FBC Daily Devotional – Christmas Eve, 2020

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, Merry Christmas Eve, I hope your day is going well, and I hope you're not bustling around too much and are actually being able to enjoy the day.

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No doubt, most people on Christmas Eve, they're trying to get things done for their celebration on Christmas Day.

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And if that's you, I understand that, and I appreciate you taking a few minutes to reflect upon Christmas for all the right reasons, and at the right time, and in the right way that we've been talking about this week.

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And today, I want to go back to Galatians chapter 4, where we have seen that everything was just right at that first Christmas.

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And Christ came at the right time, in the right way, for the right reasons, and today

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I want us to see how he came for the right results. He was born for the right results.

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Now, tomorrow, you'll be giving gifts to somebody, probably, I'm guessing.

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What results do you want to see come of the gift that you give? So for example,

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I may give a gift of a game to my grandchild, one of my grandchildren.

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Well, one of the things, one of the results that I would like to see come from the giving of that gift is that child actually enjoys playing that game, and maybe

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I'll get to play the game with them, you know? And get beat by my grandkid, you know? You give gifts, and you have certain results that you want to see come from those gifts.

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Well, God gave the gift of his son at the right time, in the right way, motivated by the right reasons to bring about the right results.

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And those results are shared in verses 6 and 7 of Galatians chapter 4, where we read this.

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He says, And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying,

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Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

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So let me suggest four different results that are brought out in this passage from the giving of Jesus, the birth of Jesus.

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One of them is, one of the results is that because he came at the right time, in the right way, for the right reasons, you can experience the security of your salvation even now.

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The first part of verse 6 says, Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into your heart.

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You can know, you can know that you are a child of God's.

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How can you know that? Because he sent the Spirit of God into your heart. And Paul speaks of this in Romans chapter 8, in verse 16, where he says,

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You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry,

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Abba, Father. The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.

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And so yeah, you know, Christians often will struggle with doubts and fears, even about the security of their soul, you know, wondering, you know, did

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I really get saved? Did God really save me? If so, why do I struggle with sin, and so on and so forth?

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But the true child of God ultimately, eventually comes to this conviction in their heart.

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Yes, yes, indeed. Even though I struggle, even though I fail,

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I am a child of God. And the Spirit of God gives you that security, gives you that sense of confidence that you are

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God's child. So Christ came that you could experience, with the result that you would experience the security of your salvation now.

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Another result of Christ being born in the right time, the right way, for the right reasons, is that you might enjoy intimacy with God.

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The last part of verse 6 tells us that he has given his Spirit to us.

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This is the third person of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, God the

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Spirit. You see how all three members of the Trinity, by the way, are involved in this birth of Christ, this coming of Christ at the right time, the right way, for the right reasons?

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We might enjoy unique intimacy with God. He gives us his Spirit. You know, when a couple adopt a child, you know, in this life, they can do a lot for that child.

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They can provide a wonderful home, a wonderful upbringing, and all the rest of that. But they don't have—that child does not have the adopted parent's

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DNA. That child doesn't have the parent's spirit, if you will, within them.

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He'll be his own person with his own—with a different set of characteristics and DNA and so on and so forth, personality, etc.,

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that are shaped by that. But with our adoption into the family of God, God gives us his very

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Spirit. There is this unique opportunity of intimacy with God that we absolutely could not have prior to that new birth.

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Well, a third result that came about from Christ being born at the right time, the right way, for the right reasons, is that we might enjoy freedom.

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So verse 7 says, you are no longer a slave but a son.

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No longer a slave but a son. No longer a slave to sin. No longer a slave to the law, to the curse of the law.

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You are no longer a slave, you're a son. Back in verse 3,

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Paul wrote, in the same way, also, when we were children, we were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

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And before we became God's children and adopted into his family, we were in bondage, we were enslaved even to the law, to keep the law, to fulfill the law, which we could never do.

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So therefore, we were enslaved to the curse of the law. But Christ has given us freedom from that curse, being made a curse for us.

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You can enjoy that. You can enjoy that unique intimacy with God because of his spirit dwelling within, and you can enjoy wonderful freedom because of that salvation that is in Christ Jesus, being redeemed from the curse of the law.

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And then, finally, in verse 7, you're no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

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One of the results of Christ's coming, of his birth, is that you can anticipate your future in heaven later.

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You are an heir, an heir. Peter speaks of this inheritance that is ours in 1

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Peter 1, verses 3 -5, where he writes this, Blessed be the God and Father of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable and undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.

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This is the inheritance awaiting you as an heir. Now, without Christ, you think of eternity, you pretty much ignore it.

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You don't want to think about it. You don't want to think about it. Eternity, you know, the afterlife, after death, it's ignored at best, it's dreaded at worst.

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But with Christ, eternity is desired. You remember what

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Paul said in Philippians 1, verses 23 and 24? He's writing to the

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Philippian believers, and he's torn in this tension. He says,

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I would much rather, to depart is far more desirable. To depart and be with Christ, because to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ.

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And so to depart is far more desirable, but it's necessary that I remain.

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There's that tension. Adeniram Judson spoke well of this anticipation and this desire for eternity.

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When he spoke his last words on his deathbed, he said, I go with the gladness of a boy bounding away from school, bounding away from school.

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This is a result of Christ coming at the right time, in the right way, and for the right reasons to redeem you and to adopt you into the family of God.

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That you might go into eternity bounding as a schoolboy leaving school.

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Well, I hope that you have that hope and anticipation, even as you think about what

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Christ did when he came into this earth, when he came through a woman, came to redeem you.

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So our Father and our God, thank you so much for the Christmas season. Thank you for your gift of the

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Lord Jesus, who came to redeem us, that we might be adopted into your family, giving us security and intimacy with you, freedom, and a wonderful future ahead.

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Thank you. Thank you. We ask these things in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Well, again, Merry Christmas Eve. I hope you have a wonderful day the rest of this day, and a good day tomorrow on Christmas Day.