Now before we pray and then turn to the ministry of the Word, I want to read one text from the Book of Acts, chapter 17, a text familiar to many of you with reference to the manner in which the people in the city of Berea received the ministry of God's servant, the Apostle Paul. We read in Acts 17 and verse 11, with respect to these Bereans, Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the scriptures daily, whether these things were so This kind of spiritual nobility that is underscored in this text was comprised of two basic elements. In the presence of a servant of God, ministering the Word of God, they manifested a willingness to be taught. There was readiness of mind. there were not concrete reinforced walls of prejudice, predetermined conclusions that would stand in the way of the Word of God finding a fair hearing in the ears and hearts of the Bereans. But along with this disposition of readiness to receive the Word, there was this sanctified and this godly, this spiritually noble disposition of discernment. Though the message came from an apostle and came based upon the Scriptures, there was a commitment to further examine the total witness of Scripture, believing that the message of Scripture is one, and if that which the apostles said the Scriptures taught was indeed the truth, further examination would only confirm it. And what I plead for the message this morning, tonight, and, God willing, next Lord's Day morning as well, is that each of us plead for the disposition of the Bereans, because I will not be long into the message before I would be willing to predict without claiming any gift of prophecy that not a few of you will find A real spirit of uneasiness beginning to arise in your heart as long-cherished sentimental perspectives and associations and traditions are challenged, and perhaps some of them crumble as you sit there. And all I plead is this disposition of the Bereans. That's all I ask for. But I ask for nothing less, for anything less than this is ignoble. If it is spiritual nobility to receive the Word with readiness and to search the Scriptures, then it is something less than spiritual nobility to reject the Word out of hand because it crosses some predisposition of mind, some long-held and cherished tradition, some sentimentally suffused practices. What are these before the Word? of the living God. So may we together unite our hearts, pleading that God would grant us the disposition that He gave to the Bereans. Let us pray together. Our Father, we thank You for the privilege that has been ours already in this place this morning to engage in the worship of You, the living God. Son and Holy Spirit, we thank You that we have been able to express our praise in psalms and hymns and that we have been enabled to address You on the throne of grace as together we have united our hearts in prayer and added the affirmation of our Amen to the sentiments and concerns expressed by the One leading us in worship. Now we come again, Holy Father, praying that you would so work in the mind and heart of every man, woman, boy or girl in this place, that it may be said of us that we receive the word with readiness of mind, determined to search the Scriptures to see if indeed these things be so. We ask that by the power of the Spirit through the Word, you would cast down every imagination and every high thing that would exalt itself against your knowledge and bring into the captivity of Christ every single thought. Meet with us. May your Word run and have free course, we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Now each of us who is here this morning of sufficient age to be aware of the world around us is very much aware that we have once again come into that time of the year called the Christmas season. Whether we like it or not, whether we approve of it or not, we are forced to face this reality. Crowded shopping centers, decorated street lights, cards in the mailbox, strange figurines on front lawns all the way from the fat little jolly man in red to reindeer and replicas of manger scenes and a menagerie of garishly lighted houses are reminders we're in the Christmas season. Now since a Christian is called upon to glorify God in the real world in which he lives, in the providence of God, 1 Corinthians 10.31, whether you eat or drink or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. And since the Christmas season, with all of its trappings, is a part of that world, the child of God must wrestle with this question, how can I most glorify God in this season of the year? It will not do just to wish that by a wave of your hand all of these things would vanish so that you not have to wrestle with the question. It will not do to hope that if you close your eyes and count to ten when you open them, the world around you will appear as it did on November 1st or as it will appear around February the 1st. The reality is the Christmas season is upon us with all of these factors and many more that I have not mentioned. Now, it is one of the peculiar functions of the Scriptures, according to 2 Timothy 3.16, to instruct the people of God in righteousness. And since the task of pastors is to teach the people of God how to walk so as to please God, that's the language of 1 Thessalonians 4.1. Since Ephesians 5.17 says we are not to be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is, It is the mind of your elders that it would be appropriate as we approach this season of the year, or in the midst of it, to take up this subject, the Christian and Christmas in the light of the Scriptures. The Christian and Christmas in the light of the Scriptures. Now, we're not speaking of the world and Christmas in the light of the Scriptures. and about to enter into a harangue against the obvious abuses of everything that is decent and moral according to the Ten Commandments with the world's interaction with this season, But I am concerned with my fellow elders to bring out of the Scriptures directives for the Christian in the midst of this particular holiday season. Now, in attempting to come to clear biblical thinking and practice, and never forget, that's the divine order. Biblical thinking leading to biblical practice. It's by the renewing of the mind that we prove in our experience and practice what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. And the directive of the apostle in Ephesians 4 is that the new man is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him. And in seeking to come to clear biblical thinking and practice with respect to this issue of celebrating Christmas is for many of us a very difficult thing. And it's difficult because we face these impediments, three major impediments that I want to address briefly, and this is all by way of introduction. First of all, we have inherited traditions. Most of us have a set of traditions in connection with the celebration of Christmas, traditions which are woven into the very fabric of our thinking, our practice, and in some cases, very cherished memories. And whatever the traditions may be, favorable or unfavorable, Traditions exert a powerful influence upon us. I remind you of the frightening possibility of the scathing words of the Lord Jesus, which may have a surprising relevance to this very issue. In Matthew 15 and verse 6, Jesus said of the religious people of His day, the people who were the leaders in religion, that you make void the Word of God because of your tradition. Long-cherished, inherited, ingrained traditions can actually be the occasion of the blatant violation and negation of explicit directions from the Scriptures. And that's what makes addressing this subject very difficult. Because almost all of us, without exception, have some inherited traditions with respect to the Christmas season. Traditions that either may be top-heavy on the side of giving a large place to the holiday or a tradition that treats it in a totally negative way as though it doesn't exist. But whatever those traditions may be, they are powerful influences upon every one of us. And then there's a second factor that makes it difficult to come to our subject, the Christian and Christmas, in the light of the scriptures, not only that of inherited traditions, but secondly, cultivated emotional and sentimental associations. Cultivated emotional and sentimental associations. Most of us find it impossible to think of the celebration of Christmas without some powerful emotions and sentiments rising to the level of present consciousness. For some, those emotions are almost entirely favorable. Some of you can remember when, as a child, some of your most cherished family memories cluster around the Christmas season. That's a reality. And to say the word Christmas is immediately to touch a string in your psyche that vibrates with the most pleasant music to your inner ear. And the very thought that anyone would put his hand on that string, let alone cut it, all your defenses are already up. And some of you are already thinking, you're not going to touch my heart. You're not going to bust one of my strings. You see, if I would ask how many of you are conscious already, I haven't said a thing, except announce the subject, and you're conscious of certain emotions being stirred within you. That's a reality. There are cultivated emotional and sentimental associations for some, as I've indicated, almost entirely favorable for others. It's a mixed bag. We have happy memories. of that time of the year and family associations, but we also have bitter memories. We can remember when we found out that Santa Claus was a myth and our world came crashing round about us. That those fried eggs we left on the plate that were eaten when we came out in the morning and a note was there was all a ruse. And how disappointed we were. Some of us grew up in homes where Our parents, out of genuine love but out of biblical ignorance, engaged in that ruse. And we can remember how shattered we were when someone who was on the inside track before we were whispered in our ear, there's no real Santa Claus. It's your mom and dad. We were ready to put up our dupes and go after them and say, no way. My mom and dad wouldn't lie to me. There's a Santa Claus. I've seen his notes. I've seen the yolk left on the plate where we left the fried egg for him. So we have mixed memories. The bitterness and the disillusionment. Some of us remember as we began to get older, and there was all the buildup of excitement, of thinking what we were going to get for Christmas. And then the day came, and we got it, or those things. Yet at the end of the day there was a strange, empty feeling down in the pit of the stomach, and we began to realize what Jesus said, a man's life does not consist in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Cultivated emotional and sentimental associations, and for some of us, that are older and more mature as Christians, we see what this thing has become. And the very mention of the name stirs up emotions of righteous disgust and anger that anything so sacred as the enfleshment of deity should be a breach to debauchery, to irresponsible spending, to all kinds of carnal indulgence. So you see, when we come to the subject, we not only bring inherited traditions, but we bring with us cultivated emotional and sentimental associations. And you see, when a lot of emotions are pumping their juices up into your head, it's hard to think clearly. When there's a lot of heat of emotion in your brain, it's difficult to get the light of truth into your brain. So when you feel that heat starting to come up, will you ask the Lord, please, to throw some water on it? And the Lord will turn down the temperature of the heat of your emotions and keep the pure light of His truth. Be a Berean. Receive the Word with readiness of mind. But then there's a third factor that