Well, good morning. If you would
open your Bibles with me to the book of Luke. Luke chapter 2. It's your turn. Let me make a few announcements
here. Our brother Eric Floyd is preaching in Danville, Kentucky
this morning. We want to remember him and Brady
as they travel and preach. I will have the pleasure of having
Eric and Tara's Sunday school class out here later on this
morning. So I look forward to that. A
couple issues. This week I got a call from Gary
Faulkner. They have found a small tumor
in his bladder and they're pretty sure it's cancer. They're removing
it tomorrow morning. We want to remember him in prayer.
Novi Sparks is having an endoscopy tomorrow morning, trying to find
out what's causing her all this pain. So let's keep her in our
prayers. And Ken Pack is having a whatever
they call some sort of surgery procedure tomorrow to remove
fluid from his lungs. We've got several recovering
from COVID, and we just want to remember all these in prayer. That's a lot to pray about, isn't
it? Aren't you glad we have a great physician? Great physician. All
right, Luke chapter 2. We'll begin our reading in verse
1. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree
from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. And
this taxing was first made when Cyrenus was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, everyone
into his own city. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, under the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and
lineage of David, to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife,
being great with child. And so it was that while they
were there, 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 there 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 afraid. And the angel said unto them,
Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy,
which will 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 and lying in a manger. And 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. And it came to pass as the angels
were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one
to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this
thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known
unto us. And they came with haste, and found Mary, and Joseph, and
the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they
made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning
this child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things
which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary kept all these things,
and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God for all the things that they had heard and
seen as it was told unto them. And we'll end our reading there.
Let's bow together in prayer. Our great God, our holy, sovereign,
just, and merciful Heavenly Father, oh, how we thank you for this
opportunity to come into your courts singing your praises,
giving thanks, and worshiping you. And Father, I beg of you
this morning that you would enable us to worship. Give us a heart
and spirit of true worship this morning. Father, enable me to
rightly divide the word of truth. To declare the Lord Jesus Christ
in the power of the spirit. Not in human intellect and oratory,
but in the power of your spirit. heart seeking the glory of God,
and a heart of compassion seeking the good of your sheep. And Father,
be with your people as we hear. Give us a heart of faith that
we might believe the Lord Jesus Christ, that we might rest in
him, that the hearts of your people would be fed and comforted
and edified in the preaching of Christ our Savior. And oh,
how we thank you for such a Savior. a Savior whose righteousness,
whose obedience makes your people righteous in your sight. We thank
you for a Savior whose blood cleanses from all of our sin,
cleanses us from the filth and the guilt, the defilement of
our sin. Father, how we thank you. Cause
us to believe Him and to lift up and praise His precious name. And Father, for those that we've
mentioned who are tomorrow and this week facing surgeries and
difficulties. Father, we pray for them. We
pray you give us a good report tomorrow on these that we love
so much. Father, give us a good report.
Be with the doctors and nurses that treat them. Give them wisdom. Guide their hands and skill to
use them as an instrument in thy hand to heal these, our loved
ones. Give those that treat them Compassion,
Father, as they treat your children. Father, we ask that you would
forgive us of our many sins, that you would see us and hear
us, that you'd hear our prayer and thanksgiving and petition
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his blessed name, for
his glory, we pray and give thanks. so Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound That saved a wretch like me I once was lost, but now am
found Was blind but now I see Was grace that taught my heart
to fear And grace my fears relieved How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares, I have already come. His grace hath brought be safe
thus far, and grace will lead me home. When we've been there
ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, We've no less days
to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Open your Bibles with me again
if you would to Luke chapter 2. titled the message this morning,
Hark the Herald Angels Sing. By way of introduction, let me
give you two things about the religious significance of celebrating
the birth of our Lord Jesus on December 25th. First is this,
nobody knows the date of the birth of our Lord Jesus. But
I can assure you this, of all the days in the year, December
the 25th is not it. I guarantee you that. The Lord's
not going to allow us to make an idol out of a date on a calendar.
