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In Romans chapter 14, the part of the chapter that I wanted to focus on is the early part of the chapter. Really this entire chapter deals with the subject of doubtful disputations and what doubtful disputations are are things where people argue about them and they have real strong opinions about them but they're not really something that's clearly laid out in scripture. You know the Bible doesn't just clearly say things one way or the other so there are doubts about what is right or what is wrong in that situation. He brings up a few examples. Let me just read this for you. It says in verse 1, Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations. For one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not, and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth, for God hath received him. Who art thou that judges another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth, yea he shall be holden up, for God is able to make him stand. So what it's saying here is that some people think that it's wrong to eat meat, for example. And what the Bible is saying here about people like that is that we should receive them. We shouldn't fight them or judge them or despise them because they have that belief. We should rather receive them but, he says, not to doubtful disputations. You know we don't want to cause division and strife over things that just frankly aren't that important. For example, one of our church members and I were talking about just yesterday that the church that he used to go to, the pastor is vegan, meaning not only does he not eat meat but he doesn't eat any animal products. Now look, I don't believe that that's scriptural. That's not what the Bible teaches and even here in this scripture it's pretty clear who's right in this disputation because it says in verse 2, for one believeth that he may eat all things, another who is weak eateth herbs. So the Bible here is clearly saying it's okay for us to eat all things. Other places in the Bible teach that we can eat all meats and all things and the Bible is real clear on that. Even in the Old Testament they ate the Passover. You had to eat meat to participate in the Passover. So obviously we know that God is not one that teaches veganism or even vegetarianism. That if somebody wants to be a vegetarian or wants to be vegan, there's nothing wrong with that. We shouldn't condemn that person. There's nothing sinful about being vegetarian or vegan. But what becomes sinful is when that person tries to impose something that is not biblical on everyone else and basically say, you must be vegan. You must be vegetarian like me and if you're not, you're not. Well no, because that is not a biblical teaching. There's no biblical commandment against eating meat. Therefore anybody who would try to teach that as a commandment is teaching for commandments the doctrines of men. So what the Bible is teaching here in this chapter is that it's okay for different people to have different opinions and it's also okay for people to have rules for themselves that are not biblical rules, just rules that they just live by just because it's their opinion, but that they should not try to impose those rules upon someone else, right? Because it says right there, verse 3, let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not. So we shouldn't get upset or angry or fight the person who doesn't want to eat meat. If they don't want to eat meat, well that's their loss. That's fine. No problem. But then it also says, let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth. You know, we don't want to be judged for the meat that we eat, okay? Does that make sense? So I just want to give you the context of the chapter. But the specific subject that we want to speak about is actually found in verse 5 and 6. It says, one man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks, and on and on. So what I want to preach about tonight is the subject of Christmas. And the reason I want to preach about the subject of Christmas is that this has become a big issue in the last few years of people attacking Christmas and saying that we should not celebrate Christmas, okay? Now several years ago, this wasn't even an issue. I mean, when I was growing up, when I was a child, the only people who didn't celebrate Christmas were pretty much the Jehovah's Witnesses. I mean, that's pretty much it. It was not, you know, pretty much every Baptist and every Christian that you knew just celebrated Christmas and it was not something that even came up. But honestly, every year, the attack on Christmas amongst Christians becomes exponential, okay? I mean, you know how it used to be that, you know, they say, man, Christmas starts earlier every year. You know, you don't really talk about Christmas until after Thanksgiving. Well now it seems like people start attacking Christmas earlier every year. And I mean, I get an email almost every day or week from somebody, you know, attacking me because I personally celebrate Christmas, okay? And I mean, it starts in November and now they're starting to attack Thanksgiving, you know, and just say Thanksgiving's a wicked holiday and don't celebrate Thanksgiving. You know, there's this, and that's why I feel like I need to address this biblically with Bible preaching tonight. What does the Bible teach about this subject? The Bible is our final authority for all matters of faith and practice. And so look, if Christmas is wrong, if Christmas is ungodly, if it's a sin, then you know what, the Bible should teach us that. And if the Bible does not teach us that, then if you prohibit Christmas, you're teaching for commandments the doctrines of men. If the Bible prohibits Christmas, fine, let's throw it out. But if it doesn't, then you know what, I think people should be allowed to have their own opinion about it. So what I'm saying tonight is that if there's anybody here tonight that thinks that Christmas is wrong and that they shouldn't celebrate Christmas, that's okay. You should abstain from Christmas then if you believe that it's wrong. But when you begin to impose that upon people who do celebrate it with no biblical basis, you know, now you're in violation of Romans 14, okay, and you're teaching for commandments the doctrines of men. A little bit later on in the same chapter, Romans 14 verse 20 says, For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure, but it is evil for that man who eateth with offense. Now what the Bible's teaching here in Romans 14, 20 is that if you think something is wrong, then it's wrong for you. If you think it's wrong and then you do it anyway and you're sinning against your own conscience, the Bible says if you're not doing it by faith, it's sin. So a lot of people will misuse Romans 14, 20 and say the only things that are wrong are the things you think are wrong. No, wrong. There are two groups of things that are wrong. Anything the Bible says is wrong is wrong, whether you think it or not, whether you know it or not. But also if you believe something is wrong and you do it anyway, that's wrong to you. Okay, so if you think that Christmas is pagan and wicked and wrong, then you shouldn't celebrate it and I'm not trying to get you to celebrate it. The purpose of my sermon tonight is not to try to talk you into celebrating Christmas because honestly I really couldn't care less if you celebrate Christmas or not. But the purpose of the sermon is to basically debunk a lot of lies and disinformation that are used in the attack on Christmas and to basically defend those who do celebrate Christmas in a wholesome and godly way. That's what the sermon is about tonight. So let's do as the Bible says and prove all things, hold fast to that which is good. The first question that we have to ask ourselves is, is Christmas a good holiday? Is it something good? Is it something that we should celebrate? So look at Philippians chapter 1. Let me give you some good things about Christmas and I'm going to get into a lot of Bible scripts about this, but first let me just give you the good things about Christmas and then I can give you some bad things about Christmas and we can look at it and form a conclusion here. Look at Philippians chapter 1 verse 15, the Bible reads, some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife and some also of good will. The one preached Christ of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my bonds, but the other of love knowing that