Well, it's almost Christmas, and the closer we get to Christmas, the more Christmas movies we will see. And there are hundreds and hundreds of Christmas movies. And one that is a favorite of many is A Christmas Story, made back in 1983. And that movie is set in the 1940s, and the main idea of the movie is that a young Ralphie desires to get his dream present. He has a dream present that he wants, and that is a Red Ryder carbon-action 200-shot air rifle or a BB gun. He wants a BB gun, but Ralphie's desire is rejected by his mother, rejected by his teacher, Mrs. Shield, and also rejected by the Santa Claus at Rigby's department store, all of whom give him the warning, you're gonna shoot an eye out, you're gonna shoot an eye out. Well, on Christmas morning, he gets his presents, but no BB gun, until his father tells him, listen, open the last box under the tree. And he opens the last box under the tree, and it's a BB gun, and he's ecstatic, he can't believe it, and he runs outside to try it out, and he shoots at a metal target, and as he shoots it, what happens? The BB reflects off the metal thing and knocks his glasses off. That's a Christmas story, in a nutshell. for Ralphie and his family. And it was fun, it was silly, it was entertaining, but it doesn't come close to the true Christmas story. The true Christmas story, which is a love story. A story of love and compassion and hope and rescue. And for the next 40, 45, 50 minutes, don't get concerned, I wanna cover and convey to you the Christmas story. Not a Christmas story, the Christmas story. A story that started in eternity past, and will end an eternity future for all who truly embrace it. A story that captivates the humble heart, brings comfort to the searching soul, and gives joy to the one who receives it and believes it. What I'd like to do today is look at the Christmas story, not from the usual places, like in Matthew 1 and 2, or in Luke 1 and 2, which we just read a piece of, but in the book of Galatians, an epistle, a letter, very doctrinal, And to set the context of chapter four, Paul is speaking about sons and heirs, sons and heirs, and how a son may be an heir to his father's possessions, but while he is a child, he is no different than a household slave. meaning he is under guardians and managers until he becomes an adult, until he is old enough to inherit his father's possessions. Paul says in the same way, before we became believers, before we were saved, we were like children, enslaved not by guardians and managers, but by sin and the elementary principles of this world. We were under the law of God, which we could not keep, therefore it condemns us. But when God saves us, when he redeems us, and then adopts us as his children and heirs of eternal life, it changes. Well, with this setup, I'd like to look at verses four and five of Galatians 4, in a sermon titled, The Christmas Story, using three points. The calendar of Christmas, the characters of Christmas, and finally, the cause of Christmas. all from the text. Let's look at the calendar of Christmas, the first part of verse 4. But when the fullness of time had come. But when the fullness of time had come. And Paul starts by telling us when Christmas would come, and that was when the fullness of time had come. And the Greek word for fullness of time is a pretty picturesque word. It speaks of something that is complete and fully developed, like a ripe apple, which is hanging from a tree ready to be picked, or a woman who is nine months pregnant and very ready to give birth. And what Paul is saying is that the time for Christ to come into this world, to be born into this world, had come. So everything necessary for the Messiah to come had been established. The time was ripe for the Incarnation. It was ripe for Christmas. And everything God does is done in His time, on His schedule, on His clock. Everything He does. Which is why three times in Psalm 37, David tells us, wait on the Lord. Wait on the Lord. Wait on his Lord, wait for his perfect timing. And it's always, his timing always has a purpose and it will always be fulfilled and fulfilled in his will. And nothing happens before God's ordained time, nor after it. Ecclesiastes 3.1, Solomon said, to everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven. When Jesus started his ministry, he said in Mark 1 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Repent and believe the gospel. And the time being fulfilled was that Jesus was here. He was here. And now there needed to be repentance and belief in the message that he was preaching, i.e. the gospel. Paul said in Ephesians 1 verse 10 that God's plan of salvation has now come in the fullness of time to unite all in his Son. So the fullness of time is when the world was ready for the Messiah and when the Jews were ready for the Messiah. When everything was divinely aligned by God to bring the Messiah into this world, that was the fullness of time. So there was a certain time for God to send Jesus into this world when all the conditions from God's perspective were right. It's like when NASA is going to launch a rocket into space, the conditions have to be right for them to launch it or they won't launch it. Well, now the time for Christ has come. And it was not determined or announced nine months before he was born, nor was it declared by a home pregnancy test that Mary might have taken. I