Good morning, everyone. It's nice to see us all out today. I'd say there's some of you here who was not expecting to see me in the pulpit this morning, but your minister is unwell, so he asked me would I step in for him to preach today. So we hope we know, and we pray that God will bless us as we gather together for the morning worship today, and also that it's good to see the Sunday School ones with us today as well. But to begin our service today, I want to read from Galatians chapter four. Galatians chapter 4 and the first verse. 4 in verse 1. And it says, Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage unto the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And we'll end there at verse 6. Here we see, especially in verse 4, we're thinking at this Christmastime of the incarnation of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And here we're told why He came. He came to redeem us and to make us children of the Most High God. And what then, when we're brought into God's family, what does that cause us to do? Well, we're told in verse 6 that our hearts cry out in worship, Abba, Father. And we are God's people here today. We're here to worship our God. And because of our Savior, because He came at the fullness of time, we then come today to worship from our hearts saying, Abba, Father. So God calls us to worship today, and let us do that from our hearts. But we'll open in prayer, and then we'll come to the rest of our service. So let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for this day, the Sabbath day, the day to remember our risen Savior. And I pray as we gather together that you will be with us and that you will help us, help us to worship our God and bless us as we have gathered together today. May your spirit be with us and encourage us as we begin to worship. I pray you'll help us, give us strength for we are weak and needy. We pray that the almighty God will give us help and strength as we worship today. For us in Jesus' name, I ask and pray, amen. We'll begin by singing hymn number 77, please. Hymn number 77, joy to the world, the Lord is come, let earth receive her king. Hymn number 77, we'll sing all four verses of this hymn, and we're all gonna stand to sing, please. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven and nature sing. And heaven, and heaven, and nature sing. ♪ And men and souls employ ♪ ♪ But fears and woes from tales and plays ♪ ♪ Repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy ♪ O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, O come, to Bethlehem. We're going to pray. Let's all pray and seek God's face today. our great God and Father in heaven. We come to the Almighty God, the only living and true God, and beside Thee there is none else. Today we give you thanks that we have this opportunity and this privilege and blessing to be able to pray unto our God and to seek your face and ask for your help and for your blessing. We come in the name of our Savior, our great Savior and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, and what wonder He is to us. What a wonderful Savior He is to your people, and we're thankful for all that He has done for us. And today we rejoice and thank you that when the fullness of time was come, that you, our Father, sent forth your Son, that He was made of a woman, made under the law to redeem us who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And we cry today, Abba, Father, only because our Savior has redeemed us, and that the Holy Spirit has entered into our souls today, and we're able to rejoice And we're able to cry and say, yes, we are one of God's children. Today we can cry, Abba, Father, all because our Savior was willing to come to be born of a woman. And today it is joy to the world for the Lord is come. And we pray today as we think of our Savior and what He has done for us, as we see the glories of His righteousness, the wonders of His love, that today our hearts will be taken up with what you have done for us. Even though we are sinners, we confess today we have broken your law, but we're thankful that we have a great God in heaven, a great God that sent our Savior, and today we can say we are redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb, the Lamb without blemish and without spot, and today we are redeemed. And then as we come together today. We have come to worship. We've come to praise You and give our thanksgiving to our God for all that You have done for us. And we give You thanks. You are a great God. You're worthy to be praised. And today I pray You'll help us to worship our God as we sing, as we hear the Word of God read to us, as we hear God's Word spoken upon, as we pray. We ask that You will help us. You'll be with us and bless us. And may every heart know they have heard a word from the Lord. So I pray, Father, that you will bless all this service, and I pray for everyone who will take part that you'll be with them, you'll give them help, and may your name be glorified and honored by them in all that they would do. So I pray you'll help us as we continue to worship, for it's in Jesus' name I ask and pray, amen. And it's good today to have the Sunday School children with us. And they're going to come and take part. And then immediately after, it's also good to have Mrs. Elizabeth McGill with us today. And she is going to come and bring a message to the boys and girls. But first of all, we're going to have the Sunday School to come and take part. ♪ As with darkness may all fall ♪ ♪ Did the guiding star behold ♪ As with joy they hail