There's something about those Christmas carols that sends goosebumps up my back, right? And I'm sure you feel the same way, and I hope you'll join us if you can, on Christmas Eve night where we will get to sing these together. We won't have all of the instruments, but we will have our instruments, and we'll be singing them a cappella, and we'll have a wonderful time.

This morning, I want to conclude our little series on "The Humanity of the Son Incarnate." And I want to begin by reading another aspect of the Christmas story and then elaborate on it, and certainly on the great mystery of the incarnation, especially as it relates to the humanity of Christ. I want to read from Luke two, the account that Luke gives us, beginning in verse seven.

"And Mary gave birth to her first-born son; and she wrapped Him in cloths and laid Him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

In the same region, there were some shepherds staying out in the fields and keeping watch over their flock by night.

And an angel of the Lord suddenly stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them; and they were terribly frightened.

But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people;

for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.'

And suddenly there appeared with the angel, a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased.'

When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, 'Let us go straight to Bethlehem then and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.'

So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph, and the baby as He lay in the manger.

When they had seen this, they made known the statement which had been told them about this Child.

And all who heard it wondered at the things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. The shepherds went back, glorifying and praising God for all that they had heard and seen, just as had been told them."

Like Mary, we wish to treasure these things and ponder them in our heart; and like the shepherds, we want to glorify and praise God for all that they heard and all that they saw, as we reflect upon we, as believers, understand to be the glory of the incarnate Christ; a concept which, frankly, is foreign to most people, especially in our culture. According to a Barna study in 2015 - and mind you this is the closest I could get to this date in terms of a study - most Americans believe Jesus was a real person, about 92%. By the way, I would argue that almost 10 years later, that number has probably gone down. But only 87% of millennials believe that he was a real person. Younger generations, according to the study, are increasingly less likely to believe Jesus was God, only 56% millennials, only 48% and about 35% say he was merely a religious leader. Americans are divided on whether Jesus was sinless. 52% believe he committed sins like other people. 56% of millennials. 62% say they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ and that it is still important in their life today, but the percentages go down with only 46% of millennials. And what's interesting as I examine the study, the greater the income, the fewer the personal commitment to Christ. Jesus said in John 8:24, "'Unless you believe that I am He...'" The pronoun is not in the original Greek text, so it says, "'Unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.'" I am - "egō eimi" in the original language, that's the name of God. That is Yahweh. And this was first revealed in the self-disclosure that God gave to Moses, as you will recall in Exodus three and verse 14 There we read that God said to Moses, "'I AM WHO I AM'"'...Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, "I AM has sent me to you."'" "I AM" the present continuous tense of the verb "to be." And the reason he uses this is because he has always and will always exist. This is a title indicating his self-existence, the eternally existent one, unless you believe that "you will die in your sins."

So Jesus was simply and clearly telling them you must believe that I am who I've claimed to be all along. I am Yahweh. Jesus said in John 14 and verse six, "'I am the way, and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.'" And in Acts 4:12 we read that, "... there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved." But sadly, most people do not understand this, and when they hear it, they think it's ridiculous. They reject the person and the work of Christ. And so when it comes to the Christmas season, Christmas really has nothing to do with what it really has everything to do with. Instead, it's all about giving and kindness and parties and families, kind of the theme of the typical Hallmark Christmas movie. And there's millions of them all year long, and it's all about the magic of Christmas, and romance, but nothing about the incarnate Christ. But for Christians who truly understand these things, this is a time of enormous celebration and joy and hope.

However, I want you to remember that the "good news of great joy, which is for all of the people," as the angel announced, is not good news unless you understand and contrast that with the bad news. You see every human being except the Lord Jesus Christ is guilty of violating God's holy law and deserves eternal punishment, something that is completely ridiculous to the eyes of the world. Yet Jesus came into the world so that those who believe in him might not perish but have eternal life, John 3:16 that you're all familiar with, but later on, Jesus went on to say in John three verse 36, "'He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.'" In other words, those who reject Christ remain unforgiven. They remain guilty before the holy bar of divine justice. And the guilty sinner who refuses to repent, who refuses to trust in Christ as Savior, must therefore bear the consequences of their own sins for eternity; they will remain in their sins forever, unimaginable. They will be separated from God forever. They will be in conscious torment forever. That's the bad news which makes the good news so exceptionally good, so exceedingly glorious. So indeed, God provided a Savior, and thus the angelic messenger can say, I "bring you good news of great joy," which is an enormous understatement, right? "Which will be for all the people, for today in the city of David, there's been born for you a Savior who is Christ, the Lord."

