[0:00] today in Romans chapter number 15, I would like to talk to you about all I would want for Christmas or what all of us should want for Christmas. I might ask how you would answer that question today. I'm looking to my wife because I'm needing some ideas. We're only seven days out here.
[0:12] How would you answer that question? All I want for Christmas. Any of you at any point say all you wanted for Christmas was your two front teeth? Any of you have a Christmas without two front teeth? It happens on occasion. I saw one of our kids in kids church today is missing a couple.
[0:26] Maybe that's what he's asking for. Or you know the song that says that. Or maybe a new foam as if you're a teenager in here. Or how about this one, moms? A snowy day, a book, a fireplace when somebody else cleans your house. That sounds like a pretty good one. Stephanie won't be getting that this year, but we're looking for some other ideas if you have any that are, you know, something more reasonable is what we're looking for here. But when we talk about what we want for Christmas, hopefully as we get older and mature, we're not like a kid circling everything in the Sears catalog, which some of you don't know what I'm talking about in that as well, right? Or you circle, you want everything. I want everything. You get older and you just want to be with your family and you want some of those deeper things in life, the things that really matter. If you've been in church any length of time, though, you know what your answer is supposed to be when we ask you what you want. You know what the chief end of man is, is that God would be glorified.
[1:26] That's the true answer. What is it that you want? You want God to be glorified. If you didn't know that, let me tell you, that is the answer you're supposed to give on all these occasions. And on Christmas, all I would want is that he would be glorified. That should be where our mindset is.
[1:40] That's where our heart should be placed on. I remind you of this. Yes, Jesus, he came for us, but he came because we were sinners and he came because God deserves to be glorified. And let us never get confused about that. He came so that he was glorified, but he came because of your sin.
[2:01] And so that's my contribution to the Christmas story is that I was a sinner in need of a savior to come to me, but I do not need to be glorified. My family does not need to be glorified. Only he needs, deserves to be worshiped. That's what it says in Romans chapter 15, is that he came to be the suffering servant to die so that the Gentiles, in addition to the Jewish people, would worship him for his mercy. Where glory is a big deal in scripture. I remember sometimes a lady in the back of the church who wore a big hat, she'd say glory sometimes, right? As a kid, I don't think I had a very good working definition of glory. It's something you'd say if you got really excited, all right? Or if there's banana pudding at the fellowship afterwards, this one man would always say, well, glory, there's banana pudding, all right? And so those two examples didn't give me a very robust definition of what glory is. But it's also very difficult because it's more like defining beauty than it is defining something like, say, Coca-Cola. Sometimes if there's kids or teenagers around and they're serving drinks, I'll say, hey, I'd like to have a Coca-Cola. I've never had one before, but I hear that they're wonderful. And they look at me and they're like, really? How, what planet are you from, right? You've never had a Coca-Cola. It's to say that there's some things that are easier to describe than others. And so describing the glory of God is describing a beauty. There's some words in our vocabulary that we can communicate, that we can communicate not because we can say them, but because you need to see them. It's difficult to communicate because you can't just express it, you need to see it. The glory of God is the manifest beauty of His holiness. The glory of God is the manifest beauty of His holiness. And we want to demonstrate that from our lives. When Stephanie and
[3:52] I got married, we had that in our wedding vows, is that we would bring God maximum glory. What we were saying is that we would like people, when they would see our marriage, that they would see the manifest beauty of God and His holiness. Sometimes it's like watching an episode of The Honeymooners, an old TV show, right? But sometimes it's not that. But what we said and we were committing to is that we wanted the people to behold the glory of God and what He was doing. That should be what we want for Jonathan and Charlotte and for all of us in here, that whatever God gives us, we want it to magnify His glory to make much of Him. And it shines brightly at the Christmas story, the glory of God.
[4:33] But I don't want you to miss it. Dan, I've been to a few big museums before. Maybe when I visited Travis one time in England, you might have taken, I don't remember, I remember being in a museum, seeing a painting that was supposed to be wonderful. Everybody else thought it was great. And I remember just standing there, counting the ten, and then saying, well, wow, that's really something. And then walking to the next painting and looking at it and think, count to ten, say, wow, that is really something, all right?
