Grace Life Part 11 – Lawson And Barbara Perdue

Grace Life Part 11 – Lawson and Barbara Perdue

The Grace Life Part 10 with Pastors Lawson and Barbara Perdue. In this episode of Grace For Today you’ll learn how you are reborn as daughters and sons of God through salvation.

Grace Life Part 11 Transcription

Friends, welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today. We’re gonna be talking from Galatians 4. We’re gonna be sharing that we are no longer slaves, but we are sons, we are daughters, we are children of God by faith in Jesus. And because we’re sons and daughters and not slaves, it changes how we relate to God. And today, we’ve been born into health, born into wealth, born into authority, born into righteousness. And when you understand that, it will change your life. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you’re here with us. And I have my beautiful wife Barbara today, and just honored to have her. We’re gonna be continuing to share about the grace life, and Barbara has really interesting perspectives about grace and how when I got a revelation of grace, how it changed me as a husband, as a father, as a minister. And so I’m sure we’re gonna have some great teaching. Today we’re gonna be in Galatians 4, and we’re gonna be talking about how grace brings us into maturity. And it brings us into a maturity and authority. We have authority as the children of God, as the sons of God. You know, a lot of the church doesn’t teach on authority. They don’t teach us who we are and what we have in Christ, but they think we’re just kind of hanging out hoping to God we make it. You know, we’re like little puppets, and God’s up in heaven, got us on strings, but that’s not the truth. The fact is Jesus came to bring us back into authority. God gave authority to a man in the beginning, to Adam in the garden. Adam gave that authority up through sin, and Jesus came as a man. It talks about this in Hebrews 2. He did not take the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham, and he became a man so that He might, as a perfect man, as a sinless man, bring us back into authority. And that’s what actually Paul is teaching here in Galatians 4. Barbara, if you wanna read verses four through verse seven, and we’ll go back and comment a little bit about it.

Well, and I like what you were talking about authority before I start reading because the Bible tells us that Jesus said, “I have authority, and now I’m giving it to you.” He came and got that authority back in its rightful place. And so that’s really exciting to me. That is a message of hope and power that Jesus said, “I have it, and now I am giving it to you.” And so I love how we’re starting off here with this teaching today in Galatians. I love what it’s telling us here again. You said Galatians 4:4-7. It says: “But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law.” Like what you were saying in verse five, it goes on to say, “To redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons.” I hope you’re gonna come back and expound on that word redeem ’cause it’s exciting to me. “And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, ‘Abba, Father.’ Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.” There’s a couple of things that really catch my attention, and I have it underlined in my Bible, again, the word redeem. And then I like that, “Heir of God.”

Yes.

Those are exciting things.

So he said He sent forth His Son made of a woman. So God gave authority to a man in the beginning. He got authority back through Jesus, the perfect man, and He sent Him to purchase. Redeem means to purchase, to buy us back that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. So we have a doubly secure citizenship. We have been born into the family of God, and we have been bought into the family of God.

Well, and again, I like what you’re saying. Again, we’re talking about the word redeem and how you said it means to buy back, and that’s in its entirety. That’s not a partial purchase.

Yes.

That’s bought back in every area of our life.

Amen, Jesus came to purchase a spirit, soul, and body. “He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for inequities.” That’s spiritually. “The chastisement of our peace was upon Him,” that’s in the area of our soul, our mind, our will, and our emotions. “And by His stripes, we are healed.” That’s Isaiah 53:5. And so that was Isaiah looking forward to the cross, to what Christ did on the cross. Paul talked about it prior to this in Galatians 3, and he says, “Christ hath redeemed us,” past tense, “from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it’s written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,’ that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” And so Jesus came as a sinless person, as the righteous one, and He paid the price for our sin. He died a sinner’s death, right? So that now we might receive His righteousness as a gift. He never sinned, but He became a sin offering for us, 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Well, and also the Bible tells us that “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a cross.” In other words, when you study that out, Jesus exchanged places with us.

Right.

So He took all that. So when we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, our sins are blotted out as if it never even happened.

Right, and the curse has already been paid for. So you are not cursed as a believer.

That’s right.

