What Time Is It (December 23, 2017).

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?