I'd love to hear that song right
before I preach. If we start to get some understanding
of how great our God is and how small we are, now we might get
ready to start worshiping. A.B. Alright, open your Bibles
again with me if you would to Luke chapter 1. I've titled the
message this morning, How Shall This Be? Lord willing, when we've
finished our study in the book of Philippians. I've been planning
on beginning a series of messages on questions that we find in
the Bible. I'd like to look at those questions
and hopefully see some answers to them and see the gospel in
those questions and answers. So we'll let this message this
morning be the first one in that series on these questions we
find in scripture. How shall this be? Now the birth
of Christ, the savior is a great wonder. The eternal, almighty
God became flesh. And He still didn't stop being
God. When God became flesh, when He became a man, He became the
God-man. He's 100% God and 100% man. Now that arithmetic doesn't work,
does it? It's heavenly arithmetic. It's arithmetic of the Savior.
He's 100% God. and 100% man. That tells us right off the bat
what a miracle this is. What a miracle this man, the
Lord Jesus Christ is. It's a miracle that almighty
God could be born in the flesh. That he'd be conceived in the
womb of a virgin as a microscopic embryo. How great thou art. Yet that great one became an
embryo in the virgin's womb. You think of that. Almighty God
was born in the flesh. Now we should remember this.
Last Sunday, December 25th, is not the birthday of our Lord
Jesus. God would not allow us to know
the date of his birth. And he wouldn't allow it for
this reason, so that men are not allowed to make an idol out
of the day. Interestingly enough, men have
managed to do that anyway, but it's just a day they made up.
Almighty God would not allow us to know the date that the
Lord was born in Bethlehem because we don't worship a date. We worship
the Savior who was born in the flesh. And you know for all the
people you know that they go they go to a church service and
twice a week on Christmas and Easter you know. But you know
that the scriptures never tell us to celebrate the birth of
the Savior. The scriptures tell us to celebrate
the death and the resurrection of the savior. We're to celebrate
the death of Christ, the God man as the substitute for his
people. And we do that by preaching Christ. We do that by telling
folks what it is that the Christ, the son of God and the son of
man, what is it that he accomplished by his death? We celebrate the
Lord's death and believers baptism don't It's a picture of the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ. When a person confesses Christ
in baptism, they're confessing, this is the only way I could
be saved, by the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Christ
for me. We celebrate the Lord's death just like we did last night
when we observed the Lord's table, remembering his broken body and
his shed blood, his sacrifice for me. As scriptures also tell
us, celebrate the resurrection of the Savior. But we don't do
that just once a year on Easter Sunday. We do that every Sunday,
every Sunday. We celebrate the Lord's resurrection
by meeting together in a public worship service on Sunday, on
the first day of the week. You know why we don't worship
on Saturday? I mean, it'd be fine if we met together on a
Saturday to worship, but you know why Sunday is the appointed
day? That's the day Christ arose from the dead. We meet together
today on Sunday. We're remembering this is the
day of the week that the Lord arose from the dead. We celebrate
the Lord's resurrection by preaching. What does the resurrection of
Christ mean? The resurrection of Christ means
his sacrifice put away the sin of his people. That's what it
means. The Lord Jesus Christ was made sin for his people and
his blood put all that sin away. His sacrifice justified his people
from all of their sin. And the proof of it is his resurrection. The father never would have raised
him from the dead if the sin that was laid on him was still
there. No, the father raised him from the dead because the
blood of Christ put that sin that had been charged to him
away forever. So December the 25th is not our Lord's birthday. but let's not hate on people
who talk about it, who talk about the Lord's death at that time
of year. I remember Brother Henry saying one time, don't be a Christian
Scrooge. It's a good thing for us and
a good thing for the world to be reminded the Savior was indeed
born as a man in Bethlehem's manger. It wasn't December 25th,
but you know, who really cares? It's a good thing to be reminded
of that. And God's people had the added blessing When we're
reminded during that holiday season of the Lord's birth, you
turn on a radio where you normally hear Fleetwood Mac or something,
and now you're hearing Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It's good
for us to be reminded. God's people can be reminded,
this is the Savior who saved me. He came into flesh to save
me. What a miracle, what a miracle. We celebrate and remember the
Lord's death and his resurrection, don't we? None of that would
be possible unless he was born in the flesh. So it's a good
thing for us to be reminded Christ was born in the flesh. And in
our text, when the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary, he told her
what the Savior, her firstborn son, is going to accomplish after
his birth and his earthly ministry. And all of this was astonishing
to Mary. I mean, can you just imagine
how astonishing this was to this girl? She just a teenager. What
a, what an astonishing thing. And she asked a good question.
