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Save $80 with code SPACE80 at Talkspace.com. The following program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content. Portions of the following program may be pre-recorded. I am Pastor Ernie Sanders, the voice of the Christian Resistance. Stay tuned. My radio broadcast, What's Right, What's Left, is coming up right now.

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Good evening and welcome to another edition of What's Right, What's Left on this, well, this would be the 22nd day of December. And, indeed, this is the voice of the Christian Resistance. And I want to start out tonight by saying that Pastor Howe, who's been under the weather lately, he asked if I would wish all of you out there, and especially all his supporters and that, but all of you out there on his behalf, a very Merry Christmas. And I want to say the very same for Kenny and myself.

We, too, wish you a very Merry Christmas along with Pastor Joe. Pastor Joe will be back with me from time to time. He's just, he's retired for now, but every now and then he wants to pop back in. You can never stay away. You can't stay away for long.

Even retired, semi-retired, maybe. Amen. And we do want to say, I want to make a prayer tonight for Mr. and Mr. Klein, an elderly couple who were in a car wreck today, and they got them, they went to the hospital, I guess it was last night. And I guess he was released from the hospital, but Mrs. Klein, an elderly couple, she's still under observation.

She was hurt pretty bad, I guess. So let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord God, I just want to hold up the elderly couple and ask Heavenly Father, Lord God, that You would again touch them and being on their behalf, that they might receive a full and complete healing. Lord, we thank You and praise You, Lord, for all the blessings and all the good that You've done. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Amen. Well, the title of the message tonight, Ken, is The Pray Log to Theophilus. And we're going to, it's chapters 1 and 2 of Luke, and we start in Luke 1. Now here, even though it's never mentioned him by name, the early Church Fathers, all of them in uniform tradition, they say that Luke's personal physician, or Paul's personal physician, past Dr. Luke, is definitely the author of both Luke here and also of the book of Acts. And we start by saying, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us, you make it a point there that a lot of people at that time had written biographies about the life of Jesus. And some of them were fairly accurate, others totally weren't, but none of them but Luke's were inspired.

These were the inspired when it comes to the birth of Christ and all of this. And so, when he says, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word, and so here now, here, when we start with the very first verse there, did you know that in the very first verse, 82 words, 82 words of the text in just one sentence, did you know that? 82 words in one sentence, anyhow. 82 words.

Yeah. And there were, again, many who recorded the life of Christ, but only the Gospel of Luke was one that was God-breathed or inspired. And when he made the point that here, when he says, even as they delivered them unto us from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the Word.

So, Luke had no second-hand accounts. All of the accounts were first-hand accounts, eyewitnesses. You know, he talked to Jesus' brothers, he talked to all of those who were with him, you know, from the beginning. And so, he had all first-hand accounts, and then he goes on to say, it seemed good to me also, having that perfect understanding of all things from the very first to right into the, in order, most excellent Theophilus. The word he uses there for perfect, it's the word acrobos, acrobos.

And that word, acrobos, in the Greek it means precision or exactness, precision or exactness. And that's what he says, it seemed good to me to having precision and exactness, understanding of all things from the very first to right into the, in order, most excellent Theophilus. Now, the name Theophilus means lover of God. Now, there's a whole lot of different opinions on who this man was, Theophilus.

Some believe he was a high-ranking official, and others believe that he was the one who financially backed Luke and supported him while he took the time to write, you know, these Gospels. He goes on to say that thou mightest know the certainty of these things wherein thou has been instructed. So, with that, I want to jump over for a minute to 1 Corinthians chapter 15. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 through 9.

Now, remember, he was Paul's personal physician, and Paul had spent three years in the Arabian desert being tutored by the Lord Jesus himself. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the Gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. Now, this is interesting here because this passage is often called the defining verse of the Gospel of Christ, by which also men can be saved, receiving it, believing it, and standing on it. But it's got another name. This Gospel is also called something else, and that's called the Gospel in a nutshell.

That's what it was nicknamed. And he goes on to say that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve, after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remained unto this present, but some were fallen asleep. And after that he was seen of James, then of all the apostles. And last of all he was seen of me also of one as born out of due time, for I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. So Paul's making an appointment there, the fact that, you know, here he was seen by all these people after he was risen from the dead, and so, and the word spread throughout the world. And then if we go over to Acts 21, and in Acts 21 we read verses 7 through 10, and when we had finished our course from Tyre, we came to Ptolemais, Ptolemais, and saluted the brethren and abode with them one day.

The next day we were of Paul's company, departed, and came into Caesarea, and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was one of the seven, and abode with him. And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy, and as we tarried there many days, there came down from Judea a certain prophet named Agabus. Well here, Paul and Luke lodged with Philip and his daughters, and they were prophetess, and Luke documented all his writings with first person testimony.

And so here now, as we go back and pick it up, in verse 5 through 10, we read, yep, back to Luke, verses 5 through 10. There was in the days of Herod the king of Judea a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Ebi and his wives were the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. Well here, Herod the Great was a descendant of Esau, he was appointed king of the Jews by the Roman Senate in 40 B.C. At this time there was about 20,000, a number of the theologians, there's different opinions on the exact amount of these priests, but they all agree it was somewhere between 19,500 and 20,000 priests throughout the country.

Now they were divided into 24 different groups. Now Zacharias was of the Abaya division, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to prepare the way for Jesus to come to the earth. So most of them, priests, you know, never got an opportunity to serve in the holy of holies. And he goes on, and they had no child because Elizabeth was barren and they were both well stricken in years.

And it came to pass that while he executed a priest's office before God in the order of the course. Now there are four people mentioned in the Bible, very well known people, two of them are right here, Elizabeth and Zacharias, that were well stricken in years. Do you know who the other two were? I wanted to say Elizabeth too, but that's not right, is it? Oh, now think about it. The other two was Abraham and Sarah. Abraham and Sarah, that's what I wanted. Yep, that was it.

Okay, yep. Anyhow, here, so according to the custom of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. Now do you know how long it had been since they had heard a word from God? Um, since Moses, was it? No, no, no, since Malachi, 400 years.

Okay. It's 400 years since there had been a word from God. Why do you think so many people were standing outside the temple waiting, they were standing, waiting, they were expecting to hear a word. And the word was, was the Messiah going to come, was the Messiah going to rescue them and deliver them out from under the Roman rule. And so here now... They were waiting for prophecy to be filled.

Yeah, and so here, this was a once-in-a-lifetime, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to serve. And there appeared unto him an angel, now you notice it says an angel. Okay, the Lord on the right side of the altar of incense. Now this angel, of course, was Gabriel. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. Why do you think, why do you think he was troubled and fear fell upon him?

Oh, well, probably because he probably hasn't seen an angel before, and just the sheer magnificence of it, you know, would, you know, make you, you know, kind of tremble in fear, I would think, you know, like, this is so much greater than I, you know, or something I don't understand, you know, something along those lines, maybe. That would apply, but now think about this, he was in the Holy of Holies. Nobody but the appointed priest could go into that Holy of Holies. Anybody else that stepped in there would be instantly killed, instantly. God would strike him down instantly. In fact, in fact, the priest serving would have bells on his garment, on his robes, so he would, you could hear him when he was walking around, and there was a rope tied to his leg.

Yes, I remember you saying this, the way they would pull him out if they heard the bell stop, that they would be able to pull him out without having to go in. Yeah, the reason is that you could not allow anything dead to be in the Holy of Holies. And so here, so now Zacharias, he looks, who is this?

I mean, this has got to be somebody very, very powerful, because he's not dead, okay? And so, but the angel said unto him, Fear not Zacharias, for the prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear his son, and thou shalt call his name John. Now, Zacharias had two prayers, okay?

And one of them was for a son, but now at their age, you know, my guess is, you know, he might have been pretty much given up, but what do you think his other prayer was? Maybe to be around for the birth of Christ? Exactly, to see the birth of the Messiah. And Simeon also, God had told Simeon that he would be, he would witness the birth of Messiah. And so, but the angel said, Fear not Zacharias, for the prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear her son, and thou shalt call his name John.

And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his birth. Let me ask you this, amongst men, who was the greatest man ever born of a woman? Amongst men?

