His Predestined Arrival

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Amen.
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Take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Galatians.
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And find your place in Galatians chapter 4 verses 4 and 5.
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The title of today's message is His Predestined Arrival.
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Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 says this, But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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I pray that even now, as I prepare to preach the word, that you would give me the power of the Spirit.
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For Lord, I know that if I were to preach under my own power, it would be without any ability to move or change hearts.
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And I know, Lord, that your Spirit is necessary.
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Only He can change our hearts.
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So I pray that He would speak through me today.
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I pray that you would keep me from error, as it is so easy, Lord, to go off into error and things that matter not.
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I pray that as we consider the relevancy of the season in which we come to worship, that you would, by your mercy and grace, give me the wisdom and give the people hearts to hear, ears that are open, eyes that are open to hear and see all that your word has to tell us.
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In Jesus name, Amen.
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Well, today is a special day on the church calendar.
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This is the fourth and final Sunday in the season of Advent.
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This is the season where, as we make our approach towards celebrating Christmas, we look at the themes of the blessing of the coming of the Savior, Advent meaning arrival, His coming.
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And so we've looked at hope, peace, joy.
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And this morning we celebrate love.
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We've looked at the prophetic announcements of Jesus's coming.
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We've looked at the pre-incarnate appearances of Jesus on the earth.
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We've looked at the promised accomplishment that He would make in His atonement.
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But today we are going to look at what I have entitled the predestined arrival of the Savior, the predestined arrival.
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And I have learned over the years that any time the word predestined is uttered, it has the potential to inspire arguments.
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The subject of predestination can be quite controversial.
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In some churches, the term is only whispered in hushed tones, never spoken about from the referenced in quick soundbites.
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But people often avoid the term because they fear that it robs them of personal autonomy and the ability to influence their own destinies.
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Predestination is not a popular subject.
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Yet it is something the Bible is not unwilling to address.
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The Bible talks about it in several books.
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Actually, the word predestination or a form of that word is found in the book of Acts.
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It's found in the book of Romans.
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It's found in 1st Corinthians and it is found in Ephesians.
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The Greek there is prohoritzen.
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Prohoritzen is the word which simply refers to making a predetermined decision beforehand or to foreordain something.
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The root word for prohoritzen is the word where we get our word horizon.
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And if you think about the horizon as being the farthest point that you can see, if you look out and look to the ends of your eyesight, you'll see a line of the sky and you call that the horizon.
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And it relates then to the setting of a boundary, the setting of a line, a direction, a course.
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And it carries the idea of God decreeing the end from the beginning.
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In fact, Isaiah says that.
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It says that God has determined the end since the beginning.
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And sometimes the concept of predestination is addressed in a passage even though the Bible doesn't use the word.
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Sometimes the concept can be there even if the actual word, predestined, is not found in the text.
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And that's what we find in our passage this morning.
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Because if you read Galatians 4, 4 and 5, you will not find the word predestination there.
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You won't even find it in the Greek.
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If you read it in Greek, you won't find prohoritzen there.
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But it does speak clearly regarding the decree of God in fulfilling a purpose that He had in a particular time, in a particular place and in a particular way.
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God from the beginning determined what He was going to do at that particular time, in that particular place, in that particular way.
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And what other word could we describe that other than the word predestination? His arrival, Jesus' arrival was predetermined before the foundation of the world.
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And this morning I want to show you from the text how God chose the perfect time to send His perfect Son.
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So that He would demonstrate Himself perfect in keeping the law on behalf of imperfect people.
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So let me give you that again.
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I want to show you how God chose the perfect time to send His perfect Son.
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So that He would show Himself perfect in keeping the law on behalf of imperfect people.
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So let's again look at the text.
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We've read verses 4 and 5 as our introduction this morning.
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But I want to now go back and read verses 1 through 7, giving a context to the passage that we're going to read.
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Paul says in Galatians 1, By the way, if you're unfamiliar with the book of Galatians, Paul is writing to the church in the region of Galatia.
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This was one of the places where he had established churches on his missionary journeys.
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Remember when he studied through the book of Acts? And there have been in the churches of Galatia false teachers that have crept in and have tried to force upon the Galatian Christians a form of Judaism, which would require that to become Christians, they must first become Jews.
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This is called Judaizers.
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We talked about this a lot in our study of Acts, because the Judaizers' purpose was to say that before you can become a Christian, you must first be circumcised.
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You must become a Jew before you can become a Christian.
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And the apostle Paul argued that that was not true.
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That the gospel was to the Jew first, but was also to the Gentile.
