Remember The Promise of Christ this Christmas Season

Open your Bibles to Luke chapter 1, please. We'll end up at the end of Luke, but we'll kind of survey the whole chapter almost. So Luke chapter 1, let's go ahead and read 67 to 79. And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins because of the tender mercy of our God whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. God in heaven, we thank you for this way of peace. Lord, we know that in our sins we are in darkness.

We follow our own fleshly desires They promise us so much life, but they only result in death. Death now and death in total later. What a great gift we have that Jesus Christ would come and offer us life by his wounds. What a great gift that the Son of God would take on flesh as a babe. Deserving so much glory, so much pomp and display, but yet he came as a baby to poor parents, to grow up in a poor family, to die a most wretched death on the cross.

Lord in heaven, we are unworthy of this display of matchless grace. Lord in heaven, I pray that you would open our hearts wider to the displays of Jesus Christ. This Christmas season, may we be amazed at the babe of Jesus. And may our hearts culminate into worship that he has grown up and he has died and he is reigning on high, resurrected from the dead at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us in this moment.

Direct us out of darkness into light. May Jesus be glorified even now. May you be with my lips. May you be with the congregation's ears. I naturally do not want to speak your truth. They naturally do not want to hear your truth.

We need your spirit, God, in this moment. So may we ask for him, every one of us, from the heart. And may you be kind to us and give us him so that we can hear the good things that Jesus has done and praise him for it. In Jesus' name, amen. Well, it's that time of year already. It's the most happiest time of the year, as that song says often, or as we hear that song often on the radio.

And oftentimes it can become, it truly is, Tim said it earlier, there's every reason to celebrate this day, because it is celebrating such a magnificent truth of Scripture. But given the greatness of the blessing that can come forth from the day, in our sin we can use it as great curses and it can turn into something that's very bitter in our hearts and our actions instead of it being the most happiest time of the year it can be the most sad time of the year depending on how we're taken this time of the year christmas can be come the culmination point of our whole year where we have placed our trust and different things and where we are ultimately let down in the most heightened, anticipated time of the year. It can be responded in many different ways by us.

It reminds me of the Charlie Brown Christmas, the famous Charlie Brown Christmas, where you have all sorts of reactions to the Christmas time. You have Snoopy trying to win a decoration contest to earn money, to get money for it, right? So he's taking advantage of the season to get more money. You have Sally who writes to Santa asking just for cold hard cash.

Let's skip the presents and toys. Just give me cash. And, of course, you have poor Charlie Brown who's depressed because he just doesn't know what the meaning of Christmas is. He realizes it can't be about all this commercial stuff. There has to be a deeper meaning here, and he's seeking it out throughout the whole episode. And then you have faithful Linus at the end, given the meaning of what Christmas is, telling the story of Luke to the birth of Jesus. and he says, that's the meaning of, oh, I'm missing it here.

What is that famous line? That's the meaning of Christmas, Charlie Brown, something like that. And so he gains the meaning by Linus. Can you imagine that happening now in a television episode? That'd be far-fetched for sure. But nevertheless, it reminds me of all the different reactions we can have to Christmas.

Vain excitement, or we can have straight-up depression because we just are forgetting or we're not mindful of what the meaning of Christmas is. And we could be caught somewhere in the middle of those two extremes. And of course, it's good for us as we are approaching Christmas Day to look to the word to see how can we enjoy Christmas? How can we enjoy Christmas?

Linus has a very good start by going to Luke 2. By going to Luke where Christmas first began with the birth of Jesus Christ. And I want to, of course, go there as we're approaching Christmas. I want to go deeper than just simply the age saying Jesus is the reason for the season It a true statement and there nothing wrong with it but if we don have any meat or potatoes to that statement we won truly feel the full capacity of the divine beauty of the season If that statement just stays a statement, and we don't know why he's the reason for the season, or what that entails, what's the beauty behind it, then it'll just remain a bumper sticker statement, and it won't actually have any effect on our heart.

