I'm going to go to Luke chapter
2 with you, and I've entitled our message today, Shepherds
angels and the Savior they worship. So we want to look at this. We're
going to be looking at the first 18 verses of the book of Luke,
chapter 2. Let's pray. Father, we pray according
to the mercy you've given to sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ
that you would now consider His prayer for us. Forgive us of
our many sins. We were the murderers. We were
the ones for whom your only begotten Son was given, who endured all
for us, bearing our sins and the curse due to us in Himself,
and putting them away, blotting out our transgressions by His
own blood. What a grace, what mercy from
God, what love. what condescension, what forgiveness
of sins. This is surely your glory, and
we pray, Lord, that we would be enabled today to see your
majesty in your Son. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.
Let's read this together, these verses here, and I'll just go
through it with you as we read it. Luke chapter two, verse one. 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. What's being mentioned
here is the government of the Roman Empire. The ruler of that
government was called Caesar. That was a title to the king.
And this particular Caesar liked to also add the name Augustus,
which means prominent, the highest, the most important, the most
to be honored, even worshiped. That was his name. And this other
man, Cyrenius, who was the governor of Syria, was also under him.
So what we have here at the outset is a description of the governments
of the world in the days when Jesus was born and their power.
In the eyes of men, these men had ultimate power. If they didn't
approve of you, your life was in their hands and they could
take away your life. And so these men had power. But
as we read a moment ago in the book of Revelation chapter 12,
what we see is that these men, as all governors in this world
who are opposed to Christ, they were the puppets of Satan. He
gave them power. But his power was under the power
of the Lord, our God. And so it says here, and it came
to pass. Now we read that as it just so
happened, but there's nothing like that. It came to pass because
God said it would come to pass. He decreed it. He is the sovereign
who causes all things to come to pass. And we might be concerned,
we might shrink at the thought that God would cause, it would
be his will that these wicked men would have such power over
men in the earth at this time when his son was to be born.
But remember what God said in Acts chapter two and verse 23,
that by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, those
men who crucified Christ did it by wicked hands because it
was God's will. It was God's will. So if the
death of his son was ordained, decreed, and brought about according
to the eternal will of God, how much more than the rule of wicked
men in this world through the course of history? It's given
to the child of God, to the church of Jesus Christ, to understand
history from God's perspective, that he rules in heaven and on
earth. And all that men do is according
to his will. So it came to pass because God
ordained it. God said it would. He says in
Isaiah chapter 46 and verse 10, that all things are by the will,
the word, and the work of God. In Isaiah 46, 10, the Lord says
in verse nine, remember the former things of old, for I am God. There is none else. I am God
and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning."
In other words, we would say he declares what will yet be
from the beginning of time, before the foundation of the world.
Known unto God are all his works from the foundation of the world.
declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things
that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I
will do all my pleasure. Verse 11, calling a ravenous
bird from the east, A bird that destroys and devours. The man that executed my counsel
from a far country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring
it to pass. There it is, it came to pass
because God brings it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. That's the Lord's word, it's
not my word. It doesn't matter whether I'm
approving, Or whether I claim that it is my word has nothing
to do with me. This is God declaring his own
word. And we simply read it and delight
in it and worship God for it. We stand in awe that he would
bring it to pass. All of the conditions were set
up at this time according to God's eternal will. And though
it wasn't revealed in all the details of all the people involved,
and this man, whose name was Caesar Augustus, or his title
was Caesar Augustus, and this other man, Cyrenius, the governor
of Syria, yet it was by the will of God. It came to pass according
to God's will. In verse three of Luke chapter
two, And all went to be taxed, everyone to his own city. It
wasn't really a tax that was being levied at this time. What it was was a census. Everyone
was commanded by the king, the Caesar named Augustus, to go
to their own hometown where they were born. If it was just a tax,
Mary wouldn't have had to go with Joseph. Joseph could have
just gone and paid the tax himself. But here, everyone has to go
to their own birth city. And this was by the decree of
this king. But it was by the will of God.