You’re blessed, and I know that there are lots of people out there that believe such as generational curses, and there is no such thing in a New Testament sense. And I ask you this question if you believe that. What generational curse can you inherit from God as your Father? And see, it says right here in this scripture that “If we be Christ’s, that we are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.” God is our Father. He says we’re no more servants, but sons. That’s in verse six or verse seven. We’re no more a servant but a son, if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

[Barbara] That’s right.

We’re sons and daughters of God. We’re His children. We’re in His family. 1 John 5:1 says, “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God.” Again, we have this doubly secure citizenship. We’re citizens of heaven on loan to the earth from God, and we’ve been purchased by the blood of Jesus.

I just wanna-

Bought.

Yes.

And we’ve been born into His family, born of the Spirit of God.

And I wanna remind everybody, just think about this when we’re talking about God is our Father. I believe he takes really good care of His children.

Amen. I like to say He takes care of us in grand style.

That’s right.

And many times when we’re in this world, we face different problems, different difficulties. Sometimes when we preach faith, people think, “Well, you don’t have any problems.” I actually had one of the Bible school instructors tell me one time about you, Barbara, “Well, she doesn’t have any reason to be unhappy because everything is just perfect.” And they didn’t know a lot of the different difficulties and challenges that we face because we don’t talk about those.

[Barbara] That’s right.

You know, and one way that we overcome is when the Devil’s attacking, you just shut your mouth.

Mm-hm.

Jesus didn’t have anything to say. You know, sometimes you just, if you can’t say anything good, if you can’t say anything about what God says, then just don’t say anything. Death and life are in the power of your tongue. But then when after we go through the test, we give the testimony, and we talk about the promise. We talk about how God performed that. And God’s been very good to us, but it doesn’t mean we’ve never faced any challenges or difficulties. You know, Jesus said this in John 16:33. He said, “In the world, you will have tribulation.”

“But be of good cheer, for I have overcome it.”

Right, so there is trouble. There is difficulty because we’re in a world that’s been affected by sin and by Satan. However, Jesus overcame the world, and we overcome the world through faith in Him. 1 John 4:4 says: “Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in this world.” And 1 John 5:4 says, “Whosoever is born of God overcomes this world, and this is the victory that overcomes this world, even our faith.” So we have faith in Jesus.

Yeah, I like that.

And it helps us to overcome the different challenges that we face. But as we started this, we said, you know, we’re gonna talk about it. It says: “He redeemed us, and He sent His spirit.” We have His spirit in our heart. So we’ve been bought with the blood of Jesus, right? And we’ve been born of the Spirit of God. He says, “Because of this, you’re no longer a servant. You’re no longer a slave.” I like your translation. That’s: “But you’re a son, you’re a daughter, you’re a child of God, through faith in Jesus. And He sent forth the Spirit of His Son crying, ‘Daddy, God.'” And so we cry out, “Daddy, God.” And this isn’t because of our performance. It’s because of His grace. And if we go back to verse one through three, Paul says, “And heir, as long as he’s a child, differs nothing from a servant though he be lord of all.” So you know, our sons, when they grew up in our house, you don’t give a .357 to a two-year-old, right? They’ve gotta grow up. They’ve gotta mature before they step into these things. So they’re born into this. They have a divine right and privilege to it, but you have to mature before you can walk in some of this authority, different things. I mean, it’s been given to you as a believer, but you mature, and you grow into it. And I believe as you’re faithful in small things, then God makes you ruler over much. Some people, they wanna believe God for a million dollars, and they’ve never trusted Him for 10 cents. Andrew Wommack talked about this one time. He had a Bible school student came to him, and you know, “I’m gonna, buy this old hotel and transform it. It’s gonna be a $2 million project,” and all this, and Andrew said, “Well, he had never believed for a pair of socks.” So before you start believing God to buy a million dollar, $2 million, 10 million property or to, you know, give away 10 million, start believing to give $10 off the 100 or $100 off the thousand or $1,000 off the 10,000, or, you know, $100,000 off a million. And I can say that we’ve done that. Praise God?

What you’re saying is you need to start somewhere, and a lot of times people are saying, “Well, when this happens, and this happens, and this happens, and this happens, then I’ll do that.” But what we do is we spend time daily with God and His Word and in His presence and in time with Him. And every day we should be believing what the Word says and do what it says.

Right.

And what we have found out through our life, honey, is the times we have been married, is God has just proven His Word. God has proven Himself just faithful in every area of our life, and sometimes there is trials and tribulations. But the good news is I’ve read the end of the book, and I know that I’m ultimately the winner. I just keep my faith-

Yeah.

And my joy in Him, and He’ll bring it to pass.

Amen.

And in the meantime, while you’re going through it, the hope and joy is that God is with me, and He has proven Himself faithful.

Yeah.

And just don’t faint.

There’s a scripture that talks about this in 1 Peter 1, and I’m gonna read it really quick in 1 Peter 1. But it says this, we’ve been born again, in verse three, to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus-

Amen.

To an inheritance that’s incorruptible. You’re talking about we win if we keep our faith in Jesus.

[Barbara] That’s right.

“Incorruptible, undefiled, fades not a way, reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God.” Now, I like to say we’re kept by the grace of God because it’s grace that releases God’s power through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed. So, you know, we have been saved, we are being saved, and we will be saved in the last time. But look at this. He says, “Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you’re in heaviness through many difficulties and temptations.” He says, “That the trial of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, honor, and glory at the appearing of Jesus, whom having not seen you love.” Even though we haven’t seen Jesus, we love Him.

So that was verse seven and eight that you just read.

Yes. And he says, now this is where I wanted to get: “In whom though now you see Him not, yet believe Him.” So we believe in Jesus. You were talking about this. And we have joy in Jesus. You rejoice when you believe. The fruit of faith really is joy.

Amen.

You know, when you believe. “We rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” And then verse nine says, “Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your soul.” So we believe. When we believe, it causes us to rejoice. And as we rejoice, we receive.

Amen, that’s right.

So we need to keep believing and keep rejoicing. We’re gonna take a very short break, and we’re gonna be right back, and we’re gonna be talking more about how, as the children of God through grace, we move into our divine authority. Friends, I’m gonna be talking about in this series about how grace has revolutionized my life. And you want to get this because I’m telling you, it changed my home, changed my marriage, changed my children, changed my church, changed my business. Grace has changed about everything about me and not in a negative way, in a super positive way. My wife Barbara says I’m not even like living with the same person, and not negatively, positively. She said, “I don’t know how it would’ve went on if you would’ve continued on the way that you were going.” But thank God grace changed me, and do you know what? God is not a respect of persons. He’s a respecter of faith. But I believe that the grace that’s changed me will change you as you believe the gospel. And I’ve got two things that we’re making available as a package during these teachings. One is my series. It’s a 10-part series on the “Grace Life.” It’s the most in-depth teaching I’ve done. The other one is the “Revelation of Grace” with Andrew Wommack. Blessings. Friends, I’m so glad that you stayed with us. We are here, and we are in Galatians 4. We’ve been talking about that grace brings us into authority and maturity and that we’ve been purchased by the blood of Jesus. We’ve been born into the family of God. We have this doubly secure citizenship. And as the children of God, we are no longer slaves but sons. Now, this is a work of grace. It’s not a work of the law. He talks about this. Then he goes back because the challenge was they were going back and trying to think it was the law and keeping the law that was bringing about maturity, bringing about blessing. And he says, “How be it then when you knew God, you did service to those which by nature are no gods?” So he’s talking about the law. He’s talking about legalism. He’s talking about trying to add your performance to Jesus. And to say that we have to add something to Jesus is like saying Jesus is not enough. And so he says, “But after you have known God,” or rather, “are known of God.” You know what God said about Abraham? He said, “I know him, that he will command his children after him.” And so, you know, a lot of people say that they know God, but does God say that He knows you? And he says, “How do you turn again?” And he calls legalism and law-keeping to “weak and beggarly elements, where unto you desire again to be in bondage.” In other words, the law couldn’t save you before Jesus.

That’s right.

