All right, if you'd open your
Bibles to Galatians chapter 4. It is good to be here. I always
enjoy coming back and seeing you people again, fellowshipping
with you once again in those things that we have shared for
many years together, for 32 of them. When I come back here, I'm coming
back home. That is as much home as you can find in this world.
So I rejoice to be among you this morning. I pray that God
will send you a blessing through the preaching that I do. Salvation is a grand work, characteristic
of the God who works it. I suppose that the salvation
which is preached up by so many is such a weak thing because
they have a weak God to preach. But the salvation, the gospel
that we set forth in our preaching and which we believe is a grand
and glorious gospel because it was designed and carried out
and is being carried out. by a grand and glorious God. This gospel is grand because
of the depths to which it will go to save a sinner. Paul said this is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am the chief. Now, we might
think that the apostle there was simply putting on some humility
when he says, I am the chief, that he was just saying that
to kind of make a point. But I don't believe that. I am
convinced that he was convinced that he was the chief of sinners.
Now, we may want to argue with him over that issue, because
I think pretty much all of God's people figure that that title
belongs to them. As someone once said in the Church
of God, it's all chiefs and no braves. And we're all the chiefs
of sinners. But in point of fact, we do know
this, that under the inspiration of the Spirit of God, the Apostle
said that God had saved the very worst of men, gone to the very
depths of human depravity, and from there had selected at least
one to save. So the Gospel is glorious when
we consider how far it will go and how far it will reach to
save people. And then secondly, it's grand
and glorious when we consider the heights to which it brings
them in the process of salvation. We read over here in Romans chapter
eight. Now, you can just keep your finger
there in Galatians four, but in Romans chapter eight, verse
twenty nine. It's it says, for whom he did
foreknow He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image
of his Son in order that his Son might be the firstborn among
many brethren. Now, it is a pitiful salvation
which has heaven for its goal. That's not what our hope is.
My hope is not as is popularly sung about and spoken about.
My home is not a mansion in the skies in the sweet by and by. My hope is not to walk a golden
street through a pearly gate. My hope is to be like Christ.
Salvation and predestination, by the way, is not so much a
matter of where you shall be, but what you shall be. It is
not so much a predetermination of your destination. It is a
predetermination of your destiny. That's what predestination is.
And when I consider this, that God, by the gospel, finds the
worst and makes them like the best, that's a grand and glorious
gospel. But as our brother mentioned
in the Bible study, we know the beginning and we know the end. Sometimes the middle is kind
of confusing. We know what we were. We know what we will be. At least in so many words. But
the middle gets confusing. Now, we know this about the middle. That from the beginning unto
the end, it is all a work of God's grace. Every last bit of
it. All the many marvelous works
of grace that God performs, they are grand and glorious like God
Himself. It's all God's work. As it says,
he that began a good work in you will continue it. The word means to perfect, to
bring to completion until the day of Christ. Now, I know that. The works of
grace that God does. are immediate, but he doesn't
do them all at once. There is a process of salvation. Once again, you know, he could
have just, I could have just played a tape of what you said
and pretty well do this message this morning. But, you know,
I'm sure glad salvation's not done. I'd hate to think this
is it. I mean, it's good so far as it's gone. But I'm glad this
isn't it. I'm glad there's more to come.
And I'm glad that as certainly as God has done what has been
done so far, he shall do what yet remains to be done and what
he shall do will be just as good as what he has done. There shall
be no flaw in it. God's grace, all the work shall
crown through everlasting days It lays the first and topmost
stone, and well deserves the praise. There is not one verse
of human will or human works in the great song of our salvation. There is not a clause, a phrase,
or anything in it about what we have done to distinguish ourselves
from those who suffer God's wrath. In fact, it simply says somewhere
in the book of I believe First Thessalonians, you were not appointed
to suffer wrath, but to receive salvation. Now, you'll notice
it does not say you did not make an appointment for wrath. We
did that. We made an appointment, but we
weren't appointed to it. And so that appointment was canceled.
