I'd like for you, if you will,
to look back to Luke chapter 2. I'm going to speak to us today
from the angel's words in verse 10 and 11. Fear not, verse 10,
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. The angel of the Lord brought
to these shepherds good tidings, or as we would say today, good
news, good news of great joy. And the good news was and continues
to be that God has provided a Savior for sinners. Good news. God promised immediately after
Adam sinned and plunged all of his posterity, you and I, all
men, into sin, God promised a Savior, a Savior who would come and bruise
the head of the serpent. The news of a Savior is good
news to all men. If you were to see two trees
today, just in your mind picture two trees, and upon one of those
trees you see it just loaded down with apples. I mean, the
tree's just covered with fruit. You would know that's an apple
tree. That's an apple tree. the type
of tree is revealed by its fruit. And the tree that's covered with
apples, that's an apple tree. But alongside, if you saw another
tree that only had one or two apples on it, you would say,
that's an apple tree as well. The number of apples, the amount
of fruit doesn't doesn't reveal the nature of the tree. One apple,
that's all it takes for you to know it's an apple tree. And many men and women in this
world, no doubt that the Lord Jesus Christ came to save, are
guilty of the grossest of sins. They're just covered over, as
we would say, like this apple tree, with every sin imaginable. They need a Savior. But there
are some who might just have committed one sin. They're still sinners. They still
need a Savior. If a person is guilty of breaking
the law, the Bible says in one point, He's guilty of the whole
law. If a person just has told one
lie, and I know there's no one here this morning who hasn't,
because the scriptures say that we go astray from the womb speaking
lies. Why do we do that? Because we
have a nature that has fallen, a sinful nature. And the point
is, the Word The good news that the angel brought to those shepherds
so many years ago is, unto you is born a Savior, a Savior. It's good news to all men without
exception. Why? Because all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. If you had some dreaded
and curable disease today and you heard that there was a remedy,
there was a doctor, there was a medicine that could cure you
of that disease, you would say, that's good news. That's good
news. Where is his office? Make me
an appointment. Go to the drugstore. Get that
medicine for me. I want to take it. Well, I hope
everyone here this morning, without any exception, recognizes that
we all need a Savior. I need a Savior. You need a Savior. All men, without exception. Why? Because we have all sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Well, I have five requirements
that he had to meet, this one that was born. There's five requirements
that I know he had to meet in order for him to be the Savior. The first requirement was he
had to have the same nature as those whom he saves. He had to
have the same nature. It was man who had sinned, not
angels. They sinned, some of them, but
God did not provide them a savior. He didn't come to save angels. He came to save men. And the fact that they were shepherds,
they were working men, they were out in the fields at night, And
God came, he sent his son, rather, to save men and women of all
classes, of all classes of men. But men, and the Savior, to be
our Savior, he must have the same nature. In the book of Hebrews,
chapter two and verse 16, the apostle said, he took not on
him the nature of angels. God provided no Savior. for the
angels who sinned. But for men, he has to be a man
to be our Savior. It was a man who sinned, that
is, Adam. It was a man who sinned, and
the sins of those whom he came to save must be punished in that
same nature. That's the reason that we believe,
as the Scriptures reveal unto us, the Word was made flesh. the Word, that is, the Son of
God, the eternal Son of God, equal with the Father and God
the Holy Spirit in every way, the eternal Son of God, that
He was made flesh. He took upon Him the nature,
not of angels, but of men. If you look back into chapter
1 of Luke's Gospel, we see how this came to pass. Beginning
with verse 30, the angel said unto her, that is Mary, fear
not Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, thou
shalt conceive in thy womb. The body that God the Holy Spirit
prepared for his eternal son to take into union with his person
was prepared him from the Virgin Mary. That body was conceived
in her womb, and thou shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his
name Jesus. You see how every letter in his
name is capitalized? That tells us that this is God,
this is Jehovah. He shall be called Jesus. 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 forever. And of his kingdom there shall
be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel,
How? How is this possible? How is
it that God, who is to be our Savior, is to have our same nature? To be a man? How is this possible,
saying, I know not a man? And the angel answered and said
unto her, this is the way it's going to happen. The Holy Spirit
shall come upon thee. The Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee and the power of the high shall overshadow thee. Therefore
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. You know when something overcomes,
He said, the power of the high shall overshadow thee, shall
come upon thee, and the power of the... God, as it were, pulled
a curtain over this. There's no way you and I can
understand this. We believe it because it is revealed
in the Word of God. The Word was made flesh. How this was possible, it's something
that was not possible other than the fact that God did it. The
virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe and are sure
for Him to be our Savior, He had to have a nature, the nature
of man. Now Paul in Romans chapter 8
says, God sent forth His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Now He didn't say He sent forth
His Son in the likeness of flesh. That's what some heiress, some
people who have denied the truth have taught over the years that
He really didn't have a body, really wasn't a man. He just
appeared to be a man. No, no. He was a man, the man Christ
Jesus. God sent forth His Son, as I
said, He didn't say in the likeness of flesh, He said in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He was just like you and I, except,
and it's a big exception, isn't it? He had no sin. He knew no sin. Sin must be punished
in the same nature that was guilty. This was pictured in the law
of Moses by the kinsman redeemer. And I'm going to make mention
of that law several times as we go through these five things.
