Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / November 3, 2024 | Galatians - Children of the King

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November 3, 2024 | Galatians - Children of the King · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things I just mentioned about being people in God's kingdom ends up being the main focus of our passage this morning.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: As we have been going through the letter to the Galatians, Paul has been going very in-depth on what it means to trust in Him, to not rely upon the law for salvation, to see the new plan and the grace and the mercy that comes through Jesus Christ.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: And as we do that, there have been a couple questions that have been arising.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Last few weeks, we've said, okay, so what is the purpose of the law?
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: What role does it play now?
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because its main duty is kind of finished.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: And as we move on, Paul has been drawing out this new idea, which he says, we are no longer under that law.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's been referred to as a curse, as a guardian, as a prison.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's something in the past.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even though it still has a role today, it no longer condemns or curses the way it did before.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because we have Christ now.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if we are in Christ, with Christ, to Christ, you're going to see Paul uses that language a lot.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: This new thing comes about, which is that we are adopted into God's kingdom.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: We are sons and daughters of a righteous and gloried king.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And that is not just like a new title that we get.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not sort of the abbreviations on the end of a job sort of certification that we are just, you know, children of God.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: But rather it brings a new reality to our lives.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: It means something tangible for us, like you being a son or daughter of the Lord is something that cannot be said for people who do not trust in Christ.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And it is something that should affect your life and your relationship with God just in the way that you think about it.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Because God has given you a gift, and salvation is certainly enough, but it is even more than that.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So we're going to look at a couple questions this morning.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what does it mean to be a son or daughter of the king?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: What are the privileges of that?
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: And really, who is a child of God?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to kind of segue, we're going to sort of knit together the last verse, the last sentence from the last verse last week, lots of last, into the first of this week.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: So first we're going to last week.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Here we go.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Since that faith has come, remember he's saying, since the faith in Christ, like the time has come where Jesus is here, since that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, though through faith you are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: It is that last sort of identity that we're looking at this morning.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: We are all sons of God in Christ Jesus.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: And for all the ladies in the room, you say, not a son, yes.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: But what he's referencing there is he's saying, we're going to see very soon that we are even, we could be said to be co-heirs with Jesus Christ.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul's point is he says, the blessings of the Father have gone to his son, and now we will be like the Son in the sense that we are all children of God.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: More on that later.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: But when Paul is going to use, he's going to say sons and daughters later, he's going to say neutral terms like heirs.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: But here when he says we're all sons of God in Christ Jesus, just know that is for everybody who's trusted in the Lord.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then this is where our passage begins this morning.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: He says, For those of you who were baptized into Christ have been clothed with Christ.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, heirs according to the promise.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: And again, they're right, heirs, meaning the one who is sort of in line in normal terms to receive great blessing and inheritance.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: So he says, for those of you who were baptized into Christ and have been clothed with Christ, he kind of makes this inclusive statement.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: He's drawing the net out, right?
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like a fisherman.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's thrown the net out, and it's basically for those who have who have met this standard, what he is about to say applies to them.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: And he really mentions two things.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, those who have been baptized and those who are, he says, into Christ.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll we'll get into the English, the prepositions that he's using here in just a moment.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I know you're so excited when I use the word prepositions.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: But when he says baptism, first of all, right, keep in mind Paul is talking to a specific group of people.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: These people are a part of the churches in the region of Galatia.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And though we have, as we've been talking about for uh two months now, like they have some theology that is not only incorrect but harmful, but they are still people who love the Lord, who want to know Him, they have trusted in Christ as their Savior, and they they deeply are pursuing a relationship with Jesus.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that has signified that, has that is a sign of their deep faith is that they have been baptized, right?
