December 11, 2020 Show with Marcus A. McKnight III, Esq. on “God’s Wonderful Plan for the Birth of His Son”

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Live from the historic parsonage of the 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron. This is a radio platform in which pastors,

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Christian scholars, and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

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Proverbs chapter 27 verse 17 tells us, Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

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Matthew Henry said that in this passage, we are cautioned to take heed with whom we converse and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

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It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next two hours, and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions, and now here's your host,

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Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

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Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet

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Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Friday.

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On this 11th day of December 2020, and this is the second day of Hanukkah, and an ideal time to reach out to your

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Jewish neighbors, friends, and loved ones with the message of the gospel that their

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Jewish Messiah has indeed come and is the only hope for mankind for eternal life.

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In fact, there is some biblical record of Jesus recognizing, we're not sure if he actually celebrated

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Hanukkah, but he certainly knew that this was a festival that was celebrated by the

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Jews, and perhaps he was taking advantage of it because he knew that there would be many people gathered to celebrate that day.

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He knew that many of his kinfolk would be there, gathered, so he used that day to present the gospel of Jesus Christ, his gospel, obviously, and if you're interested in finding out more about that, the actual text in the scripture is from John, the 10th chapter, 22 through 24.

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Then came the festival of dedication at Jerusalem. It was winter, and Jesus was in the temple courts, walking in Solomon's colonnade.

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The Jews who were there gathered around him, saying, how long will you keep us in suspense?

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If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly, and I'm sure you could find all sorts of different commentaries and so on that might give you a better understanding of what was occurring there, and John Wesley believed that Jesus actually celebrated

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Hanukkah, but I don't know if we can be 100 % convinced from the text that that was the case.

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But anyway, that's not what we're talking about today, although it is definitely connected. We are talking about that very gospel that Jesus provided for not only the

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Jews, but for all of humanity. We're talking about God's wonderful plan for the birth of his

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Son, and to do that, we have a returning guest, a dear friend of mine, who's also my lawyer, and he's also a very dear brother in Christ, and no, that is not an oxymoron to have a lawyer as a friend and a brother in Christ.

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His name is Marcus A. McKnight III, also very well known to his friends as Mike McKnight, and he is the majority shareholder of the

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania law firm Erwin and McKnight PC, recipient of an undergraduate degree in 1974 from Drew University of Madison, New Jersey, cum laude with specialized honors in economics and a

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Juris Doctor in 1977 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, member of the

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Pennsylvania Bar Association and the Cumberland County Bar Association, active member in the

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Carlisle Rotary Club, and past president of both the Cumberland County Bar Association and the

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Carlisle Rotary Club. He's also a member of the Westshore Evangelical Free Church in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, and a frequent function speaker for CBMC, which is

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Christian Businessmen's Connection, and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Trumpet Zion Radio for the very timely theme,

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God's Wonderful Plan for the Birth of His Son. Thank you for joining us again,

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Marcus McKnight. It is a pleasure to be with you this afternoon, and boy, what a year we've had.

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Oh yeah. And it still continues, even though there's hope of a vaccine.

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And you know, there's a lot of things you can compare to both the time when

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God chose perfectly that Jesus would come as an infant into this world for a very important mission, and how carefully

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He planned it. And the times we're in now, which to us are still—our lives are filled with uncertainty, and it was certainly true for the

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Jews who lived at the time of Jesus' birth. Their lives were filled with uncertainty because they lived as a conquered people by the

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Romans. Amen. And well, before we go into our wonderful theme about God's Wonderful Plan for the

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Birth of His Son, why don't you tell us a little bit about the law firm where you practice?

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Right now, our attorneys are myself and my son. I'm old enough to have a son who's a graduate of Pepperdine Law School out in California.

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Oh wow, I have a good friend who for years was a professor of law there,

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Dr. F. LaGarde Smith. I wonder if your son had him as a professor. I'll ask him.

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But he really enjoyed his time out there. I enjoyed visiting him occasionally out there on Pepperdine's campus, one of the most beautiful places on the

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West Coast, as he looked out over the ocean and the campus itself. Beautiful campus. I've never been there, but I've seen it on film and photograph and so forth.

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Yes, I believe the law school has no windows that point toward the ocean for obvious reasons. Well, in fact, the law professor that I mentioned,

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Dr. F. LaGarde Smith, who is no longer there, but he was for quite a long time, you may recall in the 80s that actress

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Shirley MacLaine, who was very much involved in the New Age movement, wrote a book called

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Out on a Limb, and Dr. F. LaGarde Smith, who lived right next door to her in Malibu, California at the time, wrote a response to her and that book and to the

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New Age movement called Out on a Broken Limb. I think that was the book that really put

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Dr. Smith on the map. Sorry to interrupt you there. You're speaking of your son,

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Matthew, by the way, right? Yes, Matthew. We have five legal assistants who help us get our work done.

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We are a pretty busy practice doing what we do, and that includes estate planning, estate administration, real estate, transactions.

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I do some litigation. Matt and I represent four townships in the borough of Newville locally here.

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We also love the fact that our local governments cooperate with each other, which in these difficult times, save money and creates goodwill as various townships and municipalities help each other when they have needs.

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There are plenty of needs that need to be addressed in these times. Amen. Well, I just thank God that you very successfully served as my attorney on several occasions when

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I needed your assistance, and they were all successful thanks to you and the gifts that God has given you.

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If anybody wants to find out more about this law firm, you can go to erwinmcknight .com, and that's spelled

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I -R -W -I -N mcknight .com, M -C -K -N -I -G -H -T, that is, dot com.

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Well, this is a no -brainer why you wanted to speak on this theme,

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God's wonderful plan for the birth of His Son being the Christmas season, but why don't you start off by telling us the reason, the biblical reason, that God needed to send

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His Son into this world and be actually born into this world as a human.

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The second person of the Trinity who always existed and always will exist had, for the first time, become a human being, fully human, and simultaneously always fully

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God. But tell us about why this occurred. Well, as a lawyer, what I do is I try to solve problems.

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Jesus came into this world as an infant because it was important that someone people could identify with would solve the terrible problem that we all face, and that is sin.

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And, of course, sin came through Adam initially, and various methods were used in the

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Old Testament to deal with sin. The most dramatic, of course, was the flood that wiped out all mankind except for one family through Noah.

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That one family survived and repopulated the world, but sin continued, even in Noah's family and following thereafter.

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And, of course, God then sent prophets, and He sent them, and through Moses, one of the greatest prophets of all,

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He gave the Ten Commandments or the moral law. And Jesus defined the moral law in the

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Gospel of Matthew as basically always putting God first in your life and never ever being selfish, that is, treating everybody else as equal with yourself or better than yourself.