Yep. And not counting Jesus. Well, these are the words of Jesus. Jesus said, amongst men born of a woman, you know, just about every man, you know, every man I know ever had always been born of a woman.

Now, nowadays, you know, they're trying to do other things, right? I mean, you know, but... A lot of hocus pocus on that. Yeah, and so Jesus...

Slight of hand, look over here. Yeah, and so Jesus had said, among men born of a woman, here, there was a big difference between Jesus, when you might say, remember, he was pre-existed. He was a man before he was a baby. And so, remember what it says in Jeremiah. And so here, when he made this statement, there was an esoteric message there. And so he says, and they also have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice in his birth.

John was a very, very popular preacher, and that day people came out by the thousands, way out in the wilderness, to hear him preach. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb. Now, there are those, you know, we talked about this the other night, Chaplain John said, do you think he was a Nazawite?

Well, I don't think so, no. And here's why I don't think so, because it wasn't mentioned either by his father, and remember, if they'd been a Nazawite, or by the angel, which would have proclaimed that, okay, that he was a Nazawite, but he wasn't a Nazawite. And so, he goes on to say that, and many of the children of Israel shall turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before them in the spirit and the power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedience to the wisdom of the just one, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Remember, when the people asked Jesus, you know, when the Jews have their dinner, what we do every now and then at the church, we put on, I'm having one of my senior moments, their Seder dinner. They always have a, they would chair open for Elijah to come, but here, when they asked about Elijah, remember Jesus said, Elijah came, but you didn't recognize him. Well, he meant in the spirit, the spirit of Elijah, it was John the Baptist came in the spirit of Elijah, and he says, and said to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. And Zechariah said unto the angel, whereby shall I know this, for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. That was a mistake.

Okay. Here now, what did the Jews always ask for? The Jews always asked for something.

Salvation? No, they always asked for a sign. They always wanted a sign. Something else they would do always, they would always answer a question with a question. And you know, I learned that of Jesus. Remember, Jesus couldn't lie, but he never gave them the answer they wanted. And you know, many times when I got arrested by the communists out there for being out in front and preaching at the bloody, bloody whorehouses of death they called abortion mills, you know, Herod, evil Herod didn't do anything as wicked as what they do right here in Cleveland in the preterm. But I'd be in court, and the ACLU and the persecutors would be going after me, and I would never answer, give them the answer they wanted. I would always answer their questions with a question of what you're allowed to do.

And it drove them nuts. Oh, I bet. Yeah. And you know, when they would ask me, did you not, did this or didn't that happen? No.

You know, I was guilty of doing what God's word of the Bible, obeying God and rather not man. And I would often say, why would you even ask me such a question like that? And it would just drive them crazy, okay? Because I turned it back on them.

It's just hard for them. Yeah. What happened, though, Ken, was if I was the only one charged in the crime, I could defend myself with my own venue, and my own venue was the King James Bible, okay? And it's the only Bible, okay, here that you could use to do that. Most of the countries in the world will recognize that as the authorized book of law, as the King James authorized book of law, okay? And so I could defend myself with my venue. Usually 15 minutes of God's word, they just wanted me out of that courtroom to take your Bible and take Jesus and just get out of here. Dismissed.

Yeah. And Zacharias said unto the angel, whereby shall I know this, for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answered and said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee and show you these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak unto the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believeth not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias, and he marveled that he tarried so long in the temple, and when he came out, he could not speak unto them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned unto them and remained speechless. And it came to pass that as soon as the days of his administration were accomplished, he departed to his own house, and after these days his wife Elizabeth conceived and hid herself for five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me, and the days wherein he looked on me to take away my reproach among men. What do you think you meant by that?

I'm not sure. Well, in those days, if a woman was barren, they considered it, you know, they had some beliefs that were not real in line with what the Lord Jesus taught. For example, they believed that if you were wealthy, it was because you were a good person and God loved you.

If you were a poor beggar, it was because God didn't love you. Well, that's exactly the opposite of what the Lord Jesus taught, huh? Yeah. And they believed, too, if a woman was barren, could not give her husband a son, then it was because God was not pleased with her, she was cursed. Yeah. Because God will often, it wasn't a woman, maybe it might have been the men who were fertile, huh?

