[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfredo, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word.
[0:14] Take your Bibles if you would and turn with me to Galatians chapter 2 and verse 21. For the verse we've been going over each week to remind us about what this book of Galatians is about.
[0:27] So read with me Galatians chapter 2 and verse 21. The Bible says, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
[0:43] Father, I pray that somehow you would infuse your children with the joy that comes with being your children. Help them today to learn about enjoying their sonship.
[0:56] They belong to you. They have all these rights and privileges and you've done a great work in us. We'll give you praise for all you do. In Jesus' precious name, amen.
[1:07] If you would go with me to Galatians chapter 4, we're going to read. We're not going to read. We're going to go through those first 18 verses. If you read that passage, you probably noticed it was talking about a child and an heir and a servant.
[1:20] And the whole passage is about you can enjoy being God's son. You are now having the privileges of his son.
[1:30] The verses are kind of based on culture that we may not do so much of today. A Jewish boy became a son of the law, a man on the first Sabbath after his 12th birthday.
[1:43] So they'd have a ceremony and they'd say, you were a boy, but now you're a man. In Greece, a boy became, he left his father's care, moved into adulthood when he turned 18.
[1:54] In Rome, it happened somewhere between 14 and 17. And they actually had a ceremony where they put away their toys and their childish things and acknowledged, I am a man.
[2:08] If you're a child and your daddy is a multimillionaire, you are still, and you're an infant, you're still in the kid's stage. It doesn't matter how much your daddy owns. It doesn't matter how much you're going to inherit someday.
[2:21] You have no control over your own life. You have no legal decisions you can make. For all practical purposes, according to the apostle Paul, you're a slave.
[2:34] Fact is, in the story, the daddy who was rich and owned the land hired a servant who would become the teacher of his son. So the daddy had a slave who treated his son like a slave.
[2:46] And so the son would be going around saying, the slave would be going around and saying, this is your job today. This is what you're supposed to learn today. These Galatians, before they got saved, didn't know grace.
[2:58] They didn't know God. They lived under superstition, the tyranny of the stars. What does my horoscope, my horoscope, it's a horrible thing to think about.
[3:09] What has it got to say about me? Then the Judaizers came along and said, if you'll keep some rules, it'll make better Christians of you. And the law appeals. The law appeals.
[3:20] Keeping rules feels good because it gives me a way to feel like I've accomplished something. It's a way to measure myself against you and say, I'm doing something you're not doing. It kind of gives a sense of pride.
[3:32] And Paul's like, I think I wasted my time with you guys. I spent all this time teaching you and all this time training you. And now you're wanting to go back to following those rules.
[3:43] You're going back under the law. So here's what he's trying to say to them in this passage. Take this home with you. You're a grown up now. Enjoy it. You're not a child anymore.
[3:54] Enjoy it. You've reached maturity. You've reached adulthood. Go with me if you would to chapter four and verse five. Galatians four, verse five, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons because you are sons.
[4:13] God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now listen to this. You are born again into the family of God.
[4:24] You're not adopted into the family. You are born again into the family. But adoption in the family was the day that boy turned 14 to 17, the day that kid turned 18, the day that kid turned 12.
[4:37] It was the day that the whole world stopped and they had a ceremony and said, you're now an adult. And you get to do adult stuff. It was, the word adoption means the placement of sons, the recognition of a son.
[4:51] It's the idea of a young child getting to be an adult. It's the privileges that come with being a son. And Paul's upset. He said, what are you doing?
[5:02] You're letting these legalists try to take you back into being a child again. You're letting these legalists try to treat you like a servant again. And that's not what you are.
[5:13] Look at Galatians chapter four, verse one. The Bible says, now I say that the heir, that's the guy that's going to receive the inheritance, as long as he's a child, is just like a servant, even though he's Lord of all.
[5:27] But he's under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. Even so, when we were children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world.
[5:41] Not allowed to enjoy the wealth. Not allowed to enjoy the position. Not allowed to enjoy the power of who we were because we were still just heirs.
[5:53] Now listen, this is a big lesson about how the Jews were under the law, not the Gentiles. This is a big lesson about how even the Jews are no longer under the law because the Jews have now got Jesus and they can be saved.
[6:09] So read with me, if you would, what we've already studied. Galatians chapter three, verse 23. You need to look this up. You need to take your ink pen and mark some words I want to add to help you understand that.
