You know, at Christmas time, you think about how grateful you are for the past year. And I share a letter that we just got. A teenage girl that was in one of our camps, she said, Mr. McFarlane, I've never read a book for more than five minutes, but since going to your biblical worldview camp last summer, I read my Bible 45 minutes every day. Praise God.
And as Christmas time comes, I want to say thank you to all the people who pray and financially support our ministry as we call people to Christ and youth to serve God and country. But what about you? Do you know Christ? You know, Jesus is as close by as a prayer. And if you need help in your walk with the Lord or encouragement, you can go to my website, which is alexmcfarlane.com, and there's a tab there.
What does God say about my relationship with Him? In the meantime, Stand strong, be bold, thank you for your prayers and support, and in the new year, let's do great things for the sake of the gospel. The Spiritual Condition of America, Politics, Culture, and Current Events Analyzed Through the Lens of Scripture. Welcome to the Alex McFarland Show. What does Christmas tell us about God?
What can we know about God, our Maker? The one before whom we live and the one to whom we're accountable, what does Christmas tell us that we need to know about God? Hi, Alex McFarland here from Luke chapter 1. You know, in that very famous encounter, Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her that she was going to bear Jesus the Messiah. And in Luke 1:30 and following, the angel said, Mary, fear not, for thou hast found favour with God.
And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. In other words, he will be acknowledged as the Son of the Highest, the Most High God. And Luke 132 goes on: The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his reign, of his kingdom, there will be no end.
You know, I love Christmas if you listen to our programs much at all. I say a lot about Christmas. I love the songs. Everything from White Christmas by Irving Berlin to Mary Did You Know by Mark Lowry. And Andy Williams was right.
It's the most wonderful time of the year. I really believe that because the Incarnation is so wonderful, how God enfleshed himself, took on a human body, came from heaven to earth to die on the cross to be our Savior. And it really is amazing because I'll just give you some facts about Christmas that make it absolutely Unique. Isaiah 9:2 says, The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. And it goes on and it talks about the fact very famously, Isaiah 9:6 says, of this coming Savior, and it's Jesus.
His name will be called wonderful. Counselor. The mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, Emmanuel, God with us. And you know, when Simeon went into the temple, the aged man Simeon, and he said, I have seen the consolation of Israel. The consoler, the The counselor, the Savior.
It truly is amazing. Isaiah goes on, and in Isaiah 49, written 750 years before the birth of Christ, it says that the Redeemer of Israel will be the light to the Gentiles.
So Jews and Gentiles share the same Messiah, the same Savior. The Bible talks about Jesus, who was born in that Bethlehem manger, and that in itself is an amazing thing because Bethlehem was a tiny, tiny little village, not even to be numbered in the census or even counted on the maps. And yet, Micah 5:2 says Bethlehem Ephrata, though one of the smallest regions, out of Bethlehem would come one whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. In other words, this town called House of Bread, Bethlehem. out of Bethlehem, where David had lived.
and where Mary and Joseph would go for the Roman census, the one born in Bethlehem would be the bread of life. and would be from old from everlasting, a baby a tiny baby, yet bigger than the universe. A newborn Yet older than eternity. It's amazing, isn't it? The Bible also says that Jesus is the second.
Adam.
Now, 2 Corinthians 5 says of Jesus, he who knew no sin was made to be sin for us. In other words, our guilt, the sin debt of the human race. The appropriate measure of God's wrath necessary to atone for human sin was put on Jesus. That's why, when you've put your faith in Jesus, you can be sure that you're right with God. You don't have to worry: have I done enough?
Have I achieved enough? Is there enough on the balance or the scale that my good outweighs my bad? That's not how it works at all. even the best we could muster is, as Augustine said, simply splendid sins. No, if you want to go to heaven, not hell, If you want to be with the Lord, not be lost, you need to be what?
You need to be righteous. What does righteous mean? It means as holy as God. You say, well, I'm not righteous, and you can't earn it. But what happens is this: because on the cross, the infinite Jesus.
suffered and died for you and me. And if you put your faith in Jesus, you You, in the eyes of the Father, are as righteous as Christ. It's amazing.
So, if you have never trusted Christ and you're not saved yet, you are under the first Adam, Adam and Eve, that fell in Genesis chapter 3. We're all like Adam, sinners. But if you put your faith in Jesus, you are under the second Adam.
Now the Bible also talks about Jesus being our ark of salvation. Jesus is the second ark. You remember Noah's Ark and the flood, the judgment of a flood because of the sin of the world.
Well, which ark, which boat are you riding in? Noah's ark, the fallen world, or God's Messiah?
Now it's interesting the name Noah. means rest. And Hebrews 4 says that Jesus is our Sabbath rest.
Now, if you read there in Genesis, Genesis 5 and 6, Noah's family survived the flood, but if you're in Christ's family, you'll survive God's judgment. the second ark. Isn't that something? Noah was the son of Lamech, and Lamech means overthrower. But the book of Romans says that if we're in Christ, we are overcomers.
More than conquerors through Him who loved us. It is such an amazing story. And the story that we're going to talk about, what is proven by Christmas about God. It is so wonderful. Micah 5:2, written at least four and a half to five centuries before the birth of Christ, predicted the place of the Messiah's birth.
Galatians 4:4 says this. I've quoted it so many times. I've quoted it. I love this verse. In the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, to redeem those that were under the law.
If you're under the law, You're lost. If you're under Jesus, you're under grace. The law of God, whether it be the simple Ten Commandments that we've all broken, of Exodus 20:1 through 17, the Ten Commandments, we've all known the right and done the wrong. Even one sin would keep us out of heaven. Or the minutia of the Mosaic law.
Galatians 3 says that the law of God was a tutor or schoolmaster. To bring us to Christ, a coach to help us admit. God, have mercy. I've broken your law, and I can't undo my disobedience. God, I stand before you guilty.
But the beautiful thing is, like Galatians 4:4 says, that Jesus was manifested to redeem those, save, forgive, absolve. Convert. There are many terms the Bible uses about being made right with God. By the Saviour. And all it takes is for you to put your faith in Him.
Well, that's Christmas, and it's wonderful. And we're going to talk more about what we know of God from Christmas, the things that Christmas proves about God. We'll continue. After this, stay tuned. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert.
Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this. Hi, Alex McFarland here, and this Christmas, I want to say to each and everyone listening. We love you. We thank God for you. We wish you a very joyous, Jesus-filled Christmas.
But make this the focal point of your Christmas: that Christ the King. resides in your heart and in your life. and you've put your faith in him. And that every day you truly do feel his presence because you've invited him in. and he's a welcome guest.
in your heart, your life, your soul. That's the most important part of Christmas. But really, it's the most important part of life itself. May God bless you. May God be glorified.
And Merry Christmas. He's been called Trusted, Truthful, and Timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program. Alex McFarland here.
You know, there are great things going on in the media as I began to record this program. Bible sales are up 22 percent. Did you see that statistic in the news? And I think about the fact that as the world is so tenuous right now, and frankly, the world is like a dangerous place, people are looking for hope. They said overall publishing sales, book sales are up one percent.
And yet Bible sales are up twenty two percent, and the number one practitioners or consumers buying Bibles are young people. Praise God. Folks, be a part of what God is doing. There's a movement building. The Spirit of God is moving.
And on the news, as they were talking about Bible sales, there was a film clip, some B-roll we call it, on the news of bookstore shelves. And the Bible shelves were just all but sold out. It's because people need hope. And Christmas brings hope. a life-changing, tangible hope.
And the the historical facts of Jesus' birth that we celebrate at Christmas show us things about God that every generation needs to be re-reminded of. And people of all ages I truly believe People are thinking about God. but many carry within them kind of a quiet panic Over their inability to answer some of the most basic questions of life. Why am I here? What is my purpose in life?
can I be certain about anything? And Christmas is a reminder that yes, there are some things in life of which you may be sure. certainty Certitude. absolute definite knowledge. We know Jesus was born.
It's been called one of the most demonstrable, defensible facts of the ancient world. You know, on this program I throw out a lot of names. And you might know some of these names, maybe many you don't. I love history, I love great scholarship. Just last week, I interviewed Dr.
Larry Schweikert, PhD, who taught history for many years at University of Ohio at Dayton. And we were talking not only about the Christian foundation of America, but the reality of the Christian faith. Whether it be someone like Dr. Gary Habermas, Dr. Michael Lycona, Dr.
Frank Turek, late historians like Will Durant, Rodney Stark, Mortimer Adler. C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, many of the best and the brightest, and then going back into the philosophical realms of Thomas Aquinas in the Middle Ages and Augustine, and even prior to that, Aristotle. Look, the best and the brightest of history, past and present, have acknowledged there must be a God.
Creation had to have a creator. The moral law on everyone's heart had to come from a moral lawgiver. And then, do you know with the relatively recent emergence of archaeology? Archaeology has only been around about 150 years. And in the 19th and then 20th centuries, so many discoveries have validated what the Bible says, whether it be Bethlehem, Capernaum, the sites of the Bible, Teldon, places that Abraham walked, places that Joshua walked, David, Solomon's horse stables, which we've visited in Israel.