And the law can’t save you now and keeping the law. So you can’t improve on what Jesus has done. And he says, “You observe days and months and times and years. I’m afraid of you, lest I bestowed so much labor upon you.” Now, if we go to Hebrews 5, Hebrews 5, I wanna read verse 11 to verse 14 because it’s talking about this thing called maturity. And Paul says, “Listen, I want you to grow up and get over this legalism.” You know, if you’re trusting your performance instead of the performance of Jesus, it means you’re immature.

Mm.

And if you think you’ve gotta do something in addition to Jesus, you’re crazy. You couldn’t do enough before Jesus, and you can’t do enough since Jesus.

Good point.

It’s Jesus. And so he says this in Hebrews 5:11. He says, talking about Jesus, “We have a lot of things to say that are hard to be uttered, seeing that you’re dull of hearing. For by the time you ought to be teachers, by the time you should have matured, you need that one teach you again the first principles of the mouth of God and are become such as have need of milk.” You know, 1 Peter 2:2 says, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the Word that you may grow thereby.” But he said, “By the time you should have matured, now we gotta treat you like a baby again.” We used to talk about this in church. You know, you had those big calf bottles when we lived in Kit Carson at our feed lot. And they’re half-gallon bottles, but they got a big old nipple about that big around about that long. It’s like taking a 50-year-old man with a big old mustache and cramming the whole thing down him. You’re just acting like a bunch of babies, and sometimes people do. And you know, we all need to grow up, and that’s what he’s saying.” “And not strong meat.” Now, listen to what he says in verse 13, how he explains maturity and non-maturity: “For everyone,” this is Hebrews 5:13, “who uses milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness,” or “the word of grace.” It’s the word of righteousness or the word of grace. “For he is a babe.” If we have to take you back and teach you all these basic things, again, he’s saying grow up and get ahold of the grace of God and operate in your authority as the children of God. Take your stand in faith through grace, amen? You know, we’re saved by grace through faith, right? He says, “And that,” I’m jumping ahead into chapter six, but he says, “Strong meat belongs to those who are of full age, who are mature, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.” Now, in the context that this is used, I believe what he’s talking about is grace and law. And Hebrews is written kind of with the same context you know that Galatians is, and that’s, listen, Jesus is the full and final answer. He is God’s answer to our problem, and we just need to completely trust Jesus.

I like what you said, that Jesus is the answer. He’s not the problem. He is the answer.

Oh man, amen.

And so that is good news that we can put our whole trust, our whole heart trusting in Him.

Right.

Again because He’s faithful. He has proven himself what He did for us at the cross, the persecution He suffered, the beatings that He suffered, and what He did at the cross dying for us. He has already accomplished it and already paid back in full. There’s nothing else that you can add to it.

No, I mean, people try to add things to it, and that’s what Paul talked about in Galatians 5, Galatians 3. He was saying, “Listen, Jesus already did the work.”

Did you notice what I have noticed about the law or legalism is it doesn’t matter how many times you jump. You’re not jumping high enough. It doesn’t matter how many good works you’re doing. It’s still not enough.

It’s like trying to run a 10K on a treadmill. And I just ran a 10K Sunday right before church, before most. I woke up, and I was three pounds overweight, so I thought I’m gonna get that off, and I ran 6 1/4 miles, you know, like at five o’clock in the morning. Then I came to church and preached two services. I didn’t get all three pounds off, but I got 2 1/2, but I didn’t go anywhere, right? And that’s how law-keeping is. Law-keeping is you’re trying really hard, but the harder you try, the more you fail.

So what you’re talking about is the hamster on the hamster wheel. He looks like he’s really working hard, but at the end of the day, he hasn’t even moved an inch.

And that’s how legalism is. That’s how keeping the law is. We like to say, you know, trying to be saved by your performance or receive the blessings of God by your performance is like trying to long-jump the Grand Canyon. And you know, it doesn’t really matter if you’re a five-year-old, and you can only long-jump six, five, six feet or if you’re a 25-year-old world-champion long jumper, and you can long-jump 30 feet. You’re just gonna die a split second less than that five-year-old. And you may have the best training in the world, you know, but you’re not good enough. We’re not good. I know, listen, I know my own failure. I know I’m not good enough. You know I’m not good enough, praise God. You know what? But I know that I completely need Jesus. I need Him just as much now as I ever have. And I know that I’ve gotta completely trust Him. In fact, somebody asked me recently, they said, “Do you have a hard time getting over trusting yourself?” I said, “Not really because I’m so just who I am, and I don’t really try to please a bunch of people. I try to please Jesus.”

That’s the best way and the only way to please.

I’m a human being. I said, “Sometimes I have problems with other people’s behavior, but I try to get my own in line.” But you know, we need to be aware that without Him, we could do nothing.

That’s right.

Jesus said that in John 15.

And I love that we can point people to Jesus because ultimately that’s what’s gonna bring people victory. I see a lot of times the law and legalism, people that are caught up in that, in their own works, are always pointing everyone to them. And look at me, look at me, look at me, what I’ve done. And that’s an empty message. But when we continue to point people to Jesus.

Yeah, you know what, they have their own set of laws.

Mm-hm.

And some people can keep their own set of rules, but you know, nobody can keep God’s law. That’s why He sent Jesus. And the Old Testament really shows us we couldn’t do it on our own. And there’s no condemnation. You know, I have some good friends that have got caught up in legalism and fell pretty hard, but I still love ’em. I don’t condemn ’em. God loves ’em, amen. I’m not the judge. Jesus is the judge. But when you look at this in Hebrews 6:1, he says, “Therefore leaving the principles,” or the, one translation says, “The elementary principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to maturity.” He’s talking about, you know, grow up. Let’s go on to maturity, “not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works or faith towards God or the doctrine of baptisms or laying on of hands, or the resurrection of the dead. And this will we do if God permits.” So, grow up, mature, amen? And realize it is completely the grace of Jesus that saves you.

Amen.

And it’s the grace of Jesus that keeps you. And it’s the grace of Jesus that brings you into the good things of God. And he goes on. He talks about, you know, these people that they were observing days and months and years. I’m back in Galatians 4:10. He says, “I’m afraid of you, lest I bestowed so much labor on you in vain.” Don’t go back to those things. “Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am, for I am as you are. You haven’t hurt me. You know through the weakness of the flesh, I preached the gospel to you at first. In my temptation, which is in my flesh, you despised not nor rejected, but you received me as an angel of God.” You know, Paul said, “Listen, you knew in the beginning when I shared the gospel, it wasn’t about me. You knew I had challenges. You know I had difficulties.” And he says, “Really, it’s not about me.” And he says, “It’s not about you.” He says, “Where is,” in verse 15, “the blessedness as you spoke of?” Because they’re going saying, “Hey, now we’re keeping the law, and we’re getting a blessing ’cause we’re keeping the law.” People are always trying to add something to Jesus, if you do this or if you don’t do this. It’s really not about that. Now, I give. I read my Bible. I pray. You know, I go to church. I love my neighbor, right? I want to do that, but it’s not about me. It’s not about my performance because I don’t perform well enough.

It’s really about a relationship that you have with Jesus.

Yes, and so he says, “Am I become your enemy because I tell you the truth?” because they were going back into performance. He says, “These people zealously affect you,” in verse 17. So he says, “It’s not about me. You know me. I couldn’t do this in the beginning. It’s not about you. You can’t do it either because the law will show you how short you’ve fallen.” But he says, “It’s not even about those that say that the keeping of the law is where you really get the blessing.” He says, “It’s not. They zealously affect you, but it’s not well. They would exclude you that you might affect them.” He says, “It’s good to be zealously affected in a good thing not only when I’m present with you. My little children, I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” So Paul says, “It’s not about me. It’s not about you. It’s not about them. It’s about Jesus.”

Amen.

And you just need to let Jesus live His life big in you. Barbara, pray for the people here today before we go off.

Well, dear heavenly Father, we just come to you in the precious name of Jesus. We speak blessing and just revelation of this amazing message of grace and the amazing life and plans and purposes you have for everybody listening and watching now. Lord, we thank you. This is the day the Lord has made, and we will rejoice and be glad in it.

I’m so glad that you tuned in. If you need personal prayer, I encourage you to call our prayer ministers. They’re waiting to receive your calls today. If you wanna become a partner, if you want product, just give us a call today. We’d love to hear from you. Thanks so much, and God bless you.

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