Thank you. Let's open our Bibles
back to the second chapter of Luke. If you would, go back to
Luke, the second chapter, that passage that was read to us just
a bit ago. This is the scripture that tells
us of the greatest event that up to this point in history that
had ever happened. But there's a greater one yet
to come in the life of our Lord, that being His substitutionary
death. That's where He put our sins
away. That's where He reconciled us
unto God. That's where He justified us.
That's where He saved us. But, there could be no death
had there been no birth. So let's look at this portion
of Scripture today in Luke, the second chapter. As I said, it is the greatest
event up to this point. in our history. And I would say
to the God who is Trinity, this event was purposed long before
He made the world, back in old eternity. The Father, the Son,
and the Spirit, they convened an holy covenant. And they ordained the salvation
of a multitude of people. God the Father selected a people. They would be the recipients
of His grace, of His mercy. He loved these people with a
love without beginning and without end. He gave them to his son, the
son committed himself to be the savior of these elected ones. He committed himself to be Jehovah's
servant, someday to give his life as the sacrifice for the salvation
of these people. And in the Spirit of God, He agreed to use the Word of
the Gospel, bring that Gospel right home
to the hearts of those God the Father chose to salvation, those
that the Son would redeem, The Spirit of God agreed He would
bring the Gospel to them and it would be to them the Word
of Life. And He would give faith and repentance. This event before us in Luke,
the second chapter, the first few verses of the birth of our
Savior, it all came to pass as a result of a covenant. A covenant. Individually, to the three persons
of the Godhead, to the Father, this was that time when He sent
His Son into the world. Galatians chapter 4, in the fullness
of the time, God sent forth His Son, made a woman, made under
God's law. And He did that to redeem those
that were under God's law. And we might receive the adoption
of sons. God sent forth His Son. And here
He comes. Luke chapter 2. To God the Son, this is that
time when He took on Him the form of a servant. Because It wasn't possible that
the blood of bulls and goats could ever put away sin. All
the sacrifices of the Old Testament, they couldn't do it. And therefore, the Son of God
came into this world, and as He entered into this world, He
said, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. It is written in the volume
of the book, the book of God's predestination, the book of God's
Word, that He would come into this world. He came to do God's
redemptive will. To God the Spirit, this baby
that was born, is born as a result of His overshadowing, a young
Jewish virgin. In great and unusual miraculous
power, God the Spirit dealt with her. And that one, the seed of
the woman, was conceived in her womb. The angel of God said that holy
thing formed in thee shall be called the Son of God. And to those people that He came
to save, this one is to us, our Savior, our all. Isaiah wrote and he said, and
we read it to begin the service, unto us, unto us, us sinners. ungodly people. Unto us a child
was born. Unto us. Unto us a Son was given. As a child, He was born. As the Son of God, He was given
by the Father in covenant love. Unto us, He was given. The prophet Isaiah wrote, he
said, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. His name shall be called Immanuel. What does Immanuel mean? And
Matthew tells us in the first chapter of the last verse, God
with us. Oh, miracle of miracles. We have set before us here in
Luke the first half of Luke chapter 2. We have the birth of our Savior
who is God with us. God forevermore joined to me. God the Savior. God the rescuer
of sinners. And here is His arrival. into
this world. I've entitled this message, Good
Tidings of Great Joy. Because that's what this is.
It's good tidings of great joy. A little more than 2,000 years
ago, the One who made the heavens and the earth and everything
that is in them, He entered into this world and dwelt among us. great Creator. He entered our
society as an infant. God's own Son put on humanity. He who governs this universe
lived on this earth. And on a night like every other
night in Israel, without any celebration by men, without any
fanfare by men, without any elaborate festivities by men, a child was born. It was a night like every other
night in Bethlehem, but I'll tell you, this child wasn't like
any other child. This is the Lord Jesus. This
is God and man bonded together, united together, joined together
in indivisible oneness. His birth is so significant that
He became the most important event. Also in this sense, this
is how we judge what we call time. Before his birth was B.C. After his birth is A.D. Even
the world at large recognizes the significance of this event.
Even though they don't recognize really who came and the reason
he came into this world. I want you to consider five things
from this passage of Scripture, the first twenty verses. of Luke,
the second chapter, the first from the circumstances concerning
His birth. It is so wonderful to see how
God orchestrated all of the events around the birth of the Savior
into this world, even as He orchestrates all things at all times. We know
that. The Scripture says, for of Him
and through Him and to Him are all things, Therefore, to him
be glory forever. Amen. God in his providence,
he led Caesar Augustus to tax his kingdom. Had everybody in his kingdom
registered? Everybody in his kingdom was
to be counted. And it was for the purpose of
taxing. For taxing. But little did Caesar
know, this the greatest ruler in the world, little did he know
that God moved upon his heart to do this. This is God's workings. Oh, when will we ever realize? And all the decisions of the
rulers and the presidents and the prime ministers and all the
other leaders, all of these things, they happen according to God's
purpose. Scripture says, the heart of
the king is in the Lord's hand as the rivers of water, and he
turneth them whithersoever he will. Here's a pagan king. He cares nothing for the things
of God. He cares nothing the Old Testament,
he cares nothing concerning the promises of Messiah, if he even
knew about them. And being a man, as most leaders
are, of great ego, he wants everybody in his kingdom counted. And that
way, he could find out who's eligible to be the young men,
eligible to be brought into his vast arms. And also, once they
registered, they had to register their names, occupations, children,
where they lived, whatever property they owned. As they did that,
he knew, oh, the coffers of Rome are growing. We're getting richer
and richer and richer. This is his ego at work. But
back behind his ego, There's our God at work. That is always
the case. It is always the case. God is
doing His work. God is bringing to pass His will. Martin Luther said to his good
friend Melanchthon, Philip Melanchthon, and Philip Melanchthon, he had
an awful habit of fretting out loud. And I'm sure you don't
know anybody who does that, but he would get off with somebody
and start fussing about the situations and so forth. And Martin Luther said to him,
you can't rule the world, Philip. God does that. And I say to all of us this morning,
we can't rule the world. We can't govern the things that
happen. God's doing that. Let's rejoice. Let's rejoice. Caesar Augustus, he does something
that raises the hatred of every Jew. Oh, how frustrated, how
upset they must have got. I can just hear them talking
because this is the way we talk. There goes the government reaching
in my pocket for more money. And now we've got to make this
lengthy journey for Joseph and Mary who lived in Nazareth about
85, 90 miles. And evidently, there must have
been some sort of deadline that they had to be there. Otherwise,
they wouldn't have gone when she's so near delivering this
virgin, who can see by the power of the Spirit of God. I'm sure they were upset this
was a pagan thing, this taxing, intruding into their lives. They wanted to have nothing to
do with it. But God was at work. And I'm sure if we could see,
even as we to some degree see now, how things have unfolded
in our lives. We look back on events that maybe
when we were going through with them they weren't nice, weren't
pleasant, they weren't happy situations. But we look back
upon some of them at least now and we say, you know, I can see
how God was bringing that to pass. And at least to some degree,
I can see how that was working together for the good of God's
people. Concerning the circumstances
around our Lord's birth, God is at work in a heathen king. Caesar had no idea he's fulfilling
the will of God. But he was. He was. Our current president, I'm sure
he has no idea he's fulfilled the will of God during his administration. But he has. And the president-elect, I'm sure
he has no idea he's going to fulfill the will of God in his
administration. But he will. He will. For all things happen according
to God's decree. And if the Spirit of Grace would
ever teach us that down here in the heart, we'd be a more
peaceable people. We'd have peace within our own
hearts. And not upset. I read the papers. People are upset over who the
president-elect is. And it's going to pieces. I tell
you, the people of God recognize We have a president-elect, but
even if it had been the other candidate, that would have been
the will of God too. These things work out according
to His purpose. Don't get frustrated. You see,
God sent forth His Son under these circumstances to fulfill
His will. And He used heathens, He used
people who knew nothing about the Gospel, put these things
into motion. Let's see the hand of God at
work. O God, blessed Spirit of God, open my eyes that I might
see your hand at work in all things and therefore be contented. You see, our Lord sent His Son
into this world at just the right time and He used ungodly people
to arrange certain circumstances just like God purposed. You see,
when God had proved that the world by wisdom knew not God,
that's when He brought forth His Son. When all religious ritualism
had just left men and women in utter ignorance and morally bankrupt,
That's when God sent forth His Son. When all the philosophers and
all the poets and all the historians and all the rulers of the Gentile
world left the world in utter spiritual darkness and moral
corruption, that's when God sent forth His Son. You know, at this time, due to
the fact that Rome ruled most of the world, the national borders
were open, that made way for the gospel to spread. While the
world hadn't been under one rule since way back in the book of
Genesis, and that's under one rule. And the borders, you easily
cross the borders. It made way for the gospel of
free grace, the gospel of the Lord Jesus to go forth. This
happened in God's time. All things do. That happened
in God's time. That's the circumstance. Consider
the city. Bethlehem. Well, this is a famous
place. It's where Boaz lived back in
the book of Ruth. And Ruth were in bankruptcy.