Now bear in mind once again, Jesus came to be our Savior, to save us from our sin. He didn't come to make us healthy and wealthy and successful. In fact, he didn't come the first time to even bring peace on earth, good will towards men. Jesus said he came to bring a sword. And that's an unfortunate translation. In the King James Version, it says, "Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, good will toward men." And many people will misinterpret that and misapply it; use it out of context. You'll see this sometimes in yard decorations there next to Santa and Rudolph, you'll see maybe a sign that says, Peace on Earth, and the idea of, let's, let's don't have any more conflict, let's end wars, let's just enjoy some kind of tranquility. That's what the whole Jesus story is all about. That's a very naive and ignorant and inaccurate understanding of what that text says specifically; and certainly, the theme of the entire New Testament - the theology of the New Testament. In reality, what the angel is saying is glory to God in the highest because he has provided a way for sinful man to be reconciled to a holy God so that the war can be over, so that we can have peace with him. That's the whole idea.

Furthermore, the phrase "good will toward men" is not some kind of a sentimental version of "do unto others, as you would have them do unto you." And "with whom He is pleased," is not a reference to salvation by works. Literally, what it is saying is peace among men of his good pleasure, or as the NASB translates it, "and on earth, peace among men with whom He is pleased." So please understand what the angels are saying is glory to God in the highest those who are the sovereignly chosen recipients of his grace, purely because of his good pleasure, can now have peace with God by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus. Folks, that's the heart of the gospel, and that is at the core of Christmas. See, all the glory belongs to him, none of it belongs to us. Therefore, the angels say "Glory to God in the highest," not glory to God and those of you who figured out what you need to do. This was the theology that evoked the angelic adoration, as it should evoke that, as well, in each of us. And that is our desire this morning, as we once again contemplate the humanity of the Son incarnate.

By way of quick review, we first looked at the virgin birth of the eternal Son; Jesus had to be born of a virgin and take on human flesh so that he could be punished for our sin as our human substitute. Moreover, God's holy and infinite justice could not be satisfied apart from a holy and an infinite ransom. And this might bring up a question that I've heard asked sometimes, "Why didn't God just make a perfect second Adam, a perfect human that could bear our sin and die as our substitute." "Why did it have to be both God and man?" And the answer is because a perfect human substitute could never offer an infinite payment of infinite value that would satisfy the infinite demands of a holy God. Only God can meet such a demand. Any human being, albeit sinless, would have to pay a ransom for eternity, because sin requires an infinite payment. So, the hypothetical sinless second Adam would never be able to say "It is finished." You just have to continue on and on and on paying the ransom. Thus, God's holy and infinite justice could not be satisfied apart from a holy and infinite ransom. So, the work of redeeming grace required a "theanthropon," a god man; one who could supernaturally fuse the human nature with the divine into an indissoluble bond.

And sadly, most people trivialize all of these things, because at a most fundamental level, most people trivialize their own sinfulness. We tend to not see ourselves as bad as we really are, and we mock human depravity. And the reason people do this is because they trivialize the infinite holiness of God. Such a high view of man is always the result of a low view of God. But unless you understand the infinite purity of God, the utter transcendence of God, the holiness of God hell, will seem utterly absurd to you, the opposite of a loving God. Moreover, you will never understand God's grace and the need for your salvation, because, after all, you don't see God as really all that high, or you all that low. I want you to remember that holiness is really the antithesis of sin, and it stands to reason that if the sinfulness of man is trivialized, the same fate will befall an understanding of the holiness of God. You must realize that both ends of the spectrum must be equally infinite, holiness in its transcendent purity, and sin in its vile corruption. To mitigate one would be to diminish the other. Both must be held in equal tension with the ends of the spectrum of good and evil. And I might also add that every believer must really grasp this basic truth. We will only see our sin in proportion to our willingness to see and embrace and stand in awe of the holiness of God. If you have a low view of God, you're going to have a high view of self. If you have a high view of God, you will see yourself as you really are. When God is small, sin is insignificant. But when we see God as he really is, the thrice Holy God, the Lord of hosts, who fills the earth with His glory, according to Isaiah 6:3 then we will respond as Isaiah did and say in verse five, "Woe is me, for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."

