Let's turn again to Galatians,
the fourth chapter, if you will, please. And let me say just a word here
to our preachers who are in the congregation. Using an illustration like we
have tonight look at verse 1 of Galatians 4 and I say that the
heir as long as he is a child If with nothing from a servant
though, he'd be Lord of all And then the Apostle makes the application.
You notice he doesn't keep going back to that illustration back
to that allegory Back to that type back to that that particular
parable Because the parable is of use in illustrating spiritual
things just so far. I love to hear men preach from
parables and preach from allegories and illustrations, but one of
the failures of most preachers is they carry it further than
it was intended to be carried. They keep trying to get some
meaning out of every toenail, out of every application or every
part of the parable, and you can't do that. It's just so far
like adoption of a child into a natural family. You can take
that so far, but then you've got to leave it away alone. There
are a lot of ways in which spiritual adoption is not anything like
natural or fleshly adoption. So just when you're using, like
the Apostle Paul, notice how he uses this. He applies it and
he leaves it. He applies it and gets out of
it what he wants to get out of it. and illustrates what he wants
to illustrate, and then he goes on. But if you come back to it,
and you just hang on to it, and you try to exhaust it, you'll
get into problems. You'll get into things you can't
handle, and people start asking you questions that you can't
answer. So let's look at this now, chapter 4, verse 1. Now
I say that the heir, as long as he's a child, if with nothing
from a servant, though he be Lord of all. Now here's the picture.
There's a father who is a very wealthy man. Let's just say he's
king of the land. Let's go back in the olden days.
He's the most important man in the land. He's king. He's king. His kingdom stretches over many,
many miles, many square miles. He's the king of all that he
surveyed. Well, he has a son. He's a baby
boy born into the home. Now, that boy is heir to the
father's throne. He's the heir to the father's
estate. He's an heir to the father's wealth. He's an heir to the father's
power over the people. But he's ignorant. He's an infant. He doesn't know anything. He's
got no business stepping into this place of position and power
and authority and control. He's got to be taught. All right,
what does the father do? The father turns him over, verse
2, but he's under tutors, teachers, instructors, governors, until
the time appointed by his father. His father says, you're going
to be king when you get to be 30. I'm going to step down. See,
you can't carry that home, Bill. The father's never going to step
down, as far as we're concerned. But this father's going to step
down. And the father says, son, when you reach 30, You're going
to be the king. You're going to be the heir of
everything I have and am. And I'm going to step aside and
turn it over. But until that time, the farmer here, you're
under him. Here's an old farmer who has
no power, no position, no authority. He's got dirt under his fingernails
and calluses on his hands and ruffled hair and a beard that's
unkept and untaken care of and ragged overall. He's going to
teach you how to farm. And you're going to plow. And
he's going to show you where to plow and tell you when to
plow and show you what to plow. And this fellow over here, he's
in charge of the stables. And you're going to scrub the
stables. He's going to teach you how to take care of horses.
You're going to get down there in the evening when the horses
come in, sweaty and wet, and you're going to carry them and
wash them and brush them down. This boy is the heir, John. He's
the king's boy. But he works in a stable, just
like all the others. He's no better than a servant.
You see him out there, you see him out there plowing the fields,
you see him out there mending the fences, you see him out there
carrying the horses, you see him out there cleaning out the
stables, you see this man come in, not his father now, but another
man, and say, when you get through with that, when you get through
cleaning out these stables, There's a fence down here to whitewash.
And you get on that fence and get it done by 5 o'clock. Because
dinner will be ready at 5 o'clock. He comes in for dinner. And the
cook's in there. And she says, you go wash your
hands. And go wash your face. And be sure you wash behind your
ears. She's talking to the heir of that whole place. But he's
just like a kid. He's like an infant. He's like
a child. He's like a servant. He's got to the top. And they
keep him that way for years. He learns how to use a sword.
He learns how to defend himself. And he goes out there, and this
fellow doesn't say, now, that's the king's boy, I can't touch
him. No, he grabs him by the arm and throws him over his shoulder,
throws him down on the ground. He gets up and brushes himself
off, and he comes back again. The man hits him flesh on the
jaw. Teach you to keep your hand up when I swing at you. He's
teaching him. And this is what Paul is saying
here. Very simply, he says, the heir,
the king's son, The one who's going to sit on the throne, the
one who's going to occupy a position of power and authority, is no
more than a servant in his own house, in his own kingdom, around
the very things that he owns. That man's going to be his servant
that's telling him to clean out the stable. But that's what he
is. Now, he's corrected, he comes
in. in the evening, and his tutor's
in there, and she says, you haven't prepared this lesson I gave you.
