[0:00] So I have for a subject this morning, don't miss Christmas. Don't miss it.
[0:14] And I want to read from Matthew chapter 2. We'll find some folks missed it. Matthew chapter 2.
[0:25] Start reading in verse 1. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, saying, Where is he that is born king of the Jews?
[0:49] For we have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him. When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled and all Jerusalem with him.
[1:02] And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.
[1:13] And they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet. And thou, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, art not the least among the princes of Judah.
[1:29] For out of thee shall come a governor that shall rule my people Israel. I don't know whether you realize it or not, but they've already missed Christmas.
[1:42] Mark made mention the other day we were out at the Coonskin Park. We went to see the lights. And we had candy canes and toy soldiers and Santa Claus and trains and boats and planes and airplanes and mules and donkeys.
[2:00] We had everything but a manger scene. And so me being the citizen that I am, I called. And I said, how come, why don't you have a manger scene?
[2:15] And the guy said, well, it's against the law. I said, what law is it against? Well, we contacted the churches and I said, how much does it cost?
[2:28] We'll sponsor. Well, it's too late now. Make up your mind, pal. You didn't have a manger scene because you're sorry.
[2:40] Amen. If we, as God's people, if we don't wake up and stand up, I mean, they're just going to run us right out of Christmas. Amen. And I'm against manger scenes.
[2:53] I believe it's idolatry. Thou shalt not make any graven image of any likeness of anything. But it's not the scene I want. It's the remembrance of Jesus.
[3:08] And we're going to miss Christmas if we aren't careful. Let me pray and we'll start on this. Heavenly Father, this morning, Lord, we thank you for the privilege of prayer and for your blessings on our life.
[3:23] Thank you for our Father that you love us and you provide for us. And God, you gave us instruction from your book. And our Father, help us that we might follow your instruction.
[3:34] I pray, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, how can we know that there is a God? This seems like, I'll get back to where I'm going in just a minute.
[3:46] Can we put him in a laboratory and examine him, test him in a test tube? I remember when the Russian cosmonaut, that goes back a while.
[4:00] Not an astronaut, but a cosmonaut. He got up in space there, and I don't know where Sputnik or what was. But he looked around, and he didn't see God.
[4:14] And the stupid made this statement. Well, I'm up here in heaven, and I don't see God. 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 17.
[4:27] Under the king, eternal, immortal, invisible. You might as well look right over there under the covenant. He's over there.
[4:38] And I'm not talking about pantheism. I'm not talking about those boards. But if you'll look over there, he's over there. God is everywhere. And God, because we can't see him, does not detract from his wisdom, does not detract from his honor, and does not detract from his glory.
[5:00] Now, if you ask the average preacher, and you wonder how I'm going to get back to Matthew 2, don't you? If you would ask the average preacher today, how do you know that God is real?
[5:18] You'll get an answer something like this. You must accept it by faith. We have no proof that God is real.
[5:32] The book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, says, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. Romans and Hebrews says, The just shall live by faith.
[5:45] The victory that overcomes the world is our faith. But there is a proof that can be validated, not by faith, but by scientific investigation.
[6:00] You can prove that there is a God who moved the stone. I don't know whether you ever heard of or read that book or not.
[6:16] The stone's gone. Who moved it? There's no doubt that the stone's gone from the tomb. Who moved the stone?
[6:28] Did the disciples, that's the same disciples that run away scared and cussing and swearing they didn't know the man, are going to get a case of bravery and come back and die, die for a cause of saying that Jesus is alive when they know they stole the body?
[6:48] They didn't move the stone. Did the Roman soldiers move it? Why would they move it?
[6:59] They were sent there to seal to make sure it didn't move. Did some alien come over and move it? That's not even what I want to preach about.
[7:14] I'll let you figure out who moved it. The salient evidence that the Bible is the word of God that can be verified.
[7:26] Turn with me to the book of Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah chapter 46. I'll read verse 9 and 10.
[7:46] Remember the former things of old. For I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me.
[7:59] What's this next verse? Declaring the end from the beginning. You mean God knew what was going to happen?
[8:11] Amen. God knew how it was going to end before it ever started? Amen. Declaring the end from the beginning. And from the ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure.
[8:29] Amen. The proof that God is real is fulfilled prophecy. Amen.
[8:40] Isaiah is able 600 years before Jesus is born to declare that he's born of a virgin. Nobody anywhere would have any idea that Augustus Caesar would come up with the taxation plan.
[9:04] Caesar thought he did that. But it was God's ordination to transport Mary from Nazareth down to Bethlehem because the prophecy had already said he'd be born in Bethlehem.