So why, how can we make this season special? What about it? Is it special? And I want to, as we are heading towards Luke 2 next week with Pastor Tim, as we look at Luke 1, I want to approach this Christmas season with meat and potatoes. What makes it so special? And as I look at Luke 1 and 2, I see that it is littered with promise.

If we're going to understand why this season is so special, then we have to understand why God's promise is so special. If we do not appreciate God's promise, we are going to miss everything. we need to know and understand God's promise and why that is so important to our very hearts and you know you can hear we hear a lot about God's promises a lot so it can go in one ear out the other but it's not a throwaway statement it is not a throwaway word you cannot enjoy God you cannot enjoy this Christmas season if you do not understand and delight in the promises of God And there are contrary promises out there that can distract us. And without even knowing it, we can be following those promises.

We can be following those contrary promises as they lead us to a situation where we think it will give us life, but it only ends up giving us death and disappointment, which makes Christmas season all the more depressing. No, promise is very important. It should be our delight. It needs to be something we understand to delight in. And in that way, we can enjoy God. we can enjoy the season, we can enjoy our Christian life.

It's all about promise. In fact, you are either enjoying belief and trusting God's promise right now, or you are suffering, pursuing Satan's false promises. Promise of God has been from the very beginning. All the way to the garden, God promised that if Adam and Eve did not eat, they would gain life, they would have life. If they ate, they would have death.

That was the promise of God, and as they pursued that in trust and belief, they had life indeed. But we see Satan comes in with a contrary promise. It's not about following what God has promised, but rather there is a contrary promise that you can follow and find your delight in and find your enjoyment in. Satan promised the very opposite to Eve. And thus, since Adam's fall, we all are born in this world thinking we can be fulfilled by not pursuing what God has promised. if I only had a better family, I'd be happy at Christmas.

If only I got that present, I would be fulfilled. I remember that as a child. If it only snowed right before Christmas, if we'd have a white Christmas, then I would be more happy at Christmas. By the way, Thursday's looking good for that. We can all be excited. I fall prey to that one pretty often.

You can't have a good Christmas without snow. That's why... Okay, we'll stop there. Florida, that doesn't ever make sense, period. And that's one of the reasons why. But if I could only get a boyfriend to spend Christmas or a girlfriend to spend Christmas on, I would be happy.

If my husband would only be more festive, then Christmas would be better. If my wife would just cook better. If my loved one was still with me today, if he was alive right now, then I could enjoy Christmas. We gotta understand that God has not promised those things. That's not God's promise. He might give us those things, and that's great, but that's not what he has promised us.

And since he has not promised us those things, we cannot anchor our delight and our hope and our trust and everything in those promises. That is simply a tactic by Satan to get us off of true promises to find our delights in. You see, God has not promised us those things, and if it was for our most beneficial need that we needed, he would have. But he didn't, so therefore it's not our baseline need.

No, indeed, God has better promises for us that we are to hitch our joy and our delight in. And so we cannot say that my Christmas would be complete if I just had these other promises. Well, God didn't promise you those things, so that is not what you fundamentally need. No, instead we must understand what God's actual promise is and hitch everything to that and have our joy in that. as we look to God's promise, I invite you to let go of what you would like God's promise to be.

Let go of what you would like God's promise to be for you in your own specific instance. I wish I could get this, that, and the other. Let go of those things. If you truly needed those things in order to be joyful and have peace, then God would have promised you that and he would have given you it. But he did not promise you those things. He has not given it to you. but he has promised you something that you do need that will give you eternal joy and happiness, especially during this season of peace that we are to celebrate.

So I want to look at the nature of God's promise and see it happening in Luke 1. God's promise starts with God promising Eve, as we detailed in the garden, that a seed would come forth from her and destroy the works of Satan. We all know this story. From Noah to Shem to Abraham to Judah to David, we have this promise of God coming forth from the beginning that from this seed would come the promise that I'm giving the world for the world to behold and enjoy and find their rest in.

