Pastor Crawford's sermon emphasizes the significance of grace in the believer's life, particularly in the context of understanding one's identity as a child of God. He references Galatians chapter four to illustrate the transition from the Old Testament law to the grace offered through Jesus Christ. By examining the relationship between the law and grace, Pastor Crawford reminds listeners that they do not gain favor with God through their actions but through faith in Christ alone. He highlights the importance of recognizing Jesus as the promised Messiah who redeems humanity from sin, reiterating that salvation comes not from adherence to law but from a personal relationship with Jesus. This episode serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative impact of grace and the hope it provides to believers as they navigate their spiritual journey.

Takeaways:

• Pastor Crawford emphasized the importance of grace in the believer's life, reminding them that they are saved through faith in Jesus Christ, not by their own works.
• He discussed the transition from the Old Testament law to the New Testament grace, illustrating how believers are no longer bound by the burdensome rituals of the law.
• The sermon highlighted the significance of Jesus Christ's birth, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies and representing God's plan for redemption through His Son.
• Crawford encouraged the congregation to embrace their identity as children of God, emphasizing the personal relationship believers have with God through the Holy Spirit.
• The upcoming Christmas messages will focus on the names of Jesus found in Isaiah, which reflect His character and mission as the promised Messiah.
• Pastor Crawford reiterated that salvation is a gift of grace, accessible to all who believe, reinforcing the message of hope and redemption in Christ.

The choir sang twice.

So no special this morning.

I enjoyed the choir, didn't you?

Amen.

And again, enjoy this time of the year.

And turn if you win your Bibles to Galatians chapter four.

I will say after getting do some reading and studying this week, maybe a little more than usual, I'm going to finish up the book of Joshua the last Sunday of this month and the first Sunday of the new year.

I really am going to look forward to it.

We will Preach on Joshua 14.

We've already preached Joshua 24.

We'll come back to Joshua 14 to our theme verse.

On the last Sunday morning of this year and then the first Sunday of the new year, we're going to preach a sermon on the self life.

It will also be drawn from Joshua.

But what it'll be is it'll be a conglomeration of the book of Joshua and part of the book of Ephesians.

And so pray for me as I study for that one.

That subject is a huge subject in the Bible and it really does come down to dying to self and surrendering to him, holy unto the Lord also.

Most of our Christmas messages this year will be out of Isaiah 9.

We'll be covering again the names the Bible says he shall be called.

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Father, Prince of Peace.

We've covered two or three of them over the years, but we'll cover the rest of them this year.

So we'll preach next Sunday morning on the names that he prophesied to be.

Then the next Sunday morning and the next Sunday night we'll spend some time and finish up there on the names that the Messiah would be called, that the baby Jesus.

Would be called.

And I do look forward to that.

So those will be the Christmas messages.

We will follow up.

I'm just giving you heads up.

All right, so the book of Daniel will finish in the new year.

In the new year, on Sunday nights there'll be three more messages in the book of Daniel, the new year.

And so that's kind of where we're at when it comes to sermon.

Whatever, if you even care.

Because some of you looked at the bulletin this morning and go, he's not going to preach that anyway.

All right.

Galatians, chapter four.

We have preached on many times.

Again, speaking of Jesus Christ, I want to remind you that the book of Galatians written by Paul was written in order to combat externalism.

It was.

It was written by Paul to remind the Jews who had come to Christianity not to go back to Judaism, not to put themselves back under that Jewish worship system, the Old Testament covenant, the Old Testament law.

And so he is.

He's pleading with them.

He is.

And not just pleading with them.

He's presenting his case to them.

He said, hey, you started out by grace, a continuing grace.

And I want to just encourage you this morning.

We started out in grace, continuing grace.

We don't have to go back to that.

So many times we find ourselves trying to gain favor with God by what we do.

I'm telling you, you don't gain favor with God by what you do.

You gain favor with God through Jesus Christ.