Tell you how Christmas, the birth of our Lord, came to be celebrated
on December the 25th. In 336 AD, 336 years after the
birth of Christ, Christianity had become the official religion
of the Roman Empire. And the date of our Lord's birth
was lost to history. Nobody knew when the Lord was
born. When he was born in Bethlehem, not one single person in the
world, probably except Mary and Joseph, were paying attention
to the birth of that baby. She was an unknown woman traveling
to this city where nobody knew her. Nobody was paying attention
to the birth of our Lord. During his earthly ministry,
people thought he was born in Nazareth. From Nazareth, they
thought he was born. They didn't know where he was
born, much less when. December the 25th was picked for this
reason. The emperor Constantine, he was
tired of this pagan worship of, I don't know if it was a sun
god or a holiday they celebrated the sun. So he, and they celebrated
on December the 25th or right around that time. So he named
December the 25th as the birth of the Lord Jesus to celebrate,
to weaken the worship of this pagan holiday. It was just an
arbitrary day. Second, never in scripture are
we told to celebrate a day. We're told to celebrate a person,
to worship a person. Scripture never tells us to celebrate
the birth of our Lord, ever. We're told to celebrate the Lord's
death and the Lord's resurrection. We celebrate the Lord's death
as our substitute, because that's the only hope of salvation that
we have. We celebrate the Lord's resurrection because His resurrection
is the proof His death justified His elect. The Father raised
Christ from the dead because the sin charged to Him is gone,
put away by His blood. So we celebrate the Lord's death,
the Lord's resurrection, but not His birth. So December 25th
is not the anniversary of the birth of our Lord. And there
is absolutely no religious significance to it whatsoever. Now, please
understand me. I'm not preaching against Christmas.
I mean, buddy, I'm all for it. Christmas is a time that families
get together and they give to one another. They show their
love one to another. I'm all for it. It's just my favorite
holiday. But at this time of year, The
world is forced to stop and think about the birth of this man,
Jesus of Nazareth. He lived over 2000 years ago. It's a historical fact. At this
time of year, everybody is talking about the birth of the Lord.
I mean, you turn on the popular radio stations and they're singing
hymns. I mean, what great hymns. I love
to listen to those hymns and I'm glad they're doing it. I'm
glad people are forced to think about the miracle of the birth
of the Lord, the birth of the Son of God in human flesh. The
Apostle Paul said, without controversy, there's no argument. There's
no debate about this. He said, this is a great mystery. Almighty
God was manifest in the flesh. What a mystery. I love to think
about that. What a mystery that God could become a man and still
be God. I'm thankful for that. That's
a mystery. I sure am thankful he was born. There would be no
substitutionary death of Christ if Christ wasn't born in the
flesh. God can't die. A man had to be born. The Lord
Jesus as the son of God could not die unless he were a man.
There'd be no substitutionary death to remember if Christ wasn't
born. There'd be no resurrection to celebrate if the Lord was
not born as a man so that he could die. And we hear so much
error at this time of year about the Lord's birth. It just makes
good sense. for us to look at what the scripture
teaches about the birth of our Lord and see the gospel in it.
See the gospel. We're wasting our time now if
we don't see the gospel in this. And the angels who announced
the birth of Christ, they gave us a good gospel message. They
preached and they sang a good gospel message. And I chose this
title, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, because these angels are
heralds. They came from God with an official
message from God. That's what a herald is. They
came bringing an official message from God about the birth of Christ. So let's read a few verses here.
Chapter 2 of Luke, verse 1. And it came to pass in those
days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all
the world should be taxed. And I don't know if they actually
paid a tax, but the word is enrolled. This was a census that they were
doing. And this taxing was first made
when Cyrenus was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed,
everyone into his own city. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea, under the city of
David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and
lineage of David. He came to be taxed with Mary,
his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that
while they were there, 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. Now the birth of Christ
is God's eternal purpose. God's promise that he's going
to save his people through this child that has been born. The
Lord promised that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem in
the city of David. But Mary, the mother of our Lord,
she didn't live in Bethlehem. She didn't, she didn't have reason
to go shopping or visit in Bethlehem. She lived in Nashville and she's
great with child. She's big and pregnant. She is
not about to get on a donkey and ride to Bethlehem. So how,
what's, what's the Lord going to do? How's he going to fulfill
his purpose? Well, the Lord put it in the
mind of Caesar to do this census at this very moment in history.
when Mary is great with child and ready to give birth. God
moved the whole world around so that one unknown, unnoticed
young woman would go to Bethlehem. So she would give birth in that
city right where God promised the Savior would be born. And
that is so comforting to me. That is so encouraging to me
to see how God works out and accomplishes His eternal purpose. He moved the whole world around
just to move Mary to Bethlehem. That was God's whole purpose
in doing this. And you know, God hadn't changed. God is still
doing the same thing today. He is still accomplishing His
purpose in the salvation of His elect by controlling everything
that happens in creation. Now that just comforts me and
encourages me. And when Christ was born, God
sent these herald angels to announce the birth of His Son. And here
is their message. Let me give you five or six points
of their message. Number one, the birth of Christ
means there's no more fear for God's people. There's no fear,
there's joy. Verse eight. And there 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 so afraid. And the angel said unto them,
fear not. For behold, I bring you good
tidings, great joy, which should be to all people. Now, these
shepherds were utterly scared to death when this angel appeared
to them in the middle of the night in this glorious light,
the glory, the light of the Lord shown round about them. These
men had never seen artificial light lighting up the night sky.
And here in the middle of the night, suddenly? I mean, these
fellows are working the midnight shift in the glory of the Lord,
the light that's shone round about them. Who can blame them
for being just utterly scared to death? But the message of
the gospel, the message that the angel brought them from God
is fear not. Fear not. There's no reason to
fear. I bring you good tidings. And
good tidings is good news. It's the gospel. I'm bringing
you the gospel. There's good news for guilty
sinners. Why? Christ is born. Christ has been born. There's
no more reason to fear God's holy, awesome presence. Christ, the second Adam, has
been born to bring his people back into the presence of God,
to fellowship with God, accept it, fear not. There's no more
reason to fear God's justice against sin. Christ, the substitute,
has been born. He's going to put the sin of
his people away. He's going to satisfy God's justice
for the sin of his people. There's no more reason to fear
God's justice. There's no more reason to fear
death. Christ, the life has been born. He's come to break the power
of death over his people. His people will never be able
to die because Christ has been born so he can die for them.
So he can die in their place. There's no more reason to fear
the threats of the law. Christ has been born. Christ,
who will keep the law for his people and take the law out of
the way for his people, nailing it to his cross, has been born. So fear not. Fear not. The good
news of the gospel of Christ is good news for sinners from
all over the world. This good news, the angel said,
is to be to all people. all people, all kinds of sinners. The birth of Christ is good news
for you, no matter who you are, no matter where you come from,
no matter what your background is. The birth of Christ is good
news to you as long as you're a guilty sinner. Christ has come
in the flesh to take away the guilt of His people and to make
them righteous, to make them innocent in Him. And this is
good news to you. The angels said, this is to you,
to you. If you're a real sinner who needs
Christ, the Savior, there's no reason to fear. He's come to
save his people. And you can rest assured in this.
You don't have to worry and fear if he's going to get the job
done. He's going to get the job done. So fear not. Number two,
the birth of Christ means that God has kept his promise of redemption
in Christ. Look at verse 11. For unto you
is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ
the Lord." Now, like I said earlier, you know this, God promised that
the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, in the city of David.
