Here we are just at Christmas
time and in the providence of the Lord we have come to a Christmas
message in Galatians. As I said earlier, one of the
remarkable statements in the scriptures, and it's all through
the scriptures, is that God has sons and daughters scattered
throughout time, scattered throughout this world, and he must bring
them, he must bring them to himself. And it's one of the remarkable
privileges of the Gospel is that people like us are sons and daughters
of God. What a remarkable thing. I have
children. I trust my friends will be blessed
with children. When you have children there's
absolutely nothing, nothing that you wouldn't do for them. Love
just bubbles over. I remember going down to watch
my little ones sleeping at night and I'd just sit there and watch
them and I was just so amazing to watch at night. I just loved
being with them and loved seeing them. And our love, our devotion,
our desires for our children are just a tiny, tiny dim reflection
of the amazing love that God has for His people. What remarkable
love. Jeremiah 31 is a verse that we
quote often. No doubt you know it well. Jeremiah 31.3 says, The Lord
hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved you,
with an everlasting love. In fact, he can say with some
accuracy that I have loved you everlastingly, therefore with
loving kindness I have drawn thee. One of the great tragedies
of our fall in our father Adam in the garden is that we lost
sight of the goodness, we lost sight of the character of God. And it's only in the Gospel and
it's only by divine revelation that we can see it again. In the garden we learnt some
idea of what salvation by works is. It's by our will and by our doing
and by our worth and by our works. And it's as natural to us as
breathing. And it's only the glory of God
shining in our hearts in the Gospel that takes us and rescues
us out of that. That's why at the beginning of
chapter 3 in Galatians, Paul says, O foolish Galatians, who
has bewitched you? They were believers who heard
the Gospel. Have you been foolish? Is it
possible for you to be bewitched? These people 2,000 years ago
were bewitched, weren't they? They were made to be fascinated
by people who were coming in the name of God, coming, claiming
to be Christians. and coming, claiming to show
these Galatians a way of being able to honour God by doing some
things, by going back to the Law of Moses. O foolish Galatians,
who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth? And
the truth is there to find, isn't it? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ
has been evidently placarded set forth, crucified among you."
Paul had one message, one message alone, one message of salvation. Jesus Christ and Him crucified
and He never wavered from it ever. These were people, these
bewitched and foolish Galatians I want to learn from you, did
you receive the Spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing
of faith? How did the Holy Spirit come
to you? How was He received? By something
that you did or by a sovereign act of God? Hearing of faith,
hearing of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus. Are you so foolish
having begun in the Spirit? Are you now made perfect by the
flesh? Are you trying to achieve perfection? Are you trying to
become more holy by the things that you do? I don't want to
steal Simon's thunder, but if you turn there's a remarkable
verse in 2 Corinthians 3 which describes how Christians grow. And Salome and I were talking
yesterday and she talked about believers and I said to her,
that is my favourite expression for Christians. There are so
many cultural Christians, there are so many Christians of so
many varieties. Believers just believe what God
says. It's a grace gift to believe. The Colossians 3, 2 Corinthians
3 says that we or with open face beholding as in a glass the glory
of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to
glory. We behold Him. The way to grow
as a Christian is to focus your eyes upon the Lord Jesus. Fix your eyes upon Him, says
Hebrews 12, who is the author and finisher of faith. These Galatians had the Spirit
ministered to them, and in 3 verse 6 it says, even as Abraham believed God
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Paul goes on to
talk about people where they come from. Know ye therefore
that they which are of faith, and that of means origin, they
which are of faith, they have their origin in faith, the same
are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, for seeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached the Gospel
unto Abraham. Abraham had the Gospel, the exact
same Gospel. One of the ways you know that
you are proclaiming and believing the true Gospel is that your
Gospel was the Gospel that was proclaimed in the Garden of Eden.
