Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I pray for your attention to Paul's epistle to the Galatians. Galatians, chapter 4, reading
Proverbs 10, verse 4, 5 and 6. If you want one of our Bible
Box Bibles, it's page 1084. Galatians, chapter 4, And from this fall, that when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son,
made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God
sent forth the Spirit of his Son, into your hearts crying,
Abba, Father. Galatians 4 and verses 4-6 and
what is specifically upon my spirit is God sending forth His
Son as in verse 4, and then God sent forth the Spirit of His
Son. In verse 6 there's a twofold
sending forth, first of God's Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, and
secondly of the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. Now this epistle of Paul is sent
not like most of his epistles, are sent to individual churches,
but this is sent to a group of churches. Iconium, Derbe, Lystra
and Antioch in Pisidia are all in the Roman province of Galatia. And they had been converted from
paganism to Christianity. Many of them there, they did
not know about or know the law at all that was given to Moses. But having been converted, then
they had those Jews that came to them and were telling them
that except they were to keep the law of Moses, they couldn't
be saved. And I think sometimes we pass
over and don't picture fully what we have here of a people
that had no knowledge of Moses, of the law, of the Jews, who
have received the gospel, they believe the gospel. And then
along come those that I connected with the Gospel. It was through
the Jews that our Lord came. They were, as it were, the schoolmaster. And they then are taught from then
that there's something else needed. They need to go back to the Lord
to be saved. And how confusing that must have
been. to that people. They'd received
one teaching, now they're receiving something that is undermining
what they first had. Imagine a new believer, one that
had rejoiced in the Lord, and then someone comes up to them
and says, well, actually you need something else before you
can really be saved. You can't rejoice in what you've
received because you are lacking, you need something else. And
this is what was happening here. And so the Apostle, he had to
make this very clear to the Galatians. He had to make it clear as well
to those that were teaching these things of the Jews. They also
needed that instruction that were coming teaching these wrong
things. The whole message really of the
Galatians is that we're saved not by the deeds of the law,
but by faith in Christ Jesus, without the deeds of the law. In the beginning of this chapter,
there's a little illustration and is picturing a child that
is an heir, maybe an heir to a great estate or a family name
with much riches and when they grow up they'll have all of that
and maybe the lord of the manor as it were. But while he's a
child they don't differ anything from a servant. They still have got to be taught,
they have governments, they have those that correct them and look
after them, because they are a child. And he uses the example
here. He says in verse 3, Even so,
when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements
of the world. Now he's picturing, as it were,
the Jews as children, the Jewish nation as a school, as it were,
have been taught up in the things of God, the law, schoolmaster
unto Christ, both the moral law and especially the ceremonial
law, which was the gospel in their day. And we may say not
just the Jews, but all nations, up to the coming of Christ, we're
like his children. When we think of children, they
are gradually learning things. They don't know anything perfectly,
and I know there's some subjects we used to learn at school, and
we were taught them in such a simple way. Many things were passed
over that later on If you went on to further education, you'd
find out really what was happening, why these things were as they
were. But that which is taught to children
was taught in a very simplistic way and what they only needed
to have at that time. The Lord said to his disciples
when he was upon earth, I have many things to say unto you. But he cannot bear them down. But when the Spirit of Truth
hath come, he will guide you into all things. He shall receive
of mine, and shall show it unto you. It's been in the time of
the apostles, the Lord was saying, you're still as children. You're
still being nourished up, you've not come yet to full stature or full knowledge. It's used the same illustration
in Hebrews as children reading milk in the word instead of the
full word. And there's a teaching of a growth
in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Really,
until the Lord came, until the Spirit came, then there was not
a clear understanding that we have under the Gospel dispensation
in the Kingdom of God now, the plan of salvation that is revealed
in the Word of God, divinely inspired, and the Scriptures
complete, Old Testament and New, the revelation of God, given
and closed, not to be added to, but to be opened up and to and
be blessed through the preaching of the Word. And so the picture
that is here is a people that first are its children. I want
to just read a little bit more on that point, and then look
at the sending forth of God's Son, and then the sending forth
of the Spirit. of His Son. Our text follows
on from the word, when we were children, that when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son. And really the way of
experiencing it is the same as what it was with the world and
with the Jews when we were as children, or under tutors and
governors, under a preparation for the gospel to come. Because,
really, everyone before Christ is full in their hearts, the
hope of glory. Well, we're dead in trespasses
and sins first, but then, like it was with the Apostle Paul,
When the commandment came, sin revived and I died. We all are
under the law, as condemned under the law, and the day that thou
eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. We don't know that by nature,
we are dead to that knowledge. But when the Lord first quickens
into life, then we do know that state and condition that we are
in under the law. And so there is a condition that
we were in. And you might say it varies very
differently with the Galatians here. They'd never known the
law, they'd never known the preparation. They couldn't have, as it were,
a preacher come like the Lord to the two of the way to Emmaus
and take them right back through the scriptures, in all the scriptures,
the things concerning himself because they didn't know those
things. But with the Jews they could.
