Back to Galatians chapter four,
while you're turning there, I want to let you know about something
that happened this week that I believe will be a blessing
to you. Monday, a lady called me who said her husband was watching
our TV program this past Sunday. And she said, after the TV program,
he got up and said, that is the message my family needs to hear. And he walked out of the room
and died. Massive heart attack. And she
called the church, wanting a copy of the message to play at his
funeral, because she wanted his wish to come true, that his family
would hear that message. I've never seen anything like
that happen. I think that's glorious. And they came and got the CD. That's neat, isn't it? I've entitled this message, Sonship. Sonship. You know, sometimes that's the
most difficult thing to get hold of, that I really am a son or
a daughter of God, and that I can come into his presence crying,
Abba, Father. Would to God that every one of
us will be enabled tonight to cry from our hearts to him, Abba,
Father. Now, Paul says in verse one,
now I say that the heir, the heir. In verse 29 of chapter three,
he said, and if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and
heirs. according to the promise. Now,
when the Lord appeared to Abraham in Genesis 15, 1, he said, Fear
not, Abraham, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. He's telling Abraham, I am what
you get. I am your inheritance. If I'm a son of God, not only
am I his heir, he himself is my inheritance. When I'm listening
to the reading of the will to find out what it is I get, I
found out it is he himself. He is my inheritance. As Paul puts it, heirs of God. and joint heirs with Christ. Now, Paul says in verse 1 of
chapter 4, Now, I say that the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, a slave. He's treated no differently,
though he be Lord of all. Now, we are heirs by being children
of God, by being justified, by being freed from the law by being
made a child of God, by being immersed in Christ, by being
Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. But even though
you're an heir, you may be treated no differently than a slave. That's what he's talking about. You were an heir before you knew
anything about it, and a Greek child may have been an heir to
a vast wealth, but it wasn't given to him just yet. He didn't
know he had it coming. It was his all along. He just
didn't know about it. And he was nothing different
than a slave. It was his for sure, but he wouldn't
get it until the time appointed of his father. Now, if you're
an heir of God, did you know you've always been an heir of
God? That there's never a time when
you were not an heir of God? That before time began, You were
an heir of God and you had a relationship with God. He knew you. He said, Jeremiah, before I formed
thee in the belly, I knew you. Now to me, that is one of the
most amazing, astounding, we can't get hold of it, can we?
I've always been known by God. I've always been his heir. Now, before you were saved, what
he's saying, I saved the heir as long as he's a child. He hadn't
reached the level of maturity to where he would be given the
trust fund. And what this is a reference
to is before you were saved, before you came to know the living
God, before you knew that you were an heir, you differed nothing
from a servant, though you'd be Lord of all. Now, before you
were saved, you differed nothing from a lost man, did you? Ephesians
2, 1 through 3 says, And you hath he quickened, who were dead
in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past you walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the devil. according to the prince of the
power of the air, of the spirit that now worketh in the children
of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation in
times past, in the lusts of the flesh and of the mind, and we
were by nature the children of wrath, just like everybody else.
That was us before we came to know the Lord. Now, this one,
before he is made his heirship revealed to him before it's made
known unto him, verse two, he is under tutors and governors
into the time appointed by his father. Now, this young man that
was an heir was under tutors and governors, people who kept
him in line. You know, I have thought about
that word governor. A car may be very fast, but they
put a governor in it. It can't go near as fast as you'd
like for it to go. It's kept in line by that governor. And
Paul put it this way in verse 24 of chapter 3, or verse 23,
but before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up under
the faith, which should afterward be revealed. Wherefore, the law
was our schoolmaster. to bring us to Christ. Look at
that, to bring us is in italics. The law was our schoolmaster
until Christ. It didn't bring us to Christ.
