Auto Generated Transcript
Yeah. What a great song, right? Uh, it’s a constant reminder of what Christ has done and our new identity in Christ. And that’s basically what the Apostle Paul begins to tell us in chapter four here in Galatians chapter or Galatians chapter four, verses one through 12. And before we get started, I’d like to read the word. Um, I’m using the version that’s in your back seat there. If you guys would like to follow along. I know the the text is going to be kind of small up here for this first slide. Um, it’s on page 148 in the New Testament. If you guys want to follow along, I’m going to be anchored in Galatians chapter four, verses one through 11. Um, for the morning. And I’ll be going to different verses, but I’m going to be basically just following through that text. So if you want to follow along in your Bible, uh, please feel free to do so. So Galatians chapter four, we’re going to start in verse one and read it, and then ask God to to reveal it to us. Alright. Uh, Paul begins by saying, now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the day set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons, because ye are sons.
God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, ABBA, father! Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then heir through God. However, at that time when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are not gods. But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by the by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. Let’s pray. Our God, we come before your your throne of of grace and mercy. And, uh, just so thankful to be here this morning and to be under, uh, with fellow believers, God, and to worship your name and sing praises to you, father, in song and hymn and spiritual song. Uh, what an amazing gift you’ve given us in the church. And, uh, God, at this time we want to worship you through the preaching and reading of your word. And so, God, we just ask that you would meet with us.
That as you claim that this word is alive and it’s powerful, and your spirit that dwells within the hearts of the believer uses it, Lord, to to bring us closer to you and to sanctify us and make us more like you. And so, God, we just ask in. All humility, Lord, that you would do that, that you would meet with us today and that we would grow closer to you, that you might be glorified by the things we say and the things that we do. May the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart be acceptable. Acceptable to you, oh Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen. Alright, so before we get into all of that, um, we always want to take this passage. I’m just kind of parachuting into chapter four here, and we always want to take the time to, to provide the context for what Paul is talking about. Our pastor, Nathaniel, has been in, uh, the book, so he’s had the opportunity to just kind of lead you through the chapters. But I’m I’m new, so I got to kind of just parachute in here. So I always want to take the time to to give us context. Um, so we’re all on the same page, and, uh, those of you that are meeting Wednesday night, you just last this last Wednesday. Uh, we’re going into hermeneutics. Uh, Matt was teaching on that. And that’s the the process in which how you take scripture and you, you read it appropriately, you read it in context, you consider the genre that it’s written in, all those things that should, um, we should allow in, uh, so we don’t take God’s word and, and read our own meaning into it, but instead receive the meaning that God’s intended.
So those of you that are in Wednesday night class, uh, this context is, is important for all of us. But, uh, that’s kind of what you guys have been talking about. So why so why why did Paul write this letter? Paul writes this letter to defend the gospel. And the gospel is the good news, right? It’s the good news of Jesus Christ. And that good news is that justification and salvation can only be obtained through faith in Jesus Christ’s accomplished work alone. Um, and why should we consider Paul’s letter right? There was lots of letters written back then claiming to be, um, messages from God. So why do we consider this letter to be, um, inspired by God? Why should we take upon it? Why? What makes it have authority over our life? And so Paul, the apostle Paul, Paul, who has spent the majority or majority of the at least the letters in the New Testament, um, declares why we should here in verse one Paul, an apostle not sent from man, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead.
So Paul is claiming himself to be an apostle, a representative, a messenger for Jesus Christ. And in so doing, he’s telling us that what he’s writing is something that the church there in Galatia needed to heed. And it’s because it’s been preserved for us, uh, through God, the miraculous preservation that God has done in his word. Uh, we need to take heed as well. So moving on to how? The first three chapters demonstrate God’s exclusive plan of salvation. It’s about justification. That’s a legal term that Paul often uses in his letters. And it’s it’s a legal term to describe what we’re not without Jesus. And that is we’re guilty sinners. And that justification is a legal declaration that we are righteous before the eyes of a holy God. But it can be in our court system as well. Right? To be justified means that you are no longer considered to be guilty. And so Paul is using terms that we can understand. And so, um, he’s trying to explain that justification is by, um, faith alone. And I put sola fide there and then trust in trust in Jesus Christ alone. Solus Christus. That’s a those are those the Latin terms that used by the reformers. And I brought those up because next week is actually, um, Reformation Sunday. It’s a great, um, holiday for those of us that love to follow the history of the church. That’s just a point in time where we recognize that the Reformation time, uh, beginning with Martin Luther, who began to do exactly what the apostle Paul is talking about here.
