Isaiah 9. And look down at verse 6. Isaiah 9, verse 6. Here's the child we were just singing about. The Bible says, For unto us a child is born, and 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. And I'd like to preach to you today on the Holy Child. Father I come before you now and I pray Lord that you'll speak through me and Lord I pray the Lord that you'll fill me with the Holy Spirit and God that these words will go out and and be a blessing to your people Lord and I pray that you'll give them something from your words and pray that it'd be interesting Lord and God that they'll Go out of here a little closer to you Lord a little more love for you and what you did for us We love you. We promise in your son's name. Amen now Of course, this week is the majority of the religious world is gonna, they're gonna celebrate December 25th as the day that Christ was born, the day that Christ came into the world and that's not when he was born. And I'm not gonna overemphasize that, but I am gonna say it, he wasn't born December 25th. And here's the thing, it doesn't mean we can't celebrate it. I don't think you should throw the baby out with the bathwater. And like I've said, I use this time of year to give out gospel tracks. And I remember, I mean, I give it out all the time, but I remember, wow, this is a couple years ago, I remember walking by a guy and offering him a track and he said, no, thanks. I said, well, Merry Christmas. And he goes, oh, and he turned around and took it. It's the only time of year the world kind of leans into it. And so of course I celebrate it. You can celebrate the Lord coming into the world anytime. You can sing just the same way you can sing about the Lord coming and dying for your sins on the cross and it doesn't have to be around Passover. You can sing about it anytime. And this just happens to be the time of year and we celebrate the Lord being born and He comes and He's a baby. He comes to earth and dies for us and all that stuff and it just happens to be the only time of year that pretty much the whole world kind of celebrates it. I know they like the fat guy more and all that but it should be about him and we should use it as an opportunity to preach and give out the gospel. Now I'm going to say a few things as a way of introduction before we start talking about this holy child but the actual legitimate origin of Christmas is steeped in Roman Catholicism. Just look at the word Christmas. It's a mixture of Christ with mass. And we were joking about that last night, and I won't say who, but Micah was talking to somebody that she knows, and she pointed out that thing that it's, you know, it's a mixture of Christ with mass. And the woman says, no, it's moss, like more. You know Taco Bell, you know, their logo is Live Moss, you know. Okay, it wasn't made by the Spanish, okay? It was made by the Catholics, okay? Anyway, but Christ in Mass. Now, back in the day, those Roman Catholics, they went into a pagan, this is history. They went into a pagan country, and they saw that on December 25th, those pagans were bowing down to their sun god. and celebrating the birth of their son God. And they said, it's okay if you celebrate on this day. We'll just say it's the birth of Jesus Christ, even though it was nowhere near it. He was born somewhere around September 23rd, 24th or 25th, somewhere in there is where he's actually born. And if you want to know why I can show you what it's in the Bible, you can find it in scripture. But I say all that. I also say, It doesn't matter. I'm not making a big deal about it to say we shouldn't celebrate it and burn your bale bush and don't have a Christmas tree. I have a bale bush too, amen. It's all lit up. What's interesting is, and I say that, that thing of it's, look at the word, it's Christmas. Christ is mass. Christ and mass, it's a connection. You feel Christians, especially southern fundamentalist Christians, they go, oh, I can't believe you'd say that. Well, all the old-time Bible-believing preachers from the 1800s, they were against Christmas because of it. They actually were preaching against it because they knew at that time especially what it was connected with. And here's an old Bible-believing preacher from the late 1800s on Christmas, this is what he said. Certainly we do not believe in the present ecclesiastical arrangement called Christmas. First, because we do not believe in the mass at all. Now that's an old preacher in London, back in the day, and he's separating it. He says, we do not believe in the mass at all. but abhor it, whether it be said or sung in Latin or in English, and secondly, because we find no scripture will warrant whatever for observing any day as the birthday of the Savior." Isn't that interesting? Just a thought there. He said there's no place in the Bible that says we're supposed to. We're supposed to remember the day he died for us. The Bible says we're supposed to remember until he comes back. But he says there's no scriptural observer of that. And consequently, its observance is a superstition because it is not of divine authority. He went on to say, many would not consider they had kept Christmas on a proper manner if they did not verge on gluttony and drunkenness. You know what's interesting about that? Now, we grew up in the South and we had Christmas and it was all about the Lord, always about the Savior, always about getting out the gospel. But I remember being over there in Scotland and we had some Polish gypsies there. We talked with them about Christmas. They were saved and they said, we don't celebrate Christmas at all because our Catholic family, all they do is get drunk and eat too much. I thought, oh, okay. That was the origin of that thing. Let's see, he said this, if there be any day in the year of which we may be pretty sure that it was not the day on which the Savior was born, it is December 25th. Now those old time preachers knew that the time of year was wrong, but more importantly than that, they knew what it was connected to. It was connected to drinking, it was connected to gluttony, and it's the same now. It's pretty much the same now. We live in a world where Christmas, even though we have this idea of let's make it about the Savior, it's about spending money. It's about getting stuff and all that and eating too much. But that doesn't mean we can't take a little time today and set some time aside to consider the birth of the Holy Child. And it says there in Isaiah 9, 6, unto us a child is born. Well, every person that's ever lived was a child that was born, but there's something special about this child. And before this child was ever born, he was up in the glory of heaven. He was the very centerpiece of eternity. And the old song says, Jesus takes the highest station. Oh, what joy the sight affords. We were just singing, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and it was talking about how high of a place he had before he condescended to men of low estate. And Jesus is up there, and those angelic beasts in Revelation chapter 4, they surround the throne of God, and the Bible says that they rest not day or night. All they do for 24 hours a day, every day, is proclaim, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty, which was and is and is to come. And before Jesus Christ is a child born, he's up there in perfect holiness. He's a holy king. He's inhabiting eternity. And Jesus Christ looks down on this. It's a fallen sin curse creation. Do you ever consider that they could have just pulled the plug on the whole experiment? Because I have. He's the king of the universe. He didn't have to become a baby. He didn't have to come down here and be wrapped in swaddling clothes. He didn't have to be chased at two years old down into Egypt because they were going to kill him and kill his family. He didn't have to go through all that, but he did. And he's up there in perfect holiness and he looks down at a world that's completely void of holiness. And Jesus like looks down there at his own creation, he sees that it's damned. You know what he sees? In perfect holiness, he looks down at a sin-cursed creation, just marred by it. And he knows that no one from Adam's seed is going to get up to him unless he goes down to them. So in John 8, 23, it says, ye are from beneath. I am from above. Ye are of this world. I'm not of this world. So Jesus Christ comes down and he lowers himself. Listen to me. He lowers himself to be like you so you could go up and be like him. Now, what a sacrifice, man. What a thing. Many times in history, a baby became a king, but there's only one time in history that a king became a baby. And there's the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew chapter 1. Matthew chapter 1. He was a holy child. Matthew 1.18. Matthew 1.18, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. So what you have here is it was a supernatural holy conception, because it was of the Holy Ghost. And as good of a man as King David was, it says, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. But Jesus Christ was conceived through a supernatural holy conception and it was through the Holy Ghost. Look at Acts chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 and look at verse 26. The kings of this earth stood up And the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings, and grant unto thy servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus. Now I want to start by saying this, every new Bible version on the market, listen to me, all of them I checked, including the new King James Version, changes the word child there to servant. Even though the word can be translated either way, and the new versions will take that same Greek word and translate it both ways. It can be son, it can be child, it can be servant, it can be all kinds of things. But the problem is, once you change that from child to servant, you lose all the cross references to the child. unto us a child is given, not a servant, a child. And you know what else you lose? You lose the truth of the virgin birth. You lose the truth that he's the son of God. A servant, David was a servant. I can be a servant. But he was the only begotten son. He was the child. And he was God's child. And I want you to notice, and I'm going to key on this, and this will be the whole sermon really, but he was a holy child. Holy. You know when that little baby's born, you have your own little child there, you look at that thing, and that thing is not holy, but it's innocent. And those aren't the same thing. A child's innocent. It doesn't understand sin yet, it's before the age of accountability, but fairly early on, that little baby lays in the crib and realizes, you know, if I fuss and whine a little while, she's gonna give in and come pick me up. And that thing, that nature starts, I didn't say it was sin, I said it was innocent, but it wasn't holy. And that's a wild thought to consider that Jesus Christ never whined just because he wanted to get his way. Even though he was wrapped in a baby's flesh, the king of the universe just laid there. The king of the universe had to learn how to walk, had to learn how to talk and all those things, but he never sinned. He was a holy child. The word holy means perfect, pure, free from sin, perfectly pure. It means perfectly just and good, and that's what Jesus Christ is. He's holy. I mentioned Revelation chapter 4. According to Revelation 4, He's holy three times over. He's holy, holy, and holy. And that's why He's worthy of your praise. That's why he's worthy of your worship. That's why he's worthy of three wise men coming across the world to come down and bow down before him and give him gifts. That's why he's worthy of you to give him your life and to lay it down and say, Lord, I trust you with it. More importantly than that, maybe the most important thing of all is that's why he's the only way to get to heaven because God requires holiness and you can't give it to him. God only requires one little thing and it's sinless perfection. The only thing God requires to get to heaven is sinless perfection. He requires pure holiness. So he sends a holy child. He doesn't just send anybody. And if you put your faith in him and him alone, you can be saved. You need holiness though. The Muslims, they like to tout their prophet Muhammad as the, this is what their actual writing says, he's the ideal moral and spiritual leader. I'll tell you what, Muhammad was, he was so far from holiness, he couldn't have seen it with the Hubble telescope, man. That guy was a stinking warmongering, devil-possessed pervert, pedophile. He was a devil is what he was. No holiness there. You can't trust him. He'll send you to hell. Don't get me started on the fat lazy Buddha. He was a slob is what he was. That Buddha, that's exactly what he was. I'll buckle down on it. His family was going hungry because he was such a lazy bum, sitting next to a tree thinking, trying to get enlightened. He was neither holy nor enlightened. Don't trust in him. You got the Mormons, and they lift up their false prophet Joseph Smith. You know what the Mormons, you know what they teach about Joseph Smith? They believe he's so holy that at the great white throne judgment, it'll be God the Father, Jesus Christ, and Joseph Smith judging you. That's what they believe. If you ever see the drawings of it, it's hilarious. Because he was from a long time ago, so he's wearing his old-timey clothes, Jesus wearing robes, and you can't see the Lord. It's just ridiculous is what it is. They say he's holy. Well, he had 34 wives, and two of them he married at 14 years old. Well, they don't tell you that when they knock on their door, do they? They just want to tell you all the things we agree about. No, we're the same. We use the same Bible as you. No, you're a prophet. You're a holy prophet. was a pedophile. He's sitting there, this is a Merry Christmas, good Christmas sermon for you. You guys gotta throw the ball back sometimes, amen? He had 34 wives, two of them he married at 14 years old, one of them was Helen Kimball and the other one was Nancy Winchester and Joseph Smith promised their fathers, you guys can go to heaven if you'll give me your 14-year-old girls. When he was 38, he's a pedophile, he's a pervert. No holiness. Of those 34 wives, two of them were 14, two of them were 16, and 11 of them were married when he took them. Holy, huh? He's going to judge you? No, he's a pervert. He's a pedophile. As far away from holy as you can imagine. And I don't even need to get into great details, but those Greek gods like Zeus, at least they didn't paint him as holy. You know, at least the old pagan gods like that were wicked and lustful and just stupid counterfeits, but they were not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible is holy. And you can see that all through Scripture. You read about His attributes. You read that He's loving. You read that He's patient. You read that He's gentle. But you also read that He's just and He's jealous. He's long-suffering, but His stuff runs out. He's balanced. You know what He is? His greatest attribute is holiness. That's what really separates God from man. That's it. The Bible says that all have sinned, and the Bible says God is pure and holy, and that just puts you guys two ends of the spectrum. So the Bible says that there's one mediator between God, holiness, and man, flesh. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a holy child. That's who it is. And the Bible says that men call evil good and good evil, and that's true. The Bible says that men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. And I don't know if you've noticed, but mankind, they call unholy things holy all the time. Every time June comes around, they say love is love. No, what you should be saying is your love is perverted. They don't want to say that. No, it's good. It's great. No, it's not. They love calling unholy things holy. Back in the day, the Catholics called the Crusades a holy war, and it wasn't. Over there, if you go over to the Middle East there, they call it the Holy Land. It might be someday, but it is not right now. It's unholy. But God is holy. He's perfect. He's without spot. And when that Old Testament priest needed to go in and commune with God, he went into a place there in the tabernacle, and it was called what? The Holy of Holies. So that's an interesting thing because the God of the universe is called the King of Kings. The Bible in your lap is the Book of Books. Within it you have the Song of Songs and He dwells in the Holy of Holies. You know where He dwells? The Bible says in Psalms 20 verse 6 that heaven is holy. In Psalms 11 verse 4 the Bible says the Lord is in His holy temple. In Psalms 33 verse 21 it says we have trusted in His holy name. Psalms 105, 42 says, for he remembered his holy promise. Psalms 145, 17 says, the Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. That's a wild thought. All of them? Never misstepped? Never had to clear your throat and restate something? No, just holy. And then of course, in Romans 1, it talks about the holy scriptures. In Romans 7, 12 it says, Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. On the side of my Bible there, and I'm sure most of you have it, some of you have it on the front right there, it says Holy Bible. You need one that's holy. Why? Because if it's not holy, it's not from God. Because God's holy. You know what the Bible says? I was thinking about this. The Bible says a good name is rather to be chosen than great riches. A good name. But Jesus Christ doesn't just have a good name. We just read it there in Acts 4 verse 30. It talks about the name of thy holy child Jesus. He has a holy name. The Bible actually says his name is holy. And there's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. So that means that when Jesus Christ goes and dies on that cross, it means that the Holy One was judged for unholy people. You know what I was thinking about? Chewing on this last night or early this morning, I can't remember which now. I was chewing on the fact that the Holy One was judged and condemned and all the guilty ones that put their faith in Him don't have to be judged and condemned. If you commit a crime, you've got to go stand before a judge. If you don't commit a crime, you shouldn't have to stand before a judge. And here he is, crimeless, sinless, nothing on the record. And they said, bring him up here and let's judge him like he's done all the worst sins. And then it doesn't matter what sins you've done. If you put your faith in him, man, he just wipes it all clean. And you don't have to be judged. Do you know what that means? That means that his blood was spilled and it was pure. It was holy blood. And it was clean. And it was spilled so you could be free. You ever thought about this? You thought about the fact that he was tortured so you wouldn't have to be tortured in hell? And his pure, innocent blood was spilled for your guilty blood. You could have stood up before the judge and he'd say, you've got blood on your hands, you're a wicked sinner, that blood is not clean, put him in hell. But Jesus Christ shows up with just pure blood and He offers it. 1 Peter 1.19 calls it the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 John 1.7 says the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. Pure blood, holy blood. Hebrews 9.14 says, Isn't that a wild thought? That the blood of Jesus Christ, that holy blood was spilled because your dead works can't save you? And he had to purge it. He had to clean it up. I think about that all the time and it's because the Lord's given me a little bit of an imagination and I imagine what it would look like in the Lord's eyes for somebody from a false religion to bring their good works to God. They bring it up to God and that thing is just disgusting and vile. The Bible literally calls it filthy rags. And sometimes we don't chew on those words enough. Just imagine with me for just a minute. that you've been washing dishes all night, and all that gunk is catching up there at the bottom of the sink, and you just took a rag and just got that thing, and it's got all the nasty sour cream on it, and all the little bits of eggs and muffin, just all that crud in there, and a little bit of burnt here, this, and all that stuff, and bring that out there and go, God'll accept that, won't he? When he's got pure blood over here, that'll wash you clean? Somebody just thinks there, and they say, Lord, will you accept this? He says, no, please take it out of my sight. I require holiness. So here's what the Bible says in Hebrews 10, 19. It says, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. You want to go and be in the holy place in heaven? You're going to have to have blood. I've