All it did was create in us a hostility for God when we saw it, and it
didn't bring us to Christ. But then when we were brought
to Christ by God the Spirit, by the drawing of the Father,
we no longer needed the schoolmaster. But before We were drawn to Christ. You had to have law. You'd be
an absolute monster if there were not laws. What would this
country be right now? What would Lexington be if all
laws were stopped? Couldn't come out this door,
could you? You'd be murdered. You'd be robbed. Anything would
go. And that's what he was saying. You were under tutors and governors
until the time appointed of your father. You were saved in your
experience at God's appointed time, verse 3. Even so, in like
manners, these Greek boys, even so, when we were children, were
in bondage under the elements of the world. Now this is talking
about before conversion, before we were enabled to believe the
gospel, we were in bondage under the miserable servitude of the
elements of the world, which is nothing less than salvation
by works. Now, salvation by works is as natural to me and you as
breathing. It only makes sense. If you're
good, you'll go to heaven. If you please God, if you try
to obey God, if you do your best, you'll go to heaven. If you do
bad, you'll go to hell. That's as natural to us as breathing,
to believe in salvation by works. When he uses this word, the elements,
that word elements means the ABCs, the basic principles of
the world. Look what he says in verse 8
of this same chapter. We'll look more at this next
week, but he says, When you knew not God, you did service unto
them which by nature are no gods, but now after that you've known
God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements, wherein to you desire again to be in
bondage? Now here he calls salvation by
law, salvation by works, weak and beggarly elements. That's
what he calls God's law. He calls it weak and beggarly
elements where you desire to be in bondage. Why are you going
in that direction? Now, that's the elements of the
world. That's the way we naturally think that somehow we achieve
salvation through what we do. Now, the law is good if a man
uses it lawfully, but if it's used for justification, It's
weak, powerless, and beggarly. It's poor. It can't do anything
for us at all. Now, verse four, but. Verse three says, even so, when
we were children, before we were brought to a knowledge of Christ,
we were heirs, we just didn't know it. And we were in bondage
under the elements, the ABCs, the way the world thinks, the
weak and beggarly elements of the law, but. when the fullness
of time was come. God's time. Now, I've read so
many different things about what this means. I've heard people
say, well, this was the perfect time for the gospel to come because
of the Roman Empire and the infrastructure that would enable people to spread
the gospel. There would be roads. You could
get to all kinds of different towns. This is the time when
the Greek language was used the most, and that's the perfect
language to convey the gospel. It's got tenses that no other
language has, like the aorist tense that makes it much more
exact, and you can tell exactly what's being said. That may be
true. I don't know. I don't know, but
I know this. It was God's time. That's all
we need to know. This was God's time. This was
God said this is when it's going to happen. That's when it happened.
The fullness of time at just the right time when God ordered
for this to take place. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his son. Do you believe that God sent
Christ? Do you believe that He was sent
by the Father? You see, this is the gospel of
God. God was the one who sent Christ. God didn't send Christ
to make a way to love. God sent Christ because He did
love. God sent His Son. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. The Lord said, I came not down
from heaven to do my own will, but the will of him that sent
me. And this is the will of him that
sent me. that of all which he hath given
me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last
day. The Lord said, God sent not his
son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. You see, the world was already
condemned. He didn't come to condemn. He came to save and
God sent forth His Son. You know, the Lord says in His
great high priestly prayer in John chapter 17 verse 8, He says,
They have believed that thou hast sent me. Do you believe the Father sent
Him? That's what faith is. You believe the Father sent Him. At the fullness of time, at just
the right time. Like I said, I don't know if
it had anything to do with the Roman Empire or the Greek language
or anything like that. Matter of fact, I kind of doubt
it because God doesn't need anything like that. He can make sure His
gospel prospers in whatever kind of climate. At His time, God
sent forth His Son. Notice what it says next. Made
of a woman. Made of a woman. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, made of a woman. Now, he's the seed of woman,
according to the promise of Genesis chapter 3. And this is an amazing
thing to think about. There was a time when God was
one cell. He spent nine months in Mary's
womb, made of a woman. I think this is interesting.
