lead to Titus chapter 2. We're actually going to begin in Titus 1, and then we'll turn to Titus 2. So Titus chapter 1, 1st and 2nd Timothy, Titus, Philemon. One of the things that's interesting see how different writers of scripture default. They prefer one particular title for God or a few. And certainly because we have so much writing from him over such a length of time, we see that Paul goes through different stages of about and when he's writing the pastoral epistles it's interesting to see how often Paul is referring to God as Savior and so we'll see two examples of that here first beginning in Titus chapter 1 and verses 3 and 4 says here at the proper time he that is God manifested in his word Through the preaching with which I have been entrusted by the command of God our Savior to Titus, my true child, in a common faith, grace and peace from God the Father For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-control, upright and godly lives in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory lawlessness, and to purify from himself a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works." And then let's turn back to the Gospel according to Luke. Luke chapter 2. Again, I hope you can kind of see my trajectory here even as we're reading a number of passages. What I'm trying to do this week and for the next two weeks is to really zero in on a particular title for Christ. To really try to reflect and apply that particular title of Christ. We can see Him more gloriously in our mind's eye and therefore follow Him more faithfully during this season of the year in particular. So Luke 2 and we'll read verses 8 through 14. And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And the angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with fear. The angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David My baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, Glory to God the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. This is the Word of God. Well, as Eden Copeland was walking out to her van yesterday, I said, hey, Eden, I just want you to know, she hasn't looked at me yet, but I want you to know that I have to change the introduction to my sermon tomorrow. Because the play that was put on, courtesy of of a weed and a Johnston at the Christmas brunch yesterday. And so if you weren't there, there might be one or two little inside jokes here, but I want you to know, number one, I do not have a motorcycle. Number two, I am not suffering from amnesia, at least that I remember. And number three, I have not forgotten the Old Testament. However, if I had, It would be kind of a matched-up model at this point. Except for, dear Hayden, Hayden, I'm so glad that you stood up there and you read with such clarity and conviction. The microphone was there, we could hear you, and my soul was blessed that she read Part 1.3. So even if I didn't have a motorcycle and had amnesia, I would have at least been ready for my sermon today. But I just, but I want you to think about the fact that when we read these New Testament scriptures, the only thing you can call on as you read the New Testament is your present understanding and memory of the Old Testament. And if you know enough about me and about the Reformed Presbyterian Church to know that we are in their biggest possible context in the Old Testament. That these were not just random events, and they definitely are not fairy tales that we tell our children. I don't know where we got the idea of a godly, by the way, pretty informal pastor by the name of St. Nicholas of Nyssa, and turned him into the dispenser of all that is good for our children. I don't really know, like, he must be turning in his grave. Like, preach about Christ at Christmas time. So, we can have fun and games, and that's fine. But let's be clear about what is truth at Christmas. What is American imagination? So a Savior, is born. And I want you to notice that even in that title, there are two things that are already beginning to collide, and I hope that you feel how they collide in your mind. Who is the Savior? Well, it's perfectly clear in the Old Testament. Several dozen times, God is explicitly called our Savior. The Bible is training pious Jews in Israel as they go to synagogue week after week after week throughout their lives. God is the Savior. Yes, you're going to have struggles. The nation will have struggles. We will be hard pressed to where we feel like we're falling over. But God is the Savior. And He will come near. And He will help you. Trust Him. Believe His promises. He promised to Abraham, those who bless my people, I will bless them. And by the way, those who curse and fight against my people, I will fight against them and curse them. And so, the Savior, the Savior, the Savior. And then as the prophets begin to speak, they begin to talk about how the salvation of God particular time and a particular place. And as we come into the Babylonian captivity, I want to remind you, we read this morning Jeremiah. Jeremiah is the last prophet. He's there writing five dirges or laments in the book of Lamentation as he's looking at the remains of the city of Jerusalem after the Babylonian destruction. That was just before he and those who were with him went into exile, actually over in Egypt. According to tradition, this is not reported in scripture, but according to tradition, Jeremiah is the one that's referred to in Hebrews chapter 12 as being son of two. That's how his ministry probably came to an end. By those who hated how Jeremiah Jerusalem in terms of God's anger and God's judgment on His own people. But I would remind you that there are, after that period, Jeremiah, there are really only about five prophets that are left to speak. Ezekiel and Daniel, I guess we say six. Ezekiel and Daniel during the