Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Jumping right into our time here this morning. Good news of great. What is it? It's the biggest word on the screen. Joy. Can we say that together? Joy is the theme through this Christmas season. And it comes from a passage that you all know well, that's said many times through the season, From Luke, chapter 2 verse. It's on the screen as well. Verses 11 and 12. These are the angels, 10 and 11 angels showing up to the shepherds. And this is what they say. You go to the next slide, it says this. And the angels said to them, that is to the angels.
[00:00:33] This is a normal thing that angels say to people when they show up. What is it that they say?
[00:00:37] Fear not, for behold, that is for. Pay attention.
[00:00:40] I bring you what good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a savior who is Christ the. The Lord. And so through the next few weeks, as we walk through this series, we'll lean into different aspects of that announcement that the angels gave to those shepherds, the first of which today, here's what they said. You can see it on the screen. It says, for unto you is born this day in the city of what or who? David. And so what city is this? Or what town? The little town of Bethlehem. And so as we spend time this morning, what we're going to do is look backwards, just as the angels did. They looked backwards and said this town is called the little town of Bethlehem. And so what we're going to do today is look backwards through the Old Testament and be reminded of God's faithfulness to the nation of Israel firstly and also to us as well. And so the title today in your sermon, you can see on the back of your bulletin, if you close it on the back is, is the outline that we'll walk through today. It's this. God is what faithful. God is faithful. Really clear. One point. I know there's five of them written on your outline, but one main point today, and there's many verses throughout the Old Testament that remind us that God is a God who is faithful. One of which you can see right underneath the title there in your outline is Joshua 21:45, I think just speaks to this very clearly. It says this not one word of all the good promises that the Lord has made to the house of Israel had failed. All have come to pass. Because we know this God is what God is faithful. So what he says he is going to do. And that will be our theme as we walk through various passages today. Hopefully you have your Bible with you. Open your Bible, get your fingers ready. You will be flipping all over the place in the Bible today, or if you're maybe scrolling or something, but get yourself ready. We'll be all over the place because we want to see from various passages the faithfulness of God is something that we can count on today. No matter what darkness is going on in your life, no matter what hardship is happening, we're reminded today and through this season that God is a God who is faithful. Let's pray together and then we'll get into God's word this morning. Lord, thank you that we're able to spend this time together, to gather together here in this room.
[00:03:12] And also as we remember our brothers and sisters, not just around our community, but around the world today, who are celebrating your faithfulness, celebrating the grace and the gift that you have shown to us as you have sent your Savior, our savior into the world, your son into the world.
[00:03:30] And as we spend time this morning in your word, Lord, I ask that you would work in each and every one of our hearts and our minds. You would open our minds to see the beauty that you have laid before us in your word, showing us over and over again that you're a God who is faithful, that you're a God who sees us in our desperate need for you.
[00:03:49] And you have shown up, Lord, I pray that you would soften our hearts, to remind us and to show us how beautiful you are, how wonderful you are and that you are a God who can bring us great joy. As we trust in you. I ask the words that I say would be from you would be grounded here in your character and in your word.
[00:04:08] And that we would not leave here today without joy on our lips, without joy in our hearts. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:04:19] Last week I was traveling with my family. We were visiting a friend or going to a wedding, a friend's wedding. And just a little bit of background here, or actually a part of this traveling, what we did is we flew up to Seattle and we did some driving there to go to the wedding. And then after that we, and this is myself, my wife and my two kids, two young kids. Then we drove across the state to Spokane and we visited some family there. And then we realized about an hour and a half driving from Seattle to the wedding and then back and then about six and a half hours driving across the state. We thought that wasn't enough time in the car with a one year old and a three year old. And so what we thought would be a Good idea was to drive back across the state to Seattle to fly back here. And so lots of hours in the car with little ones. How many of you ever have driven in a car with kids before?
[00:05:09] There's a question that they will often ask, are we there yet? Are we there yet?
[00:05:21] And I was encouraged. I mean, on some level, that question wasn't as asked as many times as it could have been asked in this driving.
[00:05:29] But it reminded me as we were going there and listening to this question and for myself asking the same question, are we there yet?
[00:05:38] The kids ask this question of their parents for a few reasons and maybe think with me on this just for a moment, they have been told that something good is going to happen, right? We're going to go visit a grandparent or we're going to go somewhere fun.
[00:05:53] Something good is going to happen. And then you say, in order for this good thing to happen, we have to get in the car and we have to drive there. And as you're traveling there, most likely, especially with young kids, for example, in a car seat or something like that or not, they get uncomfortable, they get anxious. They're like, when are we going to get there? Because they're anticipating something good is going to happen. And so the joy that they had when you told them, we're going to go somewhere seems to fade very quickly as they sit in the car seat over a period of time and they go from yay, we're going to go there, to are we, Are we there yet? I want to get out. And my son said this many times, I want to get out of my car seat. I want to get out. We're like, no, we can't do that right now. But he knows something good is going to happen, but we have to wait in order to get whatever that good thing is. And so as the good kind parents that we are, we turn around and say, no, we're not there yet.
[00:06:49] And many times with young kids, they don't understand time. So you can't tell them in 37 minutes we're going to be there. That doesn't make any sense to them. But you tell them, no, we're not there yet. And then after a while, you finally get wherever it is, you finally get there, and they get to experience the joy that they once had at the beginning of the trip, at the end. But in the middle, that waiting period can be rough, can't it, for both the kids and the parents.
[00:07:16] Now, because of the parents had said. Because the parents had said to their child, we're gonna do something fun. And they had to wait, and they actually got it. The child learns this over a period of time. My parents are gonna tell me the truth now. Hopefully that's consistent in other places in life. But they get excited because you made a promise, we're gonna do something. And then the kid says, I'm excited. There's joy that comes from them because of whatever this outcome is. They experience. Follow me here. They experience the joy even though the outcome has not yet arrived. Are you with me there? They experience the joy if we're gonna go see Grandma or we're gonna go see whatever it is, even though they aren't there yet. Now, with that thought kind of plugged into your mind, we're gonna walk through a few passages of scripture today that show us that same principle. God is gonna make a promise, and he's gonna say, this is good. I'm someone who is faithful. Can you say faithful? I'm someone who is faithful. Just like the parent who says, we're going to go there and it's going to be good because the kid believes that their parents are faithful.
[00:08:17] They're going to have joy even before the joy is realized at the end of the trip. And that waiting period for you and I, sometimes that can be rough, can't it? And sometimes you and I are just like the kid in the backseat that calls to our parents and say, or calls to God and says, are we?
[00:08:33] Are we there yet? And through scripture, we see God's people calling out to God over and over and over again, saying, are we there yet?
[00:08:41] Or even more particularly, as they wait for a messiah that we're gonna talk about today.
[00:08:46] Is he here yet? Is he here yet? So we're gonna do three main things as we look at these five points. It's on the screen as well as we kind of examine these five points on your outline. And it's this. It's on the screen. We're gonna look back at the promise that God made regarding the coming of Jesus. That's the first thing. And most of the time when God makes this promise, there's actually something hard that's going on with the people of God. Secondly, what we're going to do is we're going to discover that God is a God who is faithful. He keeps his promises. And we're going to see that most often reflected in the New Testament. And then thirdly, what we'll do is we'll connect that area of God's faithfulness that we'll look at in each of those points and show that in our life today, they are also real. That God's promises are meaningful to us, not just to the people in the Old Testament or in the New Testament, but also for. For us today as we walk through this from Genesis to Malachi, there are somewhere around 300 or so prophecies detailing this coming of what oftentimes in the Old Testament is known as the anointed one. Can we say that together? The anointed one. Now, maybe you knew this, maybe you didn't. The anointed one is just another word, another phrase for the Messiah. So we say the word Messiah, we sing songs about the Messiah. The Messiah is the Hebrew word for anointed one or chosen one.
[00:10:10] Then in the New Testament, instead of Hebrew, in the Old Testament, in the New Testament, it's Greek. And so the Greek translation of Messiah. Anybody?
[00:10:18] Christos or Christ.
[00:10:20] So fun fact for you, Christ is not Jesus last name. Okay? So we often say Jesus Christ. It's not his last, it's Jesus because there were other Jesuses at the time of Jesus. Jesus, the anointed one. So when we say Jesus Christ, it's Jesus, the anointed one. So let's walk through your outline. Let's go right into God's word. If you have your Bibles open, which I hope you do, Genesis chapter three, you can turn there. The first point that we're gonna see, that we see that God shows his faithfulness by destroying the devil. Now, I said we were gonna do two things. At first in this was gonna see the promise of God. And then secondly, we're gonna see God showing up and being a faithful God. Now there's a problem that goes on first before God makes this prophecy. Now, if you have your Bibles open to Genesis chapter three, we see at the beginning, God creates the heaven and the earth. And then we see that God makes everything what good. And then God makes man. And he says they are very good. And then everything is beautiful. They're in. He puts them in a garden. Everything is wonderful. First two chapters of the Bible, perfection.
[00:11:27] Then there's a lot more chapters of the Bible that are not.
[00:11:31] Chapter three starts, and we see this serpent show up on the scene. And the serpent tempts Adam and Eve and they choose, you know the story. They choose to eat of this fruit. And because they broke God's law, they broke the instruction that God had given them. There is now consequences. Now listen, in Genesis, chapter three, verse 14 and 15, the Lord said to the serpent, this is the consequence for the Serpent, because you have done this, that has deceived mankind.
