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Amen. All right, well, you're thinking, well, Revelation 12, that's kind of a weird place to start a Christmas sermon, but I'll get to that in just a second. But I just want to say thanks for everybody for coming and for everybody that prepared food this morning. That was great singing, amen. Normally our services don't go so long, but well, I mean, I guess that's not true. I'm lying. But it is going to go a little bit longer today. I apologize for that. But we'll get it done, and then we'll get to eat and have a great time. So anyway, let's look down at Revelation chapter 12, verse number one. The Bible says, and there appeared a great wonder in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun and with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of 12 stars. And she being with child cried, travailing in birth and pained to be delivered. Now skip down to verse number five. The Bible says, and she brought forth a man child who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. So we have this, and basically our church believes that Revelation retells itself. And in this chapter here, and in chapter number 12, it kind of gives us a little bit of a restatement. So the first 11 chapters in Revelation, you fold that in half or flip the scroll over, and then you read the second half of it. And there's other books in the Bible that do that, but a lot of people have a hard time understanding the book of Revelation because they don't understand that concept. If you just cut it in half and then read it as if the story's being retold with different details, just like the gospels, there's four different gospels, four different points of views. The book of Daniel is the same way. But what I want to bring your attention to is this man child. Who is this man child that's to rule all nations with a rod of iron? Well, of course, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It doesn't specifically say that, but the Bible does say that he will rule with a rod of iron. And so the first time he came to die as our savior and live the life that we cannot live, and he accomplished that. He purchased our salvation with his own precious blood on the cross of Calvary. He was buried, he rose again three days later. And this man child is the greatest man that's ever walked the face of the planet. And not only is he man, but he's also a God man. He's God manifest in the flesh, and I'll get to that later. But this man child was prophesied to come and early in the book of Genesis, when Adam and Eve fell and they sinned, God pronounced this prophecy, and he's actually saying these things to the serpent, but Adam and Eve are present also. Now, if you turn back into Genesis chapter number three, and we'll look at this prophecy. So I have eight prophecies this morning. The title of my sermon is Eight Prophecies of the Birth of Christ. Eight prophecies of the birth of Christ. Now, I don't have, they're not super long points. And there might be more prophecies, there's obviously more prophecies of Christ, but I wanted to just focus on the ones surrounding his birth this morning. And because the Old Testament, in the New Testament, it's made clear that the Old Testament, a lot of the Bible's talking about Christ. And there's a lot of prophecies concerning him. And that might have been something that people didn't quite understand, but there's some of them they did understand, even people that were not saved understood some of this stuff that I'm about to show you this morning. Now, number one this morning, Christ was prophesied to be the seed of a woman, to be the seed of a woman. So look at Genesis chapter three, verse 14, it says, and the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dost shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. So this is the first prophecy of the Messiah to come, and it's talking about the woman. I'll put enmity between the woman. So the woman is the one that brings forth the man child. It doesn't say anything about the human father, because there is no human father. The father is God. Jesus is the son of God, and he is the son of the father, and so there is no human father. So that's why it's the seed of a woman. See, he's part human, part God, but at the same time fully God and fully human. So he looked like a man when he was born. He was a man when he was born, but he also was God manifest in the flesh. Like I said, I have another point about that later on, but the Bible says that there'll be enmity between the devil's seed, which would be his children, and the seed of this woman. Her seed, it shall bruise thy head. So when Jesus Christ died on the cross, the devil thought he was winning the victory. The devil thought, okay, I've gotten rid of the Christ, and now it's gonna be my world. But he was really wrong about that. He didn't understand that once he killed Christ that Christ was gonna redeem all of mankind, and ultimately, Satan is still alive and well on planet Earth. He's still going about to and fro, walking about seeking, like a lion, walking about seeking whom he may devour, but he is defeated. He is ultimately defeated, and why? Because Jesus Christ did that which he purposed to do, which was to be able to be the savior of all mankind. Now, that doesn't mean everybody's saved. You still have to have, there's a choice in the matter. You choose whether you wanna be saved or not. See, the ultimate gift of Christmas is the Lord Jesus Christ. I mean, this is why we're celebrating Christmas in the first place, because a savior was born to us, and that savior did everything that he meant to accomplish, and he bruised the head of the devil the day that he died on the cross. Usually, you'd see that as a defeat, but see, the fact that he rose from the dead made it a victory, amen? And it says, Thou shalt bruise his heel. So the devil did bruise his heel, so to speak, as in crucifying him, and he's allowed to persecute the saints on the Earth to a certain extent, and there'll be a time of trouble. That's what the book of Revelation is revealing, is that there's this time of trouble that the world has never seen the likes of, and we are not there yet, but we're headed in that direction, and nobody knows when that's actually gonna start taking place, but the world isn't getting better. It's getting worse, but we still get victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. Anybody who puts their faith and trust in Jesus will go to heaven, and it doesn't matter what happens in this world. What matters is what happened 2,000 years ago when Christ died for you, and what matters to you the most is whether you've accepted the gift of God, which is eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Now, that's prophecy number one, that Christ was prophesied to be the seed of a woman, and then Revelation chapter 12 kind of shows us that this woman brought forth the man-child, as was prophesied, and who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron. Now, number two this morning, Christ was prophesied to be born of a virgin. Not only was he the offspring or prophesied to be the seed of a woman, but he was also prophesied to be born of a virgin. Now, a virgin is a woman that's never known a man in the way that a husband knows their wife when they're married, but so you think, well, a virgin gave birth to somebody? Well, how's that work? Well, it's God. Nothing is impossible to God, and God makes things happen. He's the one that makes the rules. He's the one that made the world. He's the one that made everything, and so everything is subject unto his power, and obviously, the story goes that Joseph was afraid. He found out that Mary was pregnant or with child, and he thought that she had dipped out on him, so to speak, and most people in every other instance of that ever happening, the man would be right, but an angel of the Lord came to him and told him, fear not to take Mary as your wife. What's come upon her is the Holy Ghost, and I'll get into that in just a minute, but let's turn to Isaiah chapter seven. Let's look at the prophecy first. Let's look at the prophecy of the virgin birth. Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14. In case you didn't know, virgins don't give birth, okay, but this virgin did. The virgin Mary obviously was given a special calling from the Lord to be the one that brought forth Jesus Christ into this world. Now, Mary is not some mediatrix, as the Catholic Church teaches. Mary is not sinless. She didn't stay a perpetual virgin like the Catholic Church says. As a matter of fact, the scriptures we're gonna read here in a few minutes will prove that, but Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14 says, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. So a virgin shall conceive, and usually you have to have somebody else for the conception to happen, right? You have to have a man to conceive with a woman. But, and this is a great prophecy, and this is actually an important doctrine, because if you don't believe in the virgin birth, that's one of the fundamentals of the faith. I mean, the fundamentals of Christianity is the virgin birth of Christ. And why is that so important? Well, it's so important because, you know, by death came upon men for the all. So turn to Romans chapter five, verse 12 real quick, and I don't have this in my notes, but I just wanted to explain this to you really quickly. Romans chapter number, what'd I say? Huh? Six. Oh no, five, you're right, I did say five. Good night, I had a, I was up until four o'clock this morning doing some emergency work, so forgive me. Might need to call upon you once again. Romans chapter five, verse number 12, the Bible says, wherefore is by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all is sin. So Adam is the one that brought sin into the world. Now a lot of people say, well it was Eve that transgressed, and that's true, but God held Adam responsible, because he was the man, and he was the head of the house there. And Adam sinned willfully, Eve was tricked or beguiled by the devil to doing that. And so why is this so important? Well, you know, if death passes upon all men for the all of sin, then man passes the sin nature onto their children. So it's not the mother that passes the sin nature onto her children, it's the dad. And so everybody in this room is a sinner. Sorry, I didn't know if you knew that or not, but you are. So I'm not trying to judge, because I'm a sinner too. But anyway, but here's the thing. So why was it so important that Jesus was born by the Virgin Mary? Well, she was not able to pass that sin nature on. God the Father is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. Can God sin? Absolutely not. And so the nature that Jesus was born with was not a sin nature, he was born without sin. And so this is very important doctrine, because if he didn't have a human parent, a human mother, and God, you know, and obviously this wasn't of a sexual nature, God formed Jesus in the womb. It was just, it was born, he was formed in the womb just like he forms every child in the womb that's born on the face of the planet. So that's why it's important. But turn to Matthew chapter one, verse 18. So we don't get our sin nature passed upon us from our mothers, we get it passed on from the dad. And so Jesus had to have been born by Mary, by a woman, and God being the Father. Or he wouldn't have been born sinless. A lot of people don't realize why Jesus Christ was able to be the savior of all mankind. And it's real simple, he was born without sin. He's the second Adam. Adam had no sin until he sinned. And so Jesus Christ is called the second Adam because he was without sin also. Now you're in Matthew chapter one, verse 18, look what it says. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, so she was married, she was promised to be married, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, or excuse me, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. So you notice it says that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and in Isaiah chapter seven, verse 14 says, a virgin shall conceive. And that conception is from the Holy Ghost, the one that made humans in the first place knows how to figure that out. So look at verse 21, it says, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus. Now, notice that the name there is Jesus. That's what the angel told them to call him is Jesus. It says, for he shall save his people from their sins. Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled. See, it's fulfilling a prophecy here, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. So, Emmanuel means God with us. So what does that mean? That means that when Jesus Christ was born, that he is God with us. God manifest in the flesh. Then Joseph, being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord, had bidden him, and took unto him his wife, and knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called his name Jesus. So notice it says that Joseph knew her not. That is a euphemism for what happens in the marriage bed, right? So, he knew her not till. So that means that he did know her in that way after the birth of Christ, and Jesus' brothers and sisters came to his service and stood without, and so he did have half brothers and sisters, and so it's kind of hard to be a perpetual virgin if you have other children, right? So that's just not true. It's just a lie from the Catholic church. We don't believe that Mary had other children with Joseph. So, now number three this morning, Christ was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. He was prophesied to be born in a specific place. Now there's a lot of different places that people are born, but this prophecy had to come true or the Bible's a lie. See, anything that is prophesied in the Bible that doesn't come to pass, that would make the Bible a lie, but the prophecies are in there so that we can go and see what happened in the New Testament where that was fulfilled. So, number three, Christ was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. Let's look at Micah 5-2. Micah 5-2. If you find Micah 5-2, it says, But thou Bethlehem Ephrathah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is, to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. So, the Bible specifically pinpoints through Micah the prophet that in Bethlehem is where the Savior would come from, the ruler of all Israel, and so that is the prophecy, and it says, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. See, people say that Jesus was just a normal man. They don't believe that he was God. They don't believe he was the son of God, but if you're from old, if you're from everlasting, that means you've always existed. So, Christ has always existed, and so that's what the Bible teaches. Look at Matthew chapter two. Now, turn over to Matthew chapter two for the fulfillment of the prophecy. Now, obviously, I don't have time in this sermon to go and read the whole second chapter of Luke, but Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, just like the Bible prophesied in Micah chapter five, too. Matthew chapter two, three says, when Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him, because the wise men had come to him and told him that they saw the star in the east and have come to worship him. It says in verse four, and when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born, and they said unto him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophets. So, even these Pharisees and scribes knew what the prophecy said, so if they understood that, we should understand that that's a fact, and it happened in Bethlehem, just like the Bible said. He or she was great with child. They were going forth to be taxed. There was no room for them at the inn, and basically Jesus Christ was born in a manger, which is like a stall, a place where they keep animals. So, he was born in a lowly state. The king of all the universe, the king of kings, the lord of lords, was born in a barn. You ever heard that saying, hey, are you born in a barn, shut the door. He was literally born in a barn. So, he took upon himself the form of a servant, and he wasn't rich on this earth as far as monetarily, but he came, and isn't that crazy? He wasn't rich in this world, but yet he still owned the whole world and everything in it. That's pretty cool. But it says in verse six, and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah, for out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. So, this is the fulfillment of Micah chapter five, verse number two, that Christ would be born in Bethlehem. Now, these people didn't understand that Christ, you know, they were afraid about who this child was, but when Jesus grew older, they thought he was actually born in Galilee, and so they were saying, well, he wasn't born in Bethlehem, but Christ is gonna come from Bethlehem, but they didn't realize that he did come from Bethlehem. So, number three, Christ was prophesied to be born in Bethlehem. Number four, Christ was prophesied to be the king of Israel. Now, we just kind of read that in Micah five, too. I probably should have had you keep your finger there, but Micah five, too, I'll just read it for you. I'll have you turn to Zechariah nine, nine. Micah five, two says, but thou Bethlehem Ephrata, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth. Unto me that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. So, not only was the Christ supposed to be born in Bethlehem, but he's also supposed to be the ruler in Israel. And, you know, he didn't come conquering and reigning, and he didn't have the rod of iron in his hand dashing people to pieces like a potter's vessel. That's gonna come later. He's gonna come back as the ruling king of Israel, just like the Bible says. Now, in Zechariah chapter nine, verse nine, it says, Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon the colt, the foal of an ass. So, it says, rejoice, O daughter of Zion. Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, thy king cometh unto thee. So, now this didn't happen at his birth. When he came into Jerusalem at the triumphal entry, is what it's called, you know, they were putting the palm branches in front of him and saying, Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, they were calling him king. You know, but he didn't leave that way, did he? He came into Jerusalem with a lot of praise and laud, but when he left, he was carried off of the cross after he had been killed. But the Bible says right here, behold, thy king cometh unto thee. So, he was the king of Israel. Even when he was on this earth, he was still the king. He's the king of kings and lord of lords. Turn to John chapter 18, verse number 33. John chapter 18, verse number 33. And you guys are doing so well today. I'm really glad. Is that smell just driving you crazy? You just can't wait to get back there? Well, we gotta get the spiritual meat first, and then we'll get the other meat, all right? So, John chapter 18, verse 33, the Bible says, Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall and called Jesus and said unto him, Art thou the king of the Jews? Jesus answered him, saying, That sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me. What hast thou done? Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews, but now is my kingdom not from hence. So he was still king, but his kingdom was not of this world. His kingdom is the kingdom of heaven, amen? It says, And Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? He just says, Hey, are you a king? And you know, Jesus has to answer truthfully. What's he say? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Everyone that is of the truth heareth my voice. So he absolutely was a king, and he was born for that purpose. He was born for that cause, and he was prophesied in the Old Testament to be a king. Now, let's look at Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 15, and point number five, or prophecy number five is, it was prophesied that Satan would try to murder Christ. It was prophesied that Satan would try to murder Christ. Now, Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 15. Now, last week I was in Genesis, and I skipped over the part where Rachel dies, but I preached about that not too long ago, but Rachel dies, and where does she die? She dies in the place of Ephrata, which was named after the man, and then that's why it's called Bethlehem Ephrata, but Bethlehem is the name of the place where Rachel died, and so look at Jeremiah 31 verse 15. This is the prophecy of the slaughter of the children. It says in verse 15, Thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, for her children refused to be comforted for her children because they were not. Now, that's kind of a cryptic verse if you look at it just that you don't have any other context to it, but in Matthew chapter two verse 16, it fulfills this. Now, Herod wasn't a very nice guy. He was evil. He was the son of the devil, basically. He was a man of Belial, because he understood who Jesus was. When the wise men came unto him, and they said, well, hey, if you find him, let me know because I want to come and worship him also, basically is what he says, but that's not what he wanted to do. He wanted to come and kill him because Herod was the king, and he obviously had his marching orders or whatever to murder the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, look at Matthew chapter two verse 16. It says, then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked, so the wise men were warned in a dream not to go back to Herod and tell him about it, so when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, he was exceeding wrath and sent forth and slew the children that were in Bethlehem. So he slew all the children, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men. So two years old and under, so this man is so evil that he goes to the town of Bethlehem and just to make sure that he got them all, every child that's two years old and under is commanded to be killed because he's trying to exterminate and destroy the Lord Jesus before he could ever grow up and do the great things that he was going to do. Now, look what it says in verse 17. Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, in Ramo there was a voice heard, lamentation and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted because they are not. So this is the direct fulfillment of Jeremiah chapter 31 verse 15. See, the Old Testament's filled with prophecies about Christ. I mean, I just chose eight, but there's hundreds of prophecies about Christ in the Bible. Now, turn over to Revelation chapter 12 verse three. Revelation chapter 12 verse three. And Revelation chapter 12 where we started out this morning, it covers a little more of this. You say, well, how do you know Herod was being controlled by the devil or that he was the son of the devil? Well, the devil is the one that plotted and planned for this to take place. Look at what it says in verse three in Revelation 12. It says, and there appeared another wonder in heaven, and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and 10 horns and seven crowns upon his head. Now, this is the devil. The great red dragon is called the devil and Satan. Look what it says in verse four. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. So, the Bible tells us, you know, the book of Revelation is the book that reveals to us things that we didn't understand or things that must come to pass. But the Bible says that the devil was there, ready to try to kill Jesus, this child is Jesus, that was ready to be, as soon as it was born. Isn't that what Herod did? Herod came and tried to kill, and he did kill and murdered a bunch of people that didn't deserve it, murdered a bunch of little children. I mean, you gotta be pretty evil to murder children, you know, but it happens every day in America where we just get swept under the rug and not preached against. But if abortion would have been in place in Jesus's time, you know, I mean, just think about that. Every child is important and special, and to murder them in the place that they should feel the safest is wicked as the devil, is wicked as hell. So Revelation 12 five says, and she brought forth a man child that was to rule all nations with a rod of iron, and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne. So the devil didn't, wasn't able to devour the child as soon as it was born because God told Joseph in a dream to take his family to Egypt, and when they went to Egypt, you know, after a while Herod died, and then they called Jesus Christ and his family back out of Egypt, and that's when he settled into Galilee. Now turn to Matthew, oh, let's see, number six, I'm speeding right through this, you guys. We might get supper soon here. Number six of the prophecies, it was prophesied that a star would lead to his birth. It was prophesied that a star would lead to his birth, and this might be, I don't know, controversial in some people's eyes, but the first time I ever read the scripture, nobody like preached about it, nobody told me about it or anything like that, but when I read this, I thought, well, this has to be the star of Bethlehem that it's talking about. Look at Numbers chapter 24, verse 17. Numbers chapter 24, verse 17, and we're gonna come back to Matthew chapter two, but this is the only thing that I found in the whole Bible that I would say this is a prophecy, because how would the wise men know about the star? How would they know? Unless there was a prophecy about it, because you don't just like, unless God just gave them that wisdom, but see, the Bible calls them wise men that came to worship Jesus, right? But what do the modern Bible versions say? They say the magi, right? Like they're wizards or something that are, God isn't just gonna reveal to some wizards that are practicing all kinds of magic or whatever, or astrology, and he's just gonna say, oh, I mean, and studying the stars, as long as you're not thinking that the stars have some kind of influence on your life, or it's gonna make you pick what girl you want, and you're gonna meet a tall, dark stranger today, it's in the newspaper, and everybody with that same star sign is gonna meet the same tall, dark stranger. That's ridiculous. You can't live your life based upon some joke in the newspaper. Do you guys even know what newspapers are? I mean, some people probably don't. The internet, or what has the modern newspaper. Most people don't even read newspapers anymore. That's like, it's a dying thing. So, it used to be everybody read the newspaper. We didn't have all this information at the tip of our fingers. Anyway, so this is what I think is the, is talking about the star of Bethlehem. It says, in Numbers 24, 17, it says, I shall see him, but not now. I shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheph. Now, who do you think that that's talking about? The scepter that shall rise out of Israel. I mean, the scepter indicates ruler, someone that's ruling. And this star that comes out of Jacob, what tribe was, wasn't Jesus born of one of the tribes of Israel? What tribe was he born out of? Judah, right? So, there shall come a star out of Jacob, and a scepter shall rise out of Israel. So, that's the only place I've found in the Bible where it indicates that there would be a star that you could see, so you knew. You know, obviously, in the New Testament, it doesn't go back to that and say, this is where the scripture was fulfilled, or whatever. But, I mean, they just happen to know it for no apparent reason. I mean, I don't see that that makes sense. But, again, if someone wanted to challenge me on that, that'd be fine. But, explain to me how they knew that there was a star. I mean, I don't know how you would explain it any other way, unless God just gave them that wisdom, which is possible. But, they definitely weren't, you know, people always say the magi. You know, it really irritates me, because that just shows that people are saying that they're some kind of, you know, because all that magic and astrology and all that stuff, it's not godly. So, it just, I just don't see God using magi. That's why the King James translated as wise men, because they're wise. I believe that these men were saved. They came to worship Jesus. They said, when they came to Herod, they said, we've seen a star. And, they're thinking that Herod would be like, oh, cool, you know, the Savior's here. And, that's not what they thought at all. And, it's funny how nobody else in Israel even knew what was going on. But, these wise men. Now, these wise men, you know, they knew that it was Christ being born. They knew a king was being born. They brought him gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And so, they brought him gifts. They bowed down themselves and worshiped a child born in a crib. I mean, they worshiped him. They knew who he was. Turn back to Matthew chapter two, verse one, and it'll fill the story in for us a little bit. So, Matthew chapter two, verse one. The Bible says, now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem. Does that say magicians? Does that say magi? Does that say anything? No, it says wise men. They're wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. Now, skip down to verse seven. It says, then Herod, when he had privately called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, go and search diligently for the young child, and when you have found him, bring me word again that I may come and worship him also. When he had heard the king, they departed, and lo, the star which they saw in the east went before them till it came and stood over where the young child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy, and when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother and fell down and worshiped him, and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts, gold, and frankincense, and myrrh. Now, frankincense and myrrh are things that are used to make ointments and things that are a sweet-smelling thing, and people use them as an apothecary or something to, you know, people use it for all different manner of things, but for burial was one of those reasons. But gold, you would give to a king. Now, a lot of people say, well, there wasn't three wise men. There wasn't these three kings or whatever. Well, that doesn't say they weren't. That doesn't say there wasn't three kings. Doesn't say, you know, I mean, they're wise men. That's what the Bible actually says. So that's what I'll stand on is that they're wise men, and they did bring three gifts, but a lot of people think that it's three gifts, three kings, does it really matter? Is it really that big of a deal? People make a big deal about it, but it's not really that big of a deal. Now, look at verse 12, it says, and being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way. So let's move on to, and I mean, I personally believe that that's what that verse in Deuteronomy chapter 24 is talking about. That's my personal opinion. I think that it's the only one that makes sense, but anyway, let's move on to number seven. Prophecy number seven is Christ was prophesied to be God. Christ was prophesied to be God. Now, Christ means Messiah. It means the anointed one. Christ was the Messiah. That means the person that was gonna come and save people from their sins, but the people didn't necessarily believe that. They believed that he was gonna be some warrior king, that he was only gonna be a man, and they were trying to get back to the glory days of the kingdom of Israel, but they just didn't quite understand that he was gonna be God manifest in the flesh. So Isaiah chapter nine, six, we have that on our front of our bulletin this morning. Great, great scripture here, and in Isaiah nine, six, it says, for unto us a child is born, 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. See that? So, and this child is Jesus, of course, who's born unto us. He's the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Now, so he was prophesied in the Old Testament that he would be God. You know, it's just a fact, but you know, tell that to the Jehovah's Witnesses. They're not gonna understand that because they're totally fooled. They think that Jesus Christ is a God. That's what it says in their book of John, their corruption of the Bible that they have. Now, I'm gonna read Matthew 123. Go ahead and turn to John one, one. Matthew chapter 123, though, says, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which is being interpreted is God with us. If Jesus Christ wasn't God, then why would his name be called God with us? Because he was God with us. He was God manifest in the flesh. Look at John one, one, where I had you turn. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God. Now, what does it say? And the word was God. So, what's the Bible say? The word was God. All right, isn't that what it says? If you have a New World Translation, it won't say that. It'll say a God with a small g, I think. But that's a corruption of God's word. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. Now, I forgot to put John chapter 114, excuse me, in my notes. Let me just turn there really quickly. So, skip down to verse number 14. It says, excuse me, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Who's that talking about? It's obviously talking about the word, which was with God at the beginning, who was God. So, this word was made flesh and dwelt among us. So, the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is God. There's no doubt about that. Now, people will say, well, Jesus never claimed to be God. Well, I don't think that's true, but I think that these scriptures here are very clear. So, Jesus isn't just a man. He's not just some man made up so that we could, you know, the church could fleece your money and all this other stuff that people come up with so that we could control the world. Do you think that Baptists control the world? If you think that Baptists control the world, you're sadly mistaken. If you sent our church members over to North Korea, do you think that we would just conquer that nation? No, we wouldn't because they would kill us. So, you know, we don't run the world and through religion or whatever, and you'll say, well, not anymore because, you know, communism's taken over. Well, that's a bad thing. That's a bad thing. Well, show me the communist government that hasn't killed millions of people. So, people think, I don't understand how America could go from Rocky for Rocky beating the Russian, you know, to where we're at now where people are actually literally calling for open communism because they think it's gonna be something good, that it's an ideology, but that system is from the devil also. I mean, it's just wicked. So, communism never solved anything. It makes the powerful powerful and it makes the people into slaves. So, that don't have any way to defend themselves. Turn to 1 Timothy 3.16. 1 Timothy 3.16. I just want to show some verses to prove that just like Isaiah 9.6 saying that he would be the mighty God. Now, there's tons of other verses in the Old Testament I could have turned to, but, you know, we don't have time for all that. So, anyway, 1 Timothy 3.16, it says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. I mean, how many ways do we need to see it? God was manifest in the flesh. So, when we go to people's doors and we ask them, do you believe that Jesus was God, a lot of times people say, well, he was the son of God and he is the son of God. There's no doubt about that, but does the Bible teach that he was God? Yes, it does. In multiple verses I've already shown you, you know, God with us is what Immanuel means. When he was born, he was born as God with us. He was born as God manifest in the flesh. He is the word of God. You know, we are reading the word of God this morning. You know, Jesus Christ is the word of God. So, now, one more verse and then I'll move on to the last point. Hebrews chapter one, verse eight. This one still can be used to baffle the Jehovah's Witnesses. I don't think that they've completely changed the meaning of this one. They might be updating their perversion of the Bible at some point soon. They changed the slimy juice of the marshmallow verse in Job, what is it, Job, what is it, Job? Job 6-6. Job 6-6, yeah, okay. Job 6-6, in their supposed Bible it says, is there any taste in the slimy juice of a marshmallow or something like that, or a, oh, yeah. Isn't that what it said, marshmallow? Yep. Yes, there is taste in the slimy juice of a marshmallow. I've never had slimy marshmallows before, but I mean, whatever. I like them crispy. I like them cooked, but anyway. Hebrews 1-8 says, but unto the Son he saith. That's sons capitalized in your Bible, isn't it? Unto the Son he saith, thy throne, oh God, is forever and ever a scepter of righteousness, is the scepter of thy kingdom. So the scepter of righteousness is, so Jesus Christ's kingdom is a scepter of righteousness, but look what it, I mean it says, thy throne, oh God. This is God the Father calling Jesus the Son God. You know why? Because he's God, that's why, you know? The rich young ruler said, good master, what good thing shall I do to inherit eternal life? And Jesus said there's none good but God, didn't he? So is Jesus good? Then he's God. Right? I mean, Jesus was good, he never sinned. So I mean, by man's definition, by the Bible's definition, Jesus was good, so he had to be God. So anyway, look at Isaiah 53, and this'll be the last point of the sermon here, and the last point, or prophecy, is Christ was prophesied to be the savior of all mankind. Christ was prophesied to be the savior of all mankind. Now Isaiah 53 is definitely prophesying of Jesus. The very famous chapter in the Bible, one of the most famous chapters in the whole Bible, and you know, it over and over again just tells us how he, all the things that he did and what he endured for us. Now let's start off in verse number one. It says, who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, that when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. So he wasn't six foot eight and full of muscles and chiseled, you know, jawline. He wasn't, you know, some beautiful person, you know, a lot of people are attracted, even will wanna follow someone that looks the part. Like Saul, king of Israel, you know, he was head and shoulders above the people, but you know, that doesn't mean anything. Samuel, when he was trying to find out which one was the Lord's anointed, he went through all the sons of Jesse and found this little ruddy guy. You know, he's like, is this all your sons? He was like, surely the Lord's anointed is before me. He was talking about his brother, I think, Eliab. But we look at the outward appearance, God looks on the heart, but I think that he made him just to look like a regular person. I don't think he was some ugly duckling or something, but you know, even if he was, there was no beauty in him that we would desire him. You know, he made it to where people aren't just gonna follow him just because of the way he looks. Now look at verse three, it says, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him, he was despised and we esteemed him not. See, he reached out his hand to the people but the people despised and rejected him. They crucified him. Look at verse four, surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows and yet we did esteem him smitten, or stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions and he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed. So he wasn't wounded for his own transgressions, he was wounded for ours. He wasn't bruised for his iniquities, he was bruised for ours. He was the ultimate sacrificial lamb, so to speak. John the Baptist said, behold the lamb of God which taketh away the sins of the world. And speaking of sheep, in verse number six it says, all we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. See, everything that we've ever done, every sin we've ever committed was laid upon Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, everything that we've done. And it says he was oppressed and he was afflicted yet he opened not his mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation for he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. So, I mean, just think about this. Your only son is being beaten. I mean, you can't even barely stand to beat your own kids when they do something wrong. But when someone else is beating your kids how does that make you feel? How would that make you feel? If someone's hurting your son, your only son that's born to you or your only daughter, anybody in their right mind that would not please them. But it pleased God because he knew ultimately what he was accomplishing was the salvation of all mankind. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin he shall see his seed and he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. So, his soul was made an offering for sin. The Bible says he was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. What is in the heart of the earth? Hell is in the heart of the earth, isn't it? And so his soul, when he died, his soul went to hell for three days and three nights. But see, that's not the end. Now, people get upset about that teaching but it's actually in Acts chapter two verse 31 it's very clear that his soul was not left in hell. And that hell means hell. That doesn't mean the fluffy paradise where all the saints go, okay? Hell is always hot. It's always the place where the wicked dead go. Okay, so he made his soul an offering for sin. Now look at verse 11, it says, he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous servant justify many? For he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bare the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. This whole chapter is about the Lord Jesus Christ being the one that suffered for us, the one who took our place on the cross, the one that was beaten, he was a man of sorrows, he had no place to lay his head at night, he was poor, he was destitute, he was mocked. People showed up at every service that he preached, mocking him, asking him questions, railing upon him and he's God manifest in the flesh that people are talking to him like that, spitting in his face, striking him with the palms of their hands but you know what, he endured all that for us. He was prophesied to be the savior of the world and guess what, he is the savior of the world. And you know what, wise men still seek him today. I like that saying. Wise men still seek him today. The wise men saw his star in the east and they went to worship him. They went to see Jesus. In the Bible it says we would see Jesus. Well how about you, would you like to see Jesus? Because I sure would. Now he's not gonna just appear to us, he's gonna come back in the clouds and he will appear to us but a lot of people are like, well I'll believe if he comes down and talks to me. I'll believe if he comes down and jumps in this lab tube so I can test him or something. It's like, he's God, he doesn't have to answer to you. He wrote what it takes to be saved in his word. He wrote what he did for us in his word. It's a big book folks, it takes a long time to read. There's a lot of details in here. Well it's like, well it doesn't answer my question. Well maybe you should stop asking stupid questions then that don't mean anything. If the answer is not in this book, then how important is it? So wise men still seek him today but the fool has said in his heart that there is no God. There's people out there that believe there is no God, all this just happened by some chance explosion billions of years ago. I mean which one takes more faith folks? That there's a God that's always existed, he created everything because he's all powerful, he's all knowing. Then you got the bozo atheist saying, well a little dot swirled around for billions of years and exploded and then everything, you see everything you see here, it's all because of the explosion. That's ridiculous folks. You wanna talk about a fairytale, people say you believe in books written by men. Well I do but they're straight from the mouth of God. See, but the same people that would say that, they believe in books written by men also don't they? They're called science journals and whatever. Whatever thing they can plagiarize from somebody else that was wrong also. You know, so we don't wanna be fools, we wanna be wise, like the wise men, they went and sought Jesus and went to worship him and if you're wise today that'll be something that you do. I don't know in this size of room if there's people that are unsaved or not, I mean I would guess that there probably is. Maybe you've not sought Jesus, maybe you haven't sought to him after the due order. Maybe you've just tried Jesus before and it didn't work out. But that's not something that you do. And you know, it's by faith that we're saved. It's not of works, it's not by repenting of all your sins because that's impossible to do. People are like, well I repented all my sins, did you really? Well that was a sin just by saying that you did because it's not true. Nobody has repented from all their sins. If Jesus, if we could be perfect and repent of our sins and believe in God and that kinda gets us there, then why did Jesus have to die for us in the first place? Because, you know, that's ridiculous. You know, we trust in the finished works of Christ and what he did for us. We don't trust in ourselves and what we can do with Jesus. You know, am I saying that we shouldn't be good people? Of course we should be good people, but that's not what gets us into heaven. It's the good things that he did for us. It's the good things, the good life that he lived. He borrowed the iniquities, not you. He made you a way for you to just escape all of it. As a matter of fact, you don't even have to pay for what you've done. Because if we had to pay for everything we did, we'd be in a lot of trouble. The prison sentence would be long, and it is long for the people that won't accept that free gift. It's gonna be a long prison sentence. It's called everlasting destruction. Now, I was reading this article because I've seen where people say that, you know, the chances of Jesus fulfilling all these prophecies in the Bible are astronomical mathematical numbers. Now, I'm definitely not a math whiz or anything like that, so I'm going off of what the math other people did, so if it's wrong, then talk to him. But anyway, I just wanted to read this to you really quickly before we end. Mathematics astronomy professor Peter W. Stoner has made the statement that the chances of just eight prophecies, and that's what I've shown you today, like these, coming true by sheer chance, is one in 10 to the 17th power, which I think is a trillion. I don't know, there's a lot of zeros next to this one right here, but that's just eight prophecies, one in 10 to the 17th power. That would be equivalent to covering the whole state of