Come and worship, come and worship,
Christ the newborn King. Though no one ever celebrated
the birth of our Lord in Scripture, they did not. Nowhere will you
find the church meeting together to celebrate on a certain day
the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because they knew that He really had no beginning. He
is from everlasting, the Lord. And we're not told to do so. The Scriptures do not tell us
to observe a day of worship around His birth. Throughout the Scriptures,
the Church worships Christ crucified, risen, and enthroned right now. A reigning, ruling, living Lord,
not a babe. Not a helpless, hanging martyr
on a tree, but a reigning, living, ruling Lord, a person. Okay? That being said, let's never
lose the wonder and the praise and the glory For this great thing called His
incarnation, or His condescension, or incarnation, means He became
flesh. The Word was made flesh. Great
is the mystery of God. Let's never lose the wonder and
amazement at this, that God was manifest in the flesh, that God
became a man. And this is our salvation. Not died on the tree, we would
not be saved. Had he not risen from the tomb,
we would not be saved. But had he not come and become
a man, made flesh, made of a woman, made born of a woman, born under
the law to be made flesh and a curse for us, we would not
be saved. So let's never lose sight of
that. And like Spurgeon, I love that
man. I esteem him highly. And he said,
it's a good thing. Whatever people are thinking
of at the time, deal with it. Go ahead and deal with it. And
at this time, most everyone is thinking of the one named Jesus
who came to this earth. He wasn't born on December 25th. No, he wasn't. But we're going
to look at it, okay? It's glorious. It's glory. Luke
chapter 1, right before this, something really caught my eye,
because the angel had come to Zechariah, the same angel, had
come to Zechariah, he came to Joseph and Mary, and told them
all the same thing. And Zechariah, and look at verse
76, he's speaking of his son John the Baptist. He said in
verse 76, Thou child shalt be called the prophet, small p,
of the highest, capital H. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord. to prepare his way,
to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission
of their sins, or salvation that is poor or concerning the remission
of their sins. Through the tender mercy of our
God, you've obtained mercy, John. And whereby the day spring from
on high, that's the Son of Righteousness, hath visited us. Read on, verse
79. to give light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into
the way of peace. That's the message. It doesn't
change. The gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ is the good news, the glad tidings to poor, brokenhearted,
Sinners, glad tidings to poor sinners of peace with God through
the Lord Jesus Christ. All right, let's look at this
story. Verse 1 through 6. Read it again. Came to pass in
those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus
that all the world should be taxed. This taxing didn't begin
with him. It began with Cyrus, who was
governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, everyone,
everyone into his own city where he was born, where he was raised.
And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth,
that's where they're going to dwell for thirty years, to Judea,
the city of David, which is Bethlehem, called Bethlehem, because Joseph
was of the house of David, the lineage of the line, the kindred
of David. And he went to be taxed with
Mary, his espoused wife, who was also of that city. And she
was grave with a child, expecting a child, and so it was. So it
was. That's where they went by decree
of Caesar. That while they were there, the
days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Now this
poor carpenter and his heavy laden wife, nine months pregnant
with child by the cruel, unjust decree of a wicked monarch or
emperor named Caesar, who cared not for the poor, who cared not
for justice, but only wanted to further his riches. further
his kingdom, made the decree that everyone, no matter what
it took, no matter the hardships, whether you could afford it or
not, you go where you're born and you're going to be taxed,
you're going to be enrolled, put on the roll under your family
tree or lineage and be taxed. Now, what a cruel thing. What
an unjust decree. What glory and what praise and
what honor to God Almighty. Who made this decree? Caesar? God did. Long before the world began,
God said, My son, in Micah chapter 5, Thou, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah,
Out of these shall he come whose goings are from old. The Christ
child is to be born in Bethlehem. He sent out the decree before
the world began. My son will be born in Bethlehem
of the line of David and of David's throne. That's where he's going
to be born. That's where he's going to sit. So these two poor
people must go. They must needs go to Bethlehem. And they did. By decree of Augustus
Caesar. Now here's the point. Do you
think things are unfair in this world? Do you think our leaders make
unjust and unfair and cruel decrees? Do you? For their own greed? For their own purposes? I got
good news for you. They don't make any decrees.
