Humanity

Good morning, Good News Church. Good morning. We are finishing our series,

Characters at Christmas, today. So we started it two weeks ago.

And the first set of characters we learned about was the Shepherds.

So week one was Shepherds.

Week two was last week, and it was the Magi. And then this week is Us.

So we got Shepherds, Magi, Us. And if you kind of think about it in that order,

and if someone were to ask you which one doesn't fit in the list,

I think it would be this one, right?

You'd go, wait a minute, how is Us? How did we get into a Christmas story?

Mario, I bought a nativity set, and it definitely had shepherds.

I could tell because the little dude was there holding sheep.

And it had magi because there was three guys, and they all were holding a gift in their hand like this.

But there was no us in the nativity set, Mario. What do you mean us?

So the idea that we are related to the Christmas story is something that has

already really been hinted at in the first two sermons of the series and the

passages that we learned in the first two sermons. You may not have caught it,

but I'm going to remind you of it now.

Now, last week's sermon, when we learned about the Magi, one of the things we

talked about was the significance that these guys very, very,

very likely were Gentiles coming to Jesus and worshiping him as king. Do you remember that?

And one of the points that we learned last week was that Jesus is not just for the Jews, right?

But he's the king of everyone. And one of the passages that we looked at last

week was the way that Matthew ends his gospel, where he quotes Jesus as saying this.

Jesus said, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me,

right? So he claimed not just to be the king of the Jews, but the king of the whole world.

All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me and then he said in

light of that therefore, go and make disciples of what did he say next?

All nations that's the us in the Christmas story that's the us in the gospel,

that's our part in this that he was saying you need to go I am not just the

king of these people I'm the king of everyone everybody needs to follow me everybody

needs to worship me go tell everybody who does not know yet that's the us we're in the all nations.

It was also hinted at in the first sermon of this series. If you go back to

the shepherd story, you may remember that an angel appears to shepherds.

And the angel says, today a Savior has been born.

The Savior, who is Messiah, the Lord, has been born for you. Do you remember that?

So he says he's been born for you. And if we were trying to interpret, what does that mean?

Who's the for you in that sentence? If all we knew was that one sentence,

we might think that born for you meant born for the shepherds, right?

Because that's who the angel was talking to. So I guess, you know,

a savior has been born for shepherds.

However, if you were to look at everything the angel said, it would be really

clear that the us is much more broad than just shepherds.

Because the sentence that came just before that was the one where the angel

said, I bring good news of great joy that will be for, what's the next part? All people.

This is good news for all people. So you know what that is?

That's us, right? We are part of all people.

So this was already hinted at that we have some role to play in this story in

the first two sermons. We're going to look at some more stuff today.

I will point out to you in the Christmas songs that we sing,

these characters are all found, all the characters we've covered,

shepherds, magi, and us.

Shepherds are found in, I think, multiple Christmas songs, okay?

Silent Night is one of them. Anybody know the second verse of Silent Night?

It says Silent Night, Holy Night, Shepherds Quake at the Sight.

Have you ever sang that part?

Yeah, the shepherds got into Silent Night somehow, right? Because they were

in the story, so they put them in the song.

The wise men are also in the Christmas songs, the most famous one being We Three Kings of Orient Are.

But what about us? Like, where are we in the Christmas songs?

Like, do they recognize that there's an us? And they do, okay?

If you look at the Christmas songs, I'll point out one that maybe is a little

cryptic, but I think we're in there.

It's O Come, O Come, Emmanuel. O Come, O Come, Emmanuel says,

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel.

So there's this calling, God, please come here. That's what Emmanuel means, God with us.

God, come here and ransom captive Israel.

And I think that's interesting. there's a couple ways you can take Israel there.

In one sense, you can just take it as literally true.

It literally matches the Christmas story, that Israel was captive by the Roman

Empire at the time that Jesus shows up for that first Christmas.

So we are saying, God, come with us. So it's Israel, God's people are saying,

God, come be with us as we are captive here in the Roman Empire.

And the next line, it's, O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel,

who mourns in lonely exile here until the son of God appear.

