Galatians 4:1-7

[0:00] Eden. Eden. Eden. In the New Testament tonight in the Book of Galatians, chapter 4, may have a short service tonight, and we may not.

[0:20] We just have to wait and see. The Book of Galatians, this letter written to the churches that are in Galatia, is actually one of the greatest books in the New Testament to explain grace, or salvation, by grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

[0:47] And that's what Paul uses the majority of this letter to these churches for, is to explain that to them. The problem was, and it was much like the Book of Hebrews.

[1:01] Hebrews was written to a bunch of Jews that were in danger of falling back into the law. They were in danger of falling back into customs and empty religion and things along those lines in these Galatians.

[1:15] They were no different. That's why Paul, or not the sole reason that Paul wrote this letter to them, but this letter covers a huge section of this letter, covers the subject of salvation by grace, and by grace alone.

[1:33] Salvation by Jesus Christ, not by works and not by merits. Galatians chapter 3 happens to be one of my favorite chapters in all the Bible, and that's not where we'll be preaching from tonight, but that's naturally the chapter that leads up to four where we will be preaching from.

[1:52] But Paul goes into some really deep, but at the same time, really simple explanation of salvation by grace through faith in Christ, and not depending upon works, and not depending upon our descendancy, or upon the Jews, depending upon where they descended from.

[2:17] It's no different for us as New Testament churches, Gentiles. We can't depend on Grandma or Grandpa's salvation any more than the Jews could depend upon Abraham being chosen by God for salvation.

[2:35] Salvation is an individual thing. Jesus Christ came, and He gave Himself as a sacrifice, once and for all, for all of humanity.

[2:46] Everyone that had been born up to that point, everybody that's been born since, and everyone that will be born on into the future. Jesus Christ died for anyone that would believe in Him, believe in His gospel, repent of their ways and trust in Him, and Him alone for their salvation.

[3:05] Again, that's what a large portion of the letter to the churches of Galatia covers. That being said, tonight we're going to be reading the first several verses of Galatians chapter 4, but we're going to actually begin the last few verses of Galatians chapter 3.

[3:29] So all that being said, we'll pick up in Galatians chapter 3, verse 26, says, For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus, for as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

[3:46] There is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither bond nor free. There is neither male nor female. For ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise.

[4:02] In Galatians chapter 4 and verse 1, Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, therefore is nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.

[4:17] Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

[4:34] And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba, Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant but a Son.

[4:45] And if a Son, then an heir of God, through Christ. We'll go back to Galatians chapter 4 and verse 1. Again Paul says, Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all, and the illustration or the mental picture that Paul is trying to give here to the audience of this letter is not a picture of, there's some customs that are followed.

[5:21] There's some customs that were followed by the Jews, or some customs that were followed by the Greeks. What Paul is doing here, in the first three verses, was giving them a picture of a Roman custom, according to the Jews and according to the Greeks.

[5:36] The custom was that at a certain age, it's 12 years old for the Jews, but at a certain age that the Son was made a son, the son was moved on into adulthood, if you would, saying he's grown up, he's ready for the things of a more grown up nature, or a more grown up life.

[6:00] This was a custom of Jewish and Greeks, or of the Jews and of the Greeks. But of the Romans, it was determined by the Father when that time would come. There was no set age for the Romans.

[6:13] It could have been 12, it could have been 10, it could have been 18, it could have been 25, but when the Father of that Roman child determined that his son was ready for the adult things, for the more grown up things of the world, this is when they would have their ceremony.

[6:31] This is when his son would be allowed, per se, into adulthood. And that is the picture that Paul is trying to paint here for these Galatians. So it says, now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, dear for nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all.

[6:50] So here, while Paul is using this as a physical picture that he's trying to paint for these people, he's also painting a spiritual picture for those that were come up under the law, those who were spiritually immature, in other words, just like you and just like I folks, when we first got saved, we didn't know a whole lot about the Lord.

