Abraham heard God tell him in
Genesis 15, 1, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward.
Abraham believed God that he was his shield and his exceeding
great reward. And in so believing, he found
himself secure in the Lord Jesus Christ. God tells us that sinners
can come to Christ. He tells us that in the Lord
Jesus our sins are washed away. He tells us that in Him is a
perfect righteousness that clothes us and finds us without fault
before Him and gives us everlasting life and in so seeing that we
have what we believe. God gives us eyes to see what
is true. And that persuasion that we have of the truth that's
in Christ is a God-given persuasion. Never minimize the importance
and the value of it because it's more precious than gold that
perishes. I want to open again from Galatians with you. We're
going to read from Galatians, but most of our time I'm going
to be spending on this topic called the sons of God in order
to get into the details of Galatians, this section of Galatians next
time. So turn with me in your Bible
to Galatians chapter three and we'll begin reading from verse
22. We're gonna read through the entire chapter and through
the chapter four so you can get the entire context here. Before
we do, let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you
that you've given us in the Lord Jesus Christ a full redemption. and by your spirit have enabled
us and from your word given us the right to come to you as your
sons and call upon you as our father and help us never to take
this highest of all privileges lightly but to come reverentially,
trustingly, confidently with security that we are the children
of God by your eternal love, by Christ's redeeming blood made
known to us here now in the spirit of God. Help us, dear Lord, to
come to you at all times as your children, though we're sinners,
to come by the blood of Christ. What we are in ourselves is shameful,
but oh the glory of what we see in Christ and what you've told
us that we are in him. So let us come, thankfully. We
pray, Lord, now that according to this great grace you've shown
to us, taken us from the depths of sorrow and ruin to the heights
of glory. Though we deserve nothing from
you, we pray, Lord, that if we have found grace in your sight
by the Lord Jesus, that you would bless us now from your word as
your children feed us with that bread of life who is our savior
and give us day by day what we need while we look for you and
long for your appearing. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Galatians chapter three, we're going to be reading I want you
to think about the blessings of Abraham here as we've been
talking about the last few weeks. What are those blessings? What
was the blessing God promised to Abraham? Could you tell me
what it is? Isn't it the justification of
sinners? by the blood and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, received by God-given faith. Isn't that
the blessing? And isn't it the blessing of
the Spirit of God to know these things in our heart? And today
we're gonna see another blessing, which is all wrapped up together
in this, these first two blessings, which is our sonship, our sonship,
that we're made the sons of God. We're going to see how that is
here in Galatians 3. Look at verse 22. The first part
here describes the purpose of the law. The law was given to
keep us under until the time Christ came and redeemed us.
Having redeemed us, God sent His Spirit into our hearts to
know our sonship. And then he gives us an explanation
of Old Testament scripture to show us that this has always
been God's purpose. And God even used the historical
events around Abraham and Sarah and Hagar and Ishmael and Isaac
to teach us these things. Let's read together, beginning
at verse 22. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe. It's not to us because our parents
believe. We're not Christians. We're not
blessed by God with spiritual blessings. Not one spiritual
blessing apart from the Lord Jesus Christ. All spiritual blessings
are in Christ. And only in Christ. And only
those who believe are in Christ. So that's why we have this promise
by faith of Jesus Christ given to them that believe. But before
faith came, the revelation of the gospel of what Christ had
done, the object of our faith, before we were given faith, we
were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should
afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.
But after that faith has come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster. I get a picture of a strict teacher
standing in front of a bunch of students in a wooden desk
in an old school where they use a little ruler to come up to
the kids when they're doing wrong and wrap them on the back of
their hand. That's what I think of as a schoolmaster. And that's
probably not far from the mark. Let's keep reading. For you are
all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Notice that.
