I Believe In Christmas

Welcome to Worshiping the Word with Pastor Robert Morris, and Merry Christmas!

We pray you experience God's peace, joy, and many blessings this Christmas season. Today's message is titled I Believe in Christmas, and in it Pastor Robert discusses essential truths about Christmas. It is a really eye-opening message, so let's tune in with Pastor Robert now. Alright, I want you to turn in your Bibles to two passages. I want you to open to Matthew chapter 1, and then put a marker at Isaiah 7. So, open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 1, and then put a marker at Isaiah chapter 7, and then you'll be able to flip over there quickly.

Matthew 1 and Isaiah 7. The title of the message today is I Believe in Christmas. I Believe in Christmas, and the reason I decided to put it in the first person, I, is because I want each of you, as you take notes and as you remember this message, I want you to make the same declaration, and each of the points will begin with I. I Believe in Christmas. Now, one of the reasons I'm saying this is there is a concerted effort today to take Christ out of Christmas, and I just want to boldly declare it is not season's greetings, it is not happy holidays, it is Merry Christmas. It is Merry Christmas. It is the celebration of Christ's birth. The word Christmas comes from two words, obviously Christ, the Greek word, and then mass is a Latin word, which means celebration or festival. It is the celebration of Christ.

And so I want us to go through the story and talk about two truths about Christmas that we need firmly established in our lives. So Matthew chapter 1, look at verse 18. Matthew 1 verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. After his mother Mary was betrothed, or engaged, would be another word for that, our word today, to Joseph, before they came together, in other words, before they were married, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit.

I underline those words so we can come back to those and talk about them. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly, or in other words, break up with her secretly and not make a public deal out of this. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife, for that which is, and I underline them again, these words, conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins, which is what Yeshua in the Hebrew means, God is salvation.

So all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord to the prophet, saying, behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which is translated God, with us. Now when he says, this is according to what the prophet said, based on that Isaiah. So if you flip back to Isaiah chapter seven, I want to read this prophecy.

Isaiah chapter seven, beginning in verse ten. Moreover, the word of the Lord spoke again to Ahaz. Ahaz is the king of Judah, saying, ask a sign for yourself from the Lord your God.

Ask it either in the depth or in the height above. But Ahaz said, I will not ask, nor will I test the Lord. Then he, this is Isaiah, now speaking for the Lord prophetically, said, hear now, O house of David. He emphasizes that this is a prophetic word to the house of David.

Is it a small thing for you to weary men? But will you weary my God also? Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. Now that's the prophecy that's quoted in Matthew chapter one about Jesus.

Now let me give you a little background on this. Ahaz is the king of Judah. And at this time, he is not a godly king, he's not a godly man, he never was. And at this time, Syria is besieging or attacking Judah, coming against Judah. Has even got Israel involved in this to come against the tribe of Judah. And so Ahaz is afraid about this and Isaiah comes to him with a prophecy, if you back up just a little bit, and he's telling him, God's gonna take care of you.

God is going to protect his people. And then he says this, ask a sign. Ask the Lord a sign. And this is what God says. Ask me a sign. I will give you a sign. And Ahaz says, I'm not going to ask a sign, Lord.

I will not test. And the old King James uses the word tempt. I'm not gonna tempt God. And it sounds like a very spiritual answer.

But it's not spiritual at all. Because you have to remember, he was not a godly man. As a matter of fact, at the very time this happened, while Syria is besieging or coming against them, setting their battle forces in array against him, Ahaz has made an under the table, behind the scenes deal with the king of Assyria. Two different nations. Syria coming against them, Assyria. He makes this deal with them behind the scenes. And in essence, the deal is, he's going to sell the people of Israel as slaves to the king of Assyria so that he might save his own life. He doesn't want to trust God. He doesn't want to do it God's way. He wants to manipulate and do it his own way.

Now, hear this. He says, I'm not going to test God. Okay, it wasn't that he didn't want to test God. It was that he didn't want to trust God.

He wanted to trust the way he could work it out, the way he could put things together in his own ability. And God says, you know what, I'll give you a sign. And then he gives a messianic prophecy.

The word messianic means a scripture in the Old Testament that refers to the Messiah, which we know is Jesus Christ. But here's what God says. He said, I'm going to give you a sign.

A virgin will conceive and bear a son. And you'll call him Emmanuel, which means God with us. Now, how would that be a sign to Ahaz because this was 740 years before the birth of Christ. How would that be a sign?

Here's the sign. You got to remember, he's the king of Judah of the house of David. This is the lineage of Jesus. It's the lineage of the Messiah. Here's what he's saying.

