And I want us to read verses
1 through 20 to start with. 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 Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed,
every one into his own city. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto 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 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 heavenly hosts, 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 in the heaven, the shepherds said one
to another, let us now go even into Bethlehem and 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, they made known abroad the saying which was told
them concerning this child. And all that heard it wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds. And 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. I read a message by Charles Spurgeon
on verse number 14, and he entitled his message, The First Christmas
Carol. The First Christmas Carol, and
that's what I want to speak to us about this evening for just
a few minutes. These words, they're a wonderful
announcement of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, but they're
actually a great description of his entire life. not just
his birth, but of his life, and of his death, and of his resurrection,
and of his ascension. But before we do that, I want
to say just a few words about these angelic hosts that we read
about here, about these angels that suddenly appear on the scene. Almost as though they just couldn't
hold themselves back. Suddenly they appear on the scene. And what are they doing? They're
praising God. Praising Him. It's wonderful
for me to read of their joy. The joy with which they announced.
the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes, it just leaps off the
pages, doesn't it? Their joy here. They're praising
God. Unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. God, the eternal son, was made
flesh and he was made flesh in order to be the savior of sinners. The savior of sinful men, sinful
women, sinful boys, sinful girls. That's why he was here. That's
why he is in this manger, in this stable. That's why he's here. But you
see the angels, when they fell, there was no savior for them.
Those angels that fell, their doom, it was sealed. There was
never to be a savior for them. They must be reserved in chains
of darkness until they're cast into that everlasting pit forever. And yet you see their joy here
to announcing to men, unto you, not unto us, but unto you is
born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is Christ
the Lord. We see their unselfishness, don't
we? We see that they are pure spirits here in their joy, their
joy that unto man God had provided a savior. And isn't it wonderful to think,
believer, that someday, someday when our time in this world is
over, someday we are going to be pure. One day we're going
to be without sin. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it doesn't yet appear what
we shall be. That is the understatement of
a lifetime. It does not yet appear what we
shall be. But we know this, that when He
comes, when He appears, we shall be like Him. For we're going
to see Him as He is. Isn't it sweet to think that
these angels, these holy beings, they are our guardians, believers.
They are our guardians. They come to guard us from birth
until delivery into the kingdom. Are they not all ministering
spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of
salvation? Isn't that us, heirs of salvation? By the grace of God, angels watch
over us from the time we're born, as we walk through this world.
And praise God, when it comes time for us to leave this world,
they come and they escort us, believers, into the very presence
of God, into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that I don't thank God
enough for this blessing. The blessing, you know, there's
so much that is said maybe that is not true. We have to guard
against not rejoicing and enjoying the things that are true. The
angels are ministering spirits that are sent to minister to
us who are the heirs of salvation. Now, I want us to move here on
to really focus on verse 14 for just a few minutes. The announcement,
the song of the angels here, glory to God in the highest and
on earth, peace, goodwill towards men. As I said a minute ago,
this verse describes the entire life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, his birth. but his life
and his death and his resurrection and his ascension as well. You
know that hymn that we sing, usually only at Christmas, I
don't know why. This is good news for all year round. But
angels from the realms of glory, wing your downward flight to
earth. Ye who sing creation's story,
now pronounce Messiah's birth. Come and worship. Come and worship,
come and worship Christ, the King, the newborn King. And that's my prayer for tonight,
that we may be able to worship Christ, the newborn King, the
one that we read of here. Their song was short, wasn't
it? It's only three lines. Boy, talking about being packed
with the gospel in three lines. They said so much in these three
lines. First of all, that the coming
of the Savior warrants glory to God. Shouldn't God be glorified
that his son is here in the world? It gives peace to man. There
is no peace to man apart from the coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it's proof of God's will
towards men. Proof beyond question of God's
will, goodwill towards men. Now, we'll just take these one
by one. The first statement, glory to
God in the highest. Glory to God in the highest. What were they doing? They were praising God, weren't
they? They were praising God. Honor, praise, glory, worship,
be to God in the highest. To God who is the highest. Praising
him for his unspeakable gift. The angels, believers, if the
angels could praise him this night for his unspeakable gift
and he had not come to be their savior, can we not from our hearts
worship him tonight, who did come to be our savior? Glory
to God in the highest. The angels, when they saw their
creator, this babe, nursing upon the breasts of the Virgin Mary.
They could not contain themselves. They had to cry out. They had
to worship glory to God in the highest. You see, God was glorified
in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he was, yes, glorified
in the fact that there was no room for him in the end. And
instead that he was laid in that feeding trough, within that barn,
God was glorified. You say, well, how was God glorified
in that? That would be a series of messages
if we just thought about that. What about God's goodness and
love? Was it not glorified? Wasn't
he glorified? Wasn't his goodness and his love
glorified? that His only begotten Son was
come into the world and become of no reputation? That we through
His poverty might be made rich? And what about the love and the
goodness and the grace of the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of
God, to be willing to come and to be made of no reputation?
Yeah, God's faithfulness Our pastor this morning reminded
us that almost from the very beginning, when man fell and
disobeyed God, that God gave the promise that the seed of
the woman would bruise the head of the serpent, and here he was.
God had promised it hundreds, a few thousand years before,
and sure enough, God's faithful. He's faithful to his word. Here
he is. God's faithfulness is glorified.
His power is glorified, that a virgin should conceive and
bear a son, never been before and never shall be again. You
say, well, how is that possible? Because with God, all things
are possible. Other than that, it's impossible. You say, do
you believe that? If that is not true, then we have nothing to build our eternity upon. A virgin conceived and bore a
son, and his name was Jesus, the Savior, son of David. The Lord Jesus Christ, I said
at his birth, God was glorified. During his entire life, God was
glorified. He's the only human being who
could ever say this, and it'd be true, I do always those things
that please Him. Can you imagine? What a life. I do always those things that
please the Father. His life was lived for the glory
of God in perfect harmony with the will of God. Even as we're
told in His greatest agony, In the Garden of Gethsemane, when
the weight of the sins of us believers, when the weight of
the sins of all of his people, the weight of that began to weigh
upon the Savior as he anticipated the wrath of God and the justice
of God that would fall upon him. Scripture says that he was in
such agony of soul that his body began to sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood. Could a person be in any worse
condition? It's not possible. And yet, what
did he cry? He cried, Father, nevertheless,
not my will. but thine be done." You see,
he was in perfect harmony with the will of God every second
of his life. God was glorified in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ, not just his life, but in his death.
In his birth, we see God's goodness, his grace, his mercy, his wisdom,
his power, his faithfulness. But in his death, we see his
justice, We see the justice of God, and God is glorified. Sin is against a holy God, and
as such, it must be punished. Every sin must be punished. And
if God is going to forgive the sins, if he's going to set some
free, if he's going to save some, then justice must be satisfied. God will not overlook sin. He was glorified. His justice
was glorified. His wrath. His wrath was glorified. His holiness. The holiness of
God. You say, is God holy? He's so
holy. that when the sins of God's people
were laid to the charge of his son, when the Lord Jesus Christ
was, he bore our sins upon the tree, when he did so, God is
so holy that he turned his back on the one who had walked through
this world in perfect harmony, in perfect conformity to his
will. Yes, God's a holy God in his righteousness. His righteousness
was so glorified in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes,
God was righteous. He was righteous to forgive the
sins of all of those who lived before the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Why? Because in the purpose of
God, the Lord Jesus was the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. God was glorified. He is righteous
for the remission of sins that are past and for the remission
of sins that are future. God was glorified. Glory to God
in the highest. Let me move to the second. I guess I don't know if you'd
call it a stanza. Peace on earth. Glory to God in the highest.
Peace on earth. One of our Lord's names is the
Prince of Peace. The King of Peace, that's one
of his names. In the prophecy in Isaiah, we
read, for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given,
and the government shall be upon his shoulder. What's his name? His name shall be called Wonderful,
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. What's that
last one? The Prince of Peace. Peace on
Earth. Yes, because the Prince of Peace,
the Prince of Peace was on Earth. You see, why do we need a Prince
of Peace? Why is this such good news? Why
were the angels so excited when they announced this? Because
by nature, we do not know the way of peace. Men by nature don't
know the way to peace, the way of peace with God. People say,
well, you need to make your peace with God. Man doesn't know how.
No, we need a king of peace. As Zacharias prophesied, he said
that the Messiah, he was coming to give light to them that sit
in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet in
the way of peace. That's why he was here. And that
phrase, to guide our feet, it's actually to order our very steps
in the way of peace. We are so oblivious of the way
of peace that our prince of peace must order every one of our steps
to return unto God. You know, the life's work of
every man that's called to preach the gospel, their life's work,
the life's work of our pastor, what has it been? To preach the
way of peace, the way of peace, how man may be at peace with
God. And week after week, service
after service, message after message, we've been so blessed. We thank our pastor, don't we?
to show us the way of peace, the steps so that there can be
no mistake. There's only one way of peace. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's why, regardless of whichever passage he brings us
a message, he always ends up back where? At the feet of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the way of peace. We've been so, so blessed. I've
been so blessed. The Lord Jesus told his disciples,
he said, peace, I leave with you. My peace, I give unto you. Peace, I leave with you. My peace,
I give unto you. And this peace that the Lord
Jesus Christ gives, it's a peace that passes understanding. It's beyond understanding. It's beyond our understanding,
and it's sure beyond the understanding of those that are lost in this
world. He gives us living peace. Isn't
it wonderful to be able to walk through our pilgrimage in this
wilderness with peace in our hearts? He gives us peace. Undescribable peace. Peace in our hearts. And it gives
us peace with others. I don't know about you, but I
love peace. I hate friction. I hate animosity. I hate disagreement. I know sometimes it's necessary,
but I just don't like it. I don't like it. Do you? There
are times when we cannot be at peace with certain things, things
that are wrong. I realize that. But I so dislike
disunion. And God has blessed our church
so much with peace. Praise God for the peace he's
given us. Peace in our hearts and peace
with each other. And someone thinks, well, okay,
good. So if the Lord gives me his peace, then this is gonna
be a pretty easy road, right? I have the Lord's peace. My peace,
I leave with you. My peace, I give unto you. That's
what he was telling these disciples before he went back to the Father,
before he went to the cross and resurrected and went back to
the Father. Do you know who he was talking to? What their life
had in store for them? These 11, the persecution, and
the suffering, and the trials, and the works, and as most people
believe, all of them died martyrs' deaths. And yet they had this
peace that passes understanding. My peace I leave with you. The
Lord said, these things have I spoken unto you, listen, that
in me you might have peace. In this world, you will have
tribulation. But be of good cheer, for I've
overcome the world. You see, that's why it's a peace
that passes the understanding our life may be a total mess,
believer. Upside down and backwards and
as messed up as it can possibly be from our perspective. And
yet, our king of peace, Our peace is in him. He's overcome. Our champion has already overcome. And his peace is our peace. He
is our peace with God. And I have to hurry here. He
gives us dying peace. Living peace, it's wonderful,
but also dying peace. We won't take the time to read
this, but that old man Simeon in the temple, he was waiting
for the consolation of Israel, wasn't he? And at 40 days when
Mary and Joseph brought the babe, the Lord Jesus, to the temple,
Simeon took that baby up in his arms. And he said, Lord, now
let me depart in peace, according to your word, for I've seen your
salvation. You see, he saw the glory of
God in the face of that babe, the babe Jesus Christ. And he
could depart in peace. Why? Because it was as sure as
it could be. God was faithful. He sent him
and Christ was going to be successful in the work that he came to do.
He could depart in peace. The Lord hadn't even lived his
life yet. He hadn't even gone to the cross, but he could depart
in peace. Why? because the one who had
come was none other than the Son of God who could not fail.
And here's the last point, and I'll try to be brief here. Goodwill
towards men. Goodwill towards men. Can we
question God's will, goodwill to men? Believer, can we question
his goodwill to us? He who spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him
freely give us all things? His good will, I mean, if he
gave his son, shall he withhold any good thing from us? You say,
well, this doesn't feel very good to me. Believe me, I've
experienced many things in my life and continue to do so that
don't feel very good to me. But God spared not his own son
for me. How shall he not also with him
freely give me good things, all good things? Who can question God's goodwill
to men? Did he not say, come now? Let
us reason together, says the Lord. Someone here tonight says,
well, you don't understand just what a sinner I am. Surely I
cannot come. Surely I cannot believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ for forgiveness of sins. Did not God say, come
now? Let us reason together, saith
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Can we question God's goodwill
to sinners? Just that God would say, come
now, let us reason together. That's amazing, isn't it? What more can he say? What more
can he say? And let me move on to finish
up. I can't stop without this. Who
can read the gospels? Who can read the gospels? and
fail to see the goodwill of the Lord Jesus Christ towards men. His goodwill towards men. It
just screams off the pages. Every page in the Gospels. When
the disciples felt it was beneath him to bless the little children
that were brought to him. You remember that occurrence?
And the Lord, they were forbidding them to bring the little children
to him. He took them up in his arms and he blessed them. When the multitudes were hungry, He did not want them to go away
hungry and faint in the way, so he fed them. He healed. He opened the eyes of the blind
and unstopped the ears of the deaf, loosed the tongues of the
dumb. Those who were paralyzed, he
caused to stand and walk and to leap. Those who were demon-possessed,
he life tormented by demons. He tore the power of the demons
over those people and set them free. You see him, his compassion when
he raised the dead son of the widow of name. That funeral procession
going on that day in that little town and this widow woman who
had lost her only son, he was being carried to be buried in
the the love and compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ to stop
and to touch that coffin and to raise him from the dead. That woman caught in adultery. Scripture says in the very act. And they brought her before the
Lord, and they wanted for him to say that they needed to stone
her. And he said, well, which of you is without sin? You go
ahead and throw the first stone. And along with that word went
the conviction that they were all sinners. And the Lord asked
her, where are those thine accusers? She says, there's none, Lord.
He said, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. unless any of us should doubt
his goodwill to sinners. We sang about this just a few
minutes ago. When they took those nails, and
they pierced his hand, and they pierced his feet, when they would
crucify him, you remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. Truly, the Lord Jesus Christ,
in Him, He is goodwill towards man manifested. Glory to God in the highest and
on earth peace, goodwill towards man. And may we be like the shepherds. Verse 20, and I'll close with
this. And the shepherds returned, glorifying
and praising God for all the things that they had heard and
seen. as it was told unto them. That's my prayer for us tonight,
that we may be able to rejoice tonight for all these things
that we've been able to hear. And not only to hear, but to
see that this is indeed the Savior coming to the world. May the
Lord bless this world.