I am set for the defense of the Gospel. What then? Notwithstanding every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached and I there and do rejoice, yea and will rejoice. So what Paul is saying here is that a lot of people are preaching Christ for the wrong reasons but his belief was if people are hearing about Christ, if people are hearing about the Gospel of Christ, that's a good thing. Just for people to hear the Gospel, he rejoices about the fact that people are hearing of Christ. Now I think that one of the good things about Christmas is that Christmas is a time when people do hear the Word of God and the Gospel and when our society in general, even the outside world, recognizes the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as the Savior of the world. Now personally I think this is a good thing because of the fact that today in school Jesus Christ is not being taught. Anything that's on TV is usually not promoting Jesus Christ in a positive way. Most of our culture and our society has forgotten Jesus Christ and even when we go out soul in the day and knock on doors, there are people who have never even heard of Jesus. It's kind of bizarre and I'm talking about mainly young people, children, teenagers who don't know anything about Jesus. They don't even know he died on the cross, they don't even know he rose again, they don't know who Adam and Eve are, they don't know who Samson is. Our culture has been de-Christianized in many ways and so therefore a lot of people don't hear about Jesus Christ. The good thing about Christmas is that it actually brings Jesus Christ to people's mind. They hear the Word of God, his Word is being preached. Just to give you a silly example, but one thing that I don't know if this is still played on TV but when I was a kid they used to play the Charlie Brown Christmas special, right? And again I'm not saying this is a religious program, I'm not saying this is Bible preaching, but you know I remember when I was a kid they played the Charlie Brown Christmas special and Linus, you know, sucking his thumb and his blanket and everything, he gets up and he basically reads the whole thing, Luke chapter 2, right, the whole Christmas story. You know, from a King James Bible. Now look, I'm not saying that necessarily the motives of the TV station are good, but you know what, people are hearing the Word of God when they hear that Christmas story. You know, you go in the store and you hear songs that are quoting scripture and paraphrasing scripture this time of year. For example, the musical piece Handel's Messiah is performed all over the place in December around Christmas time, all over America, all over the world, and Handel's Messiah is like a two and a half hour musical piece that's basically just scripture put to music. It's just verses directly from the King James Bible being sung to music or the Psalms are from the Geneva Bible, the precursor to the King James, it's a very old piece of music so it had some of that tradition, but it's powerful. You know, the most famous part of it is the Hallelujah Chorus, you know, which most people have heard, which quotes directly from Revelation, you know, a few verses from Revelation. So all throughout that piece there's all kinds of scripture coming at you and around this time people are at least hearing about the birth of Christ and they're hearing scriptures from the King James Bible. You know, to me that's a good thing. I think it's great for people to be exposed to that. And even when you go soul winning around this time of year, it seems like people are receptive to the Gospel, you know, when you talk to them and they kind of are in that mode. You know, and you mention to them, hey, you know, Christmas is to celebrate the birth of Christ and then you can use that to go into the Gospel, you know, what Christmas is about. So I think that's just on the good side, the positive side of Christmas, okay. Now on the negative side of Christmas, and this is before we're really getting into a lot of scripture, but just on the negative side of Christmas is that obviously to some people Christmas just becomes a materialistic thing where it's just all about spending money and receiving gifts and it's all about the commercialism and the materialism. And you know, one of the things that I hate about Christmas is the mentality where people just expect gifts. Because to me a gift should always be something that's freely given, that's given from the heart that you're giving because you want to, and it seems like around Christmas time people just expect gifts, demand gifts, and they want to make it real complicated, well you know, what are we getting you guys and what are you getting us and we want to make sure we don't give you more than you give us and vice versa and want to make sure it all evens out. You know, to me I hate that mentality. You know, there might be some years where you just don't get a gift from me. Whether you're my friend, my family, my coworker, my loved one, you just might not get a gift from me. And then there are other times when I might get you a gift and it's not even Christmas. Because to me a gift is just something that's freely given. And you know what, I can honestly stand up here and say from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet that I do not expect anything for Christmas from anyone, whether it's my wife, my children, my mother, my father, my brothers, my sisters, I don't expect anything for Christmas. I don't go into Christmas thinking, oh man, I hope I get this or I really want to get this or you know, you can find me registered at this. You know, I'm not just trying to just get gifts for Christmas. I really don't care. But let me tell you, I like getting gifts. I enjoy receiving gifts. And you know, when somebody buys me a gift, I appreciate it, I like it, I'm thankful for it, but I expect nothing. And no matter what I get, even if it's very small, it's more than I expected. And you know, I feel like if we go into that attitude with Christmas, then the gift giving becomes a good thing. You know, it's a way to express love, it's a way to be generous. But it shouldn't be about what can I receive. The Bible says it's more blessed to give than to receive. So you know, we should focus our attention on, okay, what am I going to give? Who can I give to? What do I want to buy? Instead of just this demanding, grabbing, and you know, I'm just trying to give you both sides tonight. I can see why people have concerns about Christmas, because they say it teaches children to be greedy and to really just expect gifts. And you know, that's not the way it is in our house, I try to teach our children not to be that way, because I do believe that that can be a problem. And obviously Madison Avenue feeds that. You know, with just all the advertising and the Black Friday. You know, I think Black Friday has got to be the stupidest thing in the world. You know, it's like here you are, you're so thankful, you're so blessed, you know, you're thankful for family, you're thankful just to have a good meal in front of you at Thanksgiving, and then the next day you're going to trample people in Walmart like it's a bull fight or something. You're going to trample people in Walmart, you're going to line up, you're going to camp out to get some plastic made in China junk, you know, because it's cheaper than it was yesterday. And I mean, you know, I can see how just the advertising and the commercialism and the materialism, it's all about money and spending. And you know, people rack up their credit cards, right, and they spend way too much money. And then in January they have to try to pick up the pieces from spending too much. You know, there are other things about Christmas that I don't like. You know, sometimes people tend to get really lazy between Thanksgiving and Christmas, like they don't want to do any work, because they're just in this extended holiday mode for like a month and a half. They don't really want to work, they get really unproductive, okay. You know, also, I mean, if you want to just try to find everything wrong with Christmas, you could say, well, a lot of people get drunk on Christmas. You know, okay, people drink and party, okay, fine. But there are also people who drink and party on a lot of other days for a lot of other reasons. But you know, I'm just trying to give you both sides. You know, and you could say, well, Santa Claus is of the devil, okay. And honestly, you know, I'm