You know, if you've been saved for many years, when we've been saved for many years, we lose touch with how people live and where they live in uncertainty, with absolutely no knowledge of what it's all about. No assurance that anything is going to work out all right. And when it's all over, absolutely no idea. Clueless as to who they are, what they're doing here, and where all of this comes out in the end. Am I right or wrong? That's the society in which we live. And we are living in the middle of a religious world today that are going through ceremonies and sacraments platitudes and rites and rituals. They don't know why they're doing what they're doing. They don't know what they're doing. Right or wrong? They have the clue as to how it's all going to come out and they're hoping beyond hope that if they do the right thing somehow God will look in favor upon them when all of this is over. And we come to this table to celebrate a finished work of a sovereign God. With utter and absolute certainty as to who He is, He's the Son of God. He's God the Son. With utter and absolute certainty that He is able to do what He has said He will do for us. Faith is believing that God is who He says He is. and that he will do what he says he will do. I know whom I have believed. I'm glad he didn't write the word what in there, because it's Christ. He is the Savior. So let's sing that chorus one more time. But I know, you'll notice every stanza, I know not, I know not, I don't understand. I can't put this all together. But I know whom I have believed. Sing it with me. But I know whom I have believed. Thank you. You may be seated. Paul, when he told us about this observance in I Corinthians 11, Paul said, I received from the Lord what I handed over, delivered over, I passed on to you. Very interesting that Paul was the one apostle who was not present, he was not present at the Last Supper when the Lord this ordinance with his disciples. Paul was not there. Paul said, I got this directly from the Lord. And of course, it's exactly what the other apostles got as we read of it in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Same thing. Exactly the same thing. Paul said, I got this thing from the Lord. Now, there used to be a song and I haven't heard it sung for 30 years, I don't think. chorus maybe it was when I was a child or a teenager I heard it. And the chorus went this way, I was there when it happened and I ought to know. And it was a testimony song about being saved. I was there when it happened I ought to know. How many of you were there when you were born? I hope you were. I hope you are. I don't expect you to remember, though. I don't expect you to remember that. But how many of you have birthdays now and then? They get sooner and sooner. Are you there? Do they really happen? No, it's not possible. Call the fire department now for the candles on my cake. That's the only way you can put out that big a fire. They have those jokes on these birthday cards. But Paul said, I received from the Lord what I handed over to you. And then he talks about the Lord Jesus gathering with his disciples and taking bread. And of course, not in the way we do, the kind of bread we do, but he took bread, whether a loaf of bread, and he broke pieces off of it. So they all ate from the same bread, symbolizing that they were all partaking of the same life in Him. And then, of course, they all drank from one cup for sanitary reasons. We have individual cups here, but the cup was one cup, and the cup was passed around, and they all drank from the same cup as it was passed around the table. And then, of course, Paul noted the instruction of the Lord that the purpose of all of this was not to receive grace from God to get saved or not for the cleansing of sin, but it was that we might be reminded. It was to be done in remembrance of Him. But what were they to remember? Were they to remember some kind of religious fancy? What were they to remember? Were they to remember some dream that one of the apostles had? Were they to memorialize some kind of a spiritual experience that they had? Or were they to remember something that literally and actually happened historically in their lives? You know, I'm amazed at what liberal scholars must think about the apostles. What kind of deluded, stupid, gullible, individuals they must think them to be. Because liberals think the apostles had it wrong. Liberals think the apostles didn't really walk with Christ and didn't really see miracles and didn't really see him after his death in his resurrected body. Liberals believe that they must have been dishonest about it or deluded about it. I don't know what people make of the apostles. John said, what we've seen, what we've heard, what we've observed carefully, our hands have handled the word of life. What we've seen and heard, we're declaring to you. We were there when it happened. And we are witnesses of history. We are witnesses of what took place in our lifetime in the place where we lived. And in the arena of our own personal lives, we are witnesses. Now, we are living in an age when more and more, I don't care whether it's the media, I don't care whether it's the academic world or the political world, more and more people are trying to create reality out of unreality. More and more in the day in which we live, people are saying the world of faith is fiction and the world of science is truth and reality. And if we can attach science, the name of science, to something, it disproves everything in the arena of faith. And more and more, the world around us is going to view what we believe and what we practice as total fiction. Tradition, yes, but fiction and not fact. We're at the Christmas season. And did Christ really come? Did he really live? As we sit around this table, are we celebrating fiction or are we celebrating fact? And it's amazing what now is parading. Psychology is in the realm of science. Psychiatry is in the realm of science. Social studies are now scientific. Global warming, one of the greatest scientific hoaxes that's been perpetrated in history. Hear me, that's not a political statement. 20 years from now, there are going to be a lot of angry people who bought into this thing. People are fabricating things that are not true. And because it goes in the name of science, But let me ask you something. Well, you're not in the academic world now, are you? Let me ask you about the science textbooks, science textbooks in our schools today. I think if you'd examine them, they're totally different than the science textbooks in the day in which I lived. They've had to rewrite them all. Why? I thought science was fact. You know, science is what's believed to be true at the time. And they're going to rewrite the textbooks of today, and the things that we believe so emphatically to be true, many of the things when I was a boy in school, they know are not true. And they've had to rewrite the books. May I ask you a question? Why should we give up the facts of history for the fancies of a scientific world that is gonna totally correct itself and change itself in another five or 10 years. Why? Why should we do that? Why should we do that? And I'm here to declare to you today that God is real, God creates all reality, and the word of God is consistent with what God has created and it's truth. And science changes, and philosophy changes. They even rewrite the history books. But God's word does not change. So we are here to celebrate something that literally in history happened. We're here, we've got bread in here, and we have the cup here. These are material substances. They're touchable, they're eatable, they're drinkable. They're material reality and they represent a real Christ who in a real human body lived in real human history and went to a real cross and suffered a real death for our sins and rose in a real resurrection in his body and ascended again. John says, in the beginning was the word. I love that. This is the communicating God. Word, it's the means of communication. It's how I transfer from my mind a concept or a thought. How do I communicate what's going on in my mind and try to get it into your mind with words? And in the beginning existed already God's communication. And this communicator of God was face-to-face with God, and this communicator with God was God Himself, because He was the second person of the Divine Trinity. This same Word, this same communicator of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, became flesh. and tinted and lived temporarily for some 30 years or so among us. And John said with our eyes, as sitting in a theater and watching with these theater glasses and observing very carefully, we observed his glory. We saw who he was. We saw beyond that human body and we saw divine glory. We beheld His glory, glory as of, the uniquely begotten of the Father, filled with grace. Ah. We look at these emblems. Why did He do this? I know not why, but my, the favor of God to save us, the grace of God to save us. Oh, it's a wonderful thing. Filled with grace, filled with the favor of God. Again, listen, dear people. Our message as a church is not a message of condemnation. It is a message of justification in Jesus Christ. Filled with favor. That's the hope of the world. That's what sinners need to hear. Yes? Filled with favor and filled with truth. And it is the truth that sets us free. Truth is absolute. It is rooted and grounded in God, and it is an absolute wonderful truth that everybody who calls out on the name of the Lord will be rescued from the judgment of his sins, filled with grace and with truth. That's how God relates to us, on the basis of favor and on the basis of truth. That's how he does it. We are not here for fiction and fancy. We are here to celebrate reality and truth. We are here today because we have a wonderful Savior. In this time of year, we are celebrating not only the fact that he came to die for us, but he came literally, historically in human flesh to be our Savior. That's the Christmas story. The writer of Hebrews talks about the fact that he came to offer himself, God, becoming man, to offer himself as a sacrifice for our sins in history, in a point of time in a place, in a country, in a culture, among men who got to know him and who wrote to us about him the truth. So, we have this wonderful, wonderful Christ, this Messiah, who offered himself without blemish to God on behalf of our sins. And since God did become man, he became flesh and blood. And it is in his body and in his blood that the sacrifice was fulfilled, which made possible our salvation. It was his coming into flesh that made all of this possible. So may I suggest that we think and look beyond trees and lights and tinsel and presents and reindeer and snowmen And may in our hearts, every time we see one of these things, may the Holy Spirit remind us that all of this is fancy, but Christ is real. And he's the one that we celebrate. These things may remind us of the time of the year, but may they remind us of him. But there's nothing better to remind us of him than to gather around this table and to eat the bread, and to drink the cup, which give us symbols of a material, physical Christ, God in flesh, who did his wonderful work of salvation for us on the cross. If you will, turn in your hymn books to a Christmas carol a Christmas carol, and we'll sing three stanzas of it, not the fourth, but the first through the third. Hymn 81. Hymn 81. When you've found it, then I want you to look at some of the words in this particular hymn. Hymn 81. Now, what is a herald angel? Tell me what a herald angel is. What does the word hark mean? We don't use that word. Hark! What do I hear? What's the word we use? Listen, listen, listen, hear, listen. Now what is a herald angel? All right, he's an angel with an announcement. He's somebody that brings news. Listen! The angel with news is singing. What's he singing about? He is informing us about something. He has special information. He has a special announcement. And as the angels sang on that hillside, they were announcing what? They were announcing the arrival of God into flesh. The reality of God's Messiah in human history. Hark, listen. The angels sing to announce to us news. They are announcers of news. Now notice in stanza one, second line probably in your hymn books, God and sinners what? Reconciled. All right, that's what Christmas is all about. God and sinners reconciled. Go to stanza number two. You'll notice the virgin birth is in the second line, offspring of the virgin's womb. Now you will notice, veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. You have God in flesh, but he doesn't look like God, he looks like man. He acts like God, he speaks like God, but he looks like man. Veiled in flesh, the Godhead see. Hail, the in flesh. What does incarnate mean? In carno, carno means flesh, in flesh. Hail the in flesh deity. See? Our vocabulary has messed up these hymns. But hail the in flesh deity. Pleased as man with men to appear Jesus our what? Emmanuel. Now what's the name Emmanuel mean? Means God with us. Okay? Then you go to that third stanza. And you have hail the heaven-born Prince of Peace, the Son of Righteousness. Now notice, this comes out of John's Gospel, number one, light and life. In him was light and the life was the what? The life was the light of man. Now notice there, mild he lays his glory by. Most of the glory has been veiled in flesh. Things he will not do. because he is among men and he is man, born that man no more may die, that's of course the purpose of his physical birth, born to give resurrection to the sons of earth, and born to give them second birth, new birth. You must be what? Born again. That's life in Jesus Christ. So I want us to sing stanzas one and two and three because I want us to tie what we're doing here today into the fact of his incarnation, the fact of his birth into human flesh, the historic fact of that. Because had that not been a historic fact, all of this would be a lot of nonsense. This is tied into a real Christ who had a real birth, lived a real life, had a real ministry, and died a real death for our sins in history. That's what this is all about. Give us just the note and let's sing the first three stanzas. Hark! The herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King! Peace on earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled. Joyful all ye nations rise, The triumph of the skies, With the angelic host proclaim, Christ is born in Bethlehem. Hark! the herald angels sing, Glory to the newborn King! Christ, my highest heaven adore, Made in time before Him come Offspring of the Virgin's womb Veiled in flesh the Godhead see Veiled in heart that fear to be Pleased as men with men to fear ♪ Jesus, our Emmanuel, hear ♪ ♪ Hark, the herald angels sing ♪ ♪ Glory to the newborn King ♪ ♪ Hail, the Heav'n-born Prince of Peace ♪ ♪ Hail, the Son of Righteousness ♪ life to all he brings. Richly he leads me. Mildly he makes his glory come. Born that man no more may die. Born to raise the sons of earth. So we are here today to remember Him, to remember His death for our sins, the suffering, the judgments that were visited on His body physically in judgments for our sin upon the cross, and then the shedding of His blood as an atonement. for our sins, sealing God's arrangement, God's marvelous, unalterable commitment to save us from sin. Just marvelous, wonderful Savior. Do you love him? Oh, listen, great Savior, wonderful Savior. And we remember him, our Lord, as he was gathered with his disciples in that upper room, took bread, and he blessed it, he broke it, he gave it to all of his disciples. Brother Ron Kika, please lead us in a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the body of the Lord Jesus, given in great suffering and judgments for our sins on the cross. We just thank you and glorify you, and we ask that you participate in the red light today morning, that you will just glorify the Lord with our testimony to those who don't believe in the Savior. We ask this now in Jesus Christ Jesus. Amen. Reading from John's Gospel, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being or existence through him, and apart from him nothing came into existence that has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend or grasp it. There came a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true light, which coming into the world enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right, the power, the authority to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born or birthed, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory. Glory is of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John testified about Him and cried out, saying, This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me. For of His fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, Grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath explained him. Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him will have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on the last day. I am the living bread that came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread also which I give for the life of the world is my flesh. you We have something in our hand we can feel, we can touch. When Jesus was on earth, John said, our hands handled, we touched the word of life. A real Christ, real apostles, a real sacrifice for sin, a real resurrection, and a real new birth. Jesus said, take, eat. This is my body, physical body, real in history body. It's given for you. Do this now in remembrance of me. Again, we read, after the same manner also he took the cup and gave also of it to his disciples. Brother Josh Quaring, will you please lead us in a prayer of praise and thanksgiving for the precious, cleansing, atoning blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, shed for us on the cross. Dear Heavenly Father, we're just thankful for this time that we have today. Remember the sacrifices that you made for our sins, and we just thank you for this cup the juice that represents your blood, that I paid a sacrifice that you cannot pay. I just pray that you would help us to remember this and just spread the gospel of good news to others so that others can celebrate with this blood and this juice. Amen. Amen. I'm reading from Luke's Gospel, just excerpts from chapter 24 concerning the reality of the resurrection of Christ and the experience in the life of the disciples. Behold, two of them were going that very day to a village named Emmaus, which was about seven miles from Jerusalem. Then they met, and Jesus said to them, O foolish men, slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ, the Messiah, to suffer these things, and to enter into His glory? Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized Him, and He vanished from their sight. They got up that very hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found gathered together the eleven, with those who were with them, saying, The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon while they were telling these things he himself stood in their midst and said to them peace be to you but they were startled and frightened and thought they were seeing a spirit and he said to them why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts see my hands and my feet that it is I myself. Touch me and see for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he had said this he showed them his hands and his feet and while they still could not believe because of their joy and amazement he said to them have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it and ate it before them. Now he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about me in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, Thus it is written, that the Christ, the Messiah, should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance for forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.