Abounding Grace

Ed Taylor: The law is powerless. It doesn't give us the needed power to follow through. It simply points you in the right direction and points me in the right direction, but really can't help us do anything. That's why a relationship with Jesus is so refreshing and powerful.

Not only does he enter your life, but he imparts to you the supernatural power to accomplish anything and everything he gives you to do. It's not in your own efforts anymore. It's not in your own strength. You're not trying to please a pastor. You're not trying to please a church. You're not trying to please your parents. You are living in relationship with Jesus, and that is where your heart and where your mind is. You desire to please the Lord. You're looking to him. It's such a state of freedom.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. So glad you've joined us. Pastor Ed is taking us through the New Testament book of Galatians. We'll be in chapter 4. It's there we're given insight into our relationship with the Lord as his adopted children. It's a wonderful truth that helps to undermine our tendency toward legalism. To unpack this truth found in our scripture, here is Pastor Ed.

Ed Taylor: Open your Bibles to Galatians chapter 4 as we continue our verse-by-verse study through the book of Galatians. We're starting a new chapter, but really carrying over from the previous chapter. I've entitled our Bible study Worshipping Our Abba. What a great Hebrew word Abba is, and we'll get to that in a moment.

The author of the book of Galatians is Paul the Apostle. I often find myself thanking God for Paul the Apostle. He is such a blessing to me and to you and to so many others. He's one of those brothers in the Bible that I can personally relate to. I see a lot of similarities in his life. I love to encourage and I love to help, which would be more of a Barnabas type of ministry, but the Paul ministry just going for the Lord, just going for it and being all in seems to be the principal personality characteristic that I have. I see that in Paul, and I can relate to him.

I'm grateful for his loyalty, and I'm grateful for his commitment, and I'm grateful for his obedience. I'm grateful for his faithfulness. One of the things I do when I'm reading the Bible is I'm picturing in my own mind being there. If I'm reading about Jesus, then I want to in my holy imagination, my sanctified imagination, I want to be there as if he was telling me what he was telling his audience at the time. Or like we were studying the book of Acts, and most of the book of Acts was given us this perspective of his ministry. So in my mind, I just want to follow him. I want to go with him on the trips. I want to sit with him in the pain. I want to deal with him and think about his thorn and my thorn in the flesh and on and on.

But one of the things I really appreciate on top of all of that was Paul's commitment to the doctrine of grace. He was a champion of grace. Why? Because Jesus was a champion of grace. Jesus came in grace and truth, and Paul was a champion, no matter what it took. He paid the price so that grace would be continued to be displayed as it was taught by Jesus. He not only was a champion of grace, but an advocate of agape, of love, of forgiveness, a proclaimer of relationship.

Following in the footsteps of Jesus, Paul preached grace. Why? Because he knew what legalism did to people. He knew the pain that it caused. He knew the difficulties that came when men and women would leave the grace of God and try to relate to God in some legalistic way through a list of rules and regulations. He knew the power of the message of the grace of God, the gospel of grace, and how powerful it is, how it edifies and it builds and it strengthens.

I want you to think back now by way of review. You wake up one morning in a city in the area of Galatia. Remember Galatia is a region, not a city. So when he's writing, he's writing to these various cities in the region of Galatia. So you wake up one morning a pagan. You're just living life, idolatry, going to work, not really caring about the one true God, not caring about Judaism, not caring about Christianity. You're just living your life. And this short guy shows up, and he comes with a message. He looks like a rabbi, but he's not a rabbi. He's a man that comes with a simple message.

It's very simple. It's not that complicated. Following Jesus isn't as complicated as we've made it to be. It's a simple message, the message of grace. You have sinned against a holy and a righteous God. It's separated you from God, and in that separation, you live a life of misery. But because of that misery, God shows mercy on us, and he sent his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die on your behalf. And Jesus died according to the scriptures, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures, that if today you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Simple message.

What happened? Many in the region of Galatia believed that message. Their life was radically changed instantly, generational change. They didn't have a Bible. They didn't have scrolls. Remember, they woke up that morning pagans living a pagan life. And in an instant, spiritually, they're renewed, born again, changed. And then the next day they wake up, what do they do? Live a simple life of faith. The next day, simple life of faith. Simple life of faith. I love you, God. I want to serve you with my life. They started talking to God instead of their idols. They started thinking of God instead of their rituals.

Until this group of false teachers came and disrupted their simple life. Your simple life following Jesus has to be disrupted by an external source. You don't just read the Bible and complicate Christianity. It's very simple: follow Jesus. But over time, it's been very complicated. It's become something that it's not. Like when you think of what's happening in Galatia, for example. I'm following Jesus, I'm loving him, I'm trusting him, I hear from him, I obey him, simple life. And all of a sudden on Friday, you were doing just fine, but now on Monday, you want to keep the law. Where did that come from? It came from someone else. Someone had to teach you that.

I think of all the weird doctrines and all the false teachings today. Somebody brings me some weird thing and I'm listening to it and I'm like, where did you get that? "Well, Pastor, I was just reading my Bible." Where? "Well, I actually saw it on TikTok, and it caught my ear and it sounds good." I'm like, no, a simple reading of the Bible would refute that TikTok video in ninety seconds. I can refute it in thirty, just one verse. Whether it's TikTok or it's YouTube or it's your neighbor or your co-worker, you have to protect the simplicity of your relationship with God.

Jesus would even say to the church in Ephesus—we'll get to the book of Ephesians eventually—so strong, so spiritual, so overwhelmed with the power of God, but later, 30 years or so later, Jesus writes them a little note and says, "What's happened to you guys? You left your first love." And what does he tell them to do? Go back to simplicity, basically. Remember from where you have fallen, repent, and go back and do the first works.

Anytime I go back to California, especially where I grew up, it always reminds me, or at least it kind of reminds me. But when I go back, I think of simpler days. Those were my new believer days, simpler days. They really weren't that much simpler. They were just harder in different ways. But my walk with the Lord was simpler, like I had, "Hey, I don't have a Bible. I should go buy a Bible. Oh, I bought the wrong Bible. Throw that one away. I need to get the right Bible." Like you don't even—you're such a knucklehead as a new believer, you don't even know how to buy a Bible, Ed. I know, but I love God. I have hope for my marriage. I believe he died for me. Simple.

And when you start making mistakes, the Bible says though a man fall seven times, he rise again. You don't make excuses for your mistakes as a new believer. You go, "Well, you know, that's just me and I just," no, you don't do that. You acknowledge it and you go, "Oh, Lord, I'm so sorry. I've hurt you and I've hurt others." It makes you a better employee. On Friday, you were making excuses. On Monday, you're trying to be a better employee. Why? Because you have a simple faith. You believe God. And when you believe God, you live in the power of his Holy Spirit and not in your flesh. You walk in the Spirit, not fulfilling the lust of your flesh.

You see, the Galatians, they got ripped off by legalism. And Paul now is writing to them to correct this, to remind them of simplicity. So in Galatians chapter 4, let me just say that chapter breaks sometimes are unfortunate. You know, chapter breaks and verses were added many years later after the Bible was written, just to help you and me find things. But in the Greek, in the original manuscripts, this would just read straight through. And most of the time chapter breaks are great. This one's kind of unfortunate because it breaks up a thought. So let's go back to Galatians chapter 3 now and notice with me in verse 26.

Now, if you have a New King James Bible in your hand, which is what I use, I want you to notice, and most of them you'll be able to see this. It depends on how they printed it, but most of them you'll be able to see. Look at the number 26 in your Bible. Do you see the number 26? Is it emboldened? Is it bold letters? So that's mine as well. It's bold. 25's not bold, 27's not bold. Why? The bold letters are pointing out to you—the translators put these in for you and me—to see that it's the beginning of a paragraph.

And you know in English, we write and think in paragraph form. It's a full thought. When you have a paragraph, it's a full thought. So the beginning of the thought is actually verse 26, and we'll read straight through. So notice with me in chapter 3, verse 26: "For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as 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 Jesus. And if you're Christ's, then you're Abraham's seed, and heirs," that's what we're going to focus on today, "and heirs according to the promise."

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is master of all, but is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the father. An heir. He goes on, we've already learned, he describes grace and the law as a schoolmaster. He says the law is a schoolmaster, remember, a tutor. And we learned that that's a Roman illustration. We learned that tutors were given to young children until they came to the right age. They were disciplinarians and they were overseeing them until they came of age, and then they didn't need a tutor anymore.

So he compared, he says, "Look, the law was a tutor, but when grace came, you don't need the tutor anymore. When Christ came, you're done." Now he uses another illustration to make the same point. And that's one of the things I love about the Bible. The Bible is extremely relevant, giving us pictures and ideas that translate thousands of years for us to understand. So we get the idea. Hey, when we're young, we need someone to teach us and help us, even though we're not living in the first-century Rome, we get it. When we come to age, we don't need a tutor anymore. Now, an heir. He says an heir, as long as they're a child, they're just like a servant.

They're just like a servant. Now, Paul's using another Roman example here. He uses an example from Roman law and customs. In the ancient times, the coming of age of a son carried tremendous significance. This didn't occur at a specific age, such as 12 or 13 as it did among the Jews and Greeks. Rather, the coming of age for a Roman was determined by the dad. So the dad would determine he's ready. He's of age and declare that. In Rome, this event was usually marked on March 17th by a family celebration known as Liberalia. During this event, the father formally acknowledged his son and heir. The son received a new grown-up toga and entered into the adult responsibilities. There was a change, a declaration of the father that he's no longer a child, he's of age.

And we understand this as we bring it into modern days. I think of my own family, Maria and I. Maria and I, we have an estate. Not much, but it is what we've accumulated over 30-plus years of marriage. Everything Maria and I own, in this moment, everything Maria and I own, my kids own. It belongs to our kids. They will receive an inheritance. They will receive an inheritance. They can expect it. But at this time in their life, can't do anything with it. Don't touch it. Don't even think about it. It's not yours. It's yours, but it's not yours. They're no different than anyone else. My kids right now are just like you. You're getting nothing right now, and neither are they.

Because something has to happen. Something has to happen in order for my kids to enjoy my inheritance. Now it could be one of two things, actually. I could give it to them while I'm alive. I can sign it right over to them and say, "Here, take it, kick us out of the house. It's all yours." Or death. At death, our estate will pass over. There's an event that takes place. And once that event takes place, things change. That's the illustration. And as we've learned already, we have the event that's taken place. Paul uses this heir and inheritance as an example. He's comparing it to the law and grace. And when we say law and grace, remember, grace arrived in the person of Jesus Christ. And we had nothing under the law, but the fullness of the law has been given to us through Jesus Christ by grace.

Now, verse 3: "Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world." So now with the example of heir and inheritance, he says, "Okay, I want you guys to think about this." We were all kids. When we were younger, we were all kids. But now he's using a spiritual illustration. He goes as children, we were in bondage under the elements of the world. Now, there's a lot of debate on the elements of the world. You can read commentaries and they're like elements of the world are like the ABCs of the world or the basic things of the world. But that's not how Paul's using this. You can jot it down in Colossians chapter 2 verses 20 through 23 that the same phrase is used to describe the law, but also in context.

Because remember, whenever you're coming up with a difficulty in the Bible, you have to remember the Bible is always its best commentary. Before you look to a man, before you look to a Bible study, before you look to a commentary, you've got to look in the Bible first. And the best commentary of any verse, the first place to look, is the context, the context. And we see from the context in verse 4, he uses the phrase "born under the law." So he's tying it all together. Born under the law, you go back into verse 3 talking about kids who were bondage under the elements. So I believe the elements of the world here, it's referring in illustration purposes of the law. He's saying we were kids, we were in bondage to the law.

But there's a serious problem with the law. The law can tell us what to do, but it can't give us the power to do it. The law will declare to us what's required, leaving to us a choice, but it can't empower us. The law is powerless. It doesn't give us the needed power to follow through. It simply points you in the right direction and points me in the right direction, but really can't help us do anything. That's why a relationship with Jesus is so refreshing and powerful. Not only does he enter your life, but he imparts to you the supernatural power to accomplish anything and everything he gives you to do.

It's not in your own efforts anymore. It's not in your own strength. You're not trying to please a pastor. You're not trying to please a church. You're not trying to please your parents. You are living in relationship with Jesus, and that is where your heart and where your mind is. You desire to please the Lord. You're looking to him. It's such a state of freedom. It's an amazing place of freedom.

You see, the law dictates, legalism dictates. This is what—this is what legalism does. It's a very dangerous thing. Legalism, it imposes so much restraint. At first, it starts with us. Almost always, legalists start internally. Almost always. You just—and sometimes it's really good motives, really, actually. You want to be a good believer, you want to honor God, you want to please God. It actually starts out pretty well. But it only leads to frustration. Because let's just say you start out and you go, "Well, these two things I want to do the rest of my life. I want to read my Bible and pray every day. And when I read my Bible and pray every day, I feel good. And when I don't, I feel bad." Exactly. Because you've imposed a rule on yourself.

In order to feel good, I'm going to read my Bible. And you know, feeling good is one thing, but then you take it a step further and go, "It's not just feeling good. In order to be right with God, I need to read my Bible and pray every day." And what happens when you do? You feel good. What happens when you don't? You feel bad. Actually, you're frustrated. It's a very frustrating thing. You get into a problem at noon, you yell at your boss, and then you go, "Oh, man, what a horrible person I am. I didn't read my Bible today, so now I yelled at my boss." Actually, you're a horrible person to begin with. It doesn't matter what happens with your Bible.

You need the power of the Holy Spirit so that you can respond in the spirit to your boss, not the flesh. It had nothing to do with reading your Bible. That's a rule you set up. You created that rule. You don't have to read your Bible. Don't ever read your Bible ever again. You go, "Pastor, are you serious?" I am serious. You don't have to read your Bible ever again. But you get to. And if you get to read your Bible, don't you want to? And if you want to read your Bible, doesn't it impart to you the joy and the strength and the direction and the instruction? Of course, it does. So now you don't wake up every morning with some imposed law, "I have to." You get up in the morning and go, "I can't wait to. I want to." It's a very different way of living life.

So then you add again, over—now it's reading your Bible, and then it's praying, then it's church attendance, then I got to feed the poor, and then I got to—all these rules. And before you know it, you can't keep them. And you're frustrated and even self-condemning. You beat yourself up. "I'm a horrible person, I'm a horrible person, I can't do anything." No, no, actually you are a horrible person redeemed by the Lord, saved, a son or daughter of the King, that when you set up these rules, you could never keep your rules. You got to understand you could never keep your rules.

So you know what happens to legalists? This is what happens. You ready? And some of you are like, "Oh man, how did he know my life?" I know, that's why, I know. This is what happens. Because you beat yourself up and frustrated and condemn yourself so much, you get tired of that. You're like, enough is enough. And a legalist begins to impose his or her rules on others, and they become sin-sniffers. "Oh, smell sin over here. I can actually see it brighter over here." Like you guys—you're much brighter now, I can see—like you just start to look—and now all you're looking for is failure, difficulty. All you're looking for is, "Hey, you didn't read your Bible?" "No, I'm sorry." "Well, what a horrible Christian you are." No, no, we don't actually know what the issue is yet with not reading your Bible. All we know is you didn't.

And that's how legalism breeds. And then churches become that way. It's a very manipulative, nasty thing. The best place to be is to be led by the Lord, to be obedient to the Holy Spirit. And you see, the law and your rules can't impart the power. It's impossible to keep the law of God perfectly. But by faith in Jesus Christ, the Bible says this, Jesus said it, Matthew chapter 19. He said it in verse 26: "With men, this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Guest (Male): What we can't do on our own, God can do in and through our lives as we're dependent upon him. Hey, thanks for listening to Abounding Grace with Pastor Ed Taylor. We're going and growing through a study of Galatians right now. You can hear this message again online at aboundinggraceradio.com or wherever you get your podcasts. You can also listen through our app. Search for Ed Taylor in the App Store or Google Play.

Ed Taylor: Hi, this is Pastor Ed, and I'd like to tell you about my newest book. It's titled Letting Go of Your Past. God has been using this book. It's only been out for a few months, and already so many are being set free and moving forward and gaining new insight on how it is to deal with the resentment in their life, or the anger, or the unforgiveness, or what it is to heal from deep traumatic hurts. This little book is filled with wisdom of the Lord to help you move forward. Letting Go of Your Past is the title, and you can get it right now wherever you get books or at calvarystore.com. calvarystore.com. If you need any help, you can always call us. The number here is 877-30-GRACE.

Guest (Male): We'll send you a copy when you support Abounding Grace with a gift of $25 or more. Our number, 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. You can also order online at calvaryco.store. calvaryco.store. Abounding Grace is made possible through the generous support of our listeners. And as we continue delivering God's word one verse at a time, we're looking to our listeners for help. Together, we can reach people with the love and truth of Christ and make a difference in these last days. To make a secure donation, drop by aboundinggraceradio.com or call 877-30-GRACE. Next time on Abounding Grace, we'll continue Pastor Ed's study of Galatians. Thank you for listening today. We'll look for you tomorrow as we open the word together in search of God's abounding grace.

Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church, Colorado, here in Aurora.