1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,680
Wow, what a great song. Thank you Endeavor. Phillips, Dean, and Greg could take a little

2
00:00:06,680 --> 00:00:10,840
bit of a lesson from you, I think, on that song. Well, would you please turn in your

3
00:00:10,840 --> 00:00:18,480
Bible to Galatians chapter 3, where today we're going to begin reading in verse 26.

4
00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:25,400
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 26. A few years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to

5
00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:31,120
see the royal jewels, the crown jewels in England. Perhaps you have been there in the

6
00:00:31,120 --> 00:00:37,280
Tower of London and you walk through this amazing maze of security until you come to

7
00:00:37,280 --> 00:00:44,400
this room that is especially prepared for these beautiful jewels. You walk in and you

8
00:00:44,400 --> 00:00:49,780
have the opportunity and amazement to see these jewels of the crown of England laid

9
00:00:49,780 --> 00:00:56,400
upon pillows and cushions of velvet. It's absolutely overwhelming. In fact, there are

10
00:00:56,400 --> 00:01:03,760
so many jewels there that you cannot concentrate on one of them or a few of them. Your mind

11
00:01:03,760 --> 00:01:09,900
tries to take in all of it and it's overwhelming. I think of that when I think of this text

12
00:01:09,900 --> 00:01:19,840
because it is the kind of a text that has many rubies and diamonds of truth. Trying

13
00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:25,840
to take all of them in is almost impossible. Today we're going to try to focus on a particular

14
00:01:25,840 --> 00:01:29,800
part of this text, but we need to see the whole thing.

15
00:01:29,800 --> 00:01:35,740
I begin reading in verse 26 where it says, you are all sons of God through faith in Christ

16
00:01:35,740 --> 00:01:43,440
Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

17
00:01:43,440 --> 00:01:49,560
There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one

18
00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:57,400
in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed and heirs according

19
00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:03,940
to the promise. What I'm saying is that as long as an heir is a child, he is no different

20
00:02:03,940 --> 00:02:10,680
from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until

21
00:02:10,680 --> 00:02:17,460
the time set by his father. So also, when we were children we were in slavery under

22
00:02:17,460 --> 00:02:24,920
the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his

23
00:02:24,920 --> 00:02:33,400
son born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the

24
00:02:33,400 --> 00:02:42,720
full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts,

25
00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:50,520
the spirit who calls out Abba, father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And

26
00:02:50,520 --> 00:02:59,280
since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.

27
00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:05,600
I enjoy attending theater performances. I remember the first ones that I attended as

28
00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:10,640
a small child. We went to our high school in a small town in Kansas. And as we sat in

29
00:03:10,640 --> 00:03:14,680
the auditorium, we could look underneath the curtain. It didn't quite reach down to the

30
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:20,120
floor of the stage. And as we sat there in the audience, we could look underneath the

31
00:03:20,120 --> 00:03:27,260
curtain and see the feet of actors and stage technicians as they were setting up the stage.

32
00:03:27,260 --> 00:03:30,880
And then when everything was in place and you could see all the feet scurrying to the

33
00:03:30,880 --> 00:03:38,560
side and maybe one person or two left on the main stage, the curtains would open and the

34
00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:44,560
play would begin. What we have here in this text in the sentence we're going to look

35
00:03:44,560 --> 00:03:54,600
at today is the stage being set. It says, when the time had fully come, God sent forth

36
00:03:54,600 --> 00:04:03,960
his son. In other words, Providence was going to so manipulate the stage of history that

37
00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:12,500
it would prepare for the greatest drama ever to take place on planet earth. That drama

38
00:04:12,500 --> 00:04:21,040
was the entrance of God himself into human history for a particular purpose. History,

39
00:04:21,040 --> 00:04:26,320
as you have heard many times probably, is really a combination of two words, simply

40
00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:34,960
his story. And that's what it is. History is the fulfilling of the story of God for

41
00:04:34,960 --> 00:04:42,640
the history of mankind. God's work in history prepared the world for the birth of Jesus

42
00:04:42,640 --> 00:04:52,960
Christ and for you to receive your inheritance. On this first Sunday of Advent as we think

43
00:04:52,960 --> 00:04:58,680
about hope and the anticipation of the coming of Christ, I want us to think about how God

44
00:04:58,680 --> 00:05:06,640
was at work in history preparing for the birth of Jesus Christ and also for your receiving

45
00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:16,160
of your inheritance. We're going to sum up what this text is saying today in one sentence,

46
00:05:16,160 --> 00:05:21,320
or at least try to. The first part of this sentence, there are three parts to the sentence.

