When the Lord Jesus Christ was
born, many wonderful things happened in the lives of those who were
present at the time. And I dare say that that is a
feature of the Lord's mercy. Because when He comes into the
lives of men and women, and boys and girls, wonderful things happen
to them. Because our Saviour changes lives. That's the reason why He came
into the world, to change lives, to change the lives of men and
women. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
said of himself, behold, I make all things new. And the apostle
Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter five and verse 17, if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
was born, something old was definitely passing away. The old dispensation,
the old ways of approaching God, the old patterns that had been
established of worship and sacrifice, the rituals of the Old Testament. and something new was beginning. The New Testament, or the New
Covenant, the fullness of the revelation of God's purposes
for mankind, that which had been promised and long anticipated,
that which people had spoken about, whispered about, eagerly
thought, and pondered about was beginning to take place and to
happen. It was as if there was a wiping
away of all the old ways and the old activities and an ushering
in of those things which are new and which are glorious. And it is in the recognition
of this new dispensation. A dispensation just means a period
of time. It's like an allotted period,
something that is discernible. as a distinct period of time. And the old dispensation as it
was passing, and the new dispensation of the new revelation, this new
fuller and more complete declaration of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ, that new beginning is called, because it is so new,
the new covenant. The New Covenant. And that doesn't
mean to say that it had never existed before, but simply that
that which had always existed, in the sense that God's purposes
are eternal, was now being given its fullest revelation. It had
never been seen so clearly before. And people said, I've never seen
it like this before. We've never understood it like
this before. This has changed everything.
And so it was that this new promise, this New Testament, or what the
Bible calls this New Covenant, was ushered in at the time of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And perhaps we've thought about
this many times before because that's the reason why this church
has taken that particular name for itself. This church is called,
we call ourselves, New Covenant Baptist Church. And here we preach,
and here we teach, and here we remember this great covenant
agreement. that God entered into in the
persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit to accomplish the
salvation of his people. Here we teach these doctrines. We remember these great and momentous
events and the things that happened when the Lord Jesus Christ came
into the world, and we've taken that name, New Covenant, because
we realize how important this is. We're no longer an old covenant
people. We're no longer dwelling in the
old covenant principles We see them for what they are shadows
Pictures and we no more give them the priority or the importance
that they once had because we see that as the shadows and the
pictures fade away with the coming of the fullness and the reality,
so the new covenant has to take principal position. It has to
take the front of our view and we lift up the Lord Jesus Christ
and we speak about the things that he has accomplished. We understand something about
the way in which the salvation of sinners was secured, accomplished,
forged by the workings of the Lord Jesus Christ and the shedding
of his blood. And we know something of the
meaning of the Bible phrase, the blood of the everlasting
covenant. For while we speak of a new covenant,
we recognize it to be an everlasting covenant, a covenant under which
all of the Lord's people, be they Old Testament people or
New Testament people, those who were alive at the time of Christ
or those that were still to come, as those who had gone before,
were all brought together into the family of God upon the same
basis and by the same work and through the same merits of the
blood of Jesus Christ. That everlasting covenant was
made between the Father and the Son and the Spirit, that the
Lord Jesus Christ would shed His blood for the remission of
the sins of the people God loved. And He would bring them through
the work of the Spirit, illuminating and opening their hearts making
them to be his people, born again, given this new life, entering
into this new experience where as a new creation, old things
pass away and all things are new to those who are brought
into an understanding and faith in the gospel. And so we read
in the book of Hebrews in chapter eight, verse 10, for this is
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after
those days, saith the Lord. Now, even though he's speaking
about Israel here, he's speaking not just about the nation Israel,
but he's speaking about all God's people, all the people of God
who are called His chosen people, His spiritual Israel. This is the covenant that I will
make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
mind and I will write them in their hearts. and I will be to
them a God and they shall be to me a people. There was a time
when if someone wanted to know about God, he went to see a priest. There was a time if someone wanted
to obey God, then they went and they looked at a stone and the
carvings on that stone and they read those things. But here we
see that the new covenant brought in a new relationship, brought
in a new way of God dealing with his people. Instead of there
being an intermediary between God and the people, a priesthood,
The Lord Jesus Christ would be the Great High Priest, and as
we come to Christ, those principles of godliness would be an internal
work, a spiritual work, and not simply an outward obedience and
manifestation of ritual and religion. I shall be to them a God, and
they shall be to me a people, and they shall not teach every
man his neighbor. That means that there's not any
longer a need for somebody to be teaching someone else about
the things of God. Now that doesn't take away the
need for a pastoral oversight. The scriptures teach that. The
New Testament teaches that clearly. But what the writer to the Hebrews
is saying there is that there will be a union of all believers,
All believers will have that knowledge placed in themselves.
They won't be relying on someone else to be their leader. The
Lord himself will be their leader and the whole flock. will follow
after the Saviour. He will be the good shepherd
leading his people. And though he provides undershepherds
for them, yet all his people have that direct access into
the presence of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. They shall
not teach every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying,
Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the
greatest. That is all those who are in
the spiritual Israel. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. Why is that? Because God has
a bad memory? No. No, because God has dealt
with their sin in the Lord Jesus Christ, in this one who came,
in this one who brought in this new covenant. He has dealt with
their sins on the cross, dealt with their sins under the blood
that was shed. For I will be merciful to them. In that he saith a new covenant
he hath made the first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth
old is ready to vanish away. When the Lord Jesus Christ came,
he brought in a new way of doing things, a new way of understanding,
a new way of approach. And we come to God this evening
in our prayers and in our understanding. We come to him by faith such
that each one here tonight, by faith, can come to the Lord Jesus
Christ personally and individually. Each one of us can know the Lord
Jesus Christ as our own personal saviour by faith. The coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ then into the world when he came as that little baby in
Bethlehem is to us a very, very important thing. It's a very
important thing. Too important for us only to
remember it once a year at Christmas time. That'll never do. We're a New Covenant church.
We remember His coming all the time. We remember His coming
every time we gather together, every time we worship, every
time we go to the Father by the merits of that blood which He
shed. That's what it means to be a
New Covenant people. It is to know the mercy of God
and the grace of God because He has dealt with all our unrighteousnesses. And he has brought his people
to himself, a new covenant people. And we think about these things.
We ponder these things. We ponder the great work that
has been done by the Lord Jesus Christ. We think about the spiritual
blessings that he has won for us. But you know, we're not the first. to think about the Lord Jesus
Christ. We're not the first people to
think about all the things that he has done and all the things
that he has achieved. There was a lady, in fact, she
was just really a little girl. And that little girl, she thought
about the Lord Jesus Christ. I think this is lovely. Her name
was Mary, and Mary wasn't very old when the angel came and spoke
to her and told her what was going to happen to her, what
was going to happen in her body, and that there was going to be
a child born from her who would be Jesus. And Mary, the mother
of Jesus, wondered, wondered about her amazing son. She wondered about him. She couldn't
quite grasp what this was all about, what this message, this
miracle, this testimony of others around about her, what it all
could mean. And when she saw the wonderful
things happening that the angels had foretold, and when she heard
what the shepherds said about the things that they had seen
and heard, we're told in Luke chapter two and verse 19, and
I want you to remember this, she pondered these things. Mary kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart. Mary kept all these things and
pondered them in her heart. There are some people who make
more of Mary than they should, but she's a good example to us
in this sense. that if we, like her, see something
of the greatness and the wonder of the Lord Jesus Christ, it
is a good thing for us to ponder these things in our heart. What does ponder mean? What does
ponder mean? You know, there's a lot of people
do a lot of talking. Sometimes you get into the company
of someone and they just don't stop talking. Natter, natter,
natter. That's not pondering. That's
talking. But to ponder is to reflect. It's to think. It's to be quiet. It's to turn things over in our
minds. But I like what it says about
Mary here. that she didn't just turn things
over in her mind, though I'm sure she did, because what she
did includes turning things over in her mind, but she pondered
these things in her heart. And I think that we can take
from that that this was part of that blessedness. They speak
about the Blessed Virgin Mary. Oh, she was blessed all right.
All those words are true. All those words are right. But
she was blessed in that she knew the Lord Jesus Christ as her
Saviour. And in her heart, a change had
been made, already made. She was a new creation. All things
had become new to Mary. Everything changed that day that
the angel spoke to her because she, in her heart, pondered the
things about the Lord. And I want to encourage you to
be ponderers. Be ponderers before your talkers. Be ponderers, be thinkers about
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done, what it means. And let
us be clear in our doctrine. Let us be clear in our theology. Let us understand the things
that we believe, this new covenant principle that has been established. I want to just mention three
things tonight quickly that Mary pondered in her heart. Three
things, and they're not difficult, that Mary pondered. The first
one is this. She pondered that her son would
be a king. Now, Gabriel God's angel had
been sent to speak to this young girl, this young woman, Mary,
and the message that the angel brought to her was this. The
angel spoke to her, the angel answered and said in Luke 1,
verse 19, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God. and I am sent to speak unto thee
and to show thee these glad tidings. Gabriel, that stands in the presence
of God. I suspect Mary knew her Bible.