By believing and trusting in him and him alone and his life, his death and his resurrection.

Look at Galatians 4:1.

Paul says.

Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from.

From a servant, though he be lord of all, but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the Father.

All right, so he's making an analogy here.

He's illustrating for us Old Testament versus New Testament relationship with God and with the Bible and with the law.

Even so we.

All right, so the New Testament Christians are.

Now he's still referring back.

He's making this analogy about them being children.

Even so we, when we were children, old Old Testament, under the law, were in bondage under the elements of the world.

Now it all changes, Verse four.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.

And because ye are sons.

Right?

Children of God, men, women, boys and girls who've accepted Christ as Savior.

God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.

Aren't you thankful for the Holy Spirit?

Crying abba, Daddy.

Father, wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Jesus Christ is our big brothers.

If you're saved this morning, you know Jesus Christ is your Savior.

You are a child of God.

You're an heir, joint heirs with Jesus Christ.

He truly is our big brother.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father.

Lord, as we look at this passage once again, may we be reminded of the importance of grace in our life.

That you've bestowed upon us the importance of the Holy Spirit and God just again to not only start in grace, but to finish in grace.

Lord, we love you and we thank you in Jesus name.

Amen.

That child born in Bethlehem, Jesus Christ, the Messiah, changed everything.

Understand that In Genesis chapter 1, 2 and 3, we had the fall of mankind and Adam.

And because of Adam's sin, the first man that God created because of his sin.

He got us into a big mess.

The Bible says because of his sin, death passed upon all men, all mankind.

For all have sinned.

We are all sinners.

Because Adam sinned.

Again.

All of us are sinners, as is written.

There is none righteous.

No, not one.

For all have sinned to come short of the glory of God because of Adam.

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all men.

For all have sinned.

First Corinthians, chapter 15 describes this for us.

And there he's talking about the resurrection.

And he reminds them that the first Adam created the mess, but the second Adam gets us out of the mess.

The first Adam delved us and brought us into sin.

The second Adam redeems us from sin, saves us from our sins.

In fact, the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem to the virgin was the promised Messiah, the seed of the Woman.

Genesis, chapter 3, verse 15.

Promised that Messiah to the woman.

Matthew 1, verse 21.

The angel appears unto Joseph.

Remember the story.

We won't turn there.

And he was told by Joseph to take Mary to be his wife, but that she would have a child, a child of the Holy Ghost, a child who had no earthly father.

A virgin would conceive and bear a son.

And Joseph was told by the angel that his name would be called.

What?

Jesus.

Jesus.

His name shall be called Jesus.

Why?

Because he shall save his people from their sins.

Jesus.

The name Jesus means Savior.

He will save his people from their sins.

What is he saving them from?

He's saving them from the wrath of God.

From the.

Sin debt.

He's saving them from.

The penalty of sin, which is death.

That he would do that.

He would save them.

By the way he saves us.

I'm thankful he's the Savior of all mankind.

That he's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance for God.

So what loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I'm thankful that God is a whosoever God, that he's no respecter of persons.

In fact, he says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

In the few verses before that, it says, for there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.

For the same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon his name.

So thankful that God has no respecter of persons, that the Messiah, Jesus Christ was born into this world.

To save sinners.

Paul said he was the chief of sinners, and yet he wrote half the New Testament.

To save us from what?

Save us from hell?

To save us from the penalty of sin.

So thankful for the Savior, aren't you?

He shall be called Jesus the Savior.

Jesus came at a time when the Jews were spiritually bankrupt.

There was a few Jews who were looking for the Messiah.

And listen, there were so many Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah.

They, they should have been able.

They should have been looking for him.

All the Jews, especially the religious leaders, those who studied the Scriptures, those who studied the Old Testament scriptures should have been looking for him.

In fact, they had some very precise prophecies, and we'll talk about that in a moment.

But the Pharisees and the Sadducees and Herodians, all of them were so caught up in the packaging.

They were so focused on the wrapping paper.