Now, there, there had become a legalized system of things that God’s people should do or not do. And by doing those, they’re not doing those, you are justified in front of God. And the Reformation was a time where people began to look at the word and go, wait a minute, that’s not what Scripture says. That’s not true. And so there’s this great history of the others that have gone before us, that have stood up for the word of God and what the Word of God says. And, uh, so just remember that, uh, if you see, uh, Russ walking around with a Martin Luther hat on next week, you’ll know why he’s he’s celebrating the Reformation Sunday. Right. You can do that. Right, brother? Yeah. Okay, good. All right. So. Galatians 216. This is, uh, I have this engraved on my license plate. Not because I think it’s great, but I try to have to keep going back there. So I want to remind myself it says, nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law. Since by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.
An apostle of Jesus Christ lays it out for us. We are not justified by the law. We are justified by faith in Jesus Christ alone. And that is how God declares us righteous. Uh. Moving on. We need to ask the question. How? At the end of chapter three, Paul begins to explain the purpose of the law. So the law is there. The law is represented as a representation of who God is, his holiness, how separate he is from us. Um, and it’s nothing to be, uh, just cast aside. But what is the law for? And I know Nathaniel has gone through this, but we’re just trying to grab some more context here. The purpose of the law, the first three chapters are about what the law was all about. Um. Or at the end of the chapter three. I’m sorry, he begins faith, justification by faith in the first three chapters. And then at the end of chapter three, he begins to talk about, um, the purpose of the law. And he begins here in verse uh, chapter three verse 23 says, but before the before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith. But now the faith has come, that faith has come. We are no longer under a tutor. For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.
Again and again, Paul is letting us know it’s through faith. It’s through faith. It’s through faith in Christ and what he’s done alone. Um, but he also begins to show us what the law was there for. And what does he say the law was to bring us to Christ. The law is there so we can see that we are indeed separated from a holy God, that there’s no way we can keep these laws and be found justified in front of God’s eyes, because we all suffer from that first curse found in the Garden of Eden. In Genesis chapter three, the fall were born of sin. We commit sin, and because of that we’re separated from God. And that is the means of the law. We wouldn’t know that without the law. And so we finally pick up here in Galatians chapter four. And the reason why I had to go back there is because Paul continues on with the analogy now of that same analogy found in Galatians 323 through 26. He’s beginning to expand a little bit more on this analogy. Verse one. It says, now I say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave, although he is owner of everything. So Paul is trying to give these guys a they’re real world analogy of trying to make them understand in that culture and both Hebrew and Roman and Greek culture.
Um, it was even though if a child was going to be a king someday or being a very prestigious position. That child, when he was growing up, was put under a tutor, and oftentimes that was an indentured servant or a slave, um, from from the master. But that tutor, that child was to be submissive to that tutor, whatever that tutor said, even though positionally they were much different. Right? As a son, that child was to, um, be submissive and follow the rules and the regulations of the tutor. And so Paul is trying to give them this image of what the law was for us. Um, so in verse three, so also we, while we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental things of the world. So before we knew Christ, before we were in Christ, we were in that same bondage. We were under the law. That law is damning, is it not? It’s this law that no one can keep. But we’re in bondage to it because we have nothing in and of ourselves to free ourselves, to make ourselves right in God’s eyes. There’s nothing in us that can do that. And so that’s what Paul is trying to explain what the law is all about. The law is for us to bring for God to bring us to Christ, for us to realize, wow, there is really nothing I can do. While this system of different things of dos and don’ts, this list that I have to do really isn’t justifying me in front of God after all.
