Some of these hymns are going
to be sung far more regularly than they are. As I said, we who are
God's servants are charged of God to actually declare the truth
of things at this time of the year. As much as there is so
much that grieves us about the things that happen in the world,
at the end of the day we are here to be the witnesses of the
Lord Jesus Christ and we can't stop them. There is much that
should cause us To be thankful that this is one time of the
year when people, I drove into town this morning and the car
park was overflowing and the cars parked down at the, around
that sort of fruit market and meat market there in a moment,
and they're all the way down to the high school and all over
the place. But almost all of them are there looking to buy
something that might please someone else. Wouldn't it be lovely if
it happened all the time? Wouldn't it be lovely if people
had carried these thoughts over? And we know they don't, and we
know all of the issues that go on, and we know so much that
is done and said using the names of God at this
time of the year are not truly honouring to him. But that's
the work of, and that's the task that is laid before us, isn't
it? And so we read this passage of scripture out of Luke chapter
2, and I wanted to just look at the verses from verse 8 down
to verse 20. I want us to consider what a
glorious word we have. I want us to consider what a
glorious coming there is into this world of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want us to consider briefly a glorious sovereignty,
a glorious revelation of a glorious gospel about a glorious saviour. I want us to think about a glorious
sign and the words of a glorious choir, and then I want us to
think about a glorious salvation. If the gospel isn't good news
to you right now, it's not the gospel. If the gospel is not
a light that shines in the darkness of this world, then it's not
THE gospel. Our gospel is a gospel that shines,
and our gospel is the gospel of a glorious, glorious God. And as I said earlier, I rejoice
that there is a time, and both this and the following week are
times when we change our calendars over, and as much as people want
to try and deny that it's going to be 2024 and it's a commemoration,
albeit an inaccurate one, of the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ into this world, as much as they want to change it over
to say it's before Common Era or after Common Era, People know
what's going on and this is the time for us to consider our great
God and for us to just look simply at these glorious words and this
glorious advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. Firstly, I want us to
remember that these are the words of God and they are written for
our learning. They are written for God's people. They are written for us to rejoice
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I love what Mary said at
the end of this time. Mary kept all these things, verse
19, she kept all these things and she pondered them in her
heart. And I pray today that we'll have
some things to keep and we'll have some things to ponder in
our heart. And I pray that we might be like
the shepherds in verse 20, they returned glorifying and praising
God for all the things that they had heard and seen. But I love the last phrase in
verse 20. And that's exactly what the word
of God is, isn't it? As it was told them, things will
be exactly as God says, always, always. So here we have a glorious
coming. There were, in the same country,
shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock
by night. You wonder what those shepherds
were thinking. I want us to ponder what it is to be a shepherd in
those days. Imagine Norm, imagine Norm being
a very wealthy sheep owner. and having shepherds in his employ
and a bunch of sheep in his employ. And then on the night shift,
where there are lions and bears and other things around, Bethy
says, Norm, just leave the shepherds at home tonight and you go out
there into the fields. Do you reckon she would have
said that? If you owned sheep, You would send who out there? Even in the pecking order of
shepherds, who would go? Who would be sent? The lowest
of the low. The lowest of the low. It's a glorious picture, isn't
it? That God comes. And the other thing about the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, he comes to where you are. He
comes always. He comes to where you are. He
comes to his own. He comes to his own by special
revelation. And lo, verse nine, the angel
of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone about
them, and they were sore afraid. We have the glorious coming of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes, he always comes heralded by others, isn't it? If he's
coming, to meet with people, meet with people like these shepherds
and meet with us. He always comes and sends his
messengers before him. The Lord Jesus Christ had a birth that day, but that
wasn't the beginning of the Lord Jesus Christ's existence. The
Lord Jesus Christ was before he came, and he came as he was
sent by the Father, and he came as God with us, Emmanuel, and
he came as a Redeemer, and he came as a Savior. Listen to what they say. These
men were sore afraid. They were so afraid. When God reveals himself, he's
always going to reveal the creatureness of man and the glory and holiness
of God. Everyone that meets God is sore
afraid at the meeting. There is no place for flippancy
anymore. But he says, in verse 10, the
angel said unto them, fear not. When the light shines in the
darkness, there's a great and glorious revelation from God. There's a necessary reverence
and fear of God when he arrives and when his messages come with
