Understanding Immanuel: The Meaning Behind Christ's Birth

So I know most of you do.

I enjoy it, especially after Thanksgiving.

Me and you agree?

Yes.

Me and Ms. Charlene on the same page.

And so all you who decorated your houses this summer for Christmas,

that's what it's become.

You know, Dollar General had their Christmas stuff out.

Three months ago.

I think Lowe's and Home Depot had theirs out three months ago.

So I'll stop picking on you guys who keep your Christmas stuff

all year round.

Just easier to do it that way.

Just keep it up all year round.

It's pretty, you know.

So I guess we ought to preach tonight.

I'm going to go Some familiar passages.

Two passages.

Isaiah 7:14.

Isaiah 7:14

Prophecy of Isaiah 750 years before Christ was born.

And then Matthew 1:23, which is the angel coming to Joseph.

Matthew 1:23

And we touched on that a little bit this morning.

And so we'll look at those tonight.

So Isaiah 7:14.

Isaiah 7:14

And then Matthew 1:23.

Matthew 1:23

Isaiah 7:14.

Isaiah 7:14

Again we have the prophecy of Christ being born of a virgin.

And then also again that he shall be called Immanuel.

So look at this with me.

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign.

Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall

call his name Immanuel.

And again look over to Matthew 1:23.

Matthew 1:23

Here again, the angel is speaking to Joseph.

Let's go ahead and go back to verse 18.

Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise.

When his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph.

Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy

Ghost.

And Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make

her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

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.

For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

And she shall bring forth a son.

Thou shalt call his name Jesus.

And we mentioned this morning again, the name Jesus means Savior.

And it gives you the definition in the next statement.

For he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken

of the Lord by the prophets, saying, whose prophet?

What prophet?

Isaiah.

Isaiah 7:14.

Isaiah 7:14

Behold.

Behold.

Wonder.

Behold.

To put an object up and to behold it.

To look at every angle.

A virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son.

And they shall call his name Immanuel.

Which, being interpreted, is God with us.

God with a snyb really was going to spend most of My time talking

about the incarnation of Christ, of him becoming flesh.

But I believe we want to spend a little time on why did he come?

When, where and why and how.

The Old Testament answers all those questions.

The Old Testament, how, when, where and why?

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, again bless the reading of your word.

And Lord, may we again see how amazing.

Prophecy is in your word, how so particular it is, Lord, It's a

miracle.

Lord, help us to never lose the wonder of the miraculous birth

of your son Jesus.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

Why did he come again?

700 years.

750 years before Christ was born.

Isaiah answers the question of why he came.

We also hear of his ministry.

We hear of his message are all foretold.

750 years before Christ was born.

Isaiah brings forth a message of redemption that a promise of a

Savior who would come.

One who would come with us, who would be Immanuel.

Now the New Testament gives us the definition of Emmanuel.

But understand the Hebrew and the Old Testament that Emmanuel means

God with us.

So when the Old Testament saints were reading this verse of

Scripture, when they read the name Immanuel, they automatically

knew this means God with us.

That the Messiah would be God with us.

Think about that for a moment.

The Old Testament saints, the Old Testament prophets were told

that that Jesus Christ was indeed God.

Again.

The promise of this great miracle happened 250 years before

his birth.

This is no ordinary birth.

How was he to be born?

How would he be born?

Well, Isaiah tells us he would be born of a virgin.

That is impossible.

That is impossible.

A virgin cannot have a baby.

Amen.

That's impossible.

I'm thankful nothing's impossible with God.

And it was important, as we have stated this morning, and as

we'll state over the next 30 days here, as we spend a lot of time

talking about Jesus and the virgin birth and the story of Christmas

story, it was important that he be born of a virgin again.

That he lived that sinless life because he had no sinful nature,

because he didn't receive a sin nature, because he had no earthly

dad.

Joseph was not his biological dad.

The Holy Spirit was.

The Bible says there very clearly.

He was of the child of the Holy Ghost.

He said, joseph, don't.

It's not a problem for you to take Mary to be your wife, for that

which is in her is conceived of the Holy Ghost.

I can't imagine what Joseph must have gone through thinking that

his.

Future wife was pregnant.

Until that time.

The angel came to him and said, no need to worry.

Take her to be your wife.

It's an amazing thing.

Again, an impossible.

