Well, my text this morning is
in the book of Galatians. the Paul's epistle to the Galatians
chapter four you know it well I thought it must be I must have
preached on this recently but actually when I looked it up
back in my notes it must be a good ten years and even then it was
only a fifteen minute little quick talk so I haven't preached
on this recently at all but it's Galatians chapter four verses
four five and six let me read these to you now but when the
fullness of the 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. The thing that goes on around
us at this time of year called Christmas, I mean, you read on
the back of the bulletin a piece by Paul Mahan on how it's got
nothing to do with the true gospel that we believe, nothing whatsoever.
In fact, what goes on around us in the name of Christmas,
I think, gives us no more opportunity for gospel presentation than
a sporting event or something like that. They talk about, let's
put Christ back into Christmas. Not this type of Christmas, not
this worldly, materialistic, retail therapy type of Christmas,
no, not at all. And churches, even ones that
call themselves orthodox and evangelical, they have their
Christmas events on days like today. and they have Christmas
morning services, as if there's any scriptural warrant whatsoever
for it. All it's doing is pulling on
weak human emotions. And you hear all sorts of soppy
stories, don't you? And people get into what they
call the Christmas spirit, and you hear irreverent comedy, where
people think that they can casually, in a familiar way, walk into
the things of the eternal God and make humor of it. No, that
sort of thing I think it's better if there's no association with
the incarnation, with God coming into this world at all. That
doesn't mean I don't like this time of year. Well, I don't because
it's so dark, but that's just my preference. I much prefer
June and July. But the fact that we put lights
up is good. I like to put lights up on the
dark days of winter. I like nice singing. I like all
that sort of thing. But what is the incarnation?
What is the fact that God became a man? What is it really all
about? This is the key thing. This is
the key message. What is it really all about?
That God, God became a man. What's it all about? You know
that the Bible is God's declaration from start to finish of how he
remains just and holy yet justifies the children who are sinners
that he loved from eternity. That's what it's about. The Bible
is not a general textbook on how human beings ought to live.
No, people will tell you it is, it isn't. It's God's declaration
of how he remains utterly just in respect of sin, how he is
absolutely inflexible in punishing sin and demanding the debt of
sin be paid, absolutely inflexible, yet he is able to justify those
who are his children, chosen in Christ from before the foundation
of the world. That's what this book is about.
This book is about the sinfulness of sin, as I was saying the last
two weeks looking at Jeremiah. You look there, there's an awful
lot of judgment there, because God hates sin, and we all are
sinners. It's all about law debt, the
debt to the law and justice of God. It's all about how that
debt is paid. How satisfaction is made of that
justice. How, here's a long word, expiation.
How the putting away of that sin, how dealing with that sin
is accomplished. How is it accomplished? You see,
flesh always leans towards law works. always wants to, even
when it's heard the gospel, the flesh always wants to lean towards
law. There must be something I can
do. It's too good to be true if you just tell me that it's
all done for me in Christ. There must be something that
I should do. And that's what was the case
with these Galatians. They'd heard the gospel. They'd
believed it. They'd shown all the signs to
Paul that they had believed the truth, and he'd gone away from
them, and the next thing he hears is that they're going back to
legalism. They're going back to Judaism. They're going back
to law works, to try and do that which God alone in Christ can
do, which is justify his children. They can't justify themselves.
They can't sanctify themselves. We can't. There's nothing that
we can do, nothing that we can do or not do that makes any difference
to how we stand with God. But the flesh always leans towards
law works. And so, you know, we're not going
to expound the book of Galatians this morning, but pick it up
in chapter 4 verse 1. Now I say that the heir, as long
as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be
Lord of all. What he's talking about is this,
he's talking about those people who are the children of the kingdom
of God. They're heirs. They're heirs
of all things that are God's. They're Abraham's seed, he's
told them in the last verse of the previous chapter. If you
be Christ's, then are you Abraham's spiritual seed, and heirs according
to the promise. But then he says, The heirs of
the promise, as long as they're children, they differ not a bit
from a servant. They've got the same rights and
privileges as a servant. And what are those rights and
privileges? Do as you're told, or else. They're children. They're
children of the family. They may be the children of the
great big landed estate. They may have so much that is
set for them to inherit, you know, everything that goes with
it. But while they're children, they're under restrictions. They
differ nothing from a servant, even though they're heir to be
lord of all. But they're put under tutors
and governors. And this is, I don't know if
it's very much like that these days, but it used to be the case
that the the governor, the tutor, looking after the children of
the big house, was told, you put them in line, you discipline
them, you teach them, and if they misbehave, you discipline
them with the rod. And the tutor was put in charge,
even though they were the children who were going to inherit the
whole estate. Even so, verse three, we, when
we were children, in the kingdom of God, Even when we, when we
were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world.
He's talking about the covenant of works. He's talking about
the situation that we were in, in the flesh, subject to the
law of God. But, this is it, but, when the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son. made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law. At the appointed time, this is
it, that's when he did what he did, at a time in history, at
a specific, a point in time, Albert Einstein, you know the
famous physicist of relativity fame, of E equals MC squared
fame and all that kind of thing. Albert Einstein famously said
that as far as physics is concerned, the only reason for time is so
that everything doesn't happen all at the same time. It would
all happen at once if there wasn't this thing called time that was
stretched out. And we live in this realm of
time. And we think that this realm of time is so inflexible
Did you know that, and I'm not saying that physics in any way
we need it to prove the things of God and eternity, but it's
interesting, isn't it, that it's not incompatible with what God's
word says about eternity and being outside of time. God stretched
out time at the beginning. God did. God stretched out time,
God ordered all things and ordained all things in time. Don't look
at it now but if you look in Revelation chapter 5 and verse
1 the vision that John has is of the Lord standing with a little
book in his hand, sealed And he's there with this book. And
this is the unfolding of time and of history. And he is in
charge of it. And he is the one who ordered
it. And the reason his prophecies
come true is because he is the one that ordained all things
as he rolled out this scroll of time at the beginning of time.
God stretched it out. And there's a gradual unfolding
of that truth as God reveals the truth of how he is going
to justify the people that he loved from before the beginning
of time. There's a gradual unfolding of truth. There's a gradual unfolding
of showing how exceedingly sinful is sin. There's a gradual unfolding
of how all righteousness must be established. There's a gradual
unfolding of the justice and judgment of God. There's an unfolding
of redemption. It's portrayed, it's pictured,
it's shown in types and shadows. It's portrayed how it is that
God redeems his people. His sovereign grace is portrayed. His choice of a people for his
own glory, for salvation. God's salvation is declared.
God's Messiah is declared. God's Messiah is made manifest
in the flesh at exactly the ordained point in time when the necessary
satisfaction was to be made. At this appointed time, Psalm
102 verse 13 says this, Thou shalt arise and have mercy
upon Zion, for the time to favor her, yea, the set time, is come,
when the fullness of the time was come. God sent forth his
son. The time and the place of it
was ordained when God should come into this world, when God
should become a man in this world for the purpose of redemption.
If you read in Daniel chapter 9 and verses 24 to 27, I won't
get you to turn there now, but you know there there is the The
revelation is given of when things are going to happen to Daniel
and he's told about a number of weeks which represent years,
the 70 weeks and then the two extra weeks and all of these
things are determining when is the right time that Messiah will
come to do that which is necessary to save his people from their
sins and he came at the fullness of that time. There were wise
men, as we call them. There were three kings, as we
call them, though we don't know that. We only know what the gifts
were. There were three gifts. They weren't astrologers, as
so many people like to say. I believe that these were men
in the east, in the remains of what was the Babylonian Empire
and the Persian Empire, where the books that Daniel had written
in the captivity, the books of the scriptures were there, and
those books, Daniel 9, 24 to 27, were saying in this many
weeks, at this time, God's Messiah is coming. to put an end of sin,
to make an end of it, to take away the sins of his people,
to make an end of the sacrifice that would picture it, for he
would fulfill it. And they came looking, where
is he that is born? King of the Jews, for we have
seen his star while we were in the east, and I come to worship
him, because we know your word says he's coming. He's coming
to be born. He's coming into time when the
fullness of the time was come. And where? Micah chapter 5 and
verse 2. Not just anywhere. Not just anywhere,
you know how in the United States of America, there are lots of
Ashlands, and you always have to say the state where it is.
Where are you from? Oh, I'm from Jacksonville. Well,
there's no point saying that, is there, because there's Jacksonville,
Florida, and there's Jacksonville, North Carolina, and there's Jacksonville
all over the place. There are loads of them. You
even get so that if you say I'm going to Paris, and you're an
American, you have to delineate it as the one that's in France,
because there are plenty of other ones. I mean, as if anybody would,
never mind. but you know that regarding the place God's Word
says this Bethlehem Ephrata Bethlehem in Judah because there were other
Bethlehems but it's this Bethlehem in Judah where Messiah would
come the city of David the city of David where Ruth married Boaz
And their offspring was Obed, whose offspring was Jesse, whose
offspring was David, who is that type of Christ. That type of
Christ. There, He was going to come.
At the appointed time, when the fullness of the time was coming.
When the fullness of what time? This time that God has rolled
out on His scroll, before the beginning of time. You know,
in the Revelation, chapter 5, verse 1 and 2, John looks to see, is there anybody
worthy to loose the seals that are on this book? And none was
found worthy, and he wept much. And they said, don't weep. Look,
here's the lion of the tribe of Judah. He is the one who is
worthy to unloose its seals. This is Christ. This is Christ.
He's in control of all things. Does it matter to us whether
it's 25th of December? One thing we know for sure, it
almost certainly wasn't 25th of December when Christ was physically
born in Bethlehem of Judea. But it was at exactly the time
that God had appointed, when the fullness of the time had
come. When all of the prophecies about
his coming were fulfilled, God sent forth his son. God sent
forth his son into the world. We know it, we say it glibly,
but God, God the creator, God the sustainer, God the all-powerful,
the all-knowing, the judge of the universe the sovereign of
the universe sent forth his son look at Philippians turn over
just a couple of pages to Philippians Philippians chapter two let this mind be in you which
was also in Christ Jesus imitate Christ Jesus Who's he? Who? Being in the form of God. This is who he is. He's God.
He's the second person of the Trinity. This is the one by whom
God speaks, by whom God is known. This is the one where we hide
in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passes by. This
is the one. He being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. You know what
God says? I will not share my glory with
another. The God of the universe says
that. I will not share my glory with another. It would be robbery.
to take any of the glory that belongs to God alone. But this
one, Christ Jesus, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God. Why not? because he was God. He is God. He is very God of
very God. But what did he do? This one
dwelling in unapproachable light, this second person of the Trinity,
this God the Word, what did he do? Verse seven, he made himself
of no reputation. Think what reputation he could
have come with. Think what power he could have
displayed. You know, it was very economically
used. He did some wonderful things
while he walked this earth. But what he did was very economically
used to accomplish his purposes, compared with what he could have
done as the sovereign god. But he made himself of no reputation. You think what the Pharisees
and the Roman rulers did. They despised him. They rejected
him. The majority of the people despised
and rejected him. The majority of the people in
Jerusalem cried out for his crucifixion and the liberty of a common thief
Barabbas. He made himself of no reputation.
He took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the
likeness of men. God was made in the likeness
of men. As he walked this earth, a man
in flesh and blood, with no comeliness that we should desire him. And
people looked on him, and people weighed him up and sort of judged
as to what they thought of him. You're talking about Abraham
being your father, you having seen Abraham, how can that possibly
be? You're not yet 50 years old, and he was only barely 30 years
old when they said that to him. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. He was in the likeness of men
and being found in fashion as a man, Because he came as a man,
he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. Why did he become a man? Because
he came to redeem the sins of men. I mean men and women, I
mean mankind, his people. He came to redeem the sins of
his people, who are men, biologically men, in the flesh, and he became
obedient unto death. He had to come as a man, that
that body which was prepared would be broken. that that precious,
sinless lifeblood would be poured out as the penalty for sin. The soul that sins, it shall
die. If he's to redeem his people
from their sins, he must die and shed his lifeblood to pay
the law's price for their sins, that their sins might be taken
away, that the law's penalty, the law's price might be paid
to clear that debt. he came from glory to humility
when he was going back to glory the night before the crucifixion
he prayed restore to his father restore to me that glory which
I had with you from the beginning that glory which he laid aside
for a little while while he was made a little lower than the
angels lower than the angels for a little while this is very
God who is above all but he was made for the purpose of death
a little lower than the angels just for a while God, says Paul
to Timothy. 1 Timothy 3.16, God was manifest
in the flesh. Now those that deny the deity
of Christ, how do you get around that? God was manifest, was openly
shown in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. We read earlier in Isaiah chapter
40, say unto the cities, this is comfort, comfort my people. Why? I've got sins. I'm going
to meet a holy God who's going to condemn me for all eternity. Say unto the people that there
is double for her sins. What does that mean? Every sin
every one of his people has committed the Lord Jesus Christ bore that
which the law required for its payment in his body on the tree
when he shed his precious lifeblood. He poured out that lifeblood
and he came. Comfort my people because Propitiation is being
made in the blood of the Lamb. Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold, look at, look at your God. This is your God walking
among you, cities of Judah. This man walking among you is
your God. Behold your God. Behold, the
Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule
for him. Behold, his reward is with him,
and his work, what was his reward? his reward is the people that
the father had given him from before the beginning of time
so that we read in the scriptures him saying behold I and the children
whom he has given me this is who it is who came God sent forth
his son he rolled out time He rolled out this thing that, as
Einstein says, is only there so that everything doesn't happen
at once. He rolled it out, he ordained all things, and at the
appointed time he sent forth his son to do this thing, to
come into the world, to lay his glory aside, that he might redeem
his people. He stepped, this eternal one,
stepped into time exactly as appointed. John says in his first
epistle, chapter 5, verse 20, and we know that the Son of God
is come. Don't ever think Son of God means
God's little boy. Son of God is the manifestation
of God to us. Son of God is the Word of God.
As speech is the communication of the thoughts, so Christ is
the communication of the Godhead to us. Show us the Father, said
Philip, to Jesus, and that will suffice us. Philip, have I been
so long with you, and yet have you not seen me? He who has seen
me has seen the Father. John wrote this. We know that
the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that
we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true.
That's a good place to be. In him that is true, hiding in
the cleft of the rock. as God passes by, as the judgment
of God comes, we're even in His Son, Jesus Christ. How are we
in Him that is true? How are we in God that is true?
Only if we are in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God. Is that not saying our Lord Jesus
Christ is the true God and eternal life? When the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son. But how did He come?
When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his
son made of a woman. Made of a woman. It doesn't say,
as the more modern translations say, born of a woman. It doesn't
say that. And I think it doesn't say it
that way for very good reason. He was made of a woman. This body that was prepared for
him to inhabit, the eternal God to inhabit, For this while on
earth was made of a woman, not just born, but made. All of his
fleshly nature came from the woman, from his mother, from
Mary, appointed to bear the Son of God. And what's the significance
of that? He was conceived of the Holy
Ghost, not of a human father. And therefore, because not of
a human father, without the trait of sin that is in all of Adam's
race, he was conceived of the Holy Ghost, but he was subject
to the laws of this time-space, this thing that we live in now.
He was subject to it. He was constrained by time and
space. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, though
he was God and remained God and knew all things, yet in his body
he was physically constrained to one place at one time. You
know, you read about many of the miracles. Oh, if only you
had been here, Lord, because he was in one place at one time.
He was constrained by this time-space continuum in which we live. He
was subject to all its temptations as a man in the flesh, yet without
sin. He was tempted of the devil.
We just read the very tip of the iceberg of the temptation
of the Son of God. Tempted in all points, like as
we are, yet without sin. tempted of the devil for forty
days. He was examined under the law for perfection. For the Lamb
of God must be a perfect Lamb, without blemish or without spot.
If he is to redeem his people, he must be utterly sinless himself. He must stand the examination
of the law. And the result of it must be
to declare that this one is perfect. The perfect spotless lamb of
God. He must be made like his brethren. Look at Hebrews chapter 2. Just
turn there with me please. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14. He must be made like his brethren,
his children. The people he came to save. He
must be made like them. Verse 14 of Hebrews 2, for as
much then as the children, which children? The people that the
father gave to the son before the beginning of time, that multitude
which no man can number, of every tribe and kindred, of every race,
for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
you and I, this is what we're clothed in, while we walk this
earth in our conscious minds, we're clothed in flesh and blood.
He also himself, when God sent forth his son, made of a woman,
he likewise himself took part of the same flesh and blood.
Why? So that he might die. If the
penalty for man's sin is death, If that penalty is death, and
if he's to redeem from that penalty, if he's to satisfy the law's
demands regarding that penalty, he must become a man so that
he can die as a man, so that he can shed the price of sin,
which is human blood. But in his case, infinite human
blood for a multitude that no man can number. He took part
of the same that through death he might destroy him, that had
the power of death, that is the devil. How did the devil have
the power of death? Because he holds all men in the thrall of
sin, in the bondage of sin, and he is the accuser of the brethren,
who is able to bring charges against all people that the law
of God cannot deny. Yes, you're right, Satan, this
one is a sinner who must go down into the pit. But in the law,
in the ransom that Christ has accomplished, The word of God
says this, deliver him, God's people, from going down to the
pit, for I have found a ransom. And that's delivering from the
one who has the power of death, which is the devil. So that we
read elsewhere in Romans chapter eight, we read, who then shall
bring any charge against God's elect? The answer being nobody
can. for Christ has died. And if Christ
has died, that sin is made satisfaction for, it's dealt with. And then
he goes on to say, and to deliver them, his people, who, these
children, flesh and blood, deliver them, who through fear of death,
who wants to die? Nobody wants to die, do they?