But, you know, the gospel was witnessed by the law and the
prophets, we're told. There's only been one gospel.
There never has been two Gospels. The same Gospel that was preached
to Adam and Eve in the garden is the Gospel that I preach unto
us today. There's only one Gospel. But
all through the Old Testament, the Law and the Prophets witnessed
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the ways that this
was witnessed to us in the Law of Moses was by the Kinsman Redeemer. The person in debt needed to
be redeemed. And so there was the law concerning
his redemption. But the first, the very first
thing, the first requirement that had to be met, he had to
be a kinsman. Suppose a person was in debt.
He's just John Doe. He's in debt. And another man,
his name is whatever. and he hears John Doe's in debt,
I'm going to redeem him. No, no. Only if he's your kinsman. If he's not your kinsman, you
don't have the right of redemption. And for the Lord Jesus Christ
to be the Savior, the very first requirement is He had to take
upon Himself our nature. He had to be made a man. And He was. And that's what the
angel said. This is the good news concerning
the Savior. For unto you a Savior is born. And the second thing that has
to be true, He had to be willing to save those that He saves. To save sinners, It would be
necessary for him to take the burden of their sin upon himself. Now in the book of Ruth, which
just has four chapters, very small book in the Old Testament.
I'm sure everyone's familiar with it. But the story of the
book of Ruth is concerning the kinsman redeemer. Ruth was in
debt. She needed to be redeemed. You
know the story. Boaz redeems her. But there was
one who had the right of redemption ahead of Boaz. But he didn't,
he didn't redeem her. He was not willing to redeem
her. He had the means, he had the means, but he knew it would
mar his inheritance, he said. And so he gave the right of redemption
to Boaz. But the second truth that must
be so about a Savior is He must be willing. He must be willing
to redeem. The Lord Jesus Christ is presented
to us in the Word of God in this way. I delight to do thy will. Oh my God. That's in the book
of Psalms and that's quoted again in Hebrews chapter 10. And there
it is. Lo, I come in the volume of the
book to do thy will, O God. He came willingly, willingly
to redeem his people. And you know, this was pictured
also in the Old Testament in another way. A Hebrew. could become a servant. But he
could only serve for six years. In the seventh year, he had to
be set free. But now there was this exception.
There was this exception. If in that seventh year he willingly
remained a servant, then what would happen? They would take
him to the I guess the town square, the center of the town, and they
would put his head up against a post and put his ear over against
that post and they would bore a hole through his ear. And what
did that mean? That meant that he was a willing
servant. He could have gone free, but
he chose, why? Because he loved his master,
and he loved his wife, and he loved his children. What a picture,
right? Of the Lord Jesus Christ who
willingly came to save sinners. Lo, I come, in the volume of
the book it is written of me, to do thy will, O God. He willingly, and that had to
be true to be our Savior. He had to be willing to save
those whom he saves. He knew perfectly well what it
would cost him when the Lord Jesus Christ came to be the Redeemer. He knew what it was going to
cost him. He knew it was going to cost
him 30 some years in this world to be misunderstood, to be beaten,
to be spit upon, to be crucified, and all of the other agonies
that he went through and endured, which wasn't just the last hours
of his life, the whole lifetime that he was here as our representative
and as our substitute. He was suffering, a pure, holy,
innocent one like he was, living among men and women like you
and I, unbelievers, most of the time doubting God, questioning
God, His whole life was a life of suffering, and he knew that
when he came, but he came willingly, willingly. The third thing, he
had to be free from sin himself to save others. If he had any
sin of his own, he could not be a savior. If he had any sin
of his own, he needed a savior. The kinsman redeemer could not
redeem another person if he himself was in debt. He needed someone
to redeem him. In the law of Moses, you know,
this was pictured also in this way. The high priest had a very
important function in the way the gospel was presented to the
nation of Israel. How that in that tabernacle,
There was a place that was shut off. No one could go in there.
