Turn in your Bibles with me to
Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. My message this morning is an
all too familiar one with most of you. It's from verse 14, entitled
Peace on Earth. And I preach from this passage
a lot. over the years, and you've heard messages from this a lot,
so I'm not going to bring anything new. But I thought about, when
we consider our world situation, how things are going today, this
passage came to mind, verse 14 especially. I'm going to read,
though, beginning at verse one. This is the story of the birth
of Christ. And we know this too, that we
not only celebrate his birth on one day a year, we celebrate
it every day of the year. And we not only celebrate his
birth, we celebrate his life, his death, his resurrection,
the whole Christ, the whole person, the whole work of Christ. He is our salvation. I always
think about In Matthew chapter one, when the angel came to Joseph,
who was the stepfather of Christ. He wasn't the physical father,
but the stepfather. And the angel told him his name
shall be called Jesus. And what does that name mean?
It means he shall save his people from their sins. Indicating he's
not going to try to save anybody. He's going to save somebody.
And they're called his people. And they were a people given
to him, the Bible teaches, before the foundation of the world,
before this world was ever created. God gave him a people. And put
all the responsibility of the salvation of those people who
would be sinners, fallen in Adam, put all the responsibility of
their salvation upon this one person. And that's why he had
to be born of a woman, born of a virgin, Scripture says, born
of Mary, created in her womb by the Holy Spirit without the
aid of man. And in that capacity, as God
the Son, eternal, he united himself with that sinless humanity, body
and soul, that was created for him in the womb of the Virgin.
And he grew in wisdom and statures mind-boggling. This is God manifest
in the flesh. This is the word made flesh and
dwelling among us, the scripture says. And it's mind boggling.
these are the truths that we have to face and come to believe
in order to understand the gospel, the good news. That's what he
talks about, good tidings here. Look at verse one, it came to
pass in those days that there was a decree from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be taxed. Now there's one of the
many examples in scripture where the word world does not mean
everybody without exception that has ever lived or ever will live.
He's talking about the Roman Empire here. And Caesar was going
to tax them. And verse two, this taxing was
first made in Cyrenius, when Cyrenius was governor of Syria,
and all went to be taxed, everyone to his own city. Joseph also
went up from Galilee, this is the stepfather of Jesus, out
of the city of Nazareth unto Judea, unto the city of David,
that's Bethlehem, which is called Bethlehem, because he, and Bethlehem
means house of bread, And it says, because he was of the house
and lineage of David. Christ being the king of kings
in his humanity came from the lineage of David according to
the flesh. Because David was of the kingly
tribe, the tribe of Judea. And so Christ was born of that
tribe. To be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, Mary was from
that tribe too, that was her lineage, being great with child.
And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished
that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn
son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger."
Now, if you look at these, the words slip in my mind, Randy.
Yeah, manger scenes. Nativities is what I was trying
to think of, but you're right. But they have him in a wooden
bench. It's probably made of stone.
And that's where the cows fed, or the sheep, and all of that.
And there's a story behind that, but I don't have time to go into
that right now. But he said, he laid him in a
manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. And
also, the wise men weren't there. They didn't come till later.
In fact, probably till Jesus was almost two years old. That's
when they came along. But anyway, if you're ever on
Jeopardy, you'll know. So for the end, all right verse
eight and then of course they probably don't know either do.
Verse eight, and then there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field keeping watch over their flock by night.
Now the shepherds were there but it says, and lo the angel
of the Lord came upon them and the glory of the Lord shone round
about them and they were sore afraid. This is the glory of
the Lord is the presence of God being made known. God is with
us and you remember The angel told Joseph after he said, you
shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sins in verse 23 of that same chapter, said his name shall
be called Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. And
so these shepherds recognize that God is present. Now we know
God's presence is everywhere. God is omnipresent is what we
call. And that means he's everywhere.
He's a spirit. And he's not confined to one place. You can't put God
in a building. But there are places in times
that God reveals himself in a special way. For example, on the Day
of Atonement in the Holy of Holies, when the high priest went in
with the blood of the Lamb, which is a picture of Christ, and sprinkled
that blood over the mercy seat, that was called the Shekinah
glory of God. That word Shekinah means God's
presence. God's with us and that was especially his glory. Well,
in Christ Jesus, we see the fullness of God's presence constantly,
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But here, in
a real way, The shepherds knew that God's presence was here
and they were sore afraid. They didn't know what was going
on. And verse 10 says, and the angel said unto them, fear not
for behold, I bring you good tidings. Now that's what we read
back in Isaiah 57. This is good news of great joy,
which shall be to all people. Now, is that talking about everybody
without exception? Well, think about it. Has it
been good tidings, good news to everybody without exception?
