriage, because of the unbelieving spouse, and that man or woman, is a Christian and the other is a Christian, they have every right to get married, as long as they both are Christians, it would be wrong for a believer to get married with an unbeliever, what dose light have in common with darkness? They don’t have anything in common. For a Church to control their congregations, telling them to remain single and not to get married, making Baptism the object of Faith, to get into God’s Kingdom, in the means to getting Saved, is all legalism and is a sin. We are to live by Faith in Jesus Christ, what He did on the Cross, and Him Crucified, believing that the poring of His Blood has covered our sins, which still, do not give us any right to live in sin no more. That is living by Faith and not by Works and Law. Many Churches and Christians is in great Danger of hell fire for all eternity, because they live by Law and not by Grace. Law is the old Covenant and Grace is the New Covenant. If your living under Law, you better keep it and don’t break it, it will send you to hell. I rather live under the New Law, Grace. You are Saved by repenting to Jesus Christ, accepting Jesus Christ into your hearts, believing in the Cross and Him Crucified, what does it say in scripture?

Romans 10:11 For the Scripture says (combining parts of Isa.   28:16   with   49:23),
Whosoever believes on Him (proclaims the fact that Salvation is reachable by all) shall not be ashamed (in essence says, “shall not be out to shame,” but rather will receive what is promised).

Isa. 28:16 Therefore thus says the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a Foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Corner Stone, a sure Foundation: he who believes shall not make haste. (This Passage speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ.As Zion was not itself the Corner Stone, so the Church is not the Saviour. Christ is the “Stone,” but sadly almost the entirety of the world stumbles over this “tried stone.” Every “foundation” is not “Jesus Christ and Him Crucified” is built upon “lies” and “falsehood.”) Lets get started.