[6:20] Look at verse 23. Before faith came, we, Jews, we the Jews, were kept under the law, shut up under the faith, which afterwards should be revealed.
[6:33] Wherefore the law was our Jewish schoolmaster. The Jews, their schoolmaster, to bring us Jews, us Jews, under Christ.
[6:45] That we Jews might be justified by faith. But after that faith has come, we Jews are no longer under the schoolmaster. So the legalizers, see what happened?
[6:57] Before they got saved, before the gospel, these Jews had all these rules and they didn't understand them and they kept breaking them and they knew they had to make an offering, but they didn't understand who they were.
[7:09] They didn't understand what they had. But after Jesus came and died on the cross, they understood, I'm not under the law anymore. I'm under grace. I'm not under what I do, but I'm under what he did.
[7:20] And it's a whole different position. And he says, these guys came to your town and they're trying to put you back in bondage. They're trying to put you back in bondage. Look at chapter 4, verse 3.
[7:32] Even so, when we were children, we were in bondage. Circle that. You see, when you're, man, a child doesn't get a lot of choice. Go to bed. Go to bed.
[7:44] Get up. Brush your teeth. Wash your face. You'll play with what I tell you to play with. Most of us young people really enjoyed it when we finally got to move away from home.
[7:56] If you enjoyed that, say amen. I loved it. I mean, for the first time, it wasn't telling me when to go to bed and telling me when to do. Now, when I got hungry, I figured out it was telling me what to do again. But still, the point, being a legalist or following the rules wasn't a step towards maturity.
[8:11] It was childhood. God rescued his people from that. He redeemed us from under these rules and brought us out and said, you're my sons.
[8:23] Look at what it says in Galatians 4, 4. But when the fullness of time come, when the time was ready, when God's plan was ready, 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.
[8:46] Now, you got to understand, we're in context. You got a child. He's under the rules over here. And he's having to do what he's told. Do what he's told. Do what he's told. My instructor, get out of bed, boy.
[8:57] Go milk the cow. Slop the pigs. Check the chickens. Come back to the house. Eat breakfast. Get on the school bus. Go to school. And then come home school. And it was when I got home school, there was another list.
[9:07] My daddy had a list of things for me to do every day of my life. Now my wife has that list. Amen. But look what happens in the verse. That's some really good Bible stuff you need to know here.
[9:20] Look, if you would, in verse 4. At the just the right time, God sent his son, Jesus. Underline that. God sent forth his son.
[9:32] You know what that's saying, don't you? That Jesus was God. Jesus is God. God sent him. He had a divine nature. He had the nature of his father.
[9:43] He was the son of God. Not only that. It says in the same verse, he was made of woman. Underline that. He was made of woman.
[9:54] You see, Jesus was God. Made of woman. God in human flesh. That's the God we serve. That's a Bible doctrine for you. That's theology class for you.
[10:04] He sent Jesus as a human through Mary, a woman. God's son in human flesh. Jesus was both God and man. Jesus came just at the time God had planned and prophesied and promised.
[10:19] The law had proven that man couldn't save himself in any way. So Jesus came to save. Now go to verse five. Now look what it says in chapter four, verse five.
[10:30] To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. Over here, you got to understand, I got this servant working for me.
[10:42] You two guys come up here just a second. I got this servant. Andrew, you're going to be my son. John, you're going to be my servant. John, tell my servant, tell my son, you're my servant, but you just make him do whatever you need to do.
[10:53] Grow him into a man. Tell him what to do. So John's over there making him do some push-ups, John. So he's over there making him do some push-ups. He's under the rules. Boy, John's enjoying that even.
[11:08] Andrew, you'll kill him after church, right? Okay, but then what did Jesus do? He came to redeem him and say, he's no longer going to be under your leadership. Fact is, from now on, you're going to be obeying him.
[11:20] You can make him do push-ups. You are now a son. I place you into full adulthood. Here's a credit card. Here's a driver's license.
[11:33] Here's a key to the car. You're no longer a boy. I have pulled you out of servanthood and into adoption of children. Thank you all. You can have a seat.
[11:44] Look what it says about it. Chapter 4, verse 6. Chapter 4, verse 6. We're sons. Now look at me and listen to me a second. We're sons. We're sons.
[11:55] We're in the family. We're not slaves. We're sons. Look if you would at verse 6. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts crying, Abba, Father.
[12:11] A servant can't talk to the father like that. You see, Abba's like saying, Daddy, Poppy. A servant can't exactly run into the master and say, Hey, Daddy.