Because in the end of it all, I’ve committed. Uh, sin. I’ve went against God’s law, and that’s what Paul is trying to do. So before being justified in Christ bondage to the law and the elemental things of the world. So that’s Jew and Gentile. So that’s the elemental things, just this phrase that he’s trying to capture everybody in his audience, Jews and Gentiles. It’s those laws that society has and religions have that want to put us under and and keep us in bondage. That’s what the law was there for. Um, Isaiah. Um 59, verses one through four. Is a great picture of who we are in the eyes of God. I talk with a lot of people and they have this perception, this own perception of who God is, that God will kind of wink at sin, or will I do enough good to outweigh my bad. So I think if God’s really loving and all that, he’s going to accept me when I get to heaven. Um, and so we’re just thankful for the scriptures that we can we can know what God, how God feels about that, and we can see how God thinks about that thing. And Isaiah 59 just holds a great picture of what the Lord sees. He said, and this is the Lord speaking through Isaiah. He says, behold, the Lord’s hand is not short, that it cannot save, nor is his ear so dull that it cannot hear.
God is not some aloof, far off thing, right? He is personal. But verse two, there’s that. But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity. Your lips have spoken falsehood. Your tongue mutters wickedness. No one sues righteously, and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. So God is showing us how holy and righteous and separate he is from us. And really in his eyes, what we look like in our own righteousness. Supposed righteousness, right? It’s not a very good picture. But praise be to God, there’s another button in the Bible. I remember the day I got saved, and I was under deep conviction by the Holy Spirit about my sin, and realizing that I had tried often to be good enough for God, accepted me in my life, and I always failed. And, uh, so I was again once under that conviction, and the gospel was being preached. And then he opened up the Bible and he said, but but God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son of a soul happy. There was another, but right. It’s my favorite word in the Bible.
But God the intervened. Praise be to God. There’s another. But. And we find another. But here in Galatians chapter four, verse four. The next slide. But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. So the fullness of time that he’s referencing there. Really speaks of the entirety of God’s redemptive story. It’s this book. The Bible that we call it is 66 books. It’s written by over 35. I think it’s 40 some authors over thousands of years, they don’t know each other. It’s not like a bunch of people got together. And all right Isaiah and all right Ezekiel. And you can write John. It’s over the entire span of human history that’s recorded through the Jewish traditions first and the New Testament. And he began to see as you studied the scripture, that even though Genesis is written 3500 years prior to the New Testament or at the end of the New Testament, it makes one complete story and it’s God’s redemptive story. Yes. We’re understand. Yes, we’re separated from God. But God had. Far greater things in plan than just align us to dwell in our sin and be separated from him. And so the fullness of time speaks of the entirety of God’s redemptive story beginning in Genesis the fall. Right? God made everything, and it was good. And God made Adam and Eve and his image. So where were the chief cornerstone of or the emerald? The cherry on top, if you will, of the creation story, right where we’re God’s representative here on earth.
He’s given us this wonderful joy place to enjoy and to walk with him and to talk with him. And he’s given us the first picture of marriage, right? He creates Eve and he says, the two shall be one flesh, and you guys can walk and unity with me, right? It’s just this beautiful thing. And then Genesis chapter three comes along and something dramatically wrong happens, right? Another voice besides God starts speaking into the lives of Adam and Eve, and that’s the devil. They begin to tempt God or to begin to tempt Adam and Eve. And through that they fail because they took the temptation. They disobeyed God’s law, his covenant that he had with them because of that separation from God began. And so all who were born through the seed of Adam was born into this seed of separation. And there’s nothing that we can do in and of ourselves to make that right. Genesis 315. The good news is, is God already had a plan from the foundations of the world? He knew that he would send his only begotten son to be a lamb slain for the sins of mankind. And so he tells the devil. You might have done something here, but don’t worry, I will get the last say. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed.
So all the seed that is born of the first Adam is the seed of the devil, because we’re no longer in relationship with our creator. And he shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel. Notice how it says he there. This thing that God was going to do to reverse what had happened in the fall was a he. And so this redemptive story begins to lay out for us. Through time. God begins to reveal who this he would be, that would one day be able to reverse the curse. Moving on. Pastor Nathaniel talked about this last week, and it’s referenced in Galatians chapter three. The promise given to Abraham. Genesis 2218 and your seed, all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed my voice. So God gives Abraham this promise through your seed. All the nations on the earth will be blessed. So we begin to see that this he is going to be coming through Abraham’s lineage, through your seed, all the nations, not just the Jewish nation, but all, all the nations will be blessed by you. Another promise is given in Genesis the Messiah, this he, this person, this he that’s going to come that the Jews refer to and we refer to as the Messiah, right? Will come out of the tribe of Judah found in Genesis 4910. He will come out of the town of Bethlehem.
