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We're going to celebrate together
the Lord's Table today. Next month, we will not be having
the Lord's Table on Sunday morning, the first Sunday in September.
We're going to be doing something dramatically different than what
we normally do. Many of you were not here the
last time we did this because of when it happened which is
when a lot of you are away from us in the winter months. And
so in September a fellow who's become a great friend of ours
named Dr. David Sadaka will be with us. He's with Chosen People's Ministries
and he just got back from the Middle East and he'll be bringing
several messages to us while he's with us. But on Saturday
night, the 8th, so I want you to all write that down in your
calendar and thinking on Saturday night, September the 8th, he'll
be with us that evening doing Christ in the Passover. So we'll
be doing a full celebration of the Passover on that Saturday
evening. And then Sunday morning, he'll be teaching the word And
then Sunday evening will be a special night. He's going to be talking
to us out of a lot of the experiences that he's had over the last six
months a year in the Middle East and how a lot of what's going
on in the Arab Spring and all these different things that are
in great turmoil today are related to the nation of Israel and also
in the Scripture. It's going to be a great weekend.
So we want to really encourage you to partake in that on the
8th, which is a Saturday night, And we'll probably be starting
at about 6. I think not a lot of us are working
on Saturdays, and so we can get down here. We'll have about two
hours, and we'll be done about at 8. And you'll be able to go
home, get some rest, and come right back on Sunday morning.
So I want to encourage you. We've got some exciting things
coming. It's going to be a great weekend. And then in October,
at the end of October, we're going to have a three-day conference
with Answers in Genesis. That's going to be with us. And
we're looking forward to that as well. Galatians 4, we're looking
at verses 4-10 this morning. As we begin, as you're turning
there, when the time comes on the 8th, we will need a small
team of people to help prepare for that meal on Saturday afternoon.
If you would like to help with that preparation, would you talk
to my wife? And we're putting together a small team. Now, I
have a proposition for somebody. Somebody needs to bring Chick-fil-A
to Star Valley. Amen? I like beef, but I'll eat
chicken. Amen? Let's pray for them. They're
going through some hard times. Let's pray for them. Let's go
to the Lord in a word of prayer, and then we're going to look
in Galatians 4. Father, we come before Your Word. We thank You
for the opportunity to have sung truth. Lord, not just fluff,
but truth. Truth that ministered deep into
our hearts. And Father, I pray that we would
Come together now into Your Word and into Your presence in Your
Word as a prepared people. Father, may Your Spirit move
amongst us as we look in Your Word at who You are, blessed
Holy Spirit, and how You minister. And Father, may You send Your
Spirit forth to refine us, to relate to us. Father, may You find in us hearts
that are willing to yield. Father, may we not be like Your
people in the Old Testament who were a stubborn, stiff-necked
people who always resisted Your Word and Your Spirit. Father,
may You find in us a heart that is moldable like clay in the
hand of the potter. Minister in our midst today,
we pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Look with me at the text, Galatians
chapter 4. We're going to begin reading
in verse 4. 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. But
then indeed, when you did not know God, you served those which
by nature are not God's. But now, after you have known
God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again
to the weak and the beggarly elements to which you desire
again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
seasons and years, and I am afraid for you." The title of the message for
the third time is, Don't Go Back to Kindergarten, because this
is exactly the idea of what Paul is talking to the churches in
Galatia about when he says in verse 9, how is it that you turn
again to those weak and those beggarly elements to which you
desire again to be in bondage. And we are doing this contrast
between a spirit of bondage and a spirit of liberty, a spirit
of bondage to fear, as it says in Romans chapter eight, which
is characterized by these elemental principles of the law and natural
religion that we are talking about versus the spirit of liberty,
which, as it says in Romans chapter eight, is a spirit of assurance. and a spirit of confidence in