An impossible thing.

But God prepared a virgin, a pure and chaste woman.

To be the vessel in which would house God in the flesh.

That's beyond comprehension, isn't it?

Fully comprehend that.

The God of the universe, the creator of everything.

Became flesh.

So how would he be born 750 years before he was born?

Isaiah tells us he'd be born a virgin.

Number two, when would he be born?

And we don't have time.

We just went over this in our study of Daniel in Daniel, chapter

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

9.

The Prophecies of Daniel.

Daniel chapter 9, verse 25, 26, 27, speaks of that prophecy concerning

Daniel 9:25

Daniel's 70 weeks, which is 490 years, which gives us an outline.

And Daniel gives you the calendar of when Christ was going

to be born and when he was going to be cut off, when he was

going to die.

Literally, you can take that and we did.

You take the calendar from Daniel and you can spell out the

day in which Christ will be born and die.

It was there in the prophecy.

Daniel, chapter 9.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

Understand that there were those who were looking for Christ's

coming.

Zacharias.

Do you think Zacharias is just hanging out?

And then when Mary and Joseph walked into the temple, he said,

he said, that's probably not.

No, no.

He was looking for it.

I believe, I believe, I believe.

My opinion is Zacharias knew the calendar.

He knew it was close.

He was one of the ones of the Jewish leaders who weren't caught

up in the wrappings, who wasn't caught up in the liturgy.

He wasn't caught up in the ceremonies.

He was one of the remnant who was looking for Christ's return.

Looking for return, looking for the Messiah to come.

And when he saw the Messiah, there he was.

It sang about him.

Go read it.

Yeah.

No.

Having Old Testament scriptures and prophecy, that made

it very clear when Christ would come.

There it is.

It's there.

Daniel, chapter nine.

And I have charts if you would like them.

We passed them out during our Daniel study.

So again, how he would be born and when he would be born.

And then number three, where.

And most of you know this scripture and are familiar with it.

Where he would be born.

Micah 5, 2.

But thou Bethlehem, Bethlehem.

Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah.

A small town, about a thousand in population.

It had been bigger actually in the past.

Now the population is 30 or so thousand.

By the way, after two years of not being able to have Christmas

in Bethlehem, they were able to have it this year.

Small town.

Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of

thee shall come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel.

Not a 12 inch ruler.

He's talking about king, a ruler in Israel whose goings forth

have been from old, from everlasting to everlasting again.

Speaks of the place in which he would be born, of Bethlehem and.

And his deity, his goings forth would be of old, from everlasting.

I was going back and reading about the hyper.

The kenosis theory.

There's lots of things in theology you can read about and various

theories concerning the deity of Christ and concerning what Christ.

When Christ was born in this world, did he lay aside his deity?

Well, the Bible makes it very clear he did not lay aside his deity,

that he was indeed God in the flesh.

Amen.

God in the flesh, you say?

Well, he was a baby and yet he was God and man.

But yet he.

Are you saying that as a baby he could have just spoke like an

adult if he had wanted to?

The answer to that is yes.

He was God.

And he was man.

In his humanity he did not do that.

That would have been scary, you know, I mean he grew as a child.

The Bible says he grew in stature and wisdom.

But understand that as God he already knew all things.

Well, you say then he was some kind of, you know, schizophrenic.

No, hypostatic union of Christ.

The nature of Christ, it's a long study, but man, it just says

no, no, no.

It was two natures.

Two natures in one.

An amazing, amazing thing.

Again, one of those things that's hard for us to comprehend

that he was God and man at the same time.

He could not cease from being God.

As God, he took all God's wrath.

As man he represented mankind.

Understand that as a man he sits at the right hand of the throne

of God.

Today there's a man sitting, setting at the right hand of the

throne of God.

We have mentioned these scriptures before.

I'll mention them again.

That when Jesus was on earth again, incarnation, as a man in a

body, he still was everywhere.

John, chapter three, verse 13.

You can look it up yourself.

Jesus in his own words said.

Here, but I'm also in heaven.

And I thought there's a second verse and I have forgotten about

it.

Verse we use all the time.

Remember Jesus words where two or more are gathered together.

There am I in the midst of them.

Now we, because we understand what he's saying.

He's referencing that wherever we're at, no matter what we're doing

where two are praying together, he's going to be there

in the midst.