Lost everything. And God had appointed a kinsman
redeemer. His name was Boaz. Where is he
from? Bethlehem. There's our Savior
set forth in picture, the kinsman redeemer. That one who can redeem,
he's got to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. But he's
got to be able to redeem. He's got to be willing to redeem.
That's Christ Jesus. Like Boaz redeemed Ruth and Naomi. Christ Jesus redeemed us. This
is the city of David. This is where David was born.
This is where David was anointed to be the king. In the stead
of King Saul. God ordained that his son, the
son of David, David's son, David's Lord, would be born in this city. It's a fulfillment of prophecy.
Micah chapter 5 and verse 2 states that. Micah wrote 700 years before
the Savior was born. Some 300 years after David was
the king. A thousand years went by. Here's our Lord Jesus born. in
the city of Bethlehem. Behold the veracity of God. Behold
the truthfulness of God. Bethlehem has got two meanings. One of them is a well-known meaning.
The other is a lesser-known meaning. First of all, it means house
of bread, house of food. Oh, how fitting that the bread
come down from heaven, the Lord Jesus, that He would be born
in Bethlehem's manger. After all, he is the food for
the soul. Food for the soul. We feast upon
Him every time we gather together, every time we hear His gospel,
the gospel of redeeming grace, the gospel of His blood and righteousness,
the gospel of His sacrifice, how He died that God might be
just and the justifier of all who believe on Him, the justifier
of the ungodly. We feed on this bread from heaven. John chapter 6, the Savior said,
I am the bread of life. I'm the bread that came down
from heaven. His existence didn't begin in Bethlehem. He existed
from old eternity because He's the God-man. Bethlehem means
house of bread. But it has a lesser meaning or
a meaning that not many people know about. It means house of
warfare. Go all the way back to when the
Philistines invaded Bethlehem. house of warfare. I'll tell you,
our Lord Jesus was born into Bethlehem, born in the city of
Bethlehem. He came on a mission and it involved
warfare. He went to war against our sins. He went to war against Satan. He went to war against all of
the enemies of all of His people. He defeated them all. Death,
hell, the grave, sin, Satan, the world. He defeated them all.
Place of warfare. Warfare. Thirdly, consider chosen sinners. Look at verse 8. It says they were in the same country.
Well, let me read verse 7. Let me just read this because
His birth is... You're talking about a simple
statement. Verses 6 and 7. Very simple statements. What can you add to this? There's
no description given. It just says, and it was so that
while they were there, while they were in Bethlehem, the days
were accomplished that she should be delivered. She brought forth
her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid
him in a manger, laid him in a feed trough, because there
was no room for them in the end. His birth is really understated. I'm sure you and me as well,
and I'm honest, I'd like to know more about the circumstances,
but they're not given to us. We have all the Holy Spirit would
have us to know right here in just these few statements. So
we don't add to it. We don't take anything away from
it. He was born. He was born. But notice that there were some
chosen sinners that God had that He was going to reveal this to.
Verse 8, they were in the same country, shepherds abiding in
the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. You know,
just sort of minding their own business. They weren't seeking the Lord. They're not looking for the Messiah. They're not looking for the Savior.
