Now let us turn back in our Bibles
to Luke chapter 2. I receive an email each Wednesday
with a devotional, an article written by a preacher in Ohio. And in a recent article, he introduced
it by saying that he was asked a question, and the question
was, what scripture is your favorite that is quoted at this time of
the year, occasioned by the birth of Christ? And he answered and
wrote the article upon Isaiah chapter 9 in verse 6. For unto
us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and his name shall
be called Wonderful Counselor, the mighty God the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. And it was an excellent article
speaking of the Lord's, his incarnation, his work, as it is represented
by each of those titles. Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. But I had
to ask myself that same question. If I had a favorite verse that
is often quoted at this time of the year, and yes, I do. It is verse number 11. Luke chapter 2 and verse number
11. It has become my favorite. Every
sense by the power of God, the Holy Spirit. I have been enabled
to read this verse personally to myself. The shepherd said,
for unto you, and by the grace of God, I may say, for unto me. Ever since the Lord showed me
and taught me and enabled me to read this verse like this,
for unto me is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. How many times over the years
have you heard me say, If no one else in this building needs
a Savior, I do. And this is the best news that
any sinner could ever hear, that unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. You couldn't
receive better news if you were told that you were kin to some
famous and wealthy family in this world, or you'd won the
lotto, or anything like that. The best news any sinner can
ever hear, and I mean hear, not just with these outward ears.
You remember our Lord said, he that hath ears to hear, let him
hear what the Spirit saith. And when God the Holy Spirit
gives you the grace to hear with your soul, the heart of your
soul, these words unto you is born this day in the city of
David, a savior, which is Christ the Lord. I have three divisions
to the message today, and I want to be just as simple as I possibly
am able. First, He was born a Savior. Let that sink in. He was born
a Savior. Or He was given to be a Savior. He was not born a moral reformer. He did not come into this world
to reform the world. He was born a Savior. You say He was given a people.
was given a people before the foundation of the world. They
were chosen in Him according to Ephesians chapter 1 and verse
3. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us in heavenly places
with all spiritual blessings in Christ according as He hath
chosen us in Him. He chose a people. The father
did and gave them unto his son. And his son became their head. They are members of his body,
his mystical body. He became their husband. They
are his bride, his wife. He is their shepherd. They became
his sheep. This all took place before God
had ever spoken the world into existence. And yet when God created
man, his wife, his bride, his sheep, members of his body, they
all fell in their head at him. They all became sinners. And
so they all need a Savior. Unto you is born this day in
the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord." They were
not merely sick. That's what religion would teach
people. They were just sick and need
a doctor, need some medicine. No, they were sinners and need
a Savior. They were not just discouraged
and need an encourager. No, his people fell in Adam and
were sinners and needed a savior. They didn't just need someone
to help them with depression, a psychologist. No, they were
sinners. and they needed a savior. The angel told Joseph, before
Mary's son was born, that they should call his name Jesus. Jehovah saves, for he shall save
his people from their sins. He was born a savior, Christ
the Lord. Now these two titles, Christ
the Lord. Distinguish Him from many others
who have come into this world and claim to be a Savior, a Savior. He is the Savior, and He is the
Savior, and that is pointed out to us by these two titles, Christ
the Lord. He is Christ We know that comes
from a Greek word. It's the same meaning as the
Hebrew word Messiah carried. And it means anointed. Anointed. He is anointed. In the Old Testament,
men to different offices were anointed with oil. A man was anointed to be a priest
by the law. with oil. A man was anointed
to be a king with oil. And many of the prophets, they
too, were anointed with oil. And oil, of course, is a picture
or a type of God the Holy Spirit. Now this one who is Christ the
Lord, his very being, is a product of the Holy Spirit coming upon
Mary. so that he did not have a human
father. He had a human mother, yes, he
had to be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, but he could
not have been a son of a man, because if he had, then he would
have been also represented by Adam and come under the curse. Oh no. If you turn back to Luke
chapter one, just a page in your Bible, The angel explained this
to Mary because she too, she could not understand how she
could have a child. She had never known a man. The
angel told her in verse 35, 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, when we read that verse
of Scripture, it always seems to me when the angel told her
that the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee as though
God just put a shadow over Mary. And His birth, His conception
is mysterious. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. And yes, there are things about
His incarnation that we will never understand, that we will
never fully comprehend. How God could become flesh. And yet that's exactly what happened. God overshadowed her. And that
should remind us there are things that took place there that we
can't delve in too far. Just as when the Lord Jesus Christ
died on the cross, there was darkness over all the earth.