How shall this be? How's this possible? How shall
it be that a virgin is going to give birth to a son and how
is it that son is going to be the son of God? How should that
be? How shall it be that my son is gonna put away the sin of
his people? How shall that be? That's a good question, isn't
it? And I see four specific questions that Mary's asking. She said,
how shall this be? And the answers to those four
questions are gonna tell us who Christ is and how it is he saved
his people from their sin. So first of all, Mary asked,
how shall a virgin give birth to a son? In verse 34, Luke 1,
then sent Mary unto the angel, how shall this be? Seeing I know
not a man. Now the only way a child can
be conceived is the union of a man and a woman. There's got
to be a union of the egg and the seed. That's the only way
it's possible a child could be conceived. Well, Mary didn't
know a man. She's a virgin. So how is it
possible? It seems impossible that she
could ever become pregnant. How shall it be that a virgin
shall conceive a son and bring forth a bear son? Well, there's
several reasons. Number one is this. Nothing's
too hard for God. That's what the angel tells her
in verse 37. For with God, nothing should
be impossible. You know, Mary thought it's impossible
and humanly speaking it is. It is impossible for a virgin
to conceive and bear a son. It's impossible, but nothing's
too hard for God. You remember when the rich young
ruler came to our savior and he talked to him, what must I
do to inherit eternal life? He and the Savior talked, and
this man, oh, he was self-righteous. He was sincere. Now, I'll give
him that, but he was self-righteous. He said, all these things have
I done for my youth up. Outwardly, you can't find something,
a way that I've broken the law. But he went away sorrowful, didn't
he? He outwardly kept the law, but
he couldn't trust Christ. unless God gave him faith in
Christ. He went away sorrowful and the disciples were amazed,
remember? And they said, well, who then can be saved? Remember
what the Lord told them? With men, this is impossible.
It's impossible with men that we could save ourselves, make
ourselves righteous, justify ourselves from our sin. But thankfully,
the Lord went on and he said, but with God. All things are
possible. With God, nothing should be impossible
because nothing's too hard for God. Mary's firstborn is going
to be conceived without the aid of a man. He's going to be conceived
by the Holy Ghost. Look at verse 35. 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 the Lord Jesus, Mary's firstborn
son, he's going to be the son of God and the son of man. He's going to be both. He'll
be the son of God. So he has the power. So he has
the righteousness. So he has the holiness. So he
has the pure, perfect blood to put away the sin of his people.
And he'll be the son of man so that he can be the representative
of sinful men and women like you and me. And how shall it
be? How shall this be? That a virgin
will conceive and bear a son. Well with God, nothing's impossible.
His spirit's going to conceive this child. And second, how shall
this be? How's this going to be? Why is
this going to be? That a virgin is going to conceive and bear
a son. It's to fulfill the scriptures. Look back at Isaiah chapter seven. Isaiah chapter seven. In verse 10, moreover, the Lord
spake again unto Ahaz saying, ask thee a sign of the Lord by
God. Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. And Ahaz
said, I will not ask. I'm not going to ask for a sign,
neither will I tempt the Lord. I don't need a sign. I know the
Lord's going to do what he said he's going to do. And he said,
hear ye now, house of David. Is it a small thing for you to
weary men, but will you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord
himself should give you a sign. You're not asking for a sign,
God's gonna give you one, and here it is. Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Emmanuel means God with us. God dwelling with us as a man,
conceived of a virgin, come to save his people from their sins. The Lord Jesus Christ is born
of a virgin as a sign from God that nobody could possibly miss. This is the Messiah that God
has promised. This is the one God promised
to sin, to put away the sin of his people. And God always keeps
his promise. Now here's a clear sign. Here
he is. He's been born of a virgin. God
told Ahaz that in 700 AD, 700 years before Christ was born.
