Well this is an unusual situation
that we're in. It's Sunday the 19th of December
and what is very unusual for southern England is that we are
covered in a thick layer of snow and we can't meet together this
morning. So I'm recording this message from a room in my house
to put on Free Grace Radio and then members of our fellowship
can listen to it and of course anybody else. It's the run up
to Christmas. and the world all around makes
a big fuss about Christmas as we all know with its materialism
and its celebration and seems to lose all sense of rationality. and in a sense I didn't want
to do anything special like the same for Easter, I don't want
to do anything special for it because every Lord's Day, every
day we celebrate the fact that Christ came into the world, that
he lived, that he died for his people, that he rose from the
dead that he ascended on high, we celebrate that all the time,
we celebrate, we sing Easter hymns on Sunday mornings, whatever
the Sunday morning because that's the day we celebrate as the Lord's
people that he did these things for us. But as usual, I look
in the media and I can't refuse the bait that is dangled there
to say something about it. You might have noticed that the
BBC is planning to put on a nativity series. Perhaps it's responding
to criticism that there's far too much time given to the interests
of non-Christian religions and perhaps it's time for the Christmas
story to be told again. But what will they do? It'll
be interesting to see. They'll do a drama about Mary
and Joseph and the time of Christ's birth. And then we have at school
nativity plays, the children's nativity plays, these great traditions.
I saw an item on the London News the other evening, some people
planning to get the Christian message out on London buses because
they say that there's such materialism, such commercialism that they
must get the Christian message out at Christmas. But what is
the Christian message? What is the biblical truth? The
biblical truth is this. It is about God's elect being
changed from the status of slaves in this world to the status of
children, with all the legal rights that go with the status
of children. It's about divine adoption, slaves
becoming adopted children. I want you to turn with me to
Galatians chapter four and the first seven verses and particularly
we'll focus on four and five and I know these are very familiar
verses but just stop again and meditate with me on these things.
Here we see who did what, when it was done, the implication
is there as to where it was done, what was done, how as in in what
manner was it done, why was it done, with what outcome was it
done, If you get these things settled in your mind, you will
know what the Biblical Christmas message really is. You see, this
message is all based on God's everlasting covenant. David wrote
it in his dying days, 2 Samuel 23 and verse 5. Yet he hath made
with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure. For this is all my salvation
and all my desire. Look then with me at these verses. First of all, see this. Man in
his natural state. Look in these first few verses.
Paul says, Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child,
differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all, but
is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the
father. Even so we, when we were children,
were in bondage under the elements of the world, But when the fullness
of the time was come, God sent forth His Son. man in his natural
state, in a state of bondage, in a state of being under the
law, the law of God, the law of the one who is holy and pure,
who is the judge, who is just. And here we are in our Adam state,
that fallen state, that fall from fellowship with God. We're rebels against God by nature. That is our natural state. We're
in the thrall of Satan. were what Paul calls in Ephesians
chapter two children of wrath even as the others this is our
natural state in this flesh and the verdict of scripture is this
that all have sinned, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God, all everyone, every man, woman that has ever lived,
all have sinned and that there is none righteous, no not one,
no not one, well surely that saint, well surely that priest,
well surely, no not one, all have sinned, and all must stand
in judgment, all must stand before the judgment seat of Christ,
the books will be opened, all must stand there, we're all mortal,
it is appointed to man to die once, and then the judgment,
and we face in our natural state a godless eternity and the reason
is because God must punish sin the God of the universe has declared
who he is that he is God that this is his standard that this
is his law he cannot abide to look upon sin he cannot tolerate
sin in his presence he must therefore punish sin and he must banish
sinners from his presence for eternity but God has an elect
people, look at verse 6 Paul says, and because ye are sons,
ye are sons because ye are sons just turn over to John chapter
8 and verse 43 Gospel of John and chapter 8 and verse 43 Jesus says this, and you know
people don't like the complications of religion but just give me
the words of this sweet mild man Jesus of Nazareth. Listen
to these words. He's speaking to Pharisees. why
do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my
word ye are of your father the devil and the lusts of your father
ye will do he was a murderer from the beginning and abode
not in the truth because there is no truth in him when he speaketh
a lie he speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father
of it and because I tell you the truth ye believe me not which
of you convinceth me of sin? and so on ye therefore, verse
47, he that is of God heareth God's words ye therefore hear
them not because ye are not of God that's the word of Christ
God has an elect people because ye are sons because ye are sons,
those elect people always were his sons from eternity you read
in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 and verse 9 that God has saved us
and called us, he's given us this blessing of salvation from
before the beginning of time, it couldn't be clearer but here
is the problem here we are if we are amongst these sons of
God here we are if we are amongst this elect people of God sinners
and standing under the judgment of God, and appointed to die
once, and then the judgment, and then a godless eternity.