They're just doing what shepherds do at night, watching their flocks. Yet it was to these men that
God purposed to make a revelation of the entrance into this great
world of this wonderful Savior. Shepherds received a visit from
angelic commission and angels who were commissioned of God
to declare some good news to them. This, as I said, is the
most monumental event in all the history of the world. And
yet, Caesar didn't know anything about it. And we read here about Cyrenius. He was governor of Syria. He
didn't know anything about it. The King Herod, he didn't know
anything about it. The Lord didn't reveal this to
him. High priests didn't know anything
about it. Chief priests, they didn't know. Pharisees, the Sadducees,
the rulers, the scribes, none of them knew what was happening. In fact, even the people who
were entering the stable or the cave or wherever it was that
they kept the animals overnight and fed them. People who might
be entering in and perhaps they had a place to stay in a local
inn and they, you know, put their horses or their asses or whatever
kind of animal they had and put them in there for boarding overnight. And it's all babies born. Isn't
that sweet? Everybody loves the birth of
a baby. But they didn't know who He was. They had no idea
who had just made an entrance into this world. But God had some men out on a
field, out in a field watching their sheep. He made a revelation
of grace to them. You see, He reveals the truth. Just to whom He will. Not to
everybody. What about all these religious
people? No. What about all these governmental
authorities? No. Who will the Son of God,
His entrance into this world, who will this be revealed to?
Just some simple uneducated shepherds. Because God said, I'll have mercy
on whom I'll have mercy. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. You see this heavenly messenger
that spoke first to these shepherds. God said, speak to these and
not to these others. You know, the shepherds, they
were considered to be the lowest of the low. Shepherds on the
socioeconomic scale, they were kind of down at the bottom. In fact, they couldn't even get
testimony in a court of law in any kind of case. But God ignored the political hierarchy, and the religious
hierarchy, and revealed Himself to these shepherds. The Lord Jesus said, I thank
Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast
hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed
them unto babes. Even so, Father, so it seemed
good in Thy sight. Here are the chosen ones for
the message. And that brings us to the fourth
thing, the celestial messengers. Look at verse 9, "...and lo,
the angel of the Lord came upon them." You know, these angels,
they're like, or preachers of the gospel, I should say, are
likened angels. We're messengers. We have a message
of good news. We have a message of righteousness
and forgiveness of sins through the blessed Redeemer and His
work of redemption and reconciliation. This angel comes with a really
good message. Good news. Lo, the angel of the
Lord came upon them. The glory of the Lord shone round
about them. They were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not. For behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy. I don't bring it to everybody,
but I do bring it to you. I bring it to you. which shall
be to all people." Not everyone in the world, because not everyone
in the world was happy that it came. But there's a people out
of every nation, kindred, and tribe, and tongue that are happy
that it came. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior. Who is it? Christ the Lord. A Savior from what? From sin. That's what His name Jesus means. The angel said, Thou shalt call
His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. You've got to be saved from sin. Not saved from your earthly troubles.
Not your marriage saved, or your bank account saved, or your flesh
saved, but your soul saved. Saved from sin. Saved from judgment. Saved from the wrath of God.
This is the Savior. He's saved by grace. He's saved
through His work of redemption. I bring you good tidings of great
joy. Good tidings. I'm preaching the
gospel to you. I preach good news to you. What
kind of a Savior is He? He's a Savior from sin. What
kind of salvation is it? It's an everlasting salvation.
He came to save His people from the eternal wrath of God that
sin merits by dying in our rooms, dead in place. He's saved by taking our place
as our substitute, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree. All of our debt of sin charged
to Him. He saved us by that death. By His sacrifice. He's not someone
who wants to be the Savior. He is the Savior. He's not somebody
who wanted to redeem. He did redeem. He's not somebody
who made an effort to reconcile us unto God. He is the reconciler. of His people unto God. Who is He? He's Christ. Christ
the Lord. The Lord. Nobody else could do
this work. He's got to be the Lord of glory. He has to be all powerful. He's
got to be equal with God in every way. But yet He's got to be one
with us. But He's got to be sinless. He's
got to be above reproach. He's got to be without spot and
without blemish. Throughout His earthly life,
even when He died on the cross, He's got to be the perfect sacrifice. Otherwise, He'd be disqualified
because one sinner can't redeem another sinner. He's the God-man. He came to
seek and to save that which was lost. This angel preached to them good
tidings of great joy. The angel said, for unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord. And then the angel said this
in verse 12, there shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the
babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And then 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. We know all of the heavens are
continually erupting with praises of the Lord of glory. But on
this occasion, God gave a sight to these men that they'd never
seen before. A sight that the rest of us won't
see until we get to heaven. They listened and they saw as
angels praised the Lord. Oh, how loud that must have been!