Well, I can tell you right now, it wasn't good tidings to the
Pharisees. Wasn't good tidings to the Sadducees
or the scribes. It's not good news to an unbeliever.
And that's why we have to be born again by the Spirit and
given a new heart. And then it becomes good news
to us. Then it becomes the best news we ever heard. Because see
then, it's like a person who's sick. Let's say has cancer. best
news that that person can ever hear from a doctor is what? Yeah,
you're cured. There is a cure and doesn't really
faze you until you have the disease and that's what happens in the
new birth. God the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the
Word of God shows us our disease, our sin, our spiritual leprosy. But then he shows us that in
Christ Jesus, the glory of his person, the power of his finished
work, his righteousness, his blood, there's a cure. A surefire cure. No doubt about
it. So he says, fear not, verse 10,
for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall
be to all people. And the point there is that it's
not just for the Jews, it's for God's people among the Gentiles
too. God has a chosen people. And verse 11 says, for unto you
is born this day in the city of David, Bethlehem, a savior,
which is Christ the Lord. The title Christ means anointed
one, appointed one. It means the Messiah. verse 12
says, and this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the
babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger and suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising
God and saying, now here's my text, glory to God in the highest. Now what is God's glory? It's
what God is in Himself because He is God, there's glory. is
what God reveals of Himself and when it says glory to God in
the highest what it means in this babe who would grow to manhood,
who would live under the law and keep that law perfectly,
something we can't do and because he would bring forth a perfect
righteousness whereby God could be just to justify the ungodly
and In other words, you see, when God forgives my sins, He's
got to do it on a just ground. He can't just look over it because
He feels sorry for me. You know, that's really what
most people think about salvation. They think that God and Christ
feel sorry for us, and so, you know, He's crying tears up there
just wanting us to let Him in. That's not the Christ of the
Bible, folks. That's not salvation. Read the
book. God forgives the sins of His
people on a just ground. Now what you need to be concerned
with in your life as you go through is what is that just ground upon
which God can forgive all my sins? Some people say, well,
you gotta turn over a new leaf, you gotta reform, you gotta confess,
you gotta do this, you gotta get baptized. None of that will
do it. There's but one just, right,
gram that glorifies God in the forgiveness of our sins and that's
the blood of Jesus Christ. That's it. And why is that? Because
the only just punishment for sin is death and either you have
to die in your sins which is eternal damnation or you must
come to Christ who died in your place, the place of his people,
his sheep. He shall save his people from
their sins. How's he gonna do it? His obedience
unto death on the cross. And that way God is just and
right and glorified to forgive me, a sinner who doesn't deserve
anything but death and hell. who hasn't earned anything but
death and hell, but he's just and right and glorified to forgive
me of my sins. Another thing we need is a righteousness,
a perfect righteousness now. Now, unbelievers don't really
understand the concept of righteousness, but in the Bible, the concept
of righteousness or justness is perfection. Isn't that right? In other words, righteousness
is not you and me doing the best we can. Now, can we do the best
we can? Should we? Let's put it this
way. Should we do the best that we can in our endeavors of being
a good citizen, a good father, a good mother, a good son or
daughter, a good student, a good worker? Should we pursue being
as good as we can be? Yes. But that won't save us. that won't make us righteous.
And that's what the Bible means when it tells us that salvation
is not by works, but it's by grace. And it says in Romans
5.21 that grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life. Well, how am I gonna become righteous?
Because the best I can do is not gonna get me there. That's
what the Bible means in Romans 3.23 when it says, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. That means no matter
how good we try to be, we're still going to fall short of
the perfection of righteousness. So how am I going to be righteous
in God's sight? And understand now, God, He knows
everything about me. He knows what I'm thinking. He
knows my motivation. When I do wrong, He knows it. I might be able to hide it from
other people, you young people. You might be able to hide it
from mom and dad, but you can't hide it from God. There's no
hiding place there. God sees it. And so, we cannot
attain the perfection of righteousness. That Romans 521, I didn't finish
it, which says, grace reigns, it says, as sin hath reigned
unto death, sin deserves death, grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life, and here's your key, by Jesus Christ our
Lord. This one here, who is the very
embodiment of the glory of God. So the perfection of righteousness
by which God saves me and justifies me, the perfection of righteousness
whereby I'm made right with God and find eternal life is the
righteousness that can only be found in Christ. The Bible says
in Romans 10 and verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law. That means the fulfillment of
it, the finishing of it, the perfection of it. He is the finishing
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And what is so sad is that we
won't even believe that unless the Holy Spirit gives us eyes
to see and ears to hear. That's the thing. Okay, so he
says here, glory to God in the highest, the highest manifestation,
the highest revelation of everything that God is and everything that
God does in the salvation of His people is found in the glorious
person. Mark this down, in the glorious
person, who is Jesus Christ? He's God, man. He's God, every big God, the
Son of God from eternity, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit
and every attribute of deity, and He's perfect man in one person,
the God-man. And that's what it says, we beheld
His glory, John wrote. So that's who He is. And then
secondly, it's revealed in what He accomplished when He came
to earth. lived and died was buried and
arose again the third day. What did he accomplish? He accomplished
the righteousness that you and I need in order to be right with
God, to be saved, to have eternal life. Our sins, if you're one
of his own now, one of his sheep, he said he laid down his life
for the sheep, John 10 11. If you're one of his own, Your
sins were charged, accounted to Him, like a debt. You know
what a debt is, don't you? Anybody in here owe money? Don't
raise your hand. If you owe money, you owe a debt.
And that's what sin does, it runs up a debt. And the only
thing that can pay that debt off is death, either our eternal
death or Christ's death for us. Well, before the foundation of
the world, God charged the debt of his people to Christ, and
Christ said, put it on my account, I'll pay it. That's why he came
to earth. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter
two and verse, what is it, 17, I think? He says, for it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren. Who are his brethren? That's the people that God gave
him before the foundation of the world. What's the word behooved
mean? It means he was indebted. We don't use that word today,
behooves. I mean, that's a Greek word for
debt. Because sin is a debt. And because our debt was laid
upon him, he was charged with our sins, the sins of his people,
he had to be born on this day, whatever day it was. I can tell
you right now, it wasn't December 25th. But whatever day it was,
it was a good day. And so we can celebrate it every
day. But we don't stop there, we don't keep him in the manger.
I was watching some stupid comedy program when a guy was praying
around the table. He said, well, I'm going to pray
to the baby Jesus. I like the baby Jesus. I thought,
you fool. I thank God for his birth. I
celebrate his birth. Don't you? But he came into the
world to do what? To glorify God in the salvation
of his people. And so he says, glory to God
in the highest, and on earth, peace and goodwill toward men.
Now the first thing you need to understand about this piece,
he is not talking about peace among individuals here on earth,
among nations. That's not what he's talking
about. If that is what he's talking about, so far he's been nothing
but a failure. Look at the news. What's going
on? There's always, and Christ himself,
he said in the end times, which we're living in now, You know
what he said? He said, there'll be wars and
there'll always be rumors of wars. This world is cursed. This world is full of sinful
people. Even believers, we're sinners
saved by grace, but we're still sinful, we're still selfish.
We want our way. You read the news and you look
at these countries and these leaders and you go, why are they
doing what they're doing? Well, they say Christmas is a
time we should strive for peace. If we did that just one day,
it'd be a heck of a place to live. Every day's a day we ought
to strive for. I would love to see a peaceful
world, but it's not going to happen. Not until the Lord comes
back and settles all accounts. So it's not talking about peace
between individuals or between nations. Christ said, you know
he told his disciples in Matthew, I think it's Matthew chapter
10, I've got that listed. Listen to this, this is Matthew
chapter 10 and verse 34. Now what's happening here, he's
getting ready to send his disciples out into the world to preach
the good tidings. You remember what the angel said there. I
bring you good tidings, for unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior. which is Christ the Lord. And
so they're going out and they're gonna preach the good news. And
what's gonna happen? He said, I send you out as sheep
among wolves. Now you can read all this in
Matthew chapter 10, mark it down if you haven't read. He said,
I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves. Now what would
happen if you saw a bunch of wolves out there and you sent
a sheep among them? What's gonna happen? Well, they're
gonna just lay down and enjoy each other's company. No. No,
that sheep's dead meat. And you know it's so. So, I'm
sending you as sheep among wolves, he said. They're gonna try to
kill you. And he went on to say this, this
is Matthew 10, 34. He said, think not that I am
come to send peace on earth. Now, notice this now. He says,
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will toward
men. Christ says in Matthew 10, 34, thank not that I'm come to
send peace on earth, I came not to send peace, but a sword. Now do you think there's a contradiction
here in the Bible? The answer's no. No. The peace that he's talking about
in Luke 2, 14 is this, it's peace between God and his chosen people
in Christ. That's the peace that he established
by the cross. Let me give you another verse
of scripture to think about. This is John 16, 33. He's talking
to his disciples. And he says, these things I have
spoken unto you that in me you might have peace. In the world
you'll have tribulation. That's trouble. But be of good
cheer, I have overcome the world. So the peace of which he speaks
here in Luke 2.14 is not peace on earth among men and among
nations. If we were to translate this
verse, Luke 2.14, literally from the Greek language, you all know
that the New Testament was originally written in ancient Greek. I don't
know Greek, I study it, and I know how to look up words, all right? But if we were to translate this
verse, Luke 2, 14, from the original ancient Greek, you know how it
would read? Read like this. Glory to God
in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he,
that is God, is pleased. Another translation that's closer
to the original, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace
among those who have found favor with God. Now, how is it possible that
a sinner who has deserved nothing but condemnation and death and
who deserves nothing but condemnation and death, how is it possible
for a person like that to find favor with God. You say, well,
they got to join a church, get baptized? No. There's nothing
in the Bible that even comes close to that. That's works.