[12:22] But you and I don't have to call him by the technical term, Father. We get to say this other, he said, and your heart screams and says, That's my dad. That's my dad.
[12:33] We're sons. We're not servants. That's what's going on in chapter 4 and verse 6. Look at verse 7 in case you didn't get that. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant.
[12:45] You are no longer a servant. You're a son. And not just a son, and if a son, then an heir, an heir of God.
[12:55] When the boss dies, the slaves aren't going to get anything. But when dad dies, the kids are going to inherit. I want you to underline something else.
[13:07] Maybe you didn't know that the Bible is real clear. Jesus is God and man. We've seen that in this passage. Maybe you haven't known if the Trinity, the Godhead is clear.
[13:17] But in this passage, it is. Look at verse 6 and put a circle around the spirit of his son. That's the Holy Spirit. The whole Godhead involved in our lives.
[13:28] God sent his son, Jesus, the spirit of his son. And we cry out to God with the most intimate term, Abba, Father. This is a kid running in to his daddy's room and saying, Hey, Dad.
[13:44] Hey, Dad. This is the president of the United States, and yet the kid has access. And the kid doesn't have to say, Mr. President. The kid walks in and says, Hey, Dad.
[13:56] How's it going? That's what's happening in the verse. We are not servants. We are sons and heirs. Why would the prodigal son ask to be only a servant?
[14:06] You understand? He knew the difference. Remember the story? The prodigal son is coming back. And on the way back, he says, I don't deserve to be the son of my dad. I'm just going to ask him if I can be a day laborer.
[14:18] I'm just going to ask him if I can be a hired hand. And that's all I want to be. And he comes in. He says, Hey, Dad. Hey, Dad. Sir, can I just be a servant? And his son, his daddy never even listens to him.
[14:30] His daddy starts going, Hey, kill the fatty calf. Bring me the robe. Give me the ring. My boy came home. Get over here, son. And he runs to his son and he hugs him. That's who we are. The sons of our God.
[14:41] Amen. The sons of God through Jesus Christ. By the way, that means a whole lot of stuff. We are partakers of his nature. We have his nature.
[14:58] Like a son has the nature of his daddy. You already have it if you're a born again person. 2 Peter 1 and verse 4. I'd mark this verse if I was you. I'd like it if I was you.
[15:09] I love it personally. In 2 Peter 1 and verse 4, it says, Whereby are given unto us exceeding and great, exceeding great and precious. You're not going to believe what I'm about to tell you.
[15:20] That's what he's saying. That you might be the partakers of what? What's it say? Partakers of the divine nature. I got some great promises for you guys.
[15:32] In Jesus, you are partakers of the divine nature. You have escaped the corruption. You are not going to rot. You're not going to go to the grave. You're not going to go to hell. You're a son of God.
[15:44] That's what he was telling them. By the way, the Holy Spirit makes it clear to you that you're saved, that you're his child. Look at what it says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 5. The Bible says you have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear.
[15:59] You've received the spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba, Father. Listen to me. Everybody in the world thinks Christianity is locking you up, tying you up.
[16:10] Can't, can't, can't. No, no, no, no. And Paul is saying it's not no, no, no. Can't, can't, can't. It's like yes, yes, yes. I'm a partaker of the divine nature. I'm on my way to heaven. I got a new nature.
[16:20] I'm the son of God. All the riches of heaven are mine. Paul said these legalists are trying to steal all this from you. Because here's what religion ends up doing. Religion ends up saying, I'm glad you got saved.
[16:32] And I'm glad you quit following the stars. And I'm glad you quit being afraid of wood and stone and marble and monkeys and whatever other gods you had. Now you've got to be afraid of our God.
[16:43] And here's a bunch of rules for you to keep. Paul's like, what in the world? Where did that come from? The world might have been bossing you around, but Jesus saved you and gave you new life and made you a son.
[16:56] You're in the family now. Look at chapter 8, Romans 8, 16. The spirit that bears witness with our spirit that we are the what? We are the what?
[17:07] Children of God. You're in the family, buddy. If you're born again. If you're saved. And there's this spirit inside of us that says, I recognize in Jesus who I am.
[17:20] We have so many blessings and promises as his sons. We're accepted in Christ. Now you listen to what I'm going to tell you. We don't have time to go to all the scripture. But in Ephesians chapter, like you're wondering.
