It is such a delight to be with
you here today. I've enjoyed the, I think this
is the 10th time that I've been permitted to come over here and
be with you. And I'm thankful for that. And here we are close
to the end of the year. Next Sunday will be the 31st
of the month and the following day will be New Year's Day. Well,
we wanna bring an old story. We wanna bring a story that's
been written for over 2,000 years and has been spoken from for
that long. It tells us about a wonderful
event, the coming of the Messiah. In the Old Testament, he's called
the Messiah. In the New Testament, he's called
Christ. That's two words. One is a Hebrew
word, one's a Greek word, but they mean the same thing. Messiah,
someone to take care of the problem that developed as a result of
Adam's fall in the Garden of Eden. We need help. We can't
get there by ourself. We need help. We need a savior. You know, this last week, Nancy
and I were over on the coast And there was a plaque there
in the parking lot at Rockaway Beach. And my daughter noticed
it first, and I went looking for it. Now, it was a sad plaque
because it told the name of a young man who made an attempt to save
somebody that was drowning out there in the ocean. And in the
course of events, the young man that attempted to be the savior
drowned himself and was drug out to sea. He tried to deliver
somebody he'd never met before from drowning. Now when it comes
to salvation, eternal salvation, we want someone better than that.
We want somebody that can actually do the job. We want someone that
will not let go of us, will not just make an attempt. will not
just try to deliver us, but we want someone who will save his
people from their sin. That's what we want. And that's
who we want to talk about today. The Bible tells us all through
the Old Testament, someone is coming. Someone is coming. Someone is gonna come to take
care of the problem. Now over in the book of Genesis
chapter three, the first verse that shares with us about good
news that would take care of the problem, it says there that
the seed of the woman would take care of the problem. It doesn't
say there that the seed of the man, the seed of the woman. Now
we find out when Adam fell, that when he ate that fruit, some
catastrophic events took place. But when his wife Eve took that
fruit and ate it, nothing happened. There was no darkness, no knowledge
of sin. There was no problem. But as
soon as she gave it to her husband and he did eat, then there was
a catastrophic problem and he died spiritually. Now, in verse
15 of chapter three, it says, someone is going to come to take
care of this problem. Well, we call it, Zero years. I grew up with B.C. and A.D.
They've changed it now. I don't even remember what it
is, but everything before Christ, they had an age. Everything after
Antidominate, after Christ, there was that. And we're in 2023 A.D. That's the way I'm going to say
it. Well, Jesus was born in year zero then. Year zero. He's the beginning of the change
of time. There's so much about him that
was totally changed everything. The prophets of old spoke of
him. They said, here is going to be
born in Bethlehem and he's going to be born in a very, very special
way. You know, I used to be concerned
because I just could not get my mind wrapped around somebody
being born of a virgin. But you know God created man
of the dust of the ground and we don't question that. So I
don't question that anymore. He has the power, the strength,
the authority to do what he wants to do and so he created a body
inside of the womb of a woman that had never knew a man. And
that's what she said, how can this be? And she finally said,
be it unto me according to thy word. Now in the day and time
that we're talking about, she probably was a very despised
young woman because she was pregnant without being married. They looked
down her nose. You know what? Joseph could have
had her stoned to death. That was the law. But he being
a proper man, not wanting to put her to any public shame,
he was going to put her away privately. They weren't married
yet, they were engaged. He was gonna put her away privately.
And God Almighty came to him and said, nope, this one, Mary,
has the Savior. She is bearing the Savior. And
don't be afraid to take her as your wife. and you're gonna name
him Jesus. And then the angel gave Joseph
the reason why he was gonna be named Jesus. You shall call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins. He shall do
it. He is going to save his people
from their sins. So from eternity past, it had
been in the mind of God and in purpose of God to save a people
before they even fell in the garden. And here we have it carried
out. In the second chapter of the
book of Luke, we have an account that I like. Now, Matthew and
Luke both share with us about the birth of the Lord Jesus.
And in the book of Luke, it shares with us in chapter two, Luke
chapter two, Let me get there. All right.
