Do You Hear What I Hear, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

We're in a new series for the whole month of December.

Christmas season is in full effect, full effect. Christmas lights

are up, Christmas trees are up, your stockings are up.

Eggnog is mixed in every single drink. Who drinks eggnog?

I do not know. It just smells really good, but

the fact that it's called egg nog, I just can't

get over. Anyway, it's mixing all the drinks. Christmas playlists

are playing everywhere you go. I said last week, Mariah

Carey has been fully unleashed on us. Some of you

are happy about that, some of you are not so much.

But when we hear these classic Christmas songs, what do

you hear? Do you hear Christmas? Or do you hear

christ in these songs? Do you hear snow falling and presents?

Family traditions, the Fat Man in the Red Suit, Santa Claus?

Or do you hear Jesus our Savior being born? The

series called Do you Hear What I Hear? And each

week what we're doing is we're grabbing a different Christmas

hymn or Christmas carol or song, and then we're going

to look at the scriptures that inspired these songs, and

that's what we're going to go to and dive into.

But the whole purpose of it is so that we

can see Christ in the Christmas songs. That's what we

want to see is Jesus in these Christmas songs. Do

you hear what I hear? Do you hear Christmas? Or

do you hear Christ? So before we actually get into it,

I want to pray and ask God to guide us

through our time and his words. So let's pray together. God,

we just thank you for this moment. We thank you

for your word what it does in our lives. God,

we thank you that as we read it, we learn

what you would have us understand, and we apply what

you'd have us apply. God. I pray that all the

words that I say up here, they're only your words.

If there are any of my words, God, let them

fall on deaf ears. But God, we just pray that

as we look at these Christmas songs, we would see

Christ in them, and we would see your word and

let it edify, challenge us and encourage us today. Thank

you for all this in Jesus' name. Everybody said, a men,

what is the opposite of peace? I think there's a

lot of ways to describe it. I know there's a

lot of ways to describe it because I looked up

antonyms for peace. Some of them are conflict or turmoil, distress, unrest,

worry or strife, discord, tension, disorder. But I think of

all the terms, my favorite one that I think covers

all of it is chaos. I think the opposite of

peace is chaos, complete disorder and confusion. Chaos is terrible.

I personally hate it. I hate chaos in any sense

of the word, in any part of my life. And

as much as I love the Christmas season, at times

it feels anything but peaceful, kind of slips into this chaos.

Schedule is jam packed full of Christmas events. We got

to go to. You have a list of Christmas presents

to buy? Pastor Jordan asked earlier. Has everyone gotten their

Christmas purchase? Is done? Are we still working on it?

Got one hand, sayd We're done. Okay, we got some

work to do, guys. There's this list of Christmas presents

we gotta buy. There's decorations to set up. Does anybody

else feel like it's just kind of utter chaos sometimes

around Christmas? Yeah, it's a little bit of chaos. Well,

when things are in chaos, it makes everything in life hard.

Everything in life is more difficult. Even the normal things

that we do every single day become more difficult. There's

things that would never be an issue or just normally

don't bother us, that are all of a sudden an issue.

I mean, maybe maybe you and your wife are getting

along just fine. Toss a little life chaos in the

mix and watch what happens. Now you're fighting over stupid

little things that don't actually matter or you didn't even

care about. Maybe you're the go to person at the office.

You're able to handle everything that needs to be done.

We'll add a little chaos in the mix. And now

my boss gives me one more thing, I'm going to

burn this place down. Okay, maybe not anyone else's felt

like that when life is in and chaos, or when

life is chaotic. Isn't that time we snap at our

kids the most I mean, my son comes up to me,

is all he wants to do is show me a

picture he colored or something he built out of legos.

Or maybe they're trying to tell us a story that

seems to have no end and is going nowhere. These

are all normal things that are not a big deal. Normally,

they're not a big deal until we're in the midst

of chaos. Chaos has us driving by a fire station

wondering how old is tool to drop off a kid.

That's probably a poor taste joke, but I'm sorry, Do

I know the answer? Oh gosh, But chaos makes it

feel like the ground we're standing on is just not stable,

like it's always moving. It's like you're the only illustration

I can think. It was like you're trying to run

on a waterbed. Anybody remember waterbeds. I'm an eighties baby,

so in the nineties, waterbeds are still a thing. It's

like a giant, thick water balloon. You can't and you

shouldn't run on one. My point in all of this

is that chaos affects every single aspect of your life.

