Turn with me over to Galatians
chapter 11. If you can find that, go ahead
and turn. If you can find that, you are
not reading the same version I am. Galatians chapter 4, and I want
to begin in verse 1. Galatians chapter 4. Galatians
chapter 4 and 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 he 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 the 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.
And because you are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore thou
art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Howbeit then, when you knew not
God, you did service to them which by nature are no gods.
But now, after that you have known God, or rather, are known
of God, how turn you again to the weak and beggarly elements,
whereunto you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days
and months and times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you labor in vain. As you read this epistle to the
Galatians, it becomes very obvious what has happened in this church,
the churches of Galatia. It was more than one church.
That they had given up the gospel. As sad as that may sound, they
had given up the gospel. He tells us that in chapter 1.
That you've left Him that called you into the grace of Christ.
for another gospel. And they were turning back to
the law. Not the whole law. I'm sure they
wouldn't have been offering sacrifices. But they were turning back to
the ceremonial law. It's evident from the last two
verses I read to you that they were beginning to keep feast
days and holy days and other rituals that the law commanded
to be kept. probably the argument that they
were trying to give was, we're not trying to keep the whole
law. We know it's impossible to keep
the whole law. But they said there are certain
things we can keep and we want to keep and we feel that we must
keep. And that's why the Apostle Paul
in the fifth chapter, look in the fifth chapter, here's what
He tells them here. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and be not entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Behold, I, Paul, say unto you,
that if you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing. For
I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he
is a debtor to do the whole law." The whole law. It doesn't matter
if you're just going to be circumcised. That little portion of the law.
Then Paul said, you've brought yourself back under the law.
You've lost the gospel. So this was what was taking place
here in the churches of Galatia. They had heard the gospel of
Christ. They had received that gospel. Now they had left it
and was going back to all of these ceremonies. Circumcision
and keeping feast days and holy days and all of this. And the
apostle is riding here to restore this gospel among these people. And to restore faith in that
gospel. And he does it like no other
apostle. I tell you, I love to brag about
the Apostle to the Gentiles. We have the best Apostle, don't
we? Peter and John was the Apostle
of the Jews, the circumcision, and bless God for them. The Jews
loved them and we loved them. But I tell you, there is no other
Apostle like God has given us, the Apostle Paul. No man argued. No man used examples and things
like he used to teach us Poor Gentiles as well as the Jews.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ. And here is the way He does it.
He goes all the way back to chapter 3 and look what He says here
in verse 8. He is going to take all of this
and teach them a lesson and us as well. Chapter 3 and verse
8 and what He says there in verse 7, Know ye not therefore that
they which be of faith, The same are the children of Abraham.
And the scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen
through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham. And
here's what he said. Here's the promise he gave Abraham.
In thee shall all nations of the earth be blessed. That was
a promise. There it says in thee shall all
the families of the earth be blessed. Not just Jews. but Gentiles. And in verse 14, we have this
promise in a nutshell. You say, what was the promise? In you shall all the nations
be blessed. Well, in verse 14 of chapter
3, here is that blessing that God promised to Abraham. That
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ. And here it is. That we might
receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. That was the blessing. Isn't it a blessing, brothers
and sisters, to think that God has sent forth the Spirit of
His Son into our hearts? Crying, Father, Father. You know
without the Spirit of Christ, we're none of His. And if He
sent the Spirit of Christ into our hearts crying, Father, Father,
that's a promise that He made Abraham 430 years before Moses
ever came on the scene. And He's fulfilled it in some
of you, hasn't He? This blessing, this promise. He's given you the Spirit of
promise. But there was something here
that had to happen before the Spirit could come. And he tells
us that in verse 13. Look at this. Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for
it is written, Cursed is everyone who hangeth on a tree. Christ had to come. That's what
they were waiting for in the Old Testament. He is coming. They looked for Him. They waited
for Him. The consolation of Israel. And
the boy, it seemed like he was a long time in coming. They waited
and they waited and the Lord kept encouraging them and said,
ìDonít be discouraged. Itís coming. Heís coming.î They
waited. Because you know something? They
knew that the blessing God promised to Abraham would not be fulfilled
until Christ came and obtained redemption. And He says here in verse 16,
look at this. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. Not only the promise of the Spirit,
but all other promises. And he said, Not unto seeds as
of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ. Here we find out something. It
wasn't that God made a promise to a whole bunch of people. But
God really made the promise to Abraham and Christ, chiefly to
His Son, Jesus Christ. This is why the Lord Jesus said,
I'll go back to My Father and I'll pray, I'll ask Him, and
He'll send forth the Spirit back again. Remember that? Why did
He say, I'll ask Him? Because the promise had been
made to Him. My Son, You ask of Me, I'll send
the Spirit back. The promise was made to the Lord
Jesus Christ. But now something happened between
the promise given to Abraham and the time the promise was
fulfilled. Something happened. And boy,
this is what turned the Jewish nation upside down. This is what
confused the Jews in Christ's day. Something happened. between
the time that God gave the promise and the time the promise was
fulfilled, and it was this. It happened upon Mount Sinai.
