And that brings us, doesn't it, to big happenings, big events in the Bible. Just trying to see, you know, the big themes. Keep them in our thinking so when we're in the detailed parts, thinking where does this all fit in, we can see its context and get a bigger picture. Well, it doesn't get any bigger, does it, than today. because we've come through the Old Testament, and we've now reached the big happening, which was, well, it was Christmas, wasn't it? Of our Lord Jesus Christ, and all that he was then gonna do, because we know that in coming, well, he came in order to do all the things that he was going to do in his 33 years of life here on the earth. don't come bigger than this. Big events don't come bigger than this one. And all the Old Testament, all of its detail, all of the things which you perhaps don't always quite fully understand or see how that fits with that and what's this saying to us here, always, always read it in the light of this big event of Jesus Christ coming. So, All of the things that went wrong, isn't it? The Old Testament is just full of things that went wrong. The fall, man's disobedience bringing the flood, the failure of Israel, disobedience in the wilderness, the exiles being sent from the Northern Kingdom into Assyria, mostly vanished, the Southern King going into Babylon, Failure, failure, failure. And to go with that failure, all the sacrifices that had to be made and offered, and the law that was given at Sinai which nobody could keep, and so you had to have the sacrifice of all the blood offerings, all of that happening repeated, repeated. Ah, but there was always a promise, wasn't there? The Prophet's making those promises. So here it all happens. How does all the failure get remedied? How do you put all of that behind you? Well, that's the coming of Christ, isn't it? Birth, which was then leading to his life, which was then leading to his death, and his sacrifice, and his blood. There's communion we're gonna have, isn't it? Because that's telling us that's the big event. And all of that failure, that is really just summing up mankind's failure. It wasn't just Israel, it's everybody's failure. it can be put right. And we can have a right standing with God because of the big event, Jesus Christ's coming. So whatever you're reading in the Old Testament, failure. All the prophets I'm reading, Hosea at the moment, oh, the failures, the things that he's having to say, all the things that are going wrong. You read quite a lot of the prophets, oh, look at this, and heathen nations and their behavior, oh, look at this, and there's supposedly God's people, look what they're doing. Well, it all gets put right at the cross, coming of Christ. It's going to remedy what man is quite incapable of being, which is a person that can love God and serve God. We need remedy, and there's the remedy. So all that failure right from the beginning when Adam and Eve failed, it's all now going to be put right. All the damage undone, all the failure put back. We can now have such a relationship with God It makes whatever they had in the Old Testament look small by comparison. We have so, so much more because he came. But then you think to yourself, well, there was Adam right at the beginning and he was able, he was able to obey the law, but he disobeyed and brought sin. What if there can be a second Adam? or a last Adam, who will be able to obey the law, do it really, really well, do it in a way that is just so, so perfect. And if he could obey it and live according to it in the way that Adam didn't, he failed, then you'd have somebody who has lived through all of the temptations, and whereas Israel failed, just like Adam failed, he will succeed. Well, he would be good, because then God would have to say to that person, you have lived just as I wanted you to. You please me. You, I can look on as righteous. You please me. But what if that person, that statement from God, you please me, could then be put onto the people that he was living on behalf of and then dying on behalf of? so that then God could say to those people, you please me, you're my beloved. He did that, didn't he? So he came, he lived where we had failed, where Adam failed, where everybody else failed. He succeeded and he pleased God just in and through himself, just in who he was. Of course, that perfect life was a perfect sacrifice. And he needed to be, well, we're going to rule now, we had quite a bit of this at Christmas, but he needed to be God, and he needed to be man. He needed to be a proper second Adam. So he was. Perfect humanity, succeeding where Adam failed. Oh, and God as well. And all the Old Testament have been saying, if you read it carefully, the person to come is going to be God, And man, don't be surprised when he came that that's who he was, what the Pharisees were. They didn't read the Bible carefully enough, did they? The Lord Jesus had to give them a few lessons in how to understand the Old Testament. So we've got all that we need in him. And so there it is. There's the Old Testament, great, showing us what's to come, what's to come, but showing us, oh, man fails. Here he is, he's arrived now. now remedy for our sin, remedy for our relationship with God, our remedy that here we are as unrighteous, not pleasing God, but he did by his life and God is able to transfer that well done that he says to his son even onto us now. And that is why we say this is such, such good news. Happy New Year. Well, dear friends, Happy New Year. Any that want to hear that, Happy New Year. Can't think of anything better to tell you at the beginning of the new year than about the big event, which is God coming into the world in his son. May he bless all of us into this year. If you don't know him yet, oh, well, my dear friend, hurry, hurry. Don't waste a moment longer lingering in sin or doubt or uncertainty or wondering if. tell you this most perfect sentence and will bring you into an everlasting relationship with God and there's nothing, nothing better in the whole world than that for time and eternity. So may he bless our new year, each and every one of us.