He told him he's gonna be born of a virgin. This is gonna be
the savior. And every single time God saves a sinner, these
two things are true. Nothing's too hard for God, and
the scriptures have been fulfilled. Nothing's too hard for God. You
and I might give up hope on some poor lost sinner, We think they're
too far gone, they're too rebellious, they're too hardened in their
sin, but let me tell you, there's no case too hard for God. That
encourages me to keep praying for the lost, to keep praying
for my loved ones, ain't you? Nothing's too hard for God. Nobody's
so far gone, God can't save them. His arm's not shortened. He can
save his people, and he will. Nobody's so sinful that the blood
of Christ can't wash them white as snow. Nobody's natural heart
is so hard, God can't give them a new one. Nothing's too hard
for God. And every single time God saves
one of his people, the scriptures are fulfilled. God promised he'd
do it, didn't he? And he promised he'd do it through
the preaching of scripture, through the preaching of the word. Every
single time God saves one of his people, it's always by the
preaching of God's word. The Holy Spirit moves powerfully
And suddenly what you used to, you can understand. Everybody
here can understand this book. Everybody. I mean this book is
written in one and two and three syllable words. Everybody can
understand what this book's saying. The problem is not that you don't
understand it. The problem is by nature we don't believe it.
And suddenly you find yourself believing what you've always
heard but never believed. What happened? The Holy Spirit
took that word the seed of the word of God implanted in your
heart and gave you life. Now, only God could do that.
Only God has the power to give a new birth. Somebody say, how
can I have two natures in one body? Nothing's too hard for
God. That's how. Nothing's too hard
for God. All right. Virgin's going to
give birth to a son. But here's a good question. Why? Why must a virgin give birth
to a Messiah? to the Savior. Why? Why is it
that we insist on the virgin birth? I mean, really, what's
the big deal? What's the big deal? The virgin
birth is so important because of the truth of representation
that you cannot understand the gospel. You cannot understand
how it is God saved sinners until you understand this truth of
representation. All men were made sinners by
representation, by what Adam did. When Adam sinned, every
last one of us sinned in him because we were in him. We were
in our father, Adam. We did what our representative
did. We became guilty in Adam. It
wasn't like we were, you know, they're sinning. We actually
did sin in our father, Adam, that's representation. And when
Adam fell, The only nature that he could pass on to his children
was a spiritually dead nature. You know why Cain killed his
brother Abel? He got a dead spiritual nature from his father. That's
exactly why he did it. See, you and I don't become sinners
the first time we sin. We became sinners in Adam and
we commit sin. because we're already sinners.
We commit sin because that's the nature that we already have. We are conceived in sin. We are
conceived as sinners because that's the only nature our father
had to pass on to us. It's a sinful nature. And when
we sin, all we're doing is this, showing that we've received Adam's
nature from his sinful seed. And somebody will think, well,
that's not fair. That's not fair. You know, When
our girls were growing up, Janet never let our girls say that's
not fair about anything. She never let them say. For this
reason right here, that we would never say that's not fair to
God. Is it really not fair? You're saying I never had a chance
to be righteous. You're saying I never had a chance
to do anything good for myself. That's not fair. Well, all right,
let me ask you this. How you doing on your own? Not
too good, are you? Not too good. If we hadn't been
made sinners in Adam, we'd have done it our own selves, wouldn't
we? We sure would have. And the beauty of representation
is this. If one representative man can
make us sinners, another representative man can make us righteous. See,
if each of us had to stand on our own when I sin, I'd have
no hope. I can't undo what I've done to
myself. But if one representative man made me a sinner, another
representative man can make me righteous. So the Lord Jesus,
he had to be born of the Holy Ghost. So he's born from holy
seed. So he'd have a perfect holy nature. See, if our Lord would have been
born from the sinful seed of his foster father, Joseph, he'd
have been a partaker in Adam's sin. because that's the only
nature Joseph had to pass on to him. If Adam had been, or
if Christ had been conceived by Adam's sin, by Adam's seed,
he'd had a sin nature and wouldn't be able to save anybody. He'd
had a sin nature and wouldn't have been able to make anybody
righteous. But since the Savior was born of the seed of woman,
see that's what we just sung about, wasn't it? The seed of
woman, not the seed of a man. Well, he doesn't have a sin nature.
And since he doesn't have a sin nature, he can establish righteousness
for his people. He can obey the law for his people. He can save his people from their
sin by his sinless blood. His sinless blood offered as
a sacrifice for their sin. See, this is the wisdom of God
and how God saves sinners by a representative man. We're made
sinners by one representative man, but saved by another. Now the salvation of a sinner
making a sinner be righteous and holy. It's the most complicated
thing in this world, isn't it? I mean, how, it's a miracle.