I'm thankful he's in the midst tonight, right?

Doesn't mean he has to make himself evident.

But he's here with us tonight.

But understand, when he made that statement.

He was in a body.

He was here on earth.

And when he said, where two or more are gathered together, there

am I in the mist.

Guess what he was saying?

Yes, I'm here physically in body, but my deity, I'm still deity.

I'm still with the congregation over, you know, I'm

still with them, and I'm still with them.

And if there are two disciples over here praying, or if there's

three disciples over here praying, if they're, you know, I'm

there with them and I'm there with their.

In their midst.

Amen.

We take another one for granted.

We use it all the time.

Matthew 28, Jesus said to go, right?

And then he says, what?

Preach, you know, teach and evangelize.

And lo, I am with you alway, even until the end of the world.

We understand what that means.

If you've been around church very long.

We understand that means that when I go out, when I'm telling somebody

about Jesus, when I'm spreading the gospel, he is with

me.

Thank the Lord for that.

I need him.

I still get super nervous.

I had made a visit with Noah the other day and one of our families

who joined here recently, and I was nervous when I knocked that

door, Noah said, no, you know, this is great stuff, but I still

get nervous.

Just do.

But lo, I am with you always.

Even into the end of the world.

We take for granted, understand that he was in a body

when he said that.

Yet he said, I'll be with you.

Just a thought again, God in the flesh, but did not lay aside

his deity.

He was still absolutely 100% God.

Because he couldn't cease being God.

By the way, as God, he could not sin.

And though he was tempted.

He could not sin.

When Satan came to him after he fasted for 40 days.

Satan could have done everything.

He could have done everything in the world.

He did.

He tried but understand.

Jesus could not sin.

Or else he would cease to be God.

The where is that?

He would be born in Bethlehem.

And then again the scripture there in Micah 5:2 makes it clear

Micah 5:2

that he would be a deity.

We already Learned from Isaiah 7, he would be God in the flesh.

Here it makes a reference to him being ruler one day.

He one day will rule as king of Kings.

And Lord of Lords, very, very clear.

He is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant, the promise given

to David of an everlasting kingdom.

David died.

That promise was not fulfilled in him.

But one day it will be in Jesus Christ, who is the son of David.

As we read a moment ago in Matthew chapter one, and then understand,

not only does it give us the how that he would be born, when he

would be born, where he would be born 750 years before his birth,

but also the why.

And this is where we were talking about this morning, where

the Jewish leaders, and also the Jewish masses, because of their

leaders, a lot of it, were so caught up in the liturgy.

They were caught up in all of the sacrifices and just the ceremonies

and not what the ceremonies meant.

The priests were no longer in the temple teaching them.

Here's the sacrifice.

You brought a lamb to sacrifice.

One day a lamb will come.

One day the Messiah will come.

That's what they were supposed to be teaching.

This sacrifice represents the Messiah who will come one day.

And they used to do that.

But that time had come.

That was far past.

They were to come to the temple and they were to learn that

the bread on the table of showbread represented the bread of

life.

The temple would have been.

And the priest would have been teaching that to them.

The altar of incense, speaking of the prayers up to God.

And they would have been taught that.

They would have been taught about the candlestick and Jesus being

the light of the world, the Messiah is going to come and be the

light.

And they would have been taught that.

Amen.

But all of that had been done away with.

And all they were concerned with, and all they were caught up

in was the letter of the law and the ceremonies themselves.

And that's why many times in The Old Testament, Micah 6, 8 and

many other places where it makes it very clear that the blood

of bulls and goats does not save anybody.

Those sacrifices did not save them, did not take away their sins.

When they brought that sacrifice to the altar and they brought

that sacrifice to the temple.

That sacrifice did not save them from their sins, from the wrath

of God upon their sins.

It only pushed it forward.

Once a year.

Pushed him forward, pushed him forward until the Messiah did come,

the final sacrifice, who gave his life for all mankind, past, present

and future.

Why was he born again?

The leadership was so caught up in the packaging and were in such

denial of the Old Testament prophecies concerning the Messiah

that they just not just overlooked this, but just said, no,

that can't be true.

This cannot.

This cannot.

Our Messiah is not going to die.

But yet the Old Testament, over and over and over again, prophets

make it very clear that the Messiah who would come would die.

They saw a picture of that twice a day.