The children of God. That's the third blessing here
we see. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ have put on Christ. 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. So it's not our relation to Abraham,
is it? It's our relation to Christ,
which we have by faith. And if you be Christ's, then
are you Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. Now,
I say that the heir, the one who is designated heir of the
father, As long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant,
though he be Lord of all." You can't tell the difference between
the one born to the father, designated as his heir, from the servant. When they're children, they're
treated the same. They're put under the schoolmaster. Verse
2, "...but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed
of the father." Until it seems good to his dad, he's going to
be kept that way. Even so, we, when we were children,
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." The elements of the world is just another
label for the law itself. We tried to live, we were required
to live on the basis of our own personal obedience called the
elements of the world. But then Christ came. Why? Why
did the Lord Jesus Christ come? How did he come? Well, he came
in the fullness of time, when it was God's goodwill, and God
sent him forth. He was made of a woman. He took
on a human nature, the Son of God. The Son of God, God's only
begotten Son, took on the form of a servant and took on the
nature of his people. He was born of a woman, made
under the law. He obligated himself to fulfill
the law. To live by the law and to receive
the reward the law promised. And then to fulfill the demands
of the law in the curse against sinners. He did all that. Why? Verse 5. To redeem them that
were under the law in order that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because you 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. How are we no more servants?
Because Christ redeemed us from the law. And we're made sons
by the adoption of God, by the redeeming work of Christ, and
it's known to us when the Spirit of God is given to us. And if
a son, then an heir of God through Christ. In other words, we are
inheritors of all that's God's, just like a son is the inheritor
of all that is his dad's. Verse eight, how be it, then
when you knew not God, you did service to them which by nature
are no gods. You were idolaters. But now,
after that you have known God, or rather, are known of God,
because you're children, you don't seem to have yet been entering
into your sonship, so you're known of God, but you don't know
Him, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labor in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as
I am, for I am as you are, you have not injured me at all. You
know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel
to you at the first, and my temptation which was in my flesh you despised
not, nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as
Christ Jesus. Where is then the blessedness
you spoke of? 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. Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth? This is the natural reaction
that the sinful heart of man has when he hears the truth,
that the one who tells the truth must be his enemy because the
truth exposes us for what we are. Verse 17. Speaking about
the Judaizers, they zealously affect you, but not well, yea,
they would exclude you, that you might affect them. In other
words, the Judaizers put a condition on the Galatian believers in
order for them to be saved and accepted and perfected by God,
that they keep the law, in order that these Galatian believers
might actually give honor to the Judaizers and submit to them
under their control. Verse 18, But it is good to be
zealously affected always in a good thing, and not only when
I am present with you. My little children, of whom I
travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, I desire
to be present with you now and change my voice, for I stand
in doubt of you. Verse 21, Tell me, you that desire
to be under the law, do you not hear the law? For it is written,
That Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond made, the other
by a free woman. But he who was of the bond woman
was born after the flesh, that would be Ishmael. And Hagar,
the bond woman, was Hagar, the son, born after the flesh was
Ishmael. Not by promise, but after the
flesh. But he of the free woman, Sarah, Isaac was born to Sarah,
was by promise, because God had promised Isaac. Verse 24, which
things are an allegory. In other words, God arranged
these historical events in order to teach something much more
important, which is this. For these are the two covenants. These two women are two covenants. The one from the Mount Sinai,
that's the law, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. Agar
represents the law, represents Sinai where the law was given
and the bondage. Ishmael represents those who
are in bondage to the law, verse 25. For this Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia and answers to Jerusalem which now is. It corresponds
to the earthly Jerusalem which now is. That apostate city where
the Jews in unbelief rejected their Messiah and held tightly
to their own works for righteousness. And that city, or the adherents
to that doctrine, are in bondage with her children. 26. But Jerusalem
which is above is free. Which Jerusalem is above? The
city of the living God, where Christ is His people, the temple
of God, the people, the church of God. Jerusalem which is above
is free. Everyone in that city is free. And that city, Jerusalem, which
is above, is the mother of us all. Just like Sarah was the
mother, the free woman was the mother of Isaac, the son of promise.