And yet many of those Jews, they knew those things, yet still
did not know the Savior, did not know the Redeemer, did not
know what those tides and shadows pointed to. Many of the Old Testament,
who performed the sacrifices day by day, They were completely
ignorant and blind as to what they were doing. Others had faith
to believe. They saw, like Abraham did, Christ's
day and rejoiced at Him. So, then there are those that
are brought up today under the Gospel. You might say, well,
how can they be as it were children and in bondage under the elements
of the world, we might know outwardly the things of God. But if we
are still in nature's darkness, we do not know really that truth
at all. I remember my sister in faith,
Nancy Kellis, who's a member with us here, in her testimony
when she was converted, She said the Bible became a new book,
the hymn book became a new book. It was the same book, but she
saw it with different eyes and perceived it in a very different
way. How the psalmist says, open thou
mine eyes, that I might behold wondrous things out of thy law. And many, or all of the Lord's
people, as it were, to her knowledge of Christ in different ways,
from different standpoints. Some brought up under the sound
of the truth, have known the Bible from a child like Timothy
had, and others who have never heard it, never had a Bible,
never known those truths at all. Others have been brought up And
they've been brought up just to believe it's superficial,
that God is love, Christ came, the whole world is saved, we
don't need a personal faith, we can just live and everyone
goes to heaven. And they're brought up with that
knowledge, or what they've heard is the truth, and yet not. And
God is able, and God does. bring his dear people to know
the truth from all these different ways. We should remember how merciful,
how gracious God is to be able to do that. Some of those brought
up in our churches think, well, however will I know? When the
Lord calls me, if the Lord calls me, what difference will there
be? might even be brought to envy
those who have never heard the name of the Lord, because you
think, well, do you really see a change? In them, that's, how
will I know? And yet there is a change, a
vast change. Changes from death unto life. And that picture here, when we
were yet children, when we were Yet knowing is the things of
God as what a child would know. Things that an adult knows in
a perfect way and applies to many different things in our
lives as well. One that is just starting training
as an engineer, just learning the first steps of knows nothing
compared with those that are actually fully qualified, experienced
in designing machines. But there's a beginning and there's
a very big difference later on. I remember when I went from being
a maintenance engineer to design engineer and trying to get into
drawing and into design. the amount of job applications
I made, they came back and said, we need five years' experience. And I was just so frustrated.
I thought, if no one employs me, how can I get experience?
But when I had that experience, then I realized why these firms
were asking for it. They wanted someone with that
knowledge, that ability to actually do these things. that there is
a learning and gradual. And we have this beautiful promise,
all thy children shall be taught of the Lord and great shall be
the peace of thy children. And they're taught beginning
where the Lord finds them, where they are in their lives. What
we have then, I want to come now to our second point, and
that is the sending forth of God's Son. The second point,
God sent him forth of his own son. We read in our text that when
the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son,
made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, that we might receive the the fullness of time. If there
is anything that teaches the Lord's plan and purpose and timing
in things, it is the coming forth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Right
at the very beginning, the seed of the woman should bruise the
serpent's head, and we think of what went on after that time. We had the flood, we had Noah,
We have Abraham, we have the going down into Egypt, the children
of Israel, the going into the promised land, the dwelling there,
and then back to, into Babylon for 70 years, brought back to
their own land. We have 400 silent years, and
then the Lord Jesus comes. We have pictured in Matthew the
generations from Abraham to our Lord Jesus Christ. the kingship
line, 14 generations, 14 generations, 14 generations, it is split up
in that way. And we have God's plan and purpose
being worked out, and in the fullness of time, when it was
right ready, when it was God's appointed time, then God sent
forth His Son and not before. And we have in Gospel days an
overview to be able to look back over history as through the nation
of Israel and see the Lord working out His counsel and purpose and
then sending forth His Son. We have also very clear setting
forth in this text Earthly, Son of God being from Eternity. God didn't make His Son. His
Son did not come into being as He was born into this world.