The morning sacrifice, the evening sacrifice.

Morning sacrifice, evening sacrifice.

You think at some point it would click, okay, so this sacrifice

is representing the Messiah who's going to come.

I guess he's going to die.

And then Isaiah, Psalm 22.

So many other references to him dying.

So I'm going to look at.

I'm going to read a few of them.

You can look these up later.

So why he would be born?

Why would he be born?

Why would the Messiah be born?

Well, he was born to die.

It's a beautiful song, by the way, that's sung.

Born to die.

Isaiah 53.

Let's turn there.

We're already in Isaiah, if you're still there.

Isaiah 53.

Let's read it.

Isaiah 53.

Understand too.

Isaiah 53 is attributed to the Messiah not just by New Testament

Christians, but by those in the Old Testament as well.

They attribute this to Messiah.

It's a messianic prophecy.

Who hath believed our report?

Verse 1.

And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?

For he talking about the future Messiah shall grow up before

them as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground.

Right.

There was no king, no Davidic king sitting on the throne of Israel.

That line had dried up a long time ago.

He hath no form nor comingness.

And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should

desire him.

I do believe this means that he.

There are other aspects to this.

But one of the aspects is that he is not going to be like a movie

star.

You know, he's going to have that kind of looks.

And so many times he's portrayed that way in movies, you

know.

Anyway, I don't want to go there.

Jesus didn't have long hair.

Does that help everybody?

Why would he in the New Testament say, it's a shame for men

to have long hair?

And then he would have long hair.

Number one.

In that era, in that time frame in which Jesus was born, short

hair was the style.

It was Roman.

Roman.

He would have had short hair.

He was a Jew.

The Jews had short hair.

Pretty simple.

You can study it yourself.

But if you got one of those pictures at your house with Jesus

long hair, just understand that is the European.

Artist drawing Jesus.

Okay, I'll stop.

But the point here is that his physical attributes are not what's

going to draw people to him.

Okay, we shall see there's no beauty that we should desire him.

He has despised and rejected a man.

I mean, he came into his own, and his own received him not.

John, chapter one, says, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief.

And we hid, as it were, our faces from him.

He was despised, and we esteemed him not.

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows.

Yet we did esteem him what stricken smitten of God and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions.

He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement.

Our peace was upon him.

And with his stripes we are healed.

Sound like he's coming as a deliverer.

Physically delivering the nation of Israel.

Does it sound like that's what's happening here?

No, it sounds like he's coming to die.

He's coming to be scourged and tortured.

That's what it sounds like, right?

For us, it's pretty plain.

Not pretty plain.

It is plain.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

We've turned everyone to his own way.

The Lord hath laid on him the future Messiah.

The iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his

mouth.

He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter.

And as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not

his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment.

And who shall declare the generation?

For he was cut off.

Very clear what that means.

Out of the land of the living.

He is going to die.

The Messiah is going to die.

The Promised One is going to die.

Makes it very clear.

He was cut off of the land of the living for the transgression

of my people.

Was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death

because he had done no violence.

Neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

He hath put him to grief.

When thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see

his seed.

I love this.

He shall prolong his days.

He saw Jesus, understood he's God.

But he understood why he was dying.

And he could see the future of those who would accept him as savior.

He saw his seed.

He saw the past.

And those who have accepted him as the Savior.

Those who had believed in the future Messiah.

And he saw the future.

Those who would accept him in the future.

He saw his seed.

He belonged his days.

He stayed on the cross.

He stayed there for you and for me when I was on the Cross.

When he was on the cross, I was on his mind.

It's a beautiful song, but it's a biblical truth.

I was on his mind, you were on his mind.

And he died for us.

He died for you, he died for me.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

He stayed on the cross for you and for me.

He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper

in his hands.

He shall see the travail of his soul.

Talking about God shall see the travail of the soul of his son

Jesus and shall be satisfied.

We've mentioned this many times too.

Hell does not satisfy God.

Those burning in hell does not satisfy the just demands of the law

and of God.

Only Jesus and his sacrifice on Calvary satisfies God's wrath.

Why is that?

Because he was the perfect sacrifice.

Because only God could take all God's wrath.

And so many more things justify many that he shall bear the

iniquities.

And we'll stop there.

You might write this one down and look it up later, but Isaiah

Isaiah 50:6

50, verse 6 says, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks

to them that plucked off the hair.

I hid not my face from the shame and spitting.

Describing the Messiah.

Describing the Messiah.

Does it sound like he's going to come and lift the yoke of the

Roman Empire off the Jews?

No.

Now what happens is.

And we have read just as many over the years of.

There are multiple, multiple verses.

And we read some even in Daniel, a lot in Daniel, speaking

of the second coming of Christ when he comes to rule and reign.

Amen.

Everlasting kingdom.

In fact, Isaiah 7:14 just said it.

Isaiah 7:14

But there are as many prophecies concerning his death.

That the Jews knowingly has to be overlooked.

Just.

Just passed them by.

Refusing to believe it.

Why?

Because they were under Roman oppression.

They wanted a deliverer.

They wanted somebody to lift the yoke off and.

To replace King David on the throne.

And usher in the everlasting kingdom.

The disciples wanted that.

They kept asking for it.

Even a mom said, hey, who's going to be just.

Even up until the end, they were still fighting over it and fussing

over it.

Lord, let's build some tabernacles.

Let's build a tabernacle, you know.

No.

He came to die.

750 years.

The why was answered for us by the Old Testament prophets.

The how, the when, the where and the why.

He came to shed his blood for us in order that he might offer salvation

for all.

Thankful, by the way.

Salvation's free.

And he did.

And there's such detail about it.

That you have to knowingly overlook it.

If you are a religious Jewish leader.

By the way, as a Christian, you have to knowingly overlook it.

If you go in the Old Testament, look, it's there over

and over again.

What a miracle that 750 years before he was born, we have such

detail.

And that God supernaturally intervened to make all of this take

place.

You think about it now, the promised place in which he would

be born, in Bethlehem.

God had to move the entire Roman Empire to make that happen.

The entire Roman Empire.

Caesar's decree that all the world should be taxed was God's intervention.

In order that Joseph and Mary would leave Nazareth and go to Bethlehem

to fulfill that great promise, the promise of a virgin again, miraculous

things in that Holy Spirit that implanted that seed and that

holy thing of God, the Son of God.

Miraculous.

750 years.

We have all this detail.

By the way.

It wasn't just Mary and Joseph that were told about this great miracle,

though both of them were told, but the shepherds were told of this

wonderful miracle.

And then they went out and told everybody.

Amen.

What a wonderful, amazing.

Fulfillment of the prophecy.

By the way, such great news.

Without controversy.

Great is the mystery of godliness.

God was manifest in the flesh.

God became man.

I think about again.

John, chapter one, verse one.

In the beginning was the Word, capital W O R D. And the Word was

with God.

And the same was in the beginning was the Word.

And the Word was with God.

And the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

Again, the Word is God.

It's the All Wise One, the omniscient genius behind the creation

of the universe.

It's Jesus Christ who is the living Word.

I'm glad we have the written word in front of us.

He is deity.

He is God.

By the way, he was with God in the beginning.

John, chapter 8, verse 58.

John 8:58

You looked that up later and most of you have heard it before.

But Jesus said to those religious leaders before Abraham

was what I am.

In reference to Exodus, chapter three.

No doubt he is referencing himself as the I am, the I am that

I am.

How do we know that he was referencing himself and as the I

am?

Because they tried to stone him for it.

The Jews tried to kill him for it.

They are the ones who testify that he was equating himself to being

the I am.

And yet we see cults who deny it.

The Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses.

Others who deny it, The Trinitarians, many.

Some others, by the way, remind you that First John.

And I'll give you that reference too, if you want to look

it up later.

First John.

I'm sorry.

Second John, chapter one, verse seven through 11, says that

if there is one that comes among you who denies the deity of

Jesus Christ, that you are not to let them in your home.

I want to just remind you, when a Jehovah Witness knocks on

your door, you have a biblical mandate not to let them in your house.

Be careful who you're listening to.

A Mormon knocks on your door, you have a biblical mandate not to

let them into your home, Say.

Well, that sounds kind of mean.

Just tell me what the Bible says.

Go look it up.

It's very clear.

Doesn't mean you can't talk with them at your door if you want

to.

I have, many times.

But I'm not letting them in my house.

Amen.

Appreciate that very much.

We kind of skirt around it sometimes.

Again, the Mormons, Jehovah Witnesses believe Jesus Christ was

created.

Mormons especially believe that Satan is his brother.

I mean, there's some weird stuff in that movement, by the way.

These spirit babies.

And there's stuff there that you need to go study it yourself.

I'm still.

I'm still in wonder.

There are a lot of good people in the Mormon movement, and most

of them are just naive and they have never gone and studied

the actual doctrines of what they're participating in.

Most of them are sitting in a Mormon church or Jehovah Witness

church.

I hate to call them churches, but they're sitting there because

they, they do teach good about the family and, and there's wholesome

things there that they advertise and really do teach.

And they're just naive, most of them, but I'm telling you, we

need to be careful.

Jesus Christ was God in the flesh.

Deity.

So again, the promise, the virgin birth, those who were told

about Jesus being born, Mary, Joseph, Zacharias, I mean, you go

on and on of those.

The shepherds, and the shepherds spread the news.

By the way, that was great news, wasn't it?

I'm thankful that God is not slack concerning his promises, as

some men count slackness.

Thankful he's merciful to all that will come to him.

God always keeps his promises.

Always keeps his promise.

I'm thankful that.

That God's promises are not voided by time.

Man.

I want to give you an illustration that's going to be in

three or four weeks from now.

I'm Going to do it anyway.

I'm thankful the promises of God have no sell by date on them.

Y' all ever deal with that?

Sell by.

I pick up a piece of food at the house.

I go into the pantry, I pick it up, look at it, try to find the

date.

At least at our house, now that the kids are gone, stuff doesn't

move as quick, you know, the groceries sit on the shelf a little

while.

Used to when the kids were little, I mean, it was just all gone.

Where did all the stuff go?

Well, those three boys ate it all every other day going to Walmart.

But now you have to look at the sell by date.

Honey, this is three months.

Three months out on.

Oh, it's still good.

Still good, you know.

No, no, I'm not eating that.

I'm just not going to do it.

Oh, it's still good.

She was raised.

Yeah.

Right.

Some of y' all testify, some of y' all eat it, don't you.

You just go ahead and do it.

Twinkies last for 10, 15, 20 years.

Just eat them.

Yes.

You're that person.

Yeah.

I look at the sale by date and I will go past not.

Not milk and stuff like that.

I had to get my wife to smell the milk and make sure it's okay.

Most of you, a lot of you don't know.

Covid took my smell away.

I still have never completely got my smell.

Smell her back.

It's sad.

I'm thankful my taste is still there.

Praise the Lord.

But the sell by date.

I'm thankful that the promises of God don't expire.

2,000 years.

2,000 years.

750 years.

And go on and on and on and see the fulfillment of these promises,

these great and precious promises.

By the way, God always keeps his promises.

Always.

As we think about the message of Jesus Christ, God in the flesh,

coming.

Again.

There'S no sell by date.

Can you see tonight how.

And I'll make this point and I'll quit.

How simple it is.

How completely obvious it is.

How?

Put it another way.

Very clear.

The Bible is in the Old Testament of who, why, where you

see it, it's very, very clear.

It's not like when you go through the drive through ordering

a meal.

You can't understand the person.

Right?

I mean, it's not that way.

It's very clear what it's saying.

It's very obvious what it says.

It's not Charlie Brown's teacher.

Wa wa wa wa wa wa.

No, it's.

Do you see as a born again child of God, how clear Isaiah is

concerning the future Messiah.

How clear Micah prophesies concerning the future Messiah.

How clear it is, how obvious it is.

And yet they're blinded by the truth.

By the way the New Testament tells us that the devil's the one

blinding them.

The obvious and clear.

Prophecies concerning the Messiah that have taken place, that

have been fulfilled.

Aren't you thankful for that?

His birth, his life, his death and his resurrection, all prophesied

and of course clearly taught and they believe this part of it,

that one day he will rule and reign.

One day he will sit on the throne of David forever and ever

and ever.

Let's all stand, we'll be have a time of invitation.

Jesus Christ, the promised Savior.

What a wonderful message.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for the time we've had.

And we thank you for just how clear your prophecies are.

Lord, may we never take it for granted that our eyes have been opened,

Lord, that we do understand this truth.

We thank you for salvation.

We thank you for the blood that was shed on Calvary.

We thank you for the resurrection.

Again, may we never take it for granted.

In Jesus name, amen.