this night, Leading the bird beaming bright. So mom's wishes for a baby, ♪ Have been joyful steps they've spent ♪ ♪ Savior to our holy land ♪ ♪ Better read than any before ♪ ♪ Thee have we've ever adored ♪ ♪ So they we must never fear ♪ ♪ Ever sing thy mercy sing ♪ O'er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming? And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air, Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. Holy Jesus, every day, keep us in the narrow way. And when earthly things are past, bring our ransomed souls at last. Where may we go, so hard to find? night. Thou is light, and joy is prime. Thou is sun, and truth undying. There forever may we sing, hallelujah, There are countless verses throughout all the books of the Old Testament prophesying and foretelling the birth, life, and ministry of the Lord Jesus. The author of Psalm 119 praises God by saying, in verse 160, God's word is true, and every verse was fulfilled. We want to show you just a few of the Old Testament verses that were fulfilled in the New Testament accounts of the Lord Jesus. A Descendant of Abraham. Genesis 18, verse 18 says, Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all of the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. God emphasizes that the Lord Jesus would come from the descendants of Abraham. This is proved when we see that Matthew begins his gospel by saying, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. born of a woman. God, speaking to the serpent in the garden of Eden, says, I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. This verse says that the Lord Jesus would be born of a woman. We know this was fulfilled as we read in Luke 2, verse 7, when Luke is speaking of Mary. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes. Born in Bethlehem. The prophet Micah, in chapter 5, verse 2 of his book, is speaking to the children of Israel. He says, But thou, Bethlehem of Phryda, though thou be little among the sons of Judah, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. God, through Micah, says that the Lord Jesus would come from Bethlehem of Phryda. We then read in Matthew 2 verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold there came wise men from the east of Jerusalem. Sent by God. The Son of God, speaking through Isaiah, in Isaiah 48, verse 16, says, "'Come ye near unto me, hear ye this. "'I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. "'From the time that it was, there am I. "'And now the Lord God and his Spirit hath sent me.'" God the Father and God the Holy Spirit sent the Son of God into the world to work out the plan of redemption on the cross. Then in John 7 verse 29, the Lord Jesus is speaking to the Jews in the temple. He says, speaking of God the Father, but I know him for I am from him and he has sent me. The Lord Jesus himself proclaims that he was sent by his father. born of a virgin. In Isaiah 7, verse 14, we read, Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel, which is fulfilled in Matthew 1, verse 18, when it says, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when, as his mother Mary was a spouse to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost, Alright boys and girls, it's so lovely to be here this morning. I want to thank everybody in the church even for the invitation to come and to speak to the boys and girls in the service this morning. I've got some Christmas treats in this bag for you that your teachers can share out for you at the end. And I thought this morning what we could do, since it's Christmas time, we could have a little think about a Christmas object lesson this morning. And maybe some of you, this is gonna be a bit of a juggling session, but maybe some of you will know, oh, thank you. That's great, thank you very much. Okay, maybe some of you will know what this is. It's very small, I tried to look for a bigger one, but do you know what that is? Do you know? It's a candy cane. And we're going to think about some lessons that we can learn from the candy cane. Because I'm sure you see them lots and lots during Christmas time. Maybe you've got some in the house. But do you know that many years ago, the story is told about the candy cane and how it was made? And I don't know whether this is actually true or not, but the story is told that A couple of hundred years ago, there was a sweet maker, and he decided that he would try and come up with a way to share the good news around Christmas time about the Lord Jesus and how he came into the world. And he wanted to come up with a way, particularly for boys and girls, for children. that he would be able to give them a gift and that they would be able to know a little bit about the Lord Jesus coming into this world. And he came up with, because he was a sweet maker, he came up with the candy cane. And he put a lot of thought into what colour it was going to be, what shape it was going to be, and he decided then that he would be able to give this to all of the boys and girls in his town. and as he was doing so he would share a little bit about the Lord Jesus. So I want us to think about some of the things about the candy cane. You can maybe try and remember these over the Christmas time when you're eating some of them or you see them hanging up somewhere. So first of all, we can look at the shape of the candy cane, okay? And if I turn it up this way, I hope that's the right way for you. No, we'll go that way. Okay, does anybody know what letter that is? Ah, somebody with grace. It's a J, okay, and I wonder why that's