Equipping Eve Episode 4: The Incarnation

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Is the church today doing everything it can to provide women a firm foundation of truth in Christ Jesus?

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Well, it's true, there's no shortage of candy -coated Bible studies, potluck fellowships available to ladies.

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But beyond Sunday morning, are Christian women being properly equipped to stand against the same deceptions that even enticed

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Eve in the garden? In an attempt to address the need for trustworthy, biblical resources for women,

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No Compromise Radio is happy to introduce Equipping Eve, a ladies -only radio show that seeks to equip women with fruits of truth in an age that's ripe with deception.

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My name is Mike Ebendroth, and I'm pleased to introduce your host, Erin Benzinger, a friend of No Compromise Radio and a woman who wants to see other women equipped with a love for and a knowledge of the truth of God's Word.

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Well, hello ladies, welcome to Equipping Eve. My name is Erin Benzinger, and I'm your host today.

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I'm your host every day that this show airs. This is the show where we seek to equip women with fruits of truth from God's Word, because in the world today, and not just the secular, unbelieving world, but even in the visible church,

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God's Word is constantly being questioned. When Satan first uttered those words to Eve in the garden, did

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God really say, he really just set a tone for the deception that he would continue to weave throughout the history of time?

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And so he is still causing people to doubt God's Word today, but we know that what God did say, and we find it in the

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Bible, those 66 books that were written down by men but divinely inspired by the

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Holy Spirit, and it is God's Word to us. We know that it is true. We know that it can be trusted.

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In fact, Jesus prayed in John 17, 17, that God would sanctify his people with the truth.

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And he said, Thy Word is truth. And so that is why we love this

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Word. That is why we study this Word. And that is why we know that knowledge of this

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Word will equip us to stand strong in an age of deception. So thanks for tuning in.

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We are still very early in the life of the show, and I'm still very excited that I have a chance to talk to you ladies every couple of weeks here.

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As I record this, we are in the midst of the Christmas season. It's just starting to get busy as I record this, but as you listen to this, if I've timed this correctly, it will be just a few days before Christmas.

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And so really the anxiety and the stress of Christmas is at its peak maybe in your life, depending on how busy this time of year is for you and for your family.

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And so as you are baking those last minute batches of cookies and kind of putting the final touches on your

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Christmas tree and your Christmas presents, let's just take a few moments to pause and dig into God's Word today.

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And I hope you're doing that every day. I hope even in your busiest, most stressful times, you are able to pause and spend time with the

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Lord each and every day. You will find that the trials are much easier to endure.

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It doesn't make them go away. Sometimes our trials get more difficult, more involved, the stronger and closer we are walking with the

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Lord, but the closer we are walking with Him, the more we are strengthened by Him. And of course, then that strength from the

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Lord produces endurance in us in those trials. So that goes true for Christmastime and all year.

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We know that stress does not just exist in November and December, does it, ladies? So it's

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Christmastime. What do you do, mothers, what do you do with the whole

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Santa Claus thing? Do you teach your kids

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Santa Claus? This isn't gonna be the whole show, but I was thinking about this today because I have heard people argue,

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Christians argue that they don't see anything wrong with Santa Claus because, you know,

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I raised my kids with Santa Claus and they turned out okay. So what's the problem? Don't take that fun away from your kids and let them believe in Santa Claus.

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And so I was thinking about that in recent days. I say this as a child who was raised with Santa Claus, believing in Santa Claus, probably believing in Santa Claus for too long.

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I would say that if your kids, quote, turned out okay, and they believed in Santa Claus when they were young,

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I would say they turned out okay, if you will, in spite of the fact that you lied to them about Santa Claus.

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And again, I say this as someone who was raised with Santa Claus. What I don't understand is how we can teach our children that they are not to lie to us if we are parents, you know, we don't want our children to lie to us.

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So how can we teach them that, but then spend years lying to them about some overweight man in a red suit?

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Or maybe you have more than one child and then your older child reaches the age where they need to no longer believe in Santa Claus, and so you tell them the truth, but you ask them to lie to their younger sibling.

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So what a double standard you're teaching your kids. Because you're saying, don't lie to me, I'm your mother, but I need you to lie to your younger brother, your younger sister, and oh, by the way,

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I lied to you. There is no Santa Claus. There's no Tooth Fairy. There's no Easter Bunny. But oh,

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Jesus, by the way, he's true. I didn't lie about that. You see, we're kind of dancing into some sketchy, very dangerous territory there, aren't we?

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I just don't understand how that works. And then you just think about the gross moralism that is

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Santa Claus. This myth is so theologically horrible.

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So many people think of God as a type of Santa Claus or Santa Claus as a type of God.

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And you know, Santa Claus rewards the nice and punishes the naughty.

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But it brings it boils it down to your own good deeds. You know, were you a good little girl this year?

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Then you won't get coal in your stocking, you'll get the Susie Wetzelot doll or whatever it was that you wanted when you were a child.

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It's really a terrible, terrible thing to do to our children to kind of confuse them to teach them that Christ saves on no merit of our own.

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But then Santa Claus rewards only good behavior.

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I don't understand the point of Santa Claus. And people argue, well, you know, it's just the magic of Christmas.

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And it just makes the season so cheery to watch kids just wonder about Santa and their presents and this and that.

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And I think, boy, you've completely missed it. You know, I'm not opposed to Christmas.

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I like Christmas trees. I like a little bit of tasteful decoration. I don't have any problem giving presents.

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I think that's a great way to show people you care and to celebrate with people you love.

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I'm not preaching against Christmas here. But the whole point of Christmas, the time that we celebrate

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Christ's birth, the whole point of that is that men are not good enough.

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It's completely opposite of the whole Santa Claus myth. Men are not good enough.

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And that is why Christ had to come. So while I'm not saying that you shouldn't bake your cookies or your candies or wrap your presents or decorate your tree,

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I'm saying that we must be mindful of the picture, the importance and point of Christmas that we're giving our children and really that we're instilling even in our own hearts and minds.

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Where are our priorities, especially at this time of year? And ultimately, how in the world can

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Santa possibly compare with God the Father who sent

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God the Son to save unworthy, naughty, if you will, sinners?

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How in the world is that a better story to teach your kids, to teach your kids Santa Claus?

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How is that better than what Christ did for undeserving sinners?

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If you'll open your Bibles with me to Matthew 1, verse 18, we know the story quite well.

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Matthew 1, 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the

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Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

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But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take

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Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name

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Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the

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Lord through the prophet, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name

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Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep and did as the angel of the

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Lord commanded him and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son and he called his name

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Jesus. Now, if you'll quickly turn with me to Luke 1, verse 26, again, familiar text to us, but we lose sight of it.

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Luke 1, 26, now in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called

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Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph of the descendants of David and the virgin's name was

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Mary. And coming in, he said to her, greetings favored one, the Lord is with you. But she was very perplexed at this statement and kept pondering what kind of salutation this was.

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The angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him

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Jesus. He will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the

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Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end.

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Mary said to the angel, how can this be? Since I am a virgin, the angel answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you and for that reason, the holy child shall be called the son of God.

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And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age and she who was called barren is now in her sixth month for nothing will be impossible with God.

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And Mary said, behold, the bond slave of the Lord, may it be done to me according to your word.

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And the angel departed from her. That is Christmas. That is the incarnation.

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We all know the story of Christ's birth. We read them at Christmas after we've spent weeks neglecting what we should be focusing on.

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We sit down on Christmas Eve and we sing our Christmas carols and we light the candle and we sing

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Silent Night and we read Luke 2, where it talks about Jesus's birth.

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And maybe we watch a nativity movie. Maybe we put our nativity scenes up on the mantel and display these, these remembrances of Christ's birth and we focus on the baby in the manger.

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But the incarnation is so much more than this crying Christ child in the manger.

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So let's talk about that today. Let's talk a little bit about the incarnation of Christ.

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And I'll admit to a little cheat sheet here. I'm using, relying heavily on some notes that I obtained taking a class, a

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Christology class taught by Pastor Mike Ebenroth there of NOCO Radio.

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And so shout out to Pastor Mike, thanks for your notes here on the incarnation.

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So I'm going to, some of this might sound familiar if any of you participated in that class at Get Fed Online, but they were just, his notes were so helpful that it seemed kind of silly to reinvent the wheel.

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So that's a little confession. That's where I'm getting some of my notes here.

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So what is the incarnation? I like this definition that Robert Raymond gives.

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He says, quote, in the context of Christian theology, the act whereby the eternal son of God, the second person of the

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Holy Trinity without ceasing to be what he is, God, the son, took into union with himself what he before that act did not possess, a human nature.

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And then Paul N. says, the word incarnation means in flesh and denotes the act whereby the eternal son of God took to himself an additional nature, humanity, through the virgin birth.

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The result is that Christ remains forever unblemished deity, which he has had from eternity past, but he also possesses true sinless humanity in one person forever.

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So the incarnation is the means by which God the son takes on, as Robert Raymond says, what he did not previously possess, and that is a human nature.

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So what are the means of the incarnation? Well, we just read a little bit of that from Luke 1, 26 to 38, the virgin birth.

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That's how the incarnation came to be. And what's cool about the creation or the incarnation, ladies, is that it's a work of the triune

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God. This is a work of God, the father, God, the Holy Spirit, God, the son, the

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Trinity working together in the incarnation. So we see the father's plan.

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We see it in places like Hebrews 10, five. Therefore, when he comes into the world, he says, sacrifice an offering you have not desired but a body you have prepared for me.

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We see the father's plan and we see the father sending the son in places like 1 John 4, 14, which says we have seen and testify that the father has sent the son to be the savior of the world.

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So what is the Holy Spirit's role in the incarnation? The Holy Spirit is the agent of conception.

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Again, as we just read in Luke 1, Luke 1, 35 explains, the angel answered and said to her, the

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Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you. And for that reason, the holy child shall be called the son of God.

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We also saw this back in Matthew 1, Matthew 1, 18, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows.

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When his mother, Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the

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Holy Spirit. And then you have the son who is the one who took the form of man, who took on humanity in addition to his divine nature, took on a human nature.

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And so we see that in places like Hebrews 2, 14.

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I'm a little slow in getting there, hang on. Hebrews 2, 14, therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil.

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So we see the son taking on the form of a man. And of course, one of the greatest passages about the incarnation actually is not found in the gospels, but is found in Paul's letter to the

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Philippians, Philippians chapter two, verse six.

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Actually, we'll go back to verse five, just to start at the beginning of a sentence, Philippians two, verse five, ladies have this attitude in yourselves, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men.

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Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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And that's Philippians two. So what does this mean? What does it mean that the word became flesh,

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John 1, 14? Okay, we know that God had to become a man in order to serve as our high priest and to be the atoning sacrifice for sins.

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We know that without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins, and we needed a perfect, sinless, unblemished sacrifice.

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And that was the Lord Jesus Christ. Hebrews 2, 17 says,

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Therefore, he, Jesus, had to be made like his brethren in all things so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people.

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But it's not just that God came to earth and became a man.

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He remained God. He did not give up his deity in spite of what some may teach.

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So how can Christ be both God and man? So we're going to take a couple of minutes to look at that.

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You're listening to Equipping Eve. My name is Erin Benziger, and we're talking today, and this time before Christmas here,

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Christmas coming very shortly, we're talking about the incarnation of Christ. How can

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Christ be both God and man? And we just read the passage from Philippians 2.

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We read Philippians 2, 5 to 8. And sometimes this can be kind of an interesting passage to hear explained, because we have the

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English that we're working with, and we see that Christ, in verse 7, emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men.

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So does that mean that he emptied himself of his deity? What does that mean, that Christ emptied himself?

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Well, I'm going to steal some more material here. This is actually from Bruce Ware's book,

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The Man -Christ -Jesus, and this was actually also recommended by Pastor Mike, and he recommended it, and I went online while he was still talking about it and ordered it and read it, and this is a great book.

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So as I've said in previous shows, this is what we want to do. I want to be able to point you to good resources, ladies.