God gave the law. He gave the moral law, and then
He gave the ceremonial law, then He gave the civil law to the
Jewish nation. Look in verse 17. And this I
say, that the covenant, that promise, that was confirmed before
of God in Christ to Abraham, the law, which was four hundred
and thirty years after, cannot disannul that it should make
the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more promise. But God gave it to Abraham by
promise." And here is what was happening to these Jews. They
believed the promise. Some of them believed it very
firmly. The Messiah is coming. The Messiah is coming. The Spirit
is going to be given. But they said, listen, here is
the way this promise is going to be accomplished. We must keep
the law. We must fulfill the law. And Paul comes here and he said,
that's not so. God gave the promise 430 years
before He gave the law. And the promise was not given
by your works, by your fulfilling the law, but it was indeed given
by a gracious covenant that God made with Abraham in Christ. Remember when the Lord had promised
Abraham and Sarah that they'd have a child? And they believed
that. Both of them believed it. But
here's what Sarah come to understand. He's going to give us a job,
but he's going to give us a job by Hagar. It's going to be by
Hagar. That's the way he's going to
fulfill the promise. But that was and so was. Ain't it something
how we can get all these things mixed up? He wasn't going to
send forth the spirit of promise because they finally keep the
law. And you know this was something
in the Jews' day that was believed, it was reported and believed,
that when we can find ourselves without fault, the Messiah will
come. When the Jewish nation is without
sin, the Messiah will come. That was taught before the coming
of Christ. But you know, that wasn't the
way the promise was assured and given and guaranteed. It was
a promise, a promise that He was coming. And here was the
promise, my Son is coming and He's going to redeem His people,
then I'm going to send back the Spirit. Well, then here's the
question, why did God give the law? That's a good question,
isn't it? Why did He even give the law? Why did He give them
all these sacrifices and the priesthood? Why did He give them
all that to begin with? Well, Paul gives us two reasons
here. One is found in verse 19. Look at this. He asked this very
question because he anticipated it was going to be asked. Wherefore
then serveth the law? Why was it given? If it has nothing
to do with the promise, why was it given? The first reason is
this, it was added because of transgressions. Boy, there's
something about the law. When it's taught, it convicts
the conscience, does it not? Without any laws in our land,
what would we have? We'd have chaos. When our country
was first set up, It was chaos because they wanted absolute
liberty to do anything. They had been so bound by Britain
and the king, they said, let's throw off all yoke and let everybody
do what they wanted to do. And man, it was chaos. So they
had to come back and said, we've got to have some laws. And they established laws. If
you broke those laws, you suffered the consequences. It's the same
way with the law of God. It kept the Jewish nation in
check. It kept the flesh in check. You
know why our society is one in red of the moral law of God? You know why they're trying to
put any Faying away that has got anything to do with the knowledge
of God, the Ten Commandments. Get it out of here. We don't
want anything to do with that. How is that working out for this
society? I just saw the other day that
it's got so bad in schools that they're trying now to come back
teaching some character. Trying to teach people not to
steal. It's got nothing to do with God, they say. But you can't
leave your locker open. The students go back an hour
later and it's emptied out. Cussing each other, hating each
other. What do you get when you do away with the law of God? And you know what the law of
God is? Just what God requires of society. That's what God requires
of society. And you know it's just as much
active today as it's ever been. Some people say, well, Christ
did away with the law. Well, the believer is not under
the law, but I'm telling you what, the law is just as active
today as it's ever been. Every man is still cursed who
continueth not in everything that's written in the book of
the law to do him. And if this law was pressed upon men's conscience
today as it should be, you would see sin would be better checked
than it is. Wherefore then serveth the law?
