CAN THIS BE CHRISTMAS?
What meaneth all this fuss and worry?
Whence go these crowds to run and scurry?
Why all the lights -- the Christmas trees?
And the silly "fat man," tell me please!
Why, don't you know? This is the day
When everybody should be gay,
For this is Christmas!
So this is Christmas, do you say?
But where is Christ this Christmas Day?
Has He been lost among the throng?
His voice drowned out by empty song?
No, He's not here -- you'll find Him where
Some humble soul now kneels in prayer;
There you'll find Christ -- not Christmas.
But see the many fickle thousands
Who gather on this Christmas Day,
Whose hearts have never yet been opened,
Or said to Him, "Come in to stay."
In countless homes the candles burning.
In countless hearts expectant yearning
For gifts and presents, food and fun,
And laughter till the day is done.
But not a tear or grief or sorrow
For Him so poor He had to borrow
A crib, a colt, a boat, a bed
Where He could lay His weary head.
I'm sick of all this empty celebration,
Of feasting, drinking, recreation;
I'll go instead to Calvary.
And there I'll kneel with those who know
The meaning of that manger low,
And find the CHRIST -- not Christmas.
I leap by faith across the years
To that great day when He appears
The second time, to rule and reign.
To end all sorrow, death, and pain.
In endless bliss we then shall dwell
With Him who saved our souls from Hell,
And worship HIM -- not Christmas!
-- M.R. DeHaan, MD, Teacher,
Radio Bible Class
Grand Rapids, MI
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PEACE ON EARTH
By Marinus Vander Zwaag
PEACE on earth? It doesn't look like it. There has never been a time when the earth was as full of greed, hatred, and distrust. One crisis follows another.
The angels must have been mistaken when they thought that the birth of Jesus Christ could bring "peace on earth." The centuries since that time have been an endless series of ever more violent wars.
Was God wrong? Of course not. The peace of which the angels sang was of a totally different nature than the abolishment of war on earth. This peace which Jesus brought is the reconciling of God to man, and then man to God -- not the crushing of some blustering dictator.
Mankind is now by nature opposed to God and cannot find the way back to God by himself. That's why all of his human schemes are doomed to failure and wars and social ills will be ever with us.
Originally man gave glory to God and walked in a way pleasing to Him. But sin disrupted this perfect harmony, and the resulting disunity has permeated every relationship of life.
But God sent His Son to make a way of return -- to bring peace! Jesus can truly be called the Prince of Peace because He brings peace to those who come to Him. His name shall be called . . . The Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6).
God's peace program required that satisfaction be made for the sins of rebellious men. This, Jesus did by His death of substitution on the cross.
Having made PEACE through the blood of his cross . . . You that were enemies . . . hath he reconciled (Colossians 1:20-21).
When a person believes that this sacrifice was for him, God forgives his sins and makes peace with him.
Therefore being justified by faith, we have PEACE with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1).
When a person becomes a child of God, a great peace will fill his life. War, trouble, sickness, or any other distress will become merely a surface disturbance of a deep, calm sea.
Thou wilt keep him in perfect PEACE whose mind is stayed on Thee (Isaiah 26:3).
Jesus said, PEACE I leave with you, my PEACE I give unto you (John 14:27).
The world is doomed to war, troubles, and eventually destruction because it is in opposition to God. The singing of Christmas carols and receiving Christmas cards with the vague wish that you may have peace may give you a temporary feeling of "Christmas spirit" but this is not real peace.
Real peace is found only in Jesus Christ. He is our PEACE (Ephesians 2:14). Turn to Him today! Acquaint now thyself with him and be at PEACE (Job 22:21).
Now the Lord of PEACE Himself gives you PEACE always (II Thessalonians 3:16). Do you have this peace? If not, come to Jesus Christ with sorrow for your sin and by a true faith make your peace with God.
(Used by permission, Faith, Prayer and Tract League, Grand Rapids, MI).
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THE VOICE OF AMERICA
In God we trust, and not in gold or silver,
And not in industry or trade or gains.
These may be lost or pass away forever,
But God remains.