[9:21] Yes, God's word is taken by faith. But it's not a blind faith like the evolutionists have who cannot prove their theory. But it is a faith that is founded in the fact that God knows the end from the beginning and whatever he reveals in this word, he's given to us and we can know it too.
[9:43] Hallelujah. I'm glad I'm serving a God that doesn't abdicate the throne every four years. The substance of every shadow is Christ.
[9:59] King David's rise from a sheepfold to a throne is a prefigure of Jesus' exaltation over all the nations of the world. And here's something, listen, when David succeeded to the power, he did not, I like this, he did not forget those warriors that fought by his side when he was rejected.
[10:20] And I say that David's, they call them David's mighty men. They were heroes. They were looked upon as heroes and they were rewarded accordingly.
[10:31] And that same God has told me that while Christ is rejected, if I'll be a warrior, a soldier of the cross, that he will reward me. He will reward me accordingly.
[10:43] Indalible on the heart of Jesus Christ are the soldiers of the cross that served him while the world rejected him and wanted to put him out of Christmas.
[10:55] Somebody said, no, he's my Christ. Now, the first three chapters of the New Testament, there are at least six fulfilled prophecies in three chapters.
[11:09] Two per chapter, one out of every ten verses you read is a fulfillment of prophecy. That's just in the first three chapters. Matthew chapter 1 verse 23 is a fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14 that says he would be born of a virgin 500 years before it ever happened.
[11:29] Matthew chapter 2 verse 6 is a fulfillment of Matthew chapter 5 or Micah chapter 5 verse 2 that said that he would be born in Bethlehem. That is, Bethlehem is the house of bread.
[11:43] Ephrata, that means the source of fruitfulness. Bethlehem of Judah in distinction from the same town, Bethlehem in Galilee. There were two different ones.
[11:54] Couldn't they have got over to Galilee real easy and said, hey, he's born in Bethlehem. He said, no, not Bethlehem of Galilee, Bethlehem of Judea is where he's going to be born.
[12:06] Not Charles in South Carolina, Charles in West Virginia. Matthew chapter 2 verse 15 is a fulfillment of Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 where the Bible said God will call his son out of Egypt.
[12:22] Matthew chapter 2 verse 18 is a fulfillment of Jeremiah chapter 40 and verse 1 the crying of Rachel over the slaughter of her children. Matthew chapter 2 verse 23 the prophets didn't write it down but they spoke it and God remembered what they spoke.
[12:41] 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 21 You know, everybody, everybody and I don't want to, I'm not in this inspiration battle right now but everybody will talk about well, the men wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
[12:58] That's not what it says. It does not say they wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It said they spake. Hello? The prophets spoke and God remembered what the prophets spoke.
[13:14] He didn't write it down but second, look at Matthew chapter 2 verse 23 there for just a minute. And he came and dwelt in the city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet.
[13:31] Look all over the book if you want to. You can't find where it was ever written. But God knew the prophet had spoken. Chapter 3 verse 3 is a fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 40 with the ministry of John the Baptist.
[13:49] So I just gave to you, I gave you six. You can just keep right on going because all through this it says over and over and over and over that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet that it might be fulfilled which was written by the prophet.
[14:02] The prophecy is proof if it comes true it is proof that God knows what he's talking about. Now 1 John chapter 5 verse 9 said we receive the witness of men.
[14:13] The witness of God is greater. Alright so I've been alive 63 years. I was born in 1945 just about a month or two after President Roosevelt died. And I can start there and I can tell you that we had a man named Harry Truman.
[14:30] I never saw him. Amen. but I believe he was President of the United States. We had a man named Dwight Eisenhower. I never saw him either. But I believe he was President of the United States.
[14:42] We had a man named John Kennedy. I never saw John Kennedy. I saw him on television but I never saw him personally. I got to witness the men that John Kennedy was the President of the United States that was assassinated in 1963 in Dallas, Texas.
[14:59] I wasn't there. I didn't see it but I believe it. Amen. Then we got a guy named Lyndon Johnson and I did get a letter from that turkey asking me to come and join the armed forces.
[15:11] But I never personally met the man. We had a man named Richard Nixon and we had a man named Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford and we had folks named Ronald Reagan and George Bush and Bill Clinton and George Bush and I have never met any of and you haven't either probably.
[15:31] But I believe they were the president. I believe we got an abomination for a president right now.
[15:42] But I never met him. if we receive the witness of men the witness of God is greater.
[15:53] God said hey you believe what men tell you. You believe they was a George Washington. I do don't you? Did you see him? Prophecy comes from every point of the Old Testament.
