It's over.
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Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Merry Christmas to everybody. It's such a joy to have you all here to celebrate the birth of our Savior together.
Number 429 as we'll begin tonight in your hymnals, number 429,
Hark the Herald, the Angel Sing. Hymn number 429.
We'll lift up our voices together on that first now. Number 429, Hark the Herald,
Angel Sing, Glory to the North, You're the King. Number 429, look it up now.
God and sinners reconciled, joyful all ye nations ride.
Thank you.
Is now in place, and by image in his place.
Checking that out from above, free and steadfast in thine love.
Park where old angels sing, glory to the newborn King.
And that is our course.
Thanks, guys.
We want to go and ask Lord's blessing on the service,
Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, we come before you tonight,
and we thank you for allowing us to gather together here
in church on this Christmas Day.
We thank you for sending your son to be born
and to die for our sins and to pay for our salvation, Lord.
We just ask for blessing upon us as we...
Remember that tonight, and we just ask that you be with us as we open up your word tonight
and learn from the preaching, just feel faster with your Holy Spirit, help them to preach
with power and unction tonight, and that we may be attentive to the preaching, and all
that said and done would give you the honor and the glory they deserve for it.
Well, thank you for it in Jesus' name.
426.
I heard the bells on Christmas Day.
4-2-6, I heard the bells on Christmas Day. Their old familiar carols play number 426. Sing it out on that first note.
I heard the bells.
Stay strong.
He's the one of peace on earth, good will to him.
All right, at this time we'll go
through our announcements together.
If you don't have a bulletin,
sub up your hand nice and high.
We'll get to you with one.
On the inside we have our service times.
Sunday mornings at 10.30 is our preaching service.
Sunday nights at six.
Wednesday nights at seven we've got our soul winning times listed there below as well as
salvation and baptisms. Across the page is the report about the online soul winning marathon.
This was where they're doing the video chat software on the OME TV and six soul winners
worked for four hours and had 26 people saved. So that's a pretty cool technology that they were
And then below that,
we've got the list of expectant ladies.
Please pray for them to have a safe
and healthy pregnancy and delivery.
On the back, of course, we had a great time caroling
and with the Christmas cookies,
thank you to everyone who participated.
Exciting news about Micaiah and Isabella
getting married on January the 18th.
So mark your calendar for that one.
We don't have the time yet,
but it's gonna be right here and everybody's invited.
And so you just need to just clear off the whole day, people, all right?
Just to make sure that you don't miss this thing.
So that's Saturday, January 18th right here.
There'll be cake, fellowship, punch, etc.
And then we've got Pastor Aaron Thompson coming to preach in January on the 22nd.
So that's a Wednesday night, something to look forward to there, special Wednesday night.
And I believe that that is about it for announcements.
Let's go ahead and tally up the soul winning from the last couple of days.
Going back to Monday, anything from a Monday?
Okay. Got it.
Thing else from Monday?
How about Tuesday?
Anything from Tuesday?
Okay, all right, and then today Wednesday anything from today
Anything else from today? All right. Very good. Keep up the great work on soul winning with that. Let's sing our next song come
Leave us. All right, you should find the insert in the front of your hymnal
We'll start with O come O come Emmanuel if you don't have an insert you can raise your hand and we'll sing it together
On that first O come O come Emmanuel and ransom captive Israel sing it out together
O come, O come, E-H-A-U-L, And friends of God live in triumph.
The morn's in lonely exile here, Until the sun...
Now come to me, O Israel.
O come, thou rod of Jesse's green.
Thine own come, Satan's tyranny.
From depths of hell, thy people sing,
and give them victory.
When you well, shout, come to me, O Israel.
O come, now, grace, bring come and cheer.
Our spirit, by thy name, and cheer.
to find. Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. Hold on about thee, O Israel.
Make safe the way that the unwind, And close the path to misery.
Rejoice, rejoice, Emmanuel Shall come to thee, O Israel.
On time, on time, In ancient times it's given the law, In cloud and majesty and all.
Flip that sheet over and we'll sing together. Oh, holy night.
Oh, holy night
The stars are brightly shining
It is the night
In sin and never pining,
Tell me of years, and the soul fell this way.
