December 22, 2024 • 26 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
If you struggle to keep your Christmas celebration focused on Jesus,
just remember the word that shows how He keeps his
love focused on you, Savior. Today on turning point, doctor
David Jeremiah explains why this special word stands apart from
the hundreds of other names and titles given to Christ
(00:25):
to introduce the conclusion of his important message, why call
Him Savior?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Here's David, and thank you so much for joining us.
You know the big day is just a few days away.
I can't help but keep saying Merry Christmas to everybody.
I don't want to miss anyone along the way. I
hope you're having a wonderful Christmas holiday celebration and not
forgetting why we celebrate Christmas, which is why I am
here today to remind you, to remind you that Jesus
(00:52):
Christ came as a baby in a manger, but he
came as our savior. He shall save his people from
their sins, and so thankful for that truth. Luke two eleven,
We're going to look at that question today and just
a few moments as we talk about why call Him Savior?
During this month, it's my great privilege to make available
(01:15):
to you this beautiful devotional that we create every year,
this year the most beautiful ever. It's bound in a
beautiful blue leather binding with gold lettering on the front,
gilded pages, beautiful color inside, but most of all, a
devotional reading for every day of the new year. And
we want you to have this. This is our way
(01:37):
of saying thank you for your gift to turning point
during the month of December. So when you send your gift,
and please do your best. This is the end of
the year. We need your help to stay strong, So
do the best that you can give your best gift,
and we understand that not everybody can give the same amount.
You give your best, and whatever your gift may be,
(01:57):
simply ask for your copy of this devotion and it
will bless your life every.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Day for the new year.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And this is just one of those gifts that keeps
on giving every day and we want you to have it.
Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity. And
let's take time right now to ask this question of
the whole narrative of Christmas. Why call him savior.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
My friend? If you are not saved from your sin,
you will never be saved from your problems. Jesus did
not come to make our lives better. He came to
save us from our sin. And in spite of the
fact that we know that we are easily swayed by
feel good messages about how Jesus can make it all better,
(02:45):
the Savior came to save us from our sin, and
the Bible says in order to do that, according to
Luke nineteen ten, he had to seek us first. He
came to seek and to save that which was lost.
I remember growing up, we used to sing a little
chorus in our youth group that went like this, I
found what I wanted when I found the Lord. And
(03:09):
that's a beautiful little phrase, and it was a great tune.
But it's bad theology because we weren't seeking the Lord.
He was seeking us. You say, well, I'm here, I'm
seeking Lord. Well, if you're seeking the Lord, it's only
because he sought you first. He puts you in a
seeking mode so that you would hear the gospel, and
the Bible says that man will not come to God unaided.
(03:33):
In Luke chapter fifteen, one of my favorite passages, we're
told about the lost sheep, and the lost coin, and
the lost son, all of them had to be sought
by the Savior, just as today we must be sought
as well. All my friends, there is music and majesty
in Jesus' statement, one focus the lost, two actions, to
(03:54):
seek and to save. Jesus came to this earth. Listen
to me on a rescue mission. The Savior is needed
to seek the lost, and the Savior is needed to
save the lost. He came to seek and to save.
If he found us and didn't save us, we'd be
(04:14):
in the same position we were before. But he came
to save us. Now, I have to tell you that
word has fallen on hard times. We use every word
that we can come up with from the dictionary except
the word saved. I remember, growing up as a boy,
it was a common thing to ask somebody if they'd
been saved. I remember one little foray into the witnessing
(04:39):
arena when I was a student at Dallas Seminary. I
was taking some courses at North Texas State University, some
graduate courses, and I was going through a period of
time that you've probably never been through, a time like
this when I was feeling very guilty that I was
so busy about doing the Christian thing that I wasn't witnessing.
(05:00):
I had probably heard a message on witnessing that had
put me under a guilt trip, and so I determined
I was going to witness And I went to my
class and sat next to a friend, and I'll never
forget this. I asked him, are you saved? And he said,
I'm not interested in being saved from anything except from
nuts like you. That's what he said. It sort of
(05:23):
set my witnessing program back a few weeks. Was very discouraging. Now,
somebody would say to me, well, you shouldn't have asked
him that question. There's a better way to ask it,
and perhaps there is. But the Bible's term for it
is to be saved. When we think of being saved,
we think of pictures of sailors clinging to the wreckage
(05:43):
of a ship, helicopters hovering in the night sky, shining
their beacons on the sea in search of the living
who must be saved. Don and I were in a
condo and it was a very quiet day, uneventful at all.
