In this sermon, the speaker discusses his favorite Christmas passage, which is Galatians 4:4-6. He encourages the audience to memorize this scripture and suggests writing it on a card and keeping it visible. The speaker then shares a personal story about a childhood experience in church where he misbehaved and felt convicted. He emphasizes the importance of recognizing our need for salvation and not being ashamed to seek God's forgiveness.

I guess all of us have a favorite Christmas passage. And hardly a year goes by but what I have the privilege somewhere of speaking to a company of people near Christmas and the theme invariably has been, the last few years at least, Galatians 4, 4 to 6. By the way, how many of you thought, were here, how many of you were here last evening? Let's see your hands. Oh, that's marvelous. Now all of you have your cards with Titus 2, 11 to 14. Would you show them to me? There is one, bless the Lord, another. What I suggested was that you write them on a little 3x5 card and put a band around your visor on your car or put it up somewhere in the kitchen or in the home so that you memorize Titus 2, 11 to 14. Well, I'm suggesting the same thing again tonight, that you memorize Galatians 4, 4 to 6. This is what I call one of the key scriptures, a summary scripture. It's extremely important to have it in your memory. But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Now last night the scripture, Titus 2, 11 to 14, was the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiarly purchased people, zealous of good works. We saw on Sunday morning, you that were together with us in the park, that he gave command, but he said, All authority in heaven and earth is given to me. Go ye therefore and teach all nations, literally make disciples of all nations, and teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. A disciple of Christ is a person who has made a commitment to the Son of God to observe and to keep all things whatsoever he has commanded. And those satisfied with less, ignoring what he has commanded, have very good grounds for questioning whether or not they are indeed his disciples. Last night we saw that the great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, gave himself for us to save us from hell and to take us to heaven when we die. Is that what you read? Well, is there anything wrong with that? No. But that's a byproduct of God's grace and not the prime purpose of his grace. He gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify unto himself a purchased people zealous of good works. Now, of course, if he's successful in doing that, he will save us from hell and take us to heaven when we die. But there are, I'm afraid, a great many people, like I was for several years, believing that because I had tipped my hat to Jesus and acknowledged that what the Bible says about him is so, that I had a hell insurance policy. And there wasn't anything I could do that would really interfere with that. And then God began to drag me into the word by the loving ministry of a very godly seventh and eighth grade teacher who prayed me out of death into life. Now, this text gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. The word redeem is there. In the text tonight, in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law. To redeem them. Here we have this word a second time. It must be a very, very important word. And it behooves us to understand it. Now, in the first place, to redeem us, redeem us for pure gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity, purify unto himself a peculiar people. We have to understand sin. We have to understand the condition of the sinner. Probably one of the best pictures of the sinner in the Bible is Samson. Samson was made for fellowship with God, made to be a servant of God, a judge over Israel. Great blessing, great endowment. God fitted him in every way for that which he wanted him to do. But you see, Samson had what you and I have. He had the power of choice, and he made the choice. You made it at the age of accountability when you chose, like all that had preceded you, to be the God in your own life. For the Scripture says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And sin is the committal of the will to the principle and practice of being God in our lives, of doing what we want to do, choosing how to be happy. Now Samson, made for fellowship with God, made a choice. The choice was that he would consort with the most beautiful woman among the Philistines. And the result of that choice, that very wrong choice, was, as you know, they found out the secret of his strength. Then they put bands around him, bands that they couldn't break. And we could well say of our own experience, and of many we know, that sin is binding. Oh, how many of the people you grew up with in school right here are bound by habits and attitudes and practices. Some of them have even lost their lives as they have been brought into bondage to all of the things that we call sin. Well, such were we. We were with them. Sin is always binding. And when they had put thongs around Samson that he couldn't break, you know the next thing they did? They heated a poker, hot, red-hot, and they burned out his eyes so that he couldn't see. And we could infer from that that sin is also blinding. Scripture