Galatians 4:1-31 (KJV)
1 Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all (Paul continues the argument for the inferiority of the condition under Law using an illustration from contemporary life); 2 But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. (This refers to the fixed time when he would be of legal age and, therefore, able to accept the inheritance.) 3 Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world (refer to passion and pride which enslave humanity): 4 But when the fulness of the time was come (which completed the time designated by God that should elapse before the Son of God would come), God sent forth his Son (it was God who acted; the Law required man to act; this requirement demonstrated man’s impotency; the Son of God requires nothing from man other than his confidence), made of a woman (pertains to the Incarnation, God becoming man), made under the law (refers to the Mosaic Law; Jesus was subject to the Jewish legal economy, which He had to-be, that is if He was to redeem fallen humanity; in other words, He had to keep the Law perfectly, which no human being had done, but He did), 5 To redeem them that were under the law (in effect, all of humanity is under the Law of God which man, due to his fallen condition, could not keep; but Jesus came and redeemed us by keeping the Law perfectly, and above all satisfying its penalty on the Cross, which was death), that we might receive the adoption of sons (that we could become the sons of God by adoption, which is carried out by Faith in Christ and what He did at the Cross). 6 And because you are sons (we now have many privileges), God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts (because we are sons, the Holy Spirit has been sent to take up His permanent residence in our hearts), crying, Abba, Father. (This means it is the Holy Spirit Who is doing the crying, and does so to the Father on our behalf.) 7 Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son (refers to the standing one has in Christ because of one’s Faith in Christ); and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. (This proclaims the fact that all the privileges, which belong to Christ, now belong to us as well.) 8 Howbeit then, when you knew not God (refers to the former unredeemed state), you did service unto them which by nature are no gods. (They were slaves to heathenistic superstition.) 9 But now, after that you have known God (refers to Saving Grace, Knowing God through the acceptance of Jesus Christ, which is the only way He can be known), or rather are known of God (refers to the Lord knowing us in a saving way), how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements (when the substance is reached and sonship established, going back to the “rudiments,” i.e., symbols and sacraments, is not progress, but ignorance), whereunto you desire again to be in bondage? (Bondage to the sin nature! It refers to leaving the Cross, and making other things the object of Faith.) 10 You observe days, and months, and times, and years. (The Judaizers were attempting to get the Galatians to go into Law-keeping in conjuction with Christ, which connot work.) 11 I am afraid of you (afraid for your spiritual welfare), lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. (If one leaves Faith in Christ and the Cross and embraces other things, which means to look to those other things for life and victory, the Holy Spirit will have bestowed upon such a person labor in vain.) 12 Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am (free from all the bondage of Salvation by works and sacraments, which is is no Salvation at all); for I am as you are (means that even though he is an Apostle, he is subject to the same Biblical Doctrines as they are): you have not injured me at all. (My motive is not one of personal complaint, but because of the great harm that could come to you.) 13 You know how through infirmity of the flesh (doesn’t say what it is) I preached the gospel unto you at the first (evidently, when these Church were first founded). 14 And my temptation which was in my flesh you despised not, nor rejected (should have been translated, “my trial”; but once again, we do not know what it was, so speculation is useless); but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. (They accepted him and what he preached.) 15 Where is then the blessedness you spoke of? (This speaks of the wonderful prosperity of Salvation, which had come to them as a result of Paul bringing the Gospel to this region.) for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. (This doesn’t necessarily mean Paul had an eye disease, as some claim. This was an idiom used often to express extreme affliction.) 16 Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? (A real friend is one who will tell his friend the truth, even though it hurts.) 17 They zealously affect you (speaks of the Judaizers attempting to subvert the Galatians in order to win them over to themselves), but not well (not for your good); yes, they would exclude you (they would shut the Galatians out from the benefits of the Gospel of Grace), that you might affect them (means to be drawn to their side). 18 But it is good to be zealously affected always in a good thing (Paul wanted the Galatians to be as zealous over Christ and the Cross as it seems they were tending to be over false doctrine), and not only when I am present with you. (Their zeal for the right thing should be present at all times.) 19 My little children (presents the language of deep affection and emotion), of whom I travail in birth again (deliver to you again the rudiments of the great Message of Christ and Him Crucified, as though you had never heard it to begin with) until Christ be formed in you (presents the work only the Holy Spirit can do, and does exclusively within the parameters of the Sacrifice of Christ, which must always be the Object of our Faith), 20 I desire to be present with you now (as a loving parent wants to be at the side of a sick child), and to change my voice (refers to the fact that his true love for them would more profitably come through were he only standing before them in person); for I stand in doubt of you. (The Apostle was perplexed as to how the Galatians could have forsaken the Holy Spirit, substituting in His Place the cold issues of dead Law. Any Christian who presently has his object of Faith anything but the Cross is following the same course as the Galatians of old.) 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law (the Law of Moses or any type of Law), do you not hear the law? (Do you actually know what the Law demands?) 22 For it is written (Gen. 16:15; 21:2-3), that Abraham had two sons (Ishmael and Isaac), the one by a bondmaid (Hagar), the other by a freewoman (Sarah). 23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh (by the scheming of Abraham and Sarah); but he of the freewoman was by promise (by an action of the Holy Spirit). 24 Which things are an allegory (a figure of speech in which spiritual facts are presented in physical terms): for these are the two covenants (represents Law [Hagar] and Grace [Sarah]); the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. (This presents the Apostle plainly saying he is using Hagar as a symbol of the Law of Moses. As is obvious, it was given at Mt. Sinai.) 25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is (refers to that city at the time of Paul; it was subject to Laws, rites and customs according to the Laws of Moses), and is in bondage with her children. (Israel was in bondage to sin because of having rejected Christ.) 26 But Jerusalem which is above is free (presents the origin of Salvation, which is Heaven, and proclaims its results, which are “freedom”), which is the mother of us all. (This refers to all who are true Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles.) 27 For it is written (Isa. 54:1), Rejoice, you barren that bears not; break forth and cry, you who travail not (speaks of the Church, grafted in because of Grace, in the place of Israel which demanded Law and which God would not accept): for the desolate has many more children than she which has an husband. (This pertains to Sarah who was barren which, in one sense of the word and the culture of that day, was the same as not having a husband, even though she was married to Abraham. It also refers to the Church, which, in effect, had no husband, as did Israel, i.e., “God.” The Church has many children than Israel ever had!) 28 Now we (Believers), brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. (The Promise is a picture of the Messiah, Who Came through the lineage of Isaac to grant deliverance to people bound in sin.) 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh (Ishmael) persecuted him that was born after the Spirit (Isaac), even so it is now. (Isaac  and Ishmael symbolized the new and the old nature in the Believer. Hagar and Sarah typified the two Covenants of works and Grace, of bondage and Liberty, even as Paul is explaining here.) 30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? (Gen. 21:10-11) Cast out the bondwoman and her son (the birth of the new nature demands the expulsion of the old; it is impossible to improve the old nature demands the expulsion of the old; it is impossible to improve the old nature; it must be cast out, i.e., “placed in a dormant position”; this can only be done by the Believer evidencing constant Faith in the Cross, which then gives the Holy Spirit latitude to bring about this necessary work): for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. (Paul is giving a dramatic illustration of the irreconcilable conflict between Salvation by works and Salvation by Faith.) 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman (Hagar, Ishmael, and the Law), but of the free. (We are not children of the Law, but rather free children of Faith.)