It begins with giving to, actually, giving to the serpent with Eve hearing it, with Adam hearing it, going through Noah, going through Shem, going through Abraham with the covenant promises, to Judah and then of course the covenant promises with David We see the promise of God beginning to display itself in that situation But of course developed along with this as a backdrop is a retelling of the failures of Adam. And that is in Israel, as Adam had all he ever wanted in the garden. So Israel had all they ever wanted in Canaan, a land flowing with milk and honey, a place in which they had all blessings outside of them.

But of course we know that they used those physical blessings for curses as they disobeyed God, just like Adam did, so Israel did. Just like Adam failed, Israel failed. They would take the blessings outside of them and they would use that internally to disobey God and so bring about all these curses. So as Adam had failed in the garden, so Israel fails in the promised land.

So that's the backdrop of this great promise of all of old. This great promise that we are to grab hold of and find peace in. It's the failures of Adam, the failures of Israel. The backdrop of darkness comes forth the Messiah in front, the beauties of light, who would deliver both Israel, both all the people, the chosen people of Adam, chosen people of Israel, to end this rebellion.

And with the close of the Old Testament, and Malachi, if you want to go there with me, with the close of the Old Testament, we see all these themes coming together before we get to the New Testament, which displays this promise. In Malachi 4, we read it already, but it's worth reading again. Malachi 4, we see all these themes coming together by promise.

This is the end of the Old Testament writings. Amalekite 4 verse 1, the prophet writes, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law of my servant Moses, the statutes and the rules that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet, before the great and awesome day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with the decree of utter destruction.

So you have the basic summary of all the Old Testament right there. You screwed up and you screwed up big time and I'm coming to judge, but yet I'm going to bring someone who will bring healing to those who are searching for him. And then you have also that promise that there will be one who comes before him, John the Baptist, as we know him, in the spirit of Elijah, who will come, who will get, who will make ready his way.

So there's all those promises coming forth, right, all the way through the Old Testament. And then you have 400 years of silence. 400 years of silence. think of that 400 years after this where there is no prophetic vision there there's no prophet being raised up to proclaim the word of God to proclaim the promise one of the things that the prophets were to do was to tell Israel how terrible they are but it also was to remind them of the promise of the one to come in light of their terribleness imagine 400 years of complete silence I mean 400 years is a long time I was trying to think of like what 1620 I think if I did my math right, what was going on in the 1620s that would gauge us?

I don't know. I don't know. The Baptists were just starting off back then. That doesn't really help anyone out, though. I mean, it's a long time ago, right? And so as we're looking now at Luke 1, that long years of silence, we're looking at Luke 1.

I just want to pull, I want to say five things from it to get an understanding of God's promise so we can appreciate this Christmas season as the promise comes into fruition. I want to grab hold of five things real quick, but to be honest with you, We might not have time to get through all of them, so it might just be four things. But nevertheless, the first thing I want to see about God's promise is on his timetable.

God's promise comes forth on his timetable, not ours. It comes forth based off of what he wants to happen, how long he wants it to be, not how long or short we might want it to come. 400 years from Malachi 4 to Luke 1, right? And I'm sure that Adam and Eve would have loved for their first son to have brought the promise. Eve messes up. Adam messes up.

They hear that there's going to be one who comes from Eve, the promise that would end what Satan just did. Don't you think that they really wanted the next guy to be him? End it right away. Let's not wait so long. Centuries, centuries, centuries. But we know what happened with Cain and Abel.

That didn't quite happen. One got murdered by the other. It didn't happen. It didn't happen even coming forth from that with Noah. Maybe this will be it. It goes on and on and on, even through David.

I'm sure they would have wanted it to happen right away, but God's promises comes forth when he determines it to happen, and it is a lot of times not on our timetable. It takes time. Centuries of darkness, centuries of tears, centuries of hardships, hardships God determined to happen before the promise would come. God loves for it to get darker so when he really shines forth the light it is visible.

