Well, good morning. It's good to see each of you this morning, and I'm looking forward to a wonderful service. We are going to be having our year 2020 Christmas program, and there's a lot of work that's gone into this, and I know that our young people and those who are in our choir in the back have been working hard, and so we are really excited about the opportunity to focus our attention on the most wonderful story in the world, and that is when God sent the Redeemer into the world. Because of our Christmas program we're not going to go through our announcements as usual but I want to encourage you to make sure that you get a copy of the bulletin and look through those items that are coming up. The only item that's really pressing is we have our Christmas Eve candlelight service that will be on the 24th and it will be at 7 p.m. and so I hope that you can make it to that. I know a lot of people have asked about with Anne Arundel County changing things we will be able to have our service as usual. And it's kind of interesting, they told us we could go to 33%. Where did they come up with that number? Well, I'll talk to you about it later if you're interested, but somebody gave feedback and asked them to go to a third instead of a quarter, and that's what they did. So, anyway, just thought that was interesting. But that should not affect our service, so I just wanna encourage you to be out for that if you can be. Our opening scripture is Luke 1, 67, down to verse 79, so let's look together at our opening scripture. It says this. His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up in horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spake by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life, And thou, children, shalt be called the prophet of the Most Highest. For thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercies of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us. to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. This morning, as we focus our attention on the birth of Christ and the events that surrounded that very special occasion in human history, let's express worship to God by glorying in the miracle of the incarnation, that God took on flesh so that we could ultimately be redeemed from our sins by his work on the cross. Let's bow together for prayer, please. Father, we are so humbled and grateful that we can gather before you this morning and we can express worship to you because of the work of Christ. That our worship is accepted by you, that we are accepted by you in Christ, we are forgiven, we are justified, declared righteous because Christ's righteousness has been imputed to us. We thank you that the wrath of God on our sin has been satisfied because Christ was nailed to that cross and took upon himself our sins. I pray that this morning as we sing these wonderful hymns of praise to you, and as we listen to this wonderful story presented both through the scripture reading, through the presentation that's going on, and then the songs that we will sing, I pray that all these things would point honor and glory to you. Father, I pray that those who are joining us on the live stream would be blessed by this time of focus on you. I pray that if there's anyone that is here or that will join us on the live stream who doesn't know the Lord Jesus personally as his savior, that today would be the day that you open their eyes to their need to repent, to turn to you humbly and to trust alone in what Jesus has done for them on the cross. I pray that people would be saved from their sins as a result of the things they will hear today. We ask for your blessing and we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. All right, good morning, everyone. As we begin our services this morning, let's take our hymnals. Please turn to page 194. Page 194, join with me and stand as we sing three verses of joy to the world. Sing it out. ♪ Joy to the world, the Lord is come ♪ Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. Heaven and heaven and nature sing. Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ. While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains, repeat the sounding joy. Repeat the sounding joy. Weep, weep, weep, less saddened cry, No more let sins and sorrows cry. Amen. We'll turn the page over in the hymnal to page 196. Just one page over, angels we have heard on high. Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains. And the mountains in reply, beckon back their joyous strains. Gloria! In excelsis Deo In excelsis Deo Shepherds, why this jubilee? Why your joyous strains prolong? Say, what spray the tidings be? Which inspire the heav'nly song? Gloria in excelsis Deo, Gloria in excelsis Deo. See Him in a manger laid, Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth. Mary, Joseph, angel laid, with us in our Saviour's womb. In excelsis Deo. In excelsis Deo. Amen. Please be seated. There is a yearning in hearts weighed down by ancient grief and centuries of sorrow. There is a yearning in hearts that in the darkness And in the shades of death abide a yearning for tomorrow. There is a yearning. the promised one, the firstborn of creation. There is a yearning for the Lord who visited his own, and by his death or sin atoned, to bring to us salvation. Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts a yearning. Emmanuel, Emmanuel, within our hearts a yearning. There is a yearning that fills the hearts of those who wait the day of His appearing. There is a yearning when all our sorrows are erased, and we shall see a one new place. Emmanuel, Emmanuel Within our hearts a yearning Emmanuel, Emmanuel Within our hearts a yearning Emmanuel, Emmanuel Emmanuel, Emmanuel Within our hearts, the yearning Emmanuel, Emmanuel I remember that night in the high fields. The stone walls and houses of Bethlehem were already in shadows. The setting sun made our sheep look gold-white. They bleated, and a crisp wind blew up through a gap in the rocks. But it was not the wind that had me trembling. It was the narrow mist my Benjamin had had that morning. I know that shepherding can be hard and dangerous. Why, only last week a man died trying to hold off thieves. But I never get used to such things. My husband Jacob has clubbed many wild dogs away from the flock. But that morning, before I could stop him, my Benjamin ran at a jackal with a rod. I screamed. Whoa, well done, Benjamin. Jacob, he is just a child. And you are his mother, and so you worry. But did not our father David say, the Lord is my shepherd? The shepherd of Israel will watch over us and our Benjamin. If you believe that, then you have nothing to fear. And the shepherd, the God of heaven, our father above, is the shepherd of all our lives. You know, Isaiah said that this shepherd would someday come to us to live among us, to bear our griefs and carry our sorrows. How does it go? Behold, a virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. Think of that, Rachel. God with us. It comforted me that Jacob believed. If only I shared his faith. He once said what an honor it was to be a shepherd. An honor, I thought, to have people stare at us because we smell of sheep. To know that my husband was the son of a scholar, and yet he chose this. He said, Rachel, it is an honor to be in some small way like our Lord, our shepherd. I went into the tent to think. It seemed so strange that one day Jacob would lay down his life to protect these sheep, and the next day sacrifice his favorite lamb for our sins. Whenever he slit its throat, I looked away, ashamed that this innocent lamb must die because I have been fearful, disobedient, and faithless. I didn't understand why it had to be this way. I tried to understand, but it was hard to think when I felt so tired. It had been a hard and wearisome day. Perhaps if I lay down to rest a moment, but just for a moment. The stars will come, at the tiptoe the rivers will come and sing a song. The light that shines upon the hills and makes the shepherds play. Look up at the tent of the heavens, look up and see the stars. Look up at the tent of the heavens, look up and see the stars. I must have fallen asleep, for I had the strangest dream. Opening my eyes, I saw light pouring in from every side of the tent, as though there was no tent at all. It couldn't be daybreak already, and surely not a daybreak of this world. Father, what is it? Be still. And then I heard a great voice, like low thunder. Fear not. Fear not? Who is speaking? I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Could this be the one that we've waited for? The one that Jacob always said would come? You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. No, the Messiah would not be announced to us poor people on a barren hillside. No, this could not be the one that we've waited for. It had to just be a dream. Wake up and listen to the angels, wake up and hear the Word. Wake up and listen to the angels, wake up and hear the Word. Tonight the Lord of all the world is born a little boy. Wake up and listen to the angels, wake up and hear the words. At once there were thousands of voices all around saying glory to God in the highest and as quickly as that the voices were gone and night returned and with it the quiet. A sheet bleeded And an owl called. Then Benjamin burst into the tent. Mom, mom, did you see? Did you see the people of light? They were standing right in front of me. Come, we are to go and see. Come? No. Oh, fear not, my love. Come, let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord has made known to us, that the Lord himself has made known to us. His face was so full of wonder and joy. I at last took his hand. How could I refuse? Rise up and go to the Savior. Rise up and rejoin me. Rise up and go to the Savior. Rise up and go to the Savior. Rise up and preach your king. Who were those shining people, Father? Why did they tell us? I did not shush him, for those were my questions as well. Messengers from the God of our fathers. And he sends his messengers where he will. They came to us, as it was said, but thou Bethlehem Ephrathah. Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. We were hurrying to Bethlehem. I dreaded the small lights of the town getting closer. Go, the Lord has pitched his tent with us this night. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Peace. In all my life, I had never known that word as anything but a word. There was too much to fear. Jackals, cold weather, night, losing Jacob or Benjamin every day with its new dangers that I could not control. I was more aware than ever of my worn clothes. If we were indeed going to see the king of kings, we were poorly dressed and empty-handed. Had Jacob not held my hand, I would have turned back. Had I been the mother of a king, I would not want us coming to see my newborn. I did not know that on this night the Lord of all the earth had humbled himself to be as poor as we were. We were hurrying ever since we left the field, but once we found the stable, Jacob hesitated. Benjamin started forward, but Jacob caught his shoulder, and with a look, stopped his foot and tongue. Jacob looked at me, and with a stab in my chest, I realized what he was thinking. No, not me, Jacob. Rachel, you're a mother. You should go first. See if we're welcome. Benjamin looked up at me with such hope that I had a stab in my chest. My heart