particularly important. Well, you know that one of the most important, the most important individuals in all of the Bible, and particularly at this time of the year when we're thinking about his birth. Does anybody know what the J might stand for? Yeah? It stands for Jesus, yes. The Lord Jesus came into the world over 2,000 years ago. He was a very special individual. He wasn't like any other baby who was born into the world. There were some special things that we've been reading about there in those verses that the girl shared about how important his birth actually was. But do you know that even though he was the most important baby to have ever been born in the world, that hardly anybody was there to witness his birth. Hardly anybody even noticed that he was born. And yet he was such a special person. He was the son of God who was come to be the saviour. You see, it's so easy for us to be distracted, especially at this time of year. There's lots of twinkling lights and there's presents to be opened and there's Christmas dinner to be enjoyed. And we can go all through Christmas day, perhaps, and we don't ever think once about the Lord Jesus. And yet, at the time of the Lord's birth, that was the exact same thing then, because there were so many people who were distracted by other very important things going on. But they were distracted and they didn't notice that the Lord Jesus was being born into this world. And yet, he's the most important individual. Do you know what the name Jesus means? Does anybody know what the word Jesus, that name? It's a very special name. Does anybody know Lydia? It means saviour, yeah? He came to be the saviour of the world, to save us from our sins and to bring us back to God when we've gone so far away from Him. I want you then to look and think about the colours. Does anybody see what colours the candy cane is? You give me one. It's red. We'll start with that one and then we'll look at the other colour. We'll get the other colour in a wee minute or two. So it's red. I wonder why the candy cane was chosen to be red. Well, red in the Bible speaks about blood. It's something we maybe don't want to really think about at Christmas time. But the colour red in the Bible reminds us that the Lord Jesus, He wasn't like any other baby born into the world when everybody's so excited. and enjoys a little baby being born into a family and it's such a joyous occasion. It was actually quite sad really at the time because Mary, his earthly mother, was reminded that this baby was born to die. And that's what she had to think about whenever he was born. Not just to enjoy his coming, but to remember that someday he would die upon the cross. And we don't really think about that when babies are born. But yet Mary was told by Simeon that her heart would be pierced. It would be so sad because this baby was born to die. And he would one day go to the cross to die for our sins. and suffer and shed his precious blood that we might come back to God because we are so full of sin and we cannot come to him of ourselves. And so we need the Savior to cover our sins in his precious blood and to save us. And that's why the candy cane maker, he decided to put that color red in. Do we know the other color? What's the other color? One of the girls over here. Yeah. It's white. Okay, so we have red and white and you get lots of different colored kandikians but the true kandikian is red. and white and white reminds us of something that is pure, something that is perfect. You think about when the snow falls and nobody has gone outside and it's just so beautiful and perfect and unmarred by dirt or by muddy footprints or anything like that, it's so perfect. And that reminds us that the Savior, the Lord Jesus, he was unlike any other child born into the world because he was a perfect child. Can any of us say that we're a perfect child? I don't think we could say that, could we? We all do things that are wrong, don't we? Sometimes big things, sometimes little things, but we're all sinners born into the world. Every little baby that's born into the world is born as a sinner apart from the Savior, apart from the Lord Jesus. He was born perfect. And He lived a perfect life. He didn't do anything wrong. You think about all the times we've been cheeky to our parents or we've disobeyed or we've been bad in school or forgotten to do this or forgotten to do that. All of those things that we do wrong, yet the Lord Jesus, He didn't do a single thing wrong. He was perfect. sinless, the Bible describes it as, and how different that is to us because we're so full of sin. And yet the little candy cane and the fact that there's white there reminds us of the perfect Son of God. There's a couple of things I want you to think about that you can go home and have a little think about because I don't want to take too long this morning. Does anybody know what is special about the taste of a candy cane? Or even the smell? Do you know what it tastes like, Grace? It's what? I can't hear what you're saying. Oh, it's sweet. Yes, it is. It's a nice sweet. It's got a lot of sugar in it. But it has a very special taste. I don't know if anybody knows this, but it tastes of peppermint. Do you know that? It's minty. It tastes of peppermint. A very sweet, as Grace said, it's a very sweet taste. And the Bible reminds us that when we come to know the Lord Jesus as our Savior, it will be sweet for us. The Psalms say, oh taste and see that the Lord is good. There's nothing bad about becoming a Christian, about coming to know the Lord as our