And so we see God acts, his promise comes on his table which is always better not ours. And we see the second point, God's promise is to be believed. It's to be believed. Look at Luke 1 as we go through chapter 1 now. Verse 5. In the days of Herod, king of Luke 1 verse 5 In the days of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of Abijah And he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth.

And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord. But they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and now she was very old. She was advanced in years, past her time for having children. Now, while he was serving as priest before God, when his division was on duty, according to the custom of the priesthood, Zechariah was chosen by lot to enter the temple of the Lord and burn incense.

So what it is is that these priests would be called to go to Jerusalem at their appointed time in the year, and then they would choose lots as to who would go and burn incense in the temple. And that was a very big deal. When you did that, that was a very big deal to be able to go in, you're right by the Holy of Holies, and to burn the incense was a very big deal.

In fact, tradition has it that you didn't want to go in there and do it too long because you were doing something very, very sacred. You wanted to get in there and get out, which is why later on when he's taking his sweet time, because he's seeing an angel before him, they're thinking, what is taking so long? They're starting to get a little worried.

It was a big deal for him to be doing this, to be burning incense before the Lord right by the Holies of Holies. And the whole multitude in verse 10, of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense. It was a time of worship. And there appeared to him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Now again, 400 years of silence.

Not much prophecies going on, not much angelic activity going on, and now all of a sudden in Luke 1, it's happening like it was going on all the time. 400 years of silence, and there is an angel beside the altar, and Zechariah was troubled when he saw him, and fear felt upon him. But the angel said to him, do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard.

What was his prayer? Now, some people think his prayer was that his wife would have a baby, because it goes on to say that. And if that is his prayer, you've got to imagine, maybe I'm wrong here, but you've got to imagine, as she got past that age, he would probably stop praying that. Nevertheless, this little mini promise is coming forth again on God's timetable.

Or maybe some people say that his prayer was what everyone should have been praying for during that time at the temple, that the Messiah would come, right? It seems most likely that he's praying for his wife, though. But who knows? And your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son. So whether or not his prayer, when was his prayer? Are they talking about your prayer has been heard from years ago when she could have a baby?

No, we are not given that. But nevertheless, the angel says, do not be afraid, for your prayers have been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John and you will have joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth. And now hear the description here and this is just like what we just read in Malachi. This is a continuation now of that promise.

400 years later, Zechariah would have been familiar with these words. He would have known what this prophet had said years ago. And what does he say in verse 15? For he will be great before the Lord and he must not drink wine or strong drink and he'll be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb and he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God and he will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.

And so we have, this is the start of the great promise to happen. Jesus is going to come and first his forerunner needs to come That is John the Baptist who comes in the spirit of Elijah. So we see that the promises are going to come now. It's happening after years and years, centuries and centuries. Here they come now, and you are going to have the son who prepares the way for this Messiah.

That's very interesting to see Zechariah's response, though. Zechariah said to the angel, how shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. That's a pretty understandable question. well past the age to have children. Zechariah is told that your wife is going to have the forerunner of the Messiah. And he says, how can I know this to be happening when we're beyond those years?

You know, what I find fascinating is that Mary has a very similar response. Doesn't she? Have you noticed that? Right? Zechariah has a pretty understandable question. Mary has a pretty understandable question in relation to what she heard Gabriel say to her.

Remember later in chapter one, when Gabriel tells her in verse 30, Mary, and the angel said to Mary in verse 30, do not be afraid. It sounds very similar, right? Same thing, do not be afraid, Zechariah. Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David.

And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom, there'll be no end. I mean, you've got to imagine, this is all the promises of God coming forth now. He's going to reign over Israel. He's going to grab the throne of David, right? These are all the promises coming forth from your womb, Mary. But there's one issue.

Mary is a virgin. And that's what exactly she asks. She says, how will this be since I'm a virgin? So we see there's the same kind of response, right? There is a miracle promised to Zechariah, a miracle promised to Mary, and it's a miracle because in one sense they're way too old, in the other sense she's young and has never had sexual relations with a man, which is very important to produce a baby.

So an understandable question, but two different responses, because Gabriel says to Zechariah in verse 19, I'm sorry, where am I at here this is what happens when I try to flip too far I start getting woo in verse 18 and the angel in the The angel, how shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years. And what does the angel say?

And the angel answered him, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I was sent to speak to you and to bring you this good news. And what does he say? And behold, you will be silent and unable to speak until the day that these things take place for months and months, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their time. Whereas Mary, what does he respond with? in verse 35, the angel said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, right?

That's a miraculous event that's going to happen. The Holy Spirit's going to come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has conceived a son. And later on, we see when she visits Elizabeth, what does Elizabeth say about Mary?

It says in verse 45, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. So what's the contrast there? Zechariah didn't believe. Mary did believe. Zechariah asked his question of how could this be through a heart of disbelief. Mary asked that question through a heart of belief.

And look at the response again, going back and forth. I know your eyes are starting to hurt going back and forth, but go back to Zechariah and look what he says to Zechariah. He says in verse 19, I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God and I was sent to speak to you and bring you the good news. This promise that I'm telling you does not come forth from a weak person.

This promise that I tell you comes forth from the God above. I come forth from his presence. My words are his words. The promise I declare to you comes forth from God himself. How dare you ask that question in disbelief? We are to believe the promises of God, no matter what influences Zechariah was going on in his head as to why this can't be.

Right? My wife is way too old to have a child. Too many years have gone by. No, we are to believe on the promises of God despite the circumstances that would cause us not to. And the difference between an unbeliever and a believer is that we have true faith despite the fact that sometimes our hearts lead us into, but wait a minute. Our fear of the Lord causes us to say, although I don't understand it all, I shall believe.

And so we see here the importance of belief in the promise that God tells us because it comes forth from him. And that is enough for us. The third point I want to look at is God's promise is a fruition of history. And for that, I know, I know, I'm going to, we're just going to go to the end of Luke 1. this is a going through we have i mean there's so much beauty in luke one we have mary and her song of worship in light of this promise of of of this promise she has received from god as she's visits with elizabeth i'll meditate through that it is beautiful and wonderful and then after that we have the birth of john the baptist in which they ask what is his name going to be it's john why in the world would it be john they actually don't quite believe it at first and then um Zechariah has to confirm it.

His name is John. I want to talk. And in belief, he names him John. He's able to talk. And what does it say? The first thing, after not being able to talk, after being dumb for so long, that's like the true word dumb there.

I'm not trying to use some kind of slang. After being dumb for so long, in verse 64, immediately, of chapter 1, verse 64, and immediately his mouth was open when he named him John like he was supposed to, when he showed his belief in the promise, and his tongue loose and he spoke blessing to God. This is a side point, but may we have the same heart of belief that when God has us undergo a time that is difficult and hard, we go through it and we end saying, praise be to my God.

That's a throwaway point though. And here we have his prophecy or the benedictus, his prophecy, his blessing, his praise to God. And it's here that I want to focus the rest of the sermon on. And the third point I come across, or we are going to label here with God's promise, is that God's promise is a fruition of history. It's a fruition of history. Look at verses 68 to 73.

If you look at this from Zechariah, we see it's broken off into two sentences. There's two sentences in there. There's just two big sentences. And one of them is all about the promise of God and what he's doing. And then the second sentence is all about John the Baptist's position in that promise. It's all about what John the Baptist is going to do in light of this great promise of Christ.

So this first sentence, let's read in verse 68. Keep it in mind, right? God's promise is a fruition of history. Look how he mentions history. David, Abraham, the covenants of old, the prophets of old, right? It is a fruition.