contrast with the spirit of fear. Now, when we looked at bondage,
and we've looked at this concept of bondage, and we're going to
finish these verses next week when we really delve into verse
8-10. These weak and beggarly elements. These elemental principles on
which natural religion are built. And even revealed religion tends
to degenerate into. These principles of liturgy versus
living relationship. These principles of ritualism,
as Paul develops that in Colossians chapter 2. These elemental principles
of natural religion. The religion that is natural
to the human heart. In our fallen state, there is
a default religion that we turn to. And it always turns to idolatry
and idolatrous practices. And then as a conjunction of
that, there is the principles of ritualism. And that's what
he brings out in verse 10. You observe days and months and
seasons and years. He's not saying there it's wrong
for a Christian to observe Christmas. or Passover. He's not saying
it's wrong to do this. He's saying if you are looking
at your relationship with God through the lens of ritualism,
that is in the keeping of those rituals legalistically, that
you can establish a relationship with God. He says you are bound
in natural religion, whether you are a Jew living under the
Old Testament system, or whether or not you are a barbarian or
a pagan living under the mystery religions of Rome. That's irrelevant,
because even revealed religion can degenerate into mere ritualism. This is true of the natural religions
of the world, isn't it? I was listening to NPR coming in one
Sunday morning, one day in the week. And they were talking about
the Olympics. And, of course, we're in Ramadan. So, what do
the Islamic athletes do and how do they deal with Ramadan during
the Olympics? And there's this big struggle
going on in the life of these people about how to deal with
the month of a fast and not offend Allah. And so we degenerate into
principles of religion and ritualism. There's a little phrase I put
in on italics. You may not be able to read it. It's the phrase
ex operae operata. This sums up well the mindset
of ritualism. This is a Latin phrase which
basically means out of the operation of the operation. And I like
to illustrate this. This is the undergirding philosophy
of natural religion in ritualism. It says that out of the doing
of the operation The operation operates on you. If I can just
get somebody into the waters of baptism, then that ritual
will operate from the power of the ritual upon their heart.
I like to think of it, I illustrate it this way a lot of times, the
power of an aspirin. The power of an aspirin is within
an aspirin. You don't have to believe in an aspirin. If you're
sick and you're a little child and your mommy comes to you and
says, Johnny, I know you're sick, here's an aspirin, take it. It's
irrelevant whether or not you have any personal faith in the
aspirant. Because the power is within the
aspirant. You just take it. Is that the
way religion works? Is the power within the ritual?
No, my friend. That's getting the cart before
the horse. The power of God is in the gospel, and the gospel
unleashes the power of God in the human heart. And then we
go through the sacraments, the ordinances. We are baptized in
obedience. But it is not in order to gain
the favor of God. It is because we know we are
in the favor of God. And there is a huge contrast
between the principles of religion in ritualism and the principles
of relationship with Christ. We're talking about the spirit
of liberty. In Romans 8, verse 21, there's
this phrase, the glorious liberty of the children of God. My friend,
if you're a Christian, if you're born again saint, you know the
Lord Jesus Christ. There is a tremendous liberty
that is yours in Christ. Now to secure this liberty, notice,
Verse 4 and 5. We studied these verses last
week. To secure this liberty, this glorious liberty of the
children of God, God sent His Son into the world to redeem
us. And it happened at the fullness
of time. At just the right moment. The work of the Son was the work
of redemption. But secondly, and subsequently
to that, in verse 6 and 7, He uses this very same word, because
you are sons, God has sent forth. He not only sent forth His Son,
God also sent forth His Spirit. The Spirit of adoption. And it
is by Him we cry out, Abba Father. And so God sent His Spirit into
our hearts to secure a relationship with us. And this is really the
truth you see as he begins to develop this in verse 8 and 9
when he talks about knowing God. In John 17, by the way, if I
asked you, what does it mean to know God? What does it mean
to have eternal life? Excuse me, I got that one backwards.
