Jesus Christ: The Purpose Of His Coming

We stand as we read the Word of God. Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. Our God is in the heavens, and he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.

Their idols are silver and gold. They have mouths, but they speak not. Eyes they have, but they see not.

They have ears, but they hear not. They have hands, but they handle not, and they have feet, but they walk not. And neither can they speak through their throats.

O Israel, trust thou in the Lord. He is their help and their shield. Ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord.

He is their help and their shield. He will bless them that fear the Lord, both small and great. You are blessed of the Lord which made heaven and earth.

The dead praise not the Lord, and neither any that go down into silence. Lord, we are so thankful that you are mindful of us and that you have sent your Son to bless us. And now we thank you, Lord, for the blessings that have come to us through Jesus Christ our Savior.

Lord, we pray that today your Holy Spirit will just speak to our hearts and show us, Lord, the benefits and the blessings that you've intended for man through your Son Jesus. In his name we pray. Amen.

You may be seated. As we continue to move through the Bible, this week we've come to Acts chapter 3. And this morning we'd like to look at verses 25 and 26 of Acts chapter 3. Peter and John were going into the temple at the hour of prayer. There was a man who was brought daily and laid there at the gate who had been born lame.

He had never been able to walk. He was about 40 years of age. And Peter spoke the word of faith to the man, lifted him to his feet, and the man immediately began to jump up and down, began to walk, and the people were all amazed.

And they looked at Peter as though he were some kind of a holy man or a God of sorts. And Peter corrected their misconceptions. He said, Why do you look on me as though through my own righteousness I've done this good deed? And he began to preach Christ unto them.

And in preaching Christ unto them, verses 25 and 26, he said, You are the children of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with our fathers when he said to Abraham, And in your seed shall all of the families of the earth be blessed. Unto you first God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. As we again come to the season of the year when people ostensibly are celebrating the coming of Jesus Christ into the world, as we think of his coming into the world, that little baby lying there in the manger in Bethlehem, of which we sang and of which we sing, in seeking to understand the purpose of his coming, Peter tells us that God sent him to bless us.

The whole earth have been cursed because of sin. God said to Adam, Cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow you will eat of it.

Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee. And you will eat vegetables of the field. And in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread until you return to the ground.

For dust thou art and to dust shalt thou return. Because of man's disobedience to the commandment, the laws of God, he brought disastrous consequences on mankind. So that as we look around at the world today, we do not see the world that God created.

We see ground that brings forth weeds, thorns, and thistles. I believe that God originally intended and planned that vegetables would grow like weeds. You wouldn't have to cultivate them and cultivate the soil and all that.

They would be just as prolific as weeds. But because of the curse, now the soil has to be cultivated and the vegetables have to be cultivated. And you have to actually, by the sweat of your face, prepare your food.

Until the day that you die and your body which came out of the dust shall return to dust. Because God said that the soul that sins would surely die and thus the curse of sin which is death. All of the misery, all of the sorrow, all of the grief and the pain that you see in the world today has resulted from man's sin, missing God's mark.

Now God had promised Abraham that through his seed all of the nations of the world would be blessed. Peter makes reference to that in verse 25. He reminds them that God had said to their father Abraham, in thy seed shall all of the families of the earth be blessed.

Now Paul points out that in the Hebrew it was seed singular as one, not seeds plural as of many. And then he declares that seed was Christ. In other words, the blessing that was to come to all the world was to come through Jesus Christ.

God sent him, he said, to bless us. Now Peter declared to the people the blessing that God intended when he sent his son. You see, the truth of the matter is that God loves you in spite of your sin.

Though you have failed, though you have rebelled against the authority of God in your life, God still loves you and it is God's desire to bless you. Now we seek to show our love by our giving and here we are again at Christmas time and the predominant thought is what shall we give to show our love to those that are close to us. How can I show my, what can I give to them? And in our desire to express and to show our love, we're willing to make sacrifices.