[7:18] We might have thought that we did, that we did. We might have been in church for our entire lives, but we didn't know a whole lot about Almighty God. We didn't know nearly as much about the Bible as we might have thought that we did when we were saved.

[7:32] We were still spiritually immature as born again believers. We were babes in Christ in need of the milk of the Word, but folks, God expects His people after we're saved.

[7:44] God expects us to move on, to start taking part of the meat, to get ourselves away from that milk at some point in our lives. There's nothing more disappointing to me than to see someone who's been in church for 20 or 30 or 40 or even 50 years and know very little about the Word of God that shows one of two different things or maybe two of two different things.

[8:09] It either shows that they're not paying a whole lot of attention when the sermons are being preached and when the Sunday school is going on, or it shows that the one in the pulpit or the one that's teaching the lessons doesn't know a whole lot about the Word of God either and hasn't given themselves over to studying the Word of God.

[8:27] And therefore the people with the ears to hear are not hearing anything. No, they're not hearing anything that will help them grow and therefore the entire congregation is still spiritually immature.

[8:39] God does not expect His people to remain in that state. God expects us to graduate on from the milk. God expects us to pull up to the table after a while and for taking the meat that He has set before us, to protect of the bread, to protect of the good things of the Word.

[8:58] God expects His people to open the Word and to show themselves, approve to study themselves. Don't you all just depend upon what I say or what the pastor says or any other preacher that you may listen to.

[9:13] You go home and you open up the Word of God and you study it for yourself so that you can grow with God. You have the Holy Spirit of God as your teacher and with that teacher, God will reveal anything that He wants to do to you in His time.

[9:32] How are you? Praise God. Praise the Lord. But Paul is talking about spiritually immature people here, still under the law, still under the law.

[9:45] But he says that as long as he is a child, he did for nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all. In other words, Paul is saying here and it was the same way in this Roman culture that we're talking about here, it was the same way in Jewish culture.

[10:00] It was the same way in Greek culture. While they were a very young child, even though they stood to inherit it all, even though they stood to have everything that their father had, even though this was the case, he says they were no different from a servant.

[10:17] They were no different from a bond servant. They were no different than one of the hard servants of the household, how so? Because they were still young, they were still underneath the rule of someone else.

[10:29] They were still underneath the rule of their tutors. They were still underneath the rule of the governors that we read about here in the scripture. And as long as we are still under that, hey, in Galatians and chapter 3, Paul explains just before where we started reading tonight that the law was our school master.

[10:47] But when Jesus Christ came along and when the grace of God was shed abroad, when Jesus Christ came and He shed His blood, hey, we had no more need for the school master once we are saying we have no more need for that.

[11:01] I'm not saying that we shouldn't read about the law. I'm not saying we shouldn't start to practice the law, but I'm saying that our works will merit us nothing as far as salvation goes.

[11:13] Cross to care of every bit of that for me and for you. Hallelujah. Praise God. Praise God. But they're no different than a servant, though He be Lord of all.

[11:31] But it is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the Father. And again, this time that was appointed by the Father, this was Roman culture. Again in Jewish and Greek culture, it was a set age, but in Roman culture, it was a time that was appointed by the Father.

[11:48] Even so, we, verse 3 again, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Even so, we, so He is using the first two verses to make this comparison of what He is saying.

[12:03] He said, even so, even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Folks, we were, when we were children before, before we were saved, before we were born again, when we were children, we were under the elements of the world in verse 4 says, but when the focus of time was calm, God said, for this son made of woman and made under the law.

[12:29] So even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world or under the law. This word elements, it isn't talking about the elements that you, that were so common to talk about nowadays.

[12:42] This is talking about the elemental things of the world, the very basic things, the very basic principles, just like the Jews, they were, they were depending upon the basic things of the law.

[12:54] They were depending upon their keeping of the law. They were depending upon things that were written hundreds and thousands of years before, before Jesus Christ came.

[13:04] They were depending upon elemental things, but when the fullness of time came, hallelujah, the fullness of time came, but when was this fullness of time? What brought on the fullness of time?

[13:16] Folks, the Bible does not explain in black and white what that was, but I can promise you that if the fullness of time came, it was when the world was at its darkest, the heathen were raging, the real, the true religion, which was Judaism had become nothing but a bunch of empty rituals that the people just went through.

[13:36] There was no relationship with God. This was the fullness of time for man, and it was the fullness of time for God. It was the perfect time for Jesus Christ to come into the world, and it was the perfect time for him to offer himself up as a sacrifice, the only begotten Son of the Father, giving himself a ransom from me.

[13:59] When the fullness of time came, he was born of this virgin. He lived the perfect and the sinless life, and he died on Calvary's cross for you and I.

[14:10] All of this happened when the fullness of time came. Folks, it was a perfect time. It was man's perfect time, and it was God's perfect time for this time, and I promise you everything that God does, he does it in his own will, and in his own perfect timing.

[14:26] When the fullness of time come, God sent forth his Son. Cross to speech, this speaks of the pre-existence of God. When the fullness of time come, meaning there was time, time passed, it had to come, and it had to come to a point, meaning cross was there.

[14:42] God sent forth his Son. This speaks of the pre-existence of cross, and it speaks of the deity of cross that he pre-existed with God the Father, and he did, as for the words of the Scripture.

[14:55] God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have always existed. There has never been two without one, there has never been one without two, there has never, there has never been a time that the three of them were separated.

[15:09] They have always been, and they always will be. And when the fullness of time come, Jesus Christ came to this world to save sinners.

[15:19] Praise God. When the fullness of time came, God sent forth his Son. Made of a woman. Made under the law. Most of this is quite a statement that Paul makes here.

[15:32] Made of a woman, and made under the law. Made of a woman showing that he was fully man, when the fullness of time came, and God sent forth his pre-existent Son into this world.

[15:45] He was made of a woman, he was born of a woman. We all know the account of the Virgin Mary conceiving by way of the Holy Spirit of God.

[15:57] We all know this account, that he was made of a woman, he was born of a woman showing that he was fully man. But folks, I can assure you, he was fully God at the same time.

[16:08] He was all man, he was all God, and he came at the perfect time that God the Father had decided, had decided in eternity past that he would come.

[16:19] But he got sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. So God sent forth his Son, Jesus Christ, God the Son, and all of his deity.

[16:30] Came forth in a woman as the God man. And he came forth here in verse four, he says he was made under the law. This means that not only was this a human birth, he was made by a woman, but folks, it was also a Jewish birth.

[16:48] He was made under the law. He was subject to every ordinance of the law. He was subject to every line and every precept of the law. But hallelujah, my Savior Jesus Christ was the only one and is the only one that was ever able to keep the whole law, every jod of it, and every tittle.

[17:07] My Jesus, he kept the entire thing. If he wouldn't have, he couldn't have gone to the cross and died to wash away my sins. He could have died a hundred times over if he had broken the law though.

[17:20] It would have done me, nor you, any good. But he kept the law. He kept the law. He was made under the law, meaning he was subject to the law.

[17:30] He was subject to the law that God had put forth that man was incapable of doing so. Folks, why did this Fortress of Time have to come and why did God have to send forth his Son?

[17:44] Think about it, from the time that Adam and Eve sent into the garden until even now in 2024, man is in a corrupted state, man is in a sinful state, man is in a decaying state, man is in a bad state, period.

[18:05] Man needs Jesus Christ and God knew that man needed Jesus Christ. God knew that man needed a Savior. He knew that man could not save himself.

[18:18] God knew that man could not get up to heaven where he was. God knew that man could not work his way up there, could not buy his way up there. God knew that man's marriage would never pay the price that was needed for him to have relationship with Almighty God.

[18:34] God sent forth his Son when the fullness of time came because the world was corrupted. The world was sinful. It was dark. It was wicked. Folks, just as the world is nowadays, the world is just as dark and just as wicked.

