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Wonderful. Thank you Desiree. Thank you Dave also for praying. If you all keep your Bibles

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open right where they are, I think that will be really helpful for you. Let me pray before

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we go further. Heavenly Father, thank you so much that we can be here, that we can open

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up Bibles and have you speak your words to us. We pray that as we look at it further,

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that you will help us to remember this passage and let us be changed by it. We ask this through

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your Son. Amen. How do you know that you are a Christian? Okay, so for some of us that's

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not a big issue. We don't spend a lot of time thinking about that. For others of us, this

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question is a really big deal. For those people it doesn't feel enough to say, well,

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well I believe in Jesus so I'm saved. For those people the question is more, well, how

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do I know that I have faith? Or maybe even more to the point, for some people it's how

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do I know that I have enough faith? Do I need to pray more? Do I need to read the Bible

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more? Do I need to somehow believe harder? It's just that for some of us we need something

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concrete to make us sure. We need something that we can kind of think, well, if I do such

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and such, if I do this then that will be enough. I can be sure that I'm saved. And I think

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that regardless of whether you're one of the people who are kind of concerned and fret

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about that or whether you're not, I think that the question of how do we express our

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faith and how do we show our faith? What makes us Christian? I think that whatever answer

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we come up with for that question shapes us as Christians as we kind of build our lives

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around that identity. And I'm going to talk today a little bit about what shapes us. I'm

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going to use this word shapes and what I mean by that is that very often in our lives there's

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whether we're, you know, no matter what kind of a life that we live, there's often one

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thing or a couple of things that kind of everything else gets defined around those

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things. Everything else has their meaning based on one aspect. So once Tudor the guy

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in maths who was training to be an Olympic swimmer, right, he was only 13 or 14 but that

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was his ambition. He really wanted to swim in the Olympics. And everything else in his

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life related to that goal. All right, so, you know, his approach to how he spent his

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time, his approach to school, his friends, his diet, his whole life was shaped around

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swimming. And I think that however we think that we need to express our salvation as Christians

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shapes our lives as Christians. And I take it that that is what we want to do. What most

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of us here today want to do, we want our lives shaped by our Christian faith. We want our

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lives shaped by the gospel. And we want to get that right so that our lives are shaped

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in the right way. Maybe that's not you. Maybe you're just here because, you know, someone

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dragged you along. You've got a friend who brought you or family. If that's the case,

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that just means that you have an awesome friend. It also means that whatever I say here, you

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can hold them accountable for and whatever's in the Bible you can question them about.

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Now, Michael has been taking us through this book and he's been going through Paul's kind

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of extended argument against this group called the Judea Isis who are teaching that Christians

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need to be circumcised and take on other aspects of the law. And here in this part we've come

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to a section where Paul kind of sums up everything that he's been saying before he kind of then

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goes on and continues on with his argument again. And if you're able to remember right

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back, if you can remember back to chapter one where this argument started, you might

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remember that I preached on the gospel. And at that time we said that the gospel is the

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message about God's kingdom, the message that the kingdom has come and that it can be summarised

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by saying that our God reigns. And at the time we said that that's the kind of the centre

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of the gospel, but there's a number of ideas that are kind of bolted onto that central

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idea like the fact that the king of that kingdom is Jesus. He's the divine saviour and his

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death brings us forgiveness through our faith. Right? So that is that there's not only a

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kingdom, not only is the kingdom come, but that God is welcoming us into that kingdom.

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And as we said at the time, the Judea Isis are undermining that gospel by suggesting

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somehow that Christ's work isn't enough to save us. It isn't quite a free offer that

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there's something more that we need to do. And what we're going to do today, now we've

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kind of come this far in the argument, is to kind of look back and to drill down further

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into that idea. And it's worth noting as we kind of think about this letter to the Galatians

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that Paul's opposition aren't saying that we are saved by the law instead of faith.

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They're not saying that. They're not saying that one's saving us, that we're saved by

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law, but we're not saved by faith. They're actually saying that you're saved by both.

