Kiss The Son

Please stand for the reading of God's Word.

I'll be reading from the 119th Psalm.

I'll begin reading in verse 113.

I hate the double -minded, but I love your law.

You are my hiding place and my shield.

I hope in your word.

Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God.

Uphold me, according to your promise, that I may live and let me not be put

to shame in my hope.

Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for your statutes continually.

You spurn all who go astray from your statutes, for their cunning is in vain.

All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross.

Therefore, I love your testimonies.

My flesh trembles for fear of you, and I am afraid of your judgments.

The New Testament reading this morning is from Galatians chapter 4, the reading verses 1 through 7.

I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything.

But he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father.

In the same way, we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world.

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, to

redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.

And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

So you are no longer a slave, but a son.

And if a son, then an heir through God.

You may be seated.

Good morning.

Open your Bibles to Psalm chapter 2, please.

Psalm 2.

Psalm 2.

We'll start in verse 1.

So I will tell of the decree.

O Lord in heaven, we all come before you now in this moment, needy,

weak.

Lord, how blessed it is for us to recognize just how weak and

needy we are.

How we are creatures in sin.

We are the kings of the earth.

We are those of the world who have rebelled against you.

Following the prince of the power of the air, Satan himself, in our rebellion.

Thinking that the sins of this world is better for us than obedience to our God.

Lord in heaven, we certainly are weak people in need of Jesus Christ this Christmas season.

Of his peace treaty, of the peace that he offers in himself.

As he came meek, as he came not as a conquering general

to defeat his enemies, but rather he came as a babe.

That we can know him and we can find refuge in him.

That we can have peace through him.

So I thank you Lord for showing us our need and I thank you for giving us our need in Jesus.

I pray our ears would be open for this message.

My mouth would be ready to proclaim it.

And that we would all conform ourselves to the image of this peace offering to Jesus Christ himself.

Thank you Lord, in Jesus name.

Amen.

Silent night, holy night.

Son of God, love's pure light.

Radiant beams from thy holy face.

With the dawn of redeeming grace, Jesus Lord at thy birth.

I only thought it would be, it's pretty good that we sang the two

hymns, or we sang the last hymn that we did away in the manger.

And I can quote that hymn as well because if you remember at the beginning of this Advent series, I quoted these hymns and

I talked about how full of peace they are.

And how they just really, they highlight the peace that we should have during Advent season.

And I said it in a way that was almost as if it was a negative thing.

But I didn't mean it to be a negative thing.

If you remember, I said it is good to celebrate the peacefulness of the Christmas season.

But we need to make sure it's balanced, if you remember.

We can't just have a Christmas celebration that's just centered on a baby.

And the peace of the night that comes with it.

And think that we're doing anything justice to the actual thing that happened.

If you remember, we talked about the need for balance.

And what is that balance?

Well, if we celebrate peace during Christmas season, what is that balance?

To celebrate the fact that this comes in the midst of great turmoil.

And so that's what we've been doing in Psalm 2.

We've been looking at the turmoil, the context surrounding the peaceful season of this baby coming.

And so as we do this, we can then be well balanced.

I remember talking to one Christian who said they just didn't quite feel the Christmas season in their hearts

this year.

And I asked, well, what does Christmas mean to you?

And really what Christmas meant to this Christian was simply the fact surrounding of a baby and the peace

that comes with it.

And celebrating just how nice of a scenery that must be.

And all the things, the cultural underpinnings that come with it.

And if that's it, then beloved, we are missing something very essential in Christmas.

So this has been the whole thing as we've gone through these last several weeks, that we would remind ourselves of the turmoil, of

how significant that Jesus would come in a babe and how peaceful that is in light of the context of the turmoil

surrounding his coming.

That's what we ended, if you remember, in Psalm 2.

Remember how we ended?

In Psalm 2, verse 9, you shall, talking about Jesus' babe, you shall break them with a

rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.

That's terrifying to think about.

Jesus, in part of this decree that the Father has given him, is that he would defeat his enemies in the most

terrifying way.

Imagine being in the sight of Jesus as he brings this down upon his enemies.