And the question echoes out again, that familiar question of Job
9 verse 2, how can a man be just with God? Oh, we'll try better. We'll try to do our best. But
as Romans 3.20 says, by the deeds of the law, by the things that
we do to keep the law of God and earn favour with Him, there
shall no flesh be justified in His sight. You see, the law of
God merely reveals guilt. There are those who say, and
so many who say in our day, that the law is the Christian's rule
of life. It's that by which the Christian
lives. Let me tell you, the message
of this book, the Scriptures, is that the law of God the law
of Moses, though it be good though it be totally God-honouring though
it be totally in conformance to the character of God the law
as it is written in the law of Moses does nothing other than
reveal guilt it reveals the transgression it does not provide the standard
by which we do that which is pleasing to God so how shall
the love of God for his elect multitude, and surely this is
a great characteristic of our God, that God is love. Our God is love. He's just, He's
holy, He's pure, He cannot abide sin, but our God is love. How
shall the love of God, which surely is for His elect multitude,
as the Scriptures again and again show, how shall the love of God
overcome the unbending justice of God without it being violated? well here we have the answer
this is the biblical Christian message this is it really verse
four there we were in our state but verse four 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, when the fullness of the time was come.
You'll see that more modern translations translate that at the right time. It isn't just at the right time. It's at God's predetermined time. It's at the time when all was
fulfilled in preparation. it's as revealed in the prophets. This is not just at the right
time, this is when the fullness of God's time had come, when
everything was fulfilled. in preparation for him to come. When the fullness of time was
come, as revealed in the prophets, Peter writes this in his first
epistle, 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 10 and 11, of which, speaking
of salvation, of which salvation the prophets have inquired and
searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you, Searching what? Or what manner of time the Spirit
of Christ which was in them did signify? They were looking for
it. They were looking for the fullness of the time. They were
looking for it to come. in Genesis 49 and verse 10 while
Jacob is giving his dying blessings to his sons, he says of Judah
that the scepter, the symbol of civil government would not
depart from Judah until Shiloh had come, until the Messiah had
come. While civil government was still in the hands of Judah
so he would come. And so it was, even though the
Romans had run and overwhelmed the land, nevertheless they left
the civil government in the hands of the local rulers of Herod
the Tetrarch and the high priests and the scribes and so on. It
was before the second temple was destroyed in A.D. 70, before that temple was destroyed
he would come. It's when Daniel's 70 weeks,
read in Daniel chapter 9, those 70 weeks when Messiah would come
and when he would be cut off for the sins of his people, when
he would make propitiation for sin. when the time had come that
Simeon and Anna were waiting for in the temple, those old
folks waiting in the temple at the time of the birth of Christ,
and Simeon saw Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus to the
temple to perform those rites that were prescribed in the law
of God and Simeon had been told that he wouldn't die until he
had seen the Lord's salvation and here he was, he held him
in his arms and praised God because the time that he'd been waiting
for was fulfilled the fullness of the time had come it had arrived
and there he held in his hands what was written in two of the
hymns that we should have been singing if we'd met this morning
said, God contracted to a span the infinite God contracted to
that which you hold in your arms as a little baby that which Simeon
and Anna had waited for at the temple that which also the Magi,
the wise men had read in the books in the East in the Chaldean
cities, in the ancient libraries of the universities of the old
Babylonian Empire and the Medo-Persian Empire they'd read it there in
the writings of Daniel and they'd been spoken to by the Holy Spirit
and they came the fullness of the time had come our world this
world in which we live is ruled by God in every detail for one
reason it's to fulfil His purposes and will and His purposes and
will are to save His people from their sins it's that He might
love His people with an everlasting love and yet not violate His
justice, which must condemn sin. Psalm 102.13 says this, Thou
shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion, for the time to favour
her, yea, the set time is come, when the fullness of the time
was come. And when that fullness was come,
God sent forth his Son. He sent forth his Son into the
world of sin and time. God sent forth his Son. God sent
forth the person of the Godhead who manifests the Godhead to
fallen man. God sent forth his son God didn't
send forth his little boy we think of that, you know, we think
of our sons as our little boys who grow up into men but God
sent forth his son is different it's that God sent forth the
manifestation of the Godhead because in Christ dwelt the fullness
of the Godhead bodily the fullness of the Godhead bodily he sent
him into this world of sin and of time at the right time sent
him there and look he was made of a woman again you'll see the
more modern translations say born of a woman no, no, that
misses the point, no this is made of a woman he was made just
as in John 1 verse 14 we read the word was made flesh and dwelt
among us that which was God in time was made man, was made flesh
in exactly the same way as thirty-three years later at Calvary He who
knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him He was sent into the world made
of a woman made in flesh Philippians 2, 7 and 8 say this, that He
was made in the likeness of men that he was found in fashion
as a man flesh and blood just like you and me Romans 8 verse