says that God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should shine unto them. Sin is binding and sin is blinding. Then the next thing they did to Samson was take him down into the marketplace. And there was a weary, skeletal, old ox with a leather harness around it and fastened to the end of a sweep. There was a big hollow trunk of a tree set in the ground, and there was a long wooden sweep, and then there was another log fastened to that that went down. It was shaped at the end. And they would put the flax seed or the cotton seed into that hollow log, and then the ox would pull the log around and it would crush the seed. And the oil would come out of a little spigot in the hole there and would be caught in either a bucket or a jar. And they were crushing oil. Well, they took Samson, who had been made to be the servant of God, the judge of Israel. They shortened the leather, and they fitted the collar, and they put Samson into the harness of an ox. And here was the judge of Israel pulling that long sweep around again and again and again as he crushed the oil for the Philistines. We can infer from that that sin is always grinding. It's so interesting, isn't it, that verse in I John 2 when it says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. Isn't it foolish to sell what you can never lose, to buy what you can never hold? And people sell their eternal destiny and souls for something they're going to hate in just a little while, for it's going to pass away, and the desire thereof, the lust thereof. Well, there's Samson. He's a prisoner of his own choice. He's the captive of his own decisions. He's bound by his own lust and appetites. He's there, grinding, blinded, bound. And such were we. And such were we. He was a slave. He'd become a slave. And such were we. We're told that you who were dead in trespasses and sins, who walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince and the power of the air, that same spirit that now works in the children of disobedience, among whom we all had our manner of life in times past, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Slaves of sin. The Lord Jesus, who made us, for all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. We were made to be the objects of God's love. God, from eternity past, had longed for someone like himself, to whom he could reveal himself and show himself, and with whom he could share himself. God, his father, longed for children. The eternal bridegroom longed for a bride. The elder brother wanted brethren. And so in the fullness of time, God made man. In his image, in his likeness, he'd made other creatures. He'd made cherubim. He'd made seraphim. I don't know how or who they are. I only know this. The only being said to be made in the image of God is man, and the only being that is said that God loves is man. And he's loved us with an everlasting love. But he gave to us the power of choice. Mother Eve chose Father Adam with him. And ever since then, when we've come up, anyone's come to the age of accountability, they've agreed to that choice. And so everyone you meet, outside of Christ, is a slave, dead in their trespasses and sins. And the eternal Son, the loving Son, who'd been sent by the loving Father, who loved the world and gave his Son, in the fullness of time sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law. For the Lord declared, The soul that sinneth, it shall surely die. And it had found that we had sinned. And the law was the schoolmaster to show us that we had failed. It was to cause us to understand that we deserved God's wrath and condemnation. And so the lawgiver, the one who inscribed the tables of stone on Sinai's mountain, the lawgiver became a law keeper so that he could redeem the lawbreakers, you and me. Now this word, redeem, he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity. We are told elsewhere, he was made to be sin for us, he who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He gave himself for us that he might redeem us. There are four words translated by the one little English word, redeem. And those four words tell a story. They tell us a lot about this redemption that our Lord Jesus was sent to accomplish. Now I'm not a Greek scholar. My education, I'm afraid, never was as complete as I thought it should have been. Oh, I studied Greek, but I guess really if you were to analyze it, unlike a friend of mine, he said, I know a little Greek and I know a little Hebrew. The little Greek runs a restaurant and the little Hebrew runs a clothing store. And I think that I would probably qualify there, but there were four words that I memorized years ago. And I want to use them as I pronounce them in my lack of finesse in pronouncing Greek, but I just want you to get the feel for them. The first word translated redeem is the little Greek word agorazo. And agorazo means to buy in the marketplace. Let's look at Samson and put ourselves there in that harness, bound, blind, grinding. And the Lord Jesus came down where you were, where I was, and He said to the one who had become our owner, the God of this world, what will it cost me to redeem? And the answer was, you must put yourself in His place. And so we are said, He was made to be what we were, that we might be made to be the righteousness of God in Him. He came right