I told you to write a paper, an essay, on this chapter, and
you didn't do it just for that. You write one on three chapters
tomorrow, and you better have it in tomorrow. That's the king's
boy she's talking to. But the king has put authority
in that tutor's hand, and authority in that governor's hand, and
authority in that stable foreman's hand, and authority in that farmer's
hand, and he says, you teach my boy well. And if he doesn't
mind, you lay the whip on his back. That's what he said. Now, when he gets 30 years of
age, That farmer doesn't tell him to clean out stables anymore.
He doesn't whitewash the fences anymore. And the tutor doesn't
make you write essays and punish him for not doing what he's told
to do. He's not a slave or a servant or a child any longer. He's now
the son. He's now the heir. Now, even
so, look at verse 3, even so, when we were children, and I
don't know anything to call this except what I believe it was
Spurgeon called it, the infant state of the church. The Bible
talks about the church in the wilderness. I don't know where
the body of Christ, the family of God, the people of God, those
who knew Christ. When we go back to the Old Testament,
we talk about Moses esteeming the reproach of Christ. Greater
riches than the treasures of Egypt. And Abraham saw my day
and Moses rose up Christ. So back here in the Old Testament,
back here in the infant state of the church, in the infant
days of the church. When we were children, we were
in bondage under the elements of the world. In other words,
we were kept like this summer, like this air. We were kept like
children in school. We were in school. The law was
our schoolmaster. The law was our tutor, our governess,
our governor, our foreman, stable foreman. The law was our schoolmaster
to bring us to Christ. We were like children in school
under the elements of the world. Now this is called, you see,
verse 3, the elements of the world. It means this. It's called the elements of the
world because these things lay in earthly, worldly things. Such
as when the high priest, before he offered the sacrifice, he
washed himself totally with water, real water, worldly water. And
he washed his clothes out, the white linen, in real water. And
he didn't wash it in spiritual water, he washed it in real water.
And when he took the animal, a real animal, an animal to run
around in the grass and in the field, and he took that animal
with a real knife, not a spiritual knife, and cut a real throat
and poured out real blood. And took that animal and put
it on a real metal altar and lit a real fire and burn it up,
burn its carcass. It's all saying something. But
it's worldly things, you see, it's the elements of the world.
And they kept a real day, the certain day of a certain month,
the first days of certain months they had the Feast of the First
Fruits, and the Feast of the Tabernacle, and the Feast of
the Passover, and all these different feasts were real days marked
on a real calendar that they kept at a certain time. The thing
is called, we were kept under the elements of the world. Sabbath
day. There was a Sabbath. Somebody
said one time, who changed the Sabbath? Nobody changed the Sabbath.
Somebody asked you if you believe in keeping the Sabbath? You say,
well, when is the Sabbath? And they say, well, it's Sunday.
You say, no, it's Saturday. Saturday's the Sabbath. It's
always been Saturday. It's never been any other day.
It's still Saturday. And they kept that Sabbath day,
and there were certain things they could do and could not do.
There were certain meats they could eat and could not eat.
There were elements of the world. You see what I'm saying, Paul?
They were a worldly thing. And we were kept under these
things. These laws said something. They taught something. They showed
us something. They instructed us in something.
But, verse 4, when the fullness of time was come, Not when I
reach 30 years of age. So you see, we've got to leave
that alone now. But when the father's time, and in the case
of this boy, the father might have said 21, 26, or 30. He might
have said 40. But that boy stayed under these
tutors and governors and teachers and instructors till the father's
time came. Till the father said, That's
enough. That's enough. Now, you enter
into your inheritance. You lay hold upon your possession.
You enter into your position. Sit on your throne. Put the scepter
in his hand, the crown on his head. He's now the heir. He's now entered into his liberty. Now he's the boss. He's the boss. And so when the fulness of time
was come, God sent forth His Son. made of a woman in the time
that it pleased God. See, up until this time, the
church in its infant state was kept under these tutors, and
under these laws, and Sabbath days, and meets, and feastings,
and fasting, and they all mean something. There are so many
gates around Jerusalem, and they all meant something. There was
an eight-foot-high fence, a white linen fence around the tabernacle.
