THE BIRTH OF CHRIST

At Christmas time the Church assembles everywhere on earth to commemorate the coming of the Son of God into the world. According to custom, the precious gospel will be read in many families, because Christmas Day is coming again. Strangely enough, the world celebrates Christmas too. Thousands of pine trees are cut down and placed for a season in churches, schools, and homes; and they may also be found in public buildings and along the streets. Is this because people everywhere have such a high regard for Christ? Are they so happy that He came to this world, and is that the reason why they give each other presents on Christmas Day? Indeed not, my friends; all these things are merely outward excitement, for the majority clearly show that they do not have the slightest conception of what this most glorious and blessed event signifies.

The Kingdom of God does not come with outward show. Christ declared that “the Kingdom of God is within you.” Oh, how poor and foolish the world is! The people can hardly wait for the festivities to begin, and they have fun around a decorated and lighted tree. My friends, let not these things take place among us, for they are nothing but a manifestation of present-day heathenism, which is so rampant on every hand. We see clearly how great the falling away is, and this will be getting worse and worse as the world rapidly hurries toward its end.

Yes, the birth of Christ is commemorated in thousands of churches, but in words that are hollow and empty. At best they recount the historical facts, but the root of the matter, and what it really means, is not mentioned. And how is it among us? Alas, we may as well admit that we view it as a Church holiday that returns annually on the same day. And that is as far as it goes. But such a view leaves a poor person’s heart cold, because thus no place has been prepared there by the Holy Spirit for the precious and blessed Person of Christ. There was no room for Joseph and Mary in the inn at Bethlehem.

The fact that Christ was to be born at Bethlehem was already predicted by the Prophet Micah: “But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel” (Micah 5:2) Historically, Bethlehem was an important place. Jacob had buried Rachel there. Later on the fields of Boaz were near Bethlehem, and Boaz married Ruth in the gates of the city. Obed was born in Bethlehem, and so was David later on. Bethlehem may have been little, but it was by no means the least among the thousands of Judah. Throughout the ages it has been a well-known place.

It was God’s promise that His Son would be born in Bethlehem. But how could this promise be fulfilled? Mary did not live in Bethlehem, but in the despised village of Nazareth, sixty miles away. In those days this was considered a great distance, especially for Mary in the condition she was in. Was the promise going to fail, now that there was no room for her in the inn? No: “God is not a man, that He should lie, neither the son of man, that he should repent.” All things are in the hand of the Lord. He even turns the hearts of kings whithersoever He will. Emperor Augustus was intent on filling his treasury, but God employed him to work out His decrees and to fulfill His promises. Oh, what a consolation this is to God’s people! God’s ways often seem so mysterious to them here upon earth. Many a time it seems to them that all hope is gone; but God carries out all He has planned.

There was no room in the inn for Joseph and Mary, and hence neither for Christ. Let us read this again—”there was no room for them in the inn.” Quite often, in schools, Sunday schools, and churches, this story is presented in such a way as if the inn was so full of guests that not a single room was vacant. But that is not the way the Bible presents the facts. Joseph and Mary feared God. They were both of the house and lineage of David; but, above all, they were born of God. And Mary was the favored one, the blessed among women. She was the virgin who, according to Isaiah 7:14, was to conceive, and bear a son, and call His name Immanuel. The power of the Most High had overshadowed her, and she carried the Lord Jesus under her heart. He, the promised seed of the woman, would destroy the works of the devil. Now, bear this in mind—The devil does not know everything, but he does know much, and he tried to do everything in his power to prevent this birth from taking place in the inn, for if it were to take place there, how soon it would become known everywhere! But God does not need man to publish the glad tidings, as became clearly evident after Christ was born. An angel of heaven would announce this great event.

The innkeeper refused to give a room to Joseph and Mary. Men were not willing to give even the smallest place to them. This shows that in the world and in our hearts there is no room for Christ. Our hearts are filled with nothing but bitter enmity against Him. In Paradise man severed relations with God, and in his bitter hatred he desires to continue to live without God and thus to die without God. By nature we cannot but reject God, and we put forth every effort to shut our hearts for Christ. This is the sad picture of a person who does not fear God.