Beloved holiness is the all-encompassing attribute of God. It portrays his consummate perfection. It portrays his eternal glory, and it stands alone as the defining characteristic of his purpose and person. Because God is holy, there is an infinite gulf between we as sinful people - finite people. And that's vividly demonstrated even in the created universe. But we have violated his holy law, and sin cannot go unpunished, and his wrath must be appeased. Somiracle of miracles, what God did is provide a means for his wrath to be appeased by sending his Son, a bridge that could span that infinite gulf between his holiness and our sinfulness; he provided the perfect substitute. One who was a man to die for men, yet God to be the perfect and spotless Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. nd that's why John would tell us in First John four and verse 10, "In this is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins."  The satisfaction, the appeasement, the one who could placate the infinite and just wrath of God upon sinners.

Well, I elaborated a little bit on the virgin birth, but that's why there was a virgin birth. And secondly, we looked at the self-emptying of the of the eternal Son, the "kenosis," drawn from the Greek word for emptied himself. "Kenoō" - this speaks of Christ's voluntary surrender of the independent use of His divine attributes. Jesus, "emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond servant." Philippians, two, seven.

So, by taking on human nature, he chose not to exercise the full limits of his attributes during his earthly life as the incarnate Jesus. So, he emptied himself by refusing to access his divine rights, his divine privileges. He made void certain aspects of his divine prerogatives. And as a result, the full manifestation of his deity was restricted or limited because of his human nature.

And then that brought us to where we've been, mainly last week and finally, today, and that's the spirit empowerment of the Son. You will recall that his obedience to do the will of his Father was not animated by his intrinsic divine nature. It's not like he tapped into his divine nature, but rather, it was solely through his human nature, as he relied upon the power of the indwelling Spirit of God. He did not depend upon the divine nature, shall we say, to resist sin, but through the power of the Spirit in the human nature. And wonder of wonders, Jesus availed himself of the same resources that we have available to us, to everyone who is according to John three, eight, "born of the Spirit." We have the same spiritual, divine enablement available to us.

Now, there exists a common question surrounding the issue of the temptation to sin in the life of Jesus, it goes something like this. James 1:13 says, "God cannot be tempted by evil." And in First John three five, we read, "In Him, there is no sin." Second Corinthians 5:21 we read that God made Christ, "to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God." And Hebrews 4:15 then goes on to say that he was, "tempted as we are, yet without sin." Now, how can that be? I'll get a bit technical for a moment, but I think it will become clear to you. This gets into the theological issue of divine impeccability. Impeccability is that attribute of God, referring to the absolute moral purity of the Lord Jesus Christ, his character and conduct while he was on earth. Said simply, impeccability means that the God man, Jesus, was unable to sin. He was unable to sin.

Now, there are two positions on this. If I can give you the Latin and I think it's. there you have it - "non posse peccare" which means not able to sin. That's where we get impeccability. He was impeccable, or is it "posse non peccare," able not to sin; which would mean he was peccable in the Latin. That would imply that Jesus could have sinned, but he chose not to sin. And I might add that in evangelicalism and orthodoxy, that is really the minority view. Let me give you the peccability position. It asserts that, after all, if Jesus was fully human, he must have been able to sin. Because, think about it, unfallen nature, like Adam and Eve is capable of sinning, so naturally Jesus would have been capable of sinning. And if he was impeccable, that means that he could not sin, on what basis was he genuinely tempted? The argument goes. Hebrews 4:15 says again, "He was tempted as we are, yet without sin." Moreover, they would argue, the ability to be tempted implies the ability to sin. How else could he be our sympathetic high priest? And finally, if Christ had a free will, like Adam, free will implies peccability. You feel like you're in a seminary class now, right?