It says there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus. Now, what
in the world would a Caesar in Rome have to do with about a
baby being born in Bethlehem? Well, Mary and Joseph lived in
the town of Nazareth. Now, that's kind of like living
in Dufur. You know where Dufur is. It's a little burg. And they
needed to be in, hmm, Madras. So Caesar Augustus, he was the
emperor of the Roman Empire, he sent out a decree. Now, according
to what we find, we find that if they traveled with that news
of that decree, Across the Mediterranean Sea, they had to travel over
1,400 miles. Now, they didn't have motorboats
like we have today. They had sailboats, and it took
them some time. And if they didn't do that, and
they traveled by land, it was over 2,500 miles that they had
to travel with the news of this decree. Caesar Augustus wants
everybody enrolled for future taxation. You know, this decree
went out also in all of the Roman Empire. And we know that as France
and Italy and much of Germany and Turkey and Egypt and many
other countries were in the Roman Empire and they got the same
decree. But there is only one person
or one family mentioned in the Bible that was really affected
by this decree. And it was Joseph. and is a spoused
wife, Mary. And they both lived in Nazareth
and she is great with child. Now today we had someone in church
and she just said, she has a month to go. Well, mamas, you know
what that is at a month before you give birth. And then the
ninth month. My wife, oh my goodness, she
was in agony every day during that night month because that
baby was kicking around and all that stuff. Well, Mary is required
by the law to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem in this condition. Now, why? Because God decreed
it. She needed to be where the prophet
of old had said the Messiah would be born, and that was in Bethlehem.
So God moved an emperor 1,400 miles away to move a decree so
that they would be in the right place at the right time. So there
went out this decree and Joseph also went up from Galilee out
of the city of Nazareth into Judea under the city of David,
which is called Bethlehem because he was of the house and lineage
of David. Now it's interesting, I like the names. What names
mean? My name is Norman and it means
of the North, a North man, probably a Viking. I'd like to think so. Well, names are interesting.
The name of the Dalles is an interesting name. The name of
Jerusalem is an interesting name, but Bethlehem. Bethlehem had
so much to say about the Lord Jesus Christ because it means
house of bread. And you know what he called himself?
The bread of life. So the very place that he was
born meant something. Now later in his life, some people
are gonna be informed about Jesus of Nazareth, and that person
is gonna say, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Well, Nazareth
was not a good place to grow up, but he grew up there, he's
a carpenter's son, and his mom and stepfather have at least
six more children. Four of them were boys and their
names are given in the scripture. And then it says sisters. So
I learned in English that that was plural. So there was at least
two sisters. There might've been more. So
they have a rather large family after Jesus is born. He is called
the first born son on purpose. because he did not have the effects
of the fall. He is the God-man. He is Emmanuel,
which means God with us. We find in the book of John that
he is the word was made flesh, and that word means God. God
was made flesh. He came down to this earth and
was made flesh. He had a body just like we are,
and yet the scriptures are very clear, yet without sin. How important is that, is to
have a Savior that is without sin. We can't take care of anybody
else's because we have a boatload of our own. But he didn't have
sin, so he was selected in the covenant of grace to take care
of the sin of his people. And in some miraculous way, God
was able to take all the sins of all his people and place it
on him, impute it to him, and when he died, he could totally
pay for it. I love that kind of gospel. I
love a gospel that takes care of my sin. And I love a savior
that can actually save me and not just hang on to me until
it came too late and let me slide. You know, as we look at this,
we find out that Jesus came exactly at the right time. Paul wrote
in the book of Galatians and said, but when the fullness of
time was come, did you know that we were born on exactly this
right day? appointed by God, right day,
right place. But it really means something
when we read about the Lord Jesus Christ, that he was born on the
right day, in the right place, and had a purpose in mind. He
had a purpose from the very beginning in mind. And it tells us there
in the book of Luke, and so it was that while they were there
in Bethlehem, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
Her baby was born. It says, and she brought forth
her firstborn son. Now this is such a special son.
This is a son that has no sinful effects on him. This is a son
that has no sin. This is a son that's impeccable.
This is a son that could not sin at all. You know, I was visiting
with a young man the other day and I made this point. He never
had a pimple. He never had a cold. He never
was sick. He never had any of those childhood
diseases. He never had any effect of the
fall on him. He was the perfect son. Now, the other six that came
along probably surprised Mary and Joseph a lot, because they
were affected by that, and they did have childhood diseases,
and they did know the word no. You know, tell their mom and
dad no. The Lord never had that problem.
He never argued with his parents. He never argued with Mary. He
never argued. It was the perfect son of God. And it goes on to tell us here,
and they wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.
