The Birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ — Ian Paisley

Pick up the authorized version of the Holy Scriptures that you'll find in front of you in the pews and turn with me to the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. And we're reading some verses from chapter 49.

And then having read these verses from chapter 49, we're moving into the New Testament to the second chapter of Luke. But first of all, the 49th chapter of the book of Genesis. And we're reading from verse 8 to verse 12.

Jacob's Prophecy Concerning Judah and Shiloh

Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise. Thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies. Thy father's children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion's wealth. From the prey, my son, thou art gone up.

He stooped down, he crouched as a lion. And as an old lion, who shall rouse him up? The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be.

Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's coat unto the choice vine, he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of Greeks. His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white like milk.

The Shepherds Hear the Birth Announcement in Luke

Turning over then to the New Testament, to the gospel according to Luke's. Luke's gospel at chapter 2. And we're going to read at verse 7. Verse 7 of chapter 2. And we're going to read down to verse 18.

Verse 7, chapter 2 of Luke's gospel. And she, that is Miri, brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. Because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them.

And they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior which is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be a sign unto you, ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and glory to God in the highest.

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men. And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning the child. And all they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. And God shall seal this reading of His Word with His own confirming power of blessing.

I take the promised Holy Ghost. The blessed power of Pentecost. Fulfill me to the uttermost. Thank God He undertakes for me. And the people of God said, Amen. I want to turn today to a most interesting study relevant to the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Jacob's Deathbed and the Promise of the Messiah

My first text is found at a deathbed. The deathbed of Jacob. And at verse 10 of the 49th chapter of Genesis, we read these words. The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor along ever from between his feet, until Shiloh come.

And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. And then turning over to the second chapter of Luke's Gospel. Luke's Gospel, chapter 2. And we have there the visit of the angelic hosts. And they cry in verse 14, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men.

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. The unity of the Bible is one of the greatest proofs of its inspiration and infallibility. The Bible is a library of many books. 39 in the Old Testament, 27 in the New Testament.

66 books in all. Yet it is one book, the one indivisible book of God. In the book of Genesis, we are summoned to witness the death and deathbed scenes of many persons in that book of Genesis. Those deaths and deathbed incidents commence with the patriarch Abel, the first martyr's death.

In the last verse of the book of Genesis, with the death of Joseph and how he was put into his coffin in Egypt. I would suggest with you that you sit down and you think for a time about the similarities and the contrasts of the life of Abel and the life of Joseph.

You will find a most interesting study in those two men. But, we have the death of Adam noted in Genesis chapter 6. We also have the death of Noah. These two also should be studied together. There is a great similarity and a great contrast between the death of Adam and the death of Noah.

Of course, both of these men had a mighty fall. And you should contrast the fall of Adam and the fall of Noah. Then we have Abraham and Lot's death. What a contrast! Abraham's wife Sarah's death preceded Abraham's death.

Abraham's deathbed is noted in chapter 25 where it is recorded that his two sons Ishmael and Isaac were in attendance at their father's deathbed. We come a little farther in Genesis and we find that Abraham's son Isaac dies and it is noted that his two sons Esau and Jacob attended his death.

You should study carefully those four men Ishmael and Isaac and Esau and Jacob for all of them have a strange parallel in their life. The book of Genesis also records the death of Ishmael. But more is written of the death of Jacob than that of anyone else in the book of Genesis.

The descriptions of Jacob saying farewell to his sons is most striking. His faithfulness shines like a glorious moving star all through his final. He in no way covers their sins or their faults. He speaks a faithful patriarch and he speaks with death as his witness.

But you should take the rest of the Bible and you should come to the book of the Revelation where the names of the children of Jacob are again recorded. But not all recorded. Jacob had a broken family circle.

You will not find the tribe of Dan mentioned in the book of Revelation. Jacob had a broken family. But the most interesting person in this great farewell of Jacob is Judah. And here Judah is mentioned.

The scepter shall not depart from Judah nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh comes. And unto him shall the gathering of the people be. You will notice the blessing of Judah and the first word that is used about him is praise.

Verse 8. And then that thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies because all men shall bow to thy authority. And then we read about Judah as a lion. We read of Judah's scepter as a king. We read of his gathering of his people.

And we see him as... Now you say, why do you find that verse and why do you link it to the second chapter and verse 14? Very simply. There are two names in that first portion in Genesis. One is Judah and the other is Shiloh.

There are two blessings in verse 14 of Luke chapter 2. Glory to God in the highest and on earth good will. And the interesting thing is that the word glory to God in the Hebrew is the word Judah. And the word for peace is Shiloh.

