Other Sermons / Christmas
[0:00] Well, good morning everyone and welcome to church this Christmas Sunday morning. We're going to begin in just a few moments, but perhaps you'd join me as the musicians play quietly and as we prepare ourselves to hear God's word and to respond with all of our hearts.
[0:17] So as the musicians play, let's quieten our hearts also. Thank you.
[1:00] Thank you.
[1:30] Thank you. For he has visited and redeemed his people. He 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 from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
[1:50] To show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we being delivered from the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
[2:10] 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 in the forgiveness of their sins.
[2:25] 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 in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.
[2:44] The promised time had arrived. psalm비 People What Builtori Peter Aran Yugempor Amen.
[4:14] Amen. Amen.
[5:14] Amen. Let's pray.
[5:47] The Son of God is here, so full of truth and grace, and God's glory is disclosed upon a human face.
[6:00] O Lord, as the prophets promised, so you fulfilled in the wonderful day of grace when our Lord Jesus came to this earth, and then his coming brought the dawning of a new day to bring the sunrise from on high, to bring light in the darkness to this broken world of ours.
[6:22] And how we praise you, Lord, for the message that Christmas still brings to us, that you shall return, that you shall make all things right at last, and restore all this world to your glory, to your beauty, to your perfection.
[6:45] And so it will be forever and ever. So help us, Lord, we pray, to understand the sheer wonder, the grandeur of what was begun the first Christmastime.
[7:00] And may its joy fill our hearts this day, and indeed all the days of our lives, as we bow our lives in worship and adoration, to your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, our great Savior and Lord, in whose name we pray.
[7:25] Amen. A very warm welcome to our service this morning here at the Tron Church. If you're visiting with us, then let me make you very welcome indeed, and we trust that you feel at home with us here as a fellowship of God's people.
[7:42] We don't have a notice sheet today. Let me just mention two or three things. First of all, we meet again today at 4.30 this afternoon in two different places.
[7:53] We've got a carol service in our Queen's Park venue. That's particularly, I suppose, for those with young families and others who are not normally at Queen's Park in the afternoon.
[8:03] Very welcome to join in today. But for the rest of us, please do come here from 4.30 this afternoon, and we will, as is our custom, be going around carol singing around the city center here, hopefully in two or three different groups, and then joining together all as one on the steps of the concert hall to sing carols and to give out invitations to our remaining Christmas services.
[8:27] So we need lots of people to swell the sound, and we'd love for you to join us. So come along this afternoon. We'll be gathering here downstairs, and you'll be told where to go and be led out together.
[8:39] And then we'll be a chance to come back here and share some time together over mince pies and coffee and tea and so on. We have more Christmas services to come. Next Sunday, of course, is Christmas Day, and we have our Christmas Wednesday lunchtime carol service this week on Wednesday.
[8:56] Normally we meet at ten past one. We start a little earlier this week at one o'clock so we can squeeze some extra carols in. Paul Brennan will be preaching at that, so if you're free and able to come, do come along and perhaps bring a friend.
[9:08] Then we have a Christmas Eve candlelit service here at five o'clock on Christmas Eve. It's always a lovely time just as we wind down, as it were, for Christmas to come and meet together and to sing carols and to hear God's Word.
[9:24] Next Sunday, of course, is Christmas Day, and we're going to have just one morning service rather than get you all to Kelvin Grove for nine o'clock, which might be a little tough on some on Christmas morning, especially when you've been up since four o'clock or something like that, if you're young kids.
[9:38] We're going to have just one service here at 11, and we warmly invite you all to come and join with us then. This morning we are singing carols and listening to the Christmas message, and the Sunday school, primary Sunday school, will be on downstairs, and the primary kids can go out during the offering when we'll be singing a hymn, but until then they will remain in with us.
[10:03] And so without further ado, we're going to sing our next carol on the screens that tells us what happened when God from heaven to earth came down. is .
[10:25] . . . . . .
[10:36] . . Thank you.
[11:06] Thank you.
[11:36] Thank you.
[12:06] Thank you. Thank you.
[12:38] Thank you. Thank you.
[13:12] Thank you. Thank you.