It's been said that with every turn of the archaeologist's spade another page of Scripture has been validated. And so we come to what Christmas is all about. Almighty God entered this age of human history out of love for each of us personally. An acknowledgment of this can be transformative, is transformative, I should say, it really is. And so Jesus came.
The book of Romans chapter 5, verse 8 says that God demonstrated His love and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. You see, you matter to God. Isn't that wonderful? you really do matter to God, and Christmas is proof of that. And life As hard as it may sometimes be, your life is incredibly consequential.
And Christmas reminds us that God is as close by as a prayer.
Now, C.S. Lewis, we often mention C.S. Lewis, he lived 1898 to 1963. He's been dead, you know, 60 years. And yet, this veteran scholar that was a powerful defender of the faith, one of the, hands down, one of the top three or four most influential writers of the 20th century.
He wrote a lot about God incarnating himself, that is, taking on a human body. God Born on the stage of human history in the person of Jesus. And Lewis says that all of God's interventions in the world are of all of God's overtures and interactions, Jesus's birth was, quote, the grand miracle. and, says Lewis, called Christmas the most important happening in history. Let me read what he said.
That Jesus' birth Christmas was, quote, something done by God for, to, and about man. And the way in which it is done is selective, undemocratic, to the highest degree, said Lewis. After the knowledge of God had been universally lost or obscured, one man from the whole earth, Abraham, is called out.
Now that's Genesis 12. Genesis sixteen and seventeen, the Abrahamic covenant. Abraham is separated from his natural surroundings, says Lewis, called to a strange country to Ur of the Chaldees, and made the ancestor of a nation about to carry on and give to the human race the knowledge of the true God.
Now within this nation says CS Lewis, there is further selection. They go through the desert, through the wilderness. They get to Canaan land. And this is so beautiful. CS Lewis says, the spear of history, it goes to a very fine, definite point.
We find a Jewish girl at her prayers. Luke 1. and Gabriel appears. all of humanity, so far as concerning the plan of redemption, has narrowed down to this, and that was in CS Lewis's book, Miracles of Preliminary Study.
Now when we come back, We're going to talk about Mary. The Annunciation, the coming of Jesus, and what Christmas proves to us about God and His love for each of us. Stay tuned. Fox News and CNN call Alex McFarland, a religion and culture expert. Stay tuned for more of his teaching and commentary after this.
Christian author and speaker Alex McFarland is an advocate for Christian apologetics. Teaching in more than 2,200 churches around the world, schools, and college campuses. Alex is driven by a desire to help people grow in relationship with God. He arms his audiences with the tools they need to defend their faith, while also empowering the unchurched to find out the truth for themselves. In the midst of a culture obsessed with relativism, Alex is a sound voice who speaks timeless truths of Christianity in a timely way.
With 18 published books to his name, it's no surprise that CNN, Fox, The Wall Street Journal, and other media outlets have described Alex as a religion and culture expert. To learn more about Alex and to book him as a speaker at your next event, visit alexmacfarland.com or you can contact us directly by emailing booking at alexmcfarland.com. He's been called trusted, truthful, and timely. Welcome back to the Alex McFarlane Show. Welcome back to the program.
Alex McFarland here. We're talking about what Christmas proves about God, and Christmas really is hope. And not just some pipe dream pie in the sky, wishful thinking. No, it's certainty, it's security. I have the privilege of being interviewed quite often, actually.
People will ask me, they'll say, you know, Alex, you preach and you travel and you do camps and these things. What do you say to people who need faith?
Well, the word faith means trust. We often translate it belief, you know, believe in Jesus, trust Jesus. But let me be clear, it is not. Just this, oh, cross my fingers, wishful thinking. I am as sure of the Bible being the Word of God as I'm sure of anything I've ever experienced.
And any Christian will tell you that Jesus is the most real part of their life. And so if you need that hope, that reality, Jesus did come. That is historically provable. Jesus changes lives. Millions throughout history will attest to this.
The Bible is a supernatural book of divine origin from its amazing unity, its amazing indestructibility, its amazing scientific accuracy, historical accuracy, prophetic accuracy, amazing worldwide influence, amazing life-changing power, its amazing unparalleled, untouched circulation. There's no other book like the Bible. Validated by archaeology and history. And then the manuscripts have been preserved. And yes, the canon of Scripture, what you have is the Bible that the Holy Spirit gave.
And you open its pages, and the content. tells us of Jesus. Who was not only able but willing to be our Savior? Isn't that amazing? The sin-bearer.
Jesus was qualified, he was able. And he was willing.
So, what does this tell us?
Well, let me just give you five things to think about at Christmas. Number one, God sees. He is aware of our needs. Deuteronomy 2.7, speaking of the ancient Israelites wandering through the desert. But it says These forty years the Lord thy God has known your wandering in this wilderness.
