surely need to pray for them. Luke chapter 2. Now often the most familiar passages of scripture for a pastor becomes some of the hardest scriptures to preach because I mean we kind of come to the point where we just state the obvious. Here it is, and almost everyone knows. If they don't know it by reference, they surely know it when you began to read it, when they began to hear it. But it's very important, and especially the most familiar passages of Scripture, that we must slow down and read the passage, that we must read it enough to get out of it those things that the Lord has put in. to his word. His word is like himself. His word is infinite, which means it has an immensity that we will never exhaust. It's also eternal. His word shall stand forever. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not one jot or tittle of his word will pass away. until it's all fulfilled. And so this word that we shall read surely has much in it that is hard to get the first pass or the first hundred passes through it. I know that many of you who have read the Bible and who read the Bible often, that you are astounded at times that you read the passage that you thought you knew and all of a sudden something new jumps out at you as if the Lord had put something new in it for you that very day. Well, as we read this passage of scripture and as we make some points out of it, Let us look deeply into it that we might indeed meditate upon it or ruminate upon it that we can get every sweet morsel from it. And it came to pass in those days. And it came to pass as if something had been planned. as if something had been purposed, it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from no one less than Caesar Augustus. Now, of course, you may not know a lot of history, but if you do know history, you do know that Caesar Augustus was one of the greatest Caesars that ever led the Roman Empire. And that Caesar Augustus was the most important man in the world that day. Now he's about to relinquish that to a little babe. Caesar Augustus. Now why would the spirit of the living God lead this man Luke, the writer of this gospel, why would he lead him to write a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed? Well, we kind of see it later in the passage. That's the reason that Mary and Joseph got to Bethlehem. was because of this. But if you look at it somewhat deeper than that, you might remember that in the book of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar had a dream, the great king, who was the greatest king and emperor in all the world in that day, that Caesar, I'm sorry, that Nebuchadnezzar had this dream, and there was a problem with the dream, you see. Not only did he, not understand the interpretation of the dream. But he couldn't even remember the dream. But he surely woke up that morning knowing that this was a very important dream that he had dreamed. And later he would find out obviously it was the Lord that gave him this dream. So he got all the people together, all the magicians and all the prophets together. I can tell you what, false prophets are always exposed when the truth shows up. The worst thing for a false prophet is to have a true prophet show up, right? And so he gets them all around and he says, here's what I want you to do. I want you to tell me my dream and the interpretation of it. And the magicians and the prophets said, well, thou, O king, great one, tell us your dream, and then we will tell you the interpretation of it. He says, no, no, no, you must tell me my dream and the interpretation of it, or I will kill every one of you. Well, that's a little pressure, you know. It'd be like someone saying, you better preach a good sermon today, Brother Cario, or we're going to shoot you. I would say shoot. And so Daniel heard about it, Daniel the prophet. And he said, well, what's the problem here? He says, oh, the king's going to kill us all. Who can do such a thing as this? So Daniel says, oh, king. Give me a day and I will come back and tell you these things. And so he went before the Lord and the Lord revealed to Daniel the dream. And here was the dream. He dreamed about this great statue, this colossus that stood and the head was gold and the shoulders was silver, and the thorax, the breast, the abdomen was brass, and the legs were iron, and the toes were iron mingled with clay. And here, O King, is the interpretation of this. And out of the mountain came a rock cut without hand, meaning no human instrumentality here. And the rock came and destroyed the image. And then the rock grew and filled the earth. Hiroki, is the interpretation of this. You are the head of gold. Your kingdom, because there will be no kingdom as great as your kingdom ever in the world. And then the silver of the shoulders, well that's the next kingdom that shall come in, you see. And we know what that kingdom is. You see, the Babylonians gave it to the Greeks. And then after that, then there will be a kingdom of bronze. And we know that the Greeks gave over to the Romans. And then the Romans, you see. Well, actually, it was the Babylonian kingdom to the Persian kingdom to the Greek kingdom to the Roman. And then at the end, there will be iron and clay, and it doesn't adhere. And so what we know from, and see, this is prehistory, but we know it from post-history. We know it because it's already happened. We know that that's what happened. The Romans, I'm sorry, the Babylonians gave rise to the Persians, and the Persians gave rise to the Greeks, and the Greeks gave rise to the Romans, and at the end of the Roman Empire, the Roman Empire broke into, that's right, 10 kingdoms. 