Texas with silver dollars two feet deep and then expecting a blindfolded man to walk across the state on the very first try, find the one coin that you marked. That's how hard it would be to fulfill just eight of these prophecies. That's a pretty hard chance, isn't it? The whole state of Texas, you go and blindfold it and pick out the one, that's really no chance at all. It's like the lottery, you don't really have a chance. Roughly equivalent to the province of Ontario being 1.5 feet deep, and if we were to add only eight more similar prophecies for the total of 16, the odds would be one to the 1028th power, or one in 10 to the 45th power, I guess. So there's a lot of zeros behind that. I don't even know what that number is, but it's multiple zeros. So using the same type of illustration as above, if we were to press this many silver dollars into a ball and place it in the center of this ball where the center of our sun is, this silver ball's outer edge would be in approximately the same area as the orbit of Neptune, almost to Pluto. One man fulfilling all 16 prophecies by sheer chance would be like sending a blindfolded person out to find one specific silver dollar that has been marked and has been mixed up somewhere in this huge ball and actually finding it the first time. So eight prophecies I showed you today that are impossible to just happen to be fulfilled. That's just eight. You put 16, the numbers grow exponentially. So you're like, well, I mean, that doesn't really prove anything. Well, it does prove something. It proves that the Old Testament prophecy is just happening to be fulfilled. There's no way that it's possible. The only way it's possible is by God. Daniel chapter 12, I'm gonna have you turn to two more scriptures and we'll be done. I haven't even preached in an hour here, so just calm down, all right? Some of the people out there are looking hangry. I'm getting these dirty looks out there. Anyway, Daniel chapter 12, verse two, the Bible says, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament, and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever. But notice it says they that be wise shall be as the brightness of the firmament. So the Bible likens save people to the ones that are wise. There's a lot of people that are wise in this world. That's not what I'm talking about. There's people that are a lot smarter than I am. But if that person is so smart that they talk themselves out of salvation, then they're not wise, they're fools. They're stupid. And they just want to put anything above it being actually God. And they'll use science, they'll say, are you so stupid you believe in the 6,000 year, or creation was 6,000 years ago? Well, it's better than what you believe that bananas became wolves, or plants became crocodiles or whatever, and that the magic ingredients is millions and billions of years. You know, that's your magic wand. That rain on rocks is what created everything. That's just ignorant. But they want to believe anything but God. Anything but God. Now, last verse here in Isaiah 55. Turn to Isaiah 55 and we'll end here. Isaiah chapter number 55, verse number six. The Bible says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Now, I mean, I don't know if everybody in this room is a regular church attender or not, but you know, church doesn't save you. The Lord saves. And it says, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Why would it say that? Because there might be a time when he might not be able to be found of you. Maybe God is only speaking to your heart at a couple different times in your life, I don't know. I mean, I know that God worked on me for a while. I was a hard case. But eventually you keep saying, no, no, no, I don't want this, no, I want to keep living my life, I want to do this, I want to do that, I don't know. And you just keep putting off being saved. Eventually you might come to the point where you can't find him because he won't be found of you. And you won't be able to call upon him because he's not near to you. So my suggestion would be, if you're not saved today, that you should call upon him. The Bible says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that Lord's name is what? Jesus Christ. You have to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. You have to put all your faith in him and zero in your own works. And the Bible says, if you believe, you're gonna be saved. So that's all you have to do. He already did all the work. The fact that, I mean, we're at Christmas time and you get gifts and we give gifts, you probably have paid for some gifts this year, have you not? You paid for them. But do you make the other people pay you back when you give them to them? No, because it's free. A gift is free. That's the definition of a gift, is that it's free. Now, the Bible says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. He's already paid for the gift. He paid for it, not you. And it's eternal life. That means it's a life that never ends. No matter what you do once you have it, you cannot lose it. And if you have eternal life, I mean, that doesn't even make logical sense that if you had eternal life and you lost it because it's eternal. How do you lose something that's eternal? You can't lose something that's eternal. It lasts forever. And you're like, well, what are we gonna do while we're in heaven lasting forever? I don't know. But I will tell you this. It's gonna be way better than here. Amen. You're like, I just can't imagine it. I've told this story before. I'll just say it really quickly. I used to think when I was a kid watching the Looney Tunes that all we were gonna do in heaven is like be on a cloud with Sylvester and Tweety playing like harps or something. Who's seen those cartoons? I was like, that looks boring. And he had a dress on, I think. But anyway, it's not gonna be boring, folks. It's gonna be great. And God, the Bible says, behold, I make all things new. And He can make you new today. If you're not saved and you're in here today, don't leave this building without getting the best gift that you can absolutely get, which is the gift of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank you so much for this great congregation of believers here. And Lord, I just pray if there is somebody here that's not saved, Lord, that they would make today the day that they choose to seek you while you may be found and call upon you while you're near to them, Lord. I pray you'd work in our hearts. And Lord, help us to have just a love for people a love for souls in this church. And I pray you'd bless the dinner that we're about to receive and the fellowship that we're about to partake in. And I pray in the blessed name of your son, Jesus Christ. Amen.