Galatians chapter 4. I tell you
what, before you turn there, turn over to 1 John chapter 4. I want to read a couple of verses
of Scripture here. In 1 John 4 verses 1 through
3, John says, Beloved, believe not every spirit. And by spirit
he means preachers. He says, Betray the spirits whether
they are of God, because many false prophets are going out
into the world. Not every preacher is of God.
Not everybody that is preaching is preaching of God. There are
many false prophets. How can I know then if they are
speaking by the Spirit of God? Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God. Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every
spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh
is not of God. And this is that spirit of anti-Christ,
whereof you've heard that it should come, and even now already
is it in the world. Now, it appears this time of
the year, because it's designated as the time when we celebrate
at least the fact that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, it
appears that everybody confesses Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh. You think you're hearing that everybody's saying Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh. Well, I want to show you this
morning what it is to confess Jesus Christ has come in the
flesh. Confessing Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is more
than merely expressing the fact. It is confessing who He is, why
He came, what He accomplished. So if you'll turn over to Galatians
4 now. Galatians 4. I want to confess
to you this morning that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. That will be my subject. Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh. Galatians 4 verse 4, 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, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Wherefore, thou art no more a
servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. I'm going to just go through
my divisions with you as I get to them because I've got too
much to say this morning. So, the first division I want
you to see is confessing Christ has come in the flesh, is confessing
that Christ came at the time set by the eternal appointment
of God. It wasn't by accident. It was
on purpose. He came at the set time. Verse
4 says, when the fullness of time was come. This time of year
you'll hear men argue that Christ was not born on December 25th
and that's true. He wasn't. We don't really know
the date He was born. We're not told to celebrate His
birth. We're told to celebrate His death. But that's not the
time we're concerned about here. What I want you to see here,
what's important is, is that Christ came into this earth at
the time set between God and His Son in the covenant and counsel
of peace and eternity. That's when He came. In the fullness
of time, that's when He came. God does nothing by accident.
God, it's not as some vainly imagine that He tried to save
one way and it didn't work out, so then His plan B was to send
Christ into the world. That's not the case. God purposed
for His Son to come into this earth from eternity. And the
work which Christ came to accomplish was purposed from eternity. And
for whom Christ would accomplish that work was purposed from eternity. and God purposed the exact time
His Son would come into the earth from eternity. You see, that
lets us know that the fall of Adam When Adam fell in the garden,
that lets us know that that didn't take God by surprise. When Adam
sins and he plunged the whole human race into spiritual death
and separation from God, that didn't take God by surprise.
It fit perfectly into God's eternal purpose to glorify His great
name and the saving of an elect people in His Son, Christ Jesus. The salvation of God's people
is ordered and it's sure in Christ by God from all eternity. His
coming into this earth marked the set time that the scepter
would depart from Judah, from Israel, because Israel and King
David and the kings in Israel, they were merely a type and a
picture of Christ the King and of His spiritual kingdom. And
the Lord said in Genesis 49, 10, the scepter shall not depart
from Judah. That means the scepter, the king's
scepter, that kingship and that dominion and that kingdom, it
shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his
feet until Shallow come Shallows Christ until Shallow come and
unto him shall the gathering of the people be The people are
not going to an earthly kingdom the people are not going to an
earthly throne the people are gathering to Christ Christ is
our King and he's the king of his kingdom. That's why Isaiah
9, 6 says, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be on his shoulder. What government?
The government of God's house, the government of God's kingdom,
the government of saving his people, and ruling and reigning
for all eternity. His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Of the increase of His government
and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David and
upon His kingdom. to order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.
The zeal of the Lord our host will do this. So Christ was,
that David was a picture, that king was a picture in Israel
and that kingdom was a picture of the true spiritual kingdom.
Christ is the real king. That's why the wise men came
when he was born into this earth, and they came saying, where is
he that's born king of the Jews? That's why Nathaniel said, Rabbi,
thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of Israel.