It meant something, and every post on that fence meant something.
And every pillar on that tabernacle meant something. And every veil
in that tabernacle meant something. And every carving and every image
on the veil meant something. And every piece of furniture
meant something. Every piece of bread meant something. And
the covenant meant something. Everything meant something. To
teach, to show. The Sabbath day meant something.
There are certain things that could be done, but when the Father's
time, when the fullness of the time was come, that God decreed
and ordained and purposed, God sent His Son and made Him a woman. Jesus Christ was born just like
we were, just like we were, born of a woman. He lived nine months
in the womb just like we did. He came forth and had His navel
cut and tied and was washed and swaddled and laid in a manger
just like any other baby. And he grew up in a home just
like flesh and blood, just like any other child, subject to his
mother and father. The only difference is he didn't
have a human father. He was conceived of the Holy
Ghost. The Holy Ghost, this holy thing, God said to Mary, which
is born in you, of you shall be called the Son of He didn't
partake in man's fall. He was not Adam's son. He was
God's son. God's son. He's the second Adam. You see, he's the first Adam,
the second Adam. And I bore the image of the first Adam. And
by God's grace, I'll bear the image of the second Adam. And
I fell in the first Adam. By God's grace, I was restored
in the second Adam. There's just two men. God considers
everybody in those two men. They're representative men. Their
federal headship is what it's all about. As in Adam we died
and Christ we made alive. But Christ was born in a home
under the law. When he was eight days old they
circumcised him just like they did any other Jewish boy. No
different. When certain days were fulfilled
his mother brought him to the temple just like any other Jewish
boy. He was born under the ceremonial law. And when Simeon said that
thing, what he said when they put Christ in his arms, they
were there to do something then according to the law. everything
in the home. He kept the Sabbath day, Christ
did. He went to the temple as it was
his custom. He went to the synagogue on the
Sabbath day. He kept the Passover. He kept
the Feast of the Unleavened Bread, the Feast of the First Fruit.
He kept all of the feasts. He did all of these things. He
was born under the moral law. He was born under the ceremonial
law. He was born under the law of the home. And the law of the
nation, they said, you're going to pay taxes, and he did. You're
going to give to Caesar that which is Caesar. Verse 5, he
did this to redeem us that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Now, verse 6, because of Christ,
because he's fulfilled all that we were required to do. He was
kept in all points. You see, the children were partakers
of flesh and bones, and Christ had to be partaker of flesh and
blood, because we were to redeem us. And all that was required
of us, He did as a man. He fulfilled every jot and tittle
of the law. He completely fulfilled every
bit of it. Now, because of this, verse 6, And God hath put his Spirit,
the Spirit of his Son, into your heart whereby you cry, Father,
Father! Wherefore, you are no longer
a servant. You are no longer a servant.
You are no longer under the ceremonial law. You're no longer under tutors,
and feast days, and certain holy days, and washing, and touch
not, taste not, handle not. You're not under those things
anymore. As a son of God, you have entered
into your inheritance. You're seated with Christ. You're
king. You're a priest under God. You're a son. He took you out
of the stable. He took you out of the field.
It took you out of the kitchen, put you on the throne. You've
now entered into your inheritance. That's right, in Christ Jesus.
As a son of God, I'm an heir of his grace, an heir of his
fellowship, and an heir of all of his promises. I'm a son, man. I'm no more a servant. I'm no
more a servant. And if a son, then I'm an heir
of God through Christ. All that the law requires, I
have fulfilled. All that the law demands has
been met. All of these things, all of these tutors and governors
and laws and ceremonies have all been fulfilled. It served
their purpose. It served their purpose, and
God's taken them away. I've entered into the liberty
and fellowship of God himself. Now then, verse 9. Now, after
you've known God, or rather are known of God, I turn you again
to the weak and beggarly elements wherein, do you desire again
to be in bondage? Now let's go back to our story
a little bit. This young man has reached 30 years of age.
