And we'll take Genesis chapter 28 and this passage from verse 10 through to 22 is about Jacob's encounter with God when he was pursued by his brother Esau and he fled and he came to this place called Bethel. And it's interesting, last night we heard a message from this passage, much to my astonishment, because I knew that we're going to use the same passage today. And it was about the house of God and here Jacob perceived that he was in the presence of God and that this is surely the house of God. And it was interesting, last night it was
pointed out to us at the opening service of Matthew Cassin, that was pointed out to us that the house of God is people, not buildings. And it was a place of revelation and it was a place of the very presence of God. It was a place where sacrifice had been made. I don't know whether that was pointed out but anyway it was a place of a sacrifice that was made. And the sacrifice was a bloodless sacrifice. It was a place where oil was poured out upon the stone, the
rock. And of course we know that the imagery of the rock was the Lord Jesus Christ and the rock followed the people of God, remember, and here the anointing of God by faith was made upon the stone which is a pre-incarnate image of the Lord Jesus Christ who would be the sacrifice for us. So here we find
that the presence of God and the very the house of God is perceived in this out of the way place called Bethel. And of course that's what Jacob actually describes it to be. And then I'm going to take from Philippians chapter 3 which is about the humiliation of Christ. And of course I love to make a sermon about the stone that was here but we won't do that today.
Well as we continue through the passages that we've set ourselves to do here in this course of preaching from the the book of Galatians we come now to the first verse of chapter 4 and he is taking up this thing that we opened up last Lord's Day concerning becoming children of God. And he says for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus for as many as you were baptized into Christ have put on Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither slave nor free there is neither male nor female for you are all one in Christ and if you are Christ then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according
to the promise. And he goes on he says now I say that the heir as long as he is a child does not differ from all at all from the slave through though he is master of all but is under guardians and stewards until the appointed time by the
father there is a point of time when a child of God who is a child of promise not a child of wrath and of judgment a child of this world but he is under guardianship and under the stewards of the house and to appointed time when he will receive his adoption he will receive his inheritance and he will come to a point of time in the fullness of time he will come to inherit that which would be his privileges so he says even so we when we were children of God were in bondage under the elements of this world under the the worldly domination
of of the world and the flesh and the devil those are the elements of this world but when the fullness of time had come he set 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 that's the theme I want to take up this
laws day receiving your adoption as sons that is the conclusion of this work of grace that has been going on you're on your behalf and in your hearts that you might receive your adoption there's a point of time when a person is being so
prepared by the Spirit of God through the prevenient work of God's grace that he comes to a point that we call conversion that is that conscious side of our salvation that we realize that we are sinners we realize that Jesus Christ is the only Savior of our soul and we embrace Jesus Lord Jesus Christ
by faith repenting from our sins and putting off the formal life and putting on the new life there is a point in the Christian pilgrimage that we can say once we were blind and we were under the stewards and the care of the house but
now we have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we see things that we
have been pointed out to us in the law and in the ceremonies of our daily life
the traditions of our of our family life we've been pointed out to us and we have
come to realize the truth of these things because now something takes place
within our hearts a newness of spirit transforms our hearts and that we come to
come to maturity of all these these former things have led us to the point
that we are now know that we are the children of God and we receive what is
called the adoption and what the Apostle Paul refers to here as the adoption in
other words in every Christian life there has to be a point in time that in
the fullness of time you became a Christian and you became a consciously
you put your faith in your Savior and as something is often missed
within Presbyterian churches because we we we assume that we are living under
the covenant care of of God's grace the covenant of God and we fail to embrace
these things personally now the Spirit of God is working upon us there is a
point of time where we will pass from the guardianship of the stewards and the
care of the law to the time of a living grace a living expression of personal
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ himself personally it will no longer be
secondhand to us or borrowed from our parents it'll be something that will
become intensely personal and individual as something that we can say we
ourselves know our God is not something I had to be taught about any longer this
seems to be what the Apostle Paul is referring to we must be those that are
able to assess our lives biblically and realize that the work of conversion that
is our conscious readiness to embrace Christ there is that unconscious work of
God's grace in in in regeneration in that transforming of our hearts God
works as a surgeon whilst we're upon the the altar of his changing our taking
out our stony heart and puts a new fleshy living heart within our hearts
but then we wake up from the operation table as God deals with us in as a
surgeon and then we realize that we are a new people we are we realize that we
begin now to live individually by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and this is
what the Apostle Paul says that we have passed from being our sons of the
Covenant sons of the promise to what we he refers to in this passage as the
