It's chapter 4. Now we ended
at verse 29 last week in Galatians 3 where Paul told us that believers
are children of God. And if we're children, then we're
heirs. You're heirs or you're children.
And we're joint heirs with Christ who is the seed. This is how
we become heirs of God. We're joint heirs with Christ.
He's the seed. He told us that in verse 16 of
chapter 3. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. And he saith not to seeds as
of many, but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ. Christ
is the heir. Christ is the one to whom the
promises were made. And Hebrews 1 verse 2 tells us
that Christ is the heir of all things. He inherits it all. Everything his father has, Christ
is the heir of it. Now that's some inheritance where
you think that God owns it all. And that's the believer's inheritance
too. because we're joint heirs with Christ. Now what are some
of the things a child of God is an heir of? What is our inheritance? Titus 3 verse 7 says we're heirs
of eternal life. Hebrews 1.14 says we're heirs
of salvation. Hebrews 11.7 says we're heirs
of righteousness. Hebrews 11.9 says we're heirs
of the promised land, like Isaac and Jacob. Now he's not talking
there about being heirs of that little bit of desert over there
in the east. That's not what he's talking about. The promised
land is given to us as a picture of heaven. Believers are heirs
of glory. A land of true rest. A land that
truly flows with milk and honey. Heirs of the promised land. Heirs
of glory. James 2, 5 says we're heirs of
the kingdom. If our father's the king, he's
got a kingdom, then we're the heirs of the kingdom because
we're his children. 1 Peter 3 says we're heirs of the grace of life.
Heirs of grace. Now what inheritance? What more could you want? And
just knowing that we're heirs of those things thrills our hearts. Know we're heirs of grace. Heirs
of life. Heirs of righteousness. Heirs
of salvation. And we just know a fraction of
it. We just know a fraction of that inheritance. And that inheritance
is secure. I remember when my dad retired,
he told me, he said, me and your mother are going to do a lot
of traveling and spend your inheritance. That inheritance could be lost.
Not this inheritance. Peter said in 1 Peter 1, 4, that
inheritance can never be lost. It's incorruptible, undefiled,
fadeth not away. And it's reserved in heaven for
you. It's not left in your hands to keep. It's reserved in heaven
for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
ready to be revealed at the last time. And a child of God can
be confident, will not lose this inheritance. It's reserved for
us in heaven. It can never be lost. And we've
already received the earnest of that inheritance. God's already
given us His Spirit. He's given us the first taste
of that inheritance, like the token of it. It can't be lost. And we can rejoice in that now.
Now you who believe, you rejoice in that inheritance now. You
rejoice in everything that God promised you. You're heirs of
salvation. But you know, there was a time you didn't rejoice
in that inheritance. You didn't rejoice in it because
you didn't know it. You didn't even know it existed.
You didn't even know you were an heir of God. You didn't know
you were an heir until Christ was revealed in you. Once Christ
was revealed in you, then you knew, oh, I'm a joint heir with
Christ. He's been revealed in me. But
before that time, you were in bondage to the law, and you stayed
in that bondage until Christ was revealed to you, and he set
you free. And in chapter 4, that's what the Apostle Paul is talking
about, beginning in verse 1. 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. Now the illustration Paul uses
here is of a rich man. He's got lots of money. He's
got huge land holdings. He farms that land. He has cattle
on that land. And the man's got one child.
One boy. And he's the heir of everything
his daddy owns. It'll all be his someday. His
father's going to give everything to him. But right now, that boy's
just five years old. Now he's the heir. He's the heir
of it all. But his father's not going to
let him make any decisions whatsoever about his inheritance. He's not
ready. He can't make decisions about
that farm. That boy can't say, you know,
we're going to plant corn on this field this year, and we're
going to plant beans on this field this year. That'd probably
be the wrong decision. He's just five. He can't, that
boy, he can't say, now he's the heir of everything, but he can't
say, we're going to sell this hundred head of cattle, and we're
going to sell that bull, we're going to buy this lot of cattle,
and we're going to buy that bull. He can't make that decision yet.
He's not old enough. Some time ago I was talking with
Tyler Williams. We were talking about the 2014
Mustang. Both of us want a Mustang someday.
He's more likely to get one than me. And I was asking him, have
you seen that 2014 Mustang? It's beautiful. I said, have
you test driven one? And he said, I'm only 11. He's not allowed to do that yet.
