SERMON OUTLINE

The Plan of God       1 Timothy 1.15

The Plan of God Accomplished     Galatians 4.4-7

Introduction

-The crisis of sin which required a Plan from God

-The Plan promised, pictured and prophesied. Genesis 3.15, 21; Isaiah 7.14

-The Plan accomplished in the fullness of time

1) God Controls History – In the fullness of time

-History is His Story. God is Sovereign over all of history and over the single sparrow. Matthew 10.29

-God will only allow what He chooses to touch your life

2) The Son was Born of a Woman

-The promise of Genesis 3.15 if fulfilled. Mary was a virgin and Jesus was the seed of the woman. Luke 1.26-38, 2.1-21

3) The Son was Born under Law

-Jesus perfectly kept the Law and the law of conscience and so was the perfect Lamb of God without sin and became a curse for us. Galatians 3.13.

-The Law reveals our sinful condition and need of a Savior

-The Law was a guardian to lead us to Christ

-Because Jesus perfectly kept the Law, he became our righteousness before God.

4) God Redeemed Us in Christ

–Exagorazo means to buy out of the market place. Agora means market place and to buy. Literally “the payment of a price to recover from the power of another”.

-Jesus paid the price for our sin demanded by God’s Justice

5) God Adopted Us as Sons

-God made us part of His family

-God has given us His Spirit which cries out “Abba, Father”

6) Jesus – The Accomplishment of God’s Plan

-God’s Prophet, God’s Priest, God’s King

-The seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham

Conclusion

-The Cradle and the Cross must go together

-Do you have the Holy Spirit living in you and calling out to God as “Abba, Father”?

-Jesus the full accomplishment of God’s Plan

SERMON NOTES

The Plan of God                                      1 Timothy 1.15

God’s Plan Accomplished            Galatians 4.4-7

-This morning I want to speak about the plan of God accomplished. This series began with a look at the crisis of sin and the condemnation that came upon all of mankind through the sin of Adam. Adam’s sin brought the whole human race into sin and under the condemnation of God. As sinners we confirm that condemnation by our own sins. Only the death of Christ on the cross as our substitute for sin can free us from the condemnation of sin and from the very nature of sin that we inherit as sons and daughters of Adam.

-Two weeks ago we learned about the first promise of a Savior in Genesis 3.15 and then the first picture of a Savior in Genesis 3.21. In the very chapter where man’s sin against God is described, we find foreshadowed the promise of the provision of a gracious Savior from God for sin.

-Last week we looked at one of the hundreds of prophesies that point to the coming Messiah, the Savior of God for man’s sin and condemnation – Jesus, born of a virgin, Immanuel “God with us”. Jesus who would become the sacrifice of God for man’s sin, was pictured in the sacrificial system and proclaimed through many prophesies.

-There came a day in history, which our Bible passage this morning calls “the fullness of time”, that God accomplished what He had promised and pictured and prophesied for years. On this day God sent forth His Son who was the seed of the woman, the seed of Abraham, the Lamb of God, the son of David, the promised and prophesied Messiah. The accomplishment of God’s plan in history is what we celebrate at this Advent season.

-The first thing that verse 4 teaches us is that God controls history. In the fullness of time “God sent forth His Son”. The fullness of time was the fullness of God’s time to accomplish His plan to deliver man from the guilt and condemnation of sin. God controls history. History is His Story. The fullness of time means that all God’s arrangements for the accomplishment of His plan were in place and He was ready to reveal to the world His Son Jesus Christ.

-Is is important for us to remember that God is Sovereign over all of history and also over every sparrow that falls to the ground (Matthew 10.29). God keeps the universe spinning and knows the number of hairs on your head. As a believer your confidence should be in the fact that God oversees everything that touches your life and determines what He will allow to come into your life. God controls history and God watches over your life as well.

-The second thing we see in this verse is that the Son is born of a woman. As God had promised in Genesis 3.15, His Son was born of a woman. Mary was conceived by the Holy Spirit and not by a man. In fulfillment of God’s promise Jesus was born of a virgin, the seed of the woman. Listen as I read this special story to you from Luke 1.26-38 [Read].

-The story continues in Luke 2.1-20 [Read]. [God at work in history, v1]

-In the fullness of time God sent forth His Son born of a woman.

-The third thing we see in this verse is that the Son of God was born under the Law. This is a very important statement concerning our salvation. God made Jesus subject both to the Law of Moses and to the “law written on the heart of all men”. Jesus kept the Law of Moses and the law of conscience perfectly, in his actions, in his attitudes, and in his thoughts. Jesus was without sin and thus could be the perfect Lamb of God as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind.

-In Galatians 3.13 we read, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us – for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’”. Jesus did not have to die as a curse for his own sin but became a curse for us who were lawbreakers and under the curse of God.

-The NT teaches us that the purpose of the Law of Moses and the law written on our hearts is to reveal to us our sinful condition and our need of God’s salvation. The Law is a mirror to show us our sinfulness. The Law of God was also like a guardian that held the world captive and under restraint until the Son of God could come and release us from our captivity under the slavery of sin. Jesus completely fulfilled the Law in his life and death to free us from the condemnation of the Law. Because of the sinless life of Jesus Christ, God can give those who put their faith in Christ a righteous standing before God and justification. Jesus was born under law and kept the law and through that was able to be a perfect sacrifice to God, and to offer to us a perfect standing before God because of His righteousness before God.

