Good Tidings of Comfort & Joy

Providence Baptist Church

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There's a pretty famous line in the Chronicles of Narnia, where, if you're familiar with it,

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Mr. Tumnus explains to little Lucy the curse that all

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Narnia lies under. He says to Lucy, it's always winter in Narnia, the line is something like, it's always winter, but never

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Christmas. The idea is coldness, darkness, death, are all represented by these winter months that we're in.

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And in Narnia, there seemed to be no reprieve, no hope, always winter, but never

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Christmas. This Christmas Eve, what I wanna do for us is, I wanna turn that phrase around.

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I'm asking you to turn in your Bibles to Matthew chapter two. Matthew chapter two, it is my desire this morning to give you good tidings of comfort and joy.

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And so for those who are born again, it's always Christmas. In the regenerate heart, it is always

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Christmas, and never winter. Now, I'm not saying that Christians never deal with depression or disappointment or sin or sorrow or sometimes even a hardness of heart or coldness of heart.

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But what I'm trying to say to us this morning is that for the believer, the glorious reality of the incarnation is always with us.

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For those in Christ, we celebrate Christmas every day because God became man.

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Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. In his body, he lived righteously.

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In his body, he obeyed the law. In his body, he suffered. In his body, he bore our sins.

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In his body, he took God's wrath upon himself. In his body, he died on the tree.

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In his body, he was laid in the tomb. In his body, he rose again on the third day.

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In his body, he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of God, the Father Almighty.

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In his body, he rules and reigns. And in his body, he is returning to judge the living and the dead.

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We cannot escape Christian or non -Christian. We cannot escape the glorious reality that is

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Christmas. But if you are a believer, well then it is true that in your heart it's always

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Christmas and never winter. With that in mind, I want to read from Matthew chapter two, verse 10 and 11 and speak to you today about good tidings of comfort and joy.

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Would you stand with me as we honor the reading of God's word? This is going to be a topical message this morning and kind of jumping in at the beginning or in the middle, sorry, of a passage.

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We'll come back to that later. But verse 10 of Matthew chapter two, when they saw the star that is, of course, the

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Magi, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother.

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They fell down and worshiped him. Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

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Father, I stand in need today of your great grace. I pray for your mercy and your kindness upon the preaching of your word and upon this congregation.

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We pray that your word would not fall upon deaf ears or hard hearts.

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Be like the seed that falls upon the good soil. So we pray even now, the Holy Spirit would prepare the soil that we would hear what you have to say to the church, that we would be challenged and encouraged, convicted.

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Lord, there are some even in our midst, whether they be children or adults, who even this day need to look to Christ for the forgiveness of sins.

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Lord, I pray even today that by your Holy Spirit and through the gospel, you would draw them to Christ. We pray that Christians in this room would be encouraged and edified, that we would be exhorted to celebrate

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Christmas well and rightly for the glory of Christ. Bless our time together as we sit under your word and we pray it in Jesus' name, amen.

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You may be seated. As I said, a little less of an exposition this morning, more topical from a thematic view maybe, if you will, of the scriptures.

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But I'm going to encourage you to buckle the proverbial seatbelt and we need to plunge into a difficult reality, but I hope you see why that is in just a moment.

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Let me start with a word from the text and kind of launch us into where we're going. When they saw the star, that is, when the

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Magi saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly and with great joy.

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Christmas is a time for us to rejoice exceedingly with great joy.

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Verse 11, and going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother and they fell down and worshiped him.

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Christmas is a time for us to worship and adore and honor our

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King. I wish everyone in here good tidings of comfort and joy.

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But what I want to drive home in this message is that Christians should celebrate

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Christmas with exceeding joy. But in order to do that, we need to understand what

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Christmas is all about. So first, I wish you tidings of comfort and joy because number one, there is a judgment worth fearing.

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Number one, there is a judgment worth fearing. Now we're going to turn to the back of the book, Revelation, please, chapter six.