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And the law is pretty plain about that, and if we violate it even once, we are guilty of breaking that law and being punished by God's command.

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And that punishment, of course, involves being separated from Him because we're sinners, and we'll see how that comes into play in the plan that He developed.

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So it was critical that someone or somehow that sin be dealt with, the issue of the sin that everybody has.

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And that's why it's so amazing. This is the year when people try to avoid a virus, and it's a virus that's so insidious that people who look healthy have it and communicate it and spread it in ways that we can't even imagine or scientifically define yet, and yet it's happening.

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And so all around us, people are getting very sick with the virus, some are dying, some have residual impacts that last for a long time, and we're all dealing with the uncertainty of the economic situation that keeps being shut down.

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And in Pennsylvania here, we've had another shutdown ordered for many businesses and a restriction of no more than 10 people in a gathering, which is pretty dramatic.

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And of course, the question is, how can we honor both our needs and the orders that come from our state?

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In fact, the governor of Pennsylvania would have banned the Last Supper, wouldn't he?

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There were too many disciples for a gathering, so they'd have to somehow develop

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Zoom for the disciples' use. Anyway, it's an amazing time we're living in, and it was an amazing time when

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God chose to send His Son into this world, and it was no accident.

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Now, sometimes the sentimental way, the sanitized way that people imagine

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Christmas to be, not only through holiday television programs and greeting cards and everything that is associated with Christmas, very often has a very sentimental and sanitized understanding of what occurred.

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They might not see the sacrifice even before Calvary, even before the death of Christ.

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God becoming human was in and of itself a sacrifice, was it not?

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Oh, it was an amazing sacrifice, and the larger sacrifice that you see in life, the more one has to risk.

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And in this case, we have a situation, and you can find it in the Gospel of John, the first chapter, first verse, in the beginning was the

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Word. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

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All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made.

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And Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

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So, the person we're talking about, the Lord Jesus Christ, was with God from the beginning.

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He created this universe. The most powerful being in the universe agreed, volunteered, to do, to commit himself to carrying out

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God's plan, and the early beginning of that was that he become an infant, and that he come and be birthed by a human mother who was

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Mary, and live 30 years in a family before he would even begin his ministry.

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And the ministry, of course, was designed to save people from their sins. In fact, you know,

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I heard just today, while in the car of a friend who was listening to Christian radio, even though I knew this as a doctrine, as a fact of history, as a theological fact, for some reason, it just never occurred to me to think of it in quite this way before, but I heard an announcer of this

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Christian radio network say that Jesus Christ is the only person who ever chose to be born, and that just struck me as being something very well put, and I don't know why it struck me as something sounding new, even though, like I said,

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I would have theologically known that, and even historically known that to be true, but it was just an interesting way, and a wonderful way to put it.

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And if that isn't wonderful enough, the other thing is, that occurred to me as I've studied these scriptures, is that Jesus is the only one to be involved with his

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Father in selecting his parents, his own parents. That's right. So he selected his own parents, and it's the only time it's ever happened that a being was able to select his people who would be his parents, and for Jesus, it was for his earthly life, but of course, his earthly life doesn't mean his life ended.

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It's still going on, and he is the Father of many, many spiritual children, and our hope is that even some, hearing this broadcast, would consider the fact that they need to be one of his children, and to be an adopted child of Christ of whole worlds that can't even begin to be described by this world.

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And of course, this is a well -known fact to no doubt the majority of my audience, but just for the sake of those listening who might be outside of the

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Christian faith, or just very new in the faith, and they haven't got all their theology right,

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Joseph was not a biological parent. You said that Jesus chose who his parents would be.

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Only Mary was his biological parent, but Joseph was, I guess, for lack of a better term, you could call him a stepfather, but he was the earthly dad, the caretaker of Christ while he was growing up, and it was the

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Holy Spirit who conceived Christ in the womb of Mary. And that's so true, but let me stress the fact that I greatly admire

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Joseph, and I admire Jesus for selecting Joseph, because he, in a sense, in a legal sense in the

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Jewish community, put himself under the authority of Joseph.

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Even though Joseph was a sinner, he was known as Joseph's son as he grew up, and of course he selected

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Joseph to be his stepfather. No one has ever selected their own stepfather, amazingly so in this life, but Jesus did, and he selected well, and I put it to you, what was it about Joseph and then

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Mary that so caused them to be selected by Jesus and his father to be his stepfather and mother?

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And the answer, of course, is twofold. One is, they believed in a

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Messiah. They both believed in the coming Messiah, and when they were directed by the

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Holy Spirit and the angels, that they were selected. They were the ones selected to be involved in raising

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Jesus. They didn't say to the angel, Mary didn't say to the angel, well, what's a

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Messiah? They knew that the Messiah meant the one who would save their people from their sins, and that's exactly the way the angel put it to Joseph.

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You're to name the child Jesus, or Joshua, and Joshua was known as the name for a savior in the

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Jewish community. So everyone knew that Jesus was the hopeful

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Messiah, that is, this people who were living in a time when things were very dark and difficult for them, not just because of sin that's rampant throughout the ages, but because the

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Romans now controlled their country, and the Romans were very much concerned about favoring

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Romans and very much concerned about collecting taxes from non -Romans. And so they were hard -pressed because everything they earned or made was subject to a tax system which was very unfair and arbitrary, and they were very discouraged by it, of course.

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And so there was much hope that this Messiah would perhaps solve their Roman problem, but he solved the bigger problem that was their sin problem.

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And one thing that I think I should insert here, being somebody who was raised

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Roman Catholic, and I love my Roman Catholic friends and loved ones and family members and neighbors, but there are some very serious departures from biblical truth that they hold to, sometimes very tenaciously, as core teachings of their belief system.

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And one of them is something that involves an account that you just mentioned about the visitation of the angel to Mary.

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Many Catholic apologists are on record as giving credit to the salvation of all who are going to be inheriting eternal life.

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They give a heretical emphasis on Mary being someone to whom we owe our thanks and praise and veneration because they will say that Mary had to agree to conceive and be the mother of the

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Messiah, that it was up to her, and she could have rejected this offer, as it were, the way it is often put by Roman Catholics.

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There was no offer there. There was no request that she do this. The angel declared and prophesied what would happen.

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There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Well, let's read those verses in Luke 2, or in Luke chapter 1.

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And an angel of Gabriel was sent from God to a city in Galilee named

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Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.