So on the lips of Jacob he mentioned the double blessing of the Messiah that was to come. And when the angels came from heaven they literally shouted Judah! Shiloh! Meaning glory to God in the highest and on earth peace, good will.

The Incarnation: God Veiled, Visible, and Vulnerable in Flesh

So today, the saints of God already in heaven and the saints of God traveling to heaven should shout it in the heaven and should shout it on the earth. Shiloh. What do we find in that manger? We find God veiled in flesh.

What do we find in that manger? We find God visible in flesh. He had never been seen before but now He is seen. No wonder the angels broke the bounds of their invisibility and came down to shout over the plains of Bethlehem.

For here is the miracle of all miracles. The unseen God is seen. And when Paul writes the brief biography of Christ he mentions the fact seen of angels. Seen of angels. But we have something more than God veiled in flesh.

We have something more than God visible in flesh. We have God vulnerable in flesh. Christ was to be crucified through weakness. That little babe in the crib a cruel king wanted to kill him. So Joseph had to take Mary and flee into Egypt.

Why? Because God was vulnerable in flesh. When he came back to the city of Nazareth and preached his first sermon at the age of 30 the crowd turned on him and pulled him out of the synagogue and pulled him up the hill and attempted to throw him over the cliff face on which Nazareth was built.

He was betrayed. He was arrested wrongfully. He was sentenced to the death of the cross. He was crucified through weakness. He endured the cross despising the shield. He became vulnerable in the flesh that he might bear your sins and my sins upon his cross.

Christ Foreshadowed in Genesis as Seed, Shiloh, King, Shepherd, and Stone

If you take up the book of Genesis you will find that Jesus Christ is set forth in that book in five ways. You find him as the seed of the woman. You will find that in chapter 315. You will find him as Shiloh in this text that I am speaking about today.

You will find him mentioned in the same text as the scepter. You will find him mentioned in the same chapter as the shepherd. And you will find him mentioned as the stone. Christ is the seed of the woman.

Christ is the Shiloh with his message of peace. Christ is the scepter for he is the king. Christ is the shepherd. And the New Testament tells me he is a good shepherd. It tells me he is a great shepherd.

It tells me he is the chief shepherd. So we see Christ as the shepherd but we see him as the stone in the blessing to Joseph at the deathbed of Jacob. The stone which the builders rejected has become the headstone of the corner.

The seed brings me to the cross where the great fight took place between Satan and Christ. But the stone brings me to the resurrection where Christ celebrated his victory and came forth having conquered death and sin and hell.

It was Mr. Spurgeon who once said that angels are not to be worshipped they are created beings. But they should be loved by the saints of God. They should be loved because of their obedience to Christ who is their King.

For Christ is the King of angels as the Bible tells us. And whom they have always faithfully served. Here in Luke's Gospel chapter 2 we find a great multitude of the heavenly hosts. There is no record in Scripture about the number of the angels.

There are thousands and thousands and millions and trillions and billions of angels. The number of the angels have never been added to. There hasn't been one angel ever created from the first creation.

An entire third of the angels of heaven rebelled and followed the devil, the great dragon. You read that in the book of the Revelation. But two thirds of the angels remain faithful to Christ. Here we find these angels and they have come the longest possible way to deliver the greatest possible message.

They have come bursting the bands of their invisibility in doing it so that the shepherds saw the multitudes of the angels. Not from the hills of Emmanuel's land but from the hills around Bethlehem. I remember the first time I visited Bethlehem with my good friend, the late Dr. Bob Jones.

And we stood together in one of the mountains of Bethlehem. And I said to him, isn't that wonderful? We're putting our feet for the foot of an angel. The angels came to relate the story of the incarnation and birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

They were special witnesses to reveal that great birth that took place. Heaven shed at Bethlehem. But you know the emphasis on all those that visited the babe in Bethlehem. The emphasis, and I never noticed this until this week as I was studying this passage.

The emphasis is on the return. Everyone that visited the babe that was born. An emphasis is put on the return. These angels returned and it says in verse 15, they returned to heaven. As those angels returned, what did they discuss together?

I thought long and hard about that. And I'll tell you what they discussed. They discussed that the blessed Son of God would not be there. He was always there from the day that angels were created. And now heaven is without God's Son.

Why? Because God so loved the world that He gave His Son for the world. It was an empty heaven as far as the Son was concerned that they returned for. And you know, I have often wondered about what angels talk about.

But the apostle Peter in his first chapter of 1 Peter tells us that angels desire to look into things. They are so staggered and amazed at what God does. They stop in their tracks and they desire to look into it.

