Untitled Sermon (3)

Matthew 1:21 The Dark side of Christmas Matthew 1:18-23 12/22/2024

There are many ways to look at Christmas. Most of them look on the bright side. **>>A) One of the most popular songs of the season must be “white Christmas.” I’m dreaming of a white Christmas.” >> B) We like to think about the beauty of this time of the year. 1. The lovely tree (we have a few on the platform) 2. The bright lights and decorations. 3. The colorful ornaments 4. The lovely candles, wreaths and the snow scenes. 5. We also like the warm fireplace, the beautifully wrapped presents. The snowman, the gingerbread house, the music that is set to lights at chandler park. Everything is bright and cheery. All of that is symbolized in the Christmas card which we give each other – They presents the wonder, the beauty and the lovelinessof Christmas. //>>> But there is another side of Christmas. We might call it the dark side. And there also are different ways to look at the dark side. 1. There is the dark and cold night in a small non-descript village in Palestine where a young woman gave birth to a baby in the most unsanitary conditions imaginable. A> She is surrounded by the filth and manure of a stable. B> The child is placed in a feeding trough. yKi there was not place in the local hotel. That’s one way to look at the dark side. 2. Another would be to look at a very dark man named Herod. He feared losing his hold on power and control, so he massacred all the babies 2 years and younger in that region. That definitely is a dark side to Christmas. 3. Or we could look at the dark side of people’s reactions to the 1stChristmas A) some were ignorantof what was happening. B) others were indifferent – it wasn’t that big of a deal. Besides we are too busy doing other things. 1> Like the innkeeper. He must have seen that she was pregnant. She was in her 9th month about to deliver. But he wasn’t going to be bothered by her. His inn was full. There was not more room. ****There are many ways to look at the dark side of Christmas. ***>>But there is a dark side that is beyondall of these. In fact, it lurks behind every beautiful scene on every Christmas. You might say it is wretched side of Christmas. Some would call it the ugly side. **But it is the side that if understood brings out the beauty of Christmas in a vivid way. This is what I want to draw your attention to this morning. To help us to see this side of Christmas -would you turn to Matthew’s gospel. It’s a very familiar verse – we have looked at it before: Matthew 1:21 She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.”(ESV) This salvation from sins is spoken of throughout the NT. For instance: 1 John 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin.(ESV) and 1 Timothy 1:15 (Paul writing) The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.(ESV) Simply put: the dark side of Christmas is sin. Jesus came to save sinners. So, the beauty of Christmas is: to understand the dark side that Christmas cures. **We need to understand the 1. depthand the 2. power of sin that we might understand 1> the riches and 2> power of Christ’s coming, living, dying and resurrecting. // Sin is horrendous. And it is prevalent in our world. >> yKi of sin there are tears, pain, war, anxiety, discord, unrest, worry, sickness, famine, earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes, pollution, and yes death – to name a few. Everything that mars our existence is a direct result of sin. >>It is so disruptive and destructive. It messes up relationships 1. between people; and 2. between people and creation and 3. between People and God. One puritan writer: Thomas Watson put it this way, “Sin has turned beauty into deformity and the wicked takes more care to have his sin coveredthan cured.” Cover up is then name of the game in politics. And in almost every field. We are prone to excuse our sin than to examine it. We don’t want to deal with it. But this is the reason that Jesus was born. He came to deliver us for our sins. If there was no sin, there would be no need for Christmas. So, sin cannot be hid (though we would like to try) behind the smoke screen of Christmas activities. If we are going to be true to Christmas we must bring sin to the forefront. A> It is what generates chaos .B> It is what no one can escape. >>Those who die in childbirth, or >> yKiof heart disease, or >> cancer, or >>murder or >> accidents or >> even old age - die yKi of sin. **You know the verse: Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death,...(ESV) Every person will die yKievery person is affected by sin. This is why Jesus came. To “save his people from their sins.” This is the reason for Christmas. 1> Every marriagethat has been broken, 2>every home that has been disrupted, 3> every friendship that has been shattered, 4> every evil thought, or wordor deed can be attributed to sin. ***The bible compares it to the venom of snakes or the stench of grave. >>And anything that is sinister and debilitating for the human race must be dealt with if God, who is infinity holy, is to bring us into a relationship with Him. Thomas Guthrie. “Who is the painted temptress that steals our virtue? Who is the murderess that destroys our life? Who is this sorceress that first deceives and then damns our souls? Sin. Who with icy breath blights the fair blossoms of youth? Who breaks the hearts of parents? Who brings old men gray hairs with sorrow to the grave? Sin.Who by a more hideous metamorphosis than Ovid (the Roman poet) even fancied changes 1. gentle children into snakes, 2. tender mothers into monsters and 2. their fathers into worse than Herods, the murderers of their own innocence? Sin. Who cast the apple of discord on household hearts? Who lights the torch of war and bears it blazing over trembling lands? Who by division in the church rends (splits) Christ’s seamless robe? Sin. Who is this Delilah that sings the Nazarite asleep and delivers up the strength of God into the hands of the uncircumcised? Who winning smiles on her face, honeyed flattery on her tongue, stands in the door to offer the sacred rites of hospitality and when suspicion sleeps, treacherously pierces our temples with a nail? What fair siren is this who seated on a rock by adeadly pool 1. smiles to deceive, 2. sings to lure, 3. kisses to betray and 4.flings her arm round our neck to leap with us into perdition? Sin. Who turns the soft and gentlest heart to stone? Who hurls reason from her lofty throne and impels(forces) sinners mad as a Gadarene (Gad a rene – a city Location) swine down the precipice into a lake of fire? Sin.” Fairly descriptive. You get the picture – esp. if you know your bible. Sin is the dark side of Christmas. But Christ is the bright side. So, let’s take a moment to look at the dark side. By asking some question about sin.

