Alright brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. I asked brother Eric to sing
that song because it goes right along, it is our text, what he
was just singing, what we just sang together. Last Thursday
we saw how Mary had gone to Bethlehem with Joseph, and how she was great with child. We pick up right where we left
off in verse 6. It says, 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, and
wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because
there was no room for them in the inn. It's important to note
that Christ was her firstborn son. Because Christ is the firstborn
son of God. Under the law, all the firstborn
were consecrated to God. And that picture of Christ, the
firstborn of God who is consecrated to God. The scripture says He
predestinated His people to be conformed to Christ's image so
that Christ would be the firstborn Son among many brethren. We have one elder brother, Christ
the firstborn. Now let's read on. Verse 8, And
there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night. This is where our song
picked up right here. 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. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people." He is not great joy to every
person, but great joy to all ranks and classes of people. all ranks and classes of people,
all kinds of people. Alright, read on. Verse 11, For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which
is Christ the Lord. Three more names here that is
why He is a great joy to us. Savior means He saved His people
from our sins. He did it all. To be saved is
to be saved. It's to have somebody else save
you and do everything to save you. And He's the Savior. Christ means He's Messiah. He's
the one promised. He's the one anointed. He's the
one who came and fulfilled all the law and prophets for His
people. No other held the office of prophet, priest, and king
but Christ. He's that one of whom Moses the
prophet typified and who Aaron the high priest typified and
who David the king typified. But here is one who possesses
them all. He is the Christ. And then He
is the Lord. It means He has all authority
and all power over all. He is to be worshipped as Lord
and He will be. Everyone needs to go bow to Him
and confess He is Lord. Everybody, believers and unbelievers
in that day. Verse 12. And this shall be a
sign unto you. Do you remember the sign God
gave to Ahaz back in Isaiah? Here he is. Look. 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 hosts praising God and saying,
here was the last verse of our song, Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace. and goodwill toward men. And
it came to pass, as the angels were going 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,
which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste,
and found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And
when they had seen, they made known abroad the saying which
was told them concerning the child. and all they that heard
wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart,
and the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the
things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them."
Now, this day called Christmas, we know, is a pagan holiday.
It's called a holy day and it had a pagan origin. There is
no such thing as a holy day. We don't worship holidays. That's
where the word holiday came from, holy day. We don't worship holy
days. We worship Christ. We worship Christ. And we know
this wasn't the day He was born. But I like it and we like it
when anything makes men to acknowledge that God came into this world.
in human flesh to save His people. At least they have to think on
this. At least they have to think on this. So I want to preach
today out of verse 13 and 14. It says, Suddenly there was with
the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God,
and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace,
good will toward men. Now those are the lyrics to the
song that we just sang. And there's a lot of folks this
time of year that will sing those words. And most people that sing
those words have no idea what those words mean. There may be
some here that's never given much thought to what those words
mean. But those words, all three phrases in that statement, gives
Christ all the glory. Gives Christ all the glory. They're
directed at Christ. So I want to look at these three
phrases and I hope that after we hear this message we'll sing
those words with an all new meaning. Now first of all, Christ is the
glory of God and He's the one His people glory in. Look at
verse 14. Glory to God in the highest. This was the first thing they
said. Glory to God in the highest. The sinless man, Christ Jesus,
is Himself God. He is God. As soon as that angel
spoke of Christ, as soon as he spoke of Christ, that heavenly
host appeared and here is what it says they did. They went to
praising. They went to singing praises.
To who? It said, praising God. And that
one they were praising is God. He is God in the highest and
all glory belongs to Him. Look at Isaiah chapter 9. Isaiah
chapter 9. I want you to hold that page. We
are going to come back to it. Isaiah 9. Keep your spot there. We will come back. But look at
Isaiah 9 and verse 6. It says, unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. You know how important that statement
is? There was a child born that day, but there was not a son
born that day. The Son of God was not born that
day. The Son of God always existed. He's God. That's why it says
there was a son given. You see, Christ was born as a
human that day. I mean, He came forth that day
as a human being, but the Son of God always existed. He is
the child born, He is the Son given, He is God. And the government
shall be upon His shoulder. And His name shall be called
the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Mighty God, the
Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Romans 9.5 tells us
this, Christ came who is over all, God blessed forever. That's who He is. He's God. And
that's so important because Christ is eternal God. And why that's
so important is it means everything He did for His people is eternal. Because He's eternal, His work
is eternal. And so we have eternal redemption
because of Him. And then look, that heavenly
host said glory to God. Glory to God in the highest. The glory of God is manifest
in Christ Jesus. Do you remember where Moses was
put by God whenever God showed Moses His glory? Look over at
Exodus 33. Exodus 33. Exodus 33 verse 21.