10 totals, you see. And in that day, and in that day, shall this rock without hands come and it shall destroy the image and grow to fill the earth. In those days there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. This babe This child, this child born, this son given could not come and could not be given until God Almighty through His power moved the whole world and the leader of that world to give this decree. to get them in Bethlehem, where he must be born. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. So no guessing, this is the time of history. And all went to be taxed. everyone into his own city. And Joseph, now we know Joseph from Matthew. We don't really know Joseph too much from Mark, I'm sorry, from Luke, except for the fact that he's in the genealogy. And that he is married to Mary. Joseph also went up from Galilee. See, she had to be married to Joseph. Because it was Joseph that had to go to Bethlehem, not Mary. Because he was of the house and lineage of David. All of these things to their minute detail. carried out by the power of God to get this babe in that manger in Bethlehem. And Joseph also went up from Galilee out of the city of Nazareth into Judea unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem. It's no accident that it was called Bethlehem, because Bethlehem comes from the Hebrew word Beth, which means house, and from the Hebrew word Lechem, which means bread. He was born in the house of bread, even as he said, I am the bread of life. Because he was of the house and lineage, of David to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. Now, can you imagine? Here they are, ready for her to deliver this child, and Joseph has already been stretched Joseph has already had to have an angel come and talk him out of putting her away privily. Fear not, Joseph, to take Mary to be thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And when he is brought forth, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin. But can you imagine the conversation that Mary and Joseph must have had with the Lord? What next? So now, I mean, she's not gonna take a freight train. She's not gonna take an automobile. She's not gonna fly. She's gonna get on the back of a burro, of a donkey, and ride from Galilee to Judea. And it's not the most smooth ride you could ever have. And not only that, but it's up. It's an ascending path. Well, she was great with child. I don't know exactly what all that means, but it looks like to me, as I read it, that it was bad news. that she's about to deliver this child and we've got to go to Bethlehem. And so it was that while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. Well, for us, we've heard it so much, that doesn't really strike us as strange. But think about it. How strange, how strange is that? I mean, would you put your baby in a manger? Would you put your baby in a feed trough? Manger sounds wonderful. Feed trough doesn't sound that great, does it? A feed trough. Probably still warm from the saliva of the last, animal that ate from it. Why is he in a manger? Why is he in a feed truck? Because there was no room for them in the inn. Now, I've read a lot about that. You know, probably not in a barn. They were probably in some kind of stall against a wall with no roof. and maybe some animals around them. And they were in the same country, shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. Now, there's those who say, well, Jesus surely couldn't have been born in December because, you see, it would have been winter. and the sheep wouldn't be out in the field and the shepherds wouldn't be with them. And so surely they've missed the date. It must be sometime in the warmer time of the year until you look at a globe and you follow the latitude from Jerusalem all the way through. And it runs basically from Jerusalem right through Jones County. Could shepherds be out in the field today? I'm telling you, it's almost balmy out there, see? Shepherds, doing the things that shepherds do, abiding in the field, keeping watch, or literally keeping night watches over their flock. keeping watch over their flock by night, and lo, the word there, lo, behold, the angel of the Lord came unto them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them, and they were sore afraid. Can you imagine sitting And the night watches there, the darkness of the night. And then the sky lights up with the most brilliant light that you could ever imagine. And so what is this? They were afraid. And the angel said unto them, fear not. I can tell you the first word that God has to say to any of us when he sends to us an angel or when he sends to us or appears to us in his person, he has to say, fear not, for it is a fearful thing to stand before the true and living God and before those that emanate from him. Be not afraid. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day." Isn't that interesting? It didn't say, for born this day. But what he says is, for unto you a child is born. A son given unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you. Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. Well, there's surely nothing in this text that said, at least to this moment, that they had any plans of going to that place and finding this child. But before the thought came to them to go to him, the Lord had already told them where and how they would find him. As if the Lord anticipated that they would come, but how could such a thing happen to you and you stay where you are? How could such a thing happen to you and you be not moved? I can tell you from this point on in these shepherds' life, there was never an event so life-changing and so earth-shattering as this event, you see. They never, ever got over it. even as we who have the Son of God revealed unto us. How do you know if you're a Christian? How do you know if you've come to Christ? How do you know if you've seen Him in truth? I can tell you, here's the test, that you never get over it. ever move from it but you always are characterized from that moment on for the rest of your life by this event Christ revealed from heaven to you and suddenly there was with the angel at first you see one angel and he does the speaking, and he brings the glories. But then a multitude of heavenly host is, you know, technically in the language here, in the Greek or in the Hebrew, host means a lot, a lot of them. Probably more than you could number and a heavenly host praising God say glory to God in the highest in Excelsis Deo in the Latin Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace Goodwill toward men now we could translate this there is a another way to translate this glory to God and the highest and and peace to those who are of God's good will. How many people were in Bethlehem that night? Well, there were so many in Bethlehem that night that there was no room in the inn. There were so many people there because they all had to go to the place where they were born. But who found the Lord? Not one of them. And in fact, if we went over to the book of Matthew, we would find out that there were not only shepherds that's gonna show up to this event, but there's also gonna be wise men from the East. We say that there were three because there's three gifts. These wise men from the East, who showed up to the birth? I can tell you who showed up to the birth. only those to whom the heavens reveal Christ to them. Why did you find him? I can tell you this, if you are in Christ today, you didn't find him because you happened up upon him. You found him. because heaven revealed him to you and showed you who he is and how and where he shall be found. Glory to God in the highest. And on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. 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. They said this one to another. There wasn't just one that said, hey, why don't we all go? No, immediately they were speaking at the same time. They began to speak to each other at the same time, saying the same thing. Let us go. Let us go. And let us find and see this thing. which is come to pass. You see right back to the beginning and it came to pass. Which the Lord hath made known unto us. Not the angels, not the angel, but the Lord has made known unto us. I mean, there is a sense that none of us have a Christmas. If we're going to use that word to describe what this day is, none of us have a Christmas. until Christ is revealed to us by the Lord. And they came with haste. Didn't lollygag. I meant they got there with all the speed they could get there. Nothing else in this world mattered. They left their sheep. Even as the wise men left their contemplation, they left their sheep, they left everything that attached them to the world, and they set their eyes and their heart and their face toward Bethlehem. And with haste they came and they found Mary and Joseph and the babe. lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. How could they not? I mean, how could they just go back to their sheep? How could they just go back and forget about it, you see? Oh, there's so many in this world that claim to know Christ, who've claimed to see the babe, who will even this day sing the songs of religion and will speak the words of this season. But in their heart, they are not changed. In their heart, they have gone back to what they were. even as Demas who forsook the Lord, loving this present age. Oh, there's so much hypocrisy. Oh, there's so much fraud and so much phony religion in our world. Can you go back? Can you pretend that this never happened to you? You see, here's the problem with religion. It's like taking a vaccine. Used to a vaccine was a dead strain. If you took a smallpox vaccine, you took a vaccine that had a dead strain of smallpox in it. and it inoculated you from the living strength. What a picture of false religion. You go get inoculated with some