I. What is sin?

John writes: 1 John 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness.(ESV) It’s breaking God’s law. It’ missing the mark. It’s living as if there were no God, no authority, no standard. It denies the reality of God’s law. ***It says God is not in charge. **>God cannot put a binding rule on me. John Bunyan: “Sin is the dare of God’s justice. Sin is the rape of God’s mercy. It is the jeer of His patience, the sleight of His power and the contempt of His love.” God has given His law. 1. It is in the pages of Scripture; and2. it is written on the heart of man (Rom. 2). It is holy, just, righteous. Why wouldn’t a person keep it? One person put it this way: “there is no sanereason to violate God’s law other than the fact that men desire to runtheir own lives, to do what they will and they deny God His rightful place” God’s lawis for 1. our good, 2. our happiness, 3. our joy, even to an extent our salvation (it gives the reason). Why wouldn’t you want to keep it? Well yKipeople are like a horse who jumps the fence thinking the grass is greener on the other side. Only to find out it’s mud, and muck àit’s a big hole that will take your life. ***It’s so foolish to violate His law. But that is what people are bent to do. yKi it it’s in our sinful nature. This leads to the 2nd question:

II. What is sin like?

What is it nature? What are the characteristics of it that caused Jesus to be born as the Savior? 1) it is defiling. It is pollution. Essentially, it is a privation. Like evil it is not a thing or substance rather it is a lack of a good thing. God did not make sin. He allows it be He is not the author of it. //>> It is a parasite – it only exists in something good - as a corruption of a goodness. >>Like rot is to a tree or >>rust is to a car – both rust and rot corrupt the good substance (i.e. the car or tree). But the rust and rot do not exist in and of themselves. That’s what sin is like. It defiles. 2) Sin is also defiant. As one person put it: “It’s what A> strikes a blow in the face of Christ. B> drives the nail into His hand; C: crushed the crown of thorns on His head. D> It spits on Him, mocks Him, it says “I will do what I want to do, I don’t care what Your claims are or who You are.” It is defiant and 3) Sin is ungrateful. A> You were created by God. And B> Acts 17:28 … In him we live and move and have our being’; …(ESV) C> We live and breathe yKi He made us, and He sustains us. & D> He is merciful, kind and gracious. E> Jesus said: Matthew 5:45 … he (God) makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.(ESV) He blessed everyone – the good and the evil. 1. He gave beauty, 2. the mind that is able to think. 3. He gave coordination to the body to do things. 4. He gave us the abilityto feel, to work, to play, to laugh, 5. He gave the joy of life, of children, of friends; the special skills that each of you have. But we can be so ungrateful. People want to do is dethrone and destroythe one who gave us all that we have. It is unbelievable the ungratefulness of people. But this is what sin is like. 4) And it is incurable humanly speaking. Jeremiah 13:23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also you can do good who are accustomed to do evil.(ESV) Right ( hope you the figure of speech – absurdities) This is an impossibility (Bullinger p. 956) There is nothing we can do to change our sinful condition. But God can. This is what Christmas is all about. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. There is no other way. There is no other cure.

III. How many people does sin effect?

All people. Romans 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,(ESV) We were born into it. David writes: Psalm 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.(ESV) The original sin in Adam contaminated the entire Human race. Paul puts it this way: Romans 5:12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned—(ESV) Allof us are effected by sin.

IV. What are the results of sin?

What does sin cause? 1) It causes evil to overpower us. It dominates the mind and heart. Jeremiah 17:9 The heartis deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?(ESV) A) It controls the thinking process. A) It thinks evil, B) it plans evil. C) It conceives evil. It dominates the mind 2) It dominates emotions or affections à Heart. People love darkness rather than light yKi their deeds are evil. A> Our loves, B> our wishes, C> our wants are not onbuilding up others but tearing them down. Even in the Christian life. Paul speaks to this in his personal life: Romans 7:18–19 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh (old sinful nature) For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.(ESV) This is the case yKi of sin. **It’s like a sleeping lion that can wake up enraged at the smallest thing. **Or like a smoldering fire that takes off with in full flame with the slightest wind of temptation. 3) It causes us to come under the domination of Satan. It shows up in what we do. Jesus spoke of this in John 8:44 44 You (Jews – who thought they were never enslaved)are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.(ESV) The Jews lied like the devil. Why? yKi there were dominated by the devil. **And therefore, they were an object of God’s wrath. This is the result of sin. 1> It sends men to an eternity away from the presence of God. An eternity of trouble, emptiness and miserly. That which is called hell. **1. There is no peace there, 2. no hope, 3. no meaning. Sin brings the worst to a person. Spurgeon put it this way: “Man is hanging over the mouth of hell by a solitary plank and the plank is rotten.” Not a pretty picture. But that is the result of sin. That is the dark side of Christmas >>>and it is the dark side that that makes the bright side so beautiful. The bright side is Jesus. He is the light of the world. He came into the darkness in order to save sinners. ***I don’t think we can really appreciate Christmas until we see the dark side. ***And Christmas is far more than the presents, the lights, the warm fire, the trees. *>>Christmas is Christ coming to cure the darkness of world. He came to save sinners. J. Hart wrote a hymn (1st stanza) Come, ye sinners, poor and needy, weak and wounded, sick and sore; Jesus ready stands to save you, full of pity, love, and pow'r. Jesus wants you to come to the light it’s shinning for you. You know the darkness of sin: 1) will you admit it and 2) will be come to the light of the world. 3) Ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you. Ask Him to deliver you from the power and penalty of sin. He brings people out of the darkness. He wants you to see the beauty, the wonder, and the glory of Christmas. He can make you whole.