Genesis 16:15 (KJV)
15 And Hagar bare Abram a son: and Abram called his son's name, which Hagar bare, Ishmael. (Hagar, without doubt, related to Abraham all that had happened, placed herself under authority of Sarah, and Abraham was then careful to name the boy what the Lord had said-- “Ishmael.”)

Genesis 21:2-3 (KJV)
2 For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. (Referring back to the past Chapter, if it be objected that this whole occurrence is incredible, because no heathen prince would desire to marry a woman upwards of ninety years of age, or to conceive such a passion for her that to secure her he would murder her husband -- the very fate which Abraham feared for himself -- it may be replied that God must have miraculously renewed her youth, so that she became sufficiently youthful in appearance to suitably be desirable. Three times in these first two verses, the clause points to the supernatural character of Isaac’s birth.) 3 And Abraham called the name of his son that was born unto him, whom Sarah bare to him, Isaac. (The name means “laughter.” It speaks of blessing, increase, healing, life and well- being [Jn. 10:10]. As Isaac was a type of Christ, it would not be wrong to say that one of the names of Christ is “laughter.”)

John 10:10 (KJV)
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (speaks of Satan and his emissaries who peddle a false way of Salvation): I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly (the Source of this “Life” is Christ; all true Believers have such; however, all true Believers enjoy such only by constant Faith in Christ and the Cross).

Isaiah 54:1 (KJV)
1 Sing, O barren, you who did not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, you who did not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the LORD. (The singing of this Chapter will be the moral result of the weeping of the prior one. The Tribes of Israel, having wailed because of Him, will then sing because of Him. This is a great moral principle. Before the heart can taste the joy of God’s Salvation, there must be recognition and confession of its guilt and its rejection of Christ.

The “barren” woman, at least in this case, is Israel. Two periods of her  history are pointed to 1. As the married wife, i.e., when in official relationship with God and 2. When out of relationship as the “desolate” woman.

During the first period of her history, she gave birth to many sons; but during the second period, which is yet to come, she will give birth to a countless multitude.

As well, Paul quoted this very Passage, using it to prove that more will be saved under the New Covenant than under the Old [Gal. 4:27]. As such the Church has many more “children,” i.e., followers of the Lord than Israel of old! Moreover, the Gentiles, who were once “barren,” can now “sing,” because of having been included in the great Salvation plan [Jn. 3:16]. So in essence, this Passage, as given, has two meanings.)

John 3:16 (KJV)
16 For God so loved the world (presents the God kind of love), that he gave his only begotten Son (gave Him up to the Cross, for that’s what it took to redeem humanity), that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Genesis 21:10-11 (KJV)
10 Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: (Isaac and Ishmael symbolize the new and old natures is the Believer. Hagar and Sarah typify the two Covenants of works and Grace, of bondage and liberty [Gal., Chpt. 4]. The birth of the new nature demands the expulsion of the old. It is impossible to improve the old nature. How foolish, therefore, appears the doctrine of moral evolution!) for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac. (Allowed to remain, Ishmael would murder Isaac; allowed to remain, the flesh will murder the Spirit. The Divine way of holiness is to “put off the old man,” just as Abraham “put off” Ishmael. Man’s way of holiness is to improve the “old man,” that is to improve Ishmael. The effort is both foolish and hopeless.) 11 And the thing was very grievous in Abraham’s sight because of his son. (It is always a struggle to cast out this element of bondage, that is salvation by works, of which this is a type. For legalism is dear to the heart. Ishmael was the fruit, and, to Abraham, the fair fruit of his own energy and planning, which God can never accept.)


Praise God Almighty that we are free Children of Faith. I pray and hope that you see the Truth, through the Word of God of what the difference is between living under the Law and living under Grace, there is a big difference and I hope that your Church will learn the Truth, if they haven’t already. Are you living under Law? No? Good, because no one can keep up with Law and many Churches and people are in grave danger by living that way. Thank God I am living under the Grace of God and I know, that I am born again and free, free from sin. are you? Accept Jesus Christ into your hearts, believe and have Faith in the Cross and Him Crucified and you will be Saved. Turn away from sin today. May God Bless you. Lets close in prayer.