receiving of our adoption and receiving the adoption as sons now this
relationship as we is explained by the way of a father in the ancient times we
saw last week that official adoption of his own son as his legal representative
and heir and he's using this illustration to explain the spiritual
truth that is going on in every Christian's heart there is these
pre-christian walk we have with God it is a contradictory kind of walk at times
it's a walk that is often in conflicts we are not at peace with God and we're
not at peace with ourselves either because there is much we are still
dominated by the elements of this world the world the flesh and the devil but
when we pass from that condition into our adoption we've now are at peace with
God our hearts are restless until they find their rest with God and we are as
it were silent sometimes not so silent rebels before God in the households that
we are raised in and and this is exactly what happens as children of God it
corresponds always this adoption corresponds to the time that we are
justified and we are set free from the prison that put us in prison by the law
we were condemned criminals to this point and we were those that were
justified now scripture always identifies a time that we were justified
and pardoned of all our sins and set free from the condemnation of the of the
law we were also adopted into the family of God it is as it were we came to them
our majority and we have gone through that that adolescent right of adoption
and we have come to understand that we have a new heart now in our hearts we
received eternal life and we've been called out of darkness into the
marvelous light of God and this was what happened culturally among the Jews the
the coming of age of a Jewish and Greek and even of a Roman child was a very
important time for a son particularly and as I explained last Lord's Day that
this was not simply a son of birth now but a son of a son to him who were was
the inheritor of all their possessions of his father and it is as it were he
had become moved from the guardianship and the trusteeship of stewards of his
house to his own manhood now before all this there was a time when they were
children as slaves it says here are quite clearly he says now I say that
that the heir as long as he is a child does not differ from all at all from
slaves though he is master of all what is saying here a child that is in a
child that is in the house of a of a Roman citizen or a Greek citizen or a
Jewish family the child while he remains as a child there might have been many
other people in the household there would have been slaves understand that
more than 80% of the population of the world in the Roman Empire were slaves
in one form or another and everyone else was it was only out the other the very
small minority or large minority but it was a minority of people that were free
people but it would meant that these slaves were were in the various
households every household had slaves in that day but the strange thing was
that the son and the slaves did not differ in terms of their condition they
had their bedrooms they had they had their own possessions they had their
jobs and the sons worked alongside the slaves whether it be in the field or
whether it be among the animals the son did not differ greatly to that of slaves
in the household in terms of his condition in terms of his status of
course it was vastly different his privileges that he would have in the
fullness of time were vastly different to that of slaves the slaves had no hope
of being being altered in their status as slaves whereas a son although he
lived like a slave in the household there was a time when he would come to
the majority and he would be the the son and the heir of everything that his
father had and that was the kind of illustration that we find here that a
son and a slave in their condition before they were given the privilege of
their adoption before they became a to the majority in their condition there
was no great difference to their lifestyle and he is illustrating this
very thing he says in verse 2 that so too he says but is under the guardians
and stewardship until the appointed time by the father now particularly in Roman
households there wasn't a set time for him to become to to his majority for a
Jewish child it was 12 remember Jesus he was he feel quite safe to stay in the
temple talking to the the rabbis and the and the and the temple staff about the
things of God and he was he was left behind in the city of God by his parents
until I had to come back and says don't you realize I was about my father's
business now he wasn't breaking the law at that point he had come to a majority
under the customs and the traditions of the Jewish people and and and he was
it felt quite free to do that and it was said at 12 years old he was about that
for a Roman child it was quite a bit older I think the tradition was that he
had to be 21 for our society is turned out to be 18 I think somehow that's the
general point that we have to take our responsibilities so here until that
point he lived like the other slaves in many ways he he was under the
guardianship he was under the tutorage and the care of of the wise people of
the household and he would have to live under the house rules of the day and if
he did something wrong he would probably get a spanking for it if he'd made a
foolish mistake he would be hauled up like any other member of the household
and to give an account for what he'd done wrong he was under guardians and
stewards and so it is that the Covenant of this family the family of God
according to the Covenant of Abraham the history of dealing with the visible
people of God's Covenant have always been the same there has always been a
time that we have been under the guardianship of the law of God now in
Christian homes the law of God has set forth as the standard of the house
otherwise there would be no no basis no house rules at all and that's why many
people who are many young teenagers find it very hard living at home they
don't like living under authority of the law of God and they want to do it their
own way and there's conflict in a conflict this is a time when we are
trying to find the rights and wrongs and the privileges and when we're the
privileges can't be ours yet because we have not really come to God and as soon
as you do come to God your parents can pull back as soon as you understand the