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And so we have in the book of Galatians, Paul arguing against that point.
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And in the fourth chapter, he begins to talk about the difference between an heir and a slave.
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And this is what he says.
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He says, In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.
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But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.
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And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a son.
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And if a son, then an heir through God.
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Now, to understand this, it's required that we understand the state of Israel prior to the coming of Jesus Christ.
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Since the time of Moses, the nation of Israel was given the law.
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And the law was intended to point them to righteousness.
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The law governed everything about the Israelite behavior.
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It governed everything from how they were to dress, to what they were to eat.
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And in the third chapter of Galatians, the law is called a guardian.
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In the King James Version, which I actually like at this point, because it's an older version of this word, it calls it a schoolmaster.
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The law was the schoolmaster.
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If you go back up to verse 23 of chapter 3, and you'll see this.
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It says, now before faith came, and when it says faith there, it's referring to the Christian faith, the faith in Jesus.
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It's not saying that people in the Old Testament didn't have faith, but it's talking about faith in the Son.
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Before that came, we were held captive under the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed.
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So then the law was our guardian, or our schoolmaster, until Christ came in order that we might be justified by faith.
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Albert Barnes, in his commentary on that passage, says this, quote, the system of salvation by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Faith here denotes the Christian religion, because faith is its distinguishing characteristic.
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Prior to the coming of Christ, Israel was held under the law as a guardian.
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This is not saying the law itself was bad.
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It's simply recognizing that law did not have the power to save.
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Do you realize that under the old covenant system, people were not saved by keeping the law? People were saved by faith even then.
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They were saved by faith in the coming Messiah who would come.
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No one has ever been saved by keeping the law.
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Because no one has ever kept the law completely other than Jesus Christ.
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No one has ever lived even a day where they could not be in some way guilty of having broken God's law.
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All the bulls that were killed in the Old Testament, all of the goats that were killed, all of the lambs that were slain, all of that was not taking away sin.
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In fact, Hebrews tells us that.
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It says the blood of bulls and goats cannot remove sin.
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I remember years ago hearing one of my teachers, and I don't remember if it was Dr.
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Powers or Dr.
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Johns, but he talked about the Old Testament bulls and goats being like a credit card.
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He said it was like God was taking the sins of the people and charging them to those bulls and goats, but that wasn't real money.
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That wasn't real currency.
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Just like some of you go and you use a credit card.
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And you know that's not real.
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There's coming a bill where you're going to have to put some real money on that card.
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You're putting it on credit, but one day the bill collector's going to come a calling, right? The bill collector's going to want real money.
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So God had those bulls, and he had those goats, and he had all those things, but that wasn't the real money.
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Jesus was the real currency.
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Jesus was the one who would really take away sins.
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And so Paul is saying that those animals and all of that law and everything, that was holding Israel like a tutor or a schoolmaster or a guardian holds a child until that child is old enough to bear the responsibility of being the master of the house.
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Think about this.
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When we have our children, this is what Paul is saying.
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When you have your children and they're young, they are in a lot of ways like captives.
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I mean, imagine this.
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Imagine you let your child do anything they wanted to do.
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They'd destroy your home.
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I mean, if you didn't have boundaries, if you didn't set rules, in a lot of ways my house is sort of like a little prison.
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We have to buy gates and put the gates up so they can't get into the kitchen, right? We have to lock Ashley's door during the day because we bought bunk beds as a Christmas present.
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And if we didn't lock those doors, JJ would try to jump off those bunk beds.
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So we have to lock the door during the day.
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So our house is like a little Fort Knox there, right? I mean, you hear him right now.
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It is the real deal.
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I mean, children are children and they have to be managed.
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Maximum security.
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That's right.
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I'm the warden, right? So when does the change come? When does the change come? I like this.
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Go back to chapter 4, verse 2.
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Go back to chapter 4, verse 2.
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It says, he, that's the son or the child, is under guardians and managers until the time or date set by his father.
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You know, if you go to the world right now and you say, when does a child become an adult? The world, at least in American culture, a child is an adult age by the age of 18.
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That's the date that they can begin to vote.
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That's the date that they're legally responsible for certain things that they weren't responsible for before.
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And they now have the ability to do things that they couldn't do before.
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But you know, even that demarcation line is rather blurred.
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Because even though we say somebody's adult at 18, we don't let them drink until they're 21.
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Even though we say somebody's adult at 18, we let them drive when they're 15.
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And even though somebody is not an adult until they're 18, we'll still charge them as an adult, sometimes 13, 14, 15 years old, if the crime is heinous enough to require such a punishment.
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So even the law has sort of blurred the line as to what is and what is not an adult, right? This passage says, in the ancient world, the father made the decision.
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The father had a time set where he says, at this point, my son is a man.
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And that was determined by the father.
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And the only reason why I'm bringing this up, not to necessarily talk about ages of children, the reason why I'm bringing this up is because this comparison that Paul is making is a comparison between that and the history of the world.
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There was a time when God's people were under a guardian called the law.
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And they were really sort of like slaves, Paul says.
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They were bound to that law like children in a house with gates and all these things.
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But God, the father, set a date.
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And he said, there's a date coming when that's going to change.
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Because I'm going to send my son into the world and he is going to bring with him the faith.
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That's the faith Paul talks about in chapter 3, the faith that is not in a system of law.
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It's not in bulls and goats and animals and these flowers, boy.
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But the faith will move to being in a person.
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It's no longer going to be in a program.
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It's no longer going to be in a system.
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It's no longer going to be in a law.
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It's going to be in the man, Christ Jesus.
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Because when the fullness of time had come, God didn't send a new law.
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When the fullness of time had come, God didn't send a new Moses or a new Aaron or a new Abraham.
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When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son.
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That's what the whole world had been waiting on.
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That was the maturity of the faith that all of the ancient writers had looked forward to.
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They looked forward to the time when they would no longer be under the taskmaster of the law, but would be under faith in Jesus Christ.
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Well, does that mean the law has no value anymore? No, the law tells us about the character of God.
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It tells us about the nature of God and his righteousness.
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It tells us about the things that are virtuous and good and wholesome and holy.
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And so the law still has a value, but it's not to save.
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In fact, what does the law do? It condemns.
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And we don't look at the law to save us.
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We look at the law to realize our need for a savior.
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And that points us to Christ.
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In fact, that's why I think chapter three actually says that when it says that the law is our guardian until Christ came.
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It points us to Jesus.
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It points us to our need of a savior.
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So then we get to verse four.
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It says when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son.
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That phrase fullness of time is an interesting phrase.
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It's used also in Colossians 2 where it talks about Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
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That's the same language used.
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There's something very significant about the first century.
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There's something very significant about this time that God would predestine this as the time his son would come.
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He would predetermine that's the time.
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Many scholars have tried to figure out what it is about that time that made it the special time where God would determine to send his son.
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They've come up with a few answers.
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I don't know that any of these are absolutely certain, but they but they surely do point to a pregnant time in history where it felt like something was going to happen.
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One of the things that had happened at this time in history, which was unique to all that had happened before, was this was a time in history where the Greeks had brought a unified language to that region of the world.
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You remember Alexander the Great? Alexander the Great had conquered the known world and he had made it his mission to unify the world under a unified language.
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You ever wonder why the New Testament is written in Greek and not in Hebrew, even though it was written by Hebrews? Hebrew men? The New Testament was written by men who were Jewish and yet they didn't write the New Testament in their Jewish language.
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What did they write it in? They wrote it in Greek.
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Why? Because it was the language of universality.
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It was the language that was known in all of the known world.
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In fact, it is called koine, Greek.
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Koine means common.
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It was the common language of the day, thereby all people could read it and understand it.
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But something else had happened at that time.
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The Romans had initiated something called the Pax Romana.
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The Pax Romana was a period of relative peace.
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Now not everyone felt peace the same, because if you remember at this time the Jewish people felt like they were under the sword of the Romans.
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But what did the Romans do? They established peace.
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They established, through conquering, no wars, no fighting.
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They established the Pax Romana, which allowed the Roman Empire to be open for travel.
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Why do you think Paul could go all the way from Israel to Greece? No small journey, but he could make it there.
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Because of this relative peace that had been brought to the land at this time in history, allowing for travel, which before would have been too perilous.
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This was also a time among the Jewish people of great anticipation.
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The Jewish community believed in the coming of a Messiah.
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Why do you think that on the Sunday before Jesus went to the cross, those people gathered to put palms down at the feet of Jesus as he came in riding on that donkey? They were saying, Hosanna! Why? Because they believed he was the fulfillment of what they had been waiting on.
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In fact, Jesus said, many false Christs will come.
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And they did, during Jesus' lifetime and even after.
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Many people claimed they were the Messiah because they knew there was so much expectation.
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They knew that the Jewish people were looking for this Savior.
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Why did the people turn on Jesus like they did? Because he didn't do what they thought the Savior was supposed to do.
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They thought the Savior was going to come in and destroy Rome and set up the kingdom of Israel and create a new temple and a new powerful system.
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And he didn't do that.
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But from a purely practical standpoint in history, there are many reasons why we could say, yes, this time in history was uniquely fitted for the coming of the Savior.
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And there's also many specific prophecies that reference not only where Jesus would be born, but when.
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So you could say that the fullness of time not only referenced those things which were practically possible and practically profitable for the coming of the Messiah, but you could say also the fullness of time was the fulfillment of the promises that had been made.
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If you study Daniel, Daniel is so specific about the Ancient of Days.
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Jesus is the Ancient of Days.
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He is coming and it's coming in this time period.
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And Jesus fulfills that coming.
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Because some people might say, well, wouldn't today be better? Wouldn't it be better if Jesus came today? I mean, if Jesus came today, He could get on television.
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They'd translate it into all languages.
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And He could be in one relative location where He's safe and He could reach all people.
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Wouldn't today be a better time? Wouldn't it be more fullness of time today? Yes, maybe.
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But God had determined this time not because of the Pax Romana, not because of the Greeks having a universal language.
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Those things were beneficial, of course.
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Those things were powerfully helpful, of course.
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But God determined this time because He said when His Son would come, hundreds of years before He came.
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And He made that determination for the purpose of demonstrating His power of prophetic utterance.
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When God says something's going to happen, you can take it to the bank.
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In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman.
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I don't know how many of you remember this, but the first sermon in this series, I talked about Adam and Eve.
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And I talked about the seed of the woman and how we were promised, they were promised in the very beginning that one day the seed of the woman would come and crush the head of the serpent.
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I can't help but to see at least a veiled reference to that when it makes the point that He's going to be the Son of God, but He's going to be born of a woman.
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He's the seed of the woman.
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He's the promise.
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And that's also a reference, by the way, to His dual nature.
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Jesus Christ is not just God and He's not just man, but Jesus Christ is God and man, fully God and fully man.
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He's born of the Father.
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He's also born of woman.
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He's not born of man.
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That's interesting.
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And I don't want to make too much of this because this could lead to some confusion and that's never my goal.
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But many scholars believe that the whole reason for the purpose of the virgin birth is because we are all born with the sin of Adam.
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We are born as sinners.
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But Jesus wasn't.
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Could it be then, scholars have conjectured, that it is the seed of the man that passes on the seed of sin? And Jesus did not have the seed of a man, but was born of a woman only from the power of Almighty God through the Holy Spirit.
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Again, I think that it's a wonderful thing to consider because that goes back to why a virgin birth? Just to be miraculous? Just to prove He could do it? Or no, was the virgin birth purposeful because it demonstrated that Christ is born without even having the taint of original sin? My child, my children were born sinners.
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They don't sin.
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They're not sinners because they sin.
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They sin because they're sinners.
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And they do sin even at one, two, three years old.
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They know how to lie.
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They know how to hide things.
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They know how to be sinners even as little children.
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You know, Jesus never sinned even as a baby.
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I don't even know how that would work.
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Because He was still a baby.
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He still exercised growth.
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The Bible says He grew in stature and in favor with God and with men.
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He grew.
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I don't know how the diapers worked in Jesus' household.
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I don't know how any of that worked.
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I don't know how Jesus as the perfect God-man-baby operated.
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It boggles my mind.
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But I know He never sinned and He was born without sin.
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He was born of God and of woman to be both God and man.
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For the purpose, the text tells us.
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Oh, by the way, it also says He was born under the law.
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You know why it says He was born under the law? And by the way, I could spend all day on this text.
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I got to start.
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I'm going to start moving a little quicker.
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You know why it says He was born under the law? Because Jesus wasn't born in the New Testament, guys.
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Jesus was born in the Old Testament.
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Who is the last prophet of the Old Testament? We won't say Jesus.
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But who was the last prophet of the Old Testament? John the Baptist.
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He was a prophet in the Old Testament times.
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Old covenant times.
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Even though He's written about in the New Covenant.
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The New Covenant is not established until the blood of Jesus.
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The people who lived in the time of Jesus are living under the Old Covenant.
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So Jesus is there.
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He's born under the law.
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He's born in the same slave condition as Israel.
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Remember it said they were like slaves, like children.
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Jesus is born under that same thing.
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And He keeps the law.
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He's born under the law.
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For what purpose? To redeem those who are under the law.
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How does He do it? Well, the only way you can redeem is if you have the capital to redeem.
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I can't purchase anything if I don't have the capital to purchase it.
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And Christ came in with the capital of righteousness.
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No sin.
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Not one red mark in His entire ledger book of life.
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He redeemed those who were under the law.
