We will have a New Years Eve service beginning at 7 p.m. with a time of fellowship following the service.

A sign up sheets for food is in the vestibule.

We will have one service on New Year’s Day beginning at 11 a.m.

JOY TO THE WORLD

I love to sing the hymns about the Savior’s birth. The world associates these songs with Christmas, but they are not Christmas carols. They are songs rejoicing in the birth of Christ the Savior. The joy found in these songs is not that a cute baby was born. The joy in these songs is in why that baby was born. God was born as a man so He would be able to establish righteousness as the representative of His elect who were sinful men and women. God was born as a man so He could be the substitute for His elect who were sinful men and women, and by His sacrifice for them, put their sin away. None of that would have been possible unless God became a man.

A MIRACULOUS BIRTH

There is no doubt that the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is one of the greatest miracles man will ever know. “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh” (I Tim 3:16). But a greater mystery to my mind is WHY Christ came. He came to save sinners like me! The greatest joy I find in the birth of Christ is that by His life and death as a man, He accomplished everything He came to do. He did indeed “save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

The Wondrous Birth of Christ

At this time of year people make much of the birth of Christ, they get real sentimental, stage plays, set up nativity scenes. As people generally go they get caught up in an event and miss the Person, the reason behind the event.

When the angel appeared to the shepherds he said; “I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. Unto you is born...a Savior, which is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11). The birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is good tidings, good news, it is wondrous news.

Everything about Christ is wonderful, and wondrous. His name is Wonderful: “His name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God” (Isaiah 9:6). His life and works were wonderful. He went about doing good, healing the sick, raising the dead, giving sight to the blind, preaching the gospel to the poor, and revealing the mighty power of God. Because He was God His Words were and are wonderful. His words were words of power; “He sent his word and healed them”. One said when his son lay dying: “Just speak the word and my son will live.” When his enemies sent soldiers to take him, and returned without him, they asked why have you not brought him; “Never man spake like this man”. The most precious words I have ever heard is “be of good cheer thy sins be forgiven thee”.

His Birth was wonderful because of who it was that was born: “The Son of the highest - the Son of God”. God came to earth in the person of His Son Jesus Christ; the Living and creating Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. He was born King, “He shall reign”, He is the “blessed and only potentate”. He was Immanuel, “God with us”.

His birth is wonderful because of how he was born. He was born of a virgin, conceived of the Holy Ghost. This is how he became a man, how he took humanity unto himself: born of a woman, but without a man. Therefore he is sinless, none of fallen Adam’s blood in him.

His birth is wonderful because of why he was born. “Thou shalt call his name JESUS (savior) for He shall save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). His very name means he shall be successful in his work of salvation. Jesus means Savior, and as savior he actually saves or his name has no meaning.

He will save them by his wondrous death. His birth in Bethlehem was the beginning of his life, which was to finish at the Cross. He came in order to die, not for anything he did, but as a Substitute for His people, to “bare our sins in his own body on the tree.” “He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (II Corinthians 5:21). There was a perfect and absolute exchange in the death of Christ, he took my sin by imputation, and I get his righteousness by imputation. Thank God for the birth of His Son Jesus Christ “who came to save his people from their sins.”