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So we need faith and we need to follow the law. So it's not just one verse the other,

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it's about whether we're saved by faith only or are we saved by faith plus works or plus

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works of the law. And as Protestants, we're very quick to accuse other forms of Christianity

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as being works-based. Okay, but most of the time that's not actually fair on the people

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that we're criticizing. And it's not actually all that helpful because you're saying that

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to somebody and they're thinking, no, but my church does teach faith. And if you actually

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look at a lot of those examples, what they're actually teaching is that you do have to believe

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in Jesus, but added to that, there are certain legal requirements that need fulfilling. And

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so the issue is whether the works of the law are necessary as well as faith. And sometimes

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actually we as Protestants need to take the log out of our own eyes. And what Paul is

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saying here is not just that we must believe by faith instead of works, but he's saying

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that our lives shouldn't be shaped by the law. Okay, that is, we can't say that we're

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saved by faith and then have lives that are actually shaped by the law. And I think that

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that's a frightening thought for some of us. It's kind of at least it's kind of disconcerting

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because it cuts us a drift. Okay, it makes sense for us, it makes sense for so many of

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us to sort of hang ourselves on something external so that we can feel saved or somehow

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prove that we're serious about the Christian life. And for some of the Christians in Galatia,

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they were hanging onto circumcision or food laws or other aspects of the laws to show

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their salvation. But Paul says that they are foolish, right? He calls them foolish for doing

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this. And he says that those people who are teaching such a thing are under God's curse.

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And what we start to see in this passage is that Paul wants us to live lives that are

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shaped by our relationship with God as Father. And we do this, we live this life shaped by

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our relationship as we obey his Son and we do that within the power of the Holy Spirit.

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In other words, our lives need to be shaped by the Gospel. And when we get into the passage,

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we're going to see that the Gospel here is shaped in terms of God's missional work.

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So God is a missional God. He is sending his Son into the world, he has sent his Son and

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he's sending his spirit into the world in order that we're adopted. So our lives then

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are shaped around the Trinitarian work of the Gospel. And what Paul gives us in this

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passage is a really powerful picture of how it works and he does this based on ideas of

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family and heirs and slaves. And what he does is he sets up a contrast between on one hand

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being under the guardianship of the law or being an adopted child. So what we need to

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do is we need to get into this passage and we're going to kind of look at that contrast.

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So firstly, the guardianship of the law and that's going to be in verses one to three.

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And then we're going to look at kind of God's mission of adoption and that's in roughly

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verses four to seven. And then what I'm going to do, so we're going to look at that in the

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passage and then I'm going to recover those ideas. So we're going to kind of do kind of

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both halves twice. And in the second half we're going to look at kind of our relationship

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with the law and then how to practically live our lives as people who are shaped by being

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children of God. So have a look at the passage there. In verses one to three, Paul, what he

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says there is that being an heir is basically the same as being a slave while the heir is

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under a guardian. Okay, so meaning what he means there is that the law is a guardian

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or the law was a guardian over the people for a certain time so that it's temporary.

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It wasn't the kind of the final idea or the last solution. And in order to get what Paul

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means there, we need to understand a bit about Paul's world. Okay, so if you kind of stop

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for a moment and kind of think like what picture do you have in your mind if I talk about slaves?

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So if you hear slave, what do you think of? What do we generally think of? And I think

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what we, if I'm guessing what's in your mind, we tend to think slave and we kind of think

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of Egyptians oppressing the Israelites or something like that. Or we think of Roman slaves kind

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of in a galley rowing or being forced into this kind of thing. Or maybe we kind of think

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about slavery in the South of America or something like that. And all those images of slavery

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are true. That is the experience of slavery for many people. But in Paul's world slaves

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can also be useful and valued members of the family business. And their children can often

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actually be brought up within the family unit. So the image of saying, Paul's saying there's

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no difference between being the slave or being the heir is not quite as jarring as

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at first sounds to us. Certainly Paul's kind of exaggerating a bit. It is obviously better

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to be the heir. But it's not quite as harsh as it might first sound to us. So the situation

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might be that the father needs to go away. So he might go away in the remit that they

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don't have airplanes, they don't have quick travel. So the father might be going away

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on business for an extended amount of time. And he has his son who's the heir of the estate

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he's going to take over. So he might want to put him in charge. But say that the son

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is underage, then he may put a guardian over him for a certain time and then say the guardian

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is there until the son reaches and then the father gets to decide on the age. So that

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could be the kind of situation or perhaps that the father is left in his will that the

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estate and that's kind of like a family business gets left to the heir. He's going to be the

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next manager of it. But he says he can't take that over until a certain age. So that's the

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kind of thing that we're talking about. And what we need to see then is that it's not

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a terrible situation to have a guardian over you. It's not the ideal, and that's the same

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as having the law. It wasn't terrible that the Israelites were under the law, it's just

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not the ideal. And once you took over as the heir of the estate, it's very unlikely you're

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going to go backwards and put yourself under the guardian again. So Paul's saying that

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the Jewish law is like the guardian, that the people were under for a certain time and

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then in verse 3 he says that that's like being under the basic principles of the world.

