Abounding Grace

Host: Pastor Ed on being adopted into the family of God.

Pastor Ed Taylor: I was adopted twice. I was adopted into a physical family, but I was also adopted into a spiritual family. And that's why the kiddos around the church, the foster care kids, the kids that were adopted, I always like to share when I hear that, that I was adopted too, and that there's a beautiful opportunity if they're not saved already, to be adopted into the family of God.

And that means you receive the full rights. Full rights. I at times get to attend these adoption ceremonies when I can make it, and I hear the judge—the judge does it all day, but you're just walking in for one time—and you hear the judge say "the full rights and heir," and then the parents say "Yes." And that's what God gives to you. You are a son and daughter of the King. Why? Because of Jesus.

Host: Today on Abounding Grace, we'll pause to reflect upon our adoption into the family of God. When we were redeemed, we entered into a new relationship with the heavenly Father. We now receive the full rights as an heir of God. Think of that. We are a son or daughter of the King and an heir of God.

Near the end of our time together, Pastor Ed Taylor will share nine things we can enjoy now as an adopted son or daughter, so be sure to stick around to the very end of today's program. Join us now in Galatians chapter 4.

Pastor Ed Taylor: 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 in Matthew chapter 19. He said in verse 26, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

And basically the message of Galatians is this: You guys started out with such a simple gospel, why in the world would you go back? For them, they didn't go back; they're just Gentiles. Somebody had to teach them this. They're just Gentiles. They didn't know they had to keep the law. They were introduced to Jesus, his death and resurrection. And Paul is amazed. "What? Who has bewitched you?" as we've already learned. What is wrong with you guys?

And there's a lot of answers to that, but the way out is repentance and humility. Legalism has a way of always trapping you in a cycle of failure that leaves you frustrated and defeated. And verse 4 says, "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons."

Four thousand years God had promised Messiah to come. Four thousand years would be a long time to wait, don't you think? Four thousand years, how about four thousand seconds or minutes? But four thousand years with each sacrifice, with each animal given, with each offering. As we're learning in our midweek about the tabernacle, every time they would walk by the tabernacle, every time they'd walk by the temple, they would be reminded: God promised, God promised.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son. It was God's appointed time. He was born of a woman, a virgin named Mary. He was born a Jewish savior. Jesus Christ is a Jewish man. He came to fulfill a Jewish law. And again, it's another thing that gets twisted where you think because God chose the children of Israel to be the apple of his eye—remember, we know in the Bible, the Bible tells us that God didn't choose them because they were anything special. God chose them because God chose them.

And a part of the rule or part of the law, part of the promise is that Messiah would come through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, eventually through the line of David. Of course Jesus is a Jewish savior, but not simply to reach the Jews. He came to the Jew first and then to the Greek. Aren't you glad? Because most of us are the second part. But God's heart's always been for the Gentile. Always, always, always. Again, when men get involved, they have a tendency to corrupt things.

But I love this fullness of time. You don't always love it. I don't actually always love this phrase, "the fullness of time." For example, you don't like the fullness of time when you're waiting. Because that means the fullness of time hasn't come yet. And rarely do we like to wait. Waiting a day, a year, ten years, very, very hard. But the Bible says that waiting on the Lord brings strength. Fullness of time.

We don't really like the fullness of time when it comes to the significance of the coming of the Lord. We want him to come now. But there's a fullness of time, just like there was a fullness of time for him coming. We love this phrase when it is the fullness of time for whatever we were praying for, whatever we were going through. Now, we love this one in verse 4 because it was the coming of Messiah as God promised.

And we need to pause again and be encouraged that God keeps his promises. You can trust God. He keeps his promises. Jot this down, 1 Kings chapter 8 verse 56. It says, "Blessed be the Lord who has given rest to his people Israel according to all that he promised." There has not failed one word of all his good promise which he promised through his servant Moses.

So there are two types of promises that God gives. Number one, he gives a promise that he's already kept. Or two, he gives a promise that he's going to keep. But he keeps all his promises. You can hold on to the scriptures. Yesterday before service, actually last night, I hadn't read my Proverbs until I came into the building yesterday. So I didn't get them in the morning, but I was in my office reviewing my notes, pulled my Bible out, and I started to read the Proverbs because I like to read a chapter of Proverbs every day.

So I pulled out, I did chapter 28 because yesterday was the 28th, reading through, and one of the Proverbs jumped off the page. And God impressed upon my heart: You should take a picture, send this to a brother that this applies to. And it's a great scripture. It says something along the lines of "you won't prosper if you hide your sin." So that may be a word for someone. You're not going to prosper thinking you're hiding your sin. But when you confess and forsake it, there's mercy. That's what it says.

And I'm like, this brother just needed to be reminded that there's mercy. There's mercy because he has confessed and forsaken his sin. And while he's living in a time of discouragement right now, it's also a time of God's mercy. And what are we going to choose? Are we going to choose discouragement or choose mercy? So I sent it off to him. That's a promise. That is a promise in the Bible. What's the promise, Ed?

Well, here it is; it's actually two promises, one verse. You get a bonus promise in that verse. The first promise is this: If you're listening to my voice right now and you are hiding sin or you think you're hiding it, you will not prosper. That's a promise. It is not going to happen. Even to those of you that might be fighting me right now: "Well, Pastor Ed, look at me, nobody knows and look at what—" No, no, that's not prosperity; that's deceit. You've deceived yourself. That's promise number one.

But promise number two is this, even before you leave here today: If you confess and forsake it, you'll have mercy. And what is mercy? We've defined mercy: Grace, getting what you don't deserve; judgment, getting what you deserve; mercy, not getting what you deserve. When you cry out for mercy, God will be very merciful and gracious. God has promised us so much as we read through the pages of scripture.

Just a simple reading—you see, when you're reading the Bible that way, not academically, not trying to be a theologian, not trying to parse all the words and all the Greek, there's a time and place for that—but when you're reading your Bible, you're reading about God's nature and character and his promises. I mean, that's a pretty powerful promise, that if I confess my sin, there's mercy. Which reminds me of another verse, 1 John 1:9.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You know what that is? Another promise. God keeps his promises. The appointed time, the fullness of time, God sent forth his son. Now the appointing of the time of God, he knows all things. He knew the exact time that Messiah needed to come. God knows what he's doing with your life.

He knows why you are where you are, he knows why you're experiencing what you're experiencing. If you'll just look to him, there's a lot of spiritual growth that's available. You look to yourself, you look to others, you're going to be frustrated and upset all the time. But when you look to him, there is help for you. But there were also practical things happening in the first century.

I don't want to get too much into it, but I want you to consider there were things happening that God could see that maybe other people couldn't see that was perfect timing for Messiah. So if you're taking notes, number one, in this time, the appointed time, the fullness of time, the Romans had built roads all throughout the world. The Roman road system was amazing. They had connected first-class roads throughout their entire empire.

And you know where all roads led to? Rome. They're still there today. We just got back from our footsteps of Paul trip. They have replanted their culture and their city, the Romans, all throughout the world. It's the same anywhere you go. If you go to Israel and you go to Beit She'an, it is a well-preserved set of ruins from the Roman time. And all the roads are there. You can walk on these Roman roads; they still exist.

I'm driving down Parker Road; I wish the Romans would build that. But they didn't. You know what I mean? You're getting what I'm saying. Just want to make sure you're still with me. It's kind of another theological Bible study, but I want you to stick with me. The Roman roads. Number two, there was almost at this time, this appointed time, the fullness of time, there was almost a universal language.

Not only were the roads connecting the world, but there was also almost—most of the world spoke Greek, some of the world spoke Latin. So two primary languages. And then thirdly, this appointed time, the perfect time for Jesus to come, the perfect time for the gospel to explode, the gospel of grace, the fullness of time. Thirdly, the Jewish religion, the Jews were stuck in a cold, dead religion.

And this was the right time for Jesus to come. Why was he sent? Verse 5: "To redeem." If you like to write in your Bible, circle that word redeem. It means to purchase back a slave and give them their freedom. You can just say purchase back, to buy back. In the Roman world, this word was used to describe the purchase price for a slave so they could have their freedom.

Why's that important? In Rome, there were 60 million slaves. Someone had to build those roads and build those cities, and many people were taken advantage of. But you could redeem them and buy back their freedom. How much more for you and me being slaves to sin, that Jesus came to buy us back from the power of sin? Sin's very powerful, you know. Ruins lives, takes root in people's hearts.

I think of how many are dealing with bitterness today and you're just—you're in prison. But God, the Bible says that God has come to set you free. Not only that, but notice it says in verse 5 we were redeemed why? Because we were stuck under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. So now, the new relationship you have with your God in heaven is as a father. A father.

You and I are redeemed to be a son or daughter, to be adopted. I was adopted, so I always like to look that I was adopted twice. I was adopted into a physical family, but I was also adopted into a spiritual family. And that's why the kiddos around the church, the foster care kids, the kids that were adopted, I always like to share when I hear that, that I was adopted too, and that there's a beautiful opportunity if they're not saved already, to be adopted into the family of God.

And that means you receive the full rights. Full rights. I at times get to attend these adoption ceremonies when I can make it, and I hear the judge—the judge does it all day, but you're just walking in for one time—and you hear the judge say "the full rights and heir," and then the parents say "Yes." And that's what God gives to you. You are a son and daughter of the King. Why? Because of Jesus.

It's the grace of God. You can't earn this, you can't deserve it, you can't keep it. It's yours by God's decree through the blood of Jesus Christ. It's your faith, God's power. Not only that, verse 6: And because you're sons, God has sent forth his spirit, the spirit of his son into your hearts crying out "Abba, Father." Abba, Daddy is really—you go around Israel, you'll hear this all the time.

You'll hear little kids "Abba, Abba, Abba, Abba." It's an affectionate term toward their dad or their grandfather. Abba. This is miraculous stuff. No longer are you worried about God condemning you and coming down hard on you and just erasing you from the planet, but now as a son or daughter that's adopted, you call him Dad. Sometimes when we're in our prayer meetings on Wednesday, we'll be with someone and that's how they address God.

They go "Oh, you can't address God—" No, no, that's a very intimate, close way. Abba. Not everybody relates to God that way. I meet people from time to time, they don't see God as Abba. "Well, you know, I have—I'm okay. You're a Christian, you're a pastor. Yeah, I'm okay with the man upstairs." What, bro? You living in an apartment? Like, you got a guy upstairs? What are you talking about?

He's not the man upstairs. He's God Almighty, holy, righteous, who at the fullness of time sent his son to save your soul. He's not the man upstairs. You're not even the man upstairs. The point Paul's making to these Gentile believers is you have it all by faith. Why would you choose to go back or choose the law? Why are you wanting to go back to bondage?

Don't go back. Enjoy all that is yours by adoption. If my parents would have never told me about my adoption, I wouldn't have known the difference. They were my parents. They raised me. They dealt with all my problems. I used to joke, my mom would be upset with me, but I used to joke that I would get in trouble so much that my mom would pull out all the adoption paperwork and pull out that receipt like CVS and turn it onto the back and find out what the return policy was.

She's like "I never said that!" I said, Mom, I'm joking, I know. It's my way of saying it was very hard on them to adopt me. I made life miserable for them for a lot of my growing up. And you know, God, he doesn't get such a great bargain with you either. We have all of our baggage and our spiritual growth and our problems. Even thinking about God as a father is hard for some of you because of the way you were raised.

I'm sorry that there's that barrier that's been between you and God because you had a bad dad, or an absent dad, or an abusive dad, or a dad that abandoned you. That's not God. That was a poor representation in your life. That you can trust God and you can grow in trusting him. He is trustworthy. At the right time, he sent his own son. God, a giver. God, a lover, caring for you and for me.

And so no longer are we slaves of religion; we're now sons and daughters of relationship. Don't trade it for anything. Don't let a man do that, don't let a church do that, don't let a religion do that to steal you away from the simplicity of your personal walk with Jesus, and enjoying what Jesus said. He came not to condemn, but to set us free. That's his own lips.

Host: That is Pastor Ed Taylor on Abounding Grace. He'll be right back with more. He'll share nine things we can enjoy as adopted sons or daughters of the King. If you joined us late or would just like to give this a second listen, go online to aboundinggraceradio.com or look for our program wherever you get your podcasts. Have you had a chance to download our Calvary Church app? Yes, this is another great way to take in the teaching of God's word.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Hey this is Pastor Ed and I want to let you know about my brand new book, Letting Go of Your Past. It's only a few months old, but it is being used in wonderful ways in so many lives. When we gave it to the publishers for their editing, they said, "Pastor, you need to add a couple of chapters." And so when I was praying about what chapters to add, I'm like, "Man, there's such a warfare that's attached to moving forward and receiving the healing and forgiveness of the Lord." Dealing with things like anger, resentment, bitterness, there's such a battle.

So you know the two chapters we added? The first one was eight ways the devil attacks you, and then the next chapter was eight ways to defeat the devil. And those two go together and they fit so well in this book on how to help you move forward. God doesn't want you stuck. And whether that's for you, whether that's for now or the future, or even a friend or a family member, be sure to get a copy. Get one for you, get one for someone else.

It's great for small groups; there's a little study guide involved. It's great for one-on-one discipleship. We're really blessed. I'm very happy with how this came out, and I'd love to get it in your hands. You can get it at our store here at the church, CalvaryStore.com, CalvaryStore.com. Or you can get it wherever you get books. It's available everywhere. And here's the thing: All the net proceeds go to missionaries. Isn't that cool? It's a double win. And there's an audiobook.

But thanks for supporting us and praying for us. All the resources here just continue to go out in the word, in worship, and so many lives are changed, and what an honor to be a part of it all.

Host: Again, that's "Letting Go of Your Past" by Pastor Ed. To order it today call us at 877-30-GRACE. That's 877-30-GRACE. Or go online to CalvaryCO.store. All right, now let's see what is ours as an adopted son or daughter of the King. Here is Pastor Ed once again.

Pastor Ed Taylor: Now, in our relationship with God, if you're taking notes, I want to give you nine things that you can enjoy. We could probably do 900, but I picked out nine that's consistent with this Bible study. If I talk too fast, as some have said, email me; I'll send it to you. People did last night, but it's better for you to write it down. But just consider, here are some things that are yours right now as an adopted son or daughter of the King. You ready?

Number one, you have new life, Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. Number two, you are no longer under a curse, Galatians chapter 3 verse 13. Number three, you have a new family, Galatians chapter 4 verse 15. Number four, you and I, we have access, direct access to the Father, Romans chapter 8 verse 15. We are heirs and joint heirs with Christ. We learned that today, but also Romans chapter 8 verse 17.

We have the Holy Spirit. Learned that today, Romans chapter 8 verse 16. We are free from condemnation, Romans chapter 8 verse 1. Listen, if you live a life of always beating yourself up, then you just know you're not living in grace in that moment. There's no condemnation in Christ. There's correction, there's instruction, there's conviction, but there is not, there is not, there is not condemnation.

Number eight, we have spiritual authority and victory, Luke chapter 10 verse 19. A victory. I was just thinking this morning, I was meditating on this one, number eight, the false identity of victimhood has ripped so many people off from what God has for you. And that's just something that you need to consider. Because if you're walking around always the victim, always the victim, always the martyr, then you're missing out.

Let the Lord give you victory. Number nine, we all have a future that's secure in Jesus, 1 John chapter 3 verse 2. Amen?

Host: Next time on Abounding Grace, Pastor Ed emphasizes we are already free in Jesus, so live like it. Abounding Grace is brought to you by Calvary Church Colorado here in Aurora.