Verse 27. For it is written, Rejoice thou
barren that bearest not. Break forth and cry thou that
travailest not. For the desolate hath many more
children than she which hath a husband. Sarah didn't have
any children, but God promised she would. Hagar did, though
she had them after the flesh. And so God's promise to the church
was that she, the church, would bear many more children to Christ
because they were children of promise. And they would be an
innumerable number of people. Verse 28. Now we brethren, we
brethren, we who believe, we brethren, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise. That means God promised before
that we would be his sons. 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 where everyone who is a rejecter of
Christ persecutes the believers. Nevertheless, what saith the
scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son. In other words,
you cannot give obedience to the law in order for life and
salvation, or for sanctification, you have to cast out the bondwoman
and her son, all those who adhere to that form of doctrine. For
the son of the bondwoman All those who come to God by their
own works shall not be heir with the son of the free woman. All
those who come to God by the Lord Jesus Christ because of
the gospel, they believe through God-given faith. So then, brethren,
we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. I hope you understand
something about that. So I want to now go to scripture
with you and talk about this highest of all privileges and
gifts and blessings that God has given to us who believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. What is that? To be called the
sons of God. To be called the sons of God.
We need to really stop here and we need to contemplate what God
has revealed from his word concerning this blessing to be made and
to be called the sons of God, to be given authority from God
himself to be called the sons of God and to come to him with
that God-given warrant and authority and call on him as our father. This is amazing, amazing grace.
Can we come to God the Father in any way? Can we come just
any way? Is it true that all men are children
of God in this sense spoken of here in Galatians? It's true
that all men are born like Adam was called the son of God in
Luke chapter three. When it talks about the genealogy
of the Lord Jesus Christ through Mary back to Adam, it ends with
who was Adam, who was the son of God. But that was a sonship
that was by creation. All men by creation are called
the sons of God and angels are called sons of God in the book
of Job. But the sonship spoken of here is not that kind of a
sonship. Is it true that all men born after the flesh, Are
sons of God in a spiritual sense? Jesus told Nicodemus, whatever
is born of the flesh is flesh. That means it goes no higher
than flesh. If I was born to my father, and my father was
a Christian, that doesn't make me a Christian. Though that's
taught in many churches. nowadays. It's popular to believe
optimistically, for people to optimistically think that they're
just going to heaven because they were born. Or that they
live their life and at the end of their life everyone gathers
around and talks about the fact that dear old so-and-so is in
glory now looking at us. But is that true? Can we come
to God any way? in any way possible? Can we come
to God through any other way other than the Lord Jesus Christ?
How do you know the answer to that question? In John 14, verse
6, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man
comes to the Father but by me. In other words, we cannot come
to God unless we come to him in the Lord Jesus Christ through
him. A second question is, can we know God the Father? Can we
know him in any other way except what we know of him by Jesus
Christ? What do you know about God the
Father? Can you think of one thing you know about God the
Father from scripture that you don't know apart from how He
has revealed Himself in the Lord Jesus Christ? It says in scripture,
no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And Jesus
told his disciples when they asked him to show us the Father,
he said, Have I been so long time with you? And yet have you
not known me? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. And no man knows the Father but
the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. We can't
know God apart from Jesus Christ. We can't know God the Father
apart from His Son. The only way to come to God,
to know God, to believe on God the Father, is to look at, to
see, to understand, to believe and come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is very significant.
What we know about our God and Father is what we know about
our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the image of the invisible
God. He is the glory, the brightness
of His glory. The expressed image of His person. And you can't know Him. And so
for someone to claim that they can be in heaven, who don't know
Christ, is a flat denial of scripture. No man has seen God at any time.
You only come to God through his Son. If you won't come by
his Son, you will not come. And so the Lord Jesus even said,
all who are taught of the Father, come to me. That's the way he
teaches us. We come to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's found in John chapter 6 and verse 44 and 45. And we also have no access to
God our Father but through the Lord Jesus Christ. In Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 18 it says, through Him, through Christ, we both
have access by one Spirit unto the Father. It's through the
Lord Jesus Christ that we have access to the Father through
the Spirit, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And in Ephesians 3.12 it says, in whom, in Christ,
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him.