It was called the Holy of Holies, and in that place there was a
mercy seat, and there was the Shekinah, which was an emblem
of the presence of God. And there was that curtain that
separated, and no one could go into the presence there of what
was picture or type of the presence of God. That's just like you. Just like me. You think you're
going to march up to God? Do you? You think because you've
done a few good things in your life that you're going to march
up into the presence of God and be accepted because of your good
works, because of your good deeds? No. In the tabernacle this was
plainly, clearly declared that only one man would go into that
holy place, and he would go in there as a representative for
the nation, and he would offer blood upon the mercy seat, and
he would confess over the head of that live goat the sins of
the nation of Israel, and the scapegoat would be carried away.
That high priest was a wonderful type and picture of our Savior. But there was one thing he did
that day that the Savior did not need to do. That day, that
day of atonement, one day in the year, when that high priest
was going to go into that Holy of Holies, Before he went in
there with the blood from that live goat, from that goat rather,
the Lord's goat, he had to slay a bullock. And he had to take
the blood of the bullock in there and sprinkle that on the mercy
seat and before the mercy seat. You say, why did he do that?
That blood was for his sins, for the high priest. He too was
a sinner. He had to offer an atonement
first for his own sins, but the Lord Jesus Christ, for him to
save sinners, he had to be free himself from sin. We read just
a moment ago, the angel told Mary, that holy one that shall
be born of thee, that holy one. When he came into this world
and she received him and wrapped him in those swaddling clothes
and laid him in the manger, when the shepherds went and saw him,
they saw a holy baby, a holy person. And when he was about
30 years of age and he came to John the Baptist and was baptized
to enter into his public ministry, there was a voice from heaven
which declared, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. What was God saying? He's holy. He's holy. And when he stood
before Pilate and before Herod and then back to Pilate, both
of those civil authorities, rulers, kings, governors, what did they
say? He's innocent. I find no fault
in this man. What were they saying? He's holy. He's holy. He had to be without sin. And
when the apostle Paul tells us, He who knew no sin, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He who knew no sin. You say,
didn't he know about sin? Well, yes, as God, he knows about
sin. He knows every sin you've ever
committed. As God, he knows every sin I've
ever committed. But when it says he knew no sin,
he knew no sin by experience, by committing sin. He who knew
no sin was made to be sin for us. The sins of those he redeems,
those he saves, those sins were imputed unto him, charged to
his account. And he became liable for them,
so much so that he acknowledged them as his sins. But he himself
had no sin. He was a holy one that was born
of Mary, and he was holy when he was born, he was holy when
he died, even though he had the sins of his people charged to
his account. A fourth thing about him to be
our Savior, he had to have power over his own life, to give it
and take it again. This had to be so, why? Because
he was an innocent, person as himself having no sin. How could
it be right for one who's innocent to be punished to actually die
in the stead of the guilty? It was right because he did it
willingly and because he had the power to lay down his life
and take it again. This is what he said when he
spoke of himself as a good shepherd. He said, I lay down my life for
the sheep, that I might take it again. No man, listen, no
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. This is why,
remember he was crucified on a day before the Sabbath. And
they didn't want to leave those bodies. A crucifixion could take
hours. Actually, it could take days.
