Christmas Changed Their Story

In your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 1.

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

Matthew chapter 1. I love Christmas and I love

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

everything about it. And I grew up in Indiana and it

was almost a guarantee that you were going to get snow on

Christmas. Not always.

We didn't have snow every year, but almost every year you were

going to have some snow. And it changed that.

You know, when I left Indiana, I don't, I don't miss the cold.

I'll be honest with you. I don't miss it at all.

And I, you know, the last year that I was up there, I, I, I

graduated college and then I worked on staff there for, for

about a year at the college and the church and in the school.

And one of the jobs that I had, I was single.

I was not married. And they were like perfect job

for him. I had to wake up at 4:00 in the

morning and if it had snowed even a half an inch, I had to go

out and shovel all the sidewalks.

And so I got to the point where I absolutely hated snow.

I didn't want to one snowflake. And so when I left, I said I

don't care if I never see snow again.

And I came down here in Virginia 2006 and we did not get one snow

that year. Nothing.

And I said, well, maybe, maybe a little bit of snow is all right,

but just one or two a year is fine.

I'm, I've already had my fill. I don't know about you, but we

can go. We can go back to 75° and sunny

and I'm good. But anyway, I heard a story

about a little boy who had grown up in church, obviously realized

that Santa was not the one that could bring him the gifts.

He knew that God was the one that gave it to him.

And so he started writing a letter.

He sat down and he said, God, I've been a pretty good boy for

the last six months. He thought about it for a

second. He crossed it off.

I've been a pretty good boy for the last three months.

They said, well, God knows everything crossed it off.

I've been a pretty good boy for the last two weeks.

And he started thinking about it again.

He said, man, that's, that's not going to work either.

And so he walked over to the little, little nativity scene

that they had set up in their in their house on the Mantel.

And he climbed up there on the chair and he grabbed the little

figure of Mary out of the nativity scene.

And he walked over to the kitchen.

He grabbed the kitchen towel and he wrapped Mary up in the towel.

And he walked over and put that whole thing in the top drawer of

his dresser. And he went back to his pen and

paper, and he wrote, Dear God, if you ever want to see your

mother again, obviously not what Christmas is about, but Matthew

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1, Matthew chapter 1, and verse #1 The Bible says

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

this, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of

David, the son of Abraham. Abraham begat Isaac, and Isaac

begat Jacob, and Jacob begat Judas and his brethren.

And Judas begat Pheres And Zara of Tamar.

And Pheres begat Ezram. And Ezram begat Aram.

And Aram begat Aminadab, And Aminadab begat NASAN, and NASAN

begat Salman. And Salman begat Boaz of Rahab

or Rahab, as is pronounced here. And Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and

Obed begat Jesse. And Jesse begat David the king.

And David the king begat begat Solomon of her that had been the

wife of Urias. And we've read all that we need

to read this morning for me to get to my point.

You might be wondering what in the world?

And that's fair because you know, most Christians don't get

excited about the genealogies, right?

Let's be honest, the story that we're looking for for Christmas

is in the rest of Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 and maybe even Luke

Luke 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2. Why aren't we looking at those

stories? But there are four names in this

list that really stick out for out to me.

You know, we we know all about Joseph and Mary.

We know about the inn at Bethlehem.

We know about the shepherds that were feeding their flocks and

the angels that came to them. And, and of course, we know

about the wise men following the star.

We know all of those things about the story of Christmas.

They're all part of that wonderful story that we remember

every year, that we love to tell every year.

But there's more to the story. And I think here in this

passage, it's, it's very obscure, it's overlooked.

But Matthew gives his genealogies that are leading up

to the birth of Jesus Christ. And in that genealogy, we

actually find 4 women, which is very, very rare.

You, you start, you go back through the, the genealogies in

the Old Testament and you read through all those.

It is rare to find a woman in a genealogy, but we have four of

them here. Verse #3 tells us, and Judas

begat Pharahs and Zara of Tamar. Verse #5 and Salman begat Boaz

of Rakab, just a different same person.

Boaz begat Obed of Ruth, and Obed begat Jesse.

And then in verse number six, and we see Jesse begat David the

king and David the king begat Solomon of her that had been the

wife of Urias. Now she's not mentioned, but we

know who that is. If you go back and look in the

Old Testament, that is Bathsheba, the one that David

sinned with. Now there's something very

unique about the inclusion of these four women in this

genealogy. It was not customary in those

days for women to be part of the genealogies at all, especially

when it comes to listing these who are in the line of Jesus

Christ. As a matter of fact, women had

very little rights back in, in those days.