How do we come to the Lord Jesus? By looking to Christ. By coming
to Christ. By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then we come to the Father. And
that's the way we come. When we say in the prayer, the
Lord Jesus taught His disciples to pray, when we say, Our Father,
We immediately bring into our thoughts and our words the truth
of the doctrine God has taught us in scripture, that it's only
in and through the Lord Jesus Christ that God is our Father. And so we have to come to Him
in that way. We learn of the grace of God.
We learn of the grace of God in the tender compassion of the
Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? When you see how he treated his
disciples, what did he call them? Children? Have you any meat? Children this, children that.
He spoke to them as children, children of his father. And we
see the grace of God in the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's the way we know the grace of God, isn't it? As sinners,
we know it that way. We learn of his eternal purpose
to save us from our sins and bless us, how? By Jesus Christ. That's the only way. We learn
of His almighty power by His power that raised Jesus Christ
from the dead. We learn of His almighty power
by that power that raised Christ from the dead and delivered us
from all our enemies, even from Satan and death and our sin.
And we learn of God's sovereign rule because he created and upholds
all things by Jesus Christ and for Jesus Christ and to the glory
of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we see in all this that
God the Father wants us to only think of God in terms of what
we know about him in Jesus Christ. And then we begin to understand
God our Father. in every epistle, in every New
Testament epistle written by the Apostle Paul, but also the
first and second epistles written by Peter, and then later the
Apostle John and 2 John, and in the book of Revelation also
said this. Every one of them start out this way, somewhere
in the beginning of the epistle, grace to you and peace from God
our Father. and from the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a significant blessing,
isn't it? Here you are walking down the
street, your mind's a thousand miles away from the things of
God. You're thinking about doing whatever you're doing, thinking
about the things around you, what you're gonna do next, tomorrow,
your problems in life, and all these things are just going on
in your head. And suddenly, you remember those words that were
spoken in every epistle of the New Testament, grace, and peace
to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Think
about those words and take them. They're the truth from heaven.
And at the close of most of the epistles, at the close of the
book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, do you know
what it says? Almost every epistle closes this way. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, amen. Now that's the
message of scripture to God's people. Grace and truth by Jesus
Christ from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. The sons of God. I want to talk
to you about the sons of God. It's only by the Spirit of Christ
that we can know God as our Father. That's what we read a moment
ago in Galatians chapter 4 verse 6. But I want you to think about
some of these things about the sons of God. First of all, understand
this, that God's sons were his sons before they believed. Now that, that doesn't seem like
what I was taught when I was a kid. That's not what you read
in everyday doctrine on the internet. The sons of God were his sons
before they believed. How could that be? Well, listen
to scripture. in Isaiah 43 and verse 6. God says, I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. That's Isaiah
43 and verse 6. God the Father is saying this
in prophecy. This is what I'm going to say
throughout all the earth, bring my sons and my daughters from
far. These were his children before
they even knew him. And then, in John chapter 11
verse 51 and 52, remember Caiaphas, the high priest, was giving his
counsel, but he gave his counsel unwittingly, speaking the actual
words by the Spirit of God when he said these things. He said,
being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should
die for that nation. And not for that nation only,
but that also he should gather together in one the children
of God that were scattered abroad." The children of God were scattered
abroad. Why were they scattered? Because they were like sheep.
Like sheep, they were scattered. Jesus gave three parables in
Luke chapter 15. One lost sheep out of a hundred. One lost coin out of ten, and
one lost son out of two. Remember that? The lost sheep,
and the lost coin, and the lost son were God's possessions. Were Christ's possessions. The
sheep were all Christ's. He's the Good Shepherd, the Great
Shepherd, the Chief Shepherd. He had a hundred sheep, but one
was lost. And that one sheep was his too.
And so he went out after his own sheep to find his lost sheep. And when he had found it, he
put it on his shoulders and he carried it. And he brought it
back to the fold and he put it back in the fold. It was his
sheet before, wasn't it? The lost coin, the woman had
lost a coin. She swept the house trying to
find it. She found that coin, it was hers, but she had lost
it and she recovered it. And so Jesus says there's joy
in heaven over one sinner that repents more than over 99 that
need no repentance. And then most precious of all
is the prodigal son in the same chapter. He was his father's
son. And he asked his father in a
demanding way, Father, give me what is mine. Give me what's
coming to me. And he left his father. And when his father gave
it to him, don't you know that his father knew that in giving
him this, he would fall away. He would go and live a profligate
life with harlot, spending and wasting all that he had that
was given to him of his father. And then he would, in that faraway
country, lose all of his friends because he would have no money.