I suspect that she knew the Old Testament stories, or she wouldn't
call it the Old Testament then, but I suspect that she knew her
Bible stories and she knew who Gabriel was. In fact, the last
person that Gabriel spoke to, as it's recorded in the Word
of God, was a man called Daniel. Gabriel had spoken to Daniel
when he was a prisoner in Babylon many years ago. In fact, probably
nearly 500 years before. Now, how is that going to be
received by a young woman? Here is a 500-year-old angel speaking to her for the first
time since he spoke to Daniel all those years before and telling
her that she had been blessed of God. In verse 32, here is
what the angel said concerning the Lord. Chapter one, verse
32. He shall be great and shall 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 for ever. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Now that wasn't a small suggestion
to a poor girl from Nazareth. That wasn't a little thing that
the angel was speaking about to a common girl from the poorest town in the poorest
part of the country. In fact, there was a nickname
for this place. They called it No Good Nazareth
because nothing good could ever come out of Nazareth. That's
where she was from. That's where she was from. And
here is an angel, an Old Testament character that she'd heard about
from many years before, had come again and spoken to her about
the fact that the child that she would give birth to would
be a king and there would be no end to his kingdom. And Mary pondered it. Mary thought
about it. Mary pondered it in her heart,
how her son might reign in his kingdom and how his kingdom might
last forever. Mary pondered it. How was that
possible? Mary found it hard to understand,
hard to explain. But she accepted it as true because
she had faith. And I want just to mention this. An angel had come and spoken
to her and she saw and heard wonderful things and they all
came true. Sometimes we can't explain what
is happening in our lives. Sometimes we struggle to see
what the good is of a particular thing that's happening. Sometimes
we read in the Bible or perhaps someone tells us that there's
great things, wonderful things happen to those who trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ and we find it hard to believe. hard
to accept, hard to know whether all these things are true. These great works that are spoken
about, about the cleansing blood of Jesus or the redemptive work
of the Saviour or the power of God, the Holy Spirit changing
an individual's life from the inside to the out. And we think,
how can these things be? We don't have to have all the
answers. Mary didn't. She trusted, she
simply trusted. Gabriel had an authority about
him. Gabriel had a sense of power
in his person and in his word. He stood in the presence of God
and he had been sent to give her a message and she believed
it and she trusted. Though she didn't know how to
explain it, she pondered it in her heart. God is bigger, wiser, more glorious
than us, but we are called to trust Him, to believe in what
He has said, and to have faith in Christ. Many years later,
The Lord Jesus Christ would stand before Pilate prior to his death. And in John chapter 18, verse
36, Jesus said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. Because Jesus' kingdom, the kingdom
over which Jesus is king, wasn't the Old Testament. Israel wasn't
the people that were alive at the time that he came, but it
was a spiritual people. It is because of that, that flesh
and blood can never inherit the kingdom of God. Flesh and blood
never can, but a spiritual people And it is in our spirits that
we believe. It is by the Spirit that we come
into that relationship with God through Christ. Paul says to
the Corinthians in chapter 15, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse
50, Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God, neither does corruption inherit incorruption. This old body is corrupt. It's
corrupt, and it's frail, and it's diseased, and it's failing. And the older we get, the more
evidence that there is to that effect. In time, Mary came to understand
that Jesus' kingdom was a holy, spiritual kingdom. where holy
spiritual people would dwell forever and forever. His is the
kingdom that has no end, and the Lord Jesus Christ is king
and reigns forever. But there was something else
puzzled Mary. When the shepherds came to where Jesus was born
in Bethlehem, they told what the angel had said to them. And
they said that your son is going to be a saviour. Mary thought,
I thought he was going to be a king. Now he's going to be
a saviour. A king and a saviour. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David, a saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Mary
and Joseph, both independently, were told that the name of this
child would be Jesus. And all the names of Jesus, Jesus
the King, Jesus the Saviour, fit him perfectly. For He is
the Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The angels knew exactly what
they were talking about when they said to Mary, He's going
to be a King. When they said to the shepherds,
He's going to be a Saviour. They knew who He was. They knew
what He would do. They knew that the coming of
God himself into the world was of such momentous significance
that indeed everything had changed. Everything was new. God himself
had come in human flesh and the whole host of angels sang the
glory of God on that night when the shepherds heard of the Saviour. Years later, Mary would hear
a statement made by her own son. He would say in John chapter
10 and verse 15, as the father knoweth me, even so know I the
father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. Mary knew who
the father was. Mary knew who the father was.
