Open your Bibles, if you would,
first to Isaiah 7.14, and then put your finger in Matthew chapter
1, and then put your finger in Luke chapter 2. So first of all,
Isaiah 7.14, Matthew chapter 1. and Luke chapter 2. Luke told
me I couldn't move today. Well, it wasn't him telling me
that, but my battery died. So I've got to stick to my notes
instead of wandering around now. So it's going to take me a little
getting used to this. The name of the message is the
birth of Christ. So let's again turn to Isaiah
7.14, Matthew chapter 1, and Luke chapter 2. So the first verse we're going
to read is Isaiah 7, 14, which says, therefore the Lord himself
shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Now, we've
looked at in the past that Immanuel means God with us. And three
weeks ago, we looked at 10 prophecies of the Messiah. And that's what
this is. This is a prophecy of the Messiah,
that he would be born of a virgin, and they should call his name
Immanuel, which means God with us. Now turn, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 1, and we'll read verses 18 to 25. Matthew chapter 1, verses 18
to 25. The name of the message, again, is
the birth of Christ. Birth of Jesus Christ. Verse 18, now the
birth of Jesus Christ was on the wise when as his mother Mary
was espoused to Joseph before they came together. So before
they had intimate relations, right? She was found with child
of the Holy Ghost. Well, this is a fulfillment of
what we just read in Isaiah, right? Where it said, behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Well, how did she conceive? By the Holy Ghost. Now, look
at Joseph, her husband, being a just man, and not willing to
make her a public example. He didn't want people to say,
look at Mary. He was minded to put her away privately. He was
going to put her away privately so that people wouldn't say,
well, they had a child before they were even married. Well, he thought of these things,
so he was pondering these things like any man would, right? You
find out your wife, who you haven't had relationships with, is pregnant. What man wouldn't think, well,
there are... Right? It's natural. 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." So he has no human father. Because the seed comes from the
father, right? My dad and your dad, the seed
came from him and joined with the egg. So we can trace our
lineage by a human father. Christ didn't have a human father.
He was conceived of the Holy Spirit. That's why he's called
the seed of the woman. Behold, a virgin shall conceive.
This is a miraculous birth. And she shall bring forth a son.
And look at this. And thou shalt call his name Jesus. Look at
this marvelous portion here. For he shall save his people
from their sins. It's not he might, or he's going
to try. That's called a hinge word. You've
heard me say, I like these hinge words, these little words. Big
doors swing on little hinges, don't they? Little hinge, a huge
door will swing on that. This is a hinge word right here,
that word shall. That's a hinge word. That's beautiful.
It's not maybe. He shall save his people from
their sins. Well, no wonder we can say hallelujah
to that, can't we? That's wonderful. That's good
news for sinners. Now all this was done that might
be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
which we just read, behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall
bring forth a son. And they shall call his name
Immanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. So Christ is
God in the flesh. He's God with us. Then Joseph,
being raised from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord had
bidden him, and took unto him his wife." So he married her. Look at this. They didn't have
relationships until after the child was born. And knew her
not till she had brought forth her firstborn son, and he called
his name Jesus, just as the angel said. My, oh, my. Now look at Luke
chapter 2. And here we get a little history
lesson at the very beginning here. Caesar Augustus said that
all the world shall be taxed. Now, you ever hear people say,
well, John 3.16 says Christ died for all the world. And people
grab a hold of that, and they won't let go. Well, do you know
Rome considered their empire the world? Everybody else was just barbarians.
And I'm listening to several books on Roman legions right
now, and fictional books. But they bring forth the fact
that they just looked at the Gauls and the Celts, who we are
all probably descendants of, as just barbarians. Anybody outside
the Empire of Rome were just barbarians. in the Romans' eyes. So it says here, and it came
to pass in those days that there went out a decree from Caesar
Augustus that the world should be taxed. The known world of
Rome, the provinces, anything they had control of should be
taxed. And this taxing was first made when Cyrenus was the governor
of Syria. Now, look at how God is, by his
sovereign grace, going to move Mary to Bethlehem, where she'll
be born, where Christ will be born, just as the prophets prophesied. Oh, my. Oh, he just mirrors things
around a little bit. This guy's thinking, I'm going
to tax the whole world, the whole Roman world. Well, it's all by
God's decree. The heart of the king is what?