It was added because of transgression. And then he gives another reason
here in this passage. In verse 19, till the seed should
come to whom the promise was made. And he goes on in verse
21. Look at this. Is the law then
against the promise of God? God forbid. For if there had
been a law given, which could have given life, verily righteousness
would have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded
all under sin. The law has concluded all under
sin. Brother Larry just read it, didn't
he? That the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given
to them that believe. But before faith came, before
the object of our faith came, before Christ came, we were kept,
guarded by the law. Shut up! confined unto the faith
which should afterward be revealed. Now here it is. Wherefore the
law was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be
justified by faith. But after that faith is come,
we are no longer under a schoolmaster. Why was the law given? To teach
us our need of a Redeemer. to prove our guilt, our helplessness,
to see the absolute need for God sending His Son to do for
us what we could not do for ourselves. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. And you know that happened in
history. Looking at this from a historical
standpoint, the law was the schoolmaster for the Jews to make them see
their need of the Messiah, the coming Christ. And you know,
there was multitudes among the Jews that realized, we can't
keep this law. Peter said himself, he said,
it's a burden which neither we nor our forefathers could bear.
Moses said, when I think of it, I exceedingly fear and quake.
And they longed for the coming of Christ to redeem them from
that curse. It was the schoolmaster. And
you know, this happens in our experience, does it not? The
schoolmaster teaches us Paul said, I didn't know anything
about sin until the law taught me. I didn't know anything about
lust until the law said, you shall not covet. And then the
law stirred up in me all manner of sin and lust. By the law is
the knowledge of sin. Boy, I've felt it, haven't you?
I sure have felt it. I used to think, man, I'll keep
this. I'll keep this law. When I was
a teenager, I thought I'd keep the law. And man, the Lord finally
showed me that I was guilty. And if you're guilty in one point,
you're guilty of all. But what does that do when your
guilt is proved? That's all the law can do. It
can't bring repentance. It can't bring faith. It can't
bring forgiveness. It can't give you righteousness.
It points you to Him who can do all of those things for you. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us unto Christ. And here in chapter 4, Paul goes
back to the same subject again with just a little different
twist. He says here in verses 1 through 3 that I read to you
before Christ came and redeemed us from the curse of the law.
He said, and probably speaking mainly to the Jews, but he didn't
exclude the Gentiles. He said it's like this. He said,
it's like a rich man that has a son. This happened a lot back
in the scriptural day. He was a rich man. You didn't
train him up yourself. His mother didn't even train
him up. Sometimes they gave him to, we'd call it a nanny today,
wouldn't we? Somebody comes in the home, takes
care of the children. But Paul called it a tutor. It's a trainer. And what they would do, they
would give their son over to this tutor, and he would train
the child up. He would teach him some manners.
He would teach him some character. And then when he would become
of age, they would take him to his father and say, he's been
trained. And then his father would take
him and show him all the business and he'd go and have sweet fellowship
and friendship with his father. And Paul said, this is the same
way that it was with us. It was like we were children
being trained up by this law until when? Well, look at it
in 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 you
might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons,
God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying,
Father, Father. And He said, it's all been accomplished. This promise that God made to
Abraham, the Law has come and it has taught us something. It has been our tutor. It has
been our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ historically and
in our experience. But now Christ has come. He has
come. He has obtained our redemption.