ached. How could I say that I was afraid? That we were too poorly dressed. That it was Jacob who had wanted to come here and not me. Peace be unto you. Enter. Now I had only to go in. What a small thing it may seem to you. Finally, reluctantly, I took that step. In the low light, on a blanket over straw, sat a young woman with a baby in her arms. Behind her was the man who had spoken. To the side, a donkey raised its head. The air smelled of fresh hay and grain. It was warm in this place, and peaceful too. The woman smiled at me. I carefully went a little closer. The woman leaned forward and placed her baby in the manger beside her. The baby was swaddled just as the angel said he would be. Father, look, the king is sleeping. I glanced at Jacob and was astonished to see tears in his eyes. have waited so long for this night. How gracious is our God that he could allow me to see the one who would be wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Quiet words went over me like thunder. My sins, hers, Jacob's. This little lamb would become the one who would take the place of all our sacrifices. Would take my sin on him as no lamb that Jacob had offered ever could. The one whose death would once and for all cover our sins. I understood. The shepherd was also our lamb. I looked back at the sleeping baby. It seemed that even in his swaddling clothes, he ruled in peace. ♪ Lord, unto us a child is born ♪ ♪ Unto us a son is given ♪ ♪ God is with us, Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Lord, unto us a child is born ♪ ♪ Unto us a son is given ♪ the Savior has come. The little Lord Jesus lay down his sweet head. ♪ Where he lay ♪ ♪ The little Lord Jesus ♪ ♪ Asleep on the hay ♪ ♪ We shall be called Emmanuel ♪ ♪ Wonderful God to earth ♪ ♪ Mighty God ♪ Everlasting Father ♪ The Prince of Peace ♪ O mighty God of Israel ♪ Mighty God of Israel ♪ When twilight dreams at midnight begin to fade ♪ ♪ Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave ♪ ♪ Where your eyes are blind ♪ As we walked back, without even trying to stop myself, I cried. What's wrong, Mom? I couldn't speak, but Jacob spoke for me. Nothing, son. Tonight, nothing in the world is wrong. Benjamin, the Lord God has sent his son to Earth tonight, and he will take away our sins forever. How? Well, when he becomes a man, he will die for our sins, kind of like the sheep, like the lambs at our Passover sacrifices, but he will give his own life for our sins. And once he is the sacrifice for our sins, we will never have to pay for our sins again. The sun was rising when we returned. Our sheep were safe and content, grazing where we had left them. I looked back the way we had come. The light was just spilling over into the valley, and among the poppies and among the rocks, the poppies were opening to the sun. I looked toward Bethlehem, where I had seen the Christ, the Messiah. It was the first time I had not dreaded the beginning of day. The old fears were all gone. I had traded them inside that stable for everlasting peace. Understand how a God so divine Could lower himself to a life such as mine And consider me worth every minute of time To rescue a sinner like me When I think of my Savior alone on the cross, I know without Him that my life would be lost. If He had not been willing to suffer the cost to rescue a sinner like me. to rescue a sinner like me, Lord, to rescue a sinner like me. He abandoned his throne and his kingdom to rescue a sinner like me. My mind is so limited, I cannot see the reason he died and arose just for me. So unworthy was I, yet he came willingly to rescue a sinner like me. To rescue a sinner as worthless as I and give me a reason to sing. It's so hard to believe, but it happened to me. Alleluia to Jesus, my King, my King. To rescue a sinner like me, Lord, to rescue a sinner like me. You abandoned your throne and your kingdom above to rescue a sinner like me. To rescue a sinner like me. I'll tell you, there's a lot of things that have gone wrong in 2020. But one of them wasn't that program. That was an incredible blessing, wasn't it? First of all, I want to say a big thank you to all those who took part in that program today. That was very, very Christ-centered, it was very encouraging, and it was so clear in how it articulated the heart of the gospel and how God sent His Son into the world so that we could be redeemed from our sins. All of our children ages two to six can be dismissed to the back for junior church. And the rest of you, I'd like you to take your Bibles and let's turn together to Luke chapter one. And the passage we're looking at this morning is dealing with really some events that were on the front side of the birth of Christ. This is actually before Christ is born. And this is really talking a lot about Zacharias and Zacharias who was the father of John the Baptist, the forerunner of the Messiah. I know I've said this before, but this is my absolute favorite part of the Christmas storyline. This is my favorite text because it talks so much in such a rich way, in such a powerful way about the gospel and really what's the heart of the gospel message. So with that in mind, let's read the text and then we're going to look at these verses for just a few moments together and see what really is the heart of the gospel message and really it's laid out here in this Christmas passage. Luke chapter 1 verse 67 says this, and his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel who hath visited, important word, and redeemed his people, and hath raised up in horn of salvation, another very important word, for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began. that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant. The oath which He swore to our father Abraham, they would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare His way, to give knowledge of salvation unto His people by the remission of their sins, through the tender mercies of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. Now really there is so much that could be said about the statement that Zacharias is making in this passage. And this is a statement that really is a prophetic utterance. It says that he spoke this by the Holy Spirit and he prophesied concerning his child who was gonna be born and who's going to prepare the way for the Messiah. There's so many details that we could dig into, but what I'd really like to do this morning is just look at the highlights. What I think are really the most important things that are being communicated in these verses. And so, there's just a handful of very simple truths that we're going to look at this morning that are really the heart of the gospel message. In fact, if we could summarize this passage, we would say really the point of the passage in front of us is to tell us what the heart of the gospel actually is. Now, when I use the term gospel, I want to ask the question, what do you think about? When we hear the term gospel, what goes through your mind? Well, the word gospel simply means good news. And it's good news because every person, every one of us in this room, and really whoever's listening by the live stream, we all have a very serious problem. And that problem we're going to talk about for a few moments this morning, but that problem is sin. There is no person in this room and there's no person listening on the live stream that is not affected by this issue of sin. And the fact is, because of our sin, we have a problem between us and God. The problem separates us from God, and it doesn't just separate us from God, but it also demands that we are guilty legally before God, and we need to be punished because of our sin. Well the fact is that what this passage tells us is that there is good news that God has done something for us that can remove that sin debt, that can make us right with God, and that can remove the punishment, the penalty that we legally deserve for our sins. Let's move through this text and look at a couple of these very simple, yet very important truths. The first truth is this, the gospel is about God pursuing people. Let me say that again. The gospel is about God pursuing people. I want you to realize that if God had just created the world and put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and said, don't eat the fruit and if you do on that day you'll die, and he just left them to themselves, we would be in a horrible place as a group of people. But I want you to realize that God didn't do that. The very moment that Adam sinned, what we see in the garden is that the next statement is that God goes to Adam and He searches for him in the cool of the day. And as Adam is hiding there, trying to cover himself because he's fearful and afraid of God, what does God do? God pursues Adam. And He says, Adam, where are you? And when Adam is hiding, He says, Adam, what have you done? Why does God do that? It's because God pursues people. If anybody is going to have a relationship with God, if anybody's going to have their sins forgiven, and they're going to be cleansed, and they're going to become God's child, it's because God initiates this incredible work on our behalf. Before we ever seek after God, He is pursuing us. And not just pursuing us, but he's laying out a plan and accomplishing that plan so that it's possible for us to be forgiven and made his children. Notice what the text says. Zechariah says, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath what? He has visited his people. In other words, God comes to man. Man's not going after God. It says that there's none who understands and there's none who seeks after God. God pursues people who are cowering and hiding from Him in unbelief because we are hiding in our sins. God pursues people. In fact, God loves His creation. One of the most wonderful things that we read about in the Bible is that in spite of our brokenness, in spite of our sin, in spite of what we really are fundamentally as people, God loves us. John 3, it says, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. In other words, God loves us and God gives and God pursues so that we can be redeemed to Him. In Romans chapter 5, it says, when we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. God commendeth His love toward us that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. God pursues people. And God does this because He loves people and He wants us to know Him and to walk with Him and to be forgiven and to be His children. The second fact we're going to see in this passage is that the gospel is not just about God pursuing people, but it's about God pursuing people because we are in a terrible place, since devastating consequences are dominating us as people. In verse 68 it says that God has visited and he has redeemed his people. In other words, it's not just that God has taken action on our behalf, or that God has pursued us because He loves us, but He has done it to redeem us. When you redeem something, you are literally paying a price so that that becomes your possession. And so when the Bible talks about God visiting in us and redeeming us, he's emphasizing the fact that we are separated from God, and because we are separated from God and we are alienated from God, there's an incredible price that has to be paid in order for us to become God's possession, in order for us to become his children, in order for us to