And so the idea here is at the very least Jewish people. Okay.

And that's, I guess that's not all of us yet, but at the very least,

we know that there's this one nation, Israel, who is mourning in lonely exile

until the son of God appears.

Now, is that us? Well, I think in some ways that's not us because that's just

telling the story of what happened.

But in a lot of ways, you can also say that song was written,

written way later because in principle

it applies to us that Israel is representative of the people of God.

In fact, you can be a part of like Israel. You can spiritually,

the book of Galatians says you can be one of Abraham's children,

one of Abraham's children spiritually by believing in his descendant Jesus.

And so all of us are God's people who are, and this is true,

before Jesus comes into our life, before Jesus appears, we mourn in lonely exile.

Like mourn meaning that things are not good right it's more me sad lonely means like apart from God and,

Exile is like under the discipline of God rather than under the blessing of

God, right? That was the situation for Israel.

And that's the situation for all of God's people until the Son of God appear.

Until the Son of God comes into your life, that's the situation.

We mourn in lonely exile.

Now, if you say, well, I don't know, you had to like really twist that,

Mario. Okay, let me do one that's real obvious, okay? One that just says it

very plainly with no codes.

Oh, Holy Night. You know that song? Sort of popular, okay?

Oh, Holy Night's a really big song and it's a holy night. The stars are brightly shining.

It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. And there's a line in the song you've

probably heard where it says, Long lay, what's the next two words?

The world in sin and error pining till he appeared.

So what that song is claiming, okay, it's definitely talking about us.

It says, Long lay the world.

Okay, it's not long lay Israel, right? It's long lay the world in sin and error pining.

We are certainly a part of the world. In fact, when it says the world,

I don't think it's just talking about like rocks and stuff. It's saying the people in the world.

For a long period of time, the people of the world were in a particular condition.

And that's why it says long lay, okay? Because it was a long time,

thousands of years. For a long time, the people of this world were in a condition of what?

Sin and error pining is what the song says. Now, we know what sin is.

That's when we do things wrong. And we know what error is. That's when we think things wrong.

But what is pining, okay? When is pine ever used as a verb?

Like almost never, okay? This song was written back in the 1800s.

I guess people were talking about, they just used pine as a verb all over the place back then.

But not anymore, so I had to look it up, okay?

Do you, anybody know, you guys know what pining means? Okay,

yes, oh, what does it mean? Who said yes really loudly over here?

Oh, very good. All right. I should have expected you would notice.

She knows all the things. Okay. So pining is a word that means,

it does mean yearning for, but also there's a negative aspect of it.

It's like wasting away while you're yearning for.

Okay. Like there's this thing that you want and you are like languishing and

withering until that thing comes.

And so when a holy night is saying, when a holy night says long lay the world

in sin and error pining, It's saying the condition that we were in is because

of our sin, we were spiritually withering, languishing away until the Savior

came, until he appeared.

So what is the us in the Christmas story according to a holy night?

The us is we are in this miserable condition, languishing until he appears.

Now, those are just song lyrics, okay?

So, I mean, I guess if we're in church and this is a sermon,

we probably need to do more than just look at song lyrics, right?

We should probably check and see, does that match the Bible?

Like, a holy night may say that that is the condition of us before Jesus shows

up that first Christmas or before Jesus shows up into your life.

But does the Bible say that or is that just something somebody wrote in a song?

So let's go ahead and look at what Scripture has to say about this.

We'll see if it's right or not.

Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2. If you have your Bible with you,

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

turn to Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to go to two passages this morning.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

One's going to be sort of a short one, and then one's going to be a longer one.

So we'll start with a shorter one. Ephesians chapter 2. I'm going to start reading in verse 1.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

This is a letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians, and he's talking to them

about their life before they came to know Jesus. This is kind of like before he appeared.

Not so much the Christmas before he appeared, although that certainly would

apply. This is how things were before he came at Christmas.

But really, before he comes into the life of anyone, there is a particular condition that you're in.

Okay, so this is the description. Ephesians chapter two, starting in verse one.