Well, I would argue from scripture that there is another position. I want to give you some fundamental truths regarding this. In His incarnation, he was the immutable - in other words, unchanging - and eternally holy, second person of the Triune Godhead, and took on unfallen human nature. We understand that. Indeed, as God, fully God, James 11:3 says, "He cannot be tempted by evil." He cannot sin. And it would follow therefore, that Christ could not sin either. Let me elaborate on this. Remember, the wages of sin is death, right? Romans, 6:23. Is it possible that God could have died? Are you willing to say that? If you say that he could have sinned, then he could have died? I believe not. I mean God cannot die, and by implication, God cannot sin.

Consider this again, this whole issue of immutability, which is the state or the condition of being unchangeable. Because Christ is immutable, Hebrews 13 eight, says, "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever." It follows, now bear with me here, if Christ could have sinned in his incarnation, then it means that he is still vulnerable to sin as he sits at the right hand of the Father. Certainly we're not willing to say that. That would be blasphemy.

Furthermore, if Christ could have sinned, it would imply weakness, which would undermine the doctrine of his omnipotence, not to mention the doctrine of his omniscience. For example, Jesus said in John 5:25, "'Truly, truly, I say to you an hour is coming, and now is when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.'" Now, how could he promise anything with certainty, if there was a possibility that he might have sinned? Obviously, it's not possible. We read in Hebrews 7:26, that He was holy, innocent, undefiled, separated from sinners. Peter says in First Peter 119, that "He was a lamb, unblemished and spotless."

Additionally, think about this, how could God decree that the eternal Son would accomplish the plan of redemption if there were a possibility that he might sin. What confidence would any of us have in that? And finally, how could Jesus, according to Luke 4:1 quote, "Being full of the Holy Spirit," be vulnerable to sin? I mean, think about this, to say Jesus was able to yield to temptation, and therefore sin, would impugn the character, as well as undermine the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit. Worse yet, the Holy Spirit would fail in his commission, as we read in Isaiah 11 two and other passages, fail in his commission to quote "rest upon him." Give him wisdom and understanding counsel. Give him with counsel and might give him knowledge in the fear of the Lord and in His and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.  

Beloved, I would argue from scripture that Jesus could not sin, yet in his humanity, he was sorely tested, requiring him to rely on the supernatural resources of the indwelling Spirit. It was his reliance on the Spirit that caused him to resist temptation and be obedient to the will of the Father. Again, he did not rely on his divine nature to avoid sin, because had he done so, he would have immediately disqualified himself as our substitute. He would have then foiled his mission to be perfectly holy where the first Adam failed.

Now please understand, just because Jesus could not sin does not mean that he was not genuinely tempted. No, no, when you think about it, as I will demonstrate from scripture, he was, he was tempted far more than we could imagine. How many sins would it have taken for Jesus to have forfeited and failed as our perfect substitute? Uno, exactly one. Satan knew that. Satan knew that if he could get Christ to just commit one sin, the whole plan of redemption would be thwarted. Now, because he had no internal desire to yield to sin, because he did not have a sinful nature, therefore, the external barrage of temptations had to be unimaginably more powerful than anything that we could conceive. I mean, think about Satan's temptations of Christ in the wilderness or in the garden. And his humiliation in the mock trial, his scourgings, and crucifixion. But he never, ever yielded to temptation.

My former friend and professor, Richard Mayhew, put it this way, "Even though Jesus could not sin, the temptations he faced were genuine. Their reality did not depend upon His ability to respond. Indeed, since he never yielded to them, He endured their full force. Thus, temptation for Jesus was more real and more powerful than for any other human being." I might pause there, when we are tempted, we give in real quick. Not so with Jesus. Dr Mayhew went on to say, "A comparison of Adam's temptation and Jesus' temptation reveals great differences and makes Jesus' victory all the more remarkable. Number one," he says, "Adam faced temptation in the best of settings, the Garden of Eden. Jesus faced temptation in a stark environment, the wilderness of Judea. Secondly, Adam lived in the perfection of the pre-fall world. Jesus lived in a deeply corrupt and sinful world. Thirdly, Adam gave in to the first temptation he faced. Jesus faced repeated temptations throughout His earthly life and ministry (Hebrews 4:15) but never yielded. Fourthly, Adam entered his time of temptation adequately fed in a delightful garden filled with fruit and fresh water, but Jesus was weakened by 40 days of fasting before His temptation in the wilderness. And fifthly, the consequences of Adam's fall to temptation were lethal to the entire human race, but the consequences of Jesus' triumph over temptation allowed Him to complete the program of redemption successfully.' End quote. My that puts it all in perspective, does it not?

Dr Bruce Ware said this, quote, "Jesus knew His mission required that He fight temptation. Every temptation, every time, by making you solely of those resources that were provided Him in His humanity, and so He did. For our sake and for our salvation, He steel his heart to fight temptation as a man in dependence on His Father and by the power of the Spirit. Praise be to Jesus who, though tempted in every way as we are, never, ever sinned." Beloved, remember this as you reflect upon the Babe in the manger. Don't allow these great theological truths to just kind of drift away, but may they cause you to see who he really is.

Now, what were the resources available to Christ? To maybe say it a little bit differently, how did he utilize those resources? How can we avail ourselves of the same resources that he had and has? What resources, shall we say, empower our sanctification and help us resist temptation? Well, this could be a long series, but I'm going to summarize it very briefly, and some of this will be overlap, but most fundamentally, in a most fundamental way, he relied upon the supernatural power of the indwelling Spirit made available to him and to us through three categories. Number one: because of his love for the Word of God. Number two: his meditation on the Word of God. And number three: his fervent communion with God. And to illustrate this, and to elaborate this, I want you to go to Psalm one for just a moment. There we have a contrast between the godly and the ungodly. You remember the passage, and I'll give you just a brief overview of some of it to help you understand how we tap into the same resources that Jesus had and has.

In Psalm one, verse one, we read, "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked." Blessed just means happy. In fact, in the Hebrew it says, "Oh, the blessednesses" Oh, the blessednesses, "of the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked." Now this is a description of God's marvelous favor on his redeemed. And notice the choices now of the happy or the blessed man. First of all, it says, he, "does not walk in the counsel of the wicked." In other words, this man is going to tap into the resources of the Holy Spirit with his discernment regarding who he's going to associate with. He's not going to go along with the crowd. He's going to separate himself. And notice the slippery slope that we must avoid.

Not only does he not walk in the counsel of the wicked, but secondly, it says, "...nor stand in the path of sinners." Now you can see here we have a deeper level of comfort than mere walking. This describes a more intimate association and a desire to kind of be a part of this crowd, a part of the sinful popular people; to be accepted with them. And you can probably all attest to some of this, maybe in your life, you've certainly seen it in the lives of many people. The more time you spend around ungodly people, the more you become like them. You begin to think like them, talk like them, dress like them, look like them, go to the same places they go to, and get in the same trouble, and on and on it goes. But a blessed man is going to be a man that has no desire to spend intimate time in that kind of company. And notice how the spiral gets even greater.

Not only does the blessed man not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, but it says, "nor sit in the seat of scoffers." Scoffers are those whose lives are arecharacterized by evil, those who mock God, those who have no fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. This describes now a a settled comfort with the hecklers in the seats in the grand stadium of God mockers. And that's what happens. You begin to walk with these people, with the wicked, and then before you know it, you begin to stand with them, have a deeper association with them. Then you end up wearing the same jerseys as them in the same stadium, mocking the Lord our God. I mean, the mockers, the scoffers are those who are who are absolutely practiced in evil. They love it. They live it. They're never satisfied by anything other than that. These are the people that actively solicit others to join them.

