All of us this morning.

In Christ, we behold the wisdom, goodness, love, grace, mercy, and power of God, all working together for the great work of our redemption and salvation.

—John Owen

The devil, though he is an enemy to all saints, is a conquered enemy. The Captain of our salvation has defeated and disarmed him; we have nothing to do but to pursue the victory.

—Matthew Henry

Job 19:25-27

For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me!

Free will I have often heard of, but I have never seen it. I have always met with will, and plenty of it, but it has either been led captive by sin or held in the blessed bonds of grace.

—Charles Spurgeon

If you feel that you are unfit, weak, and lacking in faith, where will you obtain strength but here? Do you mean to wait until you have grown pure and strong, then indeed you will never come and you will never obtain any benefit from the Holy Communion.

This is the right use of the Lord’s Supper, serving not to torture, but to comfort and gladden the conscience. For by instituting it for us, God did not intend it to be poison and torture to frighten us...The Lord’s Supper welcomes those who perceive their frailties and feel that they are not pious, yet would like to be.

—Martin Luther

The true Christian is called to be a soldier and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death.

He is not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence and security. He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and doze along the way to heaven, like one traveling in an easy carriage.

—JC Ryle

If you knew how quickly people would forget you after your death, you would not seek in your life to please anyone but God.

—John Chrysostom

The one perfectly divine thing, the one glimpse of God's paradise given on earth, is to fight a losing battle - and not lose it.

—G.K. Chesterton

If you only go to Church for Christmas and Easter services

You are gay (and should repent)

—Me

Hebrews 10:23-25

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

As Christmas approaches, let us not only focus on the peaceful, serene night of the Savior’s birth.

Do not forget that although the Lord was incarnate as a babe, His coming represents the first shots fired in the Great War for dominion over this world; what was lost to Satan in Adam is being retaken by Christ. His cries—the war cries of a conquering King.

Rejoice! Heaven has invaded Earth, and the Commander of the Heavenly Host has cast Satan out. Christ is come. Christ has won.

Christus Victor. Christus Rex.

Revelation 12:5

And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up to God and to His throne.

He was poor, that he might make us rich.

He was born of a virgin that we might be born of God.

He took our flesh, that he might give us His Spirit.

He lay in the manger, that we may lie in paradise.

He came down from heaven, that he might bring us to heaven. . . .

That the ancient of Days should be born.

that he who thunders in the heavens should cry in the cradle. . . .

that he who rules the stars should suck the breast;

that a virgin should conceive;

that Christ should be made of a woman, and of that woman which himself made,

that the branch should bear the vine,

that the mother should be younger than the child she bare,

and the child in the womb bigger than the mother;

that the human nature should not be God, yet one with God.

Come and worship!

—Thomas Watson