47
00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:29,940
The first part is this. It all came together. It all came together. It says, but when the

48
00:05:29,940 --> 00:05:40,600
fullness of time was come. Some of you may remember Hannibal of the A-Team fame. He was

49
00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:46,160
well known for a statement that he made often, almost on every program. He said, I love it

50
00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:54,800
when a plan comes together. You remember that? So does God. So does God. He had a plan that

51
00:05:54,800 --> 00:06:04,360
came together. You see, God is the master arranger. He orchestrates the arrangement

52
00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:13,960
of human history. By his providence, he oversees and super intends the choices that people

53
00:06:13,960 --> 00:06:22,980
make so that in the end, his purpose is fully realized. God's providence, which we talked

54
00:06:22,980 --> 00:06:31,520
about last week at some length, does not rule out human choice or responsibility. In fact,

55
00:06:31,520 --> 00:06:38,000
God's providence takes all of that into account as it works through history to achieve God's

56
00:06:38,000 --> 00:06:42,000
purpose.

57
00:06:42,000 --> 00:06:48,400
How did God coordinate history for the birth of his Son? What does this mean when it says

58
00:06:48,400 --> 00:06:56,880
that in the fullness of time, God sent his Son? Well, I believe that there are a number

59
00:06:56,880 --> 00:07:01,780
of ways that could be answered, but let me try to answer it this morning by saying that

60
00:07:01,780 --> 00:07:09,000
there were a number of ways in which God orchestrated the major cultural influences surrounding

61
00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:24,060
Palestine so that a desired scenario was created. This required hundreds of years. We are people

62
00:07:24,060 --> 00:07:32,640
of time. We measure things out in days and weeks and years. Not many of us measure out

63
00:07:32,640 --> 00:07:40,280
time in centuries, however, because we usually don't live that long. But God is a God of

64
00:07:40,280 --> 00:07:51,480
centuries. God is a God of ages. And over a period of several hundred years, God orchestrated

65
00:07:51,480 --> 00:07:58,760
the cultural influences on that piece of real estate that we call Palestine so that there

66
00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:07,480
came a point when everything was ready, when the stage was set, so that the curtains could

67
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:12,840
be drawn open and God's drama could unfold.

68
00:08:12,840 --> 00:08:20,920
Let me mention to you first the influence of the Greeks. The cultural influence of the

69
00:08:20,920 --> 00:08:27,740
Greeks is called Hellenization. It took place in that part of the world through the conquest

70
00:08:27,740 --> 00:08:35,920
of Alexander the Great, who was the son of Philip of Macedon. Philip's son was a brilliant

71
00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:46,160
general. He had the goal to conquer the world, and he set out to do it. And in 12 years,

72
00:08:46,160 --> 00:08:54,000
it could be said that he did. He was able to push the borders and the influence of Greece

73
00:08:54,000 --> 00:09:03,800
far beyond Palestine all the way to the border of India. As a result of his conquests and

74
00:09:03,800 --> 00:09:12,760
the continuing influence of his empire, even after he died at 33 years of age, there was

75
00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:21,120
an influence that invaded Palestine and remained there, which caused the fullness of the time

76
00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:24,600
to be brought to pass.

77
00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:30,280
Today we think of the influence of America across the world, and it might be said that

78
00:09:30,280 --> 00:09:35,200
there is an Americanization of the world. I'm not saying that's good or bad. I'm just

79
00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:40,800
saying it's a reality, the Americanization of the world. Because wherever you go, the

80
00:09:40,800 --> 00:09:49,120
influence of our culture reaches there. It was that same way in that day with Greece.

81
00:09:49,120 --> 00:09:54,960
And even though Alexander died and his empire was divided up among his four generals, there

82
00:09:54,960 --> 00:10:02,000
was a significant contribution that was left behind that influenced Palestine 350 years

83
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:06,280
later when Jesus was born.

84
00:10:06,280 --> 00:10:13,880
The primary one, perhaps, is the language, the Greek language. The Greek language of

85
00:10:13,880 --> 00:10:22,120
that era was what English is today. It was the language of commerce. It was the language

86
00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:28,000
of the common people. People who lived in various regions spoke their own language or

87
00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:34,360
dialect, but they all spoke Greek because that was how they communicated together. Greek

88
00:10:34,360 --> 00:10:43,320
is an expressive language. And because of that, there was easy communication in the

89
00:10:43,320 --> 00:10:53,040
day that Jesus was born. And the communication was in a language that was very expressive.

90
00:10:53,040 --> 00:10:59,880
The influence of the Greek language was so significant that in 280 BC, the Hebrew Old

91
00:10:59,880 --> 00:11:06,320
Testament, which had existed in Hebrew for hundreds of years, that Hebrew Old Testament

92
00:11:06,320 --> 00:11:14,960
was translated into Greek in what we call the Septuagint. It was that version of the

93
00:11:14,960 --> 00:11:23,840
Old Testament, the Septuagint, that the apostles used and referenced in their preaching.

94
00:11:23,840 --> 00:11:28,280
When Paul and the other authors of the New Testament wrote the words of the New Testament,

95
00:11:28,280 --> 00:11:37,000
they wrote in Greek, not in Aramaic, but in Greek, not in Hebrew, but in Greek, because

96
00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:44,720
that was the language that would quickly get the message as far as possible. So in one

97
00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:49,560
sense it was the fullness of times because of the influence of Greece upon Palestine.

98
00:11:49,560 --> 00:12:02,440
But there's also the influence of Rome. Greece fell apart, and as a result of that, the Romans

99
00:12:02,440 --> 00:12:09,560
became more powerful. Starting from the small city-state almost of Roma, they began to push

100
00:12:09,560 --> 00:12:15,200
out with their military muscle until they had conquered all of what we call today Italy,

101
00:12:15,200 --> 00:12:20,920
and then beyond that into Europe and Northern Africa, and then to the east across the Middle

102
00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:29,720
East, including Palestine. And so that in the first century BC, there was a very powerful

103
00:12:29,720 --> 00:12:37,320
force that was occupying Palestine that was Roman. So what difference does that make?

104
00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:41,640
Wherever the Romans went, they did a couple of things. First of all, they enforced what

105
00:12:41,640 --> 00:12:52,600
they called Pax Romana, which means a Roman peace. They enforced peace by the sword. They

106
00:12:52,600 --> 00:13:00,440
said, we are in charge and you will be at peace. We will not allow rebellions. And so

107
00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:08,600
very oppressively they created a peaceful situation in that part of the world so that

108
00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:14,040
these city-states were no longer at war with one another and there was constant turmoil.

109
00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:21,600
Rather, there was somewhat a universal peace that existed. Again, that was very important

110
00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:26,520
for the setting of the birth of the Savior so that the message could be disseminated

111
00:13:26,520 --> 00:13:34,280
rapidly around the world. The Romans also were famous for their road systems. Throughout

112
00:13:34,280 --> 00:13:40,800
their empire, they built roads for transportation and commerce. Some of those roads are still

113
00:13:40,800 --> 00:13:46,320
visible today. I don't know that they are traveled on today, but there are some of them

114
00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:52,000
that are used for walking paths. And still today you can see in those Roman roads, which

115
00:13:52,000 --> 00:14:00,680
were ingeniously engineered, you can see the tracks of chariots that used to travel those

116
00:14:00,680 --> 00:14:07,360
roads. Again, the roads provided for rapid dissemination of the Gospel, for people to

117
00:14:07,360 --> 00:14:14,200
travel and to tell the good news. And so there is that Roman peace of the fullness of times,

118
00:14:14,200 --> 00:14:18,440
but there's another peace, a very significant one of course, and one that you would be familiar

119
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:27,160
with, and that's the Jewish peace. The Jews had brought the law, this revelation of God,

120
00:14:27,160 --> 00:14:35,000
this Old Testament as we call it, this expression of who God is and the promises that he had

121
00:14:35,000 --> 00:14:41,160
made for his people, his covenant with his people, and the promise of a Redeemer who would

122
00:14:41,160 --> 00:14:48,440
come. The Jews brought that. They also brought the bloodline of the Messiah himself. From

123
00:14:48,440 --> 00:14:53,600
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, you trace it on down through David and so forth, all the

124
00:14:53,600 --> 00:15:00,680
way to Jesus. That came through the Jews. There was also in that day a yearning for

125
00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:07,280
the coming of a Deliverer. In this particular time, in this window of history, the Jews

126
00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:18,240
were crying out to God and looking for a Messiah. There was a fever pitch, anticipation for

127
00:15:18,240 --> 00:15:25,240
the coming of Messiah, although when he came as he did, most of them failed to recognize

128
00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:33,640
him. All of this was part of the Jewish contribution. And then let me just mention quickly the synagogues

129
00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:39,460
that were established by the Jews after they were dispersed to the Babylonian captivity.

130
00:15:39,460 --> 00:15:43,760
They had always worshiped in Jerusalem at the temple, and yet once they were dispersed,

131
00:15:43,760 --> 00:15:49,800
they created these synagogues in cities where they lived, where they would gather for worship.

132
00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:55,640
And the synagogues became then a primary place where the apostles would go first to declare

133
00:15:55,640 --> 00:16:02,720
the Gospel to the people of that city. They also became a model for the church and how

134
00:16:02,720 --> 00:16:11,880
the church meets. And so the point I'm making here is that God went to great trouble to

135
00:16:11,880 --> 00:16:17,760
see that all of the cultural influences had taken place to prepare for the birth of his

136
00:16:17,760 --> 00:16:25,120
son, so that it was when the fullness of the time had come, all of these influences had

137
00:16:25,120 --> 00:16:34,240
done their part that God sent his son. And so we say it all came together with the miracle

138
00:16:34,240 --> 00:16:40,640
of Christmas. And we see here the miracle of Christmas is simply in these phrases. God

139
00:16:40,640 --> 00:16:53,800
sent his son born of a woman, born under the law. In these cryptic phrases we observe truths

140
00:16:53,800 --> 00:17:00,360
about Jesus Christ. We find here the miracle of Christmas without all of the narrative

141
00:17:00,360 --> 00:17:06,320
of the shepherds and the angels and so forth. It's all boiled down to what really happened

142
00:17:06,320 --> 00:17:13,360
in the miracle of Christmas. There are two observations that I want to make. In the Gospels

143
00:17:13,360 --> 00:17:19,560
you will read the what of Christmas, but here you read, or rather the how of Christmas,

144
00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:26,000
but here you read the what. What really took place. Two observations. First of all, we

145
00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:31,960
see that there are two natures that are joined in the miracle of Christmas, the miracle of

146
00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:45,400
the incarnation. Notice that Paul says God sent his son. And so Jesus is God's son. That

147
00:17:45,400 --> 00:17:52,960
means that he is subordinate to the Father for carrying out the purposes of God. It does

148
00:17:52,960 --> 00:18:01,720
not mean that God created him, that God looked down upon the man Jesus at some point in his

149
00:18:01,720 --> 00:18:10,000
life and said, I'm going to make you my son. It does not mean that. He was the son of God

150
00:18:10,000 --> 00:18:20,040
before he was born. Eternally he is God the son. This gets into the miracle of the triunity

151
00:18:20,040 --> 00:18:26,640
of God that he is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And what we see in the statement here is that

152
00:18:26,640 --> 00:18:37,880
God the Father sent his son, the second person as we say it, of the Trinity. God sent him.

153
00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:52,640
God sent his son. And God sent him in a particular way. He was born. He might have just appeared.

154
00:18:52,640 --> 00:19:01,120
In fact he did appear in the Old Testament before he was born. He is called the angel

155
00:19:01,120 --> 00:19:09,040
of the Lord, but it was really the son of God making an appearance on the earth in the

156
00:19:09,040 --> 00:19:20,880
form of a human. But here a special event takes place. God the son is born of a woman.

157
00:19:20,880 --> 00:19:33,280
That is, he entered our race. He didn't merely appear to us. He became one of us. He entered

158
00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:45,640
the world as a son of Adam, and yet did that without inheriting the sin of Adam. He was

159
00:19:45,640 --> 00:19:55,080
virgin born. And God so shielded him in his conception that he was untainted by Mary's

160
00:19:55,080 --> 00:20:08,600
sin. So that the angel announcing his birth called him that Holy One. There has never

161
00:20:08,600 --> 00:20:16,680
been anyone like Jesus born before this. And no one can ever be born like this again. He

162
00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:28,640
is absolutely unique. Two natures, the nature of God, the nature of humanity, united in

163
00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:36,860
one person. It took the followers of Jesus some time to sort through this and to really

164
00:20:36,860 --> 00:20:47,840
understand it. It became necessary to do so because in those centuries following Jesus'

165
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:54,840
coming there were false teachers who arose and began to say things about Jesus that were

166
00:20:54,840 --> 00:21:03,580
not true. And so the church in order to articulate carefully what the Bible was saying about

167
00:21:03,580 --> 00:21:12,240
Jesus and what happened formulated statements or creeds. On the screen before you is one

168
00:21:12,240 --> 00:21:19,480
that is called the Athanasian Creed. It was a very significant statement of the church

169
00:21:19,480 --> 00:21:32,480
made in the 300s AD. In this statement there is an orthodox declaration regarding who Jesus

170
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:40,240
is. I want you to notice how they said it 1600 years ago. Follow along on the screen.

171
00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:45,360
Furthermore, so I'm picking this up in the middle of the statement, furthermore it is

172
00:21:45,360 --> 00:21:52,200
necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believed, that is that the Christian

173
00:21:52,200 --> 00:22:02,680
convert believed, rightly, the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith

174
00:22:02,680 --> 00:22:12,000
is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is what? God

175
00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:20,220
and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds, a man of substance

176
00:22:20,220 --> 00:22:29,280
of his mother, born in the world, perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul

177
00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:37,160
and human flesh subsisting, equal to the Father as touching his Godhead and inferior to the

178
00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:47,000
Father as touching his manhood, who although he is God and man, yet he isn't two but one

179
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:57,080
Christ, one not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood

180
00:22:57,080 --> 00:23:07,320
into God, one altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person, for

181
00:23:07,320 --> 00:23:15,940
as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ. Now there's

182
00:23:15,940 --> 00:23:26,240
far more than we can talk about in this screen. Every sentence is packed with lots of meaning.

183
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:31,460
The reason that I put it on the screen this morning is because 1,600 years ago the church

184
00:23:31,460 --> 00:23:39,460
understood that it is absolutely essential for one who is a Christian to confess the

185
00:23:39,460 --> 00:23:50,900
truth about the incarnation, that Jesus Christ is both God and man. And if one denies that,

186
00:23:50,900 --> 00:24:01,100
he is not a Christian. He is not a follower of Jesus Christ. And it all goes back to passages

187
00:24:01,100 --> 00:24:08,560
like this one in Galatians chapter 4. The church understood what this text was saying,

188
00:24:08,560 --> 00:24:22,020
as you do this morning. It is that God sent his son born of a woman. He is one man who

189
00:24:22,020 --> 00:24:31,120
is both God and man in his natures. Now there's a second observation we want to make based

190
00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:38,700
upon our text, and that is that the law of Moses tested his righteousness, and it found

191
00:24:38,700 --> 00:24:48,780
him perfectly obedient. You see, Jesus was born under the law. He was subject to what

192
00:24:48,780 --> 00:24:58,020
he himself had declared as God. To put it in the simplest of terms, he himself gave

193
00:24:58,020 --> 00:25:04,740
the Ten Commandments, as well as all of the regulations and requirements of righteousness

194
00:25:04,740 --> 00:25:11,860
in the Old Testament. He had given it. He was the author of the law. But when he was

195
00:25:11,860 --> 00:25:22,860
born he subjected himself to the law. He was born under the law so that that law could

196
00:25:22,860 --> 00:25:33,300
test him. So that it could determine if in fact he was truly righteous. And throughout

197
00:25:33,300 --> 00:25:42,620
the 33 or so years of his life it found him perfect in its sight. And you say, well, so

198
00:25:42,620 --> 00:25:50,740
what? What difference does that make? All the difference. You see, the law had never

199
00:25:50,740 --> 00:26:02,380
failed to find sin in one who was subject to it in the history of the human race. The

200
00:26:02,380 --> 00:26:12,420
law always found sin in a person, because persons, people are sinners. It always found

201
00:26:12,420 --> 00:26:23,700
it. And when the law found sin, it condemned us. That was God's plan. But when the law

202
00:26:23,700 --> 00:26:35,620
turned its spotlight on Jesus, it was unable to find a single blemish in his character.

203
00:26:35,620 --> 00:26:43,980
He perfectly obeyed every requirement of the law, in deed and in spirit. And as a result

204
00:26:43,980 --> 00:26:53,620
of that, the law passed him and declared him righteous. First time in history. It had never

205
00:26:53,620 --> 00:26:57,620
happened before. It can never happen again.