not a fan of Santa Claus, personally, I mean, I don't teach my children about Santa Claus, because Santa Claus doesn't exist, and I don't want to lie to my children and tell them, you know, Santa Claus is giving you these gifts, because then they're going to grow up and realize that they're betrayed, you know, about Santa Claus, and then they might just think that other things I've taught them are a myth also. So I just want my children to know that when I teach them something, I'm telling them the truth. You know, I don't want to lie to them. And I remember my mom's here tonight, this is what my mom said when I was a kid. She said, well, the reason we don't teach you about Santa Claus is we want to get credit for giving you these gifts, you know. My mom said, I'm not going to buy these gifts, spend all this money, and then tell you that Santa gave it to you. You know, I want you to know that I gave it to you, you know. That makes sense to me, too. So anyway, you know, so I don't think, people say, you know, you arrange the letters around in Santa, you get Satan, okay, well that's a little bit silly, because Santa is just Spanish for holy. It's just Latin for holy, okay, so I mean, does that mean Satan? So obviously that's silly, okay. But honestly, I can see the concerns about Santa, okay, because Santa, you know, he knows when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows whether you've been good or bad, so be good for goodness sake. You know what it's teaching is that like you have to earn a gift, right, and is that what the Bible teaches about salvation? You know, the Bible says the gift of God's eternal life calls it the free gift, and we know it's not of works lest any man should boast. So Santa, he's one who gives you a gift based on how good you are. He gives you a gift based upon your works, okay, so that could be a perversion of the gospel of what a gift should mean, that a gift is just freely given out of love. And by the way, the Bible says, now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodliest faith is counted for righteousness, again, that's why I don't like the concept of feeling like you owe somebody a Christmas gift. The debt of gift giving, okay, you know, it should be something that's freely given, Christ offered himself freely for our sins. He gives us freely the gift of eternal life. We don't have to be good to get it. You know, I guess the lump of coal is like the brimstone that you're going to get if you're not good. But you know what, there's nothing to do with good but one, and that's God. So the only way any of us are saved is by grace through faith. So look, I can see people's concerns about the materialism, the commercialism, Santa Claus, but here's the thing, you can celebrate Christmas without having any of those things. Okay, now to me, what Christmas is to me is just celebrating the birth of Christ, okay, and our Christmas traditions involve singing songs about the birth of Christ, singing songs about the second coming of Christ, drinking hot chocolate, okay, eating ham, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, rolls, stuffing, these type of foods, okay, giving gifts to one another, and even decorating a Christmas tree, a pine tree, with lights and ornaments. So if I look at all my lists of Christmas traditions, which involve exchanging of gifts, celebrating the birth of Christ, reading the Christmas story from Luke 2, drinking hot chocolate and eating a Thanksgiving-like meal where you just substitute the turkey for ham. I can't see how any of those things are wrong or sinful. How can you attack celebrating the birth of Christ and say, like, that's wrong to celebrate the birth of Christ? I mean, why would it be wrong to celebrate the birth of Christ or to celebrate the miracles of Christ or to celebrate his death, burial, and resurrection, and you say, well, the Bible doesn't emphasize his birth. Well, there's a lot of scripture on his birth and there is an extended long story in Luke chapter 2, a lot of angels are praising God, shepherds are praising God. You know, it was a big event. It was an exciting event. It is something that the Bible makes a big deal out of, okay. So I can't see how anybody could be against celebrating the birth of Christ. I can't see how anybody could say that anything is wrong or sinful or pagan about drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows in it, you know, or about eating a big meal or about, you know, doing these things. But people today are attacking Christmas and they say, Christmas is a pagan, wicked holiday. And if you celebrate it, they say, you're not worshiping Jesus Christ, you're actually worshiping Baal, you're worshiping Nimrod, you're worshiping Satan, okay. Now look, this is false at its core. The name that is associated with salvation, the name that is above every name is the name of Jesus. And if we sing songs that not only name the name of Jesus, but they actually quote the Word of God, and they actually talk about Jesus as being the Son of God, the Savior of the world, come to die on the cross for our sins, to say that we're worshiping Satan is to be a false accuser. I mean, somebody basically comes to church and sings a song about Jesus Christ, about the fact that he's coming to die on the cross and that he's born in the manger and he's going to die on the cross for the sins of the whole world, he's going to be buried and rise again, to say you're worshiping Satan when you sing that song because of that sweater you're wearing, you know, that has, you know, a snowman on it or a Christmas tree on it, you know, you're worshiping Satan now, you know, that's, you know, you're a false accuser is what you are. And the Bible does, you know, you can't show me any place in the Bible that says don't celebrate Christmas, but I can show you places that say don't be a false accuser. I can show you places that say, you know, that if one person wants to regard a day and another person wants to ignore that day, let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind, you know? And so to sit there and say that you're worshiping Satan is ridiculous. When you're saying the name Jesus Christ, you're quoting the King James, and everything that you're singing about and talking about lines up with the Bible. That's not worshiping Satan, that's worshiping Jesus, okay? But they say well because you're doing it on December 25th, it becomes of Satan. Okay, well we have to do something on December 25th, right? I mean what are we going to do, just get in bed and just pull the covers over our head and just, you know, because whatever we do on that day is of the devil, because it's a satanic day. Well, we'll get to December 25th a little later, but what I want to do is I want to go over, go to Jeremiah chapter 10, I want to go over the objections of people who say that Christmas is a wicked pagan holiday and just show you how these things aren't biblical, okay? And look, if you listen to this sermon and you walk away and say, Pastor Anderson's wrong, I'm not going to celebrate Christmas, honestly that is perfectly fine with me. And I will not be offended, and if that's what you want to do, that's fine, okay? But honestly, I just want you to get the facts before you just have somebody quote to you Jeremiah chapter 10 verses 2 through 4 out of context and lie to you about what Jeremiah 10 says, you know, I just want you to know what the chapter actually says, okay? And after you know what the chapter actually says, go make your own opinion, you know? And if you still think that Christmas trees are bad, then go right ahead. But let's at least look at the facts tonight, and that's all I want to do is present the biblical facts tonight. In Jeremiah chapter 10 verse 1, the Bible says, Hear ye the word which the Lord speaketh unto you, O house of Israel, thus saith the Lord, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain, for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workmen with the axe, they deck it with silver and with gold, they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not. Now right there is where the anti-Christmas people stop reading, and they just take these couple of verses out of context, they stop reading and they just take verse 3 and 4 and they say, look, it is a vain heathen custom to cut down a tree, okay, and to deck it with silver and gold and to fasten it with nails and hammers. And here's what they say. They say that's what you're doing when you