Of a sudden we heard helicopters, five of them, out
in front of where we were staying, going up and
down in front of this thing, and it went on
(06:05):
for hours. I knew something was going on, and so
I walked down to the pier and ask some of
the people who had gathered there what was happening. A
surfer had disappeared, and they feared he had drowned, and
ultimately he had, but they couldn't find his body, and
so they were searching for him, and they never stopped
(06:26):
until they found him. We think of a collapsed mine,
where workers are trapped far beneath the earth. Their oxygen
runs low, and men crouch in darkness, wondering if they
dare hope for salvation. We think of a little girl
at the bottom of a well, or even the favorite
word picture of a single stray sheep trapped on a
(06:48):
perilous slope. The coastguard will find those lost sailors, and
no taxpayer will ever complain about the expense. The miners
will not be a band, and the little girl must
see the sunshine once more, and the one sheep must
be rescued from danger. These situations are urgent, and when
(07:08):
we see them on television, we stop and we pray
and we wait. We may not even know any of
the people, but instantly we find ourselves identifying with them
and praying that somehow they will be rescued. They are
lost and they need to be saved. But ladies and gentlemen,
(07:30):
these temporal situations are transcended by the true tragedy of
men and women who are lost in their own rubble
of sin and darkness and pain, and often even without
knowing what they are longing for, our world's inhabitants are
crying out to be rescued. We don't need to be
(07:51):
saved from the sins of others. We need salvation from
our own sin. Until we are willing to knowledge that
no matter what the Savior may have done for us,
it will not connect with us at all. Until we
are willing to say, it's not their sins that is
the problem, it is my sin. It is not my
(08:12):
situation that's the problem. It's my sin that's the problem.
Until we are willing to stand up before God and
own up to the fact that we have failed him
and we are falling short of his glory and the
only hope we have is a savior. Until then, whatever
the Savior may have done for us, it will not
(08:33):
make any difference because he does not force himself upon us.
He paid the penalty for our sin. He paid all
that needs to be paid, but he waits for us
to accept it by faith the promise of the Savior
and the purpose of the Savior. Notice the provision of
the Savior in the same verse, for unto you is
(08:54):
born this day in the city of David, a savior,
which is Christ, the Lord. Please notice the fact of
this Savior coming to this earth. This is a fact
of history. It's very interesting that this verse, while it
is so very short, contains everything we need to know.
It says, for unto you is born this day a savior.
(09:20):
Jesus did not just gradually come upon this earth. There
was a day when the Lord God was born into humanity,
when he came through Mary, and on a certain day,
in a certain place, at a certain time, he was
born into humanity. The Bible makes it very clear this
(09:43):
is an historic event. On this day Jesus was born.
The birth of Jesus is not the beginning of a
spiritual force, but the historic record of a person who
had an actual birthday. Fact of history, but it is
also a fulfillment of prophecy. Once again, in this one
(10:05):
little verse here we see it for unto you is
born this day in the city of David. The city
of David, as you know, is the city of Bethlehem.
And the Old Testament is filled with prophecies of the
coming of Messiah in such a specific way that most
Jewish people had a tendency to read, write over the
(10:27):
prophecies and not even understand them. Micah, for instance, had
prophesied that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Micah five
to two. For you, Bethlehem, AFREDA, though you are little
among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall
come forth to me, the one to be ruler in Israel,
(10:49):
whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Now
that's a wonderful verse, but it becomes a miracle verse
when you recognize that it was written seven hundred years
before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The prophet Daniel in
the Old Testament actually gave a timetable for the birth
of Jesus. Isaiah said that Messiah would be virgin born.
(11:12):
Jeremiah said that there would come a time when, because
of Christ's birth, there would be a slaughter of many children,
and Hoseiah, the prophet revealed that at a certain time
Mary and Joseph would have to go into Egypt to
spare the life of the child. All of these prophecies
men and women were given five hundred to seven hundred
(11:33):
years before the birth of Christ, and there were devout
Jews who every day would read the scripture and wonder,
will these things happen in my lifetime. The birth of
Jesus was not only a fact of history, it was
a fulfillment of prophecy. But notice it is also a
foundation for eternity. Unto you is born a savior. Listen carefully,
(11:56):
Jesus Christ is our savior. God came down and entered
into humanity so that humanity would be able to enter
into eternity. This birth of Jesus, while it began at
a point in time, began something that will never end
and can never end, because when he was born into humanity,
(12:20):
he opened the door for us to eternity. So don't
discount this one simple little verse that records an event
that happened when the Savior was born. There are so
many people who celebrate Christmas without celebrating Christ. I always
(12:42):
get kind of a kick out of that. At the
season of the year, all these people who don't believe
in Jesus go into debt to celebrate his birth. Can
you understand that they don't believe in him, but they
his birth religiously. Perhaps that is why there are so
(13:05):
many who feel depressed on Christmas Day, the Christmas blues.