[13:46] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[13:58] Thank you. Thank you.
[14:32] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[14:44] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[14:56] Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Amen.
[16:00] Amen. Amen.
[17:00] Stanley Kamala is going to read to us from chapter 3, verse 18, through to the end of Malachi, chapter 4. Once more you shall see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve him.
[17:20] For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and evildoers will be stubble. The day that is coming shall set them ablaze, says the Lord of hosts, so that I will leave them neither root nor branch.
[17:35] But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall tread down the wicked, for there will be ashes under the soles of your feet.
[17:50] On the day when I act, says the Lord of hosts, Remember the instruction of my servant Moses, the statues and rules that I command him at Horeb for all Israel.
[18:02] Behold, I will send you Elijah, the prophet before the great and awesome day of the Lord God 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 of a decree of utter destruction.
[18:19] Thank you. Well, we'll return to these words shortly as we come to think about them together this morning. But now as our offerings are taken up, we're going to remain seated and sing the next hymn on the screens.
[18:36] Hark, a trumpet call is sounding. Christ is near, it seems to say. And once the offering's been lifted up, I'll give you a signal and we can stand to sing the last verse or two.
[18:48] On the cross again. Amen. Thank you.
[19:01] Thank you.
[19:31] Thank you.
[20:01] Thank you.
[20:31] Thank you.
[21:01] Thank you.
[21:31] Thank you. Thank you.
[22:31] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[22:43] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[22:55] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[23:14] Well, God says through his prophet Malachi, my righteousness will be revealed. It will be revealed. Look at chapter 4 verse 1 once again.
[23:26] Behold, he says the day is coming. It will be a day of searing white hot justice, burning like an oven. It's the coming of the refiner's fire that we looked at last time in Malachi chapter 3, which will divide between the precious metal and what turns out just to be dross, just to be dirt, to be burnt off.
[23:53] And that's why it will be a day of great division. Look at chapter 3 verse 18, just the verse above. It will be a division between precious jewels, the treasured possession that God speaks of in verse 17 there, those who fear his name.
[24:10] It will be a division between those people and those who are going to be destroyed, it says here in verse 1. Root and branch both. That's where we get our expression.
[24:21] Root and branch reform. Root and branch destruction. The day of justice, he says, will be a blazing oven for all those who have scoffed at God, who have resisted his righteousness.
[24:35] A fearsome thought. But look at verse 2. For those who fear God's name, it will be very different. It will be a different kind of heat.
[24:48] Not a destroying heat, but quite the reverse. It will be the warming, the healing, the life-giving wings of the sun, says Malachi. For you, the sun of righteousness, will rise with healing in its wings.
[25:02] It's a lovely picture, isn't it, of the sun's rays carrying the sun into the sky as the dawn breaks. The wings of healing that bring light into the darkness.
[25:13] That bring righteousness. That bring restoration. And that bring the abundant joy, the leaping liberation. You'll be set free from bondage, like calves leaping out of a stall.
[25:27] Out of darkness into the glorious, wonderful light of the coming God himself. That's what I want to talk about this morning for a little while in amongst our carols. The sunrise of Christ's coming, which promises, according to Malachi, these healing wings of ultimate restoration for humanity and indeed for this whole world.
[25:48] Because he is coming, says the prophet, to make all things right. I want to look at that by asking two questions.
[25:58] First of all, what does his coming really signify? And then secondly, how does God achieve that? First then, his coming is the rising sun of his righteousness.
[26:14] He comes to make all things right, to restore all things to God forever and ever. Now this coming righteousness that the prophets spoke about, it really was an ultimate restoration of all things for this whole world.
[26:32] It was to put this whole world right in every place where the world has gone wrong. And that was God's promise to mankind right back at the very beginning, way back in Genesis chapter 3.
[26:45] God would put everything right that man had put wrong by his rebellion against God. Despite the punishment that God inflicted upon man and upon the whole world by subjecting this entire universe to a curse.
[27:03] Way back at the beginning, that promise was given that God would one day make all things right. Way, way back in the book of Genesis, way back in the law of Moses, the first five books of the Bible.