A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices,
glorious morn, all on your knees.
O give me the voices, O God.
The King of kings,
place us in lonely danger
in all our trials
or to be our friend.
He who knows our needs
The End
shall see. Sweet hands of joy and great for chorus raise sweet with all our hearts we praise His Holy...
It's time!
plates around. As the plates go around, let's turn our Bibles to Revelation chapter number
12. Revelation chapter 12, as we always do, we'll read the entire chapter beginning in
verse number one. Follow along silently with Brother Corbin Brock as he reads Revelation
chapter 12, beginning in verse number one. Revelation chapter 12.
And there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon
under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
And she, being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven
heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and it cast them to the earth.
And the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her
child as soon as it was born.
And she brought forth a man-child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and
her child was caught up unto God into his throne.
And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they
should feed her there a thousand, two hundred, and three score days.
And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon
fought and his angels, and prevailed not, and neither was their place found any more
in heaven.
And the great dragon was cast out that old serpent, called the devil and Satan, which
He was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven
Now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren
Is cast down which accused them before our God day and night and
They overcame him by the blood of the lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives under the death
Therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down unto you,
having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth,
he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child.
to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness
into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time from the
face of the serpent. And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman
that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the
flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth and the dragon was wroth with the
woman and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which keep the
commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Dear Father of Heaven, please fill the path through spirit.
We thank you for sending your Son Jesus to die and pay
for all of our sins to be born in this world and to redeem us.
And we thank you very much in Jesus' name and...
Man, Revelation chapter 12 is not typically the chapter that you would think of when you're reading the Christmas story, quote-unquote,
when you're reading about the birth of Christ, but actually it is about the birth of Christ.
As you're reading through the book of Revelation, it's kind of jarring when you get to this chapter because you're reading about all these end times, events,
prophetic things that are off in the future, and then all of a sudden you get to this description
in chapter 12 about the birth of Jesus Christ and it's kind of written in this very cryptic
language, but there's a really great truth that I want to bring out of this tonight and
kind of compare this with some of the other scriptures on the birth of Christ.
about why Jesus Christ came to this earth, why did God actually become flesh and dwell
among us?
What was the purpose?
Of course, we know the famous verse, John 3.16 says, for God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
And so Jesus Christ ultimately came to this world for us.
for people, for us as human beings.
Now, let's go into this chapter here, Revelation chapter 12.
It says in verse number one,
and there appeared a great wonder in heaven,
a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crown of 12 stars,
and she being with child, so she's pregnant
and she's in labor, she's with child,
she cried, traveling in birth, and pain to be delivered.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven
and be able to great red dragon,
having seven heads and 10 horns
and seven crowns upon his heads.
And so we have these two entities on the one hand,
we've got the woman and then on the other hand,
we've got the great red dragon.
And of course, this is very symbolic language.
It's not literal because the woman's clothed in the sun
and has the moon under her feet and everything.
So there's a lot of symbolism here.
but on the one side you have the woman
and then on the other side you have the dragon.
And here's the thing about the dragon.
As we go through this chapter,
it's going to stop calling him the dragon
and it's going to actually call him, at one point,
the serpent, like you look at verse 15, for example,
and it talks about the serpent persecuting the woman.
And so the serpent and the dragon are interchangeable.
These are both representative of Satan, the devil.
And if you think about this battle between the woman and the serpent,
this actually goes all the way back to the very beginning of the Bible.
So it's like the Bible has come full circle.
Keep your finger here in Revelation 12. Go back to Genesis three.
So you've got right at the very beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter three,
enmity between the woman and the serpent.
And then in chapter 12,
we're basically seeing that conflict resolved.
once and for all.
Look if you would at Genesis chapter number 3, verse 15.
This is a really famous verse because it is the first real clear promise
of the fact that Jesus Christ is going to come and be the Savior.
Genesis chapter 3, verse 15 is the first time this is prophesied.
It says, I will put enmity, and he's speaking to the serpent in the Garden of Eden.
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 heels."
So there's a prophesied seed of the woman.
You know, one day the woman is going to have a son, right?
And obviously it's going to be many, many, many generations
and thousands and thousands of years are going to go by,
but ultimately that son is Jesus Christ.
The seed of the woman is Jesus, okay?
And the Bible says in Galatians chapter four
that Jesus was made of a woman.
Right? Jesus Christ is the son of man because he is a human being born from a human mother.
Of course, he's the son of God because she's a virgin, but Jesus Christ is the promised seed
of the woman that would be at enmity with the serpent's seed. So there's a battle between
the woman and the serpent. Now, the woman
is Eve in Genesis chapter 3 and obviously she represents all of humanity because she is the
mother of all living, right? Every single person that's alive is descended from Eve and so really
the enmity or the battle or the strife is really between the devil and humanity.
And it's really between the children of the devil and Jesus Christ and humanity on the
other side.
And so if you stop and think about it, you know, Christ is on the side of humanity.
Whereas, the devil hates humans and wants to destroy them
and wants to just take as many people to hell with him as possible.
He doesn't love us, he doesn't do anything good for anyone.
Even his followers are just useful idiots
that ultimately are just going to be discarded when he's done with them.
And so, it's funny, when we go out and evangelize and preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ,
A lot of people are adversarial toward us, right?
And maybe they're an atheist,
or they had a bad experience with Christianity,
or a bad experience with church, or whatever.
And then they'll be antagonistic toward us,
and they'll think that we're their enemy,
that we're the bad guy.
But in reality, what they don't know
is that we're actually on their side, right?
And Christ is on their side.
We're trying to save them from the devil's snare
because the devil wants nothing more
than to just destroy them.
And so, in Revelation 12, with that in mind, understanding that conflict that started all
the way back in Genesis chapter 3, where Satan tempts Eve to eat of that forbidden fruit.
And then Eve, of course, gives it to her husband, Adam, and he eats.
And then when God is punishing them and cursing them, God tells the serpent, I'm going to put
will bruise your head, right?
Jesus will bruise ultimately the serpent's head
and the serpent will bruise Christ's heel.
It's sort of like if you stepped on a snake, right?
You know, obviously it's gonna hurt the snake
more than it hurts you.
Even if the thing bites you while you're stepping on it or something like that, right?
You're still ultimately the one who's winning when you're stepping on a snake's head.
And so the idea is that, yeah, Satan and his minions, of course, they crucified Jesus Christ.
They killed the Lord of Glory.
But it doesn't matter because after three days, he rose again and got the ultimate victory.
And he crushed the serpent's head in that way.
So look at Revelation chapter 12, it says in verse 1,
there appeared a great wonder in heaven,
a woman clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars.
And if you remember, I said that this woman represents all of humanity.
The woman basically represents the human race.
Jesus is the son of man.
And so it starts with Eve, who is the mother of all humans, and then Jesus is born as a human being.
And it makes perfect sense, this description, if we understand the woman represents all of humanity,
because if you think about the woman that's clothed with the sun, the moon under her feet,
and upon her head a crown of twelve stars, it's kind of a description of the planet Earth, if you think about it, right?
because the earth is clothed in sunlight or bathed in sunlight and the earth has the moon under her feet in
the sense that the moon is controlled by the earth and not vice versa right the moon is going around the earth and
so the moon in that sense is subservient to the earth right so the moon is under her feet and
then upon her head a crown of 12 stars and of course throughout the course of the 12 months of the year
star constellation, often called the Zodiac.
Obviously, we're not into all the stupid astrology,
like horoscope, mumbo-jumbo about that,
but just from a purely astronomical perspective,
the sun is just moving through 12 different constellations
throughout the year.
And so again, you could just see this as the earth,
humanity, the human race.
God so loved the world, right?
That he gave his only begotten son.
And it says she, being with child, cried,
traveling in birth and pain to be delivered.
And there appeared another wonder in heaven,
behold a great red dragon.
having seven heads and ten horns seven crowns upon his heads and of course this dragon is later in the chapter identified as the serpent
Satan and his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth and
The dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered for to devour her child as soon as it was born
Now this of course we find
back in the Gospels about the birth of Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter two, because in Matthew
chapter two, if you want to just flip over there real quick, we can quickly glance at that story.
In Matthew chapter two, we find that when Jesus Christ was born
in Bethlehem, look at verse number one of Matthew chapter two,
Of Judea, in the days of Herod the King,
Beholder came wise men from the east to Jerusalem,
saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?
For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him.
When Herod the king had heard these things,
he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded
of them where Christ should be born.
And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet, and
thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah, for
out of these shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel.
Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what
time the star appeared, and he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently
And when you found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also."
And of course, we know he's lying.
He is really a tool of the devil, right?
King Herod is this evil minister of Satan who wants to destroy the baby Jesus.
And so when they come, the wise men from the east with the news that the king of Jews,
of the Jews is born, you know, instead of being excited about that or thinking it's
a good thing, the Bible says that Herod is troubled and Jerusalem is troubled.
You know, they like Herod, they like their situation, they just don't necessarily want
things to change, and so Herod is just trying to hold on to his position of power.
And so the devil is using that pride and arrogance that Herod has and selfishness to motivate
him to want to kill the baby Jesus.
And so just like in Revelation 12, we saw that the dragon is just ready to devour.
the child as soon as he's born, right, we go back to the gospel, we find that story,
where Satan literally wants to murder baby Jesus as soon as he's born, right? As soon as he's born,
boom, we got to find him and kill him. And so the wise men, they finally do locate baby Jesus
and they worship him, they bring him the gold, the frankincense, and the myrrh
and then they're warned of God in a dream
to go a different way home
and to not go by King Herod,
to not tell him where the child is.
And so once Herod realizes
that they're not coming back,
he ends up sending forth a decree
to just kill all the children
in that region of Bethlehem
from two years old and younger
just to make sure that he gets
the baby Jesus that he kills, the Messiah that he kills,
the king of the Jews that's born there.
But of course the way that Jesus escapes is because Joseph has a dream
that tells him that he needs to flee into Egypt and so before
Herod ends up killing all those people, Joseph has already fled to Egypt with baby Jesus.
And it's interesting to note here how King Herod ends up just murdering a bunch of innocent babies
He doesn't accomplish the goal whatsoever, okay, and here's the thing the devil
That's his whole life story if you stop and think about it because the devil is constantly hurting people
Harming people
Deceiving people, you know, he just he's a murderer from the beginning. He came to steal and to kill and to destroy
He's just constantly wreaking havoc and harming, but at the end of the day, he is going to lose
We already know how the story ends. He's gonna spend eternity in hell. So will all of his followers
And he ends up ultimately accomplishing nothing,
but he just does a whole bunch of destruction in the process
of trying to stop.
the gospel, trying to stop Jesus Christ, trying to stop humans from being saved.
He's ultimately not going to win, but yet he does all this collateral damage along the way.
And so that's what we're referring to in Revelation chapter 12 when we talk about
the dragon being ready to devour the child as soon as he's born.
So go back to Revelation 12, if you would. It says in verse 5,
and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne.
Now again, this is just quickly breezing through the story
because we pretty much just skipped a lot there.
It's like, Jesus is born.
and he's going to rule all nations with a rod of iron,
but he's caught up unto God into his throne.
Obviously, what happened in between is the entire life of Christ,
his death, his burial, his resurrection.
Then he ascended up to God and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
And ultimately he's going to have a second coming
where he comes and rules with a rod of iron
and he will...
be in charge of the entire earth.
You will rule the entire world with a rod of iron
and there will be peace on earth for 1,000 years.
And then I'm gonna skip some of this just for sake of time.
But as we go down here in verse seven,
there's a war in heaven.
Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon,
the dragon fought and his angels.
What we need to note here is that the war
is not between God and the devil.
Okay, because the problem with a fight between God and the devil is that it's just too easy
I mean God is God God has all power God could just snap his fingers and the devil would disappear right now
God could send the devil to hell whenever he wants to the devil only exists because God allows him to exist
Okay, which is why in the end the devil is going to be bound in hell for 1,000 years,
he's going to be chained up, put in hell, locked up for 1,000 years.
And then at the end of the 1,000 years, God's going to release him from hell
so that he can go out and deceive the nations one last time.
This shows that, obviously, the devil only exists because God allows him to exist.
He's only out deceiving people because God allows him to be that way.
So there's not this battle between God and the devil and somehow it's like,
oh man, who's going to win because the devil is a created being,
whereas God is the creator.
God has all power.
And even now, today, while the devil is out doing all of his evil and mischief,
He's only allowed to do what God allows him to do because if you think about in the book of Job.
He wants to attack Job and God's putting limits on him.
He's saying, hey, you can't touch Job's body
or you can't kill Job.
He's making rules for him because the devil is on a leash
and the devil has always been on a leash and always will be on a leash.
But there's this battle in heaven between Michael, the archangel,
and his angels are fighting against the devil and his angels.
There's a spiritual battle that's going on and if you think about it,
Michael and his angels, they are for humanity.
and the devil and his angels are against humanity.
You know, it's really, it's not like God is fighting for his own existence,
so that God's fighting to make sure that he's in charge of heaven or something like that.
I mean, God is already well-established.
He is all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent.
He's the creator, he's the beginning, the end, the first and the last.
His position is not in jeopardy at all.
You know what's in jeopardy is mankind.
humans. First, there's a big picture of just humans in general. I mean, the devil just
wants to see everybody damned. He wants to see all humans killed, all humans damned,
right? And Jesus Christ, on the other hand, came to save humanity. That's the fight right
there, okay? Because again, this isn't about God's position or the existence of God. This
men, humans, and so there's the big picture of just Christ saving people in general.
But then for each individual there's a battle going on too, right?
And we're involved in that battle every day, right?
Trying to reach people with the gospel of Christ.
We're trying to recover people out of the snare of the devil.
We're trying to preach the glorious gospel of Christ to people
so that they could be saved and go to heaven.
Every time we win someone to the Lord, that's a victory over Satan.
Okay, and Satan is out there just trying to deceive everybody and get as many people to go to hell as possible
and he wants to stop us from fulfilling our mission because we're pulling people out of hell constantly and he wants to
Stop us. That's why he's constantly fighting against us
He'll go against us personally and try to get us backslidden
Try to get us out of church try to get us in sin or try to get us discouraged and try to get us to want to quit
right? And we have to push through and keep going. That's the struggle so that we can keep on
fighting for what? The souls of men, right? The unsaved, getting them saved. We want to
reach people with the gospel. And so the devil's the enemy of all humanity. And so we see Michael
fighting for humanity. And this goes back also to the book of Daniel, chapter 10, you know,
it stated that Daniel, excuse me, it stated that Michael is, you know, for Daniel and for
Daniel's people and so forth, you know, he's fighting on his behalf. And he's also fighting
on humanity's behalf in Revelation chapter 12. But look what the Bible says, after, of course,
in this battle, it says in verse nine,
the great dragon was cast out,
that old serpent called the devil and Satan,
which deceive at the whole world.
He was cast out into the earth
and his angels were cast out with them.
And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven,
now has come salvation and strength
and the kingdom of our God
and the power of his Christ
for the accuser of our brethren is cast down,
which accuseth them before our God day and night.
So what is the devil doing?
The devil's in heaven.
speaking against humanity, right?
He's accusing Christians.
He's accusing the brethren.
He's speaking against people, okay, in heaven.
He's been cast out and it says that the brethren
that he's accusing, verse 11,
they overcame him by the blood of the lamb
and by the word of their testimony
and they loved not their lives under the death.
And so we see that we overcome those accusations
of the devil by the blood of the lamb.
So the devil can sit there and bring up all of our sins because guess what?
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God
It's not a single person who has not sinned or has totally stopped sinning or something.
All of us, unfortunately, sin.
And the devil is up there accusing us before God, but we are saved by the blood of Jesus
Christ and so those accusations, they can't stick, right?
It'd be like if some prosecutor were bringing charges against you and then the judge ends
up throwing it out.
And the case is being thrown out, why?
Because Jesus Christ has already paid for our sins,
it's already taken care of, it's already settled,
and so therefore we overcome those accusations of Satan.
Not because we didn't do the stuff we're being accused of,
because look, let's face it,
when the devil accused us of stuff,
many times it's probably stuff that we really did.
Right, because we are sinners, we actually are guilty of some things, but it's Christ
that's going to bat for us.
The Bible says if any man sin, we have an advocate, right?
Advocate is another word for a lawyer.
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous, and he's the propitiation for our sins,
and not for ours only, watch this, but also for the sins of the whole world, right?
And so we have Jesus Christ, the advocate, the lawyer, going to bat for the entire world, right?
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
He really just hateful of everyone and wants to kill and destroy everyone.
He especially hates the brethren.
He especially hates those who are saved Christians.
That's who he wants to fight the most.
And so it says, in verse 12,
therefore rejoice ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them.
Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea,
for the devil has come down unto you having great wrath,
because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.
And of course, that's talking about in the end times
when the devil is gonna be cast down
and do all of his final mischief
before finally being cast into hell.
And so it says in verse number 17 the dragon was wroth with the woman and went to make
war with the remnant of her seed which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony
of Jesus Christ.
So we have the devil first of all fighting against all of humanity and then ultimately
in the very end when he has a short time left going against the remnant of those who
that believe on Christ, they have the testimony of Christ and especially those who are serving
Him fervently.
Now if you would go to Luke chapter 2, this is of course the most famous Christmas passage
that people typically turn to about the birth of Christ.
Luke chapter number 2, Matthew, Mark, Luke chapter number 2.
And I want to point out some things in Luke 2 that tie in with what we saw in Revelation
So in Revelation or excuse me Luke chapter 2 says in verse 7 she brought forth
Her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord showed round about them, and they were sore afraid, and the angel said unto them, Fear not!
For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, and here's the key.
which shall be to all people, which shall be to all people.
So you see that the Gospel, the birth of Jesus Christ specifically,
is good news for all of mankind.
It's just some people don't know it.
Some people don't realize it, but yet Christ is born.
For everybody, right? He didn't just come for certain people. We're not Calvinists around here
We don't believe in limited atonement and that you know Christ just picked out certain people to die for some
I don't know. He died not for our sins only but also for the sins of the whole world. He tasted death for every man
He's not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance
He will have all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of the truth
And so the good news of Christ being born
is actually glad tidings for all people.
It's kind of funny how many people celebrate Christmas
and they're not even a Christian.
And yet they're celebrating Christmas.
It's like, what are they even celebrating?
And of course our world has come up
with all these like alternative things of like,
I don't know, Santa Claus and reindeer and Chris Kringle
and Frosty the snowman and I don't know what else there is
but all those little claymation stories and everything.
You know, just to kind of try to give you, I guess,
something to be excited about besides the birth of Christ
or think about the birth of Christ.
But really, it's almost like all of humanity
is just kind of acknowledging Jesus
without even really knowing it or thinking about it,
just by saying it's the year 2024.
You know, 2024 years since what?
The birth of Jesus Christ.
Right, and then it's like, oh, we're all celebrating Christmas, you know, and and even
The these hardened atheists, right?
It's like they're they're kind they're celebrating the birth of Christ and don't they don't want to admit it or realize it
But that it kind of are if they celebrate Christmas whether they like it or not
It's funny. I saw a comic the other day. It was it was a picture of the Flintstones celebrating Christmas
And it said, wait a minute, what are they celebrating?
You know, cause they're supposedly like a prehistoric
or something.
So I left a comment on there.
I said, well, you know, they're looking forward to the cross
and we look backward to the cross, you know.
So the, you know, the Flintstones are looking forward
to Jesus being born.
And I'm kidding, of course, but I'm just saying how,
you know, Christmas is just everywhere.
Right it's something that even now and it used to be that you know non-christian countries didn't do it
But now even non-christian countries are getting in on Christmas even even Buddhist countries
I mean, I don't know is India getting in on it. I bet they probably yeah, they're getting in okay at least one Indians giving me a
Yes
But but you know here's the thing
even even place like Japan and so you know now they're getting into celebrating Christmas, right and and it's
Here's the thing you say, well, what right do you have to celebrate Christmas?
You don't even believe in Jesus, but hold on a second though. Jesus' birth is for them too. They just don't know it yet
and
Hopefully they'll get saved later
And then they can actually understand what the birth of Christ is even all about.
But if you stop and think about it, Jesus Christ being born is good news for everybody, right?
Because it's good tidings which shall be to all people.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.
And you know, we can really say that to anyone.
Christ is born for you. Christ died for you. Christ wants to save you
because Jesus died for everybody and
This shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes laying in a manger and
Suddenly there was with the angel and multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying
Glory to God in the highest and on earth
peace
Goodwill toward men and again the birth of Christ is the ultimate act of goodwill toward men
It's God reaching out and bridging the gap between himself and humanity, right?
There's one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, right?
In order for us to be saved, in order for our sins to be redeemed and forgiven, right?
Jesus Christ is God actually in the flesh, which, you know, how can we even, you know,
And I just preached about it a few weeks ago when I preached the Sermon on the humanity of Christ,
how he actually had a real, legitimate human experience.
And he actually went through the things that we go through.
And so it's good will toward men.
It's the exact opposite of the devil's attitude toward men, which is what maleficence toward malevolence.
That's the word I'm looking for.
Malevolence toward men, right?
Ill will toward men.
And here's the thing. We as God's people, if we're going to follow in Christ's footsteps,
if we're going to be Christian, then we should really strive to have good will toward men as well.
Right? We should not be hateful toward the people of this world in general.
We shouldn't just have this kind of people suck kind of attitude that some people have, right?
We should... And look, and look, let's face it, people do suck, but at the same time...
But at the same time we all suck and have come short of the glory of God, you know
That's not exactly what that verse says, but it says something like that
You know you can say people suck it's like yeah, but aren't you glad that God didn't just go oh people suck
Throw this one in the trash make a new one
What did he do right he actually said hey father forgive them they know not what they do
Now of course to have these wonderful Christmas verses you have to have a King James Bible
because all of these egghead, modern scholar, fake pseudo-scholar boneheads
are constantly corrupting our Bible and twisting it and changing it
and they're even changing some of our favorite Christmas verses,
if you can imagine that. Right? So,
Father forgive them, they know not what they do. One of the most beloved verses in the Bible.
But now the scholars are saying well actually you know there are some early manuscripts that do not contain this phrase
Well, I'm sorry that you're using a broken manuscript
You know because you know, it's funny we got a we got a whole room full of people there and everybody's Bible's got it
You're the one with this with it. You know you dug up some stupid broken manuscript
And you're using a piece of trash that was found in a monastery trash can
instead of using the preserved Bible that's been passed down.
And so, you know, yeah, that is part of the Bible.
Father forgive them for they know not what they do.
But not only that, even this famous verse,
peace on earth, good will toward men.
You know, I guess Hallmark didn't get the memo
that now all the modern versions have twisted this one up too.
And now they say, well, good will toward those with whom God is pleased.
So instead of it being a statement about God's goodwill in general toward humanity by sending the Savior to die for the whole world
I mean, I guess the Calvinists are gonna like this new version of Luke 2 14 where it's just well
You know, it's it's just goodwill toward those with whom he's pleased
This is what the modern versions do.
It's funny, I was in a group online of people studying biblical languages, and of course
a lot of these people are being brainwashed by this modern textual criticism philosophy,
rejecting the doctrine of preservation and the fact that God's Word has been providentially
preserved and kept pure in all ages.
learning about all this stuff, but he said,
I just can't bring myself to let go of the traditional reading
of Luke chapter two, verse 14, goodwill toward men.
He said, I just can't let it go.
And I'm thinking to myself, yeah,
that's the Holy Spirit talking to you, buddy,
and maybe you should listen for all the rest of the verse
in the Bible too.
I'm glad that you're listening on Luke 2, 14.
Maybe you should listen on Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do.
Maybe you should listen on all of these other verses all of these other wonderful verses in the Bible that
Modern versions are attacking removing casting doubt on and so forth, right?
How about for there are three that bear record in heaven the father the word and the holy ghost and these three are one?
Sorry, I just can't let it go. I'm just hanging on to it
Yeah, hang on to it because it's true. It's real and so
There's goodwill toward men.
Let's jump down, if you would, to verse 27 of Luke chapter 2.
Luke chapter 2 verse 27, he came.
This is, of course, Simeon, who's a devout man,
who's waiting for the coming of Christ.
And it says in verse 27, he came by the Spirit into the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child Jesus
to do for him after the custom of the law,
then took him up in his arms.
So he grabs the baby Jesus.
And he blessed God and said, Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace according to thy word, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
And here's the key, right? So he's holding the baby Jesus saying, mine eyes have seen thy salvation, right?
And by the way, he wasn't looking at your good works. He wasn't looking at your church attendance, okay?
He wasn't looking at a baptistry font.
Okay, he wasn't looking at any of the things that people think are going to save them besides Jesus
Okay, he's looking at Jesus saying my eyes have seen thy salvation and then here's the key thing
It says in verse 31 which thou has prepared before the face of all people
right all people
All people right because remember Jesus is being sent as the seed of the woman
There's a war, there's enmity, there's strife between humans and the devil.
And the people that are on the devil's side, they are just foolishly working for their
own enemy and their own destruction.
And they don't realize that when we come to them, we're their friend, we're on their
side, we're trying to just get them to realize that salvation is so easy if they would just
And so, he's a light to lighten the Gentiles, verse 32, and the glory of thy people is real.
And so, he's for the whole world, he's for the Jews, he's for the Gentiles, right?
Free, bond, rich, poor, barbarian, Greek, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
He loved the world, God.
sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him here in His love,
not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. And so we need to realize
about the birth of Christ that it is an event that is on behalf of all people.
Goodwill toward all men, the Lord Jesus Christ came motivated to save humans, to save people, to save us.
He came for us as people, those of us that are already saved, and those that are not saved, He came for them too.
And this is why we need to preach the gospel to every creature and get as many people saved as we can so that we can get them to understand that
The birth of Christ is for them too, because it's good news for everybody, okay?
Now look, if you look at it from the wrong way, you could see,
oh Christ is coming with a rod of iron.
He's just coming and He's coming to destroy and to punish and everything like that.
But here's the thing, all you got to do is just believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior,
and then you're on the Lord's side.
But if you don't, if you end up rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, you end up on the devil's side and you end up fighting for the wrong
team.
Say, well, I'm just neutral.
Ultimately, if you're neutral, you end up getting inducted into the devil's army.
Okay, and here's the thing, he doesn't love you.
He's not fighting for you, he doesn't care about you,
and he's going to ultimately lose and be defeated.
He's just like Herod, foolishly trying to hang on to power.
He's going to lose power.
But he just ends up murdering a bunch of babies along the way.
What did that accomplish?
He didn't even kill the person that he's trying to kill.
And that's how the devil's plan works.
It's just a bunch of carnage and a bunch of death and misery,
He loses Christ is the winning side and so that's what the birth of Christ is all about God's love for the world
God fighting for humanity Michael the Archangel fighting for humanity
It's about Jesus Christ the Son of God the Savior of the world
offering salvation to every single person and if he
So loved us we ought also to love one another meaning obviously the brethren
but also we should love the lost enough
to give them the gospel.
Let's pray and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your word.
Thank you so much for...
the service that we could have tonight
to think about your birth
and think about what we need to do as Christians, Lord,
please bless us as we finish out this year,
help us to finish this year strong,
reading our Bibles, praying,
witnessing to the loss, soul-winning, Lord,
help us to stay in church
and let 2025 be the greatest year
that our church has ever seen
and that we personally have ever seen
when it comes to our walk.
with you and in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right ladies and gentlemen take your hymnals
please go to him 431, 431. Silent night. Hymn number 431. We'll sing this out together.
Close out our Christmas music this year. Hymn number 431. Let's it up now.
All is calm, all is right.
Brown, young, virgin, mother and child,
Holy, innocent, tender and mild,
from Hell in us.