This promise is a fruition of history. Let's look at 68. Zechariah says, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn or a stronghold of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. Now, again, why is it so important? I'm going to break off here. I shouldn't.

But why is it so important that we would refer to Jesus as the son of David Why would it be so important that he would come from the house of David Because we are people of the promise We see that God has promised and he fulfills his promise So son of David is highlighting the fact that God makes good on his promise. It is a blessed title to give Jesus that title son of David because you're saying the son of promise. Again, he says in the house of his servant David, as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear and holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

We see that God's promise is a fruition of history, It develops in history and it comes forth blossoming like a beautiful flower. But what's amazing about God's promise being a fruition of history is what is that history made of? What is the soil that the flower comes forth from to look beautiful? It's dirty. It's nasty. The history of Jesus coming forth, the fruition of history is one of darkness, one of sadness, the one of failure over failure after failure. over and over again.

And God says, let me wait, take my time for this because I'm going to make something beautiful during this time of darkness, during this time of failures, during this hardship. God's promise is a fruition of history and that history is not something that we typically get cuddly feelings for. Read the Old Testament and it tends to depress you as you see the failures over failures after failures.

But yet Jesus is being brought forth from that as a promise to look beautiful again as a beautiful flower with a backdrop of darkness. He references David, Abraham, covenants of old, prophets of old. God develops his promise, and the development period is of darkness, of sin, and unrighteousness. It shouldn't surprise us when we are waiting upon the promises of God that what makes it so difficult to wait is that there's so much darkness and sin happening.

It should not surprise us that our patience would be tried as we wait upon the promise of God. That is nothing new. But we should always expect the fact that waiting upon the promise of God as it is our hope, it is going to be terribly difficult in the situation behind us. It has always been that way and it will always be that way. We should go from complaining to expecting to praising our God who is able to do beautiful things from very difficult circumstances.

And that is a general statement that applies to you particularly. I guarantee it in the path of obedience to the promise. We should not be surprised at the darkness surrounding us, at the sin around us, at the unrighteousness around us. You know why we shouldn't be surprised by that? Because we see it coming forth from our own heart that's been redeemed.

If it comes forth from within that's been saved, it's going to come forth from without in this world that is still corrupted in their sin. No, we should be expecting the fact that God loves to produce his promise in darkness, in the worst of situations. We should expect this. And then we see the essence of God's promise. The essence of God's promise. Let me remind myself and you.

The first point of God's promise is that it's on his timetable, not yours. The second one is God's promise is to be believed. The third is God's promise is a fruition of history. And now the fourth is the essence of God's promise. What is the essence of God's promise? We see in verse 71, as we go through that first sentence again, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all those who hate us.

That's getting to the essence of the promise. Look at verse 74, it's repeated, that being delivered from the hand of our enemies, We might serve him without fear. But I think to get to the actual holiness there, or I'm sorry, the essence there, is that we might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days. The essence of the promise of God is that we would serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

So if that doesn't get you excited and you would rather be satisfied with lesser promises, then you need to check your spiritual heartbeat. Because the beauties of God's promise is that he would create a situation where you can serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness. That needs to be glorious in your eyes. Because that is all what Jesus is doing.

He's coming to make a people for him that will serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness. If you look, it would be understandable. If I had more time, we could look at the nature of how Jesus was misunderstood. The covenant that he was bringing was misunderstood by Israel. A lot of you who have been in a proper church for a while, the teachings of the Bible, you know that Israel came, or Jesus came to an Israel that misunderstood the promises that he was bringing.