[5:01] And just walking around a home museum saying, wow, that's just really something, isn't it? All right? And I just didn't appreciate the abstract art or all the little dots that were on there. I just didn't get it, okay? And sometimes you're like that. You say, I know that everybody else is seeing something, but I think it might be upside down, you know? Or like the Mona Lisa, she wasn't that attractive, you know? Or whatever it is, you're looking at it and you don't see and you don't behold the beauty and the wonder. And as funny as that is, what I don't want to happen for you or for any of your kids is when we say at the nativity, at the birth of Christ, we behold the wonder of God and his glory, for you just to count to ten and say, oh, wow, that really is something because everybody else is saying it. So to the best of my ability today, I want to see you why God should be glorified when we looked upon the nativity scene. So I'm going to give four reasons here. I'm going to give a list here of four different ways that I believe when we look down upon the manger that God should be glorified.
[6:08] And that's if you'll help me as I read those. So first off here is you're going to see that as God is revealed to us. In the manger, God is revealed to us. In the flesh, God made manifest to us.
[6:22] Secondly, the word is vindicated, that we see that the word is complete and perfect and true. God's mercy is demonstrated and that the Father's purpose is accomplished. When we look upon that nativity scene and we look at the babe Christ in the manger, we would say, God, we want you to be glorified because we see these things and many more. So the first one here is God is revealed to us.
[6:49] Verse number eight, he's revealed in the fact that he's the truthfulness of God. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision. He came to us as a Jewish man and the minister as a suffering servant to the Jewish people. Sam Wilson showed us on Thursday night as he gave us some tracts.
[7:11] Tonight, Hanukkah starts. If you are part of a Facebook group of your HOA, let me encourage you to wish your Jewish neighbors happy Hanukkah. And then that has an opportunity for maybe you to have a further conversation with them. But he showed us in the middle candle there that represent the suffering servant that is high and lifted up. So Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto the fathers.
[7:39] So what does this mean for God to be truthful? As humans, we are inconsistent. We lack integrity. I want to be loving, but I don't always act in a loving manner. But God's attributes are perfectly displayed at all time. At no point does any aspect of him make diminish another aspect of him.
[7:59] When he shows mercy, he is not showing that he's not just. When he's being just, he's not showing that he's not merciful. He is always just and he's always merciful. He is always wrathful and he is always loving. And in Jesus Christ, God has been revealed to us and we see that he is truthful and he is complete. In the book, The Pursuit of Holiness by A.W. Tozer, he says, All of God's acts are consistent with all of his attributes. No attribute contradicts the other, but all harmonize and blend in each other. God, being who he is, cannot cease to be what he is.
[8:37] And being what he is, he cannot act out of character with himself. Simply put, all that God does agrees with all that God is. In the person of Jesus Christ, we have God revealed to us. We get to know our God.
[8:55] We get to behold our God. All of the truth that we have sung today and rejoiced in. Jesus coming to earth, God has manifested to us. We see that he is committed to his justice. That in the garden, Genesis 3.15, when man fell into sin, he did not say, I will overlook sin, I will start all over him.
[9:14] We are his image bearer, but he said, I will come and that I will crush the head of the serpent. I will bruise my heel. That's what he said he would do and he's doing it because he's committed to his justice. In the manger, we see that God's view of sin, it's severe and it deserves punishment.
[9:30] This baby will live a perfect life and grow up and suffer on the cross because we know God, it has a high view of sin and that sin deserves punishment. We'll see the wrath of God poured out on the same moment. We'll see the mercy of God and the love of God towards sinners. So what God had to say to us was not only or mainly what Jesus said, but it was who Jesus was and what he did.
[9:56] As Moses, we ought to be people that say, we want to see you. We want to see your glory. But God, robed in flesh, came and in the manger, we get to behold our God and we get to know, is there a God? Yes. What is he like? The answer is given to us. So not only is God revealed to us, and so we see the glory of God and we worship and we say wow to that. Next thing we say is that the word is vindicated. What word? This word right here, the one that you have in your hands. The words of God have been vindicated, which mean that they are proven to be true. Larry King, which many of you would know who that is, who did interviews, he was asked, if you could interview anybody in the world throughout history, who would you interview and what would you ask him? And he immediately answered and he said this, I would want to interview Jesus and what I would ask him is, is it true that you were born of a virgin? Because if that was true, then that is the pinnacle of history and it changes everything. Well, Larry King didn't get the interview, but I can tell you it is true and it did change everything. That him being born of a virgin was the fulfillment of prophecy. From the very beginning of this Bible all the way through, it's self-attesting and proving that it is a true and the perfect word of God. And so in verse number eight, it says, it was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God. It reveals the honesty, truthfulness, the nature of God to us, but also to confirm the promises made unto the fathers. That day, which wasn't December 25th, and I believe that you know that, right? We take this day and celebrate it, but there's no reason to believe. But when Jesus was born, on that day, in that manger, the fulfillment of the promises that have been made unto the fathers.
[11:48] Those are the patriarchs, the fathers of the faith. Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Let me look at, show you the promises. It's mentioned all throughout the Old Testament.
[12:00] And when Old Testament ends, they don't stop talking about it. And the New Testament, in verse number, Genesis 18, 18, Abraham, all the nations of the earth are going to be blessed. Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. And Abraham's thinking, like a great nation, I would just be happy about being a great grandpa at this point, right? I don't have any children. You're going to say that as the descendants, this is an impossibility that I'm going to be a great nation, but God proves that his promise is true. And then there's Abraham has a son named Isaac. And then Isaac, in Genesis 26, 3, he says, Sojourn in this land, I will be with thee, and I will bless thee, for unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries. I will perform the oath, which I swear unto Abraham thy father. And then it continues. And then when it comes to Jacob, we get a little bit more information. In Genesis 35, 10, it says, And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob, and thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name.
[13:04] And he called his name Israel. That's why in the New Testament we see the children of Abraham, we see the children of Israel. We see here that what it's the children of Israel, the Jewish people, are the descendants of Abraham. And Jacob's name was changed to Israel. And that's where we get that nation. And so it continues. But then in Genesis 35, 11, we get more detail. A promise is made, a son is born, and it continues being through generations, and the promise keeps coming to them.
[13:34] But Genesis 35, 11, they get more detailed of this promise that had been given to that family. And it says, And God said unto him, I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and a king shall come out of thy loins. And so from David, a king will come.
[13:54] There's a promise to Abraham that all the nations are going to be blessed. There's a promise to David that's going to come from his lineage, that he is going to be king. And God is answering these promises.
[14:05] That's why in Genesis, in Matthew 1, 1, it starts off, The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. The fulfillment of a promise. Let me tell you in here, I know Coach Elrod over here loves history. But some of you in here may not. I don't want you to discount what I'm saying today because you believe that it's just history. This is huge.
[14:26] Not only did God come to earth so that we could know him, God did not reveal himself to us, we would not know him. We have no possibility of knowing him, a God who did not reveal himself to us. But not only did God reveal himself to us, but he did it in such a way that it was undeniable, that it was the fulfillment of a promise. And so there, in the manger, we have a fulfillment of the promise. So when Peter takes this text in Acts 3, 24, he's going to say, Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel, and those that follow after him, and as many have spoken, have likewise were told of these days, Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed, and unto your first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you, and turning away every one of you from his iniquities. Peter is saying here, you know those promises that God gave to the patriarchs long ago? Well, now God has raised up his servant Christ, and he is the fulfillment of those promises. At the manger, the word of God is vindicated.
[15:38] At the manger, those promises are fulfilled. All the promises of God are found bundled that day in a manger. It says like this in 2 Corinthians 1 20, For all the promises of God are in him are yea, and in him amen unto the glory of God by us.
[15:59] They are yes, and they are amen in Christ Jesus. So on the nativity scene, we see a demonstration of the truthfulness of God's word, and we stand back and just wonder and say, Isn't it amazing how he came? No pomp and circumstance as we sing about, but the fulfillment of a promise. So not only in the manger do we glorify God and stand in wonder because it's God revealed, we stand in wonder of God's word because it's perfect and complete and promise, but God's mercy is being demonstrated. Verse 9, And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and saying unto thy name, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. I told you, Jesus comes to earth, and he dies for your sins, which are true, that's our contribution, but he did it to the glory of God. We are not central to the story, we are the benefactors of it, but he did this so that God would be glorified. I believe you would know this, but Gentiles are all of you in here that aren't Jewish. The two categories is simply not being
[17:05] Jewish means that you're a Gentile in here. And so Jesus' coming was for the purpose that God would be glorified among us, among us and Jewish people, which now make up the church. Jewish people and Gentile people together. And this is not just for one people, but it's for all people. Gentiles, the nations, every people, tribe, every language, every nation will glorify God for the mercy he has shown us in Christ. Jesus, the light of the world. As it says in Isaiah 9, 1 and 2, he comes beyond Jordan in the Galilee of the nations. The Galilee of the nations at the top part of the area of Israel, where they would be invaded and people came in, represented all different groups of people.
[17:49] He came where people did not expect. They're the Galilee. That's why in John chapter number 1, they says, is anything good? Come out of Nazareth, because they couldn't believe that Jesus was coming, the people that were different than them. He was coming for all people, and we celebrate that today. That's where you'll find that picture that I have underneath my name. If you don't know, Thatcher's my son. He's in the sound board. If you're wondering who it is that I'm talking to on occasion, it's the guy, it's the kid in the back sound booth, all right? And so here's a picture of Graham, and I guess there's Olivia's in there, but they're getting ready to celebrate Christmas with some other Gentiles, non-Jewish people like us there in Nigeria, and they're going to celebrate the mercy of God. I want to remind you of that. Could you remind your kids of that? That Christmas is not a message just for us, but it's a message for the entire world, and that it's being celebrated all around the world. And so he comes to demonstrate mercy to us. Every kind of need and pain was touched by the mercies of Jesus in his few years on earth. Matthew 1.23, it says that it is God with us. Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name
[19:04] Emmanuel, which being interpreted, God with us. And he certainly is. He wasn't just with us in the manger, term. But as he lives his life, he is with us in our suffering of pain. He's with us in our rejection. He's with us in our loneliness. He's with us in our betrayal. He's with us in every pain.
[19:22] He is with us. He experienced life as human because he came in the form of a man. He came and lived the human life without sin. He ate as a tax collector and with sinners because he was the incarnate display of the Father's tender compassion for sinners. What is God like? We saw him live here upon earth, and we saw that he was kind. We found that he was tender, and we showed that he was full of mercy.
[19:49] He was rich in mercy towards us. So the aim of the incarnation was to magnify the mercy of God so that the Jews and Gentiles, that all people would glorify him. And then lastly here, not only does we worship God and glorify him because he's revealed to us, and not only does the manger scene, the nativity show us that God's word had been fulfilled, it also shows us that he demonstrates mercy, that God's purpose was fulfilled. It said in Luke 19.10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which is lost. Jesus came, we are found, and now God shall be glorified.
[20:27] Isn't it amazing to think of a rescue mission that starts with a baby, but it ends with God being glorified? That's what Isaiah 9 is talking about. It's talking about all these things that are happening, but then it says, and there was born a child. That does not sound like the beginning of a rescue story, does it? But Jesus came and was born there. So in Romans 15 verse 9, it says, And that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy, as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles, and sang unto thy name. For this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles. He came, we are saved, now God should be glorified. Many years ago, I was at First Baptist Church of Jacksonville in Florida, and the service was about to start, and there was people scattered throughout the choir. And as they were scattered throughout the choir, I thought, well, there isn't a whole lot of people up there, and why are they so spread out? But right when the service was starting, the doors of the church opened up, and this church came, that was a predominantly black church, came in and filled up the rest of the choir. And it was a beautiful moment to see two churches coming together to glorify God. That's what's happening in the church all around the world.
[21:46] God is bringing together Jew and Gentile. He's bringing together people of different backgrounds and different ethnicities, and he brings us together for the purpose that he would be glorified.
[21:57] And I want you to know today that there is room in that choir for all of us. Jesus came so that one day you would sing of his mercy. And I want to encourage you to not get distracted by lesser gifts.
[22:10] Being able to sing of his mercy is the greatest gift any family will ever share, is the saying about the mercy. Speaking about the mercy of God upon you should be very much part of your Christmas tradition. Because why did he come? He came so that the Gentiles would receive mercy and that they would sing unto his name so that God would be glorified. So why did Christ come? He came to show us that God is true. He came to show us that God is faithful to his work. He came to demonstrate the mercy of God. He came to unify a people for God and to ultimately fulfill the purpose of God. Now we look at what that produces in my heart and in your heart. Remember the story where Jesus after the resurrection is walking on the road in Luke 24 verse 44 and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning me. Jesus is telling that this story has been being told all through the generation. It's been told all throughout God's word. And these last four verses here in Romans 14 that we're looking at, we have quotations from the law of
[23:20] Moses. We have quotations from the prophets. We have a quotation from Psalms. We have quotations from Moses, from David, and from Isaiah that are being shared. Follow along with me in verse number 10.
[23:31] And again he saith, rejoice ye Gentiles with his people. And again, praise the Lord all you Gentiles and laud him all you people. And again Isaiah saith, there shall be a root of Jesse, means that Jesus came from the line of David, and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the Gentiles trust. Quoting from portions of the Bible from the three men that I mentioned. Then we get to verse number 13 and it says this, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may hope, may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. This is my prayer for you and for my family as we celebrate Christmas, is that now the God of hope would fill us with joy and peace in all believing. We may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. If we would give Christmas to Jesus as it belongs, for his glory, we could receive hope for the new year. How does this give us hope? How do we receive hope? There's a lot of hope that we talk about coming to a new year.
[24:34] I hope in the new year that I do, I go to the gym this many days. I hope in the new year that I, that the finances are like this. I hope in the new year, all these different things. How does what I just told you give you hope? No matter what happens in 2023, you can know this. God is loving.
[24:52] God is merciful. God will be good and God will be purposeful. Let me look at those. First of all, God will be faithful to his word. When God makes a promise, he keeps it. It's guaranteed he keeps us.
[25:05] So none of us have a promise in the coming year of good health. None of us have a promise that our job will be secure. None of us have a promise that our finances will be there and that the world around us will be safe. We do not have those promises. That doesn't sound very hopeful, doesn't it? It's like I'm going in the other direction. Like, Trent, I think you took a left turn. You were going the other way. All right? None of those things are promised to us. But you know what we do have that is far greater than any of those things? We have a promise that all these, that we know that all these things work together for good for them that love God and call it according to his purpose.
[25:37] We have a promise that says that when we cry out to God, for we have not received the spirit of bondage, again the fear, but we have received the spirit of doctrine whereby we cry, Abba, Father, that he will hear us. We have promises in the scripture that far exceed an ability to give us hope than if I could promise any of those lesser things. Because how many of you want security in your job if you don't have the promise that you serve a good and true and just God? None of that would matter. You can know this. He will be constant in his mercy. He might glorify God for his mercy. And God is merciful to all people. Though we were once not a people, we were enemies of God. Now in Christ we receive mercy. We find hope because we can show his love through people.
[26:22] We have seen how God has brought together different types of people into the church. He has designed the unity of different types of people in his church around the gospel to be a display of his glory.
[26:32] And that's what makes the church beautiful. That's what makes the church glorious. You know, I failed to mention him in the kids' room over there. Many people spent a lot of hours this weekend to update the kids' room and I'm very grateful. I won't know your names. I don't know all the hours you put in, but the God of heaven most certainly does and your service is appreciated and it will be used for years to come. And I looked at that room and Josiah or Stella said, why don't we make all the rooms look like this? That's what he said because it looks so bright and looks so brand new. And that's beautiful. But you know, as a church, we're something more than beautiful, more than having a nice building. There's something that can be glorious where people can see the holiness of God when we are together and we are worshiping. Not just together in this room singing songs, but when we are together throughout the week. Let's not be united by lesser things in this world. Let's be united by the gospel. We're a gospel-driven community. And then we also have hope because God will use our lives to accomplish his purpose. What this means is that we give ourselves to the same purpose, making his glory known among all the people of the world.
[27:44] So at Christmas, why Christmas? Why did Jesus come? Yes, he came to free us and to serve us and to bring his life and to seek us and to save us. Jesus came to pay for our sins, but don't let that make you the center of this story. And it's deeper than that. The ultimate reason that he came is the same reason that you and I live, that you and I exist. He came so that God would be glorified. So as we get together this weekend, let us remember for this coming weekend and every weekend and the story of Christmas, we are the center that Jesus came to seek and to save. And God and not us or our children or our families deserve to receive the glory and praise that only belongs to him.