Nobody, everybody's all fearful of death. Deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage,
for verily He took not on him the nature of angels, but he
took on him the seed of Abraham. Very significant. You know, the
angels, these perfect beings, and some of them fell, and these
are the evil spirits in the kingdom of Satan. There's no redemption
for them. He didn't take upon him the nature
of fallen angels to redeem fallen angels. But he took on him, you
would think it would say, wouldn't you? If religion is right, you
would think it would say he took on him the seed of Adam. Not
angels, but Adam. But it doesn't. It says he took
on him the seed of Abraham. Why does it say that? It says
that because it's only in the seed of Abraham, in that promise
that was given to Abraham of redemption from sin for the people
that had like precious faith with Abraham. These are the ones
that he took on the nature of. He took on the nature of his
people and he put in the covenant of grace his people in him. in
our Lord Jesus Christ, so that all that the law required was
fulfilled in him on behalf of all of his people. Wherefore,
verse 17, in all things it behoved, it was necessary for him to be
made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of his people. For in that he himself hath suffered
being tempted, He is able to succor them that are tempted. He has done this for us, yet
without sin, in all points, tempted like as we are, as Hebrews 4.15
says, yet without sin. Now why did he come then? When
the time had come, God sent forth his son, made of a woman, made
under the law, to redeem those who are under the law. You listen
to people talking about religion today, why did he come? Oh, it's
to be an example of kindness and love. The message of Christmas
is that Muslims ought to get on with Christians and stop fighting
in the Middle East. The message of Christmas is that
we ought to be compassionate to those that are not as well
off as us. Well, there's a lot of truth in some of those things,
that's absolutely fine, but that's not why he came. That is not
why he came. He came to redeem his people. He came to them that are under
the law. He came to redeem them that are
under the law. He came to redeem not all men
that are under the law, for all are surely under the law, but
he came to redeem the people that the father gave to him.
If it was all men that he came to redeem, and he accomplished
redemption, then all are redeemed, but they're clearly not. He didn't
come to redeem all men. It's the same as the all, in
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Yes, all
have sinned, all without exception, but what that verse is specifically
talking about is all the elect people of God have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God. All they have sinned. And it's
all them that are justified by faith, by the faith of our Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what justifies them. That's
the same sort of construction of speech. He didn't come made
of a woman in order to make a people. No. He didn't come to make a
people. He didn't come to open possibilities
for a people. But he came to redeem. So that
this people, this specific people, his people, might receive the
experience of that which they already are and have. Verse six,
look what he says, verse six, and because ye are sons You are
sons of God. If you're in Christ, you find,
you discover. It's not when you believe, but
you discover you've always been a son of Christ. Even when you
were a child of wrath, even as others in the flesh, from eternity,
from eternity, you were a child of God. You were amongst those
people. You are the sons of God from
eternity by his sovereign choice. Because you are sons from eternity,
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, as 2 Timothy chapter
1 and verse 9 says, talking about the redemption that is in Christ,
who hath saved us and called us with an holy calling, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,
before the scroll of time was unrolled. That's when it was
given us, outside of time, in eternity, for his people. Who
were his people? The ones who were brought to
believe him, to trust him in the gospel of his grace. He came
to redeem them. He came to redeem them. To redeem
means to pay the sin debt. You know, we don't use it so
much these days. But you go back to the shop where you hand over
something of value so that you can get some money for it. It's
a kind of a loan based on the guarantee of the thing that's
got value. You might give your watch across and get a few pounds
back that you can use. And then when you've got more
money, you go and redeem your watch. You buy it back. It's
got your name on it, but you buy it back. A price has got
to be paid to buy it back. He came to redeem his people. He came to pay the sin debt to
the law of God for those people. He came to pay the sin debt to
God's unchanging, inflexible justice. To redeem them. This
is who he came. To redeem them that were under
the law. To redeem those people of his that were under the law.
