We're looking at the first seven
verses this morning, Galatians chapter 4. And the title of the message
is, Sons by Purpose, Purchase, and Faith. Sons by Purpose. according to the covenant of
God's eternal grace. We are sons of God by purchase,
by the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, and we are sons by the
power of the Holy Spirit through faith. The Apostle here begins
now, I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under
tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so we, when we were children,
we were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law, for this purpose, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons of God,
God has sent forth His Spirit, 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 heir of God
through Christ. Now the apostle before this,
having testified of the law's purpose, he said, Wherefore then
serveth the law? And you remember the law has
a purpose. The law has a purpose, first
of all, to expose sin. That is the purpose of the law.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. This is upon the two, the
whole law hinge. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy strength,
with all thy mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And yet what does
this do except reveal to us that we have not loved the Lord our
God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength, and all
our mind? It exposes that we have not loved
our neighbor as ourself. The law only exposes sin. It does nothing else. It can't
help you. It can't bring you to God. All
it can do is curse you. And the law, Paul said, had another
function that was especially for the Jews. He said, the law
was our schoolmaster. In the previous chapter, verse
24, "...wherefore the law was our schoolmaster until Christ."
Don't read those words, bring us, that's not in there. "...until
Christ." that we might be justified by
faith, which is the faith of Christ. Now the law had the purpose
of protecting and keeping the Jews so that Christ should come
by that lineage. So that Christ should be prophesied
of in the Old Testament scriptures. God kept them under the law. Until faith come and the faith
of Christ is what is meant by which we are the elect are justified
by the faith of Christ Which faith the law and the prophets
did witness Paul says in Romans 3, but now the righteousness
of God without the laws manifest being witnessed where by the
law and the prophets But none of these, none could
ever know or understand the fullness of the types until when? Until
Christ came and fulfilled the types. None of those people in
the Old Testament fully understood those pictures. What a blessed
time we live in. You think it would be more blessed
to live back when Abraham lived or now? Of course now, we live
in a more blessed time, because now that Christ has come, we
are able to see the fullness of those pictures. We are able
to see what they really mean, what they really were there for.
But seeing that He has come, the law, being a schoolmaster,
was no longer needful. And so Paul shows and testifies
that all who believe in Christ are full grown sons. That was
what he said in verse 26 of the previous chapter. For you are
all children of God. And what's a manifestation of
us being children is by faith in Jesus Christ. Your faith in
Christ is the realization that you are sons. Sons of God. So now in Chapter 4, Paul continues
this line of thought, this thought of the schoolmaster for the Jews. He says, "...now I say that an
heir..." Now who is he talking about? He's talking about children
of God. He's talking about those who believe in Jesus Christ.
He said, "...now the heir, you that are sons of God, as long
as he is a child, doesn't differ anything from a servant, though
he be Lord of all." But is under tutors and governors until the
time appointed of the father. He's using another illustration
of being under a tutor or a governor. And he tells us why in verse
3. He said, even so. Even so, when we were children,
we were in bondage under the elements of the world. Now, We read this before that
the Jews before Christ were under the law and he pictured it as
a schoolmaster. Let me ask you this, what about
the Gentiles? What about the Gentiles? Were
they without law? Now listen, the Gentiles before
Christ were without the law of Moses. But they were not without
law. How do we know this? Because
Paul in Romans chapter 2 testifies of this fact that everyone, Jew
and Gentile, are born with an understanding that there is a
God. We can look around by creation,
never having ever heard the law of Moses, you can look at creation
and understand the Godhead. You can understand the authority
and power of God by what you see. But not only that, God put
something in the heart of every man. And Paul says it is a law
written in the hearts. So the Gentiles, though they
were without the law of Moses, they were not yet without law. God put the law into their hearts. If you take what people would
call the moral law and read it to a man that never heard, he
would be able then to identify that's right. He would be able
to see that's right. Look, if God is, you shouldn't
have any other gods before Him. Isn't that just right? If God
is God, there should be no other gods but Him. You know by nature
