God the Son, God the Savior, God with Us, Is Born | Isaiah 9:6-7

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Lord's Day: Dec 25, 2022  Preacher: Carlos Montijo [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/sermons/preacher/p/19307/carlos-montijo] Topic: Christmas [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/sermons/topic/christmas] Scripture: Matthew 2:1–12 [https://ref.ly/Matt%202.1%E2%80%9312;nasb95?t=biblia], Genesis 3:15 [https://ref.ly/Gen%203.15;nasb95?t=biblia], Isaiah 9:6–7 [https://ref.ly/Isa%209.6%E2%80%937;nasb95?t=biblia], Luke 2:19–20 [https://ref.ly/Luke%202.19%E2%80%9320;nasb95?t=biblia] > For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: > and the government shall be upon his shoulder: > and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, > The mighty God, > The everlasting Father, > The Prince of Peace. > Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, > upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, > to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice > from henceforth even for ever. > The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. We meet on Sundays for worship at 10:00am: * ThornCrown Covenant Baptist Church [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/] 4712 Montana Ave El Paso, Texas 79903 Contact us at: * web: ThornCrownCovenant.Church [https://www.thorncrowncovenant.church/] call/text: (915) 843-8088 email: [email protected] [[email protected]] grotto nativity-baby-jesus-Lifesite-680wide [https://cpmfiles1.com/thorncrowncovenant.church/grotto-nativity-baby-jesus-lifesite-680wide.jpg] Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated in whole or in part into any other language.

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All right, so the title for today's message is God the Son, God the
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Savior, God with us is born. It's going to be all about Christmas today.
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And I'd like us to really dive deep into the counsel of God for this.
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And this is going to be my thesis for this message, which I've preached on before.
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Remember, religious holidays like Christmas are not mandatory. But if we celebrate them, we must do so as discerning, worshipful
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Christians who observe and commemorate Christ's person and work, His birth,
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His life, His death, His resurrection, and the reformation of the church without the pagan baggage.
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We want to lay a strong foundation for our church and weigh these matters very carefully. And I have two questions for us to consider with two very different answers.
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The first question is, what is Christmas about today? What do people celebrate today on Christmas?
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The second question is, what is Christmas truly about? What is it truly about?
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As for the first question, what is Christmas about today? Like many holidays,
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Christmas has been heavily influenced by and overlaid with paganism and Roman Catholicism.
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We need to biblically discern what is acceptable and what is not. We need balance without compromise.
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The Bible says that God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship
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Him in spirit and truth. We must live and celebrate or commemorate these days according to God's Word and not compromise with worldliness or false beliefs.
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Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me. So we must worship
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God according to the truth and not according to falsehoods. 2
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Corinthians 2, verses 9 -11 God says, For this is why
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I, Paul, wrote, that I might test you and you know and know whether you are obedient in everything.
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Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, so that we would not be outwitted by Satan.
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For we are not ignorant of his designs. Here we see the
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Bible and elsewhere clearly, repeatedly, and emphatically teaching us not to be ignorant, especially of our enemy and of how he operates.
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So what are some of Satan's schemes? Satan's devices?
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Let's turn to 2 Corinthians 11, verse 12. In 2
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Corinthians 11, starting in verse 12, we read,
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And what I am doing, I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do.
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For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ.
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And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.
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So it is no surprise if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness.
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Their end will correspond to their deeds. This is one of Satan's devices.
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He will disguise himself to appear more palatable and get us to buy into or to participate in his lies.
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The moral of the story so far is, do not wear your Christianity on your sleeves.
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Take your faith seriously and live it out. Be obedient in everything, as the
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Word says. Now, does this mean that it's wrong to celebrate Christmas? And no, it's not necessarily wrong to celebrate
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Christmas, but it also depends. Ask yourself, what is it that you're celebrating?
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Why are we celebrating? Let's examine two of the most popular
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Christmas traditions in light of Scripture. The first is
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Christmas trees. Some think that buying and decorating
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Christmas trees is idolatrous due to Jeremiah 10, verses 2 through 5.