He's been well taught by all of the tutors and governors and
teachers and instructors and all of these folks. And he's
now changed clothes from the servant to the king, son. The garments of royalty, crowns
on his head, scepters in his hand, he's thrown. One day somebody
comes in the throne room and he's not there. They look out
the window and there he is out there whitewashing a fence. Or
there he is down there in the stable with a shovel, clean up
stable. He's gone back to those things.
And somebody says, uh, something wrong with that boy? Something
wrong with that boy? So what was his trouble? Why
is he doing that? And this is what Paul is asking
about you and me. He says, now after you've been delivered,
after you've been redeemed, after you've entered into a spiritual
liberty and victory and fellowship with Christ, after you've sat
with the King in the fellowship of his throne room, what in the
world are you doing back with those childish toys? What in
the world are you doing back there observing days and observing
feasts? and observing certain months
and certain times, what are you doing those things for? Why are
you back down there? Now, here's the application. I even have some preacher friends
in what we call sovereign grace that insist that we do some of
these things. And this, it's a subtle thing,
it's a thing that gets you before you realize that it's at all
influencing you. You begin to say, you begin to
think, I trust in Christ, I'm saved by the blood of Christ.
But now, in order for me to really be a good Christian, and be accepted
of the Father, and be looked upon with love and favor, there's
certain things for me to do. There's a Sabbath day, there's
a Sunday, you know, we're now at Sunday, and there's certain
things that... I believe Sunday's the day to
worship. The day the church comes together, fellowship, preaching,
that's what we're doing right now. This is the day when most
of you are off from work, you work one shift, you're here on
Sunday. We meet Wednesday too, and Thursday morning, Thursday
night, we're having the preacher's school now, Saturday and Saturday,
next Saturday night we're going to meet, and you come, but do
you feel Do you ever get the feeling or have you been influenced
by somebody to think that if you do certain things on Sunday,
that it may recommend you to God a little bit better? In other
words, keep Sunday in such a way that it is a holy day, it is
a reverent day, it is a day that you set aside and if you do it
right and keep it right, then you've got a little credit in
heaven. Or take the giving, take tithing. This is commonly taught
by a lot of preachers. God will bless you if you tithe,
and He'll whip you if you don't. I get my check, and I set it
down, and I'm making out my, paying my bills, and I say, now,
I've got to give, let's say I made $150 this week, I got $150, $157,
so I've got to put $15.70 aside. We'll give that to the church.
That makes me feel good. Does that enter in at all? Or
do you think that maybe the Old Testament says that pork should
not be eaten? And so you abstain from pork.
You go back to the old Hebrew dietary laws. And now say what
you will about them, but let me tell you something. Don't
you involve them in acceptance with God. Now you leave the pork
off if you want to, and you leave off anything you want to, but
don't mess around with having anything to do with God Almighty,
or spiritual things. It's got nothing to do with it.
This is what I'm saying. Anything! Anything! I don't care
how good it is, I don't care if it's Sunday, Sabbath, if it's
Easter, Christmas, if it's the first day of the week or the
second day of the week, or whether it's circumcision, or whether
it's certain dietary laws. And one of my preacher friends
has written a book on the draft, and he's gone back to the Old
Testament and picked up how they drafted people to fight Israel's
battles and says that's the way we ought to do ours, because
that's what the Bible says. Now let me tell you something, folks.
Here's what I'm saying to you, and I'm saying this as plainly
as I can say it. If you in any way interject any
action of the body, for days or weeks or months or years or
times or seasons or circumcision or tithing or fasting or anything,
motions you go through, for acceptance with God, in competition with
or cooperation with or in agreement with Jesus Christ, You've made
his death in vain. Now, that's what Paul said. I'm worried about you, he said.
Now, you do what you want to. If you want to take Sunday, let
me tell you something, some people observe a day unto the Lord and
some don't. You do what God teaches you,
what the Holy Spirit leads you to do. If you want to take the
first day of the week, And you want to rise at four in the morning
and spend two hours in Bible study, and then have you a snack,
and then come to church, and then go home, and sit and look
at four walls, and not take a Sunday paper, and not turn on a TV,
and not visit anybody, and sit and read your Bible and study,
and come back to church that night. That's fine. That's fine. But don't you project
it on anybody else as a way of acceptance with God. And don't
you go and tell anybody else that's what they ought to do,
or they're not as good as Christians you are, and they're not as spiritual
as you are. It may be they have more contact with God the other
six days than you do. Who knows? And you take your
diet, and you may go back to the Old Testament and say we
don't eat anything except what they eat. Nothing except what
they eat. That's all right for you. But
I'm warning you about this. You better not let it have anything
to do with whether you're saved or lost, whether you're godly
or ungodly, whether you're spiritual or unspiritual. That's right.