The Spirit has been set into our hearts that God promised
to Abraham. It is finished. It's finished. And every born-again person has
experienced this. They've experienced this. Now look what He does. In verse 7, Wherefore, you there
who have believed the gospel, you are no more a servant, but
you are a son. And if you are a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. Howbeit then, when ye knew not
God, ye did service unto those things which by nature know God."
So look at this. Now, but now, after that you
have known God in Christ by the gospel, or rather you're known
of God as children, regenerated children. God always knew everybody,
didn't He? He always knew His elect people
before He called them He knew them. But here He knows them
in this special way, experimentally as their Father, and they His
son. Now look at this. How turn you
again to the weak and beggarly elements? The promise of God
has been fulfilled. Christ has died. The Spirit has
come to you. And now after this, you want
to go back and be under a tutor? You want to go back to school? I don't know about you, but I
tell you what, when I graduated high school, I leaped for joy.
That's 12 years of roughest time of my life was being in school.
I've had nightmares about being in school. Went to my locker
and couldn't get it open. Went to my homeroom or wherever
I was going, didn't have my lessons, my homework. I've had some awful
Nightmares about that for years. I hated school. I hated school. Who wants to go back to grade
school? Any adult person here want to go back to grade school?
Anybody want to go back to high school? I tell you, I got sick
and tired of hearing, trying to figure out math and how it
works and history. and all that stuff. I was so
glad, I tell you, when I got out of school and I could begin
to have my liberty to come and go as I pleased and not have
to worry about going to school. And I tell you this much, brothers
and sisters, I don't want to go back to Moses. I don't want to go back to that
school, do you? Aren't you glad? It was necessary to be taught.
Necessary to see our guilt, our helplessness, our inability,
our sad, sad misery under the law. But don't you love the liberty
that you found in Jesus Christ? Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free. And don't go back and be entangled
with all of this stuff. That's what he was teaching them.
I don't really know if they learned the lesson or not. Do you? I
don't know. Don't say it doesn't. I wish
you'd have wrote us another epistle and told about these fellows
getting straightened out. But I don't know. But I tell you
this much. It makes me want to guard myself. I've got liberty in my conscience
that I don't want to lose. And the liberty is this, that
Jesus Christ has redeemed my soul and He sent the Spirit of
God back into my heart and freed me from guilt and this condemning,
judging law of Moses. And now I'm free and I can walk
at large in the fear of the Lord and serve Him and be happy about
it. And when this law comes back
accusing me, I send it to Christ. You're guilty, Bruce. Yeah? Go
to my charity. Go to my charity. Go there. You're going to get my liberty.
Moses is not getting in my conscience. Christ sits there by His grace.
And I don't believe for a minute, brothers and sisters, if you
believe that, if you really believe that in your heart, that you'll
go out here. and do anything that would dishonor God. I don't
believe that for a minute. I believe that puts the love
of God in your heart that everything you do, you want to do in gratitude
to please Him and honor Him. And if you're doing anything
that grieves Him, then He'll grieve you. Because those who
have the Spirit of Christ in them, they love their Lord. They
love Him. And they appreciate the liberty
that He's given. But I tell you, it's not easy
to stand in that liberty, is it? It's not. The easiest thing
in the world is to lose the gospel of the grace of Christ. It sure
is. Stand fast. Oh, here in our text
quickly, look at this then. First of all, look at our Redeemer. See Him in His divinity. When
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son." We see
three things in this little verse. We see the divinity of Jesus
Christ. The Son of God. He's the eternal
Son of God. He had no beginning of days,
did He? The Jews knew well what Jesus Christ meant when He said,
I am the Son of God. They said, well, you're making
yourself God. He is one with God. He's God. He's the eternal
Son of God. Look at Him in His humanity.
When the fullness of time was come, God sent forth His Son,
made of a woman. There He is in His humanity.
Born of a woman, a virgin woman. Isn't it strange? I think it
tells us something that Paul never even said a virgin woman.
Though he knew that. He knew how essential that was.