be reconciled to God. You say, well, pastor, what is the debts? the cost, the payment that has to be paid so we can be redeemed to God. Well, this morning as we were listening to this presentation, it actually told us. In fact, one of the things that was talked about was the fact that in the Jewish culture, they are required not once, but often, over and over again, repeatedly, throughout times of the year, when they had sinned, they were responsible to take an animal from their possessions, they were gonna kill that animal, and it was gonna shed its blood, they would actually put their hand on that animal, confessing that they had sinned, and that animal would be consumed in fire, and burnt up as an offering to God. You say, well, why did they do that? That's such a graphic, such a bloody, such an awful picture. The reason they did it is because God told them to do it. And the reason that God told them to do it was because it was teaching them something about sin. You know, sin's not just a mistake, folks. It's not just weakness. It is decisive rebellion against God the Creator. And when we sin against God the Creator, we have violated His laws, and His laws demand a penalty. And the reality is that the penalty for sin, the Bible tells us, is death. Every time that animal was killed, and that animal shed its blood, and that animal was sacrificed to God, those people who had sinned would smell the offering being burned, would see the blood being shed, would see an animal whose life was taken away from it, and it was to remind them that their sin deserves death. And over and over and over again. They would see the wages of sin is death. But it wasn't just to teach them that the wages of sin is death, but it was also to illustrate that God was going to send a substitute for them. You know, it's really interesting. We see this all throughout the Old Testament. We see God providing a lamb so that it would die, or a ram that would die in the place of Isaac on Mount Moriah. We see the Passover lamb that shed its blood and it died, and the blood was applied to the doorpost so that the firstborn in Egypt would not have to die. Literally, because the blood was shed and the animal died, it died in the place as a substitute for the firstborn. And we come to Isaiah 53, it talks about the lamb of God. And it talks about how the Lord lays on that land the iniquity of us all. We'll talk about this in just a few moments. But the idea is this, God has to make a way that our sin can be removed and we can be reconciled to God. And that's through the payment of a price. And that price is death. The third truth we see is that the gospel is about God fulfilling His Word. kind of interesting in this example that we saw this morning. Obviously, this is a fictitious story. Well, part of it's fictitious. I mean, we don't know about Jacob and his wife and all these conversations they were having, but we know this. What we do know is that there were people living in Israel at the time that the Messiah was born, and they were fully aware that God was going to send a Redeemer. And not only were they fully aware, but they were anticipating it at the very time that it happens. It was laid out in the Scriptures. You say, well, why is it that they were anticipating this? It was because they believed that God would honor His Word. God made promises to Abraham. He made promises to Isaac, to Jacob, to David, to Moses, to the nation of Israel. He made promises to Adam and Eve in the garden. And God says, I'm going to send redemption, I'm going to send the Messiah, and the Messiah's gonna die for the sins of people so that they can be redeemed to God. In other words, God's word is on the line. In verses 69 and 70 it says, He's raised up in horn of salvation to us, for us in the house of His servant David, as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began. In other words, when Zechariah speaks, he says, all of the prophets have told us that God was going to send redemption, that he was going to send a savior. And so they were anticipating that God would fulfill his word. The Genesis 3 passage, we talked about it just a few weeks ago. The first mention of the gospel where he says, the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. We think about the Passover lamb. We think about the story of Abraham and Isaac on Mount Moriah. All of those things are pictures and pointing to the fact that God's going to send redemption. But there is no Old Testament text that is more clear and is more definitive about what God was promising than Isaiah 53. In Isaiah 53, it tells us that God is going to send a Redeemer. Let me hit some of the highlights that we find in Isaiah 53. The first is in verse 4, it says this, and carried our sorrows." You say, well, who is He talking about when He says, He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows? By the way, it's very interesting. We go to the book of Acts. We see that there was a man that Philip meets, an Ethiopian eunuch, and he asks the very question, who is Isaiah talking about in this text? The one who is bearing our griefs and carrying our sorrows. Well, it's the Messiah. Notice that word, bearing our griefs, carrying our sorrows. In other words, they weren't His griefs and His sorrows, they weren't His sins, they were your sins, my sins, our sins. In other words, our sins were placed on this one, the Lord Jesus Christ. The punishment that we justly deserve for our sins, it's given to Christ. In verses 5 and 6 it says, He was wounded for our transgressions, not His, ours. He was bruised for our iniquities, not His. The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. and with his stripes