They were, they were basically possessions of their fathers

until they became possessions of their husbands.

And that's kind of how they were treated in a lot of cases.

And so you may recognize some of those names.

You may recognize Tamar, you may recognize Rahab, you may

recognize Ruth, you may recognize Bathsheba, or you may

not recognize them at all. But let me give you a little

background to each of these four women.

And, and, and I think it might be a little bit uncomfortable

this morning, but, but I think it's important for us to

understand where these women came from and who they were in

Genesis chapter 38. And you don't have to turn

Genesis 38 · chapter mention

there. I'll kind of give you the the

rundown here. This is the story of Tamar.

Now, David had a daughter named Tamar.

This is not the same Tamar. This is a different Tamar.

This is one who was most likely a Canaanite woman, which

obviously the Bible had told them many times in the Old

Testament as they were coming into the land of Canaan.

Don't marry the Canaanites. Don't give your daughters to

marry Canaanite men. Don't let your men marry

Canaanite women. Don't do that.

You are to stay separate. You are to be Israel.

You're to keep your line pure. Do not marry with the

Canaanites. This is a land that I'm

promising you, but I'm promising you this land so you can go in

and have it for yourself, not so you can mix and share it with

everybody else. But this woman was married to

one of the sons of Judah. Judah was one of the twelve sons

of Jacob, who is also a brother to Joseph.

That's the Tamar that we're talking about here.

But Tamar's husband, Judah's son died.

And the way that things would go back then, which very different

from what we do today. But if, if a brother's wife

died, then the brother who was living had the responsibility to

bring her in as his wife, to carry on the name of that

family. And so that's exactly what

happened. Tamar's husband died.

Her, his brother was then given Tamar to be his wife.

That brother died and now here's Tamar.

The only one that was left was a little boy not old enough to be

married. And so Judah told her to wait

for his youngest son. But he really had no intention

of allowing them to marry. He probably thought she was very

bad luck for this family lion. And what is she doing?

And why are all my sons dying every time they married Tamar?

But Tamar then posed as a prostitute, had a sexual

encounter with Judah who was her father-in-law, and found out

then that she was with child. And that's the child that's

mentioned there in verse #3 Judas or Judah begat fairest and

Zara of Tamar. Now we find the next lady

mentioned in Joshua chapter 2, that is Rahab.

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

Rahab was from Jericho. If you know anything about

Jericho, it's the first place that they came to when they

crossed the Jordan River into the promised land.

They marched around the city. Jericho is famous because the

walls fell down and they went in there and they took the city and

many things happen from there. But this is a very interesting

story as well because not only was Rahab A Canaanite woman, but

Rahab was also a prostitute. And she allowed the two spies to

come in and stay in her house and the others that that were

there coming to see if they could take the land.

But she came to recognize Jehovah as the one true God.

She saved those Hebrew spies and and through faith, as we're told

in Hebrews Chapter 11, she found favor in in God's eyes and

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

became a part of God's covenant people.

Now Joshua chapter 2 and verse 11, she said this, the Lord your

Joshua 2 · chapter mention

God, He is God in heaven above and in earth beneath.

And she asked them, when you come in here to destroy this

city, because I know that's exactly what you're going to do

when you come in here to destroy the city, would you please save

me and my family? Because we saved you.

And they said, all right, we'll make a deal with you.

A scarlet cord needs to be hung out your window when we come

into the city. And if that scarlet cord is hung

in your window, then whoever is in your house will be saved when

we come in to take that city. And by the way, I've been to

Israel, I've been to Jericho. And do you know that there's

evidence that there was one part of that wall that did not fall

down? Rahab's house was the one that

did not fall. But the Bible says this in

Hebrews Chapter 11 and verse 31. She's listed.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

Rahab is listed in the great, what we call the Hall of Faith,

but it says this by faith the harlot Rahab perished not with

them that believe not. James mentioned her in James

James 2 · chapter mention

chapter 2 as somebody who was an example of faith.

But she tied that scarlet coat, that scarlet cord out her

window, and she was delivered safely.

Her family was delivered safely. And we find her in verse #5

Salman begat Boaz of Rahab. Now, Boaz is a man that we know

because we read through the entire book of Ruth.

And Boaz is kind of the hero of the story of the book of Ruth.

