Well, good morning. Good to see
everyone out on this holiday weekend. It's a special season
of good cheer and joy as families get together and meet and have
fellowship with one another. And I know all of you are familiar
with that catchy saying that we all hear this time of year
that Jesus is the reason for the season. And that's a reminder
to those of us who professed to be of the Christian faith,
to be mindful, mindful of the one who was born and placed in
a manger some 2,000 years ago. And you know, even today, despite,
I guess, some growing secular opposition, you know, we still
have nativity scenes that dot our landscape during this time
of year that remind us of that babe all wrapped up in a manger
and in recognition of his birth. And yet, we know that many who
know of Christ's historical birth, and look, they even know a lot
more about Him, sincerely believing the Bible's historical accounts
of the life of Jesus, from His virgin birth to His death on
the cross and subsequent resurrection even from the dead. Even so,
we know from the Scripture, from the Bible, particularly from
the New Testament epistles, we know that the reality is that
the vast majority of those who profess to be of the Christian
faith, the indications from there is that they really don't know
the true Christ. And when I say the true Christ,
I mean as he's revealed in God's word, as he's set forth in God's
gospel, that very body of truth, the gospel that the scripture
says is believed upon by all those who are saved. And, you
know, if you just stop and think about the epistles, the letters
in the New Testament, and how replete they are with the numerous
warnings to beware of false teachers and false preachers that had
obviously infiltrated the ranks of the early church. So those
warnings were directed to folks like us who profess to believe
on Christ. So, knowing that, it should cause
us all to be willing to ask ourselves, to examine ourselves, whose birth
do we celebrate? As you can see, I've titled today's
message, The Birth Announcement. And listed there is our primary
text, Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 and 7. And as you turn there,
some of you know that Susan and I have been blessed. In fact,
we're blessed this weekend to have them here with us. seven
delightful grandchildren from our three wonderful daughters
and son-in-laws. And, you know, more often than
not, when those children were born, at least some of the times,
our girls would mail out a small number of birth announcements.
And they'd send them to just close friends and family, and
those announcements usually have like a cute little picture of
the newborn, along with the baby's full name. and thereby the baby's
arrival is announced. His name's given, or her name
is given. And, you know, sometimes there'd
be more information, perhaps their birth weight or height,
but that pretty much comprises all the information you could
get from a typical birth announcement. But this morning, we're going
to take a look, in God's word, at three birth announcements.
Three announcements of the most important person. that ever walked
on the face of this earth, and you know I'm referring to the
Lord Jesus Christ, the wondrous birth of the Savior. And unlike,
though, the typical birth announcements of our day, these announcements
from God's Word, they are loaded with vital information. Information about the very essence
of who He is and what He would accomplish. two important things,
who he is and what he would accomplish. You know, more often than not,
and his name is given in these announcements, and more often
than not, when we speak or the Bible speaks of the name of the
Lord, it's referring to far more, see, than just a mere moniker
or a title by which he's to be addressed. For the Scripture
says to know his name is to truly know him, know him as he is,
as he's uniquely revealed to all those he saves. So, you know,
someone might point up here at me and say, who is that fella?