Daniel prophesied of the exact time, and he prophesied of exactly
what Christ would accomplish in his prophecy of the 70 weeks. Habakkuk said, the vision is
yet for an appointed time. And at the end it shall speak
and not lie, though it tarry, wait for it, because it will
surely come, it will not tarry." He said, everything I've spoken
to you about the appointed time when Christ is coming, He's coming
at that appointed time. And Micah said, Bethlehem Ephratah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of
thee shall He come forth unto me. God speaking. He's going
to come forth unto me, that is, to be ruler in Israel, whose
going forth have been from old, from everlasting. He's Christ. He's God's own Son. So Christ
came. And when Christ came, He came,
Mark 1.14 says, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God
and saying, the time is fulfilled. and the kingdom of God is at
hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. He came preaching the
kingdom of God, not the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom of God.
And he said, the time is fulfilled. There he was, there was the king. So get this now, to preach Christ
to preach Him come in the flesh is to preach that He came at
the appointed time because everything involved in Him coming to this
earth was purposed from all eternity by God. God did this. God purposed the whole thing.
That's why He came. And therefore Christ came when
the fullness of time was come. You know what I love? I love
the fact that for me and you, in time, We cannot, we can't
accomplish the things we want to bring to pass. And we can't
accomplish the things we want to bring to pass on time. But
this is true of our Lord. The Lord of hosts hath sworn,
saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass, and
as I have purpose, so shall it stand. He's God that declares
the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my good pleasure. And those who declare otherwise,
they're not just misguided. John said they're antichrist.
is speaking by Spirit other than the Spirit of God. And the Spirit
of God told John that. And I think the Spirit of God
knows what He's talking about when He's the one that gives
the word to speak. Alright, here's the second thing I want you to
see. To declare Christ is come in the flesh is to declare who
He is. Christ is God and He's man in
one person. Look at verse 4, Galatians 4.4. God sent forth His Son God sent
forth His Son made of a woman. Now this is a great mystery.
This is the greatest manifestation of amazing love. But this is
so. God sent His Son. God sent His Son. Christ Jesus, that infant born,
was the Infinite One. He is God the Son. He came forth,
Emmanuel, God with us. Look over at John 8.42. John
chapter 8.42. This is the Lord Jesus speaking.
And some folks didn't believe He was God the Son. They didn't
believe He was God. John 8, 42, And Jesus said unto
them, If God were your Father, they were saying, God's our Father.
And He said, If God were your Father, He said, you would love
Me, for I proceeded forth and came from God, neither came I
of Myself, but He sent Me. He sent Me. John, 1 John chapter
4, back over there again, 1 John 4. This is what we read. In this
was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God,
God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might
live through Him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins, to be satisfaction for our sins. Look down at verse
14. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
If you get confused by that word world, don't look at the world
to try to understand who that means. Look at what Christ accomplished
to understand what that means. He just said He sent Him forth
to be satisfaction for our sin. If He's satisfaction for our
sins, that means they're atoned for. God's satisfied. The world
means that those He did it for are scattered throughout the
world. They're all throughout the world. And He says, now look
at verse 15, Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son
of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. So those who preach
that Jesus is not God, that He's not one with God the Father and
God the Holy Spirit, that He's not the second person in the
Holy Trinity, those who preach otherwise, God does not dwell
in them and they do not dwell in God. They're preaching from
a spirit of anti-Christ, denying that Jesus Christ has come in
the flesh, because He's God. Now look back at our text at
Galatians 4, and look there again at verse 9. Sorry, at verse... verse 4, and you'll see that
it says, made of a woman. God sent forth his son made of
a woman. Now, Jesus Christ is unlike any
other person, any other man that ever came forth in this world,
because he's the seed of woman. The Lord God said this in Genesis
3.15. He said to the serpent then in
the garden, He said, I'm going to put enmity between you and
the woman. between your seed and her seed
and he will bruise your, you will bruise his heel but he shall
bruise your head. Now that woman's seed is the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus wasn't created
as Adam was and the Lord Jesus Christ was not begotten by Adam's
seed as all other men are. When it says that he was made
of a woman, it means he was conceived of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit
of God. And he was conceived in the womb
of a virgin who had never known a man. And he was conceived there
by the Holy Spirit, not of Adam's corrupt seed, and therefore from
conception, in the womb, the Lord Jesus was a holy man. He was holy. He's unlike all
other men born in Adam. He was holy in conception. And all other men are corrupt. All other men are conceived in
sin. That don't mean the act that
takes place to conceive them is dirty. It means that when
they are conceived in the womb, they're born of corrupt semen,
so they are polluted in their very nature. They're conceived
in sin. That's what it means. And therefore
because Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit and he was
conceived in the womb of this virgin, the Holy Ghost spoke
unto the angel answered and said unto Mary and said the Holy Ghost
shall come upon thee and the power of the highest shall overshadow
thee. Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. He's that holy thing. God the
Son who is God. Spirit and he comes down and
he joins himself He's divine nature and he comes and he joins
himself with flesh and he joins himself with a human nature But
why? Why did he do that? Why did he
do that? Well Why did he make himself
in the likeness of man? Why was he made flesh? Why was
he made of a woman? What was the importance of that?