Yesterday I went out and faced what I hate almost more than anything else and that is shopping. And it is only exaggerated in the crowds at Christmas time. And so found that I had to park two blocks from Toys R Us in order to get over there to fill out this list that I had.

They didn't have everything so I had to go to Target for more and Best for more and Price Club for the rest of it. And every one of them were crowded. Now there were a couple of good football games on yesterday, but I had to forego those games because I have grandchildren and children whom I dearly love and so I was out trying to fill the list that they had given to me in order that on Christmas Day I might show to them that Grandpa loves them and that Grandma loves them.

Only she was out speaking yesterday so it came my lot to go out and buy the presents. She chose the better part. But when you love you want to express it and we have come to express it in gifts.

Now God loves you. And in spite of our failures God still loves us and God desired to express his love. And so God sent his son as an expression of his love in order that through his son he might bless us.

It's interesting. You may find this difficult to accept. But I believe that God expressed his love to man when he gave to man the law.

I believe the law was the expression of God's love. I think that God was laying down for man the rules of a good life. If you want a happy life, successful life, a good life, these are the rules.

Follow these rules and you'll be happy. You'll be blessed. In fact isn't that what the psalmist said when he said blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly nor stands in the way of sinners nor sits in the seat of the scornful but whose delight is in the law of the Lord and in his law does he meditate day and night for he shall be like a tree that's planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season.

His leaf also shall not wither and whatever he does will prosper. The happy man, the man who keeps the law of God. Keep the law of God, you'll be blessed, you'll be happy.

Disobey the law of God and you are only inviting and courting sorrow and pain, hurt and suffering. Let's take a for instance. In the law, Exodus chapter 20 verse 13, God said if a man lies with a man as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination and they shall both die.

Now some men today have scorned that law. In fact they have demanded that homosexuality be treated as normal. That all it is is an alternate lifestyle and because they have chosen that alternate lifestyle, we should not condemn them but we should give them special privileges.

And so they are demanding special privileges because of their chosen lifestyle. Now God said this lifestyle leads to death. That if men do this, they are courting death.

And we see today how that the AIDS has decimated the homosexual community. Now you say, well is AIDS then a judgment of God? I don't think so. I think that AIDS is just a natural consequence of that lifestyle.

You see when God designed the body, God designed the body with what we call the immunosystem. It is marvelous the way it functions and works. Whenever there is a foreign protein or a virus that is introduced into your body, your body, the immunosystem identifies the foreign object and it begins to develop an antidote.

Isolating the foreign object, building up the antibodies and ultimately rejecting that foreign protein from your body. If it were not for the immunosystem, none of us would be here today. We would have all died a long time ago at the first exposure to measles or anything else that had been all over.

But the body is capable of developing an immunity to these different things. Marvelously designed to do so. But when you introduce into the body scores of different proteins, then your immunosystem begins to break down because it can't handle all of that foreign protein.

And thus you become susceptible. Unto various diseases and all that attack the body because the immunosystem has broken down because of overuse. Not only does it happen through homosexuality, but through promiscuous multiple sex partners, whether they be male or female.

And thus God, knowing that this happens because of the way he designed the body, said don't do this. It will lead to death. And so we disregard the law of God that wants you to be healthy and strong and viral.

And we engage in these practices that have built into them the consequences of destruction. So when God labeled a thing as sin, it was because this is destructive. This will bring pain.

This will bring sorrow. When God forbade man to become an adulterer, he knew what adultery can do to a family. He knew the pain and the suffering that it can bring into the home and how it can break up the family, destroy the family.

And God knows that with the destruction of the family comes the destruction of your whole social order. And so God laid down the rules for the preservation of a society and of a social order. But man, thinking that he knows better, violates the law of God.

And as the result, we see the consequences. They are not really direct judgments of God. They are just the inevitable consequences of certain chosen activities.

Now God loves the homosexual. God loves the adulterer. God loves me.

My sin may not be that of the homosexual or of the adulterer, but yet there are sins that are just as distasteful. And God doesn't cease loving us because we have sinned, but he loves us still. And because he loves us, he wants to bless us.