As they had Rome surrounding them and within them, they think back at the heyday of David and Solomon. All they want is to have their freedoms again to have physical prosperity again the land flowing with milk and honey again so that they can be free and prosperous Because that is the Old Testament promise isn it One of the reasons why the Old and New Testament are different is because the Old Testament promises, look at them, they're all physical. If you obey me, there's a condition there, if you obey me, you will have all this physical blessing. and God in his grace certainly brings Israel to a land flowing with milk and honey great circumstances just like Adam in the garden and he says if you obey me you are going to have physical prosperity you're not going to lose any of your children from the womb in the womb you're going to you're going to be able to reproduce right today that scares people the whole idea that reproduce but that was actually a blessing from God you are going to be healthy you are going to have plenty of food.

You're going to have plenty of wine. This was a blessing of the covenant, right? A physical blessing. You will have your enemies, you will not be bowing down to your enemies. You, your enemies will be bowing down to you. And we see that coming forth from David and Solomon, don't we?

So we can see that in the framework of the Old Testament, Jesus coming to make a new one, we could understand why people, why Israel would get this confused. Jesus is coming to, as the promise said, so that we can have prosperity again. That Rome would be kicked out. That Rome would no longer be over us and that we would have all the blessings we could have.

But what did that blessings do for Israel? What is, you know, look at, Solomon's a great story, but look at Israel in general. How did Israel use the blessings of the old covenant? To disobey God. That was to show their sin. That in our sin, we would take the blessings, physical blessings, the circumstantial blessings that the Old Testament gave us, and we would use it to sin and rebel against God.

That's where these blessings of the Old Covenant led these sinful Israelites, is to be disobedient to their God. They didn't need, we don't need, if I may attach ourselves there, we don't need those physical blessings. We don't need those physical things that we think would make, I hope you don't think I'm stretching too far here, would make Christmas so special and good.

Israel didn't need those things. Those things led them to disobedience. I guarantee you, if God just gives you those physical things, those beautiful things around you, without something happening within, you will use that in sin too. It will draw you away from the God who gives. This is the nature of our sin in us. No, when Jesus came, Israel didn't need good circumstances around them.

They needed a changed heart within them. And such a changed heart that it doesn't matter what's going on out there. That my heart is so changed and on fire for the Lord, I love him so much for the forgiveness of sins, that I'm going to use this circumstance that's terrible, and I'm going to glorify God in it. You see, Israel didn't need new circumstances.

They needed a new heart so that it could glorify God in those bad circumstances. What do we need? What do you need? What is this great promise of God? Love it. If God didn't promise you a husband, a wife, if God's cards wasn't for your spouse to be here with you on Christmas, it's because you didn't need that.

And I don't say that flippantly. I know that hurts. But you have to be resolved in your heart that if God has promised this, that is my need. And God has promised you something, that you can be spiritually renewed, awakened in your heart, that you would take the bad circumstances and say, I'm going to glorify Christ in this. That is your greatest need, and he's promised it if you look to Jesus.

And that's exactly what we see. Look at the promise. The oath in verse 73. Verse 73, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Is he talking about Rome there? Do you really think he's talking about Rome there? No.

Who is our enemy? What is our enemy? Sin. Kingdom of darkness. It is the greatest of all enemies. To be delivered from our enemy is not to be delivered for Israel to be delivered from Rome, but it is our greatest enemy is to be delivered from the kingdom of Satan.

Why though? Does he get us out of that kingdom so we can just kind of run around aimlessly? Of course not. That we might, what does he say in the end of verse 74? That we might serve him without fear. Later on he says in verse 77, to give knowledge of salvation to his people and the forgiveness of their sins.

You know that you do not need to fear God or fear any circumstances at all, as Paul says, whenever you have the forgiveness of sins from God through Jesus Christ. That's it. you don't have a reason to fear anymore. You don't have a reason to fear approaching God as you did when your sins were not forgiven. And you have no reason to fear the circumstances around you as you know and you've been told as a promise that those circumstances are for your good to know Jesus more.