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So this is a good resource for you. It's by Bruce Ware, it's called The Man -Christ -Jesus,

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Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ. So it's not a difficult read, it's not a long read,

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I think you'd really enjoy it. So Bruce Ware talks in his book, in the very first chapter actually, about this passage in Philippians, and he's asking, how can

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Jesus be man and God? And how do we look at this passage that is so crucial to understanding the incarnation of Christ?

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And so he points out that Paul makes it really clear in this passage that Jesus Christ is fully

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God, and he looks at two expressions, he says, each convey the full deity of Christ.

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In verse 6, Paul writes that Christ existed in the form of God, and this word is morphe in Greek, which refers, says

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Ware, to the inner nature or substance of something, not its external or outward shape.

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So the Greek word morphe is the inner substance or very nature of a thing, not its outer shape or appearance.

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And then Paul uses a form of this word again, in verse 7, when he says that Christ emptied himself taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men.

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So we know that Christ just didn't look like a servant on the outside, he was a servant.

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He was a true servant. So Bruce Ware writes, Paul's point in Philippians 2 .6

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is clear, Jesus being the form of God exists in very nature as God, with the inner divine substance that is

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God's alone. He is fully God since he exists in the form, morphe, of God. And then he also mentions in verse 6 that Paul says that Christ possessed equality with God, which is also a clear indication of Jesus's deity.

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Paul's declaration that Christ possesses equality with God is stunning, says Ware. It can mean only one thing.

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By virtue of the fact that no one can be equal to God, but God himself, Christ, who possesses equality with God, must himself be fully

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God. Since he is fully God, he cannot cease to be fully

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God. God is eternal, self -existent, immortal, immutable. And thus he cannot cease to exist as God, nor can he fail to be fully

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God. Jesus Christ is fully God.

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And then in verse 7 we see this Christ, who is fully

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God, emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant. And so, as I said, this phrase, emptied himself,

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I don't know, I've seen it kind of trip up people. So Bruce Ware explains this,

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I think, really well. And he says, note that Paul is not saying that Christ emptied something from himself or poured something out of himself, as if in so doing he became less fully

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God than he was before. Because we just saw that that's impossible, right? God cannot cease to be

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God. If he ceases to possess any of his divine qualities, he ceases to be

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God. So God cannot cease to be God. So Bruce Ware continues, he says, rather Christ emptied himself, he poured out himself, that is all of who

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Christ is as eternal God, all that he is as the one who is in the form of God and is equal with God is poured out.

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Christ then, as God, remains fully God, loses nothing of his divine nature and no divine qualities are removed from him as he pours himself out.

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So what does this mean? Christ pours himself out, takes the form of a servant.

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And then Bruce Ware, I don't know, maybe we call this new math, I don't know, this is new math that we can fall in line with.

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He explains that he says, yes, Christ pours out by taking, by taking the form of a servant.

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Christ empties by adding. Here then, says Ware, is a strange sort of math that envisions a subtraction by addition and emptying by adding.

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So Christ pours himself out as he takes on, in addition to his divine nature, a fully human nature.

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And we saw that in the definitions that were given by Paul Enns, not Peter Enns, Paul Enns and Robert Raymond that I mentioned earlier in the show.

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And Bruce Ware continues again, he says, it is crucial to see that in the self emptying of the eternal son,

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Paul does not say that he poured something out of himself. Absolutely not, he says, rather Christ poured out himself.

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Here then is no subtraction, strictly speaking, it is a subtraction, a pouring out and emptying by adding human nature to his divine nature.

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He came then to become the God man, the one whose very divine nature took on fully the existence of a created human nature.

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He poured himself out by adding to himself the nature of a man, indeed, the nature of a servant, par excellence, who would give his life in obedience on the cross to fulfill the will of his father.

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Why did Christ do this? To fulfill the will of his father. And again, we can go back to Hebrews 2 and we see

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Christ's work as the high priest. Hebrews 2, 13 to 15, again, since the children share in flesh and blood, verse 14, he himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death he might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

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This is why Christ emptied himself by adding, took on the form of a servant, took on a fully human nature so that he could serve as our great high priest, as our atoning sacrifice for our sins, so that we may live, so that those who repent of their sin and trust in that work of Christ and in the perfect life that he lived and in the atoning sacrifice that he offered of himself and in his resurrection, those people may live because Christ died.

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And so, we needed Christ to be fully

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God and fully man. We needed him to be that unblemished sacrifice, because we can never offer such a sacrifice on our own.

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Anything that we offer would be filthy and dirty and blemished.

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And so, it is essential, if we call ourselves

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Christians, it is essential that we confess that Jesus Christ is God incarnate. If we deny the incarnation, we reveal the spirit of Antichrist.

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And that sounds strong, I know, but it's in 1 John, 1 John 4, 1 to 3, it says,

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Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

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By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

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And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. That is the spirit of the

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Antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming and now is already in the world. So ladies, if you don't have the incarnation as it is revealed in scripture, you do not have

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Christ as he is revealed in scripture, and you cannot have salvation. Colossians 1 .15

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says that he, Jesus Christ, is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. He is the

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God -man, Christ Jesus. And there's an amazing hymn that speaks to the incarnation, and it's actually in the

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Bible. And I don't know how many of you have ever actually stopped and pondered and realized that this hymn is there in Paul's letter to Timothy, 1

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Timothy 3 .16. By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness.

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He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

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That hymn, written by Paul, as inspired by the Holy Spirit, speaks to how

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God was manifest in the flesh. And this is the substance of our faith, ladies.

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Jesus Christ, the God -man, come into the world to save sinners.

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John MacArthur has said, Jesus Christ is Lord. He is God. He is in the form of God.

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He is God of very God, with all the attributes of God. Come into the world with all the fullness of humanness.

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He became the servant. He humbled himself. He died, even dying on a cross, and in the midst of that death, purchasing our salvation.

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God approved, and God lifted him back up and exalted him. And then God calls all,

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God calls to all the created universe and says, bow the knee and confess his lordship.

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That's the gospel. Jesus Christ became the servant. He humbled himself.

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He died, God approved, and lifted him back up and exalted him.

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MacArthur says, bow the knee and confess his lordship. And if you won't do that now, you will someday.

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But then it will be in judgment and condemnation. Now or later, says MacArthur, the choice is yours.

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You can bow the knee now in adoration and love. You can confess him as Lord now and enter into the joy of salvation forever.

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Or you can resist. You can say no. And someday you will bow the knee because you'll be forced and you will have no choice and you'll be condemned.

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So ladies, in the midst of Christmas, and I know we hear this a lot, you know, don't forget

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Jesus, keep your eyes fixed on Jesus in the season. And so I'm not trying to create, you know, more white noise, maybe in the midst of something that you're hearing a lot.

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But I really, really want you to take these last few days before Christmas and carry this with you every single day.

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The importance of the incarnation of Christ, the greatness of God made manifest the substance of our faith in Jesus Christ, our

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Lord. I want you to take that. I want you to refocus your gaze on him again today.

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And especially in the midst of this season, I want you to turn the gaze of your children to Christ amid the bright colors and the shiny toys and the delicious cookies.

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Help your family's focus to remain on Christ, who came to save his people from their sins.

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You know, I think that's something we so miss. It seems so simple, and we've heard these gospel stories so many times that we just skim over them.

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But it is so important to remember

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Matthew 1, 21, You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.

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Christ came to save his people from their sins. That's what we need to proclaim.

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We get so focused on the baby in a manger, which was such a miracle and so beautiful and such a touching story, especially the way that we've, you know, we've dramatized it.

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And I don't mean to diminish that. But the life of Christ didn't end there.

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And we can have the birth of Christ, but unless we have the perfect life of Christ and the atoning death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ, that is salvation.

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That is the gospel. That is the good news because you didn't deserve it. And he came anyway, and he lived perfectly anyway, and he died anyway, and God raised him anyway, even though you didn't deserve it.

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And this is what we need to remind people of at Christmas, the whole gospel, and call them to repent and believe upon the

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Lord Jesus Christ. Not just the baby in the manger, but the Lord Jesus Christ who died on a cross, who was raised three days later, and who now sits at the right hand of God the

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Father, who has been exalted, who is King of kings and Lord of lords, and who will return someday in glory and in judgment.

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So let's not lose sight of that as we're singing our Christmas carols.

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Let's turn off Here Comes Santa Claus and let's proclaim some truly good news as Christ, the

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God -man, was made manifest and came to save his people from their sins.

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So speaking of Christmas carols, it wouldn't be

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Christmastime if I didn't just touch on a Christmas carol. I was flipping through my hymnal today, trying to decide which is my favorite

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Christmas carol. I am one of those people who loves Christmas music, and if I could play it all year,

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I would. And I guess I could. There's really nothing stopping me, except I don't, because that's the downside.

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I fall behind in my podcasts at Christmas because I'm listening to Christmas music. And it's very frustrating to me to turn on the radio stations that play

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Christmas music and it's all stupid Santa garbage. When there's so many rich theological hymns out there celebrating the birth of Christ.

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And so I was flipping through the hymnal and came upon Hark the Herald Angels Sing.

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This was written by Charles Wesley and I believe it was altered later a little bit by George Whitfield.

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But I read somewhere that Wesley probably wrote this about one year after his conversion.

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And so I was just reading the lyrics to this hymn, and I thought, how theologically rich is this?

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And I thought this might be even a good exercise to do as kind of a devotional time with your family, even.

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Take some of these Christmas hymns, and you could do this all year if you have a good hymnal, and, you know, look at the theological depth of some of these hymns.

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And compare them with Scripture, you know, dig into Scripture and see, you know, where did the hymn writer get this truth from God's Word?

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And that's what I love about these old hymns. They're not all wonderful. But those that are teaching hymns, they take the truths of Scripture and they set them to music so that we can remember them and learn them.

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And so many of today's psalms are just very shallow, surface -level psalms, and you get the tune stuck in your head, but you have no idea what the words are because you're just repeating the same words over and over again.

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And so I'm not a particular fan of contemporary music. Even a lot of the contemporary hymns,

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I think, lack some of the depth that we see in some of these older treasures.

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So I was looking at Hark! the Herald Angels Sing, and it almost made me want to sing except I'm tone deaf.

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So I'm not going to sing this to you today, but I just want you to reflect on some of these words. Hark! the

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Herald Angels Sing Glory to the newborn King Peace on earth and mercy mild

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God and sinners reconciled Joyful all ye nations rise

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Join the triumph of the skies With the angelic host proclaim Christ is born in Bethlehem Christ by highest heaven adored

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Christ the everlasting Lord Late in time behold

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Him come Offspring of the Virgin's womb Veiled in flesh the

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Godhead see Hail the incarnate Deity Pleased as man with men to dwell

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Jesus our Emmanuel Hail the heaven -born Prince of Peace Hail the

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Son of Righteousness Light and life to all He brings Risen with healing in His wings

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Mild He lays His glory by Born that man no more may die Born to raise the sons of earth

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Born to give them second birth And there's the gospel.

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And so, as frustrating as the commercialization of Christmas can be, sometimes you just have to smile if you're standing in the department store or the grocery store and some of these truly

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Christian hymns play over the loudspeaker. The unsaved world may not get it, but you know what?

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For one month out of the year, sometimes we can just hear Christ proclaim in the midst of our secular society.

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And so we can be thankful to God for that, that Christ is exalted. So I guess we're out of time today.

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I hope maybe you'll go off and hum a hymn today as you finish baking your cookies or wrapping your presents or whatever you're doing.

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Thanks so much for listening, ladies. We will be back in just a couple of weeks and we'll open up God's Word again and equip ourselves with some more truth from that amazing gift that he has given to us.

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So I hope you have a blessed Christmas. Keep your eyes fixed on Christ.

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Get in your Bible, get on your knees and get equipped. Thanks for listening.

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You've been listening to Equipping Eve, a No Compromise radio production. If you'd like to get a hold of Erin, you can reach her at equippingeve at gmail .com,

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or you can check out one of our two websites, do notbesurprised .com or equippingeve .org.