decorate a Christmas tree. They say you've cut down a tree and you're basically decking it with gold and silver, you know, and they're saying because you put a gold and a silver ornament on it. Okay, that's their view. But that is not what this scripture is talking about. Now if you stop reading right there, you know, you can use that to convince people of your point, but that's not what it's really about, because keep reading. Look at verse 5. It says, they are upright as the palm tree, but speak not. They must needs be born because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good, for as much as there is none like unto thee, O Lord, now stop. What this is talking about, and I'm going to prove it to you from the rest of the chapter, this is talking about cutting down a tree in the forest and carving it into an idol that is silver or gold plated. Now when the Bible says that it is decked with gold and silver, that is not saying hanging a silver ball on it. When you deck something over with silver, okay, you are covering it with silver, okay, like for example the deck on your house. Your house might have a deck, okay. It's a covering, okay, is what that means. And what the Bible is saying here is that they're carving it into an idol, because look, in verse 5 he says, they are upright as the palm tree, but speak not. Look, nobody thinks that a Christmas tree can speak or walk or do good or evil, because it's a tree, right? But there are people who carve a tree into an idol of a false god and they think that that false god can speak or walk or do these things, okay? Now keep reading. Jump down if you would to verse 8. It says, but they are altogether brutish and foolish. The stock, okay, talking about basically the stump of the tree that's being carved, is a doctrine of vanities. Watch, silver spread into plates. Now look, is this a round silver ornament hanging on the tree? Is this a silver garland? No, it's what I said, a silver, it's silver spread into plates, because it's being silver plated or gold plated, okay? So it says silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workmen and of the hands of the founder, okay? Jump down to verse 14, it says every man is brutish in his knowledge, every founder is confounded by the what? Graven image, for his molten image is falsehood and there is no breath in him. They are vanity. Now look, you can't just take two verses out of context. You have to read the whole chapter, this whole chapter is talking about the same subject. Notice the same words are being used. Look at verse 3, okay, I want you to just, and if you have a pen you may want to underline a few key words here, okay? In verse 3 the Bible says, the customs of the people are what? Vain, and then it says they cut down a tree, right? Okay, now if you jump down to where he's talking about the graven image, he says in verse 15, they are vanity. Okay, so what is vain? He says it's vain to cut down a tree and deck it with gold and silver and think that it can walk or talk or do anything. It's not like the true God, it's a false god. Then later on he says that these graven images or molten images are vain, they are vanity. Okay, he's talking about the same thing. Up earlier he said in verse 9, silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workmen of the hands of the founder. See the word founder? Jump down to verse 14. Every man is brutish in his knowledge, every founder is confounded by the graven image. So if you look at this chapter there's a continuity of thought here. We are on the same subject in verse 14 that we were in verse 3. He's going on and on about the fact that they are carving idols out of wood. What does it mean to grave, to engrave something? You know if I brought in something to an artisan and said I want this engraved, they're going to carve my name into it or they're going to carve some kind of wording into it. What is molten? Well molten comes from the word melting. You melt down metal, you melt silver, you melt gold. A graven image is an image that is carved of wood. A molten image is an image that is made of molten metal. And what he's saying here is that they're carving a wooden idol and then overlaying it, decking it with molten gold and silver and they believe that it is like unto the God of Israel. Because you know what? People today will often compare the God of the Bible to other gods. They'll say you know why should I believe the God of the Bible any more than I believe in you know the God of Islam or Buddha or whatever. But there's no God like unto the true God and the idol is vanity. It can't talk, it has to be carried, and God makes it clear he never wants us to make any image of him. Does the Bible specifically prohibit graven and molten images? Oh yeah, it's one of the Ten Commandments. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image. So there's no question that graven images and molten images are sinful. Now that matches perfectly with what Jeremiah 10 is teaching. Preaching against graven and molten images. Now to sit there and say this is a Christmas tree and people will even say a Christmas tree is a graven image, well let me ask you something, where's the engraving? Where is it carved? In what way, shape, or form is it carved in any way? Answer me that. It is just a tree. You brought the tree and you put it in the house. There's no carving, there's nothing has been molten or melted, and look it's not an image. What's an image? It's something that's made like unto an animal or a human or an angel or a god. But hold on a second, they'll say well, and go to Isaiah chapter 60, they'll say well you know okay, it's not a graven image, you got me Pastor Anderson. Can anybody actually say that a Christmas tree is a graven image when it has zero graving and zero molten? Okay no, but they just say yeah but Jeremiah 10 said not to do it. No, because we read the whole chapter and it's clear that the tree that they're cutting down in the forest becomes a graven image. Cutting down trees is not wrong, unless you're part of the Environmental Protection Agency or something, I don't see how you can say there's anything wrong with going to the forest and cutting down a tree. The sin wasn't cutting down the tree, the sin was then graving the tree, carving the tree into an idol, and overlaying it with gold and silver that it might be worshipped. That was their sin. But people will say yeah, but they'll say it's just a pagan tradition to bring up a tree into the house, and people have even said, you know, oh these pagans would decorate the inside of their house with greenery. Good night, I mean doesn't everybody, I mean is a houseplant wrong? I mean look back there, everybody turn around, see that palm tree back there that's outside my office door? Is that pagan? Because we brought a tree into the building? Oh that's pagan, you know, because pagans would bring in trees into the building. I think everybody's probably had houseplants, whether they're pagan or not. Whether you're Christian or Jew or Muslim or Hindu, I think every culture in the world that has ever existed in the history of mankind has probably brought a plant into their house at some point. So to sit there and say well, trees were brought in the house by pagans, well you know pagans wore pants, you know pagans drink milk, pagans, you know, I mean it just doesn't make any sense. I mean a houseplant is universal, but not only that, even God's houses decorate with palm trees, number one. But number two, you say yeah yeah but not the pine tree. Palm tree's one thing, but oh that pine tree, and people have said it's evergreen trees that are pagan. Evergreen trees are the ones that represent pagan, okay well look what the Bible says about the pine tree. Let's just look up what the Bible says about pine trees, okay? Isaiah chapter 60 verse 13 says the glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree. Now correct me if I'm wrong, are those not the two types of trees people use for Christmas trees? I remember when I was a kid, when you'd go to buy a Christmas tree, it was like okay there's two choices. You know the Douglas fir or the pine, and those are your two choices, right? So what does the Bible say about these wicked godless trees? It says the glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary. Now look, is this not God saying he's going to decorate his holy place with a pine tree and a fir tree? No pagan. But see this was written about 2800 years ago. So about 2800 