Well, the Lord will help us this
evening. We'll continue our meditation
in the Epistle of Paul to the Galatians in the fourth chapter,
and we'll read verses six and seven. The Epistle of Paul to
the Galatians, chapter four, and reading verses six and seven.
And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of
his son, into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou
art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ." This surely is a very wonderful
statement and a very encouraging statements to the true Church
of God. To know the wonder that we are
the sons of God. And to realize therefore that
we are not servants, although of course in one sense we do
serve God, but to think that we are sons of God. And so the Apostle says, and
because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his
son into your hearts. This is the vast difference between
just a carnal religion, a theoretical religion of just knowing things
in our head, and the wonderful blessing when the Holy Spirit
sends these great truths and convinces us by his spirit that
we are the sons of God. And as the verse says, God has
sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts. Well, how needful it is, surely,
that you and I have the evidence of the spirit of God in our hearts. Because that will influence us
so much and direct us so much to the wonder of redeeming love,
the wonder of what God has done in sending his only begotten
Son into this sinful world, that whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but have eternal life. And the wonderful blessing
is that if we are sons of the Most High God, then we have this
wonderful privilege, as we read here, God has sent forth the
spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. If we are a son or a daughter,
we have a father who is in heaven, an eternal father, a father who
loves us, a father who chose us in eternity past to be his
sons. And therefore, as time has moved
on, the appointed time came when we were to be born into this
world, those who are his sons. In the epistle of Paul to the
Romans, the apostle Paul again retouches on this very special
subject. And we read in Romans 8, verses
15 to 17. where he says, for ye have not
received the spirit of bondage, again, to fear. You see, bound
up with that spirit of unbelief, as the apostle says, the evil
heart of unbelief, and how that can bind us up into bondage,
but ye have received the spirit of adoption. Again, nothing that
you and I can claim that we merit, nothing that we've worked for
but we have received. God has given it to us and what
an amazing truth that is and how it shows forth the sovereign
grace of God. And to know tonight what a blessing
it is if we have that evidence therefore that we do have father
in heaven that we can call Abba Father. Apparently Abba is the
Arabic word or the Hebrew word also for father and it could
be saying father father. What a mercy then to think we
have a heavenly father who has adopted us as his children. No longer are we strangers, we
are part of the family of God. It's really past our comprehension,
isn't it, to think of the amazing wonder it is. And the Apostle
John, on a number of occasions, speaks of the wonderful blessing
of the Spirit coming upon us. And in the First Epistle of John
3.24 we read, And he that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in
him, and he in him And hereby we know that he abideth in us
by the Spirit which he hath given us. This is known to the people
of God. It's a personal application of
the Spirit's work in our hearts, so that we can say, by the grace
of God, and we know. The apostle was able to say,
and we know whom we have believed, and how true it is. And it's
only because of the Spirit's work, that which has come and
entered into our hearts. And let us remember, it's not
just into our minds, it penetrates into our hearts and it has a
real effect. We read together in that fourth
chapter of the epistle of John, verse 13, Hereby know we that
we dwell in him and he in us, because he has given us of his
Spirit. It means, amazingly, there is
that unity and that union between God and ourselves as unworthy
sinners, never deserving any mercy, and yet to think that
we have been adopted into the family of God and we have received
His Spirit. Very humbling, very wonderful. Abba, Father, And then 1 John
5, 10, there's so much wonderful truth in the fifth chapter of
John's epistle. He that believeth on the Son
of God hath the witness in himself. It's not something abstract. It's the blessed work of God
that reveals to us that we do possess the Spirit of God. We are no longer strangers, but
fellow pilgrims, with the saints, with the sons of God. He that
believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that
believeth not God hath made him a liar, because he believeth
not the record that God gave of his Son. So may we be able
tonight to thank God for such a great and wonderful truth. And because ye are sons, God
hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, saying,
crying, Abba, Father. And then he goes on, Wherefore,
and this must follow, Wherefore thou no more a servant, but a
son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. So we have an inheritance. Sons have an inheritance of their
natural father and the sons of God have an inheritance of the
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we are an heir of God through
Christ. And just three references really
to confirm that and to encourage us in the prospect that is ahead. of all those who are the sons
of God. In the first book of Corinthians,
the epistle of Corinthians, the second chapter and ninth verse
we read, but as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither hath entered into the heart of man the things which
God hath prepared for them that love him, those who are received
of his spirit. There is that to come, which
you and I fail to understand, cannot understand, because of
our mortal condition. But this is wonderfully true. The things which God hath prepared
for them that love him. This inheritance, which all the
heirs of God will inherit. It's a glorious prospect, isn't
it? As you and I journey on through this world, with so many things
to perplex us, perhaps many things to cast us down, but yet here
is the prospect. And then the apostle draws the
analogy of husbands and wife in Ephesians 5 and he says, husbands
love your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave
himself for it that he might sanctify and cleanse it with
a washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish, washed in the
blood of the Lamb." Clean, pure, holy. all the blessed work of
the Holy Spirit to those who are the sons of God, and those
who are heirs of God through Christ. And then finally turning
to Revelation, we come right to the end of the New Testament,
and in the 21st chapter, three verses really, verses 2, 9 and
27. And this is what John says. And
I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God,
out of heaven, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband. And
there came forth unto me one of the seven angels, which had
the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with
me, saying, come hither. I will show thee the bride, the
Lamb's wife, and there shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh
a lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. Well,
if we are the sons of God, this is our inheritance. Our names
are written in the Lamb's book of life, They cannot be erased
because they've been put there by God. Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Amen.