truth and you begin to begin to show the evidence that you are living under the
truth of God of your own free will and desire then your parents can bring bring
back the restraints and begin to say this person is becoming responsible
before God and is going to follow God because he's beginning to live by faith
and then we see that magical and very wonderful work of God's grace that takes
place in the the Christian homes children now that is a such an important
thing for us to remember how is it that we come across many Christian homes
where the parent the children are just breakless they resent any kind of
authority over their lives and very often their latter latter experiences
are that they go holes balls into the world and become worse than even the
worst of the Gentiles because they have deliberately rejected the privileges
that they would have had if they were to were to yield to the things that would
bring life and immortality to their soul and therefore we will see the greater
and disastrous end of such rebels within the household of God's God's
faith at God's Church so remember particularly us younger ones remember
that there will be that in a conflict is quite normal is quite usual you'll be
questioning many things that dad tells you to do and and mum tells you to do
and it's usually not for their own sake it's more for your own for your own sake
and you will find you go down to your bedroom and you wake up at night and you
say can't stand this family you know that's the conflict of the flesh within
you rebelling against God testing your heart against the Word of God that's
what's happening to you until you come to realize the sensibility of these
things the Spirit of God because the privilege of being in a family of God you
know you've got prayers offered on your behalf you know people in the world
haven't got that privilege you hear the Word of God read to you at the family
meal table you're encouraged to go to your bedroom and take hold of the Word
of God yourself and read it you're given libraries of books that is going to lead
you to God you're surrounded by people that have the same faith encouraging you
and in controlling you and even at times humoring you into the kingdom of God all
these privileges you have growing up in a Christian home and to reject these
things is tantamount of suicide spiritual suicide for people outside the
faith in the good Providence of God are also brought into the kingdom of God as
well and they experience similar sort of things because the Providence of God is
that most holy and wise powerful preservation and control of all his
creatures and all their actions and this can be personal as well as some of you
probably didn't know being about the things of Christian faith before you
came to somehow get involved with friends that led you to church and then
went to a Bible study and then suddenly things started to come to fruition in
your life you went under the law you were allowed to do everything you liked
but your conscience was working overtime in your heart and you were you were you
being led by the Spirit of God to people that were leading you to the things of
God the same experience was undergone as those in Christian homes but not by the
law but by the law that's written on your heart your conscience and God was
using that in his providential way leading you closer and closer to the
things of God and suddenly you saw it and the fullness of time and not your
life have come to it is as it were all the roads of your life just led you to
that point where you had no choice but to choose God if I may put it that way
it's funny you know when we become adopted into the family of God the first
thing we were we think about is God has chosen us elected us before the
foundation of the world but you know until that point is the last thing we
ever learn until that point you hear the beckoning call of God come all those
that are weary and heavy-laden and I'll give you rest until then enter the gate
that is narrow walk the narrow path it's not until the adoption has actually been
realized in our hearts we begin to see God has chosen us God has has elected us
from all eternity that's interesting isn't it
election is always a doctrine of encouragement after becoming a Christian
it's never a reason for us never to become a Christian you know I've heard
people say to me well if I'm going to be elected if I'm elected I'll come to know
the Lord somewhere along the line and I won't even worry about it that is not a
Christian spirit that's manipulating the truth now the other thing we see before
we became Christians is that we're in bondage it says here in verse 3 even we
even so when we were children we were in bondage we're in bondage under the
elements of the world our condition became before we became Christians is
one of bondage and covenant children are under bondage too they have many
privileges being raised in a Christian home but covenant children are are
underneath all these essential all in under all this is essentially that you
are no different to those who are outside the Christian home how many of
you go off to school and you come under the influence of ungodly company and how
their influence seems to come so easily to you and the only thing that holds you
away from it is the teaching of your father and your mother the teaching in
Scripture and your conscience has been sharpened but really underneath it all
we will go toward the manner of lifestyle of the world listen to the
kind of music you're listening to it comes stretched up from the pit I can
tell you and you enjoy that more than your Psalms at church it's spirit of
God's not in you when it's like that I've been naughty I know you try to
understand what I'm saying can't you you know look at the look at the thrill
of being able to do something that is really exciting and you break the rules
and driving your car some of you haven't got your first car but when it comes the
temptation will be there you break the road rules deliberately because you're
see the elements of this world is dominating is that right I know it's
like I was there myself once but what is going to release you from that
domination of the elements of the world it's going to take another power that's
far greater than the world that power that rose Jesus from the dead is at
work in your heart see even death has no place in your life any longer because a
spirit of God has come and resurrected you from the dead and you are invincible