He may be someday, but not yet. That's just there. He'll be allowed
someday, but right now, he's not old enough to take possession
of his inheritance yet. He's got a lot to learn before
he can run that farm. And if his daddy's smart, he'll
teach him. And the way he'll teach him is starting him out
at the bottom. He's going to start learning
that farm by shoveling manure, and planting beans, and planting
corn, and going out and pulling weeds. That's how he's going
to learn. And the father is going to take
one of his farm hands. He's an uneducated man, but he
knows how to work. He knows how to build fences.
He knows how to plant corn. He knows how to weed. He knows
how to take care of those cows. And his father is going to put
that boy in charge of that farm hand. farmhand. And he's going
to teach that boy how to work. And he's going to correct him
when he does wrong. If he does something wrong, he's going to
say, no, don't do it that way. Do it this way. And if that boy's over
there hiding in the shade, being lazy, that old farmhand's going
to tell him, boy, get to work. Quit being lazy. Get out here.
I told you to get this job done before dinner. Now get back to
work. Now that's the error of everything.
But he can talk to him that way right now. Because right now,
That boy, that heir of everything, is at the bottom of the totem
pole. He's learning this business from the bottom up. Somebody's
got to teach him how to work on that farm, teach him the things
that need to be done, teach him how to do it. Somebody else got
to teach him how to read and write. Somebody else got to teach
him about land management and animal husbandry. But not when
he's five. He's going to have to build up
to that. And once he's learned everything
he needs to learn, it's going to be a long process. Maybe by
the time he's in his late 20s, it's, Father, it's time for me
to retire. Now I'm going to return this
farm over to you to run. It's all yours now. You've learned
everything that's necessary. Paul says that's what happened
to God's heirs. God's put them under the law to tutor them,
to teach them some very important lessons so that they'll be ready
to receive Christ and believe Christ when the Father's pleased
to reveal Christ to them. That's what he says in verse
3. Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under
the elements of the world. Now, God's elect, they've always
been God's elect. They've always been children
of God. It's just they didn't know it. The Father knew it.
They didn't know it. And I'll tell you, they sure didn't feel
like a child. They did not feel like a child of God when they
are under bondage of that law. But God put them there under
the bondage of the law so that law would be their tutor. to
teach them some things that they need to learn. So before we know
Christ, what lessons does the law our tutor teach us? What
does the law teach us about God? The first thing the law teaches
us is God's holy. You can't come into God's presence
any time you want to. Even Moses couldn't look on the
face of God and live. Even Aaron couldn't come into
the Holy of Holies any time he wanted to. He could just come
when God told him to. One day a year and he had to
bring the blood of the sacrifice. The law teaches us God's holy.
We need to learn that. We need to know that. And the
law teaches us we're sinners. The law constantly shows us we
have no ability to keep the law. You cannot do it. So the law
teaches us we need Christ to come and be our obedience or
we'll not have any. The law teaches us we need a
high priest. to offer a sacrifice for us that
will take sins away. Aaron and his sons can't get
the job done. They failed too many times. How many times did
they fail? We need a high priest that won't fail. It can't be
a high priest after the order of Aaron. We need a high priest
after the order of Melchizedek. And the law teaches us we need
a sacrifice. Now, we're sinners. We break
the law every second of every day. We need a sacrifice to atone
for our sins. But the sacrifices the law requires,
they don't take sin away. All those sacrifices do is every
year remind us we're still sinners. Our sin's not been put away.
We need a sacrifice that will put sin away. The law teaches
us we need a Sabbath rest. There is a rest, but if Christ
doesn't come be our Sabbath, we'll not have any rest. If you
put me under the law, under the law of the Sabbath day, I'm telling
you, I'm going to be miserable. Miserable. I'll take too many
steps. I'll pick up too many sticks.
And I won't rest. I mean, I'll be working to rest. I'll be working, not to go do
something I want to do. If Christ doesn't come and be
our Sabbath, we'll have no rest. The law teaches us that. The
law teaches us we need a prophet. We need a prophet to speak to
us. To speak from God to us. We need
that prophet. We need Christ to be that prophet.
Moses was a great prophet, but we need somebody better than
Moses. Moses failed us, didn't he? He struck the rock twice. Eli, Samuel, David were all great
prophets. We need somebody greater than
them. They failed us. All three of those men did not
discipline their sons, and their sons caused us so much grief,
they failed us. We need Christ to be that prophet. Or we'll never hear from God.
We need somebody to give us a spiritual relationship with God. Because
God's Spirit. All these requirements of the
law, Paul calls them elements of the world. That's all they
are is just things of this world. They're elements. They're not
spiritual things. The manna. That was just bread. That's all
it was. It was an element of this world. And if you don't
believe it was just an element of this world, Keep some until
the next day. It's molding full of bugs. It's
just an element of this world. But Christ is the living bread.