You, you know, when your kids are really small and Christmas comes and all them presents under the tree, and you find yourself watching your child open up.

The package, and instead of looking at the toy, they're playing with the packaging.

They're more interested in the wrapping, the wrapping paper, the bow, or they're more arrested in the box that the stinking toy came in.

And they're playing with that, you know, and making light of this.

But I'm telling you, the Jews, and especially the Jewish leaders, those who were in ruling over the Jews, were caught up in the ceremonies.

They were caught up in the rituals.

They were caught up in the ceremonial law that all the trappings and all the liturgy, they were caught up in all of that.

And instead of looking for the Messiah, they were looking to the sacrifice that they had.

Just the lamb that they just sacrificed, or the bullock they just sacrificed, or the ritual that they just performed, or whatever it was, or the law that they were keeping, or so called keeping.

Pharisees were so pious, they would stand on the side of the street and pray and wail as they prayed.

And they dressed, you know, in a showy way.

They wanted everybody to know that they were praying and that they were fasting.

That was them keeping the law.

So many other things like that.

They were just spiritually bankrupt.

They were focused, again, too much on the letter of the law, by the way, which they could not keep.

By the way.

Nobody can keep the law.

That's why we're sinners.

No one can keep every point of the law.

There are 613 laws in the Old Testament.

Can you keep all six?

We can't even keep the one that anyway.

Thou shalt not steal.

Have you ever stolen something?

I'm talking about ever in your life, have you ever stolen anything?

When you were 3 or 4 years old or 5 years old, did you ever steal anything?

Did you ever take a paper clip.

From your office?

Did you ever slap a stamp from your office on something that was personal?

I mean, there's nobody in this room that hasn't stolen at some point.

Don't raise your hands, I'll raise mine.

Said preacher, do you do all of those?

I'm just saying you can't keep the law.

It's impossible.

The Bible says, in fact, Galatians.

Paul makes it very clear In Galatians, Chapter 3 that the law is our schoolmaster.

It teaches us that we can't keep it.

And it's our schoolmaster that brings us to Christ.

That brings us to the one who did keep the law, who did perform and keep the law without fail.

Every point of the law.

For 33 and a half years, Jesus Christ lived out the law, never one time committing a sin.

He was sinless in disposition.

He had no sinful nature.

Therefore he could not sin.

By the way, he was God.

He could not sin.

God can't sin.

Sinless in disposition, sinless in desire.

There was no desiring in him to do wrong, to sin.

And then again, he was sinless in his actions.

The sinless Savior.

The religious leaders were so caught up in the Old Testament rituals and the Old Testament wrappings that they missed the Messiah.

Here in our scripture, it's giving us an analogy, the first three verses, comparing the Old Testament believer, the Old Testament believer, to a child that the Old Testament covenant put you in a position to be what a child is and how a child acts.

In other words, it's saying.

A child does what it's told to do.

It's giving a list of things it can do, and it's giving a list of things it can't do.

It's under tutors and governors, and it makes a reference here to the Roman Law.

The Roman law, the law of the Romans was, if you weren't as a child, you could not inherit anything or do anything until you were 25.

And you were under tutors until you were 14.

So let's say your parents passed away, you would still be under tutors till you were 14 and under others who would teach and run your business till you were 25 and you would be told what to do and what not to do.

And if you didn't do what they were told to do or did not do what you were not told to do, you did not receive the inheritance.

Little motivation, huh?

Right.

Maybe we ought to think about that one a little more.

In other words, he's saying that under the Old Testament law, under the Old Testament rules, that a child, that a one who was keeping the law, the one who was that Old Testament Judaism was again innately making them slaves, servants, thou shalt not.

Thou shalt not.

613 rules.

Things you should do, things you shouldn't do.

That was the Old Testament system.

And you had to keep them all in order to gain and have eternal life, which was impossible.

Thus the sacrifices, thus the lambs that were sacrificed.