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So turn with me there, and let's take a close look at that passage. Jeremiah 10, verses 2 through 5.
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In Jeremiah 10, verses 2 through 5, we read,
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Thus says the Lord, Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens, because the nations are dismayed at them.
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For the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
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They decorate it with silver and gold. They fasten it with hammer and nail so that it cannot move.
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Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field, and they cannot speak. They have to be carried, for they cannot walk.
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Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil. Neither is it in them to do good. So I think this is important to bear in mind, because you will hear people using these arguments, these passages, out of context.
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This passage has nothing to do with cutting down Christmas trees, fastening them, and decorating them.
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So unless you're cutting down trees, carving them into idols, decking them out with jewelry, and worshipping them, then
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Christmas trees shouldn't be a problem for you. Okay, so we're good to go there. In fact, modern
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Christmas trees originated during the Renaissance in early modern Germany. Its 16th century origins are sometimes associated with the
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Protestant Christian reformer Martin Luther, who is said to have first added lighted candles to an evergreen tree.
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The Christmas tree was first recorded to be used by German Lutherans in the 16th century, with records indicating that a
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Christmas tree was placed in the Cathedral of Strasbourg in 1539, under the leadership of Protestant reformer
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Martin Busser. The Moravian Christians, who were pietists, put lighted candles on those trees as well.
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You can find out more about this on Wikipedia, but the interesting thing about this is that the
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Christmas trees actually have a very distinctly Christian tradition, starting with Martin Luther.
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So that's some really interesting food for thought there. So now we go to the second popular
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Christmas tradition, and this one is probably the most prominent one, and that is of none other than Santa Claus.
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There is no question that Santa Claus is one of the fattest sacred cows in our culture today, pun intended, even in the church.
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Many people, even some reformed Protestants, are really sensitive about Santa and say things like, don't ruin it for people, or you need to respect others' family traditions.
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But as Christians, we, according to 2 Corinthians 10, verse 5, are commanded to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey
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Christ. So now let's exercise some discernment and deal with this biblically.
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Looking at the history of Santa, we will find that the modern figure of Santa is actually based on folklore traditions surrounding that of Saint Nicholas of Myra, the
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English figure of Father Christmas, and the Dutch figure of Sinterklaas, and that's where we get the name
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Santa Claus. It's also based on Roman Catholic traditions and on Coca -Cola advertising, of all things.
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But here are some fascinating tidbits of Reformation history regarding Santa Claus. The Roman Catholic Church made
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Nicholas of Myra, who is the real person that Santa is based on, the patron saint of many diverse groups, from archers to sailors to brewers and children to pawnbrokers.
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He is even the patron saint of both Amsterdam and Moscow. The custom of gifting or gift -giving to children at Christmas was propagated by Martin Luther as an alternative to the previous popular gift custom of Saint Nicholas Day, which was celebrated on December 6th, which is the day he died, to focus the interest of children to Christ instead of veneration of saints.
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Martin Luther first suggested the Christ -kinned as the bringer of gifts instead of Nicholas, but Nicholas remained popular as the gifts -bearer for the people.
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Very fascinating history there. So now I want us to take a closer look at a popular song about Santa.
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It's called Santa Claus is Coming to Town. Many of you probably know it by heart.
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You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout, I'm telling you why. Santa Claus is coming to town.
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He's making a list, he's checking it twice, he's going to find out who's naughty and nice. Santa Claus is coming to town.
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He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.
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Now, first, why is Santa still out and about coming to town and breaking and entering into people's homes?
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Especially since the real Santa, Nicholas of Myra, died in 343
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AD, the fourth century, and assuming he was a true believer, is now in heaven with God.
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This is largely due to the Roman Catholic Church's false teaching of venerating and praying to saints so they can supposedly intervene on your behalf.
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But it's even worse than that. If you look at the chorus here, he sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, he knows when you've been bad or good, so be good for goodness sake.
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Does that remind you of somebody in the Bible?
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So why is Santa, amen, why is Santa an omniscient judge now?
