Lord of God, Jeremiah 23, prophecy, the days were no good shepherds, leave a flock of people, a prophecy of a shepherd king who will come. Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus says the Lord God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people, You have scattered my flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord. But I will be out of the vengeance of my flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their foes, and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them, and they shall fear no more or be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord. behold, days are coming, says the Lord, that I will raise unto David a branch of righteousness. A king shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will crawl safely. Now this is his name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness. And in the New Testament, we have a text in 1 Timothy, chapter 3, verse 16. If you're looking at this verse, the entire month of December, each section of the verse, look at it, each worship service we are together. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16, without controversy, grace is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received us in all glory. During the reading of God's Word, let us pray. Dear Father in Heaven, we do give thanks and praise unto you that you've given us this holy Word. Conform our minds and hearts around this teaching. Clear us from the distractions which so easily fill our minds and hearts. Help us to have full expectation that this is where you want us to be today and that we will grow in your grace and knowledge today through being here and hearing your word proclaimed to us. Work in us through the Holy Gospel, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, in the glory of God the Father, Amen. There's a sermon outline on the back page if you'd like to see that. My brothers and sisters, this time of year, a lot of people have secrets. More than any other time of year, it seems, people are keeping secrets from one another. What they have already purchased for someone for Christmas. And when it comes to spouses, they have to hide the receipt from the other spouse sometimes, wait till January to hide the children's presents in a special place. I won't tell the children where that place is. Right? There are secrets. Well, God has a secret too. The Bible tells us today that God has a secret. The word mystery in our text, verse 16, is the mystery of godliness. That word could also be translated secret. God has his secrets. And the secret is called a great mystery. A great mystery. And this secret is an interesting secret. It's called the secret of godliness. A secret of how to be a Christian. What a Christian is, and how to live as a Christian. Godliness. The good news is you don't have to wait until December 25 to find out this secret. The secret of Godliness is unlocked for us in the Bible today. That secret is seen that God was seen in the flesh. There's more to the secret, but today we're just going to stop right there. Verse 16 where it shows that God was manifested in the flesh. You see, the temptation in living the Christian life so often is to look down at ourselves, at our circumstances, and get overwhelmed, and perhaps even discouraged. And we think, can God really help me in this situation? And maybe we remember, well yes, I know He's all-powerful, He can help, but will He? And when will the help come? The Apostle Paul tells us today, wait a minute, whatever your situation, whatever your challenge, remember this. Who your savior is. Remember that. He doesn't say first and foremost, remember, before you lash out an anger at your spouse or your children, count to ten. No, to him, to be practical is to remember who Christ is and what he has done. Christ, his glory, and his riches, that's what we need to be godly. So the first thing we will see is that God was manifested in the flesh. Let's just look at this first by seeing that the one who was seen on earth was indeed God. The one who was seen is God. It is God who came in the flesh. Yes, Jesus was in the flesh. He was a human, like you and I. And yet, in that humility and in that humanness, He really did reveal to us God. He really is a picture to us, of those who saw Him and walked with Him, of God. But more than that, not only is He a picture of God, He is. truly God. Hebrews 1 verse 3 says that Jesus, when he came, is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of his very person. God coming here to earth is a fulfillment of so many promises in the Bible. It starts with that very first gospel promise we find in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3 verse 15. or we are told, God says to the serpent, I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed, and he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. Now in that beginning promise, it doesn't yet say whether God will come to earth, but that there will be a child from Adam and Eve, someday, who will work God's purposes. Whether that will be God or not, is not clear at that point. Centuries later, in one of these prophecies, in Isaiah, chapter 9, verse 6, we read, unto us a child is born, okay, that same child that was promised to Adam and Eve, and unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulder, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace. Ah, so