-The fourth thing these verses teach us is that God redeemed us. As sinners we were under the condemnation of the Law. The Greek word translated “redeem” is exagorazo. Some of you may recognize the last part of this verb agorazo which comes from agora the Greek word for marketplace. Agorazo means to buy and with the preposition ex in front of it means to buy out from the market place. Literally this word means “the payment of a price to recover from the power of another”. Jesus paid the price to satisfy the justice of God demanded by my sin and bought me out of the slavery of my sin.

-Our redemption by the Son is confirmed in the fifth statement made in these verses, “so that we might receive the adoption as sons”. Those of us who have put our faith in Jesus Christ as the perfect sacrifice before God for our sins and have now received God’s forgiveness and are no longer under God’s condemnation, are free from our slavery to sin, and called sons by God Himself. Look at 3.23-29 [Read]. Let me encourage you to think about these verses this week. God has adopted us into His family as sons, and God acts toward us as sons.

–Verse 6 goes on to tell us that “because we are sons, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts crying, ‘Abba, Father’”. Here is the mark of the true Christian, the indwelling Holy Spirit who cries out to God as Father. Do you know that intimacy with God as your Father? Do you have a longing in your heart to know your Father and to be with Him? Do you have that assurance that you are part of the family of God? If you do not have the Spirit of sonship in you then ask God to give you the Holy Spirit and to make you one of his sons. God asks that you admit and confess your sins to Him, and then to confess that you believe that Jesus paid the price for your sins, and that you are trusting in the sacrifice of Jesus for acceptance before God and not in anything you can do.

–Verse 7 summarizes what we have been saying this morning and adds yet one more truth to what God has done for us in Christ, “So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God”. Not only are we sons of God because God has bought us out from the slave market of sin by the payment of His Son Jesus Christ and adopted us into His family as sons, but we are also heirs of God in Jesus Christ. Friends we have a great deal to celebrate because in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son.

-For the last number of years Bonnie and those who help her decorate for the Advent season have placed the cradle and the cross together. This is how we should view Christmas. We should not separate the Christmas festivities from “God sending forth His Son”, and we should not separate the birth of Christ from His death and resurrection. Jesus was born and died and rose again so that by putting our faith in Jesus Christ we might be born-again and receive eternal life and die to the condemnation of sin and the Law. In the coming of Jesus Christ to live perfectly before God under the Law, and to become sin and a curse before God on the cross in our place, and to be raised from the dead by God to prove that God accepted Christ as the full and complete sacrifice for sin, God accomplished the plan He promised and pictured in Genesis 3 after man disobeyed God. “For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”. (Luke 2.11)

-Let me mention two other ways in which God accomplished His plan in His Son Jesus Christ.

-First, in Jesus Christ, God brought forth the fullness of the offices of Prophet, Priest and King, all in the person of Jesus Christ.

-In Deuteronomy 18.15-19, Moses prophesied that God would raise up a Prophet like him to which they were to listen. [Read].

-In the Gospel of John, John the Baptist is asked if he is the Prophet Moses spoke about, and Jesus is marked with the title the Prophet in other verses in John (John 1.21, 25; 6.14; 7.40). As Moses the prophet told the people about God and pointed to their sin and called them to repentance, and as the prophets told the people about God and pointed to their sins and called them to repentance, so Jesus fulfilled this office as the Prophet Moses spoke about and the OT prophets foreshadowed. Jesus brought the complete revelation of God, pointed out the sin of the world and the condemnation of God over the world, and called the world to repentance. (Mark 1.14-15; Hebrews 1.2). Jesus is God’s Prophet to world.

-Second, in Jesus Christ, God brought forth the fullness of the office of the high-priest. In Psalm 110.4, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek”. Jesus Christ is the perfect and everlasting priest of God. You can read about that in Hebrews 7 to 9. Jesus as the final and everlasting priest of God offered a sacrifice to God on behalf of the people and the sacrifice Jesus offers to God was Himself. Jesus is God’s eternal High-Priest who stands before God for those who belong to him. Jesus now intercedes before God on our behalf.

-Third, in Jesus Christ, God fulfilled the promise to have an everlasting king on the throne of David. In 1 Chronicles 17.12-14, God promised David that one of his own sons would occupy his throne forever. Jesus, the son of David is the King of Kings and ruler of all. Jesus is God’s King over the world.

-Another way that God accomplished His plan in Jesus Christ is by having His Son Jesus Christ as the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent, and the seed of Abraham that would be the source of blessing to all the families of the world. God in His Son Jesus Christ has accomplished all the He planned to meet the crisis of man’s sin and disobedience to God.

-Jesus is the fulfillment of every promise, picture, prophecy and office in the OT. Jesus is the fullness of God’s plan, the Son, the Savior, and Lord of all.

-Friends, Jesus Christ is not just another religious leader from the past. Jesus is God’s Son whom God sent into the world to save you from your sins. Jesus calls you to turn from your sin and to bow down in worship to Him, and He will save you from your sins and adopt you as a son of God. If you refuse to acknowledge Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, God must place you among the rebellious and the proud and the disobedient in the lake of fire. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost”.