[18:47] It's not more so now, 2,000 years later than when Paul wrote this letter to the churches at Galatia and folks, the world needs Jesus Christ no less now than they did when Paul wrote this letter.

[19:02] The entire world needs Christ. The entire world needs Jesus. They need salvation. They need the grace of God because the entire world is lost.

[19:12] The Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God because all have sinned, all need salvation and all need redemption.

[19:23] Yes, sir. Because we were all, were all lost. Made of woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, to redeem who?

[19:39] Them that were under the law. Some people will read this to just be talking about Jews, but folks, we were all under the law. We were all under the law. We all know the difference between right and wrong.

[19:50] We knew the difference between right and wrong when we were children and the older we get, the more of the difference between right and wrong that we know. There's a reason that the adulterer doesn't come home and tell his spouse what he's been doing.

[20:03] There's a reason that the liar keeps his lies to himself. There's a reason that the thief doesn't hang out at the police station. It's because they know what they're doing is wrong.

[20:15] They have some morals about them. They may not practice their morals, but they know the difference between right and wrong. They know the difference between good and evil. It says to redeem them that were under the law.

[20:27] Folks, this went for Jew and this went for Gentile. Alack, we read it in the last four verses of Galatians chapter three that there was no difference between the Jew. There was no difference between the Gentile.

[20:39] Hey, folks, elsewhere in the writings, it says that it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter the ethnicity, whether barbarian, whether Scythian, it doesn't matter.

[20:52] And if we be cross, then are we Abraham's seed and we are heir to the promise, but we all need a redemption and that redemption could only come through one that is called Christ Jesus.

[21:04] Hallelujah. We were all under the law. He didn't just go for Jews. We're all under the law to redeem them that were under the law.

[21:15] Do we understand what redemption is? Do we understand what it is to redeem something? Do you purchase it? Do you purchase it for your own use and for your own pleasure?

[21:30] We redeem coupons at the store. Why? To save a little bit of money, but we redeem those coupons towards something that we are wanting. I remember when I was a child, SNH stamps.

[21:42] I don't know how many of you remember those or not. We used to have an SNH store in colonial heights. But I remember my daddy bringing home all of these SNH stamps. I never even figured out where those things came from.

[21:53] But he'd bring them all home. And when they gathered up enough, my mama would put up me and my brothers into the vehicle and cart us to the SNH store and they'd go in there and pick out stuff that they would redeem those coupons to purchase something that they wanted, folks.

[22:08] That's the picture I want of you and Christ. That's the picture that I want in your head of Christ redeeming you. He purchased you with his own blood.

[22:18] He purchased you with his life. He laid down his life that you and I could have life and heaven more abundantly. He redeemed me from under the law.

[22:29] Hallelujah. He purchased me. I praise his name. He purchased me to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons, not just to purchase us and set us up on a shelf.

[22:44] Hallelujah that we might receive the adoption of sons, not that we might merit the adoption of sons, not that we might work just a little bit harder after he redeemed us to get that sonship, to get that son status with the Father.

[23:00] He redeemed us that we could be called the sons of God. And if we hit the spirit of Christ, then are we the sons of God. Hallelujah.

[23:10] Folks, he redeemed us for a purpose. We might be sons and ladies that don't leave you out. It don't leave you out at all. I know how it's worded here.

[23:21] And I understand Old English and I understand somewhat Greek and why it was written the way that it was, but that does not leave the ladies out. He redeemed us that we might become his children.

[23:34] He redeemed us not just to set us to the side as trophies. He redeemed us for a purpose that he could add to his family. If you're here and you're born again, you're my brother, you're my sister, and Christ and I am your brother, and Christ, Hallelujah.

[23:50] And our family doesn't just end with these poor walls. Our family goes plum out into Kingsport. It goes all over the state of Tennessee. It goes all over the station and our family is spread all over the world.