In the Lord's hands. And he turns it like water, right? He turns it like, leaders of
this world just pop. It's in our God's hands. He turns
them to whatever he pleases to turn them to. He's in control.
He's God. The real God of the Bible is
in full control. And all went to be taxed, everyone into his
own city. And Joseph also went up from
Galilee. They were in Galilee. Out of the city of Nazareth,
they were in Nazareth, unto Judea, unto the city of David, which
is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage
of David. So they went back to the place
where their house and lineage was. Wow. People say, well, what? Boy, just chance. They had a
big old thing there where they taxed, and just chance. No, it's
all ordained by God. There's no chance. There's no
luck. This is ordained by God that
this should happen. He moved on that leader to tax
the Roman world so that his son, the Word of God, would be born
in Bethlehem, just as was prophesied in the Old Testament. Now look at this. Mary is a spouse
wife, but she's great with child. She's ready to give birth. Now
she's got to take a donkey from there, from Galilee, all the
way to Bethlehem. Yep. And God's going to make
sure she doesn't have that child. Because when the fullness of
time was come, right? Do you know that you and I were born
into this world at God's appointed time? And do you know that we're
going to die and leave this world at God's appointed time? And not a second before, not
a second. Your birth was not by chance. It was ordained by God. And that's
true of every human being, saved or lost. And again, our time
to leave this world is appointed by God. And we will not live
a second longer. than what God's appointed. So she was great with child. And so it was that while they
were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.
The fullness of time had come, right? That's why I had Brother
Brian read that portion in Galatians. The fullness of time was come.
God sent forth his son in the fullness of time. And he was
born. Christ was born the exact second
that he was supposed to be born. It was all planned and purposed
by God. My, it's incredible. And she bought forth her firstborn
son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn. Turn, if you
would, to 1 Timothy, chapter 3. You know, as I was preparing
this message, I was pondering On the day when Christ was born,
there was no doubt many other children born, right? All kinds
of other children born on that day. When you consider the whole
world, there was all kinds of other kids born on that day. All kinds more kids. But there
was no child born like this child. There was no child born like
this child. Every other child had a father,
a human father. But Christ is the seed of the
woman. Oh, my. And think of this. This child who is born, whose
name is Jesus, I want us to ponder this. He's none other than the
ancient of days. He's none other than God, who
dwells in everlasting. That's who saved my soul. God saved me. And God will save anyone who
comes to Him by faith. But I can stand here and tell
you, God saved me. I was lost. I had no care, as
I said earlier in Sun School. I just was living my life the
way I wanted to live my life, and God interrupted my life.
Praise God He did. Praise God. And He saved my soul. And you know why I was born again
of the Holy Spirit? And I didn't even know this. Christ redeemed
me 2,000 years ago on Calvary's Cross. He bought and paid for my soul.
He obtained eternal redemption for us. But as a believer, I
can say, for me. I didn't know. I didn't know
He did that. I didn't know as I was cursing
his name that he was going to save me by his grace. And he
saved one who just spat out his name like it was nothing. And
now the tongue that once cursed him has turned to praise him?
That's God's amazing grace, I'll tell you that. That's amazing grace. And God himself, Emmanuel, saved
my soul. Oh my, look at what it says here
in 1 Timothy chapter 3, look at this. And without controversy,
great is the mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3.16, God was manifest
in the flesh. Justified in the spirit. Seen
of angels. preached unto the Gentiles. When
Paul went on his missionary journey, he preached Christ. When the
apostles had the opportunity to proclaim the gospel, they
preached Christ. They didn't mess around with
100 ways to be a better Christian or the best life for you now.
They didn't mess around with that stuff. They just preached
Christ, the only Savior of sinners. That's good news. Don't tell
me what I have to do. Tell me what Christ has done
for you. Oh, my. And then look at it. It says,
believed on in the world. And he's still, the Holy Spirit's
still gathering in his sheep, isn't he? The lost sheep. He's
still gathering them in. He hasn't stopped. Believed on
in the world. We're believers. But at that
time, well, we looked at the Galatian church. Believed on
in the world and received up into glory. He died. He was born. He went to the cross. He died. And three days later,
by the power of God, the same power that regenerates a lost
sinner, the same power that regenerated you and I as believers, is the
same power that raised Christ from the grave. Imagine that.