What a mystery, but it's so simple. It's so simple. It's found in
this, two representative men. That's the wisdom of God and
how God could be just and still justify his people by the sacrifice
of his son. See, in Christ we see, oh, The
salvation of God's gracious in how he saves his people. What
grace that the father would sacrifice his only begotten son to be able
to, to put away the sin and save sinners the likes of you and
me. Oh, that's gracious, isn't it? But it's also wise. Don't you see the wisdom in this,
that God would justify his people in justice through the sacrifice
of his son. Now the natural man is never
going to understand this. Will never understand the truth
of representation. They always want to stand on
their own. But God's people love it. God's
people love it. Chris, that's what we were talking
about before the service. Aren't you glad you have to stand on your
own? Oh, there'd be no standing. If I had to stand on my own,
there'd be no standing, would there? Oh, we can rest in Christ. He came in the flesh to make
his people righteous. All right, here's the third thing.
How shall Mary's son reign forever on the throne of David? Back
in our text, Luke one, verse 31. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.
He should be great. He should be called the son of
the highest, And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne
of his father, David, and he shall reign over the house of
Jacob forever. And of his kingdom, there should
be no end. And Mary says, how shall this
be? You think of the once mighty house of David, King David. Oh, how Israel prospered under
King David. And he turned the kingdom over
to his son, Solomon. Oh, the kingdom was blessed even more,
blessed with peace and prosperity and riches, a wise king. Oh, they were so blessed. And
from then till now, Jacob's, or Jacob, David's powerful, glorious
house is reduced to nothing. David's house come down to Joseph. Joseph, Instead of being heir
to the throne, instead of being somehow in line to the throne
of Israel, is a poor poverty stricken carpenter. I mean just
a working man, just working paycheck to paycheck, trying his best
to make ends meet. There's no glory, there's no
recognition, there's no servants, nothing. There's no thought of
a throne. All he's thinking about is I'm
gonna have food for tomorrow. That's all he's thinking about.
Mary's in the house and lineage of David. She's a poor teenage
girl from nobody from nowhere. I mean, nobody ever would have
ever known her name if she wasn't highly favored of God. I mean,
the house of David is reduced to nothing. And she says, how
shall this be? OK, a virgin's going to conceive
and bear a son. What a mystery. Now you're telling
me that I'm poverty stricken. You're telling me my son is going
to be king of Israel. How should this be? Well, Mary's
son, remember is also the son of God. He's the king of Kings. Of course he sits on the throne
and he's going to do it eternally. Now the son always is heir to
the father's throne, right? That's why, Prince Charles is
now the king, he's the firstborn of his mother. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the son of God. But you know, that's not the
only reason he sits upon the throne. Christ's right to rule,
Christ's right to sit on the throne and be there eternally
is doubly sure. That throne doubly belongs to
Christ. Here's what I mean by that. The
throne of God is Christ's. By birth, and by, and by nature
and by nature, the son of God has the rightful heir to the
throne. So that's one way the throne belongs to him, right?
He's the son of God is hit by nature. But the throne of God
also belongs to Christ because he earned it. He earned it. He earned the right to have that
throne. He bought it with his own precious
blood. When he pleased his father fully
brought in everlasting righteousness and made his people righteous,
he bought the right. He bought the right to sit on
the throne. Now, the savior who sits on the throne of God and
rules eternally must rule in righteousness. He must look back
at Isaiah chapter nine. See, this is something Mary more
than likely knew from the old Testament scriptures. The Messiah
must reign in righteousness, and he must bring righteousness
into his people. Isaiah 9, verse 6. For unto us
a child is born. A human child is born, and unto
us a son is given, the son of God. He wasn't born, was he?
He was given. He was born in the flesh, but
the son of God wasn't born, he was given. And the government
should be upon his shoulder. and his name should be called
wonderful counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father,
the prince of peace of the increase of his government and peace.
