good okay turn if you would to
Galatians chapter 4 Galatians chapter 4 the name of the message
is redeemed by the blood redeemed by the blood and what comfort
it is for the born-again blood-washed believer in the Lord Jesus Christ
that we can glean from the precious divine teachings that we have
been redeemed We have been purchased, and it came at a great cost,
didn't it? The precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. We've
been ransomed. He's the Passover lamb. All those
Old Testament pictures, those Passover lambs, they pictured
He who would give His life for us, who would redeem us. And
the whole reason He came to this world was to redeem us. That's
the whole reason He came. It's the whole reason He came.
He didn't come to set up a following. Although we follow him, don't
we? He came to save his people from their sins. That's why he
came. He didn't come and make himself
king on earth, because he's already king. Why should he make himself
king on earth when he's already king of the earth, right? Right? He's already the king. King of
kings and lord of lords. He's born king. And he came last
week, we saw, at a set time. When the fullness of time was
come, it says there. It says there in Galatians 4, verse 4,
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his
Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Sent. He sent him. He sent his Son. And we, as the
people of God, we profit much if through grace we would be
conscious of the fact that God has a timing for all things.
It would do us good to remember that. Even in our lives, God
has a timing for things that happen in our lives. Doesn't
always happen at our time, does it? but he has an exact timing
when things will happen. It's amazing. It's absolutely
incredible. And we rejoice as the born-again
blood-washed people of God. And think of this, the ancient
plans of eternity, all the way from eternity, right? He chose
a people in Christ, right? And those people, they've been
redeemed already at Calvary's Cross, right? But now the Holy
Spirit is going and fetching them, isn't he? with irresistible
grace, drawing them to Christ, showing them their need for Christ.
And that's what he did for every one of us who's a true believer,
right? He showed us our desperate need for Christ. And when the
fullness of time was come, all things were arranged with such
infinite wisdom that it left no circumstance to be added to
or taken away from God's ordained time, nothing. And that's still
true today. That's still true today. And
our Lord, at the perfect time that God had purposed, was born
into this world. As I said last week, not a second
later, not a second early, right? He came into this world. And
imagine, I was thinking about this as I was putting this together,
imagine the vast administration of God to have all these things
happen. Some of you were in management in your jobs. And you remember
the time when you had to arrange things and get things together
and all that. And look after people who were,
some of us were ones who worked under management, right? Some
of us were people who, again, who were in management. So we
understand. But imagine the vast administration of God. over all
things and over all people. See, I think sometimes we don't
realize just how majestic and sovereign our God is. It's too
much for our minds. So imagine the administration
of God to have at the fullness of time, the exact time Christ
comes into this world, the ordained time, God becomes a man. And all things of the everlasting
covenant are ordered and sure. So what a sweet assurance that
is for we who are the people of God, right? If all things
of the everlasting covenant are ordered and sure, then our salvation
is sure in Christ, because He redeemed us, which we're going
to see today. Oh my. And think of this, how
every individual of Christ's mystical body For us, everything
is equally settled, which relates to the present time state of
the Lord's people. Even right now, everything within our group
here, everything that's happened, it's all happened according to
God's perfect timing. The freedom and liberty we feel
now came about by God's perfect timing. Caught us by surprise,
right? But look, look, look what the
Lord's done. Look what He's done. It's amazing. All according to
His perfect timing. And it said here in Galatians
4.4 that the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his
son. He sent him forth. He sent him forth. So let's bring
it home to us. Think of when Christ revealed
himself to you and to me. It was at the fullness of time
too, wasn't it? God's perfect timing. He had us in the exact
place he wanted us to be in. My oh my. And now, We have the
Spirit of the Son, we have the Spirit, the Holy Spirit in us.
And we cry Abba Father now, don't we? We never used to cry Abba
Father, but now we do. Let's read Galatians chapter
4, verses 1 to 7. 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, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his
Son. He sent him. And he willingly
came. But look at that. God sent Christ. God sent the second person of
the Trinity. The Son of God. Why? Why was he sent? And look at
this, he's made of a woman. He doesn't come from the seed
of man like we do. He's in the seed of the woman. He's conceived
in the womb by the Holy Spirit of God. Oh my. My oh my. Made of a woman. Made
under the law. To redeem them. What? That were
under the law. That's you and I, beloved. That's
we who are the people of God. Why? Think of this. Jane, you
were talking about the great love of God, right? Think of
this great love of God for His people is so vast and so unmeasurable
that He sent His Son to redeem us. And what does it mean to
redeem us? Well, it means to be bought from
under. But the only way we could be
redeemed was by the death of the Lamb. by the death of Christ. He sent his son to die. I read an excellent article on
the fact that our sins were imputed to Christ, and he was totally
sinless. Totally sinless. Absolutely sinless. Even in his death. But that sin was put upon him,
and God can't look at sin. And he turned away from the son. And like what Henry used to say,
he forsook the son so that we would never be forsaken. And
he sent his son to do that. What love, beloved. This love
of God is immeasurable. We can't even plumb the depths
of it or the width of it. It's just, it's absolutely incredible. So he sent the son to redeem
them that were under the law. that we might receive the adoption
of sons. We're going to get into that
more next week. It's wonderful. And because ye are sons, God has set forth the spirit
of his Son into your hearts, crying, I have a Father. Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. Last week we looked at verses
3 and 4. Let's read again verses 4 and
5 together. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
his son, made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of son." Now, see the word redeem there in verse 5? In the Greek, it means to buy. We're purchased. We've been bought
with a price, Paul wrote, remember? And that price is the precious
blood of Christ. We've been redeemed and our Savior
lives. He lives right now. He's in glory. He lives and because he lives,
we're going to live too. Oh, it's wonderful. Amen. And this Greek word, it
means to buy, to buy out of, to buy out of. to redeem from,
and then it comes from a Greek word, this blew me away, it comes
from a Greek word which means to buy out of the slave markets.
We were slaves. Remember last week, we were in
bondage. We were slaves to sin, beloved. We'd been bought out. We've been redeemed. He bought
our eternal souls, beloved, with his precious, precious blood.
We're his. We're his by creation, but we're
also his by purchase. What great love is shown here
that Christ would do that for sinners such as we. It's amazing. And it's used, this word redeemed
is used Continuing the subject from chapter three of our redemption
by the Lord Jesus Christ from the curse and yoke of the law. We've been redeemed out from
under the law. Look at verse five again, to
redeem them that were what? Under the law, that's where we
were. We were under the law. It had a rightful claim on us.
Says the soul that sinneth it must die. Wayne Boyd must die.
Christ dies in my room and place. Put your name in there, if you're
a believer. Isn't that wonderful? Totally
paying everything that God demanded. His justice demanded my death.
Christ died for me. My, isn't that wonderful? So
it makes even, now we preach every week on the fact of a risen
Savior, but doesn't it make it even more sweet when we think
of that? He's risen for our justification, the scriptures say. That's amazing. That we might be just before
God. Because He's a just God, right? And a Savior. So His law must be satisfied?
He does it. He gives the law, then He satisfies
it for us. My oh my. And so a time was set when God
the Son, the second person of the Trinity, would come into
this world to redeem us, to purchase our eternal souls. by the shedding
of his blood, and by the, remember too, he offered himself up to
God as a sacrifice for our sins. He's sinless. Thought, word,
and deed, there's no sin in him, it's not even entered his mind,
and there's also, what I believe is that he couldn't sin, he's
God. He was tempted like us, yet without sin, but there's
a thing called the impeccability of Christ. He's God. God can't
sin. Now in his flesh, he was tempted,
but he's perfect. He's sinless. He doesn't have
a sin nature like we do. He's conceived of the Holy Spirit
of God. He's perfect. Joshua and Vicky
and I were talking yesterday about how he was just a normal-looking
fellow. Josh says, yeah, you see these
pictures of, he calls him Wild Bill Hickok too now, like his
dad and mom. You see these pictures of Wild
Bill Hickok, right? And my daughter's dating an Egyptian
fellow right now. And Vicky said he probably had
the skin tone of Jason. He was Middle Eastern. He wasn't
And the fact is this too, is he didn't stand out, the scriptures
say. There was nothing in him that would draw you to him by
just seeing him face to face. This is the king of glory. See
how humble he's, how much he humbled himself? Oh my. Tempted in all points like us,
but yet without sin. Perfect, sinless, oh my, it's
wonderful. And here, Paul's continuing the
subject from chapter three, again, of our redemption by the Lord
Jesus Christ, again, from the curse and yoke of the law. And
we see that in this text in verse five, when it says, to redeem,
that's God's elect, right? Them that were under the law,
that's us. Christ lived the perfect life,
right? Fulfilled the law for us. My, my, but left in our sins, without being redeemed, we were
under the law. And all the law has for us is
death, right? No life, just death. So a time was set, a time was
set by God when he would send the Lamb of God into this world.
When he would send his beloved son into this world to redeem
his beloved bride. To purchase her with his own
precious blood. My oh my, look at verse four
and five again. Take note of the word law in
both verses here. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under
the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Verse 4 shows us that Christ
is the seed of the woman and is made under the law. And verse
5 shows that we were under the law before the Lord saved us. Paul, turn if you would to Romans
chapter two, Romans chapter two. Paul in the book of Romans chapter
two brings forth that the Gentiles possess a law. We might not have had the written
law, but we have a conscience, don't we? We know it's wrong
to murder. We know it's wrong to steal.
Who taught us that? My parents, who weren't even
believers, taught me that a long time ago with a leather strap. They taught me it wasn't good
to steal. And I didn't want to steal anymore
after getting that leather strap. My, oh my. I'll tell you why. My, oh my. Look at this, Romans
chapter 2. The heathen do certain things,
although imperfectly, commanded by the law, which proves they
discern the difference between right and wrong. Look at verse
15 of Romans chapter 2. Which show the work of the law
written in their hearts. See, the law is written in our
hearts, beloved. Again, we know what's right and wrong. We know
what's right and wrong. Their conscious also bearing
witness in their thoughts, the meanwhile accusing or else excusing
one another. Why is it that some things that
are done we say, oh that's okay, that doesn't bother me. But then
other things, we're like, no that's totally wrong. And then some will even excuse
the thing that's totally wrong. My oh my. So Paul here states that they
have a law written on their hearts. And who's the one who had them
pen this? The Holy Spirit of God. So we
see even the Gentiles, and we're coming from Gentile stock, they
had a law written on their hearts. We knew it was wrong to steal
when we were kids, didn't we? We know that as adults. We know
it's wrong to murder. We know it's wrong to use the
Lord's name in vain. We know that. Now we know that. We didn't before,
though, did we? Now we know. God's taught us. My. So the work of the law is
a thing that the law does. And this is what it teaches about
good and bad, right and wrong. The Gentiles even make laws based
around the law of God. We have laws in this land, right?
You can't go around murdering people. You're going to face
a penalty for it. Well, you should. You should.
And you can't go around stealing stuff. Or you should face the
consequences, right? Man. So even the Gentiles, and
sometimes Gentiles even institute religious rights, make laws to
punish theft, murder, adultery, and reward honesty, right? In truth. That proves that the
laws imputed are written on our hearts, beloved. That proves
that. It's written on our hearts. We can distinguish between good
and bad, although a lot of times, we now, especially, they're calling
good evil and evil good. See, that's what men, we just
manipulate it, don't we? Natural man. And I'll tell you
why. I never saw that till the Lord
saved me. Before the Lord saved me, I thought,
well, they live their life the way they live. I live my life
the way I live my life. And I'm good. Wow. The Lord changes your thoughts,
doesn't he? Changes our thoughts. Changes
our ways. And the testimony of their own
conscience is a witness against the Gentiles. Why before we were
saved, some things really bothered us that we did, right? And other
things didn't bother us at all. That's our conscience. My! So the law is written on
the Gentile heart. And it can become externalized
just, and this is the other thing, I found this statement is not
mine, this is a statement from Robert Hawker, I believe. He
said that the law could become externalized by the Jews, and
they did that, right? They made all these traditions
and all these things. But also, the very thing that
we as Gentiles have in our heart, it can be externalized too. You
have to do this or that to be saved. You have to do that. It
can become a whole legalistic system. You know, you can make
anything into a legalistic system. It's incredible. That's what
cults do. They flourish on that stuff. Making things, taking things
that they think in their heart and externalizing them and then
placing them upon other people. And that's what the false religionists
were doing too, right? when they said you have to be
circumcised to be saved. Right? They were doing the same
thing. So the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul was referring to anyone
who was living under a legal system, whether they be Jew or
Gentile, the Lord Jesus Christ was born under the law, lived
under the law, died under the law, the penalty of law, which
we broke. He died under the penalty law
for us as our subject, and all that when he lived, he lived
for us. fulfilling the law. He's the
end of the law for righteousness. It's amazing that he did that
for us, beloved. My. And he died under the law,
right? For us. He's sinless. He's spotless. And he's redeeming us on Calvary's
cross as he dies. My. And in his resurrection,
He was raised for our justification. You know why? You know what that
proves? The law has no claim on us now. None. No claim. He's risen. Has he risen above
the law? Absolutely. He's in glory now. Isn't that
wonderful? One commentator said that. He's
risen above where the lawns. It's in glory. He's in glory.
My oh my. He's sitting on the right hand
of the Father, interceding for you and I, beloved. Isn't it
wonderful? Oh my. But when the fullness
of time... This is amazing, too. I didn't
plan this, that this hit on the day when we would be proclaiming
He's risen. Isn't that amazing? How the Lord had all that happen?
Oh, I'm just amazed. Let's read verses 4 and 5 again.
But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that
were under the law. that we might receive the adoption
of sons. So the fullness of time again
is in reference to God's divine perfect appointed time to send
his son into this world, the second person of the trinity.
He's not created from the dust, as Adam was? No, he came into this world through
the process not of procreation, right? No, no. He was formed
in the womb of the Virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit of God. My
oh my. And as the son of Abraham, Christ
came under the ceremonial law of Moses. is a living human being,
Jesus Christ was under the moral law. And Jesus Christ was made under
the law. As the God-man, he was under the civil and judicial
law. And he was our substitute through
the whole thing. All that time. Come to redeem
us. This verse says Christ came to
redeem us. That we're under the law. We
couldn't get ourselves out from under the law, could we? We can't
pay for one sin, let alone billions that we commit in a lifetime.
So the law doesn't have just one thing on us. Every one of
our sins cries out for justice. My oh my. We had, oh, how many
sins have we committed? Billions. We had billions of
charges against us, which we had no hope. And Christ came to redeem us
from that, to save us from that, to purchase us with the shedding
of his precious blood, to redeem us out from under that law, beloved.
Isn't that wonderful? Oh, makes your heart sing. Right,
why did he come? Matthew 1, 21. And she shall
bring forth the Son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins. He shall, he did
it. And then he was resurrected to
show that God is absolutely satisfied with his sacrifice. And that's
who we trust in, beloved, the Lord Jesus Christ. We trust in
a living, risen Savior. He's alive right now. He's not
dead. He's not still hanging on that
cross like some people put these things in their house with Christ
hanging on. He ain't hanging on no cross. Donny Bell said, if you could
find the cross of Christ, you should make it into toothpicks
because otherwise people would worship it. It's true. You know
why God doesn't let them find the ark yet? Because people would
worship it. Right? We know it. We know it. Somebody told Vicki, well you
should go to Israel and see all the sites and everything. And
she goes, why would I want to go over there and see a bunch
of Catholic shrines? My Savior's not there. He's in
glory. Tomb's empty. It's long, but
you know they made this massive thing out of it and the Catholic
Church got in there and made all these everywhere where they
figure He was, they made all these I have nothing of that. Now,
I think it'd be neat to walk through Philippi and the ruins
of that. I think that'd be really neat. Athens, I'd much rather
do that. Our king's in glory, beloved.
He's risen. He's in glory. Now, I'm not saying
if you get an opportunity to go over there, don't go, because
that would be a blessing for you. But I'm just saying, avoid
them shrines of religion. And just rejoice that the king
walked on that land. You may be walking in the same
place where he... Yeah, that's right. Yeah, we get the Word
of God, don't we? We got everything right there. Oh my. So why was
the Lord Jesus Christ made of a woman? Why was he made under
the law? Well, to redeem us, to save us from our sins. That's
the whole reason. He was sent into this world to
save us from our sins. How did he do it? By the shedding
of his blood. The giving of his life. My oh
my. The giving of his life as a substitute
and in his death, dying as our substitute. Turn if you would
to Acts chapter 20. Acts chapter 20. Or verses 21
to 28. Who's redeemed us with his precious
blood? Christ. Who is Christ? God incarnate
in the flesh, right? Oh my! Look at this, Acts chapter
20, starting in verse 21. We see this truth brought forth
that it's God who redeemed us. It's God who purchased us with
his precious blood. Christ wasn't just an ordinary
man. He's God in the flesh. He's God incarnate in the flesh.
I hope you never get tired of me saying that, because I'm going
to say that Till God gives me breath, I'll be saying, God incarnated
in flesh, because that's who He is. That's who our Savior
is, beloved. He's God. He became a man. And He saved us by the shedding
of His precious, precious blood. That's why we say, sinner friend,
flee to Christ! He's the only hope, right? There's
no other hope but Christ. And He's revealed that to us.
So, I'm just one sinner telling other sinners where to find bread.
Come to Christ! Flee to Him! Flee to him! Oh, my! Oh, may God make it so. Look at this, though, in Acts
20, verse 21. Testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God. God gives us repentance,
doesn't he? Faith and repentance are like
the piece of paper. One side's faith, one side's repentance.
They go together. They go together. And faith toward
our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in
the Spirit unto Jerusalem. He's talking to the Ephesian
elders here, and he's telling them, I'm going to go to Jerusalem,
not knowing the things that shall befall me there. I don't have
any idea what's going to happen. Save that the Holy Ghost witnesses
in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. but
none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear
unto myself, so that I might finish my course, the race, I
might finish my course with joy in the ministry which I have
received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace
of God. That's what we do, right? We
testify the gospel of the grace of God. And now, behold, I know
that ye all among whom I have gone preaching the kingdom of
God shall see my face no more. He knows this is the last time
he's going to see them. And remember, too, when they
went from Jerusalem to Rome, they went by ship, so it could
take a long time to get there. When they travel, they travel
sometimes for months, sometimes even for years, right? My oh
my. He says, you're not going to
see my face no more. Wherefore, I take you to record
this day that I am pure from the blood of all men, for I have
not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Take
heed, therefore, unto yourselves and to all the flock over which
the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his blood. Look at that. To feed the church of God, so
it's God's, this is God's church, right? I'm just, I have the honor
of being the pastor here, but we are God's people gathered
together, and this is, we are, the people are actually God's
church, the ecclesia, the call to assembly. It's just the building
that we have the privilege of meeting in, right? Okay, but
look, do you notice that? To feed the church of God, which
he, who? God, purchased with his own blood. There He is, the God-man. How were we purchased, beloved? How were we redeemed? By the
precious blood of Jesus Christ. That's how we were redeemed.
Oh my! Purchased with His own blood.
Christ perfectly honored the whole law of God. And in doing
so, He established a perfect righteousness for us. Perfect!
No flaw in it at all. There's not a stitch of our works
in it either. It's all Christ. It's all what
He's done. He's made of a woman under the
law to redeem us. And we might receive the adoption
of sons. We're going to look at that more next week. The adoption
of sons. My, oh my. You know our blessed
Redeemer? Remember I said all those charges,
right? Billions of charges. You know
what the scripture says about that? They're blotted out. They're blotted out. And in the
Greek, a friend of mine's wife found this out. That's like using
an anesthetic. It means to whitewash. There's
not a stitch of them around. There's not even a remembrance
of them, beloved. How do we know that? Because
God says, I don't remember your sin no more. Now we remember it. What are
you doing remembering that? It's all washed under the blood.
It's all under the blood. I heard a story. A friend of
mine, a preacher friend of mine, was going with one of his deacons to a meeting at Cherokee. All the way there, my preacher
friend's telling his buddy, okay, don't mention what we did, you
know, what happened with the Indians when we came over from
Europe. Please just don't even mention it. Because there's some
folks there that might get a little testy with it and all that. And
he said, okay, okay, no problem. So he says, all the way there,
he says, I must have reminded the guy six times, don't say
anything. He gets out of the car. And it
was Drew. Drew said, all of a sudden, I'm
looking at the fellow that's probably more testy than most
of them, right? And his buddy walks up to him
and says, I'm so sorry for what we've done. Yeah, what we've done. And you
know what the fellow's answer was? This is amazing. It's OK, brother. It's all under
the blood. Whoa, man, when I heard that, oh my! Now that's God changing man's
heart, isn't it? It's all, just remember this,
beloved. It's all under the blood. When
our sins come back, they try to haunt us, it's all under the
blood. It's all gone. It's under the
blood. It's under the blood. They're
gone. God doesn't see them anymore.
He sees, he looks at us. Brother Tom, he looks at you
and he sees Christ. Brother Jamie, he sees Christ. Isn't that wonderful? He sees us in Christ. It's wonderful. Ah, there's one of my beloved
ones, robed in the righteousness of my son, whom he purchased
with his precious blood. Oh, I've loved him. I've loved that Dave fella. I've
loved him from eternity. Isn't that amazing? put our names
in there, right? See? You were talking about that?
I'd love—God looks at us and says, oh, he's my dear one. He's
my dear one. He's so dear to me that I sent
my son to redeem him. Oh, my. Isn't that wonderful? That's our