makes dealing with this subject a difficult one, and it is this. It is the pressure of the world to conform to its standards. The pressure of the world to conform to its standards. Now there's no question that our society as a whole, with but few exceptions, is very favorably disposed to celebrate Christmas, to nurture the Christmas spirit. Now this poses a real problem for the true child of God because he's conscious of Romans 12 and verse 2 and a host of other similar texts. Be not conformed to this world. Don't let this world squeeze you into its mold. Yet he's conscious of the prayer of his Lord, as recorded in John 17, 14 and following, that I pray for those whom you have given me out of the world. I pray not that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil or the evil one. Our Lord has no desire to take us out of this world system yet, but to leave us here and preserve us from the evil that adheres to and is inherent in this world system. Furthermore, an intelligent Christian is conscious of the principles of 1 Corinthians chapter 9. that on non-moral issues the Apostle Paul was willing to conform to various sets of standards that were both cultural and in some cases religious in order to neutralize prejudice and gain an entrance for the gospel. To the Jew I became as a Jew that I might gain the Jew. To the Greek I became as the Greek I become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." Now, the enlightened Christian is conscious that the world is putting pressure upon him to conform to its standards with respect to this holiday. And on the one hand, he's determined, I will not, by the grace of God, be conformed to this world. Yet, knowing my Lord is praying that leaving me in this world I would be kept from evil, but be light and salt in the midst of it, and realizing if I love people I'm ready to accommodate on non-moral issues to win them, this creates a real problem for the Christian who takes his Bible and the world about him and lost men and women seriously. Now, in summary, when we come to any issue surrounded by such powerful influences upon our thinking and our feelings, we must determine to do three things. Number one, we must pray. We must pray. We must pray, first of all, for the grace to bring any and every tradition to the objective standard of the Word of God. That's what we must pray for, first of all, for grace to bring any and every tradition to the objective standard of the Word of God. Isaiah 8 and verse 20 says, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them. Jesus said in John 14, 15, that if we love him, we will keep his commandments. And then in 15, 14, those two texts should be easy to remember. 14, 15, and then just reverse it. 15, 14, you are my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command you. And we need to pray. God, give us grace to bring every tradition to the objective standard of the word of God. We need to pray, secondly, that sentiments and emotions will not cloud our judgment or capture our actions. We must pray that sentiments and emotions will not cloud our judgments or capture and dictate our actions. There are many examples in Scripture of this. Perhaps the supreme example is our Lord's agony in Gethsemane. All of his holy emotions had an aversion in the direction of the will of God. He prayed three times, if possible, another course might be opened to do the will of God. He prayed with such an agony that he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. Yet in each instance he said, nevertheless, not my will be done. a will surrounded at that instance with emotions the likes of which none of us can relate to. We can only stand back in humility and wonderment and marvel and wonder what the depth of that emotion must have been. Yet he was not controlled even by the holy emotion of desire to avert the awesome reality of the wrath of His Father. But He said, Thy will be done. He that saith He abideth in Him, 1 John 2.6, ought himself so to walk, even as He walked. Emotions must never be ultimate and directive of our conduct. It is Thy Word which is a lamp unto My feet. and the light to my pathway, Psalm 119, 105. And if the path of the Word of God means that I must bring my heel down upon the raw, bare nerve endings of the most powerful emotions, then bring down my heel, I must, or I give up the name of Christian. Emotions are not ultimate. Sentiments are not ultimate. God's authority is ultimate, and that authority is expressed in His Word. So we need to pray for grace to bring any and every tradition to the objective standard of the Word of God. We need to pray that sentiment and emotion will not cloud our judgment and dictate our actions. And then we need to pray, thirdly, that we may be given discernment with respect to what is sinful conformity to the world and what is righteous accommodation with a view to winning men. And here the most appropriate prayer I know is the prayer of Philippians chapter 1. And I would ask you as families to pray this prayer. Perhaps you heads of households to read it even. in family worship over the coming days. This is what Paul prayed for the Philippians. Philippians 1, 9 to 11. And this I pray that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and discernment. Notice he's not praying. that their love simply abound and then express itself however it feels a present impulse to express itself. No, he's asking God that God would so work in the Philippians that their love may abound more and more within the realm of knowledge and discernment. To what end? So that you may approve the things that are excellent that you may be sincere and void of offense unto the day of Christ, being filled with the fruit of righteousness which are through Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. Now surely that's an appropriate prayer. Lord, in the face of this complex issue of what I as a Christian man or woman should