God Sent His Son

WELCOME:

SCRIPTURE READING:

John 1:14–18 NASB95

And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ ” For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.

LET US STAND AND WORSHIP!

“The Goodness of God”

Words and Music by Hillsong’

PRAYER OF PRAISE FOR WHO GOD IS

Lord, thank you for your constancy. For never turning Your back on us, for never getting frustrated with us, for forgiving our sins, for allowing us to be part of Your plan. We ask that You would look down upon this gathering of people and fill our hearts with great joy today as we focus on You. Amen!

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

“What a beautiful Name”

Words and Music by Hillsong

PRAYER OF ILLUMINATION TO OPEN OUR HEARTS

Lord, give us ears to hear Your voice and eyes to see Your glory. Would you this morning illuminate Your Word and make it known to us? Help us no to make application to others peoples’ lives, but to apply every Word to our own lives. Amen

SERMON

INTRODUCTION:

Christmas means all sorts of things to all sorts of people:

Ashley told us in the car the other night that the best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear. I wonder where she got that idea?

To some people Christmas is really about family. And family coming in from out of town and everyone getting together to celebrate the holidays together.

TV shows like the Hallmark channel movie channel has taught that Christmas is a magical time of the year when you can get stranded way out west where it snows everyday yet never drops below 50*. And while you are stranded you will certainly meet the love of your life and live happily ever after. And even though every single Hallmark movie has the exact same plot, it is still watched every single year by millions.

Retail stores and Amazon tell us that Christmas is about giving, and more importantly giving something to someone else that you buy from their retail store. If you want to have the best Christmas, then you must buy the best presents to make others happy.

And even the church has taught us that it is a warm, fuzzy feelings, from a newborn baby, swaddled in cloths and laying a manger by his mother Mary.

I’m not saying that of these things are bad, but they do not define what Christmas is really about even if they have defined the world’s meaning of Christmas.

The real meaning of Christmas is much deeper than all of that! Its deeper than feelings, its deeper than giving gifts, its deeper than family get-togethers, its deeper than what we can see with our yees or feel with emotions.

MAIN IDEA: Christmas is about redemption. Its about Christ coming to save us from our sins. It is about a baby, not because He is a baby, but because the incarnation began with a baby, in a manger. Its about God coming to save His people from their sins because they could not save themselves.

And this should be the focus of our hearts this time of year. Because we can get so carried away thinking about all the other stuff that we completely neglect what really deserves our adoration.

This week we will all take time away from this world to celebrate Christmas however we do that and probably however we have done that for 20 years. What I want to do today is set our hearts on what Christmas is to the Christian.

And we will find that in two short verses, tucked away in the book of Galatians. It could easily be read over and not really having anything to do with Christmas at all, but when we look at it much closer, it is what Christmas is all about.

My hope is that we will not just hear this today, but that it would become dominant in our thinking about what Christmas really is and why this matters most.

Galatians 4:4–5 (NASB95)

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

God Sent the Son at just the right time

“When the fullness of time came”

Explanation:

“The fullness of time” does not mean that time had run its course and God in frustration with sinful people threw up His hands and said to the Son, “go down there and save them, I don’t know what else to do.”

“The fullness of time” means that just as God had planned from the very beginning, before Adam ever sinned, the time that God had already chosen for His Son to go.

It was precisely calculated. It was divinely chosen.

We see this same truth in the gospels:

Matthew 1:17 “So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.”

God’s Timing, planned perfectly

Mark 1:15 “and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.””

God’s Timing, planned perfectly

God sent his Son

God could have sent His Son before He ever called Abraham, before He ever sent the flood, even before the first sin ever entered this world….

During a time when God had not spoken through prophets in 400 years

During a time when outward religious practices dominated Israel and everything was just skin deep, but very few with heart deep faithfulness

During a time when babies were born in animal stables, extremely fragile and high mortality of newborns and mothers

During a time when Kings could legally pursue and kill children at their command with no one to stop them

At a time when people could be prosecuted falsely and put to death in a matter of days rather than 30 years

And caption punishment was the cruelest form of punishment in human history which consisted of nailing someone to a cross to hang and die

During a time before cars, airplanes, cell phones, and cameras where the whole thing could have been recorded for the whole world to see and then everyone could have known without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus truly is the Son of God.