Don't you remember? The Messiah is coming through the house of David, through the tribe of Judah. The sign Ahaz is that the Messiah has not come yet, therefore there's no way that anything could happen to you.

Because the Messiah hasn't come yet. God has a plan and a purpose for the people of God. That's the sign. There's no way the enemy can prevail against you because you're God's people and God has a purpose for your life.

Listen to me carefully. That's the same sign that we have today. It's the same sign because we're the people of God and God has a purpose and a plan for our lives so when the enemy comes in and says, I'm going to get you, you can remember, no, you can't get me because I'm a child of God. And God has a purpose and a plan for my life. And this prophecy, Immanuel, God with us, there are two truths in this prophecy that we must have firmly established in us as believers, as followers of Christ. And so I want to tell you those two truths, right?

Here's number one. Number one, I believe in the virgin birth. I believe in the virgin birth. Now there are many who don't think it's that important to believe in the virgin birth. It is extremely important to believe in the virgin birth and let me tell you why. Because since Jesus was born of a virgin, it means that he was fully God when he was on this earth.

Let me just remind you of those scriptures. Verse 18, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Verse 20, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

Do you realize why there is an attack against believing in the virgin birth? Because if he wasn't born of a virgin, if he was conceived by a man, then he wasn't God. The only way he could be God was to be conceived by the Holy Spirit. And he was God on this earth. Immanuel means God with us.

Not a representative of God, God himself with us. You see, the Bible says the iniquities of the fathers are passed to the children. And by the way, it doesn't say the iniquities of the mothers.

Now I know some of you ladies are thinking, yep, I can see it in them. I knew they got all that from him. Okay, so, but it says the iniquities of the fathers are passed to the children. God used the egg of a woman, but the seed came from God. He wasn't conceived by the seed of a man. Therefore, he did not have a sin nature.

It is important for us to believe in the virgin birth because it helps us to understand that Jesus was God. He was and is God, fully God on this earth. Jesus is God. Jesus was not a messenger from God. He was God with a message. He was God himself with a message.

I remember hearing a message when I was a teenager, actually, and Debbie and I were dating at the time. And this guy talked about the greatest gift. And after the message, when he walked out, Debbie said, I wish I had remembered, I had written that down because that was really good. And I said, well, I can tell you what he said.

It made such an impression on me. He used John 3.16, and I'll just, I'll give it to you. He said, for God, the greatest lover, so loved the greatest degree, the world, the greatest company, that he gave the greatest act, his only begotten son, the greatest gift, that whosoever, the greatest opportunity, believe it, the greatest simplicity, in him, the greatest attraction, should not perish, the greatest promise, but the greatest difference, have the greatest certainty, everlasting life, the greatest possession. That's good, isn't it?

God gave the greatest gift. I can actually remember when I told Debbie that, I just, I rattled it off to her. I just heard it one time. And I'll never forget, she, you know, I was not a believer at the time. I was attending church, but I wasn't really a Christian. And I remember she said, that's amazing how you can remember that. You ought to be a preacher. So, apparently she was right. Here's the thing that we need to understand about God with us.

God didn't send someone to redeem us. He came himself. You know, I was talking to a friend of mine a while back, that's a judge. And he told me this story. He said that one of his friends came to him and had gotten a ticket. And he said to him, hey, I got this ticket.

Can you take care of it for me? And so he said, yeah, I'll take care of it. And a few weeks later, he saw his friend and his friend said, hey, thanks for dismissing that ticket for me.

And my friend, the judge said, I didn't dismiss it. And he said, well, I thought you said you'd take care of it for me. He said, I did take care of it. And he said, well, if you didn't dismiss it, how did you take care of it? And he said, I paid it. And the guy said, oh, I didn't want you to pay for the ticket. I meant, you know, would you do your judge thing, you know? And my friend, the judge said to him, were you guilty? Were you guilty?

And he said, well, yes, I was. And my friend said, then justice demanded that the penalty be paid. And he said, if I'm a righteous judge, I can't dismiss it. The penalty has to be paid. And many people believe that God, the righteous judge, just dismissed the charges against us. But he didn't.

Because he's a righteous judge, he paid the penalty himself. It's very important to believe in the virgin birth because it helps us to understand that God, God is with us, that God paid the price for our sins, that Jesus was fully God on this earth. And here's the second truth from this prophecy. I believe that Jesus came in the flesh. I believe that Jesus came in the flesh.

These are two truths that I want you to always hold in your heart. I believe Jesus came in the flesh. In the same way that there is a war raging against the virgin birth, there's a war raging against did he come in the flesh. And the virgin birth, again, declares that he's God.

Do you realize it's the same argument that they were having 2,000 years ago? Jesus said, who do men say that I am? And they said, well, some say one of the prophets.

