Loop two. Of course, this whole chapter
is beautiful, but I just really want to look at verses 10 through
12 tonight. The angel of the Lord said unto
them, that's the angels who were watching over their flocks by
night, they said, fear not, 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 Savior. which is Christ
the Lord. You know that I don't often,
if ever, really, I can't remember a time much that I've preached
a seasonal message. You hear that commonly, an Easter
message or a Christmas message. And we know no reasonable person
really thinks that our Lord was born on December the 25th. But
as we've said before, there's never a bad time. to celebrate
the birth of our Lord into this world. What we don't want to do is connect
our Lord's birth in any way to any kind of superstitious traditions
or any idea of any observance of holy days. They call it a
holiday, which is just a mashup of the term or the phrase holy
day. We don't want to associate our
Lord's birth or anything to do with our Lord with any of the
foolishness that comes with the traditional Christmas season.
And I can understand this being a little confusing because we
say on the one hand it's fine to celebrate our Lord's birth
at Christmastime, what they call Christmastime. But we don't want
to associate that of course with the pagan traditions and things
like that. But let me try to be clear about
that tonight. Even the traditional aspects
of what people call the holiday season are completely fine with
me. Sure, they may have had some
kind of pagan origins, but nobody even knows about that anymore.
They're not openly idolatrous. On the very surface of them,
you'd have to understand the history to even know what you
were worshipping if you were an idol worshipper. And most
people don't. But the gift buying and giving
and family gatherings and Christmas trees and even the characters
and the songs, even the songs that have no worship value whatsoever
about them, Rudolph and all that, that's all fine with me. As long
as none of that is confused with or even really associated with
the worship of God. We know that has nothing to do
with the birth of our Lord or anything to do with God's worship. It's also fine to celebrate the
birth of our Savior this time of year. What could possibly
be wrong with that? Just as it is any time of year,
just understand that we don't observe a religious holy day
because Christ himself has fulfilled, they used to observe religious
holy days. by God's design, by God's command. But we don't now, and the reason
that we don't, Paul even said, I worry about you because you're
observing these days and things and these superstitions that
no longer hold any meaning. Christ himself has fulfilled
all that the true Old Testament holy days signified and taught.
And now that old has vanished away because we look to him alone. as our Sabbath, as our everything. And also, let me make one more, I guess, it's just worth noting, that
any depiction or image of anything holy, which we know happens quite
a bit this time of year in the form of angels and babies in
mangers and such, it's just horrible. The Scriptures are pretty clear
about that, and let me say that even in the Old Testament when
many images and physical things were used in the worship of God.
Even then Old Testament believers were taught not to make images
of anything holy and only by very specific and
detailed instruction from God himself. If you look at everything
that was made in the tabernacle in the temple and in the worship
of God at all, God very specifically and in great details, almost
to the point of it being tedious to read it, to be quite honest,
has laid out how, what to make, what to make it out of, how to
make it and what for. And to be used in the worship
of God. So think about this for a minute,
even in the Old Testament, Only what God specifically said to
make, and how to make it, why to make it, was to be made for
the use in his worship. And now, even the things that
God did instruct to be made for use in his worship are obsolete.
They're not used anymore. We don't sacrifice animals anymore.
We don't have these The vessels of the tabernacle were holy and
the vessels of the temple were holy. We don't have any of that.
We don't have these religious symbols and objects anymore. All of that, even the things
that God did specifically say, make this, make it look like
this, make it out of this, make it for this purpose. Even that's
gone now. And now we are given in the New
Testament church two physical, if you will, pictures of Christ
to be used and observed, the ordinances, the Lord's table
and baptism. And just like in the Old Testament,
we're given explicit instructions regarding how they are to be
done. That's how God operates. Nobody just makes something up
and says, I think this will be good. This will help us worship.
Everything else is idolatry. Even back in the Old Testament,
if somebody had fashioned, if they just said, well, you know,
if they had some prophecy, some image from God of what would
happen in the future, and they made a cross out of gold and
said, OK, we're going to worship God with it. Do you have any
idea what would have happened to them? I got a pretty good idea, don't
you? And now that religious, all religious physical objects
are completely obsolete. Who in their right mind would
do that? The same God now that despises anything that man just
comes up with, with regard to his worship. Always has, always
will. We can't just decide we're gonna
make an image of something, a fish or a cross or something like
that and say, this is an aid to worshiping God. Everything is idolatry except
what God has ordained. And this is a good time of year
to bring that up. But let's get to this beautiful,
beautiful text. And notice first these two glorious
words first spoken by the angels when they appeared. These shepherds
were trembling, weren't they? It says they were in the context.