I don't know how many a multitude of the heavenly hosts are, but
I'd say it's a lot. And I'd say that angelic choir,
they sang with a beauty that no tongue could ever describe. But the only ears that heard
the glad tidings were the ears of these shepherds. And I'll
tell you, the only ears that will hear the praises and the
glories of Christ Jesus The glories of who He is, the glories of
His accomplishments as our Redeemer, as our Savior, as our Substitute,
as our Sin Offering. The only ones who will hear this
as glad tidings, chosen vessels of mercy. Like us. Like us. And the rest of the world, they
don't hear. Do you hear the glad tidings?
We sing, we've heard the joyful sound. Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Have you really
heard that joyful sound? Say, oh yes, He saves! He saved
me! The only reason you've heard
the joyful sound, God gave ears to hear. Gave you eyes to see Him. These angels were praising the
Lord. They said, on earth peace, good
will toward men. This isn't peace among men. Our
Lord said in another place, I didn't come to bring peace. I came to
bring the sword. I tell you, I think that sword
is the sword of the Gospel. You know what the sword of the
Gospel does? It divides. It divides. And that division results in
disagreements in families. Some of you in here, all of you
perhaps, who are believers, who are children of God, you have
some folks in your family, you talk about just about everything
under the sun, maybe not politics, but maybe just about everything
else and you get along just fine, but you can't talk about the
Gospel because that's a dividing line. That's a sword. It's a sword. Well, what is this
peace? It's peace with God. He's our
peacemaker. He made our peace by the blood
of His cross. That's why this gospel is called
the gospel of peace. Peace with God. And it's due
to God's good will. His will is good. Good. And He had good will, good purpose
toward the sons of men to save us according to His grace. And
then here's the last thing. Let's talk about these concerned
shepherds. They got concerned. Oh, it's
a wonderful day when God gets us concerned about His glory,
about Christ Jesus, The angels delivered their message
and they left. Verse 15 says, it came to pass
as the angels were gone away from them in the heaven, the
angels said one to another, let us go even unto Bethlehem and
see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath
made known unto us, not which the angels made known unto us. The Lord made known this to us. And I said these angels are like
preachers of the gospel. And we're thankful for God's
preachers, but we can't make things known to you, to your
heart. The Lord does that. The Lord
has made known this to us. So it says in verse 16, they
came with haste. Reminds me of Zacchaeus. Our
Lord Jesus, He passed under that sycamore tree. He looked up. He said, Zacchaeus, make haste! Come down. And you know what
the Scripture says? He made haste and came down.
Hear these shepherds. They found out the Lord of Glory
has been born. Let's go see Him! Let's make
haste! Make haste. No time to waste. Make haste! We need a Savior. Make haste! We need salvation. Make haste! We need righteousness. Make haste! We need forgiveness
of sins. Let's go to the Savior. That's
what they said. Make haste. They found Mary and Joseph in
the babe lying in a manger. I can just imagine these shepherds
coming to town They started asking people. Maybe there were several
stables or caves or whatever in Bethlehem. They said, have
you all seen the stable where there's a little baby laying
in the feed trough? Anybody seen that? Well, yeah. I heard somebody say there's
a baby was born down there in that stable right down here on
2nd Street or wherever. I heard there was a baby laying
in a manger down there. Come on, fellows, let's go. They
went down there and sure enough, just like the Lord said, there's
that babe wrapped in swaddling clothes. Everything just like the Lord's
messengers said. It says in verse 17, when they had
seen They made known abroad. They
became evangelists. The saying which was told them
concerning this child. They started telling other people.
The preacher, I don't know how to testify. I don't know how
to witness. Just tell who you know and what
He did for you. That's all you've got to do. Christ Jesus saved me and He
saved me by His grace. If you want to know more, go
hear that preacher up there. He'll tell you more about Him. And verse 20 says, and the shepherds,
they returned glorifying God, glorifying and praising God for
all the things they had heard and seen by His grace, just as
it was told unto them, and went back to work. They didn't go
live in a commune somewhere. They didn't say, well, we've
got to get away from the world now. We can't have anything to
do with the world now. They just went right back to
their livelihood. They went back rejoicing in the goodness of
God to them. They went back glorifying God,
praising God, for all the things that God had showed them, all
the things they saw, and all the things that they heard. Oh,
what a blessed Redeemer! It's His glad tidings of great
joy into our hearts. Christ the Lord, He's come into
this world and He saved us from our sins by His substitutionary
death. Oh, come, let us adore Him. That's what we sing and that's
what we still say.