Yeah. We're not fertile, we're infertile now. And so here, so the reproach, and if she couldn't give her husband a son, usually she would get more scorn, not so much by the men, but from the women, the other women. Maybe judge her. Yeah, they could be mean at times, boy.

And so, anyhow. Trust me, I had three older sisters growing up, I know women. I had three sisters, too. I actually had four, one younger, but she was like ten years after me, so we always called her the oops. Yeah. When we, we had one in the first house that we had, my dad built, and we had ten people and one bathroom.

Wow. And the funny thing was, the next house he built, he ended up with four big bathrooms, and they ended up with just him and my mother there, because everybody had gotten married and left. Moved out, yes. And then the two of them were sitting there at the kitchen table just looking at each other with a great big empty house. And here, so here, and so now here, here no longer is that going to be a reproach amongst men. She had to be beside herself. And in the sixth month, that's the sixth month of her pregnancy, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail thou art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women.

And when he saw him, she was troubled at his sayings and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. Now that was the hope, the blessed hope of every young Hebrew woman, that they would be the one who would give birth to the Messiah. And the angel said unto her, Fear not Mary, for thou has found favor with God. And behold, those are good words, I'd like to hear that.

Yes, absolutely. Boy that would be great if an angel would come and tell me that, I'd love to hear that. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth his son, and shall call his name Jesus. Okay now, all right, let me ask you this, how is this different to conceive in the womb from the way that women conceive today? Well this doesn't involve Joseph at all, I mean this is just God sort of planting Jesus into Mary.

Exactly, but usually they conceive in the tubes, and it goes from the tubes up to the womb, huh? Oh yes, yes. I thought you wouldn't know that.

I don't know everything about women, trust me. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth his son, and shall call his name Jesus. Do you know what that means, Jesus? Savior.

Yeah. Savior. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and 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 kingdom there shall be no end. Well Jesus was the legal son actually of his father David, as adopted by Joseph when he took Mary as his wife. But he was of course not the biological son. A legal son however, he did have the right, the legal right, as well as the spiritual prophetic right, you know, to the Davidic kingdom.

If you go, you know, Mckernan did a big study on that and showed how Jesus Christ and Christ alone could be the only heir to the throne of David. And so here now, can you imagine Mary, what's going through her mind at this time, an angel appears to her, tells her God is well pleased with her, and tells her basically she's going to bring in the Messiah. Can you imagine? That's got to be overwhelming. Did you ever have a situation where, there was a couple times where, especially I was in the military, that we worked around the clock for like maybe almost 72 hours with no sleep, and you come to the point where sometimes you couldn't tell if something was real or if you were dreaming. Or is your mind playing tricks on you.

Yeah. Can you imagine though with her, with this, I mean, nothing like this had ever happened before ever. She had to think, did this really just happen to me? I mean, did it really just happen? But said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be seen?

I know not a man. And the angels answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, now can you now imagine this, you're a young woman and you're told the Holy Ghost is going to come upon you. Whoa, it's got to be going through her mind now, right?

How is this going to work? And behold, my cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived his son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren, for with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaiden of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word, and the angel departed for her. Those were exactly the right thing to say, huh?

Yeah. You don't want to question it. And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste until a city of Judah and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth. And when it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost, and she spoke out with a loud voice, and she began to prophesize here at this point. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, and whence is this to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

So only, she could only learn that from God, huh? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she that believed, for there should be a performance of these things which were told from the Lord. And Mary said, My soul does magnify the Lord.

Okay, and so here now we're going to see the Magnificat. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for He has regarded the lowest state of the handmaiden. Now see, in here, in this, you'll find out why God chose Mary, if you just listen to her. And Hannah had something very similar when she wrote, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior, for He has regarded the lowest state of His handmaiden.

Let me back up, let me back up. And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. There are those that teach that Mary was born sinless, without natural sin, that she had never sinned. Mary said here, the Lord my Savior. Now only a sinner needs a Savior, right? Yeah, she wouldn't need a Savior.

If she had a human father and mother, she was born with natural sin, huh? Yes, absolutely. And so here, for He has regarded the lowest state of His handmaiden, for behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. Boy, she was right about that, huh?