saviour. It will always be sweet, even when times are difficult and times are hard, it will be sweet because he has promised to be good to us. One other thing that you can think about How do we eat a candy cane? I know there's many different people eat these in different ways. What way do you girls eat a candy cane? Okay, some people don't, and you just thought it would take a long time to eat that, wouldn't you? What way do you eat it? Okay, some people break it, don't they? They break it apart and eat the little bits. And if we think about that, it has to be broken to be enjoyed. And the Lord Jesus came into the world and he went to the cross and one of the verses that speak about his coming into the world is that verse in Isaiah where it tells us that his body was going to be broken. And when he went to the cross, the nails were driven into his hand, the spear was driven into his side, the crown of thorns upon his head, his body was broken for us. He died so that we might come to him And that's what we have to remember at this time of the year. Not just thinking about a little baby born into the world, but thinking particularly about the fact that the Lord Jesus' body was broken for us. That we might come to him in salvation. The last thing, very quickly, is that we normally give these, and I've got some in the bag for you. They're given as a gift. All right, they're for you to enjoy. And at the end of the meeting, there's ones in the bag that you'll be given. And when somebody gives you a gift, there'll be lots of gifts maybe at Christmas time, when somebody gives you a gift, what do you have to do with the gift? If I was to bring you a gift and hold it out to you, what do you have to do? Okay, you could say thank you, that would be very polite of you, but I still have the gift. What do you have to do? You have to take it. Yeah, there's no point me holding on to it if I've wrapped it up for you and brought it along. But you have to actually take the gift out of my hand. And yes, that would be very polite if you said thank you. But the most important thing is that you have to take it. And the Lord Jesus is holding out something to you boys and girls this morning. He has a gift for you. It's the gift of salvation. He wants you to come to Him and to be saved. He wants you to listen even to the message this morning. To listen to all of the Bible lessons that you've heard all year in Sunday school. And to come to know Him as your saviour for yourself. To put away our sins and to trust in Him for salvation. And even when we're thinking about our presents this year at Christmastime, you remember the greatest gift that ever was given to this world was the gift of the Lord Jesus. Because He came to give us salvation. Something that we couldn't provide for ourselves. Something that we needed Him to give for us. And He gave Himself. He gave His own precious blood that we might be covered and be made ready for heaven. Thank you very much, boys and girls, for coming and taking part today in our service. And also for Elizabeth, thank you for bringing that message today. I'm just going to ask now for announcements to be brought, please. I want to firstly welcome each one to our service today. And we trust that you will enjoy the service, that you'll know God's blessing here. Also, those who are joining us online, we pray that you too will know the blessing of the Lord. I want to welcome Mr. Thomas Hannah, our preacher this morning. As has already been mentioned, Reverend McClung has laid aside. I was speaking to him or in contact with him this morning. He's still not at all well, but he sends his apologies for not being here. And we had to call upon Thomas rather suddenly, so we thank him for coming all the way and taking the service today. I want to thank Elizabeth as well for coming and speaking to the children. It's perhaps appropriate at this point just to thank Carith and Bethany and Grace for their work. It's very much appreciated for all their work in looking after the children in the Sabbath school. And also Jonathan for driving the bus and getting them all here. Before I go on with the announcements, I want to, on behalf of the congregation, to express sympathy to Robert Allister. Robert's brother-in-law passed away, was buried this last week. And we'd ask you just to remember Robert, his wife, and the family. It's a particular difficult time to lose a loved one. And we pray that you'll remember them in your prayers, please. It's good to see the children here. That's already been mentioned, and we want to thank them all for taking part in the service today. Right, the announcements this evening at 6.30 is our time of prayer before the evening service at 7.00. Mr. Hannah will be back with us this evening to bring God's Word. Also this evening, going to have some singing from different groups in our congregation. I know our young people will be singing, and could I ask the young people to wait behind after this service for a short practice? Now, I don't think they need to practice, but You're to wait behind after the service this evening. Now, I don't know who else is going to be singing. We'll try and encourage the ladies. Our brother Hugh is unable to be out this last while for leading the men, so I don't know whether they'll get together or not. But come this evening and find out. Then during the week, there's a change this week to the prayer meeting. The prayer meeting is coming to Tuesday evening at 8 o'clock. So the Bible study and prayer time will be Tuesday at 8 o'clock. That takes us through