captivity, And then we need to connect them to John the Baptist, who I regard as the last of the Old Testament prophets. And by the way, related to Jesus. It's amazing to see and to think about how God is bringing all of these things together. He's bringing them together in time. He's bringing them together in space. But He's also bringing them together in the titles that He has given to Himself. So I want you to see, as we come to this passage today, that this word, Savior, is one of the places where you need to ask, if God is the Savior, then how is the Savior to be born on a particular day, in a particular place? If God, the first cause that Kyle referred to earlier, is going to actually save His people, then why would that start in this little shepherd's town of Bethlehem? It was in the open fields of Bethlehem at Japheth that God ordained that His heavenly host announced the birth of a Savior, who is the salvation of God to those with whom He is pleased. I believe that it's a much more reliable textual tradition, although you will see that in the ESV there is an alternative manuscript to reference their one manuscript. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. What comes next in your mind? And on earth peace, goodwill towards men, that's one manuscript. One manuscript. But the far more prominent manuscript, the one that I think is far more reliable, is the one that is here in the ESV. And on earth peace among those with whom He is pleased. Those whom the Father loves, with Chesed. The never-stopping, never-giving-up kind of love we've been talking about over the last several weeks. Those are the ones who He is taking the initiative to save. What we see today about save them from what? I want you to understand that the word save here is actually a very broad term. You can be saved from bad weather. You can be saved from a prairie fire. You can be saved from sickness. You can be saved in a lot of different ways. God saves people in their temporal well-being. And I'll just go ahead and lay it out here. mean to call Him Yeshua, Jesus, because He will save His people from their sins. The human incarnation of the Eternal Son of God is the central mystery of the Christian faith. I want to pause here, I want to flesh this out with you. Do you believe as a matter of logic, that the mystery of the incarnation is the central mystery of the Christian faith. I almost got to the place where I didn't believe that anymore. Because I read only one part of a book by James Montgomery Boyce, where he said, the purpose of Christ's coming was to die. The central mystery of the Christian faith is, the death of Jesus Christ upon the cross. But then he explicitly qualified this, and I missed this until I went back and re-studied this. He says, but remember that the reason that the death of Jesus is so important is because of who he is. And what he was doing was supporting the assertion that the central mystery of the Christian faith And I hope that you'll take this Advent season, this season when many people are thinking about how does God save His people? What has to be done in order for His people to have peace with God? What's necessary? very helpful one to me. I remember, I looked for the YouTube clip and I couldn't find it, but I remember in a video series this scene that jumps and suddenly you see hundreds of ants scampering around and then the voice of Francis Schaeffer begins to talk about the wonder of redemption. What is redemption? Re, meaning again. Deem, meaning to buy. So to redeem is to buy back. Buy back from whom? Well, all of creation was in the power of the evil one because So point number one today, only God functions explicitly as Savior. If you read the Bible, there are other people who do some saving. The judges are the most notable ones. But almost exclusively in Scripture, God is explicitly the one whom His people are crying out to, to save them. them from their sins. I'm giving you just a few examples there. But if you would flip back with me to Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah chapter 43 and if you want to write it down in your notes also chapter 45 is just one example where we see just how central this theme is. Isaiah 43, But now, thus says the Lord, He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you in Israel, Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned. And the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel your Savior. See that? Your Savior. And then down in verse 11 again, I am the Lord and besides me there is no Savior. So we're learning something here. You flip over to Isaiah 45 verse 15. There's an example here. Truly you are a God who hides himself. For the Bible teaches us, God is not visible. God does not operate on our terms. He is not accessible to us as mere creatures. You are a God who hides himself. O God of Israel, the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded. The makers of Iblis go in confusion together. But then that went down in verse 21. and a Savior. This is just one example of one prophet as he thinks and talks about God as a Savior. And the Old Testament is explicit as well as the New Testament that the ultimate thing that God's people need to be saved from is not poor health, it's not difficult relationships, the thing we ultimately need to be saved from is our sins. Because it's our sins that separate us from God. And there's nothing that sinners, fallen in Adam, can do to rewrite the relationship. It is only in God's initiative. As God explicitly functions as a Savior, Jesus says it this way, if you were actually lying, you would have no guilt. But now that you say, we see, your guilt remains. Our sins are what we need to be saved from. And so, now flip back to Luke chapter 2, and hear the message of Balach Yahweh. The angel of the Lord said