That is awful to consider.

In fact, imagine if you will, with me for a moment, that this Psalm and the promises of

God ended in verse 9 of chapter 2.

Think about that for a moment.

Imagine that the promises of God, and here's Psalm 2, everything ended with verse

9, that Jesus will come and dash his enemies to pieces.

How terrifying a reality would that be for all of us in this room, that this is what we have to look forward to.

Christmas would not be the babe that we know of this meek Savior.

Instead, Christmas would be what we see in Revelation.

Why don't we just go there?

This is what Christmas would be if you go to Revelation 19 with me.

Christmas would not be that peaceful scene of Jesus being born on that silent night.

No, Christmas would be Revelation 19, verse 11,

That's terrifying.

Imagine that being Christmas.

He judges and he makes war.

But you see, if this was Jesus' first coming, if this was Christmas, then this would play out differently, wouldn't it?

In verse 12, You know what that means?

He sees everything.

And if you're an unbeliever today, right now in this moment, Jesus sees everything.

He hates evil, he hates sin, and he sees yours today.

That is a terrifying thought of turmoil.

His eyes are a flame of fire and on his head are many diadems.

And he has a name written that no one knows but himself.

But see, if this was his first coming, we would have to change verse 13, wouldn't we?

Because he is clothed in a robe dipped in blood.

And the name by which he is clothed is the word of God.

And which he is called is the word of God.

See, if this was his first coming, there would be no blood.

There would be no bloody Jesus.

There would only be the vengeance that he's pouring out on his enemies.

There would only be blood in front of him, not on him.

And of course, we'd have to change verse 14 too, wouldn't we?

And the armies of heaven arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following on white horses.

We're following him.

You see, we wouldn't be behind Jesus as we witness him devastating his enemies, dashing them to pieces.

But instead, we would be in front of Jesus and we'd see his holy hatred on us.

Imagine if verse 9 were to stop and the promises of God would stop at verse 9 and there was no

salvation.

We would only have his holy fury on us.

Praise be to God.

We don't stop at verse 9, do we?

We do not stop in Psalm 2, verse 9.

Go forward.

Then move on.

Look at verse 10 through 12.

See how good of a warning that is?

That's a warning.

That's a good, loving warning of this king that we see.

You know what's good about warnings is usually it's posted before you make the mistake, isn't it?

You know, a road that's going off a cliff.

Why do roads go off the side of cliffs anyways?

Why does that happen?

Why do they make roads go into the cliffs in the movies?

I don't get that.

But if you see, when that's the case, the sign is before you get to the cliff, right?

The warning.

Hey, don't go any further.

You're going to go off a cliff.

The sign is never at the bottom of a cliff, right?

Where your car is smashed to pieces and you have a sign right there, a warning sign.

No, it's always before you made the mistake, before you went off the cliff.

See, the good thing about warnings is usually they're posted before you make the mistake.

And beloved, here it is.

Here's a warning.

That although Jesus is going to dash his enemies to pieces, you can be forewarned and you can escape

that punishment.

This is a blessed warning indeed.

Thank God for these great transition periods in Scripture.

You know, we have quite a few of them.

One thing you should do in your study of Scripture is take note of these times where the situation is terrible, but then

something dramatically changes.

It's like a 180.

You know what I'm saying?

And here is one right here.

Now therefore, in light of the fury, the turmoil, what Jesus is going to bring down upon his

enemies, be warned.

It's a difference.

And we get one of those and it's blessed in Ephesians 2.

It's probably the most famous, at least the one I like to meditate upon.

That kind of transition or something that turns 180.

Something almost unexpected.

And we see in Ephesians 2, 1 -3, we get the same kind of picture.

We were in rebellion, right?

We were ready to be judged by this Jesus who would dash our rebellion to pieces.

That's what we were ready for.

But you see, once again, what if Scripture would end there?

What if that's it?

Get ready for your judgment.

But it isn't.

Blessed be the name of our Father who gives us a promise in Scripture.

It goes on in which it says what?

But God, right?

God has done something merciful, gracious.

He's rich.

And even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, he made us alive together with Christ.