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: In today's sort of thinking, sometimes we consider baptism to be like part of a Christian bingo card.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, I did a Bible study, I sang worship song, I went to church, like I eventually got baptized.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: And what we have to remember is that when you go back to Scripture, other than the thief on the cross, right, the individual who is crucified next to Jesus, the thief, and he really kind of is the one that sets the stage for what is the bare minimum of what is required in order for us to have a saving faith in Jesus.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, I believe that you're the real deal, and he's like, you're with me today in paradise.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: And we go, okay, so faith is not, you don't have to be baptized in order to be saved.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: But other than the thief on the cross, everybody else in the New Testament, once they have expressed faith in Christ, is then commanded to go and be baptized.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's the same kind of um, if you are grew up with a Baptist faith, uh, you might use the word like ordinance, right?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Because it is something that God has ordained for us.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: He says that you should go and be baptized.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and furthermore, it's an even kind of like bigger statement because in the churches of Galatia, being publicly recognized as a Christian was far, far riskier than it is today.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: You might think that Christians are persecuted where we live because like a coworker said something harsh, or maybe like you weren't included on the text thread that you wanted to be, or whatever.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, some of us have experienced loss, but it does not really compare to some of the loss that we see in the early church, where physical violence could be anticipated, right?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Family relationships are entirely cut off and broken.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you could lose jobs, you could lose your business, you could a lot of things could come about with this.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: And so for Paul to say, and here's my point, for Paul to say, those who were baptized into Christ Jesus are sons and daughters of the King, it does not mean that you have to be baptized in order to be considered the child of God, the thief on the cross.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: But he says, man, for those of you who were baptized, you have kind of gone miles above.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: You have shown your faith in Christ.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: It is easy for us to look and see in your congregation that you not only have trusted in Jesus, you are living out that faith, even if it has brought you loss in other areas of life.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so to Paul, it's then so clear for him to move into.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: He says, you are the type of people who are, and this is where we get into all the different Christ language, right?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: He says, even just in this passage, into Christ, with Christ, in Christ, to Christ, right?
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of prepositions here.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: And some people get really technical with it.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: What's the difference between with Christ, in Christ, all these things.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: For us, Paul is saying, you he is your life.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: He is in with and through you, right?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like the your relationship with God is not just a thing about you, it is what defines you.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And so when he says you have been baptized into Christ, and this is what defines the children of God, he says, Man, it is easy to see, you are people who not only have trusted in Jesus, you are living out that faith.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: And it I am, it is clear to me how passionate you are, how zealous you are really about how much you love God.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: But then Paul gives this great inclusive statement, one of the most honestly controversial passages in the New Testament, simply because of how it's been used in the modern thinking.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and what he says is that there's no Jew or Greek, slavery free, male or female, since you are all one in Christ Jesus.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: We have to look at this in context, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul says that there are great divisions.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: There are things, some which God has made, some which humanity has made, that are dividing and separating us in this world.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: In particular, you could look at the sort of the base level and you say, well, he's talking about race, he's talking about wealth, and he's talking about gender.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: But then you understand, right, as anybody who's lived in the world long enough can see that these things have been changed and perverted in such a way that we have racism, we have materialism and deep greed, and we have sexism.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: That there are things which 2,000 years ago deeply defined that culture, and still today define our culture in many respects.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says there's no place for those evil things in the body of Christ.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when he's talking about this, though, again, we have to recognize that he is speaking to a particular culture.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's why the meaning of there's no Jew or Greek doesn't mean much to us today, but back then to them, they it was a big deal, it was a big statement.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: This entire letter to the Galatians has been about people coming into the church and saying, you basically need to become Jewish in order to be a real follower of Christ.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says, no, no, there's no difference there.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: The culture of the time had a couple prayers that really give you a picture of how clear and obvious these distinctions were, right?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: This is a prayer from that I'm about to read to you from an uh a Greek pagan, so somebody who was worshiping the Greek pantheon, but lived during the time of Paul.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: They would say something like this they would thank the gods for allowing them to be born as human beings and not beasts, Greeks and not barbarians, citizens and not slaves, men and not women.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, well, that that's terrible.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't sound good.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: But the Jewish prayer of the time that had uh developed in sort of some rabbinic circles, and even today, in a various form, different form can be found in the cycle of mourning prayers for Jewish folks, would say something like this Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast not made me a foreigner.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast not made me a slave.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the universe, who hast not made me a woman.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so you understand what Paul is speaking into here, right?