But God chose this time, the fullness of time…..and it was calculated and perfect

Application: We could probably come up with all sorts of reasons why God chose this precise moment in history, but that would be to miss the point.

The point is NOT WHY He chose this time in history but THAT HIS TIMING IS ALWAYS PERFECT AND TRUSTWORTHY.

It is to see God as the AUTHOR OF TIME and the AUTHOR OF HISTORY and the ORDAINER OF HUMAN EVENTS and THAT HE HAS NOT FORGOTTEN US!

What He ordains will come to pass but it will come on His timescale not ours.

And we must not come to God demanding reasons why because God is not obligated to tell us when or how long

So here is the call on the human side: PATIENCE

Psalm 27:14 “Wait for the Lord; Be strong and let your heart take courage; Yes, wait for the Lord.”

Isaiah 40:31 “Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

Galatians 6:9 “Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.”

“When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son”

The Son of God not the son of Adam

Galatians 4:4–5 NASB95

But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Explanation:

Now if you have been coming on Wednesday nights, this is going to make a whole lot more sense to you, because we have been going through the book of Romans which explains very clearly in chapter 5 the entry of sin into the world.

Romans 5:12 “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—”

Every human being born in the history of the world is a descendant of Adam and as a descendant of Adam we have all inherited Adam’s sinful nature.

You and I sin not because we have been taught to sin, but because it is in our DNA to sin, its in our blood, its in our roots and there is nothing we can do about it.

No matter how good or morally upright our parents were, or how churched our families are, we all descended from Adam and therefore we are all they are sinners and so are we because we are all sons of Adam

But this verse says, God sent His own Son. That is, Jesus is NOT a son of Adam, HE IS THE SON OF GOD! He did not descend from the line Adam, so he did not receive the sinful nature that Adam had, because He is not related to Adam in any kind of way! The only thing Jesus shares with Adam is his humanity.

How did Jesus somehow get by without Adam’s sinful nature?

Because Jesus was not born in a natural way the way people are born. Everyone after Adam and Eve come into the world through the natural means of procreation by two human parents.

Jesus came into the world through supernatural means by being conceived by the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 1:18–20 (NASB95) “when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit….(v 20) for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.”

Jesus received his humanity from Mary, “born of a woman” but it was perfect humanity. It was not tainted by the sinful nature of Adam. His humanity He received from Mary was pure, just like the humanity the first Adam had before the fall.

So what we have here is a Som who is full deity, because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and a child that is fully human because He was born of a woman, but yet free from the sinful nature of Adam that the whole world has because he was not a son of Adam but a Son of God.

But not just “born of a woman”, but also “born under the law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law”

This verse also adds in that Jesus was born under the Law.

When we are talking the Law, we are talking about God’s moral requirements. What God requires of the human race.

Just to help us understand, we could say it would include The Ten Commandments given to Moses by God on Mount Sinai….1) Have no other other gods before Me, 2) do not worship idols, 3) honor your father and mother, 4) do not steal.

Or or we could say the The Sermon on the Mount which is the law given to man by the GODMAN Christ Jesus. 1) Everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty, 2) Everyone who looks at a woman with lust is guilty of adultery…

The point is when we break one of God’s laws, IT IS SIN.

Now here the problem with the law. It’s hanging over all of our heads. Because God is going to judge the world at the end of this age by what is written in His book, not what culture defines as right and wrong (Rev 20:12).

So if we have broken God’s law (and we all have Romans 3:23 then we’re all in trouble.

“But when the fullness of time came, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law”

Why does it mention that Jesus was born under the law? Because He never ever broke God’s Law. EVER! From the time He was a little child, with brothers and a mother and a father, He never sinned!

When His brothers were critical toward him rejecting Him as the messiah, He never retaliated.

He never dishonored his parents.

He never lied.

He never stole!

He never took advantage of anyone.

“He loved the Lord with all His heart, soul, mind, strength, and loved his neighbor as himself EVERY MINUTE OF EVERY DAY!

How many of us could say that?

Jesus was perfectly sinless. A spotless lamb. A Lamb without blemish, without spot or wrinkle, never has there ever been another like Him

And that matters because the only way we could be redeemed by Him is if He was fully righteous, fully acceptable by God as a perfect sacrifice that pleased the just wrath of God for sin.