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I want you to turn there with me. And the first thing you're going to think when

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I read this passage is, well, that doesn't sound very Christmassy. But bear with me and let's consider the weight, if you will, of Revelation six and we're going to get to the comfort and joy.

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But first we have to understand there is a judgment worth fearing beginning in verse 12.

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Revelation chapter six, verse 12. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth.

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The full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

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The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island were removed from its place.

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Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the

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Lamb. The great day of the wrath has come and who can stand it? Well, preacher, that doesn't sound very

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Christmassy. It doesn't sound like a good tidings of comfort and joy.

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And in fact, it's Christmas Eve, dude. Like, don't you think that you ought to be preaching peace on earth and happiness and all of that stuff on Christmas?

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And actually, I do want to preach on that. And I do, and I am going to get to all of that.

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But before we can get to that, there's a serious matter that must be explained before we can understand the full way.

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Like, I don't want you to celebrate tomorrow just sentimentality or mere happiness with your family.

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I want you to have true comfort, true joy this Christmas and everything that the incarnation brings.

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But first, we need to understand there's a judgment worth fearing, as in all mankind should tremble to consider the words that are in this text.

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This text speaks of a judgment that is, first of all, timely. Verse 12 says, when

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He opened the sixth seal. Let me communicate it this way. The text says when.

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That is a demarcation of time. It doesn't say if. In other words,

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I cannot give you words this morning of comfort and joy without first warning us that the judgment of God is coming upon this earth.

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The judgment of God is timely. It is a sure reality. Friends, I can't make you see this, but I do plead with you to look in the text and see it.

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When He opened the sixth seal. This is a reality, this is a time marker and this will happen.

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The judgment of God is timely. Now, we see plain warnings in the Scripture the judgment of God is coming.

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We have constant warnings of this today. We see the rumblings, if you will, of the coming judgment.

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Every storm, every earthquake is just a precursor to the judgment that is to come. We see the wrath of God revealed in a small part today as mankind is given over to all forms of wickedness in our world today.

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Sexual morality, homosexuality, greed, pride, idolatry. The list goes on and on and on.

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And all of this points to the one grand truth that maybe even some in this room are ignoring and that is we are headed, we are headed to a judgment before God.

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The judgment of God is timely. Second, the judgment of God is terrible. Peter Hitchens, the brother to the late, renowned atheist

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Christopher Hitchens, attributes his conversion to a 15th century painting that depicted the judgment of Christ.

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And I had to look this up. Brother Jerry told me about it, so it was interesting, so I looked it up and you have this painting where it depicts

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Jesus coming back and all these people in terror and such. And essentially, according to Peter Hitchens, the painting helped him to understand the terrifying reality of the coming judgment and that, in his words, he was among the damned.

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Well, consider, friends, from the text. When he opened the sixth seal, I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

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The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

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Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone slave and free hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the

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Lamb. For the great day of the wrath has come and who can stand it? What a terrifying reality.

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The judgment of God is timely. The judgment of God is terrible. Not only terrible, but it's deserved.

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We do not understand, in America today, our sin nearly enough.

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This terrifying reality, you look at that and you're like, well, that's just what mean people deserve, right? No, this terrifying reality of the revelation of the wrath of God, it's not excessive.

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It's not mean. Though it will be terrible for the wicked, it is deserved. All who break

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God's law deserve this. For the great day of the wrath has come.

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It has come, it has arrived, and here it is. Why is this so deserved?

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Why is this so terrible? Because we have a holy God, infinitely glorious.

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Wonderful, worthy of our worship. But consider how men treat Him today. We have taught our children today that's what's really worth chasing in the world today is money or sports or movies or education or fame.

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We chase hard after these things. In place of God, do you know what that's called?

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Idolatry. Sundays are used for self. God's Word is neglected.

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Prayer is seen as a burden or abandoned altogether. And listen to what John says later.

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I'll flip over to Revelation 21 .8. In Revelation 21 .8, John says it this way.

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But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.

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Now, if you read that text and you're honest with yourself, and I'm trying to be honest with myself here too, the problem is every single one of us in this room falls under multiple categories of Revelation 21 .8.

