We will have a New Year’s Eve service on Tuesday the 31^st at 7:00 p.m. We will observe the Lord’s Table and have a time of fellowship following the message.

THE PERFECT GIFT

All of us are trying to find the perfect gift for a loved one to open on Christmas morning. We want to find our loved one something that will make them happy and something they can use.

God the Father has given the perfect gift to the people He loves: His Son. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is GIVEN” (Isaiah 9:6) The Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the perfect gift because He is everything sinners need. “and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) Christ is the perfect gift because He makes His people happy. The angel who announced the Savior’s birth said, “Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.” (Luke 2:10) Christ is the perfect gift because He is the perfect fit for sinners. The only people who would exchange Christ for something else are people who God has not saved. “Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.” (II Cor. 9:15)

Pastor

THREE THINGS DECLARED IN CHRIST’S BIRTH

The birth of Jesus Christ declares three great truths.

One, the birth of Christ declares his people were dead in trespasses and in sins, incapable of justifying ourselves by the works of the law. (Rom 3:10-22) Nothing less than the Son of God coming in human flesh and laying down his life for his people could justify us from our sins.

Two, the birth of Christ manifests the love of God for his elect. God’s love is only in his Son toward those God chose in his Son. (Rom 8:39; Eph 1:3-6) We know God’s elect are the “us” to whom God manifested his love because Christ accomplished that for which God sent him: Christ propitiated God for us so that God gives each of his people eternal life through him—"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

Three, the birth of Christ declares God is righteous. Christ was born to die that he might declare God’s “righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). God would not justify his guilty people at the expense of his justice because God is righteous. Therefore, God sent his own Son who took flesh and upheld the law by bearing our sin and curse on the cross. God spared not his own Son but delivered him up for all his people—that is how righteous God is (Rom 8:32). The birth of our Lord Jesus that he might die as the Substitute of his people declares it was a necessity, due to the holy and righteous character of God, that God justify his people in harmony with his justice. Thanks be to God, Christ succeeded, “Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other” (Ps 85:10).

So, if anyone asks you why the Lord Jesus was born into this world these are three good reasons that you can give them.

Pastor Clay Curtis

What shall separate us from the love of God? If life has not, death shall not.