Every religion, it's men trying to be God. Only in the gospel,
God became a man. Made of a woman. A real man. Born of a virgin. Not having Adam's corrupt nature. You see, you and I, we were born
sinful, weren't we? We didn't have to be taught to
lie. We didn't have to be taught to be selfish. We didn't have
to be taught to be self-serving. We didn't have to be taught to
be deceitful. It came natural. But Christ Jesus was born holy
and without sin. He never sinned. He was born
of a virgin, a real man though, who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself
of no reputation. and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men, and being found
in the fashion of a man, he humbled himself." Now, his humiliation
was in that he became a man in the first place, and he took
upon him all the limitations of the flesh. God had the same
limitations you and I do. You know, when the Lord performed
miracles, He never performed them for Himself, did He? He
never created food for himself. He never healed himself. He never
did anything for himself as far as his miracles went, because
he's going to have to be just like me and you. The same limitations
that you and I have. Born of a woman, made under the
law. That was an act of condescension.
I mean, he's a lawgiver. And he places himself under his
own law. You know, what I was thinking
about, you know, if you have a pet living in your house, supposedly
you have some rules that your pet has to live by. One rule
I wish we had when we had our pet living here, I wish we had
it where it couldn't sleep with us. It did, but that never was
right. That's not my fault. But what
if... What if I put myself under the
same rules as my pet? I can't sleep in my bed. I mean,
that's the condescension of Christ in being under the law. The lawgiver
placed himself under the law. You see, in the flesh, Somebody
had to keep the Law. And He kept the Law perfectly
in the flesh. He never sinned. He became obedient
unto death. Somebody had to die. The Law
demanded the death of the Lawgiver. When He took upon our sins, He
was made to die. He became obedient to death.
He humbled Himself to be a man. He humbled Himself to be under
the Law. He humbled Himself to be obedient unto death. even
the death of the cross. He was made of a woman to do
all of those things. And why did He do this? Verse
4, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His
Son, made of a woman, made under the law. The law giver had to
be a law keeper. And here's why He did this. I
love this reason. Verse 5, to redeem. to redeem
them that were under the law. And not to try to redeem. Not to offer redemption. He wasn't
offering anything. He's offering himself to God,
but he wasn't offering me and you anything when he was on the
cross. He didn't try to redeem. He didn't make redemption potential,
possible, if you or I do something to make it work for us. No, he
didn't do anything like that at all. He redeemed. He redeemed. You know what that
means? I'm redeemed. It's not something
He offered to me. It's not something He asked if
I wanted. He redeemed me. He redeemed them that were under
the law, a successful particular redemption. There's no gospel
without that. Somebody that doesn't preach
a successful, particular redemption does not preach the gospel. That's all there is to it. The
only hope I have is that Christ died for me, and if He could
die for me, and I wind up in hell, you've taken away the only
hope I have. You know, I say that a lot, and I'm going to
keep saying it a lot. That's the only hope I have, that Christ died
for me. He came for this purpose to redeem
them that were under the law. Look in Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law. I love the language of that,
don't you? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it's written,
cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now, He redeemed us. Now, if I'm in debt, and you
come and pay my debt for me, that's a good thing. I'm glad.
I don't owe it anymore. But there's something utterly
unique about the redemption of Christ. Not only did he pay the
debt, but let's keep reading. Verse two, to redeem them that
were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. Now that's why he redeemed me.
to make me a son. Now, if you pay my debts, that
doesn't make me a son. But when He redeemed me, He made
me a son. A son of God. Not just somebody
with their debts paid, but a son. All the dignity of being an actual
son of God. That's what He did. Now, somebody
may come up to me and say, I'm a son of the president. The president's
my father. He's got pool. He's got influence.
He can get me jobs. He's got plenty of money. He
can do a lot for me. Oh, that's good. I'm glad you're
the son of the president. I'm the son of God. I'm the son
of God almighty. I'm the son of the absolute sovereign
of the universe. And you know what? My father
loves me. He's all for me. He thinks I'm beautiful. He thinks
I'm perfect. He gave his son for me. He made
me perfect. Now that, there's a big difference
in there. A son of Bill Gates, a son of
Warren Buffett, a son of God, a son of God. You see, his redemption
made us sons and daughters of the living God. to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of sons. And beloved, this is something
we receive. Behold, what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the
sons of God. And you know what we do? We receive
this. Receive it by faith. You know, I really believe I'm
a son of God. I believe God's my father. I believe that. And what confidence
through Christ that gives me to come into his presence. Now
I wish we could get hold of this thing of sonship because somehow
it doesn't register very well. It just doesn't register very
well. I don't think it does with any of us. I don't know why,
but we, oh may God give us grace to receive. the adoption of sons. You know, the Lord said regarding
every one of us, he says, they are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world. We trace our lineage to God himself. We are of God. And look what he says in verse
six. He says, because you are sons Because you are sons. Now, there are no second-rate
believers. There are no second-class Christians.
