I asked her to sing that song.
It's been on my heart. Is that not our prayer? Fount
of every blessing, would you please come into this place?
Tune my heart to sing thy grace, because if you don't tune it,
it won't sing it. Please, please tune my heart
to sing thy grace. Streams of mercy never ceasing
call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet
sung by flaming tongues above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon
at mount of thy redeeming love. Oh, to grace how great a debtor
daily I'm constrained to be. May the Lord bless us this morning. Bless the message. Go with me,
if you would, back to Luke 2. Luke 2, and let's begin reading
in verse 8. And they 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. For 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. 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 host, praising
God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, goodwill 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 has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto
us. This is a glorious portion of
scripture, isn't it? This is a glorious portion of
scripture. What an honor it is to hear these
things. What an honor. What a great privilege
and honor it is to hear about this event, that it would be
recorded and we could read it and hear it. My prayer is that
by the end of this message, we will have a greater realization
of what it is that Christ did for us. That's my prayer, that
we'll have a greater realization of the fact that Christ chose
to do something for us. And I hope this message will
make us more thankful, more thankful for our salvation. I want to
begin by telling you and showing you the truth. And then I want
to tell you and I want to show you the gospel, the good news. This has been amazing to me. I've read this. We know this.
We know this story. We know this passage. I've read
it so many times. But this has been amazing to
me. This has been so sobering to me. And I sincerely beg the
Lord for His blessing. This chapter is the story of
how the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. And if you will
turn with me to 1 Timothy 1, we'll see why he came into this
world. 1 Timothy 1. It says in 1 Timothy
1 verse 15, This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. And this dear apostle said, of
whom I Am chief. Don't you love the
word am? Don't you thank the Lord for
the word am? He didn't say of whom I used
to be the chief. He said, I am. He came to save
sinners. That's why he came. Now, what
is a sinner? What is sin? We say He came to
save sinners and we just pass that off as, oh yeah, He came
to save sinners. What is sin? Turn over to 1 John 3. A few
more pages over to 1 John 3. 1 John 3 verse 4 says, Whosoever
committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. Sin is transgression against
God's commandment to us, what God has commanded in His Word.
In simpler terms, sin is rebellion and disobedience against God. Sin is disobeying God. That's
what sin is. Alright, well who has sinned? Who has sinned? Who has fallen
into rebellion and disobedience against God. Well, there were
two great falls, two great events that took place on two separate
occasions. Sometimes we talk about the fall,
we referred to the fall as though there was only one. There were two great falls into sin. Two great acts
of rebellion against God that involved a great number in both
of them. The first one is recorded in
Isaiah 14. If you want to turn with me over
there to Isaiah chapter 14. It says in Isaiah 14 verse 12, How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the mount
of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. Yet, thou shalt be brought down
to hell to the sides of the pit. The adversary was one of the
angels of heaven, but he and all of the angels that followed
him fell into sin and rebellion against God. And they fell because
they said in their heart, I want to be my own God. That is still something that's
being said today. Men and women are still saying
that today. I want to be my own God. I want to sit on my own
throne. I want this thing to be in my
hands. Ultimately, what they all said
was, I will not have that man reign over me. That's what they
said. Revelation chapter 12 says it
was one third of the angels who said that. Let me show that to
you. Go over to Revelation 12. Revelation chapter 12. It says in verse 3, There appeared
another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having
seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars, the messengers,
the angels of heaven, and did cast them to the earth." That's
where they were cast. And the dragon stood before the
woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon
as it was born. It says in verse 7, there was
war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought
against the dragon and the dragon fought in his angels and prevailed
not. Neither was their place found
anymore in heaven. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world, he was cast out into the earth, and his angels
were cast out with him. Verse 12 says, Therefore rejoice,
ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them, Woe to the inhabitants
of the earth and of the sea, for the devil is come down unto
you having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a
short time. He knows that he has to bow before
someone and he only has a short time. So the first fall that
took place was the fall of the angels. And that fall brought
certain destruction and eternal damnation to them. You can look
or you can listen to Jude chapter 1, right before Revelation, there's
only one chapter. Jude verse 6, it says, The angels which kept not their
first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved
in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great
day. What a horrible, horrible fall
into sin. That was the first fall, the
fall of the angels. The second fall was the fall
of man. Turn with me over to Genesis
chapter 2. Genesis 2 verse 16. The Lord God commanded the man,
saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat,
but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not
eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die. Chapter 3, verse 6. says, when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise,
she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto
her husband with her, and he did eat, and the eyes of them
both were opened. Opened to what? Sin. Sin against God. As soon as they
fell into sin, they knew that they were naked before God, and
they knew that they needed a covering before God. And this is where
we are. This is where man is. Completely
naked before God, and man needs a covering before God. And it
goes on to say in verse 7, they sewed fig leaves together and
made themselves aprons. They tried to cover themselves,
but it couldn't be done. Not before God. And I'm just
going to go ahead and we're reading between the lines. Let's open
the lines up. Man is trying to cover his sin before God. Man is still trying to cover
his sin before God. Who all has sinned? Every person
who dies. It says in verse 17, Unto Adam
he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life, Thorns also
and thistle shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground. For out of it
wast thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou
return. Sin has infected every single man and woman on this
earth. Romans 5 says, wherefore as by
one man sin entered the world and death by sin. You know why
we die? Sin. You know why nobody dies
in heaven? There's no sin there. Sin entered the world and death
by sin. And so death passed upon all
men for that all have sinned. All have sinned, every man and
woman on this earth, every man who was standing in that field
that night that the angels came. was a sinful man. And every man
and woman, boy and girl, in this room is a sinful man or woman,
boy or girl. This is the truth. Alright? This is the truth. Now that's
the truth about the two falls. There was a fall of the angels
and there was a fall of man. Go with me now back to Luke chapter
2. Luke chapter 2, when the Lord
Jesus Christ came to this earth, God the Father sent a message.
He sent a messenger and a message. And this is what the message
was. This is our message today, all right? We've gathered here
to hear the good news. We're here to hear the gospel.
Here it is. Here's the gospel. Verse eight,
there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the messenger,
the angel of the Lord, came upon them, And the glory of the Lord
shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. And that's
the first response that men and women have to the truth. Fear. Fear. This word brings the reality
of their condition, and it strikes fear. The fear of the Lord. They were sore afraid. Verse
10 says, And the angel said unto them, Fear not. I love that. That's the message of the gospel. Fear not, thou fallen creature. I'm a fallen creature speaking
to fallen creatures. And this is the message from
the word of God himself. Fear not. Fear not. You who of your own will and
your own way have rebelled against God. You who have brought destruction
and damnation on yourselves. Verse 10 says, fear not for behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy. I bring you the most glorious
news that has ever been or will ever be told to you. Verse 10, I bring you good tidings
of great joy, which shall be to all people. Here's the wonderful
news. It is not just to the Jews. It's not just to that little
nation of Israel. This news is for sinners all
over this world. This news is even for sinners
in Kingsport, Tennessee. Sinners out of every tribe, nation,
kindred, tongue, people. What is the news? Verse 11, unto
you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is
Christ the Lord unto you. Do you really mean me? If you're a sinner, you know
that Christ came to save sinners. Sometimes it's a little bit hard
to find a sinner. You go around asking people, are you a sinner?
No, not really. Kind of hard to find sinners.
And those who are truly sinners and know that they're sinners
will ask themselves, do you really mean me? Oh, I get it with him
and I get it with her, but do you really mean me? Unto you. Unto you. Unto you. I don't do
anything right. I don't. Unto you. I love this declaration. I love that this is the message.
No, you don't do anything right unto you. He is born this day
in the city of David, a Savior. A Savior. Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord,
a Redeemer. Savior means Redeemer. You see,
we fell in the same way that the angels were reserved in chains
unto everlasting destruction. We experienced the same fall.
But a Redeemer came. A reinstater. One who can right
all your wrongs. This is not the gospel message.
This is not the gospel. This right here is not it. You
better go right all your wrongs. You're going to have to straighten
up. That's not the message. Here's
the message. You were wrong. unto you has
come a Savior to completely reinstate you, completely redeem you, completely
put you back to where you fell from. Restore all your ruin. Someone came to restore all your
ruin. Who is it? Christ the Lord. Christ the Lord. Lord means God. God. Lord does not mean, isn't He
sweet and helpless? God. God. Not just the one who
can get you to God. He is not just the one who can
get you to God. Who is this one who came to redeem
us from all of our iniquity against God? Who came to redeem us from
our iniquity against God? God Himself. God Himself. Christ the God. Verse 12 says,
and this shall be a sign unto you. 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 host, praising
God and saying, glory to God in the highest. And on earth,
peace, goodwill toward men. Now let's see if we can enter
into this. May the Lord help us to enter into this. God sent
an angel with a message. And the angel, clearly in reading
what we just did, the angel was overjoyed to deliver it. Is it
not clear that there is absolute joy in the delivery of this message? I have wonderful news. I have
wonderful news. That's what the angel came saying.
At the announcement of it, one angel came. At the announcement
of it, a whole host of angels appeared. All of them praising
and glorifying God for this announcement. What was the announcement? God has purposed to show peace
and goodwill toward men. God has chosen to shed His own
blood. He's chosen to come and shed
His own blood and give His own life as a ransom for men. Angels being so in love with
their Master and King. Their adoration. I can't wait
to witness it. So in love. Just so in love. Such adoration for His will and
His purpose, whatever His will and His purpose is. Being so indescribably honored
to bring this news to man. It's a great honor to declare
the Gospel. They glorified their God for
His great kindness in allowing them to deliver this news to
man. Christ has come to deliver you. Christ has come to redeem you
from your sins. Now, why is that so amazing?
I said just a minute ago when I started, this has been amazing
to me, and this has been sobering to me. Why is that so sobering? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
two. I pray that in seeing this, it'll
make us infinitely more thankful for our salvation. Hebrews 2
verse 16, it says, for verily, he took not on him the nature
of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham. He did not take upon himself
the nature of angels. They fell too. They fell too. But it did not
please him. It was not the will of his heart
to take upon himself their sinful nature. If you look at, if you have the
margin in your Bible, it says, for barely he taketh not hold
of angels, but of the seed of Abraham, he taketh hold. He did
not take hold of the angels. He did not lay hold of, you know,
we sing that song when he reached way down for me. He did not reach
down. for the angels. Verse 17 says,
Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Can we at all enter into how
grateful we ought to be? What if God's message was this?
What if this was God's message? The angels declared God's message. What if this was the message
that God gave for man to declare? Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace and goodwill toward the fallen angels. What if God's truth to be declared
was He took not on Him the seed of man, but He took on Him the
nature of angels. In all things it behooved Him
to be made like unto His fallen angels, that He might be a merciful
and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation
for the sins of the angels." What awful news that would be
for us. We take for granted that it behooved
Him to save us. Oh, we take it for granted. We
take it so for granted. What awful news it would be if
that was God's message. But that is not God's message.
I'm here to declare God's message. Glory to God in the highest,
on earth, peace and goodwill has come to man. That's humbling. That is so humbling. Do we not
cry unworthy? Unworthy. I could see how He
would save them over us in a heartbeat. Unworthy. Christ came to lay down His own
life for man. What made us worthy of His favor?
In particular, men and women at death. Those that He chose. What made us to differ? Were
we better than they? Absolutely not. That's just what
it pleased Him in His heart to do. He does His will. Right here in Hebrews 2 verse
5 says, Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the
world to come, whereof we speak? But one in a certain place testified,
saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the Son
of Man, that thou visitest Him. Thou made Him a little lower
than the angels, thou crownest Him with glory and honor, and
didst set Him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all
things in subjection under His feet. For in that He put all
in subjection under Him, He hath nothing that is not put under
Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him, but we
see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that He, by
the grace of God, should taste death for every man." Every single
man on this earth. Did Christ taste death for every
man on this earth? He said, Father, all that You
have given Me, I pray for them. I lay down my life for the sheep. The sheep that you chose to save.
But He also said, none shall be lost. Every one of them that
you gave to me, Not one is gonna be left behind, every single
one of them. Verse 10, for it became Him for
whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many
sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through
suffering. He suffered in their place. He
took their place. For both he that sanctifyeth
and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he
is not ashamed to call them brethren, saying, I will declare thy name
unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will
I sing praise unto thee, and again I will put my trust in
him. And again, behold, I and the
children which God hath given me. That's who I'm doing this
for, the children that God has given me. For as much then as
the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part in the same. that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham,
Wherefore, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted." Glory to God in the highest.
He came, He lived, He died, as a substitute for his ruined people. He made himself ruined to reinstate
them back into the presence of the Almighty God. Now that's
the gospel. That is the gospel message to
man. God's angel came and he declared
God's glorious news. Good will has come to man. Good will. Go back over to Luke
2. Verse 8 says, They 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 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. And this shall be a sign unto
you. 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, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace, goodwill 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 has 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 is in italics, when they saw, when God opened
their eyes, when they had seen, This is salvation, seeing Christ. A man named Simeon, here just
a few days later in this same chapter, is going to say, Lord,
let me die in peace. He's holding this baby saying,
I have seen your salvation. And that's what every child of
God says. They thought salvation was this, and they thought salvation
was that. Well, you got to do this, and you have to do that.
And all of a sudden, they see Christ. Verse 17, When they had
seen, they made known abroad the saying which was told them
concerning this child. The gospel is concerning this
child. If we want to get to the heart
of the matter, the gospel is concerning Christ. Who is this
child? Who is this child? Just listen
to this. This is Isaiah 9 verse 6, For unto us a child is born,
Unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
The Mighty God. Simeon, that man Simeon, was
holding this little baby saying, this is the Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. Who is
that little baby? That's the everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace, the fullness of the Godhead. They came and
they saw this child and they saw that the absolute fullness
of the Godhead. He's not God's son. He's the
Son of God. The fullness of the whole Godhead
is in this One who came, who humbled Himself all the way down
to swaddling clothes, and hey, the Ruler of the universe, the
Creator of all things, did this for man. Man. The Gospel is all about Christ. Who He is, what He did, why He
did it, and where He is right now. He is not at anyone's door
knocking. He is not trying to do anything.
He is seated in the heavens and He has done whatsoever He hath
pleased. Those shepherds preached the
good news. And verse 18 says, All they that
heard it wondered at those things. The word it is in italics too.
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." And I know the feeling. Can't
you see those men going back to their field? Just glorifying
and praising God for everything they'd seen and heard concerning
this one who came. I know the feeling. I believe
we all know the feeling. We glorify God. Thank you for
revealing this to us. Thank you for telling us this.
Manoah's wife, a man in the Old Testament, God came to them,
and Manoah was so scared, he told his wife, God's going to
kill us. We've seen God, and He's going to kill us. And she
said, nope. If He was going to kill us, He would have never
shown us all these things. Thank you for showing us all
these things. Thank you for revealing the truth to us. Thank you for
revealing Christ to us. Oh, we glorify God for the things
we've seen and heard, the things that He's revealed about our
Savior, God Himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to God in
the highest. I want to sing, Oh Come Let Us
Adore Him. Let's all stand together.