[27:15] That's why down here in chapter 4, verse 4, the prophet says, remember, remember the law, remember the instruction of Moses. Way back in Genesis 3, that's what he promised to rebellious man.
[27:28] Do you remember? The seed of the woman shall one day crush the serpent, crush the destroyer of righteousness and right order in this world.
[27:42] And he will restore again the rightness of God that you saw in the Garden of Eden when all things were good and holy and right and pure and pleasing to God.
[27:53] Behold, everything is very, very good. He will make things right again. Book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible, after God redeemed Israel out of Egypt, remember, he promised that he would be their God forever and that they would be his people despite their sin.
[28:13] He would make them what he called his treasured possession, which is exactly the word used here in Malachi 3, verse 17, his treasured possession, his people Israel.
[28:25] That's what Moses promised them. Remember the instruction of Moses. Don't forget that. Of course, Moses wasn't naive. Far from it.
[28:36] He spoke very openly of the Israelites' sin. He was very clear of the fact that they would go on and on and on continuing to rebel against God. Just read Deuteronomy chapter 31 and 32, for example.
[28:49] You'll see that. But Moses promised because God had told him that he would be faithful to his covenant with Abraham to bless all the nations through his seed, through the people of Israel.
[29:06] And it was Moses, that very first of the prophets, it was Moses who spoke about the latter days, the days to come, long in the future, when God would restore the world to righteousness.
[29:19] It's way, way back there in Deuteronomy chapter 4 as a matter of fact. And that was the promise that all of the later prophets picked up on and proclaimed that God's righteousness would at last in the latter days that it would be restored to this world.
[29:39] Just listen to a few excerpts from the great prophet Isaiah. We heard from him earlier. Shower, O heavens, from above and let the clouds rain down righteousness, rightness.
[29:53] Let the earth open and salvation and righteousness bear fruit. Or again, I will bring near my righteousness, says the Lord.
[30:04] It's not far off and my salvation will not delay. Or again, my righteousness draws near, my salvation has gone out and my arm will judge the peoples.
[30:16] The coastlands hope for me and for my arm they wait. And you could read abundantly in almost any one of the prophets these things.
[30:26] You see, righteousness, salvation, that's what the world longs for. But that is what God promised right from the very beginning.
[30:38] That one day he would at last make things right. Make things right forever and ever. And it's so desperately needed, isn't it?
[30:49] Because still this world is so far short of what it ought to be even among God's people. Turn back with me to that passage that that Angeli read to us from Isaiah chapter 59 page 618 in your church Bibles if you have one.
[31:07] It is such a grim picture, isn't it? Of the world as we know it. And so little has changed from 800 BC to 2000 AD. Just look at the verses here in Isaiah chapter 59.
[31:22] Do these things not describe the world that we live in today? Violence, evil, exploitation of the innocent. Verse 7, their feet run to evil, they are swift to shed innocent blood.
[31:39] Just think of these ghastly stories that we've seen so much on the news in recent days of people trafficking. Across the Mediterranean Sea, people being brought into Europe, but all over the world as well.
[31:53] The enormity of the slave trade, the sex slave trade among women, even among children. Their feet run to evil, they are swift to shed innocent blood.
[32:08] Look at verse 8, the way of peace they do not know. Of course, we can sing, can't we, peace on earth at Christmas time. But let me tell you, friends, we know there's no peace in Syria today, is there?
[32:18] There's no peace in the Yemen today. There's precious little peace in Iraq and in many, many parts of the world. The way of peace they do not know.
[32:32] Verse 14, righteousness stands afar off for truth has stumbled in the public squares. Well, can you ever remember a time when our public life has been so discredited, so publicly scorned, our parliamentarians?
[32:54] So much rejection, isn't there, of the political orders today? I'm not sure that there's been something on that scale in this country and since the 17th century. Or in places like France and America in the 18th century, which brought their revolutions.
[33:10] Verse 4, no one goes to law honestly. You can't trust the law. Well, we're hearing plenty of screaming about that, aren't we?
[33:23] Just yesterday's newspaper was full of the fact that people in Northern Ireland are bewailing the fact they can't trust the law that allows convicted terrorists to walk free but sends British soldiers and those who are sent by the arm of the state to fight terrorists back into the court, back to prison.