Let me show you something. Paul says here in verse 12, Brethren,
he talked about verse 10, you observe days and months and times
and years, I'm afraid of you, I'm afraid of you, I'm afraid
of you, lest I bestowed upon you labor and vain. Brethren,
I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as you are. You've not injured
me. You're not doing this against Paul. Who is injured in this
charade? We're injuring the Lord Jesus
Christ, that's what we're doing. Yes, sir, you've not injured
me, the offense is against Christ. A man who keeps a Sabbath day
in order to be accepted of God is denying him who is our Sabbath.
A man who keeps a feast In order to find acceptance with God is
denying Him who is our Passover, who is our feast of the tabernacle
in the first place. Christ is. Turn, if you will,
to Galatians 5. I want you to look at this. Galatians
chapter 5. I'm not preaching the liberty,
the licentiousness. You know better than that. I
believe in giving beyond the tithe. I believe everything belongs
to the Lord. I believe in worshiping on the
Lord's day, or in worshiping every day. I believe in walking
with God, not just on Sunday, but walking with God seven days
a week, don't you? I believe every day is the day the Lord
hath made. We'll rejoice and be glad in it. Stand fast, chapter
5, verse 1, stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage, be not entangled again with these things that
the Church was under years and years and years ago, that were
teachers and tutors and governors and instructors. Don't get entangled
in that, washings and baptisms and ordinances and and candle
burning and these things, behold, our Paul is saying to you, if
you be circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. Now does
that mean that if a mother and father has a boy child, has him
circumcised, that Christ will ever bless him? No. That's not
what he's saying at all. But I'll tell you this, if you
do that as a religious ritual, if one of you men start reading
the Bible about circumcision, it being a token of the covenant,
and it being this, that, and the other, and you do it, And
if you do it with any thought in your mind that it will make
any difference to God as far as your salvation is concerned,
Christ will profit you nothing. That's what he's saying, child,
that's exactly it. And it not only goes to that, it goes to
anything else. Anything else. Read on. I testify again to every
man that is circumcised for that purpose. If you keep a day, if
you keep a Saturday, now wait a minute, if you keep Saturday
as a religious purpose, You keep Saturday as a religious day in
order to make you acceptable to God, because you're fulfilling
a commandment, because it'll put away your transgressions
or somehow recommend you to God's Spirit. You're a debtor, he says,
to do the whole lot. You can't stop with Saturday.
This is what I'm saying to these boys. Jay, they're saying Sunday's
the Christian Sabbath, and Sunday's been taken from Saturday and
put on Sunday. Sabbath's been taken from Saturday
and put on Sunday. If you get into that, you're
in debt to the whole law. You've got to go back here, and
that's what some of them are doing. You've got to go back
here and pick it up, and Genesis 1, and obey the whole kit and
caboodle, if you're going to take one. And that's what Paul's
saying here, I testify to every man that is circumcised. That
is, that he does it because it's commanded in the Bible, And because
he wants to be accepted of God or in good favor with God, he's
a debtor to do the whole law. Verse 4, Christ has become of
no effect, no effect, not some effect, not 99 percent, but no
effect, whosoever you have justified by the law, you've fallen from
grace, you've departed from grace, you're now in works full-fledged.
How far do you have to be in works to be full-fledged in works?
One thing. as a way of salvation, one thing,
that's all. You've departed from the grace
of God. And Paul said, you haven't injured me, you've brought reproach
on Christ. So when I'm doing any of these
works, you see, turn if you will to Colossians 2, Colossians chapter
2, you see when Christ the Lord came down here to earth, In him
dwell all the fullness of the Godhead bodily." And I had a
time with that last Sunday. Every time I say that, I think
of that. I told them down in Danville about that. I said,
in Christ dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And I
said, you fellows try to say that. That's harder to say than
any other way. So let's erase that. Okay, I
didn't say that. forgotten. All right, verse 9,
in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and you
are complete in him. That's it. That's where it is,
Bill. Everything I need is in Christ.
Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. So now, whatever,
it's fine if a man, I'm saying to you, as far as your giving,
you want to set some kind of percentage You do it in proportion
as God blessed you. That's when you're in God. In your what you call the first
day of the week. And as far as your eating, they
tell me you don't eat this on Friday. Well let me tell you
this, if you do that out of religious significance, you're in trouble.
Now this is what I'm saying, you're in trouble. If you place
some religious significance on whether or not you eat a certain
thing on a certain day, you're in trouble. Because you put yourself
over here in a responsibility to obey the whole law of God. Isn't that right, Jack? The whole
law of God. Now, that's the danger. And you
do what you want to about certain diets and these things, it's
fine. It's fine for your health reason
or for your vigor and vim and vitality and whatever. and long
life and so forth, but you'd better leave God out of that.
It's not that which puts in a man's mouth that defiles him, what
comes out of his heart. And this is so dangerous. It's 1 Corinthians
1.30. Let's turn over there a minute.
1 Corinthians 1.30. He says in 1 Corinthians 1.30,
"...but of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." Now, I'll tell
you, I've come down to some of the things that we do. Baptism,
if a man's baptized in any shape, form, or fashion to be accepted
of God or to complete in any way his justification, he's in
trouble. Don't you see that? The Lord's table. I come to the
table of the Lord to show his death, to celebrate his death,
to rejoice in his death, to preach to others his death. Brother
Scott says the Lord's table is table talk. Table talk. Baptism
is picture preaching. It's got nothing to do with redemption.
Nothing. Nothing. I'm complete in Christ. He's everything. My righteousness,
sanctification, He's my Sabbath, He's my meat, He's my drink.
It's not touch, not taste, not handle, not abstain from marriage
and all these things. You know what Paul calls those
things? Doctrines of devils. That's what he calls them. Doctrines
of devils. Now turn back to my text. And
this is so important. I don't know anything that I'll
ever touch or minister to you that's more important than this
right here. And Paul says in verse 16 of Galatians 4, Now
then, am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
Here's what he said, he said, when I first preached to you,
I came to you and you were in bondage to the Lord, you were
in slavery to sin, you were in bitterness and despair and depression. And I told you the good news
of Christ, God loved us and sent his Son to be our Redeemer. And
you laid hold on that and you loved me and you received me
as a messenger of God and I was afflicted and you didn't pay
attention to it and I was a pitiful looking sight and you didn't
pay attention to it and you received me just like I was And you would
have plucked out your eyes and given them to me. But now, he
said, you've turned on me because I've told you that you not only
look to Christ for redemption, but you cling to Christ for everything
else. You not only look to him at the
beginning, but you continue only to look to him. You not only
are washed by the blood, but you're sanctified by the blood,
made righteous by the blood, accepted in the beloved, and
it's all in Christ. Am I your enemy now because I've
told you the truth? Jesus Christ is made to me all
I need. All I need. He alone is all my
plea. He's all I need. Wisdom, righteousness,
and power. Holiness forevermore. My redemption
full and sure. He's all I need. Now watch verse
17. He said these false teachers, he said, they court you. They
zealously affect you. They court you. They pretend
great love for you. They make much of you, but their
purpose is not the glory of Christ. It's not your eternal good. What
they're trying to do is discredit my ministry and separate you
from me and win applause for themselves. That's what they're
doing. Turn to 2 Peter 2. Let me show
you this over here. Peter deals with it also. 2 Peter
2. Verse 1 through 3. He said there
are false prophets among you, even as there were false prophets
among the people of Israel, even as there are false teachers among
you. And they privately, craftily, subtly bring in damnable heresies,
even denying the Lord that bought them. and bring upon themselves
swift destruction. Many shall follow their pernicious
ways, by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken
of, and through covetousness shall they with feigned words
make merchandise of you." That's what they do. Turn back to the text. He says
in Galatians 4 verse 19, But he says, my little children,
my little children, and he says that to them because he's been
like a father to them. He's taught them, he's raised
them. He says, my little children,
of whom I prevail in birth again, till Christ be formed in you.
He says, these false teachers. Let's go back a little more.