The Lord said, Exodus 33-21, the Lord said,
Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock,
and it shall come to pass while My glory passes by, that I will
put thee in a cleft of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand
while I pass by. You know when a sinner is going
to see God's glory? When God puts him in Christ and makes
him behold by faith. of God, that no flesh should
glory in His presence. Of God are you in Christ, who
of God is made unto us glorious. It's of God. That's why we sing,
He hideth my soul in the cleft of the rock that shadows a dry,
thirsty land. He hideth my life in the depths
of His love and covers me there with His hand. The glory of God
that's revealed in Christ is all God's attribute. Now we see
all the glory is manifest by Christ and it's all God's glory. And then the glory that's manifest
is all God's attributes in how God can save His people and be
just. That's the glory of God. How
He can save His people and be just. That's how all His attributes
are manifest. Look at Exodus 33 verse 6. Exodus
33 verse 6. I'm sorry, Exodus 34 verse 6. Exodus 34 verse 6. The Lord passed
by before him and proclaimed the Lord. This is His glory now. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, longsuffering and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. What about the fact that all
those He saves broke His law? What about His justice? And that will by no means clear
the guilty. Now, if you don't hear anything
else, hear this. This is the gospel. And I want
you to hear this. Everybody that came from Adam,
that's everybody, We died in Adam. We became legally guilty
and we were born in sin. We became unjust in Adam. Now
everybody God saves, that is who we are in ourselves in Adam. We are unjust. We are guilty.
So here is the question. How then can God forgive His
people and by no means clear us of our guilt? You see, if He just forgives
us, but He doesn't honor His law, His law says you got to
die. His law says I have to die. If
He just forgives me, but He doesn't honor that law, the whole purpose
for which Christ came is made null and void. He is no longer
righteous and His righteousness is not manifest. His forgiveness is at the expense
of His justice and that makes Him unrighteous. And then if
He just pours out justice and shows me no mercy, I still don't
see His glory because I don't see them in harmony together.
But now, how can He forgive me and not let me go free as far
as the law is concerned? How can He save me and enslave
me? How can that happen? The only
way that could happen is by God sending His Son forth, who came
forth to do that very thing for His people, to take our place.
God sent Him forth to declare God's righteousness, that God's
just, that He's just. And so Christ comes forth and
He gives Himself to be made sin, to bear the sin of His people
in His own body on the tree, and so God is just to pour out
wrath on him and by that God has purged the sin of His people
and totally put away the sin of His people so that God can
look at Christ now and forgive us of all our sin because of
what Christ did. And at the same time that Christ
did that, He was upholding the justice of God so that God is
just and He is the justifier. That's the only way God can be
just and be the justifier. Now let me state this to you.
This is where false religion will hang you up. This was not
accomplished when you believed. This wasn't accomplished when
you and I believed. This was accomplished by Christ
when He laid down His life. Scripture says when He had by
Himself purged our sins. That's past tense. That's when
He did this work. Then He sat down at God's right
hand. Scripture says He entered in with His own blood in the
holy place and having obtained eternal redemption for us. That's
past tense. He has perfected forever past
tense those that are sanctified. He did this Himself. Our faith
don't make it to have happened. It don't make it effectual. He
made that work effectual. And you think about what that
means. God was so just in the way He saves His people. That
tells you and me, God will never do anything to us that is unjust. God will never condemn an innocent
man. Ever. He won't do it. If He ever
did it once, we'd be afraid He'd do it again. He won't do it. Even His Son, He made sin to
be found on Him so that He could justly pour out wrath on Him. That tells you and me that once
He's put away our sin, He won't ever condemn us again because
He's a just God. That's the whole reason Christ
came forth. You think about this. If you
had a son and that son was innocent, you knew he was innocent of this
crime and he goes before a judge and that judge imputes the crime
to him anyway and says, no, you're guilty. You and I would say that
judge is not just. He's innocent. Well, for God
to impute sin to somebody that Christ that He has put that sin
away for, that He is totally purged, that would be unjust.
And He is a righteous God. He won't do that. When He has
imputed righteousness to you, it is because Christ has made
us the righteousness of God. So He's going to come forth and
declare that to everybody for whom Christ died. Listen to this.
I'll publish the name of the Lord. Ascribe ye greatness unto
our God. He's the Rock and His work is
perfect. For all His ways are judgment.
A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is He. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.
Behold, the King cometh unto thee. He's just and He has salvation. He's just, His law is upheld,
and He saves, He shows mercy. How does He come? Who is this
King? He comes lowly, riding upon an ass, and upon a colt,
the foal of an ass. You know who that is, don't you?
It's Christ, just and the justifier. So in the salvation of God's
people, you know who gets all the glory? God does. God does. Christ, our God, gets all the
glory for saving His people. Every bit of it. We don't get
any. He gets it all. Any man that
wants to have some glory for doing anything and be praised
for doing anything in salvation is disannulling the whole reason
why God created this world and sent His Son to do the work His
people couldn't do. He is disannulling the whole
reason God raised His Son and sent this Gospel forth in the
world. He did it to show His glory and declare His glory,
not to give us glory. Behold, the Scripture says, Behold,
blessing and honor and glory and power be unto Him that sitteth
on the throne and the Lamb forever and ever. Glory to Him. Now secondly, These men not only said glory
to God in the highest, they said on earth peace. On earth peace. You and I ever
seen peace on earth? You ever seen peace on earth?
Never. Not since Adam fell. Not since
Adam fell. It wasn't very long after that
what happened. An animal was slain. Not long after that a
man was slain. Men have been slain ever since.
Wars, fighting against one another. But that day Christ came, there
was peace on earth. Because Christ is that peace. He is that peace. Now go back
with me over there to Isaiah 9. Having seen that Christ gets
all the glory and set forth the glory of God, it's easy to see
how He is our peace. Look at this. Isaiah 9.6. It
says this. It says there at the end, he
is the prince of peace. And of the increase of his government
and peace there should be no end. Upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever. That means He is
judging His kingdom right now, those that are still in the earth.
He is judging His kingdom that are already in glory. And one
day we are all going to be with Him in glory and nothing is going
to change. This earth is going to pass away,
but He is still going to be judging us. And it is still going to
be His kingdom. And we are still going to be
in peace. Look at this. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. You know the main reason that
this country right now is so divided? I'll tell you the main
reason. Every one of us, it don't matter
if you are Democrat or Republican or independent or whatever, every
one of us do not have any peace that our political rulers are
working in wise judgment and doing that which is just. That's
the number one reason. You can't have peace when that's
the case. You cannot have peace when that's the case. But you know what God's people
have? We have peace. Because our King is wise. He does everything in judgment.
He is wisdom. And He does everything justly.
And He does it for us, His people. So we got peace. I said last
time, everything is being worked in this earth right now. Even
things that men do that are unjust, our King is ruling that to do
what's just for His people. One day He is going to take us
out of this world and we are going to behold His Kingdom gathered
fully where everything is just pure judgment and justice and
perfect. And we will be perfect. It will
be wonderful, won't it? To have a King that always does
justly. We have that now. We have that
now. You know, you don't have to get
upset with folks and worry about what the President or the Vice
President or anybody in the Senate or the Congress or any of these
people are going to do. We've got a King ruling them. And He's
ruling His kingdom, His people for us. For us. We have peace. Listen to this.
