Well we've sung and read about
the Lord Jesus Christ and his birth and how he would come and
how he did come and we read in the Gospel of Luke the few verses
that spoke to us about when the angels came to the shepherds
who were looking after their sheep at night and it's very
wonderful really to think that This was revealed to just some
poor shepherds. Shepherds, of course, in those
days were... It was quite a poor, menial job
to do, to be a shepherd. And so we see that God wonderfully
came to the shepherds. He didn't come to kings, He didn't
come to the Pharisees, He didn't come to anybody important. But
He came to just some ordinary people, some shepherds. And we
should be very thankful for that today. And we read that short
account about the shepherds. And it's only a few verses, and
in those few verses we get a wonderful description of what occurred. And perhaps we envisage it may
have taken a long time, but in fact it was probably only a few
minutes that this actually occurred. and what an effect it had upon
those shepherds. And I'm sure it would have had
on any of us if we'd been perhaps in the fields one night and suddenly
somebody came and spoke to us and then the heavens opened as
it were and the angels came and spoke those wonderful words.
And they were wonderful words because what it was, it was a
fulfillment of the prophecies that we've read about in the
Old Testament. And it is encouraging to us to
know today that those things which were spoken so many years
ago came to pass in just the very way that the Old Testament
told us it would do. The Word of God is so wonderfully
accurate and so encouraging, so that we have today, as we
come to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, realizing that he was
prophesied right from that day in the Garden of Eden. And all
through the period until the Old Testament writers stopped
writing, there were those occasions when it spoke about the coming
of the Lord Jesus. And so he came. And this is the
way he was revealed to the shepherds. And these particular words I'll
speak to you from for a few moments is the last part of what they
said. Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace, goodwill toward men. It is an important statement.
A statement which of course many people are unwilling to recognize
or notice or listen to, but the fact is that these angels came
with this very important statement, glory to God in the highest. And that is the whole purpose
of the Christian life. It is to bring glory to God. And therefore, as we come to
think about this occasion, this Christmas time and the birth
of Jesus, it should be to bring glory to God. You may say, well,
I don't quite understand how it can bring glory to God. Well,
it comes down to this, really in essence, very simply. As we
know, sin entered into the world in the very early days after
creation. And that sin was because man
disobeyed God. If there had been no disobedience,
there would have been no sin and there would have been no
need for a saviour. But man listened to Satan in the form of a serpent,
who of course was very cunning, and came and attracted Eve and
told her how good the fruit was. She knew she was forbidden to
eat it but nonetheless she took it and she ate of it and of course
as soon as she ate of it the effect was that sin came upon
her. Now how was she to get rid of
her sin? And that sin passed upon all
mankind. All of us come into that situation,
all of us sin. And we all need to have that
sin taken away, because we believe there is a glorious heaven. We also believe there is a terrible
hell. And if we are going to come at last to that glorious
heaven, what we do know, the Word of God tells us, it's a
state of sinlessness. There's no sin in heaven. And
so if you and I have sin, we shall not enter into heaven.
And so we need to have our sin taken away. And how can that
be? How was that going to be? And
how will it be? Well, it was through the life
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jesus had to be born,
because nobody had been born into this world who was sinless.
And if anybody was to satisfy what God demanded, God the Father
demanded, it was that somebody should live a sinless life. Well,
everybody had failed. But blessed be God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, who is God, and is the second person in the Trinity,
we believe in the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, And he
willingly came into this earth to live a perfect life, so that
he might die to take away the sins of his people. And you may
say, why did he have to die? Well, he had to die because God
ordained that the way of salvation, the way that you and I would
be saved from our sins, to have all our sins taken away, was
only through the death. and the shedding of blood. And
therefore the Lord Jesus Christ, he came. And it's wonderful to
think as he was born in those very humble circumstances in
that manger in Bethlehem and lived that perfect life and died
that wonderful death. Purely to redeem to save his
people to take away all their sins. And so we have there a
little Understanding why the angels were able to say this
glory to God in the highest and it was a wonderful occasion Because
here was a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ Who'd come into this world? to save sinners after all those
years, some 4,000 years had elapsed since the promise that we read
of in Genesis 3.15. And now it had come to pass,
the Lord Jesus was born. And so it's not surprising that
there was this great joy and this wonderful outpouring of
pleasure as the angels were able to come and speak these wonderful
words, glory to God in the highest. Now, that statement, of course,
is not just that the angels spoke, because I believe that every
true person that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ also desires
to glory in what God has done. And today it's wonderful if you
and I, therefore, have come together and we can say from our heart,
yes, glory to God in the highest. He it is that has saved me from
all my sins. He it is that has paid the price
for my sins. And that price was his death
upon the cross at Calvary. Well, if you and I are able to
really be thankful at this Christmas time for what Jesus did. We'll
be very thankful for his birth, we'll be very thankful for his
life, and of course, as we can read of his life in the New Testament,
we get an account of many of the things that Jesus did, and
the wonderful way that he spoke, the many parables which he told
us, and the many people that were healed. And so today we
have a wonderful record of these things in the Bible. And we should
be so thankful that we do have the Word of God, therefore, to
be truly thankful for. Glory to God in the highest. And then he says, and on earth
peace, goodwill toward men. This was to bring peace into
the hearts of the people that believed in Jesus, the people
who realised they had a need to be saved, who were very restless,
who didn't have any peace. People are always striving, aren't
they, today for peace. And of course when there are
no wars, we're thankful for outward peace. But the great blessing
is to have the peace of God in our hearts. And that peace of
God in our hearts will only come about through the knowledge that
Jesus has died to take away our sins. Because if we don't know
that, we will not have any of this true peace. But if we do,
it will be a peace, which will be wonderful, and we should enjoy
it, and thank God, therefore, for that great work of salvation.
And we shall then praise God, and say, indeed, glory to God
in the highest. And it's important to realize
that the angels, when they came, the first thing they did was,
therefore, to begin with thanksgiving and praise. Thanksgiving to God
and praising his name. What a wonderful thing it is
if you and I come and desire to truly praise God and to bless
him for what he has done. Now, Jesus came, of course, as
a man, but he was also God. And it's very difficult for us
to appreciate the greatness of this. He came as God, but he
lived upon this earth as man. He was just like you and I, no
different. And we are told, the Bible tells us, that Jesus was
tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin. That means he never said a wrong
word. He never did a wrong action,
and yet he was tempted to do so. And we're tempted often,
and perhaps we fail. And perhaps we do not do those
things that we should. Well, this wonderful statement,
we should always desire to bless God for and to desire that we
might know that peace of God which passeth all understanding. Later on in this Gospel of Luke,
in the 19th chapter, we read these words because it shows
how After this came to pass, and before he died, there was
this glorying to God. And this is what we read. And
when he was come nigh, and even now at the descent of the Mount
of Olives, I'm sure most of you know the Mount of Olives is in
Israel, near to Jerusalem. And the Lord was there and he
came down. And as he was coming down from
the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples, that's
not just the 12 disciples, but many others, they gathered together
and they began to rejoice and to praise God. with a loud voice
for all the mighty works that they had seen, saying, Blessed
be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord, peace in heaven
and glory in the highest. And so we have therefore a statement
with regard to the glory of God, again some 30 odd years after
it was first spoken by the angels. there's also then we have a little
view of this glory in heaven and in the book of the revelation
we can read in the fifth chapter in the twelfth verse something
which is to be known and to realize and by God's grace we hope to
partake of it and this is what it says All the people were saying
there, with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb. The lamb, of course,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. In scripture, the lamb often
is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Worthy is the lamb that
was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength
and honor and glory and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and such as are in
the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever. So we recognize
that there was this desire by the angels to glorify God. There was the desire of the disciples
when he came down from the Mount of Olives shortly before he was
crucified to glorify God. And we have the picture of those
who are in heaven glorifying God. So what a good thing it
would be today if we desire to truly glorify our God. Now we think of peace. The Bible also tells us this,
there is no peace saith the Lord to the wicked. That means if
we do not have an interest The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
believing that he has died to take away our sins There isn't
any real peace people pretend today that they have peace but
there's only true peace in the knowledge that Jesus has taken
away all our sins and When the Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians
and That's a little epistle that he wrote, a little letter that
he wrote, and this is what he says in the second chapter. He says in the 14th verse 4,
He is our peace. Jesus is our peace. He is our
peace, who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us and came and preached peace to
you which were afar off. and to them that were near. Now,
of course, by nature we all are far off from Christ. We don't
want Christ naturally. People don't want Christ naturally.
They want to live their own life. They want to fulfil their life
in this earth. They want to enjoy everything
they can in this earth. And they have little regard to
the life which is to come. But what a blessing it is if
the work of the Holy Spirit, remember the third person in
the Trinity, touches our heart and shows to us the great need
there is of a saviour. And it shows us today as we think
of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and think that he came
for a special purpose. It wasn't just something haphazard. It wasn't something that wasn't
planned. It was planned way back. Indeed, we're told before the
world was actually created. So we see in some area the majesty,
the greatness, and the power of Almighty God. It's beyond
our understanding. What a blessing it is today if
you and I are blessed to recognize this great statement which was
spoken, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace. Goodwill
toward men, not only peace, it was goodwill, wasn't it? See,
if God had never sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, we might
say there would never have been any goodwill. But there was goodwill. Goodwill of Almighty God. And
that is wonderful, isn't it? To think of God, the great God,
the Almighty God, who lives and reigns today. in heaven, who
always has been. Again, something beyond our understanding
that Jesus, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit,
always have been. And they indeed planned this
great and glorious fulfillment of the promises that would come
to pass at goodwill toward men. We have a gracious God. We have
a kind God. We have a merciful God. We have
a loving God. And it's wonderful today as we're
able to remember the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was
because God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten
son into the world, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish,
but have eternal life. Today, may we bless God for such
a promise. May all of us today be found
looking unto Jesus, we're told, to be found, Isaiah tells us,
looking unto Jesus, and what a blessing, sorry, look unto
me or the ends of the earth, and I am God, and there is none
else. And then, in Hebrews, looking
unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. It's God
that begins his work in our heart, And if he's begun it, so that
here we are today desiring to praise God and to glorify his
name, it's because of what he's done for us, and then he will
finish that work, and by his grace we shall be found in heaven
at last, to praise him forever and ever. Well, let's ponder
these words, they're wonderful words, and remember them. Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards
men.