[24:02] My God is mighty to save. It doesn't matter what corner of the earth that He is in, my God can save and He can redeem because of the blood of Jesus Christ.

[24:14] Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Because of your sons. Verse six. And because of your sons. In verse five we read that we might receive the adoption of sons.

[24:27] Folks, if we've received it, it's been given to us. We didn't earn it. It was given to us because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ because He redeemed us.

[24:39] So we've received that we might receive the adoption of sons in verse five, verse six. And because your sons, now that we've received, now that God has given us this sonship, now that He has made us one of His own, He has adopted us, He has brought us into the family, He has grafted us in from the wild.

[24:57] And because your sons, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son, hey God sent forth His Son, just a couple of verses before this to redeem us. But because we have been redeemed and because we have been made the sons of the most high God, God has sent forth the spirit of His Son into our hearts that we might cry, Father, hallelujah before, I was saying that I had no right to call God the Father, my Father, I had no right to call Him, call Him Father to look up to Him or anything else.

[25:32] But since Jesus Christ redeemed me and since the spirit of God has come to live within my heart to set His place upon my heart, I have every right per the word of God to call God my Father.

[25:48] The spirit of God is what causes me to cry, Father, but it's the spirit of God. If you read it, the spirit of His Son into your heart is crying, how about Father, it's the spirit that cries this, it's the spirit that causes us to cry this.

[26:06] The folks, we couldn't do it before Jesus, we couldn't do it before redemption. This is a beautiful thing though that we're reading here in these few verses because we're reading about the entire Trinity.

[26:20] God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, the entire Trinity has a work in my redemption. The entire Trinity shares in the work of my redemption, God the Father sent God the Son and then God the Father sent God the Spirit and the Spirit has come into my heart which causes me to cry, Father, it cries, Father, it cries, Father, it's a work of the entire Trinity to redeem my soul.

[26:55] And folks, it's nothing for God to do it. It's not hard for Him to redeem people. Now what Jesus Christ suffered was hard, yes.

[27:06] What Jesus Christ put up with was hard, yes, not just the cross but the mocking, the scourging, the life that He lived, folks. I'm persuaded that Jesus Christ spent His entire 33-plus years on this planet.

[27:21] I'm persuaded that He spent fighting the devil and fighting his demons. I don't believe that the temptation we read about in the early parts of the gospel accounts are the only times that Jesus Christ was ever tempted.

[27:33] I believe that He was tempted His whole life through. I know for a fact that His whole life through threats were made on His life. They were made on His life when He was an infant and when He was an adolescent, they were made on His life when He was an adult.

[27:46] Why would I not believe that the years in between threats were not made upon His life by the demons of this world and by Satan himself? But folks, Jesus Christ overcame all those things.

[27:58] Jesus Christ, when His hour come, He had done His face as a flint toward Jerusalem. He had done determining His mind. That's where He was headed. He had come here to do the will of the Father and the will of the Father was that the Son would come and He would give His life a ransom for many.

[28:15] In Jesus Christ's climb, Golgotha's hill, He voluntarily laid Himself upon that cross. He allowed them to now enter that cross. He allowed Himself to suffer for six hours.

[28:27] But praise God, after they put Him in that baritune, it was only three days later and my Savior raised from the dead victorious over death, hell and the grave.

[28:39] Hallelujah. Praise God. And because your sons, God, sent forth the Spirit of His Son and your heart crying out of the Father, wherefore thou art no more servant, intimating to me once upon a time I was a servant.

[28:58] Folks, before we were saved, we were a servant of this world. Before we were saved, we were a servant to sin. We were a slave to sin as per the Scripture.

[29:09] Before we were saved, the folks once this, these actions of the Trinity take place since God the Father again sent God the Son and now God the Father sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying out of the Father.

[29:22] Once this takes place in the heart of a believer, we are no more under the bondage of sin. We are no more servants. Wherefore there are no more a servant but a Son. And if a Son did an error of God through Christ, we're not only considered sons, but we are considered heirs through Christ.

