Mission Impossible

Matthew, chapter 1. We're going to begin reading at verse 18 and read through verse 25.!

He had in mind to divorce her quietly. But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Because he will save his people from their sins.

All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means God with us.

When Joseph woke up, he did what the angel of the Lord had commanded him and took Mary home as his wife. But he had no union with her until she gave birth to a son, and he gave him the name Jesus.

The Lord Jesus is worthy of all the worship that we can give him, and far more, isn't he? Amen.

And when we join our voices and our hearts with the angels on high, we feel, don't we, that this is what we were created for, to worship the Lord Jesus Christ.

Turn with me in your Bibles to 1 John chapter 3. The epistle, the first epistle of John toward the end of the New Testament, and chapter 3.

There's a principle that helps us to understand the New Testament, and it's this, that the Gospels give us an inspired account of the events of our Lord Jesus' life.

And the epistles give us God's own interpretation of those events. So, for instance, we take the death of Jesus, and when we go to the Gospels, what do we find?

Well, we find all the events, the historical facts of Jesus' death. We see Judas betraying him, Peter denying him, the Jews rejecting him, Pilate condemning him, the soldiers crucifying him.

We see the earthquake, the sky darkened, all the facts of what happened. But primarily, we must go to the epistles, the rest of the New Testament, to find out what did those facts mean?

What was the importance of those facts? And it's there that we learn that this Jesus was dying in the place of sinners. It's there that we read that Christ was dying for sin once for all, the righteous one for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

Well, that's the same principle we have in the birth of Jesus. When we turn to the Gospels, what do we see? Well, we learn all about the historical facts of the birth of Jesus.

The birth of Jesus came about in this way, we read in Matthew 1, and we read all about the angels, and the Virgin Mary, and Joseph, and the wise men, and the shepherds.

But it's primarily from the epistles that we understand what was taking place that night. The significance of his birth.

And we've turned to one such text in the epistles to give us God's commentary on Jesus' birth. 1 John 3 and verse 8. He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. That's our text. That's what was happening that night that Jesus was born.

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work. So as we peer into the cradle that night, and we see this baby, we lack information.

We want more. We need more information. And that's what John gives us here. Who is he? Why is he here? John says he's the Son of God. He's the eternal Son of God.

The one without beginning or ending. The one from everlasting to everlasting. And that means he's the oldest baby that was ever born. He's the only baby that was ever older than his mother.

Something strange, something unique is happening in this birth. And why is he, God, here? And John tells us, well, he's on an impossible, a mission impossible.

And he's chosen to accept that mission from his heavenly Father. And only he can achieve it. It's a mission of destruction. Destruction. He has appeared to destroy the devil's work.

I wonder if we think enough about Jesus' work of destruction. His work of destruction. Early on in our family life, we used a book called the ABCs of God's attributes.

And every one of the letters of the alphabet stood for one of the attributes of God. So A, God is almighty. B, God is blessed or beautiful. C, God is creator.

D, God is the destroyer of evil. The destroyer of evil. Have we thought of the Son of God as the destroyer of evil?

Here in the manger is God the Son and he's here, he's appeared here, he's visited here on our planet. To do a work of destruction.

And if you could open the manila envelope spelling out his mission, you would read right across the top of the first page in bold letters, mission objective, to destroy the works of the devil.

Now this is an important perspective from which to view the birth of Jesus. Indeed, to view the whole reason for why he came and did what he did. John is telling us, we do not rightly understand Christmas.

We do not rightly understand the incarnation, the birth of Jesus, until we see his work in relation to the devil's work. He's come to destroy the devil's work.

So we're going to let God's own commentary on the birth of Jesus lead us through a flying survey of the life, work of Christ and trust that we'll come away more amazed and more thankful for the coming of our Savior to earth.

We begin with the work of the devil and I want to be brief because we're not here to honor him, are we? Not at all. But if the Son of God came to destroy the devil's work, then we need to know something about what that work is.

That we might glory in Christ who destroyed it. So we'll look first at that, then how Jesus destroys the devil's work and conclude with our response to this destroyer of evil.

First of all, what is the devil's work then? And I'm just going to take it for granted that you believe in the real existence of the devil. According to a Barna survey done two years ago, only 35% of people who call themselves Christians believe in the real existence of the person, Satan.

Well, the Bible says he's more than just a symbol for evil. He's more than just some force let loose in the universe. The Bible says he's a creation of God. God created him.

He's a personal being. He's a supernatural being. On earth is not his equal, an angelic being, but that he did not remain good and upright as God created him, but that he rebelled against his creator along with other angels and is now the great arch enemy of God, of Christ, and all his people.

So we're considering his work. What is his work? Well, I've got four points. First, it's sin. When we meet someone, after learning their name, we often ask, what's your line of work?

And someone would say, well, I manufacture, or I sell things, or I teach, or I preach. And if you ask the devil, what's your work?

And if he gave you a straight answer, he would say, I sin. I sin. Our text has it, 1 John 3, that the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

That's his work, to sin. All day, every day, he has been doing his work of rebelling against God and his holy commandments, sinning against God.

And he's not been satisfied to do it by himself. He works nonstop to tempt others to sin along with him. He wasn't satisfied just to bring down other angels to join him in his rebellion.

But he had his eye especially on mankind, the pinnacle of God's creation. Man, the image of God on earth. And he would try to get man to sin with him.

And so he went after our first parents, Adam and Eve, knowing that if he could get Adam to sin, that he would sink the whole human race into sin.

All that Adam represented. And how does he get to Adam? Well, he gets to Adam through Eve, his wife. And he first tempts Eve to eat of the forbidden fruit.

And it was from her hand that Adam took and ate from it as well. And so the whole race fell into sin.

Through the disobedience of the one man, the many were made sinners, Romans 5 teaches us. In Adam's fall, we sinned all, every one of us.

And it was all at the instigation and temptation of the devil. The devil. So that he who does what is sinful is of the devil, our text tells us.

For we've all joined the devil in his work of sin. Sin is devilish work. In fact, Ephesians 2.2 says that the devil is the spirit that is now at work in the children of disobedience.

Right now, he's working. What's the work of the devil? He's to work in children of disobedience, teaching mankind to disobey. He sins.

That's his work. But he also lies, secondly. His work is lying. John 8. Jesus says, You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire.

He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.

And that's why God hates lies and liars as he does. It's devilish to lie. It's devil-like to lie.

Every lie has on it the fingerprints of Satan. He is a liar and the father, the originator, the source of lies.

And so, this world, as it came from the hand of its maker, was a place where only the truth was spoken and heard. There was nothing deceptive at all.

But then Satan started his work and he let loose his lies in this world. Camouflage them by mixing them with half-truths so as to sound reasonable.

But be sure of it, Jesus says, there is no truth in him. When he speaks, he lies. Now, our native language, the language that just naturally tumbles out of our mouths is English.

When the devil speaks, what tumbles out of his mouth by nature is lying. It's his work.

And by his lies, he deceives the whole world and holds men in darkness and in slavery to sin. The God of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see the glory of God in the face of Christ.

He lies about Jesus. He lies about the gospel. He lies about God, about his laws, about his motives, about his goodness. He lies about sin, about its pleasures, about its punishments.

You will not surely die. He lies to Eve when God had said, you will surely die if you eat the forbidden fruit. And yet, his lying and his devilish reasoning made it seem right and good for Eve to eat the forbidden fruit.

And so she did. That's his work to lie. And behind most sins in the world today, you'll find a lie, a lie of the devil that's being believed.

That's his work. He lies and he inspires others to lie. And then thirdly, his work is to murder.

Jesus said in John 8, he was a murderer from the beginning. The devil heard God when he said to Adam, in the day you eat of this tree, you will surely die.

And by getting Adam and Eve to sin and to eat, he robbed them of eternal life. how did death get into this perfect world that God had made?

Well, it came in the door along with sin. Romans 5, 12, therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin and in this way death came to all men because all sinned.

So it was through the temptation of Satan that sin entered the world and in its pocket came death right along with it. Physical death began to work in Adam and Eve the day they ate and they did surely die.

But spiritual death came at once to their soul and sin separated them from their God and it would bring second death of hell under God's wrath if there was no salvation from it.

the devil's a murderer both of body and soul sinking the human race into physical spiritual and the second death the lake of fire.

The devil's out to murder your soul to rob you of eternal life. He seeks your damnation. He's just that evil.

He's a thief who comes to steal to kill and to destroy. In fact one of his names is Apollyon which means destroyer.

He's the destroyer. He takes devilish delight in destroying God's good work and that's the fourth point. What's the devil's work?