It's sometimes called the sad syndrome, seasonal effective disorder. It's
called sad season effective disorder. Whatever it is. If you
happen to be down in the dumps during this season,
(13:29):
let me give you some great counsel. Stop thinking about
Christmas and start thinking about Christ. He is our prophet
and our priest and our King. He is the Master
and the bridegroom and the good Shepherd. He's the Holy
One of God. He is Immanuel God with us, and
(13:49):
his name is called Jesus. John introduced him as the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Magi recognized him as the King of the Jews,
and even the demons call him and the Holy One
of God. Is this not? The carpenter ask the people
of Nazareth, Could this be the Christ? Ask the woman
(14:09):
by the well. Thomas called him my Lord and my God. No,
ladies and gentlemen, this time of year isn't about Christmas.
It's about Christ. It isn't about presence, It's about His presence.
You may not have family nearby, but your Father is
(14:30):
close at hand. Your faith is more important than your feelings,
and he sets us free from chains we could never
remove ourselves because He is our savior. He is our hope.
When you get all depressed and discouraged about things that
(14:50):
you have no control over in your life, let me
ask you just to sort of push those away and
refocus your attention on the one who who loves you
more than you can ever imagine, who came to this
earth specifically to be your savior. I know what a
(15:12):
task I have as I approach Christmas each year. How
do you break through the veneer that we have created
around this season and even around ourselves? How do I
tell you about the saviorhood of Jesus. I pray that
God will give me a story that will help me
(15:34):
to do it, a metaphor or some parable that will
compare what we don't know with what we do now.
My story today is a story that was told for
many years by a great pastor of another generation by
the name of R. G Lee. R.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
G Lee.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
For many years was the pastor of what is today
the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He was at
one time the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and
was known across this land as one of the great
orators and Bible preachers. Whenever he would preach on the
Saviorhood of Christ, he would often tell this story. The
(16:18):
story takes place in the mountains of Virginia in a
one room schoolhouse that was so tough no teacher ever
lasted there more than a few weeks. It was a
school populated with mean spirited mountain boys who thought their
main objective in life was to run off every new
teacher who dared to enter their classroom. One day, a
(16:41):
very young teacher applied for the job. The director of
the school actually tried to talk to him out of it.
He said, son, He said, you don't know what you're
going to do. You're going to take on an awful
beating because you're so young. He said, son, even the
most experienced teachers in the entire state never last here
more than two months. Well, said the young teacher, I'm
(17:03):
going to risk it, and he took the job on
his first day, he walked into the classroom and he
noticed that the kids were gathered in the back of
the room and they were sort of gathered around this
one huge young man, who he found out later was
a guy named Tom. In fact, they called him Big
Old Tom. That's what they called him, and he was
(17:24):
the bully of the class, loud enough so that the
new teacher could hear him. Big Old Tom said, I'll
take care of this one. I'll do it all by myself.
I won't need anyone's help. He'll be gone by the
end of the day. When the young teacher got up
in front of the class, he said, I have come
(17:44):
to conduct this class, but I must confess I cannot
do it without your help. I think what we need
is a few rules, and I'm going to ask you
to help me make the rules for the class. What
rules do you think we ought to have? This was
a new one on this class. This had never happened before.
(18:07):
As the teacher went to the blackboard, one kid hollered
out no stealing, and the teacher wrote it on the board.
Nobody can be late. He wrote it on the board,
and by the time he finished, the teacher had ten
rules for the classroom the ten commandments of his class.
Everybody agreed, and yet as they were agreed, they were
(18:27):
all laughing out loud. Now, said the teacher, there is
no such thing as a good rule without a penalty
if the rule is broken. What should be the penalty
if a rule is broken? And Big Old Tom stood
up and he said, whoever breaks one of these rules
gets ten licks across his bare back. And the teacher
(18:49):
thought the penalty a bit severe, and obviously this story
is dated, but he reluctantly agreed. They went to school
the next day, and as you can well imagine, the
morning had not ended before a rule was broken. Big
Tom showed up at the teacher's desk and said, somebody
(19:10):
stole my lunch. So the teacher held court and said, class,
one of the rules is no stealing, and somebody stole
Big Tom's lunch, and I want to know who. After
everyone had been questioned, a little ten year old boy
stood up and said, I stole his lunch. I was
so hungry I couldn't help it. I stole the lunch. Well,
(19:33):
the teacher said, you know what the rule is. You
know that you get ten licks across your back without
your coat on, and the little boy began to beg teacher,
please don't do that, and whatever you do, don't make
me take off my coat. Finding the teacher, knowing he
was on trial at this moment, made the young boy
(19:54):
unbutton his coat and underneath there was no shirt, just
a suspender that were holding up his pants. And the
teacher was thinking, how in the world am I going
to whip this child? How can I do that? But
if I don't, I will have forever lost control of
this classroom. What shall I do? He said to the
(20:15):
boy's son, how is it that you don't have a
shirt on? The boy answered, my father died and my
mom's real, real poor, and I only have one shirt.
