Luke 2:14, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." 
    	Wednesday is the day that has been set aside by modern society as the date to remember the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. It is easy for this world to allow Christians this set time of year that honors the traditions and the legacy from which such a religion stemmed. There are very few learned people who will dispute that there was a Jesus of Nazareth who lived during the Roman occupation of Israel and who was crucified on a cross. There are just way too many historical corroborations of this information for any learned individual to deny His existence. 
	What is highly disputed, however, are the details and the events and the miracles that show that He was the Son of God. They will argue against the truth that He is God incarnate Who was born of a virgin, lived a perfect and sinless life, was crucified and then rose from the dead to reign forevermore as Christ and Lord. That is what this age will try to refute and vehemently refuse to accept. This is because this glorious reality signifies that everyone will have to face Jesus at the end of their days on this earth. All will receive the righteous judgment for the manner in which they personally and individually acknowledged His sacrificial love for them.
	For those who accepted and enjoyed the reality of Jesus as Christ and Lord, there will be an eternity of joy and gladness. We will be in everlasting celebration of the goodness and the mercy and the grace and the loving-kindness of God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
For those who deny the truth of Who Jesus is, eternity will be filled with the holy and just verdict in the torment of knowing that they purposely chose to deny God and chose rather to suffer the shame and the torment of everlasting damnation. They will still recognize that God sent His Only Begotten Son. They will still give Him the honor and the glory of His sovereign rule over their doom. Their voices will still declare that He is Lord. But they will not enjoy the beauty of His lovingkindness. They will know only the righteous and just execution of His punishment upon them for their utter refusal to accept the freely given salvation that was put before them in their time on this earth. 
	With the fact of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth ushering in the freely offered gift of God’s salvation, let us spend a few moments looking at the glory of God that is invested in the Son of God incarnate. The chorus of the angelic hosts to the shepherds gives forth the truth that the angels knew that something marvelous was in the works. This was in respect to the birth of the Son of God as a baby over two thousand years ago. They may not have fully understood what God was doing. However, they did herald the birth of the Son of God, declaring that all glory was to be given to God in the highest. 
	The truth is that even before Jesus was born, the Old Testament is filled with the looking forward to the Promised One. The salvation of old was just as tied to the Lord Jesus Christ as is our salvation today. While we look back to the events that unfolded after the birth of Jesus, the Jews of the Old Testament looked forward to the Messiah Who was promised by God for the salvation of His people. 
	Please open in your Bibles to Ps 69:30-36. Here the Psalmist makes known how the Lord will receive all the praise of the earth for what He will do by His saving work. 
Ps 69:30-36, I will praise the name of God with song, And shall magnify Him with thanksgiving. And it will please the Lord better than an ox Or a young bull with horns and hoofs. The humble have seen it and are glad; You who seek God, let your heart revive. For the Lord hears the needy, And does not despise His who are prisoners. Let heaven and earth praise Him, The seas and everything that moves in them. For God will save Zion and build the cities of Judah, That they may dwell there and possess it. And the descendants of His servants will inherit it, And those who love His name will dwell in it. Note how the Psalmist knows that even heaven and earth will praise the Lord for His saving work. 
	Then turn to Ps 85:8-12. We again read how the Psalmist understands that the saving work of God will bring glory to the name of the Lord as well as peace to those whom He saves. 
Ps 85:8-12, I will hear what God the Lord will say; For He will speak peace to His people, to His godly ones; But let them not turn back to folly. Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land. Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth; And righteousness looks down from heaven. Indeed, the Lord will give what is good; And our land will yield its produce. 
The saving work of God is fully tied to His glory and the bounty of His magnificent essence. All of creation abounds with praise to God for the fact that He is so awesome in the power that will bring salvation to humanity through His glorious working grace.
	Again, read the encouragement of the Psalmist in Ps 96:9-13 with regard to the fact that God is Lord and that He is coming to judge the affairs of humanity. This is pointing to the Promised One Who will bring deliverance to His people and righteous and just judgment to all the sons of men. 
Ps 96:9-13, Worship the Lord in holy attire; Tremble before Him, all the earth. Say among the nations, "The Lord reigns; Indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved; He will judge the peoples with equity." Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; Let the sea roar, and all it contains; Let the field exult, and all that is in it. Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy Before the Lord, for He is coming; For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, And the peoples in His faithfulness. 
    	The celebration of the whole of God’s creation for the fact of His saving work through the Promised Messiah, the Suffering Servant of the Lord, elicits the abounding praise as recorded by the Prophet Isaiah in Isa 44:23-28. Please read it along with me. Pay close attention to the fact that it is the redemption by God of His people which will elicit such whole scale praise and adoration. 
Isa 44:23-28, Shout for joy, O heavens, for the Lord has done it! Shout joyfully, you lower parts of the earth; Break forth into a shout of joy, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it; For the Lord has redeemed Jacob And in Israel He shows forth His glory. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, "I, the Lord, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself, And spreading out the earth all alone, Causing the omens of boasters to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw back, And turning their knowledge into foolishness, Confirming the word of His servant, And performing the purpose of His messengers. It is I who says of Jerusalem,' She shall be inhabited!' And of the cities of Judah,' They shall be built.' And I will raise up her ruins again. "It is I who says to the depth of the sea, 'Be dried up!' And I will make your rivers dry. "It is I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' And he declares of Jerusalem, 'She will be built,' And of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'" 
    	All the work detailed is by the Hand of the Lord in operation through His Servant, the Lord Jesus Christ, the Promised Messiah. He is the foundation of the temple of God, the church of the first born who will be fit together as living stones upon the sure and true and perfect foundation of His death and resurrection. 
	Then the Prophet further offers the word of the Lord regarding this surety of His saving work in Isa Chapter 4p, verses 8-13. Isa 49:8-13, Thus says the Lord, "In a favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages; Saying to those who are bound, 'Go forth,' To those who are in darkness, 'Show yourselves.' Along the roads they will feed, And their pasture will be on all bare heights. "They will not hunger or thirst, Neither will the scorching heat or sun strike them down; For He who has compassion on them will lead them, And will guide them to springs of water. "And I will make all My mountains a road, And My highways will be raised up. "Behold, these shall come from afar; And lo, these will come from the north and from the west, And these from the land of Sinim." Shout for joy, O heavens! And rejoice, O earth! Break forth into joyful shouting, O mountains! For the Lord has comforted His people, And will have compassion on His afflicted. 
    	Notice how everything is centered in the action and the supremacy and the authority of God with respect to the salvation that will bring His Chosen people unto Him. As that becomes evident, so will the entirety of creation be filled with those shouts of joy and acclamation of the goodness and the splendor and the glory of God. 
	This then brings us to the actual shouting of joy recounted in Luke 19:37+38. This accompanied the entry of Jesus, the Messiah, into earthly Jerusalem. Because the people were thinking that He was the earthly king Who would free them from Roman domination, they honored Him with the glory that declared Who He was and what He would soon accomplish. But this glorious work would be done in a way that would utterly astound and devastate their ideas and their plans, while it firmly established His Supreme Lordship for all of eternity. 
Luke 19:37+38, And as He was now approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, saying, "Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!" 
    	Jesus accounted all the glory of His walk on this earth unto God, The Father, as He prayed concerning the work that was before Him. This is recorded in John 17:1-5. Please open to it and follow along. 
John 17:1-5, These things Jesus spoke; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee, even as Thou gavest Him authority over all mankind, that to all whom Thou hast given Him, He may give eternal life. "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given Me to do. "And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. 
    	Please now turn to the Letter to the Church at Ephesus as the Apostle Paul then picks up our theme of the glory that God will receive. This will be for the manifest salvation that He has put into place through His gift of His Only Begotten Son. We will start with verse 5. 
Eph 1:5-12. He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us. In all wisdom and insight He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him with a view to an administration suitable to the fulness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ should be to the praise of His glory. 
    	God’s glory will be seen in the people whom He has saved. His church will be the living source of giving God all the glory and praise and adoration for the great work that He has done as further accounted in Eph 3:20+21. 
Eph 3:20+21, Now to Him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen. Because He has saved us through His death and resurrection, He will receive all glory as the entirety of His creation becomes witness to what He has done in building His church on this earth.
	That then brings us to the fact that everyone will have to acknowledge His working might and power and dominion. This is detailed by the Apostle Paul in his letter to the Philippians, Chapter 2, verses 9-11. 
Phil 2:9-11, Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. 
	All humanity, all the angelic hosts, all the created beings will be amazed and astounded and awestruck by the revealed work of Christ in His church. Accordingly, all will have to bow down before Him and declare that He is Lord and Sovereign and deserving of all praise and glory and honor. This was chorused at the announcement of His birth as a baby boy, over two thousand years ago. And it will bring glory to God in the highest as so proclaimed by the angelic heralds.
	And our final passage is Rev 5:11-13. Here, at the end of time as we know it, all will be gathered before the Throne of God in humble adoration and recognition of the great work that He accomplished. All will join the chorus of the ages with the presentation unto God; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, of the glory that God, Alone, is due. 
Rev 5:11-13, And I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, "Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing." And every created thing which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and on the sea, and all things in them, I heard saying, "To Him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory and dominion forever and ever." 
	That which was heralded at His birth, will be accomplished in the fullness of time. It will be to the glory of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for all of eternity. So be it!
	"Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." Amen. 

    

As we celebrate together with our family and friends the birth of Our Lord Jesus Christ more than 2000 years ago, let it be with utmost thanksgiving and honor and giving glory to God in the highest for the great love with which He so loved us. He sent forth His Only Begotten Son to die for us on the cross. That must never be forgotten nor should it ever be minimized. In the death and resurrection of His Only Begotten Son, God has lavished humanity, whom He created, with the opportunity for eternal life. It is in accepting that gift, in believing upon Jesus as the Son of God Who died and rose again, that the remembrance of His birth truly has its place in our hearts and lives. Pray that every family will be blessed with the joy of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. 
This is not a day of folly and foolishness with which this world has tried to subterfuge with all its smoke and mirrors and camouflage. It has inserted every kind of element that would attempt to distract and diminish from the so great gift of God’s love for us. God sent His Son, His Only Begotten Son, born of a virgin in order to bring salvation to fallen humanity. This truth of God’s precious gift of salvation should be the focal point of every gathering together in family unity and joy in the Lord. Let God be praised forever and forever for all that He has done. May it be so in the Name of Jesus Our Lord and Our Savior. Amen!

This morning’s benediction is Rev 22:20+21. He who testifies to these things says, "Yes, I am coming quickly." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus. The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all. Amen.