It gets everywhere. But what about when things are at peace.

That's a lot different. Now the ground we're standing on

is firm and secure. We can handle life better. The

normal things are just normal. Everything feels at ease or safe, ordered, calm,

Everything feels right. This is what peace brings. This is

what peace does to our lives. So what we're talking

about today is the most important piece for us to have,

a core, central piece that affects every single area of

our lives, a piece that once we have it, we

can stand at ease and calm even in the midst

of a storm. Does anybody want that kind of peace?

It's the kind of peace I want. And the peace

I'm talking about is peace with the creator of all things,

Peace with the Almighty, Peace with God. Peace with God

brings about the peace of God. Let me say that again.

Peace with God brings about the peace of God. And

I want you to take your Bibles and turn to

Philippians chapter four. And if you do need a Bible,

we have a bunch of them on the resource desk

and a lobby. They're nice bibles. Take it, keep it.

We want you to have a Bible. Philippians chapter four.

We're talking about the peace of God. We're gonna be

reading just verse seven. And the peace of God, which

surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds

in Christ Jesus. And the peace of God, which surpasses

all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in

Christ Jesus. Being at peace with God brings a kind

of peace that we can't even fully comprehend. It doesn't

always make sense. A peace that guards our hearts and minds.

In Christ Jesus, even in the midst of a storm

and everything around us is falling into chaos, everything else

is just going chaotic, We're standing firm full of peace

because we have the ultimate and most important kind of peace,

and it's peace with God, our creator. But that begs

the question, how do I get that kind of peace?

How do I get peace with God? Surprise, surprise, the

answer is found in scripture, but also today's Christmas song

is pointing us right to it. Today's Christmas song is

Hark the Herald Angels sing. Hark the Herald Angels sing,

and this is a song about peace. So I want

to read through the lyrics together, starting in that first verse,

Hark the Herald Angels sing 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 the angelic hosts proclaimed Christ is born in Bethlehem,

and the refrain Hark the Herald Angels sing glory to

the new born King Christ, by highest Heaven, adored Christ,

the Everlasting Lord. Late in time, behold him, come offspring

of the Virgin's womb, veiled in flesh, the god Head.

See Hail the incarnate Deity, pleased with us and flesh

to dwell. Jesus Our Immanuel. Hail the heaven born Prince

of Peace. Hail the Sun of righteousness, Light and life

to all he brings, risen with healing in his wings, mild.

He lays his glory by born, that we no more

may die, Born to raise us from the earth, Born

to give us second birth. Those are great lyrics. This

song is full of so many verse references it's not

even funny. I'm not gonna go through every single one

of them. What I did was I grab about the

biggest ones I think help get us to the heart

of what this song is really about. But the main

point I need us to understand today as we march

through these lyrics and through the scriptures that inspired them.

The main point is the answer to where we get

peace with God is Peace between God and man is

found in the new born King Jesus. Peace between God

and Man is found in the newborn King Jesus. There

is no other place to get peace with God. It's

only through Ga And this is what the angels singing

in the sky above the fields to the shepherds when

Jesus was born. This is what this song is telling us.

You guys, ready to get into it? All right? We're

gonna start with the first verse, which is also the

refrain hark the Herald angels sing glory to the new

born King. First off, I'm reading this. I was having

a great conversation with my sister yesterday at the house.

I was like, do you even know what hark means?

Because it is one of her favorite Christmas songs. She's like, actually, no,

hark is just an old word that says listen. That's

all it means. Heark means listen. So a song starts

off with the refrain, which is an emphatic call for

you to listen up, listen, Listen to the messenger angels,

Listen to what they sing, and what do they sing?

Glory to the newborn King. And this actually comes from

Luke chapter two. So I want you to go ahead

and start turning there. Luke chapter two. I was gonna

make a joke and say we should be familiar with this.

But then I realized, Luke chapter two, we preached it

like one hundred years ago, so maybe we're not. This

will be a good reminder for us. But in Luke

chapter two, Jesus had just been born in Bethlehem. And

then there were some shepherds who areut in the field,

and an angel shows up and he gives them a message.

