Good Tidings of Great Joy

Rev. A. Vergunst (1926-1981)

There was a reason for the shepherds to fear. An angel of God appeared unto them. We read that the glory of the Lord shone round about them. Every revelation of God and His heavenly power and glory will always cause fear in the hearts of men. God is the Most High, and who can stand before Him and live? No man of whatever quality or station. We will especially believe and feel that if there is ever a time when the glory of God’s righteousness is laid upon our heart. In the light of these attributes, we are nothing but lost sinners. We can very easily confess this, but it is something quite different to experience it. Then we shall really fear and tremble.

The angel spoke, however, to the shepherds and said to them that there was no reason to fear. Why was that? Was it because these shepherds were such good and humble persons, walking and living in singleness of heart? Was it because they were conscious of the fact that they were sinners and justly condemned? Or was it because they were, as we may think, longing for the coming Messiah and for the revelation of His kingdom? No, there were no reasons to be found in these shepherds to explain why the angel said, “Fear not” It is so necessary to say that again and again.

Also in these days there are many persons, even very sincere ones, who seek their foundation, their hope, and their expectations in their own life and behavior. We can never hope upon ourselves. We are lost, condemned, hellworthy sinners. We need to learn that in the school of the Holy Spirit. When His work is in our heart, we will surely lose all rights, value, and worth, also in our experiences. Many seek hope in their tears, in a change of life, in their seeking and their feelings. That is a very weak foundation on which to build.

We know of many examples of people who wept for a time and then fell back into the world; many who had a remarkable change in their behavior but showed afterwards that they were not changed in their heart through a new birth; many who had all kinds of words which came to their mind but which were never given by the Holy Ghost; many who had wonderful dreams and visions but who did not have a clear scriptural revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, let us pay attention to the word of the angel to the shepherds! He said, “Fear not,” but that is not for any reason in you; it is because of the fact that I bring you tidings of great joy. The reason that they were not to fear was because of the tidings which the angels had to bring. Had he not brought such good tidings then there would have been many reasons to fear. The comfort that the ministers of the gospel bring is in the message that they preach, not in the persons to whom they speak. The angel brought good tidings of great joy. We will see what that message was.

A Savior, which is Christ the Lord, is born. That is a wonderful, unspeakably great message which is undeserved. We are all under God’s righteous wrath and judgment. We have sinned against the Most High and deserve the greatest punishments in body and soul. There is no way out of our misery with respect to our human power or ability. The guilt cannot be removed, and the debt is unpardonable. We cannot help ourselves, and we cannot be delivered by any creature, but now the Lord comes with the good tidings that a Savior is born.

He is the promised Savior because the angel said that He is born in the city of David, which was foretold by all the prophets. It is the Savior promised of the seed of the woman. All the saints and pilgrims of the old days were looking for Him. They found their hope and life in Him by faith in the promises given concerning Him. It is the very same One, who is said to be born in Bethlehem, who was promised to the fathers and wherein the fathers found their refuge. His birth preaches of the faithfulness of the Lord. God kept His Word. Although many ages had passed before His Word was fulfilled, the Lord did not forget.

Jesus is also an Almighty Savior because He is the Lord. It is such a Savior the lost sinner stands in need of because, if He were not Almighty God, He could not be a Deliverer. He is an anointed Savior because He has the unction of the Holy Spirit. His name is Christ, which means the Anointed. His Father has ordained Him from all eternity; His Father has given Him the authority to save sinners. God gave Christ in His manhood all the powers He needed to perform His work. He is a willing Savior because He accepted His humiliation when He came in the flesh in His human nature.

We can readily see that, when the angel brought the message of the birth of Christ to the shepherds, he really brought a good tiding. It was a tiding concerning the work of the Father who wanted sinners to be saved by His Son— a tiding of the Son who gave Himself as a perfect, Almighty, willing, all-sufficient, and precious Redeemer—a tiding of the Holy Ghost who prepared the body of Christ in the womb of Mary and strengthened Him for the work to be done. There never could have been brought a more wonderful message to the sinners of Adam’s race than the message given in this tiding. That is the message which we need. We cannot be delivered in any other way—only in this way. Is this message of great joy for everyone? No, it is not for everyone. It is preached all over the world by God’s faithful servants that there is a Savior. Behold the Lamb of God! They may not preach in any other way or proclaim any other possibility to be saved. All who do this deceive souls for eternity.

The offering of grace is a well-meant offering coming to all who hear the gospel, and it has to be preached to all people. Therein lies a very great responsibility. When we, by unbelief, reject this message, it shall be terrible to fall into the hands of the living God. Although this is true, nevertheless, it also has to be said that this message must become a personal message brought to our heart by the Holy Spirit. Then it will be a message of great joy.

When will this message really become a joy for our heart? When we give up all pretenses of saving ourselves by our own power. When by the operation of the Holy Spirit convictions come in our heart, we will not become happy and converted, but we will start to see that we are unhappy and unconverted. We live in times when we can meet people who are living as the Laodiceans did, who were rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing but who did not know that they were wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. Then we think we are converted without ever knowing a time when we were unconverted. Then we think we are rich without ever having become poor.

We all stand in need of the workings of the Holy Spirit to uncover us so that we may lose all and in that way be prepared for the revelation of Christ in His glory. Oh, how necessary it is to receive holy convictions so that there may be place and room for Christ in our heart! There is, through the grace of God, a people who have become unworthy, who have accepted the righteousness of their punishment and so are prepared for Christ. When all worth and value in everything is lost, and we are nothing but a lost sinner, then it will please the Lord to glorify the Name of that perfect Redeemer in our heart. Then the message will become personal! Unto you is born Christ the Savior. For us, then, it is a tiding of great joy that there is a way wherein the lost sinner can be reconciled with God in a righteous way. How we will rejoice when we may see and hear that it is possible for our soul! We can be helped and delivered with nothing less. A great need for that Mediator will be born in our heart. We will count all things as nothing compared to being found in Him.

May it please the Lord in these days of commemoration to grant people that holy joy in finding Him. That we in spirit may be brought to the manger of Bethlehem to see the glorious revelation of eternal love in the Babe who was laid there and that God Almighty will grant His people to rejoice in Him as the God of salvation.

When we have heard His voice and understood the message, we cannot be satisfied until we have found Him as did the shepherds who left everything and came with haste to find Mary and Joseph and the Babe lying in a manger. Then they found the greatest treasure they could ever find, for they found God in Christ, and they adored Him. Although He was still in the garments of His humiliation, they saw with eyes of faith “the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14b). They saw the beauty of His mediatorial work, and their mouths have expressed the feelings of their soul with the words of the psalmist in Psalter 124:2:

Supremely fair Thou art,
Thy lips with grace o’erflow;
His richest blessings evermore
Doth God on Thee bestow.

Love as Brethren

Some years ago, two young brothers were playing in a park in the large town where they lived. The younger of the two had no shoes on his feet, but to reach that part of the park where the boys wished to play, they had to walk along a gravel path that had only just been resurfaced, so the stones were extra sharp. What did the older brother do? He picked up his younger brother and carried him over the stony part.

A man sitting nearby watched with great approval. What struck him the most, however, was that the older brother did not expect any thanks from his younger brother. He just did what was right for him to do.

This should serve as a lesson to us that, when we try to help someone, we should not do it for praise or reward but as the Apostle Paul tells us, “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men.” But mind; I do hope the younger brother was thankful in his heart even if he did not say it, and didn’t just take for granted the kindness shown!

— Taken from The Friendly Companion

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