And you might answer, well, that's Randy Wages. Well, they might
know what to call me, but they don't really know me. But when
the Bible speaks of the name of Christ, it is obviously referring
to something much deeper. The significance of that from
Paul's writing in Romans 10 13 when he said for whosoever Shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved So you see we
know that refers to more than just knowing the title by which
he's to be addressed We call on his name when by the hearing
of God's preached gospel We see a right with the new eyes of
God-given faith We see, again, one, who he is, and two, what
he actually accomplished. His person and his work. Now that's his name. Well, the
first announcement we're going to consider is found in our text
Isaiah chapter 9. This is a prophecy of God through
the prophet Isaiah of the birth of the promised Messiah, and
it's a prophecy that was made some 700 or 800 years prior to
his actual arrival. It reads, beginning in verse
six, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the
government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace, of the increase of his government
and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment
and with justice from henceforth even forever." Speaking of an
eternal spiritual kingdom. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. And the verses immediately preceding
these, Isaiah had been speaking of the sure blessings for God's
people. that is those called in the Bible
the elect. And here he's in the immediate
context, he's speaking directly to the nation Israel. So he's
calling what the scripture calls that elect remnant from among
this what had become a very idolatrous nation. So he was speaking to
them here of their salvation when he speaks of this government,
this kingdom that would be established. Salvation from the deserved wrath
that Isaiah had expounded upon, if you go back and read chapter
eight, you would find. But we know from the whole of
scripture that these words are applicable to all who are eternally
chosen in Christ. That is, not just from among
the Jews, but from every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
as the scripture puts it. So that means that all for whom
Christ lived and died, they make up the us, unto whom Isaiah declares
a child is born, and the us unto whom a son is given. So it's
directed, see, to all for whom Christ would and for whom he
actually did perform his inaccessory, justifying, substitutionary work
on their behalf. That work, as we just read, would
be upon his shoulders. So that means all who are in
time in each generation granted the gift of faith that would
have them trusting solely in this person and in this, his
finished work for all of their salvation. Well, they are the
us unto whom this child is born and unto whom this son is given.
So I want to first examine who he is. to see how this person
of Christ is uniquely suited and uniquely qualified to be
the Savior. We read, for unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given. And in the first part of that,
for unto us a child is born, it speaks of his humanity, a
physical birth. A human body was prepared for
him in the womb of the Virgin Mary. of that in Galatians 4
verse 4 says, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent
forth his son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoptions
of sons. To redeem them that were under
the law. If Christ died as your redeemer, you will, in time,
without fail, receive or learn of your eternal adoption as a
child of God. Now, for satisfaction to be made
to the justice of God, in other words, as we read in Isaiah,
for Christ to establish this heavenly kingdom with judgment
and justice for every sinner he saves, then it was necessary,
see, that he walk on this earth in their place. under the same
law, made under the law, under the same jurisdiction which they
were under and so therefore subject to God's commands of perfect
obedience to his revealed will. He had to do that and he had
to take on the nature of all those he represented, both body
and soul, in order that he could establish the kingdom, that he
might fulfill God's requirement of perfect satisfaction to His
holy law and justice on their behalf as their Savior. Made
under the law to redeem them which were under the law. Redemption
speaks not of a mere attempt made, but it speaks of a price
paid. When you redeem something, you
don't just pay it, you pay it in full. His redemption was a
payment in full due to their guilt before God. So God's law and justice had
to be satisfied in that nature which had sinned. You see, he
came and he obeyed perfectly for a people. But the people
he came to obey the law perfectly for, they were still sinners.
And the law's penal demands had to be extracted. So he had to
die in their very nature. This child that was born, he
was unlike any of us. Christ, he had to take on humanity
now to be a fit mediator, a go-between between God and man to really
redeem his people. But unlike all of us, he was
not the seed of man. The scriptures actually call
him the seed of woman. Conceived in the womb of the
Virgin Mary by God the Holy Spirit. Look with me at that in Luke
chapter one. The angel here had been speaking
to Mary and told Mary that a child would be conceived in her womb.
The very son of the highest, the son of God himself. And then when we get to verse
34, Mary responds to the angel as we read, then said, Mary unto
the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And
the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall
be called the Son of God. Now that's a glorious person,
that holy thing. Consider for a moment if that
had not been the case. What if he had been conceived
as as we were, by just another fallen son of Adam, born in sin,
as the scripture describes all of us. Well, he certainly wouldn't
have been the son of God. He, too, would have been represented
by Adam as his federal head. He would have inherited Adam's
fallen, sinful nature. But this holy thing, he was not
the seed of Adam. And it was absolutely necessary
in order for him to be a suitable sacrifice, for the sins of his
people, that his humanity be a perfect, sinless one. He, you know, in the Old Testament,
they brought the unblemished lamb to the altar, picturing
Christ, the eternal, unblemished lamb of God. The scripture puts
it this way. It says, he offered himself up without spot. So this babe in this manger,
he was like no other. He was that holy thing. Now we
also read, unto us a son is given. Here he speaks of the fact that
he is very God. He's speaking of the deity of
Christ. Deity cannot be created. He's
the eternal God. The eternal son of God then wasn't
created or born, but he was given. He took into union with his divine
nature a body, a sinless humanity. God and man. Back a few chapters
earlier than this in Isaiah in chapter 7, the prophet had prophesied
this saying, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call
his name Emmanuel. Actually, we have, I guess, another
birth announcement here and a name is given, Emmanuel. And we're
going to look at that again in a few moments in its context
in the second of these three birth announcements in Matthew
chapter 1. But I want to go ahead and show you that now because
there in Matthew 1, he quotes from Isaiah 7. In the quote, though, he adds
a little information that's helpful when he says, and they shall
call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. This person is both God and man. He's the God-man mediator, Jesus
Christ, God with us. In order for his substitutionary
death, see, to truly pay the debt due unto God's injured justice
for all the sins, my past sins, my present sins, my future sins,
my sin in my federal head, Adam, for all the sins of all those
he represented, his blood sacrifice had to be of such precious value
that it would be adequate to satisfy an infinitely holy God
for all the sins of all those for whom He saves. For that to
take place, the sacrifice had to be of infinite value. And
it was His deity that set apart and gave this value to the sacrifice
of His sinless humanity. God, think of that, eternal God
cannot die, but this man, this person who was God did die. I suspect we'll spend an eternity
marveling at that, at the depth and the riches of that truth,
maybe never fully comprehending the majesty of the person of
Christ. In 1 Timothy 1, it tells us, and without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Well, in the latter part of Isaiah
9, 6, we read, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He gives us five names here,
and they tell us more of just who our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is. And these names are rich, and
they're deep, and our time today is not going to allow me to expound
on each of these. Just briefly, he is wonderful.
You know, the translators put in the punctuation marks, and
a lot of people think that comma after wonderful maybe doesn't
belong, that wonderful is actually describing all of these other
aspects of his person and work. Wonderful counselor, wonderful
mighty God. But we know he, all of these
things, descriptions are indeed marvelous, are wonderful. He's
a counselor and you know in the Bible, a counselor is not just
one who guides, but the Bible speaks of God's counsel as His
purpose, what He determines to do as a product of His infinite
wisdom. It says, His counsel shall stand. He's undoubtedly God, as we've
already seen, and as God, He's mighty God. He's mightily able
to save His people. He's the everlasting Father.
And here Isaiah is not confusing the triune Godhead, one God subsisting
in three persons, God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but rather
he's speaking, if you'll consider it in the context of the establishment
of this kingdom, is how he would father a kingdom, having adopted
his children into his family, establishing it with judgment
and justice. Now I hope you begin to see here
how When we speak of His name, it's far more than just a title
to be called. It gets to the essence of who
He is and how He is to be known. We could preach entire sermons
really on each of these various names listed here, but given
our time limitations and in consideration of this season of the year, I'm
going to spend just a little bit of time later on elaborating
on that last name, the Prince of Peace. He truly is a prince. He's, first of all, he's the
only begotten son of the eternal king, but here he's not speaking
just of his being a prince in that sense, but prince of peace. And so, I'll come back to that
and revisit that later when we get to the last birth announcement.