kid there, by the way. Rather, it was announced all the way back in Genesis chapter 3. All the way back in Genesis chapter 3 in the Garden of Eden. Well, God told Adam and Eve the curses that would be put upon them and all their offspring because of their sin. Then he pronounced to Satan the curse that would be put on him or unto him in Genesis 3.15. And this is a critical verse where we read, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. And here, in somewhat veiled language, is the very first time in the Bible that we hear the gospel. Kind of veiled, but now it's the first time the gospel is being told. And it'll be expounded on as we go throughout the scriptures. Here is the first Christmas announcement. The first promise that God is going to send someone to reverse the curse. To redeem man from the wages of his sin. And it's through the seed of the woman. And it's interesting because the woman doesn't have seed. The man does, right? But this woman is married. would miraculously have a son who would crush Satan's head, though his heel would be bruised. And what this is picturing is the epic battle that took place at the cross. It's epic battle, thousands of years later, where Jesus would defeat sin, where Jesus would defeat Satan. but it would cost him his life. But he would rise again three days later, defeating death, defeating the grave, fulfilling the will of God, which was to save sinners, was to pay the debt that we owe God and cannot pay, proving that he was the son of God, proving that the debt was paid in full for every single one of his people. So the woman, Mary, will have a seed, not the seed of man, but the seed implanted by the power of the Holy Spirit upon her, a holy seed. who would defeat Satan and reconcile man back to God. So Jesus is the promised seed. He was the promised seed all the way back to Abraham, in whom all the nations of the earth would be blessed, we're told in Genesis 22. And then the same promise was given to Isaac in Genesis 26. Again, the seed is Jesus. He was the seed that would come from David's loins, who would reign as king forever and ever on his throne. That's Jesus. That's the seed. Well, there were many things happening when Jesus was born and during his ministry and afterwards that made it the right time, that made it the fullness of time. And they were converging at the same time together, like there was peace in the Roman Empire. All Rome's enemies had been subdued. It was the age of, as they say in Latin, Pax Romana. which means the peace of Rome that extended all over the known world at that point in time. And what that produced was a time of political and economic stability and prosperity. And then wherever the Roman soldiers or legions went, they were building roads. They were building roads that connected all the major cities and hubs around the empire. And of course, they all ultimately led back to Rome, the capital of the world. And this made taking the gospel to the Gentiles a lot easier, a ton easier. And we see that Paul took advantage of this in his missionary journeys. He was able to travel all over the Roman Empire, you know, in Asia Minor in his day, because there were roads to do so. So sharing the gospel was a whole lot easier. Add to that, Alexander the Great put really one common language together in the empire, which was Greek. So sharing the gospel in one understandable language was possible, reaching many people with it. And the Greek language was particularly suited to the teaching of the New Testament, for they say it's a very exact language. It was very easy to translate and understand. And then, because the Jews were exiled to Babylon hundreds of years before, where they went into the Babylonian Empire, they built and had synagogues. In those synagogues, they taught about the coming Messiah to the Jews and also to interested Gentiles. So there was this anticipation and this expectation of the coming Messiah. There were some like Simeon, as we'll read in Luke 2, who were waiting for the consolation of Israel. And Simeon, waiting for the consolation of Israel, is in the present tense, which means he was continually, all his life, waiting for the coming of the Messiah. And as Paul went into a city, his very first stop into any city he went, the synagogue. He went to the Jews first. And what he would do is he would give them the reason why Jesus was the Christ. See, the Jews had all the dots of the doctrines of the Old Testament. They understood sin issues. They understood the whole sacrificial system. They understood the priestly system. They understood the feast days. They understood that. And Paul comes along and says, well, listen, that's all fulfilled in Christ. He's the sacrifice that they're pointing to. He's the one that they allude to. And so what Paul was doing for them was connecting it for them. And so some believed, some believed, right? And then you have all the prophecies, all the Old Testament prophecies that were fulfilled in Christ's first coming. Right? And those prophecies told about Jesus. They were from different men and different times and different places, but they told about the coming of the Messiah. And some did believe, but sadly, many of the Jews did not believe, even though they had the prophecies. See, they couldn't connect it in their own minds and in their own hearts. So they could not recognize the