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How does he know all of these things and is able to judge whether you were good or bad? This is the popular depiction of Santa Claus, some fat, jolly idol, a usurper of God and his glory.
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It is a modern paganization and deification of a man, and one of the most successful at that, second perhaps only to the
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Romanist idols of Mary and the Antichrist's papacy. Santa Claus is one of the most blasphemous imposters of God.
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Just about every tradition associated with Santa is idolatrous, giving him a wish list, asking him for stuff, assuming he's omniscient enough to answer everyone's requests, leaving him, his reindeer, and his creepy assistant elves food.
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Christians should not participate in this idolatrous fairy tale of a man who is supposedly omniscient to the point of knowing what everyone has done and judging whether it was good or bad.
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Who, after all, is the judge of all the earth? Who is the all -knowing thrice holy one of Israel who shares his glory with no one, especially a man, especially a fictitious man at that?
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And let's not forget the first two commandments. It's been such a providential blessing that in the catechisms we've been reading these questions that just happen to be very relevant to the sermon.
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The first commandment is, thou shall have no other gods before me.
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Now, the Westminster Larger Catechism in question 105 lists some of these sins forbidden in the first commandment, one of them, of course, being idolatry.
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In having or worshiping more gods than one or any with or instead of the true
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God. In other words, you can be guilty of idolatry while still claiming to follow the one true
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God if you give credence or worship to anyone else, anything else beside God.
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Misapprehensions and false opinions about God and all other inordinate and immoderate setting of our mind, will and affections upon other things and taking them off from him in whole or in part.
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Carnal delights and joys that are not according to the word.
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Praying or giving any religious worship to saints, angels or any creatures or making men or man -made traditions, the lords of our faith and conscience.
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That's like saying, I want to be good, so Santa will give me something good and not coal or something.
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And ascribing the praise of any good we either are, have or can do to fortune, idols, ourselves or any other creature such as Santa Claus.
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Amen. Now, this last sin that was listed here is also known as the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy, which
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I mentioned in my resurrection day sermon about the maid who thanked and credited mother
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Mary for supposedly getting her across safely across the country because she prayed to her.
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Sadly, her idolizing of Mary clouded both her judgment and reality preventing her from realizing that God alone is sovereign, omniscient, omnipotent and alone deserves the glory.
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Soli Deo Gloria. To God alone belongs the glory.
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But this is hardly no different from parents who gave their children gifts and claimed that they were from Santa. We got to think carefully about these things.
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Why let a false dead idol take credit from you and your love for your children and from God who blessed you with the means to obtain the gifts your children with the opportunity to enjoy them.
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Now, the second commandment is thou. We just read it right.
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Thou shall not make unto thee any graven or carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.
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Thou shall not bow down thyself to them nor serve them. For I, the
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Lord, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments.
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Now, some of the duties required in the second commandment are listed in question 108 of the
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Westminster Larger Catechism, which include the duties required in the second commandment are the receiving, observing and keeping pure and entire all such religious worship and ordinances as God hath instituted in his word.
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Also the disapproving, detesting, opposing all false worship and according to each one's place and calling, removing it and all monuments of idolatry.
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That is what scripture says. And even in the New Testament to cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of the most high
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God. Now, question 109 of the Larger Catechism continues.
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What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment? And please pay careful attention to this because it is excellent.
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It's an excellent summary of what the Bible teaches on this commandment. The sins forbidden in the second commandment are all devising, counseling, commanding, using and any wise approving any religious worship not instituted by God himself.
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The making any representation of God of all or of any of the three persons either inwardly in our mind or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature whatsoever.
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All worshiping of it or God in it or by it. The making of any representation of famed deities and all worship of them or service belonging to them.
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All superstitious devices, corrupting the worship of God, adding to it or taking from it, whether invented and taken up of ourselves or received by tradition from others, though under the title of antiquity, custom, devotion, good intent or any other pretense whatsoever.
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And finally, let's ask ourselves this. What does
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Santa Claus, either the real or the fake ones, have anything to do with the virgin birth of Christ?