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: How amazing or awe-inspiring this statement would be.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now we know that even in the early Christian churches, um, one of the ways that they set themselves apart from the culture around themselves was truly how much they valued unity and expressed that.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: We, last couple's uh falls, or previous two falls, we were in the book of the uh first and second Corinthians.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: And we know, because Paul talks about it, that there were slaves and free people who were worshiping together in that congregation.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_00: And your mind just kind of stretches, trying to understand what does that even look like and how is that possible?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer is how is that possible is because of the gospel of Christ.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because no matter the divisions or things which separate us in this world, the gospel is always greater than them.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: Our identity in Christ, and as we're about to see, as in fact, sons and daughters of the king supersedes, um, goes over and above any sort of division that takes place in this world.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: Some of those divisions are good, some of those divisions are bad.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: There are certain things that God has created, and these examples we could say race and gender would be distinctions that the Lord has made.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: We have just twisted them and made them in many ways and looked at them from an evil perspective at times.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: But then you can also look at human institutions.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: He talks here about being slaves and free, right?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, well, you have an economic distinction.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: God says and talks about the goodness of pursuing economic and virtue through sort of growth and prosperity, but obviously it goes to an end that breaks down, destroys people and communities.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul's point, rather, is that these distinctions, though existing in the world around us, have no bearing when we come into the body of Christ.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: The big question then becomes: does that mean God sees no distinctions at all?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: And not trying to make a joke, but does that mean kind of like it is really, we sort of close our eyes and it's like everybody's the same, everybody looks the same, sounds the same, same background, everything.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Or is there room for the beauty of distinction?
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you'd understand by me asking that question that there is room for beautiful things in this world that separate us and distinguish us from one another, but it doesn't mean that we become this like, like when you take Plato and you smash it all together and you think it's going to be really, really neat and it becomes brown, you know, you take all the different colors, and you're like, that that's not what Paul is saying here, right?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: But rather that there is this sort of beautiful tapestry that comes together, and the things primarily that raise you up or bring you down in the world around us, those are not imported into God's kingdom.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: His sons and daughters are equal with one another, even though there might be differences and in some cases roles for them.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: So as he is saying this, and he has this amazing statement, he says, Well, this is for those who fall under the category of being sons and daughters of the king, meaning that this statement of inclusivity within the kingdom of God was not a statement about the entire world, but rather only for those who had trusted in Christ.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_00: Those who believed in Jesus and had taken on this, he even uses the word, have been clothed with Christ.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_00: Just try and imagine that for a moment, okay?
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: This is not some sort of horror show.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: This is like the beauty of taking the blessings and the robe of Christ that he hands to us, all the bl the benefits, and sort of adorning them ourselves and living out our lives in that way.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, this is what it looks like to be a Christian.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: He says, and if you belong to Christ, then, that's the clarifying statement, then you are Abraham's seed.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: If you haven't been with us for the last couple weeks, that is from Genesis.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's from the promise of God to Abraham, where he said, Hey, Abraham, there's going to be a descendant that comes from you that is going to bless the world.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: We know that is Jesus.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_00: And Paul says there's like a capital S seed, and then there's a lowercase S seed.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: And here he's talking about all the descendants that have uh joined into God's family, no matter their background, no matter their history, no matter their station in life.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: They are heirs according to the promise.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, that that is what we base all of this hope on is the promise of God of grace and mercy and forgiveness to those who have trusted in Christ.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So to them, they belong as children of God.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: So and again, to be clear, right, we're saying that it is not that every single person is a child of God, only those who have trusted in Christ.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: But those who have trusted in Christ have this amazing statement of equality within God's kingdom.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: But that's not the end of the story.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about that.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not only overcoming the radical divisions of this world and bringing everybody through the same door of salvation.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: There are many, many more blessings for the children of God.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_00: And that is what we turn to next.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: In uh we begin chapter four, Paul says, Now I say that as long as the heir is a child, he's giving an illustration here, he differs in no way from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: Instead he is under guardians and trustees until the time set by his father.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: In the same way we also, when we were children, were in slavery under the elements of the world.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: When the time came to completion, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_00: And because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And if a son, then God has made you an heir.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: So Paul, like I said, he gives this illustration, okay?
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Imagine you're a child of the wealthiest person in the world, okay?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: And you live in this mansion and you look out the windows and you can see the wealth that your family has, and you can see sort of the beauty, and you get all of these things that are afforded to you simply because you are a child of this great king or one that has this empire.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, but you are not old enough to receive all of the privileges that come with that.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like you are too young to really be able to take out and experience all these blessings.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_00: And so he said, It is as if you were this child who was living under the stewardship or guardianship of a teacher or of sort of a uh, well, again, he uses the word guardian.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um he's saying basically somebody who has been caring for you and leading you up.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to avoid the word he means a Greek pedagogue.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: It was this very specific role that existed in Greek culture, which was sort of a mixture between a household teacher and disciplinarian.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Point being, he says, like you were under that person at a young age, and then at one point in time your father declared that you were old enough to no longer be under their care, but to fully experience the blessings of the empire.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: And that, Paul says, is what it is like to move into our relationship with Christ.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of things built into this.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he's drawing back on the language of the law as the guardian and the one that was holding us back and all of these different things.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: But the point for us is he says, a new time has come.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: It is not simply that you are just now old enough, but you are old enough to have these privileges and experiences that you have been waiting for.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then Paul begins to explain some of them, right?
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that it is not simply those who are young in their faith or something like that, but he says the in his story, the coming of age, is really in biblical history when Jesus Christ came along, right?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: When the time came to completion.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: And what this is referencing is it says, talked about this last week, right?
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: God has a plan for all of history.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we are at one point in that plan, which we have already been told about from the beginning to the end.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_00: And that the most significant point in that story of redemption, of God rescuing his people, comes through Jesus Christ.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: But that that was not a random moment or a just a good guess as to when Jesus should come, but rather that God, in the fullness of time and the perfection of time, brought Jesus, that God took on a human nature, right, and came to earth.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is what we celebrate at Christmas, the incarnation event.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_00: That Jesus came so that we would be saved.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: But that that was, like I said, not some random event, but something that God had been anticipating, and now we look both back upon and his return in the future as these huge moments in redemptive history.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: So, if you're lost, point that I'm trying to make in this illustration, Paul is saying, he's like, you are a child of God, but the thing that has made you this child of God is trusting in Christ as your Savior.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_00: Before Jesus came along, you were like the little kid who didn't get to experience all of the blessings.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: But now that Jesus has come, you are like the adult who is working in the Father's business, and you are receiving all of the glory that comes along.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Along with it.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_00: And as he does that, Paul begins to explain some of the things, and he'll do it elsewhere in Scripture, which we'll look at in a moment, some of the benefits, some of the perks that come with being a child of God.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like I said, salvation is enough, but God has given us more gifts on top of that.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to be a child of God?