Sin, lying, murdering, destroying, destroying. Destroying what? God's good work. He's out to destroy the moral image of God and man. He's out to destroy to wreck the whole of God's perfect creation.

So what happened when Adam and Eve fell into sin? Instead of being holy and happy, they became sinful and miserable.

Satan destroyed man's holiness and destroyed his happiness. sin. He brought misery of every kind into man's existence by getting him to sin.

He destroyed their perfect marriage and their perfect family. He destroyed their communion with God. He destroyed their communion with their fellow man.

He destroyed the perfect world, their very environment in which they live because the whole creation was subjected to frustration, to futility, to thorns and thistles because of man's sin that Satan instigated.

So every bit of sadness and misery in the world today, every bit of injustice and abuse, every evil, every crime, every pain, every disappointment, every disease, and every death can be traced back to the devil's work, the devil's work, every broken home, every broken heart, every broken promise, every broken health, every broken life squandered in sin, every destructive storm, every bit of love for sin, every dislike for God's commandments, every bit of pride, every bit of unbelief, every bit of self-righteousness, every bit of jealousy and envy, every bit of hatred and murder and war.

Trace it back. How did it get here? In this beautiful place that God created? It came in when Satan did his work and got our father and mother to sin.

Now we need to just make this one qualification question. Lest we misunderstand what I'm saying. Satan never did one thing in this world outside of the decreed will and permission of God.

God rules sovereignly over all that Satan does, over all his evil work. But Satan's destructive power and influence for evil in this world is great.

he's destroying many, many lives in time and for eternity. He's like a lion devouring its prey.

And so sweeping is his influence in this world that the Bible actually calls him the God of this age. He's the God that this age answers to. He's the prince of this world.

He's the ruler that this world follows, the one that controls this world of sinners. He leads the whole world astray, Revelation 12 says.

The whole world is under the control of the evil one, 1 John 5, 19. And so by the trap of the devil, he has taken mankind captive to do his will.

And he holds the power of death and holds men in slavery by their fear of death all their lives. Yes, he has a tremendous influence in the world for evil.

And it's been going on for thousands of years, penetrating the hearts and lives of every human being, permeating every stitch of fabric in society, every family, every school, every church, every government, every nation.

We've given the devil enough time spelling out his work. We turn now. And I just trust you see then why I called it mission impossible. How can all that be undone?

How, after thousands and thousands of years of evil permeating our world, how can that be destroyed? Well, without or with man, it is impossible.

Only the eternal Son of God and only by his coming and becoming man can the devil's work be destroyed. So we're looking then at how does the Son of God destroy the devil's work?

That's why he's here. Well, it all began with his appearing on earth, his incarnation, his birth. That's the start of this great mission. He's here.

The Son of God showing up here in a world under the control of the evil one with the express purpose of destroying the devil's work to establish God's kingdom right here on the rubble of Satan's kingdom.

Don't be fooled by his unassuming appearance in Bethlehem. The destroyer of evil has come. He's here to deal with the devil decisively and his birth is a foothold in enemy territory.

It's like the invasion of Normandy, France on D-Day, June the 6th, 1944. Allied troops made an appearance in France in order to destroy the work of the Nazis who were occupying France and much nearly all of Europe.

And it was not friendly territory that the Allied troops came to. It was under the control of Nazi Germany. So our appearance there that day was not welcomed.

and our men came upon hot enemy fire. And yet an important foothold was established that day. It was eventually to bring victory over the whole Nazi regime.

What happened when the Son of God appeared in a world under the control of the evil one? Well, Herod, the king of Judah, got nervous when he learned about a king of the Jews being born.

And he sought out to find out where he was and he saw it as a threat to his rule and so tried to kill him by killing all the baby boys two years old and under in the region of Bethlehem.

But the last book of the Bible in chapter 12 of Revelation says don't miss the work of the devil in that event. John has a vision and in that vision, what does he see?

He sees a pregnant woman about to give birth and an enormous red dragon is standing right in front of the woman so that he might devour her child the moment it was born.

And she gave birth to a son, a male child who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter. And the great dragon is identified as that ancient serpent called the devil or Satan who leads the whole world astray.

That's what was happening that day when Jesus appeared in a world controlled by the evil one. We're meant to see the devil at work behind the work of Herod.

We're meant to see the devil at work behind all the anti-Christ efforts among men in this world. Paul says our struggle is not with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, with forces, spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

But the one who came from heaven to destroy the devil was not destroyed by him. The Lord spared him, his son, and took him away to Egypt. But we see conflict with the devil from his very birth in Bethlehem.

Secondly, not only his birth, but his victory over temptation. We see his conquering the devil's work. For at age 30, Jesus is baptized. And there he is anointed.

He is equipped by the Holy Spirit for doing his work. Remember his work? To destroy the devil's work. And he has the spirit given to him in fullness to equip him for the work.

And so immediately, what does the Holy Spirit do? He leads him into the desert to be tempted by the devil. That's part of his work.

To overthrow the devil's work, which is tempting to sin. And so for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus is tempted by the devil. And at the end of which the temptations get even hotter.

Hand to hand combat with the evil one. And for the first time in all human history, the devil met a man he could not get to sin. The first time must have been a shocking thing to the devil.

He threw at him everything. He threw at him all the temptations that he throws at us. Tempted in every way like we are. And yet, his every response to temptation was perfect conformity to the heart and mind of his father in heaven and to his gracious laws.

He was defeating the devil's work by resisting his temptations to sin.

The devil had nothing in him, John says. He had no handle to lay hold of in him. No power over the Son of God. And so we watch the Lord in the desert.

Fighting the devil's temptations off like the Israelite soldiers watched their champion David fighting the Philistine champion Goliath.

And if David wins, then they win. But if David loses, they become the captives of the Philistines for life.

And if Jesus wins here in the desert temptations, we win. But if the devil wins just once, then we remain the subjects, the captives of sin and Satan forever.

So we watch with interest as Jesus takes on the devil and praise be to our holy Jesus. He sanctified himself for us that we too might be truly sanctified.

And the devil was not done with Jesus, but neither was our Jesus done with him. He destroys the devil's work thirdly by casting out demons.

It's a peculiar thing about the ministry of Jesus that no sooner does Jesus begin his public ministry than that he's confronted with demons who are controlling the personalities of people who are captives to his power.

And at once we find the Savior casting them out, setting men free from his control and miserable bondage such that the people were all amazed at the authority of Jesus. They said he even gives orders to evil spirits and they obey him.

That's a first. Haven't seen that before. And it wasn't just a few showdowns with demons that we have in the four gospels.

Rather, this was a prominent aspect of his work. Because he was here to destroy the devil's work. And each expulsion of demons was another work of the devil destroyed.

And it showed that the kingdom of God has come to earth in me, its king. Jesus said in Matthew 12, if I drive out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

And again, how can anyone enter the strong man's house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house. Now, here's the reality of the situation.

We're all slaves of sin and Satan. That's the condition of the world without the Savior. Savior. John 8 says, whoever sins is the slave of sin.

So here's the whole world enslaved, deceived, under his control, locked up in his house, his prison house of sin. And there stands the devil on the front porch of that house, fully armed, guarding that house and all his possessions inside.

inside. And Jesus says, how can anyone get inside and set one person free from sin unless he first deals with this strong man, the devil?

And so when you see me casting out demons and setting men free, you can know this, that I have come and disarmed the strong man, that I have overcome him and stripped him of his powers that kept all men locked up in captivity to sin.

You can know that I came to destroy the evil one. But it wasn't just his casting out of demons. In the fourth place, it was his other miracles as well that destroyed the devil's work.

Miracle workers were a rare thing in human history. They don't appear from Genesis through Revelation. They appear at important points in the plan of salvation.

Miracle workers. But there were hundreds and hundreds of years without miracle workers on the earth. And then the Son of God appeared in this world.

And what do we find? We find that everywhere he went, he was working miracles. Miracles. And these miracles were not random acts of kindness. Rather, by them, the Son of God was destroying the devil's work.

He was undoing all that the devil had done to this perfect creation that God made. by getting Adam and Eve to sin, the devil had been successful in bringing mankind under the misery, under the curse of sin, which is death and every disease leading to death, and every disaster leading to death, and every misery in man's existence.

That was the devil's work. We saw it. So the world that Jesus came into was full of people who were blind and deaf and dumb, who were lepers, who were lame, who were diseased and dying.

And because he came to destroy the devil's work, he made the blind to see. He made the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, the lame to walk. The lepers were cleansed.

And whatever their diseases, he cured them. them. He healed them. Rolling back, reversing the devil's work.

Now, they didn't stay healthy forever, did they? They got sick again and they died again. Because this was not the final stage of the kingdom of God. But he was giving them a foretaste of the way it will be in the end when I return and I set up my kingdom forever and ever.

This is a foretaste. This is what it will be like when I return in glory and all my enemies are crushed beneath my feet. With the devil's work finally destroyed, you won't be able to find one blind person, one deaf person, one diseased person, one dying person.

And even here at his first appearing, Jesus is showing his power to destroy the devil's work. He's king over God's kingdom and blessings abound wherever he reigns.

so he destroys the devil's work by his miracles. And every healed child and man and woman was destroying the devil's work.

And then he destroys the devil's work by preaching, by preaching the gospel of the kingdom. His tactic against the devil is a one-two punch. It's miracles and preaching.

And that's what you find as you read the gospels. It's not a one-punch thing. He didn't just go around doing miracles. He did miracles and then he preached. He preached and did miracles.

You find the two together with the savior because by his preaching he's destroying the devil's work as well. God's work as he's doing it. It was show and tell. Let me show you the power of my kingdom.

And he worked miracles. And then let me tell you about the power of the kingdom of God. And he preached the way of salvation through himself alone.

Mark tells us in Capernaum he was healing all day and the crowds came to him at night and he healed them of many many diseases and demon possessions. And then early in the morning he's out praying and they come looking for him.

They said Lord everybody's looking for you. All the sick and demon possessed are coming. And you know what Jesus said? He said let let's go somewhere else to the nearby villages so I can preach there also.

That is why I have come. And so he traveled throughout Galilee preaching and driving out demons and doing many wonderful miracles.

It was show and tell. And if the devil's work was to lie and to deceive people into sin we should not be surprised to find that Jesus the destroyer of evil comes to meet his lies with the truth.

And it's by the truth that he speaks that he sets men free. It's by the truth that he is that he sets men free. And so he fights the devil with that double edged sword of his own word of truth.

If you hold to my teachings you will know the truth and the truth will set you free. Free from what? He's talking about freedom from Satan. Freedom from sin.

And so he's telling us in his preaching the way it really is. Do you want to know what God is like? Let me tell you about him. Do you want to know about his law? What is like? Let me tell you about his law.

Do you want to know what his punishment for sin is? Let me tell you about the judgment day. Do you want to know the way to be right with God? Let me tell you the one way to the father.

With his preaching he destroyed the devil's work. work. But then. It was preeminently by his death and resurrection that he destroyed the devil's work.

His death and resurrection. Who would have saw it coming that by dying he would destroy the devil's work. By his work of tempting man to sin the devil brought separation and alienation between God and man.

What was it that separated man from God? It was sin. The devil's work. And so when the son of God comes to destroy the devil's work what does he do?

He deals with sin. That separating alienating power between God and man. And so Christ comes and how will he get rid of sin?

He comes and he dies for sin. Once for all. The righteous for the unrighteous to bring us to God.

And with every sinner that he brings to God he destroys the work of the devil who came to put sin between God and man. And so you see why it was that the son of God had to become flesh.

Why the incarnation was absolutely essential for our salvation. God cannot die. He must become man to die in our place for our sin.

And so Hebrews 2 14 and 15 says since the children have flesh and blood he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death.

That is that is the devil. And free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. What makes death so fearsome and terrible?

Paul says the sting of death is sin. Because we know that when we die we go to stand before a holy judge. And sin deserves death.

Death under the wrath of God. God. So how does Jesus set people free from their terror of death? He dies for sin.

He dies under the wrath of God in the place of the sinner. So that sin is gone and death is now our entrance into glory.

Yes he destroys the devil's grip and hold on man by dying. And the cross was the son of God's decisive victory over Satan. It was there that he crushed the serpent's head as had been promised from the very beginning.

There the prince of the world was judged. There the prince of the world was dethroned. There he was driven out of his rule on earth. For by dying for us Christ disarmed the powers of darkness.

He made a public spectacle of them triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2.15. And he proved that victory by rising from the dead on the third day.

Jesus lives and so shall I. Death thy sting is gone forever. That's why he came to destroy the devil's work. And though the devil's back was broken at Calvary, he still roams the earth wreaking havoc.

His ultimate rule has been broken, but there's still more to come of Jesus destroying the devil's work. Even now, through the spread of the gospel, he is rescuing men from the dominion of darkness and bringing them into the kingdom of light.

Even now, he tells Paul through his preaching and by the preaching of the gospel, Jesus Christ is turning men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God.

Acts 26 tells us. Even now, Christ is empowering his people to resist the devil, to say no to sin, and so to destroy his work of sin and tempting.

Even now, he gives his spirit and faith to his people to overcome the evil one. By his prayers, he frustrates the devil's plans for us.

The Lord Jesus praying for us that we might be protected from the evil one. The Lord Jesus from his throne pouring in the oil of grace and gladness to deliver us from the devil's work of sin and misery.

Many, many of us here this morning are living monuments of the fact that Jesus Christ has destroyed the devil's work in our lives personally.

We were wrecks. We were ruined by sin and Satan. And Jesus Christ has come and set us free. J.C.

Ryle says, it was a greater miracle for Jesus to save us from Satan's captivity than for him to save his Old Testament people from captivity in Egypt through the Red Sea.

That's just the picture. Salvation from Satan's power is the reality. The greater miracle, the greater wonder. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

He's destroyed the work of the devil in our lives. But we still must wait to see the final destruction of the devil in his work. It will happen when the Son of God appears the second time and is coming back in power to reign.

and we read of that final defeat of the devil on that last day in Revelation 20, 10. And the devil who deceived them, that is the nations, the devil who deceived the nations was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown.

They will be tormented day and night forever and ever. The final victory, the total, the consummate victory of Jesus Christ over the devil and his works.

And all those people that serve the devil's work will join him in that place. And when the Lord Jesus finally destroys the destroyer, all of the destroyer's work will also be destroyed.

And so man's perfect environment as it used to be in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 1 and 2, that too will be restored. What do you find in Revelation at the end of the Bible?

You find that garden in the tree of life and man's right to enter into it. Jesus destroying the work, even creation itself will partake in the glorious liberty of the sons of God and the Lord Jesus will make a new heaven and a new earth in that day.

The home of righteousness. Nothing unclean will ever enter it. When Jesus comes back and creates a new heaven and a new earth, no more sin.

Nothing unclean there. Not even a trace of sin left in the believer's heart. No sinner to tempt. No devil to tempt.

No more sin. We'll see the Lord as he is and become like him. No more distance from God. For now, the dwelling of God is with man and he will live with him.

Revelation 21. No more sorrow. He will wipe away the tears from their eyes and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away.

That is the old order that God created good, but Satan destroyed. That old order will be passed away. And he who was seated on the throne said, I'm making everything new.

And we keep reading in Revelation 22. And no longer will there be any curse. Only blessings. For he comes to make his blessings flow as far as the curse is found.

No more night. Just everlasting day. A world of perfect love and joy and peace uninterrupted by all the things that now make you sigh and cry and die.

gone forever. Not a trace of it left. A perfect world where the devil's work is completely destroyed. And that's the reason, John says, that the Son of God appeared in a manger in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago.

It was to destroy the devil's work. Well, all that remains is our response. Our response to this great deliverer, this great destroyer of evil.

Which side you on this morning? You can read 1 John 3 and you'll see that there's only two kinds of people. There's those of the devil and those of the Lord. Well, how do you know them?

How can you tell which is which? Well, you can read 1 John and you'll see the description of those who are the devil. Well, they do the devil's work. They sin.

They lie. And they have no faith in Jesus and no repentance in Jesus. And that shows that they are of their father, the devil.

They are destroying their own life and the life of others. Oh, there's a people in this world. Who even though we were not seeking him, he sought us.

And though we had not received mercy, we have now received mercy. And he saved us. And he's made us to differ from what we were, what we would be.

He saved us from Satan's power when we had gone astray. And that's why we sing. And that's why we worship. So what's your response this morning?

will throw your heart's door open wide to this savior. Renounce all your rebellion against the world's true king. Turn from it.

Repudiate the devil and his works and bow before the true king of the world, Jesus Christ. No longer a baby, now reigning on high. Bow before him. Trust in his life and death to save you.

And then rise up and serve him with joy and love him and obey him with gladness and rejoice that the Lord has come and that he's coming again to finish his work on behalf of his own.

Let's sing joy to the world. The Lord has come. 149. Let's stand as we sing of our great Savior's work. Many ways in our lives.

We thank you for setting us free from his miserable bondage to sin and self. And we thank you that you're coming again to finish your new creation.

And until then, Lord Jesus, do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forevermore.

Amen.