Good evening, everyone. Let's
all stand and sing 509. The sands of time are sinking,
509. I'm sorry, I apologize. Thanks
for trying to help me out there, Eric. Let's see. I have it here. Here we go. We got it now. Sands of time are sinking, the
dawn of heaven breaks The summer morn I've sighed for, The fair
sweet morn of ways. Dark, dark hath been the midnight,
But day-spring is at hand, And glory, glory dwelleth ? In Emmanuel's
land ? Christ, he is the fountain ? The deep, sweet well of love
? The streams on earth I've tasted ? Nor deep I'll drink above There
to an ocean fulness His mercy doth expand, And glory, glory
dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. I am my beloved's, and my beloved's
mine. He brings a poor vile sin. into his house of wine. I stand upon his merit, I know
no other stand, not in where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's
land. The bride eyes not her garment,
but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but
on my King of Grace. Not at the crown He giveth, but
on His pierced hand. The Lamb is all the glory of
Emmanuel's land. Thank you. Good evening. I'll be reading
from Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2, verses 1 through 20. I'll be preaching from this text
as well later. And it came to pass in those
days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all
the world should be taxed. And this taxing was first made
when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed,
or enrolled in the tax, everyone into his own city. And Joseph
also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into
Judea unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because
he was of the house and lineage of David. He went there to be
taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, 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, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn. And there were
in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. 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. And unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you. Ye 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, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, good will toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels
were gone 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 it, they made known abroad the saying which was told
them concerning this child. And all they that heard it 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. Let's go to the
Lord in prayer. Our gracious, holy, heavenly
Father, we thank you, Lord, for your grace and your mercy, which
is declared to us throughout your word, And especially, Lord,
at this time as we think on the birth of our Savior, your Son,
Jesus Christ, whom you sent and spared not but delivered him
up for us all to deliver us from eternal death and damnation and
to deliver us from our sins that we should be reconciled and know
the true and living God and have fellowship with him. Lord, we
pray that you would meet with us this night, that you would
teach us and feed us, that you would comfort our hearts with
these words of grace that speak of what you've done for your
people through your son. Lord, we thank you for this and
confess how unworthy we are of such kindness, such mercy, such
grace from our God. Lord, we think of our brethren
who could not be with us, and we think of those that are sick
and not doing well. We pray for Ron and Claudia,
that you would continue to heal them. Help Brother Ron as he
struggles just to have the strength to go through the treatments. We pray that you would bless
them and help him, Lord, to be healed of the cancer that is
afflicting his body. and that you would give him strength
in many more years with us. Lord, we think of Brother Scott. We pray that you would help him,
Lord, with his various ailments, that you would help him, Lord,
to be well and to be strong and to continue with us. Lord, we
think of Abby and Jordan and the boys that are sick in Indiana,
that you would help them to get over the sickness well enough
to drive and to get home safely. And Lord, that you would be with
us, Lord, protect us. We thank you for the health that
we have, Judy and those here gathered tonight. Lord, we pray
that you would continue to bless us and keep us, give us strength
and good health. And Lord, we pray that you would
bless your gospel word as it goes forth, that you would bless
it to the hearts of your people, to our minds, that you would
help us indeed, Lord, to hear and to receive and to believe
that most holy word concerning our Savior, that we would be
fed and grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. It is in His name we pray and
give thanks. Amen. Our second hymn will be 355,
From Every Stormy Wind That Blows, 355. From every stormy wind that blows,
From every swelling tide of woes, There is a calm, assured retreat,
Tis found beneath the mercy There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads, a place then all beside
more sweet. It is the blood-bought mercy
seat. ? There is a scene where spirits
blend ? ? Where friend holds fellowship with friend ? ? Though
sundered far, by faith they meet ? ? Around one common mercy seat
? Ah, whither could we flee for aid When tempted, desolate, dismayed? For how the hosts of hell defeat
At suffering saints no mercy see? wings we soar, and sin and sense
proless no more. When heaven comes down, our souls
to breathe, while glory crowns the mercy seat. Thanks. All right, brethren, let's go
to Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 2. I want to speak
tonight with you about our Lord's birth, birth of our Savior. And when we're speaking of His
birth, we're talking about the birth of the incarnate Son of
God. We're not talking about the birth
of the Son of God. He is eternal. He has no beginning,
just as He has no end. But we're speaking of the incarnate,
the birth of the incarnate Son of God. And incarnate just means
in the flesh. Our Savior, our God came in grace
and in mercy to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. And so He came in our likeness,
in flesh, incarnate, to be a perfect and fit sacrifice for His people. Now, I read earlier verses 1
through 20. We're not going to focus on all
those verses, but just a few verses, and more specifically,
a few words that are used to describe, that give us a sense
of what the birth of our Savior was like. And these words are
descriptive of the salvation that our Savior wrought for His
people. And so just as we saw in the
creation account. On those first seven days when
the Lord created the heaven and the earth, we saw through those
days, through those creation pictures, creation accounts of
what the Lord did actually physically do, they described the salvation
wrought by our Savior for his people. Well, even so, there's
words in the birth of our Savior that describe what He has accomplished
for you that this day believe Him. You that hope in His righteousness
and His mercy. The hope that we have is declared
here in the birth of our Lord and Savior as the incarnate Son
of God. I've titled this, Comforting
Words in Christ's Birth. Comforting Words. Comforting
Words spoken at Christ's birth. Now, the birth of Christ, let
me just say, is the fulfillment of Scripture. His birth was written
of, it was spoken of long before it came to pass. In fact, the
prophet Isaiah said that it would be a virgin birth. He tells us
that Christ is going to be brought forth from a virgin. It's going
to be a virgin birth. A virgin conception and a virgin
birth. It's in Isaiah 7 verse 14. There we read, therefore, the
Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and she shall call his name, and shall call
his name Immanuel. Immanuel. And so Christ was conceived
in the womb of a virgin, being when she was overshadowed by
the Holy Ghost. In fact, you can turn to Luke
chapter 1. Look there in Luke chapter 1
verses 34 and 35. The angel, rather Mary, hearing
this, she didn't know a man, she was a virgin, and she heard
this from the angel, and she said unto the angel, How shall
this thing be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered
and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the
power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy
thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son
of God." And as it says in Isaiah, his name is Immanuel. And Matthew
tells us that Emmanuel means God with us. So that very God
became incarnate, the Son of God became incarnate and dwelt
among His people. He dwelt among His people in
the flesh. Now this brings us to our study
in Luke chapter 2. And we read that Joseph and Mary
the wife of Joseph, is come to Bethlehem. And that's because
there was a decree that went out from Caesar that all the
people of the lands that he ruled should be taxed by Caesar. Now this is very providential.
I mean, the scriptures tell us that the Messiah would be born
in Bethlehem. It's in Micah 5, verse 2. I'll read it for you. Micah 5-2
tells us, But thou Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come
forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings
forth have been from of old, from everlasting. so that this is the eternal Son
of God who is born incarnate in the flesh. He comes forth
and the way the Lord did this, I mean he could have had Joseph
and Mary born and lived in Bethlehem and just been there already where
Christ would be born, but rather the Lord does it in an amazing
way because at some point Joseph and his family moved away from
Judah and Mary's family also moved away from Judah and they're
both children of Judah. They descend from Judah, both
of them. And yet the Lord did it in such a miraculous, powerful
way, moving the hearts of kings just to bring this about. Supposedly,
Caesar actually wanted to do this taxation, I think, if I
remember correctly, a couple decades earlier, at least 15
or 12 or 15 years earlier, but trouble rose up in the kingdom.
and his mind was taken somewhere else and so he put it off for
more important things all because the Lord would orchestrate and
bring this to pass in a way that says to us the Lord's doing something
here. He's bringing this to pass in
a way that we must say the Lord's done this. The Lord's done this.
This didn't happen by chance. And in fact there was many other
things that that happened as a result of Christ just being
born there in Bethlehem but then going and being raised out there
in Galilee because it certainly confused the high priests and
those who are self-righteous in themselves and know what they
know and think that because they know it that they're accepted
with God. But we see here how the Lord
does this work. Now, there's other fulfillments,
such as even the tax. Even the tax speaks to a fulfillment
of prophecy. Jacob, when he was writing of
his son's blessing, his sons, he said, he said actually in
Genesis 49, 10, that the scepter, that ruling scepter by a king
shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his
feet until Shiloh come, until peace, the son of peace, the
son of God, who is the peace of God for his people, who reconciles
the people of God to holy God, that he would come at a time
when that scepter had departed, had departed from Judah. And this taxation by Caesar,
who sat in Rome, speaks to the very fact that that Israel wasn't
ruling over itself. They were subjugated to another
king so that they entirely had to move around and be jostled
about just to fulfill this scripture and show to us that this was
the time spoken of when Christ should be born and the people
gathered unto him. And so there's details concerning
the birth of Christ that for you who love His appearing, who
look for the Savior's return, there's details about this birth
that are given to comfort our hearts, to encourage our faith,
to strengthen us, to warm our hearts, to comfort us in the
grace of our God concerning His promise of salvation. Just as
we see here, He fulfilled all the scripture, just as He promised. and brought his son forth, just
as he did that, so it is that the promises he speaks to you
concerning your eternal salvation, and your deliverance from sin,
and your inheritance in him, that they are sure and certain. Be encouraged, brethren, be encouraged
and be comforted that your God's word is sure and certain. Sure and certain. We'll look
at these words now together. Let me just say actually one
thing too, since we're there. Sometimes when people see the
word world, that God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. That's a beautiful verse speaking
of the love that God has for his people scattered throughout
the world. And some would argue and say,
Well, the word world means every individual without exception. And yet the scriptures we see
many times use the word world and all, not in the manner that
says everyone without exception. Just look at Luke verse 1, Luke
2 verse 1. and then we'll move on but it
says it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree
from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed and
that means all the Roman world the emperors in China weren't
being taxed by him the Native Americans in South and Central
and North America weren't being taxed by Caesar so it was all
the Roman world was taxed and so the word world is speaking
of those who are chosen of God, elected of God, all His world,
all His people, these words come as blessed words of hope and
comfort to you, who this day hope in Him and believe His Word. Now, let's see these comforting
words to you. Reading in verses 6 and 7, 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." Now, the first
word that jumps out to me here, that speaks to our case, is this
word at the end of verse 6, delivered, delivered. The people of God
are a people delivered. Delivered from damnation. Delivered from the punishment
of their sins. It's been satisfied by the Lord
Jesus Christ that we are delivered from death. When our Lord came
into the world, He came to be delivered up as a sacrifice to
the Father in order that He should deliver His people from their
just condemnation. that we should be delivered from
what we earned, the debt that we built up, all the sins that
we did. Christ came and satisfied that
for His people, and so His coming speaks to our deliverance, to
our deliverance, the fulfillment of God's promise to deliver His
people. You know, when we speak about
a mother giving birth, we usually use it in this sense. We say,
well, she delivered the child at 10 a.m. this morning, or 10
o'clock this morning. And we speak of it that way.
She delivered the child. But here, the scriptures say
the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. When she was delivered of the
child, and delivered of bearing the child and the pain that went
with giving birth to the child, Mary was delivered. And so that
speaks to our deliverance. When Christ was born, He, brethren,
it spoke of our deliverance, of God fulfilling His promise. to deliver his people by the
seed of woman back there in the garden when he promised Eve when
he said that that her seed well he promised the devil he said
the seed of woman is going to bruise your head he's going to
crush your head he's going to destroy you And that promise,
they heard that, because every woman after that, when Eve had
a son, she thought, this is him. When she gave birth to Cain,
she was excited, because she thought, this is the seed that
the Lord spoke of. And then she gave birth to Abel, and then
Abel was put to death by Cain. And so it wasn't Abel, and it
wasn't Cain, and then they had Seth. But even he wasn't that
promised child. And when you read the Old Testament,
you see it, that there was great joy every time a son was born
in the hopes that he was that promised seed that should crush
the head of the serpent that deceived Eve. And that brought
us into sin and death and ruin. And so here he is, this is the
Christ, the seed of woman promised all the way back there in the
garden at the fall of Mem and Adam. And so we see here the
grace of our God, how that he spared not his son but delivered
him. up for us all. And so this birth of our Savior,
it speaks to our deliverance from bondage. It speaks to our
deliverance from laboring and toiling and spending to try and
obtain a righteousness for ourselves and to satisfy the righteousness
of holy God. We're delivered from that bondage
because we can't do it. But he did it. We labored in
pain and suffering, and His birth delivers us from that. It speaks
to what our God did for us in delivering us from the snare
and from death, and delivered us from eternal death. And so,
the lawful captive has been set free by the Deliverer, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Then, let's look over, before
we look at verse seven, let's look at verse eight. We see the
timing of Christ's birth. And that birth, his birth would
align with that first announcement by the angels to the shepherds.
It says in verse eight, and there were in the same country shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. So here it was, night. when the
angel appeared to the shepherds and announced the birth of Christ
at the time when he was born. And that's a fitting description
because we, his people, his brethren, his bride, were in under the
covering of darkness. We were in the night of our death
and destruction in Adam. And so Christ came where we were. Christ came to where we were
in the time where we were under the canopy of darkness. In the
night, he came into this dark world because that's where we
were. In darkness. In night. in destruction. It says in Isaiah 49 verse 9
concerning our Savior, that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show yourselves. By nature, we in Adam are in
darkness. We don't have light. We don't
have a little spark of divine light in us all by nature. We
are darkness. We are blind. We are poor, wretched,
ruined sinners who have no redeeming qualities about us. But because
God loved the people and gave them to Christ, He sent His Son
in the darkness, into the darkness to obtain deliverance for His
people and to bring us out of that darkness, to give us light
and life in Himself. Turn over to Colossians chapter
1. Colossians 1, and once we read this verse, just stay there,
because we're gonna come back to it in a moment when we look
at the next word. Colossians 1, verse 12 through
14. giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. God's
children are children of light, not of darkness, not of the night,
but are children of the day, and children of light, who hath
delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption
through blood, His blood, even the forgiveness of sins. And so, when Christ came, He
came into the night, where we are, in darkness, in utter blindness,
unable to see God, unable to worship Him and to know the true
and living God, and He came in and delivered us out of that
darkness, out of the kingdom of darkness, which is where we
were by nature, And He translates us, brings us into His Kingdom,
the Kingdom of Light. And actually, it even says there,
when the angel is speaking to them, He says, this day, this
day, the Savior is born unto you. I can't find it right now. But it's, ah, verse 11 there.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior
which is Christ the Lord. And so he's the one who brings
the day. He's the day star which rises in our hearts, delivering
us from that darkness to see the light of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. All right, next now, let's go
to verse seven in our text. But just keep a mark there in
Colossians 1. in Luke 2, verse 7, we're told,
"...and she brought forth her firstborn son." Christ is the
firstborn. He's the firstborn of the church,
meaning He is the head of the church. He is the head of the
body, and He's the one who leads His people in all things. We
don't see it much now, but the firstborn in In historical times, you know,
back I guess a couple hundred years, but the firstborn received
the inheritance and he would disperse and decide who got what
and he would take care of the family. He became basically the
patriarch of the family. And he cared for his sisters
and brothers and helped them get some sort of a living for
themselves, but he provided. And so that word doesn't hold
as much meaning for us today, typically, because we treat our
children all alike. But he's the firstborn. He's
the firstborn. He's the one that leads his people. Back there in Colossians 1, 18, It says, and he is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. And so Christ is the preeminent
one. We look to him for everything. Our God gave everything into
the hands of his son and exalted him. and he's exalted in the
hearts and the minds of his people who love and adore him. Because
He is the Chosen One. He is the Firstborn Son. He is the One whom the Father
committed all our care and keeping into His hands. And He does it
faithfully, faithfully, perfectly in everything. He does it all. And so Christ came into the world
to accomplish everything necessary for the redemption of His people. He is that firstborn son who
has all the weight of our salvation on his shoulders. And thankfully
he has the shoulders to bear it, brethren. And he accomplished
our salvation in the death of himself and faithfully went through
fulfilling all the law, every jot and every tittle, while he
was here in the flesh in order to be a faithful, fit, perfect
sacrifice for his people and everything. There's a beautiful
verse in Isaiah 49, verse 10, in the middle it says, for he
that hath mercy on them shall lead them. He is the firstborn
son. He is the leader. He's the one
whom we follow. And all who follow Him shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life in Him. And so we thank our God for His
Son, our Savior, our Head, our Husband, our Bridegroom, whom
we look to and adore just as we sang in that hymn. We adore
Him and we rejoice in Him. Alright, now next in Luke 2 verse
7, we're told that Mary wrapped Him in swaddling clothes. Swaddling clothes. The word used
for these swaddling clothes is strips. it strips as though it's
torn, as though it's from rags. In other words, when Christ was
born and his mother swaddled him, she didn't have a nice blanket
that was all set and bought for her when he should be born. She
pieced together what she could from various rags and torn things
in order to swaddle her child. and to keep him warm and to keep
him safe and bundled up. And it speaks to the poverty
of our Savior at His birth. And seeing those rags that were
used to swaddle Him, because it's a picture of what He left
in coming to this earth in the flesh to save His people. The riches that He left the glory
that He laid aside that He had with the Father in order to take
on Him the weakness of this flesh and the rags of this flesh by
nature. And he did that in order to redeem
his people. There's a verse in 2 Corinthians
8 verse 9 which says, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It's grace that did this. That
though he was rich, rich in the glory that he had with the Father
for all eternity, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. And so he came and those strips
that were used to swaddle him are a picture of the weakness
of this flesh just as we are poor, wretched, blind, naked,
thinking we're something in ourselves and don't even know it. But He
came in poverty in order to give us the riches of our God who
chose us before the foundations of the world, before we did any
good or evil, and committed us into the hands of the firstborn,
His chosen. the Chosen One, the Eternal Son
of God, who came in the flesh and leads the way for us. He
went through that veil first, and we follow Him into that eternal,
glorious day, following our Savior, Jesus Christ. And so that might
seem trifling to those who are rich in this world's riches,
or rich in self-righteousness, or rich in the things that this
world counts as riches. But to us, to the poor and needy
sinner, who has nothing, and who is brought and made to know
what we are in ourselves, and to see the great gap that exists
between us and our Heavenly Father, but who came and filled that
gap, who brought us near to our God in reconciliation and fellowship,
He means everything to us. He means everything to us. And
we're thankful for Him doing this. It says in Hebrews 2 verses
14 and 15, Forasmuch them as the children are partakers of
flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil, just like the Father promised us in the
garden, and deliver them who through fear of death for all
their lifetime subject to bondage. And so our Savior's coming in
the flesh is a picture of what we are. That poverty that he
was born into is a picture of what we are. It's a testimony
that we have a ragged self-righteousness that cannot save. We are in a
garment that's full of holes and exposes our nakedness before
a holy God who sees all. But Christ came in poverty to
give us the riches of God. to cover us and clothe us with
a white robe of righteousness for his people, that we may stand
before the throne of God shining as the stars because of the glory
and the blessed salvation of our Savior." Now, in verse 7
again, Luke 2, 7, and Mary laid him in a manger because there
was no room for them in the inn. Now a manger, speak of the manger
here, it's speaking of a food trough for animals. Back
then it was likely made of stone and it was a place where you
poured animal feed into. And while it would have been
cold and a hard seemingly uncomfortable structure yet for the purpose
that Mary was using it it was actually very useful in keeping
the child still that swaddled child still and safe and protected
there in that that manger and so what do we see what are the
pictures that we see here well Christ Joseph and Mary went to
Bethlehem. And Bethlehem, what it means
is the house of bread. It's called the house of bread. And he went there in order to
fulfill the scriptures, just as it was written of his birth. And he was placed in a manger
where they feed animals from. And that's fitting, because Christ
we know is the bread which came from heaven. which is also called
the bread of God, who is also called the bread of life. And
He is the one whom the people of God, those poor, needy sinners
who have nothing to boast in of ourselves, He's the one whom
we feed upon. He is our very sustenance, our
very life. One thing that the child of God
is made to understand is that apart from Him, I die. Apart from Him, I have no life. I don't have a salvation with
God. I have no familiarity. I have no fellowship, no reconciliation
with holy God. But in Him, I have life. We feed upon Him who is the bread
of life, whom the Father willingly sent, and spared not, but delivered
Him up for us all, that we should know the true and living God,
people who do not deserve who don't deserve it, who have no
righteousness of ourselves, that we should have life in him. Now, the announcement of our
Lord's birth, it didn't come to the great and mighty men of
the day. It didn't come to kings and rulers
and governors and magistrates and to priests and whatnot. It
came to those who, by the providence of God, would understand it. It came to those who could hear
that language. describing a child who was being
treated like a lamb of God. It came to shepherds who would
understand these words. And that's what the Lord does.
He brings this word to people who have been providentially
prepared by him in grace, apart from their knowledge or cooperation
or knowing what's going on. But in grace and mercy, he prepares
his people to make them to know what they are in themselves,
and to see their need of Him, and to hear this glorious good
news of Christ the Savior, who was born to put away the sins
of His people." And so these men would understand what was
spoken of in verse 12. They were given a sign, and it
was using words that they would have likely been familiar with
at that time. because they were shepherds in
Bethlehem. And Bethlehem produced sheep that were useful and used
oftentimes in the temple sacrifices in Jerusalem. They weren't very
far from Jerusalem and the temple there. And so they understood
these words. And look, it says in verse 12,
and this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And so the angel tells
them, of all the babies that have been born in Bethlehem this
day, you're going to know him because he's going to be swaddled
and lying in a manger. And they would know that. Because
they understand what an animal barn is. And they know what's
there and what to look for. And so they heard it. It meant
something to them. And they went looking for this
baby. What's peculiar about it is it
would have held a special significance for them because what they would
do, because those lambs were used in the sacrifices in the
temple, they would use troughs. They would swaddle the lambs
and they would use troughs to put that baby there in the trough
to protect it, to keep it unblemished, unspotted, a perfect lamb useful
for the sacrifice to God. And so when the angel announced
it in this manner, they would hear, that sounds like a lamb,
a lamb of God, a perfect lamb. This child, this Christ is the
lamb of God, whom the Father has sent to put away the sins
of his people. It's just as John the Baptist,
when he saw Christ, he said, behold, the lamb of God who taketh
away the sin of the world. And they heard that from the
angel. This is the sign to you. This is the Lamb of God, whom
He has sent to put away the sin of His people scattered throughout
the world. And so that's what we're hearing
in the birth of Christ. We're hearing of Him who was
born to die. Him who was born to take upon
Him the sin of His people. and to put it away forever, to
do for us what we could not do for ourselves. And so we read
of his birth, and when we pause and think about what's being
said, we see his poverty. We see that he's the firstborn
who leads us. We see him who came laying aside
his riches in poverty to be made like unto his people, to accomplish
their redemption, to deliver them out of darkness, to deliver
them out of the darkness of night, to deliver us out of the bondage
of dead works religion that cannot save us, to come swaddled in
flesh like unto his brethren and was laid in a manger who
is the very food and sustenance, the very life of his people. And He did this, accomplishing
all this for us in the death of Himself. You that are sinners
who have no righteousness of your own, look to Christ, behold
the Lamb of God. He is the one whom the Father
sent to take away, to put away the sin of His people and all
who believe Him. have their sins forgiven by Him
already. That's why the Lord manifests
faith in the heart of His child who needs that salvation to look
to Him because He is the Savior. Christ and Christ alone is the
salvation of His people. I pray the Lord bless that word
to your hearts. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your mercy in sending your son. Lord, in accomplishing all
our redemption, even from the foundation of the world, and
how you testify to what you've accomplished for us in and throughout
the scriptures, declaring our deliverance, our salvation in
him, the seed of woman, the one whom you chose, to come and to
do for us what we could not do for ourselves, but for Your love's
sake, for Your mercy and grace, Lord, we thank You for this grace. We pray, Lord, that You would
indeed warm our hearts, strengthen our faith, comfort our troubled
minds, to behold Him, to receive that peace which You declare
in the birth of Your Son, which is to Your people. Lord, we pray
for Those many things which we've not spoken of and various concerns
and troubles and difficulties that we have, you know each one.
Lord minister your grace, your comfort, your peace to the hearts
of your people. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn will be 100.
Come, O come, all ye faithful. 100. O come, all ye faithful. Come, all ye faithful, joyful
and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. him, born the King of angels. O come, let us adore him, O come,
let us adore him, O come, let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Sing, choirs of angels, sing
in exultation. Sing, all ye bright hosts of
heaven above. To God all glory in the highest,
O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let
us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Yea, Lord, we greet thee, born
this happy morning, Jesus, to thee be we a glory given. Word of the Father, now in flesh
appearing, O come let us adore Him, O come let us adore Him,
O come let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. Thank you.