when the spirit of God comes in you are invincible because in the long run he
who is within you is far greater than he who is without and what restrains you
and what brings godliness in your heart it is a spirit of God and that you have
been adopted and conversion is very much part of your life now you can do no
other than to live by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit
of God and that was what was so contradictory in the life of the
Galatian Christians who has bewitched you who has turned your heart away from
you are you have you become like chaff has been blown away by the by the wind
or are you the grain of God that dies and is planted in the ground and is
resurrected into the new vibrant plant living plant
and then he goes on he says redeemed and adopted that's what it says there
redeemed and adopted for he says in verse 4 but when the fullness of time
uses see this word but okay that's what was the original condition but I like
these buts in scripture because they are the very turning point of the
argument but when the fullness of the time had come God sent forth his son
born of woman born under the law now this is the history of redemption the
whole world was under the power and the L of the elements of the of death and
destruction but God sent his whole his son into the world he says born of woman
born under the law he came not merely as a as a teacher he didn't come as an
ethicist he came to redeem those who were under the law okay he came to
redeem those who were under the law and I believe and I think scripture
underwrites it in every part he says that in the fullness of time that there
is a point of time within every Christians pilgrimage before the person
becomes a Christian and there is a point of time that there is a fullness of time
that comes he says he appoints to it until the inverse to until the appointed
time that the father chooses okay so until the fullness of time comes God
sent forth his own son and redeemed those who are under the law that we
might receive the adoption as sons so he came to redeem us that is to pay that
the the ransom price for ourselves he did that upon the cross but more than
that he transformed our hearts by putting a new spirit in our hearts and
he adopted us as sons and that we were now individually able to live by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ who is our Savior and Lord of everything now I
hope there's been some of some help a lot of Christian teaching sort of
forgets that there is a previous life to the Christian pilgrimage and they tend
to brush over that there is a time when a person is actually converted there's
a busy time when a person is actually born again there is a time when we were
with those who pass from life in from death into his marvelous life and you
should know about it okay there's a time that you can't remember your natural
birth can you but there is a time that you are aware that you belong to whatever
family belong to and you are conscious that you are a child of God and we call
that adoption that passing into majority into our majority but realizing that we
are personally living by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and we hate I mean
we've got an inner revulsion for sin and the ways of this world why when I return
on the television that infernal thing I turn on our television and when I when
I hear the worldly rubbish that come from it my heart sinks I think that's
been my problem the last several weeks my heart sinks at the overwhelming spirit
of this world that seems to dominate I cannot remember a thing that's happened
on the media and in this world that is actually backing up Christian values I
can't remember the time when that happened I think that there was a a
bishop in in Sydney that was being interviewed by the media who gave a
wonderful Christian testimony and I thought that's the first time I've heard
that for years even then it was overlaid with cynicism and they were throwing
junk on top of his testimony saying he was a misogynist and he was a one-eyed
bigot that's what he's saying this country loves the ways of death and
darkness and the yucky things that lead to to hell why is that why is it in
there's an inner revulsion in our hearts is because the spirit of holiness is in
our hearts and we when we see the name of God impugned it brings tears to our
souls and dread to our hearts because we know that's going to bring the judgment
of God upon this country that's what happens when we are converted we cannot
rest there's a fire within us it cannot rest at unholiness and unrighteous and
ungodliness around us and when they swear at work I tear them down and I say
to them don't speak like that in my presence and when I said it I pulled
back and I wondered what hit them because no one's had the guts to say it
before even the boys class these ungodly creatures they pulled me up and I said
you see that sucker up there I was explaining to them a CAD movement in the
computer-aided drafting thing that little sucky you got to push on that so
don't use don't don't denigrate that icon and I said I said can we say shut
up now sir I said not under over my dead body yeah so it's amazing isn't the
influence of the Christian life is there and and just you know the wonderful
thing about our world is you only have to say the smallest thing and it brings
it down like crashing around you yeah and and they and they you're now enemy
number one because you are able to say I said that it's in the table like the you
know in the mess hall I said some of them were talking about mowing their
lawns on Sunday and I said I would that none of you I would that all your mowers
were were greased up and seized up on Sundays what do you mean Richard I said
it's the Lord's Day you should not be smowing on Sunday and interrupting our
service on Sunday as well you know I'd say he said oh you're a hard man yeah
but I didn't have to say very much to bear the testimony of God did I very
little you only have to live like a Christian family to be so so different
to this world you only have to have you know children that basically love you to
be different in this world
so don't be discouraged let's realize that the bearest testimony in days gone
by you'd have to be a neon saint to bear a good testimony in this world but today
we're gonna be almost a half-baked saint to bear a testimony in this world oh man
that's good isn't it yeah so dark is our world anyway let's close