do, what I as the Christian head of a home should do in relationship to this holiday season that I cannot avoid, it is upon us, it is upon me, it is upon my family, it is upon society, O Lord, by your Holy Spirit, may my love abound more and more in knowledge and discernment, that I may approve the things that are excellent, that I may be sincere and void of offense unto the day of Christ, being filled not with the fruits of my conditions, my sentiments, or the pressure of the world, but filled with the fruits of righteousness. conform to the divine norms and standards which are through Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God. So that's the first thing you've got to do. I can't do it for you. I can pray that for you. But you and I must pray these three things for ourselves. Now, is there anything unreasonable in asking you if you profess to be a Christian to pray those three things? Is there anything unbiblical? Am I binding your conscience beyond the Word of God to ask you, as a Christian, earnestly to pray for the grace to bring any and every tradition to the standard of the Word of God? And if the Word of God condemns any tradition, you're prepared to jettison it. If the Word of God mandates that you begin a tradition, you're prepared to begin a tradition, if necessary. Are you prepared to bring everything to the touchstone of the Word of God? Surely, a Christian does not find it difficult to pray for grace. So, to act, to pray that sentiment and emotion will not cloud your judgment and dictate your actions. Surely, if you're a Christian, that's the desire of your heart. And to pray that you may be given discernment with respect to what is sinful conformity to the world and what may be a righteous accommodation with a view to the advancement of the gospel. So that's the first thing we've got to do is pray. Second thing we've got to do is get our facts established accurately. We've got to get our facts established accurately. What do we really know for sure with respect to the celebration of Christmas? Facts from the Word of God, facts from history, facts from current observation. What do we know for sure about this thing called Christmas? The celebration of a specific day, December 25th. as the day in which Jesus Christ came into the world, or if not convinced it was on that day, that that day ought to be peculiarly honored with religious or social or religious and social actions peculiar to that day. We need to get our facts established accurately. And that's what I hope to do in the time that remains this morning. And then, God willing, tonight and next Lord's Day morning, the third thing we need to do is to grasp and apply the relevant biblical principles. Grasp and apply the relevant biblical principles. convinced that the Scriptures are the only and the infallible, authoritative, and sufficient guide in matters of faith and practice, what principles of the Word of God need to be brought to bear upon this whole issue of the Christian and his relationship to Christmas? Well then, in the time that remains this morning, I want us to consider the facts, the indisputable facts concerning the celebration of Krishna's. Now, please don't make a leap in your mind. When I state a fact to say, oh, well, if that fact is so, then surely what Pastor Martin's going to say is pop up. Please, please let me tell you what I'm prepared to say. Don't assume in your mind a leap from the facts to its implications. Consider the facts. Fact number one foundational to everything is this. There is no biblical warrant whatsoever for the remembrance of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ by means of a specially designated day of religious or social celebration. Now, folks, don't take that statement lightly. It took me a long, long time to be satisfied with how I was going to state that fact, crossing out one word after another, replacing And I don't claim it's a perfect statement, but it's the best I can give you. When the moment of truth comes, the man must be in the place where God's people are gathered. Here is fact number one. There is no biblical warrant whatsoever for the remembrance of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ by means of a specially designated day of religious or social celebration. What is Christmas? It is a day, December 25th. marked out for religious or social celebration in some way or another in connection with the coming into the world of the Son of God. But when we search the Scriptures, we do not find a shred of evidence that either our Lord or His apostles practiced or mandated the practice of such a special day of remembrance. We search the Scriptures and we do not find a shred of evidence that our Lord Himself celebrated a specific day in conjunction with the events recorded in Luke chapter 2, nor did the apostles articulate the necessity of such a day and impose it upon the churches. Now, Paul the Apostle in 2 Timothy 2.8 does command Timothy to remember Jesus Christ. With a present imperative use of the verb to call to remembrance, he says, keep on remembering Jesus Christ. Are we to constantly bring our Lord Jesus Christ to remembrance? Yes. And in this context, in particular, in a two-fold light, risen from the dead of the seed of David, according to my gospel. He said, Timothy, constantly keep your Lord in remembrance, particularly in terms of His literal bodily resurrection and all of the implications of the resurrection for the salvation of men and for the validation of the identity of the Lord Jesus. And remember Him as coming of the seed of David. Remember him in his true humanity, in a humanity identified with the seed of David, that he is the rightful heir to David's throne and the true Messiah. But even when Paul says, remember Jesus Christ particularly with respect to his resurrection and his identity as seed of David, he does not say, and in order to help you and others to do this, designate a day to remember the resurrection in this unique way and remember him seed of David in a unique way. No such thing. We do find the Lord and His apostles clearly establishing a special day for the remembrance of His being the resurrected Lord. One reads the Gospel accounts and notices the unique emphasis upon Christ coming to His disciples after His resurrection on the first day of the week. They are gathered behind closed doors and He gathers with them. He himself begins to make it evident that the New Covenant community will have a New Covenant Sabbath, the Lord's Day Sabbath, the Day of Resurrection triumph. And by the time we come to the epistles, we find that the apostles have established a universal practice among the churches throughout the Greco-Roman world, so that when Paul writes to the Corinthians, he says, when ye come together on the first day of the week, let each of you lay by him and score as God has prospered. It's an assumption. that the people of God will gather on the Lord's Day. And by the time we come to the last book of the New Testament, and John writes to the seven churches of Asia Minor and says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. He doesn't have to stop and say, now let me explain to you what that means. He assumes they will all understand what the Lord's Day was. So our Lord Jesus and the apostles clearly established a day, the Lord's Day Sabbath, and they clearly established a special ritual supper of remembrance, the Lord's Supper. Jesus said, this do in remembrance of me. And in 1 Corinthians 11, Paul says, I delivered unto you that which I first received, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread, this do in remembrance of me. Furthermore, we find there was universal apostolic establishment of the male and female roles and relationships within the church. Paul could say in 1 Corinthians 14, as in all the churches, let your women keep silence. It is not permitted for them to speak. Universal practice in many things, but to scour the literature of the New Testament looking for the slightest suggestion that God has designated any specific day For the special remembrance of the birth of Christ by religious or social celebration, you will not find a grain of biblical data. As the apostles obeyed Matthew 28, 19, teaching the disciples to observe all things whatsoever He commanded, There is no evidence that they laid upon the consciences of first century Christians a special day to remember the birth of the Lord Jesus. Now, what are we to conclude from this fact? This is a fact. If you don't believe it, search the scriptures and see. And when you find the biblical evidence, bring it to me. And I will make a public retraction. I'll tell Bill, erase the master tape. I'll beg your indulgence to preach in January or February a retraction. Search the scriptures and see. Have the nobility of the Bereans. No biblical warrant whatsoever. for the remembrance of the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ by means of a specially designated day of religious or social celebration. And what conclusion do we draw from that? Well, the first is this. The conscience of no Christian should ever be bound to have any sense of duty to observe in any way December 25th as a day of religious or social celebration. Now, I'm sticking closer to my notes. I've taken more notes than usual when you deal with the consciences of God's people. It's spiritual neurosurgery, and I've been very conscious of that in my preparation. Hear me carefully. The conscience of no Christian should be bound to have any sense of duty. I didn't say liberty, but I said duty. The conscience of no Christian should be bound to have any sense of duty to observe in any way December 25th as a day of religious or social celebration. Simply because such a day exists, it's on our calendars, and we're given the day off from work, that does not bind your conscience. Listen to the marvelous statement of the liberty that is ours in Christ in such matters. From our own confession, chapter 21, paragraph 2, on Christian liberty and liberty of conscience, God alone is Lord of the conscience and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in anything contrary to his word or not contained in it. so that to believe such doctrines or obey such commands out of conscience, you may do certain things out of liberty of choice, not out of a conscience bound by its sense of duty. They understood that distinction, so they say, to believe such doctrines, obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty of conscience. And the requiring of an implicit faith and absolute and blind obedience is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also. So you will never find in this assembly, so long as Christ is King, ruling by His written Word, responsibly expounded by godly men, no one will ever bind your conscience to keep this day in any way whatsoever. You are free as far as your conscience before God to act as though the day doesn't exist. I don't know how to state it more bluntly. And furthermore, and this I want you to hear carefully, and I want you young men and women who, if the Lord tarries, will carry on the torch of truth in this place into the next generation. Hear me carefully. No Christian church, as church, can impose upon its people in their corporate life and worship any activities or objects which would indicate any special significance attached to December 25th. Hear now what I said. No Christian church can impose on its people in their corporate life and worship any activity or objects which would indicate any special significance attached to December 25th. Why? Because in the corporate life of the church, the rule of Christ is to be the scepter that touches every facet of that corporate life. And there are some of you who have chosen to exercise your liberty by totally disregarding December 25th. And if we were to put little red balls on these fake trees, to give a little seasonal flavor when you gather to worship the living God. You see what we would be doing? We would be imposing upon you an element of this season called the Christmas season and forcing it into the orbit of your thought and consciousness while you were worshiping the living God. That would be wicked on the part of the leadership of this church. That's why there are no poinsettias. And I looked it up. It's proper to pronounce it both poinsettia or poinsettas. So please don't come and correct me. Look it up in your dictionary. Though it's spelled with the I, you can skip the I and say poinsettia and it's still correct. All right, I've looked it up. So you save you the trouble of doing so. So it's poinsettia or poinsettas, whatever you want. Why don't we have them? Didn't God make them? They're beautiful. Yes, they are. We've got a nice big one in our living room. And I told my wife last night, I love to look at it. God made it, not the devil. But I believe I would say I'd be willing to be put in jail. I don't know if I'd be willing to be slain, but I'd be willing to be put in jail before I'd allow anyone to put one up here on the platform at this season of the year. Because that would be to intrude upon the consciences of some, that for which we have no warrant. That's why you find no seasonal decorations in our place of worship. That's why there is no stated meeting on Christmas Eve. We may judge. That it would be a good evangelistic opportunity to have a Christmas Eve service to try to reach the lost and make it an optional service? Surely we're at liberty in the light of 1 Corinthians 9 to do that. But to say as elders we're having a stated service on Christmas Eve and as a member you must come, you would have every reason to say show us from the Word of God where you can bind our conscience to such a service. You see the distinction? We may have the liberty and we may have a gospel duty to have a Christmas Eve service at a given time, in a given cultural setting, as an opportunity to preach the gospel to people who would come into a church building thinking they're just going to have some nice sentimental slush and instead they get gospel bombs dropped on them. That may be an expedient But we could never bind the consciences of God's people to attend it. There is no necessity for any one of us who is in this pulpit to preach on any of the birth narratives or the theme of the incarnation on the Lord's Day nearest to December 25th. We may choose to do so. And no one can ever fault the servant of God who expounds the word of God on any theme contained in it. That's an entirely different thing. To expound Luke 2, Matthew 1, 2 Corinthians 9, 18, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Philippians chapter 2. Surely it is proper to expound any portion of the word of God, any time in a place that claims to receive the whole of scripture as the deposit of divine revelation. But you will not find any special services mandated. No concatas within the worship service. And you will not find any little pageants in the Sunday school or in the Sunday school I was raised in. We actually had somebody dressed up like Mr. Fat Red Man who came in and distributed boxes of candy. Why don't you find that here? Have you ever asked the question? It's not a matter that some of us have got Scrooge's blood in our veins. It's we've got Bible blood in our veins. And Christ died to liberate you from every commandment of men, that He might bind you to loving obedience to all of His commands. But anything that He does not command or forbid, none of us have any right to impose upon you. Now, I can almost hear the moan of dashed sentiment. Oh, the Christmas pageants at Sunday school when I grew up were so sweet. Well, and they well have been. And the lovely memories of the poinsettias on the platform, the organ music swelling with the chords of familiar Christmas carols. Oh, it has such marvelous memories. I'm sure it does. But I ask you one question. What does it have to do with worship regulated by the Word of God? Nada. Nothing! So treasure your memories, but don't make your pleasant memories a standard for the house of God. There's only one Lord in Christ's house, and He shares it with none. So that's fact number one, and the implications of it. Fact number two, the designation of December 25th as the day to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is rooted in pagan and diluted Christian origins. Now, this is a fact that's going to cause some of you to be shocked, but it's a fact. The designation of December 25th as the day to commemorate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ is rooted in pagan and diluted Christian origins. Now, if we come to grips with facts, we must ask the question, since there is nothing in the Bible to mandate December 25th as a day to commemorate the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ in either a religious or social manner, where did this practice, where did this present phenomenon originate? When, where, and why was December 25th ever designated as a special day in the so-called church and national calendar? Well, the best answer to these questions that I have found presented in a brief form is that which I found in my research in Baker's Dictionary of Theology Page 117 on the entry under Christmas, and it's just a relatively brief paragraph. Good distillation. The man did his homework in giving this succinct statement. The early Christians did not observe the festival of Christ's birth, to which they did not attach the importance ascribed to his death and resurrection. And rightly so. He gave them a memorial supper to commemorate His death. It's called the Lord's Supper. And He gave them a special day to commemorate His resurrection called the Lord's Day. No wonder they didn't have a special day to celebrate His incarnation. He didn't give them one, personally or through His apostles. Now listen carefully. In the East and later in the West, that is the Eastern Church and the Western Church, Christ's birthday was observed on a January 6th in connection with his baptism, a day on which the pagan world celebrated the Feast of Dionysius associated with the lengthening of the days. The night of January 5 and 6 was devoted to the Feast of Christ's birth and the day of January 6 to his baptism. A fourth century papyrus contains the oldest Christian Christmas liturgy in existence. The Nativity Festival was separated from the early Christian Epiphany Feast and given its own day, December 25th, somewhere between the years 325 and 354 A.D. In Rome, December 25th is attested as the day of Christ's birth in 336 It was introduced, perhaps, by Constantine the Great, who evidently chose the day because of the popular pagan feast of the sun. December 25th was the shortest day in the year. The sun rose the latest and set the earliest. From that point on, the day was a longer day, and in celebration of that, the pagans had their pagan feast to the god of the sun. And when Constantine Christianized the Roman Empire, he incorporated that feast. And since the quote, son of righteousness arose when he was born, this became designated as a commemoration of the birth of Christ. Gregory Nazianzen and Chrysostom popularized the new festival in Constantinople, one of the other centers of Christianity in the fourth century, but opposition to the new feast was stubborn throughout the East, especially in Syria, Antioch. Egypt did not receive it till 431. Armenia never. Coptic Armenian Christianity, which exists to this day, does not acknowledge December 25th as, quote, Christmas Day. And so, you see, the pagan origins are patent in any responsible historical account of the origin of this date. And why did I use the term diluted Christianity? Well, I quote now from one of the most respected of church historians, Philip Schaaf, in his History of the Christian Church, Volume 3, in a chapter called The Christmas Cycle, and this is what Schaaf says. The feast of Epiphany had spread from the east to the west. The feast of Christmas took the opposite course. We find it first in Rome in the time of the Bishop Liberius, who on the 25th of December, 360 A.D., consecrated Marcella, the sister of St. Ambrose, nun or bride of Christ, and addressed her with the words, quote, Thou seest what multitudes are come to the birth festival of thy bridegroom, end quote. Christmas was, this passage implies that the festival was already existing and familiar. Christmas was introduced in Antioch about the year 380. In Alexandria, not until 430, Chrysostom, who delivered the Christmas homily in Antioch on the 25th of December 386, already calls it, notwithstanding its recent introduction some ten years before, the fundamental feast or the root from which all other Christian festivals grow. Well, you see, already, already, the concept of a higher level of piety being attained by a life of perpetual virginity had begun to enter into the Church. and someone who's been consecrated to being a nun, and the concept of being married to Christ. I call this a diluted Christianity, and anyone familiar with the so-called church fathers knows how quickly, after the death of the apostles, superstition and gross doctrinal imbalance and inaccuracy and sacramentalism entered into the pure stream of apostolic Christianity and diluted it. Now, it is a fact, then, it is a fact that the designation of December 25th has its origins in pagan and diluted Christian sources. Now, that's a fact. Facts are stubborn things. You can't go back and change history. Now, you can do as many as are doing in our day, and that is try to reconstruct history according to one's own desires. But that's a violation of the ninth commandment. It is not bearing a true witness, but a false witness. Or what conclusion do we draw from this fact? Well, since a true Christian is concerned with the avoidance of pagan revelry and decadent religion, should it not be a day which a Christian approaches with a great deal of suspicion because of its origins? Ephesians 5.11 says, have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather recruit them. Second Corinthians 6.14, wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate in touch, not the unclean thing. And Second Timothy 3.5, where it speaks of those who casting off the truth hold to a form of godliness, but denying its power from such turn away. Well, if it was that kind of diluted Christianity that gave birth to this date in the so-called Christian calendar, a thoughtful Christian is going to have some reservations about just jumping on the Christmas bandwagon and riding it for all its worth without any thought about its origins. Yet, on the other hand, on the other hand, a thoughtful, well-instructed Christian believes that God is the Lord of history. and that God in history, in the scriptures, and in the period from the closing of the canon to this day, as far as we've been able to ascertain His workings in church history and Christian biography, God is the Lord of history, often uses strange materials to build noble things. He used the strange materials of a hard-hearted pharaoh that knew not Joseph, to be the very instrument that would get His people desperate to get out of Egypt until their cry comes into God's ears and He raises Moses to be their deliverer. God is the Lord of history who uses the deception and the wretched, foul treachery of Judas to be the instrument to hand our Lord over to the Roman authorities that all of the prophecies concerning the Son of God might be fulfilled. And a Christian who is sensitive to his Bible does not simplistically say, well, it has pagan origins, therefore I have nothing to do with it. Wait a minute, wait a minute. Slow down a little bit. Was God on his throne when Constantine declared the Christian faith the official religion of the Roman Empire? Yeah, God didn't vacate his throne. He was just as much on his throne then as when Christians were hunted down and thrown to the lions. Was God on His throne when a decision was made to try to Christianize pagan ceremonies? Was that a noble thing to attempt to replace pagan festivals with Christian festivals with Christian theology at their basis and the celebration of the great redemptive acts of Christ? Are you prepared to say it was all of the devil? There should be a day set apart to remember the incarnation of the second person of the Godhead. If the devil had his way, the whole world would forget that fact. So what am I to do? It's not quite so simple now, is it? You see, that second fact has two edges to it. It creates, on the one hand, a sense of reservation in a thoughtful Christian, about simply going with the flow of the Christmas madness, recognizing its pagan and diluted Christian origins, yet on the other hand, knowing that God is the Lord of history, and that even in a world that hates the Son of God, there is this annual remembrance in ways the world doesn't even recognize of this stupendous fact that at a point in human history, God broke into humanity in the enfleshment of the second person of the Godhead there in Bethlehem's manger. And should I not then as a Christian want to do something to help preserve whatever remnants of consciousness there may be in this sin-sick world that someone came into this world, sinners to say? You say, Pastor, you're making me more confused. Good. I hope I'm making you think. You start with your facts. You see, you can have simplistic answers to complex things when you've got limited knowledge of your facts. Get your facts, and many times the answers are not simple. Fact number three, no, we'll have to stop. And we'll just have to pace these things accordingly. I had no way of knowing that we'd only get the first two facts, but we're going to, God willing, tonight, look at facts number three and four, and then hopefully at least begin to bring to bear what biblical principles ought to influence us in the light of these facts But I'm more concerned that you come to grips with the teaching of the Word of God and have a conscience that is personally persuaded by an enlightened, fresh application of Holy Scripture. So that as we continue through these days, and certainly as has already been suggested by Pastor Barker, as we come to Our Lord's Day next week, since some of you may only hear this installment, I want to close on this note. Hear me carefully now. Romans 14 says, On matters of remembering days that are things of indifference, one man regards one day, one man regards all days alike. Paul goes on to say in the key passage that we'll be studying, He that regards the day regards it to the Lord. The man that does not regard any special day, it's unto the Lord. Listen carefully. Don't rationalize in your conscience that you can remember December 25th as unto the Lord, if in so doing you violate the clear will of the Lord with regard to the day He has designated as His day. He has designated a whole day for Himself. In the accident of our calendar, December 25th falls on His day next week. And if you're prepared to take December 25th and let it alter in one iota, keeping a day wholly unto God, fulfilling all of your biblical and church responsibilities from morning till night, you're proving that you've allowed the world and the pressure of relatives and conformity to custom to be more important than the will of Christ as revealed in the word of Christ. And no amount of rationalization will cut it. You don't keep that day unto the Lord by disobeying the Lord. Can you say, well, it's Christmas Day, therefore I can be gluttonous. It's only one day. No, no. You don't violate God's word that condemns gluttony simply because it's Christmas. And you don't violate God's Word which says, remember the Sabbath day, not just the morning, the day to keep it holy. So whatever you do or you don't do, remember, next Lord's Day has already been marked out on God's calendar the whole day. So whatever you do as a matter of liberty with December 25th, you must do nothing that violates the will of God. But you say, Pastor, I'll offend my relatives. He that loves father, mother, brother, sister more than me is not worthy of me. I came not to send peace, but a sword. And you may feel the sword when you lovingly tell your relatives, God's already marked out next Sunday. I don't care that so-called Christmas Day happens to fall on it. We'd love to come over on Saturday and bring our presents. We'd love to come over on Monday but somebody's already claimed my Sunday. You ready for that? If not, then sentiment, tradition, the world, and the love of men is of greater importance to you than the smile of Christ. And if that's so, you're either unconverted or you're in a pitifully backslidden state in either case. May God help you to have dealings with Him. Let's pray. Our Father, we're so thankful that in the midst of all of the confusion of men's voices, we have a sure word from you. We thank you for Holy Scripture, which is a lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. We pray that as we continue our examination of this issue, that You would help us to have hearts prepared to receive the Word with all readiness and to search the Scriptures to see if these things be so. We pray that as a people we may honor You through this season. Whatever our own individual practices may be, whatever our domestic patterns may be, grant, O God, that in all of them we will consciously and jealously seek to glorify You, knowing that the best way to glorify You is not dictated by our own whims and fancy, but by Your holy Word. Oh, may Your Word regulate our thought and our practice. To the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray, amen.