He was already His Son, the Eternal Son of God. We read in the Creation,
let us make man in our We have in John the clear testimony
that it was through the Lord Jesus Christ that he formed the
worlds. It is his eternal Son that is
sent forth from the Father and our Lord testifies, I came forth
from the Father and I return unto the Father. May we embrace
and realize that He spoke of the glory that He
had with His Father before the world was. God sent forth His Son with authority,
with power, and in sending Him forth, He comes in condescension,
comes in humility, comes as a babe, comes in such a lowly form. God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. Those two statements are so vital,
so needful. Now remember that the Apostle
is writing to the Galatians because they are saying, or they have
been taught, that they need to be under the law. They need to
keep the law to be saved. The Apostle is saying here, God
sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, in our place,
to be faced as a near kinsman, to be made like unto His brethren,
to be truly the seed of the woman, made of a woman, that He should
be born This is what Job puzzled with, how can a clean thing come
out of an unclean? How could God bring forth his
promise? Many of the Lord's dear people
have puzzled over how the Lord will perform what he has promised
and what he has said he will do. Maybe in some way you this
evening are puzzling over what the Lord will do, how he will
perform how He'll bring to pass His promises, how He'll work
in your heart, how He'll answer your prayers, how He'll appear
for you, what He'll do. Well, they did that through time. But God did send forth His Son
and made of a woman, and we're told in that revelation to Mary
how the Holy Spirit should overshadow her Therefore that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. For
in that way he was spotless, pure, not defiled by Adam's sin
by generation. His whole life, the temptations
under Satan, all prove that he was not of the fallen sons of
Adam. It was vitally necessary, it
was the Holy Spirit that drove him into the wilderness to be
tempted of the devil forty days and forty nights, to prove that
here was the nail in a sure place, here was the one that had been
promised, here was the spotless lamb, here was the one that was
to redeem his people. It is noted when the Lord was
born, how that His parents did for Him according to the law,
taking Him into the temple, offering the sacrifices. These things
were done to show very clearly He was under that law, put Himself
voluntarily under that law. You might say, the Jews, they
said, we have a law. And by that law he ought to die. He made himself the Son of God. The Lord did not have to die
because he was not a sinner, but as the Son of God and made
under the law. Our text says that it was to
redeem them that were under the law. He had to be under the law
himself to pay the price. That is what redemption is, to
set free by the payment of a price. And so the preparations of our
Lord placed into that very position under the law was that He might
redeem, that Calvary that He might lay down His life to take
it again. God sent forth His Son for this
work. That work that on Calvary the
Lord declared, it is finished. That work of which had the seal
in the empty tomb and the ascension of our Lord to heaven. All the
sins of His dear people chosen in Him from the foundation of
the world were laid on Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. He
went from there, betrayed by Judas, went from there, to the
judgment, and there, judged, found outwardly, I find no fault
in this man. But then, condemned to death,
he laid down his life. He said, no man taketh my life
from me. I lay it down of myself. I have
power to lay it down, power to take it again. This commandment
have I received from my Father. And that work, he did to accomplish
the redemption of his people. And the Gospel declares not only
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, but what he said to Pilate,
for this cause was I born, and for this cause came I into the
world. came into the world, God sent
forth His Son, made of a woman, made unto the Lord, to redeem
them that were under the law. Now there's an end in view. It is that we might receive the
adoption of sons. That God will put as, make as
His sons those that were alienated, strangers, far off from him,
put amongst his children, adopted into the living family of God. And this is the ending view. Was it just to satisfy the law? Was it just to die and rise again? The ending view is a people,
a people that he loved, a people that He'd chosen, a people that
He was to redeem, a people that He would have to be with Him
in Heaven forever, a people that here on earth would show forth
His praise. The Lord's delight is in His
people. His work was for them, His love
was expressed in what He did for them at Calvary. And that message goes right through
will to the end of the world, that what Christ did at Calvary
was for his people, for a people. How are we to know who those
people are? This is why I felt this is so
beautiful of these verses here, because first we have God sending
forth his Son, and what was accomplished and what was done there, and
very clearly set forth as to an ending view, an aiming view,
of a people being adopted into his living family, brought near
to him to be with him. Father, I will that by whom thou
hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory. So then we have, and this is