to them, fear not, for behold I bring you, this will be translated, a gospel, a gospel of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day the city of David, a Savior. So that's the word that we've been digging into. When Jewish people hear, oh, a Savior is here, they think, oh, God has promised that He would save us. And yet, here we have point number two. This phrase, which is one of Luke's favorite phrases, by the way, is used numerous times in his gospel. We learn something about the time of Savior. that is to come. Notice that the angel says to the shepherds, they're not in a fallback story. Unto you is born this day, in the sea of David, a Savior. God is going to save his people, but he is going to do it through a person. Point number two. In a place, the Savior was born into the world, just like you. It's helped me to see and to process that while there were many events surrounding the birth of Jesus, the birth of Jesus was a perfectly ordinary event. We're talking about this in Sabbath school today, but I want to reiterate this. I'm trying to develop a new habit for the sake of precision. I don't talk about, I believe in the virgin birth. Now, I do. Because that phrase was laid out by our forefathers in an American context to fight back against those who were rejecting the doctrine of the virgin birth. because they didn't believe in the reliability or the trustworthiness of the scriptures. And so that phrase, there's nothing wrong with it the way Protestants use it. But it will remind us today that precisely what we're talking about is we believe in the doctrine of the Virgin Conception. And his mother carried the baby just like any other mother carries the baby and gave birth to the baby like any other mother ever has given birth to a baby. And then, after Jesus was born, he was married to Joseph and probably had at least six other kids. We know Jesus had four half-brothers and we know that Jesus had at least two half-sisters. So, six, Jesus being the firstborn, the one who has truly God as his father and Mary as his human mother. Joseph took care of Jesus. We can even say that Joseph was the legal father of Jesus. But Jesus, truly, is truly God and truly man. In this sense, God only has one Son. He is the Eternal Son of the Eternal Father. And He's the One who, in deference to His Father, said, Father, I would go into the world. And here I come back to Francis Schaeffer. As Francis Schaeffer begins to talk about this mystery of the Incarnation, The camera begins to pan back and you discover that this is about a six or seven foot ant hill with millions of ants running around on it. And Francis Schaeffer, who is shorter than me, standing there in his little Swiss knickers, and he has a very distinctive look in the later days of his life, and he's standing there, scampering ant hill. And he begins to talk about, let's suppose that there was a message that needed to be brought to the ants. That the well being not only of the ant hill, but indeed of every single ant in the ant hill, needed to know a message. How would a human communicate that to an ant? And then he began to talk, and I remember, I want to refine this clip again because it's wonderful. In kind of these slow, patient words as he begins to describe it, he would need to be able to go into the ant, to speak to the ants. And in fact, he would need to be able to talk in a language that the ants understood. Bringing philosophical English to the ants will do them no good. In fact, the ultimate necessity, if the message is to be communicated to the ants, is I, or someone, would have to become an ant. Everyone would go down to that ant hill and speak in ant language to the other ants about what they needed to hear and to know. Do you see how It's not only the event of the Incarnation, but it is the necessity of the Incarnation that is really what Christmas is about. Long lay the world in sin and error pining, till He appeared and the soul felt its worth. If you believe human beings are just another animal, And pretty soon we're going to be treating each other like animals. But as God saved humanity by reminding us that we are human beings made in the image of God with inherent dignity, value, and worth, He did that by becoming one of us. He stooped ontologically and became a human being. Not by stopping being God. This is another talk about the soul feeling its birth. There is nothing intrinsically contradictory between being God and being man. Between being God and being a perfect man. We are not that different than God in this sense. Understand? The vast mechasm is. But I want us today to think about how long lay the world in sin and error pining until He appeared. And the result of the Incarnation is that we understand what's wrong with the world. What's wrong is we've forgotten who we are. We've forgotten the reason that we're alive. We've forgotten that there's way more than what we can see in this present world. We're designed to live with God in perfect fellowship forever. But we can only get there, we can only understand that, if God Well, you get where I'm going with that. Think about it. This Savior, there was a moment of conception. He was alive, by the way. The verses about Christ are some of the most compelling pro-life verses in the Bible. If He existed, The God-Man, the Christ, the Messiah existed at the very moment of conception that the soul feels its worth. The soul is not some later add-on shoehorned in for the sake of new human rights or something. That ontologically, the Son of God became a human being. And until He was born, born, this day, in Bethlehem, a Savior. Do you see how on one hand we see the unique capacity of Christ to be the Savior because He is God? And on the other hand, we see that Jesus began to exist in His humanity. And he has a burp kit. And he