Thank you, Mark, again, and Diane for leading us. Good morning to everyone. Beautiful day, sunshine this morning, so one of those days, those few days of the year we can really enjoy. 

We are working our way through the Book of Galatians, and we've come to Chapter 4. We just worked through Chapter 3 and Paul's instruction to us about the promise through Abraham and the fact that we are no longer under the law. And in Chapter 4, Paul begins to tell us about being sons of God and how it is that we become sons of God. 

So we often hear in our world about how we are all God's children, or we are all sons of God. We are the world, right? We are the children, those kinds of things. And I remember several years ago, I was on a fishing trip with my brothers and nephews, and I'd been trying to witness to one of my brothers. And we were down in the boathouse getting ready to go fishing, and his son had put on one of these fishing, I don't know, hoods. I hadn't seen one of those at the time. And I said, you look like a Muslim. And my brother said, it doesn't matter. We are all children of God. 

Well, this is a common thinking in our world, but this is not what the Bible says. In fact, in John 8, 44, Jesus is talking to the religious leaders of his day, and he says to them, you are of your father, the devil, and his works you wish to do. All men born in Adam, born sons of Satan, are not children of God. And in fact, the Bible is quite clear that one must become a child of God, as Mark was talking about this morning, must be born again, must be adopted into God's family to become a child of God, an heir, a co-heir with Christ. 

In John 1, 10, John writes, he was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Those who receive Jesus, that is, those who believe in his name, to these God gives the right to become children of God. They were not children by birth, physical birth into the world. They become children by spiritual rebirth through faith in Jesus Christ. 

The Jews thought that they were children of God because they were physical descendants of Abraham, and thus were children of the promise. And that's what Paul addressed in chapter 3, explaining that being a physical descendant of Abraham and possessing the law of God did not make you righteous, did not make you a child of God, could not save you. But rather, salvation can only come by faith, as was true for Abraham himself. Genesis 15.6, he believed God, and it was credited to him for righteousness. 

In Galatians 3.21, Paul said, is the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not, for if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. But the scripture has confined all under sin that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor. 

And then verse 26, he says, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. So who are the sons of God, the children of God in this world? The ones who believe Jesus and Jesus alone, who put their faith in his one-time death, burial, and resurrection from the dead to have accomplished our salvation, taking the wrath of God that we deserved as a substitute in our place for our sins. 

My friends, it's Jesus plus nothing. The one who believes on his name is an heir, a son in the fullest sense. Before faith came, he says, we were kept under guard by the law. We were as slaves, not sons, held, kept, guided by the law until the fullness of time when God sent his son. And for those who believe him, they become heirs. They are adopted into the family of God and are co-heirs with Christ. No longer under the elements of this world, Paul says, the law, religion, rites, rituals, no longer a slave or a child, but a son, possessing all things, every spiritual blessing in Christ. 

So the question that Paul will pose to us this morning is this, why then would you go back to the law, to religion, to ritual? Why go back to bondage when you are free as a son and an heir of Christ? And this was the question for the Galatians who were going back to the law as a rule of life who were being bewitched by the false message of the Judaizers. Paul encourages them with this great truth. He says, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ Jesus. 

Let's look at our text Galatians four at verse one. Paul writes, now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 

I've given you five points on your outline this morning. First, sons and heirs. Second, weak and beggarly elements. Third, fullness of time. Fourth, adoption as sons. And fifth, heirs of God. 

Well, first in our text, we see Paul set up an analogy as he continues to describe the condition of the man who places himself under the law. He speaks of sons and heirs, and he uses several technical terms here to set up this analogy.

Verse one, he says, now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. He's drawing an analogy between the one who places himself under the law and the child who lives as a slave, even though he is an heir. The word child is nepios, meaning one who is immature, literally one who does not speak. So Paul pictures an heir, one who shall inherit the wealth and power of his father, but who, as a child, lives just as a slave. 

He's kept under tutors or guardians and governors or stewards. And these two words are very specific. The tutor was the guardian of the child's person and the governor, the guardian of the child's property. The child had no decision-making power, no access to all that would eventually be his as the heir. He was kept, he was watched over, he was guided and taught, disciplined, just as one under the law in a spiritual sense. And the key phrase here is this, until the appointed time of the father. 