And he never told who the woman's name was. Barned of a woman. He left Mary completely out,
didn't He? I wonder sometimes if the Lord didn't reveal to
these great apostles what was coming concerning Mary and how
she would be exalted and trusted in and set up as a mediator between
God and man. They never mention her name.
He didn't say He was barned of the virgin Mary, just barned
of a woman. And after chapter 1 of Acts,
if I remember right, her name is never mentioned again. She
has nothing to do with our salvation. She was a woman blessed of God,
chosen of God. She was the mother of our Lord,
but she had to be saved by her Son, just like we do. And Jesus
Christ was the Son of God, the eternal Son of God in His divinity,
and He was the Son of Mary in His humanity. And He was just
as much her Son as He was the Son of God. He was the God-man. And it tells us here why that
was so needful. He was made under the law. Aren't
you glad for that? Because being found under the
law, He was obligated to keep the law. If He come and He was
free from the law, He could have lived without any obligation.
But being a man and born under the law, He was obligated to
keep the law. Every jot and every tittle. And
that He did. And why did He do it? Here's
His office, isn't it? To redeem them that were under
the law. To redeem them. That's His office. Why did it take a God-man to
redeem us? Well, no mere man can fulfill
the law. It's impossible. But you take
a man that was a good man, that was an excellent man. If he could
keep the law, he came atoned for sin. But Jesus Christ, who
is God and who is very man, can keep the law because He's such
a holy man, such a perfect man, and He could atone for sin because
He's God. He's just the Savior we need,
isn't He? He took our sins to Himself. He made them His own. He suffered with them. And He
put them away by the sacrifice of Himself. He is indeed the
God-man Redeemer. Consider our sonship because
of this. Look what he says again. 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. In order
to receive the adoption of sons. Wayne did such a fine job this
morning. I was thinking about just referring
you to his tape. Because he did such a fine job
on this adoption. Adoption. Webster says this,
and I think Wayne may have quoted part of this. He tells us the
definition of adoption, the taking and treating of a stranger as
one's own child. You've taken a stranger and you
treat them as one's own child. But I'm telling you, as Wayne
brought out this morning, And in some states right now, the
laws for adoption are much stronger than your natural children. There
was times, and Wayne brought this out, when you could put
away your natural son, but you couldn't put away an adopted
son. If he didn't please you, you couldn't put him away. Once
you adopted him, he was yours forever. And he was entitled
to your inheritance, to share it with others. And sometimes
he was Give them exclusive inheritance. We see this a lot, don't we?
I have two neighbors. We have a neighbor, Joe and I
do, a man and his wife, a young couple that adopted children
from South Korea. They went to South Korea and
picked out two young children, and they adopted them, brought
them back over here, and made them their own. And that's the
first thing about adoption. The child does not pick his parents.
The parents pick the child. And that's the first thing about
adoption with the Lord, isn't it? You didn't pick Him to be
your Father. He chose you to be His adopted
son. Now look over to your right,
just a couple of pages in Ephesians chapter 1. Look at this. Ephesians
chapter 1 and verses 4 and 5. We're sons of God by adoption. In verse 4, according as God
hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Now
look at it. Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. When was our adoption set? Before
the world was. God chose the people He was going
to adopt. He predestinated them to be adopted. When parents adopt kids today,
sometimes the agency tells them, we have these kids, so you can
come and look at them, or we have this child if you want to
adopt this child. And sometimes they go looking to find the child
they want. Well, this is what God did. This
is what God did. It wasn't that He looked down
through time and said, boy that Greg, look what a handsome young
man he's going to be. That's who I want as my child.
