So open your Bibles, if you would,
to Galatians chapter 4. We'll continue our study in the
book of Galatians, a wonderful book, Paul penned by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit of God to the different churches in Galatia.
It's not written to one church. It's written to the churches
in Galatia. And Galatia is a province, a Roman province. And actually,
the Galatians, the Gauls, they were once independent. tribes scattered abroad and then
they rose up and fought against the Romans and then they became
a province of Rome after they were defeated. They have Celtic
ancestry, came across from Britain. and intermingled with the different
tribes and became the Gauls. They were close neighbors to
the Germans, the Germanic tribes. They lived in the areas Also
were scattered abroad up in the France area and all that too
as well. Just a little history for you about the Gauls and who
they are. So let's turn to Galatians chapter
four. Now the law under which the elect
Gentiles lived is called the elements of the world in our
text here. In our text, we'll be actually
looking at Galatians chapter 4 verse 7 today, but we're going
to read from verse 1 to find the context of the verse. And that refers to the life that
the Galatians lived before they were born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. And we were all in the same situation
when we came into this world. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. We're spiritually dead, but physically
alive. Now the message of the gospel
was the message of the Old Testament as well. All types and shadows pointed
to Christ. Remember our Lord on the road
to Arimaeus? He expounded unto the two disciples. about himself from the law and
the prophets. He said, they testify of me,
me. And until the Lord Jesus Christ
came, there were types and shadows until faith came. And before
that though, the message remained an undisclosed mystery. We have
had revealed to us the mystery that Paul wrote in Colossians
that's been hid from ages and generations. And it would have
been a mystery still to us if God hadn't revealed it to us.
And that's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation
in and through Christ alone. So for both the Jew and the Gentile,
the law and the elements of the world only led to bondage. Only
led to bondage. Salvation could never come by
man's works, and it still can't come by man's works today. We
cannot save ourselves. It's impossible. It's just as
true now, and it'll be true throughout all time. All the sons and daughters of
Adam are guilty before God, whether one believes it or not. And the schoolmaster, the law
of God, or our tutors and governors had Nothing to do with our salvation. What it did was bring us to Christ. And there's no freedom in the
law. It just leads to death. But there's freedom in Christ.
There's freedom in Christ, in him alone. And so the law could
never play any part in man's freedom from sin. See, that's
why Paul was saying to the Galatians, who hath bewitched you? These
Judaizers have come in and they said, well, you have to be circumcised
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But the law can never
lead to freedom for us. It can only lead to bondage.
Freedom is in Christ, true spiritual freedom, right? Freedom from
our sins, free from the punishment of our sins, a full pardon by
the grace and mercy of God. And that's what really draws
us to the Lord, is the love that he had for us while we were shaking
our fist at him. It goes beyond our comprehension,
doesn't it? And the law had nothing to do
also with the accomplishment of the promise that God made to Abraham, or
the benefits of the promise, or the revealing and receiving
of the promise. The law couldn't reveal the promise. It couldn't give any benefits
of the promise. This was all accomplished by
God and God alone. in eternity and then fulfilled,
Zane and I were talking about this, see God purposed and planned
everything in eternity. And as far as God's concerned,
right, Christ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
it's done. But that which he purposed and planned had to come
to pass in time. It had to. That's why the scripture
says here in verse 4, but when the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law.
See, God had purposed and planned and chosen us in eternity in
Christ, but we had to be redeemed, didn't we, in time. And so Christ,
in the fullness of time, comes into this world. The Son of God. This is no mere man. This is
the Son of God, in the fullness of God's time, comes into time
and space. See, we're locked in time and
space, beloved. He's outside of time and space. He had to
enter into time and space. Do you know one day, one day
is like a thousand years to God? How long has Christ been gone
then? Two days? In God's timing? See, we don't
understand that, because we're beings locked in time and space.
But we'll be released one day, won't we? When we go home to
be with the Lord forever, all because of His mercy and His
grace. So the laws were not against the promise, they simply had
nothing to do with justification or righteousness. Right? The law demands perfection. We
can't do that. But Christ, the God-man, when the fullness of
time has come, came into this world to redeem us, to purchase
us, to live the perfect life for us as our substitute. That's
good news, isn't it? Because we could never justify
ourselves before the law of God. We could never save ourselves.
We can't make ourselves righteous. Christ justifies us before God. He makes us righteous. His fulfillment
of the law is counted towards us. Hallelujah! What a Redeemer! What great love
Christ had for His people. My, let's read now Galatians
chapter 4 verses 1 to 7. Scripture here declares, Now
I say, that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing
from the servant, though he be lord of all. Remember in Let's
read verse 29, I should have read that first too in chapter
3. And if ye be Christ and ye are Abraham's seed and heirs
according to the promise. Now I say that the heir, so he's
continuing that same vein of thought, right? 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,
were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, so
He's made of a woman, He's the seed of the woman, just like
we was promised in the book of Genesis. Made under the law,
why? To redeem them, to purchase us,
to buy us. off the slave block of sin, to
purchase sinners, to redeem them that were under the law. That's
where we were. We were under the law, under
its dominion, under its power. That we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of a son into your hearts, crying
out of a father. And here's our verse today. Wherefore thou art
no more a servant, but a son. We're not servants anymore. We're a son. Now, we were always
heirs of God. We just didn't know it. We had
no clue. No clue at all that we had this
high privilege. And it's all by the grace of
God. There's nothing in us that deserves that, is there? Nothing
at all, beloved. Wherefore, thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if an heir, then an heir
of God through Christ. So in verses four to seven, Paul
declares the ratification of the eternal covenant, which is
by the shedding of Christ's blood. Christ's blood was shed to ratify
that eternal covenant and to redeem us. And this brings
forth the enforcement of the promise of God, right? God said
in the eternity, I give these people to Christ. And Christ
said, I'm going to redeem them. And Holy Spirit said, I'm going
to quicken them. There's the fulfillment. Isn't
that wonderful? It's wonderful. And we're redeemed
out from under the law, the scripture said, how? By the fulfillment
of the covenant demands of the Son of God. Spurgeon said, he said, I'll
come and die for him. I'll redeem him with my precious
blood. I'll give my life for him. I love him so much. I'll
give him my all. And think of that. He set aside
his glory for us. Right? Isn't that amazing? That's
just incredible. And became a man to redeem us
out from underneath the law. Oh my, what a great God. And then we see the spiritual
means of receiving the promise, which is having been born again
of the Holy Spirit, right? God sent forth the Spirit of
his Son, right? So there's the spiritual means
of us receiving that promise. Again, Zane, like we talked about,
that which was promised and planned in eternity is now coming to
pass right here before us in the text. And this happens in
every believer's life. Christ redeemed us before we
were even born, right? Then the Father sent the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts because we were sons. My, I still can't
get over that. Well, how long have we been sons
since God's plan in an eternity? My, oh my. It's true though. Let us embrace it. Let us rejoice. We who are the people of God.
It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And also set before
us in this wonderful book is justification by the faith of
Christ and justification by faith in Christ. Right? Christ lived that perfect life
for us. And then, by God's grace, we believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Justification by Christ, by the faith of Christ, and justification
by faith in Christ. Now the elect Jews were under
a schoolmaster, and the elect Gentiles were under tutors and
governors. John Gill brings that forth,
where it says here, 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. Gill separates the schoolmaster being
for the Jews, and the elements and bondage of the world being
for the Gentiles. We're all under the law, right? We're all under
the law. We're all guilty. The law stops
every mouth. No one can say, I'm innocent.
Guilty. That's what the law says. And
the law can only bring death, but life comes through Jesus
Christ, our Lord. Life comes through Him. Now think
back before we are saved. We never knew of our privilege
to stay. Before the Lord saved us, before
He regenerated us, we never knew of our privilege to stay. We
had no idea we were heirs. And as a matter of fact, we,
it says there in verse one, now I say that an heir, as long as
he is a child, right, before we're born again, differeth nothing
from a servant, though he be Lord of all. You couldn't tell
a sheep from a goat, before we were saved. You couldn't tell
that I was one of God's sheep, and I couldn't tell either. I
didn't know, I had no clue. I wasn't looking for God, were
you? No, we weren't, were we? We were just merrily going along
our way, doing whatever we thought would please us. Going right
there, yeah. My, on the Broadway. On the Broadway,
my oh my. And neither of these groups,
the elect Jews or the Gentiles, were aware of their privileged
estate. Neither of them, in their natural state, had any idea they
were heirs, just like us. We had no idea. We didn't know. And they didn't have... Think
of this, too. Think of this. They didn't know that their names
were written in heaven, and so were ours. Our names were already
written in heaven, and we had no clue. In the Lamb's Book of
Life, We didn't have any, did we? What mercy? That is love that you can't even
measure. That God would choose a worm
like me? As scripture says, a maggot like
me? Right? Like us. In God's eyes, we're
nothing, right? All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. And yet his love, his love, his
mercy, his grace are set upon those who he chose in Christ,
and we didn't even know it. Now we know, and we still have
a hard time, don't we? It's true, though. This is truth.
The Holy Spirit had Paul penned these words. This is truth. Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. That's truth. That's what we
are right now. That's not when we get to heaven.
That's right now. My. It's absolutely wonderful. My oh my. And the Jews and Gentiles
did not know that they were heirs, so they functioned as servants
in bondage to whatever, to their respective governments, to their
flesh, right? Just like we did before we were
saved. But rejoice, Christ came, born
of a woman. My, oh, my. the seed of promise from Genesis
3 15, the seed of the woman. He being made of a woman was
not tainted with original sin like we are. Oh, his father, his father was
not Adam. See every other person in this
earth except for Christ are are you go back far enough in our
father's Adam. It doesn't matter what color. And I'm not gonna say race, because
we're all the human race. Do you know that? That's what
the scripture says. We're called the human race, all of us. We
just have different skin pigmentation, that's all. That's all. We're all the same. So everyone in the human race, except for Christ, Adam's our
father. If you go back far, go all the
way back. And so when Adam fell, we fell with him. We fell with
him. But Christ's father wasn't Adam,
it was God. He was conceived of the Holy
Spirit of God. And he came, we saw there, in the fullness of
time, at the exact time appointed by the Father, to set aside the
law, how by his blood redemption, by the shedding of his precious
blood, he came to fulfill the law in the room and place of
his people. And this is why he was made under the law, that
he might fulfill the law by his propitiatory death on the cross
in our place, in our room and place. And the law was added
because of transgressions, our transgressions, man's transgressions. But by the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ in our room and place as our great substitute,
all of God's sheep by this one act, one act, all of God's sheep
are justified, redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that becomes
real for us in time and space, doesn't it? When the Holy Spirit
comes sent by the Father and we cry Abba Father. Oh, my. It's wonderful. It's
absolutely wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And
the believer in Christ is. Not adopted when they believe. People say you're regenerated
when you believe, no, you're regenerated, then you believe
and we're not adopted because we believe we're adopted because
we're sons. You see. We're heirs already,
and we don't know it. It's wonderful. Oh, my. We receive that which was already
God's purpose and plan, the privileged estate that He chose for us. See, it's His choosing, not us.
We would never choose Him. We would never come to God. Someone says, oh, come on, people
got their free will. The scripture says, and I'm just going from
what scripture says, okay? Set all that foolishness aside,
right? Do we make decisions every day of our lives, okay? We do,
don't we? But our will is guided by our
nature. And if we have a dead nature, all we're gonna do is
choose sin. If we're born again, now we fight
and struggle. That's why now we fight and struggle against
sin, because we're born again, you see? We didn't have a problem
with sin before, did we? Not at all. Now we struggle against
it. Now it now it. We've got a conscience. Right. Oh, my. So we're not adopted because
we believe. We received that which was already
ours by God's choosing. Isn't that magnificent? That's
wonderful. And it's all in and through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And how do we know that? Well,
look at verse seven, the latter part. Then an heir of God through
who? Christ. See, it all comes back to Him.
It's not about us. It's about Christ. It's always
about Christ. Always. My, oh, my. And look at verse 6. This brings
forth clearly that it's not because we believe that we're made sons,
but look at verse 6. It's so clear here. And because
ye are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of the Son. So God looks
at us and He knows we're His people and He sends the Spirit
of the Son. So who regenerates us? The Spirit
of the Son, right? So He sends them forth. Fetching
grace, right? Go and get them. He's one of
mine. Go get him. Go get her. They're mine. They're mine. They're mine by
purchase. They're mine by creation. They're
mine by love. They're mine by grace. They're
mine by mercy. They're mine. Oh, my. And because ye are sons,
God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba, Father. Remember last week we looked
at that? Father, Father. Hebrew and Greek in the same
verse. Right? Abba being the Hebrew
word for father. Father there being the Greek
word for father. Father my father. Two languages. Isn't that wonderful? Oh my. What a comforting truth. This
would have been to the Galatian believers. They dealt with the
assault of the Judaizers, and Paul setting forth before them
this wonderful truth, that you're heirs of God. You were once under
the law, the elements of the world, but you're not anymore.