Some say a good man. Do you realize that's what people today say about Jesus? They'll say, well, I believe Jesus was a good man. Or they'll say, I believe he was a prophet.

But the answer today is the same as it was 2,000 years ago. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. That's why it's important for us to believe he's in the virgin birth. But it's important for us to believe he came in the flesh.

Let me read you a few scriptures. John 1, 1 says, in the beginning was the word. Now, the word refers to Jesus Christ here. We know that from many other passages.

Now, watch this carefully. And the word was with God, and the word was God. So that's the first truth we're talking about. He was God on this earth. But watch verse 14, John 1, 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us. The word became flesh.

It's important to understand that Jesus became a man, a human. 1 John chapter 4, verses 2 and 3, by this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now already in the world. 2 John, verse 7, for many deceivers have gone out in the world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.

This is a deceiver and an antichrist. Why is it important to understand that Jesus came in the flesh? It's important to believe these two truths, that he was fully God and that he was fully man, that God became a man.

Let me tell you why it's important. Because if he did not become a man, then he didn't die. And if he didn't die, then our sins are not atoned for. He had to die to pay for our sins. He had to become flesh.

Let me read it to you this way. In Hebrews 2, I'm going to read out the New Living Translation because it's easier to understand. Hebrews 2.14 says, Because God's children are human beings made of flesh and blood, Jesus also became flesh and blood by being born in human form. For only as a human, only as a human being could he die. And only by dying could he break the power of the devil who had the power of death.

You need to know that Jesus broke the power of death. Every one of us, unless the Lord comes back before, are going to face death. But the great news is our Lord has already faced death and overcome it.

It is true. My Lord, my Lord suffered. My Lord bled and died. My Lord died on the cross for me.

But here's the other truth. And my Lord rose again on the third day. He rose from the grave. Every one of us are going to go through death's doorway unless he comes back before then. You know, I heard about a guy a while back that sent out an email and it said, My wife is at death's doorway and the doctor is doing his best to pull her through. You can ask someone about that later.

I just don't think that was the best wording. You know, one of the great truths about this is that Jesus became a man. He became a human being. Now I want you to think about this. Every one of us have had a loved one to die. We've all lost someone close to us.

It's tough. It's very, very tough to watch someone that we love suffer and die. But what you need to remember is, and I was talking to someone a while back who had a loved one who was dying, and I told him this. I said, You know, God knows how you feel.

Many people just forget about this. Because Jesus became a man and was subject to death, God watched his child die. He watched his own son die. And I told this to this guy and I said, God knows how you feel. And he said to me, and he didn't mean it wrong, he just said, But God knew that he would rise again. And I said to him, So do you.

So do you. But it's still tough. But even though it's tough, because Jesus rose from the grave, we have the victory. We know that.

These truths are so important. We believe in the virgin birth because it tells us that God was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit, which means he was fully God.

And the world wants to attack that truth, the virgin birth. Because if they can bring that down, then he wasn't really God. But he was God. And then we need to understand that he came in the flesh, that he became a man. And as a man, he suffered. And as a man, he died. There's a very famous, another famous messianic scripture in Isaiah. Isaiah has the most messianic prophecies of any book in the Bible. And this is one that you'll see on Christmas cards.

It's a great one. But I want you to think about what I'm saying. Jesus was fully man and fully God. This verse says it, and maybe you've never put it together this way.

Watch the fully man and the fully God. Isaiah 9 verse 6 says, for unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given.

Did you see it? Unto us a human, a human being, a child, a baby is born fully man. But also unto us a son is given, the son of God. He was born as a man. He was given as the son of God.

I want you to think about something that kind of wraps up to me Christmas all the way back in the beginning. Let's just say that Adam had not been with Eve when she sinned. And we know that Adam was there, that he didn't protect his wife, that he also sinned. But what if, what if Adam had not sinned? What if Adam had been across the garden when Eve ate the fruit?

Then a conversation similar to this would have happened. God would have gone to Adam and said, I'm so sorry to tell you this son, but the bride that I made you has sinned. And because she has sinned, she is going to die.

Now I know that didn't happen, but can I tell you what did happen? God the father had to go to his son and say, son, I am so sorry to tell you this, but the bride that I made for you has sinned and she is going to die. And our Lord and our Savior said, I'll die for her.

I'll die so that my bride can live. That's the story of Christmas. We want you to take a moment to think about what Pastor Robert shared today and really listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. If you want to connect with us or check out some of Pastor Robert's other messages, visit pastorrobert.com. And if you haven't already, go follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so we can be a part of your community. Thank you again for listening in with us today. We hope that you have a blessed Christmas season and a happy New Year.