The Return of the Angels, Shepherds, and Wise Men

These angels, all the way to heaven, were desiring to look into why it was going to be heaven without the Son. But then we have shepherds. And these shepherds were informed by the angels. They were informed by the angels that they were going to discover a great thing on the earth.

And that great thing was the birth of Christ. And in Luke's Gospel chapter 2 it says that they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they may have known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child.

And all of they that heard it wondered at those things which were told them by the shepherds. And the shepherds returned. Mark that word, returned. They returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them.

Now the shepherds did not get back to their sheep in a hurry because we read that everybody they met they may have known that Christ was born in Bethlehem. So their return was different. The angels were returning to an empty heaven.

But the shepherds were speaking about a full earth in which the God of the whole earth had become incarnate in the flesh. What a contrast! But then there were other visitors came to see our Lord. Especially the wise men from the east.

They came. And of course we know what happened. Eventually they found the Christ. And when they found the Christ, another angel came from heaven and said to them, when you return, don't go back to Herod.

Go back another way. And so they did. They came back by another way. The evil man heard, as we will see tonight, when I preach my message, had in his heart all the bitterness of hell. And he decided to kill the babe of Bethlehem.

Peace on Earth Through the Atoning Work of Christ

Think of that shout those angels put up. First of all, it was Judah, glory to God. I was not new about that. That's the old, old story of the angels. For the day they were created, they shouted glory to God.

And they've been shouting glory to God ever since. But that message, glory to God, is now linked with another message. Peace. Peace. Blessed peace. That was never sung about by any angel before or announced by any angel before.

But the old, old story, glory to God, is now linked with a new story. It's a story that the saints rejoice in. Peace towards a man. Peace like a river, says Jeremiah. Peace like the waves of the sea. Peace that passeth knowledge and all understanding.

Peace, the safe keeper of our hearts and minds. This blessed peace was to be bought with the blood of that very child that they crypt held. A marvelous atonement was going to take place. The sinner and the righteous judge were going to be reconciled one to another forever.

No wonder those angels shouted over the hills of Bethlehem. No wonder they gloriously hymned the fact that there was going to be peace. But Jesus Christ came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

You're going to shout the same message when you get to heaven. Peace to man. And someday we will sing, Unto Him who hath loved us and washed us from sin, unto Him be the glory forever. Amen. In these past few days, we have lost two songsters from our church.

They have gone to join the heavenly choir. Our sister, Mrs. Spears, and our brother, Albert Kelly. And what are they singing? They're singing the second part of this great choral. The second part. Peace towards man.

To quote Mr. Spurgeon again, Well, Spurgeon said, when these angels came from heaven, they told the news just as if they believed it. And though I have often wickedly doubted my Lord's good will, I think I never could have doubted it when I heard those angels shouting, Glory to God of the highest, and on earth, peace, good will to man.

No, I should say, the messengers themselves are proof of the truth. For it seems they have heard it from God's own lips. They have no doubt about it. For see how joyously they tell the news. Now, poor soul, thou that are afraid lest God should destroy thee, and thou thinkest that God will never have mercy upon thee, look at those singing angels and doubt if thou darest.

Do not go to the synagogue of long-faced hypocrites to hear the minister who preaches with a nasal twang, with misery in his face, while he tells you that God has good will toward man. I know you won't believe it when he says it, for he does not preach it with joy in his countenance.

He is telling you good news with a grunt, and you are not likely to receive it. That's fairly strong language, isn't it? That's like something Ian Paisley would say. But go straightway to the plain where Bethlehem shepherds sat by night, and when you hear the angels singing out the gospel by the grace of God upon you, you cannot help believing that they manifestly feel the preciousness of telling.

Christmas, Heavenly Worship, and the Hope of Heaven

Blessed Christmas that brings such creatures as angels to confirm our faith in God's good will to man. Now with the angels round the thrones, cherubim and seraphim, and the church which is still one, let us swell and solemn him.

Glory to the great I Am. Glory to the victim lamb. Blessing, honor, glory, might, and dominion infinite to the Father of our Lord, to the Spirit of His Word, as it was all worlds before, is and shall be evermore.

My dad used to quote an old hymn that came to me when I was preparing this message today, Then we shall be where we would be. Then we shall be what we should be. That which is not now, nor could be, then shall be our own.

And the heaven we are going to is a heaven where Jesus is. And where Jesus is, is heaven there. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word this morning. Thy Word is truth. And we pray that today we'll worship Thee in spirit and in truth.

And if some soul here is unconverted, open their eyes to behold Thee, Lord, and help them to fall at Thy feet, and say with Thomas, My Lord and my God, for Jesus' sake. Amen.