Yeah. The most popular woman in the entire world, known more than Eve, okay, is Mary. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name. And his mercy is upon them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with his arm, he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them with low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away.

He hath opened his servants Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed forever. And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house. Now, here she was gone for three months, and here Mary, when she left, she had just conceived of the Holy Ghost. Now when she came back, she was three months along. You think maybe that surprised Joseph? Yeah, maybe starting to show a little, you know.

I think you show pretty good at three months. Yeah. Okay. And so, uh, yeah.

What's going on here? Yeah, I would imagine Joseph might say, Mary, what have you been doing? Okay, so here. And so, now Elizabeth's full time came that she should be delivered, and she brought forth her son. And her neighbors and her cousins heard how the Lord had showed great mercy upon her, and they rejoiced with her. And it came to pass that on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child, and they called him Zacharias, as of after the name of his father. Why do you think they did that?

Uh, I don't know. They were supposed to name him John, weren't they? Well, they did that because that was the custom you always named the firstborn son after his father. Okay. And so, here, uh, you know, when Elizabeth tells them, no, his name's going to be John, you know, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you talking about here? You know, this, see, a lot of them, they thought that a lot of their traditions were, you know, the laws of God.

Okay. And so, here, and his mother answered and said, uh, not so, but he should be called John. And they said unto her, there is none of thy kindred that is called by that name. And they made signs to the father how he would have been called him. In other words, they're thinking this woman doesn't, she doesn't know what she's talking about.

She's crazy. Right. Because, you see, it would have been considered a big dishonor, okay, and big disrespect to not name the firstborn male after his father. That's why you had all of these, you know, names Ben Hadad and Ben, that means, Ben means son of.

Okay. And so, here, and they made signs to the father how he would be called, and he asked for a writing table and wrote saying his name is John, and they marveled all. Now, the father had the authority to do that, but they couldn't understand why would he do that, okay. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spanked, and he praised God. And fear came upon all that dwelt around about them, and all these sayings were noised abroad throughout all the hill country of Judea. And they all heard then, laid them up in their hearts saying, what man, manner of child shall this be, and the hand of the Lord was on him.

Okay, so now. And this is the first time Zechariah has spoke since. Yeah, he was, yeah, since she conceived. And so, because he doubted Gabriel. He questioned the angel, yes.

Yeah. And so, I've got to wet my whistle here real quick. All right, the old voices wearing out. Now, these next, what I'm going to talk to you or read to you next is called the Benedictus.

It's called the Benedictus. And this is very interesting, because in these next verses that I give you, here Zechariah quotes the Old Testament sixteen times. So, and his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Ghost and he prophesied saying, blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he had visited and redeemed his people, and hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David. And as he spake by mouth then of his holy prophets, which have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember the Holy Covenant, and the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, that he would grant unto us that we would be delivered out of the hand of our enemies, that we might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our lives. And thou child shall be called the prophet of the highest, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation unto his people by the remission of their sins, though through the tender mercy of our God whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us. Do you know what the day spring on high is?

No. That's the Lord Jesus. Go read Isaiah 14. To give light to them, well this here is in Isaiah 9 to, he comes to give light to those that were in darkness.

To give light to them that set in darkness in the shadow of death to guide our feet into the way of peace. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and was in the deserts until his showing in Israel, Matthew 3. Well he grew up as a very exceptional child, John did. And then when he went out into the wilderness he was very, very popular. He drew huge, huge crowds would come out to the desert to hear him preach. And it came to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed. Well actually this was really not a tax, it was a census. They were taking a census of the people and then the tax would come after the census was completed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was the governor of Syria.

And all went to be taxed, everyone to his own city. And Joseph also went out from Galilee to the city of Nazareth and to Judea and to the city of David which is called Bethlehem because he was at the house of the lineage of David. In Bethlehem you had Rachel came from there. Bethlehem was small. Have you ever been over there in Israel?

No, I have not. Today it's a good sized city but back in those days it was very small. There really wasn't that many people living there at that time. And so he said to be taxed with Mary, his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was that while there the days were accomplished that she should be delivered. Do you know, that was 65 miles. Listen, he traveled and it had to be, you know, she had to be riding on the back of an ass. You know, being in her condition, being with child. And he had to be probably walking all that time.

65 miles. Yeah, she's not walking that. I couldn't walk that.

No, I probably could but I'd rather not. Yeah, well in days past, you know, we could have done that easy. Well, not one night but we could have got it eventually accomplished. And she brought forth her first born son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn. Now, there was a couple things there. Remember when the three wise men came and they brought the three magis and they brought the gifts? One of the gifts was myrrh. And what do you think myrrh was used for? That was, wasn't that an oil for, to be used for sacrifices? No, burial for burial.

Oh, for burial, okay. And so there was here, this was part of this, what was, and also the being wrapped in the swaddling clothes was, you see, chosen by God. The only person that was ever born with the exact purpose of dying according, chosen of God, was the Lord Jesus. Now the devil's people, you know, they have babies that are born and conceived and delivered just for the purpose of sacrificing. Okay, but those chosen of God, the Lord Jesus was the only one. And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

Shepherds were at the bottom of the pay scale. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them that they were not afraid. Okay, so here, who do you think this angel of the Lord is? Would this be Gabriel again?

No. No, the Holy Ghost? No, no, whenever you have THE angel of the Lord, it's Christophany.

Okay. Now it was the Lord Jesus himself. Okay, but let's say, okay, let's say you didn't know about the Christophany, what about them? How else would you know that this was God himself? By THE angel of the Lord instead of AN angel of the Lord.

Well, that's true. And here you have three things. You have THE angel of the Lord, you have AN angel of the Lord, and then you have the angel of God. Okay, now, here you go.

Here's why. When it says, the glory of the Lord shone around about them. That's Shekinah glory.

Shekinah glory is only present when the Lord, when God is present. And the angel said unto them, fear not. Now this is Christ, the Lord Jesus, remember, he is omnipresent. Okay, he's omniscient, which means all-knowing, omnipotent means all-powerful, and omnipresent. Remember what David said, no matter where you go, you know, if I go to the depths of hell, no matter where I go, God is there. Well, God says that he is everywhere, his presence is everywhere. In fact, the Lord Jesus, when he was crucified, he went to shoal to the depths of hell and walked right in, showing his dominance there over death.

His dominance, he defeated death itself. Okay, and so here now, and the angel said unto them, fear not, for behold, I bring you glad tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. So he is announcing his own birth over there in Bethlehem, and so again, like I said, he's omnipresent.

For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you, you shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. And that's a feeding trough. How often do you think women would put their newborn babies in feeding troughs in those days?

Probably not very often. So this would be a sign, huh? Yeah, this would be something that is unexpected that you normally wouldn't see on a day-to-day basis. Okay, so here now, tell me what you gleam out of these next two verses. And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace and good will towards men. So they were worshiping God. Yeah, it sounds like they were celebrating the fact that the Savior was born.

Right. You know, there's certain times, you know, if I could have my wish and be alive, you know, at certain events, this would have been one of them. I would have wanted to see the sky filled with angels.

That would be amazing. And it came to pass as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherd said one to another, let us now go even into Bethlehem and see this thing which has come to pass that which the Lord had made known unto us. And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen it, they made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning this child. And all that they had heard and wondered of these things which were told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept these things and pondered on them all in their heart. Now, let me ask you this. You know, today when something, an event happens, and all of a sudden today, like the media is all over, there's an eyewitness, somebody's there, the person's a witness, a witness to the whole thing, and the media's all over. The media's sticking mics in their faces, left and right. And that especially happened to me during the Lucasville riots, because three weeks ahead of the riots I predicted that they were going to burn Luke. You know, I was on the air saying, here's what's going to happen, Luke, and when it happened, I got to the radio station and all the trucks were there, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, they were all there, and I had to just bulldog my way into the studio.

They were sticking mics in my face. All I wanted to know, how did you know this? How did you know this?

How did you know this? Well, now these shepherds, remember, they had the bottom of the pay scale. Do you think they might have said, you know, I've got a story here, what's it worth to you? Do you think that might have happened? Maybe, but I would say probably not.

Oh, I don't think so. These guys were, these guys were, you know, they were destitute. And here now, this was, I think, a way God had been blessing them. I would imagine they would have said yes.