You may have noticed I skipped over the middle of verse 6, so
let's go back there, because here's where we see that this
person, this God-man, would bear the responsibility for the reign
and the rule of God's kingdom. As we're told, the government
shall be upon His shoulder. It will all rest on Christ. He
will shoulder the entire responsibility for establishing and reigning
over this spiritual kingdom. Now, so let's be clear. We're
talking about a kingdom He's establishing. We're talking about
His very work whereby sinners are saved, those who shall inhabit
this eternal heavenly kingdom. And verse 7 speaks further to
this, as it said, of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom
to order it and to establish it with judgment and with justice
from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. Here we see that Christ is going
to rule or govern a kingdom. And he's going to establish it
with judgment and with justice. And this is important. Salvation
is a matter of God's law and justice being satisfied. You
know, we speak of the saved as the justified. The biblical term
justification itself is a judicial or legal term and it makes this
clear. To be justified, see, before
God is to be declared righteous, not guilty. God, He's holy, infinitely
holy. And so, He cannot commune with
sin. He cannot accept anything short
of sinless perfection. It must be perfect and continual
obedience to His law. And when I say law, I'm speaking
of His revealed will to us. So then a partial compliancy
will not suffice. What that means is salvation
is not a matter of me and you just doing the best we can and
that Christ somehow makes up the difference. No, Christ is
the only difference. He alone establishes this spiritual
kingdom and it's a reign of grace. That's what this government,
this everlasting kingdom, that's what it is. It's a reign of grace. Now, being of grace, salvation's
by grace. By grace are you saved, not by
works. So being of grace, it means that
those who inhabit this kingdom do so based upon somehow being
accepted before a holy God. But if it's of grace, that means
it's not based on any merit of their own. Grace refers to the
unmerited favor of God at least unmerited by the ones upon whom
that grace is bestowed. As Romans 5.21 reads, that is,
sin hath reigned unto death. You know, elsewhere, I think
Romans 3.23, we read what we can earn or merit. It says, for
the wages of sin is death, speaking of eternal death. And that's
the same sense here. He says, though, in Romans 5.21,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life."
Whose righteousness? By Jesus Christ our Lord. It's on the basis of His work
of righteousness that this kingdom is established with judgment
and justice. To be a recipient of God's saving
grace then is to be blessed and favored by God, but not based
on your own merits. That would be the antithesis
of grace. That would be works. And God says, that's what it
can't be. And yet salvation is indeed merited. It's merited
or earned by the doing and dying of a suitable substitute, this
God-man. See, righteousness refers to
that perfect satisfaction to God's holy law and justice that
only Christ, the sinless God-man, could and did render by his obedience
unto death. You know, in Acts 17 31, it tells
us, that's what we're all going to be judged by, His righteousness. Now what that means is, if whatever
you imagine finds you being admitted into heaven's glory, that makes
up your righteousness. And if it doesn't measure up
to His, He says we can't enter into the kingdom of heaven. So
how can a sinner be saved? We must have his righteousness,
his very righteousness, that which he merited accounted or
the biblical word is imputed to us in the same way that the
demerit of our sins are imputed to him so that he might bear
the penalty due unto those sins and thereby perfectly satisfy
the justice of God. We often read about that. You
can look it up for yourself again in 2 Corinthians 5.21, but it's
a wondrous exchange. Here we have Christ dying for
sins he had absolutely no part in producing, that those for
whom he died would have a righteousness that they had no part in producing. That's salvation by grace. As
Romans 5.9 declares, it says believers are those who are justified,
that is declared not guilty, by His blood, by His substitutionary
death. So this kingdom, this everlasting
reign of grace, see how it magnifies the justice of God. Then notice
at the end of verse 7 we're told that the zeal of the Lord of
hosts will perform this. It doesn't say here He might
perform It doesn't say he will do so if you will concur or somehow
assist, but rather the statement is that which would be done,
he would do. And specifically it says that
his zeal would perform this. I looked up that Hebrew word
that's translated zeal and I discovered it means more than just an ardent
desire as we use the word often. It carries also the connotation
of jealousy. or an envy. And so in the context
and interpreting scripture with scripture, we know this is referring
to God's own glory. Since other scriptures tells
us God, that's what God is jealous of. And he says he will not share
his glory. You see, this jealousy in you
and I, we often think of that as sinful. We're talking about
the almighty, supreme, creator of this universe. He has every
right. He is right in being jealous
of his glory, which speaks to his character, what he's like,
the revelation of who he is. And this is so important because
it speaks to the why. The why he would do all this.