And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you previously walked.

Okay, so you can tell he's talking about something that was true of them in the past, right?

Because he's got the past tense. You were dead, not you are dead,

or you're gonna be dead, right? You were dead in your trespasses and sins in

which you previously walked.

So he's talking to these people who are now Christians and he's saying,

this is what it was like for you before Jesus Christ was in your life.

You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously walked according

to the ways of this world.

And then it gets really interesting. Look what's next. So you're walking according

to the ways of this world, and according to the ruler who exercises authority

over the lower heavens, the spirit now working in the disobedient.

What is that a reference to? Anybody other than her know?

Yes, the devil. Very good. This is a reference to Satan. Did you know it?

Yeah, you did. Okay. So this is a reference to Satan.

I'll try not to tease you the whole sermon but it's really difficult once i pick a target um,

okay so um okay so

we have a description of life before christ

for all of these individuals he says that they're dead in their trespasses he

says that they walk according to the ways of this world and then he says something

that i think is a little extra that we normally would not say he says not only

are you were you walking away according to the ways of this world he says you

are walking according to the ways of the spirit who is in charge of the disobedient,

the ruler who exercises authority over the lower heavens.

The reason I think that's surprising, because it seems to me most people nowadays

believe that before you join God's team, your position is sort of neutral.

You're sort of on no team at all. Isn't that seem to be what our culture sort of accepts?

That like before you come to know Jesus, before you know God's team,

you're just over here in sort of neutral land.

You're not anything, right? And then you come to know God, and you're like,

oh, and I joined God's team. I believe in Jesus.

I'm a Christian now, but I became, I moved over to Christian from neutral territory,

and that's not what the Bible assumes.

That's not what this passage assumes. This passage assumes back before you came

to know Jesus, you were on Satan's team.

There's just two. There's just Satan's team and God's team, and so by default,

you're on Satan's team unless you turn to God.

That's very interesting because that's what it teaches, and that's not what

we think. That's not what we assume, but that's what it says. You were in your sins.

You were walking according to

the ways of this world. You were walking according to the ways of Satan.

And then he goes on, verse 3, we too all previously lived among them in our

fleshly desires, carrying out the inclination of our flesh and thoughts.

And we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.

So here we are in Satan's domain, walking according to the ways of this world,

dead in our sins, and we have these fleshly desires. We have these inclinations

that we give into, right?

There are these bad things that are natural for us. It feels like this is what we ought to do.

So we do these bad things, and we do them over and over again,

and we are by nature children under wrath.

So sin is very natural to us. That's the default setting.

Not neutrality, but actually rebellion and against God, doing the wrong thing,

doing what our inclinations point us toward.

And so we are in this default setting under wrath.

We deserve God's wrath or God's judgment because of our sin.

And we are children under wrath as the others were also. Who are the others?

That's every other human being, right? All the other people are also under wrath,

giving in the inclinations of their flesh and their thoughts because they are

among those who are working with the spirit, who is working in the disobedient,

walking according to the ways of this world, and dead in their trespasses.

And if you have a Bible verse that says, this is you, apart from God,

you're dead in your trespasses, you are under God's wrath because of your sin.

Okay, if that's what the passage says, then what you're going to have to hope

at this point is that it doesn't end right there.

You're going to have to hope that after it says you are under wrath,

just like everyone else, you're going to have to hope that the next verse starts with the word.

And it does. So right after it says, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh,

and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also. Here's the next verse.

But God, who is rich in mercy.

Mercy does not mean rewards you for the good things you've done.

Mercy means holds back the bad things you deserve.

God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,

made us alive with the Messiah even though we were dead in trespasses.

You are saved by grace, right, which is connected to mercy.

This is that not that you deserve it, but because something related to the Messiah,

which this is the connection between this and Christmas.

Remember the angel said to the shepherds, a Savior has been born who is Messiah,

the Lord. This is a reference to Jesus, the one that was born.

God, because of his great mercy, because of the love that he had for us,

having something to do with the Messiah brought us from dead to alive,

right? So we went from spiritually dead to spiritually alive.

In Satan's domain into God's kingdom, under wrath to no longer under wrath, but saved by grace.

So if you were going to just summarize this passage that says,

okay, you're doomed and you do wrong things, and the result is wrath,

but God came to rescue you from this spiritual deadness and to bring you to life.

If you were gonna try to summarize that passage, I think you could say it something like this.

Long lay the world in sin and error pining till he appeared, amen? Amen.

Yeah, that would be a shorter, pithier, more Christmassy way to say Ephesians

chapter two, verses one through five.

Let me show you another one. This is the other one, Romans chapter three.

There is probably more than one other one, but there's one other one we're gonna

do today. Romans chapter three.

And I'm gonna start reading to you in verse nine. Now this one's kind of big

and long and until you get to the good part, it's awful.

Okay, so Romans chapter three, starting in verse nine. What then are we any better?

Not at all, for we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin.

You can tell I'm just starting right in the middle of a book,

but I can't, you got to start somewhere. So I'm just starting here.

Paul, when he says we, I think he's a Jewish man. And so I think he's referring

to the Jewish people when he says this, are we in a spiritual condition that's

any better than the Gentiles?

No, we are not because we have previously charged that both Jews and Gentiles

are all under sin. So that's the first point here.

As he's just explaining to the Romans, he says, both Jews and Gentiles are all

under sin. So under sin is an interesting phrase.

It kind of reminds me of under wrath from the Ephesians passage, right?

Our Our default setting is under sin, and because we are under sin, we are under wrath.

And who is it that's under sin or under wrath? According to the passage,

he says Jews and Gentiles, okay?

Now, if it is not clear what he means, I want to make it crystal clear.

When the Bible uses the word Jews, it is referring to every single Jewish person on the planet.

And when the Bible uses the word Gentiles, at least in this verse is what it

means, Jews is referring to every Jewish person on the planet and Gentiles is

referring to every non-Jewish person on the planet.

So if you combine those two together into one group, we have a word for it,

right? It's the word everyone, okay?

Everyone is under sin. That's what he's saying.

So he says everyone is under sin, and now here's the next verse.

He says, as it is written, and then he refers to the Old Testament,

and it seems to me, if I remember correctly, what I'm about to read to you is

sort of like a greatest hits of all the verses in the Old Testament about sin.

He says, we're all under sin, every single one, as it is written.

There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands.

There is no one who seeks God.

All have turned away. All alike have become useless.

You see that? You're useless. You learned that here at Christmas, okay?

All alike have turned away. Morally speaking, like there's no good at the end

of the rainbow for you based on what you have done, based on how you have lived,

based on what all of us have done.

All alike have become useless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one.

Their throat is an open grave. They deceive with their tongues.

Vipers venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

Now, just keep in mind, you gotta remember the verses that came before.

When it says vipers venom is under their lips, right? Their mouth is full of

cursing. Who's the there?

Everybody, all the humans, right? This is not like, oh, the bad people with the vipers venom.

This is everybody. Vipers venom is under their lips. Their mouths are full of

cursing and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood. Ruin and wretchedness are in their paths

and the path of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes.

Now that is a feel-good Christmas passage if I've ever read one.

If you go, wow, this is rough. I don't know if I can handle anymore.

Well, you're going to have to hang on because it gets worse in the next two

verses. So here we go. Verse 19.

Now we know that whatever the law says speaks to those who are subject to the

law so that every mouth may be shut and the whole world may become subject to God's judgment.

So when it comes to humanity and all of this, all have turned away,

there is no one who does what is good. There is no one who's righteous.

He says, so what this means is there will come a day when the whole world,

this is us, right? When the whole world will become subject to God's judgment.

There will be a judgment day and God will subject the world to his judgment on judgment day.

And the way he will judge is according to his law, right?

Whatever the law speaks to those who are subject to the law.

So the law here is a reference to God's moral law, like what God says someone

ought to do and what God says someone ought not do, okay?