He sees where you are in your journey. You have lacked nothing. to day you might need to be reminded that God does see you. When Abraham and Sarah ran ahead of God and they kicked Hagar out of their house, she was out in the wilderness, Genesis 16, 17, Hagar said, God is El Roai, the God who sees me. And God sees you.
Secondly, God sympathizes. He does care about our needs, and And the Bible says, we do not have a high priest who can't be touched with the feelings of our pain or infirmity, but was. Touched in all points like we, yet without sin. God really does mercifully care about you. And Christmas is proof that God sympathizes.
Because God didn't just say, Oh, wow, they're fallen sinners. No. John three sixteen says, He so loved the world that He sent His one and only Son. Thirdly, let me say, God plans. God orchestrated Christ's coming into the world.
In fact, in John 18, 35, when Jesus was before Pilate, and Pilate said, What is truth? And of course, Jesus said, For this cause I came into the world to bear witness to the truth. Only Jesus could say that he purposely, intentionally. came into the world Of his own volition. Neither you nor I could say that.
We didn't plan our birth.
Now, God gave us life, but God planned. And how could Jesus say in John 8 and John 10, you know, before Abraham was? I am. How could he say to Pilate, I chose to come into this world. How could he say in Mark 14?
Before Abraham was, I am.
Well, because. He was from eternity past. and he planned his coming into the world. You know, it's amazing. We love in the Old Testament the story of Ruth and Boaz, a picture of Jesus.
uh Boaz was a near relative. He was able to redeem Ruth out of her poor or uh widowed, indigent state. He was not only able, he was also willing to be that kinsman redeemer. And guess where they lived, coincidentally? Bethlehem.
And their son Obed would give birth to Jesse, the father of David. And Jesus would be of the line of Jesse and David from Bethlehem. That's why when we sing songs like Oh, Come All Ye Faithful, it's a reminder of the fourth point. Not only God sees, God sympathizes, God plans, but God acts. God sent His Son at a specific time to a specific place.
You know, it's been said by different historians like Peter Craift, the Pax Romana, the peace of Rome, It's been noted that if ever there were an optimum time in history for a new movement. to sweep the world. During that time, you know, when Paul, the apostle, began to travel as a Roman citizen, he could come and go. And the early disciples took the gospel all around the world. That's why, by Titus 2:11, which was written roughly 37 years after the cross, it says, the grace of God, which brings salvation, has appeared to all men.
Now, it didn't mean that the whole wide world had believed. Many had not believed, like today people reject. But think about it, folks. Without electricity, Without airplanes and in the face of Jewish, Greek, and Roman persecution, in roughly four decades after Christ's resurrection, the salvation message had, as far as we know, been taken to the whole world. At an optimum time, Jesus was born.
God acts. And that's why we sing songs like, Oh, come all ye faithful, joyful and triumphant. Come. To Bethlehem. To adore him.
And I love those lyrics, great theology in many of these older songs. It said, Word of the Father now in flesh appearing. O come let us adore him, Because the Bible says in John chapter 1 In the beginning was the word the Lagos, And the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Do you want to know who God is? Look at Jesus.
Because Jesus is God incarnate. And really Christmas also proves That God reigns. Satan, sin, death, the grave, defeated by. A baby. God reigns.
Christmas reminds us of the God who is powerful, purposeful, and personal. God is in control, folks. Be encouraged. God Acts and God is not elsewhere. He's not a deistic, uninvolved God.
He's not tuned out. No, He's very purposeful. And God is Personal. He loves you. This Christmas, remind yourself.
Re-remind yourself what Jesus' birth, life, and promised return really mean. that my life has purpose and I matter to God. Because you do matter to God. He loves you very, very much. The manger reminds us that Jesus sees humanity with unconditional love, and this was coupled with a willingness to embark on a rescue mission that just happens to be the central focus of history.
And I hope the central purpose, meaning, focus of your life, I hope Jesus is your priority. If you'd like to know more, you can reach us at my website, alexmcfarland.com. We have a lot going on to call the world to Jesus. Pray for us. Uh help us if you can.
Stand strong for Christ. Tell somebody about our show, but most of all tell everybody. about Jesus. Alex McFarlane Ministries are made possible through the prayers and financial support of partners like you. For over 20 years, this ministry has been bringing individuals into a personal relationship with Christ and has been equipping people to stand strong for truth.
Learn more and donate securely online at alexmacfarlane.com. You may also reach us by calling 1-877-YESGOD and the number 1. That's 1-877-Y-E-S-G-O-D-1. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you again on the next edition of the Alex McFarlane Show.