He was doing business with the Father. The Son, God the Son
on the cross was doing business with the Father. And there are
things about His death just as there are things about His incarnation
that are hidden from our ability to fully comprehend. You tell
me how God could forsake God. You tell me how God could become
man. These are mysterious things.
They're revealed unto us. But the point I'm making, He
is Christ, the anointed, and His very beginning as a God-man. The Holy Spirit had a part in
this. And then we know when He was
baptized, the Holy Spirit came upon Him
in the form of a dove. But there's something else. Go
back to that verse, Luke 135. Something else, I said he's the
highest, the power of the highest overshadowed her. There's something
there that we cannot comprehend, of course. We're never intended
to. But have you ever wondered about
those words? Therefore also that holy thing
which shall be born of her shall be called the Son of God. It
always seems somewhat strange to me, those words, that. I was reading this past week
in a message by Robert Hawker, and he was commenting on the
fact that God declared his name to Moses there at the burning
bush, I am. That, I am. That, I am. That, I am. that holy thing which shall be
born of thee. And Robert Hawker said, it is
somewhat remarkable that he added to his name, I am, that I am,
as if in allusion to the fullness of the time when he would tabernacle
among us, concerning which the angel to Mary named him, that
holy thing. That holy thing. But at his baptism,
we know God the Holy Spirit came upon him in the form of a dove.
And as he began his ministry, after he was baptized and then
those 40 days in the wilderness being tempted of Satan, he returned
to Nazareth, the city where he had been raised as a young boy. He entered into the synagogue
and they handed him the scripture and he found the place where
it was written and he read that verse, this day is this scripture
fulfilled in your sight. The spirit of the Lord is upon
me. He's upon me. God the Holy Spirit,
he is the anointed of the Lord. And also think of that word anointed
as appointed. He's the only mediator that God
appointed between you and Him. You, every you here today, He's
the only mediator that is appointed between you and God Almighty. And if you ever come to God,
you're going to come through Him. If God ever comes to you
in saving grace, He's going to come to you through Him. Salvation is not mediated through
a church. It's not mediated through a hierarchy
of priests, human priests. Salvation is mediated through
Christ. The one mediator between God
and man, the man, Christ Jesus. He's Christ. But then notice
this second title, the Lord. He's the Lord. And you know this
was displayed, his lordship was displayed many times in the gospels. He showed himself to be lord
over nature. That night he was asleep in the
ship and they were crossing the sea and the winds came up and
the disciples just knew they were going to be drowned in the
sea and they spoke to him and he rebuked the wind. Lord, he's Christ the Lord. The winds and all nature obeys
his voice. He showed himself to be Lord
over creation. when he took a few fish and a
few loaves of bread and blessed them and began to give them out
to his disciples. And they began to give out the
bread and the fish to the thousands of people who were there, 5,000
men at one time. And after everyone had eaten,
they took up several baskets of food. He's Lord. He's Lord
of a creation. And I tell you, he's lord over
the demons. When he rebuked the demons, the demons had to flee,
had to come out of that one individual in whom there was a hundred demons. When he rebuked the demons, he
showed himself to be lord over physical diseases. In John chapter 9, he gave sight
to a man who was born blind. And you know, the religious leaders,
they asked that man after he was healed, who made you whole?
Who did this to you? He said, well, it was a man who
put mud on my eyes and told me to go wash in a pool and I came
back sane. That's who did it. They said,
well, we know that he's a sinner. We know he's a sinner because
he did it on the Sabbath day. And that man who was healed and
given his sight, he said, this is a strange thing. And I'm paraphrasing. He said, this is a strange thing
that a man who gave sight to a person who was born blind and
you don't know who he was, you don't know who he is. He's the
Lord. That's who he is. He's the Lord. And he showed himself to be the
Lord when he stood outside the tomb of Lazarus. Lazarus, his
body, had been in that tomb for four days. His sister said, by
now, his body stinketh. And yet he said, Lazarus, come
forth. Come forth. Someone said one time he called
him by name because if he had just said, come forth, every
corpse in that cemetery would have come out. Lazarus, come forth. He's the Lord. And he showed
himself to be Lord when he too walked out of that tomb. On the
Sunday after the day he was crucified, on Friday, on that Sunday, he
came out of that tomb. So that when his followers even,
they didn't expect to see him again. They were sad. Some of
them went out there with spices to anoint his dead body. And
yet, they meet the angels there who ask them, why? Why seek you
the living among the dead? Men, now think about this. Men do not make him Lord. That's one of the fallacies of
my lifetime. Preachers have lied to people,
and they've told them to make Him your Lord. He already is your Lord. He's
not in your hands. That's what people are being
told. What will you do with Jesus? That's not the question. What
will He do with you? That's the question. For unto
you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ
the Lord. Now the second part of my message
is He's a Savior. What does a Savior do? He saves. His name is Jesus. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus for He shall save His people from their sins. Now what do I mean? What do we
mean when we talk about the Savior saving His people from their
sins? First of all, He saves His people
from the guilt of their sins. He saves His people from the
guilt of their sins. And let me, let me enlarge on
this just a moment. When a person does something
wrong, that person may or he may not feel guilty about what
he has done. For instance, suppose a man tells
a lie and he doesn't feel guilty. Is he guilty? He is, isn't he? whether he feels
guilty or he doesn't feel guilty. If he's broken the law, he's
guilty. We wouldn't allow a judge in
our courts downtown if the judge, when a person was brought before
them and charged with a crime, and the judge simply asked, well,
do you feel guilty? No, I don't feel guilty. Well,
go. You're free. You're afraid. You don't feel guilty. Oh, no. That's not the question. The
question is the evidence. The evidence. What does the evidence
say? A man is not guilty. A woman
is not guilty because they feel guilty or they don't feel guilty. Men and women are guilty because
we have broken God's law, whether we feel like it or not. What
am I saying? I'm saying if you're here this
morning, you need a savior, whether you feel like you need a savior
or you don't feel like you need a savior. You need a savior. Why? Because you are guilty before
God. You say, preacher, can you show
me that in the Bible? Of course I can. Look with me
in Romans chapter three. Romans chapter 3 and verse 19. And this is sort
of the end of a list of offenses that man is guilty of. But verse
19 says, Now we know that what thing soever the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world may become guilty, that is, subjected
to judgment before God. Romans 3 and verse 23 says, For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The point
I'm making is that all men are guilty whether they feel guilty
or not. All men need a Savior whether
they feel like they need a Savior or not. We're not going by feelings,
we're going by fact. And the fact is, the fact of
the word of God is, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. That the whole world is guilty
before God because we have all broken God's law. You say, when did we do that?
We did that in our head, Adam. For by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. See, he represented us, and whether
we feel guilty, whether we feel like he was our representative
or not, he was. How does He save His people from
their sins, from the guilt of their sins? You know, there's
one verse of Scripture that sums it up so well. 2 Corinthians
5 and verse 21. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 21. How
does He save His people from the guilt of their sins? The
Scripture here says, for He, that is God, hath made Him, that
is Christ, to be sin for us who do no sin, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. This is how the Savior saves
His people from the guilt of their sins and gives them a perfect
righteousness. God took the guilt of the sins
of his people, and laid that, charged that to his son, who
knew no sin, and he was punished as the guilty one. Then the righteousness
of his son, his perfect obedience, is charged or given to those
of his people, making us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. I heard this story many years
ago, took place when there was one room schoolhouses, all grades
met in the same room. And at the first of the year,
the teacher would allow the students to make the rules. One of the
rules they made one year was that if anyone was caught stealing,
That person would be given five licks with a big paddle that
was hanging there on the wall. It wasn't long before, sure enough,
someone had stolen something. A boy had stolen a lunch, and
he came before The teacher and the charge was there, and he
was guilty. The lunch was in his possession. And the law, they had made the
laws, actually, five licks with that paddle. The teacher got
the paddle down. The boy took off his coat. And
the largest boy in the class, he stood up and he said, teacher,
can I take his place? The rule is that someone will
be punished five licks for anyone caught stealing. Can I take his
place? And the teacher said, that's
fine. And so the larger boy, he comes
up and he takes the five licks with the big paddle. The boy
who was guilty took his seat. He was not punished. What an
illustration of what God did in taking the sins of His people,
the guilt of the sins of His people, and laying that upon
Christ. And He took the punishment that
our sins deserve. Substitution. He saves His people
from the guilt of their sins. Second, he saves his people from
the enmity that their sins produce between them and God. Man does
not like to think of himself like this, but this is what the
Bible says. This is what God says. It says,
for if when we were enemies, enemies to who? Enemies to God. We come into this world, our
mind is enmity, not at enmity, our mind is enmity with God. And all by nature hate God. You say, well, I've never hated
God. You've probably never been confronted with the true God.
Once man hears about the truth of God, that enmity that we're
born with, that alienation. We come into this world alienated
from God, estranged from God, far off from God, whatever term
you want to use. And the only way that we may
be reconciled to God is through the Lord Jesus Christ. He saves
His people from this alienation. that exists because of our sins. And we're no longer estranged
from God. Through Him, through Christ,
through our Savior, we're reconciled unto God. In fact, God even refers
to us as friends. Friends. He's made peace by the
blood of His cross. Number three, he saves his people
from the wrath that their sins deserve. Men do not like to think
that God has wrath, but listen, the same God who is love also
is a God of wrath. And it has to be so. It has to
be so, why? Because he's righteous. He's
righteous. He loves righteousness and hates
iniquity. And yes, there's punishment that
awaits. It awaits you. I want to be as
clear to you, to every one of us, to myself, all of us here
today, that if you do not know Christ as your Savior, you're
going to meet God and you're going to experience the wrath
of God. Unless you have a Savior. Unless
Christ is your Savior. You're not going to escape it.
You say, oh, my dad was this, my mother was this. Thank the
Lord for that, whatever that is, if it was good. But that's
not going to excuse you from facing God Almighty one day with
all your sins, which He hates, unless you have a Savior. For
unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which
is Christ the Lord. The third part of my message,
I want you to notice that this message was announced by an angel. An angel spoke these words to
the shepherds. You know the word angel means
messenger. And this is what I, This is what
I am and every other preacher of God. He's a messenger. We
don't write the message. We don't make up the message.
That's not our place. God has given us the message.
Our place is simply to deliver the message. messenger. That's what I am.
And the message they were given was that a Savior was born and
what was their reaction? They went to see. They believed the message and
they found the message to be true. Do you believe the message
of the gospel? This is what they found. They
found a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And
do you know what that word swaddle means? It means to bind. I saw a mother the other night
and she used that word. She said, I'm going to swaddle
my baby. And when she finished swaddling
her baby, I didn't think that baby could move. I mean, she
was bound up tight. And the point I want to make
is a baby Jesus lying in a manger couldn't save anyone. And if
that's all people see at this time of the year, a baby, they
may die and go into eternity lost forever. He was lying in
swaddling clothes. He was bound. He was bound to
the Father to do the Father's will. And he did the Father's
will. He finished the work which the
Father gave him to do. My message is simple. Repent,
believe the gospel, and be saved. And then you too can say unto
me, this day is a Savior born. That's the best news you'll ever
hear, if you hear it. When you come to the end of the
road, and we all will be there soon, and you're facing eternity, you need a savior. You need one
today, when you're facing that dark eternity. No one can go with you there
except Christ. Your mother, your father, your
brother, your wife, your husband, they may be right there at your
bedside, and they may be sad, but they can't go with you. When
you close your eyes, you're going to meet God, and you need a Savior. Christ is the Savior. I love to preach about Christ.
And I love to preach about Christ because, number one, I know He's
an able Savior. I don't care who the person is.
I don't care where the person is. I don't care what the person
has done. There's a Savior, Christ the
Lord. And He's not only able, He is
that. But thank God he's willing. He's
willing. Look unto me and be ye saved. This is his word to all of his
people. If you will now, let's sing that
hymn 125. We're going to go from those
hymns about the birth of Christ to now Jesus paid it all, 125,
all to him I owe.