Your Gospel was the Gospel that was proclaimed to Noah and to
Enoch. was believed by Abraham, was
believed by Moses and David, and all of the saints of the
Old Testament, all of the saints of the New Testament, and your
Gospel is the Gospel that's being proclaimed in Heaven right now. It's called the everlasting Gospel. It has no need of changing. Abraham
had the Gospel proclaimed here. That's what God says. Saying
in thee, shall all nations be blessed, so they which be of
faith, are blessed with faithful Abraham. For as many as are of
the works of the law, they trace their origin in spiritual life
to anything that they have done, are under the curse. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. It's an extraordinary thing,
isn't it? I've been thinking about the
Law of God and the Ten Commandments this last little while and we
had a man who came deceitfully preaching to us in the very early
days of our church and he was very hazy about what he was going
to preach about and the night before he spoke we spent some
time sort of trying to extract from him what he believed about
the Law and what he was going to speak to us on the next morning. He not only told us that we have
to obey the Ten Commandments, but we've actually got twelve
to obey now. We have to actually now love God with all of our
heart, soul and mind strength, and we have to love our neighbours
and ourselves. And he gave us twelve commandments to live under. And I was just thinking, it's
remarkable isn't it, Romans 7 says that the law is spiritual. And every millisecond of my life,
Every millisecond, if I'm measured by the law of God, all I do is
just increase my sin. I have no other gods before Him. No other gods before Him. No
covetousness. No break in the Sabbath. No time
ever not at rest in God's Sabbath. Christ is our Sabbath. You see,
the law of God just tells me again and again the depth, the
depth of the depravity of my heart in my father Adam and the
willful ongoing depravity of my heart You see, Christians
don't keep the law. Christians have kept the law. If you haven't kept the law of
God absolutely perfectly, then you're not a believer. Believers
have kept the law. When did we keep the law? 2,000 years ago the Lord Jesus
Christ walked on this earth and he kept it perfectly and he did
everything Every little tiny moment of his life he was representing
all of his people. All of his people kept the law
perfectly. That's what Abraham, Abraham
wasn't looking to a law was he? Abraham was looking to a saviour
and looking to a promise and looking to a gospel. Many as
are of the works of the law, verse 10, are under the curse.
Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them." You must do them all. You must do them perfectly. You must do them spiritually. You must do them with a clean
heart. They must be holy doings to be
acceptable to God. It's one of the glories of the
Gospel. And one of the reasons for the
sin in our flesh and the sin that the law exposes and reveals
is it makes us turn away from ourselves and look to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Abraham was left in a place where
he had no ability of his own. He was old and impotent and his
wife was old and impotent and he had no ability to produce
a son. Where did his son come from?
It came because of a promise. It came because of a gift of
God, just the gift of God. Verse 14, that the blessing of
Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we
might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. It's
all promised. Brethren, I speak in the matter
of men, thou be a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man
disanoeth nor addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. And he saith not, and to seeds
as of many, but as one, and to thy seed which is Christ. What a wonderful verse. Isn't
it wonderful that the promise of life, the promise of blessing,
is in the hands of someone who received a promise. The Lord
Jesus was the one who was receiving the promise. He was the seed
to whom the promise was made. And the law, verse 17, It cannot disannul, it cannot
make the promise of none effect. In verse 18 he goes on to talk
about inheritance. Inheritance is something that
belongs to children, which is why we'll get to the children
in a little bit of time. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise, but God gave it to Abraham by
promise. Then in verse 9 he describes
why the law came, what service the law. The law was added, it
was an addition, alongside as it were. It was added because
of transgression. Through the law is the knowledge
of sin. All it did was expose sin, make
it real, make it punishable by God. It was there added, and
it was added for a time, till the seed should come to whom
the promise was made, and it was ordained by angels in the
hand of a mediator." Now a mediator is not a mediator one, but God
is one. Is the law therefore against
the promises of God. Does the law in any way aid the
promises of God? God forbid, for if there had
been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness
should have been by the law. The law can never give life.
The law condemns and brings death. But the scripture has concluded,
all under sin. And we looked at that last week.
That word all there means absolutely everything about every human
being. Their thoughts, their actions,
their motivations, everything about all of them. It concludes
all of Adam's race. bar none under sin, that the
promise by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them
that believe." The promise comes to God's children
through the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ and it comes
as a gift, it might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, what a
great description of our Lord Jesus. Christ is the object of
faith, isn't he? But before faith came, we were
kept under the law, shut up under the faith which should afterwards
be revealed. So faith comes as a gift and
faith comes, in that next verse, as a revelation, it's revealed.