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, one of the things that Paul says here that we might overlook is he says, Well, you have a new title to call God.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: You can speak to him as the Abba Father.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: Abba Father is Paul using two different languages to call God Father.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is Aramaic, and that is not translated into our English.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: It is Abba.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: It is Abba if you speak Aramaic.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_00: The other one is Peter, which is Greek for Father.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so Paul in two different languages is calling God Father, that his congregants would speak.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: One of the amazing things about this is that Paul is not referencing sort of a theology deal that it's like the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, you need to have this proper title.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what he's saying.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: When he says you can call God Father, he's saying to the King of the universe, to the Creator of all, to the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning, the middle, and the end, like to the one who is above all and has done it all, the great and divine judge, whatever titles we have for him as Yahweh in these appropriate things, he is also your father in the feelings of intimacy and love and closeness that you have when you speak of those who in your life who have this beautiful relationship, this closeness, this familiarity.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: Even today in the Middle East, you can hear young children call their father or adults Abba with love and respect.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, you can use that title now.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: And this was scandalous because, like the Jews of the time, they were so concerned about breaking the great commandment of not using the Lord's name in vain.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: They wouldn't even speak his name.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_00: They would only write it out.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_00: That's why when we, or you hear me say like the word Yahweh, which is sort of the Old Testament name that the Lord gives us, we don't actually know what it sounded like because they only wrote it down.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's no transmission of how it you sounded out and the vowels that you put in between the consonants because they were so scared of using the Lord's name in vain that they didn't even say it out loud.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus comes along and calls God Father.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it was a big deal that he said that, you know, he was the Son of God, but it was also a big deal when he gives the example prayer, and he says to his disciples and those following him, he says, You begin it like this, our Father who art in heaven.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: They went, whoa, whoa, whoa! You can't call God your father.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: You need to have more respect for him than that.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, No, I have an affection, a loving relationship, a closeness with him that you don't understand.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: And you and I now have that as a child of God.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: But this is not the only thing that actually comes because of our status as an heir or an inheritor of God's kingdom.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: There are a number of other things, and we're going to take the rest of our time this morning, and I just want to share this with you.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like my heart is that you would understand what it means to be a child of God, to live that out, to know those blessings, to allow it to affect your life and your understanding of God's perspective of you and how He desired has designed this life for you to live it, even in anticipation for the future.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: You being a son and daughter of the king is not just a title, it is an identity that you can adopt.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: It's already been given to you, but you can lean into it much more than you often have.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: So the first one I already shared with you.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_00: Being a child of God means that we have a new relationship with God defined by love.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: You say, well, John 3.16 says God loved the whole world.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's true.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: That's why he sent his son to die on the cross for everybody.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: But this new Abba Father relationship that we have is unique to those who know and have trusted in the Lord.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: If you were to take a time machine back to when the temple and the tabernacle existed, you have the ability to walk into the Holy of Holies and speak with the Lord in his throne room.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: A privilege given to you that not even Moses had.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Second, Paul says in verse 7 that we have freedom from our slavery to sin.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is another thing that is given to the children of God.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: The Bible uses this illustration over and over and over again.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: And though it is obviously charged speaking about slavery, we have to understand why God chose to use one of the most intense human relationships and often depraved human relationships, or just depraved in general, excuse me, to describe the relationship that we have with sin.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: When we talk about being slaves, we are talking about the bondage that we have to being under the curse, under the law, under condemnation.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And if you go, that sounds too heady for me.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: That sounds too think of it this way.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: The fact that you and I, even though we have trusted in Christ, are unable to overcome the sin in our life, still reminds us of the chains that we were in beforehand.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: We now have the power.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_00: We have been set free by Christ.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: We are no longer under that system.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: We have the grace and the mercy and the forgiveness of Him, and by the Holy Spirit, we don't have to live in chains any longer.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: But yet we are often reminded when we are disobedient to the Lord and fall short of his standard of how comfortable, sadly, that is for us.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: It is like Israel when they were walking through the desert and they had been redeemed from slavery in Egypt, and they said, Why don't we just go back to Egypt?
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because at least then we knew what we were going to eat.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_00: We go back to the scraps of a previous life instead of living in this fullness.
• 28:48
  SPEAKER_00: But point being this morning is Paul says, Hey, being a child of God, you have been set free.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't define your life any longer.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_00: Those things in your past that weighed you down, not only are you forgiven of them, but they don't have to be your future.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: Being in God's kingdom means that you have been set free from these things.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, when we get to the future in glory, we will have no desire to walk back into that life of slavery ever again, spiritual slavery.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: The third thing is that we have unity with other believers, including the dead.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you what this means.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: In Ephesians 2, verses 19 and 20, Paul speaks of the fellowship that we have with other believers, even those who have come before us, right?
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: You can think of your family tree, right?
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: Whether it's something that you know through genealogy, or whether it's like a coat of arms or a family slogan, or there's something that connects you to the past and connects you to the future, right?
