Faster Pastor and Heirs of Grace [Part 2]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. The proclamation of the Gospel, Paul says, is an announcement that your salvation and your sanctification had nothing to do with you yourself being good enough and has everything to do with God at work in you.

That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear the teaching today in the series Galatians as presented at Rinaldo Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month made to Alan Wright Ministries. So as you listen to today's message, you can go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program. But now, let's get started with today's teaching.

Here is Alan Wright. I think the majority of scholarship and the point of agreement that I would say is more of a consensus on this is what Paul is referring to here is something more dramatic than that because he's talking about enslavement. If you're enslaved to something, he's talking about a power. And so that is best to interpret this is what Paul is speaking of as elementary spirits of the world and by this he means demonic powers, which raises the stakes of what is at hand, what he's talking about because he's saying we were enslaved if you were under the law and living under a system of law. He is saying that there is a form of this that is like an enslaved condition to demonic persecution in your life.

Now this is very important to get this straight. Paul has already told us in Galatians that the law is good and the law was given by God. So he's not saying now in Galatians 4 that the law is bad and that the law was given by demons. Instead, what he's saying is that the good gift of the law, why was it good? It's a revelation of God's holiness. It points us to our need of Jesus Christ. The law he said was added because of transgressions.

It pointed out to us how futile it is to try to save ourselves and how much we needed grace and prepared us to receive the gospel of grace. The law is good and Christ didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it and usher in a new covenant of grace. So he's not saying that the law is evil or that the law was given by evil entities.

So what is he saying? The law that was meant to draw us to Jesus, if we stay under it as a system for our lives, that law instead will become the weaponry of the principalities of hell. And this is something that you can chronicle pretty well throughout the whole metanarrative of the Bible is that that Satan himself is a legalist and one of the greatest points of spiritual persecution you'll ever encounter in your life is going to be surrounding the matter of your inability to keep the law. So what happens is that Satan whose name means accuser in all of the principalities of hell operate according this basic principle to seek to convince you that you do not have an inheritance because of your sin your failure and your folly. He's an accuser because what is the accusation? The accusation always will be in one form or another you didn't keep the law and therefore you don't deserve to be blessed.

And what so many people do in their attempts to have inward peace is that they attempt to just live a better life. I'll do better next time. I'll be a better person. I'll quit being impatient. I'll quit losing my temper.

I'll quit lusting whatever it is in order to feel better about themselves. Not realizing that when you do that and when you talk that way that I'm gonna feel better about myself because I'm gonna try to keep the law that you have actually placed yourself what Paul says under the law. And that's the position that's the place where where the tempter's snare comes. The weaponry the tools of the of the elementary spirits that Paul's speaking of are essentially this. The legalistic the law giving accusatory condemning voice is essentially to say you have not kept the law and therefore you are disqualified. And what the gospel does is absolutely strip all such temptation of all of its power. It's like it's like when you come up under grace the enemy's gun has no bullets as all the ammunition is stripped away from an accuser if there's nothing to accuse you of. The answer the answer for the peace the serenity the passion of your soul for God is not to hear the accuser's voice say you haven't done enough for God and you ought to be ashamed of yourself and therefore you stand condemned and unblessed. The answer instead is the proclamation of the gospel which Paul says is an announcement that your salvation and your sanctification had nothing to do with you yourself being good enough and has everything to do with God at work in you. That it is God through Jesus Christ who saved you and it is his grace that is sanctifying you. That in other words what you've been invited into beloved is not another system of law that's just called new covenant you're called into a new covenant of grace wherein you live by a new reality that you have been reckoned by God through the shed blood of Jesus to be the righteousness of Jesus Christ so that when the enemy's tempter's voice comes to you and accuses you and says you have no inheritance you can't draw near to God you can't claim his promises you can't live victoriously because look at all your failures you have to turn back to that voice and say it can't be taken away from me because it didn't come by me it came by God and so only God can take it away it's a great gospel there's so much at stake and so the air is not subject to the accuser's voice in the same way that the orphan is and this is why we grow up which is why we need each other it's why we keep reminding each other some years ago we had an outreach event down at rupert bell park and one of the things that we were doing was we had given we were giving away bikes to little kids and it was just that's just one of the most fun things you can ever do is just just find some kids that maybe never had a bike and don't have much chance to get in one and we were able to we some people worked hard there were some also some wonderful gifts came in so they were not old shabby bikes they were new bikes they'd gone to the store gotten these bikes and i just remember this picture of this one this one little boy he could if he was maybe four at most five and we had some system where you got a number and then you get a bike it was praise god it worked out there were enough bikes for all the kids but this he was one of the first ones that he came up and and they called the number he came up brought his number and he got to pick out his bike and he went and got one that just fit him head training wheels shiny little bike i know it's his first bike look at that little boy's face as he was wheeling that thing over towards his mom it's just priceless and that moment of bliss that moment in which some seed was planted in the soil of a little boy's heart that maybe this world is a is a place where something could happen in your life that was just an act of grace maybe sometimes god just blesses you because he wants to bless you maybe you're not doomed to just be stuck in the same just a little seed like that and it lasted for no more than about a minute and a half because a man came walking over and i'm just guessing that he was the mother's boyfriend the way he acted and when the little boy looked up and saw the man the little boy's face his countenance melted and he had a look that was a look of fear and displeasure at looking at this man's face it was just his natural response whatever relationship had been there and the man said to him why are you looking at me like that i hate it when you look at me like that you better wipe that look off your face because i take that bike away from you give me that bike and i just grieved just grieved and prayed for the little boy but realize that this is the spiritual battle that's at hand that's alan wright and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you i love you i'll never forsake you wouldn't you feel cherished but what would happen if on the 100th day that same person said i'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up i don't think i'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if i don't measure up when might i be rejected when the judaizers infiltrated the galatian church the apostle paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law alan wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called galatians and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of god when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor alan's messages in an attractive cd album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership now we are in our final days of offering this special product call us at 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org today's teaching now continues here once again is alan wright every moment of grace is challenged by an accuser's voice who wants to tell you all that grace can just be taken right away from you it's a spiritual battle and paul's saying this is about more than just acting like a child and feeling like a slave this is about breaking out of subjection to the tyranny of your accuser break forth by the power of the gospel so he links this image to spiritual warfare and then he moves on to speak of the gift of god when the fullness of time verse four had come god sent forth his son born of a woman born of woman born under the law to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons all of the language in verse four has has its subject god god sent god redeems and god and god adopts when you hear me talk and speak so much about the emphasis of the gospel on what god has done for you rather than always talking about what you can do for god it is not to say that what we do doesn't matter it matters very much but it is to say that the order of events is essential because only when you see that god initiated your salvation and that god sent his son in the fullness of time and that god redeemed you and that god adopted you until you get that image in your mind you'll always feel as though it's you holding on to god but the image of the scripture is of god holding on to you and what paul is trying to convince the galatians of here he wants to convince us of is that we are secure in god's grace it changes the way we live and feel and pillow our head at night it changes our expectation it builds our hope and our lives count on this the power of the gospel is at stake god is the subject he is the initiator he is the actor and we are the recipients and receiving changes everything in our lives and makes us a people who are totally sold out totally devoted totally longing to follow him in every part but only because of what he has done for us so now paul changes the image from a child who's who hasn't had access to his inheritance and he changes the image now to join with this the whole picture of adoption and the act of adoption was a a magnificent uh uh legal transaction in in paul's day sometimes a wealthy man had no heir and sometimes he would actually select one of his own slaves and adopt as a son the reason for the adoption was so that the inheritance could be released so when you're adopted this image conveys it means that you now have this intimate access to this man who previously you would not have had you may have even been a slave but now you're like a son and you have access to an inheritance you were adopted because you are loved because you're wanted because you have a destiny and you're adopted because you have a rich father in heaven who wants to pour out and a spiritual inheritance into your life and leave a legacy for others and touch the world through you that's the image that paul is using here and i'd like to pause and and just make a brief kind of parenthetical comment about the the language that you see here in the esv as in many of the translations that says adoption as sons because we've learned in recent years that there is something that is important about being sensitive in our language about gender so that we do not reinforce any idea of male superiority because we have just read that in christ there's no male or female and so we have sought and to to to change language that to be inclusive we say sons and daughters or our children but here the language remains sons and i think there's an important purpose for this and it's because in the context paul was writing the firstborn son was the delight not only the family but was the honor of society the firstborn son would receive a double portion of inheritance and a special blessing from his father and what paul is saying here is inclusive to men and women that you because you're adopted you're adopted like sons because the inheritance flowed in that day inheritance flowed through the firstborn son what he's saying whether male or female understand that this is about your position it's like we are all the firstborn son you're adopted for that purpose wouldn't that change everything if i could go deep inside wouldn't that change everything about how you view life you're like god's firstborn son adopted so that he could put an inheritance into you the plan of god has always been to make us heirs to give us an inheritance a territory a realm of spiritual influence and this intimacy that we have with god is conveyed through the expression that our heart cries out abba we don't really have a good way to translate this probably it would be dada it would be it would be like daddy but not in the sense of just just how casual it might seem but in how intimate it is and how bold it is and this is the way in which you can know that your sons because your sons god has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts and and so the spirit paul says elsewhere is bearing witness to our spirit that we are sons so verse seven so you are no longer a slave but a son like a firstborn son and if a son then an heir through god the plan of god has always been since sin entered the world to find a way to convince us that we are heirs of god there has been a progressive revelation and many hints and shadows and prophetic visions and words that all pointed to the coming of christ when adam and eve were in the garden they were given an assignment and they were blessed and they that they had dominion in the earth they were told that that that they were to have a form of rulership under god in the earth and they were to be fruitful and multiply in other words that they were to have a place of governance and be of great blessing to the whole earth and this was god's plan for humanity and has never changed but when sin came into the world and adam and eve forfeited their paradise god didn't thwart his plan but he began to unveil a redemptive plan with the question at hand will i ever be able to convince my people who belong to me that they are also my heirs or will they since sin is in the world forever doubt that have no assurance of it and therefore live more like orphans so he comes to abraham and he makes abraham an incredible promise and he says that you will have a territory you'll have a land you'll have governance and he says and you're going to be fruitful and you're going to be a blessing that you're going to have a son the same promise in other words that was spoken to adam and eve is reinforced now through a covenant that is made with abraham but the question that continues is will i really be a blessing am i really an heir even abraham and sarah even abraham the man of faith they question it they bring in hagar they wind up with ishmael but isaac is born and so it is that god the the the god of abraham isaac and jay but continues to try to assure his people this is the image of jacob jacob was the second born and he didn't think that he would be an heir and so he stole and connived and deceived and lied his way into trying to grab an inheritance not knowing he'd already been predestined to be treated as though he were a firstborn the pattern just continues that the people of god when they fall into slavery god hears the cry of the poor and he delivers them and you very soon realize that the story is about more than a red sea parting and swallowing up the enemy that the story is also about how will this people live with their freedom will they be able to embrace their freedom or will they act like children like orphans and therefore no different than slaves for when they send people into the promised land to inspect it and spy out the land those spies come back with a bad report and essentially they say we can't take it you know what they're saying is that we're not heirs after all if they had believed it was theirs they would have taken it alan wright and today's teaching is faster pastor and heirs of grace from our series on galatians and alan will be back in a moment with additional insight on this for your life and our final word today unlock the power of blessing your life discover god's grace-filled vision for your life by signing up for alan wright's free daily blessing if you want to fill your heart with grace and encouragement get alan wright's daily blessing it's free and just a click away at pastor alan.org imagine for 99 days in a row someone tells you i love you i'll never forsake you wouldn't you feel cherished but what would happen if on the hundredth day that same person said i'm not sure you're good enough for me if you don't measure up i don't think i'll love you anymore wouldn't that one day contaminate the meaning of the other 99 days wouldn't one percent of conditional love poison the other 99 percent well just one percent of law is enough to spoil grace the tiniest bit of law can introduce an unlimited capacity for fear what if i don't measure up when might i be rejected when the judaizers infiltrated the galatian church the apostle paul was outraged and wrote a letter that describes the essence of the gospel of grace and why it must not be mixed with any form of law alan wright's 12 message audio series trumpets the power of the gospel in order to set you free and empower you with pure grace it's called galations and that's the gospel discover the purity and power of the grace of god when you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today we'll send you pastor alan's messages in an attractive cd album or through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership now we are in our final days of offering this special product call us at 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860 or come to our website pastor alan.org and you feel a lot of especially those who've grown up in the church we know how to we can sing the songs we can pray the prayers and sometimes if we're really honest we have to pinch ourselves do i really really believe this that i'm really an heir of grace that god is that good well you know it's often said that once the slaves came out of egypt the big question was could egypt come out of the slaves could they believe themselves heirs of a promised land and i think that's the the right shadow the right picture for us as christians as well yeah is i i think sometimes it's easier to believe well we're forgiven we're saved we'll go to heaven one day but to really start understanding that we who once were far from god are not only forgiven but we are adopted and made heirs but it's essential that we know that yeah yeah until we do i don't think we can live out the destiny that god has for us and that's why uh paul really wants to make this really important point we are heirs of the grace of life together today's good news message is a listener supported production of Alan Wright Ministries