[33:43] and numerous other examples. And look at verse 4 again. You can't trust businesses or banks either. They rely on empty pleas. They speak lies.
[33:54] They conceive of mischief. They give birth to iniquity. I don't think I can remember a time in my lifetime when there's been such a collapse of public truth and as a consequence such a collapse in trust right across the world.
[34:09] That was the root of the credit crisis wasn't it? A collapse of trust a collapse of credity trustworthiness. That's where the word credit comes from believing.
[34:21] I believe that you'll pay me back what I give to you. But banks and governments couldn't believe that that would happen. That's what caused the crisis. We're facing exactly the same thing in a lack of trust a crisis in trust among politicians and lawmakers.
[34:36] Isaiah's world and Malachi's world desperately needed a restoration of righteousness but our world today certainly needs still that same restoration that putting right does it not?
[34:56] Look down to verse 15 the second half of it there under the heading judgment and redemption. The Lord saw it all this mess of darkness and wrong and lies and cheating.
[35:13] The Lord saw it and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no one to intercede.
[35:26] Then his own arm brought salvation and his righteousness upheld him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate and a helmet of salvation on his head.
[35:36] There was no one on this earth who could restore righteousness who could make things right so God himself has to put on his armor and enter the fray to bring righteousness into this world to make things right to bring his ultimate restoration to a fractured world to right all the brokenness all the ruptures and to restore true health among nations between nations and societies within families.
[36:11] He will do that said the prophets. He will restore all things says Malachi and when he does it will be the sunrise of righteousness that we have all longed for.
[36:25] actually Isaiah uses exactly the same image here look down to the beginning of chapter 60 light in the darkness arise shine for your light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you the sunrise for behold darkness shall cover the earth and thick darkness the people but the Lord will arise upon you and his glory will be seen upon you and nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising and you see centuries later Malachi is writing to the people speaking to the people and saying don't forget that remember that remember all these promises going right back to Moses and all the prophets hold on to it when doubts arise that day is coming because he is coming himself to make things right but how can things be made right when everything in this world is so wrong how will the coming of God make things right when the root of the problem is the human heart that is so wrong well Malachi and the other prophets they tell us that as well and we'll look at that in a moment but first we're going to sing another carol that speaks of that great restoration and the glorious righteousness that will one day fill the world with joy joy to the world the Lord is come let earth receive her king that ESPN and the finan furnished and the tetrissible to see you let earth receive her king
[38:46] Amen. Amen.
[39:46] Amen. Amen.
[40:18] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[40:29] Amen. Do take your Bibles again and turn back to Malachi chapter 4, page 802. Malachi says that the coming of the Lord will be a sunrise of righteousness.
[40:44] He comes to make all things right, to restore this world from all sorrow, from all sadness, from all brokenness, from all suffering, and to do it forever, to put an end to all of these things.
[41:03] Ultimate restoration. His coming will be a sunrise of righteousness because it will bring these healing wings of ultimate reconciliation to the world.
[41:17] You see, ultimate restoration can only come when there is real and permanent reconciliation. The reconciliation of man with God himself, first of all.
[41:33] And so, the promised coming of the Lord to this earth would be to come and make men right, to make us right with God forever. That's the root, isn't it, of all the problems in this world.
[41:46] Look at Malachi chapter 3, verse 7. It's just so succinctly summed up there. The entire problem with this universe. From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them.
[42:04] From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Or, as we read in Isaiah 59, your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you.
[42:25] That's the root of the problem in this world. And, of course, God is speaking through the prophet to his people Israel. But Israel's story is just man's story in microcosm.
[42:37] And the root of all the problems in this world is that there is a massive rift between God and man. That's the root problem of everything in our entire universe.
[42:49] But for righteousness, for restoration of rightness in this world, that gulf must be bridged and there must be reconciliation. There must be healing of that broken relationship, that terrible rupture that inflicts so much damage, so much disaster on this world.
[43:10] You see, what the Bible calls sin is fundamentally that terrible rupture of right relationship between God and man.
[43:21] And when that is broken, everything is broken. There's a trail of tragedy left in the wake of that fractured relationship. Now, we know that to be the case, don't we?