Or maybe more rightly fulfilled by Jesus Christ, and we were
given a different appointment. An appointment of salvation It
was done outside of us without our cooperation, without our
permission. Election, redemption, regeneration,
preservation and glorification are all the works of God done
by His power according to His will and purpose. And as we stand
back and view this process in a sort of panorama, this process
looks neat. Orderly and sure, doesn't it? I love to preach about it. I
love to hear about it, because when I preach about it or hear
about it, and just see the whole thing, it gives me real comfort
in my soul. Seeing the whole picture brings
peace. But our lives are lived in the
moment, not in the panorama. We cannot see by experience the
whole picture. The book of Ecclesiastes, chapter
3, verse 11, it says he has put the world in our hearts so that
we don't know what he's doing. Another translation, the translation
from which I normally preach, says he's put eternity in our
hearts so that we won't know what he's doing. I remember seeing
that disparity and it kind of scratched my head. Why could
the same word be translated two different ways? The word actually
means the vanishing point. And what Solomon meant by that
is because of the nature of time and space and our lives and all
that, we can only see so far. And we can't see from our viewpoint
the grand design of God. We can read about it. We can't
see it. And God wants it that way. Why? Because we live by faith, not
by sight. I know that I shall be glorified,
but I have yet to see one glorified person. I believe that I am elect,
but I have never seen my election. I believe that Jesus Christ redeemed
me, but I never saw it happen. And even those who did see the
event going on didn't know that that's what was going on. You
realize, as far as we know, there's only one human being in the whole
earth that understood what was happening as it happened. And
that was the one thief on the cross. Not even the disciples
knew what was going on. I say one human being, two. The
Lord Jesus is a human being. He knew what was going on. I haven't seen redemption. And
you know, regeneration, powerful a work as it is, does not have
any kind of sensory experience attached to it. Now you may have
some kind of emotional experience when God opens your eyes. And
you might not. It might be your experience of
God confronting you might be like Saul on the road to Damascus.
Very powerful, very earth-shaking. Or it may be a very quiet thing. I'll be honest with you, I can't
tell you when God birthed my soul again. I've had so many
religious experiences, I don't know which one of them was it. But you know something, I don't
remember my natural birth either. But I know it happened. Why?
It's the only way you get to be 54 is somewhere along the
line. You were born. And the only way you ever know
Christ and know God is that somewhere along the line you were born
again. This principle applies to our
salvation, this principle of not being able to see things. And even now, as we look at ourselves
and look at those around us, we see little evidence that any
work of God's grace has begun, much less that it shall ever
be completed. Paul was in such doubt. about
the Galatians. He says here in verse 20 of Galatians
chapter 4, I desire to be present with you now and to change my
voice, for I stand in doubt of you. I remember Brother Mahan
making a rather startling remark when I was there at the church, and he said Only one time did
the apostle ever cast doubt on the salvation of any group of
people. And he said, and it wasn't the
immoral worldly Corinthians. It was the upright, righteous
Galatians. He said, you all are so bound
up with rules and regulation. You all are so taken up with
what you are doing that I wonder if you've ever heard about really
in your heart about what God has done. Paul was in such doubt concerning
the Galatians. He was worried, he said, in another
place a few verses earlier, he said, I wonder if I wasted my
efforts. Now, once again, as our brother
pointed out, you can't waste your efforts preaching the gospel.
But I know what Paul means. That I preached and there was
no fruit from you. We thought there was. You acted
like there was. And you know, unfortunately,
there are people and groups of people who make a good beginning. But that's all there was to it.
They with joy received the message and sprang up quickly and died
as quickly as they sprang up. And Paul said, maybe that's what
you are. That is the Galatians. So he goes backward in time.
In verse 19, that's our text of Scripture. And he. Uses three illustrations of the
relationships between a relationship between parents, in particular
fathers. Well, they'll be parents, their
mothers in here and children. He says, My little children.