Why did Christ come and establish a kingdom? Why does he save any
sinner? For that matter, see this speaks
to the why or the principle moving cause that underlies everything
that God does. It's for His own glory. It's all about Him. And yet most
of religion is so man-focused. It's all about what you, the
sinner, should do or refrain from doing. Sermons are preached
and they reach a crescendo, you know, The question so often is
posed. They'll say, oh, Christ has done
all this, but here's the key. Will you accept Jesus when the
vital, God-focused question is, how could a holy God accept sinners
such as you and me? Well, the answer to that is set
forth in the gospel of God's grace. And that answer that is
revealed by true God-given faith is that God accepts his people,
sinners, a holy God accepting sinners, sinners saved by grace,
in Christ, in their substitute, meaning based solely upon the
person and finished work that he accomplished on the cross.
In other words, it's all based upon his imputed righteousness. And see, thereby and only thereby
is God's chief design realized. He gets all the glory. Well,
as you can see, I've spent most of the time on this first birth
announcement, and I am going to cover the next two. But I'll be brief, and I want
to, in these next two birth announcements, just reinforce what we've seen
here in Isaiah 9. That is the revelation of 1,
who He is, and 2, what He actually accomplished. So look with me
at that in Matthew 1. The announcement here is also
taking place before the birth of Christ, but it's in pretty
close proximity to it. This is after Mary and Joseph
had become engaged to be married, only to discover she was expecting
a child. And so the angel of the Lord
appears to Joseph and reveals the truth concerning her child
and then proceeds to announce his birth in a way that again
tells us something of who he is and what he would accomplish.
In Matthew 1, beginning of verse 18, we read, now, the birth of
Jesus Christ was on this wise, that simply means took place
as follows. When as his mother Mary was espoused
to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the
Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being
a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was
minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these
things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in
a dream, saying, Joseph, Thou son of David, fear not to take
unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins." I included these last two verses just so
you would see that Isaiah 7 being quoted here in its context. It
said, Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which
was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin
shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall
call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with
us. So there, and in the angel's
confirmation here, we have that this child The child in the Virgin
Mary's womb was of God, conceived by God, the Holy Spirit. Again, both God and man. Secondly, the angel told Joseph,
thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people
from their sins. The word Jesus means Jehovah
God, our Savior, or Jehovah God who saves. Notice the angel did
not say that He was to be called Jesus because he would try to
save his people from their sins. Nor did the angel say that Jesus
would merely make salvation possible for his people. Nor did the angel
say that Jesus would execute his saving work for everyone,
but rather only his people. Referring to those given to him
out of Adam's fallen race by God the Father in his eternal
electing love. So in this announcement, I think
you see with just as much certainty as we saw in the prophet Isaiah's
prophecy that Jesus, the God-man, could not possibly and did not
fail to accomplish what he came to do. He would establish this
kingdom. It was all upon his shoulder.
He's God. He cannot fail. So the angel's
explanation for why his name was to be Jesus was, for he shall
save his people from their sins. Do you see how there's so much
more in his name than just a title here? This is a joyous birth announcement
filled with assurance for all who are brought by God's grace
to trust in him and His righteousness alone for all their salvation.
See, that's how His people are identified. They, as we read
earlier, they believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
on His doing and His dying. Look with me at the third announcement
of Christ's birth. Now this one took place on the
very day that Christ was born. It was given by the angels to
the shepherds who were out in the field watching over their
flocks at night. We read of that in Luke 2 in a very familiar
passage starting in verse 6. It reads, and so it was that
while they were there, that means while Mary and Joseph having
traveled to Bethlehem, that the days were accomplished that she
should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn
son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger
because there was no room for them in the inn. And they were
in the same country, shepherds abiding in the field, keeping
watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore, very afraid. And the angel said unto
them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And
this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there
was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts, praising
God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace,
goodwill toward men. So again, I just want to focus
on a few reinforcing observations from this announcement. First,
recall that God's prophecy through the prophet Isaiah was that unto
us a child is born and unto us a son is given, emphasizing this
holy thing was both God and man. And I found it interesting that
here when the angel announced his birth, he said unto the shepherds,
unto you is born a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. I find that
interesting because, as we've already shown, only one who is
both God and man is suited and uniquely suited and qualified
to be called a savior, to truly save sinners like you and me
in a way that achieves God's design to glorify himself, to
reveal who he is. That's what that glory speaks
of, that he might be worshipped as he is, that he might receive
all glory in all things and in particular in the salvation of
sinners. Here this host of angels in wonder
and awe of the arrival of this Savior, Christ the Lord, they
sing, glory to God in the highest. This is speaking of the highest
glory of all. That which is revealed of God
which is only seen in the person and work of Christ. It's that
which is, the scripture tells us, is also made known in the
hearts of all those that Christ represented when in time they
come to him by faith. When they come to see that in
Christ, in that truth of salvation by grace, in other words, based
on his finished work alone, They can see how all of His glorious
attributes, His character, comes together. It's not one character
attribute pitted against another. We see in this work of Christ
how God can be who He tells us He is. How He can be truly a
merciful, gracious, loving Savior of sinners, but also can be immutably
holy and just You see, only by God's way of salvation in Christ
can we see how God, in mercy, saves a people without dispensing
with His justice. He doesn't save a people by saying,
I'm just going to look over your sins, or I'm going to pretend
you didn't sin, or you're not a sinner. No, He deals with our
sins. God provided Himself a sacrifice. He sent His Son as a sacrifice
to pay that sin debt. So we see how he can be both
a just God and a Savior. So God the Father, he's revealed
and he's glorified in this, in the personal redemptive work
of his Son. That's glory to God in the highest. This zeal of God that would perform
this, as we read in Isaiah, that reasonable, justifiable jealousy,
you see, for his own redemptive glory. Think of the assurance
that comes from that. That ensures that he will deliver
all the way to heaven's glory. God's greatest glory is found
in the redemptive work of Christ and the establishment of this
kingdom in judgment and justice. And it is that which is uniquely
revealed, as I said, in the gospel that proclaims how Christ truly
saves his people, the gospel embraced by all who believe. We read of that in 2 Corinthians
4-6, for God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness,
the almighty creator who spoke this world into existence, who
said, let there be light and there was light, that same God
just as powerfully shined in our hearts. He's writing to the
believers here in Corinth and he says, He shined into your
very essence, your inner being, your mind, your affections, your
wills, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. See, in salvation, He shines
a light in our hearts that reveals this unique knowledge of God
that's only seen in the face. That's the person and work of
Jesus Christ. This understanding that accompanies
God's revelation in the sinner's heart, in their regeneration
and conversion, this is something that can't be gained by an observation
of any other works of God. You know, God's spirit, that's
how we know him. We know him by the things he does. The sun
comes up every morning, we know something of his faithfulness.
Oh, but this aspect of his glory, his highest glory. It's uniquely
seen in the face or the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So those God saves, they shall
come to know him, to know who he is and what he accomplished.
And when God grants a sinner spiritual life by turning on
the lights for them, so to speak, he reveals of himself that which
can only be understood by revelation of his spirit under the sound
of the gospel concerning the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Knowing God's glory to be his
chief design. Think of the comfort that can
be taken by God's people in knowing of that jealous zeal for it. His determination to be glorified
ensures the performance, the establishment of this everlasting
eternal kingdom in judgment and justice. So that means that all
of his people in each successive generation will, without fail,
be given the blood-bought gift of spiritual life and faith to
behold the glory of the triune God all in the person and work
of Christ the Savior. Well, I told you I wanted to
come back to Isaiah's reference to Christ not just as a prince,
but as the eternal son of the eternal king, but as the Prince
of Peace, that name we saw in Isaiah 9. When this Prince of
Peace gives life to one of his own, he shows them how they are
reconciled, how peace is made between them and God, all based
solely on that righteousness imputed to them. Romans 5.1 tells
us this, and you'll see when I read it, I place the comma.
