Saturday night I preached on the angel’s words at Jesus’ birth “I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people! For there is born to you this day a Savior, who is Christ the Lord… Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” (Luke 2:10,11,14)
I preached on the good news that God has sent a Savior into the world, even Jesus the Christ, and this was a token of His goodwill toward men, that there should be peace between man and God. And this proclamation of God’s goodwill to the world, bringing peace to the door of sinners, brings glory to God in heaven. And that we are directed by God to Christ who is both Savior and Lord.
A guy came up to me. He was tall, middle-aged, had long hair, and began smoking a cigarette. In a composed manner he said that a long time ago he had tried all of that, he had asked God and Jesus for a few favors, and it didn’t do anything for him. He went on about how God had let him down and left him and how he had been a good person for all these years, though by no means morally perfect, yet nonetheless he talked as if God owed him something. I tried to tell him that God owes us nothing, and that we have to take Christ alone without our righteousness. He listened but it didn’t do much good.
He had a lot of lingering anger against God, built up from his past experiences, as if God had wronged him all this time. I find it strange when people know there is a God, and despise Him because they cannot see His goodness and good-will toward them. He began to walk off and turned to me and pointed to me and said with a lot of emotional anger, “God and Jesus and all that, they have forsaken me!"
I began to preach on Rom. 9:3,4: “For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes.”
When I finished preaching and left to go home, I looked over and the guy was sitting on a bench a ways away, within hearing distance…
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