God makes them all. The lot is cast into the lap,
but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Man proposes,
but God disposes. They thought This was cruel. They thought this was unjust.
Imagine the hardship. Imagine how difficult it was.
Were they on foot? Was she riding a donkey or a
cart? Heavy laden? Poor? Heavy laden, these two? This was God's doing. And it was for their good. It
was all for good. To the glory of God. Do you see
that? Everything works together for Good to them that love God,
who are called according to His purpose. What's His purpose?
That you be found with Christ. That Christ may be formed in
you like Mary. The story of Mary. I'm excited about this. The story
of Mary is the story of every chosen sinner who's found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. Salvation is for Christ to be
formed in you, like Mary, for you to be delivered. She came
to be delivered. Who's delivering who? She came
to be delivered of this child. Tell me, who's doing the delivering
here? Mary or the one in her womb? What a mystery this is. She's
giving birth to the Deliverer. She goes through pain. She goes
through suffering. Many of you women have gone through
this, but perhaps not to the extent she did. She rode miles
or walked on foot and gave birth the natural way in a barn. How cruel! No, it's good. God gave her the grace to do
that. Oh, what grace! This wall was, huh? Oh, the many stories in Scripture,
the history of the oppression of God's people in this world,
their tribulations that they go through, from Adam to Zerubbabel,
from A to Z, all to the praise of the glory of His breath. Every
story of every child of God and all the troubles they went through.
I labor this point because Because this was a real story of two
poor, real poor people under an unjust Caesar, a monarch,
enduring these hardships. But it was good. Oh, it was so
good. Just wait and you'll see. Wait
and you'll see. It's all good concerning you.
Mary. They were all God's people of
strangers and pilgrims and sojourners. They were forced to take a journey. And that's us. Abel, Enoch, Noah,
Abraham sojourned as strangers. Sojourned by promise, the Lord
told them. The Lord made a promise to Joseph
and Mary. This is real good. Go. Oh my, from Moses and all, and
the children, the story, I'm almost tempted, I'm getting close
to maybe going through Exodus. Some of you expressed that desire.
But the whole story of Exodus is of God's people walking through
the wilderness through trials and troubles and tribulation
and persecution and suffering and sorrow. Why? God's bringing
them out of Egypt, sending them to the promised land. Don't murmur and complain. Don't
do it. Okay? It's all good. The Lord's
too biased to err and too good to do evil. The Lord sends good
and evil, but it's not evil for you. It never is. He said, No
evil shall befall you. Didn't He? So this poor man and his wife
go on foot. They must go to Bethlehem. They
must. And it says in verse 6, the days
were accomplished. People, God does everything to
accomplish something. This is offering to accomplish
something. The prophets of old prophesied
of Christ who is to come and accomplish redemption. The great
accomplishment, not try to save anybody, but to accomplish redemption. This accomplishment was spoken
of throughout the Scriptures, throughout the prophets. Isaiah 40, He told the preacher
to comfort His people, tell them that their warfare is accomplished. And when our Lord was about to
go to the cross, He sent Moses and Elijah to talk to Him of
what? The death that He should accomplish. And when Christ was hanging on
the cross, the last words out of His mouth were, It is accomplished,
finished. And it just remains, like Joshua
said, it's all over but to shout Him. Shout. It's been accomplished. Your salvation, the salvation
of God's people has been accomplished by Christ Himself. Her days were
that it should be accomplished. And our days have purpose. Our
days must be fulfilled. The number of our months, the
number of our days are with the Lord. Our bounds are set. We
cannot pass. We will accomplish every day
when it's over. It's not fatalism. That's Scripture. That's true. And that's comfort
in it. Mary's purpose was to bring forth
this Son, and so is ours. to set forth His glory. Oh, my. Enable us. Give us the strength.