Now this was common to all the cultures of Paul's time. There was a designated time and age set by the father when the child, the nepios, the immature one, became an heir, a man, came into the full benefit of his sonship. In the Jewish culture, this is bar mitzvah, which means son of the law. A bar mitzvah is a coming of age ritual in Judaism. According to the Jewish law, before children reach a certain age, 12, 13 years old, the parents are responsible for their child's actions. And once Jewish children reach that age, they are said to become benign mitzvah, at which point they begin to be held accountable for their own actions. 

And traditionally, the father of a bar mitzvah offers thanks to God that he is no longer punished for his child's sins. I'd like to know when that age is for my daughters. It's a coming of age. It's a rite of passage. It literally means son of the law. They are placing themselves under the law in the bar mitzvah. There were similar rites and passages to manhood, to sonship in the Roman and Greek cultures as well. 

But the analogy is of an immature child being held under bondage of the guardians and stewards, unable to experience the fullness of blessing as a son and heir until the appointed time of the father. Notice the words at the beginning of verse three. He says, even so we. In the same way, here's the analogy. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. 

Before faith came, before our new birth, our adoption as sons, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. What does this phrase mean, the elements of the world? The word elements here refers to first principles or those in sequence, and the world is cosmos. The idea in the context is that which we were held in bondage under before we came to faith in Christ and refers to our human system of religion or righteousness. For the Jew, this would be the law of Moses, as Paul has been emphasizing. For the Gentiles, this would be their ritualistic pagan religions with all the ceremonies included in them. 

We were under, he says, and this is a word that we've seen a lot, if you've noticed, in Galatians 3 and now in 4, this word under. We were under the law, under a curse, under sin, under guard, under a tutor. In chapter four, we were under guardians, under the elemental principles of the world, under the law. It's the word hupo, and it speaks of an inferior position. Similarly, Paul says we were in bondage to the law. So in Adam, before faith in Christ, we were in bondage to the law, to religion, to self-righteousness, to sin. 

I wanna just illustrate this by looking in Romans chapter seven. If you'd turn over to Romans 7 at verse 14 with me. Romans 7, 14. It says, for we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under, or you could translate that a slave, sold under sin, or a slave to sin. If you look down to verse 23, he says, I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. He's describing his condition. 

And these verses describe the man in Romans 7, 5, the condition that Paul describes in our text under the elements of the world. Romans 7, 5 says, for when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit to death. So here's a guy who has, he's in bondage to the law, he has indwelling sin, sinful passions in him, aroused by the law, and it's causing him to continually produce fruit unto death out through his members. He's in captivity to the law of sin. He's a slave to sin. He's sold under sin. 

But look at Romans 8, 2. He says, those who are in Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation in verse one. For, why is there no condemnation? For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, look at these words, has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, given that it was weak through the flesh, God did, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. 

This is the man in Romans 7, 6, the contrast. He says, but now, we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that, for the very purpose that, we should serve in the newness of the spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter, or the law. Jesus has delivered us from the bondage of the law. We were under, we were slaves to sin and law, and the fear of death in Adam before, but now, in Christ, we are under grace, unto righteousness and eternal life. We have been made free, we have been delivered from the power of indwelling sin, the bondage of the law.

And now, we live by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, by faith in the one who loved me, and gave himself for me, not by the letter, not by the law. We are no longer under bondage, we are no longer in captivity, to the law of sin and our members, or to any external law, as a rule of life. This is precisely what Paul is talking about, in verse four of our text. He says, but when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, why? To redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. He's our Father now. We are His sons, His children. We have this relationship with Him where we can come to Him boldly to the throne of grace to receive help in time of need, and we cry out, Daddy, Papa, Abba, Father. When the fullness of time had come, the analogy being the child becoming a man, the heir becoming a full son, this is an expression that indicates the exact right time and circumstances. 

Concerning Jesus, it's talking about the sovereign plan of God. When the time was right in every respect, God sent forth His Son to be born of woman, become a man, and die in our place for our sins, and rise again the third day, accomplishing our salvation and satisfying the wrath of God for our sins. Wiest comments that things were prepared for this time in the world as well. Alexander the Great had brought a common language to the world. Rome had built the roads. He says the Roman Empire maintained world peace. Roman roads made travel for missionaries easy. The universal use of the Greek language made the speedy propagation of the gospel possible. 