And on the day that she washes my shirt, I
wear my brother's coat so I don't get cold. I'll
have my shirt tomorrow, but I don't have it today.
(20:38):
So the teacher slowly got the paddle, and as he
was hesitating trying to get the courage to inflict the punishment,
Big Tom stood up, jumped over everybody in his way,
walked over to where the teacher was and said, if
you don't object, I'll take Jim's licking for him. The
(20:58):
teacher made some philosophical statement about their being the right
for substitute punishment, and off came Tom's coat. After five
hard strokes, he paused. The teacher did and realized that
everyone in the classroom was crying, especially little Jim, who
(21:18):
by this time had run to Tom and had him
by the neck, hanging on for all he was worth.
And he was saying, Tom, I'm awful sorry, I stole
your lunch. I was so hungry. I will love you
till I die for taking my licking for me. And
it broke the heart of all those hard nosed kids,
and it broke the heart of the teacher because on
(21:39):
that day Tom had become his brother's savior. And you
and I have broken the rules, haven't we? I have
broken the rules. One day the Lord Jesus came into
my classroom and he took off his coat, and he
(22:00):
stretched himself out on a wooden beam, and he took
the stripes which I deserved. And that day he became
my savior. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.
(22:25):
Do you know him? Is he your savior? You know
it's not enough to believe He's the savior of the world.
The Bible says even the demons believe that and they tremble.
In order for you to receive his salvation, you have
to number one, acknowledge that it's not your neighbor's sins
(22:45):
or somebody else's sins, it's your own that deserves punishment.
And then you have to come and say, Lord Jesus,
thank you for what you did when you died on
the cross for me. That's what I deserved and I
know it, and I accept today your punishment for my sin,
(23:06):
and I receive your forgiveness, and I accept you into
my heart and into my life to be my savior.
And when you do that, according to the scripture, you
have been saved. Have you been saved? Have you accepted
Christ as your savior? At this Christmas season? The gray
(23:28):
message of Christmas is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And
I urge you today, if you have never done it before,
to let this day be the day when you invite
Christ to be your own personal savior.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And Lord Amen, Amen, what a wonderful time of the
year in which to place your faith in Jesus Christ.
It's wonderful that he came and was born in a manger.
It's even more wonderful that he came to be born
in your heart. And when you invite him to come
and live within your heart, he does that very thing,
(24:05):
and he changes you from the inside out. You will
never be the same. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Tomorrow,
We're going to talk about something that touches every one
of us tomorrow, why the fear nots of Christmas. In
the whole narrative of the Christmas story, on numerous occasions,
those who are at the other end of divine revelation
(24:26):
were told not to fear, and it is a wonderful
message for so many people during this season of the
year because fear takes over for the lives of many
people that you and I know. Don't miss Tuesday and
Wednesday broadcast even Christmas Day, and we'll be with you then.
Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next time.
(24:46):
I'm David Jeremiah.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church
and Senior Pastor dot Or David Jeremiah. We love hearing
what God is doing through this ministry, So write and
tell us at Turning Point PO Box thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. Visit our
website at David Jeremiah dot org, slash Radio, or call
(25:16):
eight hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three ask for
your copy of David's new leather bound three hundred and
sixty five day devotional for twenty twenty five, Living in
His Light. It's a daily source of inspiration for the
year ahead, yours for a gift of any amount. You
can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for
your smartphone or tablet, or search in your app store
(25:38):
for Turning Point ministries. To access our content, visit David
Jeremiah dot org slash radio for details. This is David
Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series
Why Then Nativity on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
If you struggle to keep your Christmas celebration focused on Jesus,
just remember the word that shows how He keeps his
love focused on you, Savior. Today on turning point, doctor
David Jeremiah explains why this special word stands apart from
the hundreds of other names and titles given to Christ
(00:25):
to introduce the conclusion of his important message, why call
Him Savior?