There are days that she should be delivered, and as I said,
who's delivering who here? Verse 7, And she brought forth
her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, laid him
in a manger, a stall, a sheep pen where they fed. Because there
was no room for him in the end. Now, Mary, as you know, was a
virgin. You know that, don't you? You
believe that, don't you? Huh? You know why she must be a virgin,
don't you? To fulfill the Scriptures, Isaiah
7, it spoke of a virgin shall conceive and give birth. A virgin must conceive. Christ
must be born of a virgin. Do you know why? You know, there
are a few people that know why or even care. There are even
fewer people that believe it. I read to you years ago a survey
they did of clergy, preachers. This was 20 years ago. A survey
of preachers and they asked who believed, who really believed
in the virgin birth of Christ. It was 67% of Methodists said
no. It was 50 some percent of Presbyterians
said no. And about 39 percent, almost
40 percent of Baptists said, no, we don't believe that. If Christ wasn't born of a virgin,
we're yet in our sins. There is no salvation. He didn't
need to come. He didn't accomplish anything.
Do you know why Christ had to be born of a virgin? Because in Adam all die. You
come from the seed of Adam. You come from Adam. His seed
is in you. You're going to die. You're dying.
You're dead and trespassed in sin, if not born again. And you
will die on this earth. Christ didn't come from the seed
of Adam. He didn't come from the seed
of man. He didn't come from man. It came from God. The angel said
to Mary and said to Joseph, that holy thing, there's never been
anything like this, the angel said. That thing, John said,
that which we've seen and heard declare unto you life. That's
never been a sinless human being born, but this is He. Son of
God, they said He'll be called the Son of God, not the Son of
Mary. He's not called the Son of Mary. He's called the Son
of God, the Son of the Highest, because He's not born of a man.
Made of a woman, made under the law, that is, He borrowed her
womb to be born flesh, made flesh, but she didn't contribute. He
didn't come from her. He borrowed her womb. He came from God. He said, I
came from heaven. This is the sinless one. This
is the Holy One of Israel. This is the sinless God who became
a man for men, for His people. Why? God made Him to be righteousness. Did you ever think about that
wisdom comes before righteousness? You need to know why you need
a righteousness. You need to know why Christ came to be your
righteousness and to be made sin for you. Huh? In Adam all die, but in Christ
all are made alive. Christ is our righteousness. Psalm 42, the Lord is well pleased
for his righteousness. Peter stood at Pentecost and
preached that message. You men of Israel, hear these
words. A man's been approved of God. God is pleased with the
man. He's never said that before. God is well pleased for this
righteous man. And God said, now you come to
Him. You believe Him. You trust Him. He is your righteousness. He is your salvation. He is your
wisdom. He is your holiness. He is your
everything. He is your Savior. He's all.
He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life.
Nobody comes to Me, God said, but by Him. Go to Him. He's it. Don't come to me with
your righteousness. Don't come to me with your sincerity.
Don't come to me with your ceremony. Don't come to me with your tradition.
Don't come to me with anything but trust in Christ. You got
that? He had to be born of a virgin
because He doesn't have the seed of man in Him. This is the seed
of God. And that new thing created in
you That holy thing created in you, that new creature created
in you, is not of man either. It's of God, born of God, of
the seed of God, which is Christ in you, your hope of glory. Isn't that wonderful? The world says,
we don't know, we don't care. No, we don't believe that, and
you don't have any salvation. Oh my, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. And He'll call His name Immanuel,
God with us. God and man. See, God can't die,
but man must. Man can't satisfy. God can and
God must. So God became a man. To satisfy and to die. That's the heart and soul of
the gospel in the pasture. Heart and soul of the gospel.