The one who's going to dash his enemies is the one who's going to give refuge to

those same people who deserve his wrath but instead receive his grace.

Isn't that amazing how God operates that way?

The one who's going to execute vengeance, that is the one we take refuge in.

The Scriptures go on to promise that we can find refuge in him.

So this is a warning in Psalm 2.

It's something that goes beyond the terrifying realities of the second coming of Jesus and it describes that there's a

warning that there is a first coming of Jesus here in Psalm 2.

So this is what we're going to see here in the next few minutes.

We get a warning, but then we get, make sure I say this right.

We get a warning, but then we get a gracious and wonderful invite as well.

We get a warning, but we also get a wonderful, warm invite as well.

What is this warning?

Well, in verse 10 of Psalm 2, this warning starts off, Now

therefore, in light of the fact that Jesus, this son of God, this

anointed one, the fact that he has so much power and authority and he will execute it despite your rebellion,

since that's the case, O kings, be wise and be warned, O rulers of

the earth.

Have wisdom.

Wisdom is the ability to choose what is proper and correct.

Stop choosing your rebellion.

Stop choosing your sin.

Stop choosing to try to break away the yoke of Jesus.

Stop doing that foolish act and be wise.

Choose a different path for yourself.

How important is that to give that warning to all unbelievers, right?

Stop being foolish.

Stop acting like you can live within your rebellion and do something proper.

No, no, no.

Be wise and choose the right path.

Be wise.

Be warned.

But this warning goes on in verse 11.

It says,.

There's actually two things that they are to do, that they're told to do, and then they're told how to do it.

They are to serve the Lord, they are to rejoice, and they are to do it with, how they're to do it is with

fear and trembling.

So what are they to do?

They are to serve.

They are to worship.

The word there has a connotation of worship the Lord.

What's the difference?

Well, it's a direct contrast with what they were doing earlier in the psalm, isn't it?

They were in rebellion.

They were trying to break the courts away from them.

They were trying to break away from this powerful, sovereign God.

And now they're being told, be wise, go a different path.

Instead, you are to serve this God.

You are to worship this God.

You know what is the most natural thing to do as people who are born as

children of wrath?

It's to serve our sin instead.

You know how natural it is, how good it feels to serve your sin.

How much of a warning we need to be told to don't act so foolishly.

Do not do what feels right naturally within your rebellious heart.

But instead, you are to what?

Serve the Lord.

You are to worship the Lord.

You are to serve Him and His kingdom.

But you see, God is not satisfied with

wooden service.

God is not satisfied with a joyless worship.

God is not satisfied with just going through the motions.

See, God is worthy of all worship and service and He's worthy to be done in a

particular way.

What way is that?

What else are we supposed to do?

We are to, what it says in verse 11, serve the Lord, and we'll get to with fear later, and rejoice.

Rejoice.

Not only are we to serve the Lord, but in our service to the Lord, we are to be people who are

rejoicing in our service.

I remember before becoming a Christian, I thought it was just enough for me to just go through the motions.

And I hated it and I didn't like it, but I thought, well, that's just how things go.

God is worthy of the service we give Him, and God is worthy for us to do it in a way that's full of joy.

In fact, if our worship of God, our service of God is not done in joy, we're doing it wrong.

So does that mean that when we are not have any joy at all in our heart, does that mean, well,

therefore, I might as well not continue, I might as well not do it?

No, it just means that we know that this is not what God is worthy of.

This is not the way that God wants me to serve Him and worship Him, so therefore, what do you do?

You cry out to the Lord, change my heart.

Give me rejoicing in this.

Give me joy in this.

Don't let me just go along in the motions.

Don't let me just be dry and wooden, but let me rather be full of life as I worship you, because this is what you

command from us.

This is a warning.

You have been living in rebellion.

You must now serve Him, be wise and serve Him, and do it with rejoicing.

Do it with joyful hearts.

This is what God commands, warns.

Stop your rebellion and do this instead.

And notice, though, serve the Lord, he says in verse 11, with fear and

rejoice with trembling.

Notice those words, fear and trembling.

I remember, again, another Christian, he came from a background of heavy legalism in

which they told him, you need to obey God because He will crush you if you don't, right?

And so it was heavy legalism and he was very heavy in fear and trembling before the Lord, and so therefore you

better obey.

And so when he came to know the mercies of God, the grace of God, His kindness, he really hated the

words fear and trembling.

To think that you're supposed to fear God, he didn't like that very much.

He didn't understand it.

But it's very important that fear and trembling is very much deep -rooted in what God has commanded us to do in

serving Him.

Fear and trembling.

One aspect of it is complete and utter humility.

Complete and utter humility.

God is eternally above us.

It's not like, man, we are right here and God's just a little bit better.

He's just a little bit better, and so therefore there's a little bit, well, He's a better creature or whatever, so then, no,

God is eternally above us.

He's eternally, the distance between us and God is great.

And so great that it fills you with awe and fear and trembling.

You know, it's kind of like when you're, if you're about

to engage in some kind of sport, wrestling or whatever, with an opponent, and you

respect their abilities, you're going to be fearful as you approach that competition, aren't you?

If you don't have any kind of respect for your opponent, there's not going to be any kind of fear, there's not going to be any kind of trembling in

you as you go and do that competition.

Well, this is the same kind of understanding that we understand that God is so much higher than us, so much greater than us, that when we

consider Him as compared to us, it fills us with so much fear and humility

and trembling, that this God is so much higher than us.

You see, this is the very opposite of this rebellious creature that we see in Psalm 2.

The reason why they rebel against God is because they do not fear Him, they do not tremble against, they don't realize the distance between

human and God, and so they're not filled with that kind of awe, and so therefore, they rebel.

You see, the moment that we have a rebellious mind, the moment that our mind wants to question God and go

against Him, if we are filled with fear and trembling, if we're filled with this idea that God is way greater than us, way

bigger than us, then we will presuppose that we must be wrong in some way and He must be right.

But if we don't have that presupposition, if we don't approach our disbelief that way, then we will feed into

this disbelief until it's complete rebellion.

But since we know that God is eternally awesome and great, His ways are not our ways, that His knowledge is way better than our

knowledge, whenever we come to a place in which we question Him, we presuppose His truth and we

submit to Him.

This is what we do with fear and trembling.

This is our understanding of the difference between us and God.

There's something more different.

There's all sorts of different things you could say about fear and trembling.

But there's also something to be noticed about fear and trembling that creates focus and

concentration in us.

I remember working for Comcast for a few years, and they trained us how

to climb ladders, obviously, to get on the poles and get up to the line.

And it was about 25 feet up in the air.

And for someone who never liked heights and never was used to climbing like that, it was a terrifying experience

to have to climb, especially the first few times as I had to travel up 25 feet.

And I remember having fear, I remember having plenty of trembling the first few times I was doing it.

And most of us in training, as we had to do it the first time, we all kind of could see us kind of

shaking a little bit as we had to do our climb for the first time.

And when we went up, we didn't just go up all joyfully and, you know, just without a care in the world and just kind of walk up

real quick, but we did it very slowly.

And you could see our hands kind of shaking as we went up higher and higher, and we went slower and slower as we got higher and higher.

It was a terrifying thing.

And I remember our instructor saying, it's actually a very good thing for you to have fear.

Because with your fear, what do you do?

You're focused, aren't you?

You're not going quickly, are you?

I remember paying attention to every single movement of that ladder, everything I could feel I was concentrating, everything I

was very much concentrated on climbing up that ladder so I don't fall off and die, right?

And he said, it's a good thing for you to be fearful because it causes you to be focused on the task at hand.

If there's no fear, then there's not as much, at least, focus.

And he said, but the thing is, here's what's going to happen, the instructor said.

After a while, that fear is going to go away, or at least it's going to be diminished.

And as that fear and trembling goes away, he didn't say trembling, but he did say fear, as that fear goes away, you're going to be a

lot more, what?

Reckless.

You're going to go through a lot quicker.

You're not going to be as concentrated, and you're not going to be as focused.

And I said, I don't think so, as the first time I'm climbing up.

I don't think that will ever happen.

Well, lo and behold, I remember a year later, it was probably around a year later, I'm hurrying up trying to get my calls done, right?

I'm in the middle of a trouble call, and I had to get up on the pole.

And I remember, just really quickly, I didn't put on any, this is bad, I didn't put on any safety requirements,

no helmet or anything, because I just wanted to hurry up and get it done.

By the time I put on everything, all the safety stuff, it took double as long as just getting the job done real quick.

And I remember putting my ladder up real quick and basically running up there, getting my job done and coming back down.

And I remember thinking what he said, pretty soon you're not going to fear this anymore, you're not going to be as focused, you're not going to be as, you know,

attentive to everything.

And that was very much the case.

Now what am I getting at here?

Fear and trembling.

When you fear something, whenever you are trembling before something, it causes you to really be focused on the task at

hand.

And there's a point in which our service to God, we are to do it with fear and trembling.

We are so amazed by how awesome he is that he calls us to do something, and we listen.

We don't take it for granted.

What have you called me to do, God?

I want to be focused at the task at hand.

But the moment in our Christian life where we take his word for granted and take his warnings for granted, what do we do?

We don't focus so much on our sanctification, do we?

We let things slide, don't we?

But the thing is, though, as we get higher up, so to speak with my analogy on the ladder, we

get closer to the image.

We get closer to what God is.

And what does that cause us to do?

As we get higher up, it causes us to be even more fearful.

Oh my goodness, this God is even more amazing than I thought.

And it causes us to be even more careful of our actions, even more concentrated that I want to be like

this God.

I want to serve him.

And so as we get to know him more, we get to see how different we are from him, how he is further from us than we ever could imagine.

And so it makes us more focused, more fearful as we say, what would you have me to do, God?

It's a big problem whenever you lose that kind of tenacity.

Whenever we pull God to be like us and we say, well, I think I'm good enough, right?

So to speak, I look pretty good around with the people around me.

That's good enough.

But there's a certain aspect to where we realize that God is so awesome, so big.

He is so far above us that we are focused on the task at hand.

When he tells us to do something, we do it.

We do it.

Now, this is what God has warned us with.

Stop your rebellion.

Stop rebelling against me.

And this is what you are to do instead.

You are to serve me.

You are to rejoice in serving me.

And you are to do it with fear and trembling.

It should be your total concentration.

Now, if you know anything about human nature, is that warning enough?

Is the warning there and we can do it and we're good?

No.

We're far too sinful for that.

So we need something more, don't we?

Well, before we get to what we need more, let's just prove to ourselves that that warning is not enough.

Look at Romans 3.

Look at Romans 3.

Remember what Paul says in chapter 3, verse 10, and as it is written,

none is righteous, no, not one.

No one understands.

No one seeks for God.

There's that warning.

This is what you need to be doing instead.

And no one understands it.

And no one seeks for God.

See, because all have turned aside, together they have become worthless.

In their rebellion and following their own lusts and passions and desires and sin, they become worthless to

God.

No one does good.

No, not even one.

Their throat is an open grave.

They use their tongues to deceive.

The venom of asps is under their lips.

Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.

Their feet are swift to shed blood.

And their paths are ruin and misery.

In the way of peace they have not known.

There is no, what?

Fear of God before their eyes.

What they need is fear.

They need to see the one that they're truly rebelling against and it needs to change what they do.

But because we do not understand, we do not heed God's warnings.

But thanks be to God that he gives us a warm invite.

Because it's not enough simply to warn because we will rebel against even that.

But instead what we need is a great warm invite.

And what is that warm invite that we get in verse 12 of

Psalm 2?

Kiss the Son.

You know how amazing that is?

We were just told the last thing we knew about the Son is he was gonna dash his enemies to pieces.

And all of a sudden it says kiss this one who's going to dash his enemies to pieces.

Kiss him.

It's an invite.

It's not just a warning.

But there's an invite here.

Kiss the Son in Psalm 2 verse 12.

Kiss the Son and at the very end they sandwich it.

Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

It's amazing.

He's gonna end his enemies with such fury and turmoil and war.

And it's this one right here that we are to kiss and take refuge in.

This is a warm invite for us to find peace in him.

Kiss the Son.

What does that mean?

Kiss the Son.

Well there's a few different times that we get this word kiss in the Old Testament.

And I think it's very important for us to understand what's going on here with telling us to kiss the Son.

One of the times that we see kiss in this way is when Samuel kissed Saul.

Remember Samuel and Saul, the story there?

Samuel is anointing the first king of Israel.

And Saul is that first king of Israel.

And during that anointing process, what does Samuel do to Saul?

He kisses him.

This is like a show of respect and homage of you are

the authority and I am submissive to your authority as king of Israel.

This is one notion of kissing a sovereign.

That he is sovereign over you and you show that in a

kiss, right?

And we can see how there's an aspect of that here.

That these people are told stop your rebelling, stop undermining the authority of God and instead do the very

opposite.

Kiss the king.

Kiss the son.

Show and see that he is sovereign over you and you are to be submissive to him.

Kiss the son.

There's an aspect of that.

But I think there's something more too.

Well, even with that.

You remember Elijah is told that there are 7 ,000 who have not bowed down to Baal

and kissed Baal.

This is to understand there are 7 ,000 prophets who had not bowed down to the authority of Baal, right?

So this is the idea of kissing, that you kiss your sovereign.

You show that I am submissive to your sovereignty by a kiss.

But there's also another element of this kiss.

The same word is used in a couple different ways and that is, if you remember,.

Forgot to write it down,.

But if you remember Laban is kissing his grandchildren as

Jacob takes them away and he kisses them and it is an intense kiss.

It is, I'm going to miss you.

I'm probably not going to see you anymore.

And so you can imagine it would be an affectionate, deep kiss, right, as they

leave him.

There's also another time and I'm forgetting in my mind where it is, the example of it.

Give me a moment.

Oh yes, where Joseph is kissing his brothers.

The great story of Joseph at the end of Genesis.

You remember Joseph hides himself in Egypt.

They don't know who he is, but Joseph knows that it's his brothers and they keep on coming back and going back to their

father, coming back.

And finally he tells them, it's me, it's your brother.

And there's this great time where they come together in reconciliation and they are full of love for each other and they passionately

kiss one another.

And so this is the idea that kisses, you can kiss your sovereign as he's king over you, but there's also in which you love them

deeply and you show that affection and a kiss for them.

And I think there's both aspects going on here, isn't there?

We're told to kiss the son.

He is the sovereign lord of the universe.

He is king of the universe and he is in control of all things and so we show our submission to him by

kissing him.

There's also this element too where he has done something wonderful for us, hasn't he?

He has made our submission possible, hasn't he?

The warning was not enough and so we must be invited to kiss the son because he enables us to truly submit

to the king of the universe.

Remember, you see in verse 11 or 12, lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is

quickly kindled.

There's an aspect in which we're so overwhelmed by the fact that this son, this person, this God has

saved me from such wrath that it creates a certain affection and love that you have for this son.

And you want to show that and kiss.

In fact, we see in the end of verse 12 once again that he is our refuge.

You ever spend a moment in the middle of a storm, terrifying as it is, and then you get into a place

of refuge, it is the greatest of all feelings.

And Jesus becomes that refuge for us that although we are not willing to listen to any warning, he is the

one that takes us in.

He is our refuge from those judgments.

And so not only do we kiss Jesus as our sovereign but we kiss him as the one who has protected us from great

harm.

He is the one that brings us in and makes us submissive through his covenant of grace.

So we can see that there's this great gap between the first coming of Jesus and the second coming of Jesus.

And I love how in the psalm here, psalm two, we can kind of, it kind of just kind of mixes them together into one.

And we see this great second coming of him ending his enemies in great terrifying array.

But we can see there's also an aspect in his first coming where he offers us peace in the babe

Jesus.

The one full of humility came down to be like us so that by his work on the cross,

by his work on conquering the cross, work in conquering death, we can find refuge in him.

And so we see in the psalm they put them both together and say he's terrifying but at the same time there's great peace that's found

within him if we only kiss the son and take refuge in him.