3 says that he came in the likeness of sinful flesh but of course
he had no sin you looked at him and just by looking at him people
couldn't tell that he was any different to any other man until
he spoke those words of eternal life. He came in the likeness
of sinful flesh. In Hebrews 4.15 we read that
he came feeling our infirmities. he knew what it was to be human
he knew what it was to be tired he knew what it was to feel pain
he knew what it was to feel sorrow for Jesus wept at the tomb of
Lazarus, the man wept knowing what he was going to do before
he raised him from the dead he wept the man wept at the tomb
of Lazarus he was tempted you suffer temptation you say nobody
knows, he knows he was tempted in all points just as we are
yet without sin Why did he come? Why was he made of a woman? If
the elect, those who are children of wrath now, even as others,
if they were to be declared righteous, their surety, their federal head,
their representative, the one who stands for them he must establish
righteousness under the law in human flesh if they were to be
declared righteous and if the elect were to have their sin
purged for surely they have sinned for if we say we have no sin
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us then it must
be by the price of human blood and that of that surety that
propitiation is made that a payment is made and so he was made under
the law he when God sent forth his son made of a woman he was
made under the law made under the law, put under it put to
its test because he's the federal head of those who live under
it and who living under it are judged to fall short of it and
therefore he must live in their place under that same law and
establish righteousness when put to the test of that law and
being judged by that law when he was made the sin of his people
he must shed that blood which is the price of sin for in the
blood is the life and the price of sin was the lifeblood of the
Son of God on behalf of his elect and so that's why he came to
redeem to redeem, verse five he was made of a woman, made
under the law, verse five, to redeem why did he come and do
this? to redeem those that were under
the law To redeem means to buy back, means to pay the price,
means to pay the ransom, to get it back. in days gone by and
even today there are still in this country pawn shops, P-A-W-N
shops, where if money is short you can take an item of some
value and you can put it into the shop and the owner of the
shop will give you some money in exchange for it and if you
want it back you have to go and redeem the item from that shop. But who did he come to redeem?
this Son of God sent forth at the right time, at the fullness
of the time He came to redeem them that are under the law those
that are under the law of God well isn't that everybody? doesn't
this scripture say that He came to redeem everybody? no it doesn't
not at all it says that He came to redeem them that were under
the law yes In one overwhelming sense, everybody is under the
law. Everybody is subject to it. Everybody
is judged by it. Everybody that ever lived. But
there are so few that know that they're sinners. There are so
few. A sinner, says that old hymn,
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
There are not many sinners in the sense of those who know that
they are sinners, of those who know that they stand under the
judgment and condemnation of a holy God, who know that they
deserve hell, who know that God would be perfectly just if he
swept them from this life at this moment and banished them
to hell. That's what a sinner is. One
who knows that. One who knows that he's under
the law. And you know, Christ Jesus came
into this world to save sinners. Sinners. God makes his people
aware that they're sinners before he shows them the salvation that
is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He shows them that they're drowning
before the lifeboat of salvation comes to their rescue. Verse
6 And because ye are sons, because ye are sons, you see, it's those
that are already sons by eternal election that He came to redeem
it's these that He came to redeem to redeem them that were under
the law and because He are sons because He are sons, those that
were already sons by eternal election He came to redeem them
to buy them back to pay the ransom for them in perfect righteousness
and in precious lifeblood and he came to redeem them from slavery
just like you might in days gone by buy a slave out of slavery
into a state of freedom and the slavery that we're in and the
slavery particularly that the elect is in by nature as children
of wrath is that slavery to sin and Satan and spiritual ignorance
and blindness and he came to redeem them that were under the
law he came to buy them back our God had to come into this
world, he had to be made of a woman, made under the law, that he might
buy back from this sin state those who he had determined from
before the beginning of time, in love, in his eternal everlasting
love, to save them and to unite them to himself. And he did it,
end of verse five, that we might receive the adoption of sons. That we might receive the adoption
of sons. He came to adopt his elect. children of wrath even as others
in this life but he came to adopt them as sons in reality and experience. Now let's get rid of any silly
political correctness of course you know that when the scripture
talks about sons it is not talking about the male of the species
only it's talking about men and women who are the children of
God it's a legal term, it's a legal term of relationship That's all
that it means to adopt them as sons in reality and experience. It's not to simply declare them
to be sons. It's not just to say, OK, I'm
going to count you as sons. It's not that at all. Like you
might, if you were one of these rich pop stars, go off to Africa
to a poverty-stricken country and find a child in poverty and
simply declare that that child is your child because you fancy
doing something of a philanthropic nature. No, it's not simply to
declare them sons, but it's to complete the legal transaction
that sealed their adoption in divine law that we might receive
the adoption of sons. You know, we skip over words.