When Pilate tried Jesus, he cried out, “What shall I do with Jesus?” and, indeed, natural man does not know it either. He is without God in the world, and has no knowledge of his wretched condition unless God discloses it to him. There is no place for Christ, the Surety of the covenant. Of this blessed Person Paul exclaimed, “Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!” and in John 3:16 we read, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” Though to many this is a harsh statement, nevertheless it is true that we shut our hearts against Christ, the only Name given under heaven whereby we must be saved. We either accept Christ or we reject Him. There is no middle course. The Lord Jesus Himself said to the Jews, “And ye will not come unto Me, that ye might have life.”

Well, then, must we not consider those people in our day who are always talking about accepting Christ highly privileged indeed? We know better than that! All that superficial talk about accepting Christ will end in eternal disappointment. God’s people, convinced and enlightened by His Spirit, learn that there is no room for Christ in their hearts unless the Holy Spirit, who works efficaciously and irresistibly, Himself makes room there. On our side all hope must be gone, and we must learn to know ourselves as lost and undone sinners, if we are ever to appropriate the Person of Christ. A man can accept nothing except it be given him from heaven. God’s chosen people are given grace to accept Christ. “As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.” He gave them ‘power’, that is, He gave them a ‘divine right’, through the Holy Spirit, that flows from God’s eternal good pleasure, by virtue of the satisfaction of Christ.

What took place in the manger at Bethlehem was a manifestation of the eternal good pleasure of God, and was founded on that alone. Let us consider this more fully. The incarnation of the Son of God took place by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God. Most certainly the eternal God had already determined the incarnation of His Son from all eternity. Accordingly Christ came in the name of the Lord and was sent from heaven as the chosen One of the Father to magnify the divine perfections and to save His people. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. He prepared a way where there was no way—”In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.” Oh, this love is great beyond words; it can never be fathomed or comprehended!

In sending the Son of His love, the Father also loved Himself most perfectly. When God created man, He adorned him with His own image so that He beheld His own likeness in the man He had created, a man without sin and without blemish. It was the Creator’s will to behold His likeness in His creatures, and He did so until we lost that image by sin. It pleased God, however, to choose a mediator in His eternal love, and to execute this decree by His omnipotence. In this Mediator God chose a people unto Himself; and Christ came to restore God’s image in them so that God could again behold His own likeness in His creatures. Now once again the name of God and the image of God are fully magnified in and by the Son.

On the other hand, now the Church may again behold God, because He sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. Here God’s people see Him through a glass darkly, but in anticipation they sing:

Soon I in glorious righteousness
Shall see Thee as Thou art;
Thy likeness, Lord, when I awake
Shall satisfy my heart.

The eternal decree of God unfolded most wondrously at the birth of Christ; but also His marvelous love manifested itself most evidently. It was the will of Christ to become incarnate because of His love for the Father and for His honor. Hence He also loves the people whom God formed for Himself in order that they should show forth His praises and exalt the triune God. Christ’s love of the perfections and honor of God was the reason why He gave Himself. The love for His Father, for His people, and for the covenant impelled Him to take upon Himself the form of a servant.

Now it became the Father, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make this Christ perfect through sufferings. The Holy Spirit has to instruct us in order that we may learn in our own soul that reconciliation proceeds from the Father and is brought about by the satisfaction of the Son. Only then do we begin to understand the just demand of the Father that Chirst be born in Bethlehem’s manger. Comprehending even a little of this will cause us to hide our faces in the dust before God.

Due to our fall in Adam we have no longer any love in our hearts. We manifest nothing but hatred and enmity against God in our hearts and lives. Oh, how bitterly this causes us to lament when God begins to convince us by His Spirit! There is nothing that humbles a person more and melts his heart faster than the love of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Alas, we can but stammer concerning these things as we commemorate the birth of Christ. The half has not been told us. May our hearts be filled with this love and, as it were, be swallowed up in the infinite love of God on this Christmas Day! Then we shall truly glorify Him through Christ. He did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up to suffer and die for enemies! May God take possession of our hearts so that we shall give our hearts to Him! Outside of Chirst all is void and cannot give satisfaction, but when we are in Christ, then He is all and in all. “With Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light”, declares David in Psalm 36:9.

After man fell and the covenant of works was broken, God in His sovereign grace and eternal good pleasure made known the covenant of grace. Christ was promised to Adam and Eve after they had cut off all possibility of life. We read of this promise in Genesis 3:15, which also speaks of Christ’s conflict and triumph.

All the prophets of ancient times prophesied concerning the coming of the Messiah, the one even more gloriously than the other. And when Malachi, the last of the prophets, prepared the way for His coming in his prophecy, we would almost expect the event to take place immediately. Yet it waited four hundred years, during which time the voice of prophecy remained silent. It became so dark in the world, in the Church, and in the hearts of the people of God that it seemed as though all hope was gone. But then, in that dark night, the promise was fulfilled. It is the same way in the life and heart of every saint of God when Christ is born within. That takes place when all hope is gone, and when it seems more impossible than ever before.

Everything is employed by God to carry out His counsel, if need be, even with Caesar Augustus, the mighty Roman emperor. “For, lo, He speaks, and it is done; and all with sovereign power begun, stands fast at His command.” In Bethlehem, the “house of bread”, the living Bread that gives life to the world, came down from heaven. Oh, marvel at the condescension on the part of the eternal Son of God! He left His throne and royal crown to be born in a stable. What incomprehensible humiliation! It can neither be fathomed nor described! “For ye know the grace of our our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich” (2 Cor. 8:9). My dear fellow travelers, do not be offended at the fact that the Son of God was born in a stable!

Asaph confessed to be a “beast” before the Lord; and it is for such people alone that this humble birth becomes, and is, such an infinite wonder. If Christ had been born in Herod’s palace or in the mansions of the Pharisees and scribes, or even in the inn, there would have been no hope for poor guilty, wretched, and condemned sinners such as we are. But God must open our eyes to see ourselves as such undone sinners; indeed, we must become the ‘greatest’ of sinners. When that takes place, a voice in our heart says, “There is no help for you with God.” Indeed, the enemies of our soul and our salvation scream from every side that we can never be saved any more. Satan does everything he can to draw us away from God and to obscure the grace of God in Christ. Moreover, when we look inside ourselves, all hope and expectation must fail us, for within we can discover nothing but sin and misery.

But Christ was born in a manger, in a stable. He could not possibly stoop any lower, thereby signifying that He is willing to take up His abode in our beastlike hearts in order to purify and sanctify them and change them into a habitation of God by His Holy Spirit. Bethlehem’s stable opens a possibility for all who are sad, for all who are in distress, and for all who are burdened with debt. On this Christmas Day may there be found such as would flee to the solitude of a field or a woods or a cellar or upstairs room, groaning under the burden of their sin and guilt.

There is a fullness to be found in Bethlehem’s stable. “and him that cometh to Christ He shall in no wise cast out.” May God grant courage to the fainthearted and comfort to the disconsolate! What an experience it would be for all of us if we were drawn by the Father through the Holy Spirit unto the stable in Bethlehem and to find the Mediator there! “For whoso findeth Me findeth life.” He is a perfect Saviour, and will save to the uttermost all those who come to God through Him. He has purchased full salvation. We cannot add one sigh to it, neither need we to. But He also ‘applies’ His salvation. Oh, that we may look beyond those swaddling clothes and see Him in all His divine glory; for He is the only begotten Son of God! There in that humble manger, lies the eternal Son of God! He is the true God and eternal life.

The Lord Jesus did not bring our human nature with Him from heaven; rather, He assumed it through the virgin Mary, in order that He would be like unto us in all things, sin excepted. It was necessary for Him to be very God, because none of Adam’s sons and daughters could merit salvation. It was He who engaged His heart to approach unto God (Jer. 30:21). He alone was able to satisfy divine justice. He alone could appease the wrath of God and quench the fierceness of His anger. He alone could bruise Satan’s head and break the power of sin.

But Christ was also truly man, composed of body and soul, for God was not willing to punish sin in any other nature, since we have sinned in both body and soul. And both man’s body and soul must be delivered from the curse and wrath of God. But He who lay there in the manger was a righteous man, wholly free from all original and actual sin. He lay there, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and burdened with the original and actual sin and guilt of His Church which He was to atone for, and take out of the way forever. He entered this state of deep humiliation to bring His people back to God, “to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” This precious Mediator stooped that low to fetch them out of the depths, indeed, from the bottom of hell, and bring them into the most blessed communion with God.

Oh, how His people should acknowledge, love, and adore Him! He is truly altogether lovely. May we exclaim with the bride: “This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem!”

What a precious gospel we see proclaimed here— “God manifest in the flesh!” It is my earnest wish that this day may truly be, or become, Christmas for each one of you. Consider how many people God has taken away during the year that has almost come to a close. They will never hear this gospel again. The angel of death entered into the homes of some of you to remove a loved one from your side and place him or her before the judgment seat of the great Judge of heaven and earth. For a few, death was a messenger of peace, but for countless thousands of our fellow men it was a king of terror.

There are some among us whom God returned from the gates of death so that they may be still with us and hear the glorious message of salvation proclaimed once again. May the goodness of the Lord humble you and yet lead you to true repentance. O that you may learn to marvel at the fact that this gospel message of Christ’s incarnation may still resound in your ears. May it also echo in your hearts to your eternal salvation!

God only knows for how many of you it will be the last time that the Christmas message will be proclaimed. Even though the Lord would spare us for many years to come, our life is nevertheless but a handbreath and our years are as nothing. With rapid strides we hasten to the grave and eternity. Then everything will come back to mind, also the sermons which we have heard in our lives. The day will come when all of us will be called to account for all we have heard. How terrible it would be if all these things were to testify against us! The Child in Bethlehem’s manger will then be Judge of heaven and earth, and if we have not found peace in His blood, He will condemn us forever and ever. May it truly become Christmas for all who have never celebrated it in reality, and may Christ yet be born in your hearts!

Boys and girls, many young people make holidays into days of sin. The one roams here and the other there, oftentimes far out of sight of father and mother, treading the dark paths of sin and unrighteousness. Oh, learn to bid farewell to the world while you are still young, and learn to hate sin and shun evil. There is nothing I wish more earnestly from the bottom of my heart than that you would realize how terrible it is to live on without God and without Christ. May the seriousness of life, the awfulness of eternity, and the necessity of true repentance weigh heavily on your hearts. May you realize how great your sin and guilt are and that you are truly lost if you are still in your natural state. May you learn to bow in the dust before God, and come with weeping and supplication unto the manger at Bethlehem, at the feet of the Lord Jesus, pleading for mercy and forgiveness. He came into the world to seek and to save that which is lost. No heart is too young and no head is too gray to be delivered and saved by Him. Oh, do take advantage of the time which God still grants you in His mercy! After this dispensation there will be no time any longer, and then you will lament your neglect forever. The blessed Child in Bethlehem’s manger can deliver you from destruction and crown you with goodness and mercy. He stands and waits to be gracious to you. If you would learn something of these things, what genuine satisfaction this would give you! In the light of the King’s countenance alone is joy and peace through the Holy Spirit.

I know there are people who have seen many a Christmas Day but have never had a real Christmas in their life. There are also those who no longer can find satisfaction in the world. Sin has become death unto them. They are filled with a longing after God, and yet, they have not learned to know Him Who was born at Bethlehem. At times they have been comforted by some word from Scripture or encouraged by some promise, but now it seems that darkness and anxiety are increasing. They have had times when they hoped that something was going to happen, but alas, now hope is getting dimmer and dimmer. Still, Satan’s attacks have not been able to remove out of their hearts that which God put there, and they sigh, “Oh, that Thou wouldest rend the heavens, that Thou wouldest come down!”

The shepherds were keeping watch over their flock by night. Even though it was night, they were awake. And there they received the unexpected, allembracing message that “unto them’ was born the Saviour, the long-expected Christ. I hope the same thing may happen today to those disconsolate, longing people, who can no longer comfort themselves with past experiences. May you come to know Him Who alone can make your joy complete! Too often we find rest in things that are not Christ. This is dishonoring to God and deprives our souls of the true rest and peace.

The shepherds came in great haste and found the Child. Oh, if you were to come to Him as a poor, wretched sinner deserving of death and damnation; if He were to embrace you and speak words of peace to your soul; and if you in turn were to appropriate Him by faith as your portion forever, it would be a Christmas for you never to be forgotten.

Children of God, may the miracle of the birth of Christ live anew in your hearts today! For true, heavenly miracles must take place again and again, as also the discovering work of the Holy Spirit. Otherwise Christ will have no form nor comeliness for us. Times without number we wander away from Christ; yet without Him there is nothing but death. “Draw me”, said the bride, “and we will run after Thee.”

Let us continually seek to employ Christ and His blessed ministration. He is the fountain of gardens, the well of living waters. Then we shall walk in His steps in deep humility, and magnify Him as the source of our joy and happiness.

May our hearts today be captivated by Christ! May it become an unforgettable day! And above all, may it be spent to the praise and honor of the God who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all! It behooves all of us to praise God as the angels did when they sang: “Glory to God in the highest.” Amen.

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