to next Lord's Day. Next Lord's Day, we will be observing our extended times of prayer. I'll not go through all the times now, but we'll be starting at 9.30 next Lord's Day morning. And then we'll have a season of prayer after the morning service, and then again in the later afternoon. The Sunday school is off for two weeks. Just remember that, please. It's expected that our minister will be back with us next Lord's Day. Other announcements. Could I ask you to remember the Sycophant congregation? We have quite a number of people off sick at the moment. Please remember them in your prayers. And just a couple of announcements a little further away. On Saturday, the 3rd of January is the Senior Citizens' Meal. That's Saturday, the 3rd of January. Remember, too, the Watch Night service. It'll be in Carrickfergus this year. That's Wednesday, the 31st of December. It'll start at 9.30. So if you could remember that, please. There is the prayer card available for 2026 in the hall. If you haven't got one, there's still some there. Just two other things I want to mention. I want to thank those who came yesterday. We had a bit of work to do here in the church yesterday, and our number turned up, and I want to thank you for that. I'm going to make one last mention of the Cleaning Ruda for 2026. If you or maybe join with someone and would want to take part or help out in that work of the church, if you just speak to me and let me know, I need to get the Rota completed for next year now. All these announcements are in the will of the Lord. We'll hand back now to Mr. Hannah. Thank you very much for making all those announcements for us today. We will sing again, and this time we're singing from hymn number 78. Hymn number 78, O little town of Bethlehem, how still we see thee lie, above thy deep and dreamless sleep, the silent stars go by. We're gonna sing, remain seated for our offering, and then we'll stand towards the end of this hymn, please. ¦ I still will see thee lie, Above thy deep and dreamless sleep, As I and stars go by. The hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight. Oh, say does that star-spangled banner yet wave Sing the remainder of the hymn. I silently, I silently, the wondrous gift is given. So God imparts to human hearts the blessings of his heaven. ♪ Oh, hear, we hear his calling ♪ ♪ Loud in this world of sin ♪ ♪ Burning souls will receive his help ♪ ♪ The dear Christ enters in ♪ ♪ Oh, holy child of Bethlehem ♪ Thus by our sin and endurance, we mourn in a survey. We hear the holy angels, the great glad-tidings tell. Come to us, come, I beg of us, our Lord Emmanuel. Can I ask you's if you's have a copy of God's Word that you's return please to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1, and we'll begin by reading from the first, or no, sorry, verse 18, please. So Matthew chapter 1, verse 18. Matthew 1, verse 18. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thy son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus." We're finishing the reading there at the end of this chapter, and we're just going to come before the Lord now and have a word of prayer, please. Let's all pray. our Father in heaven, we give you thanks again for our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are coming now to Your Word, so we pray that You will come and be with us. For You've told us that there's a special blessing has been placed upon the reading of Your Word and even the preaching of it, so we pray now as we come to consider some of these things from Your Word, we pray that You will bless our hearts and be with us. We pray that You will have Your hand upon all whose guard. May there be a word for each one of us, for Your people, encourage us. and bless us as we consider our Savior. But also for any who be here today who's not saved, we pray that You'll speak especially to their hearts and challenge them that they would turn from their wicked ways, they would turn from their sin and trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. So we pray You'll speak to everyone who's gathered. We also remember those who cannot be with us today, those who are unwell at this time. And there's been many, there's many of this congregation unwell, and we ask that you will have your hand upon them, and bless them, encourage them in their homes today, as they would maybe have the opportunity to consider your word, even maybe hear the service today. I pray that you will bless everyone. I even will pray for Mr. McClung, who would normally be here. I pray you'll help him and encourage him today. and I pray that he will soon have a speedy recovery and will be back here preaching in this pulpit. So I pray that you'll have your hand upon all those who are unwell, couldn't be here today, and those who have been mentioned that are bereaved. We pray you'll comfort them and bless them. And we pray, Father, now, as you will come alongside and bless us and encourage us as we think of your word, first in Jesus' name, I ask and pray, amen. Naming a baby is something that is a very important task. And it'll be something that when the parents is coming to the time of the birth, that they will be thinking and just talking among themselves, what are we going to call this new baby that is born? And eventually, the decision will be reached. after much consideration and many things taken into account. And the same was in the Bible times. In fact, you could say the name was even more significant when the Bible was written. There was a lot of consideration taken about the name, and it had a great