THE AUDITORIUM SUNDAY
SCHOOL CLASS
MAY 8TH, 2005
SPIRIT-FILLED SONS
I. The Holy Spirit authenticates our
sonship to our own hearts in three ways (6):
A.
He (The Holy Spirit) reveals the relationship between God the Father,
God the Son, and yourself (John 14:26 and 15:26).
B.
He (The Holy Spirit) reveals Himself to your heart (Galatians 4:6).
C.
He (The Holy Spirit) cries “Abba, Father” from your heart to God the
Father.
1.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ (6).
2.
Christ is God’s Son
3.
The Spirit of God’s Son cries through you to the Father in words of
closest intimacy, “Abba, Father.”
D.
We know that we are the children of God when our hearts are crying out
to God as a son to his father (I John 5:6-10).
II. We move from being a servant of the Law
to a son of the Father (7).
A.
Once we are adopted as sons (5), we have a new standing with God.
1.
The son has the nature of the Father, but not the servant.
2.
The son has a Father, but the servant has a master (3:24).
3.
The son obeys out of love, but the servant obeys out of fear.
4.
The son has a future, but the servant has none.
5.
The son is rich, but the servant is poor.
B.
Sonship carries with it heirship (inheriting what the father owns).
1.
We are “an heir of God through Christ.” (7)
2.
All that belongs to the Father belongs to the Son (Christ). and all that
belongs to the Son belongs to the Christian.
C.
So we can see the contrast between the Law and Grace:
1.
The Law legally binds and condemns.
2.
Justification frees us from the Law, and God adopts us into His family.
III. Paul reminds the Galatian Christians
that they were once slaves to false gods befroe they were “justified by faith”
(8).
A.
Befroe Justification, (declared innocent), they did not know the true
God (8).
1.
They did not know God intellectually.
2.
They did not know God personally.
B.
They served “them which by nature are no gods.” (8)
1.
“...did service.....” means “to serve as a slave.”
2.
Their own imaginary gods inflicted a terrible slavery.
C.
This goes to prove that man’s attempt to live apart from the true God
leads to a form of slavery that can only be broken by the power of Jesus
Christ.
IV. “But now” shows the contrast between
their current sonship and their past unbelief (9).
A.
After Justification, they know (personally) the true God.
B.
After Justification, the true God knows them.
1.
Jesus stated that He knows His sheep (John 10:3 and 27).
2.
Paul admitted that “the Lord knoweth them that are His” (II Timothy
2:19).
C.
“How turn ye again” equals a willing turn away from the truth (9).
1.
“Weak” elements are things that have no redeeming value.
2.
Beggarly elements are poor substitutes for the freedom of being in
Christ.
3.
Paul is amazed that anyone would “desire again to be in bondage.”
Conclusion: Your relationship to God is personal; there is no relationship with the Law.