And so our fear and trembling looks differently in light of Christ.

I want to end, I want to flip to Philippians two and we'll end here.

Philippians two.

Paul says in Philippians two verse 12, therefore my beloved, as you have always obeyed,

so now not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation,

your own salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

See our fear and trembling comes forth from the basis of our salvation, from the basis of our kissing

the son, from the basis of our finding refuge in the son and so now everything that we do is a play out of

that basis of our salvation that we have in finding refuge in Jesus.

And so everything we do is in fear and troubling of this great God who one day will come and destroy his enemies

but in his love he has offered us peace in himself and so I can take refuge in that peace and so now

all I do is in light of that great reality, that great truth that although I'm a wicked sinner, I

can be made redeemed in him and be protected from sin and from the

consequences.

And so our fear and trembling as we consider just how amazing and big and great God is is in light of the fact that he has

shown us peace.

In fact, if you look in chapter two, verse one, the example of Jesus coming and being that

humble example is seen in there.

Chapter two, verse one, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any

participation in the spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy, Paul says, by being of the same mind,

having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.

Let each of you look not only to his own interests but also to the interests of others.

Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, and this is what Jesus has done as our example, though he

was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God as 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 becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.

Look at that first coming of Jesus.

Contrast that in your mind with what we talked about in Revelation, how the second will not be anything like that but he will come in

power and authority and no humility at all involved in that.

But Jesus came the first time like that in order to offer us grace and peace.

He's our example of this humility.

In verse nine, therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every

name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and

under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the

Father.

So in reality of this, in understanding this, the salvation plan from of old,

that although man has entered into rebellion against God and their sin, although we commit sin within our

heart, rebellion against God, he instead of sending wrath upon us, instead of sending Jesus in his second coming, he

sent him in his first coming as a babe so that we can find peace and refuge in him.

This is the great promise of scripture that although there is a great distance between us and God,

he sent forth his son to take on flesh as truly God so that it would create in us an awe of fear

that this God has done such a wonderful thing for us.

What is our only response?

But to obey this warning from God.

And the way we obey the warning from God is by looking to his son and kissing the son and believing upon him.

So once we see Christmas, once we think about Christmas, what gives us a Christmas spirit is

understanding all the reality that comes around this Jesus as a baby and not as a

destroyer.

Once you understand our sin and how I rebel against God, Jesus came to give me peace, this will

give us a Christmas spirit no matter what kind of circumstance you may or may not be in.

This is the great Jesus of scripture that came and loved on us when we deserved it not.

So how can we be rebellious people when we have such a king like Jesus?

How can we be a rebellious people?

How can we harbor insincerity in our hearts and a lack of worship in our hearts when he has been so kind

to us and to you?

May we be a people in which we consider the fact that Christ came to save so I can love him from the heart.

Let us celebrate that this Christmas season.

Let us celebrate that today.

Let us celebrate that in the coming years of our lives.

Let us pray to our God.

God in heaven, thank you so much for your great love.

We know, Lord, that Jesus is a conquering God.

He conquers sin.

I'm thankful, Lord, that he does it in us with patience and love,.

With forgiveness.

Lord in heaven, you didn't have to warn us.

You didn't have to provide a salvation, but you did in your kindness.

So I ask, Lord, that we would look upon Jesus this Christmas season certainly as one who

will come and who will defeat his enemies and will do it in a most horrific way, but also as one who is peaceful

and has offered us peace in his covenant.

So let us be a people in which we see our sin and we see Jesus and we repent of it and we're in awe of fear and

trembling that our God would be so kind to us.

So let that create focus, that we focus upon Jesus all the days of our life because it's in his name

that all these sins are dealt with.

So let us kiss the son.

Let us seek refuge in him.

And let us tell our neighbors and everyone about him because of how awesome his deeds are.

Lord in heaven, I thank you for this salvation.

Thank you for Christ.

Thank you for this day that we can celebrate him.

And I pray, God, that that would be what we do in all our actions throughout this day,.

Throughout our weeks.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Excuse, Stan, take the insert in your bulletin.