Micah 5.2 says, Thou Bethlehem Ephratah. He's personifying this
city where Christ was born in Bethlehem. Thou Bethlehem Ephratah,
though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, among all
the little cities, little towns of Judah, yet out of thee shall
He come forth unto me, God said, that is to be ruler in Israel. And that's who He's ruler. And
when I speak of His kingdom, His elect Jew and Gentile, I'm
telling you He's ruler in spiritual Israel over His people. whose
goings forth have been from old and from everlasting, that says
He is God. And listen to verse 5. And this
man shall be the peace. This man shall be the peace. He is the peace. In Christ Jesus,
you who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ, for He is our peace. Colossians 1.20 says, having
made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile
all things unto Him. You know what happens in God's
appointed hour? Because Christ has made peace between God and
His people on the cross, and God's just, so God's going to
have mercy on His people, there's an hour appointed by God when
He's going to send this word to everyone that Christ died
for. Each one individually. Wouldn't
it be amazing if He was doing that today? I hope He's doing
that today. And He's going to come with that
gospel. Christ is. You know what He's
going to do? Ephesians 2.7 says, He came and He preached peace
to you. He came and He preached peace
to you. You know, you sit there and you
hear that gospel and boy, you clench your fist and your heart
is mad and you look down and try to do anything else but think
on it and you just don't like it. And then Christ comes and
He starts preaching in the heart and He preaches peace to you.
And all of a sudden that gospel is the sweetest thing you have
ever heard in the world. Peace. Peace. Then when He does that, you start
telling people about Him. And you start glorifying Him.
And you know who gave you that? You know who made you do that?
He said in Isaiah 57 verse 19, I create the fruit of the lips,
peace, peace, to him that is far off and to him that is near,
saith the Lord, and I will heal him. He gives that word, peace,
peace, and He makes you speak peace. Now, here is my question. Is there anybody sitting here
right now who does not have peace with God. You ever heard a man
say, well, I made my peace with God. Buddy, you can't make your
peace with God. Only one can do that. That's
Christ. But here's what I'm telling you right now. If you passed
into judgment right now, today, are you going to have peace with
God? Come to Christ. He's the only
way you can have peace with God. Come to Christ. Cast your care
on Him. Believe on Him. Trust Him. I stand here right now as an
ambassador for Christ, like Paul said. And I'm sitting here beseeching
you in Christ's stead. Be you reconciled to God. He's
reconciled His people and He's going to send this Gospel and
He's going to speak this Word into your heart and when He does
it, you're going to do it. I pray He's doing it. But I'm standing
here in His behalf saying to you, be reconciled to God. Quit
fighting against God. That's what I'm saying. Believe
on Him. I pray He'll do it. You'll find
out it's because He's spoken peace to you and He's worked
peace for you and you'll have peace. Now here's the last thing. Christ is the good will of God
toward men. They said good will toward men.
Christ is God's good will toward men. Now most in religion, all
false religion is taking up one thing. I'm going to tell you
what the message is. Man's will. That's the message. Man's will.
They give lip service to grace and maybe even the true doctrine
of grace, they might give lip service to it. Maybe they talk
about Christ a little, things like that. But it is always made
to make the people sitting in the pew think that it is by your
will that you are going to be saved. By your will and coming
to Him, by your will and doing some work, by your will somehow,
it is all going to be by your will. But I am telling you here
today, the message of this book is not about your will. The message
of this book is about God's will. It's about God's will in saving
sinners who are unwilling. That's the message of this book.
That's the message of this book. By God's will. Now you can write
these down if you want to. I've got about three or four
to give you. But you can turn there if you want. By God's will,
He chose whom He would and predestinated us to be conformed to Christ,
to be His adopted children. Look at Ephesians 1. I don't
know if you can get to all these, but if you can, Ephesians 1,
3. Now if you can't, jot them down. Ephesians 1.3. Listen to
this now. You know it very well. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.
That's all of them. You can't get another one. All
spiritual blessings. He gave us all of them in Christ
in the beginning. according as He chose us in Him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy
and without blame before Him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to what? The good pleasure of His will. That's His good will toward men. God's good will toward men started
in eternity. when He chose His people in Christ
and blessed us with all spiritual blessings. That was His good
will. Remember what He told Moses?
I will have mercy on whom I will. And I will have compassion on
whom I will. And so then, it's not of you
that willeth. It's not of your will. It's not
of your running. It's not of your doing. It's
God choosing whom He will. And He chose us in Christ because
God doesn't choose His people irrespective of a good work. There had to be a work done.
And that's why He blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in Christ. Christ is the one that comes forth and does all
those works. So He blessed us in righteousness. He blessed
us justly. He blessed us Holy, in a holy
way, because Christ would do everything to make it so. To
make it so. But God shows mercy to whom He
will. See, again, this is bringing us to His mercy, to cast ourselves
on His mercy. We can't come to God or think
in our mind, I will be saved in a way other than how God says
He saved. We've got to come to God and
ask mercy. That's it. Alright, here's the second thing.