What does it mean to have eternal life? To have eternal life, it
says in John 17, to have eternal life is to know God. to have
a relationship with Him. And so God sent forth the Spirit
of His Son into our hearts to secure a relationship with us. This is the Spirit's work. He is sent forth from God. This stresses the initiative
of God. God sent the Spirit. God sent
His Son. God so loved the world, He gave
His one and only Son. God so loved the world, He sent
His one and only Spirit. to live within our hearts, to
have a relationship with us. And so, He has sent forth His
Son. Now, in this passage in Galatians 4, the stress is on
the initiative of God. It is God who sent the Son. In
Romans chapter 8, very same type of quote, but in Romans chapter
8, He says we receive a spirit of adoption. by which we cry
out, Abba, Father. God sent forth the Spirit, but
we receive it. There, the emphasis is on the
reception of the human heart. God sent His Spirit, but we must
receive Him, as many as received Him. To them He gave the power
to become the children of God. To those who believe in His name.
So the Son's work, the work of God the Son, is to redeem us. The work of the Spirit is to
have a relationship through us with the Godhead. In John chapter 14, 17 and 18,
Jesus is talking with His disciples in the upper room shortly before
His death. And He says, it is to your advantage that I go away.
Because if I go away, it will send My Spirit. And He says,
I will not leave you as orphans. I'm not going to leave you. I'm
not going to abandon you. I will not leave you as orphans. I will
send my Spirit. He will live within your hearts. And so, by God's Spirit, we come
to know God. We come to have a relationship
with God. It is the Spirit of God who takes
the work of Christ and applies it to the human heart. Apart
from the Spirit of God working in any given situation, nothing
happens. The change happens in the human
heart in answer to the movement of the Spirit of God. Now, why? Why is this important? Why was
it important that God sent His Spirit? This is why. Because
left to ourselves, none of us would choose Christ. It tells
us in Romans 8, verse 7, the carnal mind, that is the fleshly
mind, that is the mind who does not know God, the carnal mind
is enmity against God. In our natural state, we are
the enemies of God, and in truth, we hate God. When Martin Luther
was struggling with God in the monastery, he came to terms with
this reality when he spoke truth to himself and he finally admitted,
he says, I do not love God, I hate Him. And when he finally spoke
that truth and he confessed what was true about himself, God began
the work of redemption. But he had to come to that place
where he realized, in myself, I am the enemy of God before
I know Christ. He says the carnal mind is enmity
against God. It is not subject to the law of God. The natural
mind hates the Ten Commandments, doesn't it? That's why a society
that is deviating far from what pleases God doesn't want to see
it in a courtroom. Because it is not subject to
the law of God, it cannot be, and it hates the law of God.
So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. That is why God had to send His
Spirit. Because the natural man does not receive the things of
God, the things of the Spirit of God. It is foolishness to
him. He cannot know them. They are spiritually discerned.
And it takes the work of the Spirit in the life of an individual
to change the human heart. Now I want us to look at three
realities in this verse, briefly this morning, in verse 6. Let's
focus our attention on verse 6. Because you are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying
out. The Spirit is crying out within
the heart of the believer. Abba, Father. Now let's look
at three things. First of all, we're going to
talk about the Spirit's designation. How is He designated? Now, in
other places in Scripture, He's called the Holy Ghost. Sometimes
He's called the Holy Spirit. Here He is the Spirit of the
Son. The Spirit of the Son of God. This is His designation
in the text. We'll talk about that in a minute. We're also
going to talk about the Spirit's destination. Where does He go?
He is sent from the Father to the heart. To the heart. Thirdly, we're going to look
at the Spirit's demonstration. How is the Spirit demonstrating
His work in our life? He is crying out within us, Abba
Father. So let's look at those three
things briefly this morning. The Spirit's designation. The
Spirit's destination and the Spirit's demonstration. We're
not going to take a lot of time with the Spirit's designation. He is called the Spirit of the
Son. It's interesting, if we took
the time and went to John 17, this is one of the things that
Jesus prayed specifically for. That was that the believer in
Christ would receive that same Spirit of Sonship. That we might
be one, not only with each other, but with God. The Spirit's designation
is the Spirit of the Son. Now, what is interesting is the
Spirit of God always testifies unto Christ. This is the work
of the Spirit. He does not draw attention to
Himself. He draws attention to the Son. He is always pointing
to Jesus Christ. When the Spirit has come, He
will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment,
pointing unto Christ that the heart might be changed. Secondly,
notice the Spirit destination. He is destined to the heart. Now, let's think about the heart
for a minute. We talk about heart disease. We talk about heart
health. We talk about all these different
things in our culture, but these all relate to a physical organ, don't
they? When the Scripture uses this word heart, He is not talking
about a physical organ within your body. He is talking about
the core, the heart of who you are. It is a word which in Scripture
combines the thinking of our mind, our will, our emotions,
and all of those things are combined into this word, the heart. Now,
the Bible says of our heart in Jeremiah 17, the heart is deceitful
above all things. It's desperately wicked. Who
can know? That's the heart of the man.
And that is why God sent His Spirit into our hearts to work
upon us, to refine us, to apply redemption to us, to reconcile
us unto God. And so the Spirit comes to the
heart. There's a contrast in 2 Corinthians chapter 3 between
the law, which was written on tablets of stone, and in grace,
the Spirit of God writing Himself upon the tablet of the heart,
the tablet of flesh. To summarize then, he gets to
the end of that in 2 Corinthians 3, and he says where the Spirit
of the Lord is, there's liberty. He sets us at freedom. He sets
us free. And so, even in the book of Jeremiah,
in the Old Testament, there was a prophecy that when the new
covenant came, the new covenant would be written upon the hearts
of people. And so the Spirit is destined
to the heart. Now let's look at the Spirit's
demonstration. And then we'll make some application,
and then we'll close. Now, let's look first of all
at what the Spirit does. You know, one of the things that's
true, whenever someone becomes a Christian, certain things happen. What are those kind of things
that happen in the heart of a person who is truly born again? It was
interesting, in Sunday School I was listening to Dean. He was
talking about a young person that went to camp. And this young
person received Christ. And he said, there was immediately,
we saw a change. What was one of the things that
Dean mentioned that he said was a change? All of a sudden this
young person wants to pray. Why? Because prayer is no longer
ritual, it is now relationship. It is a conversation with God.
And that is immediate from the Spirit, it tells us in the text.
You know another thing that happens to someone when they're born
again? They won't tell somebody. Why is that? Because the Spirit
is witnessing through them. You see, whenever we're changed,
whenever that happens, you know, we may not know everything about
Christianity when we become a Christian. We don't know all the deep things
of the truth of God. But all of a sudden there is this person
living within us, the Spirit of God, who is yearning within
us, wanting us to relate to God in prayer and to share what He
has done in us with others. That is a fruit. of conversion. He demonstrates His presence
within us. His action is to cry out. Notice that. He cries out within
us. He cries out, Abba Father. We'll
look at those words in just a minute. But first of all, let's think
about this action of crying out. In Romans chapter 8, He uses
a different word. He says the Spirit groans. He groans within us with groans
that are too deep for words. These emotions, these realities
concerning the experiential understanding of what God has done for us is
yearning within us to express our worship and our praise to
God. And so, that is the Spirit who is crying out. This is a
Word which conveys deep emotion. He cries out. It is a Word which
conveys fervency. You know, it's easy to get really
apathetic in our Christian walk. The Spirit would shatter that
in our life and cause us to cry out in fervency, in deep emotion. You know, in James 5, we're told
there that the wages of those who were kept back by fraud cry
out to God on behalf of the poor. Cries out. In Genesis chapter
4, we're told that the blood of Abel cried out to God for
satisfaction, for vengeance. In Revelation chapter 6, we are
told that the martyrs who are under the throne of God cry out
to God. How long, O Lord, until you return? They cry out. This is what happens
in the heart of a person who is born again when that spirit
of adoption takes hold upon them. There is a yearning, a crying
out to God. Jesus is a great illustration
of this in the garden. When in the garden, in great
fervency, He prays and He says, Abba, Father, if there is any
way for this cup to depart from Me, let it depart, but not My
will be done, Yours. And He prays in great fervency.