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The virgin's name was Mary, and he came to her and said, Greetings, O favored one, the

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Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled with this saying, and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

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The angel said to her, Don't be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and he shall call his name

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Jesus. Now, this is a God, Holy Spirit, angel message to her, saying that A, she's going to become pregnant without any man visiting her, and she's going to have a son, and his name is going to be called

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Jesus. And then the angel goes on to say, He'll be great, and will be called the

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Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David.

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He will reign over his house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

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And Mary said, One question to the angel, How will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her,

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The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called

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Holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who is called barren.

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For nothing is impossible with God. And Mary said, Behold, I am the servant of the

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Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her.

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She hoped for a Messiah. She's stunned that she's the one who's going to be bearing the

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Messiah, but she doesn't debate with the angel. She says, Let it be to me according to your word.

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She is a willing volunteer to be the Son of God, to bear the

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Son of God. Yes, but to reiterate, there was no request of her. It was a declaration of fact and a prophecy.

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And before the age of sonograms or anything else, the angel announces,

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Oh, and by the way, the barren Mary, who you're close to, also is bearing a child, and she's six months pregnant.

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And guess what? Nobody told Mary that until the angel did. Well, we have to go to our first break right now.

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If anybody wants to join us on the air with a question about God's wonderful plan for the birth of His Son, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com,

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C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. As always, please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

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USA. And please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

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That's chrisarnsen at gmail .com. chrisarnsen at gmail .com.

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Welcome back. This is Chris Sorensen and our guest today, if you just tuned in, is

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Marcus A. McKnight III, attorney at law, and most well known to his friends as Mike McKnight, which is why he insists

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I call him Marcus. I'm only kidding. And we are discussing God's wonderful plan for the birth of his son.

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And if you want to pick up where you left off, Marcus? Well, the first point we said was they both understood a

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Messiah had been promised, and Mary was just thrilled at being selected.

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Joseph, in chapter 1 of Matthew, verse 18, when his mother had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be from the

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Holy Spirit, and her husband Joseph, being a just man, unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.

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But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take

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Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and he will call his name

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Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. It's obvious that Joseph had selected

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Mary for her earthly qualities, but when he found out that she was with child, he knew that he wasn't the father, so he considered divorcing her quietly, because even if you're betrothed, the custom was if someone broke that betrothal by infidelity, they could be stoned.

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And he decided he didn't want to publicly embarrass her, he didn't want to see her stoned, he cared for her.

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And then the angel came to him and said, look, this pregnancy is from the

38:49

Holy Spirit, she's going to bear a son. Of course, nobody knew what the sex would be of a child, so this had to be a heavenly,

38:58

Holy Spirit issue. She will bear a son, and you're going to name him

39:04

Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. So both anticipated that there would be a

39:11

Messiah, and Joseph agrees to be the stepfather of God's son.

39:18

And if you put your head around that, to be the stepfather of God's son, what was the other attribute that both

39:24

Mary and Joseph had in common? They were willing to listen for and obey

39:29

God's word whenever they heard it. And Joseph would do that and protect his son faithfully, and he would not take a step until he knew the

39:40

Father's will about what that step would have to be. So if you track his early life,

39:46

Jesus' early life, it's because his father listened for God's words and obeyed it at every step of the road.

39:56

Praise God. And we do have a listener with a question for you.

40:05

We have Ronald in Eastern Suffolk County, Long Island, New York. And Ronald says,

40:13

Do you think it's appropriate that we who are Christians only dwell on the birth of Christ during our celebration of Christmas without bringing into conversations and even in our focus of attention in worship why he came, the very topic you are discussing today, which includes obviously his death, burial, and resurrection?

40:40

Well, I think they all fit together. And as an attorney, I'm always looking for patterns. And it's an amazing thing to see that while we're all suffering with a pandemic in this age, at the time

40:55

Jesus was willing to become an earthly child, it was during the height of the

41:03

Roman Empire, which stretched from Great Britain, the

41:08

Hadrian's Wall separated southern England from Scotland, all the way to the boundaries of India, throughout the

41:16

Mediterranean and southern Europe, all that known world was Roman, which meant that at the time

41:24

Jesus was born and throughout his life, earthly life, to the time of his ministry, there were

41:31

Roman roads, there was Roman security, there were sea lanes that were protected, there was trade, there was the ability to go from place to place without having to cross a border, without seeing.

41:46

And so all the things that happened in the early life of Jesus were possible because of the lack of borders.

41:56

There was just one nation, the Roman Empire, that controlled the entire region, and that's the time that God selected by his excellent planning for Jesus to come into the world and for his gospel then to be made known to that world in an amazing way in the decades that followed.

42:18

Thank you very much, Ronald. We have Harrison in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, who asks,

42:26

I cannot wrap my head around the fact that Jesus Christ, who was fully man and fully

42:33

God, had to grow in his learning. How could that possibly be for somebody who is fully

42:40

God? Well, the amazing thing is that he was fully

42:47

God because he had to be identified to lay his life down for his people.

42:55

He had to be identified by his people. God could have sent an army of angels at any time to punish people for their sins, but the plan was for Jesus to come, be known as Joseph's son, grow up to be like any other man, and then when his ministry began, he would begin to display the power that he had always had.

43:23

And, of course, God sovereignly knew and directed

43:29

Joseph's actions in Jesus' early life to protect Jesus from any harm from the powers that be.

43:37

And the amazing thing about this plan was that certain people would be looking for Jesus and anxious and excited about his birth, but others would not.

43:48

And it was the rich and powerful in Jerusalem who decided that they didn't need to look for a

43:54

Savior. They were satisfied with their own lives, and they were happy in their own power.

44:01

But those who looked for Jesus include shepherds who were directed by God's proclamation, his birth announcement, and by Gentiles who came from the

44:14

East who, two years after Jesus was born, found him by asking King Herod and the powerful

44:23

Pharisees and Sadducees in Jerusalem, where was this child born? Because they believed he had been born, this

44:30

King of the Jews, this Savior that was being sent by God to save people from their sins.

44:37

They came and believed that he was born and asked for directions in Jerusalem of a people who were not interested in finding this

44:45

Savior. Yes. And, of course, the listener is referring to Luke chapter 2, verse 52, where Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men.

45:05

There is obviously some mystery involving this, because he would not have been fully human if even as an infant he knew and understood and had the wisdom of a 30 -year -old man that he was when he died on Calvary.

45:28

I mean, there is a mystery behind this, is there not, that we can never really fully answer, especially to adequately satisfy the curiosity of people, because the hypostatic union is something that, although we can explain it as a biblical truth, we can't really fully understand it, can we?

45:53

No, we can't. But the amazing thing, of course, is that Jesus, at the age of 12, decided to spend some time in Jerusalem with these key priests and Sadducees at the age of 12, and he spent over three days with them, asking them questions, responding to their questions, because he had come from heaven and could answer their questions at the age of 12.

46:22

He had grown in stature that way and done that, and his parents, who had lost track of him as they traveled home from Jerusalem, then came and searched for him, and when they asked him, son, how could you do this to us?

46:37

How could you be away from us without us knowing where you were, because you didn't know what happened in Bethlehem at age two, when

46:49

Herod destroyed all those infants trying to kill you. And of course, Jesus responded, didn't you know that I had to be in my father's house?

47:00

The temple here in Jerusalem, I am my father's son by the

47:05

Holy Spirit, and I had to be starting this process of going into manhood, and you don't have to worry about me, because I am

47:17

God's son. You're fine, and there was no danger of harm coming to me, because here

47:24

I am in my father's house doing my father's will. So when he told them that, he basically marked it demarcation and saying, look, folks,

47:34

I'm starting my mission here in the sense that I'm growing into the man

47:40

I'll become, and you're fine. You're safe. Don't worry about my well -being.

47:46

We're okay. Amen. Well, is there anything that perhaps you can share with our listeners that you use as devotionals or anything specific to make the celebration of the incarnation and the birth of Christ every year?

48:14

Of course, we should do this more than just during the Christmas season, but is there anything that you might want to give as advice or just share with something that has blessed you and your family and perhaps your congregation about how to have the right focus during this time of year?

48:35

Well, in my work, I'm a problem solver. I have people solve problems that are created by sin primarily, but just problems that occur in life, and when you look at Scripture, I love to compare the

48:52

Old Testament issues that arise with the

48:57

New Testament answers which are given, and I find it fascinating that if you read through the passages in Matthew and Luke, follow

49:07

Jesus through his life, see how he called to himself a group of men who were sinners who had to learn by watching and by seeing and by being witnesses the power that this man had and brought.

49:23

It's the combination of reading through the Scriptures. Anyone who doesn't read the

49:28

Scriptures on a regular basis is missing so much. If you just slow down and read chapter and verse, you can start anywhere, but the best place to start probably is the

49:38

Gospel of John that we read at the beginning of this radio broadcast. John says,

49:44

I'm a witness and I've seen amazing things, and when you read the story, it compares

49:53

Luke and Matthew's accounts, and when you see it in Luke, Mary and Joseph had come to the town of Bethlehem at a time when a census was being taken, and they had a problem.

50:07

There was no room for them anywhere, and because Joseph was from the line of David, he'd been away from Bethlehem for so long, generations, that he had no one who was a close relative who could put them up.

50:22

So the only place they had was a stable in a crowded town, and Mary gave birth in that stable to Jesus, and guess what?

50:32

God then makes the birth announcement not in Jerusalem, not to Herod, not to the

50:37

Pharisees, but to shepherds. And the amazing thing, and I heard this in a message at West Shore by Pastor Trent this past Sunday, when the first angel appeared, he appeared with something else, and that was the glory of God.

50:57

God, the Father of Jesus, was there, behind the scenes, giving

51:06

His glory to the birth announcement. And the glory was sufficient to scare the daylights out of those shepherds, just as it scared the daylights out of Moses, Elijah, Elisha, and everyone who's seen

51:24

God's glory, and John himself, the Apostle John, who's given the vision of what heaven was like, when he experienced the glory of God, he felt with his feet also.

51:37

The point is, God's glory means that when people see it, when people see

51:44

His glory in their sinful state, they are very much afraid because of the contrast between our sinful lives and the glory of God.

51:55

We've never seen anything like it, but we will see it someday when our Lord Jesus Christ comes again.

52:03

And so God made the birth announcement by being present, sharing

52:08

His glory with the angel who announced it, and said, look, don't be afraid.

52:15

In fact, we're gonna have to pick up right where you left off, because we have to get to our midway break right now. Okay. And folks, please be patient, because this is the longer than normal break in the show.

52:27

Grace Life Radio, 90 .1 FM in Lake City, Florida, requires of us a longer break in the middle of the show, because they are required by the

52:37

FCC to localize Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio and all of their programming to Lake City, Florida.

52:45

So therefore, they air during the middle part of the show, their own public service announcements and other local things to localize the program to that area, while we simultaneously air our globally heard commercials.

53:01

So please use this time wisely. Write down the information provided by our advertisers, at least as much of it as you can for as many of our advertisers as you can, so that you can more frequently and successfully patronize our advertisers.

53:17

And the reason why this is very important is that we absolutely, positively depend on our advertisers to exist.

53:27

We depend upon the funding that comes through our advertisers to exist as a program. So therefore, make our advertisers happy whenever possible, so that they want to continue being our advertisers.

53:40

And that may include when you actually are unable to purchase products from them or use their services or visit their churches, just reaching out to them with an email or a phone call and thanking them for sponsoring

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. So please, at the very least, do that. And also use this time to write down questions for Marcus McKnight III on the birth of Christ.

54:07

And again, our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com, chrisarnson at gmail .com. Don't go away.

54:12

We'll be right back after these messages. Chris Arnson, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, announcing a new website with an exciting offer from World Magazine, my trusted source for news from a

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Dividing Line webcast here. Although God has brought me all over the globe for many years to teach, preach, and debate at numerous venues, some of my very fondest memories are from those precious times of fellowship with Pastor Rich Jensen and the brethren at Hope Reform Baptist Church, now located at their new beautiful facilities in Corham, Long Island, New York.

59:16

I've had the privilege of opening God's Word from their pulpit on many occasions, have led youth retreats for them, and have always been thrilled to see their members filling many seats at my

59:25

New York debates. I do not hesitate to highly recommend Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island to anyone who wants to be accurately taught, discipled, and edified by the

59:35

Holy Scriptures, and to be surrounded by truly loving and caring brothers and sisters in Christ.

59:41

I also want to congratulate Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham for the recent appointment of Pastor Rich Jensen's co -elder,

59:47

Pastor Christopher McDowell. For more information on Hope Reform Baptist Church, go to hopereformedli .net.

59:54

That's hopereformedli .net, or call 631 -696 -5711.

01:00:01

That's 631 -696 -5711. Tell the folks at Hope Reform Baptist Church of Corham, Long Island that you heard about them from James White on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

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Here's what Gary DeMar, President of American Vision, had to say about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio recently.

01:00:25

Good to be back, Chris. I always enjoy our time. You have to say you're one of the better interviewers out there, and I've been doing this for 30, more than 30 years.

01:00:35

Wow, that's some compliment. How much do I owe you for that? You don't have to owe me anything.

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We're in good shape. I'm glad you said it on the air, so I don't have to brag about myself.

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Tell your friends and loved ones about Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, airing live Monday through Friday, 4 to 6 p .m.