well The reason he was holy and the reason that he did this was
because he's going to do a work for his people. And that work
required he be holy from the womb. There's only two people,
two men on the planet that have ever been holy. That's Adam and
that's Christ. Adam and Christ. Adam had no
sin in a sinless environment. And God gave him liberty to do
what Adam would do. And Adam sinned against God.
Christ is the only other one. He came forth, and He came forth
a holy man. And His will was to do the will
of the Father. And He went about in a sinful,
cursed world with a contradiction of sinners against Him constantly.
And never once had an unholy thought, never once did an unholy
deed, but perfectly fulfilled all righteousness for his people.
And you're going to be found in either Adam or you're going
to be found in Christ. There's two heads in this world.
There's Adam and there's Christ. We all come into this world born
under Adam. Dead, corrupt, lost, sinners.
But God's elect children are those who Christ represented,
and those are going to be born of His incorruptible seed, born
again. But let me get back to this point.
There's two reasons that He came into this earth. Turn to Hebrews
2. Two reasons that I want to address right here. And they
are that He came to be the high priest of His people and to make
reconciliation for the sins of His people, to be their high
priest to make reconciliation for their sins, and that He might
be touched with the feeling of their infirmities. That was what
was required of a high priest. Look at Hebrews 2.14. I know
I've gone over this with you several times before, but I want
you to see this because I have something I wanted to show to
you. Hebrews 2.14. For as much then
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. He came to lay down His life.
He was born to die that He might deliver His children who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subjected to Satan's
bondage. All right, now look. For verily
He took not on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him
the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
Him to be made like unto His brethren. He had to be made of
a woman like unto his brethren. Why? Here's the reason. Number
one, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He
had a work to do to make reconciliation for the sins of his people to
God. That was the first reason. The
second reason is verse 18. For in that he himself hath suffered
being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted,
to comfort them, to bring them aid. Look again now over at Hebrews
5 and look at verse 1. For every high priest taken from
among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God.
that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. That's the first thing. That
was what Christ came to do. Christ is the last earthly priest. He's the last priest there was.
He came and he put an end to the Old Testament priesthood.
He did. There are no priests now. Christ
is our great high priest with the Father. He came to offer
gifts and sacrifices for sins. And then secondly, verse two
says, who can have compassion on the ignorant. He can have
compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way,
for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity. Now he was touched,
Christ was touched with the feeling of our infirmity. Let me look
at this first thing, this first reason first. Christ came for
the purpose of being our high priest. He came to save His people
from our sins. Eric just read it. They were
told His name shall be Jesus for He shall save His people
from their sin. No possibility that He will fail.
He shall. And He shall save them from their
sin. He shall do it. He came forth
to do that. And so doing so, Christ manifests
the righteousness of God. You say that all the time, preacher.
What do you mean by that? The righteousness of God. The righteousness
of God is not manifest by our faithfulness. It's not manifest
by the faith of us. It's manifest by the faith of
Christ. Romans 3 says that. It's manifest
by the faithfulness and the fidelity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
was set forth. God set Him forth. And He came
forth and He manifests to us. By being crucified, we see that
God will by no means clear the guilty. He didn't spare his son
when his son was made sin for his people. God will not clear
the guilty. Somebody had to die in their place. God has to be
just. in justifying his people. And
he manifests the righteousness of God. This is how God is just
in justifying his people. And he manifests that God is
the justifier of his people because he's God the Son doing the justifying. So he is the justifier of all
who believe. God the Son is spirit though.
He's spirit. And it was flesh, it was man
that sinned. So he must become a man. He must
have a body in order that he might fulfill the law as a man. And that he might, his own self,
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. He had to have a
body. Hebrews 9.22 says, without the
shedding of blood, there's no remission of sin. Well, God the
Son didn't have blood. He didn't have blood, He's Spirit.
So He took a body that He might have blood to shed life with
His stripes were healed. God the Spirit could not bear
stripes. He couldn't bear stripes. So He took a body that He might
bear the stripes due to His people in His own body on the tree.
The wages of sin is death. And as God, He could not die.
So He took a body that He might have a body, a life to lay down
His life in the place of His people. And being eternal God,
because He is God the Son, eternal. He offered himself through the
eternal spirit, through on the altar of his deity, on him being
God the Son eternal. He offered himself that way so
that everything he accomplished as a man is eternal. He's our eternal propitiation,
our eternal satisfaction of God. It's done. It's over. He has
by one offering perfected forever all them that are sanctified.
All right? The second thing I said was he
was made of a woman that in his body he might be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. That he might be able to succor,
to comfort, to help us in all our sufferings, in all our times
of need because he's been tried in all points. He's been, he's
felt, he's been touched in that body with the feeling of those
infirmities. Now, Isaiah 53 tells us that
He carried our griefs and our sorrows. Christ was made sin. He was made guilty before God
by imputation so that God was just to forsake Him on the cross.
He had to be made sin. He had to become guilty because
God will not punish innocent person he's got to be made guilty
so God imputed the sin of all his people to Christ and he becomes
guilty before God and so that God's just to punish him in the
place of his people but now When God forsook Him on that cross,
because He was bearing the sin of His people, their sins were
imputed to Him and He was guilty and justice required that He
be forsaken. When He was forsaken on the cross,
it was that forsaking of God, listen to me, it was that forsaking
of God whereby Christ was touched in His own body on the tree.
with all the feelings and all the afflictions, all the smiting
and the bruising and the stripes that comes upon our bodies and
our flesh and our spirit because of sin. You understand what I'm... That... Now, let me get this. Not only the feelings of want
of hunger and thirst, of persecution of men, of the trying of Satan
when he walked this earth and when men nailed him to the tree.
Not only that, but the feeling of our infirmities, the feeling
of sin, the feeling of everything that goes along with sin. He
was touched with the feeling of our infirmities when he was
forsaken of God on the cross. Think about this. Adam's spiritual
death and the deterioration of his physical body began when
he was cut off from the life and light of God like a flower. You take a flower and you remove
the sunlight from that flower so that that flower is forsaken
of the sunlight and that flower will wither. It will just wither
because it needs the light and the life of the sun. You and
me are withering. We're just withering. We're becoming
wrinkled and we're dying day by day. The condemnation of hell
will be that Christ has forsaken us, that Christ has turned His
back on us. And the condemnation of hell
will be endured by His people by being forsaken of God. It
will be a death that's not death. It will be a death that never
dies. It will be the worm that never dies. We will be dying
condemned, forsaken of God, but never dying, just enduring that
forever. That will be the case of all
those who meet God without a substitute. And Christ endured that on the
cross when he cried out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? He was enduring being forsaken
of God on the cross because he was justly made guilty by imputation
and he was being touched at that same time in his body by all
the feelings of our sin, by all the feelings of being separated
from God. The psalmist describes it as
being touched with such extreme suffering and affliction in his
own body on the tree, and it's described like this, his moisture
being turned into the drought of summer. You know when you
get really, really sick, you ever had a fever, really bad
fever? Psalm 22, 14, and 15, the Lord
said, I'm poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax. It's melted in the midst of my
bowels. My strength is dried up like
a pipe shirt, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. You see, we're talking
about what God did to him. Thou has brought me into the
dust of death, the dryness of death. Look at Lamentations chapter
3, right after Jeremiah. Lamentations chapter 3. And look at verse 1. This is what I'm talking about. This is how that being touched
with the feeling of our infirmities, this is how it's described in
scripture. Listen to this. Lamentations
3.1, I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his
wrath. He hath led me and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. What happened when he cried out,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? It went dark. He
was left there. And it says, "...surely against
Me as He turned..." God turned. "...He turneth His hand against
Me all the day." My flesh and my skin hath he made old. He hath broken my bones. He builded against me, compassed
me with gall and travail. He set me in dark places as they
that be dead of old. He hedged me about that I cannot
get out. He's made my chain heavy. Also
when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer. He hath enclosed
my ways with hewn stone. He hath made my paths crooked.