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Even those who have already passed away.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_00: My great-grandmother did genealogy for our family, and she wrote a couple books on it.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: In fact, they're at the library.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Don't know how often they get checked out, people wanting to read about our family, but they're there.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: And when I asked her one time, I said, Grandma, like, who am I related to?
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, lay it on me.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: Kings, nobles, you know, great people.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: She said, You are related.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: Get this.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_00: Very solemn voice.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: The man who sold butter to George Washington's half-brother.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: A rich heritage.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: But he is, I am his descendant.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: I have an ancestor who did those things, and I'm connected to them, right?
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: When we speak of being a part of God's family and God's holy family, if you hear one thing that I'm trying to say this morning, it is that this is not just a title, this is an identity, right?
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is something real.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: And what that means is that we have been brought up and adopted as sons and daughters into God's family, which means anybody who has trusted in Christ beforehand or who will in the future is also a brother and sister in Christ with us.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so there is beauty in this.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, there are parts of the Bible that are really neat about going into the heavenly realms and getting to ask Moses about what all of that was like, or having this relationship, this connection that, like Revelation speaks of, for instance, last book in the Bible about how the martyrs, those who were killed for their faith in the early church, or even still today, are crying out with God because they see the saints, those who are still living and are sons and daughters of the king, suffering in this world and they desire for us to be rescued.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like we have this connection and this fellowship with those who have gone before and those who will go after that comes from God's blessings here.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, Romans 8, I'll actually talk about that passage more in the podcast because it's the next best place other than Galatians 4 to speak of this language of being a son and daughter of the King.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_00: But Romans 8.16 says that we have a confirmation of our salvation.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_00: So being a child of God, being a son or daughter of the King, one of the gifts that you have received is the Holy Spirit.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: God Himself dwells within you.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that the Spirit does, Romans tells us, is that it reminds our hearts of our salvation and confirms and gives us peace about the fact that we are in God's hands, right?
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if you have ever had anxiety, if you have ever had stress about that question, know that if you have had that calming presence, heard that voice that says, Have you trusted in Christ as your Savior, right?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Have you done what the thief on the cross did?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: Have you believed in him as your savior?
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: That you are now saved, you are in the Father's hands, you cannot be taken out, that this is one of the privileges of God's kingdom, of being adopted as his children, as God says, I want you to know and be reminded consistently in your heart that you are a part of me and I am a part of you.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Amen is right.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_00: Fifth, that we have a shared inheritance with Jesus.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: If there is any of these points that I'm sharing with you that is going to be nearly impossible to understand, it's this one.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_00: Simply because it's not about intelligence, it's about what does it mean, as he says in 817, to be co-heirs with Christ.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: So we have the language of heir inheriting something great.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: And we go, that is beautiful, thank you, Lord.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then Paul sort of ups the ante and he goes, Yeah, you are co-heirs with Christ.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_00: Meaning, to some degree, that the inheritance of the Son of God is extended to us as well, that we share in that with him.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that when the coming kingdom arrives, it is not just that it is here and we watch it, it is that to in a way that I don't think I can explain or fully understand myself, that it is extended to us as well.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: That we are inheriting God's kingdom as his children in some similar way to the fact that Jesus is inheriting the kingdom.
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, we do have to be careful, you don't go to the ends of the earth with this one.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Joseph Smith, the founder of Latter-day Saints, Mormonism, he loved this verse and he's like, so that means we become gods?
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we have this thing called um eternal um regeneration or eternal glorification that like we can take on a divine nature.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, one God doesn't need there's no more than that.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's got it covered, okay?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: We don't become gods, but to whatever degree it is, less than that, that as humans, as glorified humans, we are inheriting the kingdom with Jesus, even though he will reign supreme, that is a promise that is given to you as a child.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_00: Sixth, we have hope for that future inheritance.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: 1 Peter 1:4 says it this way that we have an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that on top of all of the blessings that you received as being a child of God, things that you can lean into in this life right now, that there are still even yet more blessings to be received when Jesus returns and when we go to be with him in heaven.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: That there are even more blessings that you will get to experience and see that God says, I have prepared them for you, I have kept them for you, they are not wasting away, they are just waiting until you arrive.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: And that is something that we can look forward to with hope.
• 35:58
  SPEAKER_00: And finally, 1 Peter 1 5 says that until that time comes, that there is a matter of our protection that God has guaranteed by our faith.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_00: And you say, Well, what is that?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: It does not mean that we never go through hard times, does not mean that we never get sick, does not mean that we are exempt from experiencing this fallen world that we all live in.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: But it does mean that you cannot be taken out of the Father's hand, that Satan, who desires to steal you, who desires to take you out of the kingdom, to somehow reverse the adoption process, that God says, no, no, no, no.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Once you are in, you are in.
• 36:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: This is a one-way door.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: If you have genuinely trusted in Christ as your Savior, if you have believed in Him, known Him, no matter your background, your race, your gender, your economic status, right, your position in this world, no matter who you are, where you've come from, what your history is, you come in these doors, you stay in these doors.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Satan cannot touch you.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_00: You are protected from his schemes.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's a reminder to us that God is continuing to not only care for us, but give us truth, reveal these things to us so that we might have comfort in them, can live them out, can experience them as the blessings that they are.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: So here in a moment, this is what we're gonna do.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um we will, I'm gonna pray, we're gonna take the Lord's table together, and then we are going to pray together as a congregation the Lord's Prayer.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_00: The way what we call the Lord's Prayer, what G how Jesus told us to pray.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason why is because I want you, when we say those words, our Father who art in heaven, I want you to hear them differently than you've heard them before.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to hear them not as just an address like it's going on an envelope, but as the one who has given you the ability to be a son or daughter in his kingdom and has told you that you can call him Abba or Father.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's pray, and then like I said, we will take the Lord's table together.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we come before you and we thank you.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: God, what a gift.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: Salvation is enough, hope is enough in general to rescue us from this world.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, instead you said we get to be co-heirs with Christ.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Not only do we not deserve that, I don't know entirely what that means.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: But Lord, I thank you for it.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because I cannot imagine the grace and the mercy and the glory that we will all experience when we get to be with you in heaven.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, the privileges of your kingdom.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: We see some of them in Revelation, but God, it is could not be exhaustive.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: What does it mean to live in eternity with you, being called a son or a daughter?
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: God, we thank you for these things.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: I pray that by your Spirit we would allow them to sort of rest deeply within us, to keep them at the front of our minds, to remember when we pray to you how close that relationship is.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, you have adopted us as your children.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, Lord.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: We praise you and we pray all of these things in Jesus' name.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to take the elements, you know, when we think of the Lord's Supper, which is for anybody who has trusted in Christ, who is a child of God, there is one other thing I wanted to bring out from the message this morning, which is as we talk about the body and the blood of Jesus, his sacrifice for us.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: When you think in Galatians 4 of that illustration Paul had about, hey, you're a child in this wealthy mansion, and at some point in time your father says, now you can inherit all the blessings.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: One of the things that is missing from that illustration is that it does not capture what was required in order for us to be finally called children of God.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: See, in the story, the great leader, the king, the emperor, whatever it is, he just declares that it's now time for the son.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: But what we understand is that in order for us to be moved from slaves into sons and daughters, in order for us to make that amazing jump, even as a gift from God, it required the sacrifice of Christ.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that the Son of God, the true Son of God, died so that we could become the sons and daughters of the King.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so as we celebrate and remember his body and his blood, his sacrifice, keep that in mind, that this was done so that you might be called a child of God.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_00: Paul says, For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, broke it, and said, This is my body which is for you.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_00: Do this in remembrance of me.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said, the way that I wanted to close our service this morning is I want us to pray together the Lord's Prayer.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this particular version is the one that I grew up with, so I put it on the screen so we'd all be saying the same thing.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: But what I want you to keep in mind is the beginning, as you are praying, to your heavenly Father.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_00: He is still the King of the universe, he is still the Alpha and the Omega, He is the beginning and the end, right?
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_00: He is the Lord of all, and He is also your Father.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together as a church.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who have trespassed against us.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.