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Eastern Time, at ironsharpensironradio .com. Hi, this is

01:01:02

John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona. Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the

01:01:10

Iron Sharpens Iron podcast. I consider Chris a true friend and a man of high integrity. He's a skilled interviewer who's not afraid to ask the big, penetrating questions, while always defending the key doctrines of the

01:01:22

Christian faith. I've always been happy to point people to this podcast, knowing it's one of the very few safe places on the internet where folk won't be led astray.

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I believe this podcast needs to be heard far and wide. This is a day of great spiritual compromise, and yet God has raised

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Chris up for just such a time. And knowing this, it's up to us as members of the body of Christ to stand with such a ministry in prayer and in finances.

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I'm pleased to do so, and would like to ask you to prayerfully consider joining me in supporting

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Iron Sharpens Iron financially. Would you consider sending either a one -time gift or even becoming a regular monthly partner with this ministry?

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I know it would be a huge encouragement to Chris if you would. All the details can be found at ironsharpensironradio .com

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where you can click support. That's ironsharpensironradio .com.

01:02:25

As host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

01:02:31

A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

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Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prerogative to determine how he shall be worshiped and how he shall be represented in the world.

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They believe churches need to turn to the Bible to discover what to include in worship and how to worship

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God in spirit and truth. Grace Covenant Baptist Church endeavors to maintain a

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Discover more about Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey at gcbcnj .squarespace

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.com. That's gcbcnj .squarespace .com

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or call them at 908 -996 -7654. That's 908 -996 -7654.

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Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. This is

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Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

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Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

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Iron Sharpens Iron Radio financially. Grace Church at Franklin is an independent, autonomous body of believers which strives to clearly declare the whole counsel of God as revealed in scripture through the person and work of our

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Lord Jesus Christ. And of course the end of which we strive is the glory of God.

01:04:41

If you live near Franklin, Tennessee, and Franklin is just south of Nashville, maybe 10 minutes, or you are visiting this area, or you have friends and loved ones nearby, we hope you will join us some

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Lord's Day in worshiping our God and Savior. Please feel free to contact me if you have more questions about Grace Church at Franklin.

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Our website is gracechurchatfranklin .org. That's gracechurchatfranklin .org.

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This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

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Solid -ground -books .com. Before we return to our Marcus, aka

01:12:15

Mike McKnight, and our discussion of God's wonderful plan for the birth of His Son, I just have a couple of announcements to make.

01:12:25

Mark your calendars for Monday, the 21st of December, the

01:12:31

Monday before Christmas, for only the second time in the history of Iron Sherpa and Zion Radio, am

01:12:38

I not going to be hosting this program. I'm going to have guest hosts filling in for me on that day.

01:12:45

Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries, a very well -known, in fact, a world -renowned

01:12:53

Christian apologist, New Testament Greek scholar, author, debater. He is going to be joined by a mutual dear friend of both of ours, a

01:13:04

Pastor Bill Shishko of the Haven Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Deer Park, Long Island, New York, and they are going to be hosting my show together as guest hosts.

01:13:16

And as I said, it's only the second time in the history of this show that I've had someone else hosting the show.

01:13:22

That only happened one other time, and I almost lost this program permanently when

01:13:30

I had my dear friend Pastor Jim Capo fill in for me in the early 2000s when

01:13:36

I was broadcasting out of WNYG and WGBB radio in Babylon, Long Island, New York, because the general manager was so highly offended by Pastor Jim's critique, although I heard the recording later and he did it with love, and I think that everything he said was appropriate, but he gave a critique of Joel Osteen and his ministry, and that just set the general manager there into a rage, and she almost permanently pulled the plug on my show.

01:14:09

But thankfully, soon after that, she began to see that the show was growing globally in our audience because we were always live -streamed in addition to being a radio show.

01:14:21

And when they started getting calls, back then we did take phone calls rather than emails with questions, but we were getting calls from all over the world and the

01:14:32

United States. She fell in love with the show and never bothered me again about the content of the program.

01:14:40

But anyway, that was a long way of saying that this is only the second time that somebody else is filling in for me, and that will be

01:14:46

Dr. James R. White of Alpha Omega Ministries and Pastor Bill Shishko of the

01:14:52

Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Deer Park, known as the Haven. And it's interesting that they debated each other,

01:14:59

Dr. White being a Reformed Baptist, debated our mutual friend Bill Shishko years ago on infant baptism.

01:15:07

Bill, being a Presbyterian, obviously believes in infant baptism, and it was excellent debate, and you can see that on YouTube, and it is also well known for my stand -up comedy routine in the beginning of the debate, but I hope that you check that out.

01:15:22

Also, folks, if you love this show and you don't want it to disappear from the airwaves, please, I'm urging you, go to ironsharpenxionradio .com,

01:15:31

click support, then click, click to donate now. You can donate instantly with a debit or credit card by doing that.

01:15:38

If you prefer snail mail, an address a physical address will appear on the screen when you click support at ironsharpenxionradio .com,

01:15:47

where you can mail a check, made payable, to Ironsharpenxionradio. And also, if you'd like to advertise with us, we definitely need your advertising dollars as well, so as long as whatever it is you're promoting is compatible with what we believe, you don't have to believe identically with me, but you need to be promoting something that's compatible with what

01:16:06

I believe, then please send me an email to chrisarnson at gmail .com

01:16:12

and put advertising in the subject line. And I want you all to remember that I never want anybody siphoning money away from your regular giving to your own local church.

01:16:30

The amount that you're accustomed to giving to them, I don't want you taking away from that to give to us.

01:16:36

In other words, don't punish your church financially by blessing us financially, and don't put your family in financial peril or jeopardy if you're really struggling to survive and make ends meet.

01:16:49

Those two things are commands of God providing for your church and your family. Providing for my radio show is obviously not a command of God, but if you love the show and you're blessed financially above and beyond your ability to obey those two commands, please help us.

01:17:05

There are tens of thousands of people that download this show, the recordings of it, every month, and yet we only have a small handful of very generous, very loyal, and very faithful benefactors, contributors, donors, who

01:17:23

I love and am so grateful for beyond my ability to describe in the

01:17:29

English language. I don't want my very generous listeners to think that I am downplaying the profound blessing you are to me by when

01:17:39

I say a small handful of folks are helping us. I'm speaking about the number of people helping us, not the generous gifts that each of them are giving.

01:17:50

But there is a comparative tiny handful of people that give to this show, and while there are tens of thousands downloading, it's just, to me, mind -boggling.

01:18:00

So if you love the show, please go to www .IronTropeDesignRadio .com, click support, then click click to donate now, and do that as frequently as you can and as generously as you can, as long as you do not violate those two commands to provide for your church and family.