Every word in the scripture is full of meaning. that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Adoption has a powerful legal
meaning that you only really understand if you've ever been
involved in it. It means that the benefits, the privileges
of the natural born child is handed over in law to the one
who is the subject of adoption. That person becomes a son. If
a child is adopted into a family, that one has exactly the same
legal status and rights and privileges and honour as the natural-born
children. That's what adoption means. He
came to complete the legal transaction that sealed their adoption. if
we'd had our study earlier, and we'll come round to it next week,
we've been looking at Isaiah 28 and verse 18 says this, your
covenant with death, because that's what we have by nature,
even the elect of God, a covenant with death, your covenant with
death shall be disannulled and your agreement with hell shall
not stand because he's come and he's completed the legal transaction
that seals the adoption of his people in divine law. Being sons,
by election, from before time, being redeemed by God's Son when
He was made flesh, God sends forth the Spirit of His Son,
the Holy Spirit, into each heart. Look at it there. And because
ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Because we're sons by election
from before the beginning of time, because we're made sinners
under the judgment of God in our minds, in our heart, in our
conscience, to know that we're sinners, to know, like Peter
said, depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man, to know that
state, to know that it would be just for God to condemn us
to hell for eternity. Knowing these things, yet being
redeemed, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. He sends the Spirit of His Son
because it's not just by mental assimilation of the facts that
we become believers, but it's by Holy Spirit revelation He
opens our ears to hear that which was nonsense before, foolishness,
foolishness, to the non-religious folks, foolishness, to the Greeks,
to the religious folks, to the Jews, a stumbling block, that
which doesn't add up, that which says that salvation is all of
grace and by sovereign grace. he sends forth the spirit of
his son that we might hear the gospel of his grace with ears
that we never had before we might hear that which was foolishness
that which was nonsense and in it find the wisdom of God and
the righteousness of God and the sanctification and the redemption
of God all in the object of that that faith and that belief the
Lord Jesus Christ and hearing we believe We believe that Gospel,
that which was nonsense to us, that which the natural man cannot
believe. We believe it. We trust it. We cast ourselves upon it. We
totally trust our eternal souls to the keeping of the salvation
that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't just then do that
and walk away from it, but we embrace it and we hold it tight
and we follow it we follow Him we follow Him, we serve Him in
order that we might cry Abba, Father do you know God the Creator? do you know the One who is the
Judge of all the earth? and do you know Him as Daddy? because that's what that word
Abba really means, Daddy we cry Daddy, Father to God in your
heart so that we might inherit, verse 7, wherefore thou art no
more a servant but a son and if a son then an heir of God
through Christ, an heir of God to inherit all that is Christ's
as the adopted children of God we inherit all that is Christ's
No wonder he says in Ephesians 1 that God has blessed his people,
blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in
Christ. What a gift, what a privilege
to be called the sons of God. John says this in 1 John 3 and
verse 1, behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us that we should be called the sons of God. we, children
of wrath by nature, should be called the sons of God. 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, wherefore, thou
art no more a servant, but a son, and if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. This is the biblical message
of Christmas. this is what God reveals to his saints in the
mystery of the gospel and he reveals it in head yes but not
just there in the heart also and not just in the heart but
in the experience we cry Abba Father