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So the law is intended for the world, but it's not the ultimate reality. It's the shadow

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and we now have that reality through Christ. So our lives shouldn't be shaped by the law.

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So now we're actually in that new period of time, the period that's set by the Father,

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so he's under the guardian until the time that the Father sets. And so here we kind

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of need to move on to the next part, which is verses 4 to 7. And notice in this section,

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as we've said, that there are two sendings, if you like. So the Father sends twice. So

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the first is that the Father sends the Son. So have a look at verses 4 and 5. He says,

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but when the time had fully come, so this is it, we're in that time, God sent his Son,

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born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law that we might receive

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adoption to sonship. Right? God is a missional God. He sends his Son, the divine Son, takes

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on humanity, he's born under the law, so that he can rightfully redeem us from under the

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law. And the word redeem there is really fitting to fit in with the rest of his image, because

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it's the language of releasing a slave. So the Jewish people were under the custodianship

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of the law. When that was the case, they were slaves to the world. Right? But Christ redeemed

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us from that by fulfilling and surpassing the law. And he did that so that we're no

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longer under a guardian, but we become full heirs of the kingdom as we're adopted. So

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notice here the way that Paul has created two categories. You're either a slave or

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under a guardian, that's one category, or you are a son or an heir. Okay? You can't

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be both at the same time, because they're in different time periods. And because if

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Jesus redeemed us out of one category, we can't be under both. And what the Judea isers

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in Galatia are doing, and what we must not do in our lives, is act as if we're under

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both categories. Right? So that's the first sending. The Father sends the Son to redeem

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those under the guardianship of the law. And then that shows us then that our lives shouldn't

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be shaped by the law. And the second is in verses six and seven. So he says, because

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you are his sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls

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out Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are

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his child, God has made you also an heir. Right? So the Father sends the Holy Spirit

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and he calls the Spirit. Notice there that he calls the Spirit, the Spirit of the Son.

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Right? And he does that so that we get the connection between the Spirit and sonship.

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Okay? The Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not just the Spirit of the Father, but he's also the

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Spirit of the Son. So it makes sense then that when we receive that Spirit, that's linked

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to our adoption. Okay? So Paul says that when the Father sends the Spirit of the Son into

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our hearts, then it calls out Abba, Father. Right? Which is simply a way of saying that

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the Spirit in our hearts is a witness that we are adopted. Okay? It's having the Spirit

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in us that allows us to know God as our Father. Right? He's not just an abstract God. He's

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not just a God out there, but our personal Father. Okay? And a Father then who we are

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in relationship with. And it also allows the Father to see us as his personal sons because

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we have the Spirit of his Son, the perfect Son within us. So it makes sense then that

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God the Father recognizes us with his Spirit in us as the true sons, the true heirs of

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the kingdom, just as Christ is the King of the kingdom. So that means then that the

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primary function of the Holy Spirit is not to make us more spiritual or to make us more

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charismatic, but it's actually a witness that we are saved. In fact, it's the means by which

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we are saved. It is what joins us to God the Father and brings us into relationship with

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him. So this then answers the original question. How do we know that we're saved? Right? It's

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not that we keep the law. It's that we have the Holy Spirit. And how do we know that we

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have the Holy Spirit? Well, the way we know we have the Holy Spirit is that we cry out

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to the Father. If you want God to be your Father, if that's the person you cry out to,

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then you are a Christian. You wouldn't want God as your Father if you didn't have the

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Spirit of the Son in you. If you want the Son as your Lord, then you are a Christian.

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That is the work of the Holy Spirit in you. So there are some of us there at that point

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who are just sitting there and saying, well, awesome, that's great. But there are others

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of us still. So we all think differently, don't we? And there are other people still

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who are saying, well, yeah, that's great. But what do I actually do? What does this

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actually mean? And this brings us to the final section. So I said before that we're going

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to look at the passage and then talk about these two topics again. So we want to talk

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about our relationship with the law. And then we want to think about what it means then

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to be adopted children. So firstly, thinking about the relationship to the law. So the

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passage means, as we've seen, that our lives should not be shaped by the law. So then what

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would that look like? What would it look like if our lives were shaped by the law? Okay.