The earth stage was all set for the greatest event in the history of the human race, the incarnation, sacrificial death, and bodily resurrection of God the Son. God had prepared every detail. The law had done its work to show the sins of men. The prophets had predicted His coming in so many details. John the Baptist had prepared the way. All the things of the world were set, and when God deemed the time precisely right, He sent forth His Son to redeem us from the bondage that we were under, to save us from sins, to save us from the curse of the law, to deliver us from the bondage of the fear of death, and to convey us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, to make us His sons. 

God designed and implemented this plan of salvation. Only God could conceive of this. It's clear that men cannot, because they create all kinds of religions completely contrary to the gospel truth, where there's self-righteousness and religious ritual and sacraments and earning your way to heaven and keeping the law. Let's look at Romans 3 at verse 19. Romans 3, 19. This is a familiar passage, but so important. Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. 

Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law, isn't that such a key phrase right there, especially in respect to the book of Galatians? The righteousness of God apart from the law, apart from works, apart from anything I do, the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God, how? Through faith. Through faith in Jesus Christ. And who's it for? To all and on all who believe. 

For there's no difference, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation, that word means a full, satisfactory payment. Jesus said on the cross, it is finished, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness. 

You see, God is just and holy and He has to punish every sin, and it was at the cross that He punished every sin, that Jesus took that upon Himself. And that's the only way, verse 26 says, that God might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. He has to punish sin, and it's Jesus who took that punishment for me and for you. And therefore, God can remain just, punishing my sin on Christ, and He can justify me through faith in Jesus Christ. 

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him, salvation is by faith. Whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Verse 4 of our text, when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 

Jesus came as a man. He was born of a woman. Notice it says He was born under the law. The law covenant was in effect until the cross. Jesus was born and lived under the old covenant, and He fulfilled the law of God, fulfilled all righteousness, but when He died on the cross, He instituted the new covenant in His blood, as we see in Luke 22. The law covenant was made obsolete, done away with, in the coming of the new in Christ. 

Let's look at Hebrews 8. Hebrews 8 explains this clearly, quoting Jeremiah 31 and the promise of the new covenant, and he says in 8.1 of Hebrews, this is the main point of the things we are saying. This is what we're trying to teach you in the book of Hebrews. We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens, a minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected and not man. Jesus is ministering in heaven, for every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, therefore it is necessary that this one also have something to offer.

For if he were on earth, he would not be a priest, since there are priests who offer the gifts according to the law, who serve the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, as Moses was divinely instructed when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, see that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain. 

But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as he is also mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. Jesus is a better mediator, it's a better covenant than the new covenant, it's established on better promises than the old covenant. He says in 8.7, for if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second. 

Verse 8 is so interesting, he says, because finding fault with them. If there was no problem with the old covenant, God wouldn't have needed to bring a new one. But it's not the covenant's fault. You see? It says, finding fault with them, just like we read in Romans 8, the problem is the weakness of the flesh, the problem is indwelling sin dominating, he can't establish righteousness through the law because he can't keep it. 

So the law is holy and righteous and good, but finding fault with them, he says, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them, says the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. 

After those days, says the Lord, I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor and none his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me, from the last of them to the greatest, least of them to the greatest of them, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more." 

Well that's not like the Old Covenant, is it? Their sins and their lawless deeds, what did he say in the Old Covenant? If you disobey, I will curse you. And we've been through those profound cursings in Deuteronomy before. 

Verse 13, in that he says, a new covenant, he's made the first obsolete. That's a pretty clear statement, isn't it? When he brought the New Covenant, the Old Covenant, the Law Covenant, was made obsolete. Now what is becoming obsolete and growing old is ready to vanish away. 

Jesus instituted this new covenant in His blood, the great promise of Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, Jesus is the long-awaited Jewish Messiah. And through faith in Him, we are adopted as sons. Look at verse 4 of our text, again, in these profound truths. He says, when the fullness of the time had come, in God's perfect plan, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, to redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. 

And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father, therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. My friends, we were sons of Satan. We were in rebellion against God. We were breakers of His Law. We were under His wrath. We were, as Mark read in Ephesians 2 earlier, sons of disobedience, children of wrath. 

Colossians 3 says, because of these things, the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. But Colossians 3 also says that when we believed Jesus, we died. That old man was crucified. If you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. 

Set your mind on things above, not on the things of the earth, for you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Verse 9, he says, do not lie to one another since you have put off that old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him. 

We were slaves to sin and the law and to death, but now we are sons, and this through faith in Christ. Again, John 1.12, as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name. 