That's incredible. It's the power of the Holy Spirit
of God. And back in Matthew 121. It says, and she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people. There's no doubt. There's no
doubt. That's cause for rejoicing. There's
no doubt. And he did. The scripture says
he obtained eternal redemption for us. That's the marvel of
sovereign grace. You know, I went into religion
before the Lord Saved my soul. But that, again, was in my 30s.
I went into religion. I went from the frying pan to
the fire. My goodness. And then the Lord, by his grace,
saved my soul. I was trying to work my way to heaven, trying
to do this and that, trying to, oh, I've got to read my Bible.
I don't like reading, though. And
I was set free by Brother Henry Mahan when he said, even if you
read a few verses with understanding each day, it's better than reading
five to 10 chapters with no understanding at all. And prayer is not a duty. We
get to pray. Isn't that wonderful? In religion, I remember Vicki,
and you guys are going to laugh at this. I think I've mentioned
it before. I'd say to Vicki, well, I'm going to pray now. And I'd
wander down the hall and shut the door and get on my knees
and, oh, just dripping with self-righteousness, just dripping with self-righteousness. Now I get to pray whenever I
want, wherever I am, whether there's people around or there's
not people around. You ever find yourself in a mall,
you just start praying for people. Lord, I don't want to send your
people in here, but if there is, please send them the gospel. Send them the gospel, Lord, if
it be your will. But look at these marvelous words. He shall
save his people from what? Their sins. We're sinners. The
scripture declares us sinners. Whether one believes you're not,
if someone says, well, I'm not a sinner, well, you're just deceived
because we're all sinners. I had somebody one time tell
me, I was witnessing to them, and they're like, well, there's
no evil in this world. And I said, you're crazy. I just
flat out told them that. Well, it was one of Vicky's aunt's
boyfriends. Well, that didn't go over well
in the family. But I'm not going to lie to the guy. He's lying
to me. I'm not going to say, well, yeah,
you're right. No, I'm not going to do that. And I wasn't a preacher
then. I was just a born-again, blood-washed
believer. And I said, you're crazy. There's evil everywhere. It's
evident. And it's more in me than it is
in you. Right? You'd say that too, right?
You ever hear people in religion say, well, the devil made me
do it? No, your flesh made you do it. Just stop. Just stop. Gosh. It's in us. Sin is in us. From the top of
our heads to the bottom of our feet, whether we believe it or
not, we're all a bunch of sinners. And we need to be saved. We all
have that desperate need. And that's to be saved from our
sins. So let us consider who this is coming into the world.
It's God himself. In the book of Micah, it says,
But thou, Bethlehem Ephraiah, though thou be little among the
thousands of Judea, yet out of thee shall come forth unto me
that is to be ruler in Israel, whose going forth shall be from
old, from everlasting. So there's another prophecy about
the Messiah. He's from everlasting. Here, being held in Mary's hands,
is the Ancient of Days. Have you ever heard of a king
giving his life for his peasants? Never, right? No earthly king. I've never read in history where
a king gives his life for peasants. Well, we're peasants, beloved.
And the King of kings, the King of glory, gave his life for his
people. My, oh, my. My, oh, my. By the time you were in the military,
you don't very often see generals on the front line. They're usually
in the back, in the CO, or the headquarters. And they've got
everybody else doing their work. And those books I'm reading,
there's a Roman. This guy is in charge of the
whole legion. He's in the front lines with his men. And they
respect him so much, because usually the leaders would just
sit back and watch on horseback while the men get out there,
and they're doing the main work. Christ himself gave his life
for me. And if you're a believer, for
you. The king, the king of kings did that. Not just any ordinary
man. So as I said, there was many
births during that day, but this birth was extraordinary. God
himself became a man to save his people from their sins. And
he came from Nazareth. Nazareth was a despised village.
And at the age of 30, he entered into public ministry. He's on
a divine mission. He's on a divine mission. And
He completed it, and He's crowned with glorious success with His
death on Calvary's cross, and He was raised for our justification.