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Now I believe personally that that references first Israel.
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Because it's talking about those who are under the law.
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Israel or those who are under the law in regard to this context.
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But I don't think it's limited to Israel.
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I think it first has a point to those who are under the law.
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And in most of Paul's writings when he talks about those who are under the law, he's talking first and foremost about Israel.
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But he doesn't limit it because in Romans 2, he tells us that every man has the law of God written on his heart.
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So every man is condemned by that law.
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Even though he might first be talking about the Israelites, he's not only talking about the Israelites.
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We know Jesus did say He came to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
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But when He came out of the grave, He commanded His disciples to do what? Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
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Why? Because every creature needs the gospel.
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Because every creature, every person is condemned by the law.
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So when He redeemed those who are under the law, He's talking not just about Jewish people, He's talking about all people who are condemned under the law so that we might receive the adoption as sons.
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Beloved, it didn't stay with the Jews.
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And we can praise God.
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Because how many of you here are of Jewish descent? Maybe a few.
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Aren't you glad the gospel didn't stay only with the Jews? Aren't you glad that God expanded the gospel? And you know what the Bible says in John 1? It says, Jesus came unto His own, and His own received Him not.
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That's talking about the Jewish people.
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But as many as did receive Him, He gave them what? The power to become children of God.
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You do not become children of God when you're born.
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The universal fatherhood of God is a lie.
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The only way in which God is the universal father is in the sense of God being the creator of all things.
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And the Bible does use that very, very infrequently to talk about God as father of the world in the sense of being the creator of all things.
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But when it talks about God's fatherhood, it's not talking about a relationship that He has with every person.
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It's talking about a relationship that He has with every person who has faith in His Son.
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You want to know that God is your father? You want to be able to call Him Abba? You want to be able to call...
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Not Allah.
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Let me clear that up.
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Not Allah.
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Abba.
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Which is a...
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It's a word.
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It's actually an Aramaic expression which would be equivalent to our modern expression of the word dad or daddy or papa.
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It's less specific than patros or father, which is the Greek for, you know, the one who is the father of someone.
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It's much more intimate.
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How do we receive that intimate relationship with the Father whereby we can call Him Abba? It is through faith in Jesus.
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Because Jesus came, born of a woman, born under the law for the purpose of making redemption for those who were under the law, meaning they were condemned by the law.
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So now we have been given the spirit of adoption.
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And by the way, I love the fact that it references adoption, not just because we have adopted children, and I know some of you do as well, but the fact that it demonstrates that there is a genuine relationship established at adoption.
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It's not artificial.
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Some people think that adoption is an artificial relationship.
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It is not.
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Not only is it as legally binding as a physical birth, it is as spiritually binding as any other union.
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When adoption happens, God becomes your father.
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But it only comes through Jesus Christ.
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As a result, we become the beneficiaries of the greatest blessing ever given to humankind.
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We've been given the Holy Spirit.
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We can call God Abba Father.
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And we now stand no longer as slaves to the law, but as sons in the court of the King.
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This is the great wonder and majesty of Christmas.
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God has surely spoken powerfully before the birth of Jesus, but it was in the coming of Christ that God would change the entire dynamic of His relationship with Israel and with the world.
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Instead of rituals and sacrifices, dietary laws, and restrictions on clothing, a new focus would emerge.
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Now all faith would be directed not toward a law, but toward a person, the person of Jesus Christ, and what He has done.
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And I ask you today as I draw to a close, is that where your faith is focused? Are you living in light of the fact that in the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem you who were under the law so that you might receive the adoption as sons? Does that reality shape your life and affect your decisions and move your heart to serve God and love others? Might I say, if it does not, that perhaps you still are yet not a son of God? The sons of God cry out Abba Father while others see God as a rigid, intolerant taskmaster.
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Is God your Father today? Have you been adopted through faith in His Son? If not, I encourage you, recognize your sin, repent of it, and trust in Him.
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And in a similar way to how God predestined His Son's arrival into the world, He also will predestine your birth and has.
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If you come to Him in faith, it is because of His work in eternity past and perhaps today is the day He has determined for you.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you.
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I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for the truth.
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And I thank you for the privilege of being able to call you Abba Father.
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And Lord, as we now begin to focus our attention on the table and what Christ did on the cross, may we ever be moved to a closer fellowship with you through faith in your Son and all that was accomplished when in the fullness of time you sent forth your Son, born of a woman, born under the law, that He might redeem those who are under the law and give us the adoption as sons.
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And it's in His name we pray.
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Amen.
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Let's stand and sing together.