into the marketplace where the price was that He should vindicate the holiness of God and satisfy the law of God and uphold the justice of God and His condemnation upon sinners. And so identify Himself with us that He could satisfy the Lord's demands. He could redeem us. The word redeems means to buy in the marketplace. He gave Himself for us that He might buy us right there. Not some distant place. Right there. We are told that those three hours of darkness was when the eternal Son of God had so identified with us that He was there in our place and in our stead dying our death that hell came around and for three hours the sun was blotted out as the blackness of the nether regions just focused around Calvary. We have that described in the Psalms where we are told He was buffeted. He was bruised. That His heart fainted. It was as though every arrow in the quiver of hell was loosed at the Son of God. Every spear was thrown at the Son of God. He was buffeted. He was bruised. So that the text says that He barely resembled a human being when those three hours were over. His heart was poured out in the midst of Him like wax the psalmist exclaimed. And when there was nothing else that God could do to sinners because of their sin and there was nothing else that hell could do to the eternal Son of God when hell had exhausted all of its weapons and all of its power and when God's law was vindicated and upheld the Lord Jesus cried It is finished. And He gave up the ghost. He'd come into the marketplace to buy us, to redeem us. There's another word translated redeemed and it has added to agarazo the little prefix x and would be pronounced ex-agarazo which means to buy out of the marketplace purchased in but bought out of that one which had been thus redeemed was no longer to remain there in the harness no longer to remain there in that shameful and ignominious slavery but was to be bought out of the marketplace. Can you see the buyer taking that one purchase leading them out of the marketplace? That's what the word redeemed ex-agarazo means. He didn't intend for you to remain in the habits and attitudes and dispositions and practices that had characterized your life without Him. He gave Himself for you to buy you out of the marketplace. And then there is a third word also translated by the little English word redeemed and it is the word lutru and lutru means to loose. He gave Himself for us that He might loose us from all iniquity loose us from all those habits and attitudes and dispositions and trades and practices all those things which had marked our life of slavery. You can see Him as here comes the slave led out of the marketplace still has thongs around the wrist and chains around the ankle with all the marks and scars and rags and tatters brands that had marked Him as possession of an evil owner and so He's loosed. Loosed from that which His hands would do. Loosed from that where His feet would take Him. Loosed, set free, redeemed. He gave Himself for us that He might loose us from all iniquity and purify us unto Himself of peculiar people zealous of good works. That's the third word. Agorazo, ex-agorazo, lutru. And then there's a fourth word translated redeemed. It's a wonderful word. They take lutru and they put a prefix on it. Apolutrosu which means to permanently set free so that it can never be forced back into bondage again. Never. That's what redeemed means. Permanently set free and all the powers of hell can't force the redeemed one back into His Oh, He can do it by His choice. But He can't be forced. No force outside of Himself can make that one go back into the bondage from which He's been redeemed. If He does it, He did it because He chose to do it and not because He had to do it. Don't let anyone ever tell you that they had to. If they did, they chose to. They didn't have to because He gave Himself for us that apolutrosu we might be permanently set free never to be forced back into bondage again. So in the fullness of time God sent forth His Son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that are under the law. Ah, here it is. That we might receive the adoption of sons. There's the marvel of it all. Once had been the bond slaves of iniquity walking according to the course of this world according to the prince and the power of the air and now we've been redeemed. We are to receive the adoption of sons. That's our normal place now. We're placed into His family. We are to be the children of God through faith in Jesus Christ with all of the privileges that that affords. My mind goes back to something I read years ago. A little boy was born in East London and like all the children of London during the time of Queen Victoria she was ever and always on their tongues in their minds before them the rumors about her everything that was said reminded all the children of London that they had a mother in the palace Queen Victoria. And one day the little fellow about eleven decided that he was going to go see his queen. And he asked where does the queen live? And he was directed one place and another until finally he came to the gates of the palace. And does the queen live here? Yes. Well he said I've come from clear down and he told what part of Cockney East London he'd come from and I've come to see my queen. And he started to go through and the guard that was