And suddenly there was with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,
glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, goodwill toward
men. The first Christmas carol. The first Christmas carol was
brief. But let us not forget, little
is much when God is in it. Never has so much been said in
so little. Each word is pregnant with fullness
in meaning. Glory to God in the highest. On earth, peace, goodwill toward
men. The angels were singing about
Jesus. who was born in the manger. They
sang of Christ and the salvation which he came into this world
to work out for us. Their song was being built upon
this foundation of Jesus Christ. Glory to God in the face of Jesus
Christ. And they said of this salvation,
This salvation that God gives, that all the glory is to be given
to God. The gospel of the Bible is a
gospel that gives God all the glory and all the honor and all
the praise. Remember that. Use that as a
rule of thumb when you are listening to your priest or rabbi or your
preacher Does he powerfully? magnify Jesus Christ if not find
another place to worship Because it's all about him. The Bible
is a hymn book These angels were singing glory to God as it concerned
the condescension of Jesus Christ The angels sang in amazement.
One of the things that we've lost in our churches today is
the wonder of it all. The amazement factor. Are you
sitting here today and does in your heart there ring a melody,
a melody of amazement and wonder? Do you say, oh, what a wonder
that Jesus found me. Out in the darkness, no light
could I see. He put his great arm under and
wonder of wonders, he saved even me. Do you say I stand amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder that he could
love me, a sinner condemned, unclean? Oh, how marvelous, oh,
how wonderful is the Savior's love to me. I'm getting those
holy goose bumps again. The angels had sung on many occasions
when the Great One had created The Bible says that the angels
sang in the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth. They had chanted many times during
a creation period by this great God. And they would chant something
like this, blessings and honor and glory and majesty and power
and dominion and might be unto him that sitteth on the throne. But this was a different chant
today. This was a new creation. This was something different. This was something so fantastic,
so awesome. With each creation that God made
and the angels sang, in my own mind last night, I was thinking,
they got louder. Louder and louder as they glorified
God But this time Think about it. This was something they had
never seen before They saw God stoop. Oh And what a stoop it
was God stooped from his throne and became a man think about
it and The great I Am, the great Creator. Stooped. It's hard to take that in, really.
But it needs to be spoken more and pounded from the pulpit until
the dawn begins to break in upon your mind and soul. That God
so loved you that He became a man. It was the only way to save us
from our sins. No doubt the angels lifted up
their notes higher than ever, reaching the utmost stretch of
angelic music. Think of it. The angels, the
cherubims, the seraphims, the highest of angels, break out
in praise at Bethlehem's stable to these
shepherds. There's not a sweeter, more majestic
praise than that of the incarnation, that God has come to earth. That
God has come to earth to save us. If the angels ushered in the
gospel, emphasizing the great head of the gospel with singing,
I think that's the way I ought to preach, although I'm not going
to sing today. But my preaching ought to be
like singing. Singing. And quite frankly, I
hope there is today. I thought about it all the way
over and kind of practiced at home. Smile in my heart there rings
a melody. God has come to earth to save
me And while I'm talking about the preacher
smiling and singing so should the audience Participate in song
why wouldn't it be something if somebody just broke out while
I'm preaching and Singing I mean it was real even if they were
off-key But the joy of the Lord so fill
them that God had come to earth to save them That they sang what
the scripture says is this rejoice in the Lord and again, I say
rejoice Some of you have such an awesome story to tell. How
God came to your Lodi bar. How God reached down in the hood
to the crack house, to the heroin addict. Some of you, marvel of
marvels, you've been saved out of church anity. God actually
went to a building where he was not, and yet it was supposed
to be a religious institution, and God brought you out of there
and showed you the marvel of his grace. What a wonder that
is. Glory to God in the highest. And I say to every one of you
here today, carry yourself with a cheerful carriage, I guess
is the word. Smile a lot. Because you have something to
smile about. Everything's working for your good. This God is at
work for you This God who said let there be light and there
was is working it all all out I'm looking at that plastic over
there knowing that their pipes broke and plaster down and I'm
saying Hallelujah, it's all working out for our good. Don't want
it to happen today again, but I do know this God is a God of
purpose and planning and even to the minutest detail. So the
angels told their story with singing. Sing Noel! Sing Noel! Sing Noel! Good news! Good news! When you're talking
about life and where you are, and I'm talking to those of you
who are Christian, get that frown off your face. Don't look like
the old mule looking out the barn door. Don't come into church looking
like a long-faced hypocrite to hear some preacher with a nasal
twang with misery in his face. How would it be like this? I
have good news for you today. Good news, good news. Sing Noel,
sing Noel. Listen to the preacher who preaches
with joy in his countenance. Telling out the good news not
with a grunt But with a precious joy that fills his own soul and
he overflows to you We have come into this house and gathered
in his name to worship him today may God grant it Now I want to
tell you the heart of this I wish and I pray every day that God
will help me in everything I do in ministry to get this message
across and to tell it out loud and clear. God has come to earth
that God may be just. and justifier of the ungodly. My friend, that's the heart of
the Bible. If you don't know how God is just and justifier
of the ungodly, who are the ungodly? That's you. That's me. And God
has come to earth to be a just God, a holy and a righteous God,
and yet justify the poor sinner. This is what made angels sing.
I No doubt they come to church. They're here today. Do you know
angels listen to me to preach? I have a great responsibility
because as I preach and every pastor does and Every preacher
does as we preach the angels are listening They desire to
look into this thing called the gospel It is so marvelous and
awesome to them. They're looking into it. And
when the good news breaks in upon them, they began to sing.
Throughout Scripture, and especially in the Revelation, you're going
to see the angels are going to break out 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands of thousands as they circle around the throne
of Jesus Christ. crying out, worthy is the Lamb
that was slain to receive glory and honor and praise both now
and forever. Amen. Hope the angels are excited.
We can't see you here, but we know you're here I hope we can
excite you today as we sing and as the Word of God goes forth
that you get excited and Actually as they look over the banisters
in heaven and listen to this little church and what a ragtag
bunch we are a bunch of messed-up folks that have been washed in
the blood of Jesus Christ and Can't you imagine Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob looking down and going like this? Hallelujah! I can just imagine those things
happening. Let me tell you, my friend, any
gospel that does not glorify God in salvation is not the gospel. I want to make it very plain
to you glory to God in the highest this gospel is a gospel that
glorifies God So if you're glorifying your church and let me just you
know I'm pretty plain about these things if you're a Catholic and
you think Catholicism is going to take you to heaven. You're
wrong. I If you're a Baptist and you think being an independent,
premillennial, post-trib, conservative Baptist is going to take you
to heaven, you are wrong. If you think because you are
a church of God in Christ, hallelujah, it's going to take you to heaven.
If you're a Pentecostal, tongue-talking, prophesying, if you think that's
going to take you to heaven, you are wrong. It's Jesus Christ. God, come to earth in human flesh. Any gospel that glorifies man
is not the gospel the angels sang about. You will never make the angels
sing by talking about your church or your baptism or your free
will. It'll never happen. It's when you magnify the wonderful
grace of God. I was a poor sinner, wandering
through life, God in mighty grace Snatched
me from the fires of hell and saved my soul God has come to
earth to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. You see
you had a debt you could not pay You can't pay for your sin. What are you gonna pay with?
I was thinking this morning of my friend Bill Davis, Bill Davis
is now with the Lord. But Bill and I used to play golf
and you know, he did so much for this church. And of course,
Danny Davis, his son is a part of our congregation, he and Pam
here. But Bill used to say to me, after
I first met him, we'd play golf on Thursday morning, nine holes
of golf. And neither one of us were worth
a hoot as far as playing golf. But Bill used to say to me, I'm
a pretty good guy, aren't I, Pastor? And he gave literally
thousands of dollars. He gave thousands of dollars
here. Bought a couple of houses, gave them to the church. I mean,
he was doing some good stuff. And he'd say to me on the golf
course, and listen, when you're telling a man he's bad, you can
still smile, it's okay, because you know the cure for bad people,
right? So I would say to Bill, when
he would say, I'm a good guy, I'm a pastor, I'd go, no, you're
a wretched sinner. You need Jesus Christ, Bill.
He's the Savior. And lo and behold, this is one
way I thought that surely he'd come to know Christ, and he did.
But he used to laugh back. You're telling me I'm horrible? Yeah. And most of you know that
when he got brain cancer, I went up to the hospital, Beaumont
Hospital, and he said, Pastor, I got something I want to tell
you. He said, you know what you tell me on the golf course? I
said, you mean that you're a sorry no good for nothing? And he said,
yeah. My maid, the woman who cleans
my house, has been telling me that for 20 years. Last night she came to the hospital
and led me to Jesus Christ Good news, right good news glad
tidings and Then the last thing that I would say to you today
is peace peace on earth. That's what the angels saying
you know, I think to some degree I We have just experienced some
kind of renewal and awakening. I know that many of you perhaps
are not happy with the new president, but I see that. You know, I was
in the mall yesterday, and I just broke out in this. Everybody
I saw, anybody came up to me and looked like they wanted to
talk, I said, Merry Christmas! You know, it's kind of nice to
be able to say that without thinking your government is against it,
is fighting it. I met some Jewish people yesterday.
I said, Happy Hanukkah! There's a sense of freedom taking
place. Peace. It's a wonderful thing
to have peace on earth. When I think about the Supreme
Court justices, I think how wonderful that's going to be. And I say to you that are kind
of downcast and need a counselor, and to your grandkids in college,
you should have more hope now than you had a year ago, I can
tell you that. I also want to say to our friends
in Israel, most Americans are for you, by the way, regardless
of what the United Nations did yesterday. Anyway, I got a little
off there, but had to get that in a little bit. Peace, goodwill
toward men. You know what would be good for
you and me today? to recall this, you know things
can only get better for us right because This God who came down
to earth to be just and justified. He's not gonna leave us down
here And what I'm telling to you is this same Jesus who went
up is coming back again And he knows those that are his
and one day peace will be on this earth and I had a friend
die yesterday morning, 430, a young guy that I grew up with, Norris
Hines, passed away. And of course, he did know the
Lord, was a Christian. And I kind of drooped a little
bit and began to think about my own age and being 72. And
I thought, what are you down about? Absent from the body,
present with the Lord. That's real. That's real. This world is not my home. I'm
just a passing through my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond
the blue I'm a citizen of that new heavens and a new earth That
day is coming when there'll be no more sickness. No more sorrow.
No more death the Bible talks about the lion shall eat straw
like the ox and The lion shall not eat men, but shall eat straw
like the ox, and the leper shall lie down with the lamb. There's
a day coming when the weaned child shall put his hand on the
scorpion, the Bible says, and play with the asp. It's kind
of hard to imagine, isn't it? That day is coming. Peace to
men. And then I would exhort you today
to do this. Have you fallen out with anybody?
Have you? It's time to make up. Aren't some of the things that
we fall out of? Somebody said yes, so I'm going
to talk to you. It's time to make up. What a
wonderful time it is to patch things. It's not nearly as bad
as you think. We all have our warts. We all
have our problems. But you know, if you can do this,
I just want to say, I'm sorry. You know, lots of things could
happen today. This could be a very happy day when families come
together, when you get forgiveness and you make up with one another.
You can't go back and undo what's been done, but I'll tell you
this You can know that it's all right between you and that person
now right This is a good makeup time. And by the way If you have
food share it a Lot of people don't have food Most of us has sinned. All you
have to do is look in our closet. We have 18 pairs of shoes All
kinds of all kinds of stuff in there Of course you could always
donate it to our thrift stores too as well And by the way, do you know when
you donate to our thrift stores Just so you know this 52% of
our budget comes from those thrift stores So, you are helping to
clothe people, you are helping people, and you're helping to
feed a whole lot of people over here. It takes about $8.5 million
a year to run that place across the street. Just let me give
you a little blessing. You know, I said our budget for
December was $1.2 million. We are now only $400,000 away
from reaching that $1.2 million mark. Say well pastor you only have
about five four or five days. I know isn't God gonna do a great
thing in four days Think about it Think about this
Think about this think about how God blesses this place over
$75,000 came in Friday in the mail. I I mean just think about that
a little bit. When's the last time you saw $75,000? It's a
marvel it's a God thing going on We have so much to be thankful
for don't we but it all centers around this let me say to you
I Some of you will probably be over at the center, up the street
at the Women's Center. And you'll be there today because
mess has got you in trouble. Do you know God is a forgiver
of mess? Do you know today could be the
first day of your life to start that you will never use again? Never use again. Because there's only one pill
that can fix you and that's called the gospel It's the gospel And
you know that gospel will make you high Do you really want to
get high today trust Jesus Christ? You can't get any higher than
that All of your mess is wiped out. You are forgiven. You are
heaven-bound. I There is no condemnation to
those that are in Christ Jesus What a glorious day this is why
don't you trust Christ today? Why don't you do it right now?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You see God's put it all in this
one package here. It all is it's in Christ People
say this all the time to me. Well, that that's really too
simple. I if I would ask them to be baptized
or join the church or All kinds of things they quickly do that,
but God has fixed it So you don't get any glory. So it's nothing
you do It's it's by faith. So it's not by works. It is simply
trusting believing God and God sent his only begotten son into
the world. God became flesh and tabernacled
among us. Emmanuel, God said, this is my
boy. This is the apple of my eye. Trust him, believe on him, and
thou shalt be saved. That's how it is. Let's stand
together. Would you like to profess Christ
today? Trust him.