Appreciate that singing and I guess if it was okay for them to sing Christmas song, it's okay for me to preach from a Christmas verse, isn't it? So Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 Just gonna preach a little bit about Jesus tonight I believe if we stay on that subject, we'll be safe there, won't we, if we can stay on that. Don't get on self, don't get on politics, just get on Jesus, we'll be all right. Isaiah chapter nine, verse six. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you for the word of God. Lord, we thank you, Lord, for being able to sing songs about the birth of our Savior. We thank you, Lord, for scripture about the birth of our Savior. Lord, not only the birth, but the perfect life. Lord, the death, burial, and resurrection. Lord, we thank you for everything that Jesus did for us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. But just a message titled Wonderful Jesus, because Jesus was full, is full of wonder to our human minds. We cannot gather, we cannot grasp, we cannot imagine all the greatness and wonderfulness of Jesus Christ, our Savior. Yes, he was born on Christmas morn, but he did not come into existence on Christmas morn, but he come to live with us. He left heaven and come down to this earth to take on a body like ours so that he could save us. The Bible says he shall be called Wonderful. And you know when you receive Jesus Christ as your Savior, that becomes a very easy thing to do. I know there are people in the world that wouldn't say that because they hate the name of Jesus. There's people in this world that don't know Jesus, but if you know Jesus as your Savior, Wonderful is very easy to say. Counselor. How many times Has Jesus been the only one that you could go to to help you out? Not that other people didn't try, not that other people wouldn't want to, but there's sometimes that the only one that can help you is Jesus. The mighty God, knowing that our Savior, that there's nothing that our Savior cannot do. There's no problem we can take to him. There's nothing that he can't overcome. Jesus said, I have overcome the world. The everlasting Father. There's never been a time when Jesus wasn't, and there never will be a time when Jesus is not. The Prince of Peace. I believe we should pray for peace in the world, but we know it's not coming, not full peace, not true peace, until Jesus returns to this earth. Not only do we know it's not coming till then, we know that when He comes it will be here. We will have peace. The world will be at peace when He comes. Hebrews chapter 1 verses 1 through 3, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the fathers by the prophets. Now that sundry times and divers manners mean that he spoke many times, different ways to different people, different prophets, but always by the prophets. Always by the prophets. The Bible tells us that you should try the spirits, that there are things out there that says they're of God, but they are not. And when we're saved, we can understand that and we know that there are things. And back in the Old Testament days, there were men that said they were prophets and they were not. And sometimes they had to prove them out. But it was always by the prophets. And that was good. I'm glad that we had the Old Testament. I'm glad that there were prophets back in that time to tell people the Word of God. I'm glad there were prophets to write down the Word so that they could tell us of the coming of Christ. I'm glad we can look back now and see that Christ came and He came exactly as God's prophets said He would come. But as wonderful as all the prophets were, that God would give them the Word, and as accurate as they were, Verse 2 says, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Now it was good, the prophets were good, but the Son is better. Whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds. For four thousand years the prophets told of the Son, told that Jesus was coming. In the book of Hebrews, Paul was saying the Son has spoken. The Son has been here. The Son has told us. The Son has done exactly what the prophet said that He would do. Verse 3 says, Who be in the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. Genesis 126 says, And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. Man was made in the image and the likeness of God. And that's in the Old Testament. And people, the Israelites understood that. They understood that God created them in His image. But Jesus is the express image or the very image of God. God in the flesh. He became flesh to come to this earth that He could do what needed to be done. to save us. The Bible goes on to say, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. You see, Jesus wasn't just another prophet. When he came, the words that he spoke just weren't what God had given to man, but they were God-spoken when he spoke the word of God. He wasn't just another prophet. He was God Himself. And we can never glorify Him enough. We can never say enough about Him. We can never lift Him up high enough. We can never lift Him up too high. All the glory should be given to Jesus Christ. Jesus was wonderful in his pre-incarnate glory and deity. Jesus was wonderful before he ever came to Bethlehem. He was wonderful before Adam was made. He was wonderful before he created the world. He's always been wonderful. John 1 and 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. We can't really grasp the beginning. Because we can grasp that the Bible started when God created the earth and created man. We can grasp that timeline of about 6,000 years ago. But where was the actual beginning? We don't know. It's hard for us to grasp the other end of eternity, that it would go on and on forever. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. So the Word of God is God. And then verse 14 says, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Paul was trying to tell the Hebrews that Jesus is God. John the Baptist tried to tell the Hebrews that Jesus was God. John the Beloved was telling the Hebrews that Jesus is God. You see, they knew the Old Testament, but they couldn't quite grasp how that God could be man. And that's how people still have a problem with that today. How could God be a man and die? And if God was dead, how did he rise again? The Bible tells us that. The Bible tells us it was going to happen. The Bible tells us it did happen because it did happen. The Jews had a hard time with that. There were thousands that believed, but just like in today's world, most people don't believe. Most Jews did not believe that Jesus was God. Just before Jesus went to the cross, John 17, five, and now, oh Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. That Jesus was glorious before the world was ever created. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. They've all three always been. That's the eternity before us. They've always been. And Jesus will in his glory rule this world. Jesus had not yet gone to the cross, but he said, God glorify me. One day Jesus will be glorified here on this earth. There's just as sure as I am that he did come and he did die on a cross, that he was resurrected from the grave, that he's sitting on the right hand of the Father, I'm just as sure that one day he will come back. Jesus was wonderful in his humbled self. We've been talking about in Sunday school about humbling yourself before God. To get up with God is to lower yourself down. One man said that he used to think that the blessings of God, that the more you learned about God, the higher you raised up and the better blessings that you could reach off the top shelf. But he said he learned that was wrong. He said, the more you learn about God, the more you learn to kneel down and get the blessings off the bottom shelf. That's where the good ones are. Everybody's trying to get it up here. They think it's up here. No, it's down low with God. Philippians 2 and 6 says, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God. So that's what the Jews could not stand when he claimed to be God. That made a man. I mean, they cursed. They wanted to kill him. They tried several times to kill him before it was time. But made himself of no reputation. He was God. But he didn't go around claiming to be something. He did say on occasion that he was God, but that's not why he came. He come to become man, to die for us. And took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And we think about humbling ourselves. We cannot humble ourselves the way that Jesus did, but we can have that as an example. When Jesus come from heaven to earth, he already humbled himself more than we ever could. Just to come. Just to take on the form of a human. He had already humbled himself more than we ever could. But he did that for one thing to be an example. He come to die for our sins, but he tells us to humble ourselves. And became obedient unto death. Now Jesus had power over death. He didn't have to die. If He had not laid down His life, He could not have died. He had no sin. He had to give up His life, even the death of the cross. Wherefore, God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name. that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. One day, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess. And when that time comes, Brother Jose, I think that at that time, we're gonna be able to confess a little better than we can now. I think we're gonna have a pure heart when that time comes. And we won't have, well, I'm gonna, I can bless him, I can praise the Lord this much, and I can praise, and we're gonna give it all. We're all gonna, we're gonna be all out, full out praising the Lord. Amen. Jesus was wonderful in his virgin birth. Man once said to me, he said, now if you look in the Bible, everywhere where the word virgin is used, it can mean young woman or virgin. So we really don't know which one it means. I said, okay. He said you can be translated either way. I said, well how do you translate this? Mary said, how shall this be, saying I know not a man. Translate all the virgins that way every time if you want to. But Mary said she was a virgin. John 3, 16. For God so loved the world that he gave what? His only begotten Son. God the Father. Not Joseph the Father. God the Father. Jesus was the only one. He's the only begotten Son of God. The Bible calls us the sons of God, but we are not the begotten son of God. It amazes me how people can claim part of the Bible, Brother Jose, they claim part of it, they believe it, and other parts, to me, that are easier to believe, they don't believe. All right? So somebody that says, I believe in creation, that God created Adam and Eve. But they don't believe that Mary had a baby without a human father. So God can create a man without man or woman, but He can't create a man without a man. See, the devil has his way of working on the mind of people. to twist their mind, to take something that somebody has told them about the Word of God, that twisted the Word of God, and says this can't be so, so therefore none of it can be so, you're wasting your time, don't trust in that stuff, just take care of yourself. All the Word of God is true. Jesus was wonderful in his sinless life. Now Jesus, we picture Jesus' sinless life, at least me, when I first think about it, don't get too deep into thought about it, I see Jesus as a grown man, walking, and I think about all the things that were done to him, all the things that were said to him, how he was beaten, and never sinned. But Jesus never sinned his whole life. Could you imagine when Jesus was a little boy, he had half brothers and sisters. Now those of you that have two or more kids, you think about this. What if you had one kid that every time there was only one toy in the room, that kid said, let the other one have it. That's unbelievable, ain't it? I mean, always there's argument. That's okay, you can have it. No, that's okay. I'll do without. You go ahead. And he never was wrong. He never did anything against his parents. He never did anything against his brothers and sisters. He never did anything against anybody at any time in his life. Hebrews 7, 26, For such an high priest became us who is holy harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens. I mean, when you think about His sinlessness, it is so marvelous, so wonderful to live 33 and a half years in a body of flesh. Now, I know He was God, but He had a body of flesh just like ours. People mistreated him. People lied about him. People cursed him. People beat him. People did all kinds of things to him. He went through more than any man has ever went through. But yet, he never sinned. Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. He, Jesus, was not a sinner. He became our sin, but he had no sin of his own. Jesus was wonderful in his marvelous teaching. His would-be captor said, never a man spake like this man because he spoke with authority. He spoke as one that knew because he did know. And sometimes just what he said would cause his captors just to stop. They didn't know what to do. Many times they tried to, through beguiling him, to trick him into saying something wrong, into doing something wrong, into committing some slight sin. The devil wanted Jesus just to mess up just once, just one little thing, but he never did. to hear Jesus say, he that is without sin cast the first stone. Could you imagine being there that day? The indignation that would fall over you, the conviction that would fall over you. Here you have, you've caught somebody in sin, and you're ready to judge them, you're ready to carry out the sentence on them. And Jesus said, basically, in today's terminology, go ahead, if you haven't seen anything, you just go ahead. Well, go ahead, you know, if you hadn't sinned, you can do it. But nobody could do it. From the oldest to the youngest, nobody could cast that stone. Could you imagine being there when he said, suffer little children to come unto me? Well, the disciples, they weren't trying to do something wrong. They thought they were doing the right thing, and they were telling their children to get away. He said, no, no, let the little children come unto me. Many times today, people think, well, we'll just set the children off over here, and we'll let them play games, and we gotta keep them occupied with something. Yeah, we keep them occupied with the word of God. We're singing the songs of Zion. We're telling them the Bible stories, what Jesus did for them. Could you imagine, and I know that spiritually we heard it when we got saved, but could you imagine being there and actually hearing the voice of Jesus say, thy sins be forgiven thee. I mean, even if you were already one of the ones that were saved and you heard him tell somebody else that, thy sins be forgiven thee. You know how wonderful it is when we witness somebody coming to the altar or you're able to pray with somebody and they get saved. That's the second greatest thing on earth next to getting saved. But to hear Jesus verbally tell somebody that. And then to hear him say, what would thou have me do unto thee? To say that to a blind person or to a deaf person or somebody that couldn't walk. I wonder how many times he said that. I wonder how many times he asked, what do you need? and then to be there and hear him say to the thief on the cross, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. I mean, can you imagine the condemnation that was on that thief on the cross? He was hanging there just like Jesus was. But when he recognized his sin, when he recognized who he was and who Jesus was, and confessed Jesus as Lord, Jesus said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Jesus was wonderful in his loving miracles. He said to the leper, be thou clean. And then the amazing part to me, he says, be thou clean. Then Jesus touched him. Now imagine you'd be a leper. At that time, there was no cure other than the miracles. Now, leprosy is easily cured if you have the medicine. There was no medicine back then. Nobody touched a leper. Nobody got close to them. They had to go down the street and holler, unclean, unclean, so people would go away from them. They had to live in a colony by themselves. And here Jesus comes and says, be thou clean, and touched them. How long had it been since they had even felt A human touch. I mean, we don't think about that. We go around, we shake hands, we hug each other, we have family that we love and have contact with. Can you imagine going years of your life and never touching another human being? That's hard to imagine. We don't even think, we take it for granted. We don't even think about that. And then he healed the 10 lepers knowing that only one would be thankful. He didn't get mad and say, oh, the rest of you just have your leprosy back. He just said, where'd the rest of them go? He didn't do it hoping all of them would come and pat him on the back. He knew only one was gonna be thankful. Jesus was wonderful in his atoning death. We just sung it on a hill far away, said an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame. My sins were on that cross. Now they're as far as the east is from the west. If you're saved today, there was a time in your life when your sin condemned you, it weighed on you, and you knew there was no other way to get it off of you except to take them to the cross and trust in the blood of the cross to take them away. I'm glad one day we'll be able to thank Him face to face. I mean, just to be there and to thank Him. Now, we can thank Him in the Spirit, we can pray and thank Him, but being in the flesh, we won't face to face, don't we? I mean, you get a phone call, that's good. You get a letter, that's good. But when you can talk to somebody face-to-face, that's not very often now. People, they shy away from that now. Jesus was wonderful in his blessed resurrection. John chapter 20, verse 28 and 29. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast sent me, thou hast believed, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Has there been a time in your life when you believed that Jesus Christ died on the cross, shed His blood for your sins and resurrected and sits on the right hand of the Father now making intercession for us? You know, I've never seen Jesus, but I know He's with me all the time. Sometimes I might not act like He's with me, but I know He's there. I know He's with me, the Holy Spirit. come in to my soul and lives with me, abides with me. Song says, and he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own. Just to know that you belong to Jesus. And Jesus is wonderful. in his saving grace. Luke 19, 10, for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. He's still saving today. The Holy Spirit pours out upon the lost people and convicts them of their sin and when they believe Jesus Christ and ask them, He will save them today. Jesus Christ has never turned anybody away. Not one. From Adam on down, He's never turned anybody away. Jesus saves good people. Jesus saves bad people. But what we have to realize, He only saves lost people. Until we see ourselves lost, until a person sees themselves lost and undone, without God, they can't be saved. We stand at our feet, Does Susan come to the hymn? Wonderful Jesus. Sometimes we just need to take a little time and think about how wonderful Jesus really is. We begin to take him for granted. Maybe you want to come tonight and thank him for something that he's done in your life. For something that fills you with wonder about your Savior. Maybe there's somebody you want to come pray for that's lost. in a way that's given Christmas is a special time for the Christians. We have just taken time to be thankful to Jesus and now we look forward to the celebration of His birth. Anybody else need to come? Maybe you're here this evening. Never ask Jesus Christ to save you. Come forward, take the Word of God and show you how to be saved. Pray for the one that raised their hand this morning. They're not here this evening, but pray for them that raised their hand. They were lost. Pray for the Holy Spirit upon them that convicted them. Draw them into God.