there in the big bearskin hat said Sonny get away. Don't make me hit you. Don't make me be vain and cruel to you but you can't go in there. But I've got to go in there. I've got to see my queen. I've come to see her. She's my queen. I have a right to see her. Well after a while he'd been pushed away two or three times he snuck around the corner and he got ready to dash in and he'd been anticipated by the guard who knew little boys from East London and he just put his foot out and the little lad went sailing over it and he picked him up crying and said Sonny you can't go in there. And as the little boy went out tears streaming down his cheek frustrated in his failure to get to see his queen a gentleman walked down the sidewalk came toward the gate and he said Son what's the matter? And he without even looking up said well I came to see my queen. I live so and so and he told the district but I can't get in there because those big men with the guns there they won't let me in. I can't see my queen. Well he said Sonny I think the queen might like to see you. Just take my hand. He said well can you? I think I can get in. And so as he came to them he said watch out. They're tough. They'll knock you down. Oh I don't think so. And then these soldiers snapped to attention and saluted held their guns up. Then they got to the watch. Did they know you? Yes I think they know me. And they went to the door and they opened the door. He said they let you in? Yes they let me in. And they walked through and here were all the servants standing at attention. And then he walked up the stairs. Little boy said you know your way around here don't you mister? Yes I know my way around. And then he came and he knocked on the door. And the boy said who is it? And he said it's me mother. She said come in. And the door opened and he went in and he said mother here's one of your subjects that's walked all the way from down by the Thames up here to see his queen. Oh she said come sonny. You see it all depends upon who opens the door for you. And so in the fullness of time God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law to redeem them that were under the law that the door might be opened for us. And that we might come into the family of God as sons born into his family and call almighty God father. Oh yes. But notice the most interesting thing in this text. The Lord Jesus Christ was sent in the fullness of time to redeem them that were under the law that they might receive the adoption of sons. And since we are sons God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father. Friend how do you find out that you're born of God? How do you find out that you're a child of God? I'm afraid that with many it is as it was with me. My dear pastor who loved the Lord but who didn't understand Galatians 4, 4-6 said to me on a Sunday in Little Heron Methodist Church in North Minneapolis he said calling me by the family nickname Sonny would you like to become a member of the church next Sunday? And I thought he was kidding. I knew I wasn't ready to become a member of anybody's church. But he had a different idea. Well he said wouldn't you? I said I don't think I'm not sure I'm a Christian Mr. Thomason. Oh he said I'm surprised. Your mother is the president of the ladies aide and your father is the chairman of the official board. Oh I said I know that. And you're not sure you're a Christian? I didn't know as a Christian at all but I don't see where he got the connection that I was a Christian. Oh he said let me ask you some questions. He said don't you believe the Bible is the word of God? Well I've been taught it all my life why shouldn't I believe it? Of course I did. I believe two and two was four I didn't have any problem with that. They said the Bible was the word of God I believe that. And they said don't you believe Jesus Christ is the son of God? Well sure why shouldn't I? They taught me everything else why they taught me that. And he said don't you believe he died on the cross and was buried and raised again the third day? Well certainly we repeated the Apostle's Creed every day every Sunday and I sure I believe that. And he said you know you're a sinner? Well right there is where I took the Fifth Amendment. I didn't know about it but I took it. Because I didn't know what he knew and I tell you I wasn't going to tell him anything. So I looked down at my toes and I scuffed the back of my heel with my toe of my other foot and hemmed and hawed a little and I was thinking at the time I chased Arthur Jackson down the alley behind the Johnson's with a split two by four with a spike through the end of it just running as fast as my fat legs would take me so that I could put that spike right through Arthur's head. I wanted to kill him. I had murder in my heart. The only reason Arthur lived to see the morning was because he could run faster than I could. That's all. It came within two inches of hitting him and boy when he saw that thing go by he took off like a scared rabbit and I never did catch up with him but I was a murderer. And then I remember the time I'd gone into Bloomquist Groceries because everybody's told how need it was that was the word when I was a boy how need it was to steal. I guess we called it swipe then. I said boy you go into Bloomquist he's never watching and you can swipe. Well I didn't want to be behind anybody did I? And so I got backed up to the my folks traded there I backed up to the candy he had it on a low counter and I reached behind me and I got a package of gum but with luck would have it every stick dribbled out before I got the package in my pocket so when I got out all I had was the empty package over five sticks and no gum in it. Well I was a thief and I disobeyed my parents and I'd lied and I dishonored my parents and he said you're Christian because you believe a half a dozen things. I knew better than that but he said well wouldn't you like to accept him and live for him and go to heaven when you die? Put three questions in one one uh-huh did it uh-huh well just as I thought everything is fine. So the next Sunday he called me down and he said put his arm around me and he said oh it's so marvelous to have the children of our families come into the church and I talked with him and he called me by my name then Paris I've talked with Paris you don't get into the membership of the church with a family nickname you know unless you're president of the United States and they call you Jimmy but he wouldn't call me Sonny so they just got me I went down and knelt at the altar because that's where we took communion and I looked out under my arm to see how many were impressed with what was happening to me and back there on the side was George Jackson Arthur's older brother George could do everything better than I could he could certainly run a lot faster he could hit a ball a lot farther and he could climb a tree higher and he could swear longer without repeating himself everything that was important George could do better than I could but I got into church before he did and so he's looking at me and I'm looking out under my arm and he saw me and I knew he saw me and how do you take advantage of an opportunity like that once in a lifetime opportunity well I did the only American thing to do I stuck my tongue out at him George went like this I'll get you when church is over that was a chance I'd have to take I hoped he'd forget but I had done it I got into church before he did cause his father didn't go to church and my father was the chairman of the official board and the next day I went to school and I went to dear Elsie Bourne and I said Miss Bourne I got good news for you and she said what's that and I said I joined the church yesterday and she looked at me and her eyes widened and tears came to the corner of her eyes and they chased one another down along her nose and her lip began to tremble and I said what's the matter Miss Bourne she said did I hear you say you joined the church yesterday I said yeah I thought you'd be happy well sonny I'm not at all sure that you were ready to join the church oh yes I was I knew the answer to all the questions and she said sonny I'm afraid there's a lot more to being a child of God than knowing the answer to some questions she said what is it my preacher didn't say anything else what is it she said sonny when a person becomes a child of God Jesus comes into their heart and they know it because he tells them and I'm going to pray that he'll come into your heart and that you'll know it not because your preacher told you but because he told you well that changed things from that time on every day or two or once a week something like that Miss Bourne would say you know back then they couldn't preach the gospel in schools but we had smart teachers they knew that they couldn't preach but they could answer questions if somebody asked them and so she'd say listen if you stay in after recess I have something to show you if you ask me and so at recess I'd say Miss Bourne do you have something to show me and she'd say yes I do and she'd open her little God's New Testament and there would be the day and there would be my initials SR because I was Sonny Reed I still am if I called her tonight down in Farmington, New Mexico she'd say oh Sonny I love her she can call me anything she wants as long as she stays here and loves what she keeps witnessing for the Lord she's been working with the Navajos now for nearly 40 years but she would read the verse then she'd have me read it then she'd read it then I'd explain it then she'd explain it it was like a dagger she believed the word of God was the sword of the Spirit and so she'd hone it in prayer and she'd oil it with tears until it was sharp and then when I stopped at recess she'd put that little old dagger in there she'd work it around wiggle it around in and out in and out and then when she got it clear in tight she'd nip the end of it over I was like a pin cushion for that gear closed she'd just put the word into me every which way because she believed that the word divides between the soul and the spirit well that summer down at old Red Rock holiness camp meeting they said you can go if you want to and I wanted to because Lottie Barkey was going to go and she was in my mother's class and I thought it would be real nice to be where Lottie was for a whole week for two weeks and so we went and I had to go to church three times a day can you imagine cruel and inhuman punishment well you think that was bad yeah I had to wear a suit to church and I was only about 12 and it was a chevyette suit you know what a chevyette is it's made out of horse hair and barbed wire just for the purpose of mutilating little children is what it is and I put that chevyette suit on and I heard them one day say my isn't he neat he takes that off as soon as the church was I did because I didn't want to be worn to a frazzle it was killing me wasn't neat at all it was just it hurt well I sat there most of the time I wasn't thinking about what the preacher said I was thinking about how long I had to sit there in that iron maiden and be punctured to death but finally after about a week the spirit of God got to me and I said well maybe I'm not the kind of a Christian he's talking about but I'm my own kind of a Christian and I'm alright but about three days later I came to the conclusion well I'm just a semi-Christian so far but I'll get there and then about Wednesday of the second week I knew that if I died and God didn't have a hell he was going to have to make one for me because if I went to heaven the way I was I'd ruin the place before the week was up I was lost oh I was lost and it was on Friday night Paul Reese was preaching and I can recall his I don't know what he preached about I just know it didn't make any difference where I sat those last three days it was terrible I was under conviction sometimes I said well I'm going to fool those fellows I'll sit right in the front seat we had a big auditorium seated about 1,200 people and there were only about four or five hundred most of the time and in the daytime services maybe only 150 so I'd sit right down here and you know what those speakers would do they would just go like this and wiggle their fingers right under my nose and tell everybody they're all about me the next time I said I'm going to sit way in the back so they'd read halfway across the auditorium put their finger under my nose and tell them what they forgot to tell them in the morning it was awful because there wasn't anybody in those meetings but me and everything that was said was about me it just was terrible finally on Friday night Paul Reese preached the place was pretty well filled because he came for the last weekend and he stopped and he was singing Just As I Am and he said now friends for the last three nights I have not slept well at all I've awakened and on my heart has been a heavy burden I think from the Lord for somebody here a young man probably only 12 or 13 but he came believing because he was a church member that he was a child of God but he's discovered since he's been here that he's lost and he's been ashamed or afraid or unwilling to make his need known and he's here somewhere now I've got to get some sleep wherever he is won't you pray that he'll come tonight then friends look down the aisle if you see somebody holding on to the bench in front of them with both hands that's probably him well I dropped that bench it was over hot I didn't want anybody to see me but he had me spotted and the people around me were looking at me they knew who he meant so they started to sing and I went and I knelt way over here in the straw and a lot of people came to the altar and they had three quartets there and they parceled the people out and I got the base of the third quartet now that's pretty low on the totem pole when you get the last man of the poorest college quartet and there I was he was with me he said what'd you come for son I said to be saved he said from what I said I didn't know I had a choice from sin he said why I said I'm lost he said that's good he said I said maybe it seems good to you but it's not good to me why do you say it's good because he said the only kind of people God saves are lost people if he can't get them to see how lost they are he'll never be able to get them saved well I said I'm lost he said now this is what I want you to do I want you to go down over there and I want you to dig up out of your life every sin you can remember and I want you to pile it up here in front of you on the straw just bring it out put it down put it down pile it up and then when you get it all that you can remember say Lord if there are any more you bring to my mind afterwards I'll put them on the top of the pile but I want you to mean business and then when you get that whole pile I just want you to thank God that he sent his son Jesus to save sinners as bad as you are to redeem people as bad as you are well I did what he said he said now I'll just keep people here from bothering you now he said son you know you know all the gospel you do it and when you've been born of God God will tell you and when he tells you you tell me but I'll just keep people from bothering you isn't that wise so I did first thing that went down there was that two by four with a spike in it boy I'm a murderer and I put that down there and then that empty package of gun and God said you got to go to Bloomfield and give him a nickel I said Lord I didn't get the gun he said that's alright you still got to give him a nickel you tried to so I had to go back to Bloomquist when I got home and give him a nickel for an empty package of gum I never got but God meant business and I began to put him out everything I could remember and when I got him out I started in by thanking God that he'd sent his son Jesus to save sinners as bad as the one that was in front of him and without even knowing it in a few minutes I found myself thanking my