Substitution and satisfaction. That's why he came. Born that
man that no war may die. Oh my, I wanted to go over to
Galatians 4 and talk to you a little bit more about that, but I talked
enough about it. Okay, let's go on. Look at our
text. Look at verse 7. It says, She brought forth her
firstborn son, she who was a virgin. A child is born, yes, she had
a child, but it was God's Son. The Son was given, the everlasting
Son. They wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, laid Him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn. Down in verse
12, the angel said to these shepherds, this is a sign unto you. This
is how you know when you go looking for the Christ child, you'll
find that babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. This
is a sign to you. And it's a sign to all of God's
people, all those that look for Him, all those that seek the
Lord, all those that are looking for Christ. Watching for Him
in the nights, waiting on Him like the shepherd. This is the
sign. You'll find Him. They that seek Me will find Me,
Christ said, when you search for Me with all your heart. And
here's what you'll find Him unto you. Here's what you'll see Him
as. Your clothes and your food. Swaddling clothes, lying in a
manger. A manger is where sheep fed.
Why did the Lord have him be born in a manger where sheep
find their food? Because he's marvelous wisdom
in it. As a sign of God's peace. Swaddling
clothes. It means cloths was wrapped. He was wrapped up. You ladies,
when you gave birth to your child, didn't you? When they were first
born. I remember when Hannah was born and the other girl.
Wrapped her up in that. She was just all wrapped up in
that cloth and handed that baby to me. Oh my, like Simeon. I want to go to that. That's
in this same chapter. That our Lord was wrapped up. And people, our salvation is
wrapped up in Him. He is our clothes. He is our
righteousness. He is our robe. And do you understand? As a child, he was wrapped up,
and our salvation was wrapped up in his righteousness. They
didn't even turn on that cross. What did they do? They stripped
him. Do you understand that? You see
glory here. Glory to God in the highest.
Adam was naked without sin. When he sinned, God took that
animal and slew him and wrapped him up. That's Christ. And then when Christ went to
the cross, God said, strip him. naked and wrap them up. Or if I was a Pentecostal preacher,
I'd say, somebody say, Amen. I just did. Let the redeemed
of the Lord say so. What's your righteousness? What's
your covering? You're cold, you feel naked,
you feel sinful, huh? Huh? Do you trust Christ? This is the sign. This is the
sign that God has revealed to you. That's how you'll find Him.
When you hear the gospel, when you ever really hear the glad
tidings, you'll hear it, Christ our righteousness. In my food,
my bread, the bread of God, the manna, Sheep food. Christ said, except
you eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no part in me.
God's people see Him as their food, their necessary food. Peter said, you have words of
life. I hang on you. I live by your Word. I live by
this Gospel. I'm not going anywhere. I've
got to eat. That makes you a sheep. It's a sign to you. That's a
sign to you. You sinner, do you need this
righteousness? Are you enjoying this food right
now, this good food to you? It's a sign. Only one sign given. Christ crucified. Oh, my. Got to go on. Got to go on. Verse 7, it says there's no room
for them in the inn. Oh, my people, the world has
no place for the Lord Jesus Christ, then and now. He came unto His
own, John 1 says. His own received Him not, but
to as many as received Him. Who received? Who received Christ
being born? A few shepherds. Why? The angel came to them. A few wise men came a long way.
Why? The angel came to them. To as
many as received him, to them. Gave him the right, the power,
the privilege, the glory, and the honor of being called the
sons of God to them that were not of the will of the flesh,
not of the will of the man, not of blood, but of God. They were
born of God. And God sent the angel of God,
the Holy Spirit of God, to them. A few sheep received him. The
dumb animals received him. The ox knew his owner. The ass
his master's crib. Those sheep were in there beholding
the Lamb of God in their manger. And a few shepherds, and a few
wise men, and a poor maiden and her husband. Aren't you less? No room for them in the end.