[43:33] When our relationship is ruptured, it's not just those two parties that are affected. Think about a marriage when a marriage ruptures. There's pain, deep pain, isn't there, between those two spouses?
[43:46] But not only there. Pain is inflicted on the whole family and many others, friends, indeed communities. And where marriage rupture becomes endemic in a society, communities and the whole of society itself reaps a terrible reward.
[44:06] The havoc that that ruptured relationship brings. And that's the way it is with our whole world. The rupture that Genesis chapter 3 speaks of between God and man.
[44:19] It leads right on, if you read the very next chapter of Genesis, to rupture between man and man. Between brother and brother. Straight after man is estranged from God, we see human beings becoming deeply estranged from each other to the extent that Cain murders his own brother.
[44:36] And you read on in Genesis chapter 4 and it becomes a litany, one after the other, of evidences, of human enmity. Rupture, broken relationships right across the board.
[44:51] And when you think about it, that kind of relationship rupture is right at the heart of all our world's problems today. Nation at odds with nations.
[45:04] Well, that's what leads to trade wars, to currency wars, ultimately to military wars. And our world has all of a sudden become a much more fragile and dangerous place in recent months, has it not?
[45:18] The talk of all of these things. Race at odds with race. Just think of all the misery that that has inflicted upon our world.
[45:29] All the exploitation of one race to another. Leading to great resentment. Poisoning peoples, communities. Not just for a few years.
[45:41] Not even just for a few generations, but for centuries. Running deep. Think of the ruptured relationships between employers and workers. Well, again, right this very week, are our papers not full of these very things?
[45:56] The strife with the southern railways. Now we're going to have a postal strike running up to Christmas. We're going to have airport people on strike right over Christmas. The British Airways pilots are going to go on strike.
[46:08] Ruptured relationships all over the place. Man at odds with man. And of course, men at odds with women. The last...
[46:21] So much destruction because of these ruptured relationships. Marriages, families, as I said. Societies. Whole communities disintegrate because of ruptured relationship.
[46:34] And our whole world is so wrong in so many ways. All as a result of the curse that we brought upon ourselves because...
[46:46] Chapter 3, verse 7. From the days of our fathers, we have turned aside from God's ways and rejected Him. But into that sorry mess of tragedy and of darkness and of misery in this human world, the prophet Malachi says, God is coming with the healing wings of ultimate reconciliation.
[47:11] Bringing together. He himself is coming, as Isaiah said, because he saw that there was no man. We were powerless to intercede, to change things, to sort things out ourselves.
[47:26] No kings or rulers of this world can sort these things out. No prime minister, no president, whether you're from the elite or whether you're from the populist party. The one is no more powerful than the other to sort out the problems of the human heart.
[47:42] Let me assure you of that. The G8 summit can't do it. The United Nations Assembly can't do it. The European Union certainly can't do it. Not even the prophets and the priests, the preachers, the religious men, not even they can do any of these things.
[48:02] Even those who speak the truth from God himself. They have no power. There is no man, says the prophet. All are helpless, but God can.
[48:13] He who made the world, who framed it, and saw that all that he has made was very good. He can come and make things right and good once again.
[48:30] And that's the astonishing thing. God's not blind. God can see. I've seen their ways. He said in Isaiah 57 verse 18, but I will heal them.
[48:43] I will heal them. The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, even over a world that has spat in the face of its creator.
[48:57] And that's how ultimate righteousness comes. And only thus. Because God himself humbles himself to do what we could not do for ourselves, even for those who are his enemies.
[49:17] It's such a monumental task to bring that kind of reconciliation. Just think what a monumental task it is to reconcile a warring couple. To reconcile warring tribes or communities, warring nations.
[49:34] Look at the terrible strife that has raged for decades and decades in the Middle East. How impossible it is for even the greatest presidents and prime ministers to bring peace to that strife.
[49:49] We can't even solve little things in this world. Never mind solve the greatness of the world's problems in total. It was such a monumental task that it takes the mighty intervention of the creator of heaven and earth itself in a deeply personal way.