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Here's David, and thank you so much for joining us.
You know the big day is just a few days away.
I can't help but keep saying Merry Christmas to everybody.
I don't want to miss anyone along the way. I
hope you're having a wonderful Christmas holiday celebration and not
forgetting why we celebrate Christmas, which is why I am
here today to remind you, to remind you that Jesus
(00:52):
Christ came as a baby in a manger, but he
came as our savior. He shall save his people from
their sins, and so thankful for that truth. Luke two eleven,
We're going to look at that question today and just
a few moments as we talk about why call Him Savior?
During this month, it's my great privilege to make available
(01:15):
to you this beautiful devotional that we create every year,
this year the most beautiful ever. It's bound in a
beautiful blue leather binding with gold lettering on the front,
gilded pages, beautiful color inside, but most of all, a
devotional reading for every day of the new year. And
we want you to have this. This is our way
(01:37):
of saying thank you for your gift to turning point
during the month of December. So when you send your gift,
and please do your best. This is the end of
the year. We need your help to stay strong, So
do the best that you can give your best gift,
and we understand that not everybody can give the same amount.
You give your best, and whatever your gift may be,
(01:57):
simply ask for your copy of this devotion and it
will bless your life every.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
Day for the new year.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
And this is just one of those gifts that keeps
on giving every day and we want you to have it.
Thank you so much for giving us the opportunity. And
let's take time right now to ask this question of
the whole narrative of Christmas. Why call him savior.
Speaker 3 (02:23):
My friend? If you are not saved from your sin,
you will never be saved from your problems. Jesus did
not come to make our lives better. He came to
save us from our sin. And in spite of the
fact that we know that we are easily swayed by
feel good messages about how Jesus can make it all better,
(02:45):
the Savior came to save us from our sin, and
the Bible says in order to do that, according to
Luke nineteen ten, he had to seek us first. He
came to seek and to save that which was lost.
I remember growing up, we used to sing a little
chorus in our youth group that went like this, I
found what I wanted when I found the Lord. And
(03:09):
that's a beautiful little phrase, and it was a great tune.
But it's bad theology because we weren't seeking the Lord.
He was seeking us. You say, well, I'm here, I'm
seeking Lord. Well, if you're seeking the Lord, it's only
because he sought you first. He puts you in a
seeking mode so that you would hear the gospel, and
the Bible says that man will not come to God unaided.
(03:33):
In Luke chapter fifteen, one of my favorite passages, we're
told about the lost sheep, and the lost coin, and
the lost son, all of them had to be sought
by the Savior, just as today we must be sought
as well. All my friends, there is music and majesty
in Jesus' statement, one focus the lost, two actions, to
(03:54):
seek and to save. Jesus came to this earth. Listen
to me on a rescue mission. The Savior is needed
to seek the lost, and the Savior is needed to
save the lost. He came to seek and to save.
If he found us and didn't save us, we'd be
(04:14):
in the same position we were before. But he came
to save us. Now, I have to tell you that
word has fallen on hard times. We use every word
that we can come up with from the dictionary except
the word saved. I remember, growing up as a boy,
it was a common thing to ask somebody if they'd
been saved. I remember one little foray into the witnessing
(04:39):
arena when I was a student at Dallas Seminary. I
was taking some courses at North Texas State University, some
graduate courses, and I was going through a period of
time that you've probably never been through, a time like
this when I was feeling very guilty that I was
so busy about doing the Christian thing that I wasn't witnessing.
(05:00):
I had probably heard a message on witnessing that had
put me under a guilt trip, and so I determined
I was going to witness And I went to my
class and sat next to a friend, and I'll never
forget this. I asked him, are you saved? And he said,
I'm not interested in being saved from anything except from
nuts like you. That's what he said. It sort of
(05:23):
set my witnessing program back a few weeks. Was very discouraging. Now,
somebody would say to me, well, you shouldn't have asked
him that question. There's a better way to ask it,
and perhaps there is. But the Bible's term for it
is to be saved. When we think of being saved,
we think of pictures of sailors clinging to the wreckage
(05:43):
of a ship, helicopters hovering in the night sky, shining
their beacons on the sea in search of the living
who must be saved. Don and I were in a
condo and it was a very quiet day, uneventful at all.