But in order to bless us, we must come into harmony with God. Jude said, keep yourself in the love of God. What he is saying is, keep yourself in that place where God can do for you what he wants to do because of his love for you.

He wants to bless you. And for that purpose, God sent his son into the world in order that through him we might be brought into harmony with God and thus enjoy the blessings of God. Look at that little baby again as he is lying there in the manger.

That baby is the son of God. He has been sent into this world, as Peter said, to turn us away, everyone, from his iniquities. To turn you away from those things that have been destroying you.

To turn you away from those things that have brought pain and sorrow and misery into your life. What are the blessings that God wants to give to you today? Well, when that little baby was born in Bethlehem, the angels appeared to the shepherds who were watching their flocks by night. And the angels said, I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David the Savior, the Christ, the Lord. In the Greek, it's just, there is born Savior, Christ, Lord. The other words were added for a flow in our thought, but just Savior, Christ, Lord.

These are blessings. Savior. Salvation from what? Salvation from the consequences of our sins.

God has pronounced the sentence of death upon sin. It's just that that's what sin will bring, is death. It destroys.

But that baby was born in order that he might die for our sins. That we would no longer be under the sentence of death, but that it might be commuted. Can you imagine the joy, the emotions that one would feel if he were sitting on death row, say, for two years while the appeal process was taking place? And finally, the day of his execution had been set, and he was waiting that last 24 hours until he would be led into the little room and fastened to the chair, and that electrical charge would be sent through it.

And as he is waiting there, counting now the hours, suddenly the doors are opened of his prison cell. The man stands there and says, you're a lucky man. A judge has just commuted your death penalty.

You're not going to die. In fact, you're going to get another trial, and it looks like you're going to be exonerated. What do you suppose the emotions would be? Sentenced to death, ready to die, and suddenly they say, you've been exonerated.

The sentence has been commuted. That is the joy that we experience when we come to know Jesus Christ. Our sins are forgiven.

We've been exonerated. We're no longer under the penalty of death. He's the Savior.

He has saved you from the consequences of your sin. But he's also the Christ. The word Christ is anointed.

It is the Hebrew word mashiach, which is the anointed one. In that Old Testament period, whenever a new king would be chosen, they would bring him before the people, and the prophet of God or the priest of God would take a horn of oil and pour it over his head to signify that he had been anointed to be the king. The same was true of the high priest.

Before he would take his office as the high priest, he would stand before the people, and the anointing oil would be poured over his head, and thus he would be recognized as the selected or chosen high priest. Now when God started promising an anointed one, God promised that he was going to send one that God would anoint as king and as priest. A king and priest forever.

A king of kings and a lord of lords. And there is born this day in the city of David the Savior, who is the Messiah, the anointed one of God, who has come to be king and lord. And so he went on to say, Lord, how man needed someone to properly govern over his life.

You see, whether you like it or not, you've got to serve somebody. You do serve somebody. You are a servant of your own fleshly desires, which control your life, or you are a servant of the world system which is governed by Satan, or you are a servant of God.

You've got to serve somebody. Those that are serving Satan are in the process of being destroyed. Those who have submitted themselves to the authority of Jesus Christ are being prepared for the glory of his eternal kingdom, of which there shall be no end.

That little baby that lies there in the manger is God's anointed king. He is Lord. He is going to bring peace on earth.

Men have been at war with God. They have warred against the law of God. But the prophet had said, Woe unto him who strives with his maker.

The Greeks used to have a saying, The dice of the gods are loaded. What they were saying is, you can't really fight against God and hope to win. The moment you go against God, you're destined to lose.

You just don't fight against God and win. And yet men have been fighting against God and against the law of God, and he's been losing. But God loved them.

God wanted to bless him. But in order to bless him, he had to take away his iniquities. And so God kept his promise to Abraham.