She knew that she had never been with a man when that child was
born. She knew that that child was
different. And she knew that the father
of the Lord Jesus Christ was God himself, God the father. And the Lord Jesus Christ could
see that for the sake of his father, he would lay down his
life for the sheep. And she would understand that
the dying of her son was for the redemption of his people,
his chosen, his elect people. Jesus became their saviour. He saved them. What do you call a person who saves
people? A saviour. And that's what he was. Unto you a Saviour is born, because
He saves people. He saves sinners. Sinners like
you and sinners like me. And just as the angels foretold,
just as the shepherds reported, Christ was Saviour to His people. He took their place, He took
their sin, He took their punishment, and He died in their place. Paul
says to the Romans in chapter five, verse eight, God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. The last thing that I want to
think about with you today is that Mary had something else
that she thought about. He was a king? Yes. He was a
saviour? Yes. and the birth of her son
would bring peace into the world. Luke 2.13 says, 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. Mary really didn't know very
much about peace. She was young and pretty much
all of her life had been a time and a period of great trouble
in her nation. She was poor. She was worried. She lived in a country ruled
by a foreign power where life was hard and brutal and short. Peace was a dream. a fantasy. How could her son
bring peace? But in time, Mary would understand
more about the true identity of her son. Jesus truly was her
son, but he was also the son of the highest. Verse 32. The Jewish people as a nation
didn't find peace. In fact, in just a few years
from this time, the whole country would be destroyed by the Romans,
Jerusalem would be burned to the ground, and pretty much that
was the last that we would ever hear in the world seen about
the Jewish people. Yes, there's been a recovery,
a restoration of the land. There's been people have come
back and live there in the land of Israel now. But at that time
of the Roman destruction, that pretty much brought an end to
the history of the Jews as we knew them. Jesus is son of man
because he was born in the flesh of a woman. but he is also son
of God, the son of the highest. And in his own person, he reconciled,
he made peace between God and man. He did something that no
one else could do. He came and he reconciled men
and God. He took away the offence of our
sin. He bore the guilt and he took
our punishment. Paul says to the Colossians,
Colossians 1 verse 20, and having made peace through the blood
of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven.
And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through
death. to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight. Holy, unblameable and unreprovable. God made peace. Jesus Christ
made peace between sinners and between God. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is an abundance of peace. There's a lovely little phrase
in Ephesians. It says that he has slain the
enmity. Slain the enmity. On the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ did not slay the enemy. Okay, he didn't slay the enemy.
He slew the enmity. Enemies were reconciled when
he slew the cause of their breach and separation. He brought these
two together when he slew that which caused the division, the
enmity. Peace between brethren who once
were strangers. Peace from the law that had once
condemned. Peace of conscience that spoke
evil to us all the days of our life under the old dispensation. And because it is slain, because
this enmity is slain, it's dead forever. We can't raise it back
up. Some people try. Some people
try to bring us under division, under separation, under conscience,
under the laws of the Old Testament which speak evil to our souls. but it is dead forever, never
more to rise because the Lord Jesus Christ has secured peace
for all eternity. And that's why the gospel is
called the gospel of peace. That's why it's called the gospel
of peace. The Lord Jesus Christ has been
made peace to us who have faith in him. Let me read a couple
of verses from Ephesians and then we're finished. This is
Ephesians chapter two, verse 13. What was it that Mary pondered?
That Jesus would make peace. For he is our peace, says Paul
to the Ephesians, who hath made both one and hath broken down
the middle wall of partition between us. He's taken away that
law. He's taken away that condemning
law. having abolished in his flesh
the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for
to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace, and
that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to
you which were far off and to them that were nigh. For through
him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
peace to the hearts of sinners when he comes to them. Well might
Mary ponder these things in her heart and well might we follow
her example and ponder them too. Let us go from here this evening,
friends, and let us remember that Jesus Christ is King, that
Jesus Christ is Saviour, and that Jesus Christ has brought
us peace in our time. What a wonderful gospel we have
to share and to spread and to believe. God grant us the wisdom
and the desire to ponder like Mary, the mother of Jesus, the
wonderful miracle of the incarnation and its enduring legacy to us
today, that Christ is sovereign, he is king, that he has secured
a great salvation and that he has brought in everlasting peace. Amen.