There was no room for him and there's no room for them. No
room for Christ in this world. There's no room in this world
for God's people. They are not of this world. There are strange
pilgrims in this area. There are sojourners in this
world. That's a fact. If you find this place a comfort
to you, if you find this place your home, if you find your life
here, our Lord said you will lose it. Our Lord came into this world.
He's not of this world, nor are His people. He's taken them out
of this world, and that's what He sends to them. He sends them
into a world that hates them. Our Lord said, They hated Me,
they'll hate you. In Exodus, God's people went through the
world, didn't they? They traveled through the wilderness.
Who received them? Nobody. The children of Israel, the sons
of Jacob, went walking through that wilderness, and the Moabites,
and the Hivites, and the Hittites, and the Parasites, and all those
ites, none of them, they all said, we want you out of here. You see, they don't have any
continuing city there. Do you understand? And God sent
hardship after hardship after hardship and hatred and persecution
from the world. Why? Why? Why? Because they don't
have us continually. They're going to a place. Oh,
God has a place for His Son, all right. God has a place for
this Son, all right. And it's high. And His people
right now marries with Him. Joseph's with him. Those three
shepherds are with him. Where? In the highest. The other
world, they didn't have any room for it. Oh, my, God doesn't have
room for them, does He? Oh, but if you had received Him,
if you received this, Ashen Blood didn't reveal this to you. If
you receive them, you did it of your own free will, do this.
You did it by the will and the good pleasure of God, by the
choice of God, by the sovereign electing grace of God. If you
receive this message, if you bow to Him, if you see Him as
all in all, if you see this world as a perishing flame, and like
Bunyan's pilgrims, you're running out of this place, no matter
what anybody says, you're running out of this place, bless God. Glory to God in the highest.
Peace, good will towards you. You're being saved. You're being
saved. These shepherds, verse 8, came
to these shepherds. In the same country, shepherds
abiding in a field, keeping watch over their flock by night. They
were abiding as shepherds. Oh my, what a picture this is. These shepherds, poor nobodies. They were nobodies. Shepherds
were looked down upon by everyone, especially Egyptians. Do you
remember that? Remember when Joseph told Jacob,
tell his brothers, don't tell Pharaoh you're shepherds. They
hate shepherds. Oh, the world hates pastors. hates them, hates preachers. I pretty much don't like most
of them either, but God has a few. He has two or three. And how
do you know them? They go about heralding one message, like the angel of the Lord that
sent them. One message, Christ and Him crucified. Oh, they were chosen. These shepherds
were chosen by the Lord. Do you see your calling, brethren,
how that not many wise men hath fledged, not many mighty, not
many noble to call? Who did the Lord send with this
glorious message? Shepherds. When the Lord came,
when the Lord became a man, and thirty years old, went about
calling, it says, He went up into a high mountain and called
unto Him who He would. It says, He went up into a high
mountain and called unto Him whom He would. It says, They
came. Who were they? Fishermen. Poor. No bodies from nowhere. To reveal
what? His glory. The light, Christ's light shall
round about them to behold His glory. He said, I've chosen you.
Oh my, what about you people who have been all His chosen
ones, if you believe Him? Have you chosen of Him? Do you see your calling? God
has chosen foolish things, weak things, base things, things that
are nothing. It says they were abiding, watching by night. They were watchmen. What were
they watching? Oh, sheep. What were they watching
for? Wolves. And I rather believe
they were watching and waiting for the Lord. Listen to this. David said, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in His
Word do I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord
more than they that watch for the morning. I say more than
they that watch for the morning. Let Israel hope in the Lord.
Wait. Hope. Look. He's coming. He came. The Old Testament, all
the Old Testament says somebody's coming. The Gospels right here
say He came. The New Testament, the epistles
in the Revelation say He's coming again. And though we sit in darkness
in this world like these shepherds they sat watching over their
flock by night, they were in darkness. What time of night
do you think this was? Does it say? I know what time it was.