I just wanted you to look at Ephesians 1 with me also. This section really describes the exact things that Paul's talking about in Galatians 4. Ephesians 1.3, now just soak this in, these are truths about you if you believe Jesus. These are truths about who you are, what you have in Christ. 

Ephesians 1.3, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together and one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, which are on earth, in Him. 

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 

In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. 

What glorious truths, every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies. We have all in Christ, we are sons of God, we are co-heirs with Christ.

Can you believe that you are a co-heir with Christ? This is who we are, this is what we have in Christ, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God, for you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, Abba, Father. The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit. Did you know that your spirit, born again, recreated, is in agreement with the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children then heirs, heirs of God, and join heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together. 

We are sons, we are heirs, we are co-heirs with Christ. Now the question comes in light of these great, profound and amazing truths of who we are and what we have in Christ, why would we go back to the weak and beggarly elements, those elements of the world which we were under before, under the law, under the curse, under sin, under guardians and tutors, under bondage. Why would we go back? Look at verse 8 in Galatians 4, it'll be our text next time. Listen to Paul's words, but then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain. 

Brethren, I urge you to become like me, for I became like you. You have not injured me at all. You know that because of my physical infirmity, I preached the gospel to you at the first and my trial, which was in my flesh, you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. What then was the blessing you enjoyed? For I bear you witness that if possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. Have I therefore become your enemy? Because I tell you the truth. They zealously court you, but for no good. Yes, they want to exclude you, that you may be zealous for them, but it is good to be zealous in a good thing always, and not only when I am present with you. 

My little children, for whom I labor and birth again until Christ is formed in you, I would like to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I have doubts about you. Why go back to the law? Why go back to religion? My brothers and sisters in Christ, we must know who we are and what we have in Christ. We must constantly be renewing our minds to these truths and reckoning them to be so, and learning to live by God's grace through faith, abiding in Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit, who produces fruit through us for God's glory. 

We must constantly fight against the temptation, our tendency, to go back to some sort of works, law, religion. Those things which we were under before. And yet we see this all the time in the church today. A binding of the believer with the Mosaic Law is a rule of life. Christians encouraged to look to the law as a means of holiness, the Ten Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount as rules and standards to strive toward. Christians going back to religious ritual, experiential rites and pomp and circumstances, looking for some meaning, some means to find fulfillment. 

And Paul is screaming from the rooftops that all meaning, all fulfillment is found only in Jesus Christ. He is the explanation of our faith, of our lives. He is the means of our holiness, our fruit to the glory of God. He is the vine. We are the branches. We are to abide in Him and He promises that we will bear much fruit. Look with me at Paul's words in Colossians as we close this morning, Colossians 2 at verse 16. They were being brought under bondage as well, taken captive by hollow and deceptive philosophies, not according to Christ, but after the traditions of men, Colossians 2, 16. 

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ. Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God. 

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why as though living in the world do you subject yourselves to regulations, do not touch, do not taste, do not handle, which all concern things which perish with the using, according to the commandments and doctrines of men? These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion and false humility and neglect of the body, now look at this last phrase, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. They're of no value against sin. They have no value in bringing holiness. 

My brothers, my sisters in Christ, we need to learn to understand to believe what God says is true of us, who we are, what we have in Christ. We need to find fullness in Him alone, He is our all in all. Don't let anyone cheat you, take you captive, bewitch you with something other than Jesus. Jesus is all we have, but my friends, Jesus is all we need. We are now sons of God, let us therefore live as sons of God, as heirs of His full salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. Let us walk worthy of our calling, in equal weight with who we are, and that by the power of the Holy Spirit who imparts strength to our man, our inner man, and Jesus living in us and out through us. 

Let there be fruit in the church to the glory of God. Let us live for Him, but we can only do that by His power. Let's close in prayer. Father, we're so thankful that you keep teaching us. Just keep teaching us, you're so faithful, patient, long-suffering with us. Thank you for what you do in our lives, Lord, the witness opportunities that we have, the fruit that abounds by Jesus' life in us. Thank you that we can be your ambassadors, your servants, that we have the great privilege of living for you in this world.

Help us to understand our salvation, the salvation you have provided, that you designed, that you implemented, that you accomplished in us when we believe Jesus. 

Help us to understand who we are, what we have, and help us to look to you and depend on you one day at a time. 

In Jesus' name, amen.