They were sore afraid, and you would have been too. Not only
did the angel, it said he came upon them. He appeared right
in their presence somehow. The angel came upon them. And
the glory of the Lord shone round about them. And because of those
things, they were sore afraid. They were scared to death. But
the first words out of the angel's mouth is what? Fear not. Fear
not. And there's gospel even in that,
because here's the thing. The reason for their fear was
the glory of the Lord. What's scary about that? Well,
John said in Revelation 117, when I saw him, And I saw his presence. This
was just a messenger from God in Luke 2. But John, the presence
of the Lord, and the Lord appeared to him. He said, I fell at his
feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon
me. Can you picture that? And said, fear not. Fear not. For I'm the first and the last.
I'm he that is living and was dead. And behold, I'm alive. I'm the living Savior. Our Lord said to John the same
words these angels spoke to the shepherd, don't be afraid. And
there's one simple reason why sinners are scared of God. See,
we have to think about why we take things for granted or just
kind of pass over things. But why were they afraid? Well,
because we are sinners. That's why we're scared of God.
We're sinners and we deserve His wrath. We absolutely are
deserving of His wrath. Even those who have no respect
for God in their daily life are scared of Him. I don't care what
they say. They may wax bold in their sin
and rebellion while God doesn't show Himself to them. But in
Mount Sinai, when God spoke in the voice of the Lord, they didn't
even see Him. They saw lightnings and they
heard thunderings. And they heard somehow the voice
of the Lord. And God delivered his law to Moses there. The language
there is instructive. Let me read you just a brief
passage of it, Exodus 20, 18. And all the people saw the thunderings
and the lightnings and the noise of the trumpet and the mountains
smoking. And when the people saw it, they
removed, they got the heck out of there. And it says, they stood
afar off. And they said to Moses, speak
thou with us. And we will hear. But let not
God speak with us lest we die. They were afraid it was going
to kill him. Well, that's kind of where these where these shepherds
were. What is this? They knew it was from God, they
knew that it was the glory of the Lord shining around about
them. Now, these same people in Exodus 20, the Jews, These
same ones, this same generation, this same group now, when God's
presence was not before them and they couldn't hear his voice,
they murmured and they disobeyed and they rebelled against God's
authority. They didn't care what God said or what his will was. But when God spoke, they thought
they were going to die. Why? Because they knew they deserved
to die. And we all know that by nature. We all understand that. But the glorious gospel call,
when the Son of God is going to be born to this world, He's
going to send His angels to announce His birth. And I guarantee you,
He didn't leave it up to them what to say. He sent them with
a specific message. And you know what it was? Don't
be afraid. Fear not. God is with you. God has come where you are. And you're not to run from Him.
You're to come to him. Don't remove, don't go far off
like they did at Sinai. The message of Sinai is quite
different. The thundering is from the mountain.
God's law is delivered and we're guilty under that law. But now
the advent of our Savior, don't run, come. Come, draw near. Come to him and there'll be no
wrath, but rest. Come to him and he'll give you
rest. Don't dread him, adore him. Don't tremble, trust. It's a different message. And
think about who's calling this great joy. Angels probably wouldn't call
many things that we call great, great. You reckon? We say, well,
that was great. And angels have seen things That
would make them unimpressed, shall we say, with what impresses
us. But they said we have good tidings
of great joy. Great joy. This is joy like no
other. And let's talk about that for
just a minute. One thing that's sad about Earth's joys, and we do experience joy here,
don't we? We experience joy, but really
nothing like what's being said here in our text. The Son of
God has come to this earth, and we know why, don't we? Unto you
is born an example. Now, he is that, but unto you
is born a Savior. That's what you need. Not under
you is born another chance. You don't need another chance.
You need a Savior. We passed that. We passed another
chance. We need a Savior. And He came
where we were. And there's no joy like that.
