A Word in Season: Deliverance from Evil (Galatians 1:4)

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Why did the Lord Jesus Christ die for his people? One answer is given by the

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Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter 1 and verse 4. Christ gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our

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God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. The Lord Christ died for us, that we might be delivered from this present evil age.

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And it is an evil age. The world in which we now live, this world between the first and the second comings of our

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Lord Jesus Christ, can properly be described as an evil age, an evil place.

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I was speaking just the other day with a friend here, who, in the light of his recent experience in workplaces, was saying to me, this world is full of evil.

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It is characterized by a dishonesty, a lack of integrity, unrighteousness from the bottom to the top of every worldly system.

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And he is correct. The fact that it is not as bad as it could be, thanks to the mercies of God toward us, does not mean that there is a great and abounding goodness that characterizes this world.

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It is under the sway of the evil one. And so our Lord Jesus Christ came to deliver us from this present evil age.

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He came to deliver us from its condemnation, by dying in our place, taking the punishment our sins deserve, that we might not be subjected to the punishment that will come upon this whole world at his return.

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He has come to deliver us from the attitudes of this world, from the spirit of the age, from the mindset that characterizes the ungodly in this present world, that we might not think as they think, but rather think according to truth and righteousness, not being conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of our minds.

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He came to set us free from the behavior of this world, from its manners and its customs.

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We are to be a holy people, set apart to God. Our thinking and feeling and willing translates into righteousness in word and in deed.

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We don't and won't fit in if we've been redeemed by the Lord Jesus Christ.

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That judgment will not fall upon us if we walk in his ways. And this is the will of God for us, that we be brought out of this misery, out of this bondage, and that we should then live in a way that testifies that our citizenship is in heaven, where Christ is, and that we're looking to and waiting for the return of our great

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God and Savior, even Jesus Christ. Now, do our lives, if we profess to be

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Christians, give a testimony to that reality? Do we live as men and women, boys and girls, who've been delivered from this present evil age, who are no longer subject to it, who are no longer dominated by its appetites and attitudes, who are no longer trapped by the fear of it, but who are both willing and able, by the grace of God and the work of his

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Spirit in our hearts, to live as we are called? And if you are still trapped by this present evil age, if you are subject to its appetites and its attitudes and its actions, if you are still a slave of sin, to use that fearful language of the

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Bible, if you cannot get free from the bondage of the evil one, if you feel the guilt and the shame of your sin, if you are grieved by its pollution, trapped by its power, and you fear its righteous punishment, then you need to be delivered from this present evil age.

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And the only one who has done that, the only one who can do that, is the Lord Jesus Christ.

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He gave himself for our sins. He laid down his life in the place of his people, in order that whoever trusts in him should obtain in him this great deliverance.

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And so, if you wish to be free, you must come to Jesus Christ. If you have come to the

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Lord Jesus Christ, then you should live as one who has been delivered from this present evil age.

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You should recognize that this is the will of your gracious God and Father, to whom belongs the glory for this great act of redemption.

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And you and I, who know this deliverance, should live in the hope of the ultimate and final release, when the

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Lord Jesus Christ comes, and this present evil age comes to an end, and a new heavens and a new earth are brought in, where righteousness dwells, and we shall dwell at peace.