That God is the creator of the world, has every right to say,

this is the way I made things, I want you to do this, I want you to not do this.

And so the world knows this. There are, in some ways we can say that God's laws

are written down in the Bible, but there are also parts in Romans that even

say that there are people who don't even have Bibles, and yet there is a sense in which they know,

this is a thing I ought not do, this is a thing that is wrong,

this is a thing that I'm supposed to do.

And so everyone will be held subject to God's law on God's judgment day.

And then this is the part that I was mentioning that's even worse.

So look at this. So on judgment day, you might go, well, do I stand a chance?

For no one will be justified. Now notice, no one. That's like the opposite of

everyone, if you didn't know.

For no one will be justified in his sights by the works of the law because the

knowledge of sin comes through the law. So in other words, on this judgment

day, nobody is going to be, and the word justified means like declared to be righteous.

Okay, no one's gonna be declared to be righteous in God's sight by the works of the law.

That is that they followed the rules and they did what they ought to do and

they did what they ought not, you know, they forbid, they abstained from what

they ought not do, right? They followed all the laws.

There is not coming a day, I think this passage is saying, that it's not gonna

be on judgment day that God comes along and goes, hey, you, I looked at your

works and you did not do, it was not good enough.

You are worthy of my wrath and you messed up and you're worthy of my wrath and

you messed up and you're worthy of my wrath and you messed up and you're worthy

of my wrath and you, oh wait, you, oh, look at you.

You did all of the works of the law exactly as you're supposed to.

Like all I can do as a just and holy God is declare you to be righteous, okay?

This verse is saying that that is not going to happen to anybody on judgment day.

So if you are one of the many people who go, well, I don't know how judgment

day is going to go, but I'm kind of hoping that my good works outweigh my bad works.

I'm just letting you know, like that is absolutely not going to happen.

You, based on what you've done with your life, will not be declared righteous on that day.

That will happen to no one.

Because the only thing that the knowledge, like it says, because the knowledge

of sin comes through the law, the law doesn't actually help you to be more holy.

The law just points out that you are not holy.

So if you have a big, long passage that says vipers venom is under their lips

and no one is righteous, not even one, and there's no fear of God before their eyes.

And if it's up to them at judgment time, there is no chance they will be declared righteous.

Then what you're hoping the next verse starts with is what word? But, and it does.

So after he says all of this stuff about no one being justified in God's sight

by works of the law, the very next verse, verse 21 of Romans, It says this,

but now apart from the law,

God's righteousness has been revealed, attested by the law and the prophets,

that there is a way apart from you obeying every rule and getting everything

right and therefore declared righteous by your righteous record.

There is apart from that a way to have God's righteousness.

It has been revealed. It is attested by the law and the prophets.

That is a reference to the old Testament to say like, this is something that

has been in the works all along.

This has always been the plan. This is something that fits with what God has

already said. In a lot of ways, you can say that Christmas was predicted in the Old Testament.

Uh, Good Friday was predicted in the Old Testament.

Easter's predicted in the Old Testament. Like the whole thing all fits with

the law and the prophets. That's which, that which came before. Okay.

So this God's righteousness is revealed. It matches with what God has already

revealed to us. Okay. Well, what is it? What is it?

That is God's righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ.

A righteousness that's not from the law, righteousness that's given to you from

God through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

They are justified, remember, declared to be righteous, they are justified freely by his grace.

Freely, meaning not because they earned it with the laws, right?

They are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

The reason that Jesus came at Christmas time, the reason he lived the life he

lived, the reason he died on the cross for our sins, the reason that he rose

again, right, was he was getting this redemption for us so that those who believe

could get a righteousness,

they're only shot at righteousness on judgment day, given to them from him.

So if I'm trying to summarize this passage and I'm going, there's no one righteous

and everyone is going to, it's just, they're doomed on judgment day.

There's no way to do it on your own. But then Jesus Christ showed up through

redemption and made a way.

If I was trying to summarize that kind of quickly, I think I could say that

the natural condition for humans is that we mourn in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear.

You know another way you could say it? You could say, long lay the world in

sin and error, pining till he appeared.