Therefore the law was our schoolmaster, the law was our slave unto Christ. It had a time, as we read earlier
in 319, till the seed, that we might be justified by faith. I love that word justified. The
whole of the Church stands or falls on the matter of justification
by faith. You see, if you are a criminal
and I pardon you, you have received mercy. But to be justified in
God's sight, not only must you be pardoned, but the sin itself
must be removed from you. To be justified means that there
is no reason on heaven or earth ever to accuse one of God's children. Romans 8 says it, doesn't it?
Who shall lay any charge to God's elect? It's God that justifies. There is no sin in the court
of God for any of his children. None whatsoever. Jeremiah 50
verse 20 says, they will search for the sins of Israel and they
won't be found. There are none to be found. Christ
has put them away altogether. Faith is come, we're no longer
under the schoolmaster. And then this delightful passage
that I'd like to spend a little time looking at this morning.
For we are, you are, all the children of God by faith. There is one evidence of the
children of God. Faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you have been
baptised into Christ, have put on Christ, immersed is what that
word means, isn't it? As many of you have been immersed. If you are immersed in baptism,
it's one of the reasons when I'm baptising people, I like
to see them go all the way under, because that's the picture, isn't
it? that they are immersed and all that's seen by God is the
Lord Jesus Christ. For there is neither Jew nor
Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male
nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you be
Christ, then you are Abraham's seed. So Abraham's seed are not
the Jews in that nation over the seas that so much squabbling
goes on about. Abraham's seed are Christ, aren't
they? If you are Christ, if you belong
to him, if you're owned by him, you're Abraham's seed and you're
heirs according to the promise. Now I say that an heir, as long
as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be
lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time
appointed by his father." He's talking about what it was to
be under the law, what it is to be in a religion of works. Even so, when we were children,
we were in bondage under the elements of the world, but When
the fullness of time has come, our God always works with perfect
timing. When the fullness of time has
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 you are sons, God
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then
an heir of God through Christ." So what a great verse, Galatians
4, to be looking at, Galatians 4, 4. When the fullness of time
has come, when God's time has come, God sent, God sent his
Son. So do you believe that? Do you
believe that God the Father sent his Son into the world? He sent His Son because He had
His children in this world. He sent His Son not to make a
way to love His children, but He sent His Son because He did
love them. 1 John 4.10 says, Herein is love. Not that we have
loved God, but that God loved us and sent His Son to be the
propitiation for our sins. to be the one that bore the wrath
of our sins, the one who bore our sins away altogether. Lord Jesus was sent. He came
sent of the Father, but He came with the most extraordinary willingness. He came with love for His own
and love for His Father. He says in John 6, this is the
Father's will which has sent me, that all of which He has
given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again
at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone that seeth the Son and believeth on Him
may have everlasting life, and I will raise Him up at the last
day. One of the remarkable things,
isn't it, about so much of modern religion, we get the impression
that the Lord Jesus is somehow frustrated in heaven. And he
can't quite work out how to get these people to be obedient and
get his purposes done. And some even describe him looking
over the balustrades of heaven, looking down with tears in his
eyes because he can't get his work done. The Lord Jesus Christ
is God. Don't you like saying that? Jesus
Christ is God. And as God, He has all the power. all of the authority, all of
the sovereignty, all of the purposes of God. He just speaks and a
creation, a universe comes into existence from beautiful tiny
flowers to enormous galaxies that we can hardly comprehend.
That's something of the power of God. We have seen in Sydney
extraordinary storms. I think it's in Habakkuk, it
says that's the hiding of God's power. He has his way in the
world really. He is absolutely sovereign. So when he says, this is the
will of him that sent me that everyone, verse 40, that everyone
which seeth the sun and believeth on him may have everlasting life
and I will raise him up at the last day. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me." A promise from our God. I love
the fact that he makes his people to believe the promises of God. God sent his Son. Part of what he prayed in these
High Priests declaring in John 17, that they have believed,
they have believed that you have sent me. Now verse 4 says that he was
made, made of a woman, made under the law. made of a woman, made
of the Virgin Mary. This is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. God became a single cell. God in human flesh grew in Mary's
womb. God in human flesh grew in Mary's
womb. He didn't have Adam as a father. He had the Holy Spirit hover
over Mary. He humbled himself as a man. He was made under the law. He who is the law giver, he who
is the one who is the judge under that law, was made under that
law. He humbled himself to be a man. He humbled himself unto the law
and he humbled himself unto the obedience of death and that law. But he did it for a purpose.
Isn't it wonderful what he says in the next phrase, to redeem
them, to buy them back out of the bondage, to redeem them that
were under the law. What hope? What is your hope? What is your hope of meeting
God who is a consuming fire? What hope do you look for on
that day when you must meet Him? Paul expressed his hope so clearly
in Galatians 2.20, one of my favourite verses in the Bible. The life I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave
himself for me." So the only hope that Christians have, the
only real hope, is that God placed my sins on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and He bore them, and He bore them away, and I can never bear
them again. Now there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. The world might condemn me, my
conscience might condemn me, Satan might condemn me. There is now no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. It's wonderful, isn't it, in
the scriptures that every time redemption is spoken of, it's
spoken of as something that is accomplished perfectly and completely
and forever. It's never, never in the scriptures
ever presented as our God trying to do something, our God creating
an offer, making an offer or creating a possibility. What's
he saying? He has. He has completely and
once and forever redeemed them. That's what they're singing in
heaven right now, aren't they? As we speak here, they are singing
a song in heaven, aren't they? You can read about them in Revelation,
the songs they sing. What are they singing right now?
They say, Thou art worthy, Revelation 5, 9, Thou art worthy to take
the book Thou art worthy to have the book of all of God's sovereign
purposes for all of this world. You take it and you open it and
it is yours. And open the seals thereof for
thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. If you say that Christ died for
me and I can end up in hell anyway, you have taken away from me the
only hope I can ever have. It's the only hope, isn't it? that He bore them away completely. 3 verse 13 says that Christ has
redeemed us from the curse of the Lord being made a curse for
us. He was made a curse for a particular
people, His sons and daughters. But there is more, isn't there,
as we read on in Galatians. Not only has He redeemed us, that we're under the law that
we might receive the adoption of sons. That we might be adopted
as sons of God. His redemption has made us sons
and daughters. His sons and daughters scattered
throughout time and scattered throughout this world. And look
at verse 6. Verse 6 is a delightful verse,
isn't it? It says, It says to the believers, verse 26 says, you are all children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus, to believers. And because you
are sons, because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father. Because you are
sons, He has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart. That's what God does, isn't it?
That's what redemption is about. That's what adoption is, isn't
it? God sends forth the Spirit of
His Son and He cries from our hearts, doesn't He? We read in
Romans 8 that we actually make that cry as well, don't we? It's the same cry as the Lord
Jesus made in the Garden of Gethsemane. But it's the Spirit inside of
us that speaks that. See, it's Christ in you, the
hope of glory. God taking up residence in someone
like me. It's remarkable, isn't it? Done
nothing but sin all of my life. Been nothing but sin all of my
Christian life. Growing weaker and more dependent
and less able minute by minute. And God takes up residence in
His people. We have all the rights of access,
all the rights of fellowship, all the rights of communion and
union with God. No wonder John says in 1 John
3, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us,
that we should be called the children of God, the sons of
God. Therefore the world knoweth us
not. It has as much clue about Christians and what they are
experiencing as it did about the Lord Jesus Christ. The world
doesn't know us because it knew him not. Beloved, what's that
next word? Now. Now, right now, we are the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall
see Him as He is. We shall see Him as He is, in
all of His glory, as His sons. I remember when we were dorm
parents in Hebron, our flat, our cave, as we sometimes called
it, we were across the hall from the dining hall and there were
dorms along the hall and dorms up above us. And the kitchen
was across the hall, and so down that hall walked, was it about
120 girls every day, backwards and forwards, kitchen staff,
all the time people walked backwards and forwards. And continually
when you're in our flat, because we had three children there who
had their friends, and then we had a dorm who had to come through,
and we had kitchen staff all the time. And we got big doors,
they were really high doors if you remember, and they sort of
echoed. And we would hear this knock all the time. Knock, knock,
knock. And they were always welcome.