we are healed. Let me explain to you what he means by that. When he talks about chastisement, the idea is this, there's a punishment that has to be meted out. And he says it's the chastisement of our peace. In other words, the reason why you and I have peace with God is because he was punished in our place. He was punished for our sins. And it says with his stripes we are healed. He's not talking about a physical healing here, folks. He's talking about a soul that's broken, a soul that's separated from God, a soul that is in bondage to sin and corruption. It's being freed from the brokenness by the work of Christ on the cross. He says, all of us like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now what's so interesting is when we read these verses, we read them as people who look back at an event in time and say, this is what Christ did. Do you understand that? In other words, when we see the phrase, He was wounded for our transgressions, we think of, well, He was wounded in the past. But when those who are reading this in the Old Testament read this, they're not reading as those who have seen it happen, they're reading as those who are anticipating it happen. In other words, they're saying he's going to do this. They were looking for that moment. But then what's I think the most interesting part of these verses is found in verse 11. God's justice is fully satisfied with the sufferings of Christ. He says in verse 11, he shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. That word satisfied is so interesting. The word is propitiation. I remember when we lived in Ghana, we worked with a Fonti translation and I asked the man that I was working through with this, I said, can you tell me what that word means? And he told me, he said, I don't think it's the right word. I said, well, explain to me what it means. He said, well, it's the idea of you have somebody who is angry And they're very angry, and somebody comes, and they bring them a gift, and now their anger is no more there. It's like they're appeasing their anger by giving them a gift. He said, there's no way that that could be a description of what God does. I said, that's exactly what it's saying. God's anger is just, and it's focused on our sin. And the reality is that when Christ went to the cross, God's anger was removed. You know, in Romans 8, it says, there's now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Why does He say that? Now, no condemnation. It's because before the cross, God had no choice but to pour out His wrath on us for our sin. But because of the cross, God is fully satisfied with the work of Christ. One of the reasons that salvation is entirely by God's work and not by our work is because if we say that salvation is in any part by our own work, what we're essentially saying is this, the cross wasn't enough. In fact, it's interesting, Paul even makes this argument, he says, if you can be justified by the law, then Christ died in vain. That's the way he puts it. He says, it's as if you're saying, by doing what I do, I can be accepted by God, then what Christ did doesn't matter. Or it was important, but it's not everything. Yet the text is so clear. He's going to look on the agony of His Son, hang on the cross, and He's going to be satisfied. There's no more wrath to pour out. He has paid it in full. And then He says, by His knowledge shall My righteous servant justify many. for he shall bear their iniquities. That word justify is a very important word. The idea is that God declares us righteous, it's a legal term. When God looks at you and when God looks at me, he doesn't see us as sinners who have violated his law, but he sees us as people who are not guilty and righteous before him, but it's because of Christ. It's not because of us. It's because of what he did, it's not because of what we do. In other words, if you wanna see the gospel in the Old Testament, you go to Isaiah 53 and you see that we are sinners, that our sin is a huge offense to God, that it's impossible for us to remove the sin debt ourselves, but that God literally goes to the cross on our behalf. The Lord Jesus Christ dies on the cross. He bears our sins. He's punished in our place. God the Father is satisfied and we can be declared righteous because of what he did. That's the gospel. and it's all about God fulfilling his word. It's about him doing what he said he would do. The last truth we'll see is that the gospel is about God enabling people to fulfill their original purpose. You realize that if you're an unbeliever and you have rejected God's offer of salvation, while you're created in God's image and while he gives you many things to enjoy in this life, you're not fulfilling the purpose he designed for you? It's true. God sent His Son so that what had been lost could be restored. And when God sent His Son so that what was lost could be restored, it can only be restored through Him and through what He did on the cross. In verse 74 and 75, it says, it was that He would grant unto us that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear in holiness and in righteousness before Him all the days of our life. The fact is that you and I can stand in God's presence, be viewed as holy and righteous and just, and we can serve Him without fear because of the cross. If there was no cross, you couldn't do that. In fact, in Romans chapter 2, it says that our hardened and impenitent heart is treasuring up wrath, whereby God is going to demonstrate His justice and His wrath on the final day. In other words, if we reject the gospel, and if we try to do it our own way, and we say, I don't want to listen to what God says, I'm going to come on my own terms, or I'm going to ignore this story altogether, we are literally building up God's wrath that will be poured out on us on the final day. Yet because of the cross, we can completely escape the wrath of God. There's no more to pour out on His children. It's all been poured out on the cross. We can be viewed as holy, though we're not. We can be viewed as righteous, though we're not, because we are in Him. That's what the gospel's all about. So I want to ask you a very simple question this morning. Do you have the confidence before God that all of these wonderful blessings that Christ provided for you, forgiveness, cleansing, declared righteous, made God's child, being able to serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness, do you know for certain that you have been saved and those are true about you? You might say, I don't know. I don't know if I'm saved. I don't know if I have eternal life. I don't know if I'm forgiven. I don't know if I'm cleansed. I don't know if I've been declared righteous by God. If you don't know, then you need to know. And you need to know today. And you shouldn't let this sit on the side and say, well, I'll take care of this down the road. You need to deal with this today. In fact, God has brought you to this very moment for this very reason that you can know for certain when you die, you're going to heaven. God wants you to have that confidence. He wants you to have that assurance. He wants you to be forgiven and cleansed and made his child. And so the question is, how can that happen? Here's the answer in John 1, it tells us. It says that he was in the world and the world was made by him and the world knew him not. He came unto his own and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on His name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." This verse, this passage tells us how we can be safe from our sins and we can have absolute confidence that when we die, we're going to heaven to be with God. The answer is we have to receive Him rather than reject Him. Notice what it says, it says, as many as received Him. Now I want you to think about this for a moment. in the verse he says, he came into his own and his own did not receive him. And you say, why didn't they receive him? Because they didn't believe he was who he said he was. They didn't believe that he was the Messiah. They didn't believe that he came to die. They didn't believe he was God in flesh. They didn't believe that was the only way. They didn't believe He was the way, the truth, and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by Him. And so instead of receiving Him by faith, believing that He was who He said that He was, they said, no, we don't receive Him, we reject Him. You have to receive Christ. You have to accept His offer of salvation by faith alone in what He's done for you. And when you do this, God makes you accept it. It says, to them he gave the power to become the sons of God. Now listen carefully. When he says the power, he's not saying, I'm making you strong enough to earn your salvation. That's not what he's saying. He's talking about someone being legally qualified to be called a child of God. That's what he means. It means it's about authority. It's about whether or not a person has the right to be called God's child or not. If you haven't accepted the Son, you don't have the right to be called a child of God. If you've embraced the Son, you've done what is necessary to be called God's child. And so literally, God makes us accepted when we receive his Son. And he makes it very clear that receiving the Son is a faith issue. He says, it's even to them that believe on his name. The difference between you accepting Christ and rejecting Christ comes down to really one fundamental issue. Do you believe or do you reject? Do you believe or do you reject? Do I believe he's the son of God? Do I believe he died for my sins? Do I believe that there's no other way I can be saved except through him? If I believe it, then I trust in it. If I don't believe it, then I reject it. It's an issue of faith. It's a matter of the heart. It's what you do with those truths about God. And he says, when they believe, they are born of God. Literally, God gives you new life in Christ. Faith and new life go hand in hand. I wanna ask you this question. Have you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior? I know 2020's been a pretty rough year for a lot of people. It's been a tough year. But the truth is, here we are in December. We didn't get to come here for Easter Sunday. Everybody that is here today was not here on Easter Sunday. This is a really big holiday when it comes to Christian observance, Christmas and Easter. In spite of all the challenges of this year, God has allowed us to meet together and to be confronted with these truths. And it is possible, it is very possible, that today in our congregation or out there listening through Facebook or YouTube or on Sermon Audio, there is a person or there are people who need to call on the Lord in faith and trust in the Son. It's very possible. Might be a lot of people, I don't know. I don't know who all is listening and who's coming in contact with this message. But I ask you today, do you know for certain when you die you go to heaven? Because if you don't, today is the day you can trust Christ as your Savior. You can call on the Lord and receive Him personally as your Savior. Trust on Him for what He's done for you. I'd like to ask you to bow your head and close your eyes for just a moment. I want to ask just a really simple question. Is there anybody here this morning that would say, Pastor, I don't know for certain that I'm saved. I'm not