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Bro. Otis Fisher
Galatians the fourth chapter. Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differs nothing from a servant, though he be Lord of all. There's a story told of Dr. Hitchcock of Sandwich, England, that he needed to go to a small village of Plymouth.
Walking was the only method that he had to travel, and there's about an hour and a half. That is, if he didn't get lost, it was an hour and a half. As he was approaching some dense woods, and his path was leading straight into them, he saw an elderly woman hanging up clothes.
He thought that perhaps she could assist him on his directions, and he approached her and said, dear lady, I am bound for Plymouth, and am I on the right path? Certainly, I'd be glad to help you. You just keep on the way you're headed, following this path until you're quite some way into the woods.
You will then come to a place where several paths cross. You must now decide which one of these paths seems most likely to bring me out at Plymouth. Then you just follow that way. So this is exactly what the good doctor did, and he arrived at his destination by the best possible route.
He followed what seemed to be right. We can learn from this story that we will just follow our own good instinct and listen to the Holy Spirit. We'll raise our family correctly. The key is good common sense, and the greater key is to have good common sense, for it also is a gift of God.
Verse 2,. But as under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father, all events are according to the Father. They are set from infinity past. Here we find God the Father has set a time in time, even though he himself is outside of time, that remains outside of time.
Why did he do this? Why did he set each individual's pathway before there was time? Why? Roger? Well, that's an obvious answer. Turn to Ephesians 1 11. Who has that? David? Read it. He works all things after the counsel of his will.
And you were right. It was according to his will. We understand these words, but do we really understand them? All things are after the counsel of his will. That takes in all of history, present, future, past, everything.
Everything is according to his will. Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. Now, the elements of the world, this is an old Jewish phrase, the principles of this world, the rudiments of this world,.
4. 4 -1. Got it? The apostle intimates that the law was not the science of salvation. The law is not the science of salvation. It was only the elements, or the alphabet of it. And in the gospel, this alphabet is composed into a most glorious system.
But in the alphabet is nothing in itself. If we had, does anyone have a dictionary with them? Well, if you had a dictionary, we could use the dictionary to explain law and the gospel. The gospel is the dictionary, but cannot be understood until the Lord made it understandable.
He made it understandable in our words. The gospel alone fills up these outlines. 4. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made under a woman, made under the law.
He utters and declares many things at once here. That is, that his tutorship was ended at this time, and moreover, that we were not sons by nature, but by adoption, and that in the Son of God, who therefore took upon him our flesh, that we were be made his brethren.
The time is said to be full when all parts are in place. Therefore, Christ could not have come either sooner or later. Did you ever wonder why Christ came when he did? He couldn't come at any other time.
Everything was in its place. Everything was pointed to that incident. To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. Go to verse 5 of this chapter. Let me see what, to redeem them under the law.
Excuse me, giving you Galatians, and we want Ephesians. I didn't think that sounded right. We do, don't we? Well, let me get out. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made under a woman, made under the law.
Genesis 49 10 tells us, the scepter shall not depart from Judea, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering of his people be. In Genesis 3 15 we have these words, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, between thy seed and her seed.
It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. John 1 14, and the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Hebrews 2 14, for as much then as the children were partakers of the flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil.
Matthew 5 17, think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Now five, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
I still think I'm teaching too many different books. In Matthew 20 and 28, each as the son of man came not to minister unto, but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many. To redeem them that were under the law.
Who was under the law? Everybody. Those that are under grace are not under the law. Everybody else is under law. Adoption. What is adoption? What is adoption? Jesse, what is adoption? You know what it is, but you can't explain it.
All right. The nature and condition of the true disciple is Christ who, by receiving the Spirit of God into their souls, became sons of God. We become a son of God by what? By adoption. Now, it also includes the blessed state looking for, in the future life, after the visible return of Christ from heaven.
Did you ever think about the adoption about in the future? We had to first be under the law in order to be adopted. We could not be the other way around. The law could not have existed second. It had to exist first.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the son of his Father into the hearts crying, Abba, Father. Abba means Father. It is the Spirit of Jesus, the Christ, that came forth to be in us. It is by this Spirit that we can call him Father.
Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. Now, when did God, individually, cause this to happen? Roger, when were you adopted? All right. All right.
Then you died before you were born. And you live even though you're dead. Wherefore, thou art no more a servant, but a son. When it pleased the Father to notify you, you became aware that you were a son.
He didn't make you a son then. He made you sons in Christ when he died on the cross, but you didn't know it. He made you a son or a child at exactly the right moment. Exactly. Do you understand that? At exactly the right moment.
Now, it may seem to you that you put it off and you struggled, you groaned, you fought against it and everything, but you didn't. That was just in your mind. At exactly the right moment. The Father made no mistakes when he sent forth the Spirit to dwell in your heart.
Eight. Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, you did service unto them, which by nature are no gods. Now, what is this no God? You know gods. Roger? They're not gods. You did service to them, but they were not gods.
Well, how can you do service to something you don't realize that you're doing service to it, David? Alright? We do that even though we don't know it. If you're not gods, you're worshiping not gods. Ephesians 2 .12 tells us that at that time we were without Christ, being alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
You don't have a choice to serve no gods or God. But now, after that you have known God, or rather are known of God in Christ, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Paul is explaining to these people that you are God. You're gods. You belong to him. You're children of him. You worship him. How dare you try to return to the old way? If you think about it, it doesn't even make sense.
Do you desire to be again in slavery? You observe days and months and times and years. How do we do that? One way. Alright? Reading the horoscope, and everything pertains to July the 4th. Alright. I'm afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you my labor in vain.
It looks like I've worked for nothing. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am. Now how was Paul? He admonishes them to be as he is. How is he? Joy? Alright. He is talking about the law. Be as I am. I'm free from the law.
I don't have to observe the law any longer. No longer does it hold me under its thumb. For I am as you are. Who are these people? Gentiles. These people are Gentiles. I am as you are. You have not injured me at all.
You haven't changed my status one bit. You know how through infirmity of the flesh I preached the gospel unto you at first. Paul had an infirmity. There's been lots of speculation about it because he never spelled it out.
I think he did, only it is not in so many words. In Corinthians 2 .3, and I was with you in weakness and fear and much trembling. And my temptation, or my ailment, which was in my flesh, you despised not, nor rejected, but received me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.
Where is then the blessedness you spoke of? For I bear you record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your own eyes and given them to me. I think this explains to us what his problem was.
It was his eyes. They have, in that part of the world, quite prominent an eye condition. That it limits the vision and restricts the sight in that it, I don't know what it is, I would say osmosis or osteomyelitis of the eye.
It was a bad disease. Am I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth? Seems as though Paul was absent from these people. And in the absence from them, he had grown strange to them. There were people on the field that were undermining Paul's teaching, saying Paul didn't tell you at all.
He didn't explain to you that it includes the law. You have to be circumcised as well as believe. Paul discovered that and has tried to correct it without going. He's going to have to go. They zealously affect you, but not well.
Ye, they would include you, that you might affect them. Now, they zealously affect you. They're working very, very hard to make you a better person, to get you on their side, but not well. Ye, they would exclude you from me, that you might affect them.
Matthew 6, 24, no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot both be under the law and under Christ.
Romans 6, 14, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace. Just about as strong as God could make it, as Paul could make it. First John 4, 4, you are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.
Who is it that's in the world? Satan, that they ought, that they might get you to leave off study of the Bible, join them in their make-believe church, to study or teach salvation by any way except in truth, except to study or teach salvation by any way except in truth, is an idolatry.
Galatians 4, 18, but it is good to be zealous, zealously affected, always in a good thing, and not only when I am present with you. When Paul was not with them, they were not as zealous for the truth as they should have been.
Does this show? Can a teacher tell when the students are studying and when they're not? Can a pastor tell when they're studying and when they're not? Can you tell when you're studying or not? My little children, of whom I prevail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.
Oh, how I long for the day when you grow up, and still have not been born, spending time walling around in the front end of your salvation. I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice, for I stand in doubt of you.
Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do you not hear the law? It is written, and Abraham had two sons, one by a bondwoman, the other by a free woman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise.
Do you remember the story? I hope so. One was by Hagar. They have caused the Jew trouble ever since the birth. One was by the free woman, Sarah. If men are disposed to have eternal life, does not he, God, have in every case disposed them?
Has God disposed you to have eternal life? Can't hear you. All right. Is it wrong for God to give grace? If it's right for him to give it, is it wrong for him to propose to give it? If it is right for him to propose to give it before today, all right.
Since he changes not, is it wrong for him to propose to give grace from eternity past to eternity future? All right. The basis upon which God elected this was not faith foreseen in them, because choice founded upon the foresight of good works is nothing more than choice.
In such case, it would not be of grace. You see, he chose to give grace before you were ever born. As McGee says, and I'm glad he did, because if he waited till I was born, I'd certainly not have qualified.
Luke 16, 15, and he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men? But God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. What's abomination mean, Greg?
Totally, totally against God. What was there in the elect themselves, what was there in those which attracted God's attention? What do you have? What one little thing do you have that attracted God to you?
Nothing? You sure there was nothing? Was it certain ventures they would, certain attributes they would possess? Was it they were generous hearted? Was it sweet temper? Any of you have a sweet temper? What about never telling a lie?
Well, what if they were just good? They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Matthew 19, 17, and he said unto them, Why callest thou me good?
There is none good but one, that is God. But if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. Fred, was it their good works that attracted God? Was it because they had a zeal after God? They are all gone out of the way.
They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Was it because God foresaw that they would believe? You are sure now. Greg is sure. Is anybody else? Did you finally believe?
Who said no? You did not finally believe? Who is talking? I cannot see that far. Well, then how did you become saved? Now somebody else is talking. Well, what scripture says that he gave you the belief?
Where is that in the Bible? Philippians 4. Somebody look that up. Read it. Well, I guess I cannot argue with that. He gave us the belief. Would you believe it? Ephesians 2, 1,. And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.
If you did not believe, June, how did you believe? You of yourself did not believe. Even if you say you do, you did not. John 17, 1,. These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come.
Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify you, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, and thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
Now, Greg, we had to be given to Jesus by the Father, is that right? And this is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the earth, and have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
What was the work that he gave Jesus to do, Greg? And now, O Father, glorify thou with thy name, with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Is Jesus eternal? How do you know that?
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Thou gavest them me. You see the importance there?
Now, they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
I pray for them. I pray not for the world. Why didn't he pray for the world? For God so loved the world. Why didn't he pray for the world? This is a world system. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou gavest me, for they are thine.
425. For this Agar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to Jerusalem, which now is, and is the bondage of her children. But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of all. For it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that travailest not, for the desolate have many more children than she which hath no husband.
Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Now we're related to Abraham, how? By adoption. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it now is.
Even so it now is. What's that mean? Roger? Alright, it continues today. Did I say no? For it is written, Rejoice thou barren that bearest not, break forth and cry thou that travailest not, for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath a husband.
I think I did say no. She has a husband is in relation to Jesus and Father. There are many more people in the earth that serve Satan than there are that serve God. Thank you. Nevertheless, what saith the scripture?
Cast out the bondwoman and her son, for the son of the bondwoman shall not be the heir with the son of the free woman. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman but of the free. Just that simple.
I hear very little truth being taught today outside of this church. If you do preach the truth, you will be criticized for it. Have any of you discovered that's true? People insist that they also do something.
They insist that they have to do something to seek or to seek something or pray something through or go through some ceremony in order to get something. We never got anything without a price tag to it.
I did not get when he came into my heart, most people that are called Christian, that unless we go and tell them that we'll die and go to hell. Have you ever heard from anybody that if you do not tell them they'll die and go to hell?
Now, we tell them, but you don't have to do that to keep them from going to hell. We'll tell them because we want to, because we want to serve God. That their believing is based on what we can say. To say or believe this is hogwash.
It's just called God a liar. Well, with much stumbling I have made it through. Is there a word from anybody? Any questions? No questions? Yes. That's right. Absolutely. And you can tell them about Christ without ever saying a word.
Use words if necessary. Jesse, would you dismiss us please?