And that little child born there in Bethlehem was of the seed of Abraham. He was the promised seed of Abraham through which blessing would come to all the world because he would take away their iniquities. And through Jesus Christ, our iniquities have been removed and now God can bless us.

The Bible says he is our peace who has broken down every wall. And he'll break down those walls that you've built up. Resentment, anger, bitterness.

He'll bring love and forgiveness and joy. One day Jesus said to the multitudes, Come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, I will give you peace.

He said to his disciples, Peace I give to you. My peace I give unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

There is born a Savior, Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace. And through that peace there comes goodwill toward men.

You see, I'm no longer fighting with God. I've surrendered. I've given up.

I'm tired of fighting against God. Lord, I surrender my life to you. I don't want to live at odds with you anymore.

I want to live in harmony with you. And how wonderful it is when the war is over, when you've surrendered. And that's what God demands.

Surrender. He will not compromise. He just tells you just to surrender.

You know, it is wrong to think that peace treaties that are signed by men bring true peace. Peace treaties that are signed by men often only mean I'll not kill you. I still want to.

I hate you. I wish you were dead, but I promise not to shoot you if you promise not to shoot me. And so we go around and say, well, peace in Bosnia.

Oh, glory. Uh-uh. They're far from peace in Bosnia.

Because you see, peace is a matter of a heart and it's prompted by love. As long as there's hatred, as long as there's bitterness, as long as there's resentment, there can't be peace. The Bible says the wicked are like a troubled sea that just is tossed in a storm.

But Jesus came to bring you peace by bringing you love. Love for God. Which will create love for your fellow man.

I mean, it just follows. How can you say you love God and hate your brother, the Bible says. You're a liar if you think that, you know, you love God and hate your brother.

If you say you love God and hate your brother, John said you're a liar. How can you love God whom you have not seen and yet hate your brother was created in the image of God. So your love for God eventuates in your love for the fellow man and thus a true goodwill toward men.

Because now I love. I'm no longer in contention with. I'm no longer envious of.

I'm no longer angry with. But God's love has filled my heart. And thus the true peace that comes from love.

True peace with God that comes from my love for God and his love for me. True peace with my fellow man because I love my fellow man. Because of God's love that's in my heart.

That little baby. Born in Bethlehem. Was sent by God to bless you.

By taking away your iniquities that were cursing you and bringing you into harmony and into a loving relationship with God, whereby you have peace here on Earth and goodwill toward men. So we pray. Father, we thank you for the Christmas story.

The message. And the hope and the joy and the blessing that it brings. Lord, as we are seeking.

To express our love. Through our giving. Let us remember how you expressed your love.

By giving your son. Whom you sent to bless us. By taking away our iniquities.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Shall we stand.

One more week. And may the Lord be with you. Give you strength.

Help you. Guide you. And prepare your heart.

For that day. When you will gather with the family. To demonstrate the love.

That God has given. Incidentally. If you don't have a family to gather with.

There will be here a potluck on Christmas day. From two to five. For those that don't have a family to gather with.

Don't sit alone and cry. At home. Nobody's here.

Nobody loves you. Come on out to the church and have a great time. With those that are here.

It's potluck. So it means you bring a pot or you're out of luck. And so that will be from two to five on Christmas day.

For you that do not have a family to gather with. But may the Lord be with you. And may you not lose focus this week.

I mean it's awful easy. When you've got the parking lot all. I mean the parking spot all set.

You've got your light on to indicate I'm going to turn in there as soon as he gets out. And some indescribable person pulls in and sort of goes yeah yeah. You know I beat you to it.

Swing around the corner. You're waiting there patiently while the person opens a trunk and you know carefully. They're so slow in putting stuff in their truck.

But you know they're so exact. But I'm waiting. And then someone swings around the corner pulls.

Oh. Peace on earth. Goodwill toward.

May the Lord help you to survive it. Endure it. Keep you smiling.

May you have just a glorious week of knowing his presence his love his joy and his blessings because God sent him to bless you. By taking away your inequities. The Lord bless thee.

And keep thee. The Lord may.