Raise you up from the evil's wings, bear you on the breadth of dawn, make you to shine like the sun. What's up, everybody? Chester A.R.P. Church Devotional Podcast. So glad you're here. My name's Clint Davis. I'm your host. We are thankful that we're able to read the Bible together, discuss it. Thanks for being with us. Share it with someone if you'd like for them to join us as well. We're reading Galatians chapter four this morning. Galatians chapter four, we're gonna begin in verse one and work our way through verse six or seven this morning. So here's what we have. I mean that the heir, Paul says, as long as he is a child is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything. But he is under the guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. so that we might receive adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then heir through God." This passage of scripture here at the beginning of chapter 4 in Galatians is a little bit challenging to me admittedly. At the conclusion of chapter 3 Paul says that we are one in Christ and there's neither slave nor free nor Jew nor Greek nor male nor female for all one in Christ we are Abraham's offspring by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ heirs of God in accordance with the promise. Then Paul starts beginning of chapter 1, beginning of chapter 4, remember keeping in mind the idea that throughout the book of Galatians he is writing about the importance of maintaining our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, not reverting, as it were, for the Jewish Christians in particular, or the Jewish Christians pulling the Gentiles into their trap, of reverting back to adherence to the law as it is prescribed in the Old Testament. He says, first, it is something that if you adhere a portion to a portion of the law, you must adhere to the whole thing. You must do so perfectly, and that will ultimately bring death to you, because you are unable to find life in the law. The law can't save you, but you've been saved by grace through faith. It's always been that way, and it always will be that way. God has a people. So he says, keeping that in mind, as a child, an heir is no different than a slave. In other words, the idea is an heir as a child, an heir to the father's fortune. But as a child, the heir, though possessor of everything one day, is no different than the slave in the short term and the immediate. Because the slave and the child, neither one necessarily have the rights, and they're not possessors of any property. The father still owns the property. We had this conversation the other day at my house. We were playing basketball in the driveway and Joshua had some friends over and so we were playing and I grabbed one of them and threw him out of the way and stole the ball from him. And he said to me, he said, you can't do that. It's a foul. And I said, yes, I can. And he said, no, you can't. And I said, yes, I can. I said, this is house rules and I own the house. So then Joshua tried to do something where he picked the ball up and ran with it. And I said, you can't do that. He said, it's house rules. I own the house. I said, no, you don't. He said, yes, I do. I said, when? No, you don't. He said, yes, I do. I said, then you write the mortgage check next month. So the idea here that yeah, Joshua will be an inheritor, one of the three inheritors of our estate one day, Lord willing, but right now he doesn't own anything. We own it all. And so the same kind of thing here, what Paul is saying is that in that sense, this child, though an heir, is like a slave and not known anything. They're under guardians, they're under managers until the date set by the father. In other words, at a certain date, it becomes theirs. But until then, they are going to be under guardians and managers. We also have a will, and if something, heaven forbid, were to happen to both Patty and me, All of our children would have guardians who would then have access to the estate and be able to use the funds in the estate to meet the needs of the children, but the children won't become actually those who could possess the estate until a certain time later in their lives. And so we understand that concept. So Paul says that's the way it was, but while we were children, We were enslaved spiritually to elementary principles of the world. In the context of Paul writing to the church in Galatia, he's saying to the Jews, you were enslaved to the law, to the legalistic practice of the Mosaic law. To the Gentiles, you are enslaved to the pagan expressions of religion in your culture. But in the fullness of time, when that moment came that Jesus should come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Jesus was fully human, born of a woman. He was born under the law. He was born into a Jewish family under the law. He was born to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And so He came to offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice, living in perfect obedience to the law, and offer Himself as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. At the perfect time, God sent forth the Son to do that, so that we might receive adoption as sons and daughters into the family of God. And He says, now you are sons and daughters of God. God has sent the Son of the Spirit of the Son crying in your heart, Abba Father. How do we cry out to God through the ministry of God's Spirit, the Spirit of His Son, into our hearts? We receive that because we are sons, because Jesus made us His children. Jesus made us sons and daughters, co-heirs with Him in the Kingdom of God. We are sons and daughters by virtue of the fact that Jesus made us sons and daughters. He sent the Spirit into our lives. We are no longer slaves to the elementary principles of the world. Rather, we are possessors of the kingdom of God. We are sons and daughters and heirs of the kingdom of God." That is an incredible statement that Paul makes here. He says to the church in Galatia, why would you give that up? The whole point of the argument is why are you giving that up? Don't revert back. Rather, live in the freedom that comes to you as sons and daughters of the Lord Jesus Christ by faith in Christ. cry out to him by the testimony of his spirit and be a possessor of the kingdom of God both now and to eternity. That's a wonderful, wonderful thing and a great hope for us today. You guys have a great day. God bless you. Catch you next time.