And by the way, we see this all the time in our culture. I mean, just look at the whole woke and LGBTQ cult. Look at the Spring Break crowd. Look at the pro-abortion crowd. They're all about killing babies but saving the animals. You know, just absurd things. Look at the skirt chasing alcoholic porn addicted rednecks. I mean, you could go on and on with this; the racist BLM activist, the...on one end of the for me, it's the left over here, the progressive liberal activists, and the other end, the wacko conservatives, you know? I mean, you've got both ends of the spectrum. The point is, you hang around those kinds of people, and you're going to become like them, and God's not going to bless you. You're not going to be a happy person. You're going to be a miserable person. And as a believer, you are going to forfeit the divine resources available to you. In Proverbs four, beginning in verse 14, we read, "Do not enter the path of the wicked and do not proceed in the way of evil men. Avoid it, do not pass by it; turn away from it and pass on." Then it goes on to describe them, "For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; and they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble. For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence." I've known people like that, and I know people like that. I've got people like that in my family, and you probably do too. Paul said in First Corinthians 15:33, "Do not be deceived: 'Bad company corrupts good morals.'" So folks, you got to be so careful if you want the Spirit of God to help you in temptation; if you want to tap into those divine resources. You're going to have to be careful with the types of friendships that you have. These types of people can be toxic, if you will, especially heretics. That distort the gospel, that proclaim a false Christ. In fact, in Jude 23, we're to hate it says, "even the garment polluted by the flesh." The point is, just stay away from those kinds of people.

This reminds me of Romans 12, two that we are, where it says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Do not be conformed means do not allow the world to cause you to unwittingly become like it, but rather through the "renewing of your mind," et there be a metamorphosis, so that who you really are, as a redeemed person, filled with the Spirit of God will manifest itself in such a way as to bring you joy and God glory. You remember Jesus, even when he was 12 years old, was spending time in the synagogue. He was hanging around people that knew more about Scripture than he did. Remember he was learning, and he was growing in wisdom; he was being discipled. And even later on, he spent most of his time with 12, and really mostly with three of them, as well as other godly friends, like Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And when he did spend time with the tax collectors and the prostitutes, what you will see is he wasn't hanging out with them because he enjoyed, you know, kind of being cool, like the rest of the crowd, he was evangelizing them, and those people were already interested in who he was, and wanted to know more of who he was. You want to ask yourself, who are my closest relationships? Do they honor Christ? Do these people point me to Christ, or do they drag me down? There's a great danger of flirting with sin and sinners. It's a slippery slope, dear friends. It goes from bad to worse. Think of the many ways that we have all compromised, right? Ways that we have compromised in our spiritual disciplines, maybe with the music we listen to, or the movies that we watch, the people we associate with.

But rather than that, as we go back to the text in verse two, here's what's going on with the blessed man. It says, "...his delight is in the law," or literally, the word, "of the LORD." You see, this is the wellspring of joy. It's found in the great truths of scripture. This is what will rule this person's life. And you know, at the time of this writing, all they had is the first five books of Moses, right? Look at what we've got now. We have it all. What an indescribable privilege. And you want to ask yourself, is the word of God the source of my greatest joy as I enter into the great truths of Scripture; as I embrace them, as I reflect upon them. In fact, it goes on to say, not only does he delight "...in the law of the LORD," but, "...in His law he meditates day and night." In other words, he nourishes his soul with Scripture. He takes it in, and he thinks about it. You might put it this way, he will sing in days of prosperity, and he will find great comfort in in the Scriptures during calamity. And you want to ask yourself, "Is my delight in the word of the Lord?" Or is that really not that big of a deal for me? You see, Jesus' mind was absolutely saturated with scripture, and because of that, he was constantly in an attitude, in a state of prayer, because you see, having your mind saturated with scripture will fuel your prayer life. It will fuel a sense of petition as well as praise. And Jesus, we know, lived in constant communion with the Father and the Spirit, and he is often described as going early in the morning to a private place to pray. Remember Mark one verse 35, "Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went away to a secluded place and was praying there." Is this the habit of your life, dear friends?  Mark 6:46, the context, he had fed the 5000 and he had been ministering, he preached, and he had been ministering, which can be exhausting, and he sent his disciples away to Bethsaida on the boat to go across the Sea of Galilee. And it says, "After bidding them," referring to the crowd, "...after bidding them farewell, He left for the mountain to pray." I mean, there's other passages. Go to John 17, and you can read his high priestly prayer. Folks, if you have a weak prayer life, it's because you have a weak word life. The more you immerse yourselves in the great truths of Scripture, the more the Spirit of God will naturally draw you into intimate, fervent communion with the Lord your God.