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The rhetorical answer to that question is nothing. He wasn't there.
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Now, sure, Nicholas of Myra was an interesting figure, generous with his money, like to anonymously bless others with gifts and may have even smacked
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Arius in the face because of his rank heresy. He was the one who denied the deity of Christ.
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But that doesn't mean he should get a seat at the Christmas table. As Christians, we should rather consign
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Nicholas of Myra to the annals of church history and study him where he belongs in the past.
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And we should not indulge the idolatrous distraction and concoction of Roman Catholic and international paganism that he has become.
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So I hope we can call this case closed. So now, whenever you think of Santa, you can think of all the first and second commandment violations that go with it.
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Now on to the next question. Now, this is, what is
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Christmas really about? The true meaning of Christmas is at least twofold.
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The first is to celebrate our Savior's virgin birth. The virgin birth, like the death and resurrection of Christ, are cardinal biblical doctrines that are of primary importance.
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Deny the virgin birth and you deny the gospel, the very power of God unto salvation.
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The miraculous virgin birth is a prophetic testament to the Messiah being both
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God and man. Turn with me now to Genesis 3 .14.
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Genesis 3 .14. In Genesis 3, starting in verse 14, we read,
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So the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field.
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On your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity, animosity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed.
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He shall brush, he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This is a very powerful scripture.
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And God's pronouncement to the serpent is known as the proto evangelium, the proto evangelium.
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It is the very first proclamation of the gospel in the
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Bible and of the serpent bruising savior. This is also a prophecy foretelling the virgin birth of the
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Messiah because men are naturally the ones with the seed while the woman bears the egg, not the seed.
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But the verse says that it's her seed, the seed of the woman.
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Here we, that is the virgin birth of Christ being foretold.
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Here we also see how the virgin birth is embedded in and a vital part of the gospel.
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Because the Messiah, for the Messiah to become incarnated as a perfect sinless savior, he must be born outside of Adam's fallen natural generation, yet still be a fully human sin bearer through the woman.
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Powerful scripture. And it is precisely what Christmas is supposed to be about.
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Isaiah 7 14 correlates by saying, therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign.
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Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name
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Emmanuel, God with us. The virgin shall conceive and bear a son as a virgin.
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Now let's turn to Isaiah 9 chapter 6. Isaiah 9 chapter 6.
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I'm sorry. Isaiah 9 verse 6. Isaiah 9 and verse 6.
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In Isaiah 9 verse 6 we read, for unto us a child is born.
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Unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor.
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Remember that title from the last sermon? Our paraclete, our defense attorney, wonderful counselor, mighty
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God, father of eternity, prince of peace.
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Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom.
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To establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
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The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. This amazing prophecy shows us that the human child that is born is also the mighty
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God himself. He is the God man, both
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God and man. Note also that the phrase that's typically translated in our
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Bibles, everlasting father, is incorrect. What it really means is father of eternity.
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Father of eternity. The son is not the father. Amen. Which is what the heresy of modalism teaches.
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The father is distinct from the son. They are not the same person. It really means father of eternity.
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He is eternal. He has no beginning. The alpha and the omega. Now, let's read about the very first Christmas in the
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Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 verse 18. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 verse 18.
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In the Gospel of Matthew chapter 1 verse 18. I'm going to give some inline commentary along the way when
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I read it. Now, the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way.
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When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child from the
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Holy Spirit. The seed of the woman. That's the virgin birth.
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And her husband Joseph, being a just man and 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,
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Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the
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Holy Spirit. She will bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.
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All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and they shall call his name
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Emmanuel. We just read that verse in the Old Testament, Isaiah 7 14, which means
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God with us. When Joseph woke from his sleep, he did as the angel of the
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Lord commanded him. He took his wife but knew her not until she had given birth to a son and he called his name
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Jesus. Now, continuing to the next chapter. Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men,
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Magoi, from the east. Now, here in the east, they were likely from the
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Middle East, which at the time was Babylon, not from the Orient, as some hymn titles claim, such as we three kings of Orient.