Now he ventures out in the hope that they truly are alive. That
these are indeed the children of God. He says, You're my little
children. Birthed as it were, humanly speaking,
by Him, through Him, in His preaching. My little children. He says,
I am in travail. So he steps back in time. Now,
you know, you don't talk to your children You're in labor to give
birth to, because they can't hear you. But he still starts
out, my dear children, as though they have been born. But now
he steps back and says, I'm in labor once again. It's as though
really you haven't been born yet. Now, you've got to think
of this in terms of 2000 years ago. I tell you, that business
of gestation, pregnancy and birth was a mystery to them. That's
why David said, you put me together in the secret places. So I don't know what, how does
a child start and form? And, you know, they didn't have
the ultrasound stuff that they could get you a picture. Well,
they've got 3D now, I understand, you know, and you pretty well
know that child before it ever came out of the womb. But not
back then. And he said, I'm in travail once
again, and I don't know what will be the result. Back then, they even attached,
if you can put it this way, more importance upon the birth of
children than they do now. And when I say more important,
it's not that they loved them any less than we do. It's just
the way society perceived things back then. For one thing, a childless
woman. was considered cursed. Well,
therefore, to have a baby was a big thing. It delivered a woman
from that sense of, well, the people kind of look, well, God
must not like her. She didn't have any children. And also children
were a help to their parents when the parents got old, you
know, to grow old alone was kind of a bad thing. And so it was
really important that this child not only be conceived, but that
it formed properly within the womb and come forth from the
womb alive and healthy, not only for the sentimental or the emotional
bond that parents and children have, but for the very practical
benefits of children. Yet it was an utter mystery as
to what was going to happen. Would they be healthy or sick? Would they be properly formed
or deformed? Would they be alive or would
it be a stillbirth? And Paul says, I'm not sure. I'm laboring, but I don't know
what's going to come of this. His soul labored for them. Paul's
love for these people And his concern for the eternal well-being
would not allow him to write them off with such words as,
well, if they belong to God, God will preserve them. We must
be careful that our faith in the sovereignty of God and salvation
does not make us cold-hearted, that does not make us those who
think, well, whatever will be, will be, whether it ever happens
or not, as though what we do is not somehow involved in what
God is doing. He uses means. We don't cease
to preach the gospel simply because we know the elect shall be saved,
and we do not cease to pray and to preach and to visit or whatever
with the sheep of God in order to be an instrument in the hand
of God for their preservation and continued rescue. You know,
the people of God need rescue all the time. Don't ever think
that this matter of God saving us was a one-time event, you
know. It isn't. We are continually brought into
trouble. As we're going through this process
of our life, and we can't see very far in the past, there's
that vanishing point back there, and there's a vanishing point
before us, and yet all around us is all kinds of things trying
to draw us away from Christ And Paul says, I travail for you
like a woman giving birth. I've never given birth. I've
witnessed it twice. Hard work. A woman giving birth
isn't multitasking. She's not saying, well, hand
me that checkbook and I'll balance this as I give birth. She's not
in the midst of labor pain saying, what would you like for breakfast?
This travail consumes her. It's the only thing she's doing
right then. Paul says, the only thing I'm doing right now with
regard to these people is I'm concerned and my soul is just
wrapped up in praying and preaching and writing this letter. And
I'm in spiritual pain for your sake. And then he said, till Christ
be formed in you. Now he steps back. He talks as
a parent. Talks as one in the midst of
giving birth. And now he speaks of them as
though they're the ones in whom life is being formed as a baby
is formed within a woman. He changes the illustration and
he says, now I've become like a doctor. who has concerns over
the pregnancy of one of his patients, Paul worried that the beginnings
of faith that he had thought he had seen in the Galatians
will prove fruitless, that the pregnancy he thought he perceived
would be aborted, miscarried, or at stillbirth. And he said, I'm going to be
in travail until Christ is formed in you. That which would ease his mind
And you can imagine if you're an obstetric doctor. And once
again, you've got to take yourself back 2,000 years. You really
don't know much anymore than the woman does about what's going
on inside. But you want this woman to have
a healthy birth, so you're concerned. And the only thing that's going
to give you any comfort is when you see that child come forward
fully formed and healthy. He says, I'll be at ease about
you when I can perceive that Christ has been formed in you.
Now, these words give us an insight into the nature and process of
salvation. We could paraphrase Paul to say
this, I'm in travail until I can see sufficient spiritual maturity
in you to be confident that you have been born of God. Now, we're
going to see what that amounts to, what the spiritual maturity
is. As we go through these four points, first of all, that salvation,
four points illustrated by the illustrations he uses. First
of all, that salvation is an impartation of life. The beginnings
of salvation in us is an impartation of life. Secondly, that this
life does not spring into existence fully formed and mature. It's
got to grow up. And then thirdly, that the description
of this maturing is Christ formed in you. And then we're going
to look at an illustration of how this happens. So salvation
is the imputation of life. It's not simply the preservation
or improvement upon a life that we already have. It is giving
us a life we did not have before. Now, it says in the Scriptures
that when God made the heavens and the earth, that He created
all these You know, when it was first created, it was empty and
formless. And God spent the next six days
filling, forming it and filling it, dividing it into land and
sea and filling it with plants and filling the air with birds
and the sea with creatures. And on the sixth day, he made
these land animals and all that. Finally, he gets the end of forming
and filling it. And he said, let's make man in
our image. And there's been a lot of talk
about what the image of God is. I remember when I was in Bible
school and we studied all kinds of supposedly mysterious and
intellectual things, we wanted to know what is the image of
God? And some said, well, it's the creative ability of man,
because in that way, he is like God and creates, you know, we
do artwork and we make music and all that. And then they found
out that there are animals that do creative things. Now, their
creative things aren't as sophisticated as ours. Though I've seen some
artwork that I think that maybe animals could have done. But
I mean, they do something like that. And they say, well, it's
language because God speaks and only man can speak. Then they
find out that some of the higher primates are capable of symbolic
communication. Again, it's pretty simple, but
it can be done. I think I know what is meant
or what God meant when he said, let's create man in our image,
when the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world and He spoke to
that woman in the well. He said, God is spirit. And they
who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. What is the image of God? Well,
it's what God is. It's spirit. Man, so far as these
bodies, we're just the top animal, that's all. Our brains, most
of the time, are better than theirs. But so far as what we
would call our natural selves, We're just the best animal going. But God breathed into man the
breath of life. He didn't do that with the other
animals. It says that the Lord God formed
man from the dust of the ground. And my personal belief on this,
and I think the Scriptures point this way, that was not metaphorical
language. We read that God The voice of
the Lord God walked in the garden. Who is the voice of the Lord
God? Our Lord Jesus was there. He is the one who made all things
and through whom all things were made. And I don't know what form
he was in, but he was in a form. And he formed man out of the
dust of the ground as a potter would form a pot out of mud.
And when he got done, there was the man. But he was just the
top dog, so to speak. And the Lord Jesus Christ imparted
to that first Adam something the animals didn't have. It's
called spirit. I don't know what spirit is,
but I know what it does. Spirit knows God because it's like God.
Spirit loves God, believes God. It's that part of us that is
like God. It is the divine nature of which
Peter says we are partakers of the divine nature. We aren't
little gods. But a believer, someone who's
been born again, has living spirit. And he knows God. And he loves
God. And he understands God in the
way that God says you need to understand Him. That life, though, died when
Adam sinned. And what is the new birth? The
re-impartation of that life. And when that life is given,
that life is flawless and is utterly incapable of doing anything
wrong. You say, well, I don't believe
God perfectly. Not with your whole being, but
with your spirit you do. You remember that man who said,
Lord, I believe, help my unbelief? I don't need a theology book
to tell me how to understand what he said. I know exactly
what he's talking about. And why could he say that? Because
he's a man of two natures. And you know something? Your
natural nature is never going to believe God until it's changed. This nature only believes what
it can see, what it can sense. And it'll believe when it sees.
But the Spirit is that which lives by faith in the things
that we don't see. And this salvation is the impartation
of that spiritual life. That's why our Lord said to Nicodemus,
smart as that man was, a master in Israel, a Pharisee, he said
to him, ye, and that's plural, because he'd been sent by a bunch
of Pharisees. They didn't know what to do about
Christ. So they chose one among them and said, you go talk to
him. And he came, naked demons, just
like we would have. I mean, we could mock him if
we want, but we'd have done the same thing. Well, we know that
you're a man sent from God, for no man could do these works if
God wasn't with him. And the Lord just moved that
little flattery aside and just ignored it. and said, unless
ye be born again, he will not see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus
just proved it to him. Well, how can that be? Can a
man when he's old, enter his mother's womb, be born a second
time? But we must be born again. Brother
Maurice Montgomery, I was listening to him preach one time, he made
a good statement. The Lord told Nicodemus he must
be born again, but didn't tell him how to do it and didn't give
him any clue as to how to get God to do it. And the reason
is you can't do it and there's nothing you can do to make God
do it. It's a necessity, but a necessity that we can't do
anything about. Any more than Lazarus could do something about
his condition in the grave. Yes, Lazarus, if you're going
to be a part of this world, you must raise from the dead. And
you know something, you can say that into his tomb all you want,
and you can give him all the proper instruction necessary
about the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. He's not coming
out of that tomb until the Lord Jesus Christ says, Lazarus, come
forth. And imparts life to him, and
it's the same way we can teach people and we should teach people.
all the true doctrine that we can get out of this book, and
about which we're taught by the Holy Spirit. We teach it also
to friends. We can't give them life, can we? But they've got
to have it. They've got to have it. This
life does not spring into being fully formed. It's without flaw. There's nothing wrong with it.