has an address. And he has to eat so many calories a day to have necessary strength. And he got tired. And he got angry. That was sinful. When he saw sin in the temple, it was the only time he made a weapon that was not for use on humans. the fleet market that was taking place there in the temple. The savior of the world is God, but he is also truly man. So he has a historical and he has a biological genealogy. He also has a legal genealogy, that is, that the kingship of Israel passed down through Joseph to Jesus. He had a legitimate claim to the throne of Israel. So Luke 2 verse 11, for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord. Notice now, Luke 3, that last phrase. who is. In Greek it says Christos pa Kyrios, Christ the Lord. Isaiah 23, only one Savior is the Messiah and the Kyrios. Again, I think that in some of these, particularly titles, understanding how these titles move between languages is helpful. So when we read the word Christ, the Greek word is Christos, and it means roughly anointed one. It's a title for Christ. And so you have to then look up the word anoint, and all its different uses in the Old Testament. And there are also times where the anointed one is, so the anointed one is anointed, and you discover that You can read about how Samuel anointed David, and then how the prophets anointed the subsequent kings of Israel. It's a very interesting study to see how all of that history and all of those realities come together in this one title, Christos. linguistic equivalent of Mashiach in Hebrew, which is the word for the same thing, the Hebrew word for anointing. So the Christ is the Messiah, the Messiah is the Christ. These two words are a title for the one who is anointed ultimately by God himself. And again, go back and if you read through the Old Testament, shadows and the high priests, the high priesthood comes to an end. All of the sons of Aaron, so far as we know, are destroyed in the destruction of the temple, and early church historians tell us about that. And yet now And then secondly, we have the word lord. The Latin word is dominus. And there's numerous movies out there that are said in a Roman context. And you'll hear the servants of the household, literally the slaves of the household, have been purchased by the dominus. And they refer to him as dominus, dominus, yes dominus, no dominus, obeying dominus. And then the feminine becomes whoever the dominus was married to is now the domino in the house. This is the Latin word from which we get our word dominion. This is the one that in the legal system of Rome had the right to rule. He was the legitimate leader of his own. And the Bible endorses this idea. Because Jesus is our Lord, we should bow reverently to Him. By the way, if you want to see a beautiful example of this in 1 Peter, I am not aware of a place where the Bible commands women to think of their husbands as thomas. I can't point to that. But what the Bible does say, and celebrates the fact that in faith, Sarah called Abraham, Dominus. Peter doesn't mention this, but the other example I would lay forth is where Abigail, we read this just a few weeks ago, Abigail, I'm not aware of a place where the Bible compels that. But I do see that Peter says, whose daughters you are if you do not fear that which men fear. And in a Christian home, in a Christian family, there is a Lord. And the husband is a pale reflection of that Lord. What defines a Christian family is not a man who's in charge. Father goes best. And there is never a coercion or demand of submission. But rather what's happening is we're seeing that God is framing the whole of reality and He's framing it ultimately with Himself. That He is the Savior. By the way, if you want to see how this works out, flip with me real quickly to Ephesians chapter 5. Because this actually has a whole lot to do with our text today. Ephesians chapter 5. And here we see this invitation. We call it a command, but invitation. Submit to your own husbands. The Bible, by the way, says submit yourselves. But husbands, he gave himself. Husbands, love your wives. 1st Ephesians 5, verse 25. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church. gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. A little while later it says, for he is the Savior of the body. The idea of giving oneself in order of Savior. The Messiah, the Lord, or the Kurios, is the Savior. And to hear these wondrous words, by the way, those of you who were in evening service a couple weeks ago, you remember what this place is called? It's not called Bethlehem. More specifically, it seems that Bethlehem and Ephrathah are two places, at times when Bethlehem was big, they grew together. Um, but, but there was a small, like a, like a micro-suburb of the little town of Bethlehem, called Bethlehem Arthropha. And the, the main thing that was at that place, apparently, was a tower. They found evidence of this tower. In fact, numerous towers. This place was called, in biblical terminology, Migdal Eder. E-D-E-R. And Bindol Eder literally means the tower of the flock. And there's at least an argument to be made, historically, that this is where all the lambs and other animals that needed to be used for the temple were raised. And we studied last week, you'll see this in the introduction to the sermon today, in Micah 4 and verse 8. There's this very passing reference to Bindol Eder, and that's usually translated into, oh, and you're addressing, oh, tower of the flock. And that's probably right outside of Bethlehem, which is then referenced. Bethlehem, the prophet, is then mentioned in the very next chapter. So there's good prophetic reasons that indicate that these angels are going to appear and that they were going to make work. and that he was going to shepherd the people of Israel. There's all kinds of