So I mean Luke chapter two, starting in verse eight,

and in the same region, there were shepherds out in

the field keeping watch over their flock by night, and

an angel the Lord appeared to them, and the Angel

of the Lord shone around them, excuse me, and the

glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were

filled with great fear. It's a very normal response when

angels show up in the Bible. Verse ten, 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, how many of the people, all of them,

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 he wrapped in swaddling cloths 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. That's amazing. These shepherds

are out here in the field at night, tending to

the flocks, and an angel brings them some extremely good

news that Christ the Lord has been born, the Savior

has been born. And then all of a sudden, the

multitude of heavenly hosts show up, and they begin to

praise God, Glory to God in the Highest and on earth,

Peace among those with whom He is pleased. And I

don't know, I don't know the last time he read

Hebrews eleven, but if you remember verse six, it says,

and without faith, it is impossible please him. For whoever

would draw near to God must believe that He exists

and that He rewards those who seek him. These angels

are singing that peace comes to those who God is

pleased with. And we're going to see through our time

today in the scriptures that we're reading that it's through

faith in Jesus that God is pleased. It's through faith

in Jesus that we please God and that we receive

this amazing peace that he has to offer. So it's

this luke too moment here that this song is singing about.

We're out in the field where these shepherds are doing

their job and the angels show up. This is this

moment in history the song is singing about. But it

wasn't only the shepherds who knew this good news. It

wasn't only the shepherd who found out. In Matthew chapter

two we read about the wise men who came to

visit Jesus. We remember the wise men, right, It's in

every intativity scene you see everywhere. But look what they

said Matthew two, verses one and two. Now, after Jesus

was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod,

the king behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying,

where is he who is born King of the Jews.

For we saw his star when it rose and have

come to worship him. Glory to the new born what king,

the King of the Jews. They have come to worship

the King of the Jews, the new born King Jesus.

So this first part of the song the refrain, listen

to the angels that sing glory to the new born King.

But this word glory isn't just a simple word we

should pass by. No, this word glory is an active word.

It means to honor God and to remote his glory,

specifically among men. It's our praise, our worship, our thanksgiving,

all of it offered to God. That's what it means

to glory in or to give glory. And this is

not a private thing. It's a public thing. But we're

gonna talk about that a little bit more as we

continue on in the rest of the song. So this

verse continues, peace on earth and mercy, mild, God and

sinners reconciled. This is my personal favorite part of the

entire song. There's now peace on earth and gentle mercy.

But why or how is that possible? There's peace because

God and sinners have been reconciled. That's what it's saying.

There's now peace, and that peace is that God and

sinners have been reconciled, and this peace was brought about

by the Cross. I want you to look at Colossians

chapter one, if you can turn there real quick, just

two verses verses nineteen and twenty. It is interesting having

one hundred verses to look at, because you're gonna learn

your Bibles real good in this series Colossians Chapter one,

verses nineteen and twenty. For in him, him being Jesus,

all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and

through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on

earth or in heaven. Making peace by the blood of

his cross. That's how the peace came about, making peace

by the blood of his cross. It's through Jesus blood,

his death on the cross, that he has reconciled us

to him. It's through Jesus blood that we have peace

with God. It's through Jesus blood. And this is the

same message that we're called to give. In Second Corinthians five,

we've been given the ministry of reconciliation. It says as

though God were making his appeal through us. So we're

told to implore people. Implore means to beg them. I'm

begging you be reconciled to God. That's the message we

were given. And reconciliation is only accomplished through faith in

the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. Our reconciliation

is only accomplished through faith in the finished work of

Jesus on the Cross. And I think the clearest place

that we see this in scripture talking about this reconciliation

that we have and how we God is in Romans

chapter five. So I want you to turn there, Romans

chapter five. This is fantastic thing for us to understand

and know as a foundational truth for us as believers.

And we're gonna read the first eleven verses Romans chapter five,

one through eleven. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith,

we have what we have peace with Who, with God

through our Lord Who. That's important to know. We have

peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him,

we have also obtained access by faith into this grace.

So faith's important in which we stand and we rejoice

in hope of the glory of God. Not only that,

but we rejoice in our well that can't be right, sufferings.

Not only that we were yep, that's what it says.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing

that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character

produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame,

because God's love has been poured into our hearts through

the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Verse six.

For while we were still weak at the right time,

Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die

for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person

one would dare even to die. But God shows his

love for us, and that while we were still sinners.

While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since

therefore we have now been justified by His blood, how

much more shall we be saved by Him from the

wrath of God? Verse ten. For if while we were enemies,

excuse me, for if while we were enemies, we were

reconciled to God by the death of his son, much

more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved

by His life? In Verse eleven. More than that we

also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through

whom we have now received what reconciliation. It's through Jesus

Christ that we receive reconciliation, peace on earth and mercy

mild God and sinners reconciled through Jesus Christ's death on

the cross for sin, God reconciled as people to himself,

and I love this to be reconciled. It's just to

be restored to favor with God, to be restored to

favor with God. But more specifically, it's the restoration of

the favor of God to sinners that repent and put

their trust in expiatory. It's a big word between sin

atoning death of Christ. That's what it means to be reconciled.

We're no longer his enemies. We go from an enemy

to a son and a daughter of the Living God.

That's amazing. There's now peace between sinful man and Holy

God for all those who put faith in or believe

in Jesus. Just like Romans five told us, this news

should lead to our rejoicing, even in the midst the suffering,

that we would do what the song says, the song

that we're singing to rise up joyfully joining in the

triumphant song sung in the skies, the song that is

proclaimed by the angels, singing Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Look at the rest of this first verse. Joyful, all

ye nations. That just means people from everywhere rise join

the triumph of the skies with the angelic host proclaimed

Christ is born in Bethlehem. So this verse verse really

is just setting up a basic truth. It's setting up

a foundation of truth. The Christ, the King has been born.

God and sinners have been reconciled, and now there is

peace on earth. And then there's this call to join

in the proclamation of the angels. Well, the next verse

shifts a little bit into talking about how Jesus, our

Everlasting Lord, has come to dwell with his people as

a man. Let's look at that verse. Christ by highest

Heaven adored Christ, the everlasting Lord. Jesus Christ is the

everlasting Lord who is adored by all of Heaven. And

I like Hebrews won six says and again when he

brings the Firstborn into the world, he says, let all

God's angels worship him. We see that happening right here.

I mean, you're reading Revelation. You're gonna see it again.

It's kind of all over the Bible that we worship

the angelic hosts of Heaven worship Jesus. He is the

everlasting Lord. And look at what the angel told Mary

in Luke chapter one. Again, going way back to the

beginning of Luke, verses thirty through thirty three and the

Angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for

you have found favor with God. And behold, you will

conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you

shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and

will be called the Son of the Most High, and

the Lord God will give to him the throne of

his father David. Means he comes in the line of David,

and he will reign over the house of Jacob, that's

Israel and the people of God, and his kingdom, and

of his kingdom there will be no end. That means

forever Jesus is the everlasting Lord. His reign will be forever,

his kingdom will have no end. And then the song

goes on to say late in time, which means at

the opportune time or just the right time, behold him

come offspring of the virgin's womb. And this is a

reference to Galatians four. So if we look at Galatians four,

you don't need to turn there. I'll put it on

the screen, or Trevor will put it on the screen

for us, because I'm not controlling anything up there verses

four and five. But when the fullness of time had come,

when the fullness of time had come. God sent forth

his son, born of a woman, born under the law,

to redeem those that were under the law, so that

we might receive adoption as sons. So at just the

right time, the perfect time, God sent his son Jesus

into the world. And that's just like what we read

in Romans five. At just the right time, Jesus also

died for us. Everything God does is it exactly the

right time. Everything God does is at exactly the right time.

It may not match what we want in our time,

but it's all according to His plans and his purposes,

and it is perfect. This heaven adored and everlasting Lord

was born of the virgin Mary. He came in the flesh,

but he's not just a man. He's the living incarnate God,

says veiled in flesh, the god Head. See hail the

incarnate Deity, pleased with us in flesh to dwell Jesus,

our Emmanuel. We see God in the person of Jesus.

We see God in the person of Jesus. He's the

incarnate God. He's God incarnate. The Bible says, he's the

radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint

of his nature in Jesus, all the fullness of God

was pleased to dwell. And when Philip asked Jesus, he's

like to show them the Father. Look at how Jesus responded,

I love this. This is John fourteen eight and nine.

Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father. And

it's enough for us to show us the Father. That'll

be enough. Then we'll believe you. Jesus said to him,

Have I been with you so long and you still

do not know who me? Have I been with you

so long and you still do not know me? Philip,

whoever has seen me has seen the Father? How can

you say, show us the Father? That seems like such

like you know, you got a little brother's making a

dumb decision. That's what it feels like, Just like, how

can you say, show us the Father? He's like, have

you seen me? You've seen the Father. If you've seen Jesus,

you've seen God. Because Jesus is God, Jesus is God.

Say with me, Jesus is God, he is all that

the Father is in the sun. Jesus is God. This

is the doctrine of the Trinity, One God in three persons,

All three persons in the Godhead are God. The Father

is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit

is God. We don't have time, but there's so many

verses I want to go to just kind of dig

into this. We can talk about it after service. I

would love to. But Jesus is the incarnate deity, incarnate

in the flesh, deity God, God in the flesh. And

it pleased him to dwell in the flesh as a

man with mankind pleased him. It's part of his plan.

It's what he wanted. He is Emmanuel, which means God

with us or with us is God. And John explains

this beautifully in the first chapter of his Gospel. So

I want you to turn to John chapter one. John

Chapter one, it's the fourth gospel book of the New Testament.

The first five verses say, in the beginning was the word,

say word, Did you guys know us as a capital W?

And the beginning was the word and the word say

word was with word up, that's the word, you know.

And the word was with God, and the word was

what and the word was God. He was in the

beginning with God. Whoa It says he he was talking

about the word. Now says he he was in the

beginning with God. Verse three, All things were made through him. Okay,

so we're seeing a personification here. Now we're not talking

about just a word. Let's talking about a someone, a hymn.

All things were made through him, and without him was

not anything made. That was made in him was life,

and the life was the light of men. The light

shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

So John talks about this word, and he this word God,

and then he takes a moment here to talk about

John the Baptist coming to bear witness to the light.

It's very awesome and important. But then he goes back

to talking about this word. So I want you to

look at what he says in verse fourteen. So there's

look of forward a few verses. And the word became

flesh and dwelt among us. And the word became flesh

and dwelt among us. And we have seen his glory

glory as the one or the only son from the

Father full of grace and truth. That's who this word is,

this word, the one that was in the beginning, who

was with God but also was God. That word became

flesh and dwelt among us. That's Jesus, that's our Emmanuel,

that is God with us. It's Jesus Christ, the everlasting Lord,

who came at the perfect time from the Virgin Mary

and took on flesh to dwell among his people. It's

this is singing. I want you to hear this song

differently every time you hear it. It's not just a

fun Christmas song, no, it is it's a thick boy.

When theologically speaking, I allowed to say that on stage.

I might get corrected by the other elders for that one.

But in this verse there's actually one word I skipped over,

and that is the word hail. I'm not talking about

frozen rain from the sky. So can we put that

verse back up on the screen? Veiled in flesh the

Godhead see hail the incarnate deity. What does it mean

to hail someone? The definition of hale is to express greeting,

to bid welcome, or to wish well, or to acclaim.

And I stopped and I was like, well, a claim?

What is like? What does that mean? And so I

look up the word a claim and it says to

claim someone or something is to praise enthusiastically and publicly.

How cool is that to praise enthusiastically and publicly. So

this Christmas carol is calling for people to welcome Jesus,

to welcome him and praise him enthusiastically and publicly. That

sounds a lot like how believers are just supposed to be,

isn't it. We're the salt and the light of the earth.

We are supposed to bring flavor to the flavorless, and

we're supposed to bring light to the darkness. You don't

hide a light once you light it, you don't it's purpose, say,

is it's to shine, to bring light to dark spaces.

Like a city set on a hill, everyone can see it.

There's no way to hide a city on a hill.

The Christian life is meant to be on display for

all to see. It was never meant to be a

secret that we follow Jesus. A secret Christian just is

just not the assumption of scripture. So hail the incarnatediity

to praise him enthusiastically and publicly. And the last verse

continues this call to hail Jesus. We look at verse three,

Hail the heaven born Prince of Peace. Hail the Son

of Righteousness, Light and life to all he brings risen

with healing in his wings. Jesus is the Prince of Peace,

and he is the Son of righteousness. We see this

in Isaiah. Don't worry about turning there. I'll put it

on the screen again. This is Isaiah nine six and seven.