There's not an error in it. But it is not perfect. It's not mature, complete. Now,
the moment that there is conception in the womb of a woman, what
is conceived there is a human being. But if you looked at it,
you wouldn't know it unless you were a highly trained medical
professional. You wouldn't have a clue that's
what it was. Why, when it happens, I don't think the women know
it's happened. It takes some time even for them to catch on.
Hey, there's life in there. But it's human. It is 100% human
being. And all that is necessary for
the perfecting of that human is already there. But it's going
to take time for that one cell to become two eyes, two arms,
two legs, and all the other parts that makes up a human being.
It takes time. And for that reason, we need
to exercise patience, both with ourselves and with those around
us, realizing this, that no matter how much progress is made, it
shall never be perfect until Christ comes, until we go to
be with Him. When we see Him, we shall be
like Him. But you know something? Child is being formed within
its mother. At the beginning, you wouldn't
even know it's there, let alone be able to identify it as human.
But even before it's born, before it's completely perfect, there's
enough evidence. That's a human being in there. And Paul says, I'm troubled. I'm in travail until I can see.
Well, that's a Christ in there. We don't come into this, or are
not conceived in our mothers in perfection, though flawless,
but not perfect. Remember the word perfect and
the word flawless are not synonyms. Perfect simply means complete.
Well, we're not conceived complete, but we're conceived flawless.
And it's the same thing. A child of God that's newly born
in the kingdom is flawless, but he's not complete. Now the description
of this maturing process Paul calls Christ in you. Now he does
not mean Christ personally. I have no trouble with the idea
of Christ being personally in us by way of his spirit, but
that's not what Paul's talking about. Why? Well, because when
Christ is in someone, he's flawless and perfect. Christ doesn't grow
in a person. Christ is already in absolute
perfection. So that's not what Paul's referring
to. He's not referring to Christ personally, but he is referring
to a new person with the character and nature of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, that's what I want to
see. I want to find evidence that there is in you a person
like Christ. The goal and perfection of our
salvation is that we would be like Christ and to have Christ
formed in us is to, spiritually speaking, have the mind of Christ
firmly settled in our hearts. Now, people say, well, I want
to be like Jesus. And normally what they mean is not the same
thing what Paul means here. We'll see exactly what Paul means
by having the nature and character of Christ. Now, I would like
to be like the Lord Jesus was in his life. I wish I loved people
like he did. I wish I loved God like He did.
I wish I could preach like He did. I wish I could do all those
things. But there is one aspect of being
like Christ that is absolutely necessary, or you are not in
Christ. It's not what puts you in Christ,
but if it ain't there, you ain't in Christ. What is it about Christ
that Paul was looking for? We'll look at chapter 3 of Galatians,
verse 26. For ye are all the children of
God by faith in Christ Jesus. Now look at chapter 4, 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, when the New Testament talks about adoption, it's not so much
talking about being brought into a family. Now, when we think
of adopting someone, that's what we're normally thinking of, that
someone that was not born in our family, because brought into
the family. Rather, by adoption here is meant
the full rights of sons. That's why it says being sons,
we are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ Jesus. And
so when it says here that we might receive the adoption of
sons, he's not meaning that we'd be made sons, but that we would
experience all the rights and privileges of being a son in
God's household. In verse six, and because ye
are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father." Do you know what the essential
character of Christ is? He's the Son of God. And you
know what Christ formed in you is? The confidence and attitude
that come from being a Son of God. It means to relate to God
the same way that Jesus Christ does. Now, we often talk, what
did the Spirit of God come to do? Well, all that He came to
do actually was for the point or for the purpose of bringing
us to this point that we, just like the Lord Jesus Christ, look
heavenward and say, Abba, Father. Peter put it this way, he says,
you call on a father who shall judge the earth. So live your
lives in reverence. And that almost sounds like you
realize your daddy's a judge. And if you don't act right, he's
going to whoop up on you real bad. That's not what he meant
at all. That word call on actually means to address. And what Peter
is saying, you address as father the one that everybody else has
to call judge. Now, isn't that a privilege? God isn't my judge. Not anymore. That's all been taken care of
by His natural-born Son. He who was the Son. And if you'll
think about it in the scope or that time period in which He
was crucified, He said, Father, forgive them. Father this, Father
that. And then He said, My God, My
God. He's no longer Father. Why have
you forsaken me?" And when that job was done, then
he said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. And we, because of that time
in which the Lord Jesus Christ could not say, Abba, Father,
we can say, Abba, And that is Christ formed in
you. Now, what were these Galatians doing that made it so Paul was
in doubt of them? They weren't crying Abba Father.