And one of the things about, we do experience joy here. Legitimate,
authentic joy. But because of our sin, because
of the effects of our sin, our limitations that are caused by
our sin, Earth's joys soon fade. Don't they? They fade. In the
full experience of them, they're wonderful, but then we just kind
of forget, don't we? When our children are born, I
would call that great joy, wouldn't you? From my perspective, that's
great joy. And I still rejoice in my children
now. What a blessing from God they
are. But I don't even hardly remember the days they were born
on anymore. I try to. I remember some things, but they
just fade, doesn't it? And I hate that. We record events
like that with the modern technology that the Lord has given us so
we can relive them in a sense because we do forget. But the joy of which these angels
spoke is not just a temporal experience. This is a joy that
if you experience it at all, it will absolutely change who
you are. In other words, not only do we
experience joy in Christ, but with that joy comes a new capacity
for experiencing joy. And so rather than that joy fading,
it really just intensifies over the years, does it not? And look,
I'm the poorest example. I never want to set up myself
as an example to you for anything. But I can honestly say to you,
as the worst example of anything, that when I hear these same good
tidings now that the Savior has come for me, he's come to save
me, I hear that now at 51 years of age, it means more to me than
it did at 15. Great joy. And this joy surpasses any other
joy because of the purity of it. Think about this. Much of Earth's joy, it not only
fades, but it's always mixed with some sadness, it seems like. Even in the full enjoyment of
it, while we're enjoying the freedom of Saturday, we're already
dreading Monday, aren't we? Just be honest about it. When
our children learn to walk, we clap and we laugh. We're going to miss their utter
dependence upon us, aren't we? There's something precious and
irreplaceable about that age when they can't even move from
one place to another without me. And their favorite place is not
running off over there. Their favorite place is right
here in my arms, in her arms. We begin to miss that, even in
our joy. When we find someone we love
in this world, and we marry them, we say, I don't ever want to
be without you. There's much joy. That's great joy, isn't
it? Not everybody finds that. But there's always a little fear,
isn't there? Mixed with it. Because when you open your heart
to love, you open your heart to other things, too, don't you? Pain. Heartache. And there's always a little bit
of fear that we might lose them. Because we've seen that happen.
And it's not something I think about all the time. But it's
there. What I'm saying is we don't even
know what unbridled joy even is. Let me tell you something
that you already know. There's no downside to Christ
coming into this world to save me. There's no bitter in that
sweet. It's all sweet. The Savior is coming where I
am to save me from my sins. And that's good tidings of great
joy. And our joy in Christ is better
than what passes for joy in this world, too, because it is worthy
of the angels calling it joy. Much of what passes for joy in
this world is actually sin, or at least has some element of
the flesh involved in it. The flesh rejoices in evil. And
we all are still full of flesh. But this joy is worthy of the
name. This is joy even to God's holy
angels. This is joy that even as it says
in the context here, glorifies God, glory to God in the highest,
that peace has come, that goodwill has come to men. that a savior
has come. It's glory to God and it's joy
in the truest sense of the word. The reason this joy is lasting
and pure and holy is because it's not of this world. And it's not only an event, though
the event of our Lord's birth is a wonderful one, no question.
But notice the wording of the angels. The good news is of great
joy. It's good tidings of great joy. And the good news is of the arrival
of a person. And we're not only told of his
arrival. His arrival alone is good news. God with us. Whatever
he does will be right. But his intentions are also told
forth here. And there are even more calls
for joy. He comes as a savior. He comes intending to save. And
what he intends, he does. He shall save. He's called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. This is the
advent of a person that is described as great joy. There's darkness
in the world for 400 years. God had not spoken. Can you imagine? God now just has a voice here
and there and you see what the world is like. God had not spoken. No prophet, no teacher, no preacher,
no nothing for 400 years. Just I'm going to kill you before
you kill me and we'll see who can end up with the most territory
and the most goodies. And the Romans were winning that.
Darkness in the world, but light has come. This is the condemnation
that light came into the world. And men love their darkness,
but not all. But to some, it's great joy. He comes as Savior. He comes as the light into a
dark, dark place, the light of the world. There's error in the
word. Can you imagine what we know
from our Lord? He stood before the religious,
the ones who were running God's church, so-called church. He
said, my house shall be called a house of prayer. You've made
it a den of thieves. Error was rampant because God had not sent
a spokesman for so long. And he stood there before the
respected religious elders and said, you bunch of hypocrites,
you bunch of snakes, you bunch of murderers of men's souls. Error is in the world. But John said, the word was made
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. The glory
is of the only begotten father, full of grace and full of what?
