Hi. Merry Christmas. So pleased you could be here for our Christmas service at Grace Reformed Baptist Church. I hope you're all having a wonderful preparation for the Christmas season. Hopefully what will happen here is as we work through these selections of scripture and Christmas carols, we'll have our hearts and our minds fixed on the wonders of the birth of Christ. And these are organized in such a way that they should cause us to lean with expectation towards the coming of Christ and then to rejoice with this Christ who has come. So you have hopefully a bulletin. If not, there are more in the back and it will walk you through the order of service. It will also contain some of the words for some of the songs we're going to sing. So you'll want to make sure you have that. Well, as we begin, I'm going to read from Psalm 60. Would you please stand? Psalm 60, verses 1 through 3. O God, you have rejected us, broken our defenses. You have been angry, O God. Restore us. You have made the land to quake. You have torn it open. Repair its breaches, for it totters. You have made your people see hard things. You've given us wine to drink that made us stagger. And right now I'm thinking that's not the passage I wanted. That's why. All right, we're going to do a do-over. I'm thinking, you know, I read this earlier, and I don't remember it being about wine and staggering. All right. Merry Christmas. Our call to worship from Isaiah 61 through 3. 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. The nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising. Please turn to hymn number 151 in your Blue Trinity Hymnal. O come, all ye faithful, 151, and we're going to start this acapella. O come, all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant, O come ye, O come ye to Bethlehem. Come and behold Him, born the King of angels, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, O come, let us adore Him, Christ the Lord. God of God, Light of Light, Lo, He abhors not the Virgin's womb. Very God, we God did not create him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, O come let us adore him, Christ the Lord. Sing, choirs of angels, sing in exultation. Sing, all ye citizens of heaven above. ♪ Glory to God in the highest ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ O come let us adore him ♪ ♪ Christ the Lord ♪ ♪ Hey Lord we greet thee ♪ Jesus to thee be all glory given. Word of the Father, made in flesh appearing. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. O come, let us adore Him. Please be seated. Isaiah 9, 1 through 7. There will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea. the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. For the yoke of his burden and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given. and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. In your bulletin, you're going to find the words to our next song, which is Come Behold the Wondrous Mystery. Come behold the wondrous mystery In our longing, in our darkness, now the light of life has come. never trace ♪ Not to slay, but have a man ♪ Christ, the great and sure fulfillment ♪ Of the law in heavenly stand ♪ From behold the wondrous mystery ♪ Christ, the Lord, the only begotten see the praise but the grace of deliverance how unwavering resurrected as we will be when he comes what a foretaste what a foretaste of deliverance how unwavering our hope Christ in power resurrected as we will be when he comes I'll be reading from Matthew 1, verses 18 to 25. Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him. He took his wife, but knew her not until she had given birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. They shall call his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. Let's sing number 147. O come, O come, Emmanuel. 147. until the Son of God appear. Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! Rejoice! ♪ Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel ♪ ♪ O come, O come, thou Lord of might ♪ ♪ Whom to thy tribes on Sinai's height ♪ ♪ In ancient times lived near the town ♪ in cloud and majesty and awe. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. you. shall come to thee, O Israel. O come, thou Dayspring from on high, and cheer us by thy drawing nigh. And death's dark shadows put to flight Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel! ♪ Shall come to thee always ♪ I'd like to read to you a poem, a hymn. We're not going to sing it. I'm going to read it to you. But if you want to follow along, it is in our hymnal. It's hymn number 150. This hymn was written by a man named Paul Gerhart. He wrote this hymn in 1653. So it goes back a little bit. He was German. He was a Lutheran pastor. In this hymn, he sees how the birth of Christ is mixed with the atoning death of Christ. And really, we can't consider the one without the other. Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. And of course, that is why we have an eternal joy, and he talks about this eternal joy that we have. He wrote it in German. I'm not going to read it to you in German. It was translated by a lady named Catherine Winkworth in 1858. She is well known for translating many German hymns into the English language. But this hymn slash poem is called All My Heart This Night Rejoices. All my heart this night rejoices as I hear far and near sweetest angel voices. Christ is born, their choirs are singing, till the air everywhere now with joy is ringing. Forth today the conqueror goeth, who the foe, sin and woe, death and hell overthroweth. God is man, man to deliver. His dear son now is one with our blood forever. Shall we still dread God's displeasure, who, to save, freely gave his most cherished treasure? To redeem us he hath given his own son from the throne of his might in heaven. He becomes the lamb that taketh sin away, and forever full atonement maketh. For our life his own he tenders, and our race, by his grace, meat for glory renders. Hark! a voice from yonder manger, soft and sweet, doth entreat, flee from woe and danger, brethren, from all ills that grieve you, you are freed, all you need I will surely give you. Come then, banish all your sadness, one and all, great and small, come with songs of gladness, love him who with love is glowing, hail the star near and far, light and joy bestowing. Dearest Lord, thee will I cherish. Though my breath fail in death, yet I shall not perish but with thee abide forever there on high in that joy which can vanish never. What wonderful truths. I'll be reading from Luke chapter two, verses one through seven. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinus was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth to Judah, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and the lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn. For our next song, you'll want to, again, open your bulletin. Well, actually, turn to the back of your bulletin. We're going to sing, Come Thou Long-Expected Jesus, the first and fourth verses. Although, I guess in our hymnal, it's just the first and the second verses. But you'll see how I've broken it up here. We're not all going to sing the whole thing in unison. The young people are going to sing the first couple lines. That's anybody from infant up to high school. We did this last year, you might remember. Then the women will sing the next two lines. The men will sing the two lines after that. And then we'll all join for the final two lines. We'll do the same thing on the second verse. Kids, you know what you're doing? Israel's strength and consolation, hope of all the earth, Dear desire of every nation, joy of every longing heart. Born a hero to be raised, born a child and yet a king, By thine own eternal spirit rule in all our hearts alone. By thine all-sufficient merit, raise us to thy glorious throne. Amen. Reading from Luke, chapter 2, verses 8 through 20. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger. And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them. In your hymnal, hymn number 168, it's a hymn that's built on the story that Jake just read, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, 168. And please stand. ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Peace on earth and mercy mild ♪ ♪ God and sinners reconciled ♪ ♪ Joyful all ye nations rise ♪ ♪ Join the triumph of the skies ♪ ♪ With angelic host proclaim ♪ ♪ Christ is born in Bethlehem ♪ ♪ Hark the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Christ my highest heaven adore ♪ ♪ Christ the everlasting Lord ♪ ♪ Late in time behold him come ♪ ♪ Offspring of the virgin's womb ♪ Building flesh for Godhead's seed, Building heart in D&T, Pleased as man with man to dwell, Jesus our Emmanuel. Hark the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King! of righteousness. Pride and life to all he brings, brings with healing in his ways. While he lays his glory by, for that man no more may die, for to raise the sons of earth, for to give Let's be seated. We're reading from Matthew 2 verses 1 through 12. Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men came from the east, came to Jerusalem saying, 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. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all of Jerusalem with him. And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you, O Bethlehem, land of Judah, are by no means least amongst the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him. After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way. Rejoice, God is with us. I don't know if you noticed, but those are words that are plastered all over your bulletin. It's on the front, it's on the inside, it's on the back. Rejoice, God is with us. And for you, maybe you don't give it much thought, you know, it's just kind of a Christmassy sort of thing to say, you know, God being with us. We talk about that at Christmastime. Even rejoicing, it's the season in which we talk a lot about rejoicing and joy, joy to the world. It's the season of joy. But what exactly is it that we are saying when we say that God is with us? God is with us. You know that word with, it can be read two different ways. Can't it? I mean, think about it. There's the width of presence. And what we mean by that is the width of I'm with you. You're with me, I'm with you, we're present together. There's that width. But there's also that width that is the width of help and enablement. It's the width where it says, look, I'm with you on this. I got your back. I'll be there for you. I'm with you. I'm ready to help you. So there's the width of presence, and there's the width of help. Now, those two don't always necessarily come together. I mean, just think about it. For example, I might be in front of my house, and I'm hanging Christmas lights up on the gutter, okay? And I'm up there, and I'm working hard to get these Christmas lights in place. And you might be there, and you're there, and you're at the bottom of the ladder. You're there with me, right? The width of presence. But if you're down there and you're busy, you've got your phone out and you're surfing and scrolling up and down, you're not giving me the width of help. Your presence is with me, but you're not helping me in any way. Of course, I can also think of a situation that's the opposite, where you're helping me, but you're not actually physically present with me. So for example, if I send you off to the store to buy another strand of lights, you're being a great help to me, you're with me in this project, but you're not actually with me physically, because you're off at the store. Okay, so when we say that God is with us, what do we mean? What are we saying? Are we simply saying that God is present? You know, he's come and we can see him or are we saying more than that? And of course, the answer, the glorious answer is that what we really mean by it is both of those things. When we say rejoice, God is with us. We are saying that he is actually present and that he is here to help us. He's with you on this. You might think that's an awfully presumptuous thing to say. That's awfully presumptuous to say that God is there with you and he's helping you. If you know anything about world religions, you know that many world religions are never very certain about either of those things. They aren't certain that either of those things are true for them. You've got these religions where they're not sure if their God is present with them at that moment or not. Maybe he's here, maybe she's here, but we don't know. You know, if you read the ancient Greek mythologies. You know what I'm talking about? Like the stuff of Homer, the Iliad, the Odyssey. You'll notice that in those stories, you've got these stories where the characters want help from one of the gods, but they don't actually know if the god is there. Often we're told that the god is off somewhere else in Ethiopia or something. It's always Ethiopia in Homer and I don't know why. But they go to Ethiopia. It's the ends of the world and they're not here. They're not going to be there for you right now. You've got to wait until they return. They're not with you. There's also, in these stories, some hesitancy as to whether the gods will help you even if they are there. You can't bank on that. They might show up, but they might not be on your side. Some of the gods actually end up helping your enemies. They could be helping the Greeks, but they could be helping the Trojans. We just don't know. You can't be certain. And so, It might seem awfully presumptuous for Christians to say, well, that our God, the God of the Bible, is both with us physically and is here to help us. And it would be presumptuous if it weren't for the fact that God himself said that that's the case. If it weren't for the fact that I've tasted it and you've tasted it and experienced it again and again and again. You know, the entire storyline of scripture is centered on the person of Jesus. So if you open your Bible and you're reading about the days before Christ, it's still about Jesus. It's looking forward to Jesus. It's anticipating Jesus. O come, O come, Emmanuel. When will he come? And then after Jesus, if you open your Bible and it's after the days of Jesus, it's still about what he did, what he's done for his people. It's all about Jesus. And at Christmas, we celebrate the fact that He has come. All of the Bible leans towards this moment, and it's what we're celebrating. He's come. He's walked among us. He started as this little baby, but then He grew, and He grew into a man. And the Bible says that He became flesh, and He dwelt among us. He came. He's with us. He tabernacled among us. He lived among us. God was present with us. And then, He didn't just leave us on our own. You might think, well, yeah, but Jesus was here and then he left. He didn't just leave us on our own. Before he ascended into heaven, he said, behold, I'm going to leave with you my Holy Spirit. And so God is still with us. But he's not only with us to be with us. He's also with us to help us. You know, I'm like my friend who's here. He's at the bottom of the ladder. He's with me, but he's not helping me. That's not God. He doesn't just show up and then pull out his phone and start scrolling and he's no help to me. He comes and he's with me to help me. In particular, he came so that he could help with my deepest and most fundamental problem, because I need help with it. And that's my sin. You see, we sin. We break God's standards. We do it again and again. Even if you say it's not often, it's just a little thing here and there. It doesn't matter. That means you sin, therefore you are a sinner. And that means we are guilty of sinning. And it puts us in a position where we deserve punishment. That's what you do when someone is guilty. You punish them for their guilt. But Jesus came so that we could be forgiven. He came to help us. He came to help us with our greatest problem. His death on the cross was the punishment that we deserved. We should have had that punishment, but he suffered it for us. You see, that's the reason that Jesus came to be with us. He came into the world to save sinners. He came to give his life as a ransom for many. So what should we do? What should we do? How then shall we respond? Well, you know, Earlier we heard, Jake read to us the story from Luke chapter two, we heard the story of the shepherds. If you think about it, that story of the shepherds is very instructive to us because it tells us how we should respond when we discover that God is with us. Isn't that exactly what the shepherds discover? They go to this stable, they look for this little baby who's laid in a manger, and they discover that God is with us. How do they then respond? Well, let's look at them. Let me give you three things really quickly. First, we should rejoice. How do we respond? We should rejoice. Rejoice, God is with us. You know, when the angel reveals to these shepherds this message, They're out in the field, the angel gives them this message. They don't kind of, after the angels leave, kick back and say, okay, well, let's go back to sleep. No way. Instead, we see that they rejoice. They understand that this is good news of great joy that shall be for all the people. And they leap to their feet and they say, come, let us go and see what is this thing that has happened. What should we do? We should rejoice. We should celebrate. Of course, Christmas is a season that is full of celebration. That's why we love it so much. There's so much celebration. There's lights and parties and presents. And what an appropriate response that is to the good news that God with man is now residing. We should rejoice. We can't stop there. There's there's more to be done. And so secondly, we should worship. We should worship. Worship is the heart's submission to the superiority and the worthiness of something or someone else. I humble myself and I acknowledge to whoever or whatever that is, that you are greater than me. That's what worship is. That's exactly what the shepherds do here. It says that they were glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen. Can we do that? Can we acknowledge that Jesus Christ is worthy of our affections, is worthy of our hearts, is worthy of our wills and of our minds and of our adoration and of our service and of our everything? We ought to worship him. So we rejoice, we worship, but notice the shepherds go one step further. They tell others. And so thirdly, we should tell others. It says here that the shepherds made known what had been told to them about the child. So they go and they tell people, hey, here's what's going on. Here's what the angels told us. Here's what's significant about this, this child. And it says that all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. That's what we ought to do. We ought to go. We ought to tell others. Listen, if you have the privilege of being able to say, God is with me, God is with me to help me. Then what you should do is you should go. You should tell others. What should you tell them? Well, you should tell them that Jesus Christ has come into this world. You should tell them that He is here to help. You should tell them that He is here to save sinners. And you should tell them that this is the best news that you could ever hear. Rejoice, worship, tell others. Let's pray. Lord, we rejoice that You have sent Your Son, that He has come into this world. Lord, we rejoice that he came not as simply a God of judgment. He didn't come with a stern brow, but he came as one who is gentle and lowly in heart. He came as one who was a suffering servant. He came as one who was willing to give his life to draw men to himself. Lord, we rejoice that you would be a God who's with us to help us. We thank you for that. Lord, help us to respond appropriately. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Hymn number 164, Angels from the Realms of Glory. Again, it looks at this familiar story of the shepherds and the angels, but then each verse concludes with the chorus that says, come and worship, come and worship. We rejoice, we worship. Come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn king. Let's sing together number 164. Angels from the realms of glory, bring your light o'er all the earth. Ye who sang creation's story, now proclaim Messiah's birth. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. Shepherds in the fields are fighting, watching o'er your flocks by night. God with man is now residing, thunder shines the infant light. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ, the newborn King. Seek the great desire of patience, He has seen His middle star. Come and worship, come and worship, Worship Christ the new-born King. Saints before the altar bending, Watching long in Corinth, his temple shall appear. Come and worship, come and worship, worship Christ the newborn King. All creation, joyed and praising, God the Father, Spirit, Son, ever glorious, Would you please actually we might want to grab your hymnal before you stand but grab your hymnal stand for the reading of Psalm 98 Psalm 98 Oh, sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have worked salvation for Him. The Lord has made known his salvation. He has revealed his righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered his steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel. All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth. Break forth into joyous song and sing praises. Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre, with the lyre and the sound of melody, with trumpets and the sound of the horn. Make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord. Let the sea roar and all that fills it, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands. Let the hills sing for joy together before the Lord, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity. Let's sing hymn number 149 as we close. Joy to the world, 149. Joy to the world, the Lord is come Let earth receive her King Let every heart prepare it room And heaven and nature sing Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns, the never-shunning Lord. While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy. No more the tins and sorrows grow, nor thorns impasse the ground. He comes to make his blessings flow. For as the curse is found, for as the curse is found, for as, for as the curse is found, Let me close in prayer. Let's pray. Lord, we do thank you that you have come, that the long-anticipated Christ did indeed come into the world. Lord, we rejoice at his coming. Lord, we rejoice that we could behold this one who is the very essence and nature of God. We rejoice at what this one has done, that he has come to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found, that he's come to reverse all the wickedness and sin and all that has gone ill because of the fall. What a wonderful Savior. Thank you for sending Him. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. Oh come let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. Merry Christmas. You're dismissed.