He was raised to show us that God is absolutely satisfied with
the sacrifice of Christ in our place. Okay, we can't save ourselves,
can we? We're sinners. From the top of our head to the
bottom of our feet, the scripture says, there's none righteous, no, not
one. There's none that understandeth the things of God. There's none
good. So we're lost sinners in desperate
need of Christ. Paul was out slaughtering Christians,
killing them. And the Lord met him on the Damascus
road, knocked him right off his horse, didn't he? And he said,
Saul, Saul. were the body. Paul was the chosen
vessel of God. And look what he was doing before
the Lord saved him. Murdering Christians. My. Some people say, well, you
don't know my sins. Well, I know God saved me, and
that's amazing. And God saved Paul, who was a
murderer. And God saved David, who was an adulterer. My, oh,
my. That's incredible. You know what
keeps us away from Christ? Our pride. Our pride. There's a parable,
and God sends these people, or somebody sends these messengers,
and they keep killing them. Or they keep turning them away.
And finally, he sends his own son, and they murder his son.
Well, the king sent messengers, didn't he? The prophets. Then
he sent his son. What happened? We murdered him. But it was all by God's divine
decree. Think of that, too. Why did Christ
go to the cross? For my sin. Because of my sin. And if you're a believer, because
of your sin. He was nailed to that cross, right? He gave himself
for what? Our sins. And he did it willingly. See, I love what the scripture says
when it says it's the goodness of God that brings man to repentance.
Brother Jim and I were talking about that a couple weeks ago.
You can preach all the messages on hell, fire, damnation, and
scare folks to half to death. And hell is real. And I think
it should be mentioned. But it's the goodness of God
that leads man to repentance. It's the fact that he gave himself
for me, for you, Brother Tom. That's the goodness of God. He did that for me? Not just
me, but a number that no man can number. That's amazing. That's
absolutely amazing. That's why we say, flee to Christ.
He's the only hope for sinners. There's no other hope outside
of Christ. None. I don't care what people call
it. or who the person is that they say you should follow, there
is none other name given among men that man and woman should
be saved except through Christ Jesus and him alone. Only through him. So here Christ
grew to manhood. You know, he never traveled beyond
the border of the small country where he was born. He never traveled
beyond Israel. And yet there's been more books
written about Him. And Scripture says that if you
could write all the things that He did, the whole world couldn't
contain all the books. Because He's the Ancient of Days.
He's Emmanuel. He's God with us. See, my Savior
is not a man. He's the God-man. The Redeemer I preach to you
is the only Savior of sinners is the God-man. And again, he can save to the
outermost all who come to him. Someone says, well, my sin's
too great. He can save to the outermost. Well, you don't know
what happens. You don't know what happens.
Some people say to the guttermost. He pulls us out of the gutter. He really does. Not thinking of anything. Scripture
says we drink sin like water. Oh. You reach down. You're mine. You're mine. I made you, and
I purchased you, and now you're going to be with me forever.
All because it pleases me to do My, what a savior. Is it any wonder we praise his
name? And think of this, he never invented
anything, and yet all the inventions date their patents from the time
of their birth. AD, BC. He never owned anything, and
yet every man is eternally poor without Him. He was poor, and yet He made
many rich. We're rich in Christ, beloved.
We might not have much in this world, but we're rich in Christ. We have all spiritual blessings
in Christ. Isn't that wonderful? We're richer than Bill Gates.
I tell people that all the time. They look at me like, what are
you talking about? I have all spiritual blessings in Christ.
I'm a saved man. I'm redeemed, justified. One
day I'll be glorified. I have all spiritual blessings
in Christ. I'm sanctified in Christ. I'm
redeemed in Christ. I'm justified in Christ. We're
rich, beloved. But we were made rich by his
poverty. He left the glory of heaven to
come to this world. He humbled himself. You see,
it's the opposite of those health, wealth, prosperity preachers
on TV. They say, if you're not wealthy,
or if you're not doing this, God's not blessing you. I'm not blessed by material things. I'm blessed by spiritual blessings
in Christ Jesus my Lord. And I have more in Christ than
I've ever had in my life or ever will have in my life. And God
has saved my eternal soul. For what shall it profit a man
if he shall gain the world and lose his own soul? Or what shall
a man give in exchange for his soul? There is nothing we can
give in exchange for our soul. That's why salvation by Christ
is so amazing. That's why, and remember, he
was born to die. The birth of Christ was foretold
by prophets. And he comes into the scroll
at the exact time that God has ordained to save his people from
their sins. And he accomplished it. He cried,
it is finished. Like I said earlier in Sunday
school, it's done. That means perfect in the Greek.
There's nothing to be added to it. The work is perfect. That's why God said, this is
my beloved Son. I mentioned that in Sunday School.
