"God's Ultimate Christmas Gift"

Hi there, this is Lon Solomon and I'd like to welcome you to our program today. You know it's a tremendous honor that God has given us to be on stations all around the nation bringing the truth of God's word as it is uncompromising and straightforward. And I'm so glad you've tuned in to listen and be part of that.

Thanks again for your support and your generosity that keeps us on the radio and now let's get to the word of God. You know I was thinking this week that every American holiday has its own unique character. For example the 4th of July is all about fireworks and celebration. And Labor Day is all about food and cookouts and relaxation and Valentine's Day is all about love and romance and Thanksgiving is all about family. And Christmas of course is all about giving gifts and there's a good reason for this.

The reason is that Christmas is about the birth of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ is the greatest gift that anyone has ever given anyone in all of human history. And this is what we want to talk about today. We want to talk about Jesus Christ, God's ultimate Christmas gift to the world.

And I want to begin today by asking a question and here's my question. My question is did you know that it's possible for you and me to work our way to heaven. That it's possible for you and me to earn eternal life for ourselves.

Oh yes absolutely. The Bible is clear that this can be done and you'll be encouraged to know that it's not even all that complicated either. As a matter of fact the Bible tells us there are only two things that you and I have to do in order to accomplish this. And to see this we want to go to the Gospel according to Luke chapter 10. So we're going to begin at verse 25.

Here we go. The Bible says on one occasion a lawyer asked Jesus a question. Teacher he asked what must I do to attain eternal life. Now this man was not an attorney at law the way we think about here in America. He was a theologian.

He was an expert in the Old Testament law which is why they called him a lawyer. And his question was how can I earn for myself eternal life in heaven. Now would you please notice that this lawyer's question is based on three critical assumptions. Assumption number one is that there is such a thing as eternal life in heaven. Assumption number two is that it's possible for everyday people like you and me to gain eternal life in heaven. And assumption number three is that it's also possible for people to miss eternal life in heaven. And also please notice that the Lord Jesus never disputed any of these three assumptions because all three of them are correct which means that suddenly this lawyer's question what must I do to make sure I don't miss eternal life in heaven.

This question suddenly becomes the most important question that any human being can ever ask. Verse 26. So Jesus replied, well what is written in the Old Testament law? How do you read it? You're supposed to be an expert in the Old Testament.

What do you think? I'd love to hear your answer. Well the lawyer said Jesus the way I see it there are two things a person has to do. Number one, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength and number two, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Then Jesus said to him, verse 28, bingo you have answered correctly.

Do these two things and you will live. So here we have plan A for getting into heaven and whether you're Buddhist or Muslim, whether you're Jewish or Hindu, whether you're Mormon or whether you're just a good recycling American. Either way, these are the rules Jesus says for earning eternal life in heaven.

You say, well Lon, that doesn't sound so bad. Well, yeah, but listen, since our whole eternal destiny is riding on this, let's make sure we understand fully what the deal is here, okay? First of all, Jesus says to earn eternal life in heaven we must love our neighbor as ourselves. So what exactly does that mean? Well the lawyer had the very same question. He said, verse 29, but wanting to justify himself, the lawyer asked Jesus, well who is my neighbor anyway? The lawyer said, so Jesus, exactly how far does this command go?

I mean, exactly who do I have to love like myself? I mean, does it stop with my relatives? Does it stop with my friends?

Does it stop with my neighbors? So in order to answer his question, Jesus tells this man a story. Verse 30, Jesus said, a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho when he fell into the hands of robbers.

They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away leaving him half dead. A Jewish priest, now this is a member of the highest religious order in Israel at the time, I mean this was a holy man, was going down the same road and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side of the road. So too a Jewish Levite.

Here was the guy who was a member of the second highest religious order in Israel at the time. Also a holy man, when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side of the road also. But a Samaritan, just an ordinary guy, as he traveled, came to where the man was and when he saw him, he took pity on him and went over to him and bandaged to his wounds.

Then he placed the man on his own donkey, took him to a nearby inn and took care of him overnight. The next day the Samaritan gave the innkeeper two silver coins and said, look after this man until I return and then I will reimburse you for any extra expenses you may incur. Now the Samaritan didn't know this man lying in the road from Adam, he simply did for the man what he would have wanted somebody to do for him were he lying there all beat up and bleeding. Verse 36, then Jesus said to the lawyer, which of these three men, the priest, the Levite or the Samaritan, which of them do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers hands? And the lawyer replied, well, it was the one who had mercy on him, then Jesus said to him, go and do likewise.

So the lawyer's question was, who is my neighbor? And Jesus's answer was, who isn't your neighbor? The point is that when it comes to satisfying God's command, that we love our neighbor as ourselves, Jesus says our neighbor means everybody, every single person that we pass in life. So, if you and I are on plan A, and we are hoping to earn our way to eternal life in heaven, then the first thing we must do, my friends, is we must treat our boss with absolute esteem at all times. We must treat everyone who hurts us with forgiveness, even if they never say they're sorry.

We must treat our husband with total honor and our wife with complete tenderness and our parents with unbroken respect and our children with unlimited patience at all times. We must treat every shopper at the mall with total kindness. Yes, I know I was sitting here with my blinker on, but you know what? Please feel free to pull into the spot in front of me.

I don't mind if you have it. God bless you and Merry Christmas. Uh-huh. Second of all, Jesus says, we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind and with all our strength.

What does this mean? Well, the key word here is the word all. That is 100%. The Bible says that to satisfy this second command, we must love God with, first of all, 100% of our heart. Never a single motive or desire must exist in our heart that ever displeases God. We must love God with 100% of our soul. Never a single feeling or emotion must exist in our heart that ever offends God. We must love God with 100% of our mind. Never a single thought or scheme must come into our mind that ever dishonors God. And finally, we must love God with 100% of our strength. Never a single day must go by when we invest less than 100% of our energy in loving God. We're talking here about having an absolutely altogether perfect love for God.

How you doing on part two? And remember, friends, just trying our best is not good enough. James chapter 2 in the Bible says, whoever keeps the whole law of God and yet stumbles at just one point in the sight of God is guilty of breaking all of it. In other words, if we're hoping to use plan A to earn our eternal life in heaven, our observance of these two commands must be impeccable.

It must be absolutely perfect at all times. One single violation of either command and our career path to heaven is history. And so, let me ask you the question, if you have perfectly, without failure, ever, if you have kept both of these commands every day of your life, then I want you to please stand up.

Well, me neither. And you see, friends, what this means is that every one of us, by our own admission, has just sentenced ourselves to missing eternal life in heaven. The point is that plan A doesn't work for you. Plan A doesn't work for me. Plan A didn't work for the lawyer, and plan A has never worked for anybody, friends. No one can meet the demands of plan A because we're all sinners and we all fall short every single day, and this is the problem.

This is the problem that caused God to send the Lord Jesus Christ into the world that very first Christmas day at the manger in Bethlehem. Now, this is a good time for us to stop and for us to ask our most important question of the morning. So, all of you out at Prince William and all of you at Louden and all of you in the Edge and all of you around the world on the Internet campus and all of us here at Tysons, are we ready? All right, now this is your Christmas gift to me, so I need this to really be loud and enthusiastic, okay? Here we go.

One, two, three. So what? Oh, thank you. Merry Christmas to you, too. Thank you.

You say, Lon, look, I understand what you're saying, but I still don't see how all of this really connects to Christmas, and I don't really see how it all connects all that much to me. Well, let me help with that. Friends, what was, let's ask this question, at the end of their conversation, Jesus and this lawyer, what was the response that Jesus was looking for from this lawyer?

Well, I'll tell you the answer. What Jesus wanted this lawyer to do was to humble himself and say, Jesus, I'm in big trouble. Even though I've really tried my very best, I can't meet the demands of plan A. Plan A, I can't make it work for me, so Jesus, I need to know, is there a plan B? Is there an alternate plan?

Is there an alternate way for me to get eternal life in heaven? And friends, all of us who couldn't stand up a moment ago, God wants each of us to realize that we need an alternate plan to get eternal life in heaven, too. We need plan B also, just like this lawyer did. And it has to be a plan that is based on an entirely different foundation than the plan that this lawyer was trying to use. His plan was based on human performance, human good works, human effort, human worthiness.

And as we've just seen, this plan is a train wreck. It has never worked for anybody. It never will work for anybody. Romans chapter 3 verse 20 says, Therefore, no one, here's our operative word, no one will ever be declared righteous. No one will ever earn eternal life in heaven by means of human performance. But ah, friends, now we come to the great news of the Bible. Now we come to the good news of the Bible that on the very first Christmas Day, God gave us the Lord Jesus Christ in order to provide us with an alternate way to get eternal life, a way that will work. Listen to Romans chapter 3 verse 20.

I'll repeat it. No one will ever be declared righteous by means of human performance. Next verse. But now you say, But now what? But now that Jesus has come to earth on that first Christmas Day, but now that Jesus has lived a sinless life, but now that Jesus has died on the cross to pay for our sins, but now that Jesus has risen from the dead to seal the deal. But now, the Bible says, a way to be right with God apart from the law, apart from human effort, apart from human works has been made available to us. Whoo! This is good news.

This is good news, folks. Look, the Bible says that because of the work of Jesus on the cross, God is now free to offer us plan B, a way to get to heaven that has nothing to do with our human performance, our human effort, our human worthiness of any kind. Next verse, Romans 3-22. This way to become right with God comes through, watch, comes through not human works, not human performance.

It doesn't come through human worthiness or effort. It comes through faith in Jesus Christ to everyone. Yahweh, how much do you like that? To everyone who believes. This is not a plan reserved for holy men and big shots and VIPs.

Plan B is for butchers and bakers and candlestick makers the whole world over. How great is that? So, let's summarize, shall we? What have we learned today? We've learned today that Jesus Christ is God's ultimate Christmas gift to the world and that the reason God gave him to us that first Christmas in Bethlehem was so that we would have a way to get to heaven that works.

It works for anyone and for everyone who will accept it. Wow, what great news, huh? Now, you remember this past week, how cold it was?

I mean the beginning especially. It was downright frigid outside here in Washington and I was home working on this message this week and the front doorbell rang and so I went down to the door and on my front door next to the door we've got like some little panels, you know, of glass with like a little curtain so I can peek through and see who's there. So I peeked through and it was the UPS delivery man with a big old package under his arm and so I said to him, I said, well, just put it down right there and I'll get it later, you know, and you say, well, why didn't you want to open the door and take it then?

Well, friends, it's real simple because when it's that cold out and I open my front door, the frigid air outside rushes in massively and it drops the temperature in my hallway precipitously which makes my thermostat kick on unnecessarily which makes my gas bill go up expensively. Sorry, but I think like that. I'm sorry. And so I thought if he'll just put it down, then when I have to open the door later for something that I must open the door for, I'll get the package and therefore I get two for one. You understand what I'm saying? I don't have to open it once. You say, well, I thought you always give people, delivery people like this your CD when they come to the front door. I do, but I have a mail slot in the door and I was going to slide it to him through the mail slot.

Works for me. So he kept saying, no, no, no. He kept saying, I can't leave it here. You have to personally sign for this. You have to personally accept delivery for this. And he had the little box with him. And so I opened the door. Of course, you can't close the door in the man's face.

So I took the box in. He's standing at the door. The door is wide open. All the air's coming in. My thermostat's kicking on. I'm signing for the package. I give the man the CD. He leaves. I go back up to my study and transfer funds from my savings to my check-in to cover my gas bill coming this month. You know what was in the box?

It's a Christmas gift somebody had sent me. Now you say, Lon, is there a point to this? Yeah, there is a point to this, friends. The point is that even though the gift that this man had, the UPS man, was paid in full. And even though even the shipping was paid in full, and even though the UPS man was standing on the front porch offering to give it to me, until I personally accepted delivery of it, I couldn't have it. Do we all understand that? All right.

Now, listen. The Bible says that just like that UPS man, God is trying to deliver a Christmas gift to every single human being alive. To you, to me, it's the gift of his son. It's the gift of eternal life in heaven.

It's free and postage paid, but in order for you and me to have it and make it ours, no matter who we are, we have to personally accept delivery of it. And you say, well, what does that mean practically? Friends, it means that we've got to give up plan A. We've got to give up our plan for getting into heaven. The one that's based on our own human works and our human effort and our human worthiness and our human abilities and religious activity.

And in its place, we have to accept plan B. God's plan for getting into heaven. The one that began in the manger that first Christmas day. The one that's based on our reliance on the blood of Jesus Christ as the full and complete payment for our sin in the sight of God. And when we do this, listen to what Jesus said. He said, the people who do this, the people who sign and take delivery, I give them eternal life and they shall never perish.

But we didn't earn it. God gave it to us, friends, as a gift. This is the great news of the Bible, that there's a plan B. Praise the Lord. What would we do if there was no plan B, friends? Praise the Lord, huh?

What did he say? And you know, almost 40 years ago, this is what I did. I signed and took delivery of Jesus Christ into my life. It was, without a doubt, the most strategic decision I've ever made. Without a doubt, it was the best decision I've ever made.

The most life-altering decision I've ever made. And you know, I'm here today on behalf of God to invite you to make that very same decision. Let's bow our heads together. Lord, I pray as we've heard the old, old story today that you would remind us of the incredible mercy and graciousness and kindness and love of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. That he came to the manger in Bethlehem knowing full well what it was going to cost him.

And yet he was happy to do that, to provide plan B for us so we could go to heaven. Lord, may that theme dominate our Christmas celebration. And may it overwhelm all the little problems that we face every day, even the big problems we face. And may it bring real joy to our heart. Lord, thank you for loving us enough to come to Bethlehem. And we pray these things in Jesus' name.

What do God's people say? Amen. You've been listening to So What with Dr. Lon Solomon. So What is an outreach of Lon Solomon Ministries. To listen to today's message or for more information, visit our website, lonsolomonministries.org. Thank you for your support. If you would like to contact us, please visit our website or call us at 866-788-7770. We hope you will join us next time when Lon seeks to answer one of life's most important questions, So What.