01:18:15

Also, if you are not a member of a local Bible -believing church, no matter where in the world you live, I have lists, very extensive lists, of biblically -faithful churches all over the planet

01:18:25

Earth, and I have helped many people in our audience find churches near where they live in all parts of the world, sometimes just around the corner from where they lived, and they didn't even know these churches existed.

01:18:34

So if you are in that category, you need a church, whether to join and become a member, as is your duty as a

01:18:42

Christian to be a part of a local Bible -believing church and to submit to the elders there, or if you're visiting, want to visit somewhere when you're on vacation, or if you want to help out friends and loved ones looking for a church, send me an email at chrisarnson at gmail .com,

01:18:57

chrisarnson at gmail .com, and put I need a church in the subject line. That's also the email address where you could send in a question to Marcus A.

01:19:07

McKnight III, also known as Mike McKnight, on God's wonderful plan for the that's chrisarnson at gmail .com.

01:19:17

Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the USA. And Mike, we have an email from Peter in Ocean City, Maryland, and he says, wow,

01:19:28

I am really amazed as I listen again to the trust and obedience of Mary. We often talk about God's perfect timing.

01:19:36

We read that between the Old and New Testaments, 400 years passed.

01:19:42

Why do you think God chose this particular time to become human? Thank you, Peter.

01:19:49

Well, if you look at history, and I love to study history, and we touched on it before, instead of empires battling each other, and of course during times of war, travel was difficult.

01:20:05

But here is, with Rome in charge of the known world at that time, there was relative peace, so travel was possible.

01:20:15

And so people could travel from one country to another, for example, from Bethlehem to Egypt without fear of the government being after them for just traveling.

01:20:27

So they could travel, and they could be, basically, no one could find them because there were no

01:20:35

UPS addresses, or there was no FedEx, there were no street addresses per se.

01:20:41

But God kept track of His people, and God chose that timing, which was an amazing period of time.

01:20:48

So from birth until He began the

01:20:55

Church, to the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, there was peace. And so people who heard the

01:21:02

Gospel on the Day of Pentecost then could return to their own homes throughout the Roman world and talk about what they heard and saw this new

01:21:13

Gospel that was the result of God's careful planning that began when the earth was created, really, with His Son coming to solve the problem of sin.

01:21:26

So thank you, Peter, and Peter, I know you're on your back porch watching the sunset, so thanks for listening.

01:21:38

I didn't know you were spying on our listeners' day -to -day activities. Peter, one of the things someone asked about devotions,

01:21:46

Peter and I are good friends. He's a longtime member of CBMC, and we talk to each other every other

01:21:53

Friday. We call at 8 a .m. and share our faith with each other and our prayer concerns.

01:22:02

So it's great to know that Peter's listening. Yes, and of course, a part of what he asks about the specific timing, why

01:22:12

God chose that period 400 years approximately after the

01:22:19

Old Testament was breathed out by God in the Old Covenant, the exact timing of that, we don't really know for certain, but do you think of a possible reason to add what you said would be that it was very important to fulfill prophecy that Jesus be in a certain physical

01:22:49

Jewish lineage, because it was prophesied in the

01:22:54

Old Testament that He would come from this line, and if too many years, like a thousand or two thousand years had passed before Jesus came into the world as a man, as a human, it might not have been very clear about His ancestry and His lineage from which

01:23:16

He came through intermarriage and all sorts of reasons. Of course, the temple was destroyed in AD 70, and a lot of the records of people's ancestry and so forth were destroyed.

01:23:29

Do you think that could be a part of it? It could be a part of it, because amazingly, there was temple worship at the time that Jesus was born, and when

01:23:43

Jesus was in the midst of His ministry being opposed by the very people who had power over the temple,

01:23:52

He said to them, you know, they asked Him, are you impressed with the beauty of the temple that had been refurbished by Herod the

01:24:00

Great? And Jesus said, you know, the time is coming and will come soon when this temple will be destroyed, utterly destroyed, but people won't worship me here in this temple any longer because they'll worship me throughout the world, and it's a matter of faith and spirit that they'll worship me with, and He repeated that to the woman at the well, when she asked, how come you're coming to talk to me, a

01:24:28

Samaritan woman, a Gentile, when we all know you should worship in only

01:24:34

Jerusalem? And He said, the time is coming when people will worship me throughout the world, and in a time of pandemic, what a great news that we can worship our

01:24:47

Lord Jesus Christ wherever we live, regardless of our circumstances.

01:24:53

By the way, Peter, if you could make sure that you give us your full address, if you could email me your full address in Ocean City, Maryland, since you are a first -time questioner on the show, you have won a free

01:25:11

New American Standard Bible, compliments of the NASB, and also compliments of Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service, cvbbs .com,

01:25:23

will be shipping that book, that Bible, I should say, out to you. So send us your full mailing address, and we'll make sure that cvbbs .com

01:25:33

gets it out to you, but if you could, pick up where you left off, Marcus. Well, if we look in the

01:25:39

Gospel of Luke chapter 2, we said before, the glory of the

01:25:44

Lord came upon these shepherds who weren't expecting it, and whenever the glory of the

01:25:50

Lord comes, it's remarkable, it's impressive, and it's frightening. And the angel said to them in verse 10 of chapter 2, fear not, for behold,

01:26:01

I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a

01:26:10

Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this will be a sign to you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

01:26:21

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying,

01:26:26

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased.

01:26:32

When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the

01:26:42

Lord has made known to us. And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the baby lying in a manger.

01:26:49

And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning the child. And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them, but Mary treasured these things up, pondering them in her heart.

01:27:02

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen as it had been told them.

01:27:09

Now this is amazing when you look at these words. The angels reported to the shepherds that this child

01:27:17

Jesus had been born in a manger. No child that they knew of had ever been born in a manger.

01:27:26

Usually houses are some places where people could gather and help with the birth of a child, but not in a manger.

01:27:33

And suddenly here was a place that was welcoming to them. And they went and found it just as the angels reported.

01:27:41

Remember Mary and Joseph are alone in a town that had no place for them to have even a good night's sleep.

01:27:50

Here they are in the manger giving birth to Jesus. And angels report their situation to shepherds who they don't know.

01:28:00

And the shepherds come and rejoice at what they see was told them accurately by the angels.

01:28:08

And they didn't stop there because now they're witnesses to the birth of Christ. And they're praising

01:28:14

God and witnessing to everybody in the community. And remember Mary and Joseph stayed in Bethlehem two more years until they were visited by, believe it or not, wise men

01:28:28

Gentiles who came searching for the child believing that he had been born. Because in faith they believed in the

01:28:35

Messiah and were searching for him. And they needed directions. And they went to Jerusalem and asked

01:28:41

Herod the king about where was this child born.

