The next two Wednesday nights, we'll all have services. We've got both the ones on Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve, so we'll have service the next two Wednesday nights. And next Sunday is the last Saturday of the month, we'll have a Lord's Saving. And we'll have no afternoon service this afternoon after dinner, so we'll have a chaos announcement for the day.

Remember those in Moose Park. He came through the operation well. They saved some thyroid, which is still happening, the hormone, thyroid hormone. But he's going to probably have to be on some sort of medication the rest of his life. But remember him in your prayers.

The others request the prayer. Brazilian and South. Can you make sure? I don't think she's on there. Samantha Hill. What's the last name? Hill. Yeah. Her husband's got cancer. Hill family. Yeah. for her husband, Keith. Talked to Peggy this week. She said she was actually going to get out of the house. We're going to try to. Her back's in pretty bad shape. So continue to remember her in your prayers and the Lord's help for her.

OK, let's begin our worship service with hymn number 205. Once for all. 205. Praise the Lord. Oh, happy condition! Jesus has fled, and there is remission! Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall! right. While we breathe, there is no condemnation Jesus provides a perfect salvation Come unto me, O hear His sweet call Come and be saved, O Jesus! Oh, glory is for all of us

After scripture reading and prayer, we'll sing hymn number 50, Praise the Lord Jesus. We have the Bibles turned to Luke chapter 2. 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 has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told concerning this child. And all that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherd.

Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we come in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who came into this world, took upon himself the form of a man, and being in the fashion of a man, he was obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, you have highly exalted him and given him a name above everything, that the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of the Father, things in heaven, things in earth, and things under the earth. We praise you, Father, for what he has done for us, which we could not and would not do for ourselves. Help us, Lord, to recall All day long, the glory is in what you've done for us.

We pray for those who are sick. We pray for this family, the ill family. If your husband has a cancer, ask the Lord what you'd do with him. Continue to pray for rain, that you'd uphold him, strengthen him, and pray that you'd fix it so he'd be back here on reservation soon. We pray for the others who requested prayer, those who lost loved ones, those who are going through struggles in life. that only they know about, but you know. Help us, Lord, to remember each other in prayer, to uphold each other in prayer, to call each other's names out to heaven, knowing full well, Father, that you hear the prayers of your children. And though we don't fully understand the glory of that, we are thankful for it, for we know the inspectional, fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth life. We ought to pray and not to faint. Help us, Lord, to do so. Let us be, as David said, I found it in my heart to pray. Father, we ask for this day, as we gather here, that you might be pleased to give us worship, as we consider these things that, at this time of the year, the whole world is celebrating but knows very little about. Help us now to get some sense of the glory of the Incarnation. and the aftereffects of it to those to whom the gospel was first preached. Help us now we pray in Christ's name. Amen.

Fairest Lord Jesus. will I ? Ever still the full moon ? ? Groom in the blooming garden of spring ? ? Jesus is better ? ? Jesus is pure ? ? Who makes the mortal heart pure? ? there is still a blue light and on a twinkling starry rose Jesus shines brighter, Jesus shines Beautiful Savior, Lord of all nations Son of God and Son of Man I love you, God.

Father, again we come in the name of Jesus Christ, our great and glorious Savior, who died and rose instead of His people, who came to this world to die, to give us the gift of eternal life, the gift of faith, the gift of repentance. We know that all things, all good and perfect gifts, come from the Father of lights, from above, from heaven. Father of lights, in whom there is no variable, there's no shadow of turning. Help us return to Thee that which You've given us with joy and thanksgiving. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.

so Luke 2 is the record of the Incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ. John Morrow once said, The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Paul said, Without controversy, great is the mystery of God, and that is God manifest in the flesh. This one person who had two natures, or two characters, who is both God and man, the only man who ever walked this earth and never sinned, who never had an evil thought. And what he did in this world in his 33 years, he did for somebody else and not himself. His life was a life of intercession. This is the record of his birth.

And this glorious event, took place in the fall of the year, near the end of October. And we celebrated along the time of the holiday of the Saturnalia, the winter solstice. Happened probably in October, the time of the first rains. The first rains were called March Chiva.

And according to Joel chapter 2, the first rains were a teacher of righteousness. And that equates to the fact that these first rains were the rains that washed away all the debris and the wretchedness of the Brook Kidron. The Brook Kidron had a small stream running at the bottom of it, but above it was how long all the junk, the filth, dead carcasses, blood and such, were dumped in this gully called Kidron. And once a year, when the rains came in March, July, He washed all that stuff into the Dead Sea.

We get some kind of glimpse that this was the time when Him who washed away our sins and cast them in the bottom of the sea came into this world. Corresponds with the October, between October the 1st and the 1st of November.

It's interesting to note that when our Lord was talking to his father in Psalm 110, when David was listening in, when the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand, one of the things spoken of in the Lord Jesus Christ in that passage is that he drank from that book. That's a picture of substitution when he was made sin for us.

The shepherds, had brought their flocks into the city before this first rain to put them in stables for the coming winter. And since they were in the fields with the flocks, it was prior to the end of October, we know that.

Now, Lord was born of a woman born under the law at this time, and this was how he was first numbered with the transgressors because They had to pay tax on him because Caesar Augustus had put out a rule that all the world would be taxed and they had to come to Bethlehem to pay the taxes.

But this is a divine representation of the means of grace, the way it comes, or the means employed by God in the salvation of his elect. In both the Old and New Testaments, the word shepherd is a metaphorical picture of the pastor. Both of them mean the shepherd's crook. Here and in every other passage of the New Testament, the word shepherd and pastor are the same in the original language. Even the term angel is applied to a pastor in the book of Revelation.

Pastors know the truth just as does every believer, and they know it one way, the same way that the shepherds, the pastors, got the word this night. some 2,000 years ago. So here out of this meadow are some shepherds, some pastors. They're preachers, they just don't know it yet, but we know they've become preachers by the end of what I've just read to you in this passage.

They are not notable people. They're not noble and not wise, but they are rather the lowest in society, just mere shepherds appointed to the singular task of feeding protecting and caring for the sheep. Remember what our Lord said to Simon Peter after the resurrection. When Simon Peter decided he was going to quit that Christian business and go fishing, he went out and didn't catch anything. The Lord told him to cast his net on this side and catch many fish. 151 different species and all of them, at least one, were caught in that net that he brought in.

Our Lord said to them as he stood on the bank, you fellows hungry, He didn't say, you quit on me, didn't you? He says, you fellas hungry? Come on in, I'll fix you something to eat. And he sat down, and Henry sat around, and Peter sat around, and he said, Peter, do you love me? He said, you know I love you, Lord, I love you. He said, feed my sheep. Asked him a second time, Peter, do you love me? He said, Lord, I love you. He said, feed my sheep. Asked him a third time, Peter, do you love me? And he said, Lord, you know everything. You know I love you. He said, feed my lambs.

This is the job of the pastor. This is the job. I know people that I was talking with a couple of many years ago that actually killed folks of ours, and they was telling us all the duties of the pastor. He had the pastor's wife, you remember that? All the duties of the, you know, the duty of the pastor is singular. It's to care for the sheep, to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And he's not a noble person. Like these shepherds, they abode in the wilderness in the intimation of being alone and isolated, not in the halls of polite society. Their singular task was to keep watch over the flock. It was to them that the word came. It was to them, not to the world, not to the synagogue, not to the massive multitude of Roman citizens. but to a few ignoble, inconsequential people called shepherds. To them and them alone did the angel of the Lord appear.

Scripture says, when you see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble are called, but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, that God has chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty and the base things of the world, which are despised, that God has chosen Yea, and the things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. Why? So no flesh should ever glory in his presence.

In verse 9 it says, 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. The angel of the Lord. The word angel is used in Scripture to represent a messenger. A messenger. So this messenger came with a message, a message of the Lord, and it means exactly what it sounds like. It came upon them. It signifies showing up unannounced, taking care of business, taking care of the sheep. It came upon them like a thunderstorm or a bolt of lightning, and they were surrounded with and engulfed with the glory of God, the shining brightness of God.

Out of Zion, Scripture said, now God has shined. In Hebrews chapter 1 it speaks of the brightness of His glory. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4 it says you see His glory in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ because He's caused the light to shine upon us. And after the angel, the messenger from God had spoken to them, their report of the incident was this thing which the Lord had made known. Which means they didn't know that at all beforehand.

There are two things here of paramount importance. So they heard these words from the angel and from the messenger. They attribute it to the word of the Lord. This thing the Lord hath made known. Over in 1 Thessalonians, they had Paul the apostle preach to these fellows and they heard the best. They were the men who understood the scriptures because God would depend on most of them. And in verse 13 of 1 Corinthians chapter 2 it says, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when we received the word of God, which ye heard of us, ye received it not as though the word of men, but as in truth the word of God, which effectively works in you that believe.

These angels, this messenger, brought the word of the Lord. That's what the shepherds heard. Now they heard the angels. They saw the glory. They saw the shining. And they said, the Lord taught us this. The Lord taught us this. This is the angel, the messenger.

Secondly, with the words made known, the shepherds declared that what they did not know before, they now knew, and they knew one way only, by revelation. This is what brings down to where the rubber hits the road. If you, or I, know anything about God, spiritually, it's because God has revealed it to us, and no other reason, no other reason, God has revealed it to us.

They saw the messenger in the midst of brightness of God's glory, and yet they attributed the words to the Lord. You see, it's not the messenger, it's the message. Paul said, I'm just a... I'm nothing, we're nothing. We're zero, zip, nothing. We just... And the Lord takes care of the rest. Paul said in Galatians chapter one, an angel from heaven. This was an angel from heaven. He said, if an angel from heaven or anybody else preach any other gospel than that which I preached unto you, let it be accursed. And he repeated it again in the next verse.

These men knew something because God had taught them something and told them something. They were not in the seminary. They had not scaled the ethereal acts of theological academia. They were not educated men of letters. They were unlearned, unwatched, and unskilled. They were at the bottom rung of society, and if they knew anything, it must be by revelation.

many religious people in this world. There's a whole group of religious people in the courtyard when John the Baptist preached and when the Lord Jesus Christ preached in Matthew chapter 11. These people had the Bible. They had the Bible for hundreds and hundreds of years. From Malachi all the way back to Genesis they had the law and the Just, you know, he don't give nobody a quarter. He don't give nothing. He's hard on folks. And then they heard Jesus Christ preach and said, well, he's just so nice. Just so sweet, you know. We're not going to mourn with John the Baptist. We're not going to dance with Jesus Christ preach.

And our Lord lifted his eyes to heaven and said, well, I thank thee, O Father. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and revealed them unto babes. For even so, it seemed good in thy sight, no man knoweth the Son, nor the Father, no man knoweth the Father, but the Son, and hereto whomsoever the Son will reveal him."

These people knew the Bible. He said God hid the Gospel from them. They had the book, but He hid the Gospel from them. You see, the gospel starts in Genesis chapter 1. It goes all the way to Malachi, and in all of the New Testament is the full revelation of it. If we know the gospel, we do not know it by our intellectual ciphering, or our deductive skills, or our years of study. We do not, after having been supposedly saved under false preaching, come to the knowledge of the truth through study. If we know the truth, all glory belongs to God. Just like all glory belonged to God this day, because he sent it to us like a sudden shower. A sudden shower, a word of righteousness, a teacher of righteousness.

In Joel chapter 2, the first mention of the former reign is a teacher of righteousness, the latter reign is according to righteousness. This is what we teach when we teach the gospel. We don't teach you how to be righteous, we teach you that there is a righteousness of God that is revealed only in the gospel from faith to faith. This thing was made known. Made known. Pure and simple, it's the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

a gospel preach declared, proclaimed by God's messenger many years ago. A man came to me from another state. He came to visit us and he was a guitar maker, a very good guitar maker. He made guitars sold for thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars. Very good guitar maker. And he told me, he said, you believe a person has to hear the preaching of the gospel to be saved? And I said, why do you ask? Because people ask the question like they've already got an answer. So I said, why do you ask? He said, well, I just want to know. I said, well, I'm not going to put God in a box. You can't do that. He's God, and I can't do anything to him. I said, but I'll tell you this, there's no place in scripture where it declares that a person is saved apart from the preaching of the gospel.

They're just simply, the gospel was preached. That's what these people did that night. That's what they did. They declared a proclaimed message from God's messenger. Our God, in his great wisdom, never uses words to fill up awkward silences. When he has said something, it's because he had something to say. Over and over in the message which the angels preach is the principle of how the gospel is revealed, how men come to know.

The words of the messenger are wonderful. He said, behold, I bring. That's a three-letter, three-word phrase, but there's a singular word for it. The Greek word is euaggelio, lezo, and that translates to what? Evangelize.

The first time that term was used in Genesis chapter 3, in verse 15, when the Lord said to Satan, the seed of woman is going to bruise your head, you're going to bruise his heel. That's called the proto-evangelium. evangelistic message talking about the Lord Jesus Christ in particular, born of a woman, born under the law. Behold I bring. What's he saying? I'm preaching. I'm preaching. Behold I preach. I preach to you good tidings.

Well there's another word. Good tidings. We know that's to be the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what good tidings mean. Good news. Glad tidings. You know what that word is? you are going to preach. Same word, bring to bring and to preach. I bring you, I preach to you, preach it. So what is the gospel? It's a thing published and preached. Preach the gospel. You see this is no I'm not the gospel. A man may preach this Bible all day long and never preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. But if you have the gospel, it's because it was preached to you, and it ain't preaching unless it is the gospel. It ain't preaching unless it is the gospel.

I know men get up and holler. They go back and forth. They run down the aisle. They do all kinds of foolishness. They may be even articulate and ingenious, but never preach the gospel. A person told the story of a young man who went to hear a preacher preach, and the preacher The old man went to hear a young preacher preach and the young preacher was fantastic. I mean, he had all his ducks in a row. His outline was immaculate. His words were pristine. He was right on point on everything. And after he came out of it, this old man was standing there and he said, what do you think of the message, sir? He says, well, didn't think much of it. He said, what was it? Well, I'm not anything to say, oh, that was great. She really made a point on that. He said, how about the context? Was that okay? He said, that was great. Well, what was wrong? Well, no, Christ did it. Well, no, Christ did it. We preached the gospel.

There ain't no good news except that Jesus Christ came into this world with safe centers in whom I am chief. This is the good news that we preach. Peter made it clear. This is how men are born again. I don't begin to understand how this works. But when God sends a preacher to preach the gospel, he stands up and preaches the truth to men, somehow God takes that message, not the man, not because he said it, the message, the word, and he plants it in men's souls and their hearts and redeems them and shows them that Christ has paid their sin. That's why Paul said, you're born again, not a corruptible seed. The word there is sema. Not a corruptible sin, but incorruptible sin. Which is preached to you by the gospel. Look over there. It's over at 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 23. He's going to be born again, not a corruptible sin, but incorruptible sin by the word of God. That's how it comes. which liveth and abideth forever." This word never changes. For as far as you're concerned, I mean, this is a description of you, for all flesh is as grass. I was driving by the other day looking out the field with a boy's flesh stickball, and I said, well, the grass is turning brown. All flesh is grass, and all the glory of men is as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, the flower of the earth falleth away. That's you. That's you. That's me.

But the word of God endureth forever. And look at this phrase. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. How do you preach the word of God? One way. You preach the gospel. That's the only way it's done. That's the only way it's done. That's what these fellas did. These angels that came down. It pleased the Father through the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

This preached gospel comes with copious amounts of infectious joy, for it speaks of the greatest of all persons that ever entered this universe." Paul said, we rejoice in Christ Jesus. This is our joy. These glad tidings are to all people. That's what the angel said, good news to all people. Good news to all people.

The angel said unto them, fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. That's not a treatise on universal redemption. All people. What does that word mean? I looked it up. The word all people, it means a people, a group, a tribe, or a nation. all of those who are of the same stock and the same language of a great part of a population gathered together anywhere in one place of people who have the same father and the same language of people who are gathered out of a great congregation or a great population Paul said out of the stock of Israel Our Lord said because My children were suffering. I took on the same form. Our Lord said, these are my brethren, and these are my children. He's not ashamed of calling them that.

Zephaniah 3 says, I give them a pure language. I give them a pure language. Now, everything's going to change when this new covenant comes in. I'm going to give them a pure language. Back in the days of Nimrod, when he tried to build the Tower of Babel and reach heaven on the power of his works, The Lord cast him down and divided men into different languages where they would have to congregate with people they could understand. And they went all over the world with their own languages. But our Lord said, when Christ comes, I'm going to give them a pure language, one language, one word, one thought, one mind, one heart. I'm going to give them one thing to say.

I've got a friend over in Africa. I've got several of them over in Africa. Don't speak my language. And when I talk to them, Thankfully they learned English because I never learned Zimbabwe or any of that stuff. You know, I never learned it. But we have one language you perfectly understand. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the language. That's the message.