fullness of time. Jesus said in Luke 19, verse 44, he's weeping over Jerusalem. He's gonna go to the cross. He's gonna go to the cross. And he tells them their city's gonna be destroyed because they did not recognize him when they had him. He says, because you did not know the time of your visitation. It was the right time and you didn't know it. You didn't know it. But they could have known it. If they had even literally interpreted the prophecy of Daniel 9, 24 to 26, they would have seen the coming of their Messiah and their Prince. And listen, just as Christmas came at God's appointed time in the fullness of time, so too did your salvation. If you're saved today, it came at God's appointed time. God was working the events in your life. the events in your life to save you, to convert you. Events that seemed very small and insignificant, like you would almost not even think about it. And yet, there they were. God was orchestrating all these behind the scene things to bring you to faith, to bring you to your knees, and then to bring you to the cross and raise you up and adopt you into his family. That's what he was doing. He used people, circumstances, chance meetings to get the gospel to you, to bring you to a place where you sought him and he saved you. and it was all in his time. It was all in the fullness of time. So Jesus came into this world in the fullness of time, and understand, if it were 100 years sooner, well then it couldn't have happened, because Rome wasn't ruling over Palestine 100 years sooner, so there would be no crucifixion. And if it were 100 years later, well again, it couldn't have happened, for Jerusalem and its temple was destroyed, so there could be no crucifixion. So we see the calendar of Christmas. Secondly, the characters of Christmas. The second part of verse 4. I'll read the whole thing again. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law. Well, the Christmas story came about in the fullness of time. And now Paul tells us who were the characters in the Christmas story. And they are God the Father, Jesus, God the Son, and Mary. So we read, God sent his son. These are weighty words when we think about it. They're amazing words when we think about it. This is really the mystery of love, that God sent his son. But God was under no obligation to send his son to us. He would have been perfectly right and just to keep him from us. Who could complain? Who could be upset if God chose not to send him? And he chose not to come. But he did choose to send him. He did choose to send him. Out of love, he sent him. Out of love for his chosen people, his elect, he sent them. So Christmas is a love story. It's a love story. It is a gift from God to those he loves. As Paul would say, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Can we describe it? Can we put this in words? Well, Paul says no. How can we? How can we? It's the greatest gift he could ever have given man. And it is the gift that never stops giving to those who receive it. It goes on forever, and never, and ever. But unfortunately, most don't want this gift. Most don't think they need this gift. You know, how many things do I get at Christmas time? Truthfully, most of it, I put to the side. Maybe it's a white elephant gift at the Christmas party next year. Most of it. Or it doesn't fit and I gotta return it, whatever. Every now and then I do like something. It's the perfect gift, it's his son. Perfect gift. This gift is not an item. It's not tickets to a play or a game. It's not keys to a car. It's a person. This gift is a person. It's the son of God. Jesus said in John 3.16, very famous verse obviously, for God so loved the world that he gave, there's the gift, right? He gave his only begotten son. That whoever believes in him, trusts in him, follows him, surrenders to him, they will not perish. That means they won't go to hell, but they'll have everlasting life. In John 17, three, Jesus said this, and this is eternal life. All right, now we're gonna get an explanation of what eternal life is. This is eternal life, that they may know you. the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you sent, you sent. John said in 1 John chapter 4 verses 9 and 10. In this, the love of God was manifested toward us. How was that? That God has sent his only begotten son into this world that we might live through him. You want to live? You want to live forever? It's got to go through him, through him. And this is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. So the love of God is seen through the gift of his son. And we know his love through his action of giving his son to satisfy the sin debt that we owe God. That's what propitiation means. It means satisfaction. That big word just means satisfaction. God was satisfied that Jesus paid the price for our sins on the cross. God was satisfied. If God was not satisfied, the payment wouldn't be made and we would owe that payment. So he satisfied the sin debt. We read of Jesus being sent in Isaiah 48, 16, and it's talking about him. He says, come near to me. This is Jesus talking. Hear this. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the time that it was. I was there, and now the Lord and his spirit have sent me. It's a mission. So Jesus was commissioned by the Father to come into this world to seek and to save the lost. He was going into a lost and dying world to buy back those enslaved to sin or in the bondage of sin. And Jesus said on multiple occasions that he was sent here by the Father to do his will. And his will was to redeem a people for himself. And here's the thing, Jesus was not reluctant to come. He wasn't adverse to lowering himself, to become one with his creation, and to be hated by the very ones he created, and to be crucified by them. He was not adverse to doing that at all. In fact, when he was marching towards Jerusalem, they said, we can't go there, because they wanted to kill you. He said, no one takes my life from me, I give it freely. I came to do this. I came to die. If I don't go to Jerusalem and hang on a cross, heaven's closed for all men for all time. But I came to rescue a people. To rescue a people. Now the word sent forth has the idea of someone going with authority to accomplish a specific task. So like when Herod saw that the wise men had fooled him and didn't come back to tell him where the baby was born in Bethlehem, we read in Matthew 2.16 that he sent forth his soldiers and they slew all the baby boys under the age of two. See, in the ancient world, an ambassador was sent forth by the king to bring the king's message to the people. We read in Hebrews 1.14 that God sent forth the angels for the specific task of ministering to those who are being saved. God said, go, I send you out to do something. Jesus sent forth his disciples and all believers to fulfill the great commission. We have a commission, we have ascending, go and make disciples of the nations, discipling them and baptizing them and on and on. We have a mission. And God sent forth his son for the task of conquering Satan, defeating sin, defeating death on the behalf of his people. And listen, God didn't send forth his son so that he sent him forth so that you and I and all humanity would not suffer the wages of our sins. So that we could be saved. He sent him because he loved us. I mean, instead of sending his son, he could have just sent justice, which we would all rightly deserve. He could have just sent angels or prophets or even John the Baptist, but in the end, none of them could have saved us. Not one of them could save us. They could warn us. They could admonish us. John the Baptist could prepare the way, if you will, to tell us what we need to do. He could tell men to repent, prepare their hearts for the Messiah, but none of them could stand between God and our sin. Only Jesus could do that. Only Jesus could do that, and He did that. Now, sending forth implies that you were somewhere before. You were sent from one place to another place. So when you send out a missionary, that missionary goes from where you are to the place where you send them. They're sent forth. Well, Jesus was sent forth from heaven which means that Jesus was with God from all eternity, and this implies the pre-existence of Christ, and it implies the deity of Christ, which the rest of the scripture will bear out. So Jesus is God. He is the Son of God. He is the second person of the triune Godhead. And he was sent from heaven to take on a second nature, human nature. God became man. God became man. So Jesus is God. But he was sent to take on a second nature, which is why we read he was born of a woman, again, which is Mary, who gives him his humanity. And it was critical that he be a man because the only way he could save sinful man was to become a man. He had to become one of us. He had to become one of us. He had to identify with us. He had to experience what we experience, yet without sin, without sin. So he had to be God and man. A man so he can stand for us, so that he could represent us, and God so he could stand before God on our behalf. Someone had to be able to bridge that, and no man could do it alone. It needed to be the God-man. So he had to be the God-man. He had to be Emmanuel, God with us. In Isaiah 9.6 it says, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. Born, given. Him being born is his humanity. Him being given is his deity. That's the leaving of heaven. Again, 100% God, 100% man, two natures in one person. Critical to believe it, mind-blowing to try to understand it, and yet it is the absolute truth. To deny it is to deny the faith. You can miss a lot of things. We can have a lot of doctrinal differences in this life, and we're saved, we're saved. You deny the Trinity, you deny the two natures of Christ called the hypostatic union, you don't have them. You've missed the boat. He was a man. He was a man like you and I in every way. He had to be a man because it was his mission to save sinners. And he had to become one of us so he could save us. He had to perfect the very law of God, of which you and I fall woefully short of, and violate it more times than we know. Listen, we sin all the time. We think thoughts that are sinful. We say things that are sinful. We do things that are sinful. They go against the will of God. They miss the mark of a holy life. And it's sin against God. We just missed the boat. We have a great need. And so God sent a great Savior. He had to perfect the law, which you and I fall short of. And here's the thing, we stand unrighteous before God. We stand guilty because of our sins and unjust before Him. But 2 Corinthians 5, 521 tells us this, for He, God, made Him, Jesus, who knew no sin, perfect as a man, body and soul, perfect, to be sin for us. There's