Thank you, choir. Thank you, Debbie, for your hard work, leadership, and what a joyous day it is today. Amen. That we get to gather together here in the house of the Lord to be able to sing Noel. That we, above all people here on earth, are to be the most joyful people because we have not only heard the Good News of the Gospel, but we as a church who profess faith in Christ are those who have the promised Holy Spirit indwelling us that we can rejoice as our choir has rejoiced this morning that God is with us. And I invite you this morning to turn with me in your copy of God's Word to Isaiah 60. I don't have much time, so I'm going to give a brief word from Isaiah 60. I'm going to read v. 1-6. So if you would, please rise with me for the reading of God's Word. Isaiah 60 v. 1-6 The word of Isaiah says. Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For behold, darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples. But the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you. And nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together. They come to you. Your son shall come from afar, and your daughter shall be carried on the hip. They shall see and be radiant. Your heart shall thrill and exult. Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you, the wealth of the nation shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah. All those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall bring good news, the praises of the Lord. Amen. You may be seated. And let us pray. Heavenly Father, I am so thankful this morning that we have been able to hear Your Word through the singing of our choir. particularly the word of Emmanuel, God with us. We thank You, Father, that You have given us Your best gift, Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so now in these brief moments, I just pray that You would give us now ears to hear as Your Word will now be proclaimed that You would give us, Lord, hearts that would thrill and exult, as your word says here in Isaiah chapter 60. For I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Brethren, there are many prophecies of Christmas found in the Old Testament. But there is one here in Isaiah 60 that perhaps not many of us go to on a regular basis to prepare our hearts for that which was fulfilled in Matthew 1-2 and also in Luke 2. Isaiah 60 really is a prophecy that has a fulfillment in the first coming of our Lord, and also will find a ultimate fulfillment in the second coming of our Lord. In the imperative, the command for us in v. 1 is this, Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. This Christmas season, we can be people who are obedient to v. 1 because it says here, the light has come. And that light is nothing short of the glory of the Lord that has risen upon us here on earth. And then Isaiah, in a prophetic way, is gonna set the scene of what takes place leading up to Christmas Day. In verse two, look at it with me, Isaiah says, forebehold, this is how it's all gonna happen. This is how it's gonna go down. Darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples." As we recognize within the Christmas story that there is light that needs to come forth to shine upon the darkness. You know that particularly those angels or those shepherds there, that was happening particularly in the night when that angel come to give them the good news that the Savior would be born. So there is a physical sense in which darkness is all over the land. This is happening literally in the middle of the night. But even more so in a spiritual sense, Christmas happens because the hearts of the people are hardened and they are in bleak darkness. Up to this point, there is no hope. There is prophecies of the coming Messiah, but up to this point, there is still a sense of great darkness over the land. The hearts of God's people who would understand and believe in the prophecies of the Old Covenant were saying, oh, God, when would Your promises come to pass? Oh, God, there is darkness not only in the land, but if I'm real with myself, there is darkness within my own heart. Jesus says that that is the type of judgment that has come. The light has come into the world. But the people loved the darkness. They hated the light. They did not want their wicked works exposed. But the good news of Christmas for God's people, in verse 2 says, darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people's butt. But, but, the good news of Christmas is that the Lord will arise upon you, and His glory will be seen upon you. The good news of Christmas is that God has become man in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's glory has been revealed. God's glory has literally been seen as our Lord Jesus was born in that manger in Bethlehem. And the prophecy goes on. Look what Isaiah says in v. 3, "...and nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising." If you were here last Lord's Day in the Advent Sermon, this is a direct prophecy fulfillment from Matthew 2, v. 1-2. It says, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem. Our choir has done a fantastic job of singing of this story this morning for us. And this is what these wise men from the East said, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star when it rose, and we have come to worship Him. This is what Isaiah is promising would come to pass in due time. And that is the message of Christmas that the nations have come to the light of all lights, the Lord Jesus Christ. Kings would even come to the brightness of the rising of that star. That star that led them right over the house where baby Jesus was laying. Look with me at verse 4. Here is another imperative, a command for us this Christmas. Lift up our eyes all around and see. Because we are those, we are God's people who gather together. We come together. The sons of God shall come from afar. This is a prophecy that the all-inclusivity of God's people, not just being for the Jew, but for people like us, Gentiles as well. The sons from afar. from far away lands that would reside outside of Israel. These would be a people who would come from all different nations to gather together to worship the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the light of the world. Even the daughters shall be carried on the hip coming to see in this prophecy, even going there to Bethlehem, going to see this Emmanuel, God, with us. Isaiah says in verse five, then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and exult. This is the proper response for us here in this Christmas, seeing a season that we would be radiant, our hearts would thrill, this word in the Hebrew, Hebrew, this word thrill means that our hearts would literally be beating fast. There is a sense of great fear that took place for the shepherds, but that great fear would turn into great joy as the angel said, fear not, for the Lord Jesus has come. So there is a sense for us this Christmas of great fear, but that fear would turn into great exultation. It would be a rejoicing, a joyfulness within our hearts of happiness and gladness because of the favorable circumstances that the God who created the heavens and the earth would come and He would bring a new creation within the hearts of God's people. And as we heard last week, the prophecy of verse 6, look at it with me there. In Isaiah 60, it says, "...a multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah, all those from Sheba shall come." And then look what it is that those who come to the Lord bring to Him. And we heard this last Lord's Day. It says that they shall bring gold and frankincense. You remember in the story and everything that was sung this morning from our choir, that those wise men, they went into the house. They saw the child with Mary His mother. And what was it that they did? fell down and they worshiped Him. And then they opened up their treasures, their treasure box, so to speak, and they offered Him gifts. And notice the gifts that these wise men brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. Gold and frankincense and myrrh. And so Isaiah is able to have to caption this for us in a prophetic writing that says all of the nations that are going to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, they're going to bring their gifts of gold and frankincense. These are choice gifts for a king. But not only do they bring their gifts, look at the very end of v. 6, and this really is the culmination of a day like today, particularly for our cantata. It says here, and they shall bring good news." What is that? The praises of the Lord. There is a reason why our hearts are in a state of exultation this Christmas season, right? It's not just because of the worldly Christmas songs that we listen to or we hear on the radio, but it really is songs that we've sung this morning. Sister Debbie, thank you for bringing us true Christmas songs that really center our gaze upon the reason for the season, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what takes place during Christmas when we receive the gift, when we see the bright shining light of Jesus Christ and we come to Him and we trust in Him for our forgiveness of sins and eternal salvation, what we have to offer, our choice gifts really of our own bodies, offering ourselves to the Lord. But not only that, because the prophecy of Isaiah 6 says this, we will also bring good news. We will bring good news to the Lord. How is it that we can bring good news to the Lord? Brethren, that is through the form of praise. That is through the form of worship. That is in the way that we are able within the exaltation of our hearts, as we've heard this morning from this choir, to be a people who not only speak the Gospel to one another, but that we would be a people who during this Advent season are able to sing, to proclaim, to be able to exult in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because brethren, what else do we have? We have Christ, meaning we have everything. And so during this Advent season, we have I guess one more Sunday. Next Sunday is going to be Christmas Eve. But may we this week as a people Bring our choice gold and frankincense, our choice gifts to offer to the Lord Jesus Christ. And may we also bring Him the good news, meaning the praises of the Lord, the very Lord who has given us the good news of His Son who was born there in Bethlehem. Amen? Let us pray. Where's my sister at? Where's Susan at? Yeah, she didn't think it could happen, but it's happened, okay? All right. If y'all are not here very often, I'm about a 55-minute preacher. There must have been bets in the back room today. I don't know who's winning money this morning, but I've done it, and many miracles have happened. Yeah, a lot of prayers for that one. Let's pray. Father, we are. Thankful we are a people who desire to be obedient, to arise and shine because the light of the world has come. The glory of the Lord Jesus has risen upon us. And I pray for anybody here who's still in darkness, whose hearts are still darkened, not able to see the light of the Lord Jesus, that you would now even In this moment, grant them saving faith and repentance that they would come to the light, that they would see Jesus as He is, the all-glorious One who was born on Christmas so that He would get out of that manger, He would live that perfect life, and He would die on a sinner's cross. That His sacrifice would be sufficient for all who would come to Him by simple faith. So I pray, Lord, that salvation would come even now through this short proclamation and through the singing of your gospel this morning. I pray, God, that you would continually still be bringing in sons from afar and daughters that are carried on the hip. that all of us would see and be radiant, that our hearts shall thrill and exult because Emmanuel, God with us, has taken place, and we are joyful for it. We worship Him today, and I pray this week that we as your people would bring to you gifts, and we shall be able to bring even good news, as Isaiah says, which is the praises of the Lord. May our hearts continually praise you. The rest of this Lord's Day and forevermore, I pray in Christ's name, amen.