He cries out to the Father. He sweats, as it were, great
drops of blood. Now, what is the Spirit crying
out? He is crying out two words. Abba,
Father. I'm really behind the times.
I googled Abba to look up some things in a great dictionary.
I found out it's also a rock group. I didn't know that. Okay. I guess I'm
behind the times. Abba. Father. I don't even know
when that rock group was. Maybe I'm way behind the times.
Is that a 60's group? Or maybe that's why I didn't
know of it. 70's and 80's. Abba Father. Why these two words? Why these two words in the text?
Let's look at them. This is what the Spirit cries
out. He is sent forth into our heart, the Spirit of the Son
is crying out, Abba, Father." Now, that word is used in different
places in the Scripture, the word Abba. Father, pater, is
used routinely. But Abba is used in two other
places. It's used in Romans chapter 8, where we receive a spirit
of adoption who cries out within us, Abba, Father. It's also used
in Mark's gospel, chapter 14, when Christ is praying in the
garden. And Christ prays Father, let this cup depart. So, there's
three times where this actual word is used in the Scripture.
Now, let's just look at two things that are true of these words.
The first word, Abba, is an Aramaic term. Aramaic is a language that
was spoken in Jesus' day. It has a Semitic root. So, it's
very similar to Hebrew. It is also what we would call
a transliteration. A transliteration. He doesn't
translate the word. He gives us the Aramaic word.
Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. Same thing. A transliteration
of what Christ said on the cross. You know, my God, my God, why
have you forsaken me? Transliteration. That's different than a translation,
isn't it? Translation is when you take a word in a mother tongue
and you put it into a word that we can understand. He doesn't
do that here. He gives us a transliteration. Abba. becomes a new word in our
language, the English language. It is an Aramaic term. Now, like
I said, it's a Semitic word. In the Hebrew language, the word
Ab, A-B, means father. That's why when you sing Father
Abraham, A-B at the beginning of Abraham, literally means father.
We're literally singing truth. He is our father, Father Abraham,
the father of the faithful. The word Ab, A-B in the Hebrew
means, or Ab means father. Now, when we look at the Greek,
on the other side we have this Greek word pater, you can hear
the word papa. Father, you can even hear in
that word. This is a translation. Now the question that we ask
immediately is, why does it give us the two words, Abba, Father,
transliterating one and translating the other? What is the purpose
here? What is the Holy Spirit seeking to convey to us? Is Abba
giving us an additional meaning to Father? Or is it intensifying
it? Or is it acting synonymously
with it? What is the purpose that God
has in this? Why the two words? Now, first
of all, we would say, we've all heard this before, the word Abba
is a word of relationship. It is a word that stresses that.
It actually is a lot like, in the original language, a childish
word that children would use when speaking to their parents.
So, maybe we would use I remember when, I probably shouldn't embarrass
my kids, their grandmother, when the kids were real little, said,
just call us Gaga. Because that was an easy word,
right? Gaga. Now, to everybody else in the
world, that sounds like gibberish, doesn't it? It sounds like silliness.
But if you're the grandma and the little kike uses the word
Gaga, that's relationship. Papa, Nana. Same type words in
our language today to convey that thought of intimate relationship. Father, on the other hand, is
a word that is used a little bit more broadly. But here's
another reason I think he does this. Look at the context. Look
at Galatians 3, verse 28. Martin Lloyd-Jones, I owe a debt
to him in his commentary for this thought. Verse 28, there
is neither Jew nor Greek. You know what? It doesn't matter
what language you speak. It doesn't matter if you're a
Jew and you speak Aramaic. It doesn't matter if you're a Greek.
That's what you speak. It doesn't matter if you come
from Indonesia and you have some other word. It doesn't matter
what that word is. The same relationship applies.
He is the God of all who receive Christ. He is the Father of all
who come to Christ. Jew and Greek united in adoption
into one family. That's a tremendous truth. That
we become one in Christ. And different people may convey
that differently, linguistically. That's irrelevant. The Spirit
takes groanings that are too deep for words, and He prays
within the will of God, and those prayers are sweet to the Father.