power from on high and bring the word of God. But also, in
the light of all of that, there is this glorious message. He
says, fear not, verse 10, for behold, I bring you good tidings
of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Isn't it remarkable, the absolute
sovereignty of God? We have a glorious word, a glorious
coming, glorious messengers springing, heralding that, but we have a
glorious sovereignty, isn't it? How on earth do you get a woman,
a young woman, Eight months pregnant, all the way from Nazareth down
to Bethlehem where this baby must be born according to the
Scripture. It must be born, Micah 5 and other places. It must be
born. Everything happens according to the determinate counsel and
full knowledge of God. The Roman Empire was moved to
do this taxing. It's actually a registration. Believe what the historians say
about it, Caesar tried on several occasions to do it before this
event, but in the absolute wonder and the sovereignty of our great
God, the Roman Empire was moved. To move Joseph and to move Mary,
to go all that way, it was a long journey and a difficult journey
for a woman who was greatly expecting. What glorious sovereignty. Not only did Mary and Joseph
have to go there because they were the descendants of David,
but what a picture it is of what's happened in the fall of man. These are the children of the
King. Both Joseph and Mary, if you
look at their lineages, are direct descendants. And here they are. Going all the way from Nazareth
down to Bethlehem and they come there and there's an inn that's
full and there's no place for them. The cattle have to make
way for the Lord. glorious sovereignty of our God,
isn't it? That he was born, not in a palace,
but in the lowest of the low that you could possibly imagine. He comes to where we are. That's
where we deserve to be and where we deserve to be born. But in the midst of all of that,
this glorious sovereignty, this glorious word from God, there
is this wonderful revelation. A light shone in the darkness. For unto you, verse 11, is born
this day in the city of David, the city of Bethlehem, a Saviour. A Saviour, which is Christ the
Lord. Christ the Lord. I bring you
good tidings of great joy. So what happened to Adam in the
garden when he fell? And when God turned up, what's
Adam's reaction? I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'm
hiding myself in the darkness. And God comes to him. See, sin brings fear, but in
the coming of God to man, God and man are reconciled. I bring you great tidings of
great joy, of great joy. Is the gospel great
joy? I love the fact that as much
as I walk in as much darkness as the shepherds physically felt
that night, there are just glorious beams from heaven that remind
me that I'm in the hands of a sovereign God. And he has spoken a word
which must be fulfilled. He says, I bring you good tidings
of great joy in the darkness and it will be for all people.
And it's one of the things that people want to say again and
again and again that all and world are universal terms and
they mean everyone. You go back to verse 1 with me
and look at it in Luke chapter 2. And it came to pass in those
days that they went out a decree from Caesar Augusta that all
the world should be taxed. If all is every human being,
were you taxed? If the world is every human being, See, all people means all nations,
all types of people, rich and poor, learned and unlearned,
young and old, Jew and Gentile. God gathers his people from all
nations. We have a glorious message that
comes for unto you. Verse 10, unto you shepherds
is born this day. It's not a particular day, it's
more in reference, it was obviously a particular day and we acknowledge
and rejoice in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. But what we
celebrate as Christians is not so much his birth coming, but
we celebrate his death and his resurrection and the glory of
all of that. This is the fulfillment of time. It's the appointed time from
all eternity. It is the promised coming for
unto you is born this day. Unto you, not unto angels, unto
these particular shepherds. Unto you. unto you a Saviour,
which is Christ the Lord. And that's what the Gospel proclamation
is. That's what the Gospel proclamation
from heaven is. Christ the Lord is the Saviour. You can say Christ the God is
the Saviour. The Anointed One of God is the
Saviour. Who came? God came. Why did he come? He came as a
substitute for his people. He came for his bride. What did he come to do? Listen
to it. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour. A saviour. Not someone who tries
to save. Not someone who wants to save.
Not someone who endeavoured to save all humanity and failed. A saviour. What does a saviour
do? He either saves or he's a failure,
isn't that right? I just love what Isaiah 42 says,
he shall not fail. He shall save his people from
their sins. He came to live before God and
before the law for all of his people. He is our life before
God. We sing that hymn before the
throne of God. I have a strong and perfect plea. He came to die. He's made, according
to Romans 1, he's made of the seed of David, but he's declared,
our declaration, he is the Son of God. He is God the Son. He came for this particular purpose,
isn't it? God cannot bear sin, but man
can. God cannot suffer, but man can. God cannot die, but man can die. Man cannot obey the law, God's law is holy. It requires
holy obedience. If you think you've kept one
little tiny bit of it ever, you are sadly, sadly deceived. And
if someone wants to put you back under the law as a means of your
sanctification and a declaration of your righteousness, they just
don't know God. And they don't know themselves. Man cannot obey the law of God.
Man cannot satisfy the justice of God. It doesn't matter what
he ever does, he cannot satisfy the justice of God. He cannot.
He has nothing in his ability whatsoever to pay for one tiny
little sin. And there is no such thing as
a little tiny sin. But that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did. The Lord Jesus Christ is God and man. That's what this
birth is about. That there was a real human being
born. Born of a virgin. Born without
the taint of Adam's sin. He bore the sin of all of his
people in human flesh. He suffered in human flesh. He
died in human flesh. This man perfectly obeyed the
law of God. This man perfectly satisfied
the justice of God. This man perfectly bore the sins
of all of God's people in his own body and carried them to
Calvary's tree and suffered and died alone. That's what the birth
is about, the birth of this Holy One. He has, Hebrews 10 says, perfected
forever them that are sanctified. That's what a saviour does. There
is a glorious gospel. We proclaim a gospel of a saviour
who saves. And I'm so thankful that 100%
of my salvation is in His hands. I'm just so thankful. I'm so
caused to rejoice when I look inside myself. All I see is something
that needs to be cleansed all the time. I need a Saviour. And that's why the people of
the Lord go through so many trials in this world, isn't it? That
we are caused again and again and again to not be able to look
inside ourself for any of our confidence before God. We are
caused always by the grace of God to look outside of ourselves.
But this message comes with a sign. Listen to verse 12. This shall
be a sign unto you You shall find a babe wrapped in swaddling
clothes lying in a manger. Now if those shepherds were told
to go and find the Messiah, the Messiah has come, God's Christ
has come, David's long-awaited son has come, where would you
go? Well, you'd go to a palace, wouldn't
you? You'd go to the king's court, wouldn't you? If the shepherds went to the inn and looked without
a word If they were told to go and look
for this great religious leader, where would they have gone? They
would have gone down to the temple, wouldn't they? If they were told
to go and look for the one who would be the great teacher of
Israel, where would you go? You'd go to the Bible colleges
in Jerusalem. The point is that the message
from the messengers who were sent by God give precise descriptions
and precise declarations of where to go and who to find, don't
they? That's exactly what happens in
the preaching of the Gospel. We are saying this is who God
is in human flesh and this is what he has done. We are again
and again and again describing in the words of the angels and
in our faltering lips, we're describing the Lord Jesus Christ
in the glory as he is described in this book. He's a saviour,
he is Christ the God who has come. He is the saviour who saves. And so people wander around looking
for where to go. You find the Saviour and you'll
know where to go. Go looking for a Saviour. Go
looking for a Saviour as directed by the Word of God and there
you'll find Him. And you'll find Him exactly as
He's described. But I just do love, that's what
they did, they found. But I love the response, isn't
it? The one angel proclaims the message. Now listen to what happens. Suddenly in verse 13, suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God. What a choir that must have been.
The choir of heaven came to earth. Who did they sing to? They didn't
sing over Jerusalem. They didn't sing over Rome. They sang to the shepherds. There's
something extraordinary about that, isn't there? And this choir
comes in response to the declaration of who Christ the Lord is. The
scriptures say that the angels are encamped around here and
the angels are a witness to what is going on here, which is why
where God's people meet, there is a reverence for who God is
and there's a reverence that we're in the very presence of
God and we're in the presence of his angels. And the angels
delight when the gospel is proclaimed. The angels know what it is, more
than we can possibly imagine, for there to be a saviour. Because
when Satan fell and took a third of the angels with him, and we
have no idea how many there are, but there's a vast multitude
of them, there was no saviour. There was no redeemer. They were
kept bound as they have been in chains of darkness. Lost forever. And here, these angels are seeing
these shepherds. Some too. They just come from
heaven, this choir comes from heaven, with just 14 words in
English, just 11 in Greek. Just a short hymn isn't it? But
so much is said in such a short hymn. Listen to what they say
in verse 14. Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace. Christ is our peace. People long for peace on earth
and we should long for peace on earth and we should long and
be anxious about peace between our brothers and sisters and
peace between all people. We don't. We haven't. We aren't
in this world to create division. There is a division among the
people because of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, don't think
I've come to bring peace on earth. There'll never be any peace on
earth, but there will be peace on earth between the Lord Jesus
Christ and his people. He is our peace. He's made peace. There is now peace between God
and his people. There is now peace between fearful
shepherds in a dark night and God Almighty. What were they expecting that
night? What was their conversation while they were sitting out there
on that hill that night? They had no thoughts of God,
probably, whatsoever. They had no knowledge of what
was about to happen to them. And that's how God comes in saving
power and grace. Heaven comes and invades our
space and says, this is Christ the Lord. These shepherds do some remarkable
things that show that they are representative of the elect of
God, and they are representative of evangelists. They're the first
evangelists, these shepherds. We don't know how many we are.