01:28:47

We know he's been born. He's the king. He's the Messiah. To save people from their sins, where was he born?

01:28:57

And Herod, of course, amazed at this happenstance, then goes to the chief priests and Pharisees and says, where?

01:29:06

What town is he born in? And they said, five miles down the road in Bethlehem is where Savior is to be born.

01:29:15

And that report was given to these wise men.

01:29:20

And I think there were more than three of them. Meaning there was an entourage, security. These were men of substance because they made a stir in Jerusalem.

01:29:33

And so two years after the shepherds were given the news of Jesus' birth came wise men bearing gifts.

01:29:43

And these gifts were gold, frankincense, and myrrh, which were extremely valuable gifts.

01:29:49

Isn't that a law firm? Could be. Could be. So here they are living in now a house.

01:30:00

God sovereignly tells them Bethlehem is the town. The star directs them to this specific house.

01:30:07

Again, it didn't have an address. It was there. They found it and they presented their gifts to Jesus via Joseph and Mary.

01:30:18

And interestingly enough, in Matthew, Herod didn't summon the wise men secretly and ascertain from them the time the star had appeared that they were following.

01:30:32

And he said to them, and he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child.

01:30:39

And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.

01:30:45

As a lawyer, I'm always looking for a liar or a lie in testimony. And after listening to the king, wise men went on their way and behold, the star they had seen, when it rose, went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.

01:31:05

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. Going into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.

01:31:16

Then opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh, and being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.

01:31:28

Now imagine this, Herod secretly says, I want to kill this kid, but I'm not going to search for the child diligently, let these guys do it.

01:31:36

And they can come back and report that I could secretly then kill this child without much fuss or arrangement.

01:31:47

But God tells these wise men, go back by a different way and don't go to Herod.

01:31:54

He wants to kill this child. God knows and knew the secret sinful thoughts of this jealous

01:32:01

King Herod. And so when the wise men had departed, an angel of the

01:32:07

Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, rise, take the child and his mother and flee.

01:32:13

That means don't just make a trip plan, but flee as if your lives depended on it and remain there until I tell you for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him.

01:32:28

And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod.

01:32:37

This is to fulfill what the Lord had spoken of by the prophet out of Egypt, I called my son.

01:32:44

So Jesus at the age of two departs for Egypt and lives there and can live there because of the gift brought by these

01:32:53

Gentile wise men who found and search for the child.

01:32:59

And amazingly, even though the chief priests and the scholars in Jerusalem at the temple knew that Jesus was to be born in Bethlehem, they did no searching for him.

01:33:14

And that's a telling thing because it meant they didn't care about the Messiah themselves. They were not interested in searching for the child, but these

01:33:23

Gentiles, these wise men came and worshiped him where they found him in Bethlehem.

01:33:29

And that's the story for all of us because we need to find the

01:33:35

Savior, our Lord Jesus Christ, and know him, learn who he is and why he came and then worship him with our lives, our hearts, not just on Christmas, but every day of the year, because these are the times we need to do it.

01:33:53

And these are the times he's given us to do it. Well, we have to go to our final break right now.

01:34:01

And by the way, Marcus, I don't know if you were aware of this, and we didn't plan it this way, but did you know that the last time

01:34:08

I interviewed you was on this exact date last year, December 11th?

01:34:14

That's God's planning. It was our plan. Well, we're going to be going to our final break, and to be much more brief than the last breaks.

01:34:25

So if you have any intention to join us on the air with a question of your own, please try to do so as soon as possible, because we don't want to run out of time or give you an insufficient or insufficient amount of time to have

01:34:38

Marcus answer your questions if you send it in too late. Our email address is chrisarmson at gmail .com,

01:34:45

C -H -R -I -S -A -R -N -Z -E -N at gmail .com. Give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside of the

01:34:55

USA. And as always, please only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

01:35:03

We'll be right back with Marcus A. McKnight III after these messages from our sponsors. Was your business shut down during the

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Have you been blessed by Iron Sharpens Iron Radio? We remain on the air because of our faithful sponsors and because of listeners like you.

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We hope that Iron Sharpens Iron Radio blesses you for many years to come. I'm Dr.

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01:46:29

Welcome back. This is Chris Onzen, and this is the final segment of our interview today with Marcus A.

01:46:35

McKnight III, also known as Mike McKnight, attorney at law and frequent speaker at Functions for the

01:46:44

Christian Businessmen's Connection, also known as CBMC. And Mike, why don't you, just before you continue with your final thoughts on today's subject, why don't you let our listeners know a little bit about CBMC?

01:46:58

Well, of course, I've always been part of a local church. I was saved at the age of 13, but on my heart, there's always been a desire to promote the gospel.

01:47:14

And I found an organization, Christian Businessmen's Connection, that's countrywide and actually worldwide.

01:47:23

And I was asked to actually speak at one of their functions, and before I spoke there,

01:47:29

I went to one of their local meetings. And they have local meetings in many towns in our communities throughout the country and found out about the organization.

01:47:39

And they're men who on a regular basis pray for each other and their needs, but they also look for ways in which they can promote the gospel.

01:47:49

And they have excellent literature that you can find on their website. So if you look at CBMC on the net, you'll find their website and their instructional materials are outstanding.

01:48:01

They take you through the gospel in three basic publications they've done, and they ask various questions that are relevant to our daily lives, and they provide answers according to Scripture that way.

01:48:16

And often, it's beneficial to sit down with an unbeliever who's searching.

01:48:24

And so a man who has versed in the gospel can sit down with them and go through these books one at a time, page at a time.

01:48:37

And I'm part of two groups that also engage in an activity for CBMC.

01:48:43

And we do that in Carlisle by remotely, Zoom right now, both on Tuesday mornings at 630 in the morning, and then we have a group that meets at a local restaurant,

01:48:59

Faze, which is at noontime. So we do that on a regular basis.

01:49:05

I'm not sure how the Faze is going to go, but we're going to get takeout from Faze this coming

01:49:12

Thursday, this coming, well, we'll get takeout from Faze whenever we can that way, and continue to meet as we're able to.

01:49:22

So anyway, we have a good time doing these things, but my advocation is promoting the gospel.

01:49:30

Amen. And if anybody wants to find out more about CBMC, Christian Businessmen's Connection, the local one in our area, if you happen to live in central

01:49:41

Pennsylvania, is centralpa .cbmc

01:49:47

.com. That's centralpa, for central Pennsylvania, dot cbmc .com.