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Well think of the swimmer. Remember the guy that I was talking about that I tweeted? Well,

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if you asked him something like, why don't you spend more time with your mates? Then

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the answer is, it's because he's focused on getting to the Olympics. If you asked him,

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why do you have a tutor? He would say, well, it's because I get behind in my homework and

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I need a tutor to catch up because he spends all his time swimming up and down the pool.

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If you asked him about his diet, well, the answer is, it's because he's focused on the

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Olympics. And in the same way, if someone was to look at your life and then asked you

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why do you do such and such, if the answer was that it is to fulfill the law, then perhaps

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you are living according to the principles of this world. That you're not living according

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to the ultimate reality that came about at the time that was set by the father. And that's

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the time he sent his son. But Paul's not anti-law, nor is anywhere in the New Testament. And what

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is right and wrong never changes. So if something is morally wrong in the Old Testament, that

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doesn't change. It's still morally wrong today. So the law remains God's moral standard.

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So thinking about that kind of in a negative way, what it means then is that because it's

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God's moral standard and tells us right and wrong, it should bring us to repentance and

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show us our need for the Savior. But on a kind of a positive side of that, like the other

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way round of thinking about that, we need to think that if God is unchanging and God

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is unchanging, then the law still reveals God. So if we were to ask the question of how

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do we know the father, what is the father's will for us, then one place that we can find

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that is in the law. So the law remains useful to us today, but it is our guide, not our

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guardian. So our Christian lives are not shaped by anything less than the law, but they're

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shaped by something that's beyond it. And this is where we get to kind of working out

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our adoption. So whereas the Jewish life prior to Christ, the Jewish life is law-centered,

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the adopted Christian life needs to be Christ-centered. So remember in this passage, our salvation

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is defined in terms of two sendings. Remember that? So the father sends the son to redeem

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us and he sends the Holy Spirit into our hearts as a witness. And this means that the Christian

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life is defined by the teachings and the example of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

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And because God's act of sending was so incredibly and radically loving, it means that our lives

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should be marked by radical love. And that's exactly what Paul does. So he gets through

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this argument in the letter of Galatians and then he applies it. And so just have a little

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look forward in that. If you were to turn over to chapter 5 and verse 6, he says, for in

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Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. That has been his argument,

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right? That's summing up his argument. Then he says, the only thing that counts is faith

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expressing itself through love. Then in 5.13 he says, you, my brothers and sisters, were

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called to be free. Again, that's his argument. But do not use your freedom to indulge the

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flesh, rather serve one another through love. Right? So you see that the father sending the

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son and the spirit reveals to us a way of living that the law could never reveal. Right?

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So the law can tell me that I need to love my neighbour, but it cannot tell me and cannot

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tell me and this is in Jesus' words, he says, love one another as I have loved you. That

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is new and that is the consequence of the gospel. Right? Love one another as I have

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loved you and then what does he go and do? He goes out and dies for us. The gospel teaches

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us that true love is a radical act. The law can tell me to tithe, it can tell me that

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I need to have concern for the poor, but the cross teaches me that I need to get in the

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gutter with the broken and the addicted and the unlovely. The law can tell me to love

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God, but it can't clearly show me that God loved me first, that he sent his only son

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when I was still his enemy. The law can tell me that I should give the best of everything

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to God, but it cannot say, as Jesus said, so this is Matthew 16, 24, Jesus says, whoever

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wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. And

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what does he do? That's his words. Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves

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and take up their cross and follow me. And then he literally goes out and carries his

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cross to die for us. So the Christian life should be a radical act of loving self-denial.

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So do not waste your lives trying to satisfy the law. Don't waste your lives living according

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to the principles of this world. Don't waste it trying to indulge yourselves. Don't waste

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your life on building empires. Don't waste it on building your reputation or your prestige.

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Don't live for the world's desires. Live lives that are shaped by Christ and that reflect

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that you have God's spirit in your heart. Let me pray. Heavenly Father, you are such

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a loving God. You have loved us and served us beyond anything that we deserve and anything

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that we can imagine. Please help us to live lives as your children that reflect your love.

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Amen.