Again, the translators added the punctuation marks, and I
think this verse makes so much more sense and is rightly understood
if we put the comma after the word justified. Therefore, being
justified, because the Bible says we're justified by His blood,
right? being justified by faith. That is, when we're brought into
an awareness of our justification, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. That question gets answered.
How could he accept me a sinner? We have peace through that one
who reconciled his people unto God by paying their debt at the
cross of Calvary in perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. He
made peace. You know, you often hear when
someone's passed away, they'll say, well, he made his peace
with God. We don't make peace with God.
God made peace with earth, with us, on earth. And here in this
third birth announcement in Luke, we have the host of heavenly
angels singing glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace,
goodwill toward men. You know, we hear that, that's
quoted this time of year quite frequently, and it's often quoted
in the context of referring to peace among men or among warring
nations, but Christ hasn't brought that kind of peace, has he? Not
in our recorded history. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
hasn't performed that. No, because, see, his greatest
glory is seen in how peace is made between him, a holy God,
sinners saved by grace. See, all based upon what this
Savior established, righteousness in the earth. The righteousness
that is imputed to all those whose sins were imputed to him,
and that's peace on earth, and that's goodwill toward men. Well,
I want to issue a challenge of sorts to everyone that hears
this message. It's something that we all should
be willing to ask ourselves. Is the one called Jesus, whose
birth you, me, and countless others celebrate this time of
year, is as you see him to be? Is he the same as the one that
we read of today from God's Word? And I ask that because so many
in our day worship a Jesus, quote unquote, who they think merely
makes salvation possible. Many imagine he died for everyone
as if it were some sort of general amnesty that's rendered, and
then you can be saved if you'll do your part, if you'll believe,
if you'll just accept him, if you'll do your best, whatever
that part might be. But if that's the case, then
face the truth of that reasoning. That means it's you. It's not
him that you presume shoulders the responsibility that performs
the real crowning event, the determining factor that would
meet a requirement that would let you, a sinner, enter into
the holy presence of God in heaven. God requires, He's holy, He requires
a perfection that you and I cannot render. That's why we need a
Savior. That's why Christ came. So many
mistakenly presume that they see ultimately established their
own place in his kingdom, looking to be saved either by something
other than or something in addition to his imputed righteousness
alone. It's faith in something, but
that's not faith in Christ. To me and for many others, it
used to be faith in faith. That's salvation based upon self-righteousness,
not his righteousness. But I hope today you've seen
in these three birth announcements that the truth of Jesus Christ,
both one who he is and what he truly accomplished. Salvation's
based on his righteousness, not one of our presumed making. He
established this kingdom in judgment and justice. And as we saw, it's
a reign of grace, a reign of righteousness. His justice satisfying
righteousness. The government truly was and
remains upon his shoulders. And I'm going to leave you, we've
covered a lot of information today, so I want to leave you
with just a very easy to remember, concise summary of this spiritual
reign of grace. This eternal kingdom of which
Isaiah prophesied that Christ would later come and did come
to establish. He gives us this summary through
the pen of the Apostle Paul in Romans 14, 17. As it reads, for
the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. In other words, I'm
not speaking of a physical kingdom now, but the kingdom of God is
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now, I want
us to just end thinking on those three things. The spiritual,
eternal kingdom of God, see, has, one, been established by
the justice-satisfying righteousness of Christ's substitutionary obedience
unto death. on the cross. One, righteousness. Whereby, two, an everlasting
peace, a reconciliation was made between sinners and a holy God. Peace. A peace or a reconciliation
that eventually is revealed to all those God saves in each successive
generation that brings them, listen, unspeakable, eternal,
everlasting joy. righteousness, peace, and joy. And I pray you'll find righteousness,
peace, and joy in the Savior, Christ the Lord. I also pray
you'll have a good week of fellowship together and safe travels for
those who are traveling. And thank you for your attention.