I've come to you and I'm telling you the truth, that acceptance
is in Christ. That any of these other things,
they are in relationship to your fellowship with Christ. They
have nothing to do with your fellowship with Christ. And you're
complete in Christ, totally and completely. And you don't want
to let anything enter in as a spiritual purpose or a justifying purpose
or a sanctifying purpose. anything having to do with these
things we've mentioned, because your fullness and completeness
is in Christ Jesus. Now, am I your enemy because
I tell you that? Now, these fellows claim to be
your friends, but I'm telling you this, your good is not their
goal. God's glory is not their motive.
Their own bellies, they have a covetous spirit. They make
merchandise out of you. To them, you're just a number.
To them you are an offering, to them you are a statistic,
to them you are something other than a child to whom they have
given birth. And he said, just like a woman
in labor and travail, he compares himself, all the pain and suffering
and labor is to deliver a living child for the glory of God. And
the woman is dedicated, concerned and involved in one thing, one
thing. And that's a living, healthy
child to be born. And Paul says, that's my ministry.
I'm not interested in anything else but that. He said, I'm just
engulfed in that. I'm plunged into that. That's my travail. Till Christ
be formed in you. A form of religion is not life.
A form of morality is not life. A form of doctrine is not life.
A form of ceremony is not life. Christ is life. Paul said, everything
I'm doing. in the ministry. Everything I'm
concerned about is like a woman that goes in a delivery room.
She doesn't care about her job, or she's not interested in who
won the world series, or what's going on out there. She's interested
in one thing. She's involved in one thing.
bringing a child into the world. And Paul said, this is my meat
and drink and life, to see Christ formed in you. You see what he's
saying? To see Christ. To see Christ formed in you.
To see Christ living. You're complete in him. I hope
this has been helpful. The thing I entitle this message,
I'll turn you again to the beggarly elements. And I see so many folks
doing it. I see so many folks doing it.
I'm just real troubled and distressed to see people taken up with childish
toys when they're supposed to have graduated. They're supposed
to have been delivered out of that stuff. But they just get
bogged down with it, and weighted down with it, and make issues
of it, and take pride in, I do this, or I don't do that, or
I drink this and I don't drink that, and I eat this and I don't
eat that, and I keep this day and I don't observe that day,
and I do all these things, and I believe God looks with favor
upon me. You stinking rotten rebel, there's only one way God
will look with favor upon you, and that's for you to be washed
in the blood of His Son. That's so. I don't care who you
are. Don't lord it over God's people
and look down your nose and talk about how holy and righteous
you are. You are stealthy and as anything God ever let live
unless Christ intercedes for you. He's my Sunday and Saturday
too. He's my meat and drink. He's
everything. And I don't stand a chance of
a snowball in a blast furnace without Christ, and you don't
either. And I'll do some there. I'll come with you on Sunday
and rejoice, and I'll meet with you on Saturday and anything
else you want to do. And we'll try to eat the right
things and not eat the wrong things. And we'll try to order
our lives in such a way as to bring glory to God. And we'll
try to raise a little money here to preach the gospel. But Brandon,
take some. Don't do it for acceptance with God. Don't touch it. Don't touch it. Don't go back
here and see how you ought to do this and how you ought to
do that and how you ought to do something else so God will
look with favor upon you. You go back here and see how
it's done so that Christ may be glorified and you might be
more like Him. That's where it is. Our Father, take the message tonight and
bless it to the hearts of our people, thy people. Lord, we've tried to point men
to Christ, our Lord. We've tried to put things in
the proper perspective to Christ. Lord deliver us from seeking
in any way, even this prayer, even what we feel our sincerity
or whatever, in our flesh dwelleth no good thing. In the flesh no
man can please thee. Even our prayers are sinful.
Our tears need to be washed in the blood of Christ. Even our
repentance needs to be repented of. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our Sabbath. Christ
is our Passover. And because he intercedes for
us, because he pleads for us, pleads his wounds, his blood,
by his stripes we are healed. Make that real to everybody here.
Make that real, Heavenly Father, by thy Spirit, to this picture
and to everybody here. And our affection will be on
things above and not on things of this earth. And the things
we go about doing, sitting at our feet and worshiping and praying
and singing, whatever, will be done for the right motive, for
the glory of Christ. We pray these things in his blessed
name and for his glory. Amen.