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Mentioned there, right? The judgment of God is deserving upon those who have broken

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God's holy and righteous law. And the judgment of God will be terrible.

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Now, you may have sat here and convinced yourself that God's judgment will not be a big deal, or somehow you'll just get out of it.

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God will dismiss your sins or your idolatry or your rebellion. But consider again verse 16.

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Calling to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the

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Lamb. The fact that Jesus came the first time, the Lamb of God came the first time, the

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Lamb of God is coming again. The fact that He came the first time should assure you that He's coming the second time.

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In His first coming, we see His grace, and in His second, we see that He is holy and will bring

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His righteous wrath. The question that you need to ask yourself this morning is what will you do on that day?

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You who haven't done the will of God, how will you face this terrible judgment?

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The judgment of God is timely and terrible. Thirdly, it's total. It's timely, it's terrible, it's total.

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Notice, first of all, it's all the creations included here. Verse 12, when He opened the sixth seal,

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I looked and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, and the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale.

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The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.

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There will be no place left to hide, right? I'll run over here, I'll run, no, no. There'll be no place left to run to.

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All of creation will be subject to this judgment. It is timely, it is terrible, and the great ones, and the generals, and the rich, and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free.

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So here's the reality. We all believe, now there may be someone in here, perhaps, that doesn't believe in the judgment of God.

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We all would confess that we believe in the judgment of God. The problem is, we just believe the judgment of God is coming upon someone else.

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Not on me, right? It's someone else. In America today, we hear things like, it's gonna be the rich, right?

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The powerful, the kings of this earth will face judgment. Well, that's true, right?

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That's true. No political alliances, no amount of money, no amount of security guards will protect the wealthy, or powerful, or politicians from the judgment of Christ.

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Joe Biden will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Justin Trudeau will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

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King Charles will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Donald Trump will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

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All mankind will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. But it's not just the kings and the powerful, right?

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Verse 15 says, everyone, everyone, slave and free.

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The judgment of God is total. Poor people will be judged. Rich people will be judged.

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The powerful and the vulnerable, the strong and the weak, man and woman, old and young, everyone.

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That means, if I haven't made myself clear and the text isn't clear enough, that means all of us in here. We could all write our names down.

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I could set them before us, and I could read each name this morning. Quatro Nelson will stand before the judgment seat of Christ.

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Jacob Robinson will stand before the judgment seat of Christ. Caleb Nelson will stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and on, and on, and on, and on.

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We will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, and for those who are not in Christ, they will face the wrath of God, no matter your status in today's world.

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The judgment of God is total. And then lastly, the judgment of God is transforming.

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Timely, terrible, total, transforming. I need you to consider this. Verse 16, it says, they call to the mountains and rocks, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from the wrath of the

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Lamb. By the way, let me tell you something. You say, oh, if that ever happened to me, I would repent. Like, once I see the

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Lamb come, I'll really quick, I'll repent right there at the last minute. That's not what these people are doing, right?

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They refuse to repent, even at the last moment, and they want the rocks and the mountains, as all this stuff is happening, they want all these things to fall on them, and they want to be hidden from the face of Lamb.

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But the point I'm trying to make to you this morning is, verse 17, for the great day of the wrath has come, and who can stand?

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What I'm making the point here is that the judgment spoken of in this text only transforms from this judgment into a literal, eternal, and miserable place called the

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Lake of Fire. You must understand, you probably gathered it already, but you must understand that the words in our text are, it's being used as imagery, you understand?

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But the imagery points to a greater reality.

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So you reread this and you understand, well, this is terrible, but it's only imagery pointing to something even worse that cannot be put into human language.

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And the point I'm trying to make here is that the reality spoken of here only moves from this to worse, from this great day of judgment to an eternity of utter darkness and suffering under the wrath of God, for day upon day upon day upon day upon day forever, there will be unending misery, and there will be no hope for escape or reprieve.

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You say, well, you're just trying to scare me this morning. I'm not trying to scare you. You ought to, any reasonable person would be terrified of this reality.

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I'm not trying to scare you. I'm just trying to preach to you this reality. There will be an unending torment for those who reject

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Christ. Now you say, but I'm a tough man. I'm a tough woman. I can grit my teeth and I can make it.

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It'll be fine. How long, a year? Maybe you've had a tough year.

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I could grit my teeth. I could make it under the judgment of God for a year. 10 ,000 years?

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10 million years? You understand 10 million years in eternity is you haven't even started.

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It hasn't even begun. It never ends. And in that moment, your blackened heart will drop all pretenses and hypocrisy that you've built around it today and will cry out in hatred to God for all eternity.

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You will be alone. You will be in utter darkness. Not that you'll be the only person in hell. You'll hear people all around, but it's not like you'll be with them.

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You will be in eternal agony. I want to wish you comfort and joy, but you must know that part of this journey is warning you first that there is a judgment worth fearing.

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The question you need to ask yourself this morning is are you headed for this judgment?

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Are you in love with your sin? Are you in love with rebellion? Are you in love this morning with disobedient to parents?

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Are you in love with greed, with sexual immorality, with lying, with cowardice? Are you in love this morning with pretending you love

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God while harboring secret sin? Friend, I tell you, I love you, and I mean that with all my heart.

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If this is true of you, then you are headed this morning toward a timely, terrible, total, and transforming judgment.

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A judgment that you should fear. A judgment that should haunt your dreams. But I move now to our second point.

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There is a judgment worth fearing. Secondly, there is a gospel worth embracing.

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Matthew 2 now verse 10 says, When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy.

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I want to bring you this exceeding joy this morning. I understand that thus far you said, boy, this doesn't feel very magical, right?

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But that's the point. I want to this morning, as your pastor, as your friend, as a fellow community member in this county and in this town,

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I want to bring you real tidings of comfort and joy. I don't care this morning about sentimentality.

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I care about your soul. I don't want to just feed you candy and encourage you and say, boy, I hope you have a merry

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Christmas, and then look at you on the day of judgment and you say, Quatro, you never told me. No, I'm telling you today because I care about you.

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I warn you of the righteousness and inevitability of the great day of the wrath of the Lamb. He is not laughing at our sin.

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He is storing up wrath against it. But I tell you this terrible news in order to preach to you true news, good news of tidings of comfort and joy at Christmas.

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According to God's law, we are truly miserable and wretched, hell -bound sinners.

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But now let me show you something else. Look at verse 11. It says that the wise men, by the way, Christ is

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God, says they worshipped Him. Going to the house, verse 11, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshipped

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Him. Then opening their treasures, they offered Him gifts of gold and frankincense and myrrh.

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Oh, friends, Jesus is worthy. He's worthy of our worship.

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Anything in this life that you have is as nothing compared to the glory and wonder and greatness of Christ.

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And He's worthy for so many reasons. And one of those reasons is because this judgment that I've just preached, this judgment that is coming, this judgment that maybe even some in this room are heading toward and maybe even right now you're careless about, this judgment is coming, but because of Christ, it is avoidable.

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In fact, in one sense, this terrible and righteous judgment of God has already taken place on the cross for all those who find

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Jesus alone to be their only suitable and all -sufficient Savior.

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Those who own Christ as rightful King, those who receive Him by faith, those who repent of their sins and believe the

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Gospel are spared the judgment of God. How? Because here is the Gospel. God became man.

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The eternal Son of God took on human flesh in the womb of Mary. He was born of the

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Virgin. He merited God's favor and blessing by His righteous work. He secured and fulfilled all righteousness.

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And then He gave His life willingly. We can't preach the manger without the cross. We can't preach Christmas without Easter, the death, burial, and resurrection.

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Like it all goes together. God became man for this reason. What reason? To die for sinners.

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And we see the glorious Gospel. He rose again from the dead. He was made sin on the cross.

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Our sin being imputed to His account so that He could pay the penalty due.

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And He rose again, of course, in victory. Listen, this wrath that we considered in Revelation 6, in a very real sense,

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Christ has already endured it on Calvary for those who will look to Him for His people.

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This is the why of Christmas. The why a body. Why a baby. Why a birth. Why obedience.

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So that Jesus could complete everything that God required as our legal representative.

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And so that He could carry our sins in His body on the tree, and He could die in the place of lawbreakers and rise again bodily from the grave in triumph.

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He came bringing with Him grace upon grace. And so the

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Bible says that for believers. Like if you're a believer here, there's more like if you trust Christ, if you're a

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Christian, this stuff in Revelation 6, it doesn't have to worry you.

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You don't fear that because the wrath of God has been placated in Christ. The Bible says things like this, 2

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Timothy 4, 8, Paul writes this, Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the

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Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved

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His appearing. Those who love the first appearing and those who love the second appearing of Christ.

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We don't have to fear judgment. Friends, do you love Christ? Do you love

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His coming again? Are you ready for His return? I want to read something. I'm going to read the whole passage and I want to just have you consider something.

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I'm going to start in verse 1 of Matthew 2. 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.

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Now, two cities mentioned there. We don't know where the wise men came from the east for sure, but the two cities mentioned there in verse 1,

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Bethlehem and Jerusalem. So keep those cities in mind. So Jesus is in Bethlehem. The Magi come to Jerusalem.

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So they come to Jerusalem, verse 2 saying, where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.

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So naturally they say, the king of the Jews, where's he going to be? The thought is, well, he'll be in Jerusalem. So they come to Jerusalem and they're looking for him.

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When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him. And assembling, so like the chatter around town, you know, like at the marketplace and all that, someone was born king of the

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Jews, what? And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the

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Christ was to be born. They told him, verse 5, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet and you, he's quoting

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Micah 5 too, and you, O Bethlehem in the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people

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Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.

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And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

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After listening to the king, they went on their way. With an entourage from Jerusalem, right?

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No one went with them. They went by themselves. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

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I think it is of note to mention to you this morning that the distance between Herod's palace and Bethlehem roughly some five miles, or if you need it, eight kilometers.

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It's not very far. You could walk that actually in a very reasonable amount of time.

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Now, J .C. Rouse notes this. These verses teach us that there may be knowledge of Scripture in the head while there is no grace in the heart.

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So you say this morning, yo, I'm a conservative American.

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I go, I don't even go to Target. But if I did go to Target, and they said to me, happy holidays,

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I'd tell them Merry Christmas because I know what Christmas is about. I know all this stuff you said. I know about judgment.

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I know about Jesus. I know about his birthday. I know all this stuff. I've already heard it again.

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I know the Bible. I know what Christmas is about. I know it all. But friend, is there grace in your heart?

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These people gathered around the Magi. The Magi was like, hey, we're here to see the king. Herod's like, where's the king supposed to be born?

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They pull up their Bible verses. He's supposed to be born in Bethlehem. Okay, and they leave, and no one goes with them to see the king.

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Not one. Herod, the scribes, the people of Jerusalem, none of them could be bothered to take a five -mile journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to see the

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Messiah. The king is born. The Messiah. All this stuff written about in the

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Old Testament. He's here. Well, how far do I gotta go? Five miles. It's too busy.

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I got stuff going on. What a travesty. Too busy.

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Too distractive. Too much happening in their lives to be bothered with going five miles to Christ.

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We hear of Christ. We have the scriptures, but we're not going to him.

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But friends, is there not a greater travesty today?

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Listen, if Jesus was 1 ,000 miles from us, he would be worthy for us to take up all of our stuff and to go, no matter what it took to get there.

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1 ,000 miles over snow, like my dad when he went to school. 10 miles to school, uphill both ways, right?

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Christ is worthy of even more than that. 1 ,000 miles barefoot crawling, if he's worth it to go 1 ,000 miles for Christ.

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But he's not 1 ,000 miles away. He's not even five miles away. Acts 17, Paul's preaching in Athens, and he says this.

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God is not very far from you. You don't gotta walk 1 ,000 miles to Christ.

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You don't gotta walk five miles to Christ. He is here.

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The gospel call is to go to Christ who is near you even now.

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That's the beauty of Christmas, friends. God didn't say, walk 1 ,000 miles to me.

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He came to us. The journey you could not make and would not make,

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God has made in his grace. In Christ, he has completed the road to redemption.

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And here he is before us today in his mercy. And in his love and in his holiness and in his majesty even now.

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Oh, Christ is coming again in wrath and judgment. But here he is today in mercy.

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Come. Come to Christ in your heart as the song says. Let every heart prepare him room.

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Repent and believe the gospel. He's here. But you see, the sad reality of mankind is for many, that's still too far.

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It's too far because the reality is not about distance. It's about desire.

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They don't want Christ. They're satisfied with where they are in life.

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They're happy in their sins. They don't want King Jesus to rule over them. They will not repent.

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They'd rather, as Revelation says, they'd rather have the rocks and the hills fall upon them than to truly submit to Jesus in every area of their lives.

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So they remain, listen to me, church, they remain like the scribes in Jerusalem. They have knowledge in their mind of Christmas, but they have no desire in their heart to go to Christ and worship him.

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How terribly wicked and inexplicably sad to reject such a

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Savior. Oh, but hear me this morning. Christ is born.

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Emmanuel has come. Sins have been paid for. Death has been conquered.

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The devil has been defeated. Atonement with the holy God has been made. Let us look to Christ because all who do receive him, who believe in his name, who go to him, even now in faith, right where you are, he gives the right to become children of God because you were born, again, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God's.

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Sovereign grace. And this is efficacious because of the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

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Listen to me. Nothing stands between the sinner and Christ except your own unbelief.

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Will you believe today? Will you repent and trust the gospel?

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There is a judgment worth fearing and there is a gospel worth embracing. Will you receive this king in faith today?

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Will you turn from your sins this Christmas Eve? Perhaps even today.

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There is a man or a woman or a child that God is showering his grace on a needy sinner today.

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And I say to you, poor, miserable sinner, seeing your sin and seeing the hope of Christ, go to him even now.

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I'm not saying come up here. It's not a distance. It's not take a first step and God will meet you where you're at. No, no.

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Go to him now in faith. Believe. And then this brings us to our last point.

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There's a judgment worth fearing. There's a gospel worth embracing. Thirdly, there is a Christmas worth celebrating.

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When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. In going into the house, they saw the child with Mary's mother and they fell down and worshiped him.

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Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and fragrance scents and myrrh. Amazing grace.

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How sweet the sound. That saved a like me.

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I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see. Oh, friends, the grace of God is only amazing to wretches.

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I need the grace of God because without it, I am a wretch.

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I need the salvation of God because without it, left to myself,

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I am destined and bound for, righteously so, for hell. But to those who see what they deserve, to those who understand what it is that they've been saved from and who it is that they've been saved to, grace is amazing.

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It is the darkness and desolation of sin that makes Christmas shine all the more brightly.

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The true light of Christmas is Christ. And those who look to Him in faith and understand what we've discussed this morning, look to Him like the

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Magi and rejoice exceedingly with great joy. It was the fourth century Alexandrian pastor

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Athanasius. We didn't get to him in Sunday school this morning, but Athanasius would be a great study as well.

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All this going around with Arius and all that happened that we discussed a little bit in Sunday school. He wrote,

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Christ naturally took a mortal body in order that in it death might be finally abolished and that men might be again renewed after the image.

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Oh man, this is Christmas. Death, sin, hell have all been conquered by our

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King who took on a body. Let us look to Him. We have a

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Christmas then worth celebrating. This is not just a time of happy and giving gifts or whatever and then it'll all perish, right?

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No, no, this is a time of celebration because Christ has ransomed us. We've been rescued in Him.

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We can be here like the Magi and worship. Verse 11, Christ.

