In Luke chapter 2, of course, I'm going to preach on the birth of Christ this morning.
And Christmas is a day when people have usually set aside to think about and celebrate the birth of Christ.
Now, the birth of Christ is an extremely significant event.
Of course, it's mentioned in great detail in this chapter,
and Matthew chapter 1 is another chapter that goes into great detail about the events of Jesus Christ's birth.
But, you know, even our entire calendar is based upon the birth of Christ.
If you look at it, BC means before Christ, and that's dating from before Jesus Christ was born.
And then AD stands for Anno Domini, which is Latin for in the year of our Lord.
And so even the year 2011 that's coming to a close literally means 2011 years since the birth of Christ.
And today a lot of the heathens have tried to replace this.
And who's ever seen this thing where they say, instead of BC, they say BCE?
I don't know how common that is. It seems like it's never quite caught on, or maybe it has, I don't know.
But these bunch of atheists want to somehow just eradicate any mention of Jesus Christ,
and so they don't like to say BC as in before Christ.
So they say BCE, which means before the current era.
And then they say, and then instead of AD, they say CE, current era.
But it's so ridiculous because you can change the name of it all you want and call it before current era.
They're still counting down to the birth of Christ, no matter how you slice it.
Because there was no other significant event that happened at that time for them to base their whole...
2011 what? 2011 years since Jesus Christ was born.
And so even they with their lying million BC, they're even acknowledging the birth of Christ whether they like it or not.
And so it's an extremely significant event in history, and it's a very significant event in the Bible.
Now let's look at some interesting things from this chapter.
Go to Luke chapter 2 verse 9.
This is where, of course, Jesus is born, and he's born in Bethlehem, and he's laid in a manger.
And the shepherds are in the field watching their flocks by night.
And look at verse number 9.
It says,
So it's always exciting when a baby is born.
You know, I've had six babies born in my family so far.
And it's always a very exciting event when your baby is born.
Now when other people's babies are born, it's not as exciting as when your own baby is born.
But here he says,
And I think the key wording there is at the end of verse 10, when he says,
He says,
Now there's some that teach false doctrine that Jesus Christ only came to save some.
You know, he only came for certain people.
And they'll say, oh, Jesus just came to save the elect.
Certain people that he had four chosen and four were dank.
And they have this Calvinist doctrine that teaches that Jesus didn't die for everybody.
But the Bible is real clear.
He says,
Jesus Christ was born to be the savior of the entire world and to save everyone.
Now not everyone's going to be saved.
There's no question about that.
The majority of people are not saved.
The majority of people do not believe on Jesus Christ.
But he was still born for them.
He was still given for them.
He still sacrificed his life for them.
Now in Isaiah 61, you don't have to turn there.
But the Bible says the spirit of the Lord God is upon me.
Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.
The same exact wording that you see there in Luke 2.
Well in Luke chapter 4, if you flip over there, Luke 4 18, just a couple pages to the right of your Bible.
Jesus goes into the synagogue and he opens up the Bible to the book of Isaiah.
And he reads Isaiah 61 1.
And it says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
So in Isaiah 61 1 in your King James Bible it says to preach good tidings.
And then in Luke 4 it says the gospel.
That's just because there's a difference in language.
The Old Testament was written in Hebrew.
The New Testament was written in Greek.
And so God's showing us here that when he talks about good tidings, he's talking about the gospel.
Gospel means good news or good tidings.
And so the gospel is for everybody according to this verse.
He said good tidings of great joy 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.
You see Jesus Christ wants everyone to be saved.
He died for everybody. He was born for all.
Of course the famous verse 2 Peter 3 9 says the Lord is not slack concerning his promises.
Some men count slackness but his long suffering to us were not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 2 4 who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.
For there is one God and one mediator between God and men.
The man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time.
Titus 2 11 for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men.
And people will say well all doesn't really mean all.
It's just all of the ones who get saved are all of certain people who he chose.
No? Because he said in 1 Timothy 4 10 for therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the savior of all men.
Especially of those that believe.
Even those who don't believe he's the savior but it's just not going to do them any good if they don't believe.
The Bible teaches in Hebrews chapter 4 he said that the gospel was preached unto them also but he said the word preached did not profit them not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.
And so it's not that Jesus isn't going to do you any good if you don't believe on him.
Jesus isn't going to do you any good if you don't have faith in him but he was still born for you 2011 years ago and he is still the savior of all men.
Not just certain nationalities or certain people or just us in America just the white man religion.
No he is the savior of all men he died for all he opens the invitation to everyone that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
Not just a select few but good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people.
Back to Luke chapter 2 if you go back a couple pages.
In Luke chapter 2 12 he continues talking to the shepherds and he says in verse 12 this shall be a sign unto you.
You shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger.
And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will toward men.
And so we see this was a big event in God's mind.
God sent the angel to speak unto the shepherds and then there was a huge multitude in heaven rejoicing and celebrating and being excited about the birth of Christ.
So the birth of Christ is a very significant event in the Bible.
Notice he said on earth peace good will toward men.
What do you mean by peace on earth?
And that's a slogan that you'll see a lot this time of year on greeting cards and on banners and places.
Well first of all the Bible says in Romans 5 one therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
So Jesus Christ came to bring peace in a few different ways.
Number one he came to bring peace between God and man.
See the Bible says that before we were saved in Romans chapter 5 it says that we were at enmity with God.
There was a gulf fixed between us and there was an enmity between us and God.
But when we believe on Jesus Christ the Bible says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
That's our way to make peace with God and to be right with God.
And that our sins are all forgiven and so forth.
But not only that Jesus Christ will someday bring literal peace to this earth.
Of course there's always warfare going on in our world.
There are wars going on on pretty much every continent in some way shape or form all the time.
Wars are being fought even today wars are being fought in this world.
And there's never going to be any peace in this world until Jesus Christ is ruling and reigning.
Now Jesus was born the king of the Jews.
He was born to be that king that would sit upon the throne of David and rule over the entire world in righteousness.
But of course he had to first be rejected of that generation.
Die on the cross for our sins and be buried and three days later rise again.
But someday he's coming back the second time.
And he will sit upon that throne of David and he will bring literal peace on earth.
So those two things are what these angels are referring to.
But look at Luke 2 21.
The Bible says, and when eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child.
So according to the law of Moses Jesus was circumcised on the eighth day.
His name was called Jesus which was so named of the angel before he was conceived in the womb.
In Matthew chapter 1 it talks about how the angel came to Joseph and told him thou shalt call his name Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins because Jesus means the Savior.
And it says in verse 22, and when the days of her purification according to the law of Moses were accomplished
they brought him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord.
As it is written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord
and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtle dogs or two young pigeons.
And behold there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon
and the same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him.
And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.
So here's an old man, he's a very old man.
But God has revealed unto him that he will not die until he actually sees the Lord's Christ.
And he's very old and it just hasn't happened yet.
And you think about it, when he thought about seeing the Lord's Christ
he probably thought he was going to see him as an adult or see him come and die on the cross and be the Savior.
You know God doesn't always do things the way that we think they're going to happen.
And he knew he was going to see the Lord's Christ, he might not have thought that he was going to see him as a baby.
But he knew God revealed it to him when this baby was brought to him.
It says in verse 27, and he came by the Spirit into the temple.
And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custody law,
they took him up in his arms and blessed God and said,
Lord, now let us thou thy servant depart in peace.
He said, now I can die, I can rest in peace because finally I've seen the Lord's Christ.
And he said, now let us thy servant depart in peace according to thy word,
for mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
which thou hast prepared before the face of, how many people?
All people.
A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.
And Joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
And Simon blessed them and said unto Mary his mother,
behold this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel,
and for a sign which shall be spoken against.
Yea, a sword shall pierce through thy own soul also,
that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.
And so God had this elaborate planning around the birth of Christ.
He first of all had him born and laid in the manger.
Then the shepherds were brought in and shown the great heavenly host rejoicing.
And they were there to witness the young baby right after he was born.
And then when he was brought to the temple,
God had prepared this man Simeon just to be there.
He had a special plan for Simeon's life that before he died,
he would be the one that would announce in the temple the birth of Christ
and announce him to all the people in the temple
and announce it even to Mary and Joseph
and give them some more details about Jesus Christ and so forth.
But my favorite part of what Simeon said is in verse 30.
He said, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
You see, looking upon even just the baby Jesus,
he said, I have seen thy salvation.
You see, salvation is Jesus Christ.
I mean, to look upon Jesus Christ is basically to look upon salvation.
That's why when we go out soul winning
and we're out preaching the Gospel and evangelizing people,
we should be emphasizing the Lord Jesus Christ
and his life and his death and his burial and his resurrection.
People are always coming up with these new, cute, soul winning methods
and these new methods that people use
where they carry the Ten Commandments around with them
and they spend literally...
I don't have a problem with showing somebody the Ten Commandments.
It's God's word.
But they'll literally spend like 20 minutes
talking about the Ten Commandments,
20 minutes talking about how sinful we are,
20 minutes talking about how condemned we are,
and then they'll spend 20 seconds talking about Jesus.
There's something wrong with that picture.
Hey, if you spend 20 minutes talking about sin and hell and the Ten Commandments,
but hey, spend twice as much time talking about Jesus,
talking about salvation, talking about the Gospel,
talking about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ
and his death and his burial and his resurrection
because the Bible says,
I'm not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ
for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
But if you have this other message
where it's just a message of,
oh, you're a sinner and you sin and you're going to hell
and you have to turn from your sins to be saved
and if you'll just turn from your sins...
Hey, turning from your sins has never saved anyone.
It never will save anyone.
No one can turn from their sins.
No one ever has turned from all their sins.
That is a lying false doctrine.
The Gospel is about Jesus.
It's not about you and it's not about your sins.
Yeah, I've heard preachers get up
and they go on and on and on about how sinful they used to be
and all the sins they used to do
and they lived a big life of sin
and then they turned from all...
Hey, tell us about Jesus.
Tell us about what he did.
Tell us about his life.
Tell us about... I don't want to hear about your life.
I want to hear about his life and his death and his burial and resurrection.
You see, something's wrong when a soul winning or an evangelism
emphasizes sin more than it emphasizes Jesus.
And people will say,
Oh, well, you've got to tell people they're a sinner.
Agreed.
But that's not going to save anybody.
That's right.
Yeah, you've got to talk about sin.
Every time I give somebody a Gospel, I talk about sin.
I show them verses that they're a sinner.
But I'm not going to spend 20 minutes on that and 2 minutes on the Gospel
because the Gospel is what's going to save them.
Realizing they're a sinner, yeah, obviously that's necessary.
Obviously, hey, if you're not a sinner, what do you need to be saved from
if you don't know you're a sinner?
But do you really think that knowing that they're a sinner is what's going to save them?
Well, if so, then 99% of people would be saved.
Because 99% of the people that I talk to know that they're a sinner.
How often do you really talk to somebody that says,
Hey, I've never sinned?
Isn't that pretty rare?
I mean, I've run into it a couple times where somebody just says like,
I've never sinned.
No. Have you ever stolen? No.
Have you ever disobeyed your parents when you were a kid? No.
Have you ever thought a bad thought? No.
Have you ever disobeyed the Bible? No.
I don't sin.
I've run into it, but you know what, it's pretty rare.
Most people know they're a sinner.
Hey, people need to be warned of hell.
And that's why every single person I get in the Gospel to, I always warn them of hell
and show them scriptures on heaven and hell, that hell's a real place.
But you know what?
20 minutes on hell and 2 minutes on Jesus isn't going to get it done.
You ought to spend your time talking about the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's where the power is.
Yes, they need to know they're a sinner.
But I would spend a good amount of time on who Jesus is
and on the fact that He died for us and that He was buried and that He rose again
and that He's the only way to heaven
and that He's the Savior of the world
and that He's the Savior of all men, especially of those that believe.
And when Simeon looked upon Jesus,
he wasn't looking upon some guy that quit drinking and said,
Hey, I've seen God's salvation.
He wasn't looking at his 12-step program when he said,
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
He wasn't.
He wasn't looking at a tract.
He wasn't looking at some kind of a self-help book
and saying, Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
He wasn't looking into the pit of hell.
He was looking upon a person.
He was looking at a baby that would be the Savior of the world,
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And when he saw Jesus, he said,
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Because seeing Jesus is to see salvation.
Because salvation is 100% Jesus, 0% you.
It's not you living a good life.
It's not that you quit sinning and turn from all your sins
and if you say you did so, you're a liar.
Because if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we say that we've not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
There is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
It doesn't exist.
There's none that doeth good but one and that's God.
And Jesus Christ, who was God in the flesh, the sinless Son of God,
He is salvation.
And so if you're preaching salvation, that's what you're preaching about Jesus.
And literally, I saw a website of somebody that I know
that they had the plan of salvation on that website.
And literally, the whole page was about how we're all sinners and we all sin.
We need to turn from our sins and repent of our sins and give up our sins.
And then at the very bottom, one sentence,
Oh, by the way, Jesus died on the cross.
Now pray this prayer and be saved.
It didn't even mention that he rose again.
It didn't even hardly mention who he was.
Just one little quick sentence at the bottom.
Oh, by the way, Jesus died on the cross.
Now pray this prayer.
After they spent pages of just sin, sin, you're a sinner, you're a sinner, sin, sin, sin.
Look, we need to preach the gospel, the good news,
that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God who shed his blood
as a sacrifice for our sins, as the atonement for our sins.
We cannot take any glory for our salvation.
Oh, I gave up this and I quit doing this and I turn from this sin
and I used to be this and I used to be on this and I used to do this.
So what?
There are a lot of people who converted to Islam
and they quit drinking and quit whatever.
That's not going to save you.
It's the Lord Jesus Christ that is salvation.
And that's what Simeon was looking at when he said,
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
But you see, Jesus Christ's birth was also an amazing miracle
for a few different reasons.
Let me give you some of the miracles of Jesus Christ's birth.
Number one, obviously the obvious one that everyone would think of
is that he was born of a virgin.
That in itself was a miracle.
When Mary was told that she was going to give birth to a child,
she said, How shall this be seeing I know not a man?
And he said, The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee
and the Holy Ghost shall overshadow thee
so that the thing which is born of thee,
and I'm paraphrasing, shall be called the Son of God
because he had no earthly father.
So he was born of a virgin.
And Mary and Joseph did not come together as husband and wife
until after she had brought forth her firstborn son, which was Jesus.
And so that was a miracle.
That's not something which can be explained by science.
But not only that, what about the miracle of God's word becoming flesh?
Go if you would to 1 John chapter 1.
1 John chapter number 1.
And this is kind of a passage that popped into my mind
when I was thinking about Simeon,
you know, looking upon the baby Jesus.
And just think, he's just looking upon a baby.
And he looked upon that baby Jesus and said,
Mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Now look, did Simeon go to heaven or hell?
We know he was saved. He was a just man.
He was a devout man.
He believed.
And people will try to say,
Oh, well, before Jesus died on the cross,
you know, people couldn't really be saved.
They had to go in this little holding tank, you know, or whatever.
But wait a minute.
This guy was already looking forward to
the Lord Jesus Christ coming someday.
He didn't know all the details.
He didn't know what that baby's name was going to be.
But you know what?
He knew that salvation was coming.
And it says, not only that,
it says that he was one of those.
Let me, I know I moved away from there,
but I just wanted to point out this one verse here
if I can find it.
Kind of popped into my mind here.
Oh yeah, it says in verse 38 of Luke chapter 2,
you don't have to turn back there,
but in Luke chapter 2,
remember Simeon announced the baby Jesus?
Well, there was another woman there,
a very old woman,
who was also kind of in the same boat as Simeon.
She was also there to announce the birth of Christ.
And this woman, Anna,
who was a woman of a great age,
she lived with a husband seven years from her virginity,
and she was a widow of about four score and four years.
So this woman is very old.
It's probably like over a hundred years old,
if I understand that right,
because she's basically been a widow for 84 years.
She lived with her husband for seven years.
That's 91 years.
And then think about how old she was when she got married.
So we're probably looking at a woman
who's probably 109 or something,
you know, somewhere around there,
110 years old or however old she was.
She's a very elderly woman.
She was also there to announce the birth of Christ,
and here's what I thought was interesting.
It says in verse 38 of Luke 2,
and she coming in that instant
gave thanks likewise unto the Lord,
likewise unto Simeon,
and spake of him to all them
that looked for redemption in Jerusalem.
So there were people that were looking for redemption.
There were people that were expecting Messiah to come.
Remember when Jesus was talking to the woman at the well?
She said, well, I know that Messiah is coming.
So she knew the Messiah was coming.
All these people that Anna was talking to
knew the Messiah was coming.
Simeon knew the Messiah was coming.
So it wasn't like they were just completely in the dark on these things,
and when Simeon looked upon Jesus,
he said, I've seen thy salvation,
because Simeon was saved through Jesus.
He was saved through Jesus Christ.
Even though Simeon died long before Jesus would die on the cross,
Jesus was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And so Simeon knew that his salvation,
Simeon knew that he was going to heaven for one reason,
because that little baby was God in the flesh
and would grow up one day
and live a perfect, sinless life,
die on the cross, be buried,
and three days later, rising in from the dead,
and he knew that all of salvation was wrapped up in that one thing.
And so that's what he meant by that.
But where did I return to 1 John 1?
Look at 1 John 1, verse 1.
It says, that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard,
which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon,
and our hands have handled,
of the word of life.
For the life was manifested,
and we have seen it,
and bear witness,
and show unto you that eternal life,
which was with the Father,
and was manifested unto us.
What's he saying?
Well, if you remember,
John also wrote the book,
you know, the Gospel of John.
And at the beginning of the Gospel of John 1, 1,
it says, in the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made.
In Him was life,
and the light was the light of men.
And then, of course,
jump down to verse 14,
he says, not you,
because you're not in John,
but you're in 1 John,
but I'll just jump down mentally for you,
and tell you.
He says that the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us,
and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth.
You see, Jesus Christ,
the Bible says,
was the Word made flesh.
And it says in Him was life,
and the life was the light of men.
And here in 1 John 1,
He says, that which was from the beginning.
You see, Jesus didn't begin to originate
when He was born in Bethlehem.
He was from the beginning.
The Bible says,
that's just when He became flesh,
because the Bible says,
in the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God,
the Word was God.
He said in 1 John 5 to 7,
for there are three that bear recognition,
the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one.
You see, the Word became flesh,
and John said,
we have heard God's Word,
but not only that,
he said, we have seen and touched,
and our hands have literally handled God's Word,
because they literally handled Jesus Christ.
I mean, literally,
when He was risen again from the dead,
I mean, they felt the print,
where the nails had been in His hand.
They put their hand,
remember, He offered to Thomas to do it,
but the rest of the apostles really did it.
It says that they examined His wounds,
they examined the holes where the nails had been,
they examined the hole in His side,
they physically handled salvation,
the Word of God incarnate,
the Word made flesh.
You see, the Word of God literally became flesh.
That's a miracle, that's amazing.
The Bible says in,
let me find my place here,
the Bible says in,
let's see here,
I already said that,
I already said that.
Turn to Revelation 19.
Go to Revelation 19.
This is a little bit more on
the miracle of God's Word becoming flesh.
First of all, we saw the miracle of the virgin birth,
and then we saw the miracle of God's Word becoming flesh.
And by the way, the Bible is God's Word.
Amen.
And people try to say, like,
the Bible's not God's Word,
or that, you know,
when the Bible says the Word of God,
that's just a name that Jesus is called.
Like, that's just a name, a word.
Well, that name wouldn't make any sense
if He wasn't really the Word.
You know, and this is the written Word,
and Jesus was the living, breathing,
walking, talking Word of God made flesh.
And you see, the Word of God,
a lot of people will take God's Word
and try to attribute it to man.
Like, oh, man wrote the Bible.
And this is what they'll say.
You can always tell when somebody thinks man wrote the Bible.
You know how you can tell?
Because here's what they'll say.
Oh, to understand the Bible,
you got to go back to the culture
where it was written.
You got to study the culture of the Jews
and the Greeks and the, you know.
But really, if you know when it was written,
you know it was written before the world began.
Because it was in the beginning with God,
and it was God.
And the Bible clearly says,
in hope of eternal life,
which God that cannot lie,
promised before the world began.
Before the world began,
these promises already existed.
This Word existed before there ever was an earth
or a sun or a moon or stars.
God's Word is eternal,
and the eternal, living Word of God became flesh.
Jesus Christ was the human embodiment of salvation,
and Jesus was the human physical embodiment of God's Word.
The walking, talking, breathing, living Word of God.
Let me show you more scripture on that.
Revelation 19-11.
I've already showed you three scriptures on that,
but look at Revelation 19-11.
This is talking about the second coming of Christ.
It says,
I saw heaven open and behold a white horse,
and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.
So what was he called?
Faithful and True.
And in righteousness he did judge and make war.
His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns,
and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself.
And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood,
and his name is called the Word of God.
And the armies which were in heaven
followed him upon white horses,
clothed in fine linen, white and clean,
and out of his mouth go the sharp sword,
that with it he should smite the nations,
and he shall rule them with a rod of iron,
and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God,
and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written,
King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
So Jesus Christ on the white horse, he has many names.
He's called, first of all, Faithful and True.
He also has a name that no one knows except he himself.
He also has a name, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And he also has the name, the Word of God.
These are his names.
This is who he is.
He has a sharp sword going out of his mouth,
representing the fact that the Word of God is quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
and piercing even the body and center of soul and spirit
and the joints and marrow,
and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
Look over to chapter 21, verse 5.
And remember, nothing in the Bible is incidental, coincidental, or accidental.
Everything in the Bible is perfect.
The Bible is exactly God's Word created from the mind of God.
God is so much beyond our thoughts
that we could never know everything in the Bible.
You could never meet somebody and say,
I know everything in the Bible.
I understand every verse in the Bible.
I know the Bible from cover to cover.
Even if you were to memorize the whole Bible.
Let's say you just memorized the entire Bible, Genesis to Revelation.
You still would not know everything about the Bible.
Am I even close?
No, no way.
Because I can tell you from my experience,
I don't have the whole Bible memorized,
but I have hundreds of chapters memorized,
and I can tell you right now,
that there are chapters in books of the Bible
that I memorized a long time ago.
And I quoted them over and over again.
I have been completely committed to memory.
And constantly, people will be showing me something new
that I've never seen, after I've quoted it 800 times.
After I've had it memorized for the last decade.
And somebody will show me.
And you know, coming up in the new year,
we're going to start out preaching through Genesis.
I'm finishing 1 Samuel this Wednesday.
Next Wednesday in January, we're going to start Genesis.
He said, Genesis chapter 1.
What can I learn from Genesis chapter 1?
I've read that chapter a million times.
I've already heard it preached.
I already know what it says.
And then getting God paid after the year.
But there is so much to learn in that chapter.
I am constantly.
I learned new things from Genesis 1 in 2011.
I've been reading that chapter my whole life.
You know all the times you said,
I'm going to read the whole Bible.
Let's start again Genesis 1.
I mean, you've done it how many times?
Probably almost everybody on this planet has read Genesis 1.
I mean, well, not on the planet, OK?
That's an exaggeration.
But probably everybody who's a Christian has read Genesis 1.
If they've read anything, they pulled it out,
they opened it up to page 1 and started reading.
And yet there's more.
There's more that you don't know.
There's more for you to learn on Wednesday night
when you come for Genesis chapter 1.
Because you don't know everything.
I don't know everything.
It's so deep.
It is literally God's essence of who He is.
I mean, the Word was God.
How are you going to know that?
How are you going to fathom that
when God is so much higher than we are
and His thoughts are so much higher than our thoughts?
But where did I return?
Revelation 21.
Look at verse 5.
And he that sat upon the throne said,
Behold, I make all things new.
And he said unto me, Write,
for these words are true and faithful.
What did he say his name was on the horse?
Faithful and true.
Faithful and true. The Word of God.
And then Jesus tells us here,
Hey, these words are faithful and true.
Go to chapter 22, verse 6.
22, 6.
He said unto me,
These sayings are faithful and true.
So the sayings are faithful and true.
That's why Jesus called Himself,
Hey, I am faithful and true.
I am the Word of God.
I am the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And I am the one who has a vesture dipped in blood,
picturing the blood of Christ,
picturing when Joseph in the book of Genesis,
even Genesis teaches the Gospel in so many different ways,
where Joseph was slain, or not slain,
but he was thought to have been slain.
You remember this?
And his dad thought he was dead.
And really they had thrown him into a pit
where there was no water in the pit,
representing, of course, Jesus Christ's soul,
descending into hell for three days and three nights.
He was brought up out of the pit.
He saved his family.
He saved his people.
A picture of Jesus Christ saving his people one day.
When they went back to tell Dad,
Hey, Joseph's been killed.
Of course, Joseph hadn't really been killed.
Remember, they sold him into Egypt.
Just like Jesus went into Egypt.
Did you know that?
When he was a baby, he went into Egypt for a while.
Well, when they pulled out the jacket,
they dipped it in blood.
And they dipped the coat of Joseph in blood.
And they brought the blood-dipped coat
unto their father and showed it to him and said,
Is this your son's coat?
He said, Yes, it is.
Joseph was then put into prison.
He sat between two people that were condemned, criminals.
One was set free.
The other was condemned.
A picture of Jesus being between two thieves on the cross.
One was condemned to hell.
One was delivered and allowed to go into heaven
because he believed on Jesus Christ and said,
Lord, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom.
And he said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
You see, Jesus Christ is the literal embodiment of God's Word.
He was the Word made flesh.
And a lot of people say,
Well, how could the Word become flesh?
How could God's Word become flesh?
I mean, how could the words of the Bible become a person?
That's what makes it a miracle.
You know, and people say,
Well, I can't figure it out, so it didn't happen.
Well, you probably can't figure out the virgin birth either,
how that scientifically took place.
But it happened.
Why?
Because it's a miracle.
A miracle is something that defies the so-called laws of science.
Because God has all power.
He's omnipotent.
He's able to do things that are impossible.
Because the Bible says with men this is impossible,
but with God all things are possible.
And so God was not only able to make Jesus born of a virgin,
he was also able to basically cause the Word of God to become flesh.
And it's amazing.
But another miracle was the fact that Jesus Christ was actually God in the flesh.
Now that's a pretty amazing thing in and of itself.
How could God himself,
go back to Luke chapter 2 where we started.
How could God himself become a human being?
Now here's what's so hard to comprehend about this doctrine.
And that's why the birth of Christ is such an amazing thing.
I think it's the most amazing miracle in the entire Bible.
How you can make God become a human being,
that's the most amazing thing in the Bible.
And because it's so amazing,
a lot of people don't believe in it.
How could God be a man?
They say it didn't happen.
Well the Bible's clear it did happen.
The Bible's clear a lot of people will say that Jesus Christ was not God.
That he was some kind of a lesser created being or something like that.
The Bible's real clear that he was.
You see it says in, you're turning to Luke 2, but it says in 1 Timothy 3.16.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness.
It is a mystery.
It is something that we could not explain.
God was manifest in the flesh.
Justified in the spirit.
Seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, received up into glory.
Even just a basic understanding of English grammar
will tell you that the subject of that sentence is God.
You know a little bit about grammar?
God was manifest in the flesh.
What's the subject?
God.
God was the one who was manifest in the flesh.
And then it's a comma.
And it says justified in the spirit.
Is there a new subject?
No.
There is no new subject in this verse.
The same subject God is for the whole verse.
So it says this, if you think about it this way, it's saying
God was manifest in the flesh.
God was justified in the spirit.
God was seen of angels.
Because the subject never changes.
It's just a list of verbs on that same subject.
God was preached unto the Gentiles.
God was believed on in the world.
And God was received up into glory.
And you say, well who received him?
Well look, there's the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost
and these three are one.
It's the Trinity, the three in one.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
You say, that doesn't make any sense.
You're just too ignorant to understand it.
That doesn't mean it's not true.
No one can fully understand it.
Because God is so much more complex than we are
and he performed a miracle.
It's an amazing miracle that God became a human being.
And that he could become man and walk amongst us
and live amongst men and be like us.
But the Bible's clear that it was God that was manifest in the flesh.
It was God that died.
It was God that rose again.
It was God that was received up into glory.
Isaiah 9-6 is a famous verse this time of year.
For unto us a child is born.
For unto us a son is given.
And the government shall be upon his shoulder.
And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
The Mighty God.
The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
That's saying that the Son is the Mighty God.
The Son is the Everlasting Father.
The Bible says in Matthew 1-23,
Behold, a virgin shall be with child
and shall bring forth a son,
and they shall call his name Immanuel,
which being interpreted as God with us.
That's literally what Immanuel means.
God with us.
That's what his name was called.
He of course himself said,
Why callest thou me good?
There's none good but one, and that's God.
So either Jesus Christ was not good, or he was God.
And we know he was God in the flesh.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God.
You say, well, how could it be with God
and be God at the same time?
That's just something that you can't wrap your mind around,
but it's still biblical.
The Bible says in Hebrews 1-8,
But unto the Son he saith,
Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
He said that the Savior would be Christ the Lord.
That's why you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
not just Jesus who was a good prophet or a good teacher
or a great saint, or as Islam teaches,
there's no God but Allah, and they say Allah has no son.
There is no such thing as the Son of God.
That's what Islam says.
That's why Muslims are not saved,
and they're on their way to hell.
They do not believe that Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
they believe he's a good teacher, a good prophet,
and the Bible's been corrupted.
No, you've been corrupted by Muhammad, Muslim.
You need to get saved.
You need to believe that Jesus Christ was God
in the flesh.
He was called the Son of God because he was born of a virgin.
He had no earthly father.
He was born of the Spirit,
and that's why Muslims are not saved,
one of the many reasons why they're not saved.
They also believe in work salvation,
keeping the commandments.
Well, good luck with that,
and good luck to all the Christians so-called
who think they're going to get dead by keeping the commandments
because it's not going to happen.
We're all sinners.
But it's a miracle.
The Bible's really clear that Jesus was God,
yet he became human.
Even though Jesus was fully God, he became human.
Let me show you what I mean.
Look at Luke chapter 2, verse 52.
It says,
And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature
and in favor with God and men.
So the Bible says that Jesus increased in wisdom.
So did he start out having as much wisdom as he had later?
No.
No, because he increased in wisdom.
Go to Mark 13.
Go back just a few pages.
Just a few pages backward if you're in Luke,
and you'll get into Mark 13.
Look at Mark 13, 32, talking about Jesus Christ
coming in the clouds with the sound of a trumpet
at the rapture.
It says in Mark 13, 32,
But of that day and hour knoweth no man.
Know not the angels which are in heaven.
Watch this.
Neither the Son, but the Father.
So at the time Jesus was speaking,
did Jesus know the day and the hour of his second coming?
No.
You say, well, God knows everything.
Yes, he does.
And Jesus right now up in heaven, of course,
knows the day and the hour of his coming.
It doesn't say that the Son will never know.
It's just that at that time, the Son knoweth no man.
No man knows the day or the hour,
including himself.
Why?
Because when Jesus, and this is an amazing miracle.
Stop and think about this.
When Jesus became a human being,
he literally took upon himself the limitations
of being a human being.
Isn't that amazing?
I mean, he was still the same person.
He was God in the flesh.
But he was somehow able to take upon
the limitations of being man.
That's why when he was a baby,
he didn't just come out of the womb.
Hi, Mary.
It's a baby.
He didn't just get up and start walking around the manger
and then it's a miracle.
No, the sign was that they were going to find him laying in a manger.
Now that would have been an amazing sign
if he just was walking and talking and so forth.
But he wasn't.
He had to grow.
He had to learn.
He had to grow in wisdom and in stature
and in faith with God and man.
You see so many elements of Jesus being human in the Bible.
Of course he was sinless.
Of course he was without fault.
But the Bible says in Hebrews 2-9,
you don't have to turn there,
but Hebrews 2-9 says,
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels
the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor,
that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
The Bible says that Jesus was made a little lower than the angels.
The creator of the universe was actually made lower than the angels.
Isn't that an amazing miracle?
How could God put himself into flesh?
How could he put himself into flesh and become a human being
and live among us when he's the creator?
The Bible said all things were made by him
and without him was not anything made that was made.
And then he became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we beheld his glory.
The glory is of the only begotten, the Father full of grace and truth.
That's an amazing miracle.
How did God accomplish that?
God is truly an all-powerful God.
If he can accomplish becoming man
and not even knowing everything anymore.
He didn't know his second coming.
He had to grow in wisdom and so forth.
And we see Jesus going through all the same type of struggles that we go through.
The Bible talks about him being hungry.
The Bible talks about him being thirsty.
And you know, before Jesus went to the cross,
when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he was very anxious about it.
He was sweating and he was upset about it.
And he said,
Father, if there's any other way, let this cup pass from me.
Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.
We can see, he was not just robotically going to the cross.
Okay, you know, going through the motions.
Alright, I'm going to die for you.
No, he was like a human being who knew
he's going to suffer greatly.
He's going to be beaten and spat upon.
He's going to be mocked.
He's going to be ridiculed.
The Bible says he despised the shame.
He didn't want to be up there as spectacle,
stripped down, beaten, hung on the cross,
spat upon, made fun of, mocked.
He went through all the physical pain.
He went through the humiliation,
the embarrassment of suffering on the cross,
and then he died.
His soul literally went to hell.
His body was in the tomb.
Three days later, he rose again.
Hey, he knew that he was going to have to go through that.
And it was not something he wanted to go through.
It was a horrible experience.
But he did it because he loved us.
He did it to save us.
That's amazing.
And so the birth of Christ
is the most amazing miracle in the entire Bible.
Because it was a virgin birth
and because it was the word of God in flesh
and because it was God himself in the flesh.
Unbelievable.
Amazing.
And so I hope you'll stop and contemplate.
You know, today is Christmas Day
and many people get angry about people
celebrating Christmas and they'll say,
Jesus was born on December 25th.
Well, I don't think that anybody really...
Does anybody here really think he was born on December 25th?
But guess what?
What's even sillier than that
is when people try to tell you
that they know when he really was born.
He was actually born in September or March or April or August.
And they just have it exactly now.
You know what?
That's just as silly as thinking it was December 25th.
Because I'll put it to you this way.
There's about a one in 365 chance
that he was born on December 25th.
We don't know when it was, okay?
Nobody knows.
Nobody actually thinks he was born December 25th, year zero.
Right there.
Because the calendar has changed so many times
and there's been so many different calendars
that different people have been using.
And people calculate...
And yeah, there's stuff in the Bible you could use
to try to get a hint of,
okay, well, this is when the taxing was
or well, this is when Elizabeth became pregnant
with John the Baptist and we can do the math
and this is when he died on the cross
and try to figure it out.
But you know what?
You're not going to figure out the birthday.
You're not going to know.
You can't figure it out.
Maybe you can get in the ballpark, great, whatever.
But you know what?
That's not really the point, okay?
The point is that Christmas is just a holiday
that we celebrate.
There's nothing wrong with celebrating a holiday
and having a good time to get together with family
and to celebrate the birth of Christ.
You know, there are other times
when we celebrate the death of Christ.
Like, for example, when we observe the Lord's Supper,
when we take communion
and we recognize the broken body of Christ
and the blood of Christ
and Jesus said,
this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.
It's just a remembrance.
We're not saying, hey, this is exactly when he died,
you know, this many years ago.
No, it's just a time that we set aside,
just a random time that we set aside
to stop and remember and recognize
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
Well, Christmas is a time when we stop
and celebrate the birth of Christ
and thank God that many people,
they actually hear a little bit about the Gospel.
Our culture, in its desire to become completely godless
and completely devoid of Christianity,
the de-Christianization of our country
has gone to the point where B.C. becomes B.C.E.
And A.D. becomes C.E.
Don't ever write that.
It's stupid.
It doesn't make sense.
Everybody knows what you're counting from.
And part of the de-Christianization, too,
is to basically just eradicate Christmas
and to get rid of it.
Why?
Because it's a holiday that glorifies God.
And people will try to find something wrong with it,
but pretty much everything that they find wrong with it
is like Santa Claus and the reindeer.
Well, you know, I don't celebrate Santa Claus.
You think I tell my kids, oh, Santa gave me.
I bought that.
You think I'm gonna give my credit
to some fat guy with a big white beard?
I'm taking the credit.
I bought that.
You better like it.
Santa, Santa-shmanta.
It was St. Stephen that bought you that.
St. Nicholas.
Hey, that's funny.
Now, obviously, look,
the de-Christianization of our country is for a reason,
because today we go out solely
and we knock on doors of kids
who literally have never even heard of Adam and Eve.
They've never even heard of the Bible stories.
They've never even heard of the fact
that Jesus died and rose again.
That was not the way it used to be.
I was talking to my dad a few days ago.
I got to spend some time with my dad a few days ago,
and we were talking,
and he was explaining to me how, when he was in school,
and let me tell you something.
My dad did not go to school in the Bible Belt
in Oklahoma or something.
My dad went to school in Los Angeles, California.
He went to school with the children of movie stars
and everything and from Hollywood.
So my dad was not out in the Bible Belt.
He was in L.A.
That is not exactly a bastion of fundamental Christianity.
But when my dad was growing up,
when he was a teenager in the 60s
in Los Angeles, California,
they would literally shut the school down for a week
and have what was called religious release, they called it.
It sounds like you're in prison.
But anyway, they had religious release,
and they would literally, they would let them go,
and every church in the area had like a vacation Bible school going on,
and he went to the vacation Bible school in his church,
which was Faith Baptist Church, Canova Park, California,
which was a King James Bible preaching, you know,
fundamental Baptist church in that area.
That's where he got saved, and that's where my mom got saved.
That's where they met and so forth.
And they would go down to the Baptist Church,
and all the kids would go to some church.
Every kid would get let out.
And they literally read the Bible to them in school.
They would pray in school. They would teach the Bible.
I mean, it was just a different world that they grew up in.
They grew up in a world where Christianity was considered the normal religion.
And you know, if somebody was an atheist, whatever.
You want to be a Muslim, whatever.
Be a Buddhist, whatever. Be Hindu, whatever.
You know, you're free to do that.
Nobody's going to force anything upon you in America.
You have freedom of religion.
But this country was once considered that Christianity was the norm.
And Christianity was the official religion.
That the school, even the public government school,
nobody can lie about the fact that even in L.A.,
even in Los Angeles, California, it was seeing,
hey, here's a time we observe the birth of Christ at Christmas.
Here's when we celebrate the resurrection at Easter.
And here's when you're going to be released to go to church
and learn about the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because it was considered part of their education.
So I'm not promoting the public school.
I don't believe in government schools.
They were wrong then and they're wrong now.
But that's not the point.
The point is that our culture has changed today.
That a child in the 60s would know who Jesus was.
He would know who Adam and Eve were.
He would know who Samson is.
He's going to know who King David is.
He's going to know who the Apostle Paul is.
He's going to know the basics of Christianity
because God's Word was being proclaimed,
even in the Charlie Brown Christmas special.
He's going to read Luke chapter 2.
But today is being eradicated from our culture
to where there's an attack on Christmas today
because they basically just don't want anything about Jesus.
They don't want it to be about the birth of Christ.
They want it to be about Kwanzaa or Hanukkah
or Happy Holidays or the Holiday Tree or whatever.
Instead of calling it a Christmas tree,
they call it a Holiday Tree.
And I heard Obama set up the Holiday Tree.
And then all of a sudden, all the advertisements say that.
And it seasons greetings and Happy Holidays.
Hey, Christmas is a Christian holiday
celebrating the birth of Christ.
Do some people maybe celebrate it in a weird way
with Santa or something?
So what?
There's nothing unwholesome about taking a day each year,
getting in God's Word about the birth of Christ,
reading, and I hope you'll read the chapter to your family,
like my wife was reading it out loud last night
of Luke chapter 2.
I read it aloud this morning,
and I'm preaching about it right now
and celebrating the birth of Christ,
getting together with family,
getting together with friends,
getting together as a church,
giving gifts to one another,
showing love and compassion to others.
It's a great time.
And some people, the Bible says
that just everything is impure to them
because they're corrupt.
So they have to corrupt everything
to make everything bad,
and they'll tell you everything's bad.
And I've had people say
that the Christmas ornament on the tree is pagan
because it's round.
Okay, now, who's ever eaten a pomegranate before?
Did you know that a Christmas ornament
is an exact replica of a pomegranate?
Look at it.
If you look at a pomegranate, it's round,
and it has a little stub on the top,
and on that stub it has a little crown molding,
I guess you could call it,
that hangs down over it.
And if you hold a pomegranate
that's in my fruit bowl at home right now
next to a Christmas ornament,
the two are identical in size, shape,
and they even have the same little trim piece
around the top.
Check it out.
And do you know what was decorated
with pomegranates in the Bible?
The tabernacle.
God's house was decorated with pomegranates.
And so somebody would look,
oh, you know, that Christmas ornament's a pagan thing
because I have this encyclopedia of witchcraft.
What do you mean encyclopedia of witchcraft?
And anybody who's ever attacking this stuff,
they can never show you in the Bible.
They always have to show you
from like a witchcraft encyclopedia.
Oh, thousands of years ago,
the king of Babylon decorated a tree
and put a sphere on it or whatever.
But in reality, it's a pomegranate.
So it's a tree.
I literally got an email this morning.
Somebody's telling me,
Pastor Ashley, don't you know
that there's an evil spirit living in the tree?
I mean, it sounds like some kind of
a Native American witch doctor
that came up with that.
You know, like the spirit in the rock
and the spirit in the tree
and the spirit in the sky and whatever.
It sounds like the Doobie Brothers.
You know?
There's no spirit living in that tree.
God made that tree.
Okay?
God made the trees.
There's no evil spirit
living in a tree today, my friend.
It's a tree that God made.
People say it's a graven image.
Who graved it?
Somebody said it was the work of men's hands.
What?
I'd like to see a man
that could create a tree with his hands.
Oh, it's the work of men's hands.
No.
When you cut down a tree
and carve it into an idol,
then it's the work of men's hands.
And when you engrave it into the shape of a calf
or a lion or a serpent
or you engrave it into all different kinds of beasts
and so forth
or a human being,
well, then it's a graven image,
but it's neither graven nor image.
See, there's an attack on Christmas today
because of de-Christianization in our country.
It's an agenda
where they want people
to literally not even know who Jesus is.
Don't even mention
that we're counting 2011 years since he was born.
Don't even mention his birth.
Don't even mention his resurrection.
They want it to be as if he didn't even exist.
Well, we will not just turn a blind eye
to the fact that Jesus Christ was born,
that he's our Savior,
and this is a great day to announce it to people,
to show it unto people.
And so that's what we're doing today.
We're making it about Jesus.
We're teaching our children.
And thankfully, even today,
a lot of heathen people,
they're maybe hearing the story
about the birth of Christ today.
Maybe they're watching Charlie Brown
and getting some King James Version,
whether they like it or not.
Right?
And so, great.
Praise God for his Word being preached.
And have an enjoyable day today.
And enjoy time with friends and family.
And enjoy the food
and enjoy everything.
And just take time
to meditate upon the birth of Christ.
Let's go ahead and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your Word.
And we thank you so much
for the fact that you loved us
and died for us
and just the miracle of your birth, dear God,
and just the miracle of the fact
that you were wrote in human flesh
and actually became one of us.
It's amazing.
I wish I could have been there like John,
where he actually got to see
and hear and handle you.
I wish I could have been there for that.
But thank God one day
I will be there for that up in heaven
when we get to see you.
And help everyone to have a blessed day today.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.