He was unto me as a bear lying in wait and as a lion in secret
places. He's turned aside my ways and
pulled me in pieces. He's made me desolate. He's bent
his bow and set me as a mark for the arrow. He's caused the
arrows of his quiver to enter my reins. That's the inward parts. I was a derision to all my people
and their song all the day. He's filled me with bitterness.
He's made me drunken with wormwood. He's also broken my teeth with
gravel stones. He's covered me with ashes. And
that has removed my soul far off from peace. I forgot prosperity. And I said my strength and my
hope is perished from the Lord, remembering my affliction and
my misery, the wormwood and the gall." Now look at Isaiah 53
with me. Just a moment. Isaiah 53. At the end of verse 3, when it
says, he was acquainted with grief, and it says, and we hid
as it were our faces from him, the marginal reading says, he
hid as it were his face from us. Because the law required
anybody that, that, that, uh, The law required of the leper
that he hide his face from people. That's what it required. I'm
not saying that Christ became a leper. What I am saying is
he was touched with the feeling, the very same feeling of all
of those very diseases that he healed while he walked this earth.
the disease of leprosy, the disease of blindness, the issue of blood,
all diseases he healed. That's what infirmities are,
and they're all caused by sin. And whenever he healed some people
one day, Matthew said he did that in order that verse 4 might
be fulfilled. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. This is what I'm talking about.
Not only was he, he had to have a body to fulfill the law. He had to have a body to be,
to be, to shed his blood. He had to have a body for, to
have the sin of God's people imputed to him. But he had to
have a body to be touched with the feeling of all the sins of
his people. To have them piercing him through
and his body to be his moisture be dried up within him and his
tongue to cleave to his mouth so that he's actually enduring
in his own body on the tree the stripes. He's enduring the stripes
of being forsaken from God, not the stripes of men. He bore those,
but I'm talking about the stripes that come from being cut off
from the light and the life. I'm talking about the stripes
that come from bearing hell from the stripes that come from bearing
the condemnation, from bearing the worm that never dies, the
stripes that come that you'll receive if you meet God without
Christ. I'm talking about the stripes
and the touch and the feelings of our infirmities. He bore that
in his body on that tree. I despise to hear men speak of
it as just a judicial transaction. It was cut and dried judicial,
that's it. It was more of an offense than that to God Almighty
when man sinned against God. And it's going to be more of
a suffering under the condemnation and wrath of God in hell than
just that for men too. And he had to bear that in the
place of his people on the tree. I don't know what happened. I
don't know what it did to him. I don't know what it did to his
body. Look what sin does to your body.
And I'm not saying he had sin inherently in his body. I'm just
saying he was touched with the feelings, the effects, the afflictions
that our sin causes in the body. And he was made sin by our sin
being imputed to him. And he was guilty. So that he's
bearing... And yet, look at verse four. It says there, yet we did esteem
him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. I've said this
to you before. I think something happened on
that cross to where after what man had done to him, that centurion
sitting there at the foot of that cross looked up at him and
said, we didn't do this to him. It may have been just that the
folks walking by said he's getting what he deserved, God's spiking
him and all this because of everything that man's doing to him. I think
it was something that had to do with God forsaking him on
that cross. And they said God has stricken
him and smitten him and afflicted him. But look at the next verse. He said, Paul said, he's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities yet without sin. But he was wounded
for our transgressions. He was really wounded. Man's so proud. Man's so proud
to think that our wounding had anything to do with satisfying
God. Our wounding him had nothing
to do with satisfying God. Our wounding him only proved
that we're a bunch of worthless maggots. That's what it proved.
He was wounded for our transgressions by God. He was bruised for our
iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. It was for no sin of his own
that he was touched in his own body, but for the sins of his
people. Now here's the mystery of the
cross. This to me is the mystery of the cross right here. The
mystery of the cross is that while the sins of his people
were imputed to him so that God was just in pouring out his wrath
upon our substitute, at the same time, while he was bearing and
being touched with the feeling of our infirmities in his own
body, and he was in the afflictions and the stripes and the woundings
and the bruises that our sin causes, He was being touched
with it. He was being touched with it.
So he knows exactly what it's like. At the same time, Christ
in himself endured it in perfect obedience to God unto death. No guile was found in his mouth.