That wasn't the way God did it. He predestinated them according
to His own will and good pleasure. Just simply because He wanted
that person. And He wanted that person. And
He predestinated them to the adoption of children. The choice
is His. That don't bother me, does it,
you? That humbles me, don't it, you? Don't that fill you with
gratitude? And you can ask why all day long. And the only reason you're going
to find why He did it was even so, Father, it seemed good in
your sight. That's the only reason. The only
reason He adopted you, chose you, instead of somebody else,
was found in Him. The cause was found in Him. Predestinated us into the adoption
of children. were sons of God by adoption. By adoption. But here's the blessed
thing about adoption. I told Wayne this morning, I
said, you quoted all of my scriptures. He did, he just kept quoting
them. I thought surely he'll quit in a minute. But the passage,
and here's the thing about adoption. When you adopt a child, you can't
change that child's DNA. That's what they're finding out
now. Some children that's being adopted
have experience in sickness, and they try to find out, the
biological parents, to find out what disease it is and everything,
because the adoptive parents didn't give that child their
DNA. You may have legally adopted somebody, but you can't give
them your nature. You can't give them your DNA.
But here's the difference in God's adoption. When He adopts
a child, He gives that child His nature. Oh, that's a wonderful
thing, isn't it? Wayne read it this morning there
in Romans 8, 15. You've not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear. You've received the spirit of
adoption. Not only that you've made sons
of God by adoption, but now you've received the Spirit, God's Son,
in your heart. And when you cry, Father, Father,
I'm telling you, it's the same cry that Jesus Christ cried Himself. When the Father hears that, He
said, that's My Son. That's My Son. He hears His own
Son crying, Father, Father. This is why we believe that every
child of God has a new nature. And not just a new nature, but
the nature of God. Because they've received the
Spirit of adoption. Secondly, not only are they sons
of God by adoption, but they're sons of God by new birth, aren't
they? By new birth. I want to show
you this. You don't have to hold relations
right now, but look over in John. And Wayne quoted right down to
my verse, and he didn't quote it, so I thought, well, I'll
turn and read it then. He quoted one or two before it, but look
at this. Sons by new birth. We're born of God. We're sons
by adoption. and were sons by birth. In 1950, today, 66 years ago
today, I was born in a little mining town, and my daddy's name
was Luther Crabtree. 1950, 66 years ago today, I was
born. Sometime in 1973, I got another
father. God became my father. A new birth. God saved me. And He became my Father. Born
of God. And that's what He says. Look
here in 1 John 1, verse 11. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name, which were born, not of blood, not
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."
Born of God. Now, brothers and sisters, that's
a mystery. That's a great mystery. But it's a mystery every child
of God experiences, to be born of God. We are born of God. We're
sons of God because we have been begotten by the Gospel. I want you to turn to 1 Peter
and see that. Look in 1 Peter chapter 1. begotten of the Word. Look what he says in 1 Peter
chapter 1 and verse 22. Look at this. Seeing you have purified your
souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfinished love
of the brethren, see that you love one another with a pure
heart permanently, being born again, We've already seen we're
born of God. Look here though. Not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Born of the Word of God. And when he says this, what he's
saying here, we're born of the message. Born of the Gospel. Not just born of the Word. And
here's why it's important to understand this bond of the message,
bond of the gospel, which he goes on there in the last verse
25 and said, But the word of the Lord endureth forever, and
this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
Why does he say that? Because you know, there's portions
of this word that will kill you. There's portions of this word
that's the letter of the law which killeth. Moses is in here,
the Law is in here, as well as the Gospel. So we're born of
that message of the Gospel, the Good News. When Christ was preaching
to the Jews, He was talking about, My flesh is meat indeed, My blood
is drink indeed. You eat My flesh, My redeeming
flesh. We can't eat Christ's flesh.
He is speaking in a spiritual sense. I am going to the cross.
My body is going to be broken for your sins. I am going to
pour out my blood to atone for your sins. Live by faith upon
me. Believe me what I have done.
And he said the words that I speak unto you, what are they? They
are spirit and they are life. And when he asked Peter, would
you go away? And what did Peter say? Lord, I ain't got nobody
to go to because you have the words of life. And this is what
this gospel does. This is why it's so important
to be believed, so important to be heard, because in this
gospel is life. It brings life eternal. It will burn you again. It will
make you new. It has that power, doesn't it?