They all of a sudden would become very, very popular people, these shepherds. But they were pretty excited. I guess I would be excited too, huh?

Yeah, I would be excited. I don't know. I don't know. I would have thought that God would have gave them better judgment, you know, than to try selling the story, you know.

I don't know. And the shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen as it was told unto them. And, you know, the other thing too is you're one of these shepherds, you know, nothing like this had ever happened before. You're out there, you saw this. I mean, was this real?

Just think. And when the eight days were accomplished for the circumcising of the child, his name was called Jesus and he was so named of the angel. Therefore, he was conceived in the womb. And when the days of her purification, according to the law of Moses, were accomplished, they brought unto him and to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord. How many days do you think of purifications it took? When a male child was born, it was 40 days of purification. If a female child was born, it was 80 days of purification.

Okay. You know, the chief. And as it was written in the law of the Lord, every male that openeth the womb shall be called holy to the Lord, and to offer a sacrifice according to that which is said in the law of the Lord, a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons. And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon, and the same man was a just and devout, waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Ghost was upon him. And it was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord's Christ.

Now, just imagine. Here, Joseph and Mary show up with the baby Jesus at the same time Simeon shows up there. And so, again, God did this. And it came by the Spirit unto the temple. And when the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him after the custom of the law, then took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, Lord, now let us thou, thy servant, depart in peace according to thy word.

In other words, he wanted it was time for him to die. For mine eyes have seen the salvation which thou hast prepared before the face of all people, alight to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people of Israel. And Joseph and his mother marveled at these things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them and said unto Mary, his mother, Behold, this child is set for the fall and arising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken unto him. The fall was the crucifixion. The rising was his resurrection. Yea, sword shall pierce through thine own soul. In other words, Mary was going to witness the crucifixion of her son.

That the thoughts of my many hearts be revealed. And there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, the tribe of Assir. And she was of great age and had lived with a husband seven years from her virginity.

And now listen to this here. She had been a widow, listen, and she was a widow about four score and four years and departed not from the temple, but served God with fasting and prayers night and day. And she coming into that instant gave thanks likewise unto the Lord and spake of him to all them that looked upon for redemption in Jerusalem. Now listen, she had been a widow. She had been a widow for ninety-one years. So, you know, how old did you know? And she would say twenty when she got married. And she would have been well over a hundred years old, huh?

Yea, great age is right. And when they had performed all these things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee and to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit and filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him.

Well, I know we're coming up until the end. But you know, my dad before he died, I had witnessed and I had spent the night with him and it was right before Christmas Eve. And I read this story to him four times. He said read the story of Christ's birth. And I did. And he said read that to me again.

He just laid there. And he said again and again. Well, I read both Matthew, I believe. I believe I remember Matthew and Luke here.

But I read four times. He found so much peace in this story. Isn't that something? That's amazing.

That's awesome. Yea. Well, I know it's getting close to that time. How much time do I have?

About a minute and a half, a little less. Well, of course, here, you know, the Christ child came into this world. You know, that's how God works. God does things.

His ways are so much higher. Here you had the devil raging like a roaring lion seeking who to devour, bringing in death and destruction into this world. So who does he bring into the world, okay, to combat and defeat the greatest force of evil that ever existed?

He brings a baby in, right? Yea. Did we see the devil try over and over again to destroy the Christ child? Of course. We saw back in the days, you know, the whole idea of polluting the human, all of the human lines so that a Messiah, a Deliverer, could not come out of it. But that failed.

And then, later on, again, he tried several times, but we're out of time now, so I can't go into all of that. But, folks, now is the accepted time. Merry Christmas! I want to say to all of you, God bless and thank you and have a great Merry Christmas. And you too, Ken. Merry Christmas, Pastor.

God bless. I know it's always, always, keep fighting the fight. Thanks for listening to the Voice of the Christian Resistance, What's Right, What's Left, hosted by Pastor Ernie Sanders. To learn more about our ministry, please visit us online at www.wrwl.org. Please tune in next time for another edition of What's Right, What's Left. The preceding program is sponsored by What's Right, What's Left Ministries and is responsible for its content.