a swap right there, right? He is taking our sin. But the second part of that phrase or that verse goes like this, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. That holy life that he lived, that 30 some odd years of sinless perfection as a man, he imputes that to us. Our sin is imputed to him. His righteous record of holy living as a man is imputed to us. Why? Because He loves us. Who deserves it? Not a one of us, but He loves us. And the only way Jesus could be made sin for us is if He had none of His own. He had to be perfect as a man. If He had even one sin, consider this, if He had one sin, He could not be sin for us, because then He's got to save Himself. Then He's got to save Himself. So we need a sinless Savior. And John 1.3.5 says, and you know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him there is no sin. A lot of sin language, right? That's the issue, by the way. Hebrews 4.15 says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. In his humanity, he was tempted, yet without sin. So he didn't have a sin nature. He never said a sinful word, had a sinful thought, did a sinful deed. He never disobeyed God from the heart, ever. He always fulfilled the law of God, which he was born under, which he willingly submitted himself to. He perfectly fulfilled the two great commands. Remember the Jews asked him, what's the greatest command of all? Trying to trick him. He said, well, the greatest command is to love God with all your heart, your soul, your mind, and your strength. That means love God with all your being. No one does that. None of us do that. He said, in the second I'll go on to it. Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commands hang all the wrong prophets. You want to live a holy life? Do these two. Because if you do these two, you're not committing sin. But we can't do it. Every day we can't do this. But Jesus did it. In his humanity, he did it. He perfected the law of God, which Adam fell from in the Garden of Eden, and which you and I fell from being in him. So Jesus had a human body and soul. And he came into this world the very same way every other person ever does, through a woman. The miracle is not his birth. The miracle is not his birth. The miracle is the incarnation, which means his conception. His conception, that's the miracle, right? The seed, the holy seed being put in the womb of Mary by the overpowering or the power of the Holy Spirit, that's the miracle. as a virgin and stayed that way until after he was born. So that's the miracle. So he entered the world that way. The timeless one stepped out of eternity and into time. The one who fills all things, limited himself to the body of a helpless little baby, an infant. So again, he had to be a man like we are. For there would be no possible way to save us unless he was a man and lived the life that we were meant to live and then died for our sins a death that we should die. And since God can't die, because God is eternal, the Son took on flesh so He could die and do it in our place. Now consider for a moment, consider how important it was to God to save a people, that He would have to send His own Son to become one of us. That's how much God wants us. That's how much He loves His people, that He would send His Son in this unbelievable plan to rescue us. Because in and of ourselves, we are not ready or ever will be or rescuable by ourselves. We can't do it. When we consider the Incarnation, it should rivet us, it should amaze us just how highly God values men, particularly those he chooses to save. and it should show us the destiny of his people. God didn't send his son to save the animals. He didn't send his son to save the fish, or the environment, or the ozone layer. He sent him to save those who were made in his image. We are the crown jewel of God's creation, not the atmosphere or anything else. We are it, because we're made in his image. Nothing else is made in his image. We are. We can know him. We should know him. If we know Christ, we know him. He sent him to save us. Also, the incarnation should show us the great wickedness of man, for the only way to save any of this sorry bunch was through the God-man. And the inclination should give us hope, great hope. For if deliverance were possible any other way, there were any other way to save sinners, then the Son of God wouldn't come. We don't need the cross if we can somehow work this thing out. We could just be good enough, pray enough prayers, give enough money, do enough good deeds. If we could do those things, there's no need for the cross. There's no need for the cross. But there is a need for the cross. There is a need for the cross. And here's the thing. To reject Him who lowered Himself all the way to the womb of Mary and then to the cross is really sealing your own doom. I mean, you're sealing your own doom. To reject Him is sealing your own doom. To reject the baby in the major as your Lord and Savior. And you understand, when I say Lord and Savior, Lord means King, that means He owns you. that means you are absolutely under his leadership. You do what he says, and if you don't, well then he's really not your king, right? Savior means he saves you, he takes you out of the judgment to come, he takes you out of the death you deserve, and he saves you, but he's also your Lord. To reject that is to forever miss the cause or the reason for