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Bibleline Bibleline, here God’s word on Bibleline, here God’s truth on Bibleline. Welcome to Bibleline with Dr. Ralph Yankee Arnold, pastor of Calvary Community Church in Tampa, Florida. Clearly declaring the gospeliframe of Jesus Christ through the radio and the internet. Your regular prayers and monthly support make it possible for Bibleline to continue on the air. You can reach us toll free at 1-800-576-3771. Online donations may be made by clicking on the donations link on the BibleLineMinistries.org homepage. We pray that you will enjoy our commitment to the clear gospel of Jesus Christ and that today’s first part of this two-part message will be a blessing to you and your family.

When you get your notes, take your Bible and turn to the Book of Isaiah chapter 9, the of Isaiah in chapter 9. If you do not have a Bible, there is one in the pew right there in front of you. And it will be found on page 721, 721, the Old Testament. We’d like to give people the real meaning of Christmas. And I hope that you understand that the real Christmas was, well, it was a whole bag full of miracles.

It’s all a miracle, what Christ did. And I wanna show this to you, but I want you to look there in your notes before we get to Isaiah chapter nine, and you’ll notice the text that I have is 1st Timothy chapter three, verse 16, where it says, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. That is the Christmas story. God manifested in the flesh, but it’s not the end of the story. He was justified in the spirit, seen of angels preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in the glory.

Justified in the spirit, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit quickened his body and rose him from the dead. The next statement I have here is from a human perspective. God, been manifested into flesh, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose from the dead is truly a mission impossible because it required a miracle at every step. God, taken on flesh, God, that’s a miracle. When you talk about, he lived a perfect life, that’s a miracle. When he died on the cross, that’s a miracle.

We’re talking about God. But he took upon body, a body so he could die. And he rose from the dead. And you’ll have to agree that truly was a miracle. But why did he do all these miracles? He did something because you and I, humanly speaking, could not do it. We could not, by any stretch of the imagination, any forms of work that we may choose to do, we could not save ourselves. Man has no ability to save himself.

Because the Bible says we’ve all sinned, we’re all coming short of God’s perfection. And that the wages of sin is death, and so all men have to die, all men. Now, what you look in your Bible to the book of Isaiah chapter nine and verse six. Look what he says, 700 years before Jesus Christ came into the world. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor the Mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

It is something that the one that’s going to be born is going to be called. Wonderful. Counselor. The everlasting Father. The Prince of Fays. How can you have an everlasting Father without an everlasting Son? You see, Jesus is God. He didn’t become Jesus when He was born. He has always been. He is as old as the Father. And they are Eternals so they have no age. They’ve always been, always will be. The Bible says concerning Jesus same yesterday, today and forever.

I made a simple little outline because I knew that I wouldn’t have a lot of time. enough time to… Express the real meaning of Christmas and what it’s all about. It’s amazing how many people think it’s all about getting a present underneath a tree. Now I don’t mind if you want to give me presents, I’ll take them. And I can celebrate Christmas for a whole month. But believe it or not, I do celebrate Christmas every day. You see, every time I do a little wallet illustration, you know this little thing I hear I call the wallet illustration.

And I said, let this hand represent you and me and the wall of represents sin. We all have sin on us. And then I tell you that this hand represents Jesus Christ. God in the flesh, God manifested in the flesh. That’s when Jesus came into this world. So you see, I talk about Christmas every day. Every service we talk about Jesus and about him being born, God in the flesh. Why did he come and be born into this world?

Well, because he wanted to pay for our sins. Why? Because if we pay for his death and hell, no amount of good works any man can ever do can ever pay for our sins. So it was totally impossible for a man to save himself. He cannot do it because you’re not saved by your good works. Good works have nothing to do with going to heaven. So the Bible says that God loves us and he hates our sin. And for us to pay for sins, eternal separation from God and hell.

But God says, He loves us. Wants us to go to heaven, but we have to be perfect, but nobody’s perfect. We have all done things wrong. You see, when I was growing up, I was always told, if you’re bad, you’re going to hell, and if you’re good, you go to heaven. I had a problem. I didn’t know anybody that was going to heaven. I really didn’t. I didn’t know anyone. Nobody ever told me they knew they was going to go to heaven.

I never met anybody. You see, I wasn’t raised in a church. I never saw my mom and dad in a church or read a Bible. I never seen a Bible in our home. I never saw them have prayer in our home. So I guess I heard a little bit about God and Jesus Christ, but I heard it from different people and it was a swear word. I heard Jesus Christ, that was a swear word. And I didn’t want to swear, so I tried my best not to think of the name Jesus Christ, but then somebody told me the truth.

that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh, came into the world because He loved me, hate my sin because they separated me. So Jesus Christ who had no sin didn’t have to die, so He took all the sins of all the world, paid for it on the cross, came back from the dead. And He said, if you’ll believe that I did that for you, I’ll give you as a free gift everlasting life. And that was the best news that I ever heard.

But look at the next statement, the letter A, Isaiah saw the crib because he says, for unto us a child is born. A child is going to be born. That means he would be made of a virgin. Why you’re right there in the book of Isaiah. If you turn one page to your left, you’ll notice in chapter 7 and look there in verse 14. Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14 says, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name manual made of a woman. He did not have an earthly father because the Bible says the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and says that holy things shall be called the son of the highest. You see Jesus Christ took upon flesh and Mary was used by God because she happened to be the right person at the right time in the right family in the right lineage of the right nation.

All that comes together has to be a miracle. And so we have this scripture. Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Now it’s not a sign for a woman to have a baby, but it is for a woman who’s never known a man to have a child. And though that was the miracle. And the Bible also says in the book of Galatians in chapter four and verse four. But when the fullness of the time was come. God sent forth his son made of a woman, made under the law.

Now I wrote a couple of little things down here that I think you need to see the uniqueness of this child. It sees number one, Jesus Christ was the most prophesied baby in the world. I have looked over this whole Bible and I have not found my name in there anywhere where God prophesied, Yankee shall come into the world. Now it should have been in here, but it’s not in here anywhere. Neither does it have anything to do with it, but Jan Velazquez, he’s not in there either.

Now he’s a great guy and all led, but he wasn’t prophesied in here. But Jesus was. God talked about his son in chapter two of the book of Psalms. And then Proverbs chapter 30 talks about the sun. So he was a prophesied by me, there’s prophecies concerning this particular child. You see, when Christ went to the cross, over 300 prophecies were fulfilled because of this one person alone. And this one child that was going to be born and live and die, all of this has to come together.

And it was written hundreds and hundreds of years in advance so that whenever Jesus Christ came, He was far enough in advance that none of the people who gave the prophecies could make it happen. Miraculously down the road, and while we’re reading this in the book of Isaiah, 700 years later this child was born. He was prophesied given by divine revelation from God. this was going to take place. In verse 2, Jesus Christ was the most expected baby in the world, most expected baby in the world.

Now we know sometimes when a baby is expected to be born, like I’ve seen you know Keaton Hill and his wife and she’s gonna have a baby in about three months. I told her she’s got to have twins or triplets because it or that’s going to be the biggest baby you’ve ever seen born in the world. And they got a cutest little baby girl you’ve ever seen in your life. She doesn’t want the hearts of this whole church. I don’t agree with Hillary.

It’s gonna take a village but it does take a church to raise a child to help them raise them right. But to have an expectation where people were looking forward. You know the Bible describes this about Jesus Christ. Calls him the blessed hope, the blessed hope. Because see, when we get right down to it, if we didn’t know that there was a God, if we didn’t have the Bible, didn’t have this special revelation given to us, you realize the Bible makes this statement.

He says, without God, no hope. No hope. And to realize here you are, and I don’t know if you’ve ever seen it, but I’ve seen these little ads they put on commercials about this little boy. And he’s talking about, I guess, it’s for hospital, little hospital or something like that. And they got these little kids on there. And they have a way of working their way right into your heart. And here’s this one little kid. And he’s got something and he got braces on his leg.

And he takes his steps and says, look, Mommy, I’m walking. I’m walking. And he took a couple steps, all he did. But the hope, the excitement, that little kid, I’m walking. Mommy, look, I’m walking. How many of y’all have seen that old commercial? Look at that, hands all over the place. But to live with the hope that something, he’s gonna be able to walk. And there’s people who have a hope. and there’s people who have no hope. They know it’ll never change.

Or to think for a moment, here’s a prostitute and wondering sometimes, is there a way I can ever be clean again? Somebody who said and done things, they shouldn’t have done in their guilty consciousness, just tearing them up. Then can I ever have a pure conscience again? You see, without the Lord, there is no hope. There’s no way to cleanse yourself because we all have a sinful nature, and we say and we do things that we should not do.

And we hurt people, and we wish we could take it back. We say things we wish is never done so. Why am I like this? Do you know without God, there is no hope. It’ll never change. Or the person that has leprosy, going to bed at night wondering, I wish I could be whole. I wish I could be whole without this leprosy that I’ve got. And you talk about some of the things that people go through and sicknesses they have.

We’ve got people that are hurting because of cancer. And some of them will find out, surely, they may not be any hope. No possibility of ever changing. And we know that if God does teary, we’re all going… going to die, but what about that person that goes to bed at night and dreams that there was no death, that there was no grave, and yet without God seeing, without Christ, that man has no hope? I want to just read this little thing to you because it has to do with what we’re talking about.

Isn’t it wonderful that, and Jesse mentioned a while ago, about this time of year, the joy, happiness, and so forth, and encouragement, and you know it’s a the spirit of Christmas. Well it’s really that it’s I hope that’s in the Lord. We got someone who can change everything. That night, when in the Judean skies, the mystic star dispensed its light. A blind man moved in his sleep, dreamed that he had sight. That night when shepherds heard the song of host angelic quiring near, a deaf man stirred in slumber spell, dreamed that he could hear.

That night when the cattle stall, slept a perfect child that had been foretold, a cripple turned his twisted limbs, and dreamed that he was whole. That night when, or the newborn babe, the tender Mary rose to lean, a loathsome leopard smiled in sleep, dreamed that he was clean. That night, when to the mother’s heart, the little king was hell secure. A harlot slept a happy sleep, dreamed that she was pure. That night, when in the manger lay, that sanctified who came to save, a man moved toward the sleep of death, and dreamed there was no grave.

God there is no dream, there is no hope, there’s nothing, and if there is no God when we’re just like animals we have no purpose, there’s no gold. But the Bible says by the coming of Jesus Christ, even the prophecies gave every man hope. They They knew that one day a child would be born that could change mankind from having a sinful nature to having a divine nature. If you look back there in your notes, you’ll look down here and you’ll see that number four, Jesus Christ was the most precious baby born in the world.

I know that we often look at little babies, oh precious, oh it’s a precious little child. I can see my daddy now looking at me and saying, is that a child? For you to don’t know my daddy says I was the ugliest kid he’d ever seen in his life. I had long straight black hair all over my body and he said I was the ugliest kid he’d ever seen in his life. My dad never saw Jesse Martinez. Number five, Jesus Christ was the most priceless baby born in the world.

Do you know the value of that child? What was his value? And yet he himself just by dying and coming from the day he could pay for all the sin of all the world. And yet all the world and all of its value, if you owned it all, could not pay for one of your sins and look how great he was, a priceless Son of God. And the value that when he died, he could pay for everybody’s sin. He paid for my sins and they were many and he paid for yours and they were more.

So add up all the sins that every man has ever committed and Jesus Christ could pay it all. That’s why the Bible says, though he was rich, he became poor, that we through his poverty might be made rich. Somebody was wealthy, had enough to pay all of our sin debt so that we could have as a free gift eternal life and go to heaven when we die. Letter B, Isaiah saw the cross because he said unto us a son is given.

You know in John 16, for God so loved the world that He gave. He gave His only begotten Son. You see, that’s all the way back in the book of Isaiah in chapter 9 and verse 6. Under us, a Son is given. That means that He was made sin for us. In other words, we need to be righteous to go to heaven, but He was righteous and we were sinners. So He became our substitute, He took our place. He paid our sin debt and because He paid our debt, He offers to the world the gift of righteousness, His righteousness.

And if you have His righteousness that makes you as righteous, as pure, as perfect as God Himself. He was made sin for us. See that verse? Isaiah 53, 6, right here in your notes. You have to turn it to your Bible. All we like sheep have gone astray. Well, most people have gone astray. Or do you think it really means all? All have gone astray. Even Mary says about my Saviorvious. Talk about the Son, my Savior. She needed a Savior too, because Mary was a sinner like everybody else.

Everybody sends only one, and that was that precious child that was born. You see, the Christmas story isn’t about just Jesus Christ being born into the world. End of story. New. Far from it. But that’s all people want to hear about is just Jesus in the manger. in the manger, and the three wise guys that shows up, or wise men, and that’s all they know and that’s all they care about. But today with most people, Christmas is frosty the snowman, root off the red, no rain, deer, you know, the Christmas tree and the lights and all the, do anything that you want.

But man, not to understand the real reason for Jesus Christ coming into this world, that’s a shame. That is abusing children. That’s child abuse. You can have your fun, but man, don’t. Don’t leave them with a lie. Tell them the truth. This is about Jesus Christ. God’s Son came into the world to give us the free gift of everlasting780 life.

You can keep giving your gifts. You can even give something to me. I don’t care. And I give gifts every Christmas. I love doing that. I love the spirit of giving. I think it’s good to give all year long. So you can give me a present every year. I don’t care. All year long, that’s fine. But look at the next verse. The next verse says in 2 Corinthians 5, 21, bottom of you paid for he hath made him. God hath made him Jesus Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be made the what?

The righteousness of God and him. Look up here. This is you and me and this is sin. Here’s Christ and he’s perfect. righteous. But the Bible says that when Jesus Christ took our sins and when we believe it, He gives us His righteousness. Now I’m going to heaven and when God looks at me, He sees the righteousness of Christ. Is that good enough to go to heaven on? That’s the only way we get to heaven. And so He makes this statement for He hath made him, Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

You see, Isaiah, he solved the cross 700 years before they put him on the cross. Look at the next page. In Galatians chapter 3, because this is so important, he was not only made sin for us, he was made a curse for us. The top of the page here in Galatians 3, 10 says, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse. In other words, people who are trying to earn their way to heaven by their good works, that means you’re putting their trust in their works, God says you’re under a curse.

Because curse is everyone that continues, if not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, you have to keep the law perfectly, the days of your life from time you’re born to the time you die. How you doing? Not doing so good are you? And so God says you’re under a curse. So the next verse in verse 11, but that no man is justified by the law and the sight of God. Nobody can earn his salvation by keeping the law.

It is evident for the just shall live by faith. The only way we can get to heaven is by faith alone because we can’t earn it. If you can’tbek you’re going to get there is only one other way. You’ve got to trust somebody else to save you. If you can’t save yourself, somebody else has to do it. That’s evident. Look at verse 12, and the law is not a faith, but the man that duked him shall live in him.

If you want to live by the law, go ahead, but you’re not going to keep the law. Most people don’t even know what they are. Look at the name of Verse 13 tells you why. He was not only made sin Berks, because he took the sins of the world upon him andisSpecial had to curse his own son. See what he says here? Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a what? For who? For us.

He took our sins and that’s why the Father says that He had to withdraw Himself from His Son and His Son cried out, my God, my God, why has He forsaken me? Because, see, whenever a person dies, they’re going to be separated from God for all eternity. Doesn’t have to be that way. Somebody has already taken your sin, suffered your curse, died in your place, paid your sin. dead. And the only thing you and I have to do is believe that He did it for us.

So let her see here, you’ll see that Isaiah saw the crown. In other words, looking beyond this life, this is the hope that every man has, knowing that we may die here but we’re gonna live again. Why? Because the one that died on that cross rose from the dance. See, he was alive and he died and he’s alive again. So when the Bible says he rose again, doesn’t mean he had doubt it before and he’s doing it twice. No, he was alive and he died and now he’s alive again.

And here we are and I am alive and I may die but I know I’m going to live again. That’s the hope that when I live again, regardless of what you were in this life, whether you were a thief, whether you were a liar, whether you are a homosexual, a prostitute, a harlot. Doesn’t matter what you’ve ever done. If you trust Christ as your Savior, you have the hope that any man can have. You’ll be pure and you’ll be holy.

And God can wipe away all tears from our eyes. You see, that’s the only hope of mankind. This is why he says this is the good news, the glad titans, the joy unto all people because this is something that everybody can have. We don’t necessarily get it here but because we trust Christ as our Savior and we know it’s just right down the road. And one of these days we’re going to have those crippled limbs of ours will be straightened.

And the people that are death will be able to hear. Those people that are blind will be able to see. Those people who can’t talk will be able to talk. You see, it’s the hope of all of the kind. Are you a new listener to Bibleline? Do you enjoy the teachings of Dr. Arnold? Well, if you’ve never contacted us before, we want to give you Dr. Arnold’s book, The Gospel Driven Man. Every day we receive many emails from folks who have questions about repentance and salvation, about faith in works, and about how to share the gospel with friends and loved ones.

This book, The Gospel Driven Man, covers all those topics, and we want all new listeners of Bibleline to receive a free copy. There’s no obligation, no donation necessary, simply call us at 1-800-576-3771 or write to us and request your free copy of the Gospel-Driven Man. The mailing address is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. Again, don’t forget to include your mailing address, and God bless you and thank you for listening to Bibleline. Thanks for joining us on Bibleline. If you are in the area, we welcome you to visit us.

The address for Calvary Community Church is 4811 George Road, Tampa, Florida, 33634. And now a closing thought from Pastor Arnold. Friend, one day it will happen. The trumpet will sound, and we will be changed. Caught up to meet the Lord in the air. So live today and every day. Believing that the Lord is coming soon, just keep looking up.