In God we trust, and not in tanks or cannon,
Nor yet in planes that darken the blue sky.
These may be powerless to protect our freedom,
But God's on high.
In God we trust, and not in men or nations,
And not in treaties broken at man's will.
These all may fail, but our God faileth never;
We trust Him still.
In God we trust; this is our truest courage.
All else is worthless save as He controls.
Stars in their courses fight with any nation
That to God holds.
-- Cosa Elizabeth Reynolds
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"SAVIOUR"
By Rev. George Headley, Sr.
AT CHRISTMAS TIME our thoughts are upon God's wonderful love expressed in Jesus Christ coming into the world. His coming was not without purpose, for we read, "For unto you is born . . . a SAVIOUR, which is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11).
No other word carries so much meaning. It brings God down to man, and it lifts man up to God. Let us look into the scope and mission of our blessed Lord becoming Man. May the Holy Spirit illumine our hearts and minds and reveal to us the things concerning our precious Lord.
The word SAVIOUR is a perfect word in that it is made up of seven letters. We know that "seven" speaks of completeness. Our blessed Lord is the perfect One who finished the work the Father sent Him into the world to accomplish (John 19:30).
Thus, we see in the Lord Jesus Christ:
1. THE SUITABLE SAVIOUR. Paul said in First Timothy 1:15, "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners . . ." He came to reconcile man with God, to bring about a harmony between man and God (Colossians 1:20, 21). the one and only way to appease the wrath of God which lay upon sinful man was for His only begotten Son to come and identify Himself with man, to die and shed His precious blood for the redemption of man. It was HE who made peace with God on man's behalf. Christ opened the way for sinful man to approach a holy God apart from judgment.
At the Cross we see Mercy and Truth side by side, having met for the first time in this world of sin. At the Cross we also behold Righteousness and Peace embracing each other (Psalm 85:10). It is Jesus, born in Bethlehem, who thirty-three years later hung upon that Cross, revealing God's Mercy, Truth, Righteousness, and Peace.
Christ not only saved us from the wrath of God, but through His resurrection has quickened us, giving us His eternal life (Ephesians 2:1; John 3:15; 10:28). In Him there is every spiritual blessing and we are possessors of every blessing (Ephesians 1:3). We have Christ's abiding presence with us (Colossians 1:27; Hebrews 13:5). It is in Christ and not in the things of the world that we have life (Galatians 2:20; 6:14; Colossians 3:1-4).
II. THE ALMIGHTY SAVIOUR. (Acts 5:31 -- "a Prince and a Saviour"). God exalted Him and made Him a Prince and a Saviour, giving repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. All strength is His and all authority is given into His hands (2 Corinthians 12:9; Matthew 28:18). He is not only a Saviour, but the almighty Saviour, able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him (Hebrews 7:25). His command now, in the light of this fact, is to go, teach, and baptize.
Perhaps some reading this message may be suffering intense bodily pain and weak in body. Remember, the almighty Saviour is your strength (Philippians 4:13; Psalm 27:1; Isaiah 41:10. Paul said he would glory in his infirmity -- why? -- so that the power of Christ may rest upon him.
III. THE VICARIOUS SAVIOUR. (Isaiah 53:5,6). He was wounded and bruised for our sins and iniquities. He bore our sins in His body (I Peter 2:24). The title "Vicar" means "one who supplies the place of another." The Lord Jesus suffered, the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God (I Peter 3:18). This Christmas Season, stop and think of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Babe of Bethlehem is the Christ of Glory, yet He partook of flesh and blood so that He could be the appropriate sacrifice, bear our sins and be made sin for us, that we might have the forgiveness of sins and be made righteous before God (Hebrews 2:14, 15; 2 Corinthians 5:21). Oh, the wonder of it all! That he should die for me.
IV. THE IMMUTABLE SAVIOUR. (Hebrews 7:24). He has an unchangeable priesthood. He is "the same yesterday, today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8). The "yesterday" of the Cross; the "today" at the right hand of God; and the "forever" in the Glory find him unchanging in the intensity of His Love; in the preciousness of His Promise; in the strength of His Power; the tenderness of His Sympathy; the sufficiency of His Grace, and the longing of His Heart.