Our gospel came not to you in word only, but in power. We're
sons of God by being begotten of the gospel. Fourthly, we're
sons of God by faith. Look back at that. Look in Ephesians
chapter 3 again. Or not in Ephesians, but Galatians. Look in Galatians chapter 3.
We're sons of God by faith. My neighbor used to tell me You
know, you make too much of faith. How many times she's told me
that? You make too much of faith. You know there's no salvation
apart from it. A man dies in unbelief, he'll die forever.
You can't be a child of God apart from faith. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. That woman that was down
at the Lord's feet, weeping over her sins. She felt so heavy and
her sins were so many. And the Lord Jesus turned to
her and said, Woman, your sins, which are many, are forgiven
you. And then He said to her, Go your way. Go in peace. Thy faith has saved thee. And here is what I love about
salvation by faith. It makes you look outside yourself
to be saved. As long as the person is looking
inside, he's trusting in himself. And his feelings are something
he can do. And until he looks outside of himself to the Savior,
he can't be saved. That's what faith is. It believes
in the Son of God. And look what he says in Galatians
chapter 3. And look in verse 26. For you
are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. You're a child of God by faith.
I like that because that's the first evidence that we are a
child of God. We believe. You know how I know,
it comes down to this sometimes from my poor doubting self. You
know how I know I'm born of God? I quit learning to trust my feelings.
I just had to quit trusting. You know how I live in the assurance
that I'm born of God? I believe. that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. I believe. And you know, believing
tells me I'm born of God. He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. I went to preach out west one
time in Great Falls, Montana. There was a young lady in that
congregation. I had no idea this was being going on with her. She was so confused. She was
in utter darkness. She was seeking for assurance
that the Lord and Savior couldn't find her. And that's one of the
verses I quoted. He that believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God, and that flooded her conscience
with light. She said, I do believe. I do
believe Him. He is the Son of God. And He
cleared it up. He cleared it all up. He that
believeth is born of God. That's wonderful, isn't it? We're
sons of God by faith. And this is important. Being made a son of God, as we've been talking about it
here, is the first evidence that God
loves us. That's the first evidence. You're
born of God by faith. You've been begotten by the gospel.
He's given you a new birth. He's begotten you Himself. God
is your Father. That is the first evidence of
covenant love. You can't know God loves you
until you're born of God. You just can't know it. It's
not that you say, well, and we hear this all the time, well,
God has given me a good job. And I'm healthy. And He's been
good to me. And they go on, He's given me
children and all of this. And that's a wonderful thing,
isn't it? But when we come to covenant
love, that everlasting saving love of God in Christ, how can
we know God loves me? Has He given you a new birth? Has He made you His son? Has
He adopted you? Has He sent the Spirit of His
Son into your heart? Crying, Father, Father. If He
has, then He loves you. He loves you everlastingly. I
want you to go over quickly to Ezekiel. And I'm getting ready
to quit. I've done kept you too long.
Done kept you too long. I can't even finish this. Ain't
many of you here this morning, but enough to run me off. I keep
you too long. This is a wonderful story. We'll
quit with this. I wanted to go on and look at
being heirs of God. But look at this. This here talks
about the love, and Wayne mentioned it when he talked about what
manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us. That we should
be called the sons of God. What manner of love? You are
not only called the sons of God, but you are the sons of God in
truth. What manner of love! Incomprehensible, isn't it? He gives us a demonstration of
this, illustration of it rather, in Ezekiel chapter 16, telling
about this little baby. You that have read this story,
you know what it is about. This little baby, He gives a
little illustration of this little baby cast out into the open field. And he said in verse 5, None
I pitied thee to do any of these things unto thee, to have compassion
upon thee. But thou wast cast out in the
open field to the loathing of your person in the day that you
were born. And I passed by thee, and I saw
thee polluted in thine own blood. And I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood lived, Yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxen
great. Thou art come to exceeding excellent ornaments. Thy breast
are fashioned, and thy hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked
and barren. Now when I passed by thee and
looked upon thee, behold, thy time was a time of love. And I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered your nakedness. And yea, I swore unto thee, and
entered into a covenant with thee, and said, Saith the Lord,
and thou becamest mine. And I washed thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away
thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. And he goes on
to tell you that he clothed them. And in verse 14, Thou was renowned. Thy renown went forth among the
heathen for thy beauty, Won't you get a beauty? For it was
perfect through my comeliness, my splendor." Ain't that a beautiful
story? Now, the Lord is holy, and He
could have come to this little baby and just brought His justice
with Him, just brought His holiness with Him, and He looked upon
this little baby and He said, What have you done to yourself?