He he redeems Ruth back to himself when she really had

nothing. But most of us don't remember or

don't realize that Rahab actually was the mother of Boaz,

our third one, Ruth. The Moabitus people of Moab were

despised. They were outcast people.

The Moabites and the Ammonites had their origin in a very, a

very disturbing way as well. Do you remember the story of Lot

and his wife? They lived in Sodom and

Gomorrah. And God came and he said, I'm

going to destroy the entire city.

And Abraham begged him, God, if you can, just if we can just

find 50 righteous 4030 twenty, if I can just find 10 righteous,

can you save the city? And they couldn't find even that

many. And so that God came to Lot and

he said, you better get out of the city and you better take

your family with you, and you better not look back.

They started getting out of the city.

Lot's wife turned around and looked behind her, and she

turned into a pillar of salt. But Lot made it up into the

mountains with a couple of his daughters and in a moment where

he was not thinking clearly, obviously in the moment of of

horrible decision, his daughters lie with him and both of them

became with child by their father.

That is who we're talking about in this passage.

That's that is Ruth. She was a Moabitess of the lion

of the Moabites in the Ammonites.

In fact, Deuteronomy chapter 23 and verse #3 says an Ammonite or

Deuteronomy 23 · chapter mention

Moabite shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord.

Even to their 10th generation. Shall they not enter into the

congregation of the Lord forever?

The sons that were born of Lot's two daughters were Ammon and

Moab. What a horrible situation.

And yet from the Moabites along comes Ruth.

She was not part of the nation of Israel, but Ruth displayed

courageous love and an unshakable loyalty.

Ruth chapter 1 and verse 16 and 17 tells us where I where you

Ruth 1 · chapter mention

lodge, I will lodge. Where you go I will go.

Your people will be my people. Your God will be my God.

And she accepted the God of Israel.

And she is mentioned in verse #5 Boaz begat Obed of Ruth.

She became the great grandmother of King David, and obviously

then her place took her place in the lineage of Christ.

And now the scripture does not give us the nationality of

Bathsheba. But Bathsheba was married to a

Hittite, also not a Jew, so it's also quite possible that she was

not Jewish either. The woman that David had an

adulterous affair with before he put her husband Uriah to death.

After marrying David, she became the mother of Solomon and like

the other women that were mentioned in this passage, she

became in the ancestral lion of Jesus Christ.

What's amazing to me is that Matthew does not make any

attempt to hide this. All Matthew had to do to keep

their names out of the story and to keep from highlighting these

facts about these women is to just not put their names in

there. Nobody would ever think twice

about the fact that that that that Tamar was in the line of

Christ and that this was her heritage or that that Ruth and

Rahab and Bathsheba, these women who really don't have a good

past. Nobody would think twice about

them being in the line of Christ if Matthew hadn't put their

names in there. But Matthew did for some reason.

Bible doesn't candy coat the facts.

He highlighted these four women in an age when women were

typically ignored. And I, and I think even beyond

that, he, he neglected to mention any of the other women

in the lineage of Jesus, which would be Sarah, Abraham's wife,

which would be Mary, the mother of Jesus.

Many other women that that could have been put in there, Rebecca,

Leah, all of them could have been put in this lineage of

Jesus Christ. And yet as they're leading up to

that, he doesn't put them in there.

Four women, as far as we can tell, none of them were Jewish.

All of them outcast for very different reasons, each of their

stories a tragedy. That is, until God changed their

lives. When we read the stories in the

Old Testament, their lives were were characterized by

misfortune, by desperation, by loss, by mistreatment, by shame.

And every one of their marriages was unusual in some way.

Matthew uses that list to present the identity of Jesus

and his right to the throne of David as he prophesied the

Messiah. How interesting.

Why would that be the case? He begins his genealogy as you

read in verse #1 by talking about Abraham and and King

David, Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham.

Matthew chapter one, verse one says he chose four women whose

stories began with tragedy. 4 women whose stories identified

the type of people that Christ was sent to seek and to save.

Four women whose stories were changed by this Christmas story.

And in verse 21 of Matthew chapter 1, the Bible says, and

Matthew 1 · chapter mention

she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus,

for he shall save his people from their sins.

The moment Jesus Christ was born in that little town of

Bethlehem, their story changed. They were no longer named in a

long list of genealogies. They were now in the line of

Jesus Christ. And at that point, it didn't

matter what was in their past. It didn't matter who they were

before. The only thing that mattered was

who they became because of Jesus Christ.

William Barkley, a commentator, said this of these four women.

If Matthew had ransacked the pages of the Old Testament for

improbable candidates, he could not have discovered four more

incredible ancestors for Jesus Christ.

But surely there is something very lovely in this.

Here at the very beginning of the Gospel, we are given a hint

of the all embracing width of the love of God.

God can find his servants amongst those from whom the

respectable orthodox would shudder away in horror.

What is what a what a what a great reminder.

What, what, What you need to know this morning is that Jesus

Christ can change your story as well.

That was a long introduction, but I want to give you 3 quick

points this morning and talk about how Christmas changed

their story. Christmas changed their story.

Let's have a word of prayer and I'll give you 3 short points

this morning. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. Thank you for an opportunity we

have to be here today. Thank you for the fact that we

have stories like this in Your word that can help us to

understand that it doesn't matter who we are, doesn't

matter where we came from, it doesn't matter what our past is.

You can change it because Jesus Christ came.

Thank you again for all you do for us in Jesus name, Amen.

First thing I want you to see is this, and I don't have a fancy

alliterated outline this morning.

I've just got three simple points.

The first one is this, because our Lord included them.

He can include you 4 people, 44 ladies who if you as, as William

Barclay said, were to, were to go through the Old Testament and

try to find the least likely candidates to be in the line of

Christ, it would be those 4. I don't I don't know if you can

find anybody else that would be less likely to be in there.

I mean, maybe you do have some, some people who who had some

checkered past, but I don't know how you can find checkered past

any worse than what these these ladies had.

And I know we only brushed the surface of each of their

stories, but Jesus loved them very much.

And Jesus loves you very much. In fact, the Bible says this in

John chapter 3 and verse #16 probably one of the most

John 3 · chapter mention

recognized verses in the Bible. For God so loved the world that

he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him

should not perish, but have everlasting life.

That whosoever encompasses a lot of people.

It encompasses the entire world. It's not just Jesus Christ

didn't just come to be born as a baby and die on the cross and

raise again from the dead for a certain number of people, for a

certain elect people. He died for everybody.

And that's why the Bible says whosoever that means, anybody,

whosoever believeth in him, should not perish but have

everlasting life. And I'll tell you this, many

people feel as if they're too unworthy for God to save them.

But what they didn't realize is that that puts them in the

perfect position to be able to accept Jesus Christ as your

Savior. If you come to Christ with all

of your good things and all of your good deeds and all of the

things that you've accomplished for him and everything that

you've tried to do in his name, and you come to him and you say,

I'm accepting you because look what I've done for you.

That's not salvation. You have to come to Christ in

faith plus nothing. It's, it's, it's all him or it's

not salvation. And so many people will come and

say, well, I've done all of these things.

Certainly God will allow me into heaven someday.

No, it's the ones who come and say, God, I'm a worthless

Sinner. I don't deserve heaven.

I don't deserve your love. I don't deserve your mercy.

I don't deserve your forgiveness.

But I know you want to give it to me and I'm willing to accept

it. Those are the people that can

come and, and get salvation. And so when you have somebody

who says, Oh, I'm so unworthy, if if anybody doesn't deserve

Christ, it's me, you're in the perfect position to receive

Christ for yourself. The first step in coming to

Christ is to realize that we are all sinners.

Romans chapter 3 and verse #23 says, for all have sinned and

Romans 3 · chapter mention

come short of the glory of God. I don't think, and I'm not going

to ask you to do this because I don't want to embarrass you if

you feel like it, but I don't think anybody would raise their

hand and say, I've never sinned. I've never done anything wrong

in my life. Like everybody realizes that

they have, right? It doesn't say for all have

sinned except your name and come short of the glory of God,

right? All means all.

That's everybody, that's all of us.

We all are sinners. We all, we all have done things

that have gone against the law of God.

We've all done things to break the commandments of God.

Boy, you just start with the 10 commandments.

There's a lot of commandments in the Bible, but there's 10.

Thou shalt not bear false witness.

You know what that is? That's a lie, right?

That broke it for most of us right there.

In fact, probably all of us right there.

I don't know if there's anybody in the world that's never told a

lie. Thou shalt not steal.

Well, there's, there's, there's so many things that we have done

that break God's law. And just to break God's law one

time makes us a criminal in his eyes, right?

The same way that somebody who goes out and murders somebody

else and stands before a judge and, and you say, well, why are

you putting me in jail? I've only done it once.

I've only murdered one person, right?

You think that's ridiculous? Yeah.

You murdered somebody. You go to jail for that, right?

And the Bible says, for all have sinned and come short of the

glory of God, and we stand before him.

And we say, well, what are you condemning me for?

I only sinned once. For all have sinned and come

short of the glory of God. That's all it takes is 1 sin.

One sin is enough to keep us out of heaven.

And you might be a good person. You might have done a lot of

good things in your life, but God is absolutely holy.

And because he is absolutely holy, he can't even look upon

sin. So it doesn't matter if you have

10,000 sins or one sin, it's enough to keep us out of heaven,

for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

It's almost like you, you picture sin as a bomb, right?

And you put a bomb in the middle of a bridge that's leading to

heaven, and all it takes is 1 and you blow that bridge up and

now you can't get across. It doesn't matter if there's

tons of the rest of the bridge left, right?

I mean, you got 10,000 sins. You blew the entire bridge up.

There's no chance for you to get into heaven, right?

But you had one, and you blew that bridge up.

And a giant section is missing and you can't get across.

For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

When we're too proud to realize our need for a Savior, we cannot

be saved. When we look at ourselves as too

good as to need saving, then that can never lead to

salvation. The Bible says this in Titus

Titus 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3 and verse #5 not by works of righteousness, which we

have done, but according to His mercy.

He saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of

the Holy Ghost, not by works of righteousness.

It doesn't have anything to do with me, has everything to do

with what Christ did for me. When we are when we see

ourselves as sinners having no hope.

When you get to that spot in the bridge that you blew up because

of your sin and you can see the other side, but there's no way

that you can get there, then you're in the perfect spot when

you say God, I can't make that junk myself.

I can't I can't go from here to heaven myself.

I need a savior. That's when you're in the

perfect position to accept Christ.

See, when we see ourselves as a Sinner with no hope, that's when

Christ steps in and says, let me be your Savior.

Let me take the blame that was meant for you.

Let me take the sins that you've committed in your life and I'll

take those on myself. And so when you stand before

God, he's not going to see you and all the ugliness of your

sin. He's not going to see all of

those things because I took those for you.

Those are all on me. Only thing that God sees when he

looks at you will be the righteousness of Jesus Christ

here. You, you give me your sins and

I'll give you my righteousness. Boy, what an exchange doesn't

make sense to anybody in a, in a, in their right mind.

Why would you do that? I'm, I'm, I've never committed a

crime. Nobody's ever arrested me and,

and, and put me on trial to put me in jail for something that

I've done. I'm I'm clean as the law goes.

And now here's somebody else on the other side who, who is

standing before a judge for murder.

And I walk over there and I say, hey, let me, let me stand in

your place. You can go stand over there as

somebody who's never committed a crime.

I'll stand in your spot as somebody who is guilty of

murder. Doesn't make sense.

Why would you do that? You're you're, you're throwing

away your entire life and you're giving a murderer a free pass to

go out and live his. Why would you do that?

Doesn't make sense in our minds, but that's exactly what Jesus

Christ did for us. He's standing.

We're standing here as guilty sinners.

We have no standing before God. We have no hope of ever escaping

that punishment that's going to come because of our sins.

And yet here's Jesus Christ on the other side, Not only not not

guilty before the law, but never done one thing wrong, never sin.

He was the Son of God and the Son of man at the same time.

He was perfect. And he looks over at us and he

says, I love him so much. I love her so much.

I can't watch them. I can't bear to stand them.

Pay the penalty for their sin. Here.

You come over and you take my place and I'll come over and

I'll take yours. I'll stand here before God as

the condemn you. Stand before God as somebody who

is clean and righteous before him.

And how foolish to stand here as somebody who's condemned before

God and say appreciate it, thank you.

I'm good enough. Certainly God's going to see me

and say, well, come on into heaven.

Look at all the good things he's done.

Yeah, I know he's got a lot of bad, but look at all the good

he's done. No, that's not how the law sees

it. If you murder somebody, doesn't

matter if you taught in school for 50 years and we're involved

in all in every charitable outreach there was possibly

available to be involved. It doesn't matter what you've

done in your life. If you've murdered somebody and

you're guilty, you're going to go to prison.

And the same is true with us. We're sinners.

There is a penalty for that sin. And that penalty the Bible says

is death for the wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our

Lord. Wouldn't it, wouldn't it be

really interesting if the judge and the one who is innocent,

we're all in on it together, right?

If the judge was secretly working behind the scenes to get

the criminal off and put somebody in who was innocent,

right? That's exactly what happened

with Jesus Christ. God, the righteous judge is

standing there. Jesus is on one side.

We're on the other side. God is the judge and he's

telling Jesus, hey, go take their place.

He's going to be guilty. If if you don't take his place,

he's going to be guilty. He's going to have to.

I'm going to have to condemn him to hell forever.

Go, go take his place. Jesus.

I can do that. Yeah, you can do that.

In fact, that's the whole reason why we've why, why I created the

earth. Well, the whole, it's the whole

reason why I've done everything. It's a, it's a, it's a plan that

I've had from before I even created anything.

You were going to go and you're, you're going to, you're going to

die in their place. And how crazy that Jesus says,

OK, I'll go die in their place. But he did it for you and he did

it for me. We don't deserve it.

There's nothing that there's nothing in a, in a criminal that

deserves for somebody who was innocent to stand in their

place. But that's what God did for us.

That's what Jesus Christ did for us.

John chapter 1 and verse #12 says, But as many as received

John 1 · chapter mention

him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to

them that believe on his name. What an amazing thing.

Not only did I stand here as a condemned Sinner waiting to get

my punishment, waiting to be condemned to hell forever, but

Jesus says, hang on, let me take his place.

I'll come over here. I'll stand as the one condemned.

Let him go over here and stand in this box as somebody who's

never done anything wrong. And we make that exchange.

And then the judge says, and you know what?

Now only are you not condemned? You're going to be my son.

You're going to be my daughter. You're coming home with me boy.

Talk about I don't deserve that. Talk about something that is is

just not fair. I hear people say that all the

time. Oh, life's not fair.

No, it's not. If we got what we really

deserved, it would be a whole lot worse.

But because our Lord included those 4 ladies, He can include

you. I want to tell you this number 2

because He changed their story. He can also take your life and

change your story. If you want to turn to these

passages, you're welcome to. I have put some of them up on

the screen to make it a little bit easier for you.

But the Bible says in first John chapter 5 and verse #13 these

1 John 5 · chapter mention

things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the

Son of God, that ye may know that you have eternal life and

that you may believe on the name of the Son of God.

It's not by the good things that we do.

In fact, Ephesians chapter 2 makes that very plain.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

For by grace are you safe through faith, and then not of

yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of

works, lest any man should boast.

If it was about how much good I can do #1 how would I ever know

that I've done enough good? I would never, as the Bible says

in first John chapter 5, know that I have eternal life.

1 John 5 · chapter mention

Because I would never know when I've done enough.

I would never know when I've reached that tipping point where

here's all my bad works, here's my good works, and finally my

good works are starting to outweigh my bad works and

finally God's going to have to let me in.

But I don't know. It's, it's such a fine balance.

I don't know if I'm ever going to.

That's not knowing that you have eternal life.

But he says that you may know that you have eternal life,

right? How do you know?

Well, because it doesn't have anything to do with the works,

doesn't have anything to do with how good I am or how bad I am.

If it had anything to do with how good I am, then it's all on

me. It's it's about what I've done.

And then it doesn't even matter what Jesus Christ did.

Why does it matter if Jesus Christ came and was born as a

baby? Why does it matter if he died on

a cross? Why does it matter if he rose

again from the dead if that was only part of the story?

If that was only part of it, He's either got the power to

save us by his death burial in resurrection, or he doesn't.

He doesn't have half power and we got to do the rest.

That's why he says not of works, lest any man should boast.

If I'm in heaven telling everybody that I'm there because

of how good I am, then it's all about me and my works.

But if I'm in heaven saying I don't deserve to be here, but

Jesus Christ paid the penalty for me and I'm here because of

him, then it's not of works lest any man should boast.

It's not by baptism, it's not by communion, it's not by church

attendance, it's not by giving money to the poor, it's not by

giving money to church. It's not by any of those things.

None of those things can buy you a spot in heaven, and the Bible

is very clear about that. It's not just my opinion.

We could look at a lot of verses, in fact, that this verse

right here, Ephesians 28 and 9, makes that very clear.

It's not by anything that we can do, not because we deserve it.

It's because He loves us and because He desires for each one

of us to come to know Jesus Christ as our Savior.

Romans chapter 6 and verse 23 I quoted already For the wages of

Romans 6 · chapter mention

sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through

Jesus Christ our Lord. There comes a point in every

single person's life where they have to make a choice to either

accept or reject Jesus Christ. You cannot remain neutral.

There's no neutral ground. You have two choices.

You're either going to accept Him or you're going to reject

Him. There's no way around that

decision, and to do nothing is to choose not to.

We all face the consequences of our decisions, and I want you to

understand this. Lastly #3 if you accept Jesus

Christ as your Savior, he can write a new story.

He can write a story of restoration, a story of grace, a

story of hope. I will ask you to turn over to

Ephesians chapter 2. Christmas story is more than

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

just a baby born in a Manger. It's a story of a life capital L

that was given to mankind to change our eternal destiny and

to write a new chapter to our story.

We were once outcast and you still might be.

We were once on our way to hell and you still might be.

But there is hope, because Jesus Christ can and will change that

story, if you'll open up your heart and allow Him to come in

and write your story instead of trying to do it for yourself.

Of course, if we write our story and he died and he went to

heaven, that's how we'd all write our story.

But we don't get to be the ones that write it.

In fact, the Bible says this in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

#12 that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens

from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants

of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off, are made

nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath

made both, 1 and hath broken down the middle wall of

partition between us, verse #17 and came and preached peace to

you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.

For through Him we both have access by 1 Spirit unto the

Father. Now therefore, you are no more

strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the Saints

and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of

the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief

cornerstone. Boy, what a wonderful passage,

Tamar. When nobody else cares for you,

Christ does. Are you tired of being

overlooked? Are you tired of being

forgotten? Are you tired of being rejected?

Are you tired of being underappreciated when no one

believes you, no one chooses you, no one accepts you.

Jesus Christ does. He chose you to be included in

his lineage. Rahab.

You no longer have to remember you for what you used to be.

We can remember you. Forget what God changed you to

become, Ruth. We don't think of you as a

stranger anymore. You're one of the mothers in the

lineage of Jesus Christ. Bathsheba, your story has

changed from one that began with loss and shame to one that's a

story of hope and restoration through Jesus Christ.

Every one of those women had something in their past that was

looked on with shame. And I told you it was going to

be a little bit uncomfortable as we talked about their stories.

But it's necessary for you to understand that their past were

full of shame, that their past were full of things that they

were not proud of. So their pasts were full of

things that most of the world looks down upon.

They were at times despised, Some of them were victims, but

they were abused and abhorred and mistreated and despised and

rejected and even condemned until the Lord changed their

story, they accepted him, they changed their minds, they

changed their hearts, they changed their direction and God

changed their lives. So the question for you this

morning is will you accept the gift that God is offering you

today? Doesn't matter how bad you think

you are, doesn't matter how good you think you are.

The story of Christmas changed their story and it can change

yours as well. Turn, if you will, to one last

passage in Romans chapter 5. AJ Gordon was a Baptist preacher

Romans 5 · chapter mention

many years ago of the Clarendon Church in Boston, MA.

And one day he met a young boy that was, that had come into

the, to the auditorium there. And it was carrying a rusty cage

with several birds that were flooding around in the inside of

the cage. And the pastor walked out of his

office when he heard somebody open the door.

And he walked in there and he saw that boy standing there with

that cage and those birds in there.

And he said, what are you, what are you doing, young man?

What are, what are, what are those birds?

They said, well, I, I just captured them out in the field

and I put them in this, in this cage because I wanted to watch

him for a little while. And he said, well, what are you

going to do with them after you're done with them?

And he said, well, I suppose I'll just take them home and

feed him to the cat. And the pastor said, I'll tell

you what, I'll give you $2 for the cage and the birds.

And that boy said, oh, it's not they're just wild.

They're just wild birds. And they don't even have a nice

song. They don't even really sing at

all. It's not they're not worth

$2.00. And he said, but I'll give you

$2 for them. The boy said, all right, but

you're making a bad deal. And he walked out Jingle in

those couple coins in his pocket.

And that pastor, AJ Gordon, walked out the back of the

sanctuary there, and he opened that cage and he let those birds

fly away. And that Sunday morning he came

back into the pulpit and he brought that cage with him, just

a little wire cage. It wasn't much to it didn't even

hardly look like a bird cage. But he took that empty cage in

the pulpit to illustrate the, the, the, the, the coming of

Christ to seek and to save the lost.

He paid for them with his own precious blood.