religion and you know what it does? You take a vaccine, you take in, you imbibe in false religion, and you know what happens? You become inoculated to the true, There are surely none, and I've read great preachers in the past. For example, Jonathan Edwards, he said, here's been my experience when once one has been deluded with false religion, you can never talk them into that, which is true. They didn't go back. They were called shepherds, but once they saw this babe, it began to be their life's mission. And they told, and when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child, and all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. But Mary, she kept these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. Well, there's the gospel formula. Who knows the Lord? Well, surely the one to whom the arm of the Lord has been revealed. Who knows the Lord? Well, those who have heard. Do you realize you can hear the words of a sermon without hearing the sermon? You can hear the words of the truth without hearing the truth, but they heard. But not only that, but seeing. Maybe your mother spoke to you the gospel first. Many mothers have been the first. to speak gospel to their children and to live it before them. And then maybe it was your father that preached or taught you or told you about this gospel. Or maybe it was a Sunday school teacher. I remember the first time it began to dawn on me, I heard it from a Sunday school teacher, a faithful Sunday school teacher who loved her students and above everything in this world, wanted them to know Christ. It doesn't, and maybe it was the preacher that told you these things, but you see, my friend, it has to go beyond hearing. You have to be broad to see it. Yesterday, when I sat by Salvador's daughter, Lucero, she said, Dr. Carey, of all the people that you have had to minister to when someone they loved died, Do you have some words to help me? Because this hurts so bad. And I said, I'm sorry. So I make my living with words. I don't have any that will take this pain from you. It must be the Lord, and He will. if you seek Him. I said, because I can tell you, you're not even able to hear the words I'm saying. But when He speaks them, you will know them. My friend, we have heard this gospel, but it won't do us any good Until we see it. Until we see it. Your father's faith won't get you into heaven. Your mother's faith won't get you into heaven. Your Sunday school's faith, teacher's faith, or your preacher's faith. No. Now, they will be faithful to speak it, but it has to be your faith. It has to be what you have seen. You cannot live in this world as a child of God on borrowed faith, but on seen faith. For we walk not by sight, but by faith. And they told what they'd heard. Here's what Job said. Job was questioning the Lord. Poor Job went through a lot of stuff, didn't he? whole family taken from him, all of his possessions. And now there's his wife saying, why don't you just curse God and die? Because his health had been taken. And so finally, in about the 38th chapter of the book of Job, he musters up a little courage before the Lord and begin to He begins to contend with the Lord. And so the Lord called him out and says, all right, you've got something to say to me, Job, then, then girt up your loins as a man and say it to me. But before you speak, let me ask you this. Where were you when I created the heavens and the earth? Did I need your advice? And Job says, you know what? I've spoken once, and I have spoken twice. But I'm going to put my hand over my mouth, and I'm never going to speak again to thee. For let me tell you. I've heard about thee with the hearing of the ear, but now I have seen thee with the seeing of the eye, and I abhor myself. The same look that drives you to your face before God is the same look that will relieve that fear. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. A wretch like me. I once was lost. But now I'm found. I was blind. But now I see. And it was grace that taught my heart to fear. And grace, my fears relieved. How precious did that grace appear. the hour I first believe. And it came to pass. How about you? Do you have a phrase like that in your testimony? And it came to pass that there went out a decree And it came to pass that these shepherds said, let us go see. Wouldn't it be a terrible thing for all of the celebration and for all of the things we do in this season to make it a time that is special and festive and holy? But you just go into the new year indifferent and the same. Do you see what it took for the Lord to be the Savior? And will you dismiss Him again? Or will this day, this season, and this time, and these words, will they renew your faith and strengthen it? And will you be as these shepherds, telling all that you see, what you have seen, what you've heard, and what you have seen from the Lord. And then we must take a lesson from Mary to ponder them in our hearts. You see, because that's the seed of this gospel. It's in your heart. And as it continues to bubble up and to keep your heart warm as you ponder them, then it surely will find its way to your mouth and surely to your faith. Let's pray.