that it is evil to steal and to lie and to covet. You know that it is evil to murder. Those things that were written
in that law was written in the heart of the Gentiles and Paul
calls it here, the elements of the world. The elements of the
world. So, As the elect Jews were under
the schoolmaster, Paul says the Gentiles were under the elements
of the world. So then both the sons of God,
elect sons of God, were under tutors and governors, the Jews
under the law of Moses, the Gentiles under the law of their creation,
of creation, until. Until when? Until the time appointed
by the Father. Now, in this time, if a master
had children, he would take his children and he would give them
to one of his slaves. And that slave would be over
his children to tutor them, to teach them, to guide them, to
lead them about, until when? Until the appointed time of the
father, until they were, the father said, they're of full
age, they're no longer under their So the end of the service of
the law for the elect Jews and the service of the elements of
the world for the Gentiles came when? Look at verse 4. But when the fullness of the
time was come. That's when it ended. That's
when it was no longer useful or necessary. Until Christ came,
until after the faith has come and been revealed, that was the
time appointed, the fullness of the time was come. The covenant
of grace, which Paul has referred to as the covenant of promise
in these three chapters so far, is displayed in its fullness
only when the fullness of time had come. The law of Moses and
the elements of the world were instituted to serve their purpose
for the sake of the elect, but at God's appointed time they
ceased to have any function on any level. They served no more
purpose. No more purpose. The law given
by Sinai to the Jews was to garrison them, protect them until Christ
would come. It was only meant to testify
of Him when He did come. The law of the elect Gentiles,
called the elements of the world, refers to their life before Christ. But once we have come to Christ,
what further need have we of this law? It does nothing. Neither the law, neither of these
laws then could ever teach us about Christ. You know that?
That that law written in your heart could never teach you about
Christ. It can only expose your sin. That's all it could do.
It can only convict your conscience. It could never, ever show you
Christ. The law of Moses, though it had
all of the types and pictures of Christ in it, yet until Christ
had come, there would be no way for them to know the mystery
of that law or the prophecies. So under both laws is only what? Bondage. Now, that's what Paul
is striving to teach here, that the law can only gender bondage. It cannot give liberty. Ever,
ever, ever give liberty. It was never purposed to give
liberty. So again, I'll ask you this,
what part does the law play in our sonship? Now Paul is talking about heirs
and sons now. What part does the law play in
our being sons? Look at this illustration again.
He said, now they that are heir, now that the heir, as long as
he is a child, differing nothing from his servant, listen, though
he be Lord of all. But as under tutors and governors
until the time appointed, even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the law. Now listen, look
at that child of the master. He's put out there under those
governors and tutors, and he's not treated any different than
the rest of the slaves' children. He's being taught, he's being
instructed, he's being disciplined by that schoolmaster or by that
governor or tutor. The only time he differs is when
the time appointed of the father and the father says he's of age. Now listen, he was a son all
that time. The tutor and the governor had
nothing to do with his being a son. He was Lord of all, even
though at that appointed time he didn't seem any different. So what did that tutor or governor
have to do with him being a son or an heir? Nothing at all. That
was a totally distinct relationship. It had no bearing on his being
an heir or a son. It had nothing. So then the law
has nothing to do with being a son of God. Nothing to do. The law had nothing to do with
the accomplishment of the promises, the benefit of the promises,
or the revealing or the receiving of the promises. This promise
of justification and adoption was purposed of God from eternity. You see, believer, you are a
son of God because of God's what? Purpose. Paul says that all spiritual
blessings are given us in Christ Jesus according as He had chosen
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That we should be holy. And without
blame before Him, listen, in love having predestinated us
unto what? The adoption of sons. How? By Jesus Christ unto Himself. This was God's purpose, that
you should be His son. And this was fulfilled not by
the sons, but by His Son, by Jesus Christ. He accomplished and fulfilled the covenant at
the appointed time of the Father by His coming and dying. That's what it says in verse
4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, for what purpose?
To redeem them that were under the law, so that we might receive
something. What? The adoption of sons. These laws were not against the
promises of God, for they simply had nothing to do with our justification
and righteousness. They had nothing to do with it.
That was a totally distinct and separate covenant that did not
either encourage or impede us being sons. It had nothing to
do with it. Totally separate. He declares
the law has been set aside, how? By the fulfillment and means
of receiving the promise of faith born of the Holy Spirit. Here is justification by the
faith of Christ and justification by faith in Christ mentioned
in these verses. Now both the elect and the Jews
and the elect Gentiles under the law, respectively, under
the schoolmaster and the tutors and governors, listen, they didn't
know they were sons. No man coming into this world,
though they were chosen by God, instinctively or naturally know
of their sonship. They have no clue if they are
a son of God or not. This is because when we were
lost, Paul says we were dead in trespasses and sins, Ephesians
2.1. Wherefore hath he quickened us
who were dead in trespasses and sins? All of us having our conversation
in time past according to the lust of the flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath. Listen, even as everybody else. You see, there's no distinction.
Now if you were to take that child of the Master at this time,
that child was put out early with the other children. He had
no distinction. He had no knowledge of his sonship.
He was just like everybody else. He played with the servants.
The servants' children, him, played together all the time.
They fought together, they studied together, they lived together,
they had no idea there was any distinction until the Father
came and said, Son, come on, come out from among them. And that's what happened to us.
We were all by nature the children of wrath, even as others. We
were ruined and depraved so that there was no difference in us. Now listen, those Jews under
that old time, they surely had a better law, didn't they? Their
law was more clear than the law that was written in the hearts
of the Gentiles. But listen, they were in no better
condition. They had no better condition. You realize that? That the son born to a king in
this world is no different naturally than the son born to the lowest
of men. Just because your mom and dad
is something, doesn't mean that you were born anything but a
sinner. The Scriptures surely clearly
put us all on the same level by nature. And yet, even then, consider
this. You were a son. You didn't know
it. You were no different in the
way you acted or the way you conducted yourself. You were
the same as every other child of Adam, but you were a son. Though we were under that law
of conviction in our own hearts, until the time appointed, we
differed nothing from the servants. Now, the sons, the elect of God,
were never under the wrath of God. Now this is wonderful. I
want you to get this. You that are sons, you were never
under God's wrath. Now you were wrathful children
in that you hated God. You were an enmity against God. Just like every other lost sinner. We differed nothing in Adam's
race. And all this time we did not
know that we were sons. So we functioned as servants. We lived as slaves like everyone
else. But when Christ came, born of
a woman, as the promised seed to whom the promises were made, who promised to remove sin and
cover our nakedness, see then that the eternal and sovereign
purpose of God in our sonship unfold. that God having chosen
us in Christ to be his sons purposed him to be the representative
of all his children and in love predestinated us under the adoption
of children and that by Jesus Christ we should be holy so at
the beginning He began to testify of his son. Isn't that what happened
in the garden? Did he not begin at the moment
when sin entered the world? He began to testify of his son. He said this, I will put enmity between thy
seed, the seed of the serpent, and the seed of the woman. "...and it shall crush thy head,
and thou shalt bruise his heel." What is this speaking of? But
Christ, He is the seed of the woman. That's what Paul said.
"...in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son, made of a
woman." Made of a woman. God purposed that he should be
made of the woman, that he should crush the head of the serpent,
and by his death satisfy God's justice for sin. Now what happened
immediately after God preached that gospel of Christ? You remember
God made the first sacrifice. He killed those animals to cover
the nakedness of Adam and Eve. What did he do but picture the
work of his Son in crushing the head of the serpent? He said,
By the death of my Son, I will cover your nakedness with righteousness. That's what he said he was going
to do. For who? All his sons. All his sons. And later on, you hear Moses,
and God said to Moses, I will raise up a prophet like you.
But he's going to be a mediator of a better covenant. He's going
to be a mediator. You're a mediator of the law.
I'm giving you one that is a mediator of this covenant of sonship,
this covenant of promise. And then God sent forth that
picture of the Passover lamb, the great day of atonement, which
are all pictures of His work to come. Even so, as God decreed
and testified by His law and the prophets in the fullness
of time, at the appointed time, Christ came. I want you to, just
for a minute, take a brief view of history. And I want you to
see how God worked all history to bring together the appointed
time of Christ's coming. Remember the people of Israel,
God chastening them because of their idolatry sent them into
Babylon. You remember 70 years after that,
God before determined 70 years of captivity. He freed His people
by Cyrus, a man He named 200 years before his birth. And God delivered them. And then
you remember how that they built that temple. And God said that
this temple, though it's smaller in size and outward glory, is
more glorious because that temple is going to be filled with His
presence. And that's the very temple that
Christ came. Came to, is that temple. And you remember how from that
time they had taught the nation of Israel and began to set up
those synagogues. They began to set up synagogues
everywhere so that the Word of God should be proclaimed in every
one of those places. Then, God by providence raised
up Alexander the Great. And Alexander the Great, being
moved to conquer the known world, was able by God's power to conquer
the known world and establish one language, Greek, throughout the whole world. Everyone understood that language
as they were raised up in their own culture. Everyone knew how
to speak and to read Greek. And then God gave the Romans
power to do what? Bill Rhodes. Bill Rhodes. You see, God is
unifying the whole world so that everyone would be able to hear
and understand the Gospel of His Son. Now, not everybody's
going to believe it, but everybody's going to hear it. and even raised
up a weird tax system so that every man would have to return
up now why would a man have to return home pay tax i could not
just pay taxes where i was because god had a place appointed that
his son should be born and so cesar augustus decree that they
should all go home and be taxed and there was that man joseph
espoused to marry who had in her very womb the Son of God,
as it was prophesied, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. As it was prophesied, Bethlehem,
Ephrathah, though thou being little among the thousands of
Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me. That is,
to be ruler of Israel, whose goings forth have been from old,
from everlasting. You see, everything in time and
eternity was working toward this one thing. You want to know the
center of all time is the birth, the life, and the death and resurrection
of Christ. That is the center of everything.
God moved everything before for that purpose, and God moves everything
after to bring in His sons. That's it. Everything centers
around Christ. I know the world and religion
don't like to hear this, but all the gospel and the scriptures
center in Christ. They're about Christ. They're
about Him, and they're about His people, His sons, and the
covenant of His grace, and how He should come and redeem them.
Behold then the greatness of God's love, for God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son. God sent forth
His Son. Now listen, if God sent Him,
then He must of necessity already be in existence. This proves His deity and His
eternal sonship. That He was one with the Father
and was with the Father and the Father sent Him. How great is the love of God!
How great the Father's love to us! How vast beyond all measure
that He would give His only Son, listen, to make a wretch His
treasure. Doesn't this display the love
of God in the covenant of grace? "...And behold the greatness
of the love of Christ, who willingly came." He came from heaven and robed
Himself in human flesh. He became a man. Listen to what
John says, "...Hereby we perceive the love of God, that He laid
down His life for us." Who's He? God. How could God lay down His
life? Only this way. He was sent made
of a woman. Made flesh. A body hast thou prepared me. He prepared him a body so that
he might suffer and die. And it is not this love that
draws us to Him. This is the love that draws us
to Him. Oh, the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. Oh, the mighty gulf that God
did span at Calvary. And being made of a woman, the
seed of the woman as He is prophesied, notice this, He did not partake
of Adam's sin nature. He escaped the sin nature we
all inherited by being born of the virgin's womb, being made
by the Holy Spirit in the body of her flesh. And what was His purpose? He
was made under the law. Made under the law. He was made under the law so
that He might honor and magnify the law, the thing that we could
not do, Christ came to perform. In order for us to be accepted
as sons, the law must be satisfied. Justice must be fulfilled. Therefore,
in His whole life, He came and kept the commandments of the
law. And not only to provide perfect
righteousness by active obedience, but also to obtain a perfect
record, he must have satisfied the justice of God. And so he came not only under
the law, but five, to redeem them that were under the curse.
Now when you say redeem, you must understand there are two
aspects of redemption. Ransom, and deliverance. You must have both. In order
to be redeemed, you must have both. What good is a ransom if
you're never delivered? And what good is a deliverance
if a ransom is never paid? You must have both. So Christ
came to redeem them, to pay the ransom price by His blood, by
His death, by His being made sin for us, and in His own body
He bore our sin. And God, in righteous judgment,
killed His only Son in our stead to pay for our sin. God says this in Job. He says, "...deliver him, the
guilty, from going down to the pit, why I have found a ransom."