V. THE ONLY SAVIOUR. (Acts 4:12). There is salvation only in the Lord Jesus Christ. He alone brings "peace on earth" to the heart of the one who will receive Him as Saviour. He alone has spanned the gulf that sin has made. He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6; Psalm 40:2,3). Many will celebrate Christmas in frivolity, revelry and merry-making, considering the day of little importance. They know nothing of the Saviour who came into the world for them.
VI. THE UNIVERSAL SAVIOUR. (John 3:16; 10:9). God so loved the world, That means all mankind. Jesus is the door through which any man may pass to enter into the presence of God.
VII. THE ROYAL SAVIOUR. (Luke 2:11). Unto you is born a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. He is Lord over all, the Kingly One, the Sovereign Eternal Son of God manifest in the flesh. As we gaze in wonder upon the Babe of Bethlehem, we marvel at the love of God, yet we rejoice in His coming because this event is the "good tidings of great joy to all people," for the Saviour has come. He is the Royal Saviour. He is royal in Name, in Nature, in Action, in His Word, in His Office, in His death, in His Resurrection, in His Ascension, and in His Glory.
He is in truth the:
Suitable
Almighty
Vicarious
Immutable
Only
Universal
Royal
S A V I O U R.
"Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).
IS HE YOUR SAVIOUR?
(From The Sunday School Builder, Published by The Calvary Baptist Sunday School, Reading PA)
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SERMON SERIES
Romans 8
No. 8
THERE IS MUCH difference between our present existence and our future. Nowhere in the Bible is this difference more apparent than in our immediate text. If we would always keep this distinction clearly in focus, our life here would be a much better life. Certainly the future holds better things for us. Something like the children's fairy stories: "And they lived happily ever after;" for the child of God, this is no fairy story, but glorious fact.
Read the text carefully and prayerfully several times until its truth sinks down into your heart and your heart lays hold of its significance, until you begin to rejoice in "the things which God hath prepared for them that love him." My prayer for you is "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your heart being flooded with light . . . "
SUFFERINGS -- GLORY
Paul the apostle is writing to the Christians at Rome, and to us. He says, "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward" (Romans 8:18).
PAUL'S TESTIMONY
Paul knew something about suffering. No doubt more than we shall ever know. When writing to the Christians at Corinth he enumerates some of what he suffered for the name of Christ. "I have been beaten times without number. I have faced death again and again. I have been beaten the regulation thirty-nine stripes by the Jews five times. I have been beaten with rods three times. I have been stoned once. I have been shipwrecked three times. I have been twenty-four hours in the open sea.
"In my travels I have been in constant danger from rivers and floods, from bandits, from my own countrymen, and from pagans. I have faced danger in city streets, danger in the desert, danger on the high seas, danger among false Christians. I have known exhaustion, pain, long vigils, hunger and thirst, doing without meals, cold and lack of clothing. Apart from all external trials I have the daily burden of responsibility for all the Churches."
And Paul did not escape physical illness. "I was given a physical handicap -- one of Satan's angels -- to harass me," testifies the Apostle. Indeed Paul knew a lot about suffering. So when he says, "I reckon (it is my studied judgment) that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward" -- when he says this, he knows whereof he speaks. Paul had suffered in his day. In fact the day Paul came to know the Lord, the Lord's word concerning him was: "I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." Paul says "that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city (that I visit), saying that bonds and afflictions await me."
But suffering for the Christian always ends in glory (maybe not apparent at the time, but certainly later). Paul knew this. And taught it. And teaches it here in our text. He knew this by personal experience, not only with regard to the suffering but also to the glory. God gave Paul an experience that few other men have had. Of his experience Paul says, "I know a man in Christ who, fourteen years ago, had the experience of being caught up into the third Heaven. I don't know whether it was an actual physical experience; only God knows that. All I know is that this man was caught up into paradise . . . This man heard words that cannot, and indeed must not, be translated into human speech."