he will be God, this child. Micah, the prophet Micah, in chapter 5, talks about Bethlehem. Children, you remember Bethlehem, that little town of Bethlehem where Jesus was born? A little town, and yet we are told that the one who was born there will not just be the next king. But in Micah 5, verse 2, it says, Out of you Bethlehem shall come forth to me, the one to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. So think of it, Micah, it says that hundreds of years from now, a child will be born who is older than me, who is going forth to our home of old from everlasting. The eternal God will come to you in Bethlehem. And these prophecies and many others were fulfilled that holy night long ago. And just a few months before that night, an angel came to Joseph, to Mary, and told them, get ready, God's ancient promise is coming true in your lifetime. We read in Matthew 1, verse 23, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which is translated, God with us. We remember Galatians 4, verse 4, that tells us, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law. But it was not Mary's son, it was not Joseph's son, God sent forth His Son. And so the Bible can tell us in our text today, the One who is manifested in the flesh is God. God came. This is God who came. And this is God who came in the flesh, so that you and I with our fleshly, earthly eyes could see Him. The Bible says nobody can ever see God and live. You might remember Moses' experience with seeing God. Moses had a chance to see God pass by, but he only got to see the back side of God, the leftover glory of God, God hid Moses in the clefts of the rock because the glory of his presence was too much for a mere human to handle. And just that leftover glory that Moses saw was so much that his face was shining brightly. The rest of his life, it appears, whenever anybody else thought he had put a veil over his face, they couldn't stand to see that reflection of the leftover glory of God. But now we're told this miracle in the New Testament, that God has taken on flesh. So we can say, man has indeed seen God, though veiled in flesh. John 1 verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, that Word was with God, that Word was God. He was in the beginning, with God. And that Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And we saw His glory. The Apostle John said, we disciples saw God's glory in person, in the face of Jesus Christ, full of grace and truth. You see, even though God came in the flesh, He continues to be God. That's why we recite what we do in our catechism that the Eternal Son of God is and continues true and eternal God, took upon himself the very nature and the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary. He continues God, and that is a miracle. As a study Bible note from 1560, from the time of the Reformation, which is the old Geneva study Bible, says this, the power of God showed itself so marvelously in the weak flesh of Jesus. So that even though he was a weak man, yet all the world knows that he was and is God. John Calvin preached on this passage. He said, if you and I seek to have life in Jesus Christ, we do, don't we? Certainly we do. If you seek for life in Christ, then you've got to understand that he has the whole Godhead in him. He is fully God. If we want to be maintained against the power of the devil, and to withstand the temptations of our enemies, then we've got to know that Jesus Christ is God. In other words, we have to put our whole trust and confidence in Him. We must know and believe that He has all power. And He wouldn't have all power unless He were God Himself. For who is it that had all power? Jesus, that same One who is both feeble and weak, the Son of the Virgin Mary, subject to death, He who bore our sins, that's the One who is the wellspring of our eternal life and joy in this world and the world to come. That's our life in this One, this Christ, who is God. And if we think about it, when the Bible tells us that the One who came to save us is God Himself, that only makes sense. That's fitting and appropriate. Because, after all, God created the whole universe for Himself, to give Him glory. And yet there's only one corner in the whole universe that messes up. This little planet called Earth. and one of the creatures that God created that live on that planet. Humanity. And so, for God to glorify himself again through the whole universe, as he originally intended, he came back to set things right. And we're told that this One who came back is the One who was there originally to create everything. Colossians 1 says in an amazing, miraculous, marvelous way that Jesus was there. It is by Jesus all things were created. Things are in heaven, things are on earth, things are visible and invisible. Everything was created through Jesus and for Jesus. In fact, He is the head of this body, the Church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, So that in everything, Jesus may have the preeminent, the preeminent position as King of the Universe. That's Jesus. And He came back not just for such things right here on Earth, but for His body, the Church, for you and I. Do you understand today how much Jesus values you? How much He loves you? Do we value God anywhere near as much as He values us? That He would love us so much that He came to earth, this earth, for us. He created you in His image and He is not about to let someone whom He has loved from eternity past slip into the fires of hell for eternity to come. But He will rescue His people. 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9 says, You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich. This is the love of Christ for us. This is God's pain. for us, our Creator, the Lover of our souls. And this One who came was not only God, but we see secondly in our past as if God had manifested in the flesh. He was in the flesh. Jesus was fully human. In the same way that He was fully and truly God, and everything that it means to be God, Jesus is God. So too, in everything that means to be human, Jesus was human. Except for one thing. He didn't sin. 1 John 3 verse 5 tells us, you know that Jesus was manifested to take away our sins. And in Him, there is no sin. Jesus came in the flesh. But what does this word itself mean, the flesh? That Jesus came in the flesh? Let's seek to understand that. The flesh is something that, according to the religions that the Apostle Paul and Timothy saw, and that the people who first heard this gospel, the things they saw around them, the flesh, to the ancient Greek religions, was something that everybody knew had nothing to do with God. The gods were pure thinking, pure mind and logic and reasoning and knowledge, but they would never have anything to do with a body. To the Greeks, our body is just a prison cage for our souls, and what you're supposed to do is wait for yourself to die so your soul can be released from jail and live for eternity without your body. That's what we're looking forward to, according to these ancient religions. And so many of the modern religions of our world are based upon them. Religions like Islam, Jehovah's Witnesses, and many others have the same basic ideas that get these, that are not new, that get these ideas from them. You see, to them, for God to come in a body at Christmas, to say, There's nothing inherently wrong with being human. I will come and be human. To affirm that way of living and existing is a sin in their minds and in their ears. I've read statements in the Qur'an, the holy book of Islam. I've read statements that mention Christianity's teaching that God has come in the flesh and say this is a repugnant and disgusting idea. that God would never stoop so low as to dwell in a human body that would decay and corrupt and eventually die and turn back into ashes and dust. God could never do that, according to Islam. But to the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Holy Bible of the true gods, the answer is quite different. God entered human history in a very costly way. A way that brought real consequences. Physical consequences. The Son of God had to humble Himself to the point of living like one of His own creatures. Us, who are creating His image, are not obeying Him, are rebelling against Him, and He says, OK, I'm going to go down and do it for you. And He comes and walks in our shoes. in our flesh. As 1 Peter 4 verse 1 tells us, Jesus really did have flesh. He really did have a body. And he suffered in that flesh for us. You know, there's many people today who say Jesus was just like a ghost, or a figment of the imagination of all these other disciples. He really was a human. God came into flesh. For real. It's true. Think of the Christmas story itself. It's not a fairy tale. Jesus really was born. He was cold and he would have died that night unless they put swaddling clothes on him and laid him in a manger. It's true. He was a fragile newborn baby. Jesus went through all the physical events of life that every believer of God did in those times. He was circumcised, really physically circumcised. He ate, he drank, He met the Cypress. He really did. He slept. He cried. He made friends. He lost friends. Jesus is a human. How can we apply this to ourselves? Well, in many ways. First of all, by realizing the confidence we have that we believe in a real thing. based on rock-solid historical facts and evidence. Jesus existed. His life is recorded for all the world to see. It's not a secret. It's recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Anybody can pick him up and read them. Remember this, dear saints of God. Remember this. There are many people in the world who deny the clear gospel truth of our passage. They don't want God's secret to be unlocked today. The devil does not want people to know that God has revealed himself in the flesh of Jesus of Nazareth. The Jews, the Mormons, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the evolutionists, the Muslims, the New Age religion, the Wiccans, and many, many others, they do not want us to know the secret that God has already revealed to us. But just who do they think they are to pollute the gospel, to try to silence the perfect voice of God on this matter? They're fighting a losing battle, and we know God will judge them. But as for you and I, do not be deceived. Remember what God tells us in 1 John 4, verse 1, Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God. There are many false prophets that have gone out into the world. Here's how you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses and believes that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come into flesh is not of God. That's the spirit of the Antichrist, which we have heard was coming and is now already in the world. Almost 2,000 years ago, when John wrote his gospel, it was in the world, certainly in the world today. The Adult Sunday School class will be starting a new study soon, and everyone is welcome and invited to that. and they will be studying various cults and other religions, and comparing them with the Bible. And again and again, they're going to see, until they almost get, in a certain sense, bored, they shouldn't, but almost get bored with the idea, coming back again and again to the fact that, you know what? Jesus was God, and Jesus was man. Because Virtually every cult and false religion, that's the heart of the problem. It starts right there, and then it goes on into other things. The problem is not whether or not they celebrate Christmas, or will hang a flag out of their house. The problem is, who do they believe Jesus is? They deny that God has come in the flesh, as our Bible passage clearly declares to us. But what is the value to us of God coming in the flesh? So what, you might say? Well, of course there's value because we know that our religion is true, that you're in the right place today. There's value because we know our religion is not based on blind faith. Don't ever say that. You don't believe anything based on blind faith. You believe in a religion based on evidence of history. Your faith is based upon the facts that God has revealed to us. The real flesh and blood in the man Jesus. There's also value since God came to us in the flesh because now you and I have a mediator. Someone to stand between us, who are sinful, and the holy and perfect God. There's no better explanation of this than that that is found in the hybrid category Remind ourselves of that. What kind of mediator and redeemer, then, must we seek? One who is a true and righteous man, and yet more powerful than most creatures, one who is also a true God. But why even has to be a true and righteous man? Because God's justice requires that the same human nature which has sinned must make full satisfaction for that sinner. But one who is himself a sinner, of course, cannot satisfy for others, he can't even satisfy for himself. For why must this mediator also be true God? So that by the power of his Godhead, of his divinity, by that power, he can carry in his human nature the burden of God's wrath, and thus win for us, obtain for us, and restore to us righteousness and life. Who is that kind of mediator? Who in one person is true God and also a true and righteous man? None other than our Lord Jesus Christ, who is freely given to us for complete redemption and righteousness. Without that kind of mediator, what kind of hope do we have this Christmas? Or any kind of hope. There is no hope without that kind of mediator. We are in the flesh. We are so far from being able to win God's favor. that God had Himself come all the way down to our level, in the flesh, and live for us, in our place. Without His flesh and blood lived as our substitute, we have no life. We have no hope. That's the faith of the Christian. We proclaim that every time we celebrate the Lord's Supper. I need this flesh and blood offered for me. God came in that flesh to pay the penalty of sin for us. He also came in that flesh not only to pay sin's penalty, but to win the reward for obeying God. Because He obeyed for us perfectly. And that's what our Old Testament passage was about in Jeremiah 23 that we read in verse 5. Talking about that branch that is coming. A branch of righteousness. This day when Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell safely. And this is the name of that King. who will accomplish this. His name is the Lord, our Righteousness. That verse tells us about a permanent life that exists out there, that God brings to earth for his people. The Lord is our Righteousness. You and I can stand in God's presence because Jesus' Righteousness is perfect. You and I might say we have obeyed at this or another point for a specific split second of our life, but Christ's Righteousness is perfect. complete and can never be corrupted. The life He gives us is not just for a little while and then it's up to us to try to do our best to stay saved. No, it is the Lord who is our righteousness. We will dwell safely. We will always have a mediator to stand between us and the true God. Because He came to represent us like a lamb and a goat could never do. He is, in our own flesh, Jesus, the Christ. God was made flesh so that we'd have a meeting here. He's also made flesh so that you and I would have, would be called His brethren, would be in His family. He can relate to you and I on an intimate level. He can encourage us that we belong to Him. Now, God didn't have to come. to Earth, in order to be able to relate to us. He created us, He knows us, He can relate to everything we're going through, because He's God. But just like you might have a fellow Christian who knows all the right things to say and can give you advice on a certain situation, maybe there's another Christian who can say the exact same words, but because that other Christian has also been through some of the same experiences you're going through, you listen to that other Christian a little bit more, don't you? feel like they can relate to you better. And God, not that it was necessary, but in order to encourage us in our weak and creaturely state, came to earth, in the flesh, to touch us, to tell us He is our High Priest, who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He gives to us, verse 18, that Christ was tempted. You and I have temptations. He was tempted. He can help those. who are tempted. Where else are you going to look for help? You have all you need in Christ. We're also reminded today that we have a responsibility to serve God in our flesh. You see, God came in the flesh. Jesus has not rejected this way of existing and serving his kingdom. Unlike those ancient religions that said it was a sin to have a body, and the best you can do is get out of his body. God affirms our existence, the way he created us, as those who are body and soul in one person. You and I, as humans, do not become angels after this life in heaven. The Bible never says that. That's a good thing, because God doesn't love the angels. He created them, but he never died for them. He doesn't have to love them. But he loves you and me. He made us. In His own image, a privilege that the angels do not know. And God wants you and me to worship and obey Him with our fingers and toes, as well as with our minds and our hearts. And so He came in our flesh. Our faith unites our souls and our bodies to Christ, and it is in this flesh that we carry the effects and the benefits of Christ's death in this life as 2 Corinthians 4 tells us in verse 11, so that we carry about the effects of Christ's death in us, so that the life of Jesus also might be manifest in our mortal flesh. Do you love the Lord Jesus today? Do you pray to him today? Let the life of Christ work in you, in your flesh and blood, in this world. And it's only possible because God came in the flesh. So look at your body today, all of its blemishes and defects and wobbly knees and whatever it is, that body that you and I have right now, that's the body God has for you to use, to serve Him, to worship Him, to obey Him. God came in the flesh, and He wants you to serve Him with your flesh today. You see, there is value in God coming in the flesh. And there's value ultimately because God has answered our deepest longings when he came in the flesh. So what is our deepest longing? What is our great hope? But not in the first advent, rather the second advent, when Christ returns. How? As some spirit? As some catechism statement in the air? But no, in the same way he left, in a body, coming back from the clouds of heaven to his new kingdom. Job longed for that day. He knew there was no hope for him to be defended. He had done nothing wrong to deserve the terrible trial that God had sent upon him, but his wife was encouraging him to be bitter at God, his friends were accusing him, and he knew his only hope was in someone who would come in the flesh for him, to help him out. Job cried out to God above for help, real help, in his body as well as his soul. Job 19 verse 25 reads, I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on this earth. And after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh, this flesh, I shall see God, whom my eyes shall behold, and not another. God's secret is unlocked for us today. He loves us, body and soul, and came to earth in a body so that he could do so. He is our mediator. Our mediator is here. And that's the secret of Christmas opened up for us. You know, there's a lot of people who get all upset, fellow Christians who get all upset about whether or not we should say that we are Christmas shopping or holiday shopping. Or whether we are setting up a Christmas tree or a holiday tree. Or whether we should say Merry Christmas or a season's greetings. But amidst all of that, remember the Bible never talks about a Christmas tree. So we shouldn't get all hung up about what we call it either. And even if we say Merry Christmas, what does that mean? People don't understand what that means. either. Unless we were to use the words of the Bible. Words like we find in our texts. Words like, God came in the flesh. Try that tomorrow. Try that at work. Children, in your school projects. Your holiday projects. Try this out. Say, I got a Christmas secret! God came in the flesh. You can write that. You can do that. And we should. That's the message of Christmas. That's the secret. It was God that was seen in the flesh. That's why there's joy to the world. There's glory to the newborn King. That's why we have joy. Because when we look at who God is, and what He has done, and the glory that He receives, well, that's where our joy is found. In Him. Amen. Let us stand and pray. Almighty God and Father, we bow our hearts and knees before you in true humility, acknowledging that these bodies, for many of us, are much weaker than they used to be. And yet we are reminded that we are still those who belong to you. And you have made us who we are. And we are still the sheep of your pasture. And you desire that we use whatever strength and energy we have to serve and glorify you in this life, as well as in the world to come. We thank you that you have not rejected us to a sin-filled, chaotic world, but you came into this world in a miraculous way in a way that was real and true, and yet in a way that preserved your holiness and perfection, so that you could live as our substitute, and that we might have life when we look at your glory. Help us to have the courage to know this secret and share it to all whom we see. We pray as Jesus taught us, saying together, Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen.