The Baptist Bible Hour now comes to you under the direction of Elder Lasser Bradley Jr. Mm-hmm. Dozen tumblers seem My great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my government, the triumphs of his race. This is Lucera Bradley Jr. inviting you to stay tuned for another message of God's sovereign grace.
What is it? Watch their thoughts by night, all seated on the throne. The angel of the Lord came down and glory shone around. Fear not, said he, for my children had seized their trouble. Glad tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind.
Oh, glory be to God on high, and to the earth be peace. Good will henceforth from heaven to men begin and never cease while sharp this is a time of year when many families are able to get together.
Some that are separated by miles yet travel and have time to renew their love and friendship. and I hope it is a time of special blessing for you. I encourage you to write and let us know that you have listened to the program. If you can help us with a special year end donation, we will certainly be grateful for it. Our mailing address is the Baptist Bible HOUR, box seventeen oh thirty seven, Cincinnati, Ohio, four five two one seven.
Now we bring you the second half of the message entitled, A Savior is Born. The text is Luke two, eleven. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. No one knows the actual date of the Saviour's birth, and it was the middle of the third century before celebrations were held regarding it. Among Christians there are many different opinions about how the Christmas season should be viewed.
but in a day when there is growing opposition to the message of Jesus Christ, we think it is appropriate to speak about his birth during a season when at least some attention is being paid to it. Thus far in the message we have considered the great need. The whole human race is described in the Scriptures as being guilty before God. Psalm fourteen tells us that the LORD looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy.
There is none that doeth good, no not one.
So, since man is a fallen, condemned sinner, he needs a Saviour. Man has no righteousness that he can plead there is no work that he can perform. He cannot save or even help to save himself. Secondly, we have looked at God's gift. Through the years the message was clear, God will provide a Saviour.
The sacrifice of the Passover Lamb pointed to the fact that the Lamb of God would come to put away sin. The prophets declared, The good news, a Saviour is coming. As we begin the message to day we continue speaking of God's great gift, and certainly we can join with the Apostle Paul and say Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift. In the concluding part of the message, We will talk about Christ's great work. No wonder the Angel said, I bring you good tidings of great joy.
What good news to know that Jesus Christ came to reconcile to God those who were enemies Now there can be peace with God through the Prince of Peace. there is indeed hope. for the greatest of sinners. And the book of Hebrews tells us that Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us.
So all of these things were pointing to the fact that ultimately the Savior would come. Man needed a Savior. Man could not save himself. But rather sacrifice. He said, I will pass.
Over you. Think of the many blood sacrifices that were offered. Thousands, thousands, thousands upon thousands. of sheep. And goats.
and red heifers and bulls. all through the centuries. We're eating one place where there were 22,000 sheep offered at one time. Say, what's the meaning of all this?
Somebody would say that seems to be preposterous that you would Slave had many animals and they could have been used for some benefit. But this is God reminding his people. You cannot save yourself. This is God sending a message that there must be a sacrifice. That one must die.
in order that you might live. There was the scapegoat. The priest would stand, put his hands on the head of the scapegoat, and confess the sins of the people. And then it will be led out into the wilderness. Out so far.
that it could not find its way back. Teaching the lesson. That when our sin is put upon Jesus Christ, they're carried away. Into the land of forgetfulness and can be found and laid to our charge no more. The lesson repeated.
Time and time again, year after year, there must be a Saviour. There must be one who can put away sin because you cannot put away your own sin. All of your effort to try to meet the standards of the law. come miserably short. You're a people who have rebelled You are sinners.
You need help. And not only do we see it in the types and shadows, that there was a Savior coming. But the prophecies. Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14. Therefore, the Lord Himself shall give you a sign.
Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. That name meaning God with us. Amazing. God is going to be with us. There's going to be a virgin.
Bring forth a child. Nothing Ever could have been imagined. of such a possibility. But this is because we learned later that that which was conceived in her, in Mary, was of the Holy Ghost. And this.
Child ultimately was born. as we have read in our text. In Luke. Chapter 2. A savior.
It's born. Isaiah has sometimes been referred to as the gospel of the Old Testament, and we can understand why when we begin to look at all of the many prophetic references and how explicit they are in his writings. We come to chapter 53. We get a clear picture of what was going to transpire. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. This talks about The lonely way in which Jesus came. He shall grow up as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. Born Of humble Parents.
Poor. as far as earth's goods are concerned. It didn't come in the form that one would expect. The king of kings and lord of lords to arrive. There was no form recommendance about him.
There was nothing about his personal appearance that would have made you say, I pick out that man as being the Messiah. He must be the Savior. It was in his work, it was in his character. Not in his physical appearance. And so it said, He is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.
And we hid, as it were, our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not.
So because he did not come as the Jews would have expected their king to arrive. Because he came bringing a message that they would not receive. They rejected him. They accused him. of being a wine bibber.
They said he was casting out devils by the name of Beelzebub. They sought early on. The Kevin. On several occasions when they came to take him, He simply walked away from them because he said, mine hour has not yet come. We need not be surprised when we learn that multitudes of the world today.
despise him and reject him. ridiculed his gospel. If they had the power, they would wipe out the Christian testimony around the world. Oh, may we pray that God will sustain us in this country and that his church may be able to prosper even in the most difficult of times and the gospel continue to be preached. Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
Now that's another remarkable thing about it all. Smitten of God. Not just these Angry critics, not just these religious leaders, were against him. But when Jesus went to the cross, And the sins of all of his people were put upon him. He was then smitten.
of God. His father. The father. and to turn his back. And the son cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
The physical pain, no doubt, was excruciating. But the greatest pain suffered by Jesus was that he became sin for us. And the father. did spite him. as you and I should have been smitten.
He suffered In that time on the cross, what we never could have paid for ourselves, even suffering in hell itself for eternity. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes we were healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. There's the condition. Every one of us, every one of you. There's not a person here today that can say, I'm exempt.
I don't have the deep problems that you're talking about. I haven't done anything so terrible. I'm not that bad a person. No, the fact is, we all had turned everyone to our own way. It wasn't the right way, it wasn't God's way.
rebellious sinners. But isn't it Amazing grace. to read That the sin of guilty sinners was put upon him. He paid the price. He saved.
by his work at the cross. Micah chapter five and verse two says, But thou, Bethlehem, Ephrata, Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. Here's the prophecy. He's going to be born in Bethlehem. His goings have been from old, from everlasting.
He is God, but he's going to be born. He's going to be a man. He's going to be the God-man. is going to be born at Bethlehem, the city of David. And that prophecy, of course, as you know.
was fulfilled. God's great. Gift. Then we come to the book of Matthew. Chapter 1.
The time now has arrived. Through the years, it was constantly demonstrated that salvation was needed and that God must provide it. The prophecies were given, the types and shadows were there, but now the time had arrived.
Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privileged. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The time had arrived. The Savior is coming.
The God-man is going to be born of this virgin. He's coming here to save sinners. Oh, what good news. What good news it is. That passage in 1 John chapter 4.
depicts this so beautifully. To say God's great gift. In this was manifested the love of God toward us. Because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world that we might live through Him. Having seen The Great Need.
And God's great gift. Let's consider Christ. Great work. He came to save. And we believe he did.
He didn't just attempt to do it. It wasn't a work in which he became defeated. In fact, Isaiah had prophesied of his success. He said, he shall see of the travail of his soul, and what? Be satisfied.
Not disappointed. He shall not be discouraged. It said in another place. Not disappointed. He paid the price and he got what he paid for.
Not one single soul for whom Christ died will perish. That's what Jesus himself says in John chapter 10. And the fifteenth verse. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. I lay down my life.
I'm willing to do it. No man takes it from me. I lay it down. I lay it down willingly. Because He was there.
to carry out the will of his Father. I've come to do thy will, he said repeatedly. And the Father had sent him on a mission, and that mission was to redeem a people. and to pay the price that was necessary. The angel said, I bring you good tidings of great joy.
And is it not a joyful message that we have to bring? When you see it against the dark backdrop of human history, to see the fact that man in his fallen state is a corrupt, ruined sinner, and you see the corruption and evil that is rampant the world over today, and you look in your own heart and say, and here I despise what I see elsewhere, but I'm greatly troubled when I see it in me. Because I am a sinner. And I need the grace of God. And I need the salvation that only he can provide.
And here's a message of joy. A Savior, a Saviour is born. William Hendrickson writes, What greater joy could there be than the realization and wholehearted acceptance of the fact that God Himself, through the sacrifice of His own and only Son, had brought about the solution to the world's greatest problem, that of sin? And was not the Son's incarnation the first step? in that solution.
End of quote. What joy. that the solution has been found. Man could not save himself. He cannot save himself today.
He can't help to save himself. He needs a Savior, and a Savior has been born. And the Savior went to the cross and paid the price. And the Savior therefore died. But in three days he arose.
And in 40 more days, he ascended back to heaven, and he's there, seated on the right hand of the majesty on high, where he ever lives, to make intercession for us. Titus chapter 2. Verse 14, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works. To redeem is to buy back for the paying of a price.
Now, if the price is paid, but the object is not secured, there has been no redemption. But Jesus paid the price and secured all that were given to him. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 11. After having spoken of those ordinances and ceremonies of the former day. It says, but Christ, being coming high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
He obtained it. He didn't just make it a possibility, he made it a reality. For if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify through the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Then, back in the first chapter of the book of Hebrews. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 2.
He hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things with the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. You know, in the tabernacle where the priests offered sacrifices so long ago, there was not a chair. There was no place for the priest to sit down because his work was never done. After the sacrifice was made today, there was another one to make tomorrow. After the annual sacrifice was made this year, there was another one to make next year.
But when Jesus Christ offered himself without spot to God, when he received back into heaven, he sat down because the work was done, nothing to be added. Nothing to be added to the redemptive work. He paid the price in full. He is seated. at the right hand of the majesty.
All right. And Jesus Christ. The Saviour. has saved and is saving Great. sinners.
He went to Samaria. and met the woman at Jacob's well, who had a terrible reputation. A fallen woman. But he brought her salvation. and blessed her to drink of the water.
of greater value than that which was found in Jacob's well. He was accused of being the friend of publicans and sinners. His critics thought that this would discredit him. But in reality, he was their friend. Not to condone their sin.
Not to approve their sinful conduct, but to save them from their sins. Aren't you glad to know he's the friend of sinners? Where would you be if that were not the case? If he was only there to reward the worthy and the righteous. Would you have any hope?
He came to save sinners. The Apostle Paul said. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. Saul of Tarsus. hated the message of the gospel.
He wanted to destroy the church. He consented to have Christians put to death. But the Lord intervened. Jesus spoke to him from heaven: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?
I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. But the Lord saved him. His life was totally changed, completely transformed. And the man who had been the greatest enemy of the gospel, the man who had so despised the church, spent the rest of his days preaching the gospel, traveling abroad, building churches up. Oh, how great is the grace of God.
And when Jesus was on the cross. And the thief cried out, Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. He said, this day shalt thou be with me in paradise. The biblical record confirms that Jesus saves sinners. Is that good news to you today?
Do you find joy and comfort to know that's the kind of people Jesus saves? Whatever your circumstances may be today, no matter how great your sin. No matter how far you may feel to be from God, no matter how many questions you've had, how many doubts. Stir your mind. The fact is, Jesus Christ can save you.
Hebrews. Chapter 7 Verse 24. But this man Because he continueth ever. Hath an unchangeable priesthood, wherefore he is able also to save to the uttermost. that come unto God by him.
Save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. He saves to the uttermost. reaches down to the very depths of sin. To a case that would appear to be hopeless and saves that soul. They say, how could I know that he would hear me?
Jesus says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It says, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, Him that cometh. I will in no wise cast out. What does it mean to come to Jesus? It means believe on Him.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. The angel brought the good news. He said, fear not. Fear not. I'm bringing you good tidings of great joy.
The Savior is born, and He is the Christ the Lord. To say that he's the Christ, he's the anointed one. There have been at various times in history when men have arisen and claimed to be a Savior. But Jesus Christ came being anointed. as the Saviour.
He's the one anointed and appointed by the Father, and he came to do a work, and he did it. That's the good news of the gospel. Are you today? Rejoice in it if indeed The Lord has touched you, convicting you of sin, bringing you to faith in Christ. Or if you question today where you stand.
Let me say, come to Jesus. And he. will not cast you out. Try it! The word of the Lord is come.
Let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room. Let heaven and nature see. As heaven and nature see, as in heaven and heaven nature sees. What wonderful words are the words of our text.
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. which is Christ the Lord. Jesus Christ, Lord of all, the Savior of sinners. What a joy to know that he came to this earth to do a work and successfully accomplished that which was given with a Father to do, so that by his substitutionary death we who were ruined fallen sinners are rescued. Those who believe in Jesus Christ, saved and on their road to one day be in His presence and live with Him forever.
I hope that you will write us, and until next week at this same time, may the Lord richly bless you all. It's not. As forest, the curse is found. He rules the world with truth and grace, and makes the nations prove the glories of his righteousness, and wonders of his love, and wonders of his love, and wonders, wonders of his love. The Baptist Bible Hour has come to you under the direction of Elder Lessere Bradley Jr.
Address all mail to the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45217. That's the Baptist Bible Hour, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45217. To the world the Lord is come, let earth receive her king. Let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing, as heaven and nature sing, and heaven and heaven nature sing. Joy to the earth the Saviour reigns, let men their songs employ what fields and floods, what hills and plains repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat the sounding joy.