our third point, we have another second thought from God. He's saying God, because He are
sons. So this is the seal of sonship. You might say, well, shouldn't
it be written that because you are going to be made sons. In the case of our Lord, He was
the eternal Son of God. In the case of God's children,
they have been from eternity His people. We have in Matthew,
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. are his people, but in a different
way, in the mind of God, in the purposes of God. God's people
have not, they're not eternal like his son. Their beginning
is at conception, sent forth into this world, born into this
world. But in the purposes of God, they
were known and chosen at the set time they were sent forth. into this world, but they were
under the fallen sons of Adam. Lord knows our day and our generation. He's placed us in the year that
we were born, and not 2,000 years ago or 4,000 years ago. We read David, he served his
day and his generation. And we are in our day and our
generation because God has put us there. And every one of his
children, those of his people, when they come into this world,
they're as lost, as fallen, as children of the devil in practice,
at work, as any other. Hidden, as it were. But yet they
are those. that the Lord says, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but
I pray for them whom thou hast given me. Thine they were, thou
gavest them thee. Now it is because they are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying Abba, Father. Perhaps if you use another scriptural
illustration, we think of the twins Esau and Jacob. They're told in Romans, that
it was said, the elder shall serve the younger, Jacob have
I loved, Esau have I hated. They set forth the election of
God. They go both come forth, Jacob
means the planter, We see in their early lives no difference
whatsoever. Esau, he despises his birthright. Jacob, he deceives his father. And then God makes a difference. As Jacob goes forth, what he
thinks is just a few days to his uncle Laman, then the Lord
meets with him as he sleeps with stones reveals himself to him. But Jacob has a path of sorrow. He deceived his father once.
He has Laban deceiving him ten times. We have his sons deceiving
him regarding Joseph. He walks through some very dark
paths. The Lord often blesses him. He
is with him. He keeps him. He lets not Laban
have complete dominion over him and destroy him. And we see,
especially when he comes back and wrestles with the angel,
I will not let thee go except thou bless me. God changed his name from Jacob
to Israel. A prince has now had power with
God, has wrestled with God, and in that has prevailed. What are
the pre-incarnation appearances? of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
may say, because Jacob was a chosen son of God, therefore God sent
forth his spirit into Jacob's heart in life. He blessed him
in his life. And so we have here, because
ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son. into your
hearts crying Abba Father. Two sending forth. It's not just
the sending forth of his beloved son to Calvary. Then it's sending
forth with an aim that he might receive the adoption of sons.
But then we're not left in any doubt, we're not left to think,
well, how he can become an adopted son. is by our own works, our
own endeavour, by the work of God? No. There's another sending
forth, a sending forth the Spirit of His Son. When our Lord ascended
up into Heaven, He said to His disciples, and He says to all,
though I am with you, always, even unto the end of the world.
What does He mean? because his bodily presence is
in heaven. He didn't just mean those he
was speaking to then, but you and I. He says, neither pray
I for these alone, but for them who shall believe on me through
their word. So that promise and that blessing
of his presence, it applies today, but how is it so? The Lord has
not returned. He shall come with power and
great glory, in the clouds of heaven. But it is through His
Spirit and through His grace that He is with His people. We
cannot separate the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God fills all things. He is everywhere. No man, we read Him, has seen
God at any time. But the Son, He has declared
Him. And here we have then the way
that God makes known what He did at Calvary, what He did in
redeeming His people there, if your sins and mine are redeemed,
atoned for, paid for, they were at Calvary. The Lord does not
have to suffer again for your sins and mine, but it does need
to be made known to us that the Lord died for us. And the way
the Lord does that is by His Spirit being sent forth. The
disciples said, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto
us and not unto the world? And the secret was the Spirit
that would be given. Because the world does not see
the Spirit of God. cannot see Him, so it cannot
believe on Him, but you see Him, because when the Spirit of the
Lord Jesus Christ is sent forth, sent forth by the Father, it is with this effect crying
out of Father. It is a hard work, a quickening
work, a work that makes that soul alive and puts into the
living family of God. It is the Lord that does that. It is the Spirit's work. We had
in Romans 8 a further teaching on that same point. Because he says that they that
are in the flesh, they cannot please God. But ye are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of his. It's an absolute vital thing.