And it's because of the Spirit who is crying out within us.
Now, let's just make some applications, and then we'll close. Three main
applications. First thing I would say is this. God is a person,
not a force. He is a person. Now, He is greater than us. He
made us. But He is a person. It's not,
may the force be with you. It is, may the God of eternity,
the God who loves you, be with you. Have a relationship with
Him. God is a person, not just a force. We can grieve Him. We can quench
Him. We can receive Him. We can welcome Him. But you are
either developing a relationship with Almighty God, or you are
spurning His love. It is one of the two. And He
is a person to whom you will give an account. God is a person,
not a force. Secondly, I speak to God in prayer
in the context of family relationship. It is family. Behold what manner
of love the Father has bestowed on us that we could be called
the children of God. And such we are. It is a family
relationship. You know, many of you are parents
and you have your own children. Now you know other kids. Other
kids relate to you. But they don't relate to you
the same way your kids relate to you. Right? It's different. That's what he's getting at here.
God made everybody. Everybody on the planet. But
there are certain people who God knows more intimately. Who
God has a family relationship with. And those are the people
who have come through the gate of redemption to know him through
Jesus Christ. And so, I speak to God in the
context of family relationship. We pray to Him, and this is the
Spirit who cries out within us, and we find this yearning within
us to pray to Him and to say to Him, Our Father who art in
heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be
done. We don't just pray to God, we pray to our Father. There
was a family relationship. And the third thing there that
I would just draw your attention to is this. I can rest in God
with the confidence of fatherly protection and provision. He
meets my needs. He'll meet your needs. He cares
for us. He ministers to us all through
life. He does so by his blessed Holy Spirit. The Spirit lives
within us. The Spirit produces within us
an assurance of sonship salvation. That is the work of the Spirit. Are you resting in God? Are you
resting in Christ? When we traveled, I'll close
with this little illustration, to South Carolina to do a wedding
earlier this summer. I don't like to fly. I'll just
be honest, I'm a chicken. I'd rather keep my feet on the
ground. I don't like getting up in those big airlines, flying
across the country. You know what? Once you're up
in an airline, you're out of control, aren't you? It doesn't
matter. It doesn't matter how much turmoil is going on in my
life. It doesn't matter how much I'm looking out at the wing,
trying to make it stay on there. You know, when they change the
things, you know, making sure it worked. I can't fly the plane
for the pilot. I'm along for the ride. Now I
can either rest and relax and enjoy it, or I can fuss and fume
and worry inside until I get my feet back on the ground. The
choice is mine, but I can't change the outcome. You know the same
is true of us. You can either fuss and fret
and fume and worry about things and try to carry the burden and
try to fly the plane yourself, or you can rest and relax in
Christ. But the choice is ours. Let's close with a word of prayer.
Father, we thank You for the great opportunity that You have
given us in Your Spirit to know You. Father, I pray that You would
forgive us for many times seeking to manipulate our lives by ourselves
and not to rest in Your Spirit. Father, may we learn to walk
in Christ and to trust in Him. Father, I pray that if there's
someone here today who never has received Christ as Lord and
Savior, that your spirit would minister to them in a way that
they would trust in Him and Him alone, that that redemption might
become theirs. May they believe and trust in
Christ. For those of us that know you, may we yield our hearts
to you, your spirit, in a way that allows your power to flow
through us in a broken and a needy world. As we close with this song, you
may know this song. It's a simple song, Spirit of
the Living God, Fall Fresh on Me. You may not know it. But
as we sing it, let's sing it contemplatively today. Let's
sing it as a prayer, asking that God's Holy Spirit not only would
fill us, but He would use us. That He would mold us into what
He wants us to be. Would you join with me in singing
this as we stand together and as we close?
Don't Go Back to Kindergarten Part three
Series Galatians
| Sermon ID | 8512173332 |
| Duration | 35:04 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Galatians 4:4-10 |
| Language | English |
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