Well, almost no one disputes the importance of identifying purpose and having direction in life. After all, as the old adage goes, aim at nothing and you're sure to hit it. In a similar but in an ancient vein, the Roman philosopher Seneca wrote, when a man does not know what harbor he is heading for, no wind is the right wind. And closer to our own time, JFK, John Fitzgerald Kennedy wrote, efforts and courage are not enough without purpose and direction. And in a contemporary leadership book by Tom Thist, the author of the book is called The Wizard of Is, he says, having a purpose is the difference between making a living and making a life. And, of course, many of you are familiar with the maxim by Stephen Covey that you should begin with the end in mind. Purpose is the driving force behind our actions. And having purpose influences your behavior. It guides your focus. It helps you maintain a momentum in life. And when it comes to identifying purpose and holding our feet to the flame to keep on track with it, there is no better example for any of us to follow than that of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Because Jesus came to earth for one specific purpose and one purpose only. And Jesus' own mission statement and the purpose for which he came is so briefly, so beautifully, so succinctly summarized for us in Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. And I want to urge you to open your Bibles to those verses one more time, this monumental statement from the pen of the apostle Paul. We've been considering it now for several weeks, unpacking it bit by bit as we have made our way through the Advent season. And thus far in our Advent journey, we have considered the fact that when Jesus came to earth, he came at exactly the right time. It was the right time in salvation history, as well as the right time in world history. And we've also looked at the way that the sovereign Son of God is sent by God to accomplish something for which he and he alone is uniquely qualified to do. And what's more, Jesus, who is eternally God, always has been fully God, adds humanity to His deity and becomes fully human in order to be born of Mary in Bethlehem. In His humanity, Jesus is able to completely identify with me and minister to me in the midst of my suffering and my need. And because God the Father accepted Jesus' sacrifice for my sin, Jesus exercises an ongoing ministry of prayer, a ministry of intercession on my behalf as he appears in the presence of God during every moment of every day as my heavenly advocate. This morning we're going to ponder more deeply the purpose for which Jesus has done what he has done and why Jesus continues to do what he does. So please stand if you are able for the reading of God's word. And today, since I know many of you have taken the challenge and are working on memorizing this, let's read it out loud together. Galatians chapter four, verses four and five. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. This is God's living and holy word for us today. Please have a seat. Now the purpose statement for Jesus' coming to earth is summarized for us by the eight words that begin verse five, Jesus came to redeem those who were under the law. Jesus, the sent one, comes to earth on a rescue mission that culminates with Christ's death on the cross of Calvary. And we often say things at this season, it was even said in our adult Sunday school class this morning, the manger exists in the shadow of the cross. And that is helpful insofar as it goes, but Paul wants us to be especially mindful of what the purpose of the cross is. The purpose of the cross is to glorify God by redeeming or buying back lost sinners from the realm of sin and death and darkness into which we are all born. In the ancient world, the idea of redemption was particularly associated with paying a price in order to release a slave from his or her slavery. So if someone was willing to pay a price, a slave's freedom could be purchased. And this is precisely what Jesus, God's Messiah, has done for his people. Right before those two beautiful verses that we just read together a moment ago, Paul reminds his readers in chapter 4, verse 3. If you have it open, you can look right at it. He reminds his readers that all of us come into the world as slaves of sin. In Galatians 4, 3, Paul writes that we are enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. We come into the world as slaves. But the question now we must ask is, what are the elementary principles of the world? What do we need to be set free from? What does Jesus need to purchase us out of? Well, in Galatians, Paul does not specifically identify what these elementary principles are, and that lack of specificity has led many faithful students of the Bible to arrive at differing conclusions. Some suggest that Paul is referring to the demonic spirits who rule the present worlds and the world system. Others suggest that Paul uses this phrase to refer to the stars and the dangers that are posed by pagan systems of astrology. And still others believe that Paul is getting at the fundamental tenets that form the foundation of all man-made religion. And this understanding seems to be the one that best fits into the context of Galatians chapter 4, especially since in verse 9, just a few verses down from our text for this morning, Paul connects this exact same phrase with the ceremonial rituals of human Here's what Paul writes down in chapter 4 verse 9 of Galatians, he says, If we step away from the book of Galatians for just a moment and look at the way Paul uses similar language elsewhere, we'll find him sounding the same sort of warning in Colossians 2, verse 8. Paul says, see to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy, an empty deceit according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. So here Paul clearly associates the elemental spirits of the world with deceptive human tradition and philosophy. And deceptive human tradition and philosophy were highly prominent features of both the Jewish and the Gentile world of the first century. when you read the New Testament, you will see that the heart of much of Jewish religion at this time revolved around a system of rabbinic traditions that had been painted over and which were obscuring Old Testament truths. And in the Gentile world of the first century, human philosophy and pagan religion overlapped and intersected with each other in multiple ways. And look around today. I mean, do you think human philosophy and pagan religion are around today? Just drive around. We talked about it earlier today. Just drive around. Look at all the Christmas displays. I mean, here you might have your blow-up manger, your blow-up menorah, your blow-up Frosty, your blow-up Snoopy, your blow-up Santa Claus, all on the same wall, all mixed together like it's all part of one thing. That's just not it. So at the heart of all these false systems is a man-centered, a man-made system of works. In every time and place, the human heart is susceptible to systems that say, we have to follow a particular pattern of rules and regulations in order to win favor with God. And completely misguided systems insist that we have to achieve God's favor. We have to achieve divine favor through our own effort. That is what Paul is getting at when he refers to Jesus releasing us, releasing us from our slavery to the elementary principles of the world. One final reference, it's even more clear in Colossians 2.20. Paul writes, With Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world. Why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations, do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, referring to things that all perish as they are used according to human precepts and teachings? So at best, all such elementary principles and efforts are only human, and at worst, they are demonic. Such attempts to score points with God through legalistic rituals and observances will move no one one iota closer to God. Shakespeare catches the essence of how vain these sorts of efforts are in his play Hamlet, where the murderer, Claudius, having sensed the futility of his prayer, says, my words fly up, but my thoughts remain below. This is just vain striving. This is just spinning our wheels on religiosity, on man-centered and man-made systems of righteousness. And that is what Jesus has come to buy us back from. So we can see it from Paul on down through the centuries of church history, men and women who have struggled to pursue peace with God through their own efforts and on their own terms. And each one of them has just fallen flat on their face until they came to terms with the reality that Jesus purchased the righteousness for them that they need. And they can never, ever manufacture that on their own. There's so many, many stories we could consider, but for this morning I want to consider the story of John Wesley. He's just one of hundreds of examples we could choose. Wesley lived from 1703 to 1781, so think of this, Wesley was 12 years old when this church got started. All right, that's a while ago. And Wesley was an honored graduate of Oxford University. He was an ordained clergyman in the Church of England. He was orthodox in his theology. And Wesley was highly active in practical good works. He regularly visited the inmates of the prisons and the workhouses in London. He helped distribute food and clothing to slum children and orphans. I think if Wesley was in church here last week and someone stood up as Peg did and said, I need a man to go with me to help deliver the angel tree gifts, Wesley would have jumped up and said, hey, please choose me. Wesley studied the Bible diligently. He attended numerous Sunday services as well as various services throughout the week. Wesley generously gave offerings to the church, alms to the poor. He prayed, he fasted, he lived an exemplary life. Wesley even spent several years as a missionary to Native Americans in what was then the British colony of Georgia. And yet, after his service in the Americas and upon returning to England, Wesley confessed in his journal, I who went to America to convert others was never myself converted to God. In later years, when Wesley reflected on his pre-conversion condition, he wrote, I had even then the faith of a servant, though not the faith of a son. Wesley tirelessly did everything he could to live a life that was acceptable to God, yet he knew something vital was missing. And it was not until he went, again, this is in his own words, very unwillingly, to a society in Aldergate Street one evening that he discovered and claimed the true Christian life. I felt my heart strangely warmed, he wrote. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation. And an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. Wesley's life was no longer governed by the elementary principles of the world. Wesley's life was made captive to Christ. And for the first time in Wesley's life, he knew the one who had redeemed him from the law. For the first time, Wesley understood the meaning of the cross and the freedom that Jesus purchased for his own people when he offered himself on the cross of Calvary as the sacrifice and the substitute for sin. Now when we think of the death of Christ on Calvary's cross, that makes some people very uncomfortable. Even among Some who consider themselves or profess themselves to be Christians, attempts are sometimes made to shy away from the cross and all of its horrors and to identify with a cleaned up, sentimentalized picture of gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Some suggest, in fact, that rather than the cross, the manger should be the dominant symbol of Christianity. Those who do so want to hold on to the image of the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay. I mean, after all, everyone loves a baby. I mean, who can't get behind the picture of a peaceful, sleeping infant? That's so compelling. But in contrast, by the very nature of what it represents, the cross can be threatening and intimidating. Not everyone loves the idea of a battered and bloody Savior hanging on a cross. Not everyone wants to admit that their sins are so horrendous that it requires the death of the only infinite Son of God to atone for them. But those, like Wesley, who come to follow Christ by embracing Him as Savior understand the fact that Jesus' birth inexorably leads toward Jesus' death. And although we must never overlook the fact that there could not be any Easter joy apart from the wonder of Christmas, we must at the same time never forget that the Son of God lives the most purpose-driven life of any man or woman who has ever occupied space on planet Earth. Christ is born of Mary for one purpose and one purpose only, to die on the cross. Philip Rykin in his commentary on Galatians said, Christianity is not a religion of stable and straw. It is a religion of thorns and nails, wood and blood. The incarnation cannot save us without the crucifixion. Christ did not redeem us by his life alone. He redeemed us through his death. Romans 6. 23 underscores the fact that the wages of sin are death, and sin inevitably leads to death. Atonement for sin requires death, but not just any death will do. Only a perfect sacrifice can fully atone for sin. Only an infinite sacrifice can have the power needed to pay the infinite penalty that each sinner owes. Only Jesus can redeem those who are under the law. We look last time at the way Christ was born, just like us, and He was born under the law, just like us. But unlike us, Jesus keeps the law perfectly. We are lawbreakers. Jesus is the only law keeper. Jesus never sins, not once, in word and thought, in deed. And the purpose of Jesus coming to earth as one who is fully human is so that He can break sin's hold on us and free us from sin's curse, which is death. Because of Jesus' perfect obedience, he is uniquely qualified to redeem us from the law's deadly curse. Christ, in fact, makes our doom his own. Jesus, the perfect God-man, comes with one purpose in mind, to die on the cross in order to buy us back, to redeem us from the slave market of sin, and to restore the perfect, peaceful relationship God intends to have with His people. Jesus comes to earth in order to purchase the restoration of unhindered, unbroken, undiminished relationship that God originally designed men and women to enjoy with Him. When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. It's an old story, but it's one that's worth repeating. It's a story I heard as a child, so I know it's at least that old. It's a story that illustrates so clearly, so beautifully, so powerfully what Jesus has done for us. Once there was a little boy who made a toy sailboat. He carefully carved the hull of the boat from a block of wood, and he painted it blue. And then he fitted it with a mast and sails. He spent many days, weeks, working to build his boat. And he was very proud of what he built. When it was finished, he decided to try it on the lake in the city park. And it was a beautiful day. And first he made sure the sails were set just right. And then the boy tied a cord to the front of the boat and set it in the water, and he gave it a gentle push and set it off to float. The wind caught the sails, and the boat cut through the water much better than expected. What a sight! The boat skimmed along so smoothly. And soon the boat came to the end of the cord that the boy had attached to it, but a puff of wind blew so hard that the cord broke. and the boat sailed away toward the far side of the lake. The boy hoped the wind would shift, but it didn't. The sailboat started to rapidly go off into the distance. The boy quickly waded into the water with the hope that he would catch up to it, but it had gone too far. The water was getting too deep. The boat sailed off into the distance, and it disappeared. The boy cried. The boat was gone. Several months later, as the boy was walking through the city streets, he passed a pawn shop. And there, in the window, he saw the sailboat that he had labored to build. It was scratched. It was dirty. The sails were torn. but it definitely was his boat. The boy went into the store and he went to the sailboat and he picked it up and he said to the store owner, this boat is mine. He held it in his arms and began to walk out of the store, but the shop owner stopped him. The boat now had a price tag of $2 on it. I told you it's an old story. Adjusted for inflation, $25. No, no, no, the boy said. It's my boat. I made it. Look, look at the scratches here. I put my initials on the bottom of it. But the owner said, I'm sorry, sonny. If you want it, you're going to have to pay for it. The boy hurried home. He gathered up what little money he had and he hurried back to the shop. and he bought the boat. He took it home. He cleaned it. He gave it a fresh coat of paint and a new sail. Then he looked happily at it and he said, little boat, you are twice mine. First, you're mine because I made you. Second, you're mine because I bought you. Now isn't that story a beautiful illustration of what God has done for us in Christ? Even though the boy labored and worked hard and loved the boat that he made, even though he grieved the loss of the boat, even though he saw the boat in a store window, he could have left it there. He could have gone home and made another boat. Instead, he chose to redeem it. He created it, and he chose to do whatever was necessary to buy it back in a way. When it comes right down to it, we are all like that tiny sailboat. We have all drifted and been carried away from our Creator by sin. Every single one of us has a desperate need for someone to redeem us, and there is nothing we can do to redeem ourselves. All we can do is rely on and wait for our maker and our owner to take the necessary steps and pay the necessary price to buy us back from the slave market of sin. That God has done this for us in Christ is the heartbeat of what Christmas is all about. So on this final Sunday of Advent, as you make whatever final preparations you're engaged in for the celebration of Christ's birth next Lord's Day, let's keep this truth close to our minds, close to our hearts. Jesus came to redeem those who were under the law. If you are someone who has staked your life, who has embraced the reality that Jesus was born under the law to redeem those who were under the law, if you make that the center of your life, then this morning rejoice, worship, marvel, give thanks, be astonished that God would do this, and rest in the security of the relationship that God has created between himself and you. If you're here this morning and you stand apart from Christ, if you're skeptical, if you're separated, there is no better gift you can receive than the gift that God has sent you in Christ. There is no other means, no other way for things to be right between God and you than by confessing with your mouth who Jesus is, the Lord, the sovereign, eternal Son of God, and believing in your heart that God raised him from the dead after he offered himself as a sacrifice on Calvary. Scripture assures us that if you believe this truth and you confess these facts, you will be saved. You will be one of the beneficiaries of the redemption that Christ and Christ alone can offer. Let's pray together. God, thank you for the amazing gift of redemption. Thank you, first of all, for caring enough about us and for loving us enough to want to do that, for setting a plan in motion even before you created the world that laid out the fact that you would do that, how you would do it, who would do it, that Christ would accept the role, that He would purchase salvation for us. Thank you for giving us eyes of faith that have allowed us to see and to embrace and to accept that truth. And we pray today for anyone who today has not yet received the assurance that that gift is his or hers, that this will be the moment, this will be the day that faith in you is brought to light, that you will cause that person to be able to confess with his or her mouth and believe in his or her heart that Jesus is Lord and that he is risen from the dead. Thank you, God. Thank you so much for the truth of your word. Thank you for the reality of who and what Christ has done. We pray that you would continue to help us to be filled with wonder. Lord, let us never take any of this for granted. Never let any of us just kind of coast through the season without really pondering what it is, how deeply you have acted in our lives and on our behalf through Christ. So thank you for that. Help us, Lord, as we continue to worship you this morning. We give you praise and honor and glory for that. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, we talked about the story of John Wesley.