"Here He Comes"

Whatever you give a surprise party to someone, usually an individual is stationed somewhere where they can see the guest of honor coming. And their job is to alert everyone to the fact that here he comes, here she comes, here they come. And that kind of identifies now is the time to get quiet or hide, cut out the lights, whatever so that the party can really be a surprise. Sometimes, as in the case of a party like that, those are very insignificant statements, the words mean little. But sometimes those words, here he comes, here she comes, here they come, carry life-changing significance. I can remember when our missy was born back in 1988 and Jean and I were bringing him home to our home there in South Whitley, Indiana. And some of the family was gathered inside the house and that was in the day when video cameras were coming out and popular and somebody was videoing our arrival. And the first thing on that video tape is here they come. Well, I can tell you that entrance with that baby changed our lives. That was a here they come that had a lot of significance to it. Those words are also very significant when you're walking into a new house that you may have just purchased or when a bride is walking down the out here she comes. Those are life-changing words. Sometimes that kind of declaration is life-changing and signals a life-changing event. We gather at this time of year to celebrate the coming of Christ. That is a life-changing event. It is a history-making event. It is an eternal event of eternal significance. Christ's entrance into this world meant that nothing would ever be the same. History would be changed forever. Eternal destinies would be changed forever. Your life, my life, would be changed forever by the birth of Christ. The interesting thing about it is that the angels are the ones who kept announcing. Here he comes. Here he comes. Six times in the Gospels it is recorded that angels appeared to announce something about the birth of Christ. Here he comes was the announcement of the angels to prepare people for the coming of Christ. We are not going to look at Matthew's account this morning or Luke's account of the birth of Christ. We are going to look at Paul's summary statement of the message of Christmas in Galatians chapter 4. So I invite your attention to the fourth chapter of Galatians where Paul in two very simple concise verses summarizes the whole message of Christmas. Galatians 4 verses 4 and 5. Follow along as I read. But when the time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law that we might receive the full rights of sons. In those two simple verses Paul gives us a concise theology of Christmas. This is the doctrinal meaning of Christmas. This really is at the core and the essence of what Christmas is all about. Paul is here announcing. Here he comes. And the announcement is several things about the coming of Christ. First of all, Paul announces who came. Who came? Look at verse 4 again. But when the time had fully come, here are four words I want us to focus on for a few moments. God sent his son. In that simple sentence, Paul expresses three truths about who Jesus was, who the one was, who came on Christmas morning. Who came? God sent his son. That simple expression, first of all, identifies his pre-existence because the verb sent means sent forth or sent out from. God sent forth or sent out his son, which indicates that Jesus was with the Father in heaven before he ever came as a baby to Bethlehem. That's what theologians call his pre-existence. In other words, he existed pre or prior to his birth. Prior to his birth in Bethlehem, Jesus existed forever in eternity past. Looking backwards into eternity, Jesus existed forever in eternity past. That's his pre-existence because at the point where he entered the human race, he was being sent forth from his Father. Christ is now being sent forth into the world from heaven's glories, from a state of sharing all of heaven with God, the Father and God, the Spirit, equal with them in nature, existing with them forever in eternity past. From that state, he now becomes a human being. He comes to this earth. That is one of the greatest wonders of Christmas. To wrap our minds around how the pre-existent God of eternity could put himself in a human form, in the form of a little baby, just stretches our minds, explodes our minds. To think about that, Paul deals with that concept in a lot of his epistles. I want to just show us some other verses that help us to understand what's happening here. First of all in Colossians 1, Paul describes the pre-existence of Christ. He says in Colossians 1, the Son is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn over all creation, the word firstborn means the highest position. He holds the highest position in all creation. Here's the reason why. For in him all things were created, things in heaven and on earth. Visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him. That's what Jesus did before Bethlehem. That's a part of his pre-existent work in heaven. He's the creator. He created all things. That demonstrates his amazing power, his divine power. So when you try to imagine the fact that Jesus is the creator of the whole universe, then you begin to understand what Paul's talking about in 2 Corinthians 8.9, where he says this, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, that's eternity passed in heaven, though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. Simple statement of Christ who had all the glories of heaven at his disposal, all the outward manifestation that he was God clearly demonstrated for all the angels and inhabitants of heaven, all the riches of heaven. He was willing to give up to become poor. That's a beautiful description of becoming one of us. What he gave up in heaven, he came down to be one of us so that through him and what he would do about becoming one of us, we might share the riches of glory in heaven. What a beautiful picture that is and yet it describes a pre-existent Christ coming to this earth in human poverty so that we might join him in the riches of heaven someday. And you know what, no one forced him to do that. He was willing to do it. That's what Paul talks about in Philippians chapter 2 where he says this in verses 6 through 8, speaking of Christ, he says who, being in very nature God, that's his pre-existence. He's existing in eternity past as God the Son equal to God the Father and God the Spirit. So being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. In other words, he did not believe and feel that all the outward trappings, expression of his glory, all of the showing of his deity was something that he had to grasp onto. He had to hold on to it all costs. He was willing to give it up. And that's what he says in the next verse. Rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Now those are Paul's explanations of the thing I'm trying to wrap my mind around this morning. And that is that the God of eternity, God the Son, the part of the Trinity who has existed in perfect fellowship with his father forever throughout eternity past, is now willing to give up all the outward display of that glory and all the riches of heaven, willingly does that so that he might take on the poverty of humanity and save us. Who is it that came? God sent forth his Son, that indicates his pre-existence, but that little phrase also indicates his deity. God sent forth his Son, he sent his Son, not his child, his Son. We are children of God, and the Bible sometimes calls us sons of God for that reason, but there is a very special sense in which Jesus is the Son of God. And thus God refers to him as his Son. In the same way, Jesus would refer to himself or would refer to the Father as his Father, indicating a special relationship which indicated he was equal with God, he was God. So for God to say this is my Son, in a special sense, he's my Son indicates Christ's deity. For Christ to turn around and say, my Father is not like us praying our Father or my Father, this is Jesus indicating a special relationship with God, unlike any other relationship. He is God the Son. In fact, Jesus used that terminology one time in John chapter 5, and the Jews knew exactly what he was talking about. John chapter 5 says this, in his defense, Jesus said to them, my Father is always at His work to this very day, and I too am working. Notice, He says, He refers to God as my Father. For this reason, they, the Jewish leaders, tried all the more to kill him. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, he had just healed a man on the Sabbath earlier part of the chapter. Not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. The Jews knew that that expression was a unique expression. When Jesus said, my Father, He was claiming deity. When God says, my Son, when Paul refers to Him as God's Son, that is likewise a claim to deity. Jesus, pre-existent deity, God comes to earth. That baby in a manger was God wrapped in a human body. We try to capture that in lots of songs at Christmas time. Probably no song captures it better than the song Mary did you know. I believe Gene Buckner is going to sing that song tonight in the service. I'm looking forward to that. Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day walk on water. Mary did you know that your baby boy will save our sons and daughters? Did you know that your baby boy has come to make you new? The child that you've delivered will soon deliver you. Mary did you know that your baby boy will give sight to a blind man? Mary did you know that your baby boy will call a storm with his hand? Did you know that your baby boy has walked where angels trod? When you kiss your little baby, you've kissed the face of God. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will live again, the lame will leap, the dumb will speak, the praises of the lamb. Mary did you know that your baby boy is Lord of all creation? Mary did you know that your baby boy will one day rule the nation? Did you know that your baby boy is heaven's perfect lamb? This sleeping child you're holding is the great I am. Mind blowing truth that the pre-existence son of God would wrap himself with a baby's body and become one of us. Who came? God sent his son, that's his pre-existence, his deity, but also indicates his mission. The verb sent is the verb used for sending with a purpose, sending on a mission, sending to do something. Jesus was sent on a mission. He was here for a purpose and nothing would stop him from that purpose, that mission. He knew exactly why he was here. Everything about his life, his ministry, his passion, his mind, his heart was directed toward fulfilling that mission. Nothing could stop him, Satan couldn't stop him, although he had valiantly tried. Demons could not stop him. Friend nor folk could stop him. Nothing could stop Jesus from fulfilling that mission. And that mission was to die for us. We'll come back to that later, but Jesus came on a mission. God sent forth his son on a mission with a purpose. It has been said that if our greatest need was, information had been information, God would have sent us an educator. If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist. If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist. If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer. But our greatest need was forgiveness. So God sent us a Savior. He came with a purpose. He came with a mission. And that purpose was to be our Savior. So Paul, in four words, describes who came, the pre-existent son of God on a mission. But then in this little synopsis of Christmas, Paul also describes when he came. You see it there in verse four? But when the time had fully come, God sent his son. Interesting expression, isn't it? When the time had fully come, what does that mean? Does that mean the end of nine months of Mary's pregnancy? No, no. No, it's not that. Although that was true, but that's not the meaning of this phrase. So let's delve into the meaning of the phrase first. What does it mean when it says when the time had fully come, or in the fullness of time? What that means is that God had an appointed time in human history when everything would be just right for the coming of Christ. Sometimes if you're watching an old movie and somebody is wanting to indicate that you've got so much time for something to happen, they will sometimes use an hourglass. Remember that? I mean, today they just started digital watch and countdown. That's not nearly as dramatic. Boy, that hourglass was chilling because the sand moving from the upper chamber through that narrow opening into the lower chamber, dropping granule by granule so slowly, and you could see time passing before you. And when that time is up, when the sand gets all the way to that lower chamber, then it's time. Time is up. Whatever you were supposed to do, your opportunity's gone, or whatever you're supposed to get, now's the time. The time is up. The time's right. And that's the idea here. God had a time picked out. It's almost as though the hourglass was letting sand go through, year by year, and month by month, and day by day, and hour by hour, and second by second. The time was passing until all the sand had made its way to the lower chamber. The time is just right. God sent his son at that moment in time. God was so right about the time when Jesus came. Well, there were historical factors, first of all, that made it the right time for Jesus to come. The Roman Empire was at its peak of effectiveness, at about the time Jesus was born under Caesar Augustus, and it would remain that way for some time before it began to degenerate badly. But the Roman system of roads linked the empire, the whole Roman Empire, what we know as southern Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa, was all linked by the Roman road system which made travel possible. That was not possible in earlier centuries. It would not be possible as well in later centuries as well. But at this particular time, the Roman system of roads linked the empire together. In addition, Roman law protected its citizens. For instance, if you were a Roman citizen, you could travel anywhere in the Roman Empire. You didn't have to have passport, you didn't have to have visa. You could travel anywhere in the Roman Empire, which makes the spread of the gospel easy. Paul could travel anywhere in the Roman Empire without any problem, without any question being raised about who he was. The Roman army guarded the peace of the entire Roman Empire, and I know that the Roman army is typically seen as brutal and squashing people's freedom. But at this particular time in their history, there was something that was known as the Pax Ramana, which was the Roman peace. This was considered a peaceful time in the Roman Empire, because Rome had control of its empire and was enforcing its law across the empire. Not only that, there was a language that had come to the front that was adopted as the chief language of the whole Roman Empire, the Greek language, and everybody, even though it may not have been their first language, everybody understood Greek. So this was the perfect time for transportation, for ease of movement to spread. The gospel for a common language that everybody in the Roman Empire, whether Paul's writing to Rome or to churches in Galatia or to other places, they would understand the language. It was the perfect time. The historical factors were all in place. But there were also spiritual factors that help us understand this phrase when the time had fully come. And secular historians that talk about this particular time period say that the world was in a moral abyss, a moral decline, so low that even the pagans were crying out against it. The pagan religions were failing. The old religions were dying. The old philosophies were seen as outdated. And people were crying for something new. That's why there were all kinds of what people called the mystery religions were bringing up in different places in the Roman Empire, trying to fill a void, a need, a spiritual hunger that was everywhere in the Roman Empire at this time. So even spiritually, all of the factors are in place. It is the perfect time. But also there is something called the synagogue at this time. The Jewish synagogue. When the Jews had come back from captivity, they no longer had their temple. They would have a temple in Jesus' day. But while they were in captivity, they started what they called synagogues, which were places where they would gather to worship. And when they came back, they kept the synagogues. The beauty of the synagogues is that they were planted all over the Roman Empire. People who could never get to the temple would come and worship in a synagogue. Wherever in any Roman town there were ten Jewish families, you had enough to have a synagogue. But the synagogue was a ready-made place for Paul to preach the gospel, no matter where he went. He could go into a synagogue because Jews would be gathering who believed the Old Testament and he could start there with common ground, take the Old Testament and show them how Jesus fulfilled all the prophecies. Beautiful opportunities. Read the book of Acts. That was Paul's strategy. Whenever we found the synagogue, that's where he started. So God had that all set up, all the pieces of history. Historically, spiritually had all come together at just the right time. And when the time had fully come, it was just the right time for Jesus. Jesus to be sent into the world. Would you say, well John, that's kind of an eyeshadow history lesson. Well, sorry about that. Let me make it more personal. Because God not only moves in the big events of history, God also moves in every individual heart and mind. And there comes a time in every person's life. There comes a time in your life when the time is just right. And circumstances in your life have put you in a position where you realize needs that you may not have realized before. And you realize you can't make life work like you thought you could at one time. And so you're crying out for some help. And there comes a time where the gospel comes to you in that situation in your life where all the historical circumstances have led you to a certain point, maybe a point of desperation in your life. And at that point, God arranges for the gospel to get to you through a message or a friend, a neighbor, a family member, something you pick up and read. God is sovereign in all of those events. God is orchestrating all of that to where in your life, the time has fully come. It is the moment that God has engineered through the circumstances of your life and the providential intervention of his gospel. God has orchestrated the timing so that for you, and maybe it's this morning for you, maybe it's right now where you realize all that's going on in your life, you cannot handle alone. And you also understand maybe for the first time that Jesus loved you enough to come and die for your sins, to pay for your sins so that you might become his child and be a part of God's family. And today, this very day, the time has fully come for you and you're ready, you're ready, and you'd be willing today to say, I want to trust Jesus as my Savior. That is the timing of the Lord in an individual's life. The glory of Christmas, who came, the eternal Son of God on a mission. When did He come? When historical and spiritual events were exactly right for Him to come and for the gospel to spread and flourish. The Paul also in this summary of Christmas tells us how He came. This is beautiful. How did Jesus come? Verse four, but when the time had fully come, God sent His Son, here it is, born of a woman, born under law. This is describing how He came. Look at that first expression, born of a woman. What does that mean? Well, the emphasis of that expression is simply on Christ's humanity because this is a phrase that's used in the Bible of people. What does it mean to be human? Well, born of a woman. That's an expression that's used. For instance, let me give you a couple examples. Matthew 11, 11, where Jesus is speaking of John the Baptist to a crowd and He says this, truly, I tell you, among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist. Even the Old Testament, in the book of Job, this reference is used in Job 14 and verse one of mankind, mortals, born of woman, are a few days and full of trouble. And so in the most general sense, this expression, born of woman, simply means Jesus became human. He took on a human set of attributes. He became one of us. This is speaking of His genuine humanity. To become like us, He lowered Himself. And that's part of what we saw earlier, giving up the riches and the glory of heaven to become poor like us, taking on the appearance and very nature of a man, a servant at that. Jesus becomes human. That's what this expression means. He became one of us. Joe Torrey is well known, baseball player, manager, color commentator, and now for the last six years, has been the front office of Major League Baseball. But Torrey is unusual in the baseball world, and that he has covered basically every area of the game and done it with excellence. As a player, he played for 18 years, nine of those years, he was an off-star. One year, 1971, he won the National League MVP. He was a great player. Mostly catcher, also played some first base and third base, great player. But then he went into managing after his playing career was over, managed for 29 years, four different teams, but the height of his success came with the New York Yankees, where he won six American League Pinnets and four world series. He also became a color commentator on broadcast, broadcasting games. He's in the baseball hall of fame, great player, great manager. In fact, he's the only player that's ever played baseball that had over 2,000 hits, and one over 2,000 games as a manager, only person in baseball history would ever do that. So you would think that Joe Torrey knows a little something about baseball, right? You would think, when he speaks about baseball, you probably ought to listen. He knows some things. A few years ago, when he was doing color commentary in New York City and he was hired by the St. Louis Cardinals to be their manager. Another broadcaster by the name of Phil Ruzuto, who was an old New York Yankee and broadcasting their games at that time, Ruzuto said, you know, managing really could be done better from the broadcast booth. You can see the whole field, you can see everything from up here, you can just see the whole thing at once. And managing really could be done better from up here in the broadcast booth. And when Joe Torrey was told what Ruzuto has said, here was his response. When you're upstairs, you can't look him in the eye. There's a lot of profound truth in that statement. Joe Torrey knew that in the baseball world, in order to really know what's going on with your players and in the game, you need to be down on field level. You need to be in the dugout with them. You need to be able to look them in the eye. You may be able to see the broad scope of things from the broadcast booth, but you can't look into a player's eyes unless you're right beside them, unless you're one of them down there on the field with them. You know, I guess it's possible that God could have saved us from heaven. I suppose it's possible that God could have devised a plan whereby He could have somehow revealed Himself from heaven in some glorious fashion that would cause all of us to recognize our need and want to be with Him in heaven. I'm sure that God could have devised a plan like that, but He didn't. There's a sense in which God said the only plan I have is for my son to go down and become one of them, to live in the dugout with them, to look them in the eye, to be one of them, to understand human life from experience, to know, to go through all of human life. That's what Christmas is all about, my friend. He became one of us. But there's a little more in this phrase than just His humanity. That's the real part of the phrase. But when it says born of a woman, there's also at least a hint of the virgin birth, of the miraculous conception of Jesus and His entrance into this world through a miracle. There was no human father involved in the conception of Jesus. This was a miracle. Jesus was simply placed as an embryo into the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. That's how the angel describes it in Luke 1. In Matthew 1, there is this genealogy of Jesus, and it goes back to the Old Testament all the way back to Abraham. And it says Abraham was the father of, and then the father of, the father of the father of, says that for 15 verses. And then look what happens when it comes to verse 16. And Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, and Mary was the mother of Jesus. No father of Jesus here. Mary was the mother of Jesus who was called the Messiah. So born of a woman, just the woman mentioned, not the man, that indicates at least the virgin birth of Christ. You see the normal process of conception and procreation would have meant a new person was coming into existence. That's the way human beings come into existence. That's the way our existence starts. That couldn't happen with Christ. Why? Because he already existed. You can't bring someone into existence who already exists. So it was impossible for the normal means of conception to take place in the person of Christ. To safeguard his deity and his pre-existence, a miracle had to happen where he was placed into the womb of Mary by the Holy Spirit. That's the miraculous conception of Jesus. That's what we refer to as the virgin birth. But the very fact that he came even in that miraculous way again shows his desire to be one of us. He was placed in the womb of Mary, developed for nine months just like we do in our mother's womb. He was born, just like we were born. He had to go through all the stages of growth and development just like we did. Some of us haven't quite outgrown some of those early stages yet, but we've come through a lot of different stages of childhood and adolescence and adulthood. Jesus went through all of those stages as well. Perfectly, without sin, yes. But he was one of us. Born of a woman, one of us. But notice that second expression, also born under law. Jesus came as a Jew. He was born as a Jew under the Mosaic Law, subject to all of its requirements just like everybody else in his day, which again shows the extent to which he would go to identify with mankind. There were no exceptions for him. He was not exempt from any of the requirements of the Mosaic Law. Just like everybody else in Israel in his day, he was required to live by the standards of God reflected in the Mosaic Law. No royal privileges for him, no exemptions because he's the creator of the universe, no exemptions because he is God. He lives as a human being under the Mosaic Law. The only difference is he's the only one who ever perfectly did that. Never violated the Mosaic Law, never violated any of God's standards, never sinned. But he became one of us in the sense that he was willing to put himself under the requirements of the law of his day. Ravi Zacharias in his book, Deliver Us from Evil, tells the story of Joseph Damian, who was a missionary in the 1800s on one of the Hawaiian Islands, ministering to a leper colony. He tells the story of he had won a number of those lepers to Christ and he had a daily chapel service with him. In one day preparing for that daily chapel service, he's pouring some hot water into a cup and some of the water swirls out of the cup and down onto his foot. It took him a moment to realize he didn't feel that. And so the gripping thought that is coming to his mind, I better check. And so he takes deliberately some of the water and pours it on his foot, still no sensation of pain. So that day when he went into the chapel service, as he would call the lepers together, he would address them and begin the service always by saying, my fellow believers. And on that day he began by saying, my fellow lepers, he had become one of them. He had taken on all of their disease so that he might reach them. Jesus never sinned, but he became one of us so that he might take on him all of our sin and pay for it. But in order to do that, he had to become one of us. That's how he came, born of a woman, born under law, both expressing the depth to which he went to become one of us. That is the miracle of Christmas. But Paul also describes in this little Christmas synopsis, why he came, verse 5, why he came. To redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights of sons. He came to redeem us. To redeem those under the law, which means to buy us out of bondage to the law. To release us from the sentence of condemnation that the law pronounced on us. You see God's law, God's standards basically set the bar for what it means to get into heaven. In order to get into heaven, you have to be perfect. You have to be as righteous and as holy as God is. God has given us the law to show us we can't meet that standard. We fail. That was the purpose of the giving of the law. So the law, in reality, the law never was intended to save anybody. The law condemns us. The law puts us under a curse and under judgment. And Jesus came to release us from that. Back in chapter 3 and verse 13, Paul would say, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us for it is written and he quotes the Old Testament curses everyone that hangs on our tree. So he's indicating that by Jesus hanging on that cross, what he's doing is he's taking the punishment that was intended for our sins on himself, taking away thus the curse of the law, the punishment of the law, the condemnation of the law. That's what redemption is. He came to set us free from that bondage and curse and condemnation of the law. It's the only way we can be saved. Because the law basically shows us we can't be saved on our own. We can't do it on our own. We can't work our way to heaven. We can't be good enough. And so Jesus redeems us from the curse of the law. So he came to redeem us, but he also came to adopt us. See the end of the verse? That we might receive the full rights of sons. The theological word that's used to describe that is the word adoption and the Bible uses that word sometimes. Some translations actually use the word adoption here. But that word might throw us a little bit because we don't understand necessarily the Roman custom and what would have been in Paul's mind when he talked about adoption. When we think of adoption, we think of someone who does not have a home, does not have parents to care for them. And is taken in by a loving family and legally made their child, that's adoption in our culture. And it's a wonderful thing. A wonderful provision for a loving family to take a child that otherwise would not have much hope. I will never forget the story of Pat and Jill Williams. Pat Williams was the general manager of the Philadelphia 76ers back in the 80s when they wanted a championship. And then again, helped start the Orlando Magic and is still with that organization. He and his wife Jill were believers and loved the Lord. But Jill had a real heart for adopting international children. They had four children of their own. They eventually would adopt 15 international children and then also service foster parents. I mean, that a bunch of kids in the house. Jill tells the story that they would go out somewhere and people would say, are all these kids yours or is this a picnic? And she would say, they're all mine and believe you me, it is no picnic. Adoption is a wonderful, wonderful thing in our culture. But it's not quite the same thing as what Paul was talking about. The concept of adoption in Roman in the Roman world in the first century, the New Testament idea meant that you placed someone in the family as a full adult legal heir. They are considered an adult legal heir at the moment they come into the family. And so for that reason in the Roman world, a lot of people who were adopted were adults. They did not have children would find someone that they could bring into their family as an adult to make them the legal heir to receive their inheritance. That is the biblical concept. Listen, we do not enter God's family by adoption. We enter by regeneration, which is the new birth. We're born again. We are spiritually born from above as the Bible describes it. But at the moment we are born again. When we enter the family immediately, we are considered in God's eyes adult children, adult sons by standing so that all the privileges and enjoyments of sons, all the inheritance that God has provided for us, all the spiritual blessings in Christ are immediately hours at the moment of salvation. That's what adoption does for us. So we come into the family of God. We are children of God by faith, but we are sons of God by legal standing of adoption, which means we have all the legal rights and privileges of its son. When you trust Christ as far as your development is concerned, you're a baby, and you have a lot of growing to do. We all do, and we continue growing the rest of our lives. But as far as your position in the eyes of God at the moment you trust Christ, you're an adult son, and you have a legal standing that enables you to at any time, even as a one-day-old Christian, call upon God for anything you need, and all of the spiritual blessings in Christ are yours. You don't have to grow into Him, you don't have to wait, you don't even have to understand them. They're all yours. That's adoption in the Bible, and that's what Jesus came to do for us. He came to die for us, to redeem us, so that we might be recognized in God's eyes as His heirs, as being able to avail ourselves of all the spiritual blessings that God has in store for us. We enter God's family by regeneration. We enjoy God's family through adoption. We can enjoy all of the privileges and blessings that Christ has died to make possible for us. That's why He came to redeem us, to adopt us. Here He comes. That's the announcement of the angels. It's also the announcement of Paul. Here's who came. Here's when He came. Here's how He came. Here's why He came. The very Son of God at just the right time through the miraculous virgin birth, becoming one of us, came to die for us, to redeem us from the condemnation of the law, and to bring us into God's family and make us heirs of God. That, that is the message of Christmas. That is the message of Christmas, according to Paul. That is what Christmas is all about. What I would like for you to think about, for all of us to think about this morning, is this question, have you trusted Him as your Savior? Could today, could today, be just the right time for you, the fullness of time, when the time had fully come. You've come to church this morning, maybe seeking, maybe hoping, maybe looking for answers, maybe in despair. And you realize that Jesus came to die for you, so that you might become His child, and you might be able to go to heaven and spend eternity with Him. And today, you're willing to trust Him as your Savior.