Christmas, which leads to the third point. The cause of Christmas, verse five. to redeem those who are under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. Well, Paul tells us when Christmas occurred, who was involved in it, and now he will give us the reason for Christmas or the purpose for it. And it was twofold. The first was to redeem a people. The second was then to adopt those people into the family of God. And you need the first one if there's ever gonna be the second one. So you need to be redeemed first. So Jesus came to redeem those who are under the law. And those under the law basically is every single person born into this world. I don't care if you're 90, I don't care if you're a day old, I don't care if you're in the womb even, you need to be redeemed. We all need to be redeemed, brought back, brought out of. Because we're under the law. And under the law means under God's moral law. The law which says, the soul that sins, it shall die. The law which says, the wages of sinning against God's law is death. Not just physical, although that's why we physically die. Spiritual death, separation from God. Worst of all, an eternal death. The law which says, if you don't keep it all perfectly, You're guilty of it all. That's what James 2.10 says. In James 2.10, it says, if you were to keep the whole law, hypothetically speaking, nobody could do this, right? But if you were to never sin, and then today you have a bad thought, oh, this guy's killing me, I wish he would get down, right? If you were to just have one sin, James says you're guilty of the whole law. What he's saying is, not one sin will enter into heaven. Not a one. You and I, if we're dead honest, we churn it out. Our heart and our mind, there's stuff going on, you know, unbeknownst to those around us, but we know. We know. So one sin disqualifies you from heaven and assures you of a hell. But the law is good, and it is holy, for it is the word of God, and it is from the mind of God, and it shows us the will of God. So it's good, but here's the thing, the law can't save you. But here's what it does do, it shows you, you need to be saved. If you don't know the law of God, then you don't know you've got a problem before God. And that's what Paul says in Galatians 3.10, he says, for as many as are the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, curse it is everyone who does not continue in all the works which are written in the law. And go back to verse 24, he says, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ. The law is what teaches us that there's a problem. There's a problem. There's a problem because we're from Adam. We've inherited his sin nature, and we also inherit sin. And we're guilty as he was guilty, and there's a payment for it. But then I go back to Galatians 3, verse 13, we read this, and this is a glorious hope, a glorious verse. He said, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. How did he do that? Having become a curse for us. The law condemns us, and Christ says, let me be condemned in your place. Let me be condemned in your place. That's the cross. He's not just physically being crucified, you know that. Crucifixion was a brutal death, and yes, he was being crucified. But at the same time, He was taking our sins upon Himself. He was suffering the curse of the law while on the cross, and God the Father was pouring out holy and divine justice and wrath on God the Son for the sins of His people. Somebody's paying for your sins. It's either Jesus on the cross or you forever in a place called hell, and it's not good that way. But He came to do that for us. So we need to be redeemed. which means to buy back, to ransom, to buy out of or to obtain by purchase. The metaphor here is this. It is of Christ freeing the elect from the dominion of the Mosaic law at the price of his blood. In the first century, redemption alluded to buying slaves out of a slave market. That was the picture. Understand, most people in the Roman Empire were slaves. The majority of people were slaves. For whenever Rome would conquer a land, many of those people of that land they conquered would become slaves. Or if you owed a debt which you could not pay, you became that person's slave until you could pay it, which oftentimes you couldn't do. And slaves are people under authority. They're under a master. They don't have rights. And the analogy here is that all men are enslaved to sin and are mastered by sin. Jesus said so in John 8, 34. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. Well, there you go. You're a slave. Paul will further that in Romans 6. He says, we know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. And then 10 verses later, he says, do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or obedience, which leads to righteousness. Everybody's a slave. Every person here, children, adults, nice people, not so nice people, we're slaves. We're either a slave to Christ because he has taken us out of the wages of our sins and has put us into his kingdom, and now he's our king, he's our master, he's our sovereign. Or we're still a slave to the sin that condemns us. But we're slaves. And the Bible says that Jesus is a good king. He's a loving king, he's a merciful king. Nobody is upset with his kingship. You don't know how bad you had it until you have him. Then you realize, oh man, I was a slave to that way of thinking, and that way of living, and that way of acting. And he saves you. And now you're a slave to him, and that's good, that's good. So we're all born slaves to sin. And it's not until God changes our hearts that we become slaves of righteousness, where Paul says, a slave to Christ. Now concerning these slave markets, where these slaves were bought and sold, there were only three reasons to buy a slave. in that day, three reasons. The first reason was you wanted the slave to serve in your household in some way. Second reason was you would buy a slave so you could sell the slave and make a profit on whatever you bought him for or her for. The third reason you bought a slave was to set the slave free, was to set the slave free, which was the only way a slave could obtain their freedom. Well, Christ came down into this world, into the slave market of sin, and purchased the people to set free from the bondage of their sin, to make them new creations. He came to buy us out, right? We're under the law of sin and death. He came to buy us out, free them from the judgment of their sin. One of my favorite verses, Romans 8, 1 and 2. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." So now they're free to know God, free to worship Him, free to promote His glory in this world and on this earth. and to live the way he designed for them to live, and to love him, and to obey him. So that baby in a manger came to free us from the sin that held us captive. Matthew 1.21, Joseph finds out Mary is pregnant. Obviously he thinks that she's committed adultery. Like, what else would you think, right? And he's going to put her away privately because he was a just man. And the angel comes to Joseph and says, slow down, Joseph. Listen, she didn't commit adultery. Take her as your wife. This is of the Holy Spirit. This is the promised one. This is the Christ. This is the one who came to redeem men. And then he gives them this definition. He said, she will bring forth a son and you shall call his name Jesus. And now we get the definition of Jesus. That he will save his people from their sins. He will save his people from their sins. It's a saving mission. It's a rescue mission. Now, because Jesus has redeemed us with his blood and owns us, if you will, we can now receive, therefore, adoption. Adoption as sons. It's one thing just to save us, could have left us out there, but now he says, I'm taking you in. Now you become family. Now the relationship is family. Adoption means relationship. And when we're no longer enemies of God, or apart from God, or alienated from God, we can now be received by Him as children. And it really is another mind-blowing thought. Listen to 1 John 3, 1. And it says this, behold. Whenever you read the word behold in the Bible, it means pay attention. Something absolutely extraordinary is gonna be said here. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us. What is that love that He's bestowed on us? that we should be called the children of God. We should be called rebels, which we are. We should be called outcasts, which we are. Children of God. All of a sudden, He not only saves us, brings us in. John 1.12 says this, but to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God. Not everybody's a child of God. That idea that the world has, oh yeah, God's our father, no, no, no, no. He's everybody's God, absolutely. But he's not everybody's father, you know that. Not everybody is his child, but those who have been saved and redeemed and adopted into his family. That's what he says. Galatians 3.26 says, for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith. So because of Christ, we now have a sonship, if you will, with God. He is now our Father. And as His children, He lavishes blessings and benefits upon us. The greatest being, He gives us His Spirit, the Holy Spirit. The third person of the Trinity is in us. He dwells us. He brings us to spiritual life, and then every blessing and enabling we have comes through Him, through this gift of faith that He gives. Amazing, amazing. So when you consider the story of Christmas, it doesn't start and finish in the manger. I know it's sweet. I know it's nice. We like the songs, the little manger scenes, baby Jesus is cute and all that kind of stuff. Understand that little baby is going to have six inch spikes drilled through his hands. and through his feet so that he could hang on a cross one day. And he had to hang on a cross. There was no other reason for him to come but to hang on a cross, to free us, to redeem us, to make us his own, to adopt us into the family. That baby was born to die. None of us were born to die. When you have your children, you say, oh, I hope he dies. No, we don't do that. I hope he lives. I hope he lives good. I hope she's successful in life and joyful. We want that, right? I hope he outlives me by 30, 40, 50 years. Jesus' purpose was to go to the cross. So it didn't start and finish in the manger. It started in eternity past when the Father covenanted with the Son to send him to us, and it will be fulfilled when he returns to take us to himself. Let me close by leaving you with three ways to think about or apply this message. And the first one is this. Ask yourself this question. Is the story of Christmas your story? Is the story of Christmas your story? I'm not asking if it's your parent's story. And I'm not asking if it's your spouse's story. Is it your story? Is it your story? Is it your story that God sent his son to come into this world, to take on humanity, to be born under the law, to live a holy and flawless life, to redeem you? To redeem you. Very personal here, right? To bar you out of your enslavement to sin and to adopt you into his family. Is it your story? Now, if it is your story, Praise God. The second point of application would be, then tell that story to any and all who would hear it. It's a good story. It's a great story. The greatest story ever told. Tell it to those who need to hear it, right? Tell it to your unsaved friends. Tell it to your relatives. I'm guessing a lot of us on Wednesday, we got the family we don't see much gonna be around us, right? For the most part. Tell them the story of Christmas. Tell your coworkers and classmates. Tell the person you met in the street or on the bus. Tell them that Jesus came at the right time and was sent from God and was born of a woman to live a sinless life so he could redeem the lost. And if they repent of their sins and they cry out for Jesus to save them, they too can be adopted into the very family of God and made sons and daughters of God and become a partaker of the blessings and benefits that come with being a child of God. So encourage the lost. Tell them of the great love and mercy of God to send his son into this world to rescue sinners. There's great hope. There is tremendous hope in the world we live in in Christ. Everything else is hopeless. It all ends the same way. But in Christ, it ends in glory. Now, my last point of application is this. Just as Jesus's birth was in the fullness of time. And it was God's ordained time. So too will be Jesus' return. So too will be His second coming. He will come back to judge the living and the dead. and to separate the wheat from the tare, the sheep from the goats, believers from unbelievers, at exactly the perfect time. So there is an exact day in which Jesus will return, and none of us knows it. None of us knows it. We know He's coming. If we don't think He's coming, then we need to learn that He's coming, that there is a day coming when all who would not submit to Christ, all who would not follow Him and believe in Him, I'm not saying mentally assent that He is God and that He is Jesus and He died on the cross. Lot of us would agree with that But not everybody's gonna follow him not everybody's gonna say you know what I'm leaving this life And I'm going with him on foot for life forever. I'm Surrendering to him. I'm laying down my gauntlet. I'm throwing up the white flag, and I'm following Christ I'm gonna live for him Because there's a day coming And I want to be on the right side of that day, and I want to know what it means to really be loved Be loved by the one who came for me Because he's the righteous judge who is the baby in the manger and he will levy divine justice against those who don't believe. He will bring his people to himself. He's going to bring every single believer to himself from the beginning of time. And he'll cast into hell all those who are not. And if you're not his today, don't let divine judgment be your story. I had no time. I didn't want to surrender. I had other things to do. I just loved my sins so much. I couldn't give it up. I said, yeah, yeah, maybe later, maybe later. All my parents are Christians. That's got to give me something. It's got to be at least a foot in the door, right? Don't let divine judgment be your story. Rather, let mercy and forgiveness and abundant grace be your story. Come to Christ today and believe on the one the Father sent, and believe he sent it for a sinner like you. Let that be your story. Amen? If you don't know him, if you're not really born again, talk to me. Talk to Pastor Phil. Talk to Pastor Nick or anyone else that knows something about the Word and ask them, how do I get saved? What does it mean to be in the kingdom? You don't want to live this life apart from Christ. You don't want to certainly die away from Christ. That puts you on the wrong end of judgment. You don't want to do that. Let's pray. Father, thank you that you, in your divine wisdom, saw it wise to send Jesus to save sinners. Thank you that out of great love for those who never loved you. And the world that didn't want you, you sent him to rescue a people. And thank you for the truth that anyone who truly believes in him and repents and turns to him, they can be saved. Thank you for those wonderful truths. Lord, we pray for those who believe today. We'd be encouraged in our souls that we would hang on persevere in well-doing, trust that our lives are not haphazard, but everything is under sovereign rule and control of God, and that Christ is with us always and is coming back for us. Lord, for those who don't know you, those who have never really been born again, Lord, would you press their hearts hard? Would you grant them the gift of faith to believe that right now, if they were to leave this world, their story would not be good, In fact, it would be doom and destruction. But even today, they could cry out. And Lord, would you press them to cry out and seek Christ? And would you grant them the gift of life in Him? In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, we're gonna have a presentation now from the children, so let's just be patient as they take their places. Duh.