heavenly father for having forgiven me and pardoned me and made me his child and I stopped and looked up with a fellow from the quartet I said he did it he didn't even break his smile he said sure I know he always saves sinners that will trust him he just took it for granted God was going to do it oh the first time my preacher said you're alright and I was all wrong and then the spirit of God says you can call almighty God Abba Father isn't that what the text says isn't that what he says in the fullness of time God sent forth his son born of a woman made under the law born of a woman that he might redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons and since we are sons he has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father do you have the witness of the spirit that you're born of God is God the Holy Ghost born witness to your spirit that you are his child or perhaps are you like I was the victim of a well meaning but mistaken pastor or parent or Sunday school teacher someone said well what is the witness of the spirit the witness of the spirit is the same function of the Holy Spirit to the human spirit do you know your name do you know where you are do you know whether you're married or unmarried do you well the part of a man that knows the things of a man is the spirit of man that is in him if you knew you were lost when your sins are forgiven God the Holy Spirit is going to tell your spirit that you're a child of God and if you know you're lost then you can know you're born of God and know you're placed in his family as a child of God and you can call Almighty God Abba Father the witness of the Holy Spirit the only one in the universe that has the right to tell a person that they passed from death to life is God the Holy Ghost he's the spirit of adoption and since we are sons he has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father oh what a tragedy it is that so many people are going to miss heaven by 18 inches they've got it all up here and it's never migrated down here that's where I was I had it all up here I knew the answer to all the questions I had everything but life everything but Christ and you see salvation is not a scheme nor a plan nor a system of doctrine nor a list of scripture verses nor a decision salvation is a person he that has the Son has life and when you savingly embrace the Son of God he comes into your heart by the Holy Ghost to bring life and to tell you that you have passed from death to life and that you are a child of God through faith in Christ let's bow in prayer now there's only two kinds of people here tonight the ones who have been born of God who have the witness of the Holy Spirit and the ones who have not oh I trust and pray that the entire company is made up of those who have indeed passed from death to life and have the witness of the Holy Ghost the witness of the Holy Spirit enabling them to call Almighty God Abba Father which you know you know and God knows perhaps you are as I was wasn't tragic God was concerned why he's concerned enough send me from Virginia here to Idaho just to maybe speak to your heart and explain to you the importance of knowing him whom to know is life not just knowing about him but knowing him and so we're asking that if you are here tonight and you have less than the witness of the Spirit that you've been born of God you'll make known your need to someone who can help you perhaps even the message is helped you don't need to come to an altar but you do need to make and find an altar and come to the Lord and if you're holding out and coming to an altar then the only place you can meet him is at an altar but if you don't mind if it doesn't make any difference where you go just so you have reality he'll meet you where you are but we want more than anything else that you should recognize where you are and your need and take the appropriate steps to deal with that need and then for you each of who are here and perhaps most who are here who do know that you passed from death to life and you are his oh friend recognize what needs to be done in your children your husband your wife perhaps your neighbors your friends your family your relatives realize that so many of them are content with just being a church member with not having everything but him and begin to pray and intercede for them in terms of their need where they are Father of Jesus we are known to thee each one present is known perfectly to thee there are no secrets from thee thou dost know all about us where we are who we are what we are our relationship with thee and now Father we ask that the Holy Spirit will speak to everyone here who has everything but life and identify to each one it is you to whom I've been speaking it is your need about which I'm concerned and Father so many of us have family and friends and loved ones that are outside of Christ and Father so many of these that are outside of him still have their name on a church roll somewhere and there have everything but life oh burden our hearts for them and teach us how to minister to them breathe on us breath of God and in these closing moments do thou for us and with us all that thou seest we have need of may it be a time of joyous expectancy from thee when we do that which is appropriate to the need that thou hast revealed to us in Jesus name Amen