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They were not from the Orient. They were from the Middle East. They came to Jerusalem saying, where is he who has been born king of the
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Jews? For we saw his star when it rose or rising in the east and have come to worship him.
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Now, some claim that the wise men were kings and or astrologers.
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Astrologers are those who read stars and they believe that the stars determine your destiny or your future.
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It's a form of false religious paganism. But these wise men, in the
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Greek, it's Magi, were not kings. They were scholars.
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They were very learned and erudite Renaissance men who were educated in all of the sciences.
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Including astronomy. And they likely had access to the Old Testament from the Babylonian Jews. If we recall your
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Old Testament history, in the King Nebuchadnezzar had deported the
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Jews to Babylon after destroying the kingdom of Judah. But some Jews remained in Babylon instead of returning to Israel after it was restored.
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So there's evidence of this, even in history, because of the
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Babylonian Talmud. Now, if you are familiar with the Talmud, that is a collection of Jewish sayings and teachings.
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And there's two versions. There's a Babylonian version and there's a Jerusalem Talmud as well. And so I think that the wise men were more astronomers than astrologers.
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But similar to Santa Claus, these wise men have been paganized in a way that contradicts the Bible. We have to look at these men and what they said and what they did.
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Look at what they said and did. They ask, where is he who has been born
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King of the Jews? For we have, we saw his star.
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We saw his star when it rose, rising in the east, and have come to worship him.
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They came to worship him. The Greek word there is proskuneisai, worship him.
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The text itself suggests that these were devout men rather than pagans who received dreams from God and believe the prophecies of the coming divine
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Messiah. Now, continuing the passage, let's continue reading the chapter two here in Matthew.
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When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
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And assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the
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Christ was to be born. They told him, in Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet, and you,
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O Bethlehem in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah. For from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people
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Israel. Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared.
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And he sent them to Bethlehem saying, go and search diligently for the child. And when you have found him, bring me word that I too may come and worship him.
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After listening to the king, they went on their way and behold, the star that had they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was.
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When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. What were they excited about?
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They weren't excited about the stars aligning in some prophetic manner. Of course, that's that they were excited about that, but they were excited because of what it pointed to.
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It pointed to the Messiah, the long promised Messiah back from Genesis 315.
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He is here. Now, there is much discussion about what the star actually is.
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Is it an actual star, a conjunction of planets or an entirely supernatural event, such as the
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Shekinah glory of God that led the Israelites out of Egypt from Exodus? And for this,
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I don't have time to get too much into it, but I would encourage you to watch a really fascinating documentary called The Star of Bethlehem.
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And I think I think the star was primarily a conjunction of planets that intertwined with each other that caused the sky to be the brightest object in the sky.
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But it may have also included supernatural events itself. You know, we don't have to necessarily say it was either or it can also be both and.
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And they also talk about how the motion of the planets, because the planets look like they're moving when because of retrograde, because our earth is rotating, it's spinning.
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And so sometimes the planets look like they're moving backwards and they pause because of that, because we're we're not on a fixed platform.
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So let's continue the text and going into the house.
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Notice that it's a house, not a manger, not a cave. It's a house now.
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They saw the child with Mary and his mother and they fell down and worshiped him. 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.
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So here we see when the wise men arrived,
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Jesus, sorry, Joseph and Mary were already in a house. That's contrary to what you see in most of the nativity sets where you see a little manger or a barn and, you know, with the animals and all the different, you know, it makes for a good story,
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I guess. But that's not what the scripture says, right? They were already in a house at this time. And there's another common misconception about when exactly the men, the wise men arrived to worship the newborn king.
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On one end, you have movies that depict the wise men arriving as soon as Jesus was born.
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While on the other end, some claim that Jesus was already a toddler. He was already like two years old when they found him.
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The Gospel of Luke, however, gives us a very important hint to this matter.
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If we turn to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verse 21. In the
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Gospel of Luke, chapter 2, verse 21, we read, This is a very important piece of the puzzle, because Matthew doesn't mention this, but Luke does.