It was one of the most gruesome, suffering deaths that anyone
could experience. And so they didn't want those
bodies, the body of Christ, two thieves on either side of Him
to stay on the crosses the next day. So they asked Pilate, if
they could break their legs. Remember? Pilate sent those soldiers
out there, yes, go break their legs, and that would cause them
not to be able to support their body, so that they would die. It'd speed up their death. And
they came to the first one and broke his legs, and the other
thief, they broke his legs, but when they came to Christ, He
was already dead. He was already dead, which was
a miracle in itself. You say, why do you call that
a miracle? Because he dismissed his spirit. when he, as the scripture says,
saw that all things that were written in the Old Testament
concerning him as the Savior and his suffering, when all things
were finished, completed, he said, I thirst. And then he cried
with a loud voice, not the voice of someone who's expiring, who's
dying, You ever been in the room with someone dying? You know,
if they can speak, it's just a small, a very feeble voice,
feeble, and you bow down, try to listen. No, he cried with
a loud voice. It is finished. And he bowed his head, the scripture
says, and gave up the ghost. See, he had power to lay down
his life. And he had power to take it again. Now the last thing, the fifth
thing, and I want you to turn with me to Acts, if you will,
Acts chapter 2. Going to look at just a couple
of verses here. Words of the apostle Peter on
the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2. Verse 23 and 24. Him, that is Jesus Christ our
Lord, Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge
of God. Do you think the death of Christ
took God by surprise? And it amazes me that some people
who who believe in God, believe in
such a weak God, such a pygmy God, such a powerless God, that
they think that this was not ordained of God. You've heard
some men actually say, well, if I'd been there, I wouldn't
have let him crucify Christ. How foolish. How foolish for
a man to think he could somehow thwart the will of God. His death was determined before
the foundation of the world. He's a lamb. The scripture speaks
of him as a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Actually,
before there ever was a sinner, God already had the Savior. And everything happened according
to God's determinate counsel and foreknowledge. Nothing took
God by surprise. Peter said, now you did this
by wicked hands, yes. You have taken and by wicked
hands have crucified and slain. an amazing truth, but it is the
truth. These men did exactly what they
wanted to do. Judas wanted to betray Him. The religious leaders wanted
Him to be crucified. The soldiers who nailed the spikes
through his hand and the one who put the spear in his side,
they did what they were commanded to do and they wanted to obey
the commands of their officer, their ruler. They did what they
wanted to do, but in doing what they wanted to do, they did exactly,
minutely, perfectly everything God had determined from before
the foundation of the world that should be done. They were responsible,
they were guilty, but in doing what they did, they were doing
exactly what God had determined. You see, what is God's determination? It's to glorify Himself. It's
to glorify Himself. And He's glorifying Himself in
saving sinners. In saving sinners. And He does
that through the sacrifice of His Son. Now notice verse 24. Whom God hath raised up, having
loosed the pains of death, and notice these words, because it
was not possible that he should be holden of it. To be the Savior,
he had to have power to bear the punishment due to those he
saves and free both himself and them from the penalty of sin. What was the penalty? What is
the penalty of sin? It's death. Death. Death spiritual,
death physical, death eternal. For Him to be our Savior, He
had to have the power to free Himself from the penalty of sin,
which is death. He died. And to free us as well. And Peter says, because it was
not possible that he should be held of it. Death. He had conquered death. He conquered
death by his death. Just like David, remember when
he went out to fight Goliath, he didn't have a sword, did he?
And so to cut off the giant's head, he took the giant's sword. And Satan had brought death into
this world by his temptation. Our Lord said he was a murderer
from the beginning. And it is rather with his own
weapon, that is death, that the Lord Jesus Christ destroyed the
head of the serpent. Isn't it wonderful this morning,
I asked every person here today, isn't it wonderful to acknowledge
and hear how he is a savior? But let me tell you something.
It's wonderful. It's a great joy to acknowledge
him as a savior. But my friends, there's something
better. when you can change that a Savior and say, my Savior,
my Savior. Oh, this is where the joy comes,
right? And knowing that he's my Savior. He came to save sinners. He came
to save me. He's my Savior. We're going to
sing a hymn, and I want you to look at it first before the ladies
get up to play the instruments. I want you to turn to 226. We'll
sing this in just a second. But I want us to look at the
words, and I pray that as we sing, The first line in this hymn,
this lady who wrote this, she said, I'm not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I'm not either. There's much about God I don't
understand. He's so much greater. He's so
much larger. There's much I don't understand,
just like this woman who wrote this. I only know, I know this
today, that at his right hand is one who is my Savior. I take him at his word indeed. Christ died for sinners. This I read. What did Paul say? This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. I take him at his word and deed,
Christ died for sinners. This I read. For in my heart,
oh, do you find this in your heart? I do. And I know this, if you find
this in your heart, God put it there. God put it there. Those who are dead in trespasses
and sins, they don't find this in their heart. Do you find this in your heart
today? I find a need of Him to be my
Savior. I find that. I find that every
day. Every day, every time I look
into the mirror of God's Word, I see I need a Savior. And I'm thankful today that the
angel said, for unto you is born this day in the city of David,
a Savior. And I may, and I trust you make
as well say, my Savior. And if you have found him and
find this need in your heart, look to Christ. The scripture
says the word is nigh thee. It's this message, this gospel
that I've tried to preach here today. It's nigh thee. You've
heard it. It's in your heart. If thou wilt
confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, recognize He's Lord. He's Lord over all things. He's
your Lord, whether you know it or not. You're in His hands. He's not in your hands. He's
the Lord. If thou wilt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart, that God hath
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Let's sing this
hymn, and I trust that you find this in your heart today and
you look to Christ to be your Savior.