He was perfect in his humanity

He was perfect in His obedience to God

Application:

Now that is what it took to save us from our sins. Someone had to somehow be born of a woman without a sinful nature and had to live a life from birth to death without ever sinning not even one time in thought or deed and then be willing to die righteously for the sins of others.

What I want us to see, and I hope that we see in this, is that apart from the Son of God we are hopeless.

To think that any other way to be right with God is impossible!

No one could meet this standard!

And if you are here this morning, and you are banking on church membership, you are banking on being a good decent person, or you are banking on the fact that your entire family are Christians and you will slide on in because we are related to them…NO!

I assure you it’s not going to cut it!

We cannot save ourselves! We cannot make our own way to God and try to figure things out on our own.

We cannot try to formulate our own righteousness and think that is going to work!

We cannot come up with our own plan!

This is the plan! When the fullness of time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law” (that’s us)

It is impossible to be redeemed any other way than by the SON OF GOD.

Christ saves NOT just to keep us out of hell, but so that we can become children of God

Galatians 4:4–5 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.”

Explanation:

Now I love the story of the incarnation, and I love thought of God forgiving my sin and no longer being under God’s wrath, but what an amazing thing to think that God would want to actually make us His children?

Now I want us to think about what a father is to his child. It’s more than just the legal process. It’s more than a parent who decides to adopt a son and fills out all of the necessary paperwork, and after the court date and adoption is finalized never speaks to that son again. Or says well you have my last name, you can figure out the rest on your own. Or I’ve done my part, do not ask me for anything else?

That’s not the way adoption. When a child is adopted there is a relationship that begins, the father loves that child like his own son and cares for him, and protects him, and teaches him, and remains his father forever…

No one will ever love you like the Father. I love my wife and children so much. But I am only human and I could never love them with the perfect love that the Father gives. I will never be to them what the Father is to them. His love is perfect love! That is the way He loves His children..

Now, it is important that I make this clarification: THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE DOES NOT MAKE UP THE CHILDREN OF GOD. The Bible says we do not become God’s children until He adopts us and makes us His children.

Just like a child today that is adopted today by a family or parent, there is a legal process that must take place. No child gets to go up and choose who he wants as his parents and say now you’re my daddy. No that parent has the authority to adopt or not to adopt.

John 1:11–12 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name”

“to them He gave the right”

That word “right” is ἐξουσία = exousia: authority

They only become a child of God is by God granting them that right to do so

And who does God grant this right to?

(v 12) “But as many as received Him, to those He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name”

Those who receive Him

Receiving Jesus is a popular and commonly misunderstood concept used in churches quite often today. You may have heard or hear: “All you need to do is receive Jesus into your heart, and you saved”

Here are some common misunderstandings about that:

That we open up some kind of metaphorical door in our hearts (if anyone knows how that would happen anyways?)

Or that we simply affirm verbally that Jesus is the Son of God

Or that we say something like, “I receive You Jesus” and somehow those words infuse Him into our hearts.

But what does it really mean to receive Jesus?

Receiving Jesus means that we accept His authority over our lives because we believe Him (“even those who believe in His name”)

A name is not just a title of someone, it the word that stands for the whole person

Receiving Jesus demands allegiance to Jesus.

If we truly believe in Jesus, then we will follow Him, obey Him, Keep His commands, worship Him, and never leave Him.

We will want to be his child who lives to please Him, and adores Him and trusts Him.

It’s not saying come into my heart Jesus…NO It’s taking up one’s life and bringing it before the Almighty and pleading that He would adopt us so that we might become His Son daughter

There is nothing that matters more in your life right now than what these verses speak to us today. No modern Christmas celebrations, no trees, lights, candles, hams, family get-togethers, presents, nothing matters more in the season of Christmas than “God sending his Son to redeem us so that we might receive adoption as sons.”

“When the fullness of time came”….maybe your time is today. Maybe for the first time you clearly understand why God sent his Son and why apart from Him we are doomed.

For we do not choose the time of our adoption, it chooses us…

Maybe God is saying to you today, that your time has come and now is the invitation for you to receive Jesus in His fullness, give your life over to Him, that you may become a child of God

~PRAYER~