Every one of them are sons and daughters of God, loved equally
by God, with God for them. Are you four-year children? You better bet you are. You want
the best for your children. You're for them. You want them
to succeed in every way. Well, if God be for you, as your
Father, who can be against you? He says, and because you're sons,
we see the Trinity in this verse, and because you are sons, God,
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father." Now, this is the great dignity of the believer. Sonship. And faith is the mark
of sonship. Somebody's saying, well, am I
really a son of God? Well, look what Galatians chapter
three, verse 26. For ye are all the children of God. How? How? What's it say? by faith
in Christ Jesus. Now, I know this. Right now,
while I'm talking to you, I am relying wholly on the person
and the merits of Jesus Christ as my salvation. I'm not looking
anywhere else. I'm not looking to my preaching.
I'm not looking to my works. No way. I know where that'd get
me. I am relying wholly upon Him. It's called faith in Christ Jesus. Faith is reliance. I'm relying
on Him. All my eggs are in this basket.
What He did is all I need for me to be saved. Now, if you have
faith in Christ, you know what you are? You are a child of God. You are a son or a daughter of
God. Now what significance, what a
standing, what a place to be. to be a child of God. And we have all of the privileges
of sonship. I think of what John said, Behold,
what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we
should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knows
us not, because it knew him not. Beloved, now, get that word,
now are we the sons of God. You think of the high, what greater
privilege, what greater standing could you have than this? Being
a son and a daughter of God with all the privileges of sonship. The scripture I think of is,
as he is, so are we in this world. Well, how is he? He's the son.
No son like this son. He's the Son of God. Oh, He addressed
Him as Father. Father. He's the Son. Oh, He's
the Son of God. Is there any debate about that?
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Any debate? No, we know it so. As He is, so are we in this world
with all of the privileges of sonship. Now, look what it says
in verse 6, and because you are sons, God has sent forth the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now, I think this is interesting.
In this verse, the language says It's God the
Holy Spirit who cries, Abba, Father. In the passage in Romans
chapter 8, when we have God the Holy Spirit, we cry. Abba, Father. And we are allowed,
by the grace of God, to use the same language that the Lord Jesus
Christ used with His Father when He cried in the garden, Abba,
Father. All things are possible with
Thee. If it be possible, let this cup pass from me. But He cried, Abba, Father. Now,
that's the Aramaic for father. The Greek is father, however
it sounds in Greek, but the Abba is the Aramaic of father. And
it's some kind of close filial relationship. It's not a far-off
relationship. It's a close relationship. Many
writers have said it's the first word an infant uses, dada. Dada. He's your Father. An infant, a child, oh, the way
they come to their Father. He's my Father. And every believer
is allowed to cry. And notice it's a cry. God the
Holy Spirit enables it. He causes us to feel this way.
I mean, this cry is a cry of need. He enables us to cry, Abba, Abba, Father, coming from the
heart, a cry of the heart that God the Holy Spirit has put in. Now, God sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into your heart. He didn't send Him to knock on
the door of your heart, but to break the door down and come
in and take residence as an almighty ruler, causing you to say, Abba,
Father. God sent forth the Spirit of
His Son with irresistible grace in your heart. He comes as the
Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of His Son. I love the way when
the Lord was talking about the Holy Spirit, the coming of the
Holy Spirit, He said, He shall glorify me. There you have the
office of God, the Holy Spirit. He shall glorify me. And He shall come causing this
cry of Abba, Father. He prompts this cry, He works
in us a sense of a need to cry, and He gives us the confidence
to cry, Abba, Father. And through Christ, we can come
boldly to the throne of grace to obtain mercy and to find grace
to help in time of need. Now, this is for every believer.
Abba Father. We come into His presence through
the Son, saying, Abba Father. Turn to Romans 8. Let's look
at Paul's statement about this in the book of Romans. Beginning in verse Nine, but
you're not in the flesh, but in the spirit. If so be that
the spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the
spirit of Christ. He's none of his, he doesn't
belong to Christ. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because
of sin, and you know that, but the spirit is life because of
righteousness. But if the spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies
by his spirit that dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we
are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh, for
if you live after the flesh, you shall die. But if you through
the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.
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 itself
beareth witness with our spirit that we're the children of God,
and of children that heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ.
If so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified
together. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation
of the creature waits for the manifestation of the sons of
God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly,
but by reason of him who subjected the same in hope. Because the
creation itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption
into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know
that the whole creation groans and prevails in pain together
until now. And not only they, but ourselves
also, which had the first fruit of the Spirit. Even we ourselves
groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption to wit, the
redemption of our body, getting out of this vile body, for we're
saved by hope. But hope that is not seen is
not hope for what a man seeth. Why doth he yet hope for? But
if we hope for that which we see not, then do we with patience
wait for it. Likewise, the Spirit also helps
our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought. But the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with
groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession
for the saints according to the will of God. I turn back to our
text, Galatians chapter 4, verse 7. Wherefore, Thou art no more a
slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God
through Christ. You're not a slave in bondage. Now, I'll tell you when you were
a slave, when you didn't know you were a slave. You were under
the complete dominion, control, and bondage of sin at that time,
when you didn't know it. You thought everything was okay.
You didn't know it. But when God came to you, when
God the Holy Spirit came to you, you found something out about
sin. That's where this groaning comes from, this waiting for
the redemption of the body. But understand this, you're not
a slave. Sin shall not have dominion over
you, for you're not under the law. You're under grace. That's your hope. You're not
a slave. You're a son. A son of God with
all the blessedness of being a son of God. A joint heir with
Christ. An heir of God. Now, there is
no way that I can describe what all it means to be an heir of
God. It's way more than any of us can ever imagine. But the
best thing is God himself is my inheritance. I am my beloved's. I belong to
him. But you know what else? He, my
beloved, is mine. He's my inheritance. He's my
God. I love what Thomas said to him. Lord said, Thomas, take your
finger out and stick them in my side, in my hands, and be
not faithless, but believing. You know what Thomas' reply was?
My Lord and my God. Heirs of God, and we can't miss
this. I wouldn't have felt very good
about this unless he'd have said this. I would have thought, what
if there's some kind of loophole somewhere? What if somehow I
need to measure up to something? What if there's something I need
to do to make this work? What are the last two words of
verse seven? Through Christ. Through Christ. You see, all
I have, all you have is through Christ. You're a son through
Christ. You're an heir of God through
Christ. All you have, all I have, I wish
I could emphasize this the way it ought to be emphasized, but
all you and I have is through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
it. Be ye kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another even as God What's the next word? Let's say it out
loud. For Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. All you have is
through Christ. And that's where the confidence
comes from. Aren't you glad he ended up with that? I mean, I
would have, I would have been thinking, well, what, what, what,
what, what, what, what, what, no. Through Christ makes it all
certain because all the promises of God in him are yay and amen
unto the glory of God by us. Sonship, oh, that you and I will
be able by the Spirit, through Christ, by his grace, to truly
cry to him. Abba, Father. Let's pray. Our Father. What a precious name you allow
us to address you as. You're the great God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, but Lord, you're our father. Your
son said, I go to your God and my God and to my father and your
father. Oh Lord, through thy son, you
are our father. And Lord, we cry, Abba, Father. Lord, give us the grace to receive
our sonship. Deliver us from unbelief. Deliver
us from looking to ourselves and our works and whatever it
is that causes us to hesitate in this thing of being your sons
and your daughters. Lord, work this in each one of
us for Christ's sake. In His name we pray. Amen.