significance whenever the baby was born. But there was no name is so significant as the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we were being told about that today, but the name Jesus, how it is important, and its meaning, Jehovah saves. He is the Savior of the world. And we read that in a reading today, that the angel told Joseph, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sin." So, names are very important, and the name of our Savior is the most important of all. And God, therefore, didn't leave it to chance. He didn't leave it for the parents to decide, for Mary and Joseph to decide the name of this baby. Rather, He gave this name by direct revelation. And here we have the name Jesus, but also we have the name Emmanuel that we read in verse 23. And for the time remaining, for a few moments, I just want to think of this name, Emmanuel. What is this name? Why is it significant? For we read in Matthew 1, verse 23, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us." So, this morning, I just want to take this name, and especially that interpretation that's given for us, God with us, and to take each one of those words, God with us, and to see what God would have us to learn today. So, first of all, we're thinking of God with us. So, God. So Jesus, the son of Mary, was born in Bethlehem. And as the boys, as the two girls was telling us today, this son had been prophesied from the Old Testament. And now we have the promised Messiah coming here in Bethlehem. And unlike any other boy that was born or anyone that was ever born in this world, the Lord Jesus Christ was special. He was unlike anyone else to ever be born, because He is not only man, but He is God and man. And that's why He was given this name. He was given the name Emmanuel, because He is God. He is God and man. We are only either a man or a woman. But here, in God's Word, it tells that Jesus was not just a man, He was God and man in one person forever. So we have the Lord Jesus Christ as man, and that's so important to us, for we are all sinners. And sin, we are told, separates us from God. There's a distance between God and man. And there's no way for man to get to God, to be right with Him. So, therefore, we needed someone to come to be both God and man so that we could be brought again into a close relationship with God Himself. So, it's so important that we have God with us. And this is a truth that's especially comforting to believers. We know that we then have someone who can meet our needs. We are relying upon one, not just someone who is a man like we are, but we are relying upon one who is infinitely greater than us. Someone who is a man who came to stand in our place. And at the incarnation, when Jesus was born, when He became man, He came then to deliver us from our sin. And He is the only Redeemer of God's elect. And this then is a sign to us. Christ being born as a baby boy is a sign to us today and for all generations that God, He is not intent on just destroying all mankind. God did not need to send His Son to become man to destroy us. He had every right to send us into hell and receive His judgment without Him becoming man. So the very fact that God sent His Son to become man is a revelation to us that He intends to deliver us from our sin. All those who trust in Him will then be delivered. And we're told our Savior Jesus Himself said, John chapter 12, verse 47, "'I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.'" That's why Jesus came the first time. He came the first time not to destroy us. That makes no sense, as we've considered. Rather, He came to save us. And what a blessing this is, that we have some – there is someone, the Lord Jesus Christ, who can save us from our sin. But then thinking again of this phrase, we have God with us. He is with us. And there's a couple of verses of a hymn that we have, and it says, "'Til God in human flesh I see, my thoughts no comfort find. The holy, just, and sacred three are terrors to my mind." If we have just God, God is holy, God is almighty. He will not put up with our sin. He will judge sin, all sin. Anytime anyone does anything bad, every sin will be judged by a holy God. So, whenever we think of God, who is almighty, who is the great judge, it should bring terror to everyone who is a sinner. because God is a holy God. And if we die in our sin, we will have to stand before Almighty God and face a holy God. And that should be a terror to anyone still out of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the hymn goes on to say, But if Emmanuel's face appear, my hope, my joy begins. His name forbids my slavish fear. His blood removes my sins. So, we see here, then, that this lovely name brings us great joy, because while God brings terror to our minds, the name Immanuel caused us to have hope. We have joy because we've won who is with us. He came to be with us in order that we could be saved. Now, this word, with, It's the strongest word for with that you have in the Greek New Testament. And that word has the idea of being very close beside, almost like riveted with, or maybe you could understand boys and girls about glue, about being stuck together with. God, then, is with us, stuck together. And here, this is again a wonderful comfort, especially to believers. For our Savior, He's bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. He is a real man. So it's not just God who is far off, but God came to be with us, to be close by us. in order that He could then save us, take away our sin. And therefore, as our Savior, God the