language. And so I don't think Mary and Joseph probably knew any of this was happening, but they were there with Jesus when he was born. And then all of a sudden, these shepherds started showing up. I don't know how many. It doesn't say it was just one or two or three. Remember, the manger scene. Did she lay off what it might have actually been like? It was not stable. It was probably a cave. Could there have been 100 shepherds or 1,000 shepherds? If this is where there were tens of thousands of sheep being shepherded for use in the temple by a million people at Passover, entirely possible, right? does not say how many shepherds there were. But this is a great sign. Luke thought it was important to include this and remind us that God's will and purpose is coming to pass. This is not a little deal. This is not a kid's story. This is nothing less than God of the universe, reclaiming the one planet that He created of life. That life was corrupted through our own self-deceit and our own disobedience to God. Here is death. Here is God storming the beach establishing a new covenant that is for you and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to himself. And it was Jesus who chose 12 apostles, who are the foundation of the new covenant. Are you devoting yourselves to the teachings of the apostles? That's what this church is about. We are not just making up interpretations of the Bible. We are interpreting the Bible the way John and Peter and Paul and James did. We are interpreting the Bible in light of the fact of the death and burial and resurrection and ascension and present reign of Christ over the planet. Friends, there are a lot of people today Think about people in Syria today. Some of whom are Arabs, by the way, urgently preaching the Gospel. At least, descendants of Arabs, let me be precise. Think about people in Russia today. Because there's talk of division. Think about the people in China today. Friends, this is good news. for all whom the Father is calling to himself. This is not stuff we play around with. This is stuff where hundreds of thousands of American citizens are on every continent of the planet today for the purpose of announcing what the angels announced. In fact, here's where I'd like to close today. If you would, flip back in your Bible to the book of Micah, Micah chapter 5. Here's where I'd like to conclude today. Because again, like This didn't become just another Christmas decoration that we hang out with and politely talk about, but not too explicitly for a little while. But Micah 5 and verse 2, this is what was echoing the ears of the faithful as they had read Tanakh in the synagogue. They knew these verses, they just didn't know how they applied them. But you, O Bethlehem, Ephrathah, who are too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to be ruler in Israel, whose coming forth is from of old, from ancient days. It was this verse that Herod managed to figure out why the wise men were sent to Bethlehem. If they had gone back and told Herod, the story would have turned out a very different way. Because what was being announced was a ruler in Israel. Someone with legitimate authority, with divine right from heaven to rule. Not in the way we would expect. Because the New Covenant is not a national covenant. The New Covenant is for God's people among all the nations of the earth. And so our brothers and sisters are in every nation under heaven. We wouldn't be able to speak their language. Their worship would look very different. And yet you see that it is the same Kingdom and it is union with Christ by faith alone that is at the center, the beating heart of the New Covenant. This is what aliens, farther away than aliens, they didn't come in spaceships. But from another dimension, the angels of the Lord so that the planet would know that our God reigns. Jesus is King. Yes, it was God in the manger. And yes, Jesus did come for the purpose of dying. Let's don't forget that this is not just for 120 people in Israel. This is for all who would hear the announcement of the King. Your sins are forgiven. Zechariah chapter 13 is another one I've been thinking about. I think I have the reference right. On that day there shall be a fountain open for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and unpleased. Do you believe that that's what the Gospel is? watching away, once and for all, your sins, your uncleanness, and making you a new creature who now lives as a disciple of Jesus, as a worshipper at the throne of the Lamb, who sees that God has revealed Himself in the person of His only-begotten Wondrous prayers, thank you for these reminders. What you have done, that Lord, in a time and a place where we can still go and see today, this message came. And Lord, it's the message that has rippled out from generation to generation, sometimes more faithfully, sometimes less faithfully. And yet your church, in all the ages, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone from whom the whole building is fit together. Lord, this message has gone from generation to generation for 2,000 years. It has jumped from language group to language group. Lord, I pray for the work, including our own denomination, is doing in translating the Bible, in translating the Psalms, gathering together believers to be grounded in their faith and to grow up in all things in Him who is the head, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, I pray that you would help the Copelands as they ask for these prayers to be faithful witnesses to Christ, to their family. Lord, I pray you would help us all to distinguish in our minds between cute and clever traditions, For those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, Jesus really and truly is what He's done for this world. Truly He is the most consequential human being ever to live.