[29:41] Folks, we are heirs through Christ. The Bible says in Romans chapter eight that we are heirs to God and join heirs with Jesus Christ. What does Jesus Christ have? He has it all.

[29:51] And if I am an heir to Christ, I stand to inherit everything with Him. I will rule and reign with Him, not over Him by any means. And as part of the Scripture, I will rule and reign with my Savior for eons and for eons and for eternity to come.

[30:09] Hallelujah. Folks, we are not just sons. Again, we're not just saved to send it to the side or to be bench warmers. If you'd like to phrase it like that, we're heirs.

[30:21] Wherefore there are no more servants. We were once a slave, but now a Son or a daughter. We were once slaves, but we are now children.

[30:32] We were once slaves, but God redeemed us through His Son. God made a plan before the foundation of the world was ever laid. He made a plan knowing what man would be, knowing that man would reject Him, knowing that man would reject his religion, knowing that man would come against and go over his laws, knowing that man would do these things.

[30:53] God still made a plan to redeem His creation back to Him. Hallelujah to God. Praise God. As I've said many times, some of y'all may have heard me say it when I pray.

[31:11] Sometimes I'll just glorify God for His majesty, glorify God for His power, and praise Him for using that power on my behalf instead of against me.

[31:22] And praise Him that even though He is all-knowing and even though He's omniscient, He is all-powerful and He has made this entire universe, this planet that we're on, all the planets, all the stars, all the moons, the sun, and everything else that you can think of, even though He has created this enormous universe, He still takes time.

[31:43] Praise God to think about me. He takes time to think about me. Somebody that was nobody before He came alone, somebody that doesn't deserve heaven, somebody that deserves nothing but the flames of hell for all of eternity.

[31:59] God took time and takes time to think about me. Praise God. And He does the same for you. Why?

[32:10] Because I'm no longer a servant. I'm a son. I'm a son. But a son, and if a son, then an error of God through Jesus Christ.

[32:20] If we're in error through Jesus Christ, folks, we stand to inherit it all. But we can enjoy the new heritage that we have in Jesus Christ.

[32:33] We can enjoy the new life that we have in Jesus Christ right now. We can enjoy that right now. And I say, when the things of the world are coming against us, when the finances seem bleak, when broken bones happen, when disease happens, and all these other things happen, folks, we can still say, I'm a child of the Most High God.

[32:55] I'm a child of the King of Kings and the Lord of Hords, and He will take care of me. I can cry out, but Father, and I know that He will hear me because I am His Son.

[33:06] And the Father hears the Son. But not only does the Father hear the Son, but the Father will act on behalf of the Son's petitions. If we come to God with thanksgiving in our hearts, and we come to God, and we pour our hearts out to Him, and let Him know what's ailing us, let Him know what's on our mind, and what's on our hearts, not because He doesn't know, but because He wants to hear from His children.

[33:31] But if we do this, God, I'm persuaded, will answer us. Hallelujah, in His own time, and in His own way, God will hear His children, and He will answer.

[33:44] We are no longer servants. We are sons. We no longer serfs, and we're no longer a slave to sin. We're no longer bound for hell, folks. That gives us enough reason to shout.

[33:55] We're no longer going to hell. Everything that comes against me, every time I get sick, every time something comes up, something to the negative comes up.

[34:07] I can say, yes, this is going on in my life, and that's going on in my life, and I might be having a hard time right now with this or with that, but praise God, I'm still not going to hell thanks to the blood of Jesus Christ.

[34:21] Hallelujah, and that's only because I'm no longer a servant, but I'm a son, and I'm an heir to God through Jesus Christ, just as the rest of you.

[34:32] If you're here saved or an heir to God through Jesus Christ, let us not forget that it is through Jesus Christ we are made heirs. It is not of our own works, not of our own merits, and not because we're good boys or good girls.

[34:46] It is because Jesus Christ came and kept the law and gave His life a perfect sacrifice that you and I could have life. God bless you all. That's the message for the team.