[17:32] I wonder if he likes me. Yes. He doesn't just like you. He loves you. He said, I gave you my son. You don't think I'd give you anything and everything else? He said, you're accepted just like you are through Jesus.
[17:47] No, you don't have to get circumcised. No, you don't have to keep the Ten Commandments. No, you don't have to get baptized and sanitized and pasteurized. You're my son. Come on. And then he said, you're seated in the heavenlies.
[17:59] You're seated in heaven. Did you know that when you get to heaven, Peter's not going to meet you at the door and say, hold on a minute. Let me check the roll and see if you're on the list. First of all, Peter's going to get there just like I am.
[18:11] And second off, when we get there, the angels are going to be like, hey, your seat's already set. The stuff's already there. We all know you. Come on in, man. You're the son of God. Hey, glad to have you home.
[18:22] Glad you're here where you belong. That's who we are in Jesus Christ. We're accepted. We're seated. We're new creatures. Our sins are forgiven, never to be charged to us again.
[18:36] And even the sins we commit tomorrow already under the blood. He will not put our sins on us. We pray and our Father hears us.
[18:48] Can you imagine? Can you imagine being the son of the king of the greatest monarchy in the world, the son of the president? Or maybe like Billy Carter and Jimmy Carter when Billy was the president's brother.
[19:02] You know, I can pick up the phone and I can dial straight in. I don't have to go through a secretary. I don't have to find out if he's busy. He's my dad. I'm in through Jesus. We're only awaiting the full adoption.
[19:15] We're already enjoying the benefits. But the full adoption is when we finally get our new bodies and we're totally delivered. But see, Paul told them all that lesson. And when he left, they were so excited about serving Jesus.
[19:27] And then these Judaizers came to town. These legalists came to town. And the legalists that came to town started telling them, Don't think God's so good.
[19:38] You've got to keep a lot of rules because he might change his mind. You need to be baptized. You need to tithe. You can't miss church. We've got a lot of rules that you have to follow. If you don't follow them, you might just be fried toast, buddy.
[19:50] And so Paul says in this passage, I'm worried if I wasted my time with you people. Look if you would with me. Chapter 4, verse 11. I'm afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain.
[20:07] Man, I taught you and preached to you and showed you. Did I waste my time with you? Why are you giving up your freedom to go back into bondage?
[20:17] Why would you who have known false gods and lived in fear of them and tried to please them, why would you go back to something so foolish?
[20:29] Look at chapter 4, verse 8. How be it then when you knew not God, you did service to them which by nature are no gods. Superstition ruled their lives.
[20:41] My wife's aunt would not allow you to pass her the salt. But this lady had money. This lady had education. This lady was a prominent lady down in the Fort Lauderdale area.
[20:54] But if you handed her the salt, she'd have to throw some over her shoulder to make sure no bad luck got her. She'd say, sit it down and then I'll take it. Superstition ruling your life. And he said, hey, that ought not be the way it is.
[21:05] They feared their stars. Look up your horoscope and see how it's going to go today. That's who you were before. And now you want to go back under that? But in Jesus, you found grace.
[21:17] In Jesus, you quit being a servant. In Jesus, you quit being a guy in bondage. And in Jesus, you got freedom. In Jesus, you got freedom. Look if you would at chapter 4, verse 9. By the way, if you don't think you got freedom, I don't have time to preach it this morning.
[21:30] But in Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, he said, stand fast in your liberty. We'll get to that. Chapter 4, verse 9. But now, after that, you have known God, or rather, have known of God.
[21:41] See, it's not that you know God. God knows you. How turn you again to weak and beggarly elements, whereunto you desire again to be in bondage.
[21:52] Why would you go back to learning the ABCs? Why would you go back to first grade and be taught the simple stuff? You are no longer a child. You have moved into adulthood.
[22:03] Enjoy it. They give up the power of the gospel to live free and victorious. And they turn to the weakness that makes them slaves again. They were going back to the Old Testament.
[22:15] Keeping a bunch of rules. Galatians chapter 4, verse 10. You observe days and months and times and years. That's old Jewish law. You remember that? We've gone through this.
[22:25] You remember some of the stuff? Like you couldn't work on a Sabbath day? And so, like, if somebody, one of your neighbors needed a cup of flour, you could stick your hand kind of halfway through the window. And if he stuck his hand halfway through the window, that wasn't working.
[22:37] But if your hand went all the way through the window, you just worked. It's like the person I went and knocked on the door in Adekippa. And they were Seventh-day Adventists. And they keep the rules so they can go to heaven. And I was witnessing to this man.
[22:48] And he didn't go to church. And his wife was Seventh-day Adventist. And I'm witnessing to him. And somebody came to their store and hollered and said, Hey, somebody come out here. And he wouldn't get up. And she said, You have to go. You know I can't go today.
[23:00] And he said, I'm talking to this guy here, and I'm not going. So she went out and attended the, took care of the customer. And when she came back in, she said, You know I just lost my salvation all because of you. Why in the world do you want to go back to that?
[23:13] Why in the world? You're a son. You're a son. The son of God. Why would you go back to that? Why would you go back to Jewish law? Paul had preached his heart out, and he can't believe they would turn from the glorious gospel back to self-elford.
[23:29] They have turned from their privileges and gone back to the slave house. They become children being bossed around by servants rather than living out who they are, lords of the house. So Andrew walks back over to John who makes him do push-ups with his foot on his back and says, I may be the son and I may be your boss, but I'd like to go back to do what you tell me.
[23:50] You just tell me what I need to do. He said, don't do that. Did I waste my time telling you? You remember what he said in Galatians 3.1? Oh, Galatians. Oh, foolish Galatians.
[24:02] Who has bewitched you? Who put a hex on you so that you wouldn't see and obey the truth? I put Jesus crucified in front of you. I showed you.
[24:14] It's what Jesus said. Don't frustrate the grace of God. It's not about you doing push-ups. It's about you trusting Jesus. Last thing. He said, I guess y'all are mad at me.
[24:26] Look, if you would, at chapter 4, verse 16. You know, I like to say, are you mad yet? That's about what Paul says right here. Verse 16. Am I therefore become your enemy?
[24:37] Because I tell you the truth. Paul said, I taught you and I loved you and you loved me. You loved me so much that I was having some kind of problem and you were willing to give me your eyeballs.
[24:51] And these false teachers came in and they've stolen your hearts. And they've gotten you to believe in what's not true. And most false teachers, they got a way of building themselves up. Kind of getting your eyes off of what the word of God says.
[25:03] Getting your eyes off of Jesus. And calling attention to themselves. These Judaizers, they just want followers of their cause. And they want to pull people away from the grace of God, Paul says.
[25:16] The Judaizers talked good, but they were leading them into spiritual slavery. I think religion's done that to you. You know, never measuring up. Never being good enough.
[25:29] Always living in doubt and fear. Losing the joy of your salvation because you always have to worry if you're doing enough. If you're being good enough. Satan loves to make salvation dull, dreary, depressing, and full of doubt.
[25:47] He wants to take people into slavery. Not liberty. Paul said, I waste my time with you? Let me sum it up for you. The story he starts with that all of them would understand, and I'm afraid we don't, is that while you're a child, I hire a tutor and a governor and a schoolmaster to tell you what to do.
[26:09] He gets you up on time. He wraps your knuckles if you don't listen. He spanks you if you don't do your homework on time. He disciplines you because even though you're the child of the king himself, you're under tutors and governors and a schoolmaster.
[26:24] But Jesus came to take you out from under the schoolmaster, out from under the law, out from under the tutors and the governors, and said, you don't need them to tell you about me. I'm here. You don't need to look at the law.
[26:35] Look at me. And these people came on. They got saved. They were saved by the glorious grace of God. They weren't thinking, what do I have to do? They were thinking what he did. And then these lawyers, these Judaizers, these legalists came down and they said, you got to keep rules.
[26:51] If you don't get baptized, if you eat bacon, you'll lose your salvation. If you don't come to church, if you don't honor me as the teacher and the preacher.
[27:03] Just remember, I'm the anointed of God. Don't touch me because I'm the man. They put all this junk on people and stole their joy. And Paul said, can I just sum this up, guys?
[27:16] You aren't slaves anymore. You're sons. Act like it. Enjoy your freedom. You don't have to go knock on the living room door to see if it's okay for you to come in.
[27:30] You're a son. You're welcome. You don't have to wonder if you can enjoy the privileges. You do get to enjoy the privileges. Jeff Kennedy had a little boy.
[27:44] Got famous. His name was John John. Because he just had access where nobody else had access. Because he's the boy. The son. That's who we are.
[27:54] We're the sons of God. We're not under the law. We're under grace. Jesus was the end of the law. This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia.
[28:13] For more information, log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times, location, contact information, and more audio and video recordings.
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