There should 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 forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts
will perform this. Now that word justice in verse
seven, I don't know why it was, it was translated justice. almost
always that Hebrew word when you find it in scripture is translated
righteousness. He's going to reign in righteousness. He's going to bring in everlasting
righteousness for his people and he performed that righteousness
in his zeal and his zeal to obey his father and his zeal to sacrifice
himself to put away the sin of his people. Mary's firstborn
son is very different. All the rest of her children,
He had a zeal to obey God's law, because this is the way he's
bringing in righteousness to his people. From a child, he
had a zeal. Remember that time they left
Jerusalem, or I think it was in Jerusalem where they were
at, and they went and all this time away and found out that
the Lord wasn't there? And they went back and found
him, and he was in there, this 12-year-old boy's teaching the
doctors and the Pharisees and the doctors of theology's teaching
them the scriptures. And they were amazed. And he
said, don't you know, I must be about my father's business.
There was a zeal in this for him. He wasn't just going through
the motions. I hate this about myself when
I find myself going through the motions. I mean, I hate it. I
hate it. My dad always said, any job worth
doing is a job worth doing right. And boy, I mean, I just hate
if I go through the motions. Our Savior didn't go through
the motions for one second of his life. He had a zeal to please
and to honor his father. He established his throne in
righteousness and in judgment. That word judgment means justice.
Mary's son is going to establish righteousness for his people.
He's going to obey the law for them because they're representative
and that obedience is theirs because they were in him doing
what he did. and he's gonna establish justice for his people by being
made sin for them, by taking their sin away from them and
making it his and putting it away by his death as their sacrifice. You see, God's justice is satisfied
by the death of Christ on the cross. Justice is satisfied and
his people are made righteous. A sinful people who can't think
a good thought, who can't desire a holy thing, They're sinners,
through and through, all they are is sin. Everything they think,
everything they say, everything they do, everything they want
to do is sin. And Mary could ask, how shall this be? That
those people will be made righteous. How can you make somebody the
opposite of what they are by nature? It's the death of Christ
on the cross. For he, God the Father, hath
made him, God the Son, sin for us. That was. we might be made the righteousness
of God. As righteous as the Son of God
in Him. Oh, what a gospel we have to
preach. And because of the successful
sacrifice of Christ, the Father has made His Son Lord of all. I'll give you a homework assignment.
You're gonna read that in Philippians 2 this afternoon. Because of
His successful work, because He did everything the Father
gave Him to do, He gave Him the throne. See, he earned the right
to have that throne. And now our savior rules over
all eternally. And here's how that directly
affects you and me. Here's why this is so important. The kingship
of Christ. He's the king. He's the sovereign
over everything. Absolutely nothing happens in
his creation without his direct will. Nothing. Here's why that's
so important. If our savior is king over all,
Nothing can take away the salvation of his people that he purposed
for them. He purchased for them See he
preserves it for them in his royal might It's not by their
strength. It's by his By his the zeal of
the Lord of hosts is going to perform this now His zeal brought
in righteousness for his people and his zeal is going to bring
them all the glory to be with him Nothing can stop it from
happening. Nothing can stop his will from
happening because he's king over all. Now, fourthly, how can I find
favor with God? How is it I can be blessed among
all people in God's creation? How is it I can be blessed with
God's grace? Verse 28, and the angel came
in unto her and said, hail, thou that are highly faithful, The
Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was
troubled, it is saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation
this should be. And the angel said unto her,
fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. And here's
another thing that false religion has drilled into people's minds
and made it so like that Mary is on a different plane than
you and me. She's not. Let me just tell you
that she's not. Mary is not more highly favored
than any other man or woman God's ever saved. Not at all. Mary
is not an intercessor between you and Jesus. No, sir. No, she's not. There's one mediator
between God and man. The man, Christ Jesus. Mary's
not the mediator. Christ is. Her son is. But Mary
was highly favored. That's what Gabriel told her.
You're highly favored. And you know what that phrase
highly favored means? Much graced. You're much graced. Grace has been heaped upon you.
You're graciously accepted among women. Not above other women,
but among women. Now there is no doubt what a
blessing it was. What an honor. What a responsibility
that the Lord chose Mary to be the mother of his son, to be
the mother of the Savior. Reckon that was kind of scary
to her. I remember when the boy, especially when Jan was pregnant
with our firstborn, Holly. I mean, the thought of being
a daddy scared me to death. How am I going to do this? I
mean, how am I going to feed this child and clothe this child?
I mean, I was so worried. You think how worried Mary must
have been to think, I'm going to be the mother of the Messiah.