206
00:26:57,620 --> 00:27:06,740
This morning the choir sang a beautiful arrangement of songs from next week's musical. And one

207
00:27:06,740 --> 00:27:14,180
of the songs referred to was an ancient hymn. How many of you like old hymns? Oh, that's

208
00:27:14,180 --> 00:27:20,060
a lot of us here this morning. Well, let me give you an old hymn. It was written 1600

209
00:27:20,060 --> 00:27:29,500
years ago. It is a hymn that was written by a man by the name of Aurelius Prudentius.

210
00:27:29,500 --> 00:27:38,540
You've heard of him, of course. Aurelius was a lawyer and a judge. And of course, in the

211
00:27:38,540 --> 00:27:48,020
300s, he was born in 348, died in about 413 A.D. He wrote in Latin, and so these words

212
00:27:48,020 --> 00:27:54,700
are translated into the English and rhymed for us. But listen to what this man, who was

213
00:27:54,700 --> 00:28:00,740
a lawyer and a judge, listen to what he said regarding Jesus Christ and the miracle of

214
00:28:00,740 --> 00:28:03,060
Christmas.

215
00:28:03,060 --> 00:28:08,380
This is the first verse that we heard sung this morning. Of the Father's love begotten,

216
00:28:08,380 --> 00:28:19,540
ere the worlds began to be. He is Alpha and Omega. He the source, the ending he. Of the

217
00:28:19,540 --> 00:28:27,820
things that are, that have been, and that future year shall see evermore and evermore.

218
00:28:27,820 --> 00:28:34,620
At his word the worlds were framed. He commanded it was done. Heaven and earth and depths of

219
00:28:34,620 --> 00:28:42,340
ocean in their threefold order won. All that grows beneath the shining of the moon and

220
00:28:42,340 --> 00:28:47,380
the burning sun evermore and evermore.

221
00:28:47,380 --> 00:28:56,500
He is found in human fashion. Here's the miracle of Christmas now. He is found in human fashion.

222
00:28:56,500 --> 00:29:03,500
Death and sorrow here to know that the race of Adam's children, doomed by law to endless

223
00:29:03,500 --> 00:29:15,700
woe may not henceforth die and perish in the dreadful gulf below evermore and evermore.

224
00:29:15,700 --> 00:29:23,460
O that birth forever blessed when the virgin full of grace by the Holy Ghost conceiving

225
00:29:23,460 --> 00:29:30,780
bare the savior of our race and the babe, the worlds redeemer first revealed his sacred

226
00:29:30,780 --> 00:29:36,980
face evermore and evermore.

227
00:29:36,980 --> 00:29:45,060
Then Aurelius writes, this is he whom seers and sages sang of old with one accord, whom

228
00:29:45,060 --> 00:29:53,540
the writings of the prophets promised in their faithful word. Now he shines the long expected.

229
00:29:53,540 --> 00:29:59,820
Let creation praise its Lord evermore and evermore.

230
00:29:59,820 --> 00:30:07,540
Lots of additional verses to that beautiful hymn that the church has sung for 1600 years

231
00:30:07,540 --> 00:30:17,860
expressing the miracle of Christmas. It all came together with the miracle of Christmas

232
00:30:17,860 --> 00:30:23,700
for the greatest of purposes. The greatest of purposes. Why this miracle of Christmas?

233
00:30:23,700 --> 00:30:32,340
Let me tell you why. It is so that God could give his greatest gift, which is righteousness,

234
00:30:32,340 --> 00:30:37,060
from a relationship with him that brings you life.

235
00:30:37,060 --> 00:30:44,420
Now there are two actions involved in this gift. Two things that he would do. He says

236
00:30:44,420 --> 00:30:54,940
here he was born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under law. To redeem.

237
00:30:54,940 --> 00:31:02,120
As I said earlier, to redeem means to purchase or to buy up. It means to recover something

238
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:11,100
from the power of another. And so here we see that sin had held you and me as slave

239
00:31:11,100 --> 00:31:19,780
prisoners. And it used the law of Moses as its legal authority to do so, condemning us,

240
00:31:19,780 --> 00:31:29,980
keeping us in our cells, condemned to death. But God rescued us from that slavery. God

241
00:31:29,980 --> 00:31:37,780
came himself into the world, and he himself took the law's curse for us. That's how he

242
00:31:37,780 --> 00:31:45,300
did it. Look back in chapter 3 for just a moment, and notice that Paul here refers to

243
00:31:45,300 --> 00:31:50,980
the law. He says all who rely on observing the law, verse 10 of Galatians 3, are under

244
00:31:50,980 --> 00:31:59,340
a curse. Do you know how many people today are relying on their own works, their own

245
00:31:59,340 --> 00:32:07,820
performance to get them to heaven? They're trying to be good enough for God, which is

246
00:32:07,820 --> 00:32:13,620
another way of saying they're relying on the law, observing the law. And it says here they're

247
00:32:13,620 --> 00:32:23,100
under a curse, for it's written, cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything,

248
00:32:23,100 --> 00:32:29,860
written in the book of law. Or as we're told elsewhere in the New Testament, if we keep

249
00:32:29,860 --> 00:32:38,380
the whole law, all 430-some commands, but we break one point, the whole thing comes

250
00:32:38,380 --> 00:32:47,660
down on us. We're guilty. We're not good enough. Clearly no one is justified before God by

251
00:32:47,660 --> 00:32:56,100
the law, because the righteous will live by faith. And then verse 13 it says, Christ redeemed

252
00:32:56,100 --> 00:33:02,500
us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is

253
00:33:02,500 --> 00:33:14,020
everyone who is hung on a tree. You and I are in the prison cell of our sin, and the

254
00:33:14,020 --> 00:33:19,020
law has pronounced its sentence upon us. It has found us sinful, and we've broken God's

255
00:33:19,020 --> 00:33:25,020
law and we're guilty. And it pronounces the curse upon us of death and separation from

256
00:33:25,020 --> 00:33:33,660
God. And it holds us there. And were it not, my friend, for a redeemer, a rescuer who came

257
00:33:33,660 --> 00:33:39,920
and who said, I'm going to take that curse upon me so that this prisoner can go free,

258
00:33:39,920 --> 00:33:46,420
we would be hopeless. But that's exactly what Jesus did. That's why the miracle of Christmas,

259
00:33:46,420 --> 00:33:55,740
he came as one of us, was found absolutely perfect, so that then he could take upon himself

260
00:33:55,740 --> 00:34:05,060
the curse of the law as a voluntary act. And having satisfied the law, then we can be set

261
00:34:05,060 --> 00:34:12,780
free. That's redemption. That's the gift that God has for us. But there's another part to

262
00:34:12,780 --> 00:34:24,300
it. It goes on to say that we might receive the adoption of sons or the full rights of

263
00:34:24,300 --> 00:34:33,540
sons. Not only did God set us free from the slavery of our sin, and remove us from that

264
00:34:33,540 --> 00:34:42,140
cell in which we were held prisoner, but God has brought us into his own family. It's not

265
00:34:42,140 --> 00:34:48,860
just that we're released slaves, we are now sons of God, the children of God, with all

266
00:34:48,860 --> 00:34:57,460
of the rights that belong to one who is an heir of God himself. What an amazing thing

267
00:34:57,460 --> 00:35:07,300
this is. The greatest possible purpose. And God orchestrated it all. You see, it all came

268
00:35:07,300 --> 00:35:14,180
together. All of this preparation through the centuries before the birth of Christ.

269
00:35:14,180 --> 00:35:22,500
It all came together to that one moment when he was born. The miracle of Christmas. It

270
00:35:22,500 --> 00:35:28,480
all came together for that miracle for the greatest of purposes that God might release

271
00:35:28,480 --> 00:35:36,240
us from our slavery to sin, the condemnation, the curse that we bore, and set us free to

272
00:35:36,240 --> 00:35:46,940
be his children and his heirs. What an amazing gift. And here's what it means. It means that

273
00:35:46,940 --> 00:35:53,940
Christmas is the celebration of God's work in history. I would say to you that most of

274
00:35:53,940 --> 00:35:59,700
the people who live around us today are totally unaware of this. They think of Christmas as

275
00:35:59,700 --> 00:36:07,460
some legend or some myth that religious people believe. Nothing could be further from the

276
00:36:07,460 --> 00:36:16,540
truth. Christmas is the celebration of God's work in history so that you and I could receive

277
00:36:16,540 --> 00:36:28,260
his free gift. His free gift, which is righteousness. Righteousness that comes by faith in Jesus

278
00:36:28,260 --> 00:36:37,980
Christ. A free gift. In a few weeks you will be beside a Christmas

279
00:36:37,980 --> 00:36:45,140
tree somewhere probably, and underneath that tree there are going to be lots of gifts.

280
00:36:45,140 --> 00:36:48,500
And you'll begin opening them one at a time or maybe ten at a time. I don't know how you

281
00:36:48,500 --> 00:36:55,900
do it in your family. When I was a kid we just opened all of them at once. And we have

282
00:36:55,900 --> 00:37:00,060
developed a different tradition in our family so that everybody opens one gift at a time.

283
00:37:00,060 --> 00:37:06,580
It takes hours. But it's wonderful. It's wonderful because then you get to enjoy each of the

284
00:37:06,580 --> 00:37:18,380
gifts really. But you know what? We've had 35, this will be our 35th Christmas as a family.

285
00:37:18,380 --> 00:37:26,780
I don't remember one time we left a gift under the tree. At least one of mine. No, I don't

286
00:37:26,780 --> 00:37:35,540
remember that. We open every gift. Can you imagine? Can you imagine anybody leaving God's

287
00:37:35,540 --> 00:37:44,260
gift under the tree? This gift of righteousness, being right with God, having a relationship

288
00:37:44,260 --> 00:37:54,540
with God, and it's left there under the tree unopened, unused. That's almost unthinkable.

289
00:37:54,540 --> 00:38:00,300
We wouldn't leave a gift from a brother or sister or parent unopened. And yet here is

290
00:38:00,300 --> 00:38:08,300
God's gift for which he paid the price of the life of his own son left unopened before

291
00:38:08,300 --> 00:38:15,460
many people. And if that's you my friend, you don't have to wait until December 25th

292
00:38:15,460 --> 00:38:23,220
to open the present. It's been waiting on you all your life. All you have to do is believe

293
00:38:23,220 --> 00:38:29,260
on Jesus Christ and receive him as your Lord and Savior. And that gift will be opened and

294
00:38:29,260 --> 00:38:35,780
given to you, and you will be released from that prison of sin and that slavery and that

295
00:38:35,780 --> 00:38:41,740
curse that goes with it. And set free from that prison to walk openly and freely before

296
00:38:41,740 --> 00:38:49,540
God and to be his own child and someday the heir of everything along with Jesus Christ.

297
00:38:49,540 --> 00:38:55,820
That's what's coming for you when you open the gift. And if you've not opened it, I hope

298
00:38:55,820 --> 00:39:02,660
you would this morning. And if you have opened it, folks, the greatest thrill we can have

299
00:39:02,660 --> 00:39:07,260
this Christmas season is to point out that gift to other people. To let them know that

300
00:39:07,260 --> 00:39:12,860
the gift is there for them too. And that they can open that gift and know God. And they

301
00:39:12,860 --> 00:39:17,420
don't have to try to be good enough anymore because they get righteousness from Jesus

302
00:39:17,420 --> 00:39:22,780
himself. The only kind that will really get you to heaven.

303
00:39:22,780 --> 00:39:28,020
Let's be busy this season sharing about that gift. Inviting people to come. Being a part

304
00:39:28,020 --> 00:39:38,620
of the musical on the 17th. But inviting them to open that gift and experience God for themselves.

305
00:39:38,620 --> 00:39:45,740
Let's pray together. Father, it is my prayer that in this season

306
00:39:45,740 --> 00:39:54,500
of hope, the season when we remember with such joy and sentiment of our hearts the coming

307
00:39:54,500 --> 00:40:00,540
of Jesus, it is my prayer that we will more than ever in our lives grasp what it's all

308
00:40:00,540 --> 00:40:11,020
about. And I pray that when we do, our hearts will be motivated, afresh, and stimulated

309
00:40:11,020 --> 00:40:18,500
so that others around us will also hear about it from our lips.

310
00:40:18,500 --> 00:40:23,220
Thank you for the gift. And my friend, if you're sitting there and you've never opened

311
00:40:23,220 --> 00:40:29,420
that gift, you can do it right now, will you? Will you believe on Jesus? Will you ask him

312
00:40:29,420 --> 00:40:37,300
to come to your prison cell? To come and take the guilt off of your life? To release you

313
00:40:37,300 --> 00:40:43,780
from the chains and the curse? To set you free and to make you his son, his child? He'll

314
00:40:43,780 --> 00:41:07,780
do that. It's a gift waiting to be opened by you. Amen.