You want to know why you're a son of God? Listen, you're a son
of God because you purposed it. and you are a son of God because
God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to
redeem you to pay the ransom price for you and so now the
ransom has been made but that's not all is it look at the next
part To redeem them that were under the law, listen, that we
should receive the adoption of sons. Not only ransom must be
done, but deliverance must be received. It must be given to
those adopted sons, that they might receive this truth, that
we were sons by purpose and sons by purchase. How then is this
received? only by faith in Jesus Christ. Do you not understand the necessity
of faith? Faith in Christ is necessary. You, now listen, I'm speaking
to every individual in this room, you must believe on the Son of
God. without faith is impossible to
please God. You cannot be a son except you
believe. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become the sons of God. I like this. Henry Mahan said, I cannot know
Christ through another man's mind. I cannot love him with
another man's heart. I cannot believe him with another
man's faith. I must believe. I must love him. I must surrender everything to him. IF YOU WILL
NOT SURRENDER, IT IS BECAUSE YOU ARE NOT SON. NOW WHAT HE
SAID TO THOSE WHO DIDN'T BELIEVE, HE SAID YOU BELIEVE NOT BECAUSE
YOU ARE NOT MY SON. THAT'S JUST MANIFEST EVIDENCE
THAT YOU ARE NOT THE SON OF GOD IF YOU WILL NOT BELIEVE. WHY? HE SAID MY SONS, MY SHEEP, THEY
BELIEVE. THEY HEAR MY VOICE AND THEY FOLLOW
ME. SO THEN DO YOU BELIEVE? then you are a son of God. This is the evidence of my sonship.
But there's a problem here that Paul must crush. And that's the idea that faith
makes us sons. Now my faith did not make me
a son. I was already a son even in bondage. I was a son by purpose, and I
was a son by redemption. Purchase. Now I'm a son by faith,
but my faith did not make me a son. Look at the next verse.
Look at the next verse in verse 6. He says, and because you are
son. God has sent forth His Spirit
of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now why
is it that He sent His Spirit into your hearts and not anybody
else's? Why is it that He came to you and sent His Spirit into
your heart, causing you to cry, Abba, Father, while others will
not? He did so because you ARE sons. You ARE sons. YOU BELIEVE BECAUSE
YOU ARE SONS. AND AS YOU BELIEVE, IT IS MANIFEST
YOU ARE SONS. SO MY FAITH MANIFESTS I'M A SON,
IT DOESN'T MAKE ME ONE. I'M ALREADY A SON. I'VE ALWAYS
BEEN A SON. AND GUESS WHAT? I WILL ALWAYS
BE A SON. AND IF A SON WHAT? THEN AN HEIR.
THAT'S THE ONLY CONCLUSION YOU CAN MAKE. IF YOU'RE A SON, YOU'RE
AN HEIR. AN HEIR. Listen, you're not a
servant. Isn't that what the prodigal When he came to himself he came
to his father and he says per adventure he would just make
me he said father I've sinned again. He rehearsed this before
he's going father I've sinned against thee and against heaven
and if you would just make me but one of thy Servants and he
gets to the father and the father runs out there and hugs his neck
and he says father I've sinned against heaven and against you
man, and he didn't even let him finish He said no you put a ring
on his finger. Why he was already a son He was
a returning son, but he was a son already. You put a ring on his
finger and a robe on him, you kill the fatted calf, my son
that was dead is now alive. That's my story. That's a story
of every son. I'm just telling you your own
experience. Isn't that right? Isn't this just replaying your
own experience? It is. We're sons by birth, sons
by purpose. from eternity. Sons by purchase
for Christ redeemed us and sons by faith. Now, what does the
law have to do with it? This is his whole point. What
does the law have to do with this? Not a thing. Isn't that good
news? That's good news. Law has nothing
to do with it. Law has nothing to say to me. Except this. He's a son. He's an heir. I pray God give
you comfort of this.