Christmas - The Trinity Revealed

God Centered Theology

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Christmas is certainly a time we talk about a lot of different things. Many people talk about the hope of Christmas, the wonder of Christmas, the magic of Christmas, the miracle of Christmas.

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Many certainly will gather around tables full of food, trees with plenty of presents, although the presents nowadays probably don't take up as much space as they did 10 -15 years ago, especially when most of them are about the size of one of these.

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They may even experience what for them is a real bona fide Christmas miracle in their life, and you can read a lot about these stories in different places and media.

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And that is all well and good, and there's certainly nothing wrong with American Christmas traditions, things of that nature, as long as they do not distract us from the real reason that we celebrate

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Christmas. Because after all, that is the real reason we have a whole season forward, as much as those that do reject it and would probably want all resemblance and all reminders of it to go away, they certainly will not succeed.

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But it is my belief, and I believe it is also Scripture's definition of Christmas that is such, and that is that the

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Trinity is one of the foundational and historic doctrines of the Christian faith.

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It is revealed both in the incarnation of the Son and the outpouring of the

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Holy Spirit, which first was at Pentecost, and then the

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Holy Spirit coming to indwell all believers that place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, and since the

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Trinity is one of the foundational building blocks in historic Christian doctrines, it's not something that we've talked about in other avenues where we have second and third level issues.

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You know, a debate over, say, eschatology and end times would not need to rise to the level of something like the

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Trinity. But the Trinity is a test of fellowship. It is something that we would fall on the sword for and die for.

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It is something we would allow ourselves to be imprisoned for. It is one of those things that without it you have no

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Christianity. And what is unfortunate is that there have been and will continue to be attacks on the

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Trinity. Everything from popular, so -called Christian books like the Shack, to outright heresies like oneness theology will continue to ignore the clear teachings of Scripture.

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Either through unintentional ignorance, which is not necessarily sinful, you just take a baby in Christ who's just been saved, they're not going to have a full understanding or a full treatment, of course, of teaching on the

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Trinity as someone who's been in church for a very long time. But the intentional rejection of revealed

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Scripture is something that all Christians should make your skin crawl. It should make you want to stand up and have the actual courage to say that is incorrect, to say that is heresy, to say that is incorrect, that is wrong.

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What is really sad, too, is you see a higher degree of emotion invoked by Christians today of, you know, these little petty things that get in our way, these little things, you know,

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I mean, I don't know what percentage of Christians go shopping on Black Friday. There's not anything sinful about it, and if you go,

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God bless you. I don't want to be trampled at Walmart, but if you go, there's a chance that could happen.

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And while there's certainly nothing wrong with those things, I think sometimes we can see a higher degree of emotion invoked over something that's essentially trivial or temporal than we would see over something eternal.

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Just like it is with all the teachings of Scripture, which cover everything from how one is to live in a relation to God, the first great commandment, to how we're, you know, your vertical relationship, and like I've said before, if your vertical relationship with God is right, your horizontal relationships with each other will take care of itself.

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Everything Scripture teaches about what lies ahead in the future, what a church is supposed to look like, who's supposed to lead it, what your home is supposed to look like, what you're supposed to look like on the job, all these things it covers.

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It is especially true with the doctrine of the Trinity that it is not important what man thinks, but what

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God has said. Not important what man thinks through the prism of his sinful nature, but what

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God has actually said and revealed to man. What makes Christmas the great hope that it is?

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What makes Christmas the great miracle that it is? The great wonder that it is?

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Has nothing to do with man, or what he thinks, or what he has done, but has everything to do with God, and what

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He has done. For on that first Christmas, the very

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God of the universe entered into his own creation, entering into time and space, which are things that are not eternal.

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Time, space, matter, all created things. He entered into it, and in so doing revealed to mankind his triune nature.

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So I want to take a look at the Trinity this morning in two capacities, and we will touch on some more of the

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Old Testament and the prophetic nature of the Trinity and Christmas probably on the 23rd.

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But for today, in two points, I want to cover some things about the Trinity. Number one, Christmas reveals the

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Trinity because God took on human flesh. You can turn in your

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Bibles to the first chapter of the book of John this morning, and we're going to, I don't typically do these types of sermons.