[00:12:02] Cursed are you above all livestock, above all beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. And here comes the promise. So that's the bad thing going on for the people. But we see God's promise shows up in the midst of hardship. I will put enmity between you and the woman and her offspring. And this is why I still don't like snakes today. And he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel. So this promise came when the devil had struck mankind for the first time. And here's what we see, is the devil's gonna continue to bite at our heels. Any of you struggle with sin? Sometimes where you feel like I have this thing that keeps kind of pulling me back. And so even from this time, mankind has struggled with this pulling back of sin, this pulling back that we experience over and over and again, again. And God says this, in the midst of the problem, I'm gonna make a promise. In the midst of the problem that you see here, I'm gonna make a promise. And here's the promise. The devil. Maybe you should write this down somewhere. The devil won't always win.
[00:13:12] He may continue to strike at your heel, but there will be a time when someone is gonna come and. And crush his head. He will not always win. Now, Hebrews, that's the Old Testament. Hebrews, the New Testament shows us that Jesus was the fulfillment of this or the one who met the promise.
[00:13:30] Hebrews chapter two. If you have your Bibles, you can flip the other direction. It's also on the screen, it says this. Since Therefore the children, I.e. humanity, share in flesh and blood, He Himself, I.e. jesus, likewise took part of the same things, I.e. jesus came in the flesh. When do we celebrate Jesus coming in the flesh?
[00:13:52] Christmas.
[00:13:53] That though death might, that through death he might destroy someone, say destroy, destroy the one who has the power of death, that is the devil. So the devil has had this power for many, many years. And then Jesus shows up on the scene and says, time to destroy the power of the devil and deliver all those and deliver all those who through fear of death, were subject to lifelong slavery. That is humanity subject to lifelong slavery. Jesus shows up on the scene and says, I can make you free again. Isn't that a good thing, friends?
[00:14:32] I can make you free again. You have been subject to for so long this biting at the heel. And I am the one who can bring about the crushing of the one who does Just that. So from Genesis 3 onward, God desired humanity to have hope.
[00:14:48] Hope that no matter how bad things became, there would be one day an offspring of mankind that would crush the serpent's head. Yes, the serpent would keep striking our heel. But one day, God's work through humanity would take the final blow and destroy the power of the devil. Now, some of you know this.
[00:15:08] It doesn't always feel like the devil has no power.
[00:15:11] Cause he still does.
[00:15:13] But who's stronger than the devil?
[00:15:16] That was a sad answer.
[00:15:18] Who's stronger than the devil?
[00:15:20] Jesus is. And so we exist here today going, there's so much bad that goes on in the world, but Jesus does this. He brings delivery. When there is death, he brings redemption. When there is ruin, he brings success. When there is sadness, he brings. He brings healing. When there's hurt, he brings family when there's failure. God has the power to bring about change in a completely dismal situation. So what does this have to do with us? No matter where you are, we're all in different places today.
[00:15:50] When you give Jesus control of the situation of your life, he can bring about meaning from the mess of your life.
[00:15:57] How does he do that? One word.
[00:16:00] Through surrender.
[00:16:01] Through surrender, we can say, jesus, I believe that you have the power to do anything, but I would like my life to be my own.
[00:16:07] He says, okay, I have the power. You believe it. Give it to me then. Give it to me. If you want to see my faithfulness show up in your life to bring about beautiful out of complete disaster, I can do that through a surrendered life. God also shows his faithfulness by being a covenant keeper. We're gonna look at three different things. Covenant is not a word that we use a whole lot. You go to the next point. You can write this in. God shows his faithfulness. Showed his faithfulness by being a covenant keeper. Now, covenant, like I said, is not a word that we use a whole lot. Except where's the word that we use the word covenant oftentimes marriage, right? So there's covenant, the word contract.
[00:16:48] We won't spend a lot of time talking about the differences there. One of the key differences though is this contract says, if you. If you do this, then I will do this, right? You tell me what you're gonna do, I'll tell you what I'm gonna do. And then if you do your part, I'll do my part. Covenant says something else. I'm with you to the end. Isn't that what we say at the altar? I'm with you until the end. And that's exactly what God does as a God who is a covenant keeper. Let's just look at three. There's more, but let's look at three really briefly here. Covenants that God makes to three different individuals. So if you have your Bibles, again, open Genesis chapter 17.
[00:17:25] The first is this.
[00:17:28] This covenant is called the Abrahamic covenant. And God makes this covenant. And again, Jesus is at the end of all of these. So we're talking about Jesus today. Jesus is at the end of every single one of these covenants. About 2000 or so years before Jesus shows up on the scene, there's this man named Abram. Not Abraham yet, but Abram. He's getting older and older and older and older and anybody older and older. And he has a wife who they don't have any kids. She's also getting older and older and older and older. And God says something, you're going to have a son. And then Abraham says, hmm, I don't know if you checked in with us recently, God, but we have gotten old.
[00:18:13] And I don't know if you know this God, but after a while that gets a little bit more challenging to have kids.
[00:18:19] And so God says, here's the promise that I am going to make. Verse 16 says this. I will bless her. That is Sarah or Sarai. Sarah. And moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her. And she shall become nations. Kings of people shall come from her. Verse 19 goes on after Abraham says, you know, I already have a son. His name's Ishmael. I think it'll work out fine like that. And God says, no, actually, verse 19. But Sarah, your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for a nation after a nation after him. And after a couple years, Jesus comes along. Is that right?
[00:19:03] No. 2,000 years later, someone say 2,000 years.
[00:19:08] That's a long, long time. That's basically the time from when Jesus was. From the time Jesus was here until where we are today. A long, long time. But God is a God who is faithful. Amen.
[00:19:19] And Matthew tells us this in chapter one, verse one, the book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham.
[00:19:29] So all the generations from Abraham to David were 14 years and generations from David to the deportation of Babylon were 14 years. And from Babylon to Christ were 14 years. Again, we see both sides of that verse. We see that Abraham was the father of Jesus Christ. He was in that line of Jesus Christ. We see one that's the first covenant of Abraham, a second covenant called the Mosaic covenant. Not a word that a phrase you use often. Can you say Mosaic covenant with me? Mosaic covenant. Obviously the person of Moses.
[00:20:00] So background here. You can go to the next slide there. Yeah. Chapter 19 talks a little about this. Moses has freed the people from Egypt. He's told Pharaoh over and over again, let my people what go? And after a long time, Pharaoh finally says, okay, you can go. And they get into the wilderness, and then they show up at Mount Sinai. And God is now going to make a covenant with the people of Israel. And what's different about the Abrahamic covenant, and what we'll look at in a minute is the Davidic covenant in between here, the Mosaic covenant and is something that's called a conditional covenant. And this is to say, you need to do something in order for me to keep this. Now, on some level, we see that true here as well. Look what it says.
[00:20:46] God speaking to Moses. Now, therefore, if.
[00:20:50] See that word, if there.
[00:20:52] If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all people, for all the earth is mine. And here's what the nation of Israel said in reply to God's call in their life. All the people answered together and said this all that the Lord has spoken, we will what we will do. And then Moses goes to God and says, hey. They said, yes. Now, if you're familiar with the book of Exodus in any way, shape or form, you know that shortly after this, when Moses goes up on top of the mountain, what happens after that?
[00:21:26] The people there are worshiping God?
[00:21:29] Not at all. So moments later, after they said, yes, God, we will worship you. Moses leaves, and they're worshiping a golden calf. Now, did they do what God told them to do? Not at all. God, though, is a faithful God. And even in the midst of our unfaithfulness, he remains faithful.
[00:21:48] How many times have you. And I said to God, I'm going to obey you. I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to step back into this addiction anymore. I'm going to be nicer to that person. I.
[00:21:57] And then the next day comes and you go right back to it again.
[00:22:02] God doesn't say, you know what? I'm going to wash my hands of you. Never mind. Figure it out by yourself. He remains faithful. And so, Abraham, he waited 2,000 years. The Mosaic Covenant we see about 1,400 or so years later, 1 Peter 2:22 tells us this. It's not on the screen. But listen, here's what it says. Even though mankind couldn't be perfect, who could be perfect?
[00:22:24] Jesus Christ. He. Jesus. Here's what it says. 1 Peter 2:22. He committed no sin, neither was there deceit found in his mouth. Let's look at the third person before we go on to the next point. I told you already what it was. We had the Abrahamic covenant. The Davidic covenant. I'm sorry, the Mosaic covenant. And the last one is the Davidic covenant. And here again, we have an unconditional covenant that God makes with David. And here's what's going on. David has. He's already done the whole Goliath scene. All of that has happened. He's an established king now. And he is. People are coming from all over the place to see him. His wealth is growing. And here's what happens.
[00:23:02] The Ark of the Covenant is living currently in a tent somewhere else, even though David is living in a nice house. And so here's what he says. He's like, you know what? We should build a tent, a building for God. So he works to bring the Ark of the Covenant over to the city. And here's what happens. There's these oxen carrying the Ark of the Covenant. And maybe you know this story. One of the oxen, he stumbles a little bit. And there's one guy walking, walking alongside, next to the Ark of the Covenant. By the way, you're not supposed to touch the Ark. Okay, hold that in your mind. That's important. In a second.
[00:23:31] Walking along.
[00:23:33] And one of the oxen stumbles. What do you think happens to the Ark?
[00:23:36] He starts to fall, and he puts his hand out to touch it. And what happens to this guy? He dies. He dies. All right, so many of you know the story.
[00:23:45] Shortly after that, David actually gets upset. He pushes the ark. He sends the Ark somewhere else. And then later on, he begins to rejoice, knowing that he. He's able to bring the Ark back with him. And then God says this.
[00:23:58] David's happy. Things are going well. God makes his promise. Look on the screen with me. It says in chapter 17 of 1 Chronicles, when your days are fulfilled and you walk with your father, that is when you about to die, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom, verse 14. But I will confirm him in my house and my kingdom forever. And his throne shall be established forever. And so why is all of the other stuff about Uzziah important? Uzzah I should say important is because this David is going, I realize the power of God. He's not thinking, oh, little sweet baby Jesus in a manger. He's going, God has the power to strike somebody dead like that.
[00:24:38] That's the power of God. And then God shows up and says, I'm gonna establish your kingdom forever. Now, when you're reminded of the power of God like that, and then God makes a promise to you, hopefully you believe it.
[00:24:50] And so then what happens? Luke, chapter 1, verse 32. We see again that God is a God who is what, Faithful?
[00:25:00] Here's what it says about Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him to his throne, the throne of his Father, who, David. Again we see that God is a God who keeps his promises. In his kingdom there shall be no end. Now, what does this have to do with us?
[00:25:15] If you're a Christian, God has made promises to you, promises that you can count on, like, he will love you forever. His spirit will never leave you. You will have eternity in heaven. You can have an eternal relationship with Jesus, starting right now. You are righteous before God. You are forgiven through Jesus, you can approach the throne of God. With what confidence? You're a child of God. You're going to have a new body one day. Somebody say Amen to that.
[00:25:44] You have the power of God living inside of you. What else do we learn from this point? You can trust God when you can't see the immediate outcome.
[00:25:56] Sometimes we ask God to fix something in our life, and then we expect it to happen right away. And what we see from this point is sometimes it takes a while, sometimes it takes longer than we would like.
[00:26:08] Look at point three now, shifting a little bit. You can look in Isaiah, chapter 8. Isaiah, chapter 8. God showed his faithfulness by bringing deliverance to the distressed. By bringing deliverance to the distressed. Now, one of my favorite chapters in Isaiah, a chapter that I think many of you know, is Isaiah chapter six, which is a couple chapters away from this. This chapter six of Isaiah is when it says that Isaiah sees the throne room of heaven opened up. Remember that passage? And then he sees all the angels and they're declaring back and forth to one another, holy, Holy. What Holy is the Lord God Almighty. Like, that's the Scene from Isaiah 6, when Isaiah sees this. And then it says this in Isaiah, it says that an angel comes from the throne and takes a coal from the altar and touches his lips and his lips are cleansed. And then it says, the throne room says this. God says this, who will go?
[00:27:01] And then Isaiah says this powerful phrase that hopefully echoes in our hearts as well.
[00:27:06] Here I am. What?
[00:27:08] Send me. Now, we often pause right there in any sermon that you hear on this. But here's what happens after Isaiah says this. Isaiah says that. And then the message he gets from God is one not of wonderful, lovely things to go tell people.
[00:27:25] Isaiah's told, you gotta go now. Preach destruction to Israel. Now, we often skip over that part. We often stop at the end of that middle part of chapter six because it's like. Well, kind of. It gets kind of messy there after we have this lovely scene from the throne room of heaven. But here's what Isaiah does. He goes to the people of Israel and he says, you have been disobeying God and judgment is coming. Isn't that a lovely message? Right? Come next week, that's what we'll talk about.
[00:27:55] That's what Isaiah does, though, because he said, I've seen the throne room of heaven. He says, here I am. Send me. And God says, go speak judgment upon a people that have been disobedient over and over and over again. And we pick up at the tail end of chapter eight. He's been speaking all sorts of judgment to this nation.
[00:28:13] And here's what he says. Isaiah, chapter 8, verse 21. It's on the screen. And they will pass through the land greatly distressed. Someone say distressed? Distressed. So here's this judgment. And when they are hungry, they will be enraged, and they will speak contemptuously against the king and God that is these people.
[00:28:31] They're gonna be so mad about what's going on. They're speaking against the king and against God and turn their faces upward. That is, they're ignoring the power of God and the authority of God. And they will look at the earth, but behold distress and darkness, the gloom of anguish. And they will be thrust into thick darkness.
[00:28:50] What a message, right?
[00:28:53] Darkness is coming your way. Distress is coming your way. Hunger is coming your way. Things are bad. And then we start something else. Chapter nine. And this is what we read at Christmas, right from the midst of distress, God promises deliverance.
[00:29:09] Chapter 9, verse 1. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. That is speaking of the nation of Israel. In former time, he brought contempt to the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, that is the northern part of Israel. That's who this judgment has been spoken against. But in the latter times, listen. He made a glorious way of the sea to the Land of the Jordan in Galilee. Here's what we read earlier today. But the people who walked in darkness say darkness.
[00:29:38] We know who we're talking about, right? We saw this nation who was opposing God. These people in darkness because of their judgment. The people who walked in darkness before, they have seen a great light. Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them has the light shone. Here's what God's doing. You have ignored me. You have rebelled against me and there was judgment. But I'm a God who is faithful.
[00:30:01] And even in the midst of your unfaithfulness, I will continue to be faithful. Verse 6. A few verses further from verse 2, again a passage that we read. This is spoken to a nation that is in rebellion against God. Here's the promise of God. For unto us a child is what born. For to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. That is, he shall have authority over all governments. And his name shall be called Wonderful. You can say it with me, counselor. Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. That promise is not made to people who are saying, praise God, from whom all blessings flow. Right?
[00:30:41] That promise is made to people who are cursing God.
[00:30:45] And God says, even in the midst of your failure, I will show you that I can deliver you, that I have the power to do just that. And then in Matthew chapter two, we see Jesus showing up and he goes to Galilee.
[00:30:59] That's the same place that this destruction was pronounced upon. Now, what does this have to do with us? Before we go to point three, oftentimes when we're in a place of great distress, we can quickly believe that God is far from us, that he has forgotten us, or that we have done something wrong and we deserve this kind of hardship. Now for the nation of Israel. Yes, that was true.
[00:31:22] If you're walking in sin and there's consequences resulting from that. Yes, consequences result from that. But here's what we see. God continues to be faithful. He continues to show up. Maybe write this down somewhere. Your failure never cancels God's promises.
[00:31:39] Israel broke the Mosaic covenant again and again we see that we continue to disobey over and over again. What we can be reminded of is that God is faithful. Your failure and my failure is never cancel the promises of God. Let's look at point four together. Another way that God shows his faithfulness causing he does this by causing an impossible. And this is what we celebrated Christmas causing an impossible conception or an impossibility.
[00:32:06] With this child who was born now one of the Most significant pieces of the Christmas story is the virgin birth right. To deny the virgin birth is to say that one God is not a God who did what he said he was gonna do. Also that Jesus is not actually directly from God.
[00:32:24] So significant, we don't have time to unpack all of that. But God said that he was going to bring about this child born of a virgin. And this was said hundreds of years before Jesus was born. Isaiah, chapter seven. By the way, Isaiah has a lot to say about Jesus coming.
[00:32:41] Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Stop. Who are we talking about? Who are we talking to? This is actually God making a promise to a bad king named Ahaz. Say Ahaz.
[00:32:52] Ahaz was not a good king, but there was a time that Ahaz was in distress. I told you at the beginning, God often makes these promises when we're in distress, because maybe that's when we tend to listen more. We pay more attention to God when we're in distress. Ahaz is in distress. Chapter at the beginning of chapter seven in Isaiah, and he calls out to God, he's like, what are we going to do? I think I'm going to be crushed. I think Israel is going to be decimated. These other nations are gonna come in, they're gonna destroy us. And God's like, they're not gonna destroy you. I've chosen you. You're gonna be safe. And he says, if you want, I can show you my power by giving you a sign. Ahaz, pick a sign. I'll do anything as high as the heavens are from hell. Like, I'll do whatever. I'll show you a sign. And Ahaz is like, no, God. I'm not gonna ask you for a sign. I'll just hope. And God says this.
[00:33:36] Therefore, the Lord himself will give you.
[00:33:40] Who is he talking to? Ahaz. He's like, all right, you didn't want to pick a sign. I'll give you a sign to show my power. Now he does something. God does something completely impossible. Behold, a virgin shall conceive. Isn't that impossible?
[00:33:53] God says, you didn't want to pick for me to do something impossible. I'll do something impossible and bear a what son? And you shall call his name Immanuel. Now, does God keep His promises?
[00:34:05] 100%. 100%. We see that in Luke, chapter one, verse 35, that she bore a son, and he was the son of God. We see again in Micah, chapter two. We won't spend a whole lot of time here, but you can just flip through there. Micah Chapter two we see that he was going to be born in Bethlehem. And then in Matthew chapter two we see that he was born in where was Jesus born? Bethlehem. Hosea. Old Testament again prophesied that this child would come out of Egypt. How does that happen if he was born in Bethlehem? God is a God who is faithful and he made sure that he was going to come out of Egypt. Matthew 2:14 says that he came out of Egypt. Flip forward a few slides there. Why is God being faithful in this place causing an impossible conception so important to us?
[00:34:51] I'm going to ask you this question.
[00:34:53] Do you believe that God does the impossible? Today we often believe this about Christmas.
[00:35:03] But do we believe that God is and I say this sort of jokingly, but also serious.
[00:35:07] Do we believe that God is a God who eats impossible for breakfast and washes it down with a cup of it is finished?
[00:35:16] Do we believe that that's who our God is?
[00:35:19] Oftentimes we don't pray like that. Oftentimes we pray that God, will you assist me with this? Will you help me with this? Not God, will you take over? Because I can't do it.
[00:35:29] God, this is impossible. I can't do it. We often try and try and try and try and then we're like, we can't do it. God, will you help me with this? Right, you see what I'm saying? It's a different kind of prayer. God, will you help me? Is God, I know you can do things that help me versus God. I can't do it at all. Can you step in and take over? Do we pray like that? When you pray, don't be afraid to ask God to do the impossible.
[00:35:51] He's a God who does the impossible. 0.5 on your outline you can write this. In sending a Savior, God showed his faithfulness by doing exactly what he said he would do. From Genesis 3. There will be someone who will show up to crush the serpent's head. Now, of the most well known prophecies in Scripture, two major passages jump out. One of them is Psalm 22 and one of them is Isaiah 53 that speak about the Savior who is coming to now Psalm 22. I just want to put a few verses on the screen for you that talk about the promise that was made in Psalm 22 and then the fulfillment that Jesus did. This is particularly looking at the cross of Jesus, not his birth. We already did that in point 4. Now looking at Jesus being the Savior. Psalm 22 says this Jesus will have his hands and his feet. What pierced did that Happen?
[00:36:42] Yes, because God is faithful and he does what he says he's going to do. Jesus bones will not be broken. It was close, wasn't it? Right? The guy was right there with a club, ready to go. Now then he opened his Bible and He read Psalm 22 and he's like, nope, nope, don't want to do that.
[00:36:56] That's not what happened. Right. He saw that Jesus was already dead. Even in the midst of God fulfilling these prophecies in the person of Jesus, we see this. It wasn't like the people were walking around or Jesus was walking around with the Old Testament and the other people like the Roman guard going, gotta follow all of the rules.
[00:37:13] God brought all this about because he is powerful. Men will cast lots for the Messiah's clothing. Did that happen? Yes. And not because the Roman guards were like, look, we're supposed to cast lots. That's not why they were already going to do that. Isaiah 53, often speaking of the suffering servant. Some other passages, there's many more. Jesus will be rejected. Did that happen? Was Jesus rejected? Yes. Jesus will be silent in front of his accusers. He will be buried with the rich, he will be hung with criminals. All of these things happen.
[00:37:44] God said he would send a Savior and he did just that.
[00:37:48] Now after this, in just a minute, we're gonna take communion together. And so as we think through this subject here, Jesus sent a Savior because he knew from Genesis 3 that we could not solve the problem of sin by ourselves. Can any of you solve the problem of sin by yourself?
[00:38:04] None of us.
[00:38:05] So no matter how hard you work, no matter how much you try to be a good person, it is literally impossible for you to be able to be again reunited with God.
[00:38:16] Romans, chapter three. I just wanna read this passage. It's on the screen as well. Read this passage and then just remind us of the power of the salvation that we have in Jesus.
[00:38:25] Look with me there. It says this. Maybe your Bibles you can flip it open through verse 26. Really gives a whole picture of this. We'll look at just through 24.
[00:38:33] But now it says this. But now the righteousness of God, the ability to be right with God by the way, which has been impossible for thousands of years, has been manifested or shown up apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. I'll explain all this in just a minute. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus for all who believe, for there is no distinction. You should know this verse, by the way. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. Not through our works, through the redemption that is in Jesus. Now, what is this saying? For thousands of years, from the time of Mount Sinai, God wrote out a law for people. And he said, follow this law. If you want to be able to be in relationship with me, you need to follow this law and do it perfectly. Now, how many people did that law perfectly?
[00:39:27] No one did. Except Jesus shows up on the scene. Now, apart from this written law, everybody's saying, well, if you want to be right with God, you have to follow the law. If you want to be right with God, you have to follow the law. There's no way to be right with God unless you follow the law. But the problem is, nobody can follow the law. And so the people of Israel particularly are dealing with this massive problem in their life. How on earth do we get right with God? We have tried everything. Even the Pharisees, they say, well, we'll follow it perfectly. Now, were the Pharisees right with God?
[00:39:55] No.
[00:39:56] So then Jesus steps onto the scene and he says, I got this.
[00:40:01] I got this.
[00:40:03] It is only through me that you can be right with God. It is only by trusting in me that you can have a right relationship with God. Cause all of you are gonna fall short of God's perfection or God's glory over and over again. What do we do with all this? Here's application. Things you want to write down. And then I'll pray and we'll look at communion. We'll do communion together. What do we do with all this? Five things that you can write down, things that you can do as we take away from this. Firstly, limitations. Chapter 3, verse 22 and 23 says this. And it's a true statement that we need to hold onto every single day. His mercies are new every morning. Great is his faithfulness every day.
[00:40:42] Preach that to yourself.
[00:40:44] Today is a new day, and I need to remember God's faithfulness in my life. Before I get worried with Facebook or my emails or the news or the weather or my money, I need to remember, how has God been faithful to me? And I promise you this, if you start your day like that, your day will be a lot more peaceful.
[00:41:01] Because people who hold tightly to the promise to the assurance of God's faithfulness walk through their day with much more peace.
[00:41:10] Secondly, stop living in if only this. Or what if this happens? Remind yourself of God's faithfulness. And by doing that, it is a guarantee that you can walk as the Series has with joy.
[00:41:26] Look at the mess you're facing. Whatever your name is. Look at the mess you're facing. How can you have that joy? Because God has been faithful in the past. And I can trust he's gonna be faithful again. Amen.
[00:41:35] I can look backwards and see his faithfulness. Right? The story of the parents in the car in the past, my parents told me we were gonna go somewhere and then we did. Even though I'm in this waiting period and it's hard, I can have joy knowing that God is faithful.
[00:41:50] Speaking of waiting. Thirdly, waiting is not wasted. Waiting is not wasted. God works and shapes us while we are in the waiting room.
[00:41:59] Most of us, myself included, don't like being in the waiting room. Right? It's like just waiting for the doctor to get there, the dentist to get there, whatever. I'm done sitting here waiting. Doesn't need to be wasted. Time for you.
[00:42:11] Fourthly, tell the story of God's faithfulness to other people.
[00:42:15] They can help you remember it too. And lastly, joy is the fruit of believing God is faithful.
[00:42:22] Joy is the fruit of believing that God is faithful. Let's pray together. Lord, thank you that you are a God who is faithful.
[00:42:29] As we've unpacked all sorts of ways here this morning, feel like just flying through these passages.
[00:42:37] We can be still for a moment right now and take a breath and be reminded that you're a God. That no matter what kind of waiting experience we're in right now, you're a God who is faithful. You have our back.
[00:42:51] We can trust that because you've been faithful in the past, you will be faithful again.
[00:42:57] You won't let us go.
[00:42:59] You won't abandon us when we mess up.
[00:43:02] You promise, Lord, that you are faithful and just to forgive us of all unrighteousness if we confess our sin.
[00:43:11] Thank you, Lord, that we can trust ourselves to you, a God who is faithful in Jesus name. Amen.
[00:43:18] I mentioned earlier that we don't use the word covenant a whole lot in this passage. As Jesus is sitting in the upper room, the Last supper with his disciples, he uses the word covenant again.
[00:43:30] And here's what that means. It's this new agreement. In the past, the way that people could be right with God is by animal sacrifices. And it would just be for a short time. It was nothing long. It was, you're right with God for a little while until you mess up again and then another animal has to die. That was the kind of covenant or agreement that they had with God. But now Jesus says this There is a new covenant in my blood, and this is a new relationship that you and I can have with God. This new covenant is not based in animal sacrifices happening over and over again. But Jesus says this at the Last Supper in the upper room. He says, take and drink. Take and eat. There's a new covenant in my body. That is a new agreement is happening because of what I'm doing. It's nothing that you did. Because, by the way, you've tried doing all the things. It's never worked out for you. But I'm going to do something.
[00:44:17] And this work that I'm about to do is how you can have a new kind of relationship with God. So, friends, have you been striving to be good enough for God?
[00:44:27] Because if so, Jesus says, stop striving. You can never get there.
[00:44:32] Spend time with me. Realize that my death for you was sufficient to make you right with God. Ushers, you can walk forward.
[00:44:41] As we pass the trays and we take of the elements, I want to say a few things. One, this is for Christians, if you have trusted in Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Secondly, examine yourself. Take some time saying, God, is there parts of me that I haven't laid before you? And if so, confess those things before him. And here's what that promise is, right? First John 1:9. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us, then we can rejoice together, knowing I am forgiven.
[00:45:08] We also take this time to remember the cross of Jesus. We recognize that the cross is not just a sign of the love of Christ. It's also a sign of how much God hates sin.
[00:45:21] It's because God hates sin that Jesus had to go to the cross. And it's because of God's great love for us that we can have a relationship with him because of what Jesus did on the cross. And lastly, rejoice. Rejoice this morning knowing that you are forgiven in Jesus Christ, because God is a God who is faithful. Can you say faithful? He's faithful. I'm going to pass the trays as the ushers come up.
[00:46:03] In your hands, you have a little cup with juice in it, another cup with a little wafer inside. And we take these today in a moment to remind ourselves that's what we're doing here. We've been called to remember this incredibly important work of Jesus on the cross for our sins.
[00:46:20] As we take this, we're remembering that he's a God who is faithful. This morning, Paul in First Corinthians, he tells the church to do this because we're forgetful people and this is something that we can't forget.
[00:46:36] He says, this is something that was delivered to him. This instruction of the church was delivered to him. It says this in 1 Corinthians 11. For I received this command from the Lord, that which I delivered to you because it's so important.
[00:46:47] The Lord Jesus, on the night that he was betrayed, he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it. And he said, this is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And then Jesus, at the Last Supper, he passes a piece of bread around and they all eat together, remembering the new covenant. That is, we don't have to do animal sacrifices anymore. We have a new agreement with God through Jesus Christ. Let's eat together.
[00:47:13] It says this in verse 25. In the same way he took a cup after supper, saying, this cup is the new covenant or new agreement in my blood, new promise in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim that is with joy the Lord's work and the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's drink together.
[00:47:42] Lord Jesus, this morning we rejoice that you are a God who continues to see us wherever we are and continues to meet us no matter how rebellious we might be. You're a God who shows up as a God who is faithful, showing your profound mercy and your profound grace in our lives as we spend time thinking through the different ways that you've been faithful to us. Lord, I pray that that would bring joy within our souls, that we would step into the season of Christmas with great joy, that people would see that on our lips, that we would see that in our lives. And that when we are asked about it, we can give an answer for the great joy that we have through this season.
[00:48:22] If there's any Lord here today who don't know you have never personally experienced your faithfulness in their life and realize it to be you, Lord, today, that they would see that that is your hand of grace in their life. In Jesus name, amen.