So yes, we are a part of the Christmas story.

We are the people for whom he came.

And that is one of the big theological points behind the Christmas story.

The world is full of sinners and needed a savior.

The world is full of sinners and needed a savior. Let me make it more personal.

The world is full of sinners and you're one of them.

And you needed to be saved.

See, that's the part that people don't like so much.

When I say the world is filled with brokenness and wickedness, everybody agrees.

When I get up, and sometimes I say stuff like this. I get up here and I say,

the world is filled with brokenness and wickedness. and everyone agrees.

Republicans, Democrats, men, women, everybody goes, yes.

When the preacher says this world is filled with brokenness and wickedness,

all we have to do is watch the news. And then when the preacher says that,

we go, well, yes, of course.

But then if I say, you are a broken, wicked person in this world and are part

of the problem, the reaction is, oh, why you got to be judgmental preacher?

I liked it when you just said like the world not me the problems of this world are not my fault.

No single raindrop believes that it is to blame for the flood isn't that really

deep okay i saw it on a poster i didn't make it up but i thought it was really deep for a poster.

No single raindrop believes it is to blame for the flood and i think a lot of

us will admit, well, sure, I sin, but so does everyone else. So it's not a big deal.

It's not a big deal because everybody else does it. So yes, okay,

sure, I'm a drop in the flood that's ruining this world, but I'm just one drop.

There are a lot of other drops, and some of them are way bigger than me.

In fact, Mario, didn't the verses you read earlier make this clear?

Like, why would you make this about me, Mario? I mean, this is the verse,

didn't you read the verse that said it's Jews and Gentiles?

Didn't you read a verse that said all alike have become useless?

Didn't you read a verse that said all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God?

I mean, this is everybody's deal, not mine. I don't need to worry about the

problem of my sin because everyone else does it too.

Can you understand that reasoning? Have you heard people say stuff like that?

Sure, I'm a sinner, but it's not a big deal. Everybody else is a sinner too.

I don't need to worry about the problem of my sin.

Everyone does it. But here's the thing you need to understand.

That would only matter if your judge on judgment day is everyone else.

Like if you get to judgment day and you look at the throne to see who is gonna

preside over the case, and it turns out it's everyone else in the world,

then you're gonna be fine.

Because you're gonna be able to say, hey, I did the same kind of stuff you did.

And they're going to go, yeah, we did the same kind of stuff you did.

But if your judge on Judgment Day is a sinless, holy God, then it doesn't matter

what everybody else did.

You need to be saved from your share of God's wrath and justice.

A lot of evangelical messages, like Christian, evangelical Christian messages

this time of year, I think sometimes somewhat put the gospel on its head.

And you will hear times, and I've heard this a lot around Christmas time,

that they will say, like, the reason for the season is you.

Like, you are the thing that Jesus Christ came for. You're the valuable thing that he came to rescue.

Like, the way that Christmas is pitched is, and maybe you've seen this,

I've certainly seen this, is like, there's special, adorable you,

okay, in all your worthiness.

And then God sent his son to this earth to go through all this stuff,

Christmas, and then everything that happens later in the story,

to rescue like valuable, worthy you, right?

And so isn't that great? Christmas should make us feel good because the son

was sent to rescue special, worthy you.

But when you think about what the Bible says of your life before Jesus was in

it, in Ephesians chapter two, that's not the tone, right? When we're all children under wrath.

And when you think about what the Bible says in Romans chapter three,

when it says all have turned away, all alike have become useless.

There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Like that's not the tone.

So you really are a drop in the flood that is destroying this world.

And a lot of ways, I guess what I'm saying is, yeah, you are in the Christmas story.

Okay. You are in the gospel story. Okay. And your contribution to it is your

sin that God sent Jesus to come and fix.

So that's not a yay you story. That's a yay God story.

So you need to be saved, this is very important, from your share of God's wrath and justice.

And the only way that that can happen, if you're going, whoa, what if?

What if there really is wrath and justice? I was just watching an interview

online where this guy, and it's just weird.