said it before. It's been a while. A good way to picture that thing is to Imagine you have some kind of red lens. If I had some kind of glass red lens here, I could look through that thing and looking through it, this whole room would look red even though it's not. And what happens is the Bible says we're brought nigh by the blood of Christ. And what it is is that when He sees me, when the Lord looks at me, He's looking through a lens now and He sees His Son. He's looking through that thing and even though on the other side I'm really just flesh, I'm really just a sinner, I really do deserve hell. He looks through the lens of that blood and he says he's clean, he's righteous, he's pure, but not because of my righteousness. It's that nasty garbage water. But his blood is pure. You know I was thinking about him being on that cross. I was considering that thing, I was chewing on it, and I've thought about this, I've said some of this before, but I was really thinking about it again last night, and I was thinking about how those Roman guards would take a covering there and just wrap it around his face, and they'd start beating on him, smashing his face in, and he's got his face on the inside of that cloth, and that cloth starts to turn red from the blood on the inside as it's spilling out. And they're beating them in, and mocking them, and calling for them to prophesy. And innocent blood starts to spill. Doesn't that bother you? It bothers me. You know, the best part of any movie is when the bad guy gets what's coming to him. You know what I'm saying? The whole movie, they've set this bad guy up, and you just hate him. At the very end, the good guy wins, and you watch him die, and you go, good. It's about time. Kill that stupid guy. It's different when somebody's been right. and good and clean and holy. And yet they're taking a beating like they did something wrong and they didn't. And he's sitting there taking a beating for you and just imagine they smash him in the nose there and blood starts to spill down onto his lips and into his mouth and on his tongue and that tongue had never whispered a lie. But yours has. You deserve to get that beating. But he took it for you. There's a mouth there that had never cursed. It's a mouth that had never exaggerated. But yours has. And they beat him. And they take a rod, and they literally just smash and smash a crown of thorns onto his head. Those thorns go down into the flesh, and some of them splinter off, and they're just stuck under the skin. Those things, those nails, the thorns that were there could be up to three inches long, and they beat that thing down, and the blood just gushes out and goes down and burns in his eyes. And those eyes had never looked on a woman to lust, but yours have. Those eyes had never had a proud look. They'd never coveted, they'd never envied anyone ever. And that pure blood just keeps spilling. For you. The blood from the thorny crown, it spills down into ears that had never leaned in to take in gossip. That some of you ladies have. Those ears had never looked around and leaned in to hear a dirty joke, but some of you guys have. The blood. streaming down there from those nails in his hands. And now his hands are just covered in blood. And those hands, they've never made a vulgar gesture before. Those hands have never been laid on a woman. They've never done anything wrong. Same thing for the feet. Nails in his feet and blood gushing down onto feet that had never gone anywhere they weren't supposed to go. But you have. So he takes all of it. Just all that torment so you don't have to. The thing is, folks, as I get ready to close here and just really bring this thing down for salvation, God doesn't accept any of your righteousness because it's just nasty, grimy sewer water. Just a rag dipped in the sewer. And He only accepts the holiness of His Son. You're going to offer your filthy rags to sinless perfection? I don't know about you, but sometimes I've just sat there and I've imagined Jesus Christ hanging up on that cross, supposed to be the perfect sacrifice. And I imagine somebody coming down with filthy rags and offering them up to Him while He's hanging there. What's He going to do with them? Are you going to offer the beaten, broken body of Jesus Christ those nasty rags? The putrefying, disgusting filth of your own righteousness? He won't take it. He's not going to accept it. The invitation though is to lost sinners. Will you consider today, if there's anybody lost in here, I doubt there is, but if you're lost in here, if you've never been saved, would you consider accepting the holiness of Jesus Christ and giving Him your sin today? It'll just take a second, because He'll save you in an instant. You think you can match your religion with His righteousness? God wouldn't allow it to happen. God would look at His Son and say, I can't do that to Him. I can't take your righteousness after everything He went through. God won't allow it. He won't accept it. He only accepts a sinner who comes to the foot of the cross and says, I'm a poor sinner and I know I deserve hell. Will you save me please? That's what He accepts. So today, won't you consider the Holy Child,