All we know that there is two, because it talks of shepherds.
That's all we know. All the pictures, I wish we could just throw away
all the pictures that we have associated with anything to do
with Christmas and Easter and all sorts of other religious
things and just listen to what God says and read what he says. Verse 15, when the angels were
gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another,
let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which is come
to pass. They didn't doubt and God visits
his people. There is faith, but listen to
what they say, which the Lord has made known to us. They heard
a messenger, they heard an angel, and they said, this is God speaking
to me. And that's exactly how God speaks
to people. You read about it in Romans chapter 10. Faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by those who are sent of God. But listen
to what, listen to their response in verse 16. They came with haste. When God makes known his gospel,
people come in haste to the Lord Jesus Christ. Felix said to Paul,
he said, I'll hear you at a convenient time for me. I can put this aside. I can put this gospel aside and
I can lay it there and I can have other things that are more
important in my life. Felix said, I'll come and talk
to you. There was never another convenient
time for Felix. It's now is the day of salvation.
They made haste and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe
lying in the manger. And when they had seen, the it
is in italics, when they had seen, they made known abroad
the saying which was told them concerning this child. These shepherds picture all of
God's saved people, aren't they? They're in the dark. A message
comes from a messenger from God Almighty in the dark. and the
light shines. That's exactly what we keep quoting
in 2 Corinthians 4. God shines in the hearts of his
people to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. These shepherds, like
all of Adam's children, are in the dark and they're unaware
of the events unfolding. Their first response is afraid
and their fear and they have a reverence for who God is. They
are aware of that vast gulf between God and man. God is holy and
man is weak and frail and in the darkness, unawakened and
unseeking God. And then God comes and sends
a message with his messengers and God's word comes with power. And God's word brings good news
to fearful men, kept in bondage. in that darkness they heard and
they came with haste and they saw they saw look unto me says the lord jesus
christ look unto me and be you saved all you ends of the earth
can you look and see he wouldn't say look unless you could see
And we see Him as He's declared in His Word, and they see that
He's exactly as they said, the events that they saw in the inn
were exactly as the angel told them. And that's what the messengers
of God say, aren't they? This is who God is, and this
is how He saves sinners. And they became witnesses. I wonder what Mary and Joseph
thought when the shepherds came. They didn't see the and what extraordinary comfort
it must have brought to them. They heard, and the shepherds
returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things which
they had heard and seen. The gospel is heard, and the
Lord Jesus Christ is seen, and it's seen as it was told them. That's why I asked Graham to
read down to the story of Simeon. Simeon had a message from God
that you're actually going to see God. You're going to see
God's Christ. You're going to see the consolation,
the comfort of Israel, verse 25. And he should not see death
until he'd seen the Lord's Christ. God's Christ. and he held an
eight-day-old baby in his arms. I've seen God as it was told
me, as it was promised, and he praised God. If you hear and
see and hold God and you'll say it's enough
it's enough I have everything right now heading closing I love
what Mary did and I pray that you have been left with some
things from God today Mary kept all these things she kept the
words that the the angel from God and the choir singing from
heaven. She kept all those things and
she pondered them in her heart. What glorious things we have
to ponder in our hearts. We're going to sing the last
of the songs today. O come all ye faithful, joyful
and triumphant. May the Lord cause us to sing
with the choirs of heaven. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you that there is salvation for sinners. We thank
you for a Saviour who saves. We thank you for a message from
heaven that declares your dear and precious and the glory of
Him coming, the glory of what He came to do, our Father. May
we go from here, Heavenly Father, just rejoicing and adoring and
praying that we would live the days of our lives treasuring
these things in our hearts. the things of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Bless your word, Heavenly Father. Bless your people throughout
this world wherever they gather. Bless our friends who can't be
here with us. We thank you again, Heavenly
Father, that you have sent a message of light into this dark world. May we be found to be faithful
to the great to do it with joy and thankfulness
in our hearts to our great God and Saviour. We pray in Jesus'
name, have peace, glory.