This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. He's pleased
with Christ. Therefore, he's pleased with
all who are in Christ. And how do we get in Christ? Born again by the Holy Spirit
of God. Given faith to believe on Christ. And that God-given
faith, we exercise it. It's our faith, right? We exercise
it, as I said last week. We exercise it. We trust Christ. There was a time when we never
trusted Christ. Didn't want to have nothing to do with him. Now he's
everything. He's my all in all. His birth was unique
in its nature. Unique in its nature. Turn, if you would, to Luke chapter
1. Do you know that God had prepared a body for Christ? In a book
of Hebrews, it says, wherefore, when he cometh into the world,
he saith, sacrifice and offering, thou wouldst not, but a body
hast thou prepared me. So God prepared a body. He's
conceived of the Holy Spirit of God. God prepared a body for
Christ. Remember who he is. He's the
Word of God, the second person of the Trinity, and he's going
to become a man. And then he's going to go to heaven as someone
he wasn't before. He's the God-man. Right now,
he's in heaven, and he's the God-man. He's a reader, beloved. When I was Catholic, you used
to have to go to the priest, right? It always felt weird telling someone
else my sins, another human being. I'll be honest, it's always felt
weird. But you go in there and you just tell them. Of course
you wouldn't get into the real juicy things, right? I lied,
and I swore at my mom. And she didn't hear me, which
was good. But all these things. So you
just tell her. And then they tell you, well, go and say 10
Hail Marys or whatever. Just garbage. Just absolute garbage. And five Our Fathers. And then a man approached me
a long time ago. And he said, Wayne, why do you
go to a priest and confess your sins? And I said, well, I don't
know, because that's what I'm supposed to do according to the
religion. And I wasn't even a practicing
Catholic. I was not at all. I probably wouldn't be in church
in 10 years. But still, you hold on to that, right? Because that's
what it is. Catholicism is like a badge,
or like being part of a country or something. And he said, there's
one mediator, the scripture says. He says, have you ever read in
the scripture where it says there's one mediator between God and man,
the man Christ Jesus? And here I was, a Catholic. I
never read my Bible. I never read my Bible. Didn't
have a clue. So when he asked me, I said,
I don't know what's in there. He said, well, you ever read
your Bible? I said, no. And I was honest
with him. I said, no, I really haven't. He says, well, then
how can you know about Christ without reading your Bible? Well,
good question, right? Good question. So I went home
and started reading. There's one mediator between
God and man. There's only one. One mediator. That means that
nobody else is a mediator between God and man. There's nobody else.
So people say, well, you need to follow this religion, or you
need to follow that religion. They're empty religions. There's
only one mediator. God will only accept one mediator
between God and man. And that's the man Christ Jesus.
That's Emmanuel. And remember, too. He became
a man, and now he's in glory as the God-man. He's the mediator
between God and man. He who is our mediator is bone
of our bone and flesh of our flesh. It's absolutely amazing. Look here in Luke chapter 2,
verses 8 to 14. It says, And they were in the
same country, shepherds, abiding in the field, keeping watch over
their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord
came upon them. And the glory of the Lord shone round about
them, and they were sore afraid. And the angel said, Fear not.
Now, you've heard me say this before. Those are two wonderful
words, aren't they? Fear not. Don't be afraid. And
God says to us in Christ, fear not. Don't fear my wrath. It's
already been appeased. Don't fear my justice. Christ
satisfied it in your place. Don't fear my law. It's been
fulfilled by my son. Fear not. Fear not, believer. And he says, this angel says
to these, because you can imagine, OK? I said this a couple weeks
ago. Could you imagine this? You're in pitch dark. This is
pitch dark. And I'll tell you, when you get out in them fields,
they didn't have lights like we have, right? So you get, it
is pitch black. And then when you can see the
star canopy, just take your breath away, right? So probably there's
like star canopy, unless it was a cloudy night. just looking
up, just dark, dark all around them. They're watching over their
sheep, got their stash ready to bash a wolf if it comes along.
And all of a sudden, an angel appears. They'd be like dead
men, wouldn't they? Would we be scared? Oh, yeah,
we would be, wouldn't we? We'd be trembling. So here's
the words. Fear not. Don't be afraid. For behold, I bring you good
tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. Now, God's
people. are a people out of every kindred,
tribe, tongue, and nation. There is neither Jew nor Gentile,
as Brother Brian read. That's why I had to read that
Galatians 2. There's no national affinities.