Look how you stink. Look how naked you are. You are
so repulsive. And then he could have turned
and walked away and left the baby there to die in its own
blood. But I tell you what made the
difference. Here is what made the difference, brothers and
sisters. He said your time was the time of love. I brought my
love with me. And it was because of my love. When I saw you, you weren't repulsive. Instead, I said, look at the
poor pitiful thing. Look what sin has done for it.
Look what it's done for itself. Look what Satan has done for
it. And he said, I pitied you. And boy, here's the Gospel. We
know it's the Gospel because he said, I washed you. I washed
you from your blood. And then He did something else.
He said, I clothed you. I clothed you. Put garments upon
you. I washed you and I cleaned you
and I clothed you. And you were so beautiful because
you had My splendor upon you. Ain't that the gospel, brothers
and sisters? Oh, we're sons of God. We're sons of God by a new
birth. And we're so because He loved
us. He loved us. Oh, don't you want
people, don't you want poor lost people to know the love of God
in Christ? They're never going to know it
until they're born again. Nobody knows it but those who
are begotten of God. You were dead in trespasses and
sins, Paul said. But God who is rich in mercy,
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sin." That's quick and that's together. And if we're
sons of God, we've got a glorious future ahead of us. We're heirs. Heirs of God. Can you imagine
what God can make? You know, if you've got a son
and you love that son, you're going to leave him something,
aren't you? Because you'd be ashamed if you had something
and you didn't leave your son. and inheritance? You think God's
going to be outdone by man? He's got His sons and He's going
to leave them and inherit us. But how rich is God? In my Father's
house are many mansions. And you know something? The sons
of God are going to inherit those mansions. The Bible says they're
going to inherit all things. They're going to inherit a kingdom. Inherit the kingdom prepared
for you. I tell you, if children of God really believed what the
Bible says about us being heirs of God, they'd look upon the
glory of this world and the pomp of this world as nothing but
toys to be cast away, not fit to be compared with the inheritance
which is laid up for us in heaven. And you know how sure it is?
He said it's through Christ. It's through Jesus Christ. Another
place He said we're heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.
If God withholds it from His children, He'll have to withhold
it from Christ because it comes through Christ. And it ain't
gonna stop with Him. He's gonna share it with His
children, isn't He? But this is one of the things
I like and this has always been a mystery to me and I don't understand
this. But I think it goes deeper than just inheriting things.
You know the Bible says that they shall inherit the throne
of glory. Hannah said, He lifteth up the
bagger from the dunghill, and sets him among princesses, and
he shall inherit the throne of glory. How could that be? And one man suggested, one Puritan
I think it was, that we will inherit God Himself. How could
that be? But the Bible states that the
Lord is their inheritance. He said to Abraham, Abraham,
don't be afraid. I am your shield and your exceeding
great reward. God can reward a man by giving
him stuff, wonderful stuff, eternal stuff. But oh, when He gives
him Himself, what will it be to be there and inherit God?
Come into the joys of the Lord. Come and sit with Me in My throne.
Inherit My peace that pays with all understanding. Inherit this
eternal rest. Oh my goodness, heirs of God,
what does that mean? Go home and think about that.
Go home this afternoon. Leave the lawn mower in the garage
and let McDonald's or let Walmart or somebody else do the shopping. and go home and sit and think,
what's it like? What will it be to inherit God? And you'll probably be filled
with so much desire to go to heaven, you can't hardly stand
it upon this earth. The Lord bless His Word. Thank you for
your patience.