For to us a child is born, to us, a

son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders,

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 uphold it with justice and with righteousness. From

this time fourth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord

of Hosts will do this. So this says a child

will be born. But did you see all the names

that he would be called, wonderful counselor Mighty God, Everlasting Father,

Prince of Peace. This is no ordinary child. This is

not a regular child. This is Jesus it's talking about.

So not only is he all those things, those names,

but he's also the son of righteousness. What is that?

That comes from Malachi chapter four, and it says for behold,

the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all

the arrogant and all evil doers will be stubble. Oh

that's hard. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze,

says to Lord of Hosts, so that it will leave

them neither root nor branch. But for you who fear

my name, the Son of Righteousness shall rise with healing

in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves

from the stall. I'd never been happy to be called

a cow before. But this verse is speaking or these

verses are speaking of both God's judgment and wrath and

also his healing and his forgiveness. The one who fears

the Lord who turns to him for salvation, knowing that

he's the only one who can give it. You turn

to the Lord for salvation. They're the ones who escape

the wrath and judgment of God, and instead they receive

forgiveness and healing. Now that sounds a lot like peace.

Jesus is the son of righteousness that brings healing, and

the kind of healing he brings is the last two

lines of the third verse. This song mild, he lays

his glory by and just kind of to break that

down real quick, is gent mild, gentle, and humble. He

sets his glory aside, which reminded me of Philippians two

five through eight. Have this in mind among yourselves, which

is yours in Christ. Jesus, who though he was in

the form of God, did not count equality with God

a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking

the form of a servant, being born in the likeness

of men and being found in human form. He humbled

himself by being obedient to the point of death, even

death on a cross. That's that's a whole other level

of obedience. But humbly Jesus set aside his own glory.

And the verse continues, born that we no more may die,

born to raise us from the earth, born to give

us second birth. And there's two verses that I want

to look at to kind of talk about this last

part because it is so theoloige logically rich, like it

is so jam packed with the truth of God. It's awesome,

but it's talking about our resurrection from the dead and

our being born again. I think you should still probably

be in John and your Bible, So flip over a

few pages. Let's go to John chapter eleven, and we'll

read verses twenty five through twenty seven. Jesus said to her,

I am the Resurrection and the life. When I take

verses like a piece of text, out, go back and

read the whole thing. This is so awesome to read

it all. But I kind of honing in here just

for the sake of time. But Jesus said to her,

I am the Resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me,

though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who

lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you

believe this? He said to him, Yes, Lord, I believe

that you are the Christ, the Son of God who

is coming into the world. Jesus was born that we

no more may die, that even though our body may die,

we will be resurrected to eternal life. There was you

know that you only live once. Thing. There's an old

rapper who said, I don't know why we've got a

Christian saying you only live once. It should be dolo

die once, live on, because we're going to live forever.

Jesus was born so that we no more may die.

We will be resurrected to eternal life. Those who will

put faith in Jesus, who believe in him. Though he die,

yet shall he live. It's the resurrection. The second verse

I want to look at is actually in First Peter.

So you can turn to First Peter and it'll be

right there in the first chapter. This is speaking of

the born again part, the second birth part of this

verse one Peter, Chapter one, verses three through five. Blessed

be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to

be born again to a living hope through the resurrection

of Jesus Christ from the dead. He has caused us

to be born again to a living hope through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance

that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who,

by God's power are being guarded through faith for a

salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Man,

that's good news right there. By God's mercy, he has

caused us to be born again, to be born anew

that means to be made a new creation or a

new creature. We're given a new nature, We're regenerating, We're

given a brand new heart, new desires, he replaces all

of it. We are completely different, and we have an

inheritance that's waiting for us. That's awesome, an inheritance as

a child of the Living God. Rich people leave in

inheritances for their children. God's pretty rich. The inheritance we

get from being a child of the Living God is

greater than any other inheritance ever because we are resurrected

to life. This is why Jesus laid aside his own

glory and was born into the world as a man

to save mankind. He did it to save mankind, to

cause us to be born again so that we can

be resurrected and live with him forever, to bring peace

between God and man, to fix the problem that brings

separation between God and man so we are no longer

his enemies. You got to remember the state that we

are in before we are saved is that enmity with God.

And our main point for today was what is that?

Peace between God and man is found in the newborn

King Jesus, And can I have the worship team come up?

Peace between God and man is found in the new

born King Jesus. What separates us from God is sin.

Sin is what brings that separation. Sin is why we

deserve judgment and hell, that's why we deserve it. Sin

is what puts us at enmity with God. It's what

makes us his enemies. And without faith in Jesus, I'm

still in my sins. Without faith and Jesus, I still

stand in my pre salvation station or position as an

enemy of God, and my sins, I'm still his enemy.

My life is still in chaos. There is still separation

between me and God. There is no peace between me

and God. There's only one way to fix that, one

way to bring peace between us sinful beings and a

holy God. To fix the separation between us. The only

way to get the kind of peace that permeates through

every area of our lives, the kind of peace that

lets us weather any storm. This peace we're talking about

when we started talking through the message today, then no

matter what's happening around us or going on around us,

that we're not shaken where we stand on firm ground.

The only way to get that kind of peace is

to have peace with God. Peace with God brings about

the peace of God, and the only way we get

that is by putting faith in Jesus because the truth is,

if I'm good with God, if I'm peace with Him

and my eternity is set, what else truly matters? If

my eternity is set, what else actually matters? What do

I have to be worried about? What do I have

to be anxious about? What can man do to me

other than speed my journey on to see the Lord.

We drove as a family to Silverwood, Idaho, to go

to a theme park. It was fun. It was a

really long drive. If you know me, I hate driving.

If I know the end destination is something good, I

can weather anything on the way there. Everything else will

begin to melt away. When I have peace with Christ.

The things that used to bother me, they don't bother

me anymore. The fears that I've had are dispelled. If

I'm good with God, everything else is good. And if

you don't believe me, I don't think you truly understand

what it means to be the enemy of God. And

this is it's sobering. I don't think you fully truly

understand what you were saved from the cross, the crucifixion

of Jesus, what we saw Jesus go through, all the revilings,

the ridiculing the being whipped by a cat of nine tails,

all of the lashes being nailed to across, being hung

there until he's suffocated to death. That's a glimpse of

the wrath of God. That's what we were saved from.

That's what we deserved. That's a picture of the wrath

of God. We need to truly understand what we were

saved from, what we actually now have peace, because if

we truly understood it, everything else would be a lot

less important. I say, there's only two things in life,

the matter I'm going to heaven and who's coming with me.

Everything else really should not be that important, because eternity

is what matters. Set your mind on things above, not

the things below on the temporal. Set your mind on

the eternal things, not the here and the now. Everything

else should pale in comparison in importance. If I'm good

with God, everything else is good. And if that's the case,

what should we do. I think we should do what

the song says, Give glory to the newborn King Jesus,

to hail the incarnate Deity, to hail the Prince of Peace,

to hail the Son of Righteousness, to honor the Lord

and promote his glory among men, to publicly praise the

Lord enthusiastically. I think that's what we should do. We

should answer the call of the song. We should join

in the song of the angels and give praise to

our King Jesus. Everywhere we go, everywhere sing the praises

of our Savior and King Jesus. We have every single

reason to worship and praise him, every single reason. He's

done the most impossible thing, the thing that we are

one hundred percent powerless to fix our problem with him.

He did that for us. Through Jesus, we have peace

with our creator. The sin that makes us deserving of

his wrath is removed. It's forgiven. The Bible says, as

far as the east is from the west, we are

washed from the red of crimson to white as snow.

Our sins are gone, past, present and future. We are forgiven,

and we get to stand in His favor. We get

to receive everlasting life and peace us undeserving sinners, man, bad,

God good. And that is worth praising Jesus with every

breath we have for the rest of eternity. So I

want us to look at Luke chapter two again. I'll

put on the screen. If you guys want to turn

there you can. But Luke Chapter two, the Song of

the Angels for unto you is born this day in

the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this will be the sign for you, or be

a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in

swaddling clods 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.

So put faith in Christ, our Savior, and be at

peace with God, because there is no other way. Then

give glory to God, give him the glory, sing his

praises to the world for the peace that He has

brought you. Amen. Can you guys stand to your feet, please,