Of a sudden we heard helicopters, five of them, out
in front of where we were staying, going up and
down in front of this thing, and it went on
(06:05):
for hours. I knew something was going on, and so
I walked down to the pier and ask some of
the people who had gathered there what was happening. A
surfer had disappeared, and they feared he had drowned, and
ultimately he had, but they couldn't find his body, and
so they were searching for him, and they never stopped
(06:26):
until they found him. We think of a collapsed mine,
where workers are trapped far beneath the earth. Their oxygen
runs low, and men crouch in darkness, wondering if they
dare hope for salvation. We think of a little girl
at the bottom of a well, or even the favorite
word picture of a single stray sheep trapped on a
(06:48):
perilous slope. The coastguard will find those lost sailors, and
no taxpayer will ever complain about the expense. The miners
will not be a band, and the little girl must
see the sunshine once more, and the one sheep must
be rescued from danger. These situations are urgent, and when
(07:08):
we see them on television, we stop and we pray
and we wait. We may not even know any of
the people, but instantly we find ourselves identifying with them
and praying that somehow they will be rescued. They are
lost and they need to be saved. But ladies and gentlemen,
(07:30):
these temporal situations are transcended by the true tragedy of
men and women who are lost in their own rubble
of sin and darkness and pain, and often even without
knowing what they are longing for, our world's inhabitants are
crying out to be rescued. We don't need to be
(07:51):
saved from the sins of others. We need salvation from
our own sin. Until we are willing to knowledge that
no matter what the Savior may have done for us,
it will not connect with us at all. Until we
are willing to say, it's not their sins that is
the problem, it is my sin. It is not my
(08:12):
situation that's the problem. It's my sin that's the problem.
Until we are willing to stand up before God and
own up to the fact that we have failed him
and we are falling short of his glory and the
only hope we have is a savior. Until then, whatever
the Savior may have done for us, it will not
(08:33):
make any difference because he does not force himself upon us.
He paid the penalty for our sin. He paid all
that needs to be paid, but he waits for us
to accept it by faith the promise of the Savior
and the purpose of the Savior. Notice the provision of
the Savior in the same verse, for unto you is
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born this day in the city of David, a savior,
which is Christ, the Lord. Please notice the fact of
this Savior coming to this earth. This is a fact
of history. It's very interesting that this verse, while it
is so very short, contains everything we need to know.
It says, for unto you is born this day a savior.
(09:20):
Jesus did not just gradually come upon this earth. There
was a day when the Lord God was born into humanity,
when he came through Mary, and on a certain day,
in a certain place, at a certain time, he was
born into humanity. The Bible makes it very clear this
(09:43):
is an historic event. On this day Jesus was born.
The birth of Jesus is not the beginning of a
spiritual force, but the historic record of a person who
had an actual birthday. Fact of history, but it is
also a fulfillment of prophecy. Once again, in this one
(10:05):
little verse here we see it for unto you is
born this day in the city of David. The city
of David, as you know, is the city of Bethlehem.
And the Old Testament is filled with prophecies of the
coming of Messiah in such a specific way that most
Jewish people had a tendency to read, write over the
(10:27):
prophecies and not even understand them. Micah, for instance, had
prophesied that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem Micah five
to two. For you, Bethlehem, AFREDA, though you are little
among the thousands of Judah, Yet out of you shall
come forth to me, the one to be ruler in Israel,
(10:49):
whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. Now
that's a wonderful verse, but it becomes a miracle verse
when you recognize that it was written seven hundred years
before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. The prophet Daniel in
the Old Testament actually gave a timetable for the birth
of Jesus. Isaiah said that Messiah would be virgin born.
(11:12):
Jeremiah said that there would come a time when, because
of Christ's birth, there would be a slaughter of many children,
and Hoseiah, the prophet revealed that at a certain time
Mary and Joseph would have to go into Egypt to
spare the life of the child. All of these prophecies
men and women were given five hundred to seven hundred
(11:33):
years before the birth of Christ, and there were devout
Jews who every day would read the scripture and wonder,
will these things happen in my lifetime. The birth of
Jesus was not only a fact of history, it was
a fulfillment of prophecy. But notice it is also a
foundation for eternity. Unto you is born a savior. Listen carefully,
(11:56):
Jesus Christ is our savior. God came down and entered
into humanity so that humanity would be able to enter
into eternity. This birth of Jesus, while it began at
a point in time, began something that will never end
and can never end, because when he was born into humanity,
(12:20):
he opened the door for us to eternity. So don't
discount this one simple little verse that records an event
that happened when the Savior was born. There are so
many people who celebrate Christmas without celebrating Christ. I always
(12:42):
get kind of a kick out of that. At the
season of the year, all these people who don't believe
in Jesus go into debt to celebrate his birth. Can
you understand that they don't believe in him, but they
his birth religiously. Perhaps that is why there are so
(13:05):
many who feel depressed on Christmas Day, the Christmas blues.
It's sometimes called the sad syndrome, seasonal effective disorder. It's
called sad season effective disorder. Whatever it is. If you
happen to be down in the dumps during this season,
(13:29):
let me give you some great counsel. Stop thinking about
Christmas and start thinking about Christ. He is our prophet
and our priest and our King. He is the Master
and the bridegroom and the good Shepherd. He's the Holy
One of God. He is Immanuel God with us, and
(13:49):
his name is called Jesus. John introduced him as the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.
The Magi recognized him as the King of the Jews,
and even the demons call him and the Holy One
of God. Is this not? The carpenter ask the people
of Nazareth, Could this be the Christ? Ask the woman
(14:09):
by the well. Thomas called him my Lord and my God. No,
ladies and gentlemen, this time of year isn't about Christmas.
It's about Christ. It isn't about presence, It's about His presence.
You may not have family nearby, but your Father is
(14:30):
close at hand. Your faith is more important than your feelings,
and he sets us free from chains we could never
remove ourselves because He is our savior. He is our hope.
When you get all depressed and discouraged about things that
(14:50):
you have no control over in your life, let me
ask you just to sort of push those away and
refocus your attention on the one who who loves you
more than you can ever imagine, who came to this
earth specifically to be your savior. I know what a
(15:12):
task I have as I approach Christmas each year. How
do you break through the veneer that we have created
around this season and even around ourselves? How do I
tell you about the saviorhood of Jesus. I pray that
God will give me a story that will help me
(15:34):
to do it, a metaphor or some parable that will
compare what we don't know with what we do now.
My story today is a story that was told for
many years by a great pastor of another generation by
the name of R. G Lee. R.
Speaker 2 (15:54):
G Lee.
Speaker 3 (15:55):
For many years was the pastor of what is today
the Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. He was at
one time the president of the Southern Baptist Convention and
was known across this land as one of the great
orators and Bible preachers. Whenever he would preach on the
Saviorhood of Christ, he would often tell this story. The
(16:18):
story takes place in the mountains of Virginia in a
one room schoolhouse that was so tough no teacher ever
lasted there more than a few weeks. It was a
school populated with mean spirited mountain boys who thought their
main objective in life was to run off every new
teacher who dared to enter their classroom. One day, a
(16:41):
very young teacher applied for the job. The director of
the school actually tried to talk to him out of it.
He said, son, He said, you don't know what you're
going to do. You're going to take on an awful
beating because you're so young. He said, son, even the
most experienced teachers in the entire state never last here
more than two months. Well, said the young teacher, I'm
(17:03):
going to risk it, and he took the job on
his first day, he walked into the classroom and he
noticed that the kids were gathered in the back of
the room and they were sort of gathered around this
one huge young man, who he found out later was
a guy named Tom. In fact, they called him Big
Old Tom. That's what they called him, and he was
(17:24):
the bully of the class, loud enough so that the
new teacher could hear him. Big Old Tom said, I'll
take care of this one. I'll do it all by myself.
I won't need anyone's help. He'll be gone by the
end of the day. When the young teacher got up
in front of the class, he said, I have come
(17:44):
to conduct this class, but I must confess I cannot
do it without your help. I think what we need
is a few rules, and I'm going to ask you
to help me make the rules for the class. What
rules do you think we ought to have? This was
a new one on this class. This had never happened before.
(18:07):
As the teacher went to the blackboard, one kid hollered
out no stealing, and the teacher wrote it on the board.
Nobody can be late. He wrote it on the board,
and by the time he finished, the teacher had ten
rules for the classroom the ten commandments of his class.
Everybody agreed, and yet as they were agreed, they were
(18:27):
all laughing out loud. Now, said the teacher, there is
no such thing as a good rule without a penalty
if the rule is broken. What should be the penalty
if a rule is broken? And Big Old Tom stood
up and he said, whoever breaks one of these rules
gets ten licks across his bare back. And the teacher
(18:49):
thought the penalty a bit severe, and obviously this story
is dated, but he reluctantly agreed. They went to school
the next day, and as you can well imagine, the
morning had not ended before a rule was broken. Big
Tom showed up at the teacher's desk and said, somebody
(19:10):
stole my lunch. So the teacher held court and said, class,
one of the rules is no stealing, and somebody stole
Big Tom's lunch, and I want to know who. After
everyone had been questioned, a little ten year old boy
stood up and said, I stole his lunch. I was
so hungry I couldn't help it. I stole the lunch. Well,
(19:33):
the teacher said, you know what the rule is. You
know that you get ten licks across your back without
your coat on, and the little boy began to beg teacher,
please don't do that, and whatever you do, don't make
me take off my coat. Finding the teacher, knowing he
was on trial at this moment, made the young boy
(19:54):
unbutton his coat and underneath there was no shirt, just
a suspender that were holding up his pants. And the
teacher was thinking, how in the world am I going
to whip this child? How can I do that? But
if I don't, I will have forever lost control of
this classroom. What shall I do? He said to the
(20:15):
boy's son, how is it that you don't have a
shirt on? The boy answered, my father died and my
mom's real, real poor, and I only have one shirt.
And on the day that she washes my shirt, I
wear my brother's coat so I don't get cold. I'll
have my shirt tomorrow, but I don't have it today.
(20:38):
So the teacher slowly got the paddle, and as he
was hesitating trying to get the courage to inflict the punishment,
Big Tom stood up, jumped over everybody in his way,
walked over to where the teacher was and said, if
you don't object, I'll take Jim's licking for him. The
(20:58):
teacher made some philosophical statement about their being the right
for substitute punishment, and off came Tom's coat. After five
hard strokes, he paused. The teacher did and realized that
everyone in the classroom was crying, especially little Jim, who
(21:18):
by this time had run to Tom and had him
by the neck, hanging on for all he was worth.
And he was saying, Tom, I'm awful sorry, I stole
your lunch. I was so hungry. I will love you
till I die for taking my licking for me. And
it broke the heart of all those hard nosed kids,
and it broke the heart of the teacher because on
(21:39):
that day Tom had become his brother's savior. And you
and I have broken the rules, haven't we? I have
broken the rules. One day the Lord Jesus came into
my classroom and he took off his coat, and he
(22:00):
stretched himself out on a wooden beam, and he took
the stripes which I deserved. And that day he became
my savior. For unto you is born this day in
the city of David, a savior who is Christ the Lord.
(22:25):
Do you know him? Is he your savior? You know
it's not enough to believe He's the savior of the world.
The Bible says even the demons believe that and they tremble.
In order for you to receive his salvation, you have
to number one, acknowledge that it's not your neighbor's sins
(22:45):
or somebody else's sins, it's your own that deserves punishment.
And then you have to come and say, Lord Jesus,
thank you for what you did when you died on
the cross for me. That's what I deserved and I
know it, and I accept today your punishment for my sin,
(23:06):
and I receive your forgiveness, and I accept you into
my heart and into my life to be my savior.
And when you do that, according to the scripture, you
have been saved. Have you been saved? Have you accepted
Christ as your savior? At this Christmas season? The gray
(23:28):
message of Christmas is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And
I urge you today, if you have never done it before,
to let this day be the day when you invite
Christ to be your own personal savior.
Speaker 2 (23:43):
And Lord Amen, Amen, what a wonderful time of the
year in which to place your faith in Jesus Christ.
It's wonderful that he came and was born in a manger.
It's even more wonderful that he came to be born
in your heart. And when you invite him to come
and live within your heart, he does that very thing,
(24:05):
and he changes you from the inside out. You will
never be the same. Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. Tomorrow,
We're going to talk about something that touches every one
of us tomorrow, why the fear nots of Christmas. In
the whole narrative of the Christmas story, on numerous occasions,
those who are at the other end of divine revelation
(24:26):
were told not to fear, and it is a wonderful
message for so many people during this season of the
year because fear takes over for the lives of many
people that you and I know. Don't miss Tuesday and
Wednesday broadcast even Christmas Day, and we'll be with you then.
Thanks so much for listening. We'll see you next time.
(24:46):
I'm David Jeremiah.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Today's message came to you from Shadow Mountain Community Church
and Senior Pastor dot Or David Jeremiah. We love hearing
what God is doing through this ministry, So write and
tell us at Turning Point PO Box thirty eight thirty eight,
San Diego, California, nine two one sixty three. Visit our
website at David Jeremiah dot org, slash Radio, or call
(25:16):
eight hundred nine four seven nineteen ninety three ask for
your copy of David's new leather bound three hundred and
sixty five day devotional for twenty twenty five, Living in
His Light. It's a daily source of inspiration for the
year ahead, yours for a gift of any amount. You
can also download the free Turning Point mobile app for
your smartphone or tablet, or search in your app store
(25:38):
for Turning Point ministries. To access our content, visit David
Jeremiah dot org slash radio for details. This is David
Michael Jeremiah. Join us tomorrow as we continue the series
Why Then Nativity on Turning Point with Doctor David Jeremiah
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