No reason to fear at that point. That's it. That is a promise you can hold on to. That is a promise as you consider the promise to come and baby Jesus as he delivers on that promise as it comes to fruition you can get jazzed up about. That no matter how, what's going on around me, Jesus has forgiven me of my sins by my trust in him And there no reason to fear I can approach God boldly I can go through this life boldly not by my own strength but by the strength that jesus provides by his work if that doesn get you excited i'm not saying you guys all start clapping right now but in your heart in your spirit if that doesn't get you jesus thank you for forgiving me of my sins for what he says in verse 74 75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

Why we're able to serve him without fear is because through Jesus we are made holy, we are made righteous all our days. We are set apart, holiness, to be set apart for a particular purpose. And we are able to be set apart from darkness to be made light, that is we are made righteous, made light before God for all the nations to see. This is the essence of the promise of old.

The Old Testament, God promised outside life for inside obedience. The New Testament, God promises inside life, no matter what is going on around you, no matter outside circumstances. So the best way, the only way to enjoy Christmas this year is to delight yourself in the promises of God. Ask yourself that. As I'm seeing, as I'm celebrating the birth of Jesus, the fruition of the promises of old coming collectively culminating to him, am I delighting myself in everything that he represents as the forgiveness of sins, of making me separate from the world of darkness and setting me up as in perfect righteousness, perfect light.

That is what he provides for me, that no matter what's going on around me, I can live as righteous before God because of Jesus' strength. I may have the worst marriage. I may have the worst circumstances. I may have everything feeling like it's coming down, but praise be to God. He has saved me through Jesus. Is that the promise that you're holding on to?

If it is, then you are going to enjoy Christmas this year. I guarantee it. It might be through tears. It might be through pain. But you are going to have an underlying enjoyment. And beloved, this isn't just a Christmas thing.

This is a forever thing. This is for all times. God promises what you need most. Think about it. Why would God waste time promising you things that you don't really need? Why would he do that?

If he promises it, that means that's what you need most. You can bet everything on it. And if you think you need something else more, it's not an actual truth. It's a falsehood you're making up that you think will give you deliverance or some kind of joy or satisfaction. I always say that word wrong. But since God has promised it, we can guarantee, we can know that that is what we need, that is what we bring ourselves to, that's what we submit ourselves to, and that is what we are to delight in.

He has promised us one thing that the world needs. It's Jesus Christ. The forgiveness of sins, who makes us righteous, who separates us to himself for godly use to be a light in the midst of great darkness. So now instead of being a slave of your circumstances, it is your passion to use it as a slave of Christ. That is your whole purpose, and it fills you with all sorts of peace with God and joy, joy, joy.

I'm going to end there. God in heaven, thank you so much for your promise. Lord, as the rest of my sermon was going to detail, as we see that John the Baptist was to go before to declare this great gospel truth to a people to prepare his way, we know that we are the people who have gone after Jesus came. As John the Baptist is the forerunner, we go after Jesus, and we are to declare the same message.

There are people who are sitting in darkness today in the shadows of death that needs their feet to be guided into the way of peace. Lord, may we be people in which we have experienced that peace. We have experienced that light. We have experienced Jesus Christ and the great promise of old. And it has become our delight. So that, Lord, as we go to this dark world, we don't just stay and lament and say, oh, if only it was how it used to be.

If only it was better. But instead, we know that your promises comes into fruition in times like this. so that we can go to this dark world and tell them about Jesus Christ, the light of all the world. Oh God in heaven, may we have this as our aim this Christmas season so that we are full of excitement. That if we are in a family that are full of unbelievers and it's darkness, we would see it as our great aim to be the light.

That we would see that the good circumstances that you have given us, if we are surrounded by a loving family, surrounded by festivities centered on Jesus, that we would know that this came from your hand and we'd be full of happiness in you. But Lord, let us know that everything has been brought to us through Jesus Christ. All that we need is found in him.

So may we all, every one of us in here, trust in this promise. Let us not be satisfied with lesser promises that Satan promises us, but let us be satisfied in the promise of Christ because this is what you have promised. Let our delights be in it this year and may you be glorified through that. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.