01:49:54

And the global website is cbmc .com,

01:50:02

cbmc .com. That's the Christian Businessmen's Connection. Before I take any more listener questions,

01:50:10

I would like you to make sure that you have at least five minutes of time to summarize what you most want etched in the hearts and minds of our listeners today about the birth of Christ before we run out of time today.

01:50:28

Well, the impression I want to leave is that this was no accident that happened. God carefully planned it from the beginning of time.

01:50:38

Jesus and our Lord, the Holy Spirit, selected the time, the place, the parents, the stepfather, when, and amazingly, not everyone was looking for the

01:50:53

Savior, but when the shepherds were told, they searched and found him with joy and were witnesses of his birth.

01:51:02

When the wise men, the Gentiles, come from the east, were searching for the place where the child was, they asked

01:51:11

Herod, and Herod lied and said, I want to worship this child too, but made no effort to go do it.

01:51:17

Instead, when he found that the wise men didn't tell him where the child was, he then sent his soldiers and killed all the infants in the

01:51:28

Bethlehem region. But Jesus had been carefully warned through his parents that they had to flee to Egypt, so to Egypt they went.

01:51:38

Herod had no idea that God was reading his thoughts, but he reads all our thoughts.

01:51:45

And the point I want to make is, and we touched on this before,

01:51:51

I love this in Matthew 22 verse 20 -36. A Pharisee, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him.

01:52:03

Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law? And Jesus said to him, You shall love the

01:52:08

Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment, and a second is like it.

01:52:16

You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the law and the prophets.

01:52:24

And so that's the key thing to understand as a lawyer. The first question you ask is, okay, describe your problem to me.

01:52:33

Tell me what the problem is, and I'll try to apply my experience in the law to your situation to help you solve your problem.

01:52:41

So our problem is sin. If the standard is always put God first in our lives and never be selfish, we are terrible sinners, all of us, and we need a solution to that problem.

01:52:56

Jesus coming into this world, becoming a human, growing up in Nazareth, beginning his ministry at age 30, and ultimately ending by giving his life as a sacrifice for our sins on the cross, is so amazing.

01:53:14

And the amazing thing, of course, is that how will people find out whether or not we're true believers?

01:53:21

And the answer to that really is found in chapter 5 of 2 Corinthians, in which the apostle

01:53:30

Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth, says to them, look, you've got to understand that this life is important, but there are other things that are more important.

01:53:41

So he says it in chapter 5, verse 6. So we are always of good courage. We know that while we're at home in the body, we're away from the

01:53:50

Lord. We walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body, at home with the

01:53:59

Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him, meaning

01:54:06

Jesus. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

01:54:18

The point is, we all have a trial, and we face it, and that is before Christ at the last judgment.

01:54:28

And the issue will be, have we put our faith in him? And because he's the judge, he'll know it.

01:54:35

He'll know us. Just as you call me Mike, to hear Jesus say, Mike, well done, good and faithful servant, come join in my happiness forever and eternally in heaven.

01:54:48

Those are words I can't wait to hear, and I wish everyone would hear them with their name.

01:54:54

It's a great tribulation service for all those who put their faith in Christ. And if you don't do that, there'll be gnashing of teeth and anguish, because without Christ, there is no life.

01:55:10

And that's why I came, and it was carefully planned, and with great joy,

01:55:15

I look forward to the day when I'll be consummated, when I'm with Christ in heaven. Amen.

01:55:24

Let's see, we have a listener who has a question for you. We have

01:55:31

Bobby in Hartsdale, New York, who says, one thing that troubles me greatly about things that occur during this time of year, when you will have those that profess to be

01:55:46

Christians, even pastors, and even those that profess to be

01:55:51

Bible -believing, born -again evangelicals, when they are in public, and they are involved in some kind of a function that involves both

01:56:02

Christians and unbelievers gathered together, they will leave out things that are crucial to the identity of the

01:56:15

God that we worship, specifically Jesus Christ. They will speak more generically about God and so forth.

01:56:24

Do you find this as offensive as I do? I find it, if I'm asked to pray in public,

01:56:32

I always pray in Jesus' name. I happen to be a solicitor at a town called

01:56:38

Newville, not far from Carlisle, and I'm often asked to pray before the meetings begin, and I'll do that in Christ's name.

01:56:48

I think it's who we are, it's what we're about, and we shouldn't be afraid to do it.

01:56:56

We have freedom of speech in this nation, and to be afraid to speak in Christ's name is a problem for me, so I won't do it.

01:57:04

I'll do it always in Christ's name. When I was president of the Bar Association, I suggested to the men and read that passage from 2

01:57:14

Corinthians 5 to them and said, look, isn't it a benefit to know the judge when you're before a judge?

01:57:21

And they all said yes, and I said, then know Jesus on the day of judgment. Knowing him will matter, and even

01:57:30

Jews in the audience said to me they appreciated the fact that I was open with them about my faith, and that's what

01:57:38

Christians need to do. They need to be open about their faith. I learned that from my father, who was very devout in having family devotions every night with our family.

01:57:51

Whether we were busy or not, he wouldn't let us escape without having family worship for the

01:57:57

Savior he loved. And I've grown to love the Savior that he loved, and he died two months ago, but he's with the

01:58:05

Lord, and that's what we just read. Thank you, Bobby and Hartsdale. And for a

01:58:11

Christian, especially a minister, during the Christmas season, there's absolutely no excuse for not specifically mentioning the name of Jesus Christ, because everyone expects you to involve

01:58:24

Jesus Christ into the subject of Christmas, since it is well known by all to be a celebration of the

01:58:34

Christian should never be ashamed of his Lord God Savior and King Jesus Christ.

01:58:40

And if he is, there's some serious doubt on whether he is a Christian or whether he's really regenerate. But obviously,

01:58:46

Christmas, there's zero wiggle room there. There's no excuse to remain silent about this great precious gift that we have received when

01:58:56

God became man and paid the penalty for the sins of his people.

01:59:02

Well, I want to make sure that our listeners have your email, I'm sorry, your website. It's again, erwinmcknight .com,

01:59:10

I -R -W -I -N -M -C -K -A -K -N -I -G -H -T .com.

01:59:17

That's I -R -W -I -N -M -C -K -N -I -G -H -T .com, erwinmcknight .com.

01:59:25

I want to thank you so much, Marcus A .K .A. Mike McKnight, for being such a wonderful guest again.

01:59:31

I look forward to my next time of fellowship with you. I want to thank everybody who listened, especially those who took the time to write.

01:59:37

I hope you all have a safe and healthy and wonderful Christ -honoring weekend and Lord's Day.

01:59:45

And of course, a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. And I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater