And So It Was

[Posted by permission. Chippenham Old Baptist Chapel.]

Sermon preached at Old Baptist Chapel, Chippenham by Mr. G. D. Buss on 25th December, 2018

“And so it was.”—Luke 2:6

It may seem unusual to take just these four words on an occasion like this. Yet, within these four words is all the essence and substance of why we are gathered here this morning hour: to remember the birth of the dear Lord Jesus Christ. It is that little word ‘it’ which stands out. “And so it was.” What was? The appointed hour had come for the dear Saviour to be born into this sin-cursed earth.

You will remember that, throughout the Old Testament, “line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little” this great matter was opened up. It began with the first promise given regarding the seed of the woman. Not the seed of the man, you will notice. “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Even in that earliest promise the incarnation of our Lord, by the mysterious overshadowing of the Holy Ghost, was foretold. The Lord Jesus Christ is the seed of the woman, and He has come to bruise the serpent’s head; the serpent being Satan, the prince of darkness. And The Lord Jesus Christ has come to bring all things under His most blessed feet.

We are told, a little later on, of the nation from which our Lord would come. His own nation, in a natural sense, was the Jewish nation. Abraham was the father of that nation. God promised to Abraham that in his seed should “all the nations of the earth be blessed.” That seed is what we are speaking of this morning. It is speaking of our Lord Jesus; the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent’s head; that in Abraham’s seed should “all the nations of the earth be blessed.”

Then it was revealed to Jacob from which tribe our Lord would come: the tribe of Judah. Later on we are told that He would be born into the family of David, so He was great David’s greater Son. It is significant that in His earthly ministry, those who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ with a saving faith often called Him the “Son of David.” Blind Bartimaeus did, and the Syrophenician woman did. They saw who He was: great David’s greater Son.

In the prophecy of Isaiah we are told many things about this dear Babe. We are told one of His names: “Emmanuel.” We are told that name before we are told His name in the flesh. Why are we told that first? Because, friends, He was God first. He is “Emmanuel…God with us.” That name was revealed first. Then, of course, as we read in this chapter this morning, we are told the name He was to bear in that humble home, in His life and on the cross: “Jesus.” “JESUS: for He shall save His people from their sins.” And He still bears that name in glory above.

Again, we are told something else. We are told where He would be born; Bethlehem. At the same time we are told He would be a Nazarene, and we are told that He would be called out of Egypt. And those three things, Bethlehem, Nazareth and Egypt all seem completely disparate. How could it be? How could the Lord Jesus be born in one place, called a Nazarene and yet called out of Egypt? It must have perplexed the Old Testament saints many times while they waited for the coming Saviour. And, just as it is in your life, dear friends, there seem to be many contradictory things. You just cannot lay them straight, you cannot put them together and you cannot piece them together. Yet, as our text says: “And so it was.” The Lord made the crooked straight. He explained the deep mystery, and to the perplexed it was resolved. The Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was called out of Egypt when Herod died and He dwelt in Nazareth, as we know from Holy Scripture. God’s words are always fulfilled; He never fails. And, even in your life this morning hour, you may find there are those things you just cannot lay straight. You cannot put them together, as it were, into an orderly piece. But, the God of order will do it, in due season. There will come a day when you will say, “And so it was.”

“But sooner all nature shall change, 

Than one of God’s promises fail.

“And so it was.” Remember there is an overruling. In the day in which we are living the powers of darkness are so great, aren’t they? Secularism, humanism, atheism and the powers of anti-Christ are very evident. The nations of this world are in tumult and turmoil. Is anyone in control? Is anyone on the throne? Yes, God is! And He was at this time. It was His decreed will that the Roman Empire should be the most powerful force at this time. You read in the book of Daniel of the other kingdoms that had to fall that this one should come forth. In the days of that Empire came forth that kingdom that would never be destroyed. And then, who moved in the heart of the emperor that there should be this taxing; this enrolling of the citizens throughout the whole of that mighty Empire? Well, it was the mysterious purpose of God. For, in the overruling purpose of God, it meant that Joseph and Mary had to leave their abode in Nazareth where they were living and travel many miles that Mary, being great with child, might be in Bethlehem for the birth of Christ. Little did that mighty earthly ruler think that he was bringing to pass, under God’s hand, the very place and the very moment where Christ should be born. But, “And so it was.”

But, this gives us hope, dear friends, in our day in which we are living. There are many powers of darkness. There are many who would delight to see the name of Christ completely out of our society and completely eradicated from this nation. But, it cannot be. It cannot be! God is in control. The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ’s Church. He overrules the machinations and decisions of man to bring His own purposes to pass. We read; “Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee: the remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain. “And so it was.” So we have something to take courage from this morning hour. God is in control and God is bringing His purposes to pass exactly in the moment and at the place where He decrees it should be so.

“And so it was.” What about the little word, “it”? A tiny word, dear friends, but the whole history of the world hangs on this pivot, on this moment. For this purpose was the world formed, that our Lord should come into it, verily God and verily man. And, when the work He came to do has come to its fullness, then all the created universe around us will come to its end. Eternity will be the lot of us each. In that great day every tongue shall “confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” “And so it was.” A little word, but, my dear friends, the Lord is still there.

My mind goes to that lovely word in Psalm 37, which I hope might be a help to one of you this morning in your pathway, with all the mysterious ‘ifs,’ ‘buts,’ ‘hows,’ ‘whys,’ and ‘wherefores’ in it. “Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in Him; and He shall bring it” – note that – “it to pass.” What? Thy way; the way that is ordained for you; the expectation He has given you. He shall bring “it” to pass. As surely as He brought this great matter to its fulfilment, it is so in your case too. And, do remember this: God’s decrees and dealings often seem to go underground. Before our Lord was born, there were four hundred years of silence. Had “God forgotten to be gracious?” Had He forsaken the work He had set upon in the Garden of Eden in that promise? No! And it may be in your life that God’s purposes seem to go underground. Sometimes the work of grace seems to be covered over. Yet, what you cannot see is taking place beneath the surface. “For He performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with Him.” Friend, even now He is still performing. In your darkest moments, He is still bringing to pass His purposes as surely as He did here.

“And so it was.” In meditation, my thoughts went in rather a different direction. There are many names given to the dear Saviour. He is worthy of them all, and He fulfils them all. But there is one name which we rarely meditate upon which unfolds the mystery of this little word “it” this morning. It is a word spoken by Zacharias. You remember that Zacharias was the father of John the Baptist. Zacharias gave a name, or the Holy Ghost gave a name by him, to the Lord Jesus Christ: “an horn of salvation.” We read in Luke 1 verses 68 and 69: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David.” There are four things I want to bring before you this morning from this. “An horn of salvation.” Of course, the horn was literally, usually, a ram’s horn, and was used in more than one way. There are four ways in particular that the horn speaks to us of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

First of all, the horn was a symbol of power and authority. We are told by Paul in 1 Timothy 6, verses 14, 15 and 16, of just how great this dear Saviour is. Paul says: “The appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: Which in His times He shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” There Paul is speaking of the divinity and Godhead of the second Person in the glorious Trinity. There is His power. That word, “the horn of salvation” tells us He is King of kings and He is Lord of lords. He sits on no precarious throne. Even now, one of the anthems being sung by the redeemed in glory is: “Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.” The word ‘potent’ is ‘power.’ ‘Omnipotent’ is ‘all power.’ Omnipotent – all power!

Before the Lord Jesus left this earth, He said: “All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.” And He commissioned His disciples: “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” But the power belongs to Him. The authority is His. He has all power. He is truly God; not just the Son of God. He is certainly that, but He is God the Son. He is as powerful as His Father and the Holy Ghost, with whom He is one, in indivisible unity. And, when that little Babe lay in Bethlehem’s manger, to the natural eye He seemed as weak and as helpless as any other babe newly born. Yet, Mary, Joseph, the shepherds, the wise men, Simeon, Anna and no doubt others, worshipped Him. Had He not been who He is, it would have been a sin to worship that Babe. But, because He is who He is, they had every right, yea, a command so to do. “Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.” They saw in that dear Babe of Bethlehem their God contracted to a span. It was not that God was contracted – we must be careful how we say that. But, the vessel in which He was now housed was a contracted vessel: a little Babe. Yet, within that vessel dwelt “all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” We sometimes sing hymn 709. The last verse does need slightly rewording:

“No less almighty at His birth,

Than on His throne supreme;

His shoulders held up heaven and earth, 

When Mary held up Him.”

J. Hart

I think it really should say: “Though Mary held up Him.” She held Him up as a true and proper Child, and had every right so to do. But her shoulders or arms did not hold up heaven and earth: His did! And, my dear friends, they still do. “The government shall be upon His shoulder.” Oh, blessed be God of the certainty here! All things are working “together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” The power. So, the first thing about the horn is the power.

The second thing about the horn is that it was a provision. You remember when Samuel was sent to anoint the future king of Israel, young David, (great David, who had this greater Son in his descendants); Samuel took with him, at God’s command, a horn. In that horn there was oil. That oil was poured on young David’s head to anoint him to be the future king. That was God’s appointment. When God anoints, God appoints. It is a wonderful thing if you can say with good John, as we read in his Epistle: “But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you” What is this oil? It is nothing less than the work of the Holy Ghost. It is the Spirit of Christ, and it pours from this horn; Christ being, as it were, the supplier and the blessed Spirit being the supply. And what a supply it is! Friends, it never fails. Oh, bless God!

“A fulness resides in Jesus our Head,

And ever abides to answer our need;

The Father’s good pleasure has laid up in store 

A plentiful treasure, to give to the poor.”

J. Fawcett

Friends, there is supply in this horn. All the grace you need, all the strength you need, all the wisdom you need, all the courage you need, all the patience you need and all that you need as a poor sinner to be saved, is in that blessed horn of salvation, our Lord Jesus Christ.

“Having Jesus,

I have an immortal store.”

J. Newton

Oh, that it might be a horn of salvation to you! And, just as we read in Psalm 133 of that “precious ointment upon the head” that “ran down upon the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments,” so Christ being the Head, the holy oil, as it were, flows from the Head right down to the skirts of His garments. That feeblest believer, that weakest believer, that one who feels to be the greatest sinner, oh, blessed be God; this oil flows right down! So then, not only is it a symbol of power, it is a symbol of a most remarkable provision. Bless God for it.

Then, thirdly, come with me to mount Moriah. We would not stretch our text in a wrong way, but there is a significance. There Isaac is laid on the altar. There is the knife, about to be plunged into his bosom, and then there is the voice from heaven: “Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him.” Those wonderful words that went on to confirm the very text we have before us this morning: “And so it was.” What about the sacrifice? No blood had been shed, but Isaac was released. But, there was a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. It was caught by its horns; not by its fleece, otherwise it would have been blemished and not a proper offering. Caught by its horns! Understand me aright, dear friends; when our dear Saviour came here below, He, being the Horn of Salvation, as it were, came to deal with the curse of the thorns of His people’s sins. What it cost Him no tongue can tell!

“What He endured no tongue can tell, 

To save our souls from death and hell.”

S. Stennett

What a mercy is this Substitute: this wonderful “Propitiation,” as the Word of God says! You see, it is like this. If you were Isaac, and when, at last, you were released and saw that knife that would have been plunged into your bosom being plunged into the side of that ram, you would have had a deep empathy with the ram that was shedding its blood that you would be saved, in a natural way, from the knife. How much more, dear friends, do we see it in the gospel! We see the sword; the knife of divine justice, justly demanding vengeance for our sins.

“In guilt’s dark dungeon when we lay, 

Mercy cried, “Spare;” and Justice, “Slay.” 

But Jesus answered, “Set them free,

And pardon them and punish Me.””

J. Hart

“And so it was.” Bless God “it was,” at Calvary’s cross. “For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.” “He gave “His life a ransom for many.” And, although today is a day of rejoicing, may it be sanctified rejoicing. Never forget why He came: Jesus was born to die. That is why He came. He took up a life to be able to die. We rejoice today in the taking up of that life, but never forget why He took it up, that He might lay it down, “a ransom for many.” He shed His own, precious blood of which we read of in 1 Peter 1 verses 18 to 21: “Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you, Who by Him do believe in God, that raised Him up from the dead, and gave him glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.” May you look on that dear Babe this morning hour as dear Simeon did; He saw his salvation there, he saw the propitiation for his sins there, he saw the One who would stand in his place and would bare, in His own Person, the wrath of God that was due to his sins. “For mine eyes have seen Thy salvation.” May our eyes see it today.

So, the horn tells us of power, it tells us of provision and it tells us of propitiation. Then it tells us of proclamation. In the fourth chapter we have the first sermon our Lord preached in Nazareth. We read the text He preached from. And this is the proclamation; the horn. “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Do you know what that is, friend – bruised? Bruised by sin, bruised by Satan and bruised by the various difficulties of the way? That is one of the reasons He has come, “to set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.” “And so it was.” There would be no gospel to preach had Jesus Christ not come. In 1 Timothy 1 we have one of Paul’s confessions of faith. He makes two confessions of faith in very brief terms. This is one of them: “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.” The other confession of faith he makes we read of in Galatians: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” ‘He loved me so much,’ says Paul, ‘that He took into union with His divine Person this other nature; verily God, verily Man.’ That is what we remember today. ‘He loved me so much,’ says Paul, ‘that in that holy temple of His body He lived a pure, holy, spotless, blemish-free life that He might provide for me a robe of righteous to cover me; a garment to clothe me and to make me fit for the marriage supper of the Lamb. Then He took that body in which He loved me so much, that rather than lose me, He laid down His life for me.’ “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5 again: “Christ died for the ungodly.” You say, ‘We are speaking about His birth this morning. Why do you remember His death?’ The two are inseparable. You cannot separate Bethlehem from Calvary, nor the manger from the cross. They are indissolubly joined by sovereign grace.

“Sovereign grace o’er sin abounding!”

J. Kent

“And so it was.” Oh, that you might this morning ponder these things! You read of Mary. Twice it is said of her: “Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.” Soon we are going to say ‘Amen’ and sing our last hymn, and on we go for the rest of the day. And may the Lord bless us in our going out and coming in. But, this would be a sad day if there is no more pondering of these things other than what we are doing this morning just for a few moments. Oh that there may be some pondering! May there be some praying over it, some asking that vital question:

“Was it for crimes that I had done 

He groaned upon the tree?”

I. Watts

May we have that question asked as we look on that Babe in Bethlehem’s manger, and be able to say: ‘That is my Lord laying there, that is my God laying there and that is my Substitute laying there.’ This is the proclamation of the gospel. That is what the shepherds heard from the angel’s lips, when He said: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.”

So, the horn was used as a trumpet. When Jericho’s walls fell down, the priests blew the rams horns. The ram’s horn is a type of the gospel.

The walls will not fall down unless the gospel is preached in the power of the Spirit. It is the means God uses to save sinners. Oh, may we bless God for the proclamation of the horn of salvation!

So, there is power, there is provision, there is propitiation and there is proclamation: four things to be found in this horn of salvation. Friends, may it be personal to you and may it be personal to me. May we stand still, just for a moment, and ponder this little word, “it.” “And so it was.”

May we bless God and thank His holy name that there is a prospect beyond this dying world; a prospect beyond all the darkness that is around us for those who are born of the Spirit and who are seeking this precious Jesus, who cannot be satisfied with anything but a precious Jesus. “And so it was.”

May God add His blessing.

Amen