Christ is spiritual bread that gives spiritual life. The blood
of the sin offering, the burnt offering and the sacrifice for
sin, that was just animal blood. It was an element of this world.
It could never take away human sin. The blood of Christ is spiritual. We've never seen that liquid.
But it's spiritual. The blood of Christ, sprinkled,
cleanses us from all sin. It's a spiritual cleansing. The
Old Testament law required lots of water. You had to have lots
of water to keep filling that brazen labor up with fresh water
because the priest is constantly washing. Constantly washing because
that priest is a sinner. He keeps getting dirty. He keeps
getting dusty. He's got to wash. Christ is the
spiritual water. He's living water. Whoever drinks
of this water shall never thirst again. Whoever is washed in this
water is going to be cleansed, cleansed from all their sins.
Christ is the water of regeneration that gives new life, new spiritual
life. That Old Testament law, it gave
us beautiful garments for the high priest. He wore those garments
and they were beautiful, but they're rags compared to the
righteousness of Christ. If we're not clothed in Christ,
we will be found naked. We need a spiritual dress, not
an outward get up. The Jews were in bondage to that
law. And you know, the Gentiles were
in bondage to the elements of the world, too. Now, it wasn't
God's law, was it? God only gave his law to Israel.
But at the same time, the Gentiles were under the bondage to the
elements of the world. They were in bondage to what
they made up themselves. It's what they, and what could
they come up with? Only thing they could come up
with is the elements of the world because they can't see the spiritual.
They don't know the spiritual. God hadn't revealed that to them.
So they come up with touch not, taste not, handle not. The elements
of the world. They have some sense of God's
angry with me because of my sin. I think we need a blood sacrifice. What do we do? Well, let's sacrifice
our children. That's what they come up with,
the elements of the world. And then as men, we grew more
sophisticated, we learned more, more civilized, they came up
with new rules. Don't watch TV, don't dance,
don't go to the movies, don't wear clothes that are in fashion.
Just wear clothes that are out of fashion and that's good for
you. Not having any idea, it's not
these clothes we need. These are just elements of the
world, whether they're in style or the color matches or it doesn't
match. That's not what we need. It probably ought to be good
for us to work with colors that match, but we need Christ's righteousness. That's what we need to be cloaked
in. They don't know that. All they can think of is the
elements of the world because that's where they dwell. Their
religion is a religion of money. It's health. It's wealth. It's
how to live better with the elements of this world. How to have more
of them. And Paul calls them, in verse 9, beggarly elements. They're beggarly elements. There's
no spiritual value in them whatsoever. And if you get all of them you
want, and you know what you're left? You're left being the beggar.
They're beggarly elements. You're not left a beggar if you
have Christ, if you're in him. And these elements, they're also
the ABCs. They're just the building blocks. They're just pictures. But you've
got to learn the ABCs before you can spell any words. You're
going to have to learn your ABCs. That's what the law teaches us.
First we see our sin and our inability. Then we see Christ. Once we see our inability, then
Christ will be precious to us. Once we see our sin, then Christ
will be precious to us. And the truth that is so precious
to a believer is how the Lord Jesus Christ set us free from
the bondage to that law. Christ set His people free from
bondage to that old tutor by taking our place under that tutor. Look at verse 4. 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. Now, God sent
his Son. He sent him on purpose for a
mission to accomplish. A child was born, but the Son
was given. He was sent from God on a mission
to redeem his people by taking their place under that tutor
and doing what his people could not do. We couldn't please that
tutor. Christ did. Now, the Lord Jesus
was made of a woman. He was born as a real man, but
the seed of a woman. He wasn't the seed of Adam. He
didn't come from the seed of a man or he'd be partaken of
Adam's sinful seed. He was the seed of a woman, but
he was a real man. Now that was a real man that
was born in Bethlehem and he was born just like any other
man under the law. He was obligated to keep the
entire law as a man because he was a man. And he had to be a
man made under the law so he could be a substitute for his
people. So he could do for us what we can't do for ourselves.
He could keep the law. And as a man, he endured everything
that law requires. Everything that tutor requires
of you, it required of Christ. And the difference between us
and him is he kept it and we came. He satisfied that tutor. He was made under the law. The
Ten Commandments. He was made under those and he
kept every one of them. He was also made under the ceremonial
law. He had to fulfill all those ceremonies,
even though he's the fulfillment of every one of them. He had
to keep all those ceremonies. He was circumcised the eighth
day. Now circumcision of the flesh is just an element of this
world. It doesn't do us any good. We need a heart circumcision.