years ago God said he's going to beautify the place of his sanctuary with a pine tree and a fir tree. But there's no way that that could be where it came from, no. It came from pagan Germany a few hundred years ago. Now look, when you study these things it doesn't hold water. Now if you just go on the internet you can find plenty of people that will just quote those two verses from Jeremiah all by themselves. They're not going to show you Isaiah 60 verse 13. They're not going to show you the rest of the chapter in Jeremiah 10 where he explains what it's actually about. So say what you want about Christmas trees but honestly examining the scripture shows that it just doesn't hold water as far as the Jeremiah 10 interpretation. I read this online, the Christmas tree is a 17th century German invention, University of Bristol Hutton told Live Science, but it clearly derives from the pagan practice of bringing greenery indoors to decorate. Okay now look, I just don't think that bringing greenery indoors to decorate is pagan. I mean yesterday I was trimming the tree outside my house because my tree was hanging into the street and it has to be cleared. The law says that it can't hang into the street at all. So I was cutting the tree and Miriam, the little pagan that she is, she started cutting off these big pieces of bark, remember Miriam, and she was peeling these really nice pieces of bark and she said, I'm going to make decorations out of these. And you know what she even said, she's going to make Christmas decorations out of them. She just came up with that on her own, she's just peeling these big pieces of bark and she said they were pretty because when you peel them back they looked really neat on the inside. She's like, these are cool, let's decorate with these. I mean look, people bring seashells into their house to decorate if they live by the ocean. People bring birds eggs, plants, dried flowers, dried fruit, none of this is pagan in origin, it's just normal decorating practice. And I bet you probably, you know, a lot of these anti-Christmas people probably have some greenery in their house, whether it's a potted plant or whatever. So it's just silly to say that it's wrong with really no Bible to back it up because we've debunked Jeremiah 10 and we've even shown a positive mention of having, you know, firs and pines in the house of God in Isaiah 60-13. Another objection that people will bring to Christmas, they'll say, well, you know, Christmas is Catholic, they'll say. And basically this is their proof that Christmas is Catholic. They have two proofs that it's Catholic. They say, well number one, you know, it's called Christ Mass. Okay, that's their number one proof that it's Catholic. And then the number two reason that it's Catholic is because the Puritans, the Puritans hated it. They fought it. They said it was Catholic. So, you know, and because in Massachusetts in the 1600s the Puritans hated it, okay, that means that it's Catholic and pagan. Okay, well first of all, the word, saying that the word Christmas is bad because it contains the word Mass in it, first of all, no one is pronouncing it that way. No one's calling it Christ Mass. Okay, there are other explanations for where that name has even come from besides Mass because even the word Mass comes from the word Messiah. Okay, and so there are other explanations of where the word Christmas comes from. You know, nobody's really quite sure exactly where it comes from. But here's the thing, there's nothing even wrong with the word Mass because you know what the word Mass means? Mass is basically when people are congregated together. Now obviously there's something wrong with the Catholic Mass because it's a false religion. Okay, but look, there are other wicked churches that are called church. You know, how about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints? Now look, Latter Day is a great term, Saint is a great term, Jesus Christ is the name above all names, and Church is a great term, but what goes on in that place is wicked as hell. It's got the good name. Okay, so to sit there and say, well you know, Mass, the word Mass, the word Mass is not really a bad word because I mean, you know, all objects have Mass, you know, first of all, number one. And number two, Mass is like a Mass gathering, it's just people getting together. Now there's something wrong with a Catholic Church and a Catholic Mass, but there's nothing wrong with any other type of gathering, or gathering to celebrate about Christ. And look, just because a word, and let's just say, okay, the word has a Catholic origin, that doesn't still make it a bad word, because you know, a lot of the words that we have today have Islamic origins, a lot of words that we have today have pagan origins, Scandinavian false worship origins, for example, the days of the week, Saturn Day, I mean Saturn is a false god. Is it wrong to say Saturday? Is it wrong to observe Thursday, which is Thor's Day? Do we need to change all the names of the days of the week? Or even the months of the year, many of them have pagan names, January is named after a false god, Janus, you know. So you could sit there and say, well that's all pagan, this word's pagan, that word's pagan. You know, we live in a world that's tainted by sin, even the word hell, okay, the word hell that's in our Bible comes from a Scandinavian word, hell, which is, you know, a basically dark underworld of false Scandinavian religion. But is that what it means to us? What about Jesus, you know, obviously the New Testament's written in Greek, and the New Testament used the Greek word Hades, which also had a pagan origin, because it was, you know, the Greek underworld of false gods. But is that what Jesus meant when he said Hades? Is that what we mean when we say hell? No, we're talking about the biblical place. So a lot of the names of things in our society might have a pagan origin. For example, who's ever heard this term, hooray, right? Who's said it? Who has said hooray before? Okay, do you know where the word hooray comes from? You pagan. Listen to me, hooray, hooray comes from the Mongolian empire, in the Mongolian empire under Genghis Khan, okay, they worship the eternal blue sky. Genghis Khan was not a Bible believing Christian. He worshipped the eternal blue sky, and when they would pray, when they would pray to the eternal blue sky, they would end their prayers, like we end our prayer by saying amen, they end their prayer by saying hooray. That's where that word comes from. And so, you know, they would, just like we get excited at church and say amen, amen, you know, hallelujah, they get excited and yell hooray, hooray, but it was unto their false god. But look, do you really think people are just wicked and sinful and abominable for saying hooray? Because they're not worshipping a false god, that's not the name of a false god, it's just something that came from the Mongolian culture into English, today it means something completely different than what they meant it as. I don't think it's a sin to say hooray. Now, you know, I might have just accidentally started a whole movement against the word hooray on the internet now, people are going to hear this sermon and be like, we need to expose this term, hooray, you know, it's bad, but I don't think it's bad because honestly there's nothing intrinsically wrong with those syllables. You know, if you're saying it to mean just I'm excited, things are great, hooray, you're not, you don't even, you've never, who here has never even heard of the eternal blue sky being worshipped? By the Mongolians. Alright, yeah, okay, and the rest of you, okay, before now I meant. But anyway, you know, and the Mongolian Empire was the largest empire that's ever ruled the world geographically speaking, they covered the largest land area, so that's why that term has become so popular, you know. But anyway, so what I'm trying to say is that a lot of the words that we use might have a pagan origin, even words like hell or Hades, words like hooray or whatever. You know, a lot of these are just words, Saturday, January, I mean, we don't mean that, we're not worshipping a false god when we say it, it's come to mean something completely different. But they'll say, well, the Puritans, they all, but you know what, the Puritans believed a lot of weird stuff. First of all, the Puritans were hardcore Calvinists, but not only that, they were against anything that had anything to do with fun or having a good time or eating good food or having any kind of a party in general. I don't believe that that's a biblical concept, I believe that God, yes, he wants us to suffer for the name of Christ, but he doesn't want us just to suffer for the sake of suffering. He wants us to enjoy life also and to rejoice and have a good time. All throughout the Bible, he tells his people to rest, to eat good food, you know, to enjoy their family. I mean, look, there is a doctrine out there that says any kind of pleasure is sinful. I mean, that's what Catholics have taught throughout the years, that's what some Protestants have taught. They taught that it's sinful to enjoy pleasure with your wife. When the Bible flat out tells you that a husband and wife should enjoy pleasure together in the bedroom, that's what the Bible teaches, okay? But the Puritans thought that wedding rings were pagan. Wedding rings are wicked and pagan. They said that musical instruments in church are pagan and sinful. The Puritans allowed no, I mean, you go to a Puritan church, you're going to sit on a wooden bench. They would think this is bad because it's artwork. You know, they just, no artwork, sit on a wooden bench for five hours and listen to some boring Calvinist sermon that goes down deep, stays down long, come up dry, getting on your knees to pray is pagan, wearing a wedding ring is pagan, musical instruments in church is pagan, Christmas is pagan, you should not have any kind of gift giving because giving gifts is pagan, you know, okay, that's not my spiritual role model. I'm not trying to be a Puritan, okay? I don't believe that the Puritans were even worshiping in spirit and in truth because I think Calvinism is a false doctrine and obviously it's not the Gospel. They had a lot of weird things. They didn't want to even translate any of the Hebrew names, they wanted to translate them all into English. So instead of calling Adam, Adam, they just want to call him man. They named their children names, like based on what the Hebrew names meant, they would name their children The Lord is Near. The Lord is Near, time to come in and have lunch. They named their kids things like Sin Deny, The Lord is Near, Temperance, Long Suffering, Long Suffering, come on in! And they would translate these names into English. So they had a lot of weird beliefs. I don't get my beliefs from the Puritans, I get my beliefs from the Word of God. And I don't see anything in scripture condemning celebrating the birth of Christ and that it's pagan. I don't see anything in scripture condemning the Christmas tree. I've got to hurry up to get through this. But people will also say this, they'll say that giving up gifts is pagan. Well we have a positive mention in the Bible of giving gifts in Nehemiah chapter 8 and also in Esther chapter 9 where the Bible talks about God's people exchanging gifts to celebrate the Lord's mercies and the things that he had done for them. So I don't believe that giving gifts is wrong. Christ has given us the gift of eternal life and that's symbolized when we give people gifts. And how often do we use that as a soul winning illustration? Hey, do you like getting gifts? And a gift is free and everything. It's good that people get gifts because it helps them to understand the Gospel. But another objection that people will bring, and I've got to hurry, but they say well Jesus Christ was not born on December 25th. And they act like this is a revelation. Did you know that Jesus wasn't even born on December 25th? You know like that's, oh wow, you just blew me out of the water. Does anyone here actually think that Jesus was born on December 25th? Does anybody think that we're even using the same calendar that was used back then? Yeah, I mean the calendar has changed several times since Christ's birth. Even the calendar underwent a major change, I forget, one or two hundred years ago, there was a major change in the calendar where everybody had to get a new birthday in America because they changed the calendar. So I don't think anybody really thinks that he was born on December 25th. And when people say to me, well Jesus wasn't born on December 25th, you know what I always say? Well you know what, there's a 1 in 365 chance that he was. I mean, you know what I mean? I mean he might have been born on December 25th as well as any other day. And a lot of times they'll say, well no, you can prove from the Bible that he was not born. This is what they'll say, I don't know when he was born, but it wasn't December 25th, I'll tell you that much. Go to Luke chapter 1 and I'll show you where they're coming from on this. Because you know, I'm showing you the arguments and you be the judge. You might walk away and say, wow, Jeremiah 10 condemns Christmas trees and wow, Luke 1 teaches that Jesus wasn't born on December 25th. Form your own conclusion, I'm just showing you the facts here. But look at Luke chapter 1 verse 5, the Bible reads, there was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abia and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron and her name was Elizabeth. So what they'll say is that if we can figure out when John the Baptist was born, we can figure out when Jesus was born because they were about six months apart. So if we can figure out when the one was born, that'll help us to know when the other was born. Now there are so many logical leaps that they take though to pinpoint the birth because first of all, the first extra biblical teaching that they have to use to support their view of when he was born is in verse 5 it says that Zacharias was of the course of Abia. And here's what they'll say, well Jewish sources can tell us when that course of Abia was, but nothing in the Bible can. So now we have to go outside the Bible and trust some unbelieving Jew, some Christ-rejecting Jew to tell us when that is. And here's the thing, the Christ-rejecting Jews will tell us two different times. Well it could have been in the spring or it could have been in the fall. There's always two. When you look this up, they give two possible times for the course of Abia. So first of all, it's two different times that it could have been, and second of all you're trusting the Christ-rejecting Jews to basically give you your biblical doctrine on the New Testament. So that's the first jump that you have to make. But then secondly, even if you know, even if you can get the synagogue of Satan to help you figure out when the course of Abia was, look at verse 23, it says, it came to pass that as soon as the days of his administration were accomplished, because he was of the course of Abia, right? He departed to his own house and after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself five months. Now look, does that say how long after those days? I mean does it say that the day he got home she got pregnant, the same day. It just says after those days she conceived. So first of all you have to trust an extra biblical source to tell you when the course of Abia was. Then you have to just believe, well we know that obviously the day, you know, when he walked in the door, I mean that, you know, they just got it done and she just instantly got pregnant. No, it just says after those days she conceived. It doesn't say it happened that day or that week or that month, okay? It says after those days his wife Elizabeth conceived. And then not only that, but, you know, even to just pinpoint that Jesus and John the Baptist were exactly six months apart is not accurate, roughly, but not exactly, okay? So you know, just to show you that you can't really pin that down. Now the other thing is, go back to Genesis chapter 10, Genesis chapter 10, the other thing that people say about charisma, they'll say, well here's where the December 25th really comes from. Because they say, you know, we can prove it wasn't the birth of Christ using the shaky method that I just showed you in Luke 1, okay? But they'll say December 25th is actually the birthday of Nimrod is what they teach. And here's what they teach, they say Nimrod was a guy who basically, you know, the Tower of Babel was all his idea, and he was basically the mastermind behind the Tower of Babel, and he taught people a pagan worship, and he had a wife named Semiramis, and his wife was actually his mother, who he was incestuously married to, and they produced a child called Tammuz, and Tammuz was supposedly the reincarnation of Nimrod, and he was born on December 25th, and everybody worshiped him and all this stuff. Now here's the thing about that, and then here's what they'll say. Here's the proof. The proof is that Nimrod's mentioned in the Bible. Now let's read everything that the Bible says about Nimrod, we're going to read all of it. It's only four verses, so don't worry. Genesis chapter 10 verse 8 says this, and Cush begat Nimrod, he began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord, wherefore it is said, even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord. You can see what a wicked and pagan and sinful man this was. Now what does that say about Nimrod, that he was evil, or that he was the mastermind behind the Tower of Babel, or that he was worshiped as a god, or that he married his own mother, or that he produced a child named Tammuz, or that he even had a wife named Semiramis, or that anyone worshiped him? It looks like what was said of him was that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before the Lord. And who's the Lord in all capital letters there? Jehovah. So what were people saying about Nimrod? He's God? He's the sun god? He's reincarnated? He's married his own mother? No, they said that he was a mighty hunter before Jehovah. So where is this stuff coming from? So let's keep reading. It says Cush begat Nimrod, he began to be a mighty one in the earth. Now is it bad to be mighty? Is it bad to be a mighty hunter? You're in trouble Danny, you know, you do so much hunting. You're following the footsteps of Nimrod, you're pagan! But it says next in verse 10, the beginning of his kingdom was Babel and Erech and Akkad and Calni in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Asher and Bildaninova and the city of Rehoboth and Cala. Now, just at face value just looking at this, it seems like Nimrod was a mighty man in the earth after the Tower of Babel, because when the Tower of Babel was built, that's where everybody was at. They were all in that one city. They had not dispersed. By the time Nimrod is on the scene, and Nimrod is a king of sorts, he's reigning over, what, four different cities, Babel, Erech, Akkad, and Calni. So he's ruling over multiple cities. So you could say, well, but if he's the king around Babel, the Tower of Babel must have been his idea. And you know, he married his mom, okay? But what does that say? That in the Bible. And it seems that there's, and I'm not saying that Nimrod was a good guy. I'm not saying that we're going to see him in heaven. Although there's really nothing in the Bible to prove that he's not going to be there. I don't really throw these anti-Christmas people for a loop, you know, if he's there. I mean, we don't know. Do we know whether Nimrod was saved or unsaved? He's a mighty hunter before Jehovah. That doesn't really sound that bad, okay? Maybe he was bad, maybe he was good, but you know what? You can't prove it from the Bible, is what I'm trying to say. You can't even connect him with Semiramis and Tamas and whatever. The only other mention of Nimrod is in 1 Chronicles 1 verse 10. You don't have to turn there. It says, "'And Cush begat Nimrod, he began to be mighty upon the earth.'" So this stuff's not coming from the Bible. Where is it coming from? I'll tell you exactly where it's coming from. Jewish fables. It's coming from the Talmud. It's coming from Josephus, an unbelieving, Christ-rejecting Jew. So basically, all this talk about Nimrod and Semiramis and Tamas is coming from Jewish stories outside the Bible, Jewish traditions by those who reject Jesus Christ, and the Bible never tells us to avoid Christmas, but it does tell us to avoid Jewish fables. But avoid Jewish fables. Now look, does the Bible say avoid Christmas? So it's funny how people will attack us for celebrating Christmas, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the one that the Jews reject, the name that they blaspheme. We exalt that name. We lift up that name. We exalt the birth of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and then they're going to turn to the enemies of the Gospel and that is what the Bible calls them in Romans 11. It says, "'They are enemies for the Gospel's sake, but they are beloved for the Father's sake.'" So obviously we do love the Jews. We want them saved. We love them. We want them to understand the Gospel and be saved. We want to preach the Gospel to them, but they are the enemies of the Gospel. So why would we go to the enemy and get all their Jewish fables that Jesus and the apostles specifically told us to avoid, stay away from, and they're going to embrace Jewish tradition, Christ rejecting Judaism tradition, and reject Christmas. You know what? They're looking at an ad and swallowing a camel. So they go to Jewish fables. Now listen to this, because I just want to close the sermon with this. Who is behind the movement among Christians attacking Christmas? Where is it coming from? I mean, like I said, when I was a kid, you didn't hear about it. When I was a teenager, you didn't hear about it. When I started this church, you didn't even hear about it. But in the last few years, this is a real big movement. Who's behind it? Well, just googling, just googling, you know, Christmas is pagan, or Nimrod and Christmas, I noticed that basically the people who are pushing this are Zionists and Jews. Okay, like first of all, I went to a website on page one of the Google results for just Christmas being pagan. You know, and they had this big article about why Christmas is wrong. And they said this, Christmas celebrates the birth of the Christian God who came to rescue mankind from the curse of the Torah. It's a 24 hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid. And this website was a pro-Judaism website, you know, giving you all this information about Nimrod, giving you everything against Christmas, how it's all pagan and whatever. And you better know it's a 24 hour declaration that Judaism is no longer valid, I'll celebrate that every day of the year, it's a false religion. If you don't have the Son, you don't have the Father. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. But he that acknowledges the Son hath the Father also, who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ, he's anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son. You're not going to go to an anti-Christ that denies the Father and the Son and bring this information to me and expect me to receive it. And that's where this information seems to be coming from. That was a Jewish website attacking Christmas, then there was a Christian website on page one of the Google results attacking Christmas, but at the end of the article it says, since about 1994, our family has abandoned Christmas and celebrated the Jewish festival of Hanukkah. And today I know many Christians who are now celebrating Hanukkah. It's a big movement. And it's the same movement that wants to call Jesus Yeshua, even though the New Testament was written in Greek, not Hebrew, and in Greek his name is Isus, like Jesus, like Jesus. It's the same crowd that wants to talk about Yahweh and Yeshua, and they're trying to bring us back under the law, under the Torah, and the Torah observing Christianity. And they're trying to bring us into bondage of the law. Now go to Galatians 4, this is the last place we'll turn, but I just want to let you know that if you look at the people who are really propagating these Jewish fables of Nimrod and Semiramis and Tammuz, it is the most Zionistic of Christianity. For example, Chick Publications, which is a dispensationalist Zionist organization that preaches dispensationalism, that preaches Zionism, and of course they have whole comic books and pamphlets about this stuff, and they sell all the books about this stuff. What I'm trying to say is that Judaism wants to replace, are you listening? Judaism wants to replace our Christian-American traditions with Judeo-Christian and with Judaism. Now Hanukkah is not even a holiday that God even laid out in the Old Testament. Hanukkah is something that comes from the Apocrypha, something that comes from the book of the Maccabees, and it's stuff that's not in our Bible as Christians, it's stuff that comes from Jewish traditions or from the Apocrypha. Now the Bible does lay out feast days for the children of Israel in the book of Leviticus, but the Bible also teaches that we should not observe those days in the New Testament. Now most people are going to celebrate something. It's in our nature as human beings we like to have feasts. We like to have holidays. We like to