And God always keeps His promise. And sometimes He does it in such
a miraculous and obvious way. We can see this is God fulfilling
His promise. God is in control of all of His
creation, and when He moves people, from all over the globe, just
moves them all around to accomplish it, showing us God's in control
of this thing. And He's just turning everything
in His creation for one purpose, to keep His promise, to save
His people from their sin. And you know, the same thing
is true today. God's still God. God hasn't changed. We need to remember this. God
still works this very way to accomplish His purpose. There's
no accidents happening in God's creation. There's no tragedies
happening in God's creation that's somehow derailing or slowing
down God's purpose. Not at all. We all think that
this virus has just been the worst thing that's happened in
our lifetime. I reckon you wouldn't be wrong
in thinking that. But this virus has spread to
every corner of the globe. It's been sent by God. to accomplish
His purpose. Somehow, now I'm telling you,
this thing is not an accident. It's not slowing things down.
It's not stopping God's people from worshiping Him. It's not
stopping God's sheep from hearing the gospel. Somehow it's accomplishing
all that. God did that. Just like here,
God fulfilled His promise of redemption in Christ when Christ
was born in Bethlehem. Not just the location of Christ's
birth, but God kept every other promise of redemption too. Here
Christ is born as the seed of David. Mary was in the house
and lineage of David. God promised all through scripture.
David kept writing about this. It just must have amazed David
that there's a king coming from David to sit on his throne. And
that may have some reference to Solomon, but David's not talking
about Solomon there. Solomon sat on his throne, David's
throne, for a while, didn't he? David's talking about a king
who's going to sit on his throne forever. He's talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is the son of David. And he's the son
of God. He's both. Oh, what a mystery. And this is the good news that
the angel brings. God's king has been born in Bethlehem. The king has been born with the
sovereign power, the sovereign right to save God's elect from
their sin and to establish the kingdom of heaven forever. Now
who's been born here? Christ the Savior has been born. It's not Christ the example to
teach people how to live has been born. You already know how
to live. The law of God's written on your
heart. You already know right from wrong. Christ wasn't born
to be an example. It's not Christ the reformer
of religion. You know, we used to worship God in these ceremonies
and now we worship God in Christ. No, it's not Christ the reformer
of religion has been born. It's not Christ has been born
who will impress folks with his morality, impress folks with
his calmness. He never gets ruffled at people. That's not who's been born. Christ,
the Savior, has been born. The Savior. Not one who will
try to save, one who will save. He will save his people from
their sin. Now this is good news for guilty
sinners. God always keeps his promise.
And where are all his promises found? in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, here's the good news. He's
been born in Bethlehem to fulfill God's promise of redemption.
All right. Thirdly, the birth of Christ
means that God has come in human flesh to be the representative
of his people. Verse 12. And this shall be a
sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. Now I looked at
this sign. We know we're not supposed to
seek signs and wonders, are we? In order to believe. So I looked
this word up. The word sign that the angel
uses here means a miracle. This is a miracle to you. That
God has been born in the flesh. And when you go to Him, you're
going to find Him lying in a horse trough. That's a miracle. This is a great mystery. has
been born. Mary's first born child was born. This was a real baby boy, but
the son was given. This baby boy you're going to
find lying in a horse trough is Almighty God, the Eternal
Father in human flesh. In human flesh. David's son has
been born. And David's Lord has been born.
That's a great mystery. Then the same person And that's
what the Lord, you know how the scribes and the Pharisees and
the lawyers always tried to trick the Lord, come up with a riddle,
you know, he couldn't answer. And he said, I'll tell you what,
I'll answer your question if you answer mine first. How can David, he's
writing in the spirit, so you know, he's not, you know, just
talking out of the other side of his mouth. He's saying something
that's true here. How can David's son be David's Lord? How's that possible? They couldn't
answer him. What a mystery. You know the
answer to that. How's that possible? Because
this is the God man. God has been born in human flesh. Look back at Isaiah chapter seven.