God, who at sundry times in diverse manners spoken to the Father, the Father's head in these last days spoken to us in Son. Son! The language of God is Christ. It's Christ alone. This person is born to a people. And in Genesis 49, it's a gathered people. When he talks about Judah, which is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, when Jacob was talking about his son, it says, to him shall the gathering of the people be. And in Ephesians chapter 1, it says, in the fullness of time, the dispensation of time to gather all things in Jesus Christ. What is the church of the living God? It's the body of Jesus Christ. Everyone for whom Christ died is preaching to them as being them who is the fullness of Him that filleth all. I've always been amazed at that verse. That's how we, the body of Christ, born of God, made righteous by God, made holy by God, sanctified by God, given wisdom by God, saved, our sins put away, are in Jesus Christ. We make up His body. It's not just that, it's His fullness. The fullness, that means if anybody for whom Christ died is not in His body, He ain't full. Everybody for whom He died is in His body, fullness of him that filleth all.

This gospel is a person, a particular person, particularly and uniquely described. First, this person that says, born unto you this day, the angel said, unto you, who are people who have the same father, the same language, are people who are gathered out of a great population, particularly these shepherds. Unto you a child is born, God promised, and a son is given. And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counsel, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace."

This child is born in a particular purposed place in Bethlehem of Judah. Bethlehem of Ephratah speaks of in Micah chapter 2, and it speaks of him being the Ancient of Days, the Infant of Days, being the Ancient of Days. He's the child born. the eternal son given, the infinite days, and the ancient of days. This is the Lord Jesus Christ. This is Him. This child is the Savior. Unto you is born this day the city of David. A Savior. A Savior. I like that. Why would you call Him that? Because He tries to be there to try to save somebody? Because He wants to save somebody? Because He gives His best ever to save somebody? Because He makes salvation possible? No. Call Him a Savior because He saves. Because He has saved. That's how He got the title. That's how He got the title. He already has that name given Him to the omnipotent God through the angel. Call His name Jesus. Why call Him that? For He shall save His people from their sin.

Old Simeon and old Anna The prophet spoke of him to all who look for redemption in Jerusalem. Looking for redemption? There he is, Simeon's holding that baby in his arms. And Simeon said, I can go to heaven now, take me out, Lord, I've seen thy salvation. Seen thy salvation. How's he gonna save his people? By substitution. Our Lord will be stricken, but not for himself, it says in Daniel 9. The greatest of all is that one who has undertaken your salvation is also the same one who possesses all the power necessary to accomplish it. For it is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Anointed, the Lord. The Lord. The Lord over all, having total and absolute rule and reign over all the universe and the inhabitants thereof. having all authority over all flesh, that he might give eternal life to as many as God has given him. He is Lord. He shall not fail.

They don't talk about that at Christmastime, do they? That's what happened. You'll find him in a stable wrapped in swaddling clothes, they told you. Lying him in a cattle trough. What kind of Savior is that?

Not send you a prophet like unto yourself. Our Lord said in Deuteronomy 18, he's meek and lowly at heart, and if you trust him, you shall find rest unto your soul.

The hosts of heaven cannot contain themselves. Look at verse 13, and suddenly there was with an angel a multitude of the heavenly host. The heaven filled with the heavenly host. praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace be with you. Glory, glory.

That's our job, you know, as children of God. We haven't done anything, and we don't do anything that's meritorious and can be mentioned. Now, we do stuff. We seek to love our Brethren, we seek to do right by them. We seek their health and their well. We want to take care of each other. We do that, but none of that's meritorious, as you know. Our Lord, His disciples said, after they've done all that, He said, after you've done everything you can, you're mostly and mostly unprofitable. Unprofitable.

Glory to God in the highest. Splendor, glory, splendor, brightness, magnificence, excellence, preeminence, dignity. grace, majesty, all that belongs in that little word glory. Glory to God in the highest. This is the chief end of man, the sole purpose of all exists and breathes in the universe. Let everything that hath breath praise the Lord in the scriptures. Psalm 29 says everybody in the congregation of God gives Him glory. Gives Him glory.

He came, He lived, He gave His life a ransom for many, He died, He rose and He ascended that God might be glorified. He said that Father glorify me with the glory I had with Thee before the foundation of the world. And the Lord said I will glorify Thee, I have glorified Thee, I will glorify Thee again.

But how was He going to glorify God? Look over Galatians chapter 17. of John chapter 17. This is how God is glorified. Because there is an equation set forth in these two verses in the first part of chapter 17. These words speak Jesus, that is after he is talking to his disciples about leaving them from chapter 13 through chapter 16. These words speak to Jesus, and then he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify thee.