And this is what he said. He said that boy told me the

birds were not songsters. But when I released them and

they winged their way heaven what it seemed to me they were

singing redeemed, redeemed, redeemed.

That's Christmas. That's the message of Christmas.

And the message of these times is the is the song of those wild

birds in the in the in the song of every song that's sung in

this season is all about redeemed.

Every gift that we give under the tree is a, is a, is a

reminder that we have been redeemed back to Jesus Christ.

The word of the shepherds redeemed, the word of Mary, the

assurance that Mary received redeemed.

The star that the the wise men followed redeemed and reminds us

the whole story of Christmas reminds us of the fact that we

can be redeemed back to God because of what he did for us.

You and I have been trapped by sin, but Christ has purchased

our redemption. We have been redeemed.

Every one of us has been redeemed back to God.

And yet there's still people who turn around and they say, I

don't want it. You can keep your redemption.

You can. I'll take the punishment that's

coming to me because of my sin. I'll have this.

I'll enjoy my life. I'll, I'll live in the sin as

long as I want to. You can keep it.

How foolish. How foolish for somebody who has

been given a pardon. How foolish for somebody who can

get away from the punishment that comes from their sin.

How foolish for somebody who doesn't have to spend an

eternity in hell and not only doesn't have to spend an

eternity in hell, but has been promised an eternity in heaven

with Jesus, with the mansions and the streets of gold and all

the other promises that we have of heaven.

And to say, Nah, I'd rather enjoy it in this life.

I'd rather live my life the way that I want to live it.

I'll take the punishment that's coming at the end when you've

already been redeemed. The payment has already been

made. The sacrifice has already been

made. Everything has already been done

for you. You don't have to spend a minute

in hell. You don't have to spend a minute

paying for your sins. Jesus Christ, the righteous, the

one who never did anything wrong, the one who doesn't

deserve any punishment, walked over to our side and tells us,

you, you go stand over there in my place, I'll take yours.

That's why I came. That's why I was born in that

Manger. That's, that's, that's why I

lived my life on earth with humans.

That's why I put up with all the things that I put up with.

That's why I did everything that I did.

And that's why I, I, I agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane

because I knew how difficult that would be.

And I knew that God was going to turn his back on me because I'm

taking this sin on myself. I knew that's what was going to

happen. But I love you so much.

I don't want to see you have to take that punishment.

Please. Here's the gift.

The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Please, it's here. It's yours.

I've already done everything that you need to do.

Won't you just accept it? You don't have to stand

condemned before God. You don't have to be the one who

pays for your sins. I'll take the payment for you.

I've already taken the payment for you.

Just let me have it. Just let me have it.

Just accept my gift. Somebody said this.

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent

us an educator. If our greatest need had been

technology, God would have sent us a scientist.

If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an

economist. If our greatest need had been

pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer.

But our greatest need was forgiveness.

So God sent us a Savior. I enjoy the trees and the lights

and the festivities and all the things that that are are part of

the season of Christmas. But the true beauty of Christmas

is not found in any of those things.

It's found in the eternal fact that we read in Romans chapter 5

Romans 5 · chapter mention

and verse #8. But God commendeth his love

toward us. God gave His love to us in that

while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

All through history God sought us.

Even when our attitudes and our actions were against Him.

He was for us. When we were at our very worst.

God gave us His very best. Will you accept the gift of His

Son? To reject it is to continue

living life in misery, in defeat, in discouragement, in

despair and shame, in emptiness. Every one of those women whose

lives were changed by the Christmas story came to the

realization that their past was nothing to be proud of, but

their future in Christ was something that would hide their

past under the blood of Jesus Christ.

God can change your life. He can rewrite your story

through the Savior that was born as a baby all those years ago.

Christmas changed their story. Christmas can change yours too.

Won't you let him? Won't you let him?

Let's pray. Father, again, we thank you so

much for your goodness to us. We thank you for the fact that

we can have eternal life. We thank you for the fact that

we can accept Jesus Christ as our Savior and God.

I do pray that if there is even one person in here this morning

that does not know for sure that Jesus Christ as their Savior,

does not know that their sins are covered under the blood of

Jesus Christ, does not know that they're on their way to heaven.

God, I pray that you'd help them to make that decision for you

today. Thank you so much for loving me

enough that I was allowed to hear the message of the gospel

and accept it for myself. Pray the same for everybody else

in here this morning again for all you do for us in Jesus name,

Amen, if you.