The chapter begins in Romans 8. There is therefore now no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not
after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and
death. And this is why the Apostle is
kind of set before these Galatians, that having no say, you go back
under the law of sin and death, you go back under the sentence
of the law, but Christ is redeemed from that law, you're not under
that law, you're not under it as a condemning sentence. But what the law could not do,
verse 3 of chapter 8 of Romans, in that it was weaned through
the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh and enforcing condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness
of the Lord might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the
flesh but after the Spirit. The Lord gives us of His Spirit
and sends forth His Spirit then we will walk after that Spirit
and not after the Lord. It is the Lord Jesus Christ that
draws his people. And no man, says our Lord, can
come unto thee except the Father which sent thee draw him. And
I'll raise him up at the last day. Ascending forth of the Spirit
will have a profound effect upon that soul. It will make a change,
bring about a real difference. My word shall not return unto
me void, it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it. And here we have the sending
forth of the Spirit, of His Son, into your hearts, a heart word. What does it cry? Abba Father,
or Father, Father. That is the ending view of the
Spirit's work. Yes, there'll be a getting of
life, conviction of sin, a leading to Christ as the Redeemer, a
teaching, an instructing, an opening up of the truths of God. But in the end it comes to a
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ and embracing Him and that blessed
spirit of being a child of God, one of His dear children. In the same chapter there in
Romans 8, the Apostle speaks of that same spirit of adoption. Verse 14, as many as are led
by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. We like to think,
well, what we want to know first is are we elect? We want to know
whether we are one of his children, one of his people. God says the
way you'll know that is by my Spirit, the Spirit of my Son
being sent forth. That is how you'll know it. You'll
know it by how and what you are led by. If we live after the
flesh, we should die. But if ye through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. He says, For as
many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God. We have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit of
adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit itself beareth
witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. There is the Word opened up,
the Apostle writing to the Romans, really the same truths in a different
way as he does to the Galatians. But if you and I are to know
that we are the children of God, it is God that will give His
Spirit and give that witness, and give us to be those that
desire to walk after the Spirit. Paul, if you want to know the
actual experience there, you read Romans 7. And there Paul
has the conflict between the flesh and the Spirit. The good
that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that
I do. Wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from this body? There is sin. body of death. I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. With the mind he serves the law
of Christ, with the flesh the law of sin. That conflict that
is within doesn't happen where there's not the spirit of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord says this regarding
his people and the world, I have given them thy word and the world
hath hated them. mostly internally as well, where
the Lord has given us His Word, and then will be the conflict.
The Word of God won't stamp an approval of every sinful, violent,
evil way that our own flesh wants to go. It will be an unctuous
life to all that is right, a bar to all that is wrong, and the
Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ will always point to Calvary,
as God has given the ordinances of His house baptism and the
Lord's Supper that point to His death, His resurrection, His
broken body, His shed blood, pointing to that of which the
Church relies upon for their life. It's Christ that died,
O brother, is risen again. It is then this Spirit, the same
Spirit that teaches, that quickens, that brings to this witness of
God's Spirit, with our Spirit, that we are the children of God. Was there a time set when Christ
should come into this world? Yes. Is there a time when God
should send forth His Spirit? into the hearts of his children
to bear witness? Yes. There is a set time to favour
Zion. But may we never, ever have a
fatalistic spirit and think, well, you can preach the gospel
as much as you like. I just hear it. I live my life. If I'm saved, I'm saved. If I'm
lost, I'm lost. If I'm lost, it's not my fault,
it's God's fault. He hasn't chosen me, He hasn't
sent forth His Son. The Gospel is sent forth that
we might hear, we might hear the Word and that we might live
and it should exercise our souls as we hear the Word of God, that
the Lord would bless us with hearing ears, that we would receive
that Word gladly, that we'd be drawn by it, We might know that
God uses that means. It'd be a real exercise to us
if we can sit under the Word and unmoved. And even those where we have
made our profession, where we've had that witness of God's Spirit,
when we backslide or get into low places, I hope it really
does exercise us that we can hear the Word and it leaves us
unmoved. and we're not left in a real
sad condition and dying to live and yet be dead. If we truly
are God's sons, if His Spirit is with us, then may we have,
day by day, the real rejoicing of that and the privilege of
that, of walking with the Lord and having His presence and having
that sweet assurance us for life and cure, for well and cool to
die, is a blessing to have such a spirit within, crying Abba
Father. May the words of mine give us
a prayer. We know the Lord Jesus has come,
we know what he's done in the Cold District Calvary, but may
our prayer and desire be sung into our hearts. Give us
that effect, crying Abba Father, the spirit bearing witness with
our spirit that we are born of God. So may the Lord bless this
Word and give us to know not only the first setting forth
of His Son, but the setting forth of