I mean, just, that's a blessing, isn't it? That's an honor. Everybody
wants to be honored of God. Well, just remember this, every
honor of God I can think of, he gives to the sons of men. Comes with great responsibility,
too. What a responsibility this was. She was honored, no question
about it. But she's not more graced than
any other woman, any other woman God saved, or any other man for
that matter. Now we might think, well I sure
would like to be highly favored. I'd like to be much graced from
God Almighty, wouldn't you? I'd like to be much graced. Who
do you know, you can be just as graced and just as accepted
as the mother of our Lord. You sure can. See, here's what
Mary, I believe, part of what she's asking is this. How shall
this be? That I should receive such grace,
such abundance of grace. How shall this be? That of all
people on earth, I should be the one who's much graced. I'm
nobody, nobody. Well, that's true, Mary, you
are nobody. You were nobody before you became the mother of the
Lord, and you're nobody after. And yourself, nobody after you
gave birth to the Lord. You're a nobody. That's all right. That's who God saves. God saves
nobodies from nowhere. And I want to ask you a question. You answered this question in
your heart. Are you a nobody? I mean, are you a nobody that
you don't deserve anything from God but wrath? because of your
sin. Are you a nobody? You got nothing. There's actually nothing about
you that could recommend you to God that could make you be
more savable than somebody else. I mean, you have no hope in yourself.
The only hope that you could think you could ever have is
God's grace that's found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Are you such
a nobody that Christ is your only hope? Well, if you are,
My friend, you're highly favored. You're much graced of God. You've been highly favored. God's
enabled you to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, if you trust
in Christ, you're highly favored. And almighty God has given you
all of the grace that he has for a sinner. He's given all
to you in the person of his son. See, the only way grace could
come to sinners like you and me is by God's Son being born
of a virgin. He had to come as a man. He had
to come in our flesh with our nature for the sole purpose of
establishing righteousness by obeying the law for his people,
by putting their sin away by the sacrifice of himself. Now,
kind of like how I said at the beginning of the message, most
important, We're thankful for the death of Christ our substitute. It's the only way our sin can
be put away. His sacrifice is our substitute. His blood shed for our sin. We're
thankful for his obedience, aren't we? His obedience to the law.
It's the only obedience we have. It's the only way I can be made
righteous is if Christ obeyed the law for me. And oh, I'm thankful
for his resurrection. I'm so glad that he didn't die
and stay in that tomb. His resurrection means his sacrifice
put away the sin of his people. Nothing can ever condemn them
anymore. That's what his resurrection
means. I'm thankful. I'm thankful for his death I'm
thankful his resurrection, but I'm telling you what none of
that would be possible Unless Christ was born of a virgin So
that's why I said don't hate on people talking about it all
through December Be thankful somebody's talking about it.
I know they don't understand and but by God's grace you do.
So enjoy thinking on these things. Mary said, how shall this be?
Well, you know, enjoy thinking on these things. And really the
easy question is how shall these things be? That's the easy question. Nothing's too hard for God. This
is just God doing his purpose, accomplishing what he promised
that he'd do. Here's the question. Why? Why did Christ come in the flesh? He came to save the worst sinners
that could be found in God's creation. And make them righteous
by his obedience and his sacrifice for them. That's why he came.
I sure am glad he came, aren't you? I sure am glad. All right, let's bow together. Our Father, we're thankful for
this passage that we've read, what a mystery, the incarnation
of Christ, that almighty God became a man in order to redeem
his people from their sin. And while this is a great mystery,
Father, we're thankful that you may know to us everything we
need to know about the incarnation, the birth of Christ in the flesh,
that he came to save his people from their sin. And that's exactly
what he did. Father, we're so thankful. We're
so thankful for a Savior who came in our flesh, in our nature,
to do for us what we could not do for ourselves. How can we
ever thank you? We can't thank you enough. Father,
we're thankful that he's come. Thankful that the Savior came,
suffered, died, and rose again as a justification for his people.
Father, I pray this not just be an historical fact to each
of us here this morning. that you take your word and apply
it to our hearts, that we might believe on him, that we might
trust him, that we might find in him our all and in all. Father, we do pray this for our
sakes. We pray that you'd forgive us of our sins, to have the blessing
of forgiveness, to have the blessing of righteousness. Father, we
do ask for our sakes, how desperately we need you. But also we ask
for the glory of Christ our Savior. Father, would you be pleased
to glorify your son in saving sinful men and women like we
are here? Father, for your glory, for the sake of the Lord Jesus
Christ, for the sake of his name and his glory, we ask. Amen. All right, Sean.