Son, came to be man, He is now with us. And then in Hebrews 4.15, we have this verse, and it tells us, For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. So our Savior, He is one who is like us. not perfectly like us, as He is God, as we've considered, but He is a true man. He is with us. We have one who is God and man. Therefore, He knows our infirmities. He was tempted like we are, but yet without sin. And what a wonderful thing is that we now have a man who is without sin. For there's no man who has ever lived on this earth besides Jesus Christ, who has lived perfectly. We're all sin. We all tell lies. We all break the Ten Commandments, disobeying parents, boys and girls. That's something that we all are guilty of. We break God's holy law. But God sent someone to be with us who is a God-man, the perfect man. And therefore, we have hope that we can be saved. We are told in Psalm 46 and verse 7, the Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge, Selah. What a privilege, what a blessing, then, to have our Savior with us. And that encourages us as believers that we can go on in our life and know that we have someone who's always with us. I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And you'll remember maybe an Old Testament story where the enemies of Israel came And they came, I think it's to Samaria, and they surrounded Elisha and his servant. And whenever the servant came out in the morning, he was terrified. And he came to Elisha all upset and said, look what's here. Look at all this army that's around us. But whenever we read of Elisha, There's no consternation. He's relaxed. He's not one bit worried. Why? Because he could see something that the servant didn't. He had an understanding that the servant didn't, because he could see all around was God's great army, God's hosts, and the Lord of hosts is with us. And whenever we have a realization of this, as believers, whenever we really understand God is with us, What comfort that brings us. We don't need to worry who's against us. If God be for us, who can be against us? So this name brings us great hope and courage to face life as a believer. Because we know that the God of heaven is with us to help us each step of the way. But unbeliever, you haven't got this assurance. If you're not saved, you can't say today that God is with you. Because you'd rather have to say God is not, you couldn't say God's with me. you'd have to say, God is against me. And there's a world of difference between being a believer and being an unbeliever. Because if you're a believer, God's with you each step of the way, and He helps you in all of your troubles and trials and tribulations, but the unbeliever has no such comfort to their minds. So we have God with us here, but thirdly, we want to think of that last word, us. Yes, we have God who was sent. We have Jesus Christ who's God, but He's also God-man. He's a man, but He's with us. What does this word, us, mean? As I've already said, this is especially true of the believer. He is with us, and the one who keeps Israel, he neither slumbers nor sleeps, because we know, as I've said, he's with us. So it is true of the believer. But here, with this word, us, has also that understanding with it, that He is accessible. He came to this earth to be accessible to all mankind, not just for those who are now Christians, but for everyone here today. This name is true. The Lord Jesus Christ is called Emmanuel. He is with us. That means He's accessible to everyone here. Everyone can be saved. We have someone who came to this earth in order that we could be saved and is accessible to all. He is not hard to find. It is not difficult for him to become our Savior because he came so close to us. John 3.16 tells us, So the difficulty today isn't that God is hard to find, that the Savior is hard to find, rather the difficulty is in the heart of man. God is here, as Elizabeth was saying, holding out a gift for us to receive. He is with us, offering us the gift of salvation. But the difficulty comes in the heart of man. For man, in our sin, we love our sin, we want to run away from God. But to run away from God is to reject Him. And if you don't accept Jesus Christ, if you don't accept His gift, well, then you will end up going out into a lost eternity without Jesus Christ. So, He is here, but if you will run away from Him, then you'll run away into a lost eternity. Separation from God to a place called hell with darkness, wailing, gnashing of teeth, a place of torment. But why would you run away from God when He's here today offering salvation? So, if you're here today without Jesus Christ, if you're not saved, God holds His hand out today because He's with us. And Jesus says, come unto me, all you that labor and are heavily in, and I will give you rest. For Jesus, as we've already read today, that we have a Savior, He's called Jesus. for he shall save his people from their sins." Jesus came to save sinners, 1 Timothy 1, verse 15. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. So today, Jesus Christ is with us, and He holds out His hand, and He says, come, for all things are now ready. Will you be saved today? Will you trust in Jesus Christ and know not that God is against us, but if you accept Jesus, you accept Emmanuel, and if you accept Emmanuel into your heart, then He truly is God with us. The story of Jesus being born in Bethlehem, yes, it's a good story, but that's not what its purpose is for. Jesus didn't come to Bethlehem to give us a nice story to think about at Christmastime. No, He came into this world not just to be a good example, but to save us from our sins. He lived for us, died for us, and rose again so that if we will accept Him, if we will repent of our sins, turn away from those things that we've done against Him, and we trust in Jesus Christ alone, today we can receive God's gift of salvation this Christmas. So do not put it off. For we're told, now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. And if you will come, receive Him by faith, you will be saved today. And you will know that your Savior is Jesus Christ, Emmanuel, the one who came to save us from our sins. And you'll be able to say, God is with me. But we'll finish there today, and we pray that God will bless the Word to every heart today. We'll pray. And then we'll have a few things to do afterwards. So, let's pray. Our Father in heaven, we ask that You will bless this Word to every heart. We pray You will encourage us, and we thank You that You have encouraged us today, knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ, He's God and man. He meets our every need. But we're thankful that He came to be with us, that God no longer is a far off, but you sent your Son in order that your Son could become man, that He could be with us and be our mediator. And we thank you that we have one who came to Bethlehem to live for us, to die for us. And I pray that there'll be no one here who would have to say that God now is against me, rather that everyone here will accept Jesus Christ for salvation and say, now that God is with me. God is with us, and we thank you, Father, then, for Jesus Christ. What a wonderful Savior we have, and we pray that no one would leave this place today rejecting Jesus, running away from the gift that He offers, but that all will receive it by faith. For us in Jesus' name we ask and pray. Amen. We are going to sing, and we're going to sing this time from hymn number 86, please. Hymn number 86. Hymn number 86, E'er the blue heavens were stretched abroad from everlasting was the Word. Now, last week at the Young People's Youth Rally, there was some debate of whether we knew this or not. I knew it good enough, and Carithaught knew it good enough. Not too sure. if David did or not. But anyway, we will stand to sing, and we'll sing verses 1 and then 4 down to the end of this hymn. So, we'll stand to sing hymn number 86. O say can you see, by the dawn's early light, What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's ♪ Unclothed in wine we be adored ♪ ♪ Unclothed in wine we be adored ♪ ♪ Unclothed in wine we be adored ♪ ♪ Unclothed in wine we be adored ♪ ♪ Unclothed in wine we be adored ♪ words, present such in a precious day. A thousand joy behold his face, eternal Father's I could not tread, I could not brace, when through His eyes the prophet shone. My angels sing, there I am born, The glories of Emmanuel. You maybe see that the boys and girls are going to receive some prizes now, so I'm just going to ask if Kerth and Elizabeth wants to come and to hand out the prizes. Okay, thank you everyone for being here this morning. I hope you enjoyed the service and for the boys and girls for being here this morning, thank you for taking part and for your enthusiasm I can see. So we have to thank the Lord for his help over the past year and for all that he's done for us and every Sunday morning that he was with us as the word of God was opened and is our prayer that each one of the boys and girls would come to faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. and to thank the people in the church for their prayers for each one of the boys and girls every Wednesday night and even on a Sunday. Before church you can hear people praying for all of the boys and girls in Sunday school and we thank you for your prayers and all of your help in that way. Also to Jonathan for driving the bus every Sunday morning and being so willing to go out early for them. So we're going to go through the prizes. Now, Parker, you remember Alex is looking out for the best behaved and she's sitting in the back and I don't know if she's going to be happy with what she sees right now. So we'll start with the older ones and work our way down. So we have Lydia Thompson. And Anna Thompson. Ezra. Grace. Poppy. We have Parker. Oh, you're going the wrong way. Nice and good. You have to shake hands. Safi. And last is Max. Thank you everyone and Elizabeth for the lesson that she brought to us today. Thank you. Thank you very much, Elizabeth and Kareth, and Kareth for all your work in the Sunday School. It's a good job, and for all who help out as well. But we'll close in prayer today, and we'll ask for God's blessing. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for your mercy and grace, and we give thanks for all the boys and girls that have joined us today from the Sunday school, and I pray you'll bless each one of them, help them over the holiday time and this time of break, and may you give them a good time even off school, and I pray you'll speak to each one, may none of the boys and girls here reject Jesus Christ, but will accept the gift that has been offered to them, so I pray that you'll bless all the boys and girls over the next few weeks, and even all of us here today, we thank you again for Jesus Christ, for the way of salvation, and I pray that you will bless this, the word today, to all of our hearts, and comfort us and bless us through it. So I pray you'll help us even this afternoon, and I pray you'll return us again safely here this evening. For it's in Jesus' name I ask and pray, amen. ♪ Amen.