It's midnight. God doesn't change. That's his
change. In Exodus, it says, lo, at midnight
the cry came. At midnight, darkness, while
the world was fast asleep, while the world didn't care that God
didn't show them to them. But he came to these shepherds,
woke them up in the night watches and said, somebody's coming. Oh, people, we're not in darkness
even as others. Like the children of Israel in
the wilderness says, it was dark to the Egyptians, but it was
light to the children of Israel. These shepherds sat in darkness.
Look, it says, but lo, verse 9, the angel of the Lord came
upon them, the glory of the Lord shone round about them. The glory
of the Lord shone round about them. People, the gospel is the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the person and
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like these shepherds, like Saul
of Tarsus who was in religion, who was in darkness, the Lord
says, the Lord, the light of the world, the light of the knowledge,
the glory of God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ came
to him, chose him, and shone around about him, revealed unto
him himself. that he is the glory of God,
that Christ is the glory of God, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Son, full of grace and truth, the glory of his grace,
the glory of his love, the glory of his mercy, the glory of his
salvation, the glory of what he did on Calvary's tree, the
glory of where he is now, and the glory of his coming again.
It says they were afraid, verse
9, they were afraid to hear the Lord's beginning wisdom. Are
there any messages today that being preached, do you think,
that would instill fear in people? Is there any fear in people?
Isaiah said, their fear toward me is taught by the precept of
men. Meaning, no fear. You don't need
to fear. Yes, you do. You know, this gospel of peace
is only to those who are at war. This glad tidings of good news
is only good news to those that mourn. You know that? This gospel means nothing to
people that are righteous. This gospel means nothing to
people that are not guilty. This gospel means nothing to
people that are looking for a carnal kingdom, or a carnal utopia,
or pie in the sky and a sweet bye-bye. This gospel means nothing
to them. This gospel is for poor sinners.
Christ said, I have come to preach to the poor. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. Blessed are they that mourn.
Mourn over what? Sin. This gospel is only good
news to those that mourn over their sin. Now, when the angel
came to Joseph in Matthew's gospel, he announced this. He said, You
shall call his name Jesus. This is His earthly name. This
is His name of humiliation, His manhood, His humanity. Call His name Jesus. It's Joshua. That means God our Savior, Jehovah's
Saviour. But when you say that name, call
Him Lord first. But Matthew told Joseph, call
His name Jesus, Paul. This is why he came. He shall
save His people from Roman tyranny. No. From oppression. No. From all their trouble. No. From their sins. Do you understand that? Call
His name Jesus, but He shall. He's going to do this, and He
did it. Isaiah said, He shall not fail. And Christ said, I
finished it. He shall say, when He had, Hebrews
says, when He had by Himself, did what? Purged our sins. He shall save His people. For
the transgression of My people, was He smitten. His people. Christ said, my sheep, I came
to save my lady of my life for my sheep, my elect, my people. I came to die for them. That's
who I came for. He shall save, not try to save,
not make an attempt, not make it possible, not make an offer
if you accept it. He shall save His people from
their sins. Now this is the best news that
sinners ever hear. This is the glad tidings of great
joy to all people that are sinners. This gospel is going to go out.
He said, send this to all people. Every tribe, kindred, nation,
and tongue under heaven must hear this. But only sinners are
going to receive it. Only sinners are going to think
it's glad tidings. Only sinners are going to think
it's good news. Like David, who said, my sin is ever before me. Nathan the prophet came and said,
but the Lord has put away your sin. Really? Yes, he has. The blood is before
the Lord. Oh, that's good. That's good. That man sick of
the palsy our Lord came to, lying of the palsy. And our Lord, before
He healed him, said, Be of good cheer. I've got good news. He's lying there paralyzed. He can't enjoy the things of
this world. But Christ said, good news, your sins be forgiven
you. He couldn't move his hands or
legs, but his heart moved. Glory to God in the highest.
And he said, get up and walk. He died of something later, didn't
he? But he didn't die of his sins. He went to live forever. Those
that live and believe in Christ never die. You believe that?
Good news. Sins are gone. He came to save
His people from their sins. This is what the angels cried.
This is the essence of their message. It said, Fear not, verse
10, I bring you good tidings, good news of great joy which
shall be to all people. It doesn't say persons. English language is somewhat
correct, but it's as good as it gets. Not people, not all
persons that is, but all people, all tribe, kindred, nation under
heaven. What mercy, what good news. Unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior. saved them from their sin, which
is Christ the Lord. The Lord. If He's not Lord, He can't save
you. If He's not Lord, He can't be
your Messiah, can't be your Christ, but He's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they said, this is the sign. You'll find Him in swaddling
clothes, lying in a manger. This one angel came, the three
shepherds, and then joining him, God said, everybody go. Ten thousand times ten thousand
and thousands of saints and angels, they all had one voice and one
message. Think of this now. In the middle of the night, while
the world is sleeping, three angels God sent all of heaven to three
shepherds to sing. They heard them sing
and said they were praising God. That means singing, singing.
A multitude of heavenly hosts, thousands and thousands of times,
ten thousand, praising God, saying, Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Not man. Men, these three
men, they said, I'm to you. Three shepherds, are you getting
a hold of this? Maybe there's just two or three
in here this morning. God says, to you. Let me find
one. I can't know. I don't know what
God does. To you. Heaven is sent to tell you. But the you is born. A son of a Savior. It can't be
you. Glory to God in the highest.
God in the highest. We make mention His name is exalted. He's sovereign. He's Lord over
all. The God who reigns and rules over all. Glory to God. We give
Him all glory. This is for His glory. And this
is His greatest glory. God's greatest glory is in sovereign
mercy to sinners. Sovereign grace to sinners. The
unspeakable gift of the Son of His love to sinners, choosing
them, revealing Christ in them and to them, and sending the
angel of the Lord to them, and revealing to them and in them
the Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to God in the highest. Sent to you. People, this is the message of
of God. This is the message of His Holy
Spirit. This is the message of the angels
and saints and angels' song. This is the message of the shepherds.
This is the message. The Lord Jesus Christ, Savior
of sinners. Glory to God in the highest.
And on earth peace, goodwill toward men. Notice He doesn't
say, peace on earth, good deal toward me. It's always misquoted.
Everybody misquotes that. He doesn't say that. Peace on earth. Wasn't there
peace on earth at this time? Has there ever been peace on
earth? Was there peace on earth that night that he was born?
No. Our Lord said in Luke 12, if
you go over there and read it for yourself later on, He said,
Do you suppose I came to send peace on earth? No. Sorry. While He's being born, He listens to me now. Thousands
of babies are about to be slaughtered. as they are now. But they all went to glory. Why? Because of Jesus Christ. Somebody saw that. I see it in
your face. He didn't come to send peace on this earth. He
came to be made peace. It says like it reads. It reads
like it says. It says what it means on earth.
Finally on earth, there's peace. What's that? It's Him. Ephesians 2, Paul said, He is
our peace. God said over and over again,
there is no peace for the wicked. There is no peace for the wicked.
God is angry with the wicked every day. Those outside of Christ. When that ark was built back
there, Noah's ark, was there a bumper sticker on it that said, Was there a bumper sticker on
the outside of that ark that said, God loves you? No, He's
about to destroy them all. It was on the inside. Peace! Those inside the ark,
peace! Wow, that ark took the wrath
of God. That ark I said, I am come to
bear the wrath of God as the ark of God. I am come to be made
peace. The chastisement of their peace
was laid on Him. God is angry. Yes, He is. This
is the fear of the Lord. And to all that fear Him, those
shepherds with fear, they exceedingly quaked. Moses said, God said,
be of good cheer. Do you fear me? Fear not. You
have blood there? Yes, I do. I'm not angry at all. I love you. I set my son to die for you. There's no condemnation. There's
nothing laid to your charge. Woman, where are thine accusers?