And the reason for it was they went down there hoping for a
room. Now, Nancy and I went up to Washington one time to see
our son who was in the Navy. And we just knew that we could
find a motel room. Well, we stopped. and talked
to several motels, called several more. Guess what we got to do? Sleep in our car. Because we
had not made the proper advance notice. We slept in our car,
which we didn't do a very good sleep in. Well, anyway, they
went down there with the idea, I'm sure that they were going
to find a motel room of some kind. And when they got down
there, there was no room in the inn. Well, this is really indicative
of the kind of life that most people think about the Lord Jesus.
They don't have time for him. They have time for a Jesus that
they help to get saved, but they don't have time for a Jesus that
is the savior of his people. And he goes on to tell us here,
and lo, the angel of the Lord, oh, there's some shepherds in
the country at this time, and they're watching over their flock.
I think that that's very interesting that here we have the good shepherd,
the chief shepherd, and the great shepherd in one body, Jesus Christ. He's going to be called that
throughout his ministry. In fact, he says, I am the good shepherd.
The good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. He is going
to be a shepherd. He's going to be the best shepherd.
He's going to be the great shepherd. He's going to be the chief shepherd.
And yet we have some shepherds are the first ones that are given
the message that the Messiah has been born. the one that's
gonna take care of the problem. It says, there were shepherds
abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night,
and lo, the angel of the Lord came unto them, and the glory
of the Lord shone round about them, and they were afraid. They'd never had an event like
this. They'd never seen the glorious light like this. They'd never
seen anything like this and they were sore afraid. And the angel
of the Lord says, fear not, we're bringing you the best news you
could ever hear. We wanna bring the gospel. We
wanna bring good tidings. I like good tidings, don't you?
Sure beats bad tidings. I like good tidings. I like good
news. I like good news. My wife was traveling the other
day alone, and when she got to our house, it was good news.
Traveled 90 miles, not knowing exactly how she's doing, but
when she got home, it was good news. Well, here we have, behold,
I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
And this is the news. This is what people have been
looking for since the very beginning. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Messiah the Lord, which
is Christ the Lord. He is the Messiah. He's the promised
one. He's what all of the Old Testament
type shadows and pictures were pointing to. Here he is. You
know, it's not gonna be very much longer. When he's eight
days old, he's taken to the temple. And there is an old man there.
probably up in his 80s. And he walks up to Mary, she's
carrying Jesus, and walks up to Mary and takes that baby out
of her arms and looks at him and says, now this man had been
told he would not die until he had seen the Lord's Christ. He'd not seen the Messiah. He
would not pass from this life until he had seen the Messiah.
And he took that baby up and said, Lord, I can die in peace
now, for I have seen thy salvation. In a baby. Well, this baby grew
up. 12 years of age, we find him
in the temple, and the doctors of the law question him. At 30,
he goes to a man by the name of John and says, you know, I
must fulfill all righteousness. And he submitted himself to baptism. That didn't save him, never saves
anybody. But he wanted to picture what
the fulfillment of all righteousness is, and that is the death, the
burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He went through
three years of ministry. At the end of three years, you'd
think he'd be pretty successful. You know what they did to him?
They arrested him. But he said this about his own
arrest, I lay down my life no man takes it from me that I might
take it up again. He submitted to that. He gave
himself to that because that's the way he was going to give
his life a ransom for many. This baby grew up. We know him
as Jesus Christ the Lord. We know him as the Messiah. We
know him as the one who went to the cross. We know him as
the one that said, it is finished. When he suffered all that he
did on the cross, as God the Father poured out the wrath of
justice on him, he came out the other side and said, it is finished. Salvation is complete. My people
shall come unto me and find salvation. What a glorious event. You know,
I'm thankful that Jesus Christ came born of a virgin, just like
it says, born in Bethlehem, just like it says, did exactly what
the Old Testament prophet said he would do, and then comes down
to the right time. He submitted himself to the most
inglorious death on the behalf of his people, and raised the
third day. We're talking about Easter already.
Raised the third day and is now sitting at the right hand of
the father making intercession for all his people. I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. What
joy it is. And then it tells us, I'm gonna leave
the book of Luke for just a moment It tells us in the book of Hebrews,
but we see Jesus who was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death. He died in the place of all his
people. They have, you know, born once,
die twice, born twice, die once. Ye must be born again. And that's what He does. He is
the Savior of His people. They shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. We'll stop there,
and I'll ask Mike to come and bring us a closing hymn.