You all are US. I'm Canadian. The body of Christ
comprises a people of all different nations, out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. So this is good news to the people
of Christ, isn't it? It's good news. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David, look at this, a Savior. You know, you and I need a Savior,
whether we think we do or think we don't. We all need a Savior,
because we're sinners. And look, here's the good tidings
here. Great joy. Good tidings of great joy, which
shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is, what's his name? Christ
the Lord. Only one Savior of sinners. Only
one. Someone says, well, there's multiple
ways to God. No, there's not. There's only one way to God,
and that's Jesus Christ, our Lord. Only one way to heaven,
and that's through Jesus Christ our Lord. Everything else is
just noise. And this shall be a sign unto
you. You shall find the babe wrapped in swelling clothes, lying in
a manger. And suddenly there was with the angels a multitude
of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God
in the highest. And on earth, peace, goodwill toward man. Can you imagine? So they see
this angel, they're probably just terrified. And all of a
sudden, whoof, there's a whole bunch more angels. Could you imagine when they were
telling people the story? They'd be like, what were you drinking
that night? Right? Oh my gosh, they weren't drinking
nothing. And think of this, there was
no announcement by the high priest of Israel that the Messiah was
here. There was no announcement that
the King of Kings was now born. The Messiah was born and the
angel of the Lord let lowly shepherds know. Lowly shepherds. Common people. Do you know God's
people are common people. Common folks. My. We can all attest to that, right?
Just common folks. Oh, my. So we see the uniqueness
of Christ's birth. And we've seen that the birth
of Christ was prophesied in the Old Testament, that he would
come. And lastly, I'd like us to look
at and consider that the birth of Christ is unique in its purpose.
It's unique in its purpose. So why was Christ born into this
world? Why did the Ancient of Days clothe himself in humanity?
Why did God himself become a man? Well, the purpose of the birth
of Christ was different from the purpose of the birth of any
other man or woman. Christ was born to die. We're
born to live. He was born to die. Because he came, why? Because
even the angel prophesied, he came to save his people from
their sins. That was the whole reason he came to this world.
Do you see how it's the goodness of God that leads men and women
to repentance? God came here to die for me. He gave his life for me. He became
a man. See, God is spirit, right? You've
heard me mention this many times. God is spirit, so God the spirit
can't die. So God becomes a man that he
might die in our room and place. Oh, my. So the whole purpose of the birth of Christ was that
he was born to die as our substitute. He was born that the wrath of
God might be poured out on him for my sins. I'm the one who
committed the sins. He's perfect. He's spotless.
And yet He came here to die in my room and place. So that rack
that was due me fell upon Him that it will never ever fall
upon me. This old sinner will be praised
in His name forever. Oh, my. I hope and pray it will
be so for you one day. My. He came to save His people from
their sins. We can think of men who lived
in this world. One man's born to rule. God makes
him a king in this world. Another man's born a genius.
Another man's born for some great purpose. We think of Moses, leading
the children of God out of the land of Egypt, out of Israel's
bondage. Elijah is remembered as a prophet
of God to call a sinful nation to repentance. David was God's
choice to be king over Israel. Cyrus, a heathen ruler, was used
by God to rebuild the temple at Jerusalem. Alexander, Alexander
the Great, another heathen king or heathen leader, was used by
God to spread the Greek language. You've heard me say this many
times. He raised up Alexander. The Greek language, everywhere
that empire went, all the way to India. Greek language. Then the Greeks fall and the
Romans rise. And they expand their empire
even further. And the underlying language for them is Greek. And
the gospel spreads like wildfire, all because of the planning and
purpose of God. Lincoln's looked upon as the
great emancipator of those who were slaves. And he's looked
at as the preserver of the union. But Christ was born for a greater
work. He emancipated a number that no man can number. And he
did it by his death, by the shedding of his blood, His mission to
this earth was different from that of any other man. Jesus
was born to die. And the purpose of the birth
of all other men is to live. Live a little while, right? And
some of the old confessions says that we're to glorify God. That's
our purpose, is to glorify God. But eventually, we're going to
die. Our life's just like a vapor. We're here today, gone tomorrow.
But Christ was born to die to obtain eternal salvation for
we who are his people. I'm going to close there. You
know what I'm going to say, though? Hallelujah. All right.