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When we put the pieces together, we see it reveals that the wise men did not actually find
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Jesus until at least 40 to 50 days after he was born.
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This is because when Herod asked about Jesus, Herod had ordered the execution of the male babies up to two years old.
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And so this is very important because they could not have arrived as soon as Jesus was born because they still had to him on the 40th day according to the law of Moses in Numbers.
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I think it's in Leviticus, chapter 12. You had to wait for 33 days after the child was circumcised, the eighth day for purification laws.
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So they had to stay for 40 days at least to go ahead and dedicate the baby and to make a sin offering for the firstborn.
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So the wise men could not have arrived as soon as he was born. That's not possible. Now, but at the same time, it also doesn't make sense that they came when
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Jesus was two years old by then. Because remember, Jesus and Mary are not from Bethlehem.
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Recall that they are from Nazareth, from Galilee. So they were traveling.
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So it really, it doesn't make sense that they just waited around for two whole years to finally go back home.
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That would have been extremely expensive as well. And it also doesn't really add up with the rest of the chronology of the gospel account, the chronology of Christ timeline.
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So just some interesting things to consider here because it's important to get this right because you will obviously see a lot of a poetic license being taken in songs, in movies, and all kinds of plays and dramas and retellings of these stories.
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So it's important to get it right. Now, and you can see that Herod more than likely had wanted to be better safe than sorry and wanted to make sure that no chance of any
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Messiah was left. So he went ahead and bumped it up to two years to make sure that he got everybody.
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And that's another interesting historical fact that Paul Meyer has some really good information about this because apparently it was not a widespread massacre that some people say like 37 ,000 children were massacred.
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That's not quite right because Bethlehem was a tiny village. There were probably only 24 children under that age and half of them were boys.
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So it was not as, it was not as drastic as people make it out to be.
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That's not to say that it wasn't a wicked atrocity and that Herod wasn't a wicked man. He most clearly was, but that's to keep things in proper context.
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Now, I want to capstone the Christmas narratives with an important question.
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What should our response to these events be? How should we respond?
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We already covered what we should not do and how we should not respond, but what does a right response to all of this look like?
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This is, this is just amazing stuff here. To answer this question, let's look no further than Mary, Joseph, and the shepherds who were there.
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Let's turn back to Luke 2 to find out. Luke 2.
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In Luke 2, verse 19 of Luke 2, we read,
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Now, before I capitalize on this, let's read a little bit further down on verse 25. In verse 25, we read,
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Look at this carefully. Amen.
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That should be our response to what happened on this day.
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Amen. Now, I mentioned that there was a twofold reason as to why
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Christmas is so important. The second truth about Christmas is why Jesus was born in the first place.
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In Mark 10 45, we read, Jesus was born so that he could die.
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In order to die, both to live a perfect life of sinless obedience and to right
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Adam's failure, to satisfy, to propitiate the wrath of God as a vicarious sacrifice in our stead, in our place, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
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Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of the Father. Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.
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We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him who knew no sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
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That is why Jesus was born. He came ultimately to pay the ultimate sacrifice to satisfy the wrath of God in order for us to be forgiven, to be able to be forgiven by grace alone, through faith alone in the gospel, this very thing.
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So to conclude our Christmas worship, let us remember always that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, from above, coming down from the
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Father of lights. Not from Santa Claus, not from some other saint, not from some other fictitious character.
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Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights, from God himself, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures, from James 1 .17.
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And of course, the ultimate gift is Jesus Christ himself.
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Let's end this with Romans 5 .15.
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Let's go to Romans 5 .15 and read what
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God says. Romans 5 .15,
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where we read, one man's sin.
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For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification.
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For if because of one man's trespass, death reigned through the one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man,
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Jesus Christ himself. And all God's people said, amen.
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Thank you for listening to the sermons of Thorn Crown Covenant Baptist Church, where the Bible alone and the
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Bible in its entirety is applied to all of faith and life. We strive to be biblical, reformed, historic, confessional, loving, discerning
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Christians who evangelize, stand firm in, and earnestly contend for the Christian faith.
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