[50:11] To even begin to put this world right. And not without cost. Not without deep and grievous cost to God himself, to the great reconciling healer who bears the cost.
[50:24] Not without pain. Not without. It's a good thing. Isaiah the prophet spoke of one that he saw in his vision in Isaiah chapter 6. The one high and lifted up. Whose glory filled the temple, filled the whole earth.
[50:35] But later on in his prophecy, he sees one who is humbled in the form of a servant.
[50:47] With no beauty or honor being despised and rejected and being lifted up high. high to die so that he could become that great healer.
[51:01] And upon him was the chastisement that brought our peace, he says. And with his stripes, we are healed. That's how the healing wings rose upon this world.
[51:17] I, when I am lifted up, will draw people to myself, said the Lord Jesus Christ, as he went to the cross at Calvary.
[51:29] So that in Christ and in his birth and in his death for our sins, Paul says God was reconciling the world to himself.
[51:42] Because, and only because, the King of Heaven stooped to become the friend of sinners. To be born into the squalor of a borrowed stable amid shame and scandal.
[51:58] And only because, through the kisses of a friend's betrayal, he was lifted on a cruel cross to be punished for the world's transgressions. That's what it meant for the God of Heaven to come and to make this world right.
[52:18] To bring this dark world light. Let's pause again for a moment and ponder these things as we sing a carol that reminds us of what it meant for God to come among us as Emmanuel.
[52:33] From the squalor of a borrowed stable by the spirit and a virgin's faith to the anguish and the shame of scandal came the saviour of the human race.
[52:44] otras creates21 i quested learn from those words. On the other hand.
[52:57] Got two eyes. One smile. Just a mile. compromise.石 Thank you.
[53:37] Thank you.
[54:07] Thank you.
[54:37] Thank you.
[55:07] Thank you.
[55:37] To our Lord Jesus Christ, we have now received reconciliation. The Son of Righteousness has risen in the healing rings of reconciliation that is ours now already, if we've trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior.
[55:58] That's the message of Christmas that Malachi promised. It has come. It's come in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, of course, it's true that as yet we don't see all this world restored completely.
[56:16] Not all is right with the world. Far from it. But the Bible is not embarrassed by that, but the Bible is not embarrassed by that, and neither should we be. The New Testament is quite clear. The full light of that glorious coming remains still in the future.
[56:29] But in Jesus' coming, the light has dawned. The sunrise has begun. We haven't yet reached the zenith of noonday, but the light has dawned once and for all.
[56:41] And the Bible tells us that we are saved, therefore, in hope. And the whole of creation, yes, it's still groaning. It's still waiting for the fullness of that day.
[56:52] But it is a certain hope. And that is because the message of Christmas has already begun. Daybreak has come. And already these wings of ultimate healing, they are filtering into this dark world of ours.
[57:09] They're like sunbeams that already are chasing away the dark shadows of night. And already those who have come to know the Lord Jesus Christ, they're touched by those healing beams of light.
[57:24] Because they know peace with God. They know the redeeming, restoring love of God that has been poured into their hearts, as Paul says, by the Holy Spirit of Jesus.
[57:34] And so we experience the grace and the mercy and the love of real reconciliation. We know God and call Him Father.
[57:46] We can pray to Him through the Holy Spirit in Jesus' name. And as a result, what that means is that Christian people, those who have trusted in the Lord Jesus, already, they are experiencing restoration to real health in their earthly relationships.
[58:07] Even now, that has begun. We are those who are knowing the beginning of restoration, of recreation, even in broken and ruptured relationships in our lives.
[58:19] Because, as Paul says, where anyone is in Christ, already there is new creation at work. Wherever anyone is in Christ, he says, behold, new creation, restoration.
[58:34] There's an invasion into their life, into their personality, into their whole psyche. There's an invasion of the righteousness and the wholeness and the healing that has come into this world in the person of Jesus.
[58:50] It's already begun. There's a long way to go. Of course there is. But it's like a sick man who is dying from sepsis when he's had that septic focus cut out of his body by the surgeon, that abscess removed.
[59:04] The decisive intervention has been done. It's taken place. He's a long way to go. He's to heal and convalesce. But he's awaiting that full restoration of health and strength.
[59:16] But the decisive surgery has taken place. And friends, that is the message of the Christmas Gospel. That's what the coming of Jesus meant for our world.
[59:29] That's what it means for your life and mine if we trust in him. He wants us to know the healing wings of ultimate restoration in our lives now already.
[59:41] To warm us. To soften our hearts. To restore and to heal our hearts in the healing beams of his glorious righteousness. He wants his rightness to be at work in us through his Holy Spirit.
[59:56] To make all things new. To transform our lives. To change us and shape us into his likeness. Until at last when we see his faith at his coming.
[60:08] We shall be completely, fully, ever more like him. So many areas of our lives need that healing, don't they? So many parts of our lives need the healing wings of the restoration that comes in Christ.
[60:25] Maybe for you it is healing and reconciliation with your wife or with your husband. Or perhaps with your children. If there's a rupture there.
[60:35] Or with your parents. With your in-laws. Maybe it's a ruptured relationship with a friend. With a neighbor. With a work colleague. With your boss perhaps. So many of us live in situations where key relationships have known trouble.
[60:53] Bitterness and rupture and loss. And we live with the sequelae of these all the time. But friends, the good news of Christmas is that the sunrise has come.
[61:04] It's begun. Even now, in our lives today, the rays of God's healing grace can touch our lives. With that warmth. With that joy.
[61:15] With that healing that comes from the Lord Jesus. That's what Christ offers to us in his gospel. As he promises and longs to send his Holy Spirit from heaven into our hearts.
[61:30] To make the sunrise and the sunbeams of his light real within our life and experience today. Why would anybody want to resist that?
[61:41] That marvelous offer of his grace. Why would anybody want to instead insist on facing the day of his coming? The day of his perfect judgment.
[61:55] Not with joy, but with fear. Instead you can turn to him. You can experience now his wonderful mercy. His wonderful righteousness that will one day fill this whole world.
[62:09] Friends, take Malachi's message to heart this Christmas. Jesus' coming promises those healing wings.
[62:21] The healing wings of ultimate restoration. Because he came to make all things right. But already in his coming. And the pouring out of his Holy Spirit in this world to all who believe him.
[62:36] To all who trust him. Those healing wings. That warming fire. It's what he wants us to have in our lives.
[62:46] To animate us. To make us live with the life of heaven. Even now here on earth. As we await the fullness of our salvation when Jesus comes again. Let him make you right.
[63:01] This Christmas. That's what the Christmas message is all about. For our sake, says Paul. God made him. Who had no sin.
[63:14] To be sin. That in him. We might become. The righteousness. Of God. That we might be made.
[63:25] Right. Forever. Will you be reconciled to God? Will you be part of his.
[63:37] Wonderful future. Of ultimate righteousness and reconciliation. I can't understand why anyone. Will want to do anything else.
[63:49] But make that true for them. Right now. Today. This Christmas. Wait a moment longer. And God's message to us is.
[64:00] I've come. To make everything. All. Right. Let's pray. Oh Lord.
[64:13] Raise up. We pray thee. Thy power. And come among us. And with great might. Sucker us. That. That.
[64:23] Whereas. Though our sins. And wickedness. Sorely. Hinder us. In running the race. That is set before us. That thy. Bountiful grace.
[64:33] And mercy. May speedily. Help. And deliver us. Through the satisfaction. Of thy son. Our Lord. To whom. With thee. And the Holy Spirit. Be honor.
[64:44] And glory. World. Without end. Amen. Well we sing to conclude this morning. Of the marvelous mystery.
[64:55] Of God's marvelous design. That he should come as one of us. A son in David's line. Flesh of our flesh. Of woman born. Our humanness he owns. And for a world of wickedness.
[65:08] His guiltless blood. Atones. Forism.
[65:19] 싶은 man. For its being. For fire.
[65:31] For business. For position. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. For business. Amen. Amen.
[66:39] Amen. Amen.
[67:39] Amen. Amen.
[68:10] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.
[68:21] Let's pray. But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. And you shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.
[68:37] And so until that great day, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of his Holy Spirit be with you all.
[68:49] Amen.