You don't ever see this on TV or internet anymore. But this guy was going like,

I was thinking about my life, and I thought to myself, I don't want to go to hell.

And so I just, if there's a point in your life where you go,

I want to be saved from my share of God's wrath and justice.

Like, the only way that could happen, especially in light of no one will be

justified, the only way that that can happen is if he appeared.

This is why Christmas is a very big deal. The only way that that can happen

is if he appeared as a human being who lived a righteous life as our substitute.

And that righteous life part is very important, okay? Okay, because someone

who, like a sinful person cannot die on behalf of other sinful people because

a sinful person has his own sins to pay for.

So for us to be saved from our share of God's wrath and justice,

he would have to appear as a human being who lived a righteous life in our place

and then died a death on our behalf,

taking a punishment in our place.

It was like he was paying off a debt that he did

not owe and then he rose again conquering the

punishing power that death has on us and our response to all of that is to place

our faith in jesus christ to repent and turn to him as the savior and to be

freed from condemnation and the penalty of our sins so.

Christmas is an annual reminder that we were doomed until he appeared and he definitely appeared.

And that is worth a holy day.

Let's pray.

Lord, I pray right now for the people in this room who know you,

that this would be good for us to be reminded I mean that's what Paul was doing

in Ephesians he was reminding them you were dead in your trespasses and sins

but God who is rich in mercy,

made us alive with the Messiah and so I pray for those of us in this room who know you,

that it would be good for us to remember that one of the reasons you are worthy

of worship and worthy of specific worship this time of year about a specific

thing as we think about Christmas,

we want to worship you with the understanding long lay the world in sin and

error pining till you appeared.

And so I pray that that would motivate our worship of you. I pray that that

would motivate this holiday.

I mean, it's interesting. Christmas is, we say it's a day and yet in our culture,

it's sort of a whole month that we celebrate.

And so I pray that our condition apart from you,

would be in our minds enough that it motivates our worship of you because we

understand the difference before you appeared and after you appeared.

I pray it would motivate the way we handle this holiday, the way we handle our

lives, the way we think about you, the way we worship you, the things we're

thinking about and doing with our families, the things we're thinking about

and doing at the Christmas Eve service, the songs that we're singing.

And then I also pray for people in this room who do not know you yet.

I know that there are people who do not know you yet that come to church here

all the time. I thank you so much that that is true, Lord.

I thank you so much that there are people who are like, I don't really know,

I don't know all this, but I'm somewhat open-minded and I'll sit there and I

will listen and I will consider it.

And I just thank you for that. And I thank you for those people,

whoever they are that are here.

And I pray that they would come to know you and I pray that they would come

to know you this Christmas.

I'm hoping that there would be a point where they would realize that this is

a big deal because of the under wrath and the under sin that is our default.

Like a lot of times we don't like to think about that and people don't like

to talk about it. People don't like to say the word doomed.

People don't like to say the word judgment day. We just don't want to think

about it. But what are we going to think about it? Like later when it's too

late? Of course we need to think about that now.

Of course we need to consider that now.

And so I pray for anybody here who does not know you that there would be something

in them that would go, wow, I need a savior.

Not just a not just like a generic holiday i need

a savior and if it's true there is one who came

here for me then i need to trust in him and so i pray that would happen this

season in fact i'm going to be quiet for i don't know maybe about a minute and

just give you a chance to pray for whatever it is you want to pray for silently

in your seat whether you're here today as a christian or not a christian it

just seems like this is the kind of thing that would be good to react to so

i'm going to just be quiet for a little while you can pray about whatever you

want and then i'll close us in prayer afterwards.

Dear Lord, I pray that we would see you as you are and see ourselves as you

see us and then do that which is rational in response.

That which is right, that which you want us to do.

We love you and we thank you for your love and your mercy,

in Jesus name I pray amen let me end with these good words from God's word,

but the angel said to them don't be afraid for look I proclaim to you good news

of great joy that will be for all the people today a savior who is messiah the

lord was born for you in the city of David. That is good news. Merry Christmas.