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It will be a little bit more topical. Typically, we would exegete or spend some time in one passage of scripture, but today we're going to be in a few different places.

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So if you want to follow with me as we move, John chapter 1, Christmas reveals the

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Trinity because God took on human flesh. Christmas is not about presents. I love presents. I love gadgets, and toys, and all those things.

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I have my next TV picked out, and the one after that too. Eventually, they'll get around to broadcasting in 4k, and then all of our 4k

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TVs will work to the full capacity. And so that's definitely something I'm looking forward to, but it's not about that.

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It's about God. It's not about trees, although we have a very lovely tree. It's not about a tree. It's about God.

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It's not about songs. We had wonderful songs this morning. It's about God. It's not about Santa.

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I hope no children are under the sound of my voice, but it's not about Santa. It's about God. All these things, even candles, not about candles.

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It's about God. It's not about anything. It's about God. Now, all these things, obviously, nothing's sinful about them.

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Nothing's sinful about nice candles, and poinsettias, and trees, and songs, and all those things. But if they're not done under the banner of understanding that supremely

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God is worshiped, His Word is submitted to under the understanding that God is supreme.

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His Word is supreme. We are here to celebrate the Trinity. We're here to celebrate God, and worship God. All those things can take a wrong place, and where they should be, because ultimately it's not about those things.

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It is about God, because Christmas is about God. It's about the coming Messiah.

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It's about peace coming to the world. It's about Christ coming into the world He created.

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If you ever want to have some fun on the internet, Google about the size of the universe. Google pictures of the

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Earth's size in relation to the Sun, or in relation to some of those massive planets that are out there.

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Oh, how small we are, and yet we in our pride think that we're so big, and so important, too often.

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And when you think about how small we really are, and the fact that God decided to enter into His own creation on a

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Earth as small as planet Earth, to save a people as small as us, and compared to the vastness of the universe

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He created, it shows you just how much He actually, and does, love us.

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So, beginning in John chapter 1, in what is some of my favorite scripture, verse 14, it says, "...and

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the Word became flesh." John identifies the

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Word, as he uses it in his gospel here, as Jesus Christ. There is no mistaking who he is talking about.

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He makes that clear throughout his gospel. The Word, Jesus Christ, became flesh.

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At this moment in time, God reveals His triune nature. The second person of the Trinity enters into creation, and you have

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God the Father, God the Son. Now, this was not a point in time when Jesus Christ came into being.

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Notice with me in verse 1, it says, "...and the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

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God." He was in the beginning with God. He was in the beginning, meaning, as far back as you want to push the beginning,

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God's still there, because He's eternally existent. He created time. Time is not a hold on Him.

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Jesus Christ is eternally existent. That's the thing about the Trinity that we teach. One eternal being, three distinct persons,

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Father, Son, Holy Spirit. They are all co -equal, and they are all co -eternal. Unfortunately, we have religions in our world that want to teach that Jesus Christ is a created being.

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This is not so. They also want to teach that Jesus Christ did not exist in space and time, or in eternity for that matter, until the time in which

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He became flesh. That is not true. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, eternally existent, simply at this point in time added, or took on human flesh to His deity.

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The Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, meaning tabernacled, or pitched

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His tent to dwell among us. We saw

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His glory. Glory is of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying,

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This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.

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John the Baptist knew it. He saw it and knew it. In fact, in places in the

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Old Testament, it was prophesied that John the Baptist would come before Jesus Christ to prophesy about the coming of the

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Messiah. For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace, for the law was given through Moses, grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ.

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No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the

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Father, He has explained Him. No one has seen

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God at any time. God the Father is Spirit. It is Jesus Christ who took on human flesh.

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It is the Greek word monogamized, the only begotten, the unique, the one and only, meaning the only one of its kind.

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There is no other Son of God. There is no other second person of the Trinity. There is only Jesus Christ.

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So when we talk about salvation and preach about salvation, we as Christians preach the exclusivity of salvation in Jesus Christ.

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That is by far the one thing the world hates about us more than anything else, is that we preach salvation through only one person.

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Not through works, not through any religious things you do, only through Jesus Christ.

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And when it says He is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him. This is from a word in the

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Greek where we get the word exegesis. It is a common term pastors and preachers use when we talk about, for instance, when we are going through the book of Colossians together, which we will probably pick back up in January.

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When you go through a book of the Bible, and you teach it, and you explain it, and you get down and mine for the nuggets of truth that are in there, and check the cross references, and understand the quotations, and all that is wrapped up in the interpretation of a book of the

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Bible, what you are doing is exegeting that scripture. It is expositional preaching.

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It is an understanding of what truth has been revealed in that book. To the same degree, and in a very more literal and eternal way,

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Jesus Christ is the exegesis, or the explanation, the fullness of who

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God is. Which is why Jesus often said, if you've seen Me, you've seen the

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Father. If you believe in Me, you believe the Father. In the book of 1 John it says, those that believe the

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Son have the Father. But if you don't, some along the lines, if you don't believe the Son, you have not the Son nor the

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Father. Because Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, has fully exegeted and explained who

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God is. You can turn with me to the first chapter of the book of Hebrews.

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The first chapter of the book of Hebrews. So, in John we see He's the unique Son that exegeted

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God. In the book of Hebrews, chapter 1, verse 1, it says, God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers and the prophets in many portions and in many ways in these last days, has spoken to us in His Son.

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Now, my goal is that on the 23rd we will spend more time looking at Old Testament prophecies and kind of getting into more of what this verse is bringing out.

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That for a long time, spoken through prophets, pointing forward, the coming one.

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We have the full revealed scripture now. We look back to what was accomplished in these last days.

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He's spoken in His Son. Through whom also He, Jesus Christ, made the world.

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He's the heir of all things. He made the world. You might remember this when we did go through Colossians. Remember the section in chapter 2?

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In Him we have this. In Him we have this. Jesus is this. Jesus is that.

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The creator of all things. All things consist and uphold in Jesus. All that beautiful scripture in Colossians that we covered is very,

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I'm going to create another word here, Christmas -y scripture, Christmas -y scripture, because it points to Jesus Christ, who is the very foundation of why we celebrate

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Christmas in the first place. Notice it says in verse 3, He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature.

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Philippians 2, when it says He thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but willingly and voluntarily set aside

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His privileges as God, took on human flesh, submitted Himself perfectly to the will of the

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Father. You know, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, or let this attitude be in yourselves, which was also in Christ.

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Got a connection here. Exact representation of His nature upholds all things by the word of His power.

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Jesus Christ is the one that spoke the universe into existence. It wasn't evolution.

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We're not here by random chance. It didn't just so happen to work out.

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Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, spoke this world into existence.

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When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the

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Majesty on high, having become as much better than angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

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Scripture is clear about the triune nature of God. One eternal being, three distinct persons, co -equal, co -eternal.

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My friends, only the highest view of Scripture, the highest view of Scripture, Sola Scriptura, Tota Scriptura, Scripture alone and all of Scripture, the sole rule of faith for the

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Christian church and for the Christian, only that highest view of Scripture can bring one to correctly and consistently understand and defend this vital doctrine of the

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Christian faith. Dr. James White, who is a well -known apologist who lives in Arizona, who has written a book called,

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The Forgotten Trinity, which is probably one of my favorite books on my bookshelf, said once, and I couldn't find the source, this will be a direct quote, it will be more of a paraphrase on my part, but he essentially said one time, that once you have demonstrated that both

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Jesus and the Holy Spirit are Yahweh, the Yahweh of the Old Testament, you've demonstrated that both

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Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are Yahweh, the debate is over concerning the

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Trinity. This gentleman, Dr. White, has debated many people that are oneness theology, people that don't believe in the

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Trinity, and many of them will claim to be Christian without believing in the Trinity.

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And what you find is they can't correctly and consistently defend their theology, because Scripture is abundantly clear of the

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One Eternal Being, three distinct persons. We see that obviously in the Incarnation of the Son, outpouring of the

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Holy Spirit. But once you have, if you can demonstrate that Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are both

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Yahweh, the debate is over. And we're not going to get into it today, but maybe you go to John 8, you can go to other places where Jesus Christ explicitly and clearly claimed deity for Himself.

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So much so that the people wanted to stone Him, and they crucified Him for blasphemy, for claiming to be

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God. So, all this nonsense out there that says, well, you know, Jesus really didn't think

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He was God. He didn't really ever claim it. Hogwash! It's not accurate.

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It's not true. It's all over the Scriptures! All over it!

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And you don't have to stop at just Jesus, because we are not a red letter only -ist church.

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There's a lot of Christians out there that say, well, it's just those red letters in the New Testament that matter. Yeah, they're pretty important, but that's not what

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Sola in Totus Scriptura teaches. You don't have to stop just at Jesus, although He'd be a good place to start.

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But the rest of the New Testament writers backed up everything Jesus said. In fact,

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I just heard, or listened to last night a program where Dr. White was preaching on the road to Emmaus.

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Remember at the end of the book of Luke, and some of the people were walking, and they didn't know it was Jesus, but He was opening up the Scriptures to them about how all the

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Scriptures, and at the time of this point in time when this happened, they only had the Old Testament.

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So, Jesus Christ, the resurrected Lord, took nothing but the Old Testament and proved to these people on the road to Emmaus that He was the

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Messiah, He was the Christ from Moses up until their day through all the prophets.

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And remember what they said? Did not our hearts burn within us when the

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Scripture was opened up to them? So, I think He is very accurate when

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He says that once you've demonstrated that Jesus is the Holy Spirit, or Yahweh, the debate is over. Jesus Christ not only claimed deity for Himself, but the

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New Testament writers not only agreed as well. So, what this means is that when we celebrate Christmas, we are not doing it because a good teacher was born.

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We are not doing it because a prophet was born. We're not doing it because a good religious leader was born.

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We are doing it because the literal Son of God was born, the

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Messiah, the Coming One, the Christ, the Creator, the

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Lord God Almighty. A word we're going to focus on more next sermon on the 23rd, but the

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Emmanuel, God with us. There is a big difference between what a correct and consistent understanding and interpretation of the

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Scriptures says, what God has said about Himself and about us, than what you hear in the world and what man thinks.

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And what really brings up a righteous anger in my bones is

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I know, and we've just been through the Spiritual Warfare series, Satan's not an idiot. He's not stupid.

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The Scripture says he and his demons know very well that God exists and they tremble. But he doesn't care that he's a liar.

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He doesn't care that he can get man to doubt God's Word. He rejoices in it.

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And as much as his world system, as much as his world that he's a God little g over wants to think and teach and wonder and preach, it will never change the fact that God's revealed

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Word says that my Son, the second person of the Trinity, was, is, and always will be

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God, Yahweh. So, number one,

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Christmas reveals the Trinity because God became flesh. And number two, and lastly this morning, Christmas reveals the

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Trinity in a miracle by the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to the first chapter of the book of Matthew, the first chapter of the book of Matthew.

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Christmas reveals the Trinity in a miracle by the

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Holy Spirit. Now we're not going to go through it. Honestly, I would probably fall asleep as well.

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But I would suggest it is a good study. Go through this genealogy. It's not there by mistake, my friends.

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It's there for a purpose. It's revealed Scripture. It's inspired. Just some highlights here.

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Notice it says in verse 1, the record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, Son of David, Son of Abraham.

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It goes through this person begat, this person so on and so forth. Some of the highlights you skip down to verse 5, you see the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, Jesse the father of David.

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It keeps going and going. And what you find down in verse 16, Jacob the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, by whom

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Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah. And it explains that all the generations from Abraham to David were 14.

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David to the deportation, 14. And from the deportation to the Messiah, 14 more generations.

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Proving it's not a cosmic accident. It's not just something that was happenstance.

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It was planned in the mind of God before He ever created, that He would send

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His Son, Jesus Christ, at a specific appointed time. And the genealogy shows you the line of Christ.

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It's no accident. Picking up in verse 18, now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows when

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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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All legal terms here, their betrothal period was something that would usually last up to a year. It was more legal than anything else.

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And what it basically is signifying that they had not had sex, they had not come together and known each other in that fashion.

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So, putting her away secretly was most likely an idea of divorce or something legal in regards to their betrothal.

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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

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Holy Spirit, by the Holy Spirit, of the Holy Spirit. Do some research on the science behind whether virgin birth is capable and possible, probable in mammals, human beings?

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Nope. Not possible. I haven't done too much research, but I think there's some reptiles somewhere there in the animal kingdom where it's a thing that happens.

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But bottom line, human beings, not going to happen. She will bear a son, you should 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 prophet, behold the virgin shall be with child.

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Now this is, if you want to turn you can, if not you can just listen to me read, but this is going back to Isaiah chapter 7.

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And in Isaiah chapter 7 beginning in verse 10 it says, And the Lord spoke again to Ahaz saying,

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Ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God, make it as deep as Sheol and as high as the heaven.

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But Ahaz said, I will not ask nor I test the Lord. Then he said, Listen now house of David, it is too slight a thing for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my

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God as well. And then notice what it says in verse 14, it says, Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign.

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This wasn't something contrived. It wasn't something where someone just happened to get it right. No, it said the

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Lord Himself will make this a reality. Behold a virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and we shall call

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Him Emmanuel. So, this child, the one born of the

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Holy Spirit given by God, Emmanuel which translated means God with us. In verse 24

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Matthew 1, And Joseph awoke from his sleep, and did as the angel of the 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. The New Testament goes out of its way to make sure it is abundantly clear that Mary was a virgin.

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This was a miracle of the Holy Spirit, the third person of the

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Trinity. So, without even getting to Pentecost, without even getting to the cross, you have the

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Trinity revealed in Scripture. You have the incarnation of the Son by a miracle of the third person, the

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Holy Spirit. And we're going to end our discussion this morning in the book of Luke if you'll turn there with me.

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Luke chapter 1. Discussing how Christmas reveals the

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Trinity in a miracle by the Holy Spirit, Luke chapter 1 in verse 26 says, Now in the sixth month the angel

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Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee called Nazareth to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was

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Joseph of the descendants of David, once again showing the genealogy and the consistency of the line of Christ.

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And the virgin's name was Mary. No doubt who it was. And coming in he said to her,

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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 Lord God will give him the throne of his father

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David. We're going to look at this more in depth next time, but this is fulfillment of prophecy.

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The throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob. His kingdom will have no end.

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It is eternal in nature. Mary said to the angel,

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How can this be since I am a virgin? So even Mary herself is quoted as asking,

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How is this possible? Because I'm a virgin. The angel answered and said to her,

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The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the third person of Trinity will come upon you and the power of the

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Most High, the Holy Spirit is in fact Yahweh and He will overshadow you. And for that reason the

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Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. Not because it is just a title, but because it is who

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He is and was and for always will be. Nothing about what man thinks, does, says can change the fact that the baby that was in the manger was the literal

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Yahweh, God Himself, Emmanuel, encased in human flesh.

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And behold, even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her age, John the Baptist.

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And she who was called barren is now in her sixth month, for nothing will be impossible with God.

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If there is a thought in your mind that anything's impossible that God has told you He wants to accomplish in and through you, eradicate that from your mind.

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Nothing's impossible if it is under the sovereign care and the sovereignty and the decree of God.

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And Mary said, Behold, the bond slave of the Lord may be done to me according to your word. And the angel departed for her.

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Then skip ahead for three more verses here closer to the end of the chapter. Verse 46,

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Mary said, My soul exalts the Lord and my spirit has rejoiced in God my

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Savior. The New Testament has not even been written yet.

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And Mary, the mother of Jesus, understands what is going, excuse me, not what, but who is going to occupy her womb.

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Not just a deity or something as the Rome would worship and all their gods, but the literal

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Son of God. She recognizes Her Son as the coming one, the Messiah, the

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Savior. For He has regard for the humble state of His bond slave.

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For behold, from this time on, all generations will count me blessed. For the

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Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is His name.

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My friends, the miracle of Christmas is not something to be looking for. It is not something that is uncertain.

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The miracle of Christmas is in who already has come.

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And it is in what is certain. Not because what man thinks or has said, but because what

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God has said and has revealed to us. The miracle of Christmas, that our great

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God took on human flesh and dwelt among us and in Him we have salvation from our sins.

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My friends, Christmas is great. Christmas is hope. Christmas is wonder.

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Christmas is everything it is because the Trinity is revealed in Christmas.