He never in his heart turned rebel against God. He remained
like a lamb silent as it sheared, and from the Father's side of
it all, while God was just to forsake Him, and had to forsake
Him, when He was made a curse in place of His people. While
He was doing that, and He was just doing it, at the same time,
it pleased the Lord. It made satisfaction to the justice
of God to bruise Him. and with his stripes were healed. Not the stripes inflicted by
men, the stripes from being forsaken of God. That's a mystery of mysteries. That's wisdom beyond wisdom. That's depths of love. That's
a manifestation of the glory of God. What does that have to
do with me? Well, because Christ was touched
with a feeling of the very kinds of infirmities that He healed
when He walked this earth. When you and I get sick, when
we get a disease, when we're wracked with fever and we're
burning up and that sin's taking its toll on us, He knows just
what it feels like. When we've got to the point where
our tongues cleave into our roof of our mouth and our skin's
hanging off of our bones and it's become just wrinkled and
we're just turned into a mass you can't even hardly recognize.
He knows exactly what that feels like. So that he's able to come in
the Spirit and comfort us in all our time of need and every
bit of it. so that not only did he fully,
perfectly make satisfaction, he's a high priest that can be
faithful and merciful and helpful in all our time of need if we
go through this earth. Seeing then we have such a high
priest, passed into the heavens, that's where he is. Jesus, the
Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not
a high priest that can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. He never reviled, he never rebelled
against God. He bore all of it to the end. All right, here's the third thing,
and I'll be brief here, but I gotta spend too much time, but let
me, the third thing. Back in Galatians 4, verse 4.
To preach Christ is come in the flesh is to preach that by His
one offering Christ accomplished the redemption of His people
on the cross. Verse 4 says, made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law. Those He came to save were under
the curse of the broken law. The curse of the broken law.
So he was made under the law, and he was made a curse for them,
for them under the law. Galatians 3.13, look there with
me. Galatians 3.13 says, Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for
us. For it's written, cursed is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. Words that, synonyms of that
are words like execration, words like anathema. That's what he
was made for his people. Now as God, he gave the law to
Adam in the garden. And as God, he gave the law to
Moses on Mount Sinai to shut our mouths and show us the transgression
we committed in the garden, in Adam. But as the God-man, he
subjected himself to that very law and to the very curse of
that law. The precepts of the Ten Commandments,
when he walked this earth, it was the heart of his heart. It
wasn't like he was having a grasp to keep the law. It was his heart. He was holy. A man is holy. The
law wasn't made for a holy man. A holy man never has a thought
contrary to God. He never had a thought contrary
to God. So there was nothing in him. He didn't have to strive
to keep the law. He just kept it. He just was
obedient. He just was holy and righteous in everything he did.
It was his delight. It was just who he was in his
heart and his nature. But this one who knew no sin
of his own was made a curse for us under the law and forsaken
of God. And this is what I think took
place. That condemnation of hell I was telling you about. which
will be being forsaken of God, that worm that never dies, that
death that never dies. Christ bore that death for His
people and put an end to it eternally for His people when He was forsaken
of God on the cross. He bore it and put an end to
it. When He cried out, it's finished, and then gave up the ghost, it
was already finished before He gave up the ghost. They'll say,
but, oh, but the wages of sin is death, and he died, and that's
how he satisfied justice. That showed physically, outwardly,
what he'd already done spiritually. He already bore the condemnation.
He already put a death to death. He'd already satisfied justice.
But he was alive. If we go to hell, brethren, we're
going to be dying. We're going to be dead, but we're
going to still be alive. See, you understand what I'm
saying? He suffered the death of hell, which is a death that
never dies. He suffered that and satisfied
it so that when he said, IT IS FINISHED, it was finished, it
was done. And then he, as an outward manifestation
of it, he gave up the ghost and went and was buried in a tomb.
This is what the scripture says. There's therefore now no condemnation. That word is kat-ak-ri-ma. There's no more kat-ak-ri-ma
to them which are in Christ Jesus, born of his spirit, because Christ
was made a curse, a kat-ar-a for us. And because he was made
that. Because what the law couldn't
do in that it was weak to the flesh, God sent in His own Son
in the likeness of the flesh for sin, condemned sin in the
flesh. That means He cursed the curse.