Christ has set you free. You're free. And if the Son sets
you free, you're free indeed, right? You hear me use that a
lot, because it's true. We're free in Christ. And these
enemies of the cross would never cry, Abba, Father, because they're
still under the curse of the law. They've not been redeemed
out from underneath the law. As far as we know. Now, there
might have been some of God's elect there that the Lord saved
later on, but people in their natural state will never cry,
Abba, Father. Just won't. And how do we know
that? Well, because God sends the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts, and then we cry, Abba, Father. Because
we're born again. And what did Christ say about
going into heaven? You must be born again. You must be. There's no other
way. And that comes by the Holy Spirit
of God. Not by a decision, not by walking
an aisle. Not by praying a prayer. It's
a heart work that the Holy Spirit does and it's an operation of
God. And it's wonderful. And he can do it just like this. You can be sitting there, an
unbeliever, and the Holy Spirit regenerate you, and just like
that, you're a believer. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, God's
grace and mercy is wonderful. So, again, these enemies of Christ
would never cry, Abba, Father. But the only one who made the
Galatians to differ from the Judaizers is God. The only one
who made us to differ from anybody else is God, too. You got to
give them all the glory, don't we? All the honor and all the
praise. And by God's given faith and by the revelation of the
Holy Spirit, they acknowledge that they were indeed not slaves
nor servants, but sons and sons of God. So we can rejoice over
it. This is a thing we can rejoice over. It's not boasting, because
we know we don't have any merit for it. But we can rejoice, we're heirs
of God. Isn't that wonderful? By the
grace of God. See, we don't see ourselves as
that, do we? But we are. This is a fact. This is a fact. Now let's read verse seven. Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son and an heir
of God through Christ, So the believing Jew can say goodbye
to the law as their schoolmaster. It's no longer the schoolmaster.
It's brought them to Christ. And the believing Gentile can
say goodbye to tutors and governors because Christ revealed himself
to us. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. And being born
again by the Holy Spirit of God and having the word written in
our hearts, we now rejoice in the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn,
if you would, to Romans chapter eight. Romans chapter eight.
We now rejoice in Christ Jesus our Lord. And we, by the grace
of God, have believed unto righteousness. Confession has been made unto
salvation. And marvel at the confession.
What do believers now cry? What's our confession to? I have
a father. Father, oh my father. And as
Dave and I have talked about many times, our heavenly father
is nowhere like our human father. I mean nothing, don't even compare
them. They are as far as the east is
from the west from one another. There's no comparison. No comparison
at all. And if you have a loving father,
rejoice. If you have a father where there
was some rough times, well, know that your heavenly father's not
like that. Not at all. But if you have a loving father,
rejoice because your heavenly father is an unmeasured amount
more loving than even your loving father. Isn't that amazing? That's absolutely incredible.
Look at this in Romans chapter 8 verses 14 to 17. For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. That's
a statement. They are the sons of God. Look
at that. That's a statement. That's not
a maybe. That's a statement. A fact. For ye have not received the
spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the spirit
of adoption, that's what our verse is talking about, verses
six and seven in Galatians chapter four, whereby we cry what? Abba
Father, Father my Father. Look at that. The spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.
We are called the children of God. That's wonderful. Now you hear people say, well,
everyone's the children of God. These are the real children of
God right here. My oh my. These are children
of God's chosen. Children of rest. That's right.
And if children, then heirs. Look at that. Now it might be
heirs, then heirs. heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ if so be that we suffer with him that we may be
glorified together. My oh my. Let's go back to Galatians
chapter 4 verse 7 now. Look at this. Wherefore thou
art no more a servant but a son and if a son than an heir of
God through Christ. There's the key. Through Christ.
Through Christ. So let we who are the people
of God be in awe and wonder of what our text proclaims. We are
the children of the Most High God. Isn't that amazing? That's what we are. And this
again is a stated fact. Our great majestic God who rules
over heaven and earth is our Heavenly Father. No wonder Paul
wrote, if God before us, who can be against us? No wonder. Now it has even more meaning
for us, doesn't it? If God, the Holy One, the Majestic
One, before us, who can be against us? And that's not boasting.
That's just being in awe, isn't it? My, because we know we have no
strength. And these are such endearing
terms. Heavenly Father and his children.
Look at our text, no more a servant but a son. And if a son and an
heir of God through Christ. Scripture says this, behold what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. What manner of love this is.
That we were sinners, dead in trespasses, and we're still sinners.
Behold, what manner of love the Father had bestowed upon us.
This love is debtless. That we should be called the
sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew
him not. It didn't know who Christ was,
right? He came unto his own, his own
received him not. Beloved, now, Are we the sons
of God? That's from the book of John,
1 John. Now, we're the sons of God. Right now, not when we get to
heaven. Right now, at this very present
moment, we who are the born-again, blood-washed children of God,
right now, are sons of God. Right now. Adopted. So let us marvel at what is set
before us. God is the loving father of his
people. And note in and through Christ. Look again at the latter
part of that verse. It's always so important. Then
in the air of God through Christ. Right? Our great God loves all his promised
children. Now I want to think about this.
Think of this too. Our great God loves all his promised children
with the same eternal love. So as much as he loved Paul,
he loves us. Remember what Christ, in our
study in John 17, the Lord Jesus Christ said, the Father loves
us as he loves Christ. All the same. But Lord, I'm a
great sinner. Yes, we are, aren't we? If the
Lord should mark iniquity, who should stand? No one. But blessed is the man to whom
God will not impute sin, covered under the blood of Christ, washed
clean under the precious blood of Christ. My. And God, again, loves all his
promised children with the same eternal love, the same immutable,
undying love. It'll never be upon us or never not be upon us. He loves
us forever. And in the most undeniable way,
how did He prove His love? By sending His Son in the fullness
of time to redeem us from under the law. God sent His people,
or sent His Son to save His people from their sins. And note our
text says, if a son in the air of God through Christ, well,
verse 29, verse 3 says, or chapter 3, says, And if ye be Christ, then
ye are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. And
then look at what our text says. If a son. Twice there the word
if is used. Okay? That's a big if. That's
a big if. If you belong to Christ, it's
by virtue of a divine promise. If you were chosen in Christ
before the foundation of the world, then you're Christ. If
you belong to Jesus Christ by virtue of a divine payment, by
him redeeming you out from under the law, if, then you're sons,
you see, and heirs. If you were purchased by the
blood of God himself, Christ is the God-man, right? If you
belong to Christ by virtue of divine power, the same power
that raised Christ from the grave raised us from our dead spiritual
state. If, that's a big word, especially
in these two verses, if. Oh my. If. If God has sent the spirit of
his son into our hearts and he's given us faith to believe, then
we're sons of God. Heirs according to the promise.
Isn't that wonderful? And note that our inheritance
is not conditioned upon our works. You notice that? You know what I'm saying? Not
conditioned upon anything. We're just receivers, as we read this
text. We're just receivers of the grace.
God sends the Spirit of His Son. God sent His Son. We didn't say,
Lord, please send Your Son. No, we were too busy going like
this, by nature. And He sent the Spirit of His
Son. He sent His Son to die for us, to redeem us. That means
to shed His blood. That means to purchase us. out
from under the law. If children then heirs, the issue
is determined by the word if. My, let's read verse 7 again.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, see
there's that little word again, if a son, then an heir of God
through Christ. If we're born again, if God sent
the Spirit of his Son into our hearts where we cry Abba Father,
then we're a son. It's a stated fact. Isn't that
wonderful? Oh, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And we see in our text that all
of God's elect are heirs of God, and that's equally so. I'll tell you what, when we get
to heaven, we all receive the same reward. You know who that
is? That's Christ. See? That's Christ. I'm not going to have somebody
going like this, I need to get through this door, I got to bend
down because my crowns are so big. up on this other side here.
None of that, none of that foolishness. Christ is our reward. Christ
is our reward. And can you receive a greater
reward than Christ? No. Salvation in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And how come we receive that?
Because we're of God's chosen. My, oh my. We're all the children, all the
elect of God are the children of the same Father. We're all
loved with the same love to the same degree. There's not degrees
of love. Do you know we were chosen the
same time Paul was chosen in Christ? Isn't that amazing? So we're
loved with the same love as Paul was loved by. Yeah, but Paul
did all this. God loves his children all the
same. Oh, it's wonderful, beloved.
And we're all blessed with the same blessings from eternity.
Our Father will not take away what he's already given us. Oh, my. We're all accepted on
the same grounds, on the same reason, to the same degree. It's
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory be to God.