Christmas Eve Sermon
5:30 p.m. December 24, 2018
Eastside Baptist Church – Twin Falls, Idaho
So God Came to Us!
Or
God Gives What is God
Psalm 85:1-13 and Psalm 86:7-10
Read Psalm 85:1-13
V. 8: “ I will hear what God the LORD will say
A Personal Resolve: “I will hear”
Some will not
Some could not
Not wanting a report from another of what God said.
He will hear for himself
A Firm Resolve: “I will”
Nothing will keep me from this… “I will”
No authentic child of God will purposely refrain from God for long. Maybe for a moment or season, but not for long or good.
Those disinterested in God will allow hindrances to prevent from hearing God.
A Sincere Resolve: “what the Lord will say”
V. 8 “ He will speak.”
He is God, the Lord
Jehovah – the one true living triune God is speaking.
The incarnation
The atonement
The power (the Holy Spirit)
Humanity needs all of this
We can hear – we are spiritual beings who can hear messages from God, who is a spirit
What God has to say is what we most need to hear.
We hear from our own sinful heart all the time and of what our fellow sinful peers have to say. All ungodly doctrines, imaginations, counsels and general misery and confusion.
But HERE: the psalmist wants to come away from all of this and hear God.
What will God say here?
“He will speak peace to His people.
We have previously quarrelled with him
We will have rebelled again and again. But now it is all together different, we turn to him to hear Him.
This peace is that your issues, your conflicts, your stubbornness, your selfishness, your laziness, your foolishness is a war field of your mind and the Prince of Peace has entered the field. Where pride has previously ruled the broken agitated condition of your mind, now you can finally have peace in Christ.
You previously have learned war from that unbelief now, in Christ, He speaks peace to you.
You cannot over estimated this peace.
You cannot advance beyond this moment without this peace.
How does He speak?
He speaks by the authority of His word. You are looking to hear from a spiritual voice. Be careful, there are many spiritual voices. But an authoritative voice does not hide behind weak pitiful men. An authoritative voice can withstand critical examination. The Bible is that authoritative word.
NOW: Salvation and Glory
V. 9: Have confidence: Salvation is near (It is yours) to those who fear Him.
Ex. not a fear of torment, not a fear of the law, it is a fear begotten of love
V. 10: Lovingkindness and Truth don’t meet in confusion, in opposition, in collision, they meet as a refuge from the wind. Righteousness and peace are not foes forced to get along, they meet as a shelter from the storm.
V. 11: Truth springs from the earth. Righteousness looks down from heaven
The incarnation of Christ may be seen in the most shocking, scandalous pictures painted here in Psalm 85
Lovingkindness and Truth met
Righteousness and Peace kiss
Intersecting of
Eternal and temporal
Immortal and mortal
Spirit and flesh
This is not the beginning of God the Son. It is rather the moment where uncreated God entered created existence in body.
This glorious work, springing forth, shows a loving God humbling Himself from Bethlehem to Golgotha for peace upon the sons of men.
This incarnation fulfills prophecy – Isaiah 9:6 “To us a child is born, to us a child is given; and the government shall be upon His shoulder, His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God Everlasting Father, Prince of peace.” He is no ordinary son.
Mysterious – but somehow; without confusion, without change, without division, without separation when uncreated God takes on mortal, temporal, humanity clothed as the Christ, the messiah, the redeemer, the savior.
This incarnation is required for salvation: Heb. 2:17 He “had to be made like one of us in every respect so that he might become a merciful, faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
Adapted from Joseph Scheumann, Desiring God
December 25, 2013
Close with reading vv 12-13
He is not a God who left us in our sin, but rather a God who gives good gifts and did for us what we could never do by coming to us!
So God came to us!
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