Now, this is another promise that God fulfilled in the birth
of Christ. God promised Adam as he was kicking Adam out of
the garden. God promised Adam and Eve that
the seed of woman is going to come and crush the serpent's
head. The Lord Jesus was born of a virgin. There's another
miracle. He was born of a virgin. No man aided in the conception
of Christ Jesus. Our Lord Jesus was not conceived
from Adam's sinful seed. He was conceived in the womb
of the virgin by the Holy Ghost. Just exactly like God promised
through Isaiah. Look here at Isaiah 7 verse 14.
Therefore the Lord himself is going to give you a sign. This
is a miracle. Now, behold, A virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel, God with us."
God is dwelling with us in human flesh. Christ was born of a virgin. He wasn't born from Adam's line. He wasn't born from the seed
of man. He's the seed of woman. And that's very important. Christ
could not be born of the seed of man. He could not come in
Adam's line because if he would, He partake in Adam's sin and
Adam's guilt just like you and I do. Now he was born, he was
conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of a virgin, and that makes
Christ righteous. That gives him the righteousness
to save his people from their sin and to make them holy. Now
that is a great mystery, a great miracle, but it's good news for
sinners. Christ, the Savior of sinners,
has been born. God's Son has been born in human
flesh to make His people righteous in Him. And since He's God, He's
the God-man. Both God and man. Since He's
God, He can satisfy God's holiness. And since He's man, He can be
the representative of sinful men and women like you and me.
This is good news to you. Good news to you who are here
this morning. You're in the flesh. Are you a sinner? Is your flesh
sinful flesh? Christ came in the flesh, in
our flesh, yet without sin, that He might save His people from
their sin. He might be the representative of wretches like you and me.
Oh, glory to God in the highest. The God-man has come. Now you
can trust Him. You can trust your soul to Him. Trust Him. He's God in human
flesh. Then here's the fourth thing. The birth of Christ is
going to reveal God's greatest glory. Verse 13, back in our
text, Luke chapter 2. And suddenly there is with the
angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,
glory to God in the highest. Now this is God's highest glory. God's greatest glory is showing
mercy, sovereign mercy to whom he will. When Moses asked the
Lord, show me your glory. God said, all right, I will.
I'll make my name pass before you, my glory pass before you.
And Moses, this is my glory. I'll have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. God's going to have mercy on
somebody. And he's going to have mercy
on somebody. He's going to be able to show mercy to his people
because of who has just been born in Bethlehem. Now, what
is mercy? Mercy is God not giving us what
we do deserve. Now when God shows mercy to his
people, he's got to do it in truth. He's got to do it in justice. God can't ignore sin. God shows
mercy to his people in justice by giving Christ our substitute
everything our sin deserves. Now brother, that's mercy. That's
the highest form of mercy anybody has ever heard of. The almighty
God would slaughter his son. so he could show mercy to the
likes of you and me. Oh, that's mercy. And none of that mercy
would be possible if Christ had not been born in our nature.
God would not be able to show mercy to his people unless Christ
was born in the flesh. You see, by one man came sin. Sin came upon all of us by one
representative man, Adam. Every one of us did what Adam
did. We sinned in Adam. Well, in the
same way, righteousness comes upon all of God's elect by one
man, one representative man, the Lord Jesus Christ, the second
Adam. And as a man, the Lord Jesus
worked out a perfect righteousness. Not for himself. Clark, he was
already righteous. He's already holy. He obeyed
God's law perfectly so that he could give that righteousness
to his people. Being the perfect, spotless,
sinless lamb of God, enabled Christ to be the perfect sacrifice. The sacrifice that would do with
all those animal sacrifices offered under the Old Testament law never
could do. Christ's sacrifice put sin away
once and for all. And God would not be able to
show mercy to his people unless Christ was born with a body that
could be broken. God would not be able to show
mercy to his people unless Christ was born with a soul that could
suffer for the sin of his people. And the Lord Jesus freely traded
his people, his righteousness for their sin. He could do that
since he's in our flesh. He could be our representative
and he could die to put away the sin of his people. And none
of that would be possible unless Christ was born in the flesh.