He condemned the condemnation. He made death die for His people
forever. And now the righteousness of
the law is fulfilled in us who are born of His Spirit. You see,
people wanna, I know there is a difference between righteousness
and sanctification. I know there's a difference between
justification and these different, some words, forensic, what have
you. When you're born of the Spirit of God and you've been
made holy, purified within, created in the righteousness and holiness
of Christ Jesus, because we're justified by what Christ has
accomplished, that means there's nothing, it doesn't mean we have
to go around and we're trying to keep the law to satisfy the
law and to live righteously, it means we have lived righteously. It means there's nothing we can
possibly do that will make the law of God say to you and me,
that man's guilty. That man can't come into glory
because Christ has already justified us of every sin, past, present,
and future, so that the law says of us, he's spotless, and he's
righteous, and he's holy, and there's nothing to blame in him. That's so of God's people. That's
freedom. That's freedom. Not to sin. It's not gonna make people sin. I don't even have to tell a believer
that. Anybody born of the Spirit of
God and taught of God knows that ain't so. Here's the fourth thing. To preach
Christ's coming to flesh is to declare that because Christ redeemed
his people, each one shall be born of the Spirit. Verse five,
that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's why he did it.
God predestinated His children to the adoption before the foundation
of the world and not a possibility. Having predestinated us into
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to
the good pleasure of His will to the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He's made us accepted in the beloved. He came
and did this whole work so that God would be just when He sends
forth the Spirit of God and creates His child anew. Well, what about
all those before Christ came and laid down His life on the
cross? He was their surety. It was done. He's the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. And it's by the Spirit of His
Son that each one whom Christ redeemed is given life and faith
whereby we cry to God our Father. The justice of God demands it.
Look at verse 6. And because ye are sons, God
has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. We don't become sons of God by
believing God. We don't get our name written
in the Lamb's Book of Life by believing God. That was already
done. We already were sons of God,
and because we were sons of God, because Christ already redeemed
us, the Spirit of God sent forth into His child. Somebody say,
well, those are hard sayings. You've got to be careful saying
those things. No, I don't. It's written right here in black
and white. I have to be careful about that. That's God's Word.
You've got to be careful if you don't say it. Because you're
going to have to take that up with God. anti-Christ. This is
God's Word. By Christ redeeming us, being
born of His Spirit, we're sons and heirs of God. Heirs of God
our Father, and joined heirs with Christ. Look at verse 7.
Wherefore thou art no more a servant but a son, and if a son, then
an heir of God through This was predestinated to, in
whom we've obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according
to the purpose of him that worketh all things at the counsel of
his own will, that we should be to the praise of his glory
who first trusted in Christ. So I confess to you, brethren,
I confess to you, Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. He has
come in the flesh. You believe that Jesus Christ
has come in the flesh. Those that believe he's come
in the flesh are born of God. You're born of God. God dwelleth
in you, and you dwell in God. That's so. So, he came at the
set time from eternity because it was purpose. He's God and
man in one person because he's our high priest at the right
hand of the Father who presents us to the Father, holy, spotless,
without blame, and he knows the feeling of our infirmities, having
suffered the extremities that no man can imagine on the cross.
And He's redeemed His people being made a curse for us. And
each one He's redeemed are sons and must be born of His Spirit
because our Father's justice demands it and He's predestinated
it. And believer, you who are a child
of God, our Father, you're an heir of God our Father. My daddy don't have anything.
I mean, my dad don't have much. But my Heavenly Father has it
all. And I'm an heir of His. Whatever
He's going to give to Christ, He's going to give to me. Joint
heirs with Christ. You know why? Because Christ
Jesus came in and was that one who did all this. They thought
He was going to come in majesty. They thought He was going to
come the first time like He is going to come the second time.
but he came as a baby. He just grew up and accomplished
the work. When it comes the second time,
folks that's looking for this earthly kingdom and folks that's
looking for this Earthly set up so they do whatever they want
to do in the earth and live high on the hog in this earth They
gonna be jumping up down thinking. Oh, he's coming here. He come
we knew he was coming coming for the first time He's coming
because he's coming in splendor. This is just how we thought he
was coming, but they're gonna find out he's already been He's
coming back And I go boy running and looking for rocks to cover
him up hiding from rocks hiding in the rocks because of it I
That's God. I'm telling you, that's God.
That's how God saves. He don't come out to do something.
He does it. He does it. His name is Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sin. Amen.