We need that old heart cut away and God give us a new heart.
Christ is the fulfillment of that, but he's made under the
law. So he was circumcised the eighth day. Every one of the
feast days, he never missed a Passover, even though Christ is our Passover.
He's the fulfillment of it, but he still observed it as a man,
because that's what is required of the tutor. He observed the
Sabbath, even though he is our rest. He's the fulfillment of
that Sabbath. He kept the Sabbath because that's
what's required of you and me. That's what the tutor requires.
And he kept it all. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. He
kept all of that, all the commandments. He kept all the ceremonial law
because he was made under the law. Hebrews 2 verse 14, For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. Can you imagine what it was like
for the Son of God to be made partaker of flesh and blood? My goodness. But He did that
because He loved His people. He also himself likewise took
part of the saying that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, angels fell but he didn't come to redeem
them, he didn't take on their nature, but he took on him the
seed of Abraham. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. He came as a man and kept the
whole law. Completely satisfied that tutor.
John Gill says Christ came and put a period to the law. He put
an end to it. It's a complete sentence. Now
that sentence is done. The law is ended because Christ
kept it all. And the Lord Jesus Christ redeemed
his people. As a man, he bought his people
back by paying the price that the tutor demanded. He did everything
that tutor demanded so we could go free. He did what we could
not do. You can't graduate and you can't
go free from the tutor until you satisfy every requirement
of a tutor. You just can't get to be a certain
age and graduate from high school and get a diploma. You've got
to meet certain criteria. This tutor's the same way. You've
got to satisfy every requirement of the tutor perfectly. There's
no getting a B. It's still passing. You've got
a straight A's. You've got a straight 100%. That's what Christ came and did
for his people. So now, we're full-fledged sons and heirs with
all the rights and privileges of sons. We're not that heir
who's under tutors anymore. Christ satisfied that law. We're
not under that tutor who's no better than a servant now. But
we're sons of God. Daughters of God. Now, we didn't
come into this world with the nature of sons and daughters
of God, did we? We came into this world with
the nature of Adam. But we've been adopted into the family
of God. The purpose of Christ's work
for His people was not just to hit the reset button. And by
that I mean he didn't just put us back the way we were before
Adam fell. He did something far better than that. The work of
Christ for his people is to give his people a new nature. To give
us a new father. To make us part of his family.
We're not serving God like Adam did. We're sons of God. Adam was a servant. He had to
do these things to please God. Christ did that for us. And we're
serving God as sons, not as a servant, not as a slave, not under that
tutor. We're legally sons. We've been adopted into God's
family. So you can't lose your inheritance.
You've been made a son and daughter. God adopted you into His family.
And then when a child's born again, he's born into the family
of God. He's in the family of God twice,
by adoption and by birth. And in the new birth, he experiences
everything that was given to him in adoption. Now, he enjoys
the inheritance because he didn't know about it until he was born
again. He didn't know about it until he had a new nature. And
it's impossible for him to lose his inheritance. I want you to
go home understanding this. If you're a child of God, it's
impossible for you to lose your inheritance. You've been adopted
into God's family. It's yours. You've been born
into God's family. It's yours. God's going to give
it to you. And that gives God's children
a very, very special relationship with the Father. Look at verse
6. And because you're sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. I have loved this verse more
this week, I think, than ever before, ever. Now, we're sons
and daughters. Believers are sons and daughters
of God. Only because Christ dwells in
our hearts by His Spirit. The proof of sonship is God sent
His Spirit into your heart. God only sends His Spirit to
His children. So the proof of sonship is God
gave you His Spirit. Now, you're not a child because
the Spirit came to dwell in you. The Spirit came to dwell in you
because you're a child. You see that? There's a big difference
there. Because you're sons, God sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart. The Spirit came to
dwell with you because God already made you His child. And because
we're sons, sons and daughters of God, we cry, Abba, Father. Now whenever we read this, the
first thing we think of is these two words, Abba, Father. Abba
is the Greek word for Father. Father, the word translated Father
here, is the Hebrew word for Father. Greek and Hebrew. Christ
is the Savior of sinners from the whole world. Not just to
the Jews. And there's grace and there's
adoption for Gentiles too. God adopted babies that didn't
look like Him. You know, a lot of times people, you know, they
want to adopt a baby that looks just like Him. God didn't do
that. He adopted babies that didn't look anything like Him.
And that applies to Jews and Gentiles. Neither one of them
has His nature. The Lord Jesus came as a Jew.