Thus the temple was there to teach them and to instruct them and to encourage them to look forward to the Messiah, who one day would come and take away their sins, who one day would come and be the Savior, who one day would come and fulfill the law without fail.

In other words, they had no choice.

They were to keep the law.

We all, all of us under.

Under the law.

Just for a side note, a lot of times we refer the Old Testament to Egypt as the world or even the devil.

And we make statements like, well, it's God who.

It's Jesus Christ who redeems us from the devil or from the world system.

But really, technically, it's really us being redeemed by Jesus Christ from the law.

Because it's the law that we've been put under.

It's the law that has us in its grips.

It's the law whom we believe that if we do this and we do that, we can aim favor with God.

In other words, if I do enough, if I do enough good things, and if I don't do a lot of these bad things, when I get to heaven, there's going to be Peter sitting at the gate.

And Peter's going to say, well, you've been good enough.

Come on in.

But that's not what the Bible describes at all.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say, when you get to heaven, Peter's gonna be standing at the gate, and if you've done a good enough job here on earth, you get to go in.

No, no, no, no, no.

That's not.

That's not how the Bible teaches it.

And that's not in any way in which the Bible presents.

Salvation.

Presents it by way of Jesus Christ.

You can't be good enough to get to heaven.

You can't be good enough to get to heaven.

You can't do enough to get to heaven.

You can't keep from doing things you shouldn't do to get you to heaven.

The Bible says without.

Again, it's by grace through faith, not a work, since any man should boast.

Salvation's by grace through faith.

It's believing and trusting in Jesus Christ who did keep the law.

We'll cover more of that in a moment.

But we are all under the law.

The Old Testament saint was given details of how to live.

I'm making a point now, Stay with me.

Of do's and don'ts.

Details.

Don't eat this.

They couldn't have catfish.

Can you believe that Old Testament law?

You couldn't have catfish.

What would we do?

You couldn't have pork.

There were lists after list after list after list of things you could not do.

There were lists and lists and lists of things you had to do.

Take a certain sacrifice to the temple, you know, on and on and on, giving this and give that.

And there were, by the way, in the Old Testament, there were three offerings taken.

If you were a true Old Testament saint who was truly trying to keep the law, it wasn't just 10% you gave, you gave 30% when it was all said and done.

If you were to keep every law that had to do with giving.

It'S something, huh?

How would you like to live under that Old Testament system?

And what Paul is saying, he is saying that that is elementary, that that's ABCs, that that is childish.

That's what he's saying.

Everybody see that?

Looking at the audience, he's saying, if I have to be told what to do and what not to do, and I have to be given a detailed list of what to do and what not to do, then I am no better than a servant.

In fact, he says, you're just a child and you're no better than a slave.

That's what he's saying.

But all that changed when Jesus Christ came.

It all changed.

It all changed.

Verse 4.

But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman.

Seeing the fullness of time, and by the way, God's timing, his predetermined time.

First Peter 1:20 says that it was Jesus Christ who died before the foundations of the earth.

In other words, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

And before that.

There was already a plan in place by God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, that Jesus Christ would come to this Earth.

That he would live a sinless life and he would die on the cross.

For us it was already in place.

Has it ever occurred to you that nothing occurs to God?

God wasn't surprised when Adam sinned in the Garden of Eden.

No, no.

He had already made a plan already in place.

That his son, Jesus Christ, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth would come to this earth.

That he who was rich would become poor.

That he who sat on the circled the earth and created all things would humble himself and become obedient unto death.

Even the death of the cross.

What a plan.

What love.

What matchless love that Jesus Christ came to this earth.

The God of the universe, the creator of all mankind.

The creator of the universe would come and die for sinful man would die for his creation.

Amen.

What love displayed to us?

All scriptures and prophecies and promises in the Bible were fulfilled by way of his birth.

The Bible prophesied the virgin would conceive.

The Bible prophesied that he would be born in Bethlehem.

God saw sent his son.

Look at the verse again.

Verse 4.

The fullness of time was come.

God sent forth his son.

John 1 says, in the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God.

And the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him.

Without him was not anything made.

That was made.

Being in the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person.

Hebrews says, in other words, God became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

The glory is the then begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

Great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifest in the flesh.

See, God came to earth.

Jesus Christ is God with skin on.

We can refer to it as the incarnation of Jesus Christ.

By the way, the original flower, the incarnation flower was originally fleshly colored.

That's why it's called Incarnation.

Born of a woman, Made of a woman.

Again, Mary was his mother, but the Holy Spirit was his father.

Jesus Christ was virgin born.

Without the virgin birth there is no salvation.

Because had he been born of a man, he would have received a sinful nature.

But he was born of God.

Oh man.

Why?

Why would God send forth His Son?

Why would God send forth His Son?

Why would Jesus come to this earth?

Why would he humble himself?

Why would he become poor?

To be tempted like we are, yet without sin?

The Bible says to hunger and thirst like we experience.

The Bible says he had no place to lay his head.

The God of the Universe had no place to lay his head.

What humility.

What love.

Why?

Why?

Well, to represent man, to represent mankind.

To live a sinless life in order that he might keep the law.

And then die for us.

Die in our place.

He was our substitute.

I should have died on the cross, but he.

He died for me.

He died in my place.

He who was under the law again, kept the law.

He lived a life fulfilling law.

Why?

To obtain a righteous record.

In other words, Jesus Christ, when his life was done, his record, his life record was sinless.

It was spotless.

If you were able to bring up Eric Crawford's life record, you.

You would see that it's definitely not spotless.

In fact, all you gotta do is bring up my.

Legal record and you'd see a few spots on it as well.

I got pulled over the other day.

In the church van.

Going 70 and a 55.

You're gonna get fired after this.

It's okay.

I had no IDEA it was 70 miles an hour where I was at.

I'd been on that road a thousand times.

But they had moved the speed limit sign back.

The city's grown a little bit, so they've moved the city speed limit sign.

I was very upfront with the officer.

He was very kind.

I said to him, hey, I really.

I've been on this road a lot.

I didn't know that they had moved the sign back.

I wasn't paying attention.

Me and the staff were just talking.

It was just.

It was six o' clock in the morning or whatever.

I got a picture of it.

It's awesome.

Church van.

Heritage Baptist Church.

Gave me a warning and I said to him, thank you, sir.

Gave me a verbal warning.

I said, thank you, sir.

I haven't had a ticket in over 20 years, and I really haven't.

But I do have a record.

I almost had another one.

What does your record look like?

Think about it.

Jesus Christ lived 33 and a half years and at the end of it, had a sinless record.

Never one time stealing anything.

Never one time saying a crossword in anger.

Think about it.

Never one time having a sinful thought.

All of us are guilty of that.

I may not.

I may outwardly tell somebody, oh, man, so good to see you.

But on the inside, I'm going.

I just want to.

Just want to grab their neck.

Right?

Have you not been there?

Hello.

With your kids?

Yeah.

No.

All of us have been angry.

All of us have been angry and sinned.

Well, the Bible says be angry and sin not.

Come on now.

We can do that.

Righteous anger is there.

But most of the time our anger is not righteous anger.

Right?

We are all sinners.

We're just all sinners.

Christ lived a sinless life in order that he might have a sinless record.

In order that he might go to the cross in order that he might shed his blood for me.

In order that he, on the third day, could rise again from the dead.

And guess what happens?

At the age of six years old, when I accepted Christ as my Savior, when I put my trust in him and him alone, when I said, lord, I am a sinner.

Lord, I am the one that put you on the cross.

Lord, I believe you lived, died and rose again.

Save me.

At the age of six years old, you know what happened?

My sinful record was erased.

Passed my past record.

At six years old, I already had a record.

I was already a liar.

At six years old, I had lied a bunch.

But not just my past record was erased.

Guess what?

My future record was erased.

Amen.

All of it was erased because of what Jesus did on the cross.

And listen, it wasn't just that my record was erased.

It's that that law fulfilling life, that righteous record of Jesus Christ, was put in my sinful record's place.

And therefore, before God, when I stand before God, someday He won't see my sinful record.

He's not going to see my sins.

Though I'm still a sinner, saved by grace, I still sin.

Hello.

Some of you know, my wife especially.

But before God, I am sinless.

My record is sinless.

Because guess what?

The blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed me from all of my sins.

It's covered my sins, made them white as snow.

The Bible says that little baby born in Bethlehem.

God in the flesh.

The sinless one.

The Savior of sinners like me, like you.

Made of a woman.

Made under the law in order that he might redeem us who were under the law.

We were under it.

But because he kept it, he redeemed us from it.

He redeemed us from the curse of the law.

The penalty of breaking the law is death.

But putting my trust and faith in Jesus Christ redeems me from that penalty.

And therefore I am no longer under the penalty of death that the law has prescribed to me.

Amen.

Man.

What?

Hallelujah.

To redeem us that we might.

What?

Be children of God.

Aren't you glad you're a child of God this morning?

If you're saved, man.

Glory, Hallelujah.

Being a child of God, there's nothing like being a child of God.

Nothing like being a Christian.

Knowing that if you were to die today, that heaven would be your home.

Having now again the sins forgiven.

It speaks there of being adopted, being born again, adopted in the family of God as sons and daughters.

Now it refers to the abba.

Father man, what a.

We don't have time.

But abba simply that's a child's.

In the Greek, that's a child reaching out.

Child reaching out.

Abba means for us would mean daddy.

But it's not just Daddy, it's Father.

Our Heavenly Father.

What does it say?

The Spirit of God comes to reside in us.

We get saved.

The Holy Spirit moves in.

To comfort us, encourage us, strengthen us, guide us.

May we be reminded of that.

Sometimes we take it for granted.

At the Old Testament that did not happen.

The Old Testament saint didn't have the Holy Spirit abiding in them.

In the Old Testament, all those laws were given, but there was no.

Power to keep them.

In the New Testament.

We have the Holy Spirit who empowers us to live a holy life.

And we shouldn't live like children with the do's and the don'ts.

And though it's absolutely clear in the Bible that we ought to do right and we ought to do right and we ought to do right.

But how do we do right?

No longer have to do that as children.

We can do that as adults.

And we do that not because we have to, but because we want to.

Love.

Because we love the Lord.

Because we love the Lord.

We seek to follow in his steps.

We seek to follow in his steps.

We seek to live as Jesus would want us to live, to do what Jesus would want us to do and not do those things which Jesus wouldn't want us to do.

We're no longer children.

We no longer got this big set of lists and rules.

We have many principles and precepts.

But you know what?

It's not about a set of rules.

It's about a relationship.

And truly, truly speaking, the New Testament principle is this, that everything that I do and everything that I don't do is governed and can be governed by what would Jesus do if he was in my situation?

What would Jesus say if he was in my situation?

Amen.

The Savior of the world.

The long awaited Messiah, came in the fullness of time.

By the way, he's coming again.

First Corinthians 15 speaks of him coming again.

Bible teaches the imminent return of Christ.

It could be today.

That is the hope that we have.

He's coming again.

Let's all stand.

I have a time of invitation to invite you to come and pray.

Maybe you're here this morning.

You've never accepted Christ as your Savior.

There never been a time in your life when you have come and repented of your sins and believe and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ.

Maybe you are putting your faith to get you to heaven in your works and what you do.

Maybe you're putting your faith in your whatever it may be.

Maybe it's your church membership somewhere, or maybe it's a baptism you had when you were as a baby.

Or no, you got to put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ and Christian this morning.

It's good for us to be reminded that we are children of God, joint heirs with Jesus Christ with a wonderful hope of the future.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you for the time.