Paul had a foretaste of glory. He saw and hears things that beggared description. The human language contained no words adequate to describe the glory of that place. He had been permitted a glimpse into paradise, the third Heaven. There are three heavens referred to in the Bible: the first heaven or our atmosphere where the clouds are, the second heaven or the starry heavens of outer space, and the third Heaven where God dwells. Paul was conducted into this third Heaven to view and hear things which could not "be translated into human speech." The best word he could use to describe his experience was the word he uses in our text: "glory." Our suffering here on earth culminates in wonderful, undescribable glory in the "third Heaven" with God.
In some of his other epistles Paul sets forth some of the things of God which surpass human understanding. To the Ephesians he speaks of "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge"; to the Philippians he speaks of "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding"; to the Corinthians he thanks God "for His unspeakable gift," "the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Peter, too, speaks of rejoicing "with joy unspeakable and full of glory." We can know something of these things of God, but the full revelation of them and our complete comprehension of them await our entrance into glory. And glory it shall be, appreciated even more fully when following the life of suffering on earth.
Yes, glory follows suffering for the Christian. We hear it from a man who knows. But I would not ask you to believe this just on the testimony of a man, no matter how great the man may be; there is another reason to believe this truth.
GOD'S WORD
This is God's Word. And if anyone should know that the Christian's sufferings culminate ultimately in unspeakable glory, God should know. God wrote this Scripture text. Surely, He wrote it through the man, Paul, but He wrote it nonetheless. It is His Word to us. His inerrant, unfailing Word. We may with utmost confidence read it and believe it, making the promise our very own. God cannot lie. What He has promised will come to pass.
We cannot now understand all about the coming glory, God doesn't tell us all about it, but He tells us for sure there IS a coming glory, and that it will be far, far superior to anything we have experienced on earth. We may be sure that anything God prepares shall be glorious.
So if you have found life a bit unbearable at times, and Christ is your Saviour and God your Father, let this be your "studied judgment, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward." There are better things ahead. There is coming a day of great unveiling when the heavens shall roll back as a scroll to reveal what God has prepared for them that love Him. "I looked, and behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee (glorious) things . . . " This, oh suffering saint, shall be your testimony.
HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?
Who made this possible? Why, Christ Jesus the Lord, who else? How did He make this possible? Why, through His own sufferings, of course!
Jesus foretold His sufferings in these words: "The Son of man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and (He adds:) be raised the third day." Jesus was sent to suffer. It was prophesied by Isaiah long before: "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief . . . we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." But His sufferings were not without purpose. For "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities . . . All we like sheep have gone astray . . . and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all." "Christ . . . suffered for us . . . Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being (thus) dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed." "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the Just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God."
Yes, Jesus suffered. He suffered for us. He died. He died for us. He was without sin but died for sinners. The Apostle John says, "He is the propitiation for our sins." This means He was the sacrifice which God accepted for our sins. On the cross He became our God-satisfying Sacrifice. If we accept Him as such, God will accept us in Him. That's what it means to be "accepted in the Beloved." God receives us when we receive Him.
But when Christ foretold His suffering and death, He added another phrase: "and be raised the third day." He WAS raised the third day as the Scriptures attest. After His resurrection He was seen by more than 500 brethren at one time. Forty days later, in plain view of His disciples, Jesus "was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." Where did He go? Two men in white apparel stood by the disciples as they watched Him go, and said, "Jesus . . . is taken up from you into HEAVEN."
Paul, to the Ephesians, said that God showed His mighty power in Christ "when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places." In another place we read, "We have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God." "Within the veil -- whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus."
"By his own blood he entered . . . into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us." "For Christ is . . . entered . . . into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us."
Christ's sufferings ended in glory. His sufferings purchased for us this same glory. It may be ours for the taking. To receive Christ as our own personal Saviour is to have it. And just as surely as His sufferings culminated in glory, so will ours. "If . . . we suffer with him, . . . also glorified together." He the forerunner; we to follow after.
Christ's reassuring words to us are: "I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that WHERE I AM, THERE YE MAY BE ALSO."
Don't despair, oh, suffering one, if you are in Christ Jesus the Lord, you WILL also be in glory. And you have God's Word for it "that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us-ward."
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