certain that I've trusted Christ as my Savior. And I really need to do that. I'm not gonna call you out by name, I'm not gonna make any point to point you out, but I'd just like to see, is there anybody here this morning that'd say, Pastor, that's me, I don't know for certain I'm saved? I'd be glad to talk to you so that you could show me from the Bible how I could be saved. Anyone like that, just quietly and quickly raise up your hand, I'll give you just a moment. I see that, anyone else? Anyone else that say, Pastor, I don't know for certain that I'm saved, and I need to deal with this issue? If you don't know for certain that you're saved, I wanna sit down with you and go through the Bible and explain to you how you can be saved, okay? So I'll connect with you and we'll do that, all right? If there's anybody that's joined us on the live stream, you say, pastor, I'm not physically here right now, but I need to reach out to you. I wanna encourage you to go to our church website, go to staff. click on the email, my email's on there, send me an email. If you're watching on Facebook, send a Facebook message to the church. I check those Facebook messages and I'd be glad to connect with you and we can meet in person or virtually and we can go through the gospel and show you how to be saved. The most important decision you'll ever make in your life is what you will do at the gospel. There is nothing in life that is more heavy and more weighty than where you spend eternity. Let's bow together for prayer and thank God for this wonderful, wonderful story of redemption, the gospel. Father, thank you for the opportunity this morning to be ministered to through song, through this presentation we had. Thank you for the opportunity to open the Bible and see for ourselves about the heart of the gospel. I thank you that today there are people that have acknowledged they need to be saved. And you know their hearts, you know their struggles, you know where their heart is stuck and what they understand and what they don't. But I pray that today you would give them the understanding through the presenting of the scriptures Give them the understanding that they need to trust Christ. I pray that today their hearts would be softened by the work of the Spirit. They would turn to you in repentance and faith and be saved. I pray that we would not leave this place without being truly overwhelmed by how great your salvation is. We ask these things in Christ's name, amen. Okay, the song we're gonna sing in our closing is hymn 202, Good Christian Men Rejoice. By the way, good Christian women, you can rejoice too. We can all, and children, we can all rejoice. And this is a wonderful song because it calls us to rejoice in light of the gospel. We have been reminded of the weight of the gospel and now let's sing about how glorious and how blessed this message is. So let's all stand together. Hymn 202, Good Christian Men Rejoice. I need a hymn book here. All right, let's sing it out. One and three. Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice. Give ye heed to what we say. News, news, Jesus Christ is born today. Oxen ask before him, bow, and he is in the manger now. Christ is born today. Christ is born today. On the third. ♪ Good Christian men rejoice with heart and soul and voice ♪ ♪ Now ye need not fear the faith he speaks ♪ ♪ Jesus Christ was born to save ♪ ♪ Calls you on and calls you home to be his everlasting home ♪ ♪ Christ is born you say, Christ is born you say ♪ What a wonderful blessing to reflect on. Hope that you'll be able to make it back tonight. And I also want to remind you that Wednesday, if we have five inches of snow or more, we will cancel midweek service. I know that our kids have the Christmas, the holiday, on Wednesday, and so if for some reason we're not able to do the Christmas market, we're gonna do it the following Sunday night. So on Sunday night, rather than the kids being in here, we're gonna have them do truth trackers. So I'm just giving you a heads up, I really cannot predict the weather. I don't know anybody these days that seems to be able to predict the weather, but there is a chance that we have a significant snow this week, or that people a little west of us get a significant snow this week. But I'll be keeping an eye on that. We will communicate that to you all with that. Also, I want to encourage you, please invite people to our Christmas Eve candlelight service. And that is always a highlight of the year. It's a wonderful time. We're going to be reading scripture. We're going to be having a challenge. We're going to be having special music. And it's just gonna be a really good time. So if you can come to that, and if you can invite people, I hope that you'll do that. If you can't join us physically, I hope that you'll be able to join us online. Though I'm not encouraging you to do that. I think being here would be just a lot less distracting and more of a blessing. So if you can do that, I hope that you'll be able to do that. Let's bow together for a word of prayer. And Cheryl, do you mind closing us in prayer? You're gonna have to come up here though. Oh, well, you could pray from there if you'd like. It's up to you. Can you project? Go ahead, you can project. All right, I believe you. All right, go ahead, Cheryl. I just want to thank you, Lord, for this day. Thank you for the blessings bestowed upon us. Lord, I pray for the people of the city and our wonderful program. I ask that you be with us this afternoon and watch over us and guide us. Lord, we're just praising you for all things. It's either the day that we have, or the day that we fellowship, and worship with you. In Jesus' name, amen.