They were only his friends because they had something. And then
he would find himself caring for the unclean swine and tempted
to live off the food that they ate. And then he would be brought
to himself and he would say, what am I doing here? Don't the
servants in my father's house have food enough and more? I
will arise and go to my father and will say to my father, father,
I have sinned against heaven and before you and I am no more
worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired
servants. And it was then when he arose and then he saw his
father coming to him. His father was always his father
beforehand, before we believe we are the sons of God. And how
can this be? It raises us this question, Lord,
how is it that I became your son? How is it, Lord, that I
became your son, that I came to be called, came to be called
your son and came to call you my father? How is that? Don't
you want to know that? God wants us to know that. It
says in John chapter one and verse 12, as many as received
Christ, to them gave he power or authority, warrant, a right,
a title, to be called the sons of God, even to them that believe
on his name. In other words, when we believe
on Christ, we receive Christ. We don't reach out and take him
But He gives Himself to us because it's Him coming to us by which
we are given faith. And in that faith then we see
Him and we take Him to ourselves because He gives Himself to us.
We receive Him. But when we receive Jesus Christ
by believing Him, we receive Him into ourselves, the Spirit
of God. Christ comes and dwells in us.
When we believe, we already have His Spirit. So it's in believing
that we receive him. But he says there in John 1.12
that as many as believe on Christ, looking to Christ as a sinner,
without anything in my hand and nothing to bring, and only reasons
in myself to think that I could not be saved. And having only one hope that
God in Christ would have mercy on me and look upon him and receive
me for his sake. When we so come, believing Christ,
seeing that He is the Son of God, that He was given a body,
and in that body given the Spirit of God and upheld throughout
His life to keep the law of God, and then to suffer under His
curse in our place and on our behalf and fulfill that law for
our righteousness. He did all that as a man, and
as a man he looked to his father as his God, and loved his God,
and served him as a servant. This was the Son of God, who
is the only begotten of the Father, whose nature is the nature co-equal,
co-eternal with the Father. And he says that as many as received
him, to them he gave the same right to call God their father
as he addresses his own father as the Lord Jesus Christ. He
calls him my father, doesn't he? What a privilege. But he goes on in John 1.13 and
he says, these who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have already
been born of God. We can't believe on him unless
we are born of God. And how is it that we were born
of God? Well, he says it wasn't because we were born to our parents,
it was not of blood. It's not by a relationship we
have to men or women. Not because we happen to be in
a certain family that goes to church. Or because we happen
to be born in a certain nation, like the nation of Israel, to
Abraham and his children. None of those things. It's not
by blood. Nor is it by the will of our flesh. Not by our determination. Not by our resolve. Nor is it
by the will of a man. Other people can't just make
it happen because they want us to be. But it's of God that we're
born of God. It's of God. We're utterly dependent
on God, our Father. James 1.18 says, of his own will
begat he us, or gave birth to us by the will of God. And that
was by the word of God that he did that. And so those who believe
Christ are given the right to call themselves and to be called
the sons of God because they are born of God and their birth
to God is by His Spirit of His will. Not of their will. The
seed, the incorruptible seed, the Spirit of God is given to
us by the will of God when we hear the truth. of the gospel
of Jesus Christ, and in hearing that truth, the hearing of faith,
God's Spirit gives us that life with faith to look to Christ,
and in so seeing Him, God discovers to us that we're His, and we're
called the sons of God. Now, this rite and this birth,
as I said, is not by anything we do, not by anything we are,
but it's by the work of God. Now, there's three aspects to
this. When we say God, sometimes we
mean God the Father, and sometimes we mean the Son of God, and sometimes
we're talking about God the Holy Spirit, because that's the way
scripture speaks. So, when it says that we're made
sons of God by the will of God, it's talking about God our Father.
It says in Ephesians chapter 1, if you want to turn there
from Galatians, just over the page, Ephesians chapter 1 and
verse 3, it says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. As man, God the Father is the
God of Jesus Christ, but as the Son of God, he is the Father
of Jesus Christ. He's not the father of Jesus
Christ by adoption. And he's not the father of Jesus
Christ by his being born. He always was the father of Jesus
Christ because Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. As long
as Jesus Christ has been the Son of God, God the Father has
been His Father. And as long as God the Father
has been the Father, He has been the Father of the Son of God,
our Lord Jesus Christ. So he begins, verse 3, blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, God the
Father, has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. Because Christ is the title God
gave to His Son when He chose Him in His human nature to be
our surety and our substitute and to save us from our sins
by His own substitutionary death. And so He blessed us in Him.
He became the mediator, the one through whom all blessings would
come to us from God our Father, the one in whom all knowledge
of God the Father would be known. And then he says, according as
He, God the Father again, has chosen us in Him, in Christ,
before the foundation of the world. So here we see that it
was God the Father who chose us in Christ, our mediator, who
would bear our sins and bring us to God. He chose us in that.
And he goes on and explains how the purpose for which he did
this, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ unto himself, according to the good pleasure
of his will. God the Father laid out every
detail before anything ever happened, before the world was created,
he put in place every detail necessary for the Lord Jesus
Christ to make us the sons of God. That's what he's saying
here. By Jesus Christ, it was by the doing, the dying, the
incarnation, the exaltation, the intercession. All of these
things about Jesus Christ is why we are the sons of God by
Jesus Christ. So we see here two things. How
are we the sons of God? God the Father chose us and he
adopted us. He predestinated us unto the
adoption of children by Jesus Christ. So the very first step,
if you want to put it in steps, the first step in our being made
children of God is it was of God the Father. Now in the olden
days, in the Romans, in the Roman nation, in their culture, If
a man was childless, he could find a stranger, someone who
was unrelated to him, and he could take that stranger and
he could make him his son by what was called adoption. The
man or the boy or whoever it was that he made to be his son
would be treated just like his son, given his own name and given
all the privileges of being his son, given his inheritance as
a son. And he would call his adopted
father, he would call his adopted father the name of father. He
had never been his son before, but he was made his son by the
choice of that man who had no children. That's called adoption.
When God the father adopted us, he chose us. That's what the
word adopt means. It means to choose. To choose
us, to put us among the children. It speaks of that in Jeremiah
chapter 3, around verse 18. God the Father chose us to be
his children by Jesus Christ, meaning it would be through the
Lord Jesus Christ, and we would be made children unto himself.
And all of this would be according to the good pleasure of his will,
not any other will, because he works all things according to
the pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his
grace. wherein he hath made us accepted
in the Beloved. In the Beloved means in the sons
of God, Jesus Christ himself being the Beloved One. And how
did he do this? By Jesus Christ. What did Jesus
Christ do to make us God's son? Verse 7, Ephesians 1. In whom? In Christ. We have redemption
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches
of his grace. Now the Roman man who wanted
a son and would adopt him He had to pay in order to get that
man, if he was a servant, out of slavery. He had to buy him
out of slavery. He had to redeem him from all
debts. He had to take all obligations
as his and pay it off. And so God the Father, in order
to make us his sons, he had to take us from slavery as servants
to make us his sons. Because sons are not slaves.
Remember Ishmael was born to a bond woman. But Isaac was born
to a free woman. Isaac was no slave. He was a
son. Ishmael was a slave. He was not
a true son. as only a son after the flesh,
but not a son of promise. But when God the Father chose
his people in Christ, he had to redeem them in order to make
them his sons. He had to pay off the debt they
owed and buy them out of the bondage of their slavery to sin
and Satan and death and everything, the consequences of sin, and
also pay off all their debts. And how did he do that? By the
blood of his only begotten son. Ephesians 1.7. So now look back
at Galatians chapter 3. Actually, let's look at Galatians
chapter 4. We've read through this now in verse 4. In verses 1 of Galatians 4, he
says, Now I say that the heir, the heir, the one designated
to receive the entire inheritance of his father, as long as he
is a child, he's underage now, can't give an underage child
the entire rule over your kingdom, can you? He doesn't know anything. He's not mature. He differs nothing
from a servant. He's just like a slave. Though
he be, by choice, Lord of all and by birth. But he's under
tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements
of the world. Okay, here we are. We're slaves
now. We're servants. We're in bondage. We're serving
out of a legal heart we're thinking that we have to earn a reward
of God's favor and acceptance and and blessings don't we that's
the way we live our lives but he says but when the fullness
of the time was come when we were under this legal bondage
and even in this prison shut up unto the gospel that would
come later. When the fullness of the time was come, then God
our Father sent forth his only begotten Son, made of a woman
in our nature. He took into union with himself
our nature, in order that he might be our near kinsman, so
that he could redeem us. Made under the law, because he
had to pay the debt, all the obligations and fulfill our our
criminal penalty, our debt to the law, our criminal debt to
the law. And here's why. To redeem them that were under
the law. God's servants under the law,
He had to redeem them. Why? In order that we might receive
the adoption of sons. He had to take us from the enslavement
and the guilt and the corruption of our sin and the ruin. And
He had to remove all that. He had to take away our debt
by paying it. And take away our guilt by satisfying
His justice for it. Forgiving us of all of our sins
and setting us free as free men in order that we might receive
the adoption of sons. And then he says in verse 6,
And because you are sons by this choice of God, eternal choice,
by the redeeming work of Christ which happened in time, God has
sent forth in our own lifetime the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Abba, Father, what a word that
is. Abba, Father. I wonder if I should
just stop here and continue next time. Let me get into a little
bit of this word of Abba, Father. The word Abba is not a word,
it's not an English word, is it? Have you ever heard somebody
saying that, Abba, Abba? I don't. People don't talk that
way because it's not an English word. And it's not even, it was
not even a Hebrew word. It was another language, a word
from another language, an Arabic word. And it really means, it's
a word that only someone who was related to the head of the
family could use. A servant couldn't use this word
in referring to the head of the family. You couldn't go to, let's
say you came into my house and you weren't related to me. Or
if I hired you, let's say, to mow the lawn, you couldn't say,
Abba. That would be illegal in those days. This word was reserved
only for those who were the child of the father. So it's a word
that's restricted to sons. That's the first thing. This
is the word, if God gives you this word to come to him with
and use this. And it's not just saying the
word. Sometimes we get into these religious things. Oh, I'm going
to start praying like this, Abba, Father. It's not just saying
the word, although it's fine to say that, but it's understanding
what's behind the word. It's understanding how it is
and why it is and what it means to be called, in this way, the
children of God and to call Him Father. When a child speaks to
his father, how does he do that? Well, if you're a son to your
father, you know something about this, even though it might be
distorted by the sin in your relationship and in your own
heart. But these are the basics of how you come to your father.
First, you come in reverence, don't you? You come reverentially
because your dad knows everything, doesn't he? He usually knows
what you're thinking before you ask him. Even if he's an earthly
father, he knows you pretty well, because he knew you when you
were born. And he watched you grow up, and he listens to you,
and he recognizes how you think. You've probably seen those people
on TV. They say, I know what you're thinking, son. And he
goes, how would you know that? It's kind of funny. That's the
way it is. A father knows his son, and he has, a father not
only knows his son, but he has control over his son's welfare,
doesn't he? If your dad says, you gotta do
this, you better do it. And if he withholds something
from you, no, you can't eat now because you didn't eat your oatmeal
this morning. You have to eat it again at lunch. You gotta
eat your oatmeal at lunch. It's because dad said so. He
pretty much holds control over your life, doesn't he? And he
also provides everything for you. So you come to him in reverence. because you respect him. He's
your dad. He gives you everything that
you have. He controls your life. And he does it in love. And so
you respect him. Not only do you respect him,
but you have a tender, intimate relationship with him as your
father and you his son. You come to him, not recklessly,
but you come to him securely, don't you? You come to him trustingly
secure in his love. I've given that illustration
many times before, where my dad asked me to jump off the roof
into his arms, and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Finally,
I don't know, I managed to fall, and he caught me. And there was
a sense of strange feeling there, that he actually had the strength
to catch me. And he did. He was willing and
able to hold me up. And so we trust our father with
a sense of security that dad's going to just take care of it.
When a bad guy comes to the door, dad's the ones out front. And
everybody else is inside the house. I wonder how dad's going
to handle this. Because you trust in your father,
don't you? So you're secure. And you know that if you're going
to get anything, he's going to provide it. All these things
are natural in our relationship to our father. And he corrects
us. And he instructs us. And he's faithful to do all these
things throughout our life. And even as we grow older, we
rely on the wisdom and the experience of our father, don't we? So when
this word Abba, father, it conjures up all these things and more.
It means that our father has probably prepared from his own
substance for us so that even after he dies, he's going to
give what he has to us. So we realize we received our
life from our father and our mother. And so we look to him
this way, Abba, Father, we come with confidence. We come with
liberty, not with the cowering of a slave, but with the boldness
of a son who enters in and knows that he'll be received by his
father if he has a need, if he has a question, if he has a concern. His father has a tender care
for him at all times. He says in 1 Peter 5, 7, casting
all your cares upon him, for he careth for you. And so Jesus
told us, come and pray this way, our Father. All these things
are considered in that. And so we call God our father. It's a high privilege, a unique
privilege of a child to speak to the one who stood as the head
of the family in the nearest relation and in the greatest
affection of a son to his father, who knows his father, loves him,
and cares for him, and provides everything for him, and does
all that he does for his son's good because his life is wrapped
up in his son. When he dies, his name will be
carried forward in his son's name. I remember listening to
my children play the piano or do something that I could never
do very well. Or maybe they did it far better
than I did. And I always took delight in that. Just seeing
my children excel beyond what I could do. And I still do. They're smarter than me, or they're
stronger than me, or they're more skilled at things than me,
and I see that in them. And it just gives you some satisfaction. But God has chosen us to be his
sons and put us in this relationship, buying us out of slavery, and
then given us his spirit to know this and to call on him as our
father, using this word, Abba. It's a term of endearment, of
nearness, of liberty. of dependence, we're utterly
dependent on him and we know it and he's delighted to have
it that way. My dad was never, he was never
critical of me depending on him. He found satisfaction in being
my father to provide for me. He would instruct me to do things
for myself and make it hard for me sometimes to do that by leaving
me to struggle through it. But he was always there to help.
And he always had a better idea usually than I did. And my mom
would remind me of that if I ever forgot it. You better go ask
your dad. So we call on our God and our
Father in this way. I'm going to have to close it
here. There's much we can say about this and I'll probably
continue this next week. God the Father chose us unto
the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ and redeemed us by the
blood of his own darling Son. and then sent the spirit of his
son into our hearts, so that we could cry to him, Abba, Father,
and believe him, and in believing him, know that we were loved
of God before. Let's pray. Our gracious heavenly Father,
we pray that you would send the spirit of your son into our hearts,
so that we might truly know, not just with words, But in our
conscience and in our life, we would know the love that you
have had to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we would believe
that love. We would believe in you, believe
in your grace, which you've shown to us in the Lord Jesus Christ
and made us know it by your spirit. Help us to come at all times
to you. and only come by the blood of our Lord Jesus. Help
us to look to him and know in looking to him we're trusting
you because you sent him and gave him the word to us to speak
to us as our mediator, to bring us to yourself by his own blood.
Help us to ponder these things and contemplate them and we pray
you'd write them on our heart, instruct us, and chasten us in
due time so that we might not be partakers of this world and
its destruction, but might be partakers of the Lord Jesus Christ
and His holiness. Teach us these things, we pray,
dear Lord, our God. Thank you for your mercy towards
us and your grace and your love. and your power to save us from
all of our enemies and to bring us to yourself and give us this
eternal inheritance you've laid up for us in Christ before the
foundation of the world according to the bounty and riches of your
grace. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.