mark the end of the year and the beginning of a new year. We like to have these punctuations of getting together with family. Times of spiritual reflection, you know, to read the Christmas story, to put a little extra emphasis on the things of God at Christmas or Easter. And so those who are rejecting Christmas today are rejecting it for Hanukkah. They're rejecting it for Jewish holidays, they're saying, well I don't do Christmas and Easter, but I'm going to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles, I'm going to celebrate Purim, I'm going to celebrate Hanukkah, I'm going to celebrate the Passover, I'm going to celebrate... Look, these are things that the book of Galatians warns us that the Judaizers or those who want to bring us back under the old covenant will try to bring in. In Galatians chapter 4 verse 4 the Bible says, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons. And in verse 3 he said, Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. So he's talking about being under bondage, but then he talks about in verse 9, But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage. So he's saying look, you used to be in bondage before Christ came, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, we are not under the law but under grace, why do you want to be brought back under the law? And he says in verse 10 on that note, at the end of verse 9 he said, Ye desire to be in bondage, verse 10, ye observe days and months and times and years. I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor and vain. He's afraid of the fact that they're observing these days, months, times and years that are bringing them back into bondage of the law. That's what the bondage was according to verse 3 and 4, the bondage was being under the law. If you go to chapter 5, it says in verse 1, Stand fast therefore in the liberty where with Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. Behold I Paul say unto you that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing, for I testify again to every man that is circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole law. Now look, these Old Testament things that were done away in the New Testament that are specifically laid out in Colossians 2 and Hebrews 9 as well as in Galatians, the Sabbath days, the holy days, the new moons, the meats and drinks, the divers washings, and the carnal ordinances, circumcision. These are things that are done away in the New Testament. God tells us not to observe these things, okay? Now today we have a Christian movement that wants us to speak Hebrew, which God did not give us the New Testament in Hebrew. It wants us to circumcise our children, even though the New Testament specifically does not teach circumcision, specifically tells us that being circumcised is to promote the rest of the Old Testament law and therefore we shouldn't do it. And that being said, I'm circumcised because I was born in a generation where Christians are all circumcised because they fell for this. You know, this creeping in of Jewish customs into Christianity. The Bible teaches that we do not need to be circumcised, observe the Sabbath, speak Hebrew, call God by Hebrew names, observe Hanukkah, something that's never even mentioned in the Bible, but you see today there's an attack on our culture today of just being Christian and they want to make us a Jewish roots Hebrew culture. I'm against it. I'm a Gentile, I was born a Gentile, I will die a Gentile, and you know what? It's the New Testament where there is neither Jew or Gentile. I don't have to speak Hebrew. I don't have to be, I'm already circumcised, too late. I'm not going to celebrate Hanukkah with a bunch of Christ-rejecting, unbelieving Jews. You know, and don't call me anti-Semitic or that I hate Jews. You're a liar, you're a false accuser. Because you know what? I love Jews, that's why I've given the Gospel to a lot of Jews. I go door-knocking in Tempe, especially when I go in South Tempe. Often I run into Jews in South Tempe because it's a very wealthy area, there are a lot of Jewish people living there. And I give them the Gospel just as zealously as I would give it to a Muslim or a Hindu or anybody else. I don't say, oh you're a Jew man, forget it man, go to hell. I see somebody who's a Jew and I give them the Gospel, okay? And I pleaded, about a year ago, I pleaded with a Jewish lady, which is rare, she actually let me go through the whole plan of salvation with her, which is rare, because Jews are very unreceptive to the Gospel. Maybe it had something to do with their ancestors saying, his blood be on us and on our children, I don't know. But you know, you give them the Gospel and I pleaded with her to get saved, I begged her to get saved. I wanted her to be saved. Don't say that I don't love Jews, but you know what, I also love Catholics, I also love Muslims, I also love Mormons, I also love Hindus. But you know what, that doesn't mean that I'm going to worship their holiday, it doesn't mean I'm going to join up with them and worship with people who reject Jesus Christ and have a holiday at the same time as Christmas to be a substitute for Christmas. I don't want to talk about the Jewish Maccabean revolt. I don't want to talk about how the Jews were saved from these enemy invaders in the days of the Maccabees. No, I want to talk about Jesus. I mean if I'm going to celebrate something in December, it's not going to be a bunch of Jewish holidays and Jewish fables and apocryphal Scriptures. I would like to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Nothing could be more wholesome than to eat a good meal, give gifts to someone that you love, drink a cup of hot chocolate, sing hymns and songs of praise unto Jesus in English, okay, the language that we were born in. I don't believe it's pagan, I don't believe it's ungodly. You know, can you find something bad about Christmas in the past? Yes. You can find stuff bad about Christmas right now. This whole world is tainted by sin. We should not participate in the bad aspects. We should not kiss other people's wives under mistletoe. That's not good. We should not drink, you know, alcoholic eggnog. That's not good. We should, you know, drink the alcohol-free eggnog, okay? We should not teach our children about Santa Claus, which is a lie. We should not get caught up in the materialism, but you know what? We have liberty as Christians. If we want to enjoy a time with family and celebrate the birth of Christ, we're welcome to. Now look, it's up to you. Celebrate it or don't celebrate it, but give God the glory either way and don't judge and hate those who disagree with you. I've had people in our church come up to me and say, I don't believe in Christmas. I don't observe Christmas. I think Christmas is pagan, and you know what I said? That's fine. I've had people in our church say, I'm vegetarian. That's fine. It's okay. People can have different opinions, and people can live their lives how they want to live them. You know, you don't have to eat meat if you don't want to. If you want to be vegan, go for it. If you want to skip Christmas, go for it. But I do think you're in sin if you're celebrating these Jewish holidays, because Paul said not to observe them. And I do think that that is wrong. Now I don't hate you if you do it, you know, whatever. That's your choice. I'm not the police, you know, I'm not the spiritual police of what holidays you celebrate. I think it's a sin, okay? I think it's wrong to, I personally believe it's wrong to circumcise your children, okay? Now again, I don't think it's some wicked, horrible thing. You know, my first son is circumcised because that's what I believed at the time, because that's how I was brought up. That's how I was taught. You know what the Bible says? Neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision. What does the Bible teach? It doesn't matter if you're circumcised. I think it would be better not to be circumcised just to not let the Judaism creep in, okay? That's my opinion. That's what I believe. I will never circumcise any future sons that I have, okay? I don't care that I'm circumcised, it doesn't matter. But I'm not going to do it going forward. I think we should stay away from Jewish holidays and the Hebrew roots movement. It's an ungodly movement that blasphemes the name of Jesus and tries to get us to call him something else. I don't believe in it. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Brother Garrett, lead us in prayer.