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Now there are some who say in even evangelical reform circle sometimes that well, we shouldn't celebrate

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Christmas. It's not in the Bible. I don't care about arguing with that. Instead, I just want to give you the positive side.

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And that is I'm telling you this morning, we have a Christmas worth celebrating. God took on human flesh to destroy the works of Satan, to rescue

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His people from their sins. We are spared God's judgment and we are brought into His family.

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We have a Christmas worth celebrating. So I say to you, church, Christmas hard, right?

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Go hard, Christmas celebrated, right? If you are born again, feast, be merry.

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Christ has come. Wake up tomorrow and read the Bible with your family.

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Read Luke 2 or Isaiah 53 or some portion of scripture. Pray, sing, give gifts.

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The Magi gave gifts. God has given us a gift in Christ. Do all these things. Play, laugh, give presents, celebrate, eat good food.

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Hey, listen, eat a little sugar too, right? It's Christmas. Why? Look at what God has done.

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Look at what God has done for us in Christ. And moments like Christmas day are just a foretaste.

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Man, I love Christmas day. I drive around and like everything's shut down and it's like the world has just, for whatever reason,

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I know that we're kind of losing this a little bit, but the world, for whatever reason, has continued to just press pause on Christmas day and say, you know what?

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There's something more important today than work, than all these other things going on. And so the world kind of presses pause and I know that many do it for ungodly reasons, but for the

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Christian, we say, hey, you know what today is? It's just a small foretaste of what it's gonna be like in eternity, that the joy of celebrating

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Christ, it'll be even better in eternity with God's family forever. And tomorrow, you get a little foretaste of that if you're a believer.

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So celebrate and don't stop with Christmas day. There are time in the Christian life for mourning, for fasting, certainly, but celebrate tomorrow.

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And don't just stop with tomorrow. A holy life celebrates the incarnation daily.

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Jesus came to rescue us from our sins, not only from His judgment, but from our sins, meaning even in our daily lives, we are to have victory over sin if we're believers, putting it to death, living gladly under our

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King's reign. We love the church because it's Christ's body. We make choices tomorrow and today, tomorrow, every day that reflect there is a kingdom worth living for, there is a

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King worth dying for. In the hearts of believers, it's always

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Christmas. It's never winter. We have good tidings of comfort and joy indeed because this wrath that we deserve, we have been rescued from.

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And the God that we were estranged from, we have been brought into fellowship with. We have a judgment worth fearing, a gospel worth embracing, and a

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Christmas worth celebrating. Friends, will you consider these things today? I don't know what you're gonna get for Christmas, but I'll tell you this, there's nothing more valuable in your life than your soul.

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Has God in Christ taken your heart captive? Let it be so this day.

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If you think about this, here's this crazy preacher, sweating and preaching and yelling, and he lays before you this day,

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Christ. Not because I have any authority over the Lord Jesus, but because I'm a man under authority, under the authority of the word of God.

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And the word of God says that those who come to Christ, He will in no wise cast out.

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Those who repent of their sins and believe the gospel, He will receive and He will give

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His own righteousness, forgiving them of their sins and promising them eternal life.

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This is the good news. Repent and believe the gospel. Christ is worthy to be celebrated.

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So let us rejoice in Him in faith. Let us live for Him in joy. And let us say,

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Merry Christmas. Father, I thank you for what you've done for us in Christ.

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I thank you for your word. Lord, you promised, you promised it would not return void.

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We pray that promise even this morning, that your word would go out and not return void. There are some here this morning who need to be convicted of sin and drawn to Christ.

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We pray your word would do such. There are believers in here who need to be encouraged.

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I pray your word would do such. There are believers here who need to be challenged, quit playing so much with the world, to get back as it were on the narrow path and to walk with Christ in joy.

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We pray that you would grow this church. Spiritually in Christ, we want to be more mature.

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We want to grow, we want to love Him more. We pray you'd grow us in number. We thank you for another year that you've given us and all that you've done.

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We pray your word would reign supreme and that our lips and lives would say daily that Christ is