By God's will, Christ delivered all His elect on the cross. Galatians
1.4 says Christ gave Himself for our sins. Galatians 1.4 says
Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might deliver us from
this present evil world according to the will of God and our Father
to whom be glory forever and ever. It's God's will. That's what you look at the Calvary's
cross and you behold. God's will. God's good will toward
men. And He did it. He delivered His
people from this evil world by what He did. And then James 1.18
tells us this. James 1.18 says it's by God's
will that we are born again. By God's will we are born again.
Of His own will, of God's own will, begat He us with the word
of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.
It's of His will. And then listen to this, Ephesians
1.11. By God's will, He works everything together
in this world to save us and to give us our inheritance. And
that's by God's will, working everything in this world. Look,
Ephesians 1.11, "...in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will." I'm beginning to see that this
book is about God's will. It's not about my will, is it?
Well, 2 Peter 3.9 says this, By God's will, Christ is holding
this world in place right now because it's God's will that
His justice be honored. Well, I thought you said His
justice has been honored on the cross. Well, there's something
else that's got to be done for His justice to be honored. Because
His justice was honored on the cross, now He's got to call out
everybody He justified. Every one of them. He can't lose
one of them. He's got to call them all out. And that's what
He's doing. He's longsuffering towards His
people right now because He's going to call them all out. Because
that's His will. 2 Peter 3 verse 9, The Lord's
not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness.
He hadn't gone back on His promise to come again. He's going to
come again. Why hasn't He come yet? He's
longsuffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Look at verse 15. Account, impute,
impute that the longsuffering of our Lord is just as if it
is salvation? Is that what imputation is? God
treating you like you are something? No. Imputation is what you are
by a prior act. So God says here, because of
this longsuffering, because of God's will, because of Christ
dying for His people, He is going to call all His people. So you
impute that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. it will terminate in salvation.
All His people will be saved. Well, is this a sure work? Yes,
it is, by God's will. It's a sure work by God's will.
Everything I'm saying is sure by God's will. Turn to John 6.
John 6. John 6.37. It's a sure thing because it's
God's will toward men and God has given it all into Christ's
hand to accomplish. That's how you know it's sure.
Listen to this. John 6, 37. All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. That's all those He chose in
Christ. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me and Him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast As Christ will, I will not
cast them out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will which He sent me, that of all which He
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, and I will, raise Him up at the
last day. And therefore, by the will of
God, our God says to Christ, because He has given all this
power to Christ, and Christ working all His will, you know what God
said to Christ? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. That is all that can be said
about our will. We were completely unwilling. We were unwilling. We were unwilling to give Christ
all the glory and speak only of God's will. That's what we
were unwilling to do. Well, when were we made willing
to do that? When He gave us a will to stop talking about our will
and talk about His will. When He made us willing, we stopped
talking about our will and started talking about His. That's right. We started trusting Him. So,
do God's true saints boast in our will? Do we? No, we don't. We boast in His. Now, I want
you to remember these words and the meaning to these words. When
you hear glory to God in the highest, you remember, He that
glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is
God in human flesh in whom all God's glory is seen. He is glory
to God in the highest. And on earth peace. When you
hear that, remember Christ is our peace. He is our peace. And when you hear good will toward
men, remember Christ is the fulfiller of all God's good will toward
His people. Now the next time we sing those
words, I hope we will sing them with a whole new meaning and
think about them. Think about those words. You
know when we sing, really look at the words and pay attention
to what those words say. There's a lot of meaning in these
words and they're written well. We don't sing songs that are
not written well. There's one song we just sang
Thursday night, I can't remember now which one it was, and I saw
one line in it and I thought that needs to be rewritten. We
talked about steps to heaven. There are no steps to heaven.
When God made the temple, you remember, or the altar, He said
you can't have no steps going up to it. If you're walking by
steps, He said, you'll discover your nakedness. No, there are
no steps. It's all Christ taking you there.
But everything we sing, it's a faithful song. Think about
the words to these songs. And especially during this season,
when you hear that song sung, think about that. All right.