Not to make redemption possible, contingent on the will of man,
whether they'll choose him or not. No, no, no, no, no. That's
not what the scriptures teach. He came to redeem the people
that the Father gave to him before the beginning of time. He came
to pay the ransom price of liberty from the laws. We read these
days with Somalian pirates capturing people in East Africa and holding
them. And it's happening all the time.
And families are having to get their money together to pay a
ransom to secure the release from the captivity that those
people are in. Christ came to pay the ransom
price in his precious blood. This is why he came. This is
the message of the incarnation. It's not to do with soppiness
about coming to give us an example of love, etc. Not at all. It's
to declare that God has come into time to accomplish and finish
the redemption of His people from their sins. Call His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. And He
cried on the cross, It is finished. which means it is absolutely
finished. It is absolutely finished forever,
never, ever to need to be repeated in any way whatsoever, not contingent
in any respect on anything that the people he saved do or shall
do or have done. No, he came to pay the ransom
price of liberty from the law's bondage for them, those people,
to buy them out of their fleshly covenant with hell, Fleshly covenant
with hell. Isaiah 28, 18, God says this,
and your covenant with death shall be disannulled. You know,
in the flesh, we have a covenant with death, because we go the
way of sin, down the broad way that leads to destruction. And
he says, and your agreement with hell shall not stand. where all
of us would go, but for the grace of God, your agreement with hell
shall not stand in the grace of God, for he has promised for
the people he chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world that that covenant with death, that agreement with hell
shall not stand, for he has paid redemption's price. And what
was redemption's price? His lifeblood, an offering once
for all them. That's who it was for. By one
offering, Hebrews 10, 14, by one offering, he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Who does the sanctifying? Who
does the setting apart for holy purpose? God does. The people
he set apart in Christ before the beginning of time, by one
offering, he has perfected them forever. He was sinless, but
he was made sin. He was made sin, 2 Corinthians
5, 21. He who knew no sin was made the
sins of his people. The sins of the them, in verse
5 here, to redeem them. He was made their sin. He bore
it. He took it. He took responsibility
for it. He bore it physically in his
own body. He was made sin. Made sin. He didn't just say, okay, I'll
pick up the bill for this. You know, like you might do.
He didn't just say it's my turn to pick up the bill. He bore
that sin of his people. That we might be made, those
people might be made the righteousness of God in him. What must we be? To be accepted with God as righteous
as he is. Pursue holiness, follow holiness,
without which no man shall see the Lord. That we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. That we might be perfected forever. That we might be, as Colossians
chapter 2, verse 9 I think, isn't it, or 10, you are complete in
him in his finished work so that so that to redeem them that were
under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons that we
might receive that that we his people who believe him who are
children of wrath by nature even as the others Ephesians 2 verse
3 in the flesh but were made sons from eternity in the covenant
of grace in the grace of God that we might get the adoption
papers in our hands in time. On this scroll of time there
might come a time when each one who was chosen in Christ, who
was redeemed when God sent forth his son to pay the price of sin
for them, that we each might get the adoption papers. The
only reason I've watched this program, it's called Air Hunters.
And if ever I'm doing some exercise on the machine up in the office
during the day, then I'll put the telly on for something to
watch. And very often it's Air Hunters, it's quite interesting.
The situation is that somebody's died with no known relatives
and left quite a substantial estate. And there are these firms
that go and find the people that might be due to inherit. And
it shows you when they turn up and they've actually found the
person who, you know what? had no idea that he was due to
inherit a load of money, because some distant relative, and there
were no other inheritors, has died, and according to the law,
the estate is due to this person. And they go and they say, are
you so-and-so? Can we be absolutely sure? Well, I'm sorry to tell
you that your uncle, so-and-so's second cousin, twice removed,
who you might not have ever heard of, has died and left a big estate,
and you are the one to inherit it. You're the one to inherit
it. And you see the look on their
face, wow. The child of God finds in the
gospel of grace the adoption papers. He receives the adoption
of sons. Already is. Already is. From
all eternity, already is. Redeemed when the Son of God
came in time. But it's so that we might receive
the adoption of sons. In believing the Gospel, you
receive the adoption of sons. This is the Gospel message for
all year. The message of incarnation. Don't
mix it up with this silly season of fleshly excess that goes on
around us. By all means, enjoy the break.
By all means, brighten up the darkness. By all means, spend
time with families and friends for a few days. But this is the
message of God's word regarding the incarnation, the one who
came to redeem his people from their sins, to redeem them that
were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons.