WHAT TIME IS IT ?
Text: Galatians 4:4-7
History hinges on the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. God created all of us with a hunger for eternity (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Satan knows this and uses this knowledge as a weapon to get us to chase after idols that would keep us from getting saved. People try to fill that hunger with counterfeits that simply do not satisfy. Those counterfeits are like drinking sea water which only make us more thirsty to drink more and yet remain thirsty. How many of us would fill our gas operated cars up with water and expect them to run? Only the Savior can save not a counterfeit savior!
Galatians 4:4 tells us that when the fullness of time that God sent His Son. There are other scriptures that hint about Christ and how history depends on Him. 1) Realizing the blessing: Consider Ephesians 1:10 -12: “…as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. (11) In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, (12) so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory.” (ESV). 2) Savior, not a taxi cab: Jesus came to save us through His redemptive work that He would complete on the cross., because salvation begins and ends with Jesus Christ! We are told four times in the book of Revelation (1:8, 1:1, 21:6 & 22:13) that Jesus is the alpha and the omega---the beginning and the end.. Therefore, He is the only way to get to heaven (John 14:6). This passage of scripture echoes John 3:16, and John 8:34. He was born among us to be our redeemer---our kinsman redeemer who had to accomplish three things …
? must be a relative to those in debt;
? willing to act for his lost brothers and sisters;
? must be able to pay the price for redemption. (M. R. DeHaan. Studies In Revelation. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1998, pp. 106 – 110). Boaz is the kinsman who saves Ruth. What Boaz did for Ruth, Jesus does for all of humanity. The gift of salvation cannot benefit those who reject it. Those who receive the gift of salvation must share it with the least, the last and the lost!
REDEMPTION
What do we think of when we hear the term redemption? 1) Rescue: Do we think of redemption as deliverance? That could be one answer that biblically suitable because the children of Israel were rescued from Egyptian captivity where they were once slaves. 2) Alleviation: Does redemption make us think of making something better? How many times have we heard someone say that they have redeemed themselves from a mistake? 3) RAnsom: Do we think of redemption as paying the price for something? Have someone ever paid for your meal at a restaurant or some other thing?
ILLUSTRATION: The story is told about a doctor ” (Dr. Howard Kelley of John Hopkins University) who went for a walk and got thirsty along the way. He saw a farm house, went to the door where a girl answered the door. He asked if her parents were home. The girl answered “no”. He then asked for a drink of water and she said that she would have to pipe it uphill. So she offered him some milk. He came in drank the milk and was on his way. Weeks later he operated on that same girl. The family did not know how they would pay for the bill. When they got the bill they looked down at the bottom and saw “paid in full by two glasses of milk”. (Roy B. Zuck. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, pp. 324 – 325). Surely, they had to be touched by such a kind gesture. God has done the same thing for us in His only begotten son Jesus Christ! How many times has someone even a stranger exhibited godly kindness that you did not think you deserved?
When it comes to sin, can we really redeem ourselves? We already know the answer to that question which is “no”. It is said that “In Abyssinia [in Ethiopia] when a man is convicted of an offense for which he has to pay a fine, he must find a friend who will offer himself as a security that the culprit will not run away till the fine be paid. [forget about bonds!]. The prisoner and the man who has the misfortune to be his friend are then chained leg to leg and turned loose to roam about sharing one another’s misfortunes, and begging together the money necessary to pay the fine, until they are able to regain their liberty or death of one puts an end to their existence”. (Paul Lee Tan. Encyclopedia Of 7700 Illustrations. Hon Kong: Nordica International. LTD. Underlicense form Bible Communications Inc., 1979, p. 904). Is that not Jesus has done and wants to do for us?
ADOPTION
Why is what Paul says about being adopted as God’s sons---His children so important? 1) Alienation: Before we were adopted, we had no place in God’s family because we were slaves to sin and slaves cannot remain in God’s house forever (ESV) [permanently GNB] (John 8:35). 2) Relationship: Does that mean that there is a relationship involved? Could it mean that when unbelieving people die that the blessing of the time that they were given to confess, repent, and believe as a recipient of Abraham’s blessing to be one of his children ends when they die? 3) Baptized Community: Do you think of Baptism as a one time act or a journey for all baptized Christians? Consider Acts 20:28: “Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.”
Have you ever heard that God gives second chances even to those who turn down the opportunity? In 1830 George Wilson was sentenced in Philadelphia to be hanged for murder. Andrew Jackson, the president pardoned him but when the jailer presented the pardon Wilson refused it. The sheriff had to know if Wilson should hang or not, so the matter came before the United States Supreme Court. No such point of law had ever been raised before. Chief Justice Marshall gave the following decision: “ A pardon is a paper, the value of which depends upon its acceptance by the person implicated. It is hard to be supposed that under sentence of death would refuse to accept a pardon, but if it is refused, it is no pardon. George Wilson must hang.” (Roy B. Zuck. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 325). How many souls will hang in the balance if we refuse to tell them about Jesus?
Today is New Year’s Eve when many will party and may have too much to drink. How many of us would offer to be a designated drive to get those people home safely? If we would not let a friend drive home drunk, then how many of us would not tell someone about Jesus because there future in eternity depends on it?
How can one become one of God’s children if he or she neglects the opportunity that God gives in this life? Time is of the essence! That is why Jesus came in the fullness of time! Jesus was born to be our Savior and Lord, to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10), the last (Matthew 20:16) and the least (Matthew 25: 37 -40) to take away our sin (John 1: 29), to give us His righteousness (II Corinthians 5:20) to become a curse for us (Galatians 2:13) to save us from being cursed and condemned because of being prisoners to sin (John 8:34- 35). Jesus paid our price (I Corinthians 7:23) because Jesus wants us to be sons and heirs (Galatians 4:7). That is why without Christmas there is no Easter! Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega who came to us in the fullness of time! In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit! Amen!
