Sermon Tone Analysis

Sing We the Song of Emmanuel

WELCOME

Good morning family.

Hear the Word of the Lord from Isaiah 7:14...

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.

Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

Most of us don’t have a hard time believing that God is above us.

That He’s beyond us, outside of us, over us.

But the song we just sang and the Scripture we just read tell us a startling truth.

That God the Son is with us.

That’s what Immanuel means, God with us.

In just a moment we’ll hear a reading from the text for today’s sermon in Galatians 4. Turn there now.

While you’re turning, 5 quick announcements:

1) Christmas in Boutopia, tonight from 3-6 PM

No TableTalk tonight

Directions in your bulletin

If (and only if) you’re especially concerned about large crowds due to Covid-19, please come between 3-4.

2) Christmas Eve service, 12/24 at 6PM

Great service to invite family and friends.

We’ll sing a few well-known Christmas carols, hear a Gospel message and close with Silent Night by candlelight

Flyers at the blue flag

3) Bible Reading Plan for 2022

Available at the blue flag

4) Sunday School in 2022

Three new classes beginning January 2

A new Explore the Bible class taught by John Rogers & Bubba Jones

How to Grow taught by Jake Rogier

Church History taught by Sterling Tollison

If you’re not in a Sunday School class, but you’re interested in one of these or our other classes, go to the blue flag after the service

5) Fellowship Groups

Sign up at the blue flag or online

If you’re interested in leading, co-leading, or hosting a group in 2022, we’d like you to attend a volunteer luncheon on January 9 after AM worship

Please sign up at the blue flag

Now look in your Bibles at Galatians 4:4 as Richelle Rogier comes to read for us.

Scripture Reading (Galatians 4:4-7)

Prayer of Praise (Christ our Love), Richelle Rogier

Joy to the World!

Come Praise and Glorify

Prayer of Confession (Cliff Hall), Lust

He Leadeth Me, O Blessed Thought

NEW CITY CATECHISM #51

Of what advantage to us is Christ’s ascension?

Christ physically ascended on our behalf, just as he came down to earth physically on our account, and he is now advocating for us in the presence of his Father, preparing a place for us, and also sends us his Spirit.

PASTORAL PRAYER (John Rogers)

SERMON

One of the giants of the 18th century church was a man named Charles Wesley.

Born in England on December 18, 1707, Charles was one of the leaders of what would eventually be called Methodism, alongside his brother John.

One of Charles’ greatest contributions to the Christian church was the 6,500 hymns he wrote including songs we still sing today like O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing, And Can It Be, Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus and Christ the Lord is Risen Today.

In the days before modern copyright laws, people would often change the words of a hymn before publishing it in a songbook, something which made Charles a bit cranky.

He once wrote that people were “perfectly welcome to [reprint the hymns] provided they print them just as they are.

But I desire they would not attempt to mend them, for they are really not able.

None of them is able to mend either the sense or the verse.”

[1]

Thankfully, not everybody listened to Charles.

Consider the original words he wrote to a famous Christmas carol:

Hark how all the Welkin rings

"Glory to the King of Kings,

Welkin was an old word for heaven.

But when Charles’ friend, another preacher named George Whitefield, read those lyrics he changed them to Hark! the Herald Angels sing.

We can thank Whitefield for his memorable contribution to Wesley’s hymn, but we have much to commend in what Wesley wrote.

Listen to the powerful words that Wesley wrote about God the Son:

Christ, by highest Heav'n ador'd,

Christ, the Everlasting Lord,

Late in Time behold him come,

Offspring of a Virgin's Womb.

Veil'd in Flesh, the Godhead see,

Hail th' Incarnate Deity!

Pleas'd as Man with Men t' appear

Jesus, our Immanuel here!

Mild he lays his Glory by,

Born—that Man no more may die,

Born—to raise the Sons of Earth,

Born—to give them Second Birth.

Come, Desire of Nations, come,

Fix in Us thy humble Home,

Rise, the Woman's Conqu'ring Seed,

Bruise in Us the Serpent's Head.

What’s perhaps even more surprising is that these words were written just one year after Wesley became a Christian.

Let’s contrast Wesley’s theology with the theology of many professing Christians in our country.

Recently Lifeway Research published data from a survey about American beliefs about Jesus.

[2] If you only consider the beliefs of professing Christians who attend church four times a month or more, the findings are troubling:

95% believe Jesus was born in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago

98% believe Jesus is the Son of God the Father

So far, so good!

But...

Only 63% believe that Jesus existed before He was born in Bethlehem.

Almost 2 out of 5 professing Christians who attend church four times a month are holding heretical beliefs about Jesus.

What about you?

How would you answer those questions?

How certain are you of your answers?

Could you defend your answers with Scriptures?

It doesn’t really matter if we sing “Christ by highest heav'n adored, Christ the everlasting Lord!,” if we don’t really believe that Jesus is in fact the everlasting Lord.

Turn to Galatians 4:4

Letter written by Paul to a group of churches in Galatia who were tempted to wander from the good news of the Gospel.

Throughout this letter, Paul clearly argues that we are saved and kept by the grace of God, not by our obedience to the law.

But in the passage we’ve been studying the past few weeks we learn that the grace of God that saves us is a Trinitarian grace.

So we’ve said repeatedly that you cannot rightly tell the Christmas story without the Trinity.

Last week we said you cannot rightly tell the story without God the Father who in love sends His Son.

This morning let’s explore the work of the Son who was sent by the Father to redeem sinners like you and me.

You cannot rightly tell the Christmas story without God the Son who is sent.

Galatians 4:4-7—“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.