Perfect Timing
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Perfect Timing
INTRO:
AG: There are many people around us every day who don’t know the true meaning of Christmas. Many folks don’t realize that the birth of Christ is what it’s about. And even those of us that do know the true meaning of Christmas tend to forget it amidst all of the shopping, and gift giving, and family get togethers with all the good eating etc. We don’t really know for certain what day the Lord was born, but we do know for certain that He was born, so we have set aside Dec. 25 as to remember His birth.
TS: Like us, the churches in Galatia also needed a reminder about the significance and meaning of Christmas.
Now the word Christmas is not found in the bible anywhere. But the account of the birth of our Savior is!
The Galatians were turning from the Gospel of the grace of God to the bondage of the law. Paul wrote to the Galatians to remind them of the significance of what Christ had done for them when he came to the earth.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
What is Christmas really all about?
I. IT’S ABOUT THE ADVENT OF THE SAVIOR
I. IT’S ABOUT THE ADVENT OF THE SAVIOR
In these verses we see some very important things about Jesus Christ and his coming to earth.
a) First we see his Divine Origin---
There was an event that took place before the birth of Christ in the manger, even before the conception of Christ in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
It was the sending forth of Christ from God the Father.
But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law,
Christ had always existed with the Father.
When the time was right, Jesus the Christ took on flesh and was born on earth
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
In eternity past, back before anything was created, He already was; He comes out of eternity to meet us. He did not begin.
“In the beginning was the Word”—He was already there when the beginning was.
As a man Jesus prayed to the Father,
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.
Christ had always existed in perfect loving fellowship with God the Father. One day at the precise time, God sent him forth. It was God’s plan even before there was a world.
He was foreknown before the foundation of the world but was made manifest in the last times for the sake of you
Jesus made a conscious choice to be sent.
Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
In love for humanity the Father sent the Son, & in love for the Father and humanity Jesus willingly went.
Jesus willingly and obediently and lovingly left a place of glory and sinlessness, and ceaseless worship and perfection, and unbroken fellowship with the Father.
Imagine all the fullness of the Godhead was dwelling inside this young virgin.
· This is his divine origin.
Now, let us examine His full humanity---"made of a woman"
The previous statement "God sent forth His Son" could be said of no other man in the history of the world.
The next statement, "made of a woman" is true of all men.
While Jesus was fully divine in origin, he was likewise fully human.
He entered the world just as you and I entered the world. He was born of a woman. He was a man. He was Mary’s son. He hungered, and thirsted, and ate, and drank, and worked, and played, and laughed, and wept, and hurt, and bled, and prayed, and lived, and died as a man.
Jesus’ most frequent title for himself was "Son of Man".
He used it to stress his full humanity. After all, it was the seed of the woman, a man that would crush the head of the serpent, the devil. () He became a man.
Then also we see from this verse:
Although he was God’s son he subjected himself to God’s law.
In fact, when he began to teach he made clear that he had not come to abolish the law but to fulfill it.
17
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
He did that perfectly!
He did that perfectly!
He fulfilled it, not only outwardly, but perfectly obeying God’s law from the heart. This couldn’t be said of no other man who has ever lived.
Christmas is about the advent of the Saviour.
He lowered himself, he condescended, He came down in order that we could go up when the rapture takes place.
II. THE ACCEPTANCE OF SINNERS
II. THE ACCEPTANCE OF SINNERS
to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
Verse 5 begins with the word "to". To do what? Paul tells us why Christmas came, why he was born, why he lived under the law.
a) To redeem them that were under the law---
To redeem means to set free, to purchase ones freedom. Who are "them that were under the law"?
Well, first this speaks of the Jewish people.
Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision?
Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.
What are the oracles of God?
They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises.
"Unto them, the Jewish people, were committed the oracles of God".
Christ came to set his own people free from the enslavement of the law.
The law was given directly to them. However, all men are subject to and accountable to the law of God.
Paul said of the gentiles, ()
For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.
They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them
ALTHOUGH THE GENTILES Were NEVER UNDER THE Mosaic Law, they are under Gods morale law, which is the 10 commandments.
Right is right and wrong is wrong for all people.
God is no respecter of persons.
One’s DNA makes no difference!
All men are subject to God’s Moral law Jew and Gentile alike.
God’s moral law alone cannot make us righteous.
Knowing the rules, and trying to keep the rules in our own power has always resulted in failure. We need something more than a written moral code. We need a change of heart.
Adam and Eve broke one law, one command, and they brought death not only to themselves but to all mankind.
God’s law has not been done away with, Jesus said that would never happen.
God’s law is just as solid as it ever has been, our wonderful Lord & Savior did what we could not do.
He is the only Person Who has ever completely been able to keep and fulfill Gods holy law. Therefore since we that are saved are in Christ Jesus and He’s in us we also keep Gods law through Him.
Jesus came to set us free from the law and its curse of death and hell.
How did he do it?
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”—
He freed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.
Moses said in his law, "cursed is everyone that hangs on a tree." He descended as low as becoming a curse.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He removed our curse by taking our curse as he suffered, and bled, and died on the cross.
God’s curse has been once and for all removed, for all those that believe.
Why did he remove our curse?
b. Christ came so that we might be adopted into God’s family.
Our text verse says in --, that we {everybody} might receive the adoption of sons.
That we might receive the adoption of sons---
He set us free from the curse so that he could place us in his family, so that you and I could become adopted sons & daughters of God, bearing all rights and privileges as natural sons and daughters.
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
BEFORE:
among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Our sin is an offense to God, It is repulsive to Him.
He made possible through his death for us to be accepted as his adopted sons.
So Christmas is about the Acceptance of Sinners. Lastly it’s about,
III. THE ASSURANCE OF THE SPIRIT
III. THE ASSURANCE OF THE SPIRIT
God sent forth Jesus to redeem us. :-- God inhabited human flesh.
All of that took place outside of us. Our redemption, our adoption, these are things we can know about and believe, but they all take place outside of us. We had absolutely nothing to do with it.
But God makes it real to us. He sends forth again. Once again the divine takes up residence in the human.
And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”
God lives in our innermost being.
God lives in our innermost being.
God lives in our innermost being.
It’s a personal Christmas.
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ making us alive, making us know that we are children of God for the Holy Spirit within us cries out "Abba Father".
A term used by a loving and trusting child to his or her daddy.
Conclusion:
Conclusion:
Celebrate Christmas, Celebrate Jesus!