Tonight, I would invite you to turn with me to Isaiah chapter 53 and to Matthew 1. Isaiah chapter 53, the prophecy of our Lord's crucifixion and death. And Matthew 1, verses 18 through 21, just talks about our Lord's coming. And as well, if you would turn in the back of the Psalter Hymnal to page 13, there we find Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 6, questions and answers 16, 17, 18, and 19. Before we read Isaiah 53 and Matthew 1, let's confess together what we believe with regard to Lord's Day 6 and the questions placed before us there. I'll read the questions if you respond for the answer. Page 13. Question 16 asks, Why must he be truly human and truly righteous? God's justice demands it. Man has sinned. Man must pay for his sin. But a sinner cannot pay for others. Why must he also be true God? So that by the power of his divinity, He might bear the weight of God's anger in His humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. And who is this mediator, true God, and at the same time truly human and truly righteous? Our Lord Jesus Christ, who was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God. How do you come to know this? The Holy Gospel tells me. God Himself began to reveal the Gospel already in paradise. Later, He proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and portrayed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. Finally, He fulfilled it through His own dear Son. Isaiah chapter 53, as we give our attention to the reading of the Word of God. Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to Him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. Yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to His own way. And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth. He was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living, for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. And though the Lord makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will give him a portion among the great and he will divide the spoils with the strong because he poured out his life unto death and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Matthew 1, 18-21 This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband, was a righteous man and did not want to expose her to public disgrace, he had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you are to give Him the name Jesus because He will save His people from their sins. You are to give Him the name Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. Beloved, in Christ the Lord, the signs of Christmas are here. For those of you who are students, you are on, at least most of you already are on Christmas break from school. We've already enjoyed a variety of programs, school programs and other things, and we look forward to the program after this evening's service. There already have been some gift exchanges. Cookies, candy, treats, plans for family gatherings, decorating, music of Frosty, Rudolph, St. Nick, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, and oh yes, a baby, maybe. On the local news the other day, the other morning, a particular station was promoting their annual Toys for Tots program. And the news person said, boys and girls, let's do with a little less under our Christmas tree and put a toy in the box and make sure every kid has a Christmas. Now indeed, there's nothing wrong with giving a gift, is there? We're called to be a giving people. But make sure every kid has a Christmas. is that what it's all about? Receiving a toy? Is that all there is to it? To having a Christmas? Well, by God's mercy and grace, we know better, don't we? Boys and girls, you know better, don't you? Christmas is about new life. It's about a baby born, as the angel said, who would save His people from their sins. And as we have considered and continue to consider it once again in the month of December, this baby and the truth of this baby, we must be amazed at who this baby was and came to be. You see, if the world is able to get beyond frosty and presents and the holiday spirit and even acknowledge a baby in some way, it's only in a sentimental way. Sure, the idea of a baby fits with this season because a baby brings us the idea of peacefulness and family and love. And that's what Christmas is all about, right? Who doesn't love a little newborn baby nestled in the hay? Yet this one, the Bible says, is different. This one is way beyond our expectations. This one came to save His people from their sins. What does that mean? Well, Lord's Day 6 is an excellent reminder in this season to get past sentimental thoughts and focus on salvation truths. This Lord's Day, of course, is a continuation of Lord's Day 5 which taught us that indeed there is a way out of our sin and misery by satisfying God's justice which can only be done by one who is both truly human and yet a truly righteous human. but is also true God. And of course, by nature, by nature we would say impossible, and maybe that's what Joseph thought at first too when the angel came to speak to him. But praise God, as Jesus said, the things impossible with men are possible with God. The truth is, beloved, God alone provides the only Savior. And first of all, what are the qualifications of this only Savior? You see, in order to do a certain task, you must be qualified. You must have the qualifications necessary in order to successfully complete a task. Well, what kind of qualifications does one need to save people from sin? Well, answer 15 in Lord's Day 5 stated those qualifications. He must be truly human and truly righteous, yet more powerful than all creatures. That is, He must also be true God. And now, questions 16 and 17 tell us why. They go a little bit further and they remind us of our desperate condition and why we need this deliverance. Question 16. Why must He be truly human and truly righteous? God's justice demands it. Man has sinned. Man must pay for his sin. But a sinner cannot pay for others. Now, we considered this a little bit last week. Man sinned. Man must pay. God's claim was not against angels. It was not against animals, but it was against the human nature. And that claim was death. God said, in the day that you eat from that particular tree, you shall surely die. And that death included spiritual death. It included physical death, leading to eternal death. Our mediator and deliverer had to be truly human, flesh and blood, to pay for the sins of body and soul, which meant, on the one hand, He must die physically. Hebrews 9, verse 22 says, Without shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And before He would breathe His last breath, we know that He had to suffer the extreme, everlasting punishment of body and soul for our sin as He suffered the wrath of God and the torment of hell, which He suffered when He was forsaken by God's love and favor and subjected to God's anger. And this is what Isaiah spoke of when he said he was despised and rejected by men. He took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He was smitten by God and afflicted. He was pierced and crushed and punished and wounded. He was oppressed and afflicted. It was the Lord's will to crush him and cause him to suffer. Our mediator and deliverer had to be a true man, truly human, flesh and blood, but also a truly righteous man, one who is himself a sinner, cannot pay for the sins of another. And Isaiah 53, verse 9, pointed forward to that. That there was no violence in him. No deceit in his mouth. He had to be completely without sin, completely righteous for two reasons. By being truly and completely righteous, not only would this mediator and deliverer take our place by paying the penalty for our sin, by bearing for us the punishment that would bring us peace, but by His righteous life, beloved, He took the place of our unrighteous life and He earned for us His righteousness. And by His righteousness, we are justified before God with our sins taken away from us and His righteousness freely given to us. But this mediator and deliverer also had to be true God. Why? Answer 17, so that by the power of His divinity He might bear the weight of God's anger in His humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. And we read an answer like that And on the surface, we can understand it. But deep down, we have a hard time comprehending this, you see. In other words, he had to be God in order to do what needed to be done as a true and righteous man. Beloved, if this mediator and deliverer was only human, only truly righteous human, there is no way he could carry and bear the burden of God's infinite wrath against sin. He had to be stronger than the strength of the wrath in order to bear the iniquity of us all. Boys and girls, He had to be infinite from everlasting to everlasting to be able to bear an endless punishment. His divinity, the fact that He is God, gave Him the strength and the power that He needed as a true and righteous man to bear the eternal punishment in time. As He hung on the cross, without being crushed under the load. And again, as hard as this may be for us to comprehend, in His divine strength, our Deliverer suffered an eternity's worth of hell for each one of His children. He had to be God in order to save us, as answer 17 says, to earn for us because we couldn't earn it, and to restore to us because we had lost it righteousness and life. That's what man lost in sin. That's what we needed restored. You see, satisfying God's wrath by being punished wasn't enough. Simply paying for sins wasn't enough. We needed our slate wiped clean to be sure, but we also needed hope for the future. And our mediator and deliverer is Himself. Righteousness and life. And His righteousness is freely given to us so that His Father claims us as His children and by His resurrection from the dead, He has conquered the grave and hell and earned for us eternal life. And you know what that means, don't you? That means that death is no longer a curse for us. The grave is no longer a pit of hopelessness for us. Death and the grave point believers to the transition from this life in the body to being at home with the Lord. A congregation, maybe as you have recognized already, it's been hinted at, there is a give and take situation going on here. As true God, this mediator and deliverer took the wrath and punishment of God and endured the full force of it for His people. But at the same time, He gave to His people righteousness and life. He earned and gave back that which we lost in the beginning. He took eternal death for others upon Himself, and the life He earned all by Himself, He shares with others. As Isaiah 53.11 says, He will justify many. And we ought to love this kind of a give and take, right? because we didn't have to do anything. We couldn't. But I'm afraid that there's a different kind of give and take of our own making that we would rather see, and that's because we are short-sighted. We are near-sighted, as it were, only often with what faces us day by day. What we have is an eternal give and take. So often, what we would rather have is a temporary give and take. We don't, at least many of us, we don't think about this eternal give and take that our Savior accomplished on our behalf, at least not the way we should. We don't spend much time thinking about it and meditating on it. Instead, we tend to complain more about whatever situation we may be facing than rejoicing in the God of our salvation. And we must constantly ask ourselves, are we truly excited about being Christians? You see, it seems that our temporary needs are often more important to us than our eternal needs. When it comes to this give and take, we would rather see the things that cause us grief and misery taken away, like poverty and sickness and adversity and persecution and hardship, and you can fill in the blank. And we would rather have given to us all that we enjoy, like bread, success, happiness. Again, fill in the blank. And you say, well, isn't that normal? Yes, it's normal. But, this eternal give and take must be more important to us than our temporary give and take. You see, our temporary needs in life mean nothing apart from eternal life. But in the light of salvation, this life and all that is a part of it is used by God for our eternal good. By the grace of God, in our mediator and deliverer, beloved, we have received the true riches of being saved from eternal death and the never-ending gnashing of teeth, and we will always enjoy never-ending peace and happiness with God. And Paul says nothing can compare with that. Our mediator and deliverer is true man, born of the Virgin Mary, and He is true God, conceived by the Holy Spirit. He is Emmanuel, God with us. That baby we celebrate is this One. And what then is the identity of this only Savior? Well, again, we know that, don't we? As answer 18 says, Our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God. He is the One who came in time, in history as God promised. He was born of a woman and laid in a manger because there was no room for Him. He was celebrated by angels and shepherds. Our Lord Jesus Christ is that mediator anointed by and sent by God to save His people from all of their sins. Again, a mediator, as we know, is one who works to reconcile two parties, to bring two parties that are not in agreement, to bring them into agreement. And Jesus Christ has done that. He has done that on behalf of both parties. He satisfied God's wrath against sin. He took the punishment for sin that was meant for us, and in doing so, He removed the offense and reconciled His people with God, bringing them back into favor with God through His righteousness, holiness, His perfect love and obedience. Beloved, this is the testimony of faith. Because only by true faith can you say only Jesus Christ could rescue me from eternal death and give me eternal life. Only by true faith can you believe and trust that He was given that we might have complete redemption. That's what answer 18 is saying when it says He was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God. Now, the older version of the catechism uses a direct quote from 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, of which this is somewhat of an explanation, a translation in this newer version. But 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30 says, He was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption are meant to describe the fullness, the completeness of redemption, the fact that He was given us to set us completely free and to make us right with God. And to redeem here has the idea of someone purchasing the freedom for a slave by paying the ransom price. That's what Jesus did. He paid the full ransom price to the Father, therefore making us the Father's own possession. And that redemption, beloved, includes wisdom. He was made unto us wisdom from God. That means that Jesus Christ is our wisdom. All that we know about God, all that we know about ourselves, all that we know about salvation, we know not because of ourselves, but it all flows from God through Jesus Christ applied by the Holy Spirit. You see, beloved, apart from Him, any knowledge we have is just foolishness. Apart from Him, the good news of salvation is just foolishness. And that's because outside of God, we are completely in the dark. But as the psalmist says, in your light, we see light. And He was also made unto us righteousness. Now, we understand this too, don't we? He restores righteousness to us by His merit. By what He has accomplished. Because of Christ's righteousness, those who believe in Him by true faith stand righteous and guiltless. In other words, justified before God. And this is complete and perfect righteousness freely given to us. And this full redemption also includes sanctification. Beloved, we are sanctified in Christ. That is, we are set apart as holy in Him. And we are being sanctified all of our lives long by the Holy Spirit who lives in those to whom He has given new life, working more and more every day to cleanse us from the pollution of our sin. Beloved wisdom, righteousness, and sanctification are included in the image of God with which God created man. Man lost all of these. But Jesus Christ is true and righteous man. With that image of God, unharmed, unspoiled, and undamaged, as true man, He is what we were. And He recreates us to once again have that image of God. That's the purpose of salvation, to restore in us what was broken by sin. That new life begins on this earth, and it will be complete in glory, where all of God's people will glorify Him and enjoy Him forever. Finally, then, how is our Savior revealed? Answer 19 says, our question says, how do you come to know this? The Holy Gospel tells me. God Himself began to reveal the Gospel already in paradise. Later, He proclaimed it by the holy patriarchs and prophets and portrayed it by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law. Finally, He fulfilled it through His own dear Son. What is this saying? It is saying we know that the Lord Jesus Christ is our only Savior because God says so. Not scientific investigation. Not our own intelligence. Not someone's great idea, but God tells us. Gospel means good news or joyful message. We're not simply talking here about the first four books of the New Testament that we call the Gospels. But the Holy Gospel is the entire Word of God. The whole Bible, from cover to cover, from the beginning of time and history, throughout the Old Testament, all the way to the last New Testament writing, it all points to, it all speaks of the good news of salvation through Jesus Christ. Some parts of it, of course, are more clear than other parts. Some of it is what we call shadowy form and promises, while other parts reveal the fulfillment of those shadows and promises. And all of God's history unfolded more and more throughout time until in the fullness of time, Mary gave birth to the Christ child and He fulfilled all that had been said about Him before He came. God's history of revelation and redemption recorded in Scripture, beloved, is like a flower. That whole flower is in the seed or in the ball. Boys and girls, it is, isn't it? If you take a seed, that whole flower is in there. We can't see it. But as that seed sprouts and the flower grows, more and more of it is revealed until the flower blooms. Jesus Christ is the full blossom of the flower of the history of revelation and redemption. Congregation, Jesus Christ, True and righteous man and true God. Two natures. One person is the only Savior. How do we know? Because God said so in His Holy Word and we believe it by faith worked in us by the Holy Spirit. And that means, congregation, that God gave His Word to be read, to be studied, to be meditated upon. to be known, to be preached, but also to be believed. God's Word alone includes an eternal lifetime of treasures all contained in its one focus, the only Savior. You see, it's not simply enough to know of Jesus Christ. As James says, even the demons know of Him and tremble, but we must know Him by faith and be able to say from the heart all that He has accomplished is for me too. That's my confidence. It's for me too. To know Scripture is important. To know it in our head. But to know the Redeemer of the Scriptures and believe in Him from the heart is more important. Today, so many are looking for peace and tranquility. They're looking for salvation, a sort of salvation, whether they will admit it or not. but they're looking in all the wrong places, especially this time of year. People long for peace and contentment, but they don't really know what that means. They don't really know where to look. We do. And how dare we hide it from those who don't? Many people have nothing more than a superficial joy this time of year. Boys and girls, that means it's not real. It doesn't last very long. It's temporary. For many, Christmas is nothing more than presents, Santa Claus, and much food. But it doesn't take long and those things are gone, right? Nothing lasting. But true, lasting joy is found in the only Savior. That's what Christmas is all about. How do we make sure that every kid and every person has a Christmas? By getting the word out that Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord, that He has come and that it is finished. He has satisfied all that needs to be satisfied for us before the Father. For those who believe in Him, theirs is the greatest gift of all, forgiveness of all of their sins, righteousness, and eternal life. You see, we don't have to do with less because Jesus Christ has paid it all for us and given to us all we need for this life and the next. And this is true of all who come to Him in repentance and faith. As we said this morning, those who believe in Him have all of the Father. There is enough for all. He is called Jesus because He saved His people from their sins. He was born to give His life a ransom for many. Christmas means salvation has come. And do you know what that means? That means, beloved, that the true signs of Christmas are with us every single day. The true signs of Christ's coming and His accomplished work are with us every day demonstrated in true faith, demonstrated in lives committed to the Christian faith and living for Jesus, demonstrated in the Christian school training our covenant youth in the fear and knowledge of the Lord. Demonstrated in seminaries training pastors to preach the Word. Demonstrated in true churches filled on Sunday. Demonstrated in children being taught and catechized. Demonstrated in mature believers studying God's Word together. Demonstrated in getting out there to serve. Serve our God by serving others and getting the message to the lost that Jesus Christ is Lord. The true signs of Christ's coming and accomplished work are evident when God's people sing, we have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves, and singing it boldly. And beloved, may our desire, as we remember the gift of salvation that we hold dear, may our desire be to be used of God to share the good news of Jesus Christ with those He places in our paths. knowing that without Him they have no hope because there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we might be saved. But whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now, brothers and sisters, that's what it means to have a Christmas. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, sometimes it seems that our prayers are so repetitious. But Father, we do thank You. We do praise You for Your Holy Word, Your Word of Truth, for the truth of salvation. Father, we pray that You have softened our hard hearts, our conceited hearts that only wanted to see things our own way and only wanted to go our own way. You have softened our hearts to see the truth of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. And indeed, Father, as we celebrate His first coming at this time of the year, during this season, may we do so in a particular way, getting the message out, but also living that message each and every day of our lives that Jesus Christ has come and He has accomplished salvation full and free for Your children. O Lord God, thank You for such a precious truth. In Jesus' name we pray these things. Amen.