This is the way God got Joseph and Mary to Bethlehem to fulfill
his promise, his prophecy. So they all went to be taxed,
everyone to his own city, verse 4. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea. unto the city of
David. The city of David is the place
David was born in, which was Bethlehem, which is called Bethlehem
because he was of the house and lineage of David. Joseph was
a descendant of David. He's the husband of Mary by the
law. Joseph being married to Mary
made her also and their children under the law. She was his husband. and her children would be under
the law, the children of David. Although we know that Mary also
was a daughter, a descendant of David too. And we know that
her child wasn't born of man, but of this Holy Spirit. So therefore
her child was on double count, the son of David. In verse five,
They went to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife. When a man
and woman are engaged to be married now, they're not considered married
until a ceremony is performed. But in those days, to be espoused
was equivalent to being married. So the two were actually married
under the law. but they had not yet come together,
so they went to Bethlehem to be counted according to the decree
of this king, but according to the decree of God in heaven,
because that's where they needed to be to fulfill the prophecy
that Christ would be born in Bethlehem as David's son. 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. That sounds like Revelation chapter
12. The woman labored to be delivered of the man-child. In verse seven,
and she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling
clothes and laid him in a manger. This is her firstborn son, the
son of David, but he wasn't the son of David merely. He was the
son of God. Because only the Son of God could
come into the world, only He was given. He was before He came,
and He was born as a man through Mary, and she wrapped Him in
these swaddling clothes that we understand to be those wrappings
that mothers would put their children in and laid Him in a
manger, the place where the animals would feed, in a place outside
of any building. by the covering from the elements,
from the environment. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
we see here was born just like we're born of a woman. He was
born of a woman, he was made under the law in order that he
might redeem those who were under the law. And that's what Galatians
4, verse four through six says. Because there was no room for
them in the inn. And in verse eight, And there
were, in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. Now, as I said, nothing here
is accidental. Everything is on purpose. Shepherds. Who are shepherds? Why were these
mentioned, these men called shepherds? Well, first realize that all
of the relations that we have on Earth are used by God to teach
us about the relation of the Lord Jesus Christ to his people. Whether it be a husband and wife,
or a father and mother and their children, we can see God's hand,
he's the one who set up these relationships. Marriage is God's
doing. Fathers and mothers are God's
doing. Children are born out of the
marriage between a husband and wife. This mirrors the relationship
between the Lord Jesus Christ and his people. He is the man,
they are the woman. The children born out of love,
that union of love between him and his people, are the church,
the children of the mother here. And so whether it be us in our
physical lives, our mother, father, our brethren, we can immediately
relate it to our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we should always do that. And we should even relate, make
that relationship, as Ramel pointed out earlier, between us and other
people. Because the Lord forgave us of
such a great debt. And who are we to hold someone's
feet to the fire when vengeance belongs to the Lord? He's the
one who alone knows the hearts of men. He knows his purpose
of grace. We don't. We don't hold people
over and ask God to bring eternal judgment on anyone. That's in
God's hand. And so we just leave it to the
Lord. Even in, I think it was in, The
book of Jude, it says even the angel did not rebuke Satan directly. He said, the Lord rebuked thee.
Just leave it to the Lord. We trust him. He'll do the right
thing. And so these men were shepherds.
And what do shepherds do? Well, they take care of sheep.
and that's why they were the ones the Lord came to here. Shepherds take care of sheep.
Men appointed and chosen and equipped by God to watch over
his people are called shepherds in scripture. In 1 Peter chapter
five, It talks to those men who were given to watch over the
flock of God, and I'll read that to you here in 1 Peter, in chapter
five. He says, feed the flock of God,
which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint,
but willingly, not for filthy lucre, for money, but of a ready
mind, neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being
in samples to the flock. Take the lowest position and
serve them. And in serving Christ, you serve
his sheep. That's what the shepherds do.
Shepherds are really, in terms of an occupation, they were the
lowest kind of people. The Egyptians considered shepherds
to be an abomination. Remember? When Joseph introduced
his brethren to Pharaoh, he made that comment that to the Egyptians,
shepherds were an abomination. They weren't theologians. They
weren't the scribes. They weren't the Pharisees. They
weren't the Sadducees. They weren't the Sanhedrin. They
weren't the priest and the high priest. They weren't the people
in the religion of the Jews at that time whose job it was to
understand when Christ would come, who spent their lives memorizing
scripture and trying to explain it. God didn't come to them. That should humble us, shouldn't
it? Why did God appear here to these shepherds? Why did he choose
these shepherds to appear to? That no flesh should glory in
his presence, you see. Because he reiterates this throughout
scripture. But in 1 Corinthians, I'll read
this to you also, in 1 Corinthians 1, in verse 17, Christ sent me
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of
words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
In other words, if I came to you with the wisdom of men, then
you wouldn't receive it as having power because it was about Christ. And so we see this in our own
experience, don't we? God is pleased to preach the
gospel to you and you believe it through an ordinary person,
and not just an ordinary person, someone you would probably least
expect. to carry the good news of the
gospel. Paul said, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. Where are the earthen vessels?
The treasure is Christ and him crucified. He goes on in 1 Corinthians
1.18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
foolishness. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. You see how these shepherds were
chosen so that no flesh could glory in his presence, but also
so that those who would be saved would have to humble themselves
to hear from another sinner who had no distinctions among men,
chosen by God to bring his word to the flock, to his sheep. Verse
19, for it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." There it
is, a very humble way of hearing from God through another sinner. one least expected, to bring
you the message of God and you hear not of the man, because
there's nothing about the man. but of Christ, and Him crucified,
and you believe God, and you glorify God, you see. For the
Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, and to the
Greeks foolishness, but to them which are called, both Jews and
Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom of God. Because
the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of
God is stronger than men, for you see your calling, brethren,
How that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not
many noble are called, but God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the
weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty. and
base things of the world, and things which are despised hath
God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to nothing,
or not things that are, that no flesh should glory in his
presence. There it is. Why shepherds? To
humble us. To give all glory to Christ,
not to the messenger. And so back in Luke chapter two,
he goes on. He came to the shepherds, these
shepherds whose job it was to watch for the sheep, and they
were up at night watching the sheep. They were chosen so that
all who would hear them would understand it wasn't the messenger,
it was the message that was important. He goes on in verse nine of Luke
two, and lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, the shepherds,
and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were
sore afraid. It was nighttime. Anything shining
from the sky at nighttime unexpectedly like that would make us pause,
wouldn't it? What is going on? But here it
was more than just a light. It was the glory of God, and
it was an angel. an angel who spoke to them. And
they were sore afraid. Why would anyone be afraid of
an angel? Well, there's good reason. The
reason, first of all, is because we are sinners and angels are
holy and they bring God's message. But secondly, the reason we're
afraid, and mostly this, because we're ignorant. of God's saving
grace by nature. And that makes us terrified when
we see the holiness of God and we face God and his word in our
natural selves. I was thinking back about Zacharias. Remember the father of John the
Baptist? The angel Gabriel came to Zacharias
and told him that he was going to have a son. His wife and he
were both old and she was barren. She couldn't bear children. And
so Zacharias, he was surprised at this. And he asked the angel,
he said in Luke chapter one, in verse 18, Zacharias said to
the angel, whereby shall I know this? For I'm an old man and my wife
is well stricken in years. What was he saying? I don't know
how this could happen. And you know what the angel said
to him? In verse 19 of Luke 1, the angel answering said to him,
I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God. And you doubt
my word? How could anyone stand in the
presence of God who wasn't holy? And my word is going to be true. And then he goes on, he says,
and I'm sent to thee. obviously from God, to show thee
these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb
and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be
performed because you believe not my words. So these men were
afraid. The shepherds were afraid when
they saw the glory of the Lord and they saw the angel. What
are angels anyway? I want you to consider this.
What are angels? First of all, we know many things
about angels from scripture. They're not these little figurines
that people put on their houses with. It's not an angel. Angels
are spirits. You can't see them. But they
do appear at times. First thing we learn about angels
is that the Lord Jesus Christ made them. He created them. All things were made by him and
for him. All things in heaven, all things
in earth were made by the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Colossians
1.16, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him
and for Him. Angels are created by Christ
and He created them for Himself. That's the first thing. We must
learn that. Always start with the Lord Jesus.
Secondly, He not only created them, but He created them to
serve Him. In all that they do, they serve
the Lord Jesus Christ. And how do they serve the Lord
Jesus Christ? According to Hebrews, the book
of Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 14, they are ministering or serving
spirits sent forth by Christ to serve those or minister to
those who shall be heirs of salvation. The ones God chose and redeemed
by Christ's precious blood and who would inherit salvation,
those are the ones the angels serve and so serving serve Christ. They were created for that purpose.
That's the second thing we learn about these angels. Next thing
we learned is not only are they created beings, they aren't God,
eternal in their beginning, but they are eternal like people.
When God created us, do you know what? He created us an eternal
soul. Our bodies die, but our souls
live. And God is able to raise up our
body and soul and deal with us in eternity, and he does do that. And so the angels are eternal. It says in 2 Peter 2, verse 4,
if God spared not the angels that sinned, these are the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into
chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. And in Jude 1,
6, the angels which kept not their first estate, the same
ones, but left their own habitation he has reserved in everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. They're
going to serve Christ or they're not. And if they serve, they
became the demons of hell in their sin, in rebelling against
Christ, then what happened? They didn't want to serve Christ.
They didn't want to serve his people. They wanted to be somebody.
like men do naturally, and they sin, and God put them in everlasting
chains to be reserved unto the day of judgment, and be delivered
up with the devil under eternal torment. So that's the next thing we learn,
that these are created beings, created to serve Christ by serving
his people, and some fell, they refused to obey Christ, and they're
now kept as the devil's angels, awaiting the judgment of the
final day, and they're eternal. In their being, they will suffer
eternally. just like unsaved men. The next
thing we learn about angels is that some angels are elect angels. They're called elect angels because
God ordained them, he preserved them, he kept them from falling. And can you imagine those angels
who now appear in the presence of God as holy and praise him
night and day and serve Christ in serving his people? that these
angels know they were preserved by God from falling? And don't
you know that they are exceedingly grateful? They see God's power. They themselves were created.
They could change. God doesn't change. And those
who could change could have fallen, but the Lord preserved them.
And that's why it's important to see that we not only are called
the elect of God as people, but so were the angels who were kept
by God. The only ones who endure with God in heaven and are holy
are those that God makes holy. And he made the angels holy,
but he made us holy in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're called
holy angels in Luke chapter two. It says in verse 13, and suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host. They're
holy. As I mentioned also, where are
they? Where do they dwell? They dwell in heaven. What are
they doing there? Well, that's what we're gonna
see some more of this, what they're doing there. We know they serve
Christ by serving his people. but they're not only in heaven,
but they're the heavenly host. What does it mean to be the heavenly
host? It means they're God's army. They're very powerful. One angel in 2 Samuel 24, chapter
24 of 2 Samuel, when David sinned and sent Joab out to number the
people, When God brought on the people of Israel the consequence
of David's sin, one angel destroyed 70,000 men, and he was going
to destroy the entire city of Jerusalem. That's power. It's no wonder the shepherds
were afraid. They had a perception of their
own sin and of God's holiness and the holiness of this angel
who appeared to them. So the angels are mighty. They're
mighty. It says in 2 Peter 2, verse 11,
whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, greater in
power and might than us, didn't bring a railing accusation against
them before the Lord. In 2 Thessalonians 1, verse 7,
to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus
shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. So here
we see, we're beginning to get a picture of these angels. They're
mighty, they're holy, they serve Christ, they serve his people,
but they also bring destruction at the will of God on the ungodly. And so what we see here is that
men are afraid because of our sin, And because of our unbelief,
we don't understand. We don't understand the grace
of God. And that's why they were coming here. They were coming
to announce glad tidings of great joy in Luke chapter two. Now, I wanna look at the next
verse here in Luke chapter two, in verse nine. And lo, the angel
of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone around
about them, and they were sore afraid. Verse 10, and the angel
said to them, fear not, For behold, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, which shall be to all people. One of God's hosts, this mighty
angel, holy, whose word cannot be untrue, whose word is true
because God gave it to him and he's faithful to keep it, sent
from Christ, from heaven, brought this message. And what is the
message? good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people." Good tidings of great joy. So he disarms
the fear of the shepherds by telling them, God has not sent
me here to destroy you, but to bring good tidings of great joy. Now, if you understand that the
angels are the host, the armies of God in heaven, and that they
have this great power and they move swiftly, their spirits,
ministering spirits, flaming fires sent by God very swiftly
to carry out His will, and that there are elect angels compared
to those who fell to be two-thirds compared to the one-third that
fell in heaven, that you see that there's a huge army of God's
host, His strength and might protecting His people. If you
remember back in the book of 2 Kings in chapter 6, Elisha,
the prophet, was given understanding by God to hear whatever the king
of Syria was planning, even when he was planning it between his
most trusted confidants, his captains. But God showed it to
Elisha, and whenever the king of Syria made a plan to lay trap
for the king of Israel, Then Elisha sent the message to the
king of Israel, the king of Syria is gonna be here waiting for
you, don't go there. And so the king of Israel sent
a messenger over to that place and found out to be true, he
didn't go, and he was saved several times. And so the king of Syria
wondered, who's the traitor? Someone in my own trusted army
is giving the king of Israel information about where I'm going.
And one of his servants said, no, it's not us. Elisha is doing
this. Whatever you say in your bedchamber,
God tells him. And so he sends this information
to the king of Israel and he saves himself from you. And so
the king of Syria said, we need to go get Elisha. So he sent
his whole army to the place where Elisha was in a place called
Dothan. And there Elisha was in his tent. with his servant,
and the whole army of the Syrian host surrounded them. And his
servant gets up in the morning to go out to do something, to
get water or something. And he looks, and he's surrounded
by the armies of the enemy, the Syrians. And he's terribly afraid. And he goes in and he tells Elisha.
And Elisha says, Lord, open his eyes. And the Lord opened the
eyes of Elisha's servant, and he looked, and he saw God's army,
the angels of God, surrounding them. And then Elisha says, Lord,
smite them with blindness. And he smote them with blindness.
And he tells the Assyrian armies, he says, this isn't the place
you need to seek for the man you're looking for. I'll show
you where he's at. And he leads him right into Samaria,
where the king of Israel was. And then the king of Israel says
to Elisha, my father, what should I do? Shall I smite them? He
says, no, don't smite them. Set bread and water before them.
And then you wouldn't smite your prisoners, would you? God delivered
them into your hand and he set this before them and he sent
them back home. And the Syrians no more came to them again. Now, the point here is that the
angels were there. The angels, God's army, were
there around Elisha and his servant all the time. And Elisha could
see it by faith, even though they didn't appear. But they
did appear when the Lord opened the eyes of his servant. He could
see them. And so here, in Luke chapter 2 and verse 10, the angel
appeared. and the shepherds saw him. And
so this is none other than God's army from heaven coming with
the glad news of the Lord Jesus Christ to be born. And because
it's God's army, it tells us something about the birth of
the Lord Jesus Christ, that he came here as a king with majesty
and power to overthrow the enemies of God's people and to save them. just like we hear about with
Elisha and his servant. He delivered their enemies into
their hands. And just like we read in Revelation
chapter 12, where when the man-child was born, the dragon tried to
kill him, but he couldn't because he was taken up to heaven. And
then the dragon fought against the woman, but neither could
the dragon overcome the woman. So here we see this. God's army
is announcing the victorious birth of their captain, their
king, Christ. They serve him and they serve
his people and they're bringing the good news here. God has given
this angel the greatest possible privilege to bring his message
of saving grace to the shepherds who will then go and carry it
to the world. And so he says here in verse
10, I bring you good tidings of great joy. You better believe
this. I'm speaking from God, holy angels
with all the power of heaven deposited into my hands because
Christ is my king, my captain. He says, which shall be to all
people. Now, some people didn't find this to be good news at
all. Some found it to be the worst
possible news, like Caesar Augustus and Cyrenius, the governor of
Syria. and Pilate and Herod. Remember
Herod in Matthew chapter 2? When he heard about the birth
of Jesus, that was the worst possible news. He sent the wise
men to find out where he was so he could then go and kill
him. In fact, because he couldn't catch him, couldn't find him,
he decided to destroy all of the babies two years and under
in Bethlehem. So these men didn't find this
to be good news. It wasn't good news to all individuals
in the world, but it was good news to all people in all nations,
in every tongue, tribe, and kindred throughout the world. God redeemed
out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation a people for
Himself. But He didn't redeem all people,
and so it was good news to all kinds of people, without distinction
of their race, or their birth, or their father, or mother, or
their condition. Verse 11, this is the good news,
this is the good tidings, this is the great joy, for unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord. The shepherds, the angels, and
a Savior. And this shall be a sign to you,
you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in
a manger. Here we see the dignity and the
majesty of the King of Glory, the Prince of Life, the Lord
of Glory. He comes to save his people and
he completely disarms their fear. Who would be afraid of a baby?
The Lord Jesus Christ came into the world equal with God, laid
aside his reputation, took the form of a servant, became a man,
He was born of a woman, but he was the promised one. Genesis
3.5, the seed of the woman, the seed of the woman, the man-child
born to the woman is going to crush the head of the serpent. The devil, the great dragon,
he's going to cast him out. The accuser of the brethren will
be cast down. And all of his angels will be
cast down. The devil's angels will be cast
out of heaven. There will be no more place for them. And all
of God's people, the woman who gave birth to the man-child,
they would be victorious. Just as the woman was clothed
in Revelation chapter 12 with the sun and the moon was under
her feet, so every child of God is clothed with the righteousness
of the Son of Righteousness. and they have the moon under
their feet, they rule over all things. As sin reigned by death,
so righteousness now reigns unto eternal life by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Grace reigns through Christ's
righteousness, Romans 5, 21. And it's God who is to be thanked
that we were once the servants of sin, but we have believed
the doctrine, we've obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine.
given to us. You see the victory? You see
how God puts the moon, as it were, under the feet of his people?
And so, in Romans 7, 24, the Apostle Paul says, O wretched
man that I am, who's going to deliver me from the body of this
death? I thank God through Jesus Christ. So then, with the mind,
I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of
sin. All these things point to our victory. Christ has subdued
sin and death and the devil and the world under the feet of his
people, but how do they appear? To the outward appearance, what
do they look like? They look like a little woman
here in the book of Luke, a virgin and insignificant. person. And yet she somehow, under the
watchful eye of Augustus, Caesar Augustus, and the governor of
Syria, she somehow goes right to the cracks, as if there's
no barrier. And she's brought to Bethlehem
by the decree of God, through the instrumentality of this wicked
king. and brought to Bethlehem, and
the Lord's Son, God's only begotten Son, is born by a woman, born
as the Son of David. He comes into the world. Look
at Hebrews chapter 1. This is a huge, huge victory
for heaven. Christ was born, and He's our
Savior. Hebrews chapter 1, in verse 6,
notice this. And again, when he bringeth in
the first begotten into the world, that's the birth of Christ. When
he brings him into the world, what does he do? He said, let
all the angels of God worship him. Now that, that's majesty,
isn't it? the highest, the armies of heaven,
worship him, the baby in the manger, when he brings him into
the world. And so back in Luke chapter 2,
we see the angel of the Lord who first announced it, and the
shepherds are afraid as soon as he announced it. As soon as
he announced it, in verse 13, Luke chapter 2. And suddenly
there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts, the armies
of heaven, These mighty angels, holy, swift, doing the will of
Christ for his people. And they're there, suddenly they
break forth as if they couldn't contain themselves in perfect
obedience, in perfect chorus. And they say, glory to God in
the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. Glory to God, they start their
praise by giving glory to God. In chapter one of Luke, Mary
said, my soul doth magnify the Lord, verse 46, Luke 1, 46. Mary said, my soul doth magnify
the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God, my Savior. Remember what Thomas said when
he saw the nail prints in Jesus' hands? He said, my Lord, my God,
So Mary said, God my savior, glory to God in the highest.
Glory to God, why? Because he came into the world.
He was born of a woman. He laid in a manger. He was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh in order that God in him might
condemn our sin in his flesh. He took our sin and owned it
and confessed it as His and bore it away and blotted out our sins
by His own blood. Look at Hebrews 1 again, see
this power of the Lord Jesus Christ and why He's exalted,
the Christ of God exalted this way, Hebrews 1. In verse 1, God,
who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past to
the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things,
by whom also he made the worlds, He is given all things, He made
all things, who being the brightness of His glory and the expressed
image of His person and upholding all things by the word of His
power. This is describing the Son of God. If you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. Notice next, when He had by Himself
purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high. Your majesty, because you humbled
yourself, took my sins and purged them from me before God. What
do the angels say? Glory to God in the highest and
on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. How could there be peace
between a sinner and God? By the Lord Jesus Christ, he
is our peace. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. He made peace by his own blood.
That's the way we have peace. The angels are announcing the
peace that God made with his people through the blood of his
son. Peace with God's justice. Peace
by removing our offenses against him. Reconciling us to God who
in our minds and by wicked works were enemies. That's peace. God has removed what separated
us from Him. He's taken away our sins. He's
made peace with us. He's given us access through
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. With boldness, coming by Him,
we have no barrier. Our sins are as though they never
were. God has purged them by the blood
of his Son, peace. And the will, the good will,
and what is that will that's good towards his people? It's
the will Christ fulfilled. When he cometh into the world,
he said, sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, but a body
hast thou prepared me. Remember Hebrews chapter 10?
In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast had no pleasure.
Then said I, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. Yea, thy law
is within my heart. And so he did. He offered himself
in sacrifice for our sins. He fulfilled the requirements
of the law. for atonement, for sacrifice. And he fulfilled the obedience
of the law in doing that, in the submission of his own obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross, the curse, the shame
of the cross. And so what do we? What do the
angels? We're all gathered around the
babe in the manger who would by himself purge our sins. The angels weren't redeemed by
blood, but they were kept from falling by the Lord Jesus Christ.
But we're all encircling the throne of our Savior where he
sits as king in all of his majesty. And not a single one there thinks
at one point at any time of what they did, because the Lamb is
all the glory. Let me read this verse from a
hymn. It's called 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 in
Immanuel's Lamb." Don't you love that? That's the way it is. That's
what they're saying here. The angels are saying that. And
so all of them joined together, all the hosts, all the armies
of heaven, rallying in their praise of Christ and God for
his salvation of his people, the peace he established through
his blood, the will Christ came to do and fulfilled and finished,
and therefore was exalted to heaven's throne to reign over
the house of David. All the elect of God, redeemed
by his blood forever and ever, born of the Spirit, made the
sons of God. Back to Luke chapter two, verse
15. It came to pass, as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven, notice, 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 to us. Let's go look at him. And they came with haste
and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in the manger.
Wasn't there with a sword? He was there in the body of a
baby. Verse 17, and when they had seen it, the humility of
Christ, the humiliation of Christ to save his people. They made
known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this
child and all that heard it. What did the shepherds do? They
did what the Lord's shepherds do. They go out to the sheep
to feed them. They declare to them Christ.
And they all that heard it wondered at those things which were told
them by the shepherds. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, we thank
you for the Lord Jesus Christ, Heaven's King, our Savior, in
whom you have made peace between yourself and us and brought us
to yourself, made holy, Our sins put away, clothed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, given boldness with access to the throne
of heaven of grace, a throne of grace through the blood of
Christ. Help us, Lord. Help us to see
as these shepherds did. Remove the scales from the eyes
of our ignorance and unbelief. Help us to see our sin buried
in the Lord Jesus Christ. risen with Him, justified in
His obedience and blood, and help us to come to God with the
full persuasion of peace made in His blood, with great joy,
with this glad news. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.