Truth. Here comes one. He told Pilate,
this is why I'm here to bear witness of the truth. What great
joy. Do you love truth? I mean, this is great joy. He's
the savior in every sense of the word. There's spiritual darkness,
but God's begotten is full of truth. There's great sin, but
God's only begotten that he sent into this world. is full of grace. And where sin abounded, His grace
did much more abound. He is the Savior. And one final
thing. They said a Savior, which is
who? Christ, the Messiah, the anointed. The word Christ means
anointed. In other words, God's man, God's
Savior, God's Messiah. God's prophet, God's priest,
God's king. God sent one. God anointed him
for the work, to accomplish a work, to finish it, to perform it,
and sent him to do it. Christ the Lord. I just want
us to remember this and leave thinking about this as we enter
this holiday season. He's Christ the Lord. And always
remember that when you think of him. Don't think of him in
the sentimental terms that the flesh is so prone to do. Especially
during this season when he's so often depicted as a baby in
a manger. Yes, he must be born into this
world like any other baby. Unto us a child is born. But unto us a son is given. He's
not repeating himself. A child is born like any other
child. Born of a woman, made of a woman,
made under the law, that he might redeem them that are under the
law. Born just like I was born, but also a son is given. The son of God, spotless, pure,
born of a virgin because he's not infected with the sin that
all other mankind is. And he must be born into this
world like me in order to represent me before God. Hebrews 2.16,
for verily he took not on him the nature of angels, He was
never born as an angel, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.
How did he do that? By being born into this world.
Wherefore, in all things, it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest. Always in the Old Testament,
the high priest was chosen from among the people. He was one
of them. God's son is one of us. that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. There's no reconciliation with
God for our sins unless a baby's born. And so we rejoice in that. My high priest was laid in a
manger, and he's bone of my bone, flesh of our flesh, that he might
reconcile us to God. But today, right now, as I stand
before you, he's not a baby in a manger. Even when he was a
baby in a manger, he wasn't just a baby in a manger. He was also
Christ the Lord then. Even when these angels came,
he was that long. Or he wasn't even born. But even then, they said who
he was to them. They didn't say unto you, is born a Savior, the
infant. They said Christ the Lord is
born unto you. Christ the Lord. He is the king on his throne. He was the king in a manger then.
He was the king on the cross one day, wasn't he? They put
it on there in three languages by God's providence. And now
he's a king sitting on his throne. And don't let's ever forget that. Hebrews 10, 12, but this man,
God's man, God's Messiah, God's Christ is the Lord. Because after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down
on the right hand of God. The right hand, it says in the
book of the throne of the majesty on high. That's where he's sitting.
When they were spitting on him and mocking him and beating him,
he said, one of these days you're gonna see me ascend to the throne. And that's where he is right
now. from henceforth expecting till
all of his enemies be made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. God highly exalted him because
he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the
death of the cross. He went as low as low can go
and is exalted high above the heavens now. He is Christ the
Lord. And these are good tidings of
great joy. Aren't you glad he's on the throne?
He was Christ the Lord then. That's good tidings of great
joy to his people. Who do you want to be in charge?
Who do you want calling the shots? They said even when he was a
baby, or I don't know what the timing was, but even then they
said he is Christ the And these are good tidings of great joy
to us now that he's on the throne. He always has been the Lord.
He was the Lord before he ever came, before he was ever born.
He was the Lord as a baby. He was the Lord on the cross.
He was the Lord when he healed that man's servant that day.
And that man said, I know something about authority. All you have to do is just say
it and it's done. He said, it's done. He was the Lord then. He was
the Lord when that leopard came and fell at his feet and said,
Lord, if you will, you can make me whole. I'm sure that the angels counted
themselves greatly privileged to deliver such tidings. Don't
you imagine? Oh, good tidings of great joy. And what a privilege for a man to be enabled and be, by God's
grace, willing to deliver such a gospel. And may it ever rejoice our hearts
more and more to hear that gospel. Unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior. He's God's anointed, and he's
the Lord. Always has been, is tonight,
and always will be. He is the gospel. Let's pray.