Micah another writer. God gives Micah this prophecy that this he that would was going to come would be born in the town of Bethlehem. He would be from the lineage of King David, first found in Second Samuel 711 through 12. Going on born of a virgin. Isaiah 714 says, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel. All different people, all writing different in different periods of time, all pointing by through God, inspiring these people, these prophets to write who this he that he promised in Genesis 315 would be, and where he would come from, and what lineage he would come from. Christ’s own testimony. When Christ the Messiah finally appears on the scene at the end of his of his earthly ministry, he sits with his disciples in verse 27, then, beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning concerning himself in all the scriptures. What a wonderful thing God has given us. The Bible. What a wonderful redemptive story he has shown us that we can trust him and believe in. So Christ is telling them all. The Old Testament was designed to point to me that he who would come and take away the sins of his people. So continuing on in our text, Galatians four four, but when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son.
It’s such an important aspect of the gospel, the good news sent forth of his son. The next slide sent forth his son, born of a woman. This only begotten Son of God is the second person in our Triune God. He’s revealed himself to be one God, but yet in three separate persons God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit. And they’ve always co eternally equal. Uh co eternally existed with one another in complete harmony. One God. The scriptures revealed to ourselves, to us, but yet three distinct persons acting in independence of one another. And that’s kind of hard to wrap our brains around. But I’m glad I got his revealed himself to be of a God that I really can’t understand. The temptation would be to try to break down God into something we can’t understand, and put them in a nice little box with a bow and say, this is our God, right? But that is not the God who God has revealed himself to be. So we always want to be careful of that. But so because we’re in the seat of Adam, this this redemptive story is unveiling and unfolding through time. Um, we see the importance that Jesus needed to be God. He needed to be God, yet he needed to come into his creation to save us. And the reason why he needed to come in to his creation to save us, is because he’s the one that is not from the seed of Adam.
He doesn’t have that sin curse that we’re born with. He is perfectly God. Um, this book of, uh, the book of Ruth paints this beautiful picture of this, the kinsman redeemer. Right? This person that would come, that who had the legal right and authority to to purchase land. And he took Ruth and. Well, I won’t go into it all, but, uh, it’s just this beautiful picture of of what Jesus was going to be. He came into creation to took on the form of a of a man so that he could purchase us and be our kinsman redeemer, that we can put complete trust, just as Ruth did to Boaz, her kinsman Redeemer. In the book of Ruth we can come complete trust in our Redeemer. It had nothing to do with Ruth, nor does it have anything to do with us. It’s by placing our faith and the one who came that he who came that was promised in Genesis 315. Matthew one verse 2320 through 23. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. No longer the seed of Adam, she will bear a son, and she will call, and you will shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. And that’s Isaiah 714 that we’ve already covered. Another fulfillment given to us in the Old Testament fulfilled by Jesus Christ. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel. So indeed Immanuel has come, and he and was crucified to pay the debt owed by our sin. And so I just kind of put that there, because I know it’s it’s great to we celebrate the birth of Jesus in December in the coming months here. Right. But he didn’t come just to be a baby. We all know that, right? He came to to be under the law, as we will see in the next slide, born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law. So Jesus submitted himself to his own law. And but because he’s God, he can keep the law as we cannot. So he born, he submitted himself under the law, and he kept that law perfectly. The Old Testament had these, uh, illustrations of the lamb that was to come. Jesus, uh, in their temple, sacrifices and stuff. The lands that they had to bring, bring to be sacrificed, had to be spotless. It couldn’t be without any blemish. Right. And that was a story telling the Old Testament saints that this land that would come, that would take away the sins once and for all, would be spotless, would be without blemish.