We loved to see them come in. But it was knock, knock, knock
all the time until we went to bed. But there were three people
who walked along that hall and didn't ever have to bother knocking
at all. Why? They didn't have to ask permission
to come in. They were sons and daughters,
weren't they? Our three kids came. When there
was no knock and the door opened, I knew exactly who it was. One of our three. Because you
are sons. There are no second class Christians.
They are all equally loved. They are all equally esteemed
of God. And God is for them. And God watches over them. And
He loves them with an intense, extraordinary, powerful, effective
love. The children of God by faith
in Christ Jesus. They are just children. I love
one of the synonyms for faith. It is just to rely. Are all your
eggs are all your eggs for this life and eternity just in one
basket. That's what it is to rely on
the Lord Jesus Christ. You have absolutely no confidence
in the flesh. You've got nothing you can rely
on that you've ever done and you ever will do. You're just
depending. Faith is to trust. Faith is to rely. Faith is to believe. The promises of blessing are
just remarkable, aren't they? Throughout the scriptures we
read again and again of the amazing care and esteem that God has
for His children. He loves His children as He loves
His Son. Now under John it says, Behold
what manner of love the Father has given unto us. But here we have something else
in this scripture, and I'm sure it's something that the children
of God here have entered into. He sent forth the Spirit of his
Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So God the Holy
Spirit, when he comes in, he enables us to cry. It's the cry of a child, isn't
it? The cry of need, the cry of our hearts, we cry out to
God. Is that something of your experience,
brothers and sisters? As God grows His people in grace,
grows them down in their sense of anything that they have ever
done, we grow in our need to cry out to God. We cry out to
him. It's interesting isn't it? Abba
is a Hebrew term and father is a Greek term. It's really just
saying father, father. There is no proper way of expressing
with our English language the depth of the closeness of bond
those words should bring to us. when he comes into the hearts
of his people, he causes a cry. Jeremiah 31, verse 9, we read
verse 3 about his deep, deep love for his children. He's loved
them eternally, everlastingly, unchangeably. He loves them. And then he says in verse 9,
they shall come with weeping and with supplications will I
lead them. And I will cause them to walk
by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble. For I am a father to Israel,
and Ephraim is my firstborn." He causes His children to cry
out to Him, cry out to Him as we see the depths of our sin.
We cry out to Him as we see the extraordinary wonder of His grace,
that He could love someone like me. He gives the sense of need
to cry and He gives the confidence to cry. We have boldness of access
to the throne of grace that we might find grace to help. We
might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Therefore, verse 7, you are no
more a servant. You are no more a servant. You're
no more a slave, is what that word means in the original. You're
not a slave to the law. You're not a slave to works. You're not a slave to do, do,
do, do, do as a Christian. You're a son. You're an heir. An heir of God. An heir of God. That's why And the Lord said
those remarkable words to Abraham. It is remarkable, isn't it? He
says, I am my shield, I will protect you, I will guard you
from all things, and I am your exceeding great reward. The heirs
of God receive Him. And I love how that verse finishes. You're an heir of God, how? not
because of something you do, not because of your efforts,
not because of your devotion, an heir of God through Christ. Everything we receive, every
blessing we receive in this life and into all eternity are blood-bought
blessings. They all come flowing from the
throne of grace, where our Sovereign sits, and we are seated with
Him. Why are we forgiven? He says in Ephesians 4.32, and
be you kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as
God, for Christ's sake, has forgiven you. Adopted wonderfully. Children. Sons. Sons with Him dwelling in us. Sons crying out. No more a servant. No more a
servant but a son, and if a son, an heir of God. Paul was astonished that Galatians,
in their zeal to serve God, had turned away from all of the blessings
of the Gospel and turned back to what he calls weak and beggary
elements. If you have the Lord Jesus Christ,
brothers and sisters, you have absolutely everything. What an
inheritance. What an inheritance. I am looking
at people that I will know and love in the most remarkable ways
in billions of years to come. My father owns a universe. He
just speaks the universe into existence. He's coming again very soon.
Any moment he'll wrap all this up. What an inheritance. What
a remarkable, remarkable inheritance. Why turn, he says to these Galatians,
why turn back to your doings when he has done so much? Now we are the children of God
through faith in Christ Jesus. What a bright message. What a
bright Christmas message for the children of God. Let's pray.