All that'll get you is death and hell. So how's it possible? It's through the establishment
of peace based upon the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus
Christ that reconciles, and if you're at peace with somebody,
you're reconciled to them, that reconciles God to his people
and ultimately his people to God. Now I want you to turn to
this passage. This is Colossians chapter one. Colossians chapter one. And this is really important.
This is gospel language. And it begins at verse 19 of
Colossians chapter one. It says in Colossians 1, 19,
it says, for it pleased the Father that in Him, in Christ, should
all fullness dwell. That's the glory of God, the
fullness of the Godhead, Father, Son, and Spirit in Christ. Verse
20, and having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him
to reconcile all things unto himself, by him I say whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, I believe that's talking
about all the saints of God in heaven and on earth, and you
that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, that's what we are by nature as we're naturally born
into this world. That's why we need to be born
again. Yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. And then it says, verse 23, if
you continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved
away from the hope of the gospel, the good news, the good tidings,
which you have heard and which was preached to every creature
which is under heaven. Now we know that that's not talking
about everybody without exception. Whereof I, Paul, am made a minister.
reconciled to God, at peace with God by the body of Christ. What does that mean? That's his
death on the cross to establish peace. And it's upon that ground
that God is reconciled unto his people, sinners. They're justified
based upon the righteousness of Christ, imputed, charged,
accounted to them. And it's upon that same ground
that sinners are reconciled unto God. And that comes about in
the new birth. I'll show you one more verse,
2 Corinthians chapter 5. Now here's what he's talking
about. He's talking about how God is
reconciled to his people, how God is at peace with his people,
and how they are at peace with him. You see, by nature, in our
unbelief, it's almost like declaring war on God. Now, of course, you
know that's a lost cause. When I was in college, I used
to have this poster on my wall, and it was an eagle, a bald eagle,
swooping down on a mouse on a mountaintop, and the mouse was giving a bad
gesture to the bald eagle, looking up at it. Well, he was dead meat. Well, that's like sinners by
nature. in our unbelief. It's like we
declared war with God. And just like the poem that the
old man wrote, your arms are too short to box with God. That's a losing fight. So the
question, this is the good tidings. How can God be reconciled to
sinners and sinners to God? Well look at verse 18 of 2 Corinthians
5. All things are of God. Now he's
talking about all things in salvation. It's all of God. who hath reconciled
us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the ministry
of reconciliation, that's the gospel. And he says, to wit,
or namely, that God was in Christ, God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Spirit, the whole Godhead engaged in his glory
in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself. Now that's not
the whole world, that's not every individual that's ever lived
or ever living now or ever will live. Who is this world? Look at it. Not imputing their
trespasses unto them. He doesn't charge them with their
sins. Who shall lay anything to the charge? Romans 8, 34.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Who can condemn us? It's Christ
that died, yet rather is risen again. So he says, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. That's the good tidings. A Savior
is born. But not only was he born, he
lived and he kept the law and he died and he was buried and
he arose again the third day. And he says, now then, verse
20, we are ambassadors for Christ. That's like the witnesses of
God who tell the truth. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. God's been reconciled to his
people through the blood of Christ. Now, in our natural state, we're
enemies of God. We're unbelievers. So the command
of the gospel is you be reconciled to God on the same ground. And what is it? Verse 21, for
he that is God the Father hath made him to be sin for us. God
made Christ to be sin for us. How did he make him to be sin?
By imputing, charging, accounting our sins to him, that debt. Christ
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him, that his righteousness has been imputed, charged, accounted
to us. That's the good news. And so
when you read these verses, Christmas or whenever you read
them, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill
toward men, understand what they mean, understand. that this is
talking about an eternal peace that's based upon a just ground. The blood and righteousness of
Christ accounted to his people. And the Bible says in Isaiah
chapter 32, or I may have the reference wrong there, but it
says in the book of Isaiah that he is in perfect peace whose
mind is stayed on thee. what that's telling us is that
we who believe in Christ and our minds and our hearts are
fixed on him, his person and his work, we're at perfect peace
with God and it can't be broken. And even when we accept the punishments
that God gives us in chastisement, it doesn't interrupt that peace.
It's like a father in love punishing his children to do them good.
You see that? I hope that's helpful to you.