But he came to save Gentiles too. He adopted all of his children
and gave them his nature. But this means something far
more special than that. The word Abba is an Arabic word. And it's an Arabic word that's
made up of just very basic sounds. And they use this word, Abba,
like we use the word Dada. Dada usually is the first thing
a baby can say. It's just the sounds that a child
can make. And for the father, that's enough. Isn't that enough? You fathers.
You heard that da-da the first time, your heart melt. That's
all you needed. All you needed. There was a missionary's
wife, and they were on the mission field. She'd tell those native
mothers, she'd say, I can teach your babies to speak English.
And she'd go up and tell that baby, say da-da. And that baby'd
say da-da. And she'd say, see, I taught
your baby English. That word, dadad, may be the
most intimate form of communication there ever is between a child
and its father. Dadad. And I'm thankful for that. I can't say everything just right.
You know, I pray and I know I'm not saying it right. I don't
even know if I'm praying for the right thing. I say, Lord,
your will be done. I don't know. I don't say it
right. I can say that to him. I can
cry to him in the simplest sounds. That will get the attention of
my father. Now, this is the sweet relationship.
Look at Romans chapter 8. This is the sweet relationship
between God and His children. This is the sweetness of the
gospel. Without question, without question
that I have a father. means Christ came to save Jew
and Gentile life. Now, we understand that, don't
we? But the sweetness of the gospel
is not just that understanding. The sweetness of the gospel is
the sweetness of the relationship between the child and the father.
Look at Romans 8, verse 14. For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. For you have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear. But you have received the
Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. The Spirit
Himself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children
of God. And if children, then heirs.
Heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. How precious is
that? You're a joint heir with Christ.
You can cry, Dada. You don't even have to know everything
to say right. Just cry to Him. He'll hear you. You're His son. You're His daughter. Why would you ever, ever want
to quit that sweet relationship so you can go back under bondage
of law? Why would you ever want to quit that sweet relationship
and go back to be under the hand of that uneducated, rough old
farm hand teaching you how to build a fence? Being a child
of God is the greatest honor any son of Adam can ever have,
then why would you want to go back under the law which constantly
points out our dishonor because of our disobedience? If you'd
seen Christ, you wouldn't. Now, verse 7 in our text, Galatians
4, I'll quit. Wherefore, thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then you're an
heir of God through Christ. Now, Christ fulfilled everything
the law demands for his You're not under bondage to the law
anymore. You're not under that tutor anymore. You're a child
who's come of full age and enjoys all the inheritance that the
Father has for you. Now, why on earth would you want
to go back to that tutor? You wouldn't. If you did, if
you go back to that tutor, you leave everything the Father has
for you as inheritance. You leave it all. You know, I
have some fond memories of being in high school. I do. I have
a few fond memories of being in high school. But I can tell
you this, it was far, far from the best time of my life. It's
way better now than it was then. Well, because of that, I wouldn't
go back to being 16 or 17 years old for anything. It's way better
now than it was then. When I graduated high school,
My dad was the president of the school board. He handed out the
diplomas that year. He put that diploma in my hand
and, buddy, school was out forever. That's the title of the lesson.
School was out forever. I never looked back. Ever. And a child of God says exactly
the same thing. Except we say, I don't have any
fond memories of being under that tutor. That law was hard. I could never satisfy it. It
kept me miserable all the time. But I find joy and peace and
happiness and hope being in Christ. I have a good hope through grace
because I'm a son of God. I wouldn't trade that for anything. I wouldn't leave Christ for anything. Why would you leave the joy of
Christ for the misery of the law? And someone will ask, well,
aren't you afraid what people do if you don't keep them under
the law? You've got to give them some rules and regulations to keep people
in check. No, if you're a child of God, I'm not. A child of God
is going to follow Christ because He wants to, because He loves
Him, because He wouldn't have it any other way. Just like that
young adult. You don't set them free in the
world and they're in grammar school. They've got to get through
grammar school. They've got to get through high
school. They've got to get some education. Now they've learned. Now they've matured. Now they're
ready to go out in society. They've fully matured. They can
go out and live on their own now. They don't have to check
with you when it's time to come home or when it's time to go
to work or when it's time to get up. They've matured. They've
learned those lessons. A believer has so learned Christ. We don't have to have a group
going out to everybody's homes and checking on them and making
sure they're following all these rules and regulations. A believer
has so learned Christ. And they're loving sons. They
follow Him because they love Him. Not out of fear. Out of
love. Alright. Well, I hope the Lord
blesses that too.