I want you to notice the connection between a love for the word and fervent prayer found in Psalm 119, and how this leads to praise as well as obedience. Psalm 119 verse 11, "Your word I have treasured in my heart." What a great term. Your word I have "treasured in my heart." It's my, t's my greatest possession here. Why? "That I may not sin against You. Blessed are You, O LORD;" Notice the praise that comes out of that. "Teach me Your statutes." There's the prayer. "With my lips. I have told of all the ordinances of Your mouth. I have rejoiced in the way of Your testimonies as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Your precepts and regard Your ways. I shall delight in Your statutes; I shall not forget Your word." Folks, this is how the Holy Spirit helps us resist temptation and enjoy the manifold blessings of Christ that are available to all of the redeemed. And again, I would, I would ask you to ask yourself, "Do I have a longing for the Word of God?" "Do I literally study it?" "Do I meditate on it?" "Do I apply it?" "Do I live it out?" "Do I defend it and never stand in judgment against it?" "Do I teach it?" You see, if you spend time, for example, around saints that do these kinds of things, you're going to see the Spirit of God using them, and his word, to help you grow in Christ and ultimately help you resist temptation.

And notice the blessed man who delights in and meditates on the word, it says, that, "He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water,..." A tree firmly planted, not a wild bush that springs up wherever it may, but one that a husbandman has carefully attended; one that a husbandman picked the right spot to plant, where he cultivated the ground, where he planted the seedling, where he's nurturing it to full strength until its tap roots are stabilized, until they reach down into the rich soils and water that will nourish it and cause it to grow and bear fruit. He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water. The text goes on to say, "Which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither; and in whatever he does, he prospers." In other words, he will, if I can put it this way, bear the fruit of the Spirit. He will bear the fruit of the Spirit. He will lead his family as a godly Shepherd. He will patiently wait on the Lord in days of adversity. He will persevere in suffering and persecution. He will rejoice in all things, and even when his life is the bleakest, he or she will have a song in his heart or her heart, because this is what the Spirit of God does with his word. This kind of a person understands that that the winds of adversity and the storms of suffering are merely tools of the Divine husband, and that carefully strengthen and cause us to bear more fruit.

I think of Jesus in Hebrews five and verse eight, where we read, "Although he was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." Amazing thought, isn't it? That Jesus had to learn? You know, every new and agonizing form of rejection and pain required a new level of obedience. It would require a new level of dependency, a new level of faith, a new level of submission.

And so back to Psalm one. In contrast to the blessed man in the first three verses, we see that, "...the wicked are not so, but they are like chaff which the wind drives away." What is chaff? It's nothing. It has no nutritional value. It's dead. It's utterly worthless. It is the opposite of the blessed man in the first three verses; the tree that was firmly planted. And O dear friends, to live a life that is worthless to God... can there be anything more hideous than that?

Well, Jesus relied upon the power of the indwelling Spirit and the supernatural resources available to him that's available to us. He loved the Word of God. He meditated on the Word of God. He was in constant communion with God. So he walked by the Spirit, Galatians5:22, "But the fruit of the Spirit is..." and you know them, "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things here is no law. Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit."

Oh, what a Savior. This was the babe in the manger, the God man, Jesus. Like Mary, let's treasure these truths. Let's ponder them in our heart, even as a fetus growing within Mary's womb, He was "upholding all things by the word of His power," Hebrews, one three. He required milk from his mother's breast, yet in him, all things hold together. Colossians 1:17. I mean, think about it, in his humanness, there were times when he was hungry, when he was thirsty, when he was weak and he was tired. Yet in his divinity, he could multiply bread and fish and turn water into wine. While on the boat with the disciples, he literally slept from exhaustion, yet at the same time, he was still the omnipotent Lord of Glory, the omnipotent Lord of the universe, who arose from his slumber and calmed the storm and the sea. In his human nature, he is now ascended into heaven. Yet because of his omnipotence and his divine nature and his omnipresence, he has promised "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So folks, let's treasure and ponder these things this Christmas season and give him praise that's worthy of Him. Amen?

Father, thank you for the eternal truths of your word that help us understand a little bit more all that you have done for us. Bless us as we leave this place today, encourage our hearts and help us to contemplate these magnificent realities and their implications for each of us who know and love you solely because of your grace. And Father for those who don't know you, would you please bring conviction to their heart that today that they will repent of their sins and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ as the only hope of their salvation. For it's in his name that I pray, Amen.