[16:10] It comes out of the law. It comes out of the prophets. It comes out of the Psalms. It's spoken by many. It's written by different hands. Shepherds, kings, priests, over many different years.
[16:22] But it all culminates in Jesus Christ. That's what it's about. If prophecy declares his birth, it declares the location of his birth, the fact that he's despised and rejected of men, the meekness of his character, the miracles of his ministry, the presentation on a donkey, the Hosea of the people, the cleansing of the temple, the betrayal by Judas, the sale for 30 pieces of silver, the purchase of the field, the abuse, the mockery, the crucifixion between thieves, no bones broken, the piercing of the side, the death of the cross, the burial, and the third day resurrection, and it proves it all by happening just the way the book said it was.
[17:05] Exaltation by God Almighty. Fulfilled prophecy is what they can't do. Now, let me help you on this idolatry deal. People aren't stupid enough to think that this idol has any power in itself.
[17:26] Back in the, I guess it was about 1890 if I remember right, there was a help me Lord Paiut Indian that came up with the idea that if they would do this ghost dance that it would bring the spirit of the fallen warriors back, and that the buffalo would return to the plain, and the white people would go away.
[17:57] And so they went about doing this ghost dance, and they were taught and actually believed that their clothing would be bulletproof.
[18:11] And so I don't know, idolatry is like that. It's not the clothing, it's the spirit behind the clothing.
[18:27] It's not the little idol, it's the spirit that motivates that little idol, and they are real. There are many unclean spirits, there are many devils that have deceived all kind of people, and promised them all kind of things, but their end is just exactly like that ghost dance, you are not bulletproof, and they are not going to protect you, and they've lied to you, and their whole aim is to kill and destroy.
[19:00] That says they come from Satan, and their prophecies, they can come through partially, but God said, here's the way you know I'm speaking, I don't make no mistakes.
[19:16] If I say it, it'll work. And the people of Israel were taught to believe prophecy, but somehow or rather, whenever the wise men came, these were other folks that were interested in astronomy and astronomical and astrological things, they came to Jerusalem and said, where is he that's born the king of the Jews?
[19:45] priests, and Herod called, notice it said he called all the chief priests. When David was king, he set up 24 courses of priests.
[20:03] You remember it said about Zacharias, John the Baptist's daddy, he was of the course of Abiah. They were 24 different courses, and each one of them had a representative.
[20:15] Each one of them had a chief priest that was representative of their course. And so he called these 24 men in. Not only called them, but he called the scribes.
[20:26] And the scribes were like secretaries to the king. And they were supposed to know exactly what the Bible was all about. But the chief priests and the scribes and the secretaries and the king, they all missed the fact that Christmas was here.
[20:46] They all missed it. I guess they're out there trying to hook up with a Spongebob or somebody. God's word is a light in a dark place.
[20:57] The scholars say the city of Nazareth is a fulfillment for the lack of respect that victimized the Lord Jesus Christ. Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Everybody said they couldn't.
[21:08] And he was despised and rejected from coming from there. But how wrong America is to remove. There's no point in having a holiday if we take Christ out of it.
[21:22] There's no point whatsoever. And it's a national holiday. It's recognized by the federal government and given off from work because it's Christ's birthday. And yet they say we can't acknowledge him on Christmas.
[21:35] Denial of Christ is rampant. Let the soothsayers of Isaiah's time but all scripture is given by inspiration of God.
[21:46] Somebody said what is truth? John 17 17. Thy word is true. Santa Claus is make believe. Rudolph is a figment of your imagination.
[21:57] Frosty is a snow job. The little drummer boy, the toy soldier, they can't fight their own battle but it's impossible for God to lie and God tells us that Christ is the savior of the world.
[22:13] We can trust him when he says I'll give you eternal life. We can trust what he said but I like that. I mean you know we're folks, I know folks that says well I'm not so sure that God will give that to you.
[22:28] Well I wouldn't be either if he hadn't said but when he said it I believed it. And since everything else he said has come true I believe that I've got everlasting life and I'll not come into condemnation but I'm passing from death and the Lord.
[22:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. I am the good shepherd. Now error is error and it turns off light. Whenever we pull Christ out we lend ourselves as workhorses for the devil.
[23:02] And you think it isn't important but it is. It's very important. Those Jews have long ago missed Christmas. Not because they weren't told. They missed it because they shut their eyes and closed their ears to the voice of their own prophets that was telling them when he was coming.
[23:22] They ignored them. They counted them as no value. What God said, they said that's not worth banking on and they missed Christmas. Merry Christmas.
[23:36] Let's bow for prayer. Amen. Amen. Thank you.