They were hung on the cross. Do you hear me? Your accusers
were hung on the cross. Christ was made a curse for you,
for His people. Do you hear this? Good news! This means nothing to most people.
It means nothing. To the righteous. Christ said,
I didn't come to call the righteous. Go out there and tell the harlots.
Tell the harlots, their sins are gone. Go tell the publicans,
their sins are gone. I've got my teeth in. It's like
a grand ear to ear. This is good news to sinners. Peace. God who's going to destroy
this world. So he said to his people, you
have nothing to worry about. You have nothing to worry about.
Why? He is our peace. Peace with God. Peace of conscience. My conscience that only God's
people understand it. Though my conscience smites me
with guilt, with shame, because I'm a sinner, because I can't
seem to quit sinning, my sin is ever before me, yet God has
told me and promised me a God who cannot lie. He says, when
I see the blood, He said, if you trust my Son, you don't have
any sin. They're gone. They're under the
blood. They're covered. He's your swaddling cloth. He's
your Lamb. And that just soothes my conscience.
And when I look around, my mind, you know, is at not at peace.
My mind is troubled when I see all of this thing, when I hear
of wars and rumors of war. And the greatest war of all is
the one that I fight inside. This old man, I think he's going
to kill me. And my adversary, the devil,
who seeks to destroy me like a lion, raging lion, I think
he's going to get me. The Lord's going to lead me to
him. The first thing the angel said
to these poor shepherds was, peace. When Christ hung on the
cross and rose from the grave, the first thing he said to his
disciples when he came back was, what? What did he say? Peace. Peace by my blood. God's not angry with you. That's
why I came. God loves you. That's why I came. Goodwill, goodwill to the praise
of the glory of His grace. Oh, blessed be God and the Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His mercy, according as He's
chosen us in Christ. And we should be holy and blameless
before Him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of His children
by the good pleasure of His will, according to the good pleasure
of His will. God in His good will towards
you. I've got good news for you. All
of God's will is for you. If God be for you, nothing can
be against you. Nothing. No way. Good news. Peace. It's quiet. It's dark. It's still midnight. That message took about three
minutes. What'd they do? They found it. They found it. Now, after this message, you're
going to go back out in that world, back out into the darkness. Brethren, it's not darkness to
you. It's light. It's light. Read this with me
in closing, Revelation 7. You know, this multitude came. You know, whenever a sinner repents,
it says heaven rejoices, a multitude. Revelation 7, go over there.
Those angels left, and then those shepherds were left in darkness.
But no, no, no, they weren't in darkness anymore. Not anymore. And the one that they were looking
for, they found him. And they went around telling
everybody about him. They had to be shepherds, yes. They had
to earn a little money and all, but do you know what their life
was now? Who? Do you know what they were
taken up with now? Somebody would come to them and
say, I've got great news. I've got really a great story
to tell you. What is it? Big deal. We've got a story to tell you. Revelation 7, you know, our Lord's
coming again with 10,000 times 10,000 times 10,000 of His saints. Verse 9 says, I beheld, and lo,
a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations,
and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne
for the Lamb. clothed with white robes and
palms in their hands. And Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians
that they're coming for his people. All the saints and angels are
coming for his people. They're still on this earth.
A multitude that no man can number. What are they saying? The same
thing at those three shepherds there. Verse 10, crying with a loud
voice, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne and under
the Lamb. Verse 12, Amen, blessing and
glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might
be unto our God forever and ever. Well, that's the story. I'm glad that you heard it. Good
news, glad tidings, great joy. All right, let's sing in closing
number 89. Difficult to sing with these
tongues, but may we sing it now from the heart. Glory to God
in the highest. In Latin, excelsis Deo. Glory to God in the highest.
Let's stand. Number 89. Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o'er the plain And the mountain in reply Echoing
their joyous strain Gloria in excelsis Deo. Gloria in excelsis Deo. Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? Let some tidings be!