Oh, glory to God in the highest. Christ was born to bring mercy
to his people. Then fifth, the birth of Christ
brings peace to earth. Verse 14, the angel said, glory
to God in the highest and on earth, peace. And notice here
that these herald angels saying on earth, peace. They didn't
sing that there is now going to be, you know, peace all over
the earth. They said on earth is peace. Peace personified is
now on earth. You know, the angels didn't say,
now, because of this man, there's going to be peace among men on
earth. That's not so. Christ our Savior
told us that. He said, I didn't come to bring
peace. I came to bring a sword. I came to divide. I came to divide
the sheep from the goats. Not to give the sheep and the
goats peace with each other, but to divide the sheep and the
goats. Christ was born on earth to bring peace between God and
man. You see, man has declared war
on God. In the garden, man declared war.
There's not peace, there's a war. And God must crush that rebellion. He must punish every sin with
death. It's just not possible for the
Holy God to be at peace with any son of Adam as long as we're
in our sin. It's not possible. And we can't
make peace with God. The only way there can be peace
with God is if sin's gone. So we can't make peace with God.
So God took it upon Himself to make peace for His people. He
sent His Son in the flesh to make peace by dying, through
the blood of His cross, by dying and shedding His blood to put
away that sin that made God angry. So there's peace. God's at peace because Christ
bore the sin of His people. He bore all the wrath of God
for the sin of His people and took that sin away. So God's
at peace. There's no more wrath left in
Him. But here's the problem. The problem's always with us,
with you and me. The problem is man is still at
war with God. If there's gonna be peace, you
and I must surrender. We've got to surrender. And we
never will do that with our nature. Our nature is incapable of surrendering. It's too proud, it's too dead,
it's too sinful. We cannot surrender, submit ourself. So God the Holy Spirit comes
in his power. and makes God's people willing
in the day of His power. He applies the blood of Christ
to the hearts of His people and gives them a new nature. And
that new nature submits. That new nature believes Christ
and willingly surrenders to God. That new nature is humble. And
that new nature freely begs for peace. And God gives it. God accepts that and He gives
His people peace in Christ. And none of that would be possible
unless Christ was born with a body to be broken and blood to be
shed as payment for the sin of his elect. And the angels just,
they're filled with awe at this. They sing, here he is. Oh, thank
God that Christ was born. This is good news. The only way
the war could ever be over is through the sacrifice of Christ,
who would be born of a woman. And the angels say, Here he is,
on earth, peace personified is here. Then sixth, the birth of
Christ reveals God's goodwill toward his people. Verse 14,
glory to God in the highest, on earth, peace, goodwill toward
men. I looked that word goodwill up,
and usually it's translated simply good. Good is now on earth. What is good to God is revealed
because Christ has been born. It was good in God's sight to
save His people. It was good in God's sight to
redeem His people, to save them, to make them righteous in Christ,
through the sacrifice of Christ. A man has declared war on God.
The carnal mind is enmity against God. All man can do is hate God. But God has good, goodwill toward
his people. And the way we know that God
has goodwill toward his people, that he intends good for his
people, is God sent his son into the world to save the worst of
sinners through the obedience and the sacrifice of Christ in
the flesh. Now I'm telling you, this is
some good, goodwill that would cause the father to sacrifice
his son for sinners like you and me. That's good. Have you ever heard anything
gooder than that? I haven't. Oh, this is good. It's now on
earth. The birth of Christ brought good to the earth. There's none
good but God. And now good is on earth in human
flesh. And it's good. It's good for
God to glorify Himself in saving His people through the sacrifice
of His Son. That's good for God to glorify
Himself. And it sure is good for God's elect to be saved,
to be made righteous and brought back to God in the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank God that Christ was born
on earth, bringing good, goodwill to earth. But now look at verse
15. They heard this heavenly chorus,
this heavenly choir singing. In verse 15, it came to pass
as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds
said one to another, let us now go even unto Bethlehem. to see
this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made
known unto us. And they came with haste, and
found Mary, and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when
they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told
them concerning this child. And all they that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds." This
is another thing I find very, very encouraging. The first evangelists,
after the birth of Christ the Savior, It wasn't the apostles. It wasn't a prince in the palace. It wasn't even Saul of Tarsus,
this highly intelligent, articulate man. The first evangelists, after
the birth of Christ, were poor, uneducated shepherds. Bob, they
could probably barely write your name. Just working class people. God
announced the birth of his son to them and used them to spread
this good news. God didn't send an angel to everybody.
He sent this message to these uneducated men who went and told
people just what God had told them about this child, about
Christ. There was a lot these men didn't
know, but they just told what they knew about Christ. And people
that heard them, they wondered at it. They marveled at this
good news. They said, is this too good to
be true? Could this possibly be true? And look what Mary did
when she heard it. Mary kept all these things and
she pondered them in her heart. And you read that so often about
Mary hearing these things and keeping them in her heart. Pondering
them in her heart. She's a thoughtful young woman.
Kept them in her heart. And look here at verse 20. And
the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the
things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. Now the angels, they could not
contain themselves. God had been born in the flesh
and they just burst out with God's praises. He sent His Son
to be born in the earth. Mary heard about it. This is
not the first time she heard this was going to happen, is
it? She heard about it. And she kept these things and she pondered
them in her heart. Because that's where God does
business with sinners. In the heart. She kept them in
her heart. And the shepherds, they went back to their lives.
They went back to their responsibilities, their jobs on earth. But now
everything's different. They did what they were doing.
Doing the same thing the angels did. Rejoicing. Rejoicing in
Christ Jesus. Rejoicing in this good news that
they'd heard. And my prayer for you and me
is that we go back to our lives with the same attitude that we've
read about. The same attitude in our hearts.
May we be found like Mary. keeping these things in our heart,
pondering them in our heart, believing these things in our
heart, and rejoicing in Christ Jesus, who was born with our
nature to save sinful men and women like you and me. This good
news is to you. To you. Oh, may God be pleased
to apply it to our heart. After we bow in prayer, We're
going to close. Isaac has consented to sing for
us again. I want him to sing the song I borrowed my title
from this morning. And when he's finished, we'll
be dismissed. Let's bow together. Our Father, oh, how we thank
you for the glorious, glorious good news of Christ our Savior. We thank you for this glorious
miracle that Christ, the Son of God, was born in our flesh
with our nature, yet without sin, to save his sinful people
from our sin. Oh, how we thank you. Thank you
for your wisdom, your mercy, your grace, your love in sending
such a Savior to us. And Father, I beg of you that
you'd apply your word as it's been preached to each heart here
this morning. Let us leave here like the shepherds. Let us leave here rejoicing in
Christ our Savior. Father, we ask for your glory.
Would you reveal your glory in this place in applying your message
to the heart of your people, giving faith in Christ our Savior.
It's for the glory of his name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Hark the herald angels sing Glory
to the newborn King Peace on earth and mercy mild God and
sinners reconciled Joyful all ye nations rise, Join the triumph
of the skies, With angelic hosts proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King. Christ by highest heaven adored,
Christ the everlasting Lord. Late in time behold Him come,
offspring of a virgin. Veiled in flesh the Godhead see,
Hail the incarnate Deity! Pleased as men with men to dwell,
Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark! the herald angels sing,
Glory to the newborn King! Hail the heaven-born Prince of
Peace, Hail the Son of Righteousness, Light and life to all He brings,
Risen with healing in His wings. He lays his glory by Born that
man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth Born to give
them second birth Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn
King! Come, desire of nations, come! Fix in us thy humble home! Rise, thou woman's conqu'ring
sea! Cruise in us the surging sea! Adam's likeness now we face Stamp
thine image in its place Second Adam from above Reinstate us
in thy love Hark the herald angels sing Glory to the newborn King
I do.