They were crying Master. A slave can't look at the owner
of a household and say Father. A slave must work with his hands
and hope that he works enough with his hands that the master
will give him the things he needs. The son begins in the knowledge
that the father will give him all the things that he needs.
As Brother Spurgeon put it this way, he said, the legalist has
for his goal what the believer has for his starting point, acceptance
with God. Therefore, we call him father
because we have no doubt, do we? Through the gospel we have
absolutely no doubt that He will give us all things that pertain
to life and godliness. I shall have my food. I shall
have shelter. I shall have clothes. I shall
have shoes. I shall have a ring because I'm
a son. That's Christ formed in you. The Lord said there in the Garden
of Gethsemane, and this is the attitude of a son. He said, Abba,
Father, all things are possible with you. Do you remember when
you were little, you thought your daddy could do anything?
Of course, when you grew up, you found out that wasn't true.
But even as we grow up, we find out our daddy can do everything. The heart of a son is Child of
God's heart of dependence and confidence. And then the Lord
went on to say, nevertheless, not my will, but your will. The heart of the Son is the heart
of submission. That's Christ formed in you.
To turn over all things to His disposal. Now, how does this
come about? Very quickly, if you look back
at Luke chapter 1, do you realize that we become the sons of God
in a way similar to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, people talk
about the eternal sonship of Christ, and there is one. There's
also a sonship of Christ that started. Now, aren't my son this
day have I begotten thee? Jesus Christ the human being
is the Son of God, but He wasn't always a human being, and there
was a sonship that He had as a human being. out of the Son
of God come into the world. In Luke chapter 1, the angels
tell Mary she's going to have a child. And in verse 34, it
says, Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing
I know not a man? And the angel answered and said
unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power
of the highest shall overshadow thee, therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God." Now that is a description of the conception of the Lord
Jesus Christ within the womb of Mary, and it is an illustration
of the new birth, or the new conception of every child of
God. First of all, it has nothing
to do with human power. Mary said, how can this be? I
thought, I've never been with a man. That's true, and you know
something? We preachers can preach. But
we sire no children in the kingdom of God. We are impotent in that
regard. Only God can sire His children. There's nothing of the flesh
involved, not by human power. It's the work of God's Spirit.
It says the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. And there was
a day, you who believe, there was a time when the Holy Spirit
came upon you. Children of God are not born
naturally into the kingdom. You who have children, your children
have a great privilege in being raised in the gospel. That doesn't guarantee anything.
It doesn't. The Holy Spirit is the only one
that can make a child of God. The Holy Spirit shall be upon
you. It is a birth. It says that holy
thing which shall be born of thee. And it's the birth of something
holy. Absolutely holy. It came from
God. How could it be anything else?
It says that holy thing. Now, the translators use the
word thing. It's not as though it's an indescriptive thing. That's not what he means by it.
Actually, there is no noun there at all. We often do that with
that movie, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. You know, they
call that substantive use of an adjective. And that's what's
being done here. and that holy that is born of
thee. And what shall it be called?
The Son of God." John said, Beloved, now are we
the children of God. And to have Christ formed in
you is to think like and act like a child of God. It means
to relate to God, not as a not as one who must work to gain
the Father's favor, or gain the Master's favor. It's a son who
already has it. How do you relate to God? Are
you working? What would you think if your
children treated you that way? Well, I swept the kitchen. Can
I eat? I'd be insulted. I hope, well, not any longer
that they'll sweep the kitchen. They're grown up, you know. I
hope they do their chores, but they're going to get to eat whether
or not they do their chores. What would you think if you gave
your child something and they reached in their pocket and handed
you 50 cents for it? Do you think that our Father
was any less insulted by our efforts to earn the things he
gives us? Our Lord taught us to pray this
way, our Father. And when we learn to relate to
God as Father, then Christ is formed in us. We are like Him
as much as can be in this world. Heavenly Father, thank You for
this Word. Thank You that we can approach
You with the confidence of children rather than in the fear and trembling
of slaves. But Lord, we also confess this
flesh is still slave. Our minds are just set to think
like slaves. It's the way we were born. It's
the way we spent the first part of our lives. And just as the slaves of old
were released in this country, yet they didn't know how to be
free men. Lord, often we don't know how to act like free men,
children of the Father. But may Christ be formed in us.
It's in His name we pray.