Now, so he said, I need to be glorified. I must be glorified so I can glorify you. That's the first part of the equation. As means this is the way God is glorified and Christ is glorified. As thou has given him power or authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as God has given him. This is how God is glorified. Christ gives eternal life to as many as God has given him. This glorifies Christ in his work and that work glorifies God in heaven. These two things cannot be separated.

You may speak of God's glory in creation and it is wondrous. We who live in this area are in constant awe of where we live. I've lived in flat lands, and I've lived in different places when I was in the service. I've lived in near desert situations. I've lived in Japan where they had an earthquake and the earth rolled up under my feet. I've lived in England. I've lived in Germany. I've visited several different countries other than that. But I've lived in those places for a given amount of time. But this. This place we live is magnificent. It never ceases to amaze me. Never ceases to amaze me. It's a wondrous thing.

You can glorify God, but that doesn't glorify Him. Not as He fully is to be glorified. We can talk about the providence of God. How many times the Lord has saved us and delivered us from different trials and tribulations and sorrows and anguishes. how he rules and reigns in this world. Without question, he's doing it. We don't understand most of it. We can glorify God that way. But God is truly glorified one way. In the salvation of his people. Because that's how God glorifies Christ. And Christ glorifies God. As many as have been given to Christ.

But this is why he was born.

The result of God being glorified on this earth is there is peace. Peace on earth. Goodwill toward men. Peace. Not among nations. Not among neighbors. Not among the people of God. According to the words of God, not even among your family. But peace with God. Purchased by the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ.

Goodwill toward men. This phrase goodwill is full of gospel and light. It means God's choice toward men. The people. These are the words that relate to the message of the gospel. Election, surety, love, propitiation, glory to God in the highest. Glory to God in the highest.

Then in verse 16 it says the shepherds when the angels left and went back to heaven, the host of heaven disappeared. Suddenly the light was gone and they said Let's get out of here. This is a scary place. Let's go to the house." They didn't say that. They said this, and they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger.

They came with haste. And when you come seeking the Lord, seeking the one whom God has promised, to the place where God said you'd find Him, described as God has described Him, you'll find salvation for yourself. If you go looking for what Jesus has described in most of religion today, there ain't no salvation there. They may say you're saved. They may say you went down in front and shook somebody's hand. They may say you're the Savior.

Your salvation is to be found if you see Christ where He is. He ain't on the cross. He's enthroned in heaven at the right hand of the Father. If you seek Him, you're going to seek Him on your face because He's the Lord and you're not. You're going to take up your headquarters in the dust where you belong and pray, God, lift your eyes to see His glory and His majesty for who He is. This is salvation. This is salvation.

And in verse 17 it says, when they'd seen it, or when they'd seen, the word it is in italics, when they'd seen, they made known abroad the same which was told them concerning this child. When they had seen, that means perceived and understood, they made it known abroad, they published it. That's what you do, you see. That's why our Lord said, how beautiful are the feet of the mountains. How beautiful are the mountains and the feet of them that publish the good tidings.

They published salvation. They published it out. They couldn't be quiet about it. Old Barnes used to say, you ain't got to tell the child of God to do nothing. If Christ is in him, it'll leak out of the mouth. And it will. It will.

They preached what had been preached to them in verse 18. that heard it and wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds. All who were given ears to hear and eyes to see wondered and marveled in admiration at those things which were told and preached to them by the shepherds. And these things were what? They were concerning this child. The things concerning this child. What were the things concerning this child? Savior, Lord, glory to God, a son. Things concerning him. That's what Paul says when he describes the gospel of Jesus Christ in Romans chapter 1 to which he was called to preach. Romans chapter one, he said, Paul the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel, which he had promised,

now this is a parenthetical expression, it's in parenthesis, which was had promised before by the prophets and the scriptures. But you can lift that out. Any parenthetical expression can be lifted out of the sentence without doing any harm to the context. In other words, it doesn't change the meaning of the sentence to lift that part out. So let's lift that part out and read one and three together.

his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was made the seed of David according to the flesh, declared to be the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. Paul said this is the gospel.

What's the gospel about? Well, it concerns his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Many will gather in a few days and they'll talk about Jesus all over the place. And I hope, you know, that God may stir somebody and say, well, I don't want no bull out there. I'm sending them somewhere where they can hear the gospel.

By and large, this Christ is not known. That's how these shepherds knew. Father, bless us to understand the great Christ. Amen.