And that is our Jesus, the Savior of the world. Matthew 517. This is Christ talking again. Again, he didn’t come to just abolish the law. And he says that do not think that I came to abolish the law or the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. Christ fulfilled the law in every way that we could not. And he did that on our behalf. So why? Why? Because God is holy and God is just can’t walk away now. He’s stuck. And, uh. He is so holy that he demands perfect righteousness to be in his presence. And I don’t know about you, but I do not have perfect righteousness. I never have, nor I never will. But Christ did. Matthew 548 says, therefore you are perfect. Uh ah. You are to be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect. So that’s the mark that we have to live up to. You want to keep the law? That’s your mark. Be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect. James, the half brother of Jesus, wrote in the New Testament about the law. For whoever keeps the whole law. So if you want to keep it, keep it, keep the whole law, and yet stumbles in one point of the law, he has become guilty of all. That’s the mark. We can keep some of the commandments, but James is inspired to write that if we don’t keep every point of every law, we’re guilty of them all.
It’s, uh. I’ve often heard the illustration that it’s kind of like having a, um, we all can get in trouble, right? And be under put under the the law. If you go to school and you, you lie to your teacher, you might get your name on the board or, or something. You might get sent to the principal’s office. Okay? Because it’s a small lie. Right? But if you go to the principal and you lie to that principal, well, it’s the authority is a little bit more, is it not? So the consequences might be a little bit more. If you lie to the principal, you might get a phone call to your parents. Right. And so your parents come and told you you’re in a lie and you lie to your parents. Well, God’s given your parents authority over you great authority. And so because you’ve lied, you’re in even greater trouble to your parents. And it goes on and on. You don’t lie to the local court is one thing, but you’re now committing perjury, right? So the consequences of your lie is going to be more you go to the Supreme Court, you’re going to lie in front of the Supreme Court. Well, the authorities even more. Therefore, the consequences of lying and perjury, committing perjury are going to be no longer state prison, but federal penitentiary or whatever.
Okay. And now we see the holiness of God and how separate we are from him, and how amazingly perfect and righteous he is. And then we can see that this eternal God has given us a law that we cannot keep. And because his authority is authority over all. The consequences. The the penalty is greatest of all an eternal God. An eternal law is punished by an eternal punishment. And that’s the fact. That’s the law. Next slide. Galatians 324. We’re going back to there. Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so we be justified by faith. So the law is meant to bring us to this point where, you know what we I cannot keep the law. I’ve heard the good news that my God, my creator, has come into his creation and lived the law perfectly for me. And he didn’t give me a long list of rules to follow. He gave me one commandment, and that’s to trust him. Trust what he’s done. Um, completely on what he’s done on the cross. To allow him to take the punishment for us. So those in Christ only came to Christ after the law proves that they are not capable of keeping the law. Right. And hopefully we’ve gone through that. You’ve. Maybe gone through the law and the Ten Commandments. You’ve seen how, like James 210 says, if you offend in one point, you’re guilty of them all. So the lie, the small lie that you’ve given to someone is in the fence of the eternal law of God.
Uh. Where? Without escape. Um, but thankfully we do have escape and that is through Jesus Christ. So continuing our text so that we might receive the adoption as sons. This is the positive point of the message. This is the great thing. Jesus not only came to redeem us and to get us out, and to make us righteous in the eyes of a holy God, because he’s lived righteously for us and he’s gone to the cross to pay our sin debt. It’s called the great, uh, the Great Exchange, right? Jesus gives us his righteousness. We give him by placing our faith and trust in him. We give him his, our sin and our debt, and he’s paid for it on the cross. And not only does he do that for us, but then we’re told that we’re adopted into God’s family, that we might receive the adoption of sons and the old language. You know, that’s how they refer to. But we’re saying sons and daughters. That’s what Paul is alluding to here. We become adopted. And that’s the awesome reality of our new identity. That song that we sang, I’m a child of the newborn king of the one true king. That’s our new identity. That’s what Christ has purchased for us. Not just a ticket out of hell into heaven, but this new identity he’s given us.
We are now out of the first Adam. Thereby placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ alone, where we’re now placed and adopted into the second Adam. Romans five talks about the last Adam, which is Jesus Christ, were adopted out of that family of bondage in the law into the family of God. What a wonderful and amazing gift. John 112 through 13. The apostle John talks about this how there’s two different types of people. There’s those that know God are in Christ, and those that are do not know God and are not the sons of God, nor do know him. And he alludes to this here. But as many as received him received Christ as their Savior. To them he gave the right to become children of God. Even to those who believe in his name. So what’s the prerequisite even to those who believe in his name? And amazing here. This is God’s redemptive story of peaking his head again who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. He had the answer right after the fall happened. And his name is Jesus. First John three one. This verse is referenced in that song if you were to continue to play that song. Um, it’s a different translation, but it says, see how great a love the father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God. And such we were, we are.
And such. We are. So it gets even better. Galatians four. Back to the text six through seven. Because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His son into our hearts, crying, ABBA, father! Um for the that’s the, the abs the the Jewish connotation of a father, but it’s more of a. A term of endearment. It’s kind of like daddy. And the Jews were. It had a great respect for God’s holiness because God had indeed showed his holiness through their history is how righteous and stuff he was. And so they were to the point, or they still are, to the point where they won’t even write God’s name down. They’ll just give a couple letters to indicate that they’re speaking of God, but they hold his name in such Revere that they wouldn’t even speak his name, nor write it down. And so here comes the apostle Paul, who was the Hebrew of Hebrews, the Jew of all Jews before he encountered Christ. And he’s telling us that not only are you saved, not only are you adopted, but then God sends the earnest of our inheritance, the down payment. And that’s the Spirit of God to come and dwell in the hearts of every believer. And that Spirit of God is crying to the father, saying, daddy. No longer this relationship of God being righteous and holy and separate from us. We are adopted. And God, this amazing, wonderful God has loved us so that we can see him as our daddy.
Our father, not the righteous judge who has to condemn us because we’ve been condemned in Jesus Christ already. We can now say, daddy. The spirit dwells within every heart of the believer, with every believer’s heart. Verse seven, therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. And so. And he’s given us this amazing analogy of the sun growing up underneath the tutor. And then when the father decides that the son is ready to become to be a man, each society, each culture had this. They had a time a like a, um, a ceremony of sorts, that the the child knew that he was no longer a child, but he became a man. You’re now a man. And that’s kind of removed from our our world today. So the analogy doesn’t quite fit. But what he’s saying is, is you and that society, when the when that child became a a man, he no longer acted like a a son, he no no longer acted like a child. He didn’t have to worry about the rules and the regulations that the tutor gave him, because he was now his own man. He’s come of age. They call it the coming of age. Right? And that’s what Christ has done for us. We have come of age. We are no longer under that tutorship of the law driving us to Christ.
Those of us that have come to Christ, we understand that we don’t have to submit ourselves to that anymore because we’re in Christ. We have come of age. And so that’s the analogy that Paul is trying to give us here. What about like, a more present world analogy? Kids, uh. Or parents. Let me ask you a question. When you have children and when they’re young, you have to give them lots of rules, right? You never have to teach them how to disobey, right? You have to give them lots of rules and kind of guide them along the path. But you’re you’re bringing them up to maturity. Are we not trying to bring them up to maturity? And don’t we all, as parents, want that time when our parents begin to start obeying us because of they love and respect us, and not out of fear that it’s not the fear of the consequences anymore, but it’s because they love and respect their mom and dad. I want that out of my kids. I would love for them just to obey the rules because. Not because they’re afraid of getting in trouble, but because they love us and they respect us. I don’t know if it’s ever going to happen, but that’s the picture God’s trying to paint for us. He doesn’t want us living under the law out of fear of him. He wants us to live a life of righteousness because we love and respect him, and we’re grateful for what he’s done for us.
Um. Remember growing up how you were teenagers. Don’t raise your hands here, okay? How you thought as a teenager your parents were crazy. And they had. They just were silly with their rules. And they knew nothing. And they were complete idiots. Then we’re going to. Okay, maybe I’m really, really sinful, but that’s how I felt. All right. And good job, boys, for not raising your hand. And then once you got out on your own, you were living in the world. You began to see the wisdom that your parents had and the rules that they made you keep and the friends they wouldn’t allow you to keep. And all that and you say, wow, they really knew what they were talking about. But I didn’t understand it then. That’s coming of age, and that’s what God desires of us. We’re not brought out of the law so that we can live wickedly. We’re brought out of the lawn in this amazing redemptive story. We see what God has done for us, and it’s not of anything that we’ve done. It’s just because of his love for us. And we begin to see that his way, his law, his righteousness is a way of wisdom. That living the way he desires is a better life. And we see his wisdom and we see his law as a way of of expressing our our gratitude for him, of what he’s done for us.
And so that’s what Paul is trying to pull here. We’re not here to to okay. We’re no longer live in the law. So we can just live as wicked as all sin. No, it’s become of age and we we’re mature and we are see ourselves for who we are in ourselves. And then we see ourselves and our new identity in Christ and we go, wow, what an amazing gift. I want to pursue God out of that heart that he’s given us. And that’s the next slide. It’s it’s another. And this is a whole nother sermon. So please, I promise I won’t go there. It’s just one slide. But I had to mention it. It’s the the idea of regeneration in John chapter three. Uh, this Pharisee, this religious leader, comes to Jesus and he says, what don’t we do that we work the works of God, and how can we know God? And Jesus says here in John chapter three verse three, truly, truly, I say to you, unless you one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again. And Ezekiel, there’s a passage that alludes to this where God says, there’s going to come a day where I will take out your stony heart, the stony heart that’s in bondage under the under the law. And I’ll give you a heart of flesh, and you will pursue me. I will write my law on your heart.
And that new heart that I will give you will pursue me. And that’s this picture of being born again. It’s no longer keeping rules to satisfy God. It’s placing our faith and trust in Jesus Christ. And when that happens, regeneration happens as we turn from our way and the ways of religion and the context of Galatians, we we turn to God and we pursue him. We become of age in Christ and we pursue him, and we’ll want to follow him because his way is best. His way is most. His way is the way that he designed me to be. And when I follow that, I have his peace, his joy. And it makes life makes so much more sense that way. Ephesians four 2224. Um, Paul again writes this letter, and he kind of gives us a summary of, of this regeneration, this new heart that God gives us that wants to pursue God. In Romans chapter three, the old heart, the stony heart rejects God as an enemy of God. But this new heart wants to pursue God. We don’t want to live wickedly anymore. There’s a side of us that has that stony heart, but there’s a new heart that wants to seek after Christ and wants to be like him. And Paul alludes to this in Ephesians, if indeed you have heard him and have been taught in him just as true, just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, that old stony heart which is being corrupted, still there, right when we become saved, unfortunately, we don’t become sinless.
We still have our old trappings. That old nature is still there, right? But Paul’s telling us we want to as we live, as we walk the Christian walk, we want to start laying aside that old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self. That’s that walk of sanctification that Pastor Nathaniel alluded to last week. It’s no longer rejecting the things of the world, and that the promise of joy and the things and the lust of the world, rejecting that and putting that aside and seeking Christ and following after him and pursuing him and putting on the new self, and which is in the likeness of God has been created, and righteousness, the holiness of truth. So God does want us to make us holy, but not out of fear of the law, not out of fear of retribution, but because. He’s given us a new heart, and he wants us to use that heart to pursue him. That’s the walk of sanctification. As we begin to see our identity in Christ. And we’re no longer that old self, but we’re in Christ, and we have a new heart, and we begin to feed that heart.
God and Christ become glorified. And our life. And that’s God’s plan. Next slide. However, at the time. So we have this great picture of who we are in Christ, this new identity Christ has given us. What a wonderful blessing to know and be aware of that. But we still have factions of the world and factions of our old style, our old lives that still in our old heart, that still tug us away and want to pull us away from the Lord. And that’s exactly what happened here in the churches of Galatia. Um. These people had heard the gospel of Christ in Christ, and Paul is trying to tell them, you need to put, you know, leave the old the law is no longer for you. But these people have gone in and they’re like, no, no. Yes, you need Christ indeed. But you still need to hold to the laws. You still need both. It’s begin this this mixture of works and grace. And Paul so eloquently states in the first three chapters that it’s not of works, it’s of grace by faith. And these people, these Paul, had gone away, and these people had begun to enter in and begin to influence this church, to say, no, no, we need to keep the laws of circumcision, and we need to keep the Sabbath. We need to still need to do all these things before so we can stay in good standing with God. And Paul’s writing them saying, no, it’s no longer of the law.
It’s by faith. But I think we have the same problems, don’t we? I know I do. I grew up in a with lots of rules and laws religiously, and I see myself in my new identity in Christ on Sunday morning. But when I get out there, I’m really starting to, if I’m not careful, walk and put myself back in the bondage of the law and starting to judge people because they don’t hold to my standard or the standards that I’ve set myself up to. And I’ve started to see myself as I begin to walk in the law that I, God, must now act on my accord because I’m such a righteous person. And that is definitely the wrong way of looking at things. We need to constantly be reminded that our relationship, our re-established connection with God, is in Christ alone, through faith, alone in what he’s done alone. And so the just to wrap this up, verses eight through 11, he begins to talk about these people who’ve gone in and mixed them up. And Paul’s really concerned about it. This is nothing to take lightly the mixture of works in the law. However, at the time when you did not know God, you were slaves to those which by nature are no gods. He’s like you put yourself in the slave into slavery with those people and those rules. But now that you have come to know God, or rather that to be known by God, how is it that you turn back again to the weak and worthless elemental things, the law to which you desire to be enslaved all over again? The purpose of the law had come to fruition for those people, but yet they were turning back and putting themselves back under the law, back under the tutor that they did not to be need to be.
He says, you observe days and months and seasons and years. And look at his warning here. I fear for you that perhaps I have labored over you in vain. So critical that we get by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone. And his accomplished work. Not anything that we can do. It is through Christ alone. It is his redemptive story started back in Genesis, completed in the book of Revelation, this one complete story, and we are privileged to know it and to be able to accept it by faith alone. His gift. So in conclusion. God’s love is not about doing enough to get it. That’s the works of a system. God’s love is gracious. It’s given to you. It’s unmerited. He does it because he loves you like no one else could. And he loved you so much that he enacted this plan through his son, that we can be reunited in him and adopted into his family. God’s love is unmerited. We do not need to do anything to earn it. It’s so against the ways of society today, right? You put, you pick yourself up by the bootstraps, you go out and you earn it.
Salvation’s one thing we cannot earn. The law tells us so. It’s by faith alone. In Christ alone. Salvation is a gift. It’s a gift of God. The only thing you have to do is turn from your way. Turn from your religious way. And turn to the cross, and by faith accept what he has done on your behalf. And by doing so, God regenerates you and gives you a new heart. And you will see. You will see what salvation is all about a new life in Christ Jesus. I’m so thankful that I’m a child of the one true King. So the last slide, the key to walking to our new identity is to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. And I just want to leave you with this Martin Luther Reformation Sunday next Sunday. So I had to put a Martin Luther quote up there. It’s a wonderful quote. Um, but the key to walking in our new identity is to preach the gospel to ourselves every day. I’m up here today and I’m preaching the gospel, and I know it’s right, and I believe it, and I trust it, and I walk in it. But then come Wednesday, when I’m out working 15 hours and some one makes me upset and I step out of my new flesh and into my old flesh, right? And I sin.
I do something egregious, and there might be some of you that are dealing with sin that you can’t get rid of. That’s when I start to wonder. Endow my new identity, and the only way that I can put myself back in what God is in Christ has done is to preach the gospel to myself. Wait a minute. It’s not about me. It’s not about what I can do. It is what Christ has done on my behalf. And so I’m no longer going to look at myself through the eyes of my sin. I’m going to look at myself through the eyes of my Savior, who died for me on the cross, to take away the penalty of that sin. That is who I am. It’s no longer about me. That’s my identity. And every time I sin, I prove to myself over and over again that I couldn’t earn it. It has to be a gift. It has to be because he’s love for me and nothing else. I have nothing to offer him on my account. And as we do that, as we preach ourselves the gospel and we reclaim our identity as children of the one true